Sermon Tone Analysis

*Sovereignty 12.*

I have to hand it out to you who have stuck with me all this way looking at the sovereignty of God.

If you have, you will recall that we saw that God is sovereign over ALL.

[*Romans 11:36*/ //For from Him and through Him and to Him are ALL things.

To Him be glory for eternity!

Amen./]

And of all His works, salvation is surely the most wonderful – it is supremely His work.

*[P]* יְהוָה is sovereign over salvation.

[*Revelation 7:10*/ //“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”/] Then last time we looked at the converse – we saw that the Bible also teaches that God is also sovereign over reprobation, *[P]* over those who are lost and end up in eternal judgement.

The thing is, if that is the case – God is in control, He chooses, He foreknows, He saves, those who are lost are known – just as Jesus did about Judas right from the beginning.

Well, the conclusion seems to be that all is fixed and determined.

God does it all.

The saved are going to be saved and the lost are going to be lost – there is nothing that we can do about it – so, let’s just put our feet up! *[P]* There is nothing that we can do; the outcome is already fixed by God.

God does it all, let’s sit back and just leave Him to it!

That is a criticism that is often levelled at teaching on the sovereignty of God.

Why preach the Gospel if God is sovereign?

How does anything I do affect anything, if God is sovereign?

The problem with those who come with this objection is that they fail to understand something.

The thing that they don’t understand is: THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD!

There is a God on the throne.

*[P]* He is sovereign!

The Sovereign, the King, rules!

Now we live in a democracy; OK, we have a monarch but really only as a figurehead.

We are used to democracy – laws are set by a government that we elect – we all have our say, everyone’s opinion counts – we can lobby, initiate a referendum.

But that is not how it is in a kingdom: the king rules.

What He says goes!

So יְהוָה is the Sovereign, on His throne, what He says goes.

He sovereignly decides and orders how things are to be done.

So what does the Sovereign on the throne ordain?

*[P]* – that salvation comes through the foolishness of the Gospel being preached: *[P]* [*1 Corinthians 1:21-23*/ //For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of *preaching* to *save* those who *believe*.

For indeed, Jews ask for sign miracles and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a cause for stumbling, but to the Gentiles foolishness./]

You notice that it is God who does the saving, and that salvation is through faith: those who believe are saved.

And you notice that God “/was pleased/”, it was His good pleasure, His will.

He is sovereign and this is the way that He decided to do it.

He didn’t have to.

For example Saul of Tarsus was saved through direct Divine intervention; he had a blinding vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus – no human agency was involved.

And today you hear reports of people in Islamic countries saved through visions and dreams.

But that is not the way that salvation normally comes.

God is sovereign, He can save by any way He chooses – but He has taken delight in having His own people involved in the process.

We have the privilege of sharing in His wonderful work!

This is the way that it pleased Him to do it, the way that He has chosen to do it.

The sovereign on the throne decided that this is the way His salvation should come – through the proclamation of the Gospel.

*[P]* *[Matthew 24:14*/ //And this Gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come./]

The King ordained that the Gospel of the Kingdom be PROCLAIMED!

The parallel massage in Mark says: [*Mark 13:10*/ //And the Gospel* must *first be proclaimed to all the nations./]

This is the necessary way for it to happen.

Now we have our own ideas – and I have been around long enough to see a few of the schemes come and go.

Do you recall the signs and wonders movement?

– you heal a few people and they will be flocking to be saved.

Or we become a social agency – in compassion meet people’s needs: run a foodbank, a soup kitchen, a counselling service, budget advice.

Then there is friendship evangelism – all we have to do is make friends, let people see that Christians are just the same as everyone else – so to get alongside people we run a preschool, or men’s breakfast, a bowling club, a craft group, a walking group – the permutations are endless – anything other than preach the Gospel!

Salvation comes through faith in God’s Son, Jesus; through the Gospel of His death and resurrection.

We saw previously that even this faith comes from God.

And God being sovereign ordained how that faith comes.

We are saved by faith, faith is a gift of God; we would not have faith of ourselves, but faith comes – how does it come?: *[P]* [*Romans 10:17*/ //Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the word about Christ./]

God sovereignly ordained that faith come by hearing; and He also sovereignly ordained how we should hear: *[P]* [*Romans 10:13-15*/ //For “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”

How then will they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?

And how will they believe in Him about whom they have not heard?

And how will they hear about Him without one who preaches to them?

And how will they preach, unless they are sent?

Just as it is written, “How timely are the feet of those who bring good news of good things.”/]

God has set the way by which He saves: you call upon יְהוָה, you call based on faith; that faith comes by hearing, you hear because the message is preached, and the preaching is due to people being sent; sent on the authority of the Sovereign.

The whole way is sovereignly ordained by God, including our preaching of the Gospel.

No, we don’t sit back, the Sovereign on the throne sends out human beings to proclaim His message – we are His ambassadors: *[P]* [*2 Corinthians 5:18-20*/ //Now all these things are from God, /(He is sovereign, in control) /who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry /(that is service, serving the King, doing as He orders) /of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God./]

And He ordained how this message be heard: through the foolishness of the message preached.

It is not through great rhetoric or persuasion, convincing wisdom or great shows of power – if we did, through those means we would get some glory.

God has ordained it so that the glory only goes to Him only.

So He has made it that salvation comes through preaching this foolish message.

And it is!

– to human understanding.

I really feel this when we go out to the prison.

I mean, what relevance has someone who lived over 2000 years ago got to a man in the 21st century?

To contend that this man was God, that somehow Him dying is of relevance and importance, has any power and effect now?

To say that He rose again – to the sceptical modern man it is Pollyanna and pie in the sky – something implausible, foolish, irrelevant, without power.

What did Paul say?: *[P]* [*1 Corinthians 1:21-25*/ //For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, /(those whom God sovereignly chose) /both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men./]

So why do we preach the Gospel – because the Sovereign, the One who exercises sovereignty and rule over us said to: *[P]* [*Mark 16:15-16*/ //And \He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.

The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who refuses to believe will be condemned./]

That is the way the Sovereign ordained that it be!

In the parallel passage in Matthew, that we know so well it says: *[P]* [*Matthew 28:18-20*/ //And Jesus approached and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me./ (Dominion, sovereignty has been given to Him, because He is God.

What is the consequence and implication of Jesus having all authority, being sovereign?

– sit back and put your feet up?) / Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.”/]

No we go and teach and preach and make disciples.

God is sovereign over who is saved, I am not!

I don’t know who the elect are – my job is just to preach the message.

We sow the seed, some will fall on rocks, some on good soil – I don’t know which will germinate, I just scatter the seed.

The One in Authority has delegated that responsibility to us.

That is what the Sovereign has ordained.

We don’t do it off our own bat.

Unfortunately, many do this.

But Jesus came because He was sent – given authority by the Father.

We go because we are sent, and go in His authority, not from our own initiative.

Our motivation for preaching should not be primarily concern for the lost, compassion for those heading for hell.

Simon Pyatt said this when He preached here on this passage in Matthew 28 – bottom line: we preach the Gospel because Jesus told us to.

We can accomplish nothing of ourselves [*John 15:5*/ //“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing./]

Salvation is God’s work, only God can accomplish it so we must be sent and preach with authority from Him. Let’s have a little look at how we see this working out in practice in the New Testament – no, let first look at the Old Testament – in the book of Ezekiel: the prophet had a vision *[P]* [*Ezekiel 37:1-6*/ //The hand of יְהוָה was upon me, and He brought me by the Spirit of יְהוָה, and He let me rest in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.

And He led me all around over them, and look, very many on the surface of the valley, and look, very dry.

And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”