God Is Sovereign

Introduction

I play golf for recreational purposes. I don’t get to play as much as I like or as much as I used to. But I’m not playing as well as I used to, so I’m sort of glad that I’m not playing as much as I used to. But I met my father-in-law recently. We’ll sometimes try to meet, well, it’s supposed to be in the middle, but it’s closer to his end of town, where golf is affordable. And we’re standing on the first T, and if you think there’s no spiritual things that result when golf is played, that is incorrect, as he is an elder, and he is talking to me about a discussion that had taken place the night before at Southside in their Bible class, and the age-old question was debated.

What does it mean that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart? And that has been a subject of theological concern just even beyond the Lord’s people. What does this passage mean when it says, And the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul? What does that mean exactly? And what is God doing in our salvation? This is an important verse. He brings that up. We’re standing on the first T. How to really distract me, like I really need that on the first T. I have enough problems on the first T anyway. And immediately I thought of something that never crossed my mind before. And so I go to my phone and I start putting this down. Passage after passage is bombarding me. As I have this thought.

1. Misguided Theology: A Direct Operation on the Heart

And I want to share that thought with you tonight. Let’s talk about this passage in Acts 16. Lydia, of course, as you might know, I had to do a purple background because Lydia is the seller of purple. Purple fabric. She was a worshiper of God and was listening to Paul. And says, while she was listening, that the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged them, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay. And she prevailed upon us. Due to misguided theology, many would look and explain Acts 16 and verse 14, as God performing an operation on the heart of Lydia.

That he flipped some levers in her mind that caused her to be able to embrace the message of salvation. And they would go to such passages as 1 Corinthians chapter 2, which they would also abuse. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, not understood often in its context, where Paul says, but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. And so some would say, in our natural state, we cannot accept the things of God unless God does something to us. And that is not a correct understanding of this verse. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. If you’re going to approach 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14 that way, you’re taking it out of its context, where God is revealing his mind, a mind which no one could know unless he revealed it.

The spiritual things of God no one could know in our natural state unless God revealed those things to us. But some will just take this verse and wrench it out of its context and say, see, we can’t really know what God’s will. We can’t respond to God’s will unless God does something to our minds. Now think about that. Is that how you came to know the Lord? He said, you know, I sort of like Tim. And he started flipping some switches in Tim’s mind, and Tim decided he was going to obey the gospel. Think of the implications of that. And the explanation that is sometimes given is that the heart is so depraved, so wicked, so evil, so tasted by sin, that divine activity is required to make it receptive.

That is, all of your wishing and all of your wanting and all of your desire to do the right thing in life, that’s not going to be good enough. It’s not going to work unless God somehow manipulates your heart and changes it first. We might call this a direct operation by God. He’s doing surgery. The Holy Spirit is acting on our heart, somebody would say, before we can ever receive. If that’s the case, the implications of such a doctrine that runs rampant in Christianity today, the implications of that is that God is a respecter of persons. Think about it. If God has to flip some levers in our minds before we can accept the truth, why isn’t he flipping the levers in everybody’s mind so that they can embrace the truth?

Why only select individuals? If God has to do the operation first that causes us to be able to be receptive to truth, why isn’t he doing that for everybody? Doesn’t he want everybody to be saved? Well, in that passage that talks about God being a respecter of persons, Paul says to Cornelius, and we’re coming back to this text in a minute, God is not willing to show partiality. God is not a respecter of persons, the King James Version says, but in every nation, where God flips the levers, no, that’s not what it says. But in every nation, what? He who fears God and does what is right is accepted of him. And God would have all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

Well, if that’s the case, just flip everybody’s levers. He’s not willing that any should perish, 2 Peter 3.9, but that all should come to repentance. Well, if that’s the case, flip the levers. What exactly is God’s doing? And we hear about in this regard, Christ finished work on the cross. If you ever hear that expression, what they mean by that is that any work that you have to do to be saved is nullified, salvation is received passively, whatever that means, I’ve still yet to really figure that out. But the logical end of such reasoning is universal salvation. If what Jesus did on the cross in dying for men’s sins, if that’s the finished work in my salvation, why is it not the finished work in everyone’s salvation?

Again, why not universal salvation? And I’ll just read it to you. These are the words of somebody who believes this. This comes from a guy who is a minister at Grace Church in Orlando, who says, when Christ was on the cross drawing his last human breath, he said, it is finished. Well, was it or wasn’t it? If it was finished, what was it? And he quotes this guy who preached the message in 1861 in England named Reverend Octavius Winslow. And he says, I’ve loved this quote. What a spring of comfort flows from it to the true believer amid his innumerable failures, flaws, and imperfections, what service do you perform? What duty do you discharge, of which you can say it is finished? The last not one.

Your service is imperfect, your obedience is incomplete, your love is fluctuating, yes. Upon it all are the visible marks of human defilement and defect. But here is the work of God, in which God most delights. Finished. You are complete in him. If Christ’s atoning work is finished, what folly and what sin to attempt to supplement it? What vast numbers are doing this. Away with your tears, your confessions, your duties, your charities, even your repentance. Okay, here we say. Finished work of Christ on the cross, no tears, no confession, no repentance. Boy, repentance is sure mentioned a lot in the New Testament to not be that important. And faith. And he says, if these things dare to take their place side by side with the finished work of Christ, he says, see that you attempt to add nothing to it.

Now, where he’s going with that is, everything is settled by what Jesus did on the cross. You can’t add any response to it. Let me tell you what the issue is in the story of Lydia and similar stories in the Bible. The issue is not God’s activity in her salvation. The issue is by what means or agency he employed to bring about her salvation. Did he literally act upon her mind and cause her mind to be receptive to the gospel? Or was there some other agency or means that God used? Yes, God still deserves the credit, but some other agency that God used to bring about her response unto salvation. And then I would say this. Regardless of what activity I might be required to perform, and I believe there is, whatever activity I might be required to perform in order to be saved, God, and this is where this lesson is going, God deserves the full credit and the full glory for that response.

2. This Passage Is About the Sovereignty of God

I only am what I am because of God. That’s what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 10. It is implied in Luke 17 and verse 10, when Jesus said, When we’ve done all that God has commanded us to do, we’re still unworthy slaves. Here’s the thought that I had going back to the golf course moment. This is what hit me. What’s this passage saying? And the Lord opened Lydia’s heart. What is it telling us? This is it. If you get this has been a success tonight. This whole idea has been a little ambitious. I wasn’t sure about it. Here it is. This passage is about the sovereignty of God. And when that thought came to me, and I started thinking of all these other passages that we’re going to look at, I’m thinking, yes.

That’s what it means. When somebody says, what does it mean that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart? It means that God is sovereign. Okay, now what does that mean exactly? Well, you see that little word reign at the end? That’s what it’s all about. He reigns over everything. He has no rival in regard to his reign. He exercises supreme or permanent authority. That’s big reigning right there. Sovereign. We speak of a sovereign state. They don’t answer to any other state. God is sovereign over everything. Exercising supreme and permanent authority, being supreme in rank or power. His sovereignty and its impact in our salvation is clearly shown. I want you to take you now to Romans 11. If there’s a passage that speaks of the sovereignty of God, I take you to Romans 11, verse 33.

Paul is coming to the conclusion, incidentally, of how salvation by grace through faith works. How justification by faith works. And when he comes to the end of this great new system and plan that God has to say, not on the basis of meritorious works, because we could not do that perfectly. A plan that incorporates man’s failure. Justification by faith. The only way Abraham could be justified. He’s talked about that all the way up to now. And he comes, he’s wrapping it up before he goes into some specifics about what it means to live a life justified by faith, which involves a lot of activity, by the way. Beginning with being living sacrifices. But notice how he concludes this. You know what God’s done is truly incredible.

Okay? Oh, the debt and the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how unfathomable his ways. Okay. Sovereignty of God. That’s what that’s about. Who has known the mind of the Lord? No one could unless he revealed it. See how dependent we are on God? He is sovereign. In salvation. We’re dependent upon God completely. He is sovereign. Who has become his counselor? Who’s telling God how to do it? Nobody. Nobody tells God how to do it. Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? He’s not indebted to anyone else. Look at this. For from him and through him and to him are all things. That may be my favorite New Testament statement.

Psalm 16, 11, my favorite verse of the Bible. This is my favorite New Testament statement. For from him and through him and to him are all things, then what? What’s the right response to that? To him be the glory forever.

3. God's Opening and Hardening of Hearts

Amen. That’s a statement of sovereignty. And we sing about it. All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea. Now let’s get back to this business of, well, I didn’t tell you about Romans 11 other than telling you about it, but I didn’t give you the slide. All right. Let’s get back to not only the opening of hearts. This is what really started me down this path. What about God’s hardening of hearts? That’s sort of the exact opposite, isn’t it? He opened Lydia’s heart, but he hardened Pharaoh’s heart, did he not? Oh, what’s that about? It’s about sovereignty. If man’s free will, I originally called this sermon, it’s still this on my page. Sovereignty and free will. Because that’s really what we’re talking about.

What does it mean that God is sovereign and yet I exercise free will and God has expectations of me? If man’s free will, listen to this actually makes my point, I think. If man’s free will plays no role whatsoever in salvation, then why not eliminate the parable of the soul? What’s the parable of the sower about? Four kinds of hearts, right? And we want to be that, well, we don’t want to be that wayside soil or the thorny soil. And you come to the fourth soil, it’s the good and honest heart, and that’s the one that produces the fruit of the kingdom, right? Well, if God’s sovereignty determines everything, why not just eliminate soils one, two, and three? Why encourage people to pursue a good and honest heart?

If theologically people are right who say that God has to flip levers in our minds before we can embrace the truth, then why doesn’t God just give everybody a good and honest heart? It renders the parable of the sower meaningless. And that’s the problem with this theological view. It doesn’t consider all that God has said on the subject of a right response to him. The parable of the sower becomes absolutely meaningless. Here’s something else that hit me. What about the story of Cornetus? I mentioned that earlier, where he says God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation, he who fears God and does what is right is welcome to him. There’s no place that Luke mentions God opening Cornelius’s heart. In fact, I don’t know if there’s any passage like the one we read in Acts 16 and verse 14.

But I’ve got to tell you something about the story of Cornelius. God opened his heart. And it’s really written all over the story, even though it’s not said that way. His prayers and alms ascended as a memorial before God, chapter 10 and verse 4. Peter is prepared to go to the Gentiles with that vision he receives in chapter 10 and verses later, verses 15 and following. Cornelius and his household open their minds to hear the message. We’re all here present before God.

And then the Holy Spirit falls upon them, and they speak in tongues. And then Peter orders them to be baptized in the name of Jesus. But notice this in Acts 11. In Acts 11, when Paul, when Peter is recounting this before his Jewish brethren, he says, the Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. So the Spirit instructed him to go. God is involved in this.

You and all your household. It fell upon them as it did upon us in the beginning, Peter said, and then verse 17. If God therefore gave to them the same gift as he gave to us also, after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way? And when they heard this, they all quieted down and glorified God, saying, Well, then God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. Now I’m getting ahead of myself here. Whatever you’ve done to come into a right relationship with God has granted that to you. In his sovereignty. God has granted you the belief that you have. The repentance that you have done, the confession that you have made, everything involved in our salvation, God has granted to us in his goodness and in his sovereignty.

Well, let’s get back to Pharaoh. I mentioned him. It’s often been examined in this regard to understand what God is doing in our hearts. But what do we learn from the story of Pharaoh? From the very beginning, his heart is hardened against God. Who is the Lord that I should obey? His voice? Pharaoh is hard from the very beginning. And you need to understand, Pharaoh sees himself as a deity. He sees himself as the most powerful man in his kingdom, perhaps the world. He sees himself as a God. And so why should he listen? This look at this impotent nation that’s a bunch of slaves. Why should I listen to their God? And I always I’ve got to throw it in, even though you’ve heard me say it many times.

This is when he gets enrolled in God’s ten lesson correspondence course. Who is the God of Israel? Well, he’s going to show you who he is. And this is interesting. Three times the text says, God will harden the heart of Pharaoh. And if you go back to Exodus chapter 4 and verse 21, when you go back to Egypt, he tells Moses as he’s preparing him to lead the people. See that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power, but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Three times it says God will harden his heart. Six times, and this is later as the plagues are unfolding, it says God hardened the heart. I will harden, God hardened.

But that’s not all of it. Ten times. It speaks of Pharaoh hardening his heart. Or that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. Sometimes it speaks of his hardening in these passages. So who’s doing it? May I suggest that divine hardening and self-hardening are interwoven things. God’s hardening demonstrated that Pharaoh’s heart was not the all-controlling factor both in history and society. And this is referenced in Romans chapter 9. In Romans chapter 9 and verse 16. So then, so then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Now remember, he’s talking about justification by faith versus a works system. This is all going to depend upon God. It’s not about the man who wills or the man who runs.

But if we’re going to say that passage is saying, you don’t have to do anything. Human activity is totally irrelevant. Repentance, irrelevant. Well, now we’ve got the Bible coming in conflict with itself. Because other passages talk about the need to come to repentance. And for people to change their hearts. Okay. So we must be talking about something else. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. So then he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. Interesting verse, is it not? And then he uses Esau and Jacob earlier in the text as an illustration. So what does that mean?

God said, okay, Esau, you know, you’re a godless and immoral man, Hebrews 12 says that. So I reject you. You’re lost. Jacob, I sort of like you. And so I’m going to save you. I’m going to save Jacob. I’m going to punish Esau. He’s going to be lost. That’s not what that text is saying. All that text is saying is God chose Jacob. And what that means is that of the two sons of Isaac, God chose the working out of his promise through Jacob. And not Esau. Like he would later do as he would choose Judah out of the twelve sons of Jacob. That is God’s sovereign right to do. Judah didn’t earn that. When Jacob would later say, the scepter shall not depart from Judah didn’t get to go, wow, I’m such a great guy.

No, it was God’s sovereign choice. And that’s what he’s talking about here in Romans chapter 9. And so what is he saying about Pharaoh? I sort of wish I’d have put the Ananias and Sapphira point here. Because I’m going to mention them. Well, I’ll go ahead and do it now. What’s the Ananias and Sapphira story about? Oh, they lied. They lied to God. They acted like they were given the whole thing. They were keeping back part of the price. But it was a show. It was a pretentious display. We’re being so generous like Barnabas had been. As he had sold a tract of land and laid the money at the apostles’ feet. Look, we’re being generous, like Barnabas, but they were being deceptive. Yeah. Does that story seem a little harsh to you?

What did God do to Ananias and Sapphira?

Struck him dead. Do you think they’re the only people with hearts like that ever in the body of Christ? No.

Here’s what I’ve said about Ananias and Sapphira for a long time, and it applies to Pharaoh. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong heart. When God needed to send a message. And that’ll come back to some thoughts I want to get to you in a moment about this business of sovereignty. Here’s what it’s all about.

4. His Power, His Providence, and His Purposes

God wants a certain outcome that works with his purpose, but also incorporates man’s free will. God’s sovereignty is about his power, it is about his providence, and it is about his purposes. How does God’s sovereignty play out in the rulers of this world? What did he say about Pharaoh? I raised him up. Again, he was a man with the wrong heart in the wrong place at the wrong time to receive God’s ten lesson correspondence course. While men follow the inclinations of their own hearts and do what they want, everything ultimately works to the purposes of God and in regard to the will of every man, he trumps it all to accomplish his purpose. And that’s really the point. Let me give you another verse in this regard.

And this is really just a springboard for further study. Romans 11 28. We know this verse, right? God causes, okay, sovereignty. God causes, and this is in the context of how salvation works, justification by faith. God causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose. You see, God arranges circumstances. He raises kings. He arranges circumstances where that his purposes. And that’s involved in our salvation. That’s why he can say, Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened. A sovereign God is involved in all of this. And that’s why he can say, you know, before Cyrus is even born, he’s going to send my people home. He’s going to raise him up.

Before he’s ever born. He mentions him by name to Isaiah the prophet. In Isaiah 44 and Isaiah 45. Remarkable, before he’s even born. Cyrus calls him by name. And he is indeed the Persian king. Who gives the decree to send the people back. Assyria. Though they were bloodthirsty and out for their own purposes. Isaiah makes that clear in Isaiah chapter 8 and 10, but they’re still called the rod of God’s anger. You see, God is sovereign. He used that nation to accomplish his purposes. Isaiah 40 is all about that. The nations are a drop in the bucket to God. He reduces rulers to nothing. There’s no ruler that can withstand God. Nebuchadnezzar, look at this great nation, this great empire that I’ve built. Isn’t it wonderful?

And God reduced him to a crazed animal. In Daniel chapter 4. Let me tell you who’s really in control of all of this. You only have. Remember the appointed boundaries that we talked about this morning in Acts 17? In him we live and move and have our very being. Nebuchadnezzar needs to get acquainted with that. And so he ate grass for a while. The greatest man in the world had eaten grass for a while. To understand God’s sovereignty. Oh, and then there’s a New Testament example. Somebody else who met a pretty sudden end. He has the voice of a God and not a man. And Herod says, Well, that sounds pretty good to me. Well, let me tell you about the one who had the voice of a God but not of a man.

He was then eaten by worms rather immediately in Acts 12. I think God might have been a little unhappy with the fact that he had put James to death with the sword. Oh, all of that fits in the purposes of God, James, though he’s dead yet speaks. He’s an example to Christians of perseverance, be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. But the evil of Herod is punished. So we see God’s sovereignty. All real rulers would be advised to know their limitations. And so God is sovereign in our salvation. And I would just, well, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Acts 13, verses 44 through 48, when it says, the Jews judge themselves unworthy of eternal life. Then Paul goes because they repudiated the gospel.

This all works according to God’s purposes. And so then he goes to the Gentiles, and then this interesting statement appears. And those who were appointed to eternal life believed. And again, that’s another verse people get wrong. Those appointed to eternal life believe. That isn’t. God says, these Gentiles, I hate these Jews. And so I’m going to select this Gentile and that Gentile and that Gentile, and I’m going to save them. Those appointed to eternal life belief. No. It’s those who believe in association with God’s purposes and plans and intentions.

5. God Can Determine When He's Done

Those who respond to him humbly, which is his sovereign will. That’s who responded to salvation. But what does God’s sovereignty imply? Now getting to this. God has the right, because he is a sovereign God to extend his offer of salvation as long as he wishes. And he can determine when he’s done. Ananias and Sapphira. Their time of opportunity to fix their lives and hearts. It was over. Because God decided that was enough for them. And thus he talks about giving those in one of the seven churches a space and time to repent. And he decides when that’s over. And so I mentioned to you the killing of Ananias and Sapphira as an example of that. But I sort of want to look at this from a positive aspect in conclusion tonight.

What about his sovereignty in our salvation? There’s some interesting passages that I want to share with you in Revelation 22, verses 11 and 17. These words.

Revelation 22 and verse 11. Let the one who does wrong still do wrong. And let the one who is filthy still be filthy, and let the one who is righteous still practice righteousness. And let the one who is holy still keep himself holy. Oh, that sounds odd, doesn’t it? Is God happy about filthy and unrighteous people? Is he telling them? Just go ahead. Go ahead and be filthy. What’s that passage say? Let the righteous practice righteousness, let him who is holy keep still, keep still keep himself holy. But go down to verse 17. The Spirit and the bride say come, and let the one who hears say come, and let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. It’s not that God is encouraging the doing of wrong.

But if you’re bent to reject him, so be it.

If you choose to be a vessel of wrath, as he would say in Romans chapter 9, so be it. That’s your choice. Pursue that course however you would like. But God is sovereign. If any man has ears to hear, not every man can accept this. Jesus said that over and over again. To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, he told the disciples in Matthew 13. That’s why I speak to them in parables. He says, But their hearts, the Pharisees are insensitive and dull. Their hearts are hardened, he says. But your heart isn’t that way. And that’s why you can receive this. And he said of divorce and remarriage in Matthew 19. Not all men can accept this statement.

6. Divine Opening and Self-Opening Are Interwoven

He isn’t saying by that, you know, if you don’t like it, you can just sort of push it aside and do whatever you want. He said, if any man has ears to hear, let him hear. And this all points us to our humble response to God’s sovereign will. To this one, I will look. To the one who is, this is within God’s purposes, his sovereign will. To this one I will look. To the one who has a humble and contrite heart. And who trembles at my word. That’s what fits within God’s purposes, his providence, and his power in our salvation. If we will humble ourselves, tremble at his word, he can use us. Divine opening, just like we talked about in regard to Pharaoh, divine opening and self-opening are interwoven.

Sometimes he speaks of the opening of the hearts of the person by their own volition, like in the example of Coreneus. And sometimes he speaks of the divine opening that’s involved, because God has provided circumstances and the message that brings people to salvation, like he did in the case of Lydia. Some passages emphasize what God is doing, and some passages emphasize what man is doing. But ultimately, God deserves the glory. Wish I had time to read this whole passage, but verse 30 says. Well, I’m going to go back. God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. He has chosen the things that are not to shame the things that are. That’s his God’s sovereign. It says, by his doing in verse 30, by his doing you are in Christ Jesus.

Where he has granted to us exceeding great and precious promises. We have become partakers of the divine nature. Why? Because of God’s sovereign kindness toward us. Interesting verse. Was it Jay who read this? I believe it might have been Jay who read this Wednesday night. 2 Peter 2 and verse 20. Did you read that one, Jay? 2 Peter 2.20, it hit me because I was preparing this sermon. Interesting. 2 Peter 2 and verse 20. For if they had escaped the defilements of the world. Oh, let me read that again. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world, they turn back. Okay, is the idea. The latter stays become worse than the first. But I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. For if after they had escaped the defilements of the world, by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who provided that?

How did they escape? God made it possible. They escaped the defilements of the world, enjoyed these blessings and privileges by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, a knowledge we could not have had unless God in his kindness gave it to us. And so we come to passages like this.

On the day of Pentecost, 3,000 people were converted. They were told to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins, and they shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And what that means is all that God had planned from all eternity to do in Christ. That’s what that phrase means. We shouldn’t be afraid to read it. All that God had done from all eternity to redeem those in Christ, you can have that. The gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he said what? Save yourself from this wicked and perverse generation. But we come to Titus chapter 3. It says, God saves. Something else is in the side. He saves. Not on the basis of deeds that we have done in righteousness. But because of his mercy.

That’s the basis of it. Because of his mercy. By the washing of regeneration. That’s the part that we do. And the renewing by the Holy Spirit, this inward change that results because of the Holy Spirit’s work. So which one is it? Did I save myself or did God save me? Again, let’s go back to this. Let’s get this. Divine opening and self-opening work together. And some passages emphasize what God is doing, and other passages emphasize what we must do. The one who is humble and contrite to spirit, and the one who trembles at my word. God’s not going to make you do that. You know, sort of like Julia over here, so what I’m going to do is I’m going to make her tremble at my word so she can be saved.

Otherwise, she’s a reprobate. Or any of us, is that what he’s going to do? Here’s this reprobate person so depraved, like that guy said, so depraved, and yet God flips all the switches and the levers. Now he makes you able to tremble. To be consistent with the Bible message, it involves an entangling of the tombs. They go together. But why is God’s work so often emphasized, do you think? Because we get carried away with ourselves and think it’s all about us and what we did. No, sir. Never. God deserves ultimate glory because, yeah, Christ did something we couldn’t do for ourselves. He paid the penalty for our sins. That’s what he did. He made this whole system possible by coming to this earth, living perfectly and being our sin sacrifice.

Conclusion

We could not do that for ourselves. But we must respond humbly and obediently to the will of God to receive his salvation. That is what is consistently taught in the Bible. Now I want to say one more thing as I conclude. We must not forget the sovereignty of God. In not only our salvation, in not only how we become Christians. When we rise up out of the waters of baptism, we say, look at what I did. No, we should never do that. It’s look at what God has done. What does baptism imitate? The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. I’m only raised because of the work of Christ. But I can say I really appreciate what God did, but I’m not going to be baptized. That stubborn, rebellious, proud heart cannot be saved.

And God is not going to change that unless you are receptive to change. Unless you will be honest and humble. Oh, we’re back to the parable of the sower again. And again, if God is doing everything and man does nothing, the parable of the sower becomes irrelevant. But beyond our conversion to the Lord, what about what we are as a church? This is the thing that blows me away. I’m glad we sang the songs we sang tonight, Jared. They were perfect, actually. Do we have any idea what God’s purpose is for us, the Decker Prairie Church? What his purposes are for us or for you. For that matter. Do we have any idea in God’s sovereignty who he is planning to reach? What he has planned for the future.

What things might result from our faithful contribution together weekend and week out. I think so often we underestimate ourselves because we’re thinking only about ourselves. We need to be thinking about God. This is his shebang. We’re just his humble servants. Who knows? And that’s what Esker said, wasn’t it? Who knows? If you were appointed for such a time as this.

And God’s sovereignty. It is hard to know. It’s impossible for us to know, but it could be so incredible. If we could see the tapestry that God is weaving. But let us never forget, as we plug along and give our faithful contribution in his cause and our commitment in his cause. Please understand that God may be doing something great through this work through our faithfulness. And remember, we’re just bond servants, like James said. For from him and through him and to him are all things. So I’ll tell you what these passages are saying.

They’re all talking about the sovereignty of God and how he works everything together for good to those who are called according to his purpose. I want to tell you, not only do you not want to be found fighting against God, you want to be found within the purposes of God. And to him be the glory in the church and in our lives now and forever. Is that your inclination of mind? Do you have the heart of Lydia? God wants to open your heart tonight. Will you pursue the good and honest heart that brings salvation? If you need to respond, come now as we stand and sing.