God's sovereignty means He does what He wants to do, when He wants
to do it and without having to give an explanation for why He did it.
Most of our church members give verbal assent to the sovereignty of God,
even agreeing with this definition.
by Roger Ellsworth
Every pastor knows the difficulty of his work. We, the feeblest of men,
have been called to do the greatest of tasks. We have been called to preach
the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ to sinners 'fast-bound in sin and
nature's night." We have been called to shepherd souls. As we think
about
our work, we find ourselves crying with the apostle Paul: "...who
is
sufficient for these things?" (2 Corinthians 2:16). The work often
seems to
be too difficult for us. We often find ourselves discouraged and weary.
- The nature of the work is such that we are almost always doomed to
feel a sense of insufficiency - the standards are so high and our efforts
so poor.
- The workload is crushing.
- The expectations of our people are often unrealistic. Every sermon
is to be more interesting - more entertaining! - than the last. The church
is to march from victory to victory, reclaiming inactive church members
and
winning the lost.
- The outward results are often few and far between.
It is not surprising that so many pastors so often feel that they have
come
to their wits' end. I am so very thankful that I can offer all my
fellow-pastors this word of encouragement: the God we serve is sovereign.
What is the sovereignty of God? John Benton says it is "God's supreme
and
detailed control over all that comes to pass in heaven and on earth."
Donald MacLeod says that God's sovereignty includes ownership, authority
and control. God owns every atom. God has the right to control every atom.
And God exercises that right. Augustine put it this way: "Nothing,
therefore happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen. He either
permits it to happen, or He brings it about Himself." Jerry Bridges
writes:
"The spider building its web in the corner and Napoleon marching
his army
across Europe are both under God's control."
God's sovereignty means He does what He wants to do, when He wants to
do it
and without having to give an explanation for why He did it. Most of our
church members give verbal assent to the sovereignty of God, even agreeing
with this definition. It is when we begin to work out the details that
we
find our members falling off the wagon. Here is one of the details that
they find most disconcerting: the salvation of sinners is included in
God's
sovereignty.
1] The Sovereignty of God and Pastoral Ministry
To say otherwise is to deny sovereignty. If there is anything beyond
the
pale of God's sovereignty, He is not truly sovereign. God's sovereignty
in
salvation means that He saves whom He will, and those whom He saves owe
nothing at all to themselves. They are saved because God graciously chose
them in eternity and regenerated and called them in history. They cannot
even take credit for their faith because it is the gift that He Himself
sovereignly bestows.
Knowing that so very many in our congregations find such truths to be
terribly disconcerting, we pastors find it very easy to equivocate on
the
issue. We tell ourselves that we are truly preaching the Bible, but the
sad
fact is many of us have elevated man to the status of God's co-sovereign.
We then lament the fact that so many in our churches give no evidence
at
all of wanting to live for the Lord. Why should they? A little God does
not
inspire great service.
On the other hand, let one see that he came into this world with
condemnation written all over him, that he was deservedly hell-bound
because he was, by nature, a God-hater and that he was both helpless and
hopeless but that God, in grace, saved him - and that individual will
want
to worship and serve the Lord.
But what about the sovereignty of God as it relates to pastoral ministry?
Several things can be said in response to this question.
2] The Sovereignty of God Focuses Our Worship on God Instead of on
Ourselves.
Since God is the Sovereign of the universe, every worship service should
be
radically centered on Him and firmly devoted to exalting Him. But how
much
of what we call worship is truly this way? How much of it is God-centered
and how much man-centered? How many of our sermons are about ourselves,
our
experiences, our desires, our felt needs? How many of our songs are about
the same things?
Our defense for modern worship is that we have to give people what they
want or they will not come to church at all. Those who hold this view
will
find very strange John Piper's opening sentence in The Supremacy of God
in
Preaching: "People are starving for the greatness of God."
And well they should! There is so little of the greatness of God in
our
services and in our preaching. Instead of the mighty God of the Scriptures,
who graciously plucks sinners from eternal wrath, we have the little god
who does favors for us.
Instead of responding to the cry for the greatness of God, the church
seems
set on trivializing God. Donald W. McCullough writes,
Reverence and awe have been replaced by a yarn of familiarity. The
consuming fire has been domesticated into a candle flame, adding a bit
of
religious atmosphere, perhaps, but no heat, no blinding light, no power
for
purification. When the true story gets told, whether in the partial light
of historical perspective or in the perfect light of eternity, it may
well
be revealed that the worst sin of the Church at the end of the twentieth
century has been the trivialization of God.
3] The Sovereignty of God Makes Our Preaching God-Centered Instead of
Man-Centered.
God is to be the focus of our preaching. We are to preach the sovereign
God
who sovereignly gave His Word and sovereignly saves through that Word.
The
fact is that God is the hero of every Bible passage, But, what strange
days
these are! God is conspicuously absent from much of our preaching. Jesus
feeding the 5000 has become more about the little boy than about the Lord.
David slaying Goliath has become how to kill the giants in your life.
Bishop John R. Moore has rightly said: "We've humanized God, deified
man,
and minimized sin." If we truly understand and appreciate the sovereignty
of God, we will preach...
- the Bible as the Word of the sovereign God.
- man as the creation of the sovereign God.
- sin as rebellion against the sovereign God.
- eternal destruction as the just judgment of the sovereign God.
- the incarnation as the sovereign God taking our humanity.
- the life of Christ as the sovereign God providing the perfect
righteousness that He Himself demands.
- the cross as the atonement of the sovereign God.
- the resurrection as the sovereign God declaring His satisfaction
with Christ.
- faith as the gift of the sovereign God.
- sanctification as the ongoing, sure work of the sovereign God.
- heaven as the victory of the sovereign God.
These words from Michael Horton serve as a much needed corrective for
us:
I advocate the "redemptive-historical" approach to preaching,
which treats
the Bible as an unfolding drama of redemption rather than as a handbook
of
timeless principles... Instead of trying to make the Bible relevant for
"today's busy Christian," I suggest that we allow the Bible
to arrest us,
condemn us, justify and free us. We need more preaching that focuses on
God
and what he has done, is doing, and will do in history, and less on
ourselves and how we can be happier with God's help.
4] The Sovereignty of God Makes the Cross of Christ Unspeakably Glorious
to
Us.
The cross of Christ is the means by which the sovereign God provided
the
salvation that He planned before the world began. To save His people,
God
had to take their sins out of the way. Are we clear on this? God could
not
just ignore sin. To do so would be tantamount to Him denying 'His holy
character. God cannot deny Himself. The great, surging question of the
ages, therefore, is this: How could a holy God at one and the same time
judge sinners - as His holy character demands-and let those same sinners
go
free - as His grace demands?
The cross is the triumphant answer. It is the place where God honored
both
the demands of His justice and His grace. Justice was honored because
God
did indeed judge sin. Jesus Christ actually became sin for His people
receiving in His own person the wrath of God against them. Justice looked
upon that and was satisfied.
But the cross also honored the demands of God's grace. Because Jesus
suffered the wrath of God in the stead of His people and because God only
demands that the penalty be paid once, there is no wrath left for those
people. Both God's justice and God's grace looked upon the cross of Christ
and clapped their hands.
Once we see the nature of the cross, we will find it impossible to preach
without having it in view. We will, like Charles Spurgeon, find ourselves,
no matter what text we take, making a beeline for the cross.
5] The Sovereignty of God Encourages Evangelism.
God's elect will most certainly come to Christ. The Lord Jesus himself
said, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one
who comes
to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:44).
Do you remember Paul's experience in Corinth? The apostle encountered
fierce opposition there. But the Lord spoke to him and said, "Do
not be
afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one
will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city"
(Acts
18:9-10). It was so certain that these people would come to faith in the
Lord that He could speak of them as if they had already come.
One of the primary objections that the sovereignty of God in the salvation
of sinners is that it cuts the nerve of evangelism and missions. Untrue!
It
does exactly the opposite. Knowing that those whom God has chosen will
definitely respond encourages us to spread the gospel.
Think of it in terms of a simple illustration. Suppose someone were
to ask
you to go to a corn field and look for diamonds. Would you be inclined
to
go? But suppose he told you that he had scattered a thousand diamonds
in
that same field on the previous night and you could have as many as you
could find. Would that make a difference in your willingness to go?
6] The Sovereignty of God Sweetens Our Trials.
As we have noted, there is no shortage of trials and difficulties for
the
pastor. These are oftentimes so very severe that we wonder how we shall
find the strength and peace to go on. That strength and peace comes only
as
we rest in the sovereignty of God. Nothing - absolutely nothing - comes
to
us except from the Father's hand. Even those people who seem to go out
of
their way to make life miserable for us? Yes! Firm reliance on the
sovereignty of God will teach us to say of these what Joseph said to his
brothers, "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant
it for
good,..." (Genesis 50:20a).
Romans 8:28 teaches us that everything from the Father's hand is for
our
good. Here is the rub - our view of what constitutes good is often a far
cry from God's. We think we know what good is. It is to have pleasant,
happy circumstances. But the context of Romans 8:28 makes it clear that
the
good God is pursuing is far different. It is nothing less than conforming
us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This is God's purpose for us.
Do
we understand that this purpose requires Him to take a far different
approach with us than if His purpose were merely our comfort? We may look
at our circumstances and wonder whether God truly has our best interests
at
heart. But we can never look at the cross of Christ without being assured
that He does.
Let us resolve, then, not to focus so much on what God is doing in our
circumstances but rather on doing what God has commanded. We might say
God
has two books - the book of His promises and the book of His providence.
We
are responsible to read the book of His promises, drawing from the strength
we need to face our trials. God Himself will finally read to us the book
of
His providence. When He does, it will all make sense. And on that blessed
day, we will finally be able to fully understand the words of Charles
Tindley's hymn:
Trials dark on every hand
And we cannot understand
All the ways that God will lead us
To that blessed promised land;
But He'll guide us with His eye,
And we'll follow till we die;
We will understand it better by and by.
The Founders Journal Issue 51, Winter 2003
http://www.founders.org
