Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast. My name is Kosti Hinn, and I have the pleasure of being your host. For the Gospel is all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. And on today's episode, I want to explain the sovereignty of God. It's important that we understand what it means that God is sovereign. And for the Christian, believing that God is sovereign is one thing, but living in light of that truth can sometimes look like or feel like a doctrinal wrestling match. Not everybody has an easy time grasping the infinite wisdom of God's sovereignty or even understanding the basics of it. And so it's important that we wrestle through these things and eventually come to a place of submission and acceptance, belief, and even embracing the fact that God is sovereign. First, let's define what the word sovereign even means. If you look up the word sovereign, it will refer to a supreme ruler, one who rules over all. It's especially used to refer to monarchs. Kings and queens on the earth are considered the sovereigns. But it also can refer to autonomy and independence. If a nation is a sovereign nation, it is autonomous, it is independent. And so that God is sovereign means that He is supreme. He is autonomous, He is independent. He does not bow to us, He does not answer to us, He is above us. You could say it this way: if God is sovereign, there is not a ray of sunshine, a single raindrop, or a speck of sand that operates outside of His authority. Everything is under His power. I would argue from the Bible that if God is not sovereign, then He's not God. How can God be God if He does not rule over? That's the definition of God, that He is above us. He is the creator, He is the ruler. The mere fact that God is sovereign requires that His ways be above our ways and His thoughts be above our thoughts. He has to be above us if He's sovereign, and He has to be above us if He's God. You and I, if God is sovereign, are clay. He is the potter. He is shaping, He is molding, He is creating, He is the King, and we are His surrendered people. That God is sovereign means that you don't exist to do your will, but you exist to do His will. I remember hearing a great story and some reflection from the legendary Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden reiterated he reiterated this truth once when he was asked in an interview, What's your legacy? Is your legacy football? Your undefeated season? He replied, No. Instead, I would ask this Did I fulfill God's purpose for my life? This is a college football coach, a Hall of Famer, a legend, 44 years of coaching, multiple national championships, record-setting winning streaks, and a Hall of Fame career. That was his perspective, though. Did I fulfill God's purpose for my life? He wasn't worried about whether he was going to win another championship or everybody would remember the undefeated season that they had. His strong and faithful mindset, the strong and faithful mindset of countless Christians in that regard can only come from surrendering to what God's word teaches on sovereignty, in that he is the king, he is the ruler. What is his calling on your life? Did you fulfill that in the midst of all your earthly success, in the midst of all the things that you pursued, did you do the one thing that God had you on this earth to do? Did you bring him glory as your sovereign ruler? Believing that God is sovereign helps us to understand that he is in control even when things are out of control. And that can come off crazy to some people in our world today, but if you say you're a Christian, you are called to think differently. And a relationship with Jesus means that you think in a new way. The old is gone, the new is come, 2 Corinthians 5.17. And that includes your old perspective. It is a old fleshly, the old you version of thinking. To think you're in control, you're the boss, you're calling the shots. The new way of thinking is God, you are sovereign over my life. I live for you. He is the sovereign ruler. There's a story in the Bible about a man who serves as an example about the sovereignty of God. He was incredibly righteous. His name was Job. He found great favor in the sight of God. He was law-abiding as a citizen. He was a family man. God had greatly blessed him. And one day, we see this in the book of Job. The devil approaches God and basically asks him for permission, if you will, to test Job. The devil is going around the world looking for people to trouble. And God says, Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one like him on the earth. He's blameless and upright. He fears me and he turns away from evil. That's in Job chapter 1, verse 8. The devil then quips back and basically says, Job is only loyal and he only loves you because you bless him. All the things you've done for him, he just loves you for what you do, not because of who you are. Well, God allows the test. He permits the devil to attack Job, of course, not being allowed to take his life. And unbeknownst to Job, he's part of now a bigger storyline as God sovereignly allows a trial in his life to prove his faith. In a 24-hour period, Job loses almost everything. Stories like this are reminders for us when we go through trials and troubles. And that really is what the sovereignty of God is such a comfort during. Times of struggle, what do you do to find peace? Well, you gotta go to a reality that is higher than your way of thinking and higher than your circumstance. That is, that God is sovereign, that He has a plan, that He is in control. Job's life is exemplary in this way. His own children, all ten of them are killed. And then he loses everything his livestock, his wealth, his servants, and eventually he loses his health. As if it wasn't enough to lose all of that. Eventually, and anyone who is married knows that this one would sting. His wife comes to him and says, Not something encouraging, not something helpful. No, she says, Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die in Job chapter 2, verse 9. He responds to her, You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God and not trouble? Job 2, verse 10. Job is an example of a man who had a perspective that is otherworldly. He understood God is sovereign, he rules over all. Shall we not accept the trouble as well? Shall we not accept that there's going to be trials? Shall we suddenly believe he's not in control? Shall we curse him and abandon our beliefs and our faith in him? No. Job's response to the Lord, of course, at various points is mixed with praise and frustration and confusion and pain and even questioning. But God continues to show himself as sovereign and put himself on display in Job's life. And we see this in the Bible because God's word is teaching us and it's guiding us and it's correcting us and it's showing us who he is. The Lord speaks to Job at one point in Job 38 and says, Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? He tells Job, Gird up your loins, brace yourself like a man. Answer me, where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, you, you who created everything, tell me. You measured the earth. Tell me, Job. What do you know? And Job is humbled by the reality that God is in control, that he's sovereign and knows what is happening even when we don't. You think about the situation that Job endured, and it's enough to make any of your hearts tremble, my heart tremble. Like Job, there are many times when we cry out to God for answers. Like Job, sometimes we push back in our prayers with confusion or frustration, wondering why our situation is so difficult, or even uh telling God that we think it's unfair. But when it comes to the courtroom of our hearts, I don't know about you, but it's easy for me to play lawyer and judge and jury and declare myself innocent on all accounts and expect God to see it my way. And the truth is, everyone wrestles with that sort of thing. God, what about what I want? And the Bible continues to show us that he is sovereign and we submit to him. Job, even one of the most righteous men to ever live, did in fact struggle with the sovereignty of God in his situation, but in the end, he humbly submits to the Lord. In Job chapter 40, when God says, Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Will the one who accuses God answer him? Job responds to the Lord saying, I'm unworthy, I can't reply to you, I cover my mouth. I spoke once, but I have no answer. Twice, but I'll say no more. I'm not going to talk again, he says. Basically, Job was confessing, Who am I to ever run my mouth at you, God? I'm nobody compared to you. I've got nothing more to say. I'm covering my mouth. I won't even mutter another word in my ignorance. Out of his horrific situation, that trial, two beautiful storylines emerge. First, Job gains a renewed perspective. Shortly after God reprimands him, Job says, I know you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted. That's Job 42, verse two. He goes on to answer God's original question, saying, You asked, Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand. In Job forty two, verse three, he says, things that are too wonderful, too lofty for me to ever know. In humility and repentance, he asks God to teach him, and he submits to the sovereignty of God. What a great lesson for us. The other lesson is what happened after, and this isn't a guarantee that you're going to get blessed with more stuff when you go through trials, but principally speaking, in Job 42, 17, we see that Job ends his life as a man full of years, that the Lord restores, that he gets back many things that he lost. Of course, nothing can replace the first 10 children that he lost, but God blesses him with more children. Nothing could change the pain he endured, but God gave him 140 more years of life after this tragic season. What does that tell us? Well, that God in his sovereignty has a purpose and a plan. There is a blessing and a reward for a lot of us here in the New Testament church. That is probably going to be heaven. You're not always going to get everything back. Not everything's going to be fair. It doesn't change the reality of your pain, but there is an eternal glory and an eternal purpose that God is sovereignly in control of. And Job, though he experienced a lot of restoration on earth, still the best was yet to come. God is faithful in it. And he shows himself, even in trials, that he is sovereign. The lessons from Job's story and really the realities of the sovereignty of God from Scripture are many. I think we can take a few and apply them. One is that God is in control when things are out of control. It doesn't matter what is out of control in this world or what you think you need to bring under control. People try to do this all the time and control everything. But if God is sovereign, well, he is in control even when things in the world seem out of control. He knows the end from the beginning, Isaiah 46.10 declares. He has the ultimate plan. He has decreed and set up the ultimate plan. He's not incapable of handling your situation. You may not understand his timing or his ways. You, like Job, maybe going through difficult times thinking, God, where are you? Or God, when will this end? But you can rest knowing he is in control. Another reality that I think we can apply is a quote from Johnny Erickson Tata where she says, God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves. God permits under his sovereign rule trials, difficult things to accomplish what he loves. This is a woman who served the Lord for over 50 years as a quadruplegic, and she is an eternal perspective beyond. There's so much to learn from. Does God love cancer? No. Does God love hammering you with trials? No. Does he love you being in a wheelchair or you being paralyzed or you having cerebral palsy or you being bullied or you going through a divorce? No. God doesn't love your pain, but he does allow trials and he does love you. And thus he loves you enough to produce the results that trials bring. That's not an easy truth to embrace. But he is working. And he is producing, as Paul says in Romans, character. Character produces hope. He is, as James writes in James 1, that you can consider it all joy when you encounter various trials because your faith is being tested, and it's going to show you that you're a true believer when you don't walk away and get disillusioned because of trials, but it strengthens your faith and you grow closer to God even in the midst of pain. That shows you that you are a real believer. God in his sovereignty is doing that to bring you more joy. God is also, third, putting his power on display through your weakness. He's showing who has the power. We see this in 2 Corinthians 12, where there's a situation that Paul wants out of. It's a thorn in the flesh. And God allows it to showcase his power through Paul's weakness. God is sovereign over every situation. He's sovereign over your trials. He's sovereign over this world. He's in control even when things are not. So you and I simply submit, we follow, we obey, we pray, we trust him, and we rest in that truth. The Bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign. I've used Job's story, I've drawn out a few principles and offered you some applications, referencing, of course, Paul and his situation. But let's look because let's look at some explicit truths. Psalm 115 3 says, Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. That's very clear. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Paul in Ephesians 111 says that God works all things, not some, but all things, after the counsel of his will. Now some people will ask, if God is sovereign, then are we all just puppets on his heavenly strings? The answer is no. God's sovereignty doesn't negate our responsibility or your ability to make choices. There's a divine tension here that we have to be content to live in and not swing to any extreme as though we're just walking around and um, you know, even where you go to lunch or what food you ate, you didn't really have a choice. God made you eat that. I people take this to weird conclusions that really aren't supposed to be the focus. And they usually do that in order to get away from the sovereignty of God and say, oh, so I don't even have control and I'm not even making my decisions, and so who cares? What's the point of anything? I'm just a puppet. How is that love and how is that a loving father in heaven? And they go way too far with it. The simple reality is um we just need to live what the Bible describes and accept what the Bible teaches. The glorious doctrine of God's sovereignty and the reality of our free will and making choices shouldn't confuse us. Rather, it should humble us to a greater understanding of our position. God is sovereign, he's infinite, he's the sustainer of all things. Romans 11, 36 says that, and we are human, we are finite, and we have been provided with the freedom to obey God or not obey God on earth. Obedience is a choice. So we don't need to over-conclude things or swing to extremes or create caricatures about the sovereignty of God. We simply need to look. We have a choice, obey or not, submit or not, serve our appetites and indulge in nothing but our own pleasures, and we'll reap the outcome of those choices. Or submit to the sovereignty of God, that his way is the way that you want to do things, that he rules over the universe, that he is supreme, and follow him and reap the outcome of those obedient choices. The question may also naturally arise: if God is sovereign, then why do bad things happen to good people? The truth is, God's sovereignty is not in any way put in jeopardy when bad things happen to good people. I love what R. C. Sprohl said about this one time. He said that only happened once, and he was God. There's only one good person who something bad ever happened to. Good being good, holy, righteous, perfect. That was Jesus. But the Bible shows us that even when evil appears to have won, God's ultimate purposes are still being served. Look at the example of Christ on the cross. The famous Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon himself, often preached about the sovereignty of God because he would conclude that it was one of the most important doctrines for Christians that God is sovereign and that he is supreme was vital to giving a Christian peace so they didn't have to feel like they had to keep the world together, that God was in control. For those who are aware of their great need for God, the doctrine of sovereignty is a soft place to rest your weary soul. Letting go of anxiety, letting go of fear and control. And let's get honest for a second. What good would it be if we were we were really in control? To think that I am the master of my destiny and the ruler of my world? That is a burden that the prideful side of our humanity wants to bear. But how many of you would understand and agree that that is way too heavy for us to carry? In fact, we try to carry that responsibility sometimes and it crushes us. That's why people end up with anxiety and depression and frustration and discouragement is because they're trying to play God in their life, and they need to trust Him and that He is sovereign. That God is sovereign also means that in your times of questioning, God, where are you in all of this pain in the world today? You need to remember that He's one day gonna wipe away every tear, He's going to right every wrong, His justice will flow like a mighty river. There is a short time on earth where there's gonna be turmoil and pain, and it seems like evil is running rampant, but our lives are but specks compared with eternity. And an infinite number of years, eternity, forever, no end, will provide healing, glorious treasures in heaven, the glory of God, best of all, life with Jesus forever. So no matter what we face in this life, God is in control and we can trust his promises for a better future. The sovereignty of God guarantees that. A.W. Pink reminds us that the sovereignty of God is rarely preached today, and I would agree with him, I'm sure you would as well. There's not enough talk about this, and if there is, there's debate, and then people say, well, let's just agree to disagree, and I guess it's a little bit of both. Instead of resolving to believe that God is sovereign, unapologetically declaring that God is sovereign, talking about it more, resting in it more. Perhaps the reason why people avoid the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is because they despise the notion that someone other than them is in control. Perhaps we find the belief uncomfortable because we have to trust God, and then we're deficient in our own answers. A.W. Pink writes the sovereignty of God is an expression that once was generally understood. It was a phrase commonly used in religious literature. It was a theme frequently expounded in the pulpit. It was a truth which brought comfort to many hearts and gave virility and stability to Christian character. But today, to make mention of God's sovereignty is in many quarters to speak in an unknown tongue. He's right. We don't talk about it enough and we don't understand it and embrace it and relish it enough. R. C. Sprohl, he explains that sovereignty is a divine attribute confessed almost universally in historical Christianity. This is not something new. Anyone who thinks they're going to debunk the sovereignty of God is bucking up against not only all of church history historically, but the Bible itself. He says that if God is not sovereign over the entire created order, then he's not sovereign at all. The sovereignty of God matters to Christianity. We could go as far as to say that it is unchristian to deny the sovereignty of God. And I'll go one step further for our audience. Any teaching today that denies the sovereignty of God demeans God to the position of a puppet. And it elevates you and I as mankind to the position of puppet master. And it propagates a belief that we are really in control and that we declare and proclaim and we demand and we say, God, you do our will. But the Bible teaches that we do his will. For the believer who submits to Scripture, we submit to the sovereignty of God. Want to thank you for digging in with me today on the For the Gospel podcast. My prayer is that you have a greater understanding or perhaps are humbled like I am by the teaching that the Bible provides for us, and even the correction, which is good and it's valuable and helpful. My encouragement, my prayer for you is that you'll submit to the sovereignty of God, even in the midst of your questions and believe, like the prophet Isaiah declares, God, your ways are above my ways, and your thoughts are above my thoughts. I am content to be the clay. Thank you for being the all-wise, the all-powerful, the all-knowing potter. For more free video teachings and short clips you can use to grow and learn and share, you can go to our YouTube channel and subscribe there to give to our ministry tax-free or to help us continue producing free resources. You can go to www.forthegospel.org and give there. You can read articles there as well and learn more about our team and our amazing contributors who are so valuable to our ministry. Until then, we'll see you on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. And we'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.