Chapter 21
Chapter
XXI
The
Sovereignty of God
“Whatsoever
the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep
places,” (Ps. 135:6).
“But our God is in the
heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased,” (Ps.
115:3).
We have been writing
without conscious fear or favor of men. We endeavor to write each chapter as if
the Lord were present personally, looking over our shoulders and passing
judgment upon what He sees. We believe the honest reader will agree that what we
have been, and are writing is honoring to God our Creator and Lawgiver. We are
trying to magnify Him in the eyes of the reader and show what a great God we
have to fear and love and worship and serve.
The writer is an old-fashioned Baptist without any frills or modern notions. He
has lived in spirit with, and has learned much from such men as Paul, Augustine,
Bunyan, Gill, Fuller, Carey, Judson, Spurgeon,
We began our Christian
career, as most men do, in Arminian togs, but with an inward experience that
made us susceptible to Calvinistic teachings. It should be well known that there
are two and only two schemes or systems of divine grace, unalterably opposed to
each other, and mutually exclusive. The two systems represent the only two
possible positions or views on the subject of grace. Whether or not one is
willing to wear either name, does not alter the fact that he is either
Calvinistic or Arminian in his views. Calvinism stands for the truth that
salvation is of the Lord; Arminianism makes salvation the result of human merit,
The one system postulates irresistible grace; the other postulates inherent
human goodness.
A good way to locate or
label oneself is to turn to Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, where the two
systems are fairly set forth. Here are the five points of Calvinism:
unconditional election or predestination, limited atonement or particular
redemption, total depravity necessitating prevenient grace, effectual calling or
irresistible grace, and preservation or perseverance of the saints. And the
writer does not hesitate to subscribe to all five points. Nor does holding the
five points cause him to deny human responsibility or to be lax in missionary
endeavor.
If we may judge by
Confessions of Faith or public utterances of their leaders, the champions of
Arminianism are the Catholics, the Methodists, the disciples of Mr. Campbell,
the Free Will Baptists, and many other smaller groups. Judging by the same
standards, the champions of Calvinism are the Missionary Baptists, the
Anti-Mission Baptists, the Episcopalians, the Presbyterian and Reformed
churches, and a few smaller bodies. It is doubtless true that many preachers in
the Calvinistic bodies have departed from their historic faith, and no longer
teach what they took an oath to teach. In many cases it is a Calvinistic creed
and an Arminian clergy.
Sovereignty of God a Big Doctrine
Sometime ago we read
where somebody called for “big doctrines.” Well, the doctrine of Divine
Sovereignty is a big doctrine. It is almost too big for us to attempt to define.
But the two texts (as do many others) at the head of this chapter declare and
affirm it. Mr. Spurgeon delighted to proclaim this big doctrine, and he could do
it about as well as anybody we know. The reader will do well to read and ponder
the following paragraph from the pen of this prince among preachers:
There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s
sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials,
they believe that Sovereignty has ordained afflictions, that Sovereignty over
rules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. On the other hand there
is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a
football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the
Sovereignty of God. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne.
They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense alms and bestow blessings.
They will allow Him to be in His workshop
to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to
sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven,
or rule the waves of the ever moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His
creatures gnash their teeth, and when we proclaim an enthroned God, and His
right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose
of His creatures as He thinks well, without
consulting them in the matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and
then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for
God on the throne is not the God they love. But it
is God upon the throne we love to preach. It is the God upon the throne Whom we
trust.
Oh
for a Spurgeon today to reach the masses with this God honoring and man humbling
truth! God is nothing more than a big man with a lot of people, and with many He
is not even a very big man. Of old God complained to an apostate
The
Meaning of Sovereignty
The Sovereignty of God may be defined as the exercise of His supremacy. God is
the one supreme and independent Being. He is the only one in all the universe
who has the right and the power to do absolutely as He pleases. He sits on no
precarious throne, nor borrows leave to be. He is the only one who has the right
to act for His own glory. The sovereignty of God means that He does as He
pleases, always as He pleases, and only as He pleases. God is in control of all
things and people, and is directing all things after His own will and to the
praise of His own glory. He even makes the wrath of man to praise Him, and the
wrath of man that does not praise Him, He does not allow.
“Surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain,”
(Ps. 76:10).
There is no alternative
between an absolute sovereign God and no God at all. A man once wrote that he
believed God was a sovereign, but not an absolute sovereign. A woman once talked
of two supreme beings. But we believe in a sovereign God whose will is not
subject to veto by His creatures. In his poem, “There Always Will Be God,”
Albert Leonard Murray describes Him as a Sovereign:
“They cannot shell His temple,
Nor dynamite His throne;
They cannot bomb His city,
Nor rob Him of His own.
“They cannot take Him captive,
Nor strike Him deaf and blind,
Nor starve Him to surrender,
Nor make Him change His mind.
“They cannot cause Him panic,
Nor cut off His supplies;
They cannot take His kingdom,
Nor hurt Him with their lies.
“Though all the world be shattered,
His truth remains the same,
His righteous laws still potent,
And ‘Father’ still His name.
“Though we face war and struggle
And feel their goad and rod,
We know above confusion
There always will be God.”
Sovereignty in Creation
God acted as a Sovereign in His work of creation. He did not create from
necessity, but from His own imperial pleasure. And in creating, He was free to
create whatever He pleased. He did not create for the sake of creatures, for
creatures in view must exist for their Creator, and not the Creator for the
creature. “The
LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil,”
(Prov. 16:4). “For
of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.
Amen,” (Rom. 11:36). “Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created
all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created,”
(Rev. 4:11).
Sovereignty in Administration
God is the Sovereign Ruler in His universe. He is in control of all things and
of all men, of demons and the Devil. He rules everywhere as seemeth good to
Himself. He seeks counsel from none. He controls and directs in the realm of
nature. The Scriptures rarely ever use the expression “it rains”; they speak of
God sending rain. “That
ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun
to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust,” (Matt. 5:45); “Nevertheless
he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness,”
(Acts 14:17); “When
he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder,”
(Job 28:26).
The Bible does not ascribe the recurring seasons to the laws of nature; it says
that God changeth the times and the seasons: “And
he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings:
he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding,”
(Dan. 2:21). Job did not talk about his disease as the cause of death, but
looked up to God and said, “For
I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all
living,” (Job 30:23). In the face of the many foes,
who sought his life, David cried to God
and said, “My
times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them
that persecute me,” (Ps. 31:15).
And there have been demonstrations of God’s control over, and direction of,
irrational creatures. He locked the jaws of the lions so that Daniel was not
hurt. “My God
hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt
me: forasmuch as before him innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O
king, have I done no hurt,” (Dan. 6:22). He
directed the cock to crow just when He said it would.
“Peter then denied
again: and immediately the cock crew,” (John
18:27). He caused the cows, contrary to natural instinct, to leave their calves
and make a “beeline” for the borders of
God
also controls men, all men, whether good or bad,
individually or collectively. He exerts upon the wicked a restraining power. He
does not allow them to do all their nature would lead them to do. God said to
Abimelech, “And
God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity
of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore
suffered I thee not to touch her,” (Gen. 20:6). How
often it is said that God will not infringe upon man’s free will. But if God had
not controlled the will of Abimelech, that heathen king would have harmed Sarah.
Yes, even “The
king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it
whithersoever he will,” (Prov. 21:1). God was
controlling and directing the will of Cyrus, king of Persia, when he ordered the
building of the temple at Jerusalem:
“Now in the first year
of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that
he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing,
saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me
all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at
Jerusalem, which is in Judah,” (Ezra 1:1,2). God
was controlling and directing Titus and his army in the destruction of
Jerusalem; yea, they are called “His armies:” “And
Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of
heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent
forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would
not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are
bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed,
and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and
went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant
took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the
king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed
those murderers, and burned up their city,” (Matt.
22:1-7).
Sovereignty in Salvation
By
this we mean that God was under no obligation to save His rebellious creatures.
His purpose to save was entirely free to the praise of His grace. He could send
every sinner to hell and remain absolutely just. Salvation cannot be of grace
and of debt too. “Now
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt,”
(Rom. 4:4). Sovereignty in salvation also means that God saves whom He pleases.
“Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth,”
(Rom. 9:18).
“As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him,” (John 17:2).
“Tis
not that I did choose Thee
For Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
But Thou hast chosen me.
“T’was
sovereign mercy called me,
And taught my opening mind;
The world had else enthralled me,
To heavenly glories blind.”
Sovereignty in Physical Healing
We
believe most heartily and sincerely in Divine healing, but we have neither
patience nor respect for men who pose as Divine healers. All healing is Divine,
whether with or without the use of medicine. God’s usual method is to bless the
means that are used, but sometimes He heals without medicine. Moreover, He heals
some and keeps others on the sick bed, or brings them to death. “For
I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all
living,” (Job 30:23).
“And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and
wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments,
and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I
have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee,” (Ex.
15:26). He is sovereign both as to
whom and how He heals.
In
the days of public miracles, Paul had the gift of healing, but he could not
always exercise that gift.
“And God wrought
special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto
the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the
evil spirits went out of them,” (Acts 19:11,12), we
read of special miracles God wrought by the hands of Paul, but “Erastus
abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick,”
(2 Tim. 4:20). Isaiah prescribed a fig poultice for Hezekiah’s boil and God
blessed it to his cure.
“For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister
upon the boil, and he shall recover,” (Isa. 38:21).
Paul prescribed a little wine for Timothy’s poor stomach.
“Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine
often infirmities,” (1 Tim. 5:23).
God heals whom and when and how He pleases. Let the sick saint pray, “Lord, if
Thou wilt thou canst heal me.” “Is
any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of
faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have
committed sins, they shall be forgiven him,” (
