The Supremacy of God
Notes
Transcript
The Supremacy of God
The Supremacy of God
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
We said last week that there is no subject that should take up the whole of mans attention such as the subject of God. The whole Bible is all about God. He is the subject of all scripture and the implications for us are many, and yet the truth found therein is never disconnected from an understanding of God.
Last week we looked at a new concept to some of us, the Solitariness of God, Meaning the place that God has in which he Alone is above all, and that he needs none in order to exist. God is in a category alone in which we can hardly have adequate words to describe.
Like last week, I would ask you, “when I say God, what do you think of?”
What are the pictures that fill your mind when you think of God?
What shape your view of God within your mind? Perhaps the question should be, “What SHOULD shape your view of God within your mind?”
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam was one of Europe's most famous and influential scholars. A man of great intellect who rose from meager beginnings to become one of Europe's greatest thinkers. He defined the humanist movement in Northern Europe, and was known as a Christian scholar and Dutch philosopher coming out of the Catholic church.
A.W. Pink tells a story of Martin Luther that seems to be fitting here...
In one of his letters to Erasmus, Luther said, “Your thoughts of God are too human.” Probably that renowned scholar resented such a rebuke, the more so, since it proceeded from a miner’s son. Nevertheless, it was thoroughly deserved. We, too, prefer the same charge against the vast majority of the preachers of our day, and against those who, instead of searching the Scriptures for themselves, lazily accept their teachings. The most dishonoring conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even professing Christians, the God of Scripture is quite unknown.
The question I want us to struggle with this summer is this - Are our thoughts of God too human?
Do we often imagine that the Most High God is moved by human sentiment, or does he operate by principle? Do we suppose that his great power is idle while Satan’s attack thwarts him on all sides? Do we think that if God has any plan or purpose at all, that is must be like ours, which is subject to change based on the conditions at any given moment?
Are our thoughts of God too human? Why is this important enough for us to talk about? Because I would submit to you that when our thoughts of God are too human, we stray from his word as the final authority and begin to insert arguments for the rule of our lives that are not able to be verified by contextual, grammatical, historical interpretations of the scriptures.
What would happen if we a higher view of God and a lower view of self? Would we think less about our national rights and more about preaching, proclaiming and promoting the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let me be clear where we stand on the issues of the day that so many want us to speak to. Whatever label the issues are found by… Whether politics, or racism, hate or protest… If it is critical race theory, intersectionality, BLM movement, social justice, bigotry, constitutional laws, or unconstitutional laws… We are against anything that is in direct opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is one race, it is the human race that is created by God. Every issue in this world right now is a SIN problem and there is only a SAVIOR solution in which Jesus Christ is the only hope for all peoples no matter the color of their skin, the nation they live in or any other identifying factor they want to raise above the fact that they either are saved and forgiven by God in Jesus Christ or they are not.
How do I get to a place where I can say this with confidence? By having a higher view of God and lower view of self. This is why we are studying the attributes of God this summer. Because Satan wants to divide the church by categories the world is pushing into a narrative. Well we must think about such things with an appropriate view of God.
Our thoughts of God cannot be too human or we will not know truth.
So what does it mean for God to be supreme? Or what is the Supremacy of God?
The supremacy of God is his state of being that is superior to all others in Authority, Power and Status
The supremacy of God is his state of being that is superior to all others in Authority, Power and Status
God’s state of being that is superior to all others in authority, power or status.
So to be clear there is no one and nothing that comes close to God in Authority. What he says goes, period. Whether you want to agree with him or not.
And nothing comes close to his power in all of creation, in all of time and history… His power is greater than anyone can dare to imagine.
And when it comes to his status, there isn’t even titles we can give that will adequately come close to describing his glorious splendor and divine nature. The category we have is known as GOD.
All we have is his word to know and understand this about him. and we have simple pictures meant to show us extreme truths, but do we believe them? Like when scripture describes God as the Potter and us as the clay… Oh sure some of us agree that this is right, especially because in romans 9 we hear it… Yet it is hard to accept.
20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
A high view of God says he created all and knows those who are his own, and is preserving them even and especially when others he created are nothing more then vessels of wrath which are prepared for destruction. What this doesn’t speak of is how the vessels of wrath may rule wickedly for a season of the vessels of honor that he prepared beforehand for glory.
And yet who are we to question him when we do not understand that he is desiring to show his wrath and make known his power by enduring with patience these vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.
God how could you allow such wicked men to rule the land and treat us harshly? Have we forgotten the children of Israel in slavery for 400 yrs, the exile of his nation under the hands of heather oppressors or even the political oppression that existed on the earth when Jesus walk the streets of Jerusalem. God did not send his son to reform society but to save sinners in a world that broken and sinful and in need of a savior.
We see and feel the unrest and we are anxious, but it has not effected our God or his plan in even the slightest. God is Supreme in ruling over all these things even.
Pink said it this way...
Were all the inhabitants of heaven and all the inhabitants of earth to combine in open revolt against God, it would cause Him no uneasiness. It would have less effect upon His eternal, unassailable throne than the spray of Mediterranean’s waves has upon the towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to affect the Most High, Scripture tells us that when the Gentile heads unite with apostate Israel to defy Jehovah and His Christ,
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
God laughs at man when he tries defy him.
So God is superior in Authority over all, including and especially Mankind. We think too human of God and our thoughts and ways are not his.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
We must recognize that we too often are swept up into the emotion of this life feeling the need to take sides in explaining the purpose of life and how God will make things right, and yet can we really always understand him? He is God.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
He is superior in his authority and when he commands his people we cannot find the loopholes to obeying and affirming, no matter who will agree with us. The church has historically had to defend itself against the onslaught of secular humanistic ideologies that threaten to defy the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God is supreme above all we see in the earth. But where do we see this in scripture?
11 Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.
Everything belongs to our God. And he rules over all. Please notice that God through his word tells us that he rules over all. That means he rules over good men and evil men, even he has seen fit to allow them for a season to rule over his people. God rules over all! Not he will someday rule over all, but he in fact does right now and always will. No one can thwart his plans and nothing can happen without his will being accomplished, including evil deeds done by men who deny his existence. This is the Supremacy of our God!
6 and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you.
God rules over all kingdoms and nations, including ours. He is superior in authority, power and status!
But can we see God show us in his word how his Supremacy is seen exercised in his power over all he has created? Do we know from his word if there is something he cannot overcome?
Listen, at his pleasure the Red Sea was separated and its waters stood up as walls around his people as they passed through them, but we calamity to their enemies, (see EXODUS 14). How about when he opened the earth and swallowed up the guilty rebels alive in a pit beneath their feet, (NUM. 16). So god is superior to creation of the earth but what about the heavenly bodies above the earth?
In Joshua 10 he ordered the sun to stand still, and on another occasion went backwards 10 degrees on the dial of Ahaz. So he can manipulate the universe to affect his will on earth if he so pleases.
God shows his supremacy when he sends ravens to carry food to the prophet Elijah (1 KINGS 17). What abut when he makes iron float to the top of the water in 2 Kings 6:5, or he shuts the mouth of hungry Lions when Daniel his servant is thrown into the Lions den. How about when he does not let the fire burn Shaddrach, Messach and Abednigo when they are flung into the fiery furnace?
The Supremacy of God is seen in the protection of his people
The Supremacy of God is seen in the protection of his people
But it is not just the wicked rulers his people are protected from. God is superior in authority and power and status and this even includes the will of mankind.
God’s supremacy is also demonstrated in His perfect rule over the wills of men. Ponder carefully Exodus 34:23-24.
23 Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out nations before you and enlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
Three times in the year all the males of Israel were required to leave their homes and go up to Jerusalem. They lived in the midst of hostile people, who hated them for having appropriated their lands. What, then, was to hinder the Canaanites from seizing the opportunity, during the absence of the men, to enslave the women and children and take possession of their farms? If the hand of the Almighty was not upon the wills even of wicked men, how could He make this promise beforehand, that none should so much as “covet” their lands?
The supremacy of God rules over the wills of man.
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
Any man, including kings, or presidents or governors… Any mans heart is like a stream in the hand of the Lord. God can turn it WHEREVER HE WILLS!
Even though we love to make the objections and discuss the idea of freewill of man, we need to read scripture and see that in the sovereignty of God his shows his supremacy over even the will of man when he saves us from the sin we cannot even see because of our dead blind state of being.
And this isn’t exclusive to the OT but rather all throughout scripture.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
The greek translation of the word “work” is better understood as “to work effectually”. This means that God does a work in us that we are not a part of but we benefit from. This is a work that was predestined according to his will.
And this is where we get anxious because it messes with our liberties. We have a very American idea that we are in control and that we can be in control. We like to think of our status in the kingdom of God like we do in the kingdom of this world, especially as American who declare we live in a land that is Governed by the people for the people. Why? Because we like to be in control.
So men boast in the fact that they are free agents, with a will of their own, and should be at liberty to do as they will. And it is wonderful to live in a country of freedoms, even in these days where we are upset that they are in jeopardy, yet is this what we should think about our lives? How are we to think about our lives? how has the church historically thought about their lives in the church?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
I used to be annoyed when I heard people say things like, “Lord willing???”
I would think, “what do mean Lord willing I will see you tomorrow? I know I am gonna see you tomorrow” I know what I want to do and how I want things to go, but scripture informs us that this life is not in our control and we need to get used to the idea that anything that happens is under the Lord’s will.
The Supremacy of God is seen in his exercise of power over man’s will
The Supremacy of God is seen in his exercise of power over man’s will
That is why in Eph 2 it says that even though, “we were dead in sin... he made us alive”. When God saves us he doesn’t ask us for permission. And when God calls us home he doesn’t ask us if we are ok leaving.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Another translation says, “all our days are ordained before a single one came to pass...”
We had no say in being born and we don’t have as much to say about our being re-born or born again either. One day we didn’t believe and then we heard the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation and we believed, because God worked in us, according to his will.
And yet we would still say we make decision in real time that are completely our choice, and even in this we think too low of God as if he is like us… Are our thoughts of God too human? We make plans in life, right?
9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
or how about this one...
21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
God is simply supreme over everything we know in reality! He is big and we are small, He is in control and we are his to do with as he pleases.
A little story about the late Dr. John Gerstner? On one occasion he was preaching from Romans 1-3 on the depravity of man, and a woman sitting near the front was becoming increasingly unhappy with what she was hearing. Upon the conclusion of the sermon she made a bee line to the back of the church where she came right up to Dr. Gerstner and said, "Oh, Dr. Gerstner (holding her thumb and forefinger together indicating a very small space between them) Oh Dr. Gerstner, you make me feel so big." The uncompromising preacher that he was, Dr. Gerstner replied, "My dear woman, that's too big."
In God's good providence, all created things serve His purposes; yes-all things!
His supremacy is not just outside of time, but inside it as well. He can use the choices of evil angels and men to bring about His good purposes. May our faith resonate with Martin Luther's statement "the devil is God's devil".
May we sing the words of Luther's great hymn with renewed confidence, "And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us. We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us; The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him" (Luther, 1529). That word is Christ!
Jesus Christ is God, and he has defeated our foe, and in him we are held together, that he would be preeminent… or Supreme! Let us finish where we started today...
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.