REMINDED, REMINDING
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
2Timothy 2:14-15 Remind
them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words,
which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed,
rightly handling the word of truth.
The word is
usually “remembrance” in KJV. In ESV it is 9 times “remind”: Ps.71:16; 1Cor.4:17;
15:1; 2Cor.10:7; 2Tim.1:6; 2:14; Tit.3:1; 2Pet.1:12; Jud.1:5
I’m sure you’ve
noticed that lately I’ve repeated some topics. Some pulled from files and
redacted. Others newly written from scratch. Why remind, be reminded? Because
we need to be reminded, something I am well aware of in myself.
One of my
personal facilitating methods is having Pastor Bob e-mail me his sermon text
after Sunday. Why so? To be reminded, and then there is the fact that I’m
hearing impaired. Utilize dual hearing aids costing thousands, I do. Listen
intently, I do. Focus on countenance and body language, I do. Not fiddle with
bulletin or cell phone, I do. But I still don’t catch all that is being said.
Plus there is the matter of my primarily being a reader benefiting from
pausing and pondering, which of itself is in conflict with listening.
Today I share
Pastor Bob’s Sunday morning lesson reminding us of the sovereignty of Jehovah
God Almighty.
EBB4
Who’s
Really in Charge?
Job
38:1-38; 42: 2-6
Introduction
My pathway to
become a senior pastor was very convoluted. And I’m grateful for each and every
twist and turn. For the first ten years of my professional career, my full-time
job was as a music specialist for kindergarten through middle-school aged
children. Later I would also teach first and fourth grades in the public
schools during a season of disillusionment with the church.
Though teaching
is one of my natural gifts, I had never intended to become a school teacher. In
fact, during the first seven years of my teaching career, I never signed a
contract because I wanted to be in full-time church ministry. I’m amazed now
that my principal put up with me. His patience is all the more amazing because
for the first two years I could not control a classroom. Everyone who has
taught pre-school through high school knows that classroom control will make or
break a teacher. Many leave the profession because they cannot control their
children. It was a tough journey for me. It was when my principal assigned
lunch duty to me alone with ninety kids that I finally gained the confidence to
make them do what I expected. It was “sink or swim, baby.” It was a turning
point in my teaching career.
Every effective
teacher is the unquestioned sovereign in their classroom. Nothing happens
without a consequence unless the teacher wants it to happen. It is in that kind
of environment – where there is unquestioned authority – that children thrive and
learning takes place.
The perfect
classroom environment is a very poor reflection of God’s rule and sovereignty
over his entire Creation. But the effect is instructive for us. When heaven and
earth submit to God’s good rule, there is peace and blessing. It is when God’s
authority is refused that everything falls apart. The sovereignty of God runs
through both the Old and New Testaments like a golden thread. We read this
morning what is repeated throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, “The Lord is king!
Let the earth rejoice!” After his resurrection, Jesus claims the sovereign
scepter before giving his final commission, “All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given unto me…” (Matt. 28:18). Indeed, the assertion that “Jesus
is Lord!” is the first creed of the church. At the unveiling and conclusion of
time, Jesus is called the “King of kings and Lord of lords.” The sovereignty of
God – the idea that he is the unquestioned authority in the whole cosmos - is
the re-bar that ties the whole foundation of our faith together.
The Book of Job
stands as a masterpiece in the ancient annals of writings about wisdom and
suffering. Job probably lived around the same time as Abraham. He loved God and
lived a righteous life. He was blessed with a large family and many material
possessions. You may know the story. In a great cosmic drama of good vs. evil,
God allows Job to be severely tested by Satan. All of his possessions are
destroyed and his children are killed. His dignity dissolves with oozing boils
that cover his skin. His wife emotionally deserts him, telling Job to “curse 2
God and die.” But in all of this, he is a man of
integrity. He refuses to curse God and still praises God in the depth of his
loss. Most of the book is a dialogue with his so-called friends who insist that
Job must have sinned to have experienced such difficult suffering. Along the
way, Job becomes increasingly embittered and begins to accuse God of treating
him unjustly. When all have had their say, God confronts Job. Here is just a
portion:
Then the
Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: 2 “Who is this that questions my wisdom with
such ignorant words? 3 Brace yourself like a man, because I have some questions
for you, and you must answer them. 4 “Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. 5 Who determined its
dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? 6 What supports its
foundations, and who laid its cornerstone
7 as the morning stars sang together and all the angels
shouted for joy? 8 “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the
womb, 9 and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness?
10 For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its
shores. 11 I said, ‘This far and no farther will you come. Here your proud
waves must stop!’ 12 “Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused
the dawn to rise in the east? 13 Have you made daylight spread to the ends of
the earth, to bring an end to the night’s wickedness? 14 As the light
approaches, the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal; it is robed
in brilliant colors. 15 The light disturbs the wicked and stops the arm that is
raised in violence. 16 “Have you explored the springs from which the seas come?
Have you explored their depths? 17 Do you know where the gates of death are
located? Have you seen the gates of utter gloom? 18 Do you realize the extent
of the earth?
Tell me about it if you know! 19 “Where does light come
from, 3 and where does darkness go? 20 Can you take each to its home? Do you
know how to get there? 21 But of course you know all this! For you were born
before it was all created, and you are so very experienced! 22 “Have you
visited the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of hail? 23 (I have
reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and
war.)
24 Where is the path to the source of light? Where is the
home of the east wind? 25 “Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who
laid out the path for the lightning? 26 Who makes the rain fall on barren land,
in a desert where no one lives? 27 Who sends rain to
satisfy the parched ground and make the tender grass spring up? 28 “Does the
rain have a father? Who gives birth to the dew? 29 Who is the mother of the
ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens? 30 For the
water turns to ice as hard as rock, and the surface of the water freezes. 31
“Can you direct the movement of the stars— binding the cluster of the Pleiades or
loosening the cords of Orion? 32 Can you direct the sequence of the seasons or
guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens? 33 Do you know the laws of the
universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth? 34 “Can you shout to the
clouds and make it rain? 35 Can you make lightning appear and cause it to
strike as you direct?
36 Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the
mind? 37 Who is wise enough to count all the clouds?
Who can tilt the water jars of heaven 38 when the parched
ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods?
(Job 38:1-38 NLT)
God’s challenge goes on for two more chapters, in
eloquent language describing the beauty, power and complexity of God – the
Creator’s – world. Humbled and overwhelmed, Job replies in our text for this
morning… 4
Prayer
“I know that you
can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my
plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of
things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
“You said,
‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard
of you but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I
despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job.42:2-6)
The Nature of God’s Sovereignty
OK. Put on your
thinking hat. We’re going to contemplate things that must be true about God.
Remember what we said last week: “what comes to mind when we think about God is
the most important thing about us.” And this will take some effort on your
part. But let us worship God with our minds as well as our heart and our
bodies.
To say that God
is sovereign is to say that he is the absolute ruler of his entire creation. To
be sovereign, God must be all-powerful and all-knowing. If there was anything
that God could not do, then that thing would be the sovereign ruler of the
universe. Of course, there are things that God won’t do and those are the
actions that would make him inconsistent with himself. God will not and cannot
lie. He is the source of all truth. God will not and cannot be unjust. He is
the righteous judge. God will not and cannot act in an unloving way. His very
nature is love. God cannot condone any sin. He is perfect in his holiness. But
within the consistency of his Divine Character, there is nothing, absolutely
nothing that God cannot do. If it were otherwise, he would not be sovereign.
God must also be
all-knowing. If there were some small speck of knowledge somewhere in the
universe that God did not know – in the past, in the present, or in the future
– that bit of knowledge would leverage power against God. He would not be
sovereign. A.W. Tozer says it so much better than me:
Were there even one datum of knowledge, however small,
unknown to God, His rule would break down at that point. To be Lord over all
the creation, He must possess all knowledge. And were God lacking one
infinitesimal modicum of power, that lack would end His reign and undo His
kingdom; that one stray atom of power would belong to someone else and God
would be a limited ruler and hence not sovereign. (Knowledge of the Holy,
p. 108.)
To be sovereign,
God must also be totally free, free to do whatever he wills to do in any place
at any time to carry out his eternal purpose without any interference. If that
were not so, He would not be the sovereign Lord. In other words, God cannot be
manipulated or forced to do anything outside of his will.
Of course, none of us possess or can even fully
contemplate that kind of freedom. The most capable classroom teacher does not
command that kind of absolute freedom and power. No military ruler, no
president, no king could ever make that claim. Only God is absolutely
sovereign.
God’s Sovereignty and the Problem of Evil
But God’s
sovereignty presents real challenges for us as we try and make sense of our
world. Like Job, we wonder how a sovereign good God could allow evil in this
world. If he is the absolute ruler of everything, does that not also mean he
must be the author of evil? The question has existed since the beginning of
time. And the answer will be the same that Job and his friends received. God,
in his eternal decrees, allowed a free moral choice to men and to angels. That
some have chosen evil rather than good does not invalidate God’s rule and reign
in everything. God is still working out his purposes. In fact, he will even
cause the evil moral choices that men and angels make to eventually accomplish
his purposes. The power and blood-lust of ancient nations often brought the
discipline necessary to bring the people of God to repentance. The greed of
Caesar Augustus brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. The demon-inspired hatred
of Jewish religious leaders led Jesus to the crucifixion hill where he would
conquer evil once and for all and purchase our salvation. God is not flummoxed.
God is not frustrated. God always wins. God is sovereign.
God’s Sovereignty and Free Will
There is another
question regarding this issue that has vexed the church during the last five
hundred years. You know it well. It is the seemingly contradictory biblical
concepts of God’s sovereign election of the saved and man’s free will.
Scripture affirms both. They must both be held in tension with each other. When
we emphasize one over the other, we fall into error. Like Job, we must
surrender our efforts and belief in the sovereignty of human reasoning before
the mystery of God’s eternal purpose. It is not mental laziness. It is godly
wisdom.
Tozer offers this
helpful, if limited, illustration. The sovereign will of God is like an ocean
liner passing from New York City to Liverpool, England. The liner will arrive
as scheduled. But along the way, the passengers have the freedom to rearrange
the deck furniture, eat whatever they choose, and set their own schedule.
Though it is only a feeble attempt to explain, both sovereignty and freedom are
present in the picture. In the same way, in God’s world, he retains full
sovereignty while giving a free choice to man.
Reign in Me
Like the rule of
a classroom teacher, the sovereignty of God is necessary for order and peace in
this world. Someday, when sin has run its course, there will be no more
heartache, no more war. What is ultimately true in the created order is also
true in our personal lives. Christians find peace only through surrender to
God’s will. This is the theme of countless songs. Bill and Gloria Gaither have
written:
All of my conflicts, all my thoughts, Jesus is Lord of
all. His love wins the battles I could not have fought, Jesus is Lord of all.
Jesus is Lord of All by Bill and Gloria Gaither
© 1973 by William J. Gaither
Earlier this morning, we sang:
Over all the earth you reign on high,
Ev’ry mountain stream, ev’ry sunset sky.
But my one request, Lord my only aim
Is that you reign in me again.
Lord, reign in me, reign in your power,
Over all my dreams, in my darkest hour;
You are the Lord of all I am
So won’t you reign in me again?
Lord, Reign in Me by Brenton Brown
© 1998 Vineyard Songs
It is always true. The only pathway to peace is
repentance and alignment with God’s will.
Reflections on America…
Friends, we just
came through a very bruising election season. Divisions run deep in our
American culture. But this is not unfamiliar territory for us as a nation.
We’ve known troubles and division before. Nevertheless, the sovereign hand of
God has been very evident in the founding and preservation of our nation. From
the beginning of Plymouth Colony in 1620 to the Great Awakenings that stirred
and transformed the soul of our nation, we have been given many spiritual
blessings. We need to be aware of and affirm God’s providence in our nation’s
history.
But we are not
Israel. Americans are not the chosen people of God. Our founding documents put
the power of governance in our hands. We are a democratic republic. In our
political system, ultimately, “we, the people” are sovereign. Of course, that
truth flies in the face of what the Bible teaches. Only God is sovereign.
Along the way, we
have been blessed with some very wise leaders. Though his admonitions were not
specifically Christian – he did not generally invoke the name of Jesus Christ
in his public statements – the “father of our country,” George Washington
warned us that we must rely on God and that religion and virtue must be
promoted among the people or our republic will fail.
During the Civil
War, “In God we trust” was added to our currency. The phrase, “under God” was
added to the pledge to the flag in the 1950’s. These phrases have been
instituted in the spirit of George Washington and our founders and they represent
critical wisdom if our nation is to flourish and survive.
But such notions of reliance and acknowledgment of God’s
sovereignty have come increasingly under attack in our courts. We are told that
we are a secular nation. We cannot impose our faith and religion on others.
Instead, it seems we are all forced into becoming practical atheists, except on
Sundays, if we choose. Friends, because of the inherent fallen nature of men, a
truly secular democracy – one that will not acknowledge the sovereignty of God
- will implode under the weight of its own sin. If God is increasingly pushed
to the sidelines, we will witness the sure demise of our nation.
The psalmist
writes: Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of
the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his
anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.” The
One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his
wrath, saying, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” …Therefore,
you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with
fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Blessed are all who take refuge in
him.
Psalm 2:1-6, 10-11 8
The Scriptures further remind us that “righteousness
exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Our
folly does not escape God’s notice. He has not lost control. The President is
not Lord. Neither is the Congress. The Supreme Court does not have the final
word. Even “We, the people” are not Lord. Only God is Lord. Though we loath it,
the increasing wickedness of our culture presents an opportunity for us. It is
in the darkness that light truly shines. We who live under the Lordship of
Christ have the opportunity to demonstrate the power of the life-changing
Gospel.
Let us be grateful for the many blessings of our land,
but pray and work for repentance. Recognize that it must begin with us. But do
not despair. God is still on the throne.
Do you remember the words to the great hymn?
This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought:
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the
Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world, the battle is not done,
Jesus who died shall be satisfied and earth and heav’n be
one.
Prayer
©BMyers2017
