God Rules OK (The sovereignty of God) (Rom 11:33-36; Gen 2:8-17; Gen 3:1-7)
Billy Milton - October 17, 2004
I’ve got a feeling that some of you might struggle with this subject this morning! Its one of those that makes a tremendous doctrine but a very difficult concept to live with. The dictionary defines ‘sovereign’ as, “Supreme power and the right to exercise it.” When we say that God is sovereign, put simply, the sovereignty of God means that his wisdom, his power and his love are all actively at work in the world at large. God is at work in all the world’s events, good and bad, and in all it’s people, saved and lost. (Peter Lewis) Where the problem arises is when we look at the world around us and see global catastrophes one after another. Who dares speak of the sovereignty of God when in the past 100 years we have seen unspeakable horrors in the shape of two world wars, the Jewish holocaust and numerous genocides around the world? That’s not to mention more recent events like the Twin Towers and the recent hurricane devastation in the Caribbean. Where is God and if he is ‘actively’ sovereign why does he not …act?
So, whether it’s global, local or personal, is God in control? Or do these seemingly random tragedies, which I’m sure each of us could echo in our own experiences, do they point to the fact that God is not sovereign but is, as the philosopher David Hume said, helpless? Is God helpless? That question came up last week at Alpha as it always does in one shape or form. One of the participants would like to believe in God but is struggling with the recent massacre of children in Russia. The question of whether, “God Rules, Okay!” is stopping people coming to Christ! Now, whilst I believe that there is an awful lot of flabby thinking around this area, both within and outside the church, we need to hear, with the ears of our hearts, the bewildered cries of our townsfolk who hear a message that ‘God is love’ and then see unspeakable tragedies happening. It’s not enough to mutter some vain platitudes about free will or a master plan that we are not privy to. Our friends and neighbours deserve more than tired clichés. To them in their deepest need God appears to be either helpless or disinterested!
However, one myth that we do need to torpedo right away is that life is fair. Life is not fair! Life never has been fair. Even in rural Berkhamsted, with all its privileges, life is not fair. Life is terribly unfair and the vast majority of the world’s population knows that only too well. But whose fault is it, and if God can do something about it, why doesn’t he? One response might be offered from the words of Jesus in John 9 regarding the blind man that he had healed, ‘this man is not being punished either for his sins or his parents’ sins but this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life’. Sometimes, I’m not saying always, but sometimes God is visibly honoured, …even in an apparent tragedy. Out of disaster often stories of immense courage and goodness arise. But why does there appear to be so much evil around?
Well, to even begin to edge towards an answer there is one part of the Bible that we need to grapple with. I’m talking about Genesis 1-3, the story of creation and how man and women chose to rebel against God. Now whether you believe the Adam and Eve story word for word, or whether you see the whole story as an allegory, the main points still apply. God created perfectly; he gave us a free will - we are not robots; Satan persuaded us that independence from God was the way to go; we sinned and separated ourselves from God. From then on the story of mankind has been one of rebellion and repentance…. but mostly just rebellion. You just need to read the history of the Jewish nation to see that. The ancient prophets just tore their hair out trying to persuade the Jews to turn back to God…and then a tragedy would happen and for a few years they would walk in fellowship with God ..before rebelling again. It broke God’s heart. Still does.
I believe that much, if not all, of the evil and suffering in this world can be traced back to this single event in the book of Genesis that we call ‘The Fall’. God has a plan and Satan is determined to thwart it and he could not care less about the casualties along the way. To believe that God is somehow to blame for the tragedies in this world is to completely misunderstand the nature of God. God is neither evil nor helpless, as some philosophers would have us believe. So to be able to answer the question, ‘Is God sovereign or is he helpless?’ we need to understand a little more about Him. That’s partly what this series is all about. As Christians we have been taught three basics about God: -
1. He is omnipresent 2. He is omniscient 3. He is omnipotent
… you can’t escape from God, he is everywhere; you can’t hide anything from God, he knows everything; and you can’t resist God, he can do anything.
God’s omnipresence is neatly illustrated by Psalm 139 where David talks about God being everywhere. He can’t be shut out, even to the extent of being in a mother’s womb. But, omniscience is more of a problem. Does God know everything? You and I both know something God doesn’t…we know how to do wrong and be wrong. So we need to be clear about what we mean when we say that God is all-knowing. God does not know how to sin, so how can evil ever be attributed to him.
Then, when we come to the third word, omnipotent, God can do anything; we have an even bigger problem. Obviously God cannot do what is absurd. He can’t turn three into an even number. He can’t produce a square that is also a triangle. He can’t make love rhyme with hate, far less make them mean the same, and, this is crucial, God cannot contradict his own nature. REPEAT Since he has revealed himself to us in the Bible as a God of love, compassion, grace and justice he can’t actually behave like a mass murderer. And if it’s God who actually plans our wars and massacres then surely that’s what he would be? Islam says that Allah plans everything, including the wars and famines. But Christianity is different: we dare to say that God will never use his omnipotence in a despotic way, and he gives us the freedom to disobey him – even at the cost of our own pain.
Evangelicals are fond of using the phrase ‘God is on the throne’. But is he? Well, in one sense, yes, he is. He created the world, and he knows where it’s going and where it will end. But in another sense, no, he is not on the throne. Jesus himself taught us to pray, ‘Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.’ In other words, God’s will is being done in heaven, but it is not yet being done on earth, except to some limited degree. God’s will is not being done in our lives, except to some limited extent.
When we say that ‘God is on the throne’ we are normally speaking with our emotions rather than our intellect. In Christianity we are prepared to recognise that if we are to be free to choose, then in some sense we can (and we do) dethrone God, or as Rev 3:20 puts it, keep him standing outside the door. A few years ago a friend of mine called Gerald McNinch preached here and used the illustration of bags of our rubbish on the throne in place of God? These bags can be big or small; contain mild sin or great sin; be recent or old, but as long as they are on the throne then there is no room for God. ILLUSTRATE We can choose to keep God off the throne of our lives. And if that’s true for Christians how much more so for those who reject Christ. Is it any wonder that our world is in chaos when God has been dethroned in the lives of most of its inhabitants?
But let me sound a note of caution here. Think of it this way. Just because laws are being broken daily in Britain doesn’t mean that the Prime Minister has been put out of office. And just because humanity routinely and regularly flaunts God’s laws does not mean that God is not still in overall control. Whilst God’s laws can be flouted from royalty to the beggar in the street, these actions do not actually dethrone God from his universal throne. Yes it results in individuals refusing to allow God to be the Lord of their lives. No it doesn’t mean that God is not still ‘in office’, if you like. Sometimes the lawbreaker is caught and punished, sometimes not. In a perfect society he or she would always be caught. And there’s the rub:
If Christians are right and God is still in overall control, then every lawbreaker will eventually be brought to book. This is what is meant by the justice of God. The price will be paid, one way or another. Clearly that is not a feature of this present world, but what if death is not the end, what if there is something beyond? What if in that world to come all the injustices of this world are put right? Wouldn’t that be fair!
God is not helpless but, difficult as it is for us to grasp, he has given us, his creation, the ability to turn against him and dethrone him in our lives. Much of the chaos in the world is due to our sin, our misuse and abuse of the environment and natural resources; our selfishness and greed; our gay abandon of God’s moral and ethical laws and, as Christians, this is where faith comes in. Let me close with a quote from a book by Peter Lewis called “The Living God”.
“God’s sovereignty is not a ‘pretty’ doctrine nor is it genial and effortless. It is light and darkness, sunshine and storm, desolation and hope. It is God, the best of beings in the worst of situations: sustaining and suffering, directing and redeeming, staying in and pressing on, taking our fallen, corrupt and wicked history on to the day of his coming when every tear will be dried and every bad memory dissolved in a present of unending joy. We cannot know as much about the middle of history as we do about its beginning and its end, but we can plot our course in faith and hope with these two reference points.”
God rules …. okay?