Sermon Tone Analysis

So if you were with us last week, then that means you heard about what it means to TRULY follow Jesus Christ...

AND - we saw that the - True Following of Jesus Christ - Originates with God Himself...

NOW - this teaching is not an easy one for us to swallow...

Who in here believes themselves to be - a control freak?

Who likes to be in control?

I would think most of us would rather BE IN control…than NOT in control...

And so - for us - hearing that God is completely sovereign over SALVATION is a hard pill to swallow!

AND because that’s true…today we’re going to be looking at “The Life of Man: Under the Rule of God”

And i know that whenever we get into this topic of God’s sovereignty...

…there are 2 MAJOR questions that come...

Questions that are HUGELY important…and immensely vital to - LIFE - and understanding where WE fit, as humans....in God’s creation

And so there are 2 PATHS we’re going to walk down today…2 questions we’ll answer - having come out of last weeks sermon where we saw that God Himself initiates Salvation...

Here are the 2 questions:

IF God initiates Salvation, by His own extension of mercy… then...

If God Initiates Salvation

Is Mankind Accountable?

If it takes God to AWAKEN us to faith…*

then is mankind accountable before God…?

If God Initiates Salvation

Why Proclaim Christ to the World?

So let’s address the first question...

IS MANKIND ACCOUNTABLE before God for his actions/unbelief?

Is mankind accountable before God for his unbelief?

What i want to do to address this initially, is to walk through examples in Scripture where we see - God working - and mankind working - at the same time...

What we’re going to see throughout scripture is MANKIND making decisions (doing what he/she most wanted to do out of the desires of their heart)…while at the same time - God’s oversight and control OVER ALL that man does in a way that God’s purposes are accomplished.

So let’s dig in...

So if we ask Joseph, "Who sold you into slavery...

"Do you really believe that your brothers sold you into slavery...

Did they choose to do what they really wanted to do?

He would say - Yes

...But now i understand that behind it all, God was working to bring me here...

That God ultimately sent me here...THROUGH what my brothers willfully chose to do.

So - who sent you into slavery?

How do you answer this question - biblically?

the brothers did

God did

It’s a both-and answer!

See - here we see - 1 ACTION (Joseph being sold into slavery)...

AND 2 agents at work...

You - THE BROTHERS - meant it for evil

But GOD - meant (IT) for good!

1 ACT - man at work and God at work

Another example?

“YOU - men of Israel - you crucified and killed JESUS!”

Who put Jesus on the cross??

Wicked, sinful men put Jesus on the cross.

Is that right?

Men who are MORALLY responsible for what they did...

Mankind put Jesus on the cross!

But is that the FULL answer…biblically?

Absolutely not!

So who put Jesus on the cross?

Wicked, evil men did...AND

God did!

If we could have asked those crying out to crucify Christ...is this what you WANT to happen...?

They would have - to a man - cried out - YES!

The desire of their heart was to - crucify Christ.

They DID what they WANTED to do!

AND yet - God's plan was that Christ would go to the cross!

Before the foundation of the world....before SIN existed...

The plan of God was that Christ would go to the cross!

I mean - what does John 3:16 say?

It doesn't say -For God so loved the world that He sent Jesus - HOPING man would kill Him in order to save mankind...

Listen to what Jesus says here...

The 2 sided coin of the crucifixion of Christ has on one side:

mankind's decision to kill Christ (mankind nailing Christ to the cross)

Christ's plan to lay down His life (God the Father nailing Christ to the cross)

The very SAME ACTION - of the killing of Christ - being carried out by MANKIND - AND - God

MANKIND meant it for EVIL - trying to protect their own PRIDE

GOD meant it for good - GRACIOUSLY laying down His life to SAVE THOSE WHO WOULD BELIEVE!

Let's look elsewhere to see this same thing...

What's God saying here...It says - Assyria, the rod of my anger...

So God here is NOT HAPPY - He's angry!

And He calls Assyria - the rod of His anger!

He's raising up Assyria - COMMISSIONING them to do something...

He says - The staff in THEIR hands is my anger!!  

next verse...

God here is describing how He raised up Assyria to be the TOOL of His judgment against His own people!

God wanted to JUDGE Israel...SO He USED Assyria to do that!

So Assyria - attacks Jerusalem...and the people of Israel.

And what we need to notice is the first part of verse 5 that we just read...

WOE to Assyria!

This isn't a good "WHOA!"...It's a - You are IN TROUBLE kind of WOE!

And it's directed at Assyria!

God raises up ASSYRIA...to destroy Jerusalem...THEY DO...And then God judges Assyria!

HOW?

Isaiah 10:7

But he does not so intend,

and his heart does not so think;

but it is in his heart to destroy,

and to cut off nations not a few

This is saying - Assyria's motive in destroying Israel wasn't to DRAW them closer to God...

Assyria didn't view themselves as an instrument of God…

Instead - PRIDE fueled their desire to DESTROY...AND BECAUSE that was true...

God judged them IN THEIR CARRYING out the very thing God commissioned them do...

**You're at the ZOO (standing outside the Lion's Cage...)

You put some RAW meat outside the cage on the ground.

And that Lion SEE's you do it.

In that moment - What is the cage doing?

The cage is RESTRAINING that lion from what?