The Sovereignty of God

For those here who do not know who I am, I am David Yoder from the Manchester Assembly. It's not important that you know that, other than if you don't like what I say, at least you know who to be mad at. What I have on my mind, I have had upon my heart for the last three weeks.

I hope it encourages us and I hope it strengthens us. I want to thank the people here of Stout for having a conference. It's wonderful to see the people of God gathered together in a setting like this.

We are reminded in Hebrews 10 and 25 that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some is. And we are thankful that we have the ability, and that doesn't mean just a once a year assembling together. That doesn't mean we're at conference so the rest of the year we're good.

It's a continual assembling together. And the reason is to exhort ourselves in the things of God. I want to read in Isaiah chapter 40.

I have a fair amount to read, so I'm going to try to read fast. Because I want to, hopefully with the help of God, just simply prove that this is not just something I feel or believe. That this is what the Word of God says.

Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 12 asks the question, Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord? Or who, being his counselor, hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a small thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

All nations before him are as nothing. They are counted to him as nothing, and less than nothing, and vanity. To whom, then, will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto him? Then I want to drop to the end of the chapter, verse 29, well known.

He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary. The young men shall utterly fall.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint. Ephesians chapter 3, book of Ephesians in chapter 3, verse 10. Ephesians 3 and 10 says, To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith in him, therefore I desire that ye faint not in my tribulation for you which is your glory.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. Drop down to verse 19. And to know the love of Christ, which path is knowledge, that ye might be filled with all fullness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages and without end. Amen. One more, 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter 4 and verse 12 says, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which are to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice in so much as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Verse 14, if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit and the glory of God rests upon you. In their part he is evil spoken of, but in your part he is glorified. Verse 19, therefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing, as unto a faithful creator.

I have a question that I would like to pose at the outset. Do you believe that God is sovereign? I think everyone here would probably say, Yes, I believe that God is sovereign. Then I ask you, do you really believe God is sovereign? Does your life reflect it? It is easy to say that you believe something, but when you are tested on it, there is a whole different ball game.

It reminds me of a story of a professor who was a physics professor and he told his class that they had to do a project to demonstrate one aspect of physics. And so a young man decided he was going to take up the law of the pendulum. Now if you don't know the law of the pendulum is if you pull the pendulum to one side and let it swing, that each time it swings it goes a little less.

It never goes back to its starting point until it finally stops and then you have to restart it. So the young man asked the professor, Do you believe in the law of the pendulum? And the professor said yes. So the young man asked the class to come to the gymnasium.

So they all followed him to the gymnasium. And hanging in the middle of that gymnasium was a rope with 250 pounds of weight tied to the end of it. And he asked the professor, Do you believe in the law of the pendulum? And the professor said yes.

So the young man put a table up against the wall and a chair on top of the table and asked the professor to sit in the chair against the wall, the concrete wall. And he took that weight and he swung it across and he touched the nose of the professor and he asked the professor, Sir do you believe in the law of the pendulum? And the professor said yes. So he let it go and it swung all the way across.

And as it started coming back, the man who just three times I told his entire class I believe in the law of the pendulum, bailed. So when I ask you, Do you believe God is sovereign? The question I'm asking, Are you living in the good of his sovereignty? Why do I ask that? If God is sovereign, then we must admit that he is in control, absolute control of absolutely everything. Everything.

I decided instead of just going to a a concordance for the Bible, I decided I was going to Google and see what Google said sovereignty meant. What does it mean to be sovereign? Google said to have supreme power or ultimate power. That is correct.

But then it went down further and if you read all the way down through all the different examples I gave, one of it said is that the people of America say they have their own sovereignty because they are responsible for themselves, that they are a sovereign nation. I don't know about you, what you believe, but I don't believe that I am sovereign over anyone, much less myself. God is sovereign and he is in control of all.

But sometimes and we look at where we are in our world today and the pandemic that we have faced and sometimes we forget that God is sovereign, that he planned it and he allowed it. Think of Job. Think of what Job was allowed.

Now I didn't say that God put this pandemic on us, I said he allowed it. He allowed Job to be tested. I believe that's where we are at today brothers and sisters, that we are being tested.

We are being tested. When it came to Job, you remember at the beginning of that book that Satan walks in and he is standing there in the presence of God and God asks him where he came from and he says I'm walking to and fro on the earth and you know what's interesting? That it wasn't Satan that brought up Job, God did. God said have you considered my servant Job? When it comes to Job, he says he is a perfect man.

He is upright. He is, hateth, he feareth God and hateth evil. That's what was said of Job.

So if God was willing to allow Satan to test a man who is perfect, upright, feared God and hated evil, what makes me think that God would not test me? You might say if anybody should have been under a protective blanket or a man with a description like that, that should have been a man that God kept everything away from him. Why would God allow a temptation like that? Why would God allow all those things that happened to Job to happen? We read in 1 Peter chapter 4 that beloved think ye not strange concerning the fiery trials which are to try you as though some strange things happened to you that we are to rejoice in it. Why? Because when we are tried by fire we rejoice in it.

We read in Isaiah chapter 40 and there the example is given of just who he is and his sovereignty. How sovereign he truly is and what do I mean by that? The question goes down through and it asks, and I could have read it in Job as well, it asks who counseled God? And God asked Job this, he said were you there when I needed the world, when I measured it out, can you make the lightning and the thunder, can you make the eagle to fly at your command and the hawk? And he brings it all the way down and down and down and he comes to the end. What happens when we get to the end of Job? You might say why would he allow something like this to happen to Job? We get to the end of Job and what does it say? And then Job answered and this is what he said, I know that thou canst do everything and he puts it this way, that no purpose can be withholden from thee so no one can stop the purposes of God and then it comes to verse 5 and he says I have heard of thee by the hearing of mine ears.

So before this Job had heard of the hearing, he had heard of him but then he says but now mine eyes see of thee. He was refined by fiery trials. Where am I going with this you might ask? I think, I know we sometimes sing those words that the love of God is greater far and when it comes to the sovereignty of God the same thing could be said that you cannot pen it.

The deity of Christ, you cannot encompass it. Every aspect of his life, the love of God is only one aspect and every aspect of his life you cannot begin to fathom it or write it even if the skies were a scroll. So I'm not going to try to go completely into the sovereignty of Christ.

My point is this that he is completely in control. There's those that believe in the sovereignty of Christ but they put certain aspects on it and they try to twist it. There's a theology out there that somehow God is sovereign but at the same time he doesn't know everything that's going to happen in the south so somehow God is reacting to the things going on in our world and that the more things that happen in our world the better he is at being able to react to it.

My question would then be what about Psalms 22 when he clearly states in explicit detail what was going to happen at Calvary. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? He knew what was coming. It wasn't as somehow when it came to Calvary's cross that all of a sudden God in heaven looked down at what was going to happen.

The most evil thing that ever happened throughout the ages of eternity that you could say that man ever carried out was putting the Son of God to death and God allowed it. So that tells me that God is in control of all things. So what is my point? What am I trying to get at? If I can leave you with something hopefully practical is this.

That you can trust him that as long as you carry out what he is calling for that he will bless you. So many times we let emotions play a part in the decisions that we make in our lives. Someone put it this way says don't feel, don't believe everything you feel.

Your emotions are the greatest liars you know. Preach the truth to your emotions and by the power of the Holy Spirit the truth will begin to change your emotions. We look at politics in our country today and I'm not going to try to get political.

We look at politics and look at how everything is run. Emotion. They try to on emotion okay well there's the race card right? I'm not going to get into race right? But they try to divide.

There's hatred. They try to drive on the motion of hate and love. They try to drive on the emotion of fear.

The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 1 and 7 that God has not given his saints a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. The Bible is very clear on this point that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And let us remember who said this.

If anyone was a man who should have been willing to live in fear or had a right to live in fear was a man who wrote these. If there was ever a man who had a reason to not want to assemble together and was willing to be like you know what I know I said it once that don't forsake okay I should stop. I should back up.

I know some believe don't know who wrote Hebrews I believe it was Paul. So with that thought if ever there was a man who could have said I know I said don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together as a matter of some whims it was Paul. Why? Read about everything that happened to that man.

He was beaten. He was beaten. He was in shipwrecks multiple times a night and a day he spent in the deep.

He was fraud. He was it says he was in perils in the wilderness periled by his own countrymen. He was in perils everywhere he went.

If ever there was a man that had a right to go and hide he would say it was the Apostle Paul. And yet the Apostle Paul is very clear and the words that he uses are this for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. So what I am driving at today brothers and sisters is simply this if the decisions that we come to is against the will of God it is not God's will.

You might say what do you mean? We are at a crossroads and I believe we are being tried by Satan and God is allowing it to see just how much of God's word we really believe. We have heard all the time from pulpits like this by men far greater than me that have told us to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together and yet across our world there are many assemblies that do not meet. For the first time in the United States and in Canada I think we can truly say that we are being tried to a point we have never been tried before.

We have always had the freedom to gather however we wanted and all of a sudden we don't. In Edmonton, Canada a church was a pastor spent 35 days James Coates in prison for preaching the gospel and having his church building open. Just this Thursday a few days ago the government came in and fenced off the entire building so they can't get to it.

If that was us brothers and sisters what would we do? Would we still hold fast to not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together? Listen brothers and sisters he is holy he is sovereign and it is within his will and within his right to ask us that no matter how difficult the situation is do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. When that verse was written it was very clearly mapped out that in that time there was murder going on. In China just this past week an announcement was put out by their government that if you are a believer and if you are picked up that you will either recant of your faith or you will face torture.

If that was us what would we do? Is the risk too great? Is God not sovereign enough for us in that moment? We believe that God is sovereign in the big things that we feel we cannot control. Is that not true? We say he is sovereign over politics and we feel we can't control politics. He is sovereign over national catastrophes because we believe we can't control those things.

But as soon as it's something that we think somehow maybe I can control this has he lost his sovereignty at that moment? No he has not. He is still sovereign. He is still on the throne.

He is still the king of kings. And he is still the lord of lords. And there is none that can be likened unto him.

I could have read in Daniel of Nebuchadnezzar a man that was not one of God's chosen people and yet he comes to a point after he has been turned into an animal in the field and he comes back out of it and what does he say? That he is from everlasting to everlasting and his kingdom is from generation to generation. Our God is an awesome God and we can depend upon him. So if the decisions that we come to in difficult times like this goes against the word of God brothers and sisters it's wrong.

He is sovereign enough that I believe not only that he can save my soul but he can save me in every other aspect of my life as well. I'm not up here to tell you I want to be very clear I'm not telling you to wear a mask or not wear a mask. I'm not telling you to get a shot or not get a shot.

I want to simply point out this that it does not matter if you wear 1, 2, 3 or 5 masks and take 1, 2, 3 or 5 shots if it is your time to enter eternity the sovereign God if it is his will he will take you. And I also want to say the other thing if you wear none of the above if it is within his sovereign will that you stay and serve him he will allow it. I'd rather be sitting in my seat because when it comes to ministry if anybody who's ministered it seems as soon as you talk about something you're tested on it.

I think we're being tested right now and it's a real thing. And we read very clearly in 1 Peter 4 that we are to expect trials but rejoice in so much as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering that when his glory shall be revealed that ye may be glad unto also with exceeding joy therefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls your life, your all to him in well doing as unto a faithful creator. He is a faithful creator.

And I've been thinking of this for several weeks now and I couldn't help but notice when I was in the men's restroom washing my hands and I went to dry the verse that is slipped in to where you get your paper towel and it's 1 Samuel 12 and 24 only fear the Lord and serve Him that's the only one we have to fear serve Him in truth with all your heart for consider how great this thing is which He has done for you. Let us never lose sight of what a great thing He has done for us. Let us never lose sight of the fact that when it was in that garden of Gethsemane and they came and they laid hands upon Him let us never forget that He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and to set Him free.

He could have called 10,000 angels but He died alone for you and me. Is it not enough that we should serve Him in sincerity and in truth worship Him in sincerity and in truth to give Him our all? Is He not worthy of that? May it be the desire of our hearts. My time is up.

May it be the desire of our hearts. As you can read in Psalms 27 verse 4 One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life and to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple. We have just heard of the Lord in the message before.

The direct translation here if you want to translate it the thought is Yahweh. I think it's a beautiful thought. One thing have I desired of the I Am the Great I Am the Sovereign I Am and that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Sovereign I Am all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the I Am and to inquire in His temple.

Brethren and sisters, let us never lose sight of the sovereignty of who He is. Let us never lose sight that He has a sovereign will for us as believers. And His will is that we would not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

His will for you today if you are not saved is that all men would come to a knowledge of the truth and be reached and say this is the will of God. It is the will of God that you would be sanctified. It is the will of God that we would walk in His precepts all the days of our life.