Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: Stabilizing Truths, Part 2

Theme: The Greatness of God

“I will proclaim the name of the LORD.

Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

He is the Rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.

(Deuteronomy 32:3-4)

This passage of Scripture is found in the “Song of Moses” with the opening verse saying, “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.”

(Deuteronomy 32:1)

I would propose to you that there are four different truths that the Holy Spirit wants you to grasp about the “Greatness of God.”

When the Lord is allowed to illuminate these truths into the child of God, He will declare the greatness of God, announcing the Lord as strong and stable, as one who can be relied upon.

Just what does the Bible say about the “Greatness of God?”

Enjoying the Sovereignty of God

The first truth to grasping and enjoying the greatness of God is to rest in the Sovereignty of God.

In the New Testament we read three times of God being addressed in prayer and the people crying out to God praying, “O Sovereign Lord.” (Luke 2:29; Act 4:24; Revelations 6:10; International Dictionary of the Bible Encyclopedia)

The application of the Greek word for “Sovereign Lord” (despotes) has been used by slaves in referring to their masters, slaves who are totally subjected to their master’s control over them.

God being addressed as “Sovereign Lord,” projects the idea that the people petitioning Him consider themselves as slaves purchased and owned by Jesus Christ, people subjected to His absolute control over everything.

(Practical Word Studies in the New Testament) The term means that He alone is God and no person, no being, nor ruling power, visible or invisible, physical or spiritual is outside of His hand to be blessed or cursed.

He is above all and has authority over all things.

(Romans 8:38-39; Colossians 1:16-17)

In saying “Sovereign Lord” Christians become like Paul, getting revelation and illumination of what God told Moses at the time he interceded on behalf of the Israelites when they had Aaron make the Golden Calf and they worshiped it.

(Exodus 32-33) This is what God told Moses about His dealing with a stiff necked people, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

(Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15)

If the Lord God would have acted solely on His Justice He would have killed all the Israelites for their turning away from Him instead of letting many of them live.

In regards to God’s Sovereignty working in the free will of mankind, the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to write, “It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’

(Romans 9:16-17) Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden… What if God, choosing to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the objects of His wrath--prepared for destruction?

What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the objects of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory –“ (Romans 9:18-23)

The inscrutable sovereignty of God is manifested, not so much in the punishment of the reprobate, but in His gracious ability to draw sinful mankind to Himself.

Those who enjoy the sovereignty of God are those who can rest with the fact that there are people out there who have no longing to respond to the Holy Spirit’s drawing to Christ and to the ways of God.

Yet, God can still work through them to accomplish His will and bring glory unto Himself and His Son.

The Lord is fully able as He chooses to work through those who oppose Him as well as through those who trust and obey Him.

In His sovereignty God gave Pharaoh just what He wanted, a hard heart.

In Exodus chapter 8 verses 15 and 32 we read of Pharaoh hardening his own heart.

In Exodus 9:34-35 we read of Pharaoh and his officials hardening their own hearts against what God was doing in some of the plagues through which the Lord was showing Himself as the all powerful God.

In six other passages of Scripture we read of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart.

(Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:20.27;

11:10)

On the basis of the whole of Scripture, this does not mean God caused Pharaoh to sin and to be unyielding to the will of God.

God never tempts mankind to sin, James 1:13-14 says this about man’s sinfulness, “When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me."

For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Our Sovereign Lord judged Pharaoh just as he would any other man.

Pharaoh heard the truth, saw God clearly working, showing Himself as supreme.

Pharaoh “sowed” a hardened heart thus he reaped a hardened heart.

Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.

A man reaps what he sows.

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Therefore, God made Pharaoh, his officials and his entire army into vessels of wrath showing the ultimate end of those who are against God’s divine will.

God also makes vessels of noble uses.

He took a man who was once named Saul, who persecuted the church.

The Lord revealed Himself to Saul.

Saul chose not to retain his hard heart but allowed the Lord to do a work in his heart and life.

He became Paul and the Lord made him vessel of God to take the gospel to the gentiles.

(Romans 11:13; Galatians 2:8; 1 Timothy 2:7) He wrote thirteen epistles that still are being powerfully used by the Hoy Spirit.

Christians who grasp the greatness of God say as the apostle Paul did, “…I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”

(Philippians 4:11-12)

God is great because He is sovereign, He does all things well, He is in absolute control at all times and He is going to accomplish all that He says for the good of His kingdom.

In His Sovereignty our great God still works today in the lives of people who are willing to walk in His plans for them.

Gregory Dawson wrote about two businessmen who sat on a porch in front of their small dying business.

One partner spoke to the other and said, “How much longer do you think we can keep going like this.”

The man continued with, “You know, I would not mind losing the business if I could just do what I always wanted to do, study law.

I would sure like to sell this business and pay all the bills and have just enough money left to buy just one book, a ‘Blackstone’s Commentary on English Law.’”

At that very moment a strange-looking wagon came up the road.

The driver stopped in front of the porch and said, “I am trying to move my family out west and we are out of money.

I have a good old barrel here that I could sell for $.50 cents.

As the owner of the dying business took a look at the old barrel, he took notice of a woman who looked at him pleadingly.

Her face was thin and she showed sure signs of fatigue and hunger.

He reached in his pocket and took out the last fifty cents he had and purchased the barrel.

Late into the evening His partner kept giving him a hard time about buying the old barrel.

The man who purchased the barrel decided to take a look into the barrel and he saw something in the bottom.

He fumbled around in the lose papers until he hit something hard.

He pulled out a book and stood dumbfounded as he held a “Blackstone’s Commentary on English Law.”

The man who purchased the barrel with his last fifty cents was Abraham Lincoln who latter became one of the best presidents America has had.

During the Civil War he became a Christian who wrote, “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

There are two types of people in this world.

There are those who long to retain a hard heart, thus becoming vessels of wrath, and those who will surrender their lives into the Lord’s hands enjoying God’s Sovereign complete control over all things.

In His Sovereignty He is making vessels of wrath and vessels for His noble uses.

All Christians have the possibility of going down in history as Paul and Abraham Lincoln did, men who enjoyed the greatness of God.

His ever-present help

God is great in His Sovereignty and He is great because of His ever-present help.

The Bible says, “God is our refuge and strength an ever-present help in trouble.”

(Psalm 46:1) The Lord says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)

This is a wonderful promise of deliverance.

Christians have work to do and they have an adversary who works hard to bring discouragement to hinder the works of Christ as He works through His faithful servants.

The Lord is effectual help in the training, equipping, and providing for all that the child of God is called to do.

He is powerful or superlative in difficulties.

Psalm 46:1 is the key text to this division of the message as well as a song that celebrates the presence of God in the believer.

Three metaphors that describe His ever-presence are, 1.) Refuge.

2.) Strength and 3.) Fortress.

(Psalm 46;1, 7, 11)

As our “refuge” (mahseh) He is a person Christians can trust.

(A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on OT and NT; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) This trust gives Christians a sure hope and an ability to relax in the trials of this age.

In every storm of life Christians are able to put their trust in the Lord because they have found Him to be that place of refuge.

Psalmists in the Bible often presented the need for the children of God to just commit their destiny to the Lord and allow Him to govern every part of their lives, to be confident that God’s love and justice will determine every outcome.

Psalm 25 is a prayer Psalm that reflects the heart of a man who is after God’s own heart.

It is believed by many that this prayer came about late in David’s life after he had experienced God’s forgiveness, experienced the Lord’s comfort in the midst of trials and seen God’s protective hand from his enemies.

In this Psalm there is a verse that shows the trust that David had developed in God.