A Biblical Perspective - Sovereignty

Introduction to Biblical Perceptions

This series offers a biblical perspective on various aspects of life, particularly current events and personal issues. We approach Scripture with a pro-God, anti-sin mindset—pro-what God wants, regardless of circumstances or excuses.

For example, Matthew 19 is primarily a marriage text, not a divorce text. Jesus teaches the unbreakableness of marriage, emphasizing God's decree from the beginning: "It was not so from the beginning."

Matthew 19 (context of marriage and divorce)

Another example: When Scripture describes God decreeing judgment, like an angel slaying in Jerusalem, a biblical perception recognizes that women and children sinned against a holy God, viewing it through how God receives glory and Christ remains central.

The goal is to perceive things correctly, leading to proper reactions and actions. Wrong perceptions lead to wrong behaviors.

Perceptions on the Sovereignty of God

Proper perceptions lead to proper reactions. This morning, we examine a biblical perception of God's sovereignty.

1. Christians Should Luxuriate in the Sovereignty of God

Christians should delight self-indulgently in God's sovereignty, basking in it as the epitome of luxury—its beauty, glory, magnificence, majesty. In counseling, nothing brings more hope than declaring, "Your God is on the throne; He works all things for good."

To luxuriate, examine God's sovereignty as He reveals it in Scripture, not through human logic comparing it to man's will. Some aspects may seem scary, but they captivate us with His glory.

Scripture reveals God's sovereignty comprehensively:

Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.
Psalm 115:3

Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
Lamentations 3:37

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." Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring... Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."
James 4:13-15

Henceforth I am he... I work and who can turn it back?
Isaiah 43:13

In Job 2, God permits Satan to afflict Job, yet Job confesses:

Shall we receive good from the Lord and not evil?
Job 2:10

Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong—he affirmed God was right. God decrees what is right, sovereign over circumstances before they occur.

In Luke 22:31-32, Satan demands to sift Peter like wheat, but Jesus prays for his faith. Attacks occur only because the sovereign Lord deems them best.

2. Christians Should Listen to What the Sovereign Lord Says About Their Lives

God describes humanity starkly:

What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
James 4:14

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will.
Daniel 4:35

You have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you... Surely all mankind stands silent before you!
Psalm 39:5

Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.
Romans 3:12

Humanity is insignificant, a mere breath, under wrath, worthless—offensive to God. Yet the healthy need no physician; Christ came for sinners (Mark 2:17).

The same sovereign God forms light and darkness, prosperity and disaster (Isaiah 45:7; Amos 3:6).

3. Christians Should Focus on What the Sovereign Lord Says About Christ

God is sovereign over good and evil. He speaks negatively of humanity, yet of Christ:

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
Matthew 3:17

Either be offended God is pleased with Jesus, not you—or be amazed at the object of His pleasure.

Receiving the Sovereignty of God

1. It causes us to despair of ourselves—we bring nothing, deserve wrath.

2. It makes us desperate for Christ, longing to be like Him in every area of life: marriage, work, suffering. God's purpose is unthwartable—to conform us to Christ's image (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:4).

No one can deliver out of my hand... I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Isaiah 43:13; John 10:28-29

By two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
Hebrews 6:17-18

3. It causes us to be dead to sin—sin is worthless, ruinous; Christ embodies what pleases God. Perceiving God's sovereignty reveals Him within His rights to decree good or evil, peace or storm. Finding pleasure in Christ makes sin reprehensible.