God is Sovereign Over Everything - Are you OK with That? William Gearing Explains...

[C. Matthew McMahon]

[video=vimeo;190618910]https://vimeo.com/190618910[/video]

God’s Sovereignty Displayed, by William Gearing (1625-1690)

Gearing’s section on dissecting the sins of the day is worth the cost of this work alone. – McMahon

William Gearing (1625-1690) was a fiery puritan and Gospel preacher who was exceedingly practical in his application of biblical truth.

The bible teaches God is sovereign. How do you feel about that? Generally, people who come into contact with this biblical idea for the first time find it offensive instead of comforting. This is especially true when they come under some kind of life-changing affliction (loss of job, money, etc.), an event that involves a death (of a spouse, child or parent), or some kind of life-threatening or debilitating disease they are now under.

Gearing shows that God has an absolute, independent right of disposing of all people and things according to His own pleasure, and uses the example of Job, beginning in Job 9:12, “Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? Who will say unto him, what dost thou?” Anything God pleases to do he does, and is glorified by it. He is sovereign over the heavenly host, over the destiny of all men, over nature, over plants and animals, over how people think, feel, and act, over cities and nations, and controls both the good and the bad events that occur in every moment of time throughout all of history. Do you despise God for his sovereignty, or praise him for it?

Gearing shows that Christians must yield patiently under the sovereignty of God when he takes away whatever he pleases in their life for their good. God is in fact the Author of affliction, but he willingly afflicts his people for their sanctification. Gearing shows that God uses various means to accomplish his ends, and there are a number of reasons why he takes away from us what he pleases. He proves God’s sovereignty biblically, and exposes the folly of serving and trusting in temporary things instead of the omnipotent God. Gearing shows that God’s word ought to be used to rest on God’s promises when Christians go through afflictions. Here they ought to glean Gospel patience in imitating Jesus Christ who also suffered under the heaviest affliction imaginable – the wrath of God on the cross.

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[Dachaser]

There still is for right now though that tension between God indeed in absolute control, but alo that He is permitting bad things and events to happen still, as He has not had the Second Coming of Christ, so we are living now in the "His Kingdom is now here, but not yet here" state!

For the Christian though, all that happens is either directly determined or allowed by God, so confidence and hope for us in that truth!

 

[C. Matthew McMahon]

Interestingly, though, the Bible doesn't demonstrate any tension between God's sovereignty and the existence of evil. As Gearing shows clearly from the book of Job, everything is ordained and in God's absolute control. (Equal Ultimacy is a fantasy of the depraved mind).

Anything God pleases to do he does, (Psalm 47:2, 103:19, 135:6; Isa. 41:4, 43:13, 46:10; Dan. 4:17, 35; Rom. 9:19-21). God is sovereign over the heavenly host of angels, (Gen. 32:2; Deut. 4:19; Neh. 9:6; Psalm 148:2; Luke 2:13; Rev. 5:11, 7:11). God is sovereign over the destiny of all men, (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:5, 11). God is sovereign over nature, (Job 37:10-13; Jonah 1:4, 4:8; Isa. 45:7; Amos 3:6; Psalm 107:25, 121:6, 148:8). God is sovereign over plants and animals, (Gen. 2:19, 6:20; Num. 22:28-30; Matt. 8:26-27, 10:29; Psalm 148:7, 9-10; Luke 5:9). God is sovereign over how people think, feel, and act, (Psalm 105:24-25, 106:46; Prov. 16:1, 9, 20:24; Ezra 6:22; Acts 7:10; Exod. 9:12; Rom. 11:8). God is sovereign over cities, (Isa. 10:5, 23:13; 2 Kings 19:32; Hab. 1:6; Ezek. 26:7-21; Isa. 47:1, 48:14; Jer. 5:15), and rules all the nations, (2 Chron. 20:6; Psalm 66:7; Isa. 14:6; Jer. 1:10, 5:22, 10:7; Dan. 4:25, 32; Rev. 15:4; Ezek. 26:7-21; Psalm 22:28, 47:8; 1 Chron. 16:31). And, as much as people would like to dismiss it, God controls both the good and the bad events that occur in every moment of time throughout all of history, (Gen. 45:5, 7, 50:20; Rom. 8:28; Isa. 46:10-11; Job 42:2; Eph. 1:11; Psalm 33:11; Prov. 19:21). All of it is for his glory.

Gearing masterfully shows how God has an absolute, independent right of disposing of all creatures according to His own pleasure.

 

[Dachaser]

Thai is indeed the biblical teaching, but does also indicate though to us that God has chosen to allow enil acts and sinful things to be done , as will continue topermitt that until the Second Coming...

That was the tension of the scriptures to my understanding, as God can choose to do nayhting He desires, but he had decided to permil/allow eveil and bad things to still be done in the Age before Jesus returns...

 

[C. Matthew McMahon]

Not only does he permit / allow, but he in fact, ordains and decrees that they should take place. And it is not only in the realm of time where he considers sin and evil. For Christ was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (Rev. 13:8). Sin is not tied to this half dimension of time. Satan fell from heaven, and saints, in the latter age, will consider sin in relation to their stance to Christ. "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood," (Rev. 5:9). Consider also that God ordains (permits / allows) men in their sin to continue to sin in hell even into eternity. "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Mat. 8:12). Also consider that Abraham and Lazarus understand what they are seeing, and can consider things in light of sin when they speak with Dives in hell. Luke 16:25 says Abraham knew the difference between good things and bad things. The rich man was experiencing, then, at the time, bad things. These things concern sin even after the final consummation of the ages.

Gearing will show that God actively ordains everything, including the Scripture's attributing to His ordination of events, the works of the Sabeans and Chaldeans (and the devil) in Job's trial.

 

[Dachaser]

He does not though direct determine all things, correct? he still uses secondary means such as decisions to accomplish His plans and purposes?

 

[Toasty]

He does not though direct determine all things, correct? he still uses secondary means such as decisions to accomplish His plans and purposes?

1 Kings 17:4-6 says, "'It shall be that you will drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there.'” So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook."

God uses secondary means to accomplish His purposes. God used the ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat.

 

[Toasty]

God predestines and permits. Here are examples from the Book of Acts:

Acts 4:27-28 says, "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur."

Acts 14:14-18 says, "But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them."

 

[Stope]

If everything came into being through Jesus, and the mere fact that one could be ordained to enter into sin (that wasnt there before it came into being), then does it not follow that Jesus somehow, in someway, "created" sin/the capacity to sin/sin as an option?

Another question might have been, prior to creation when it was only the Trinity in existence, did sin somehow co-exist with God?

 

[Dachaser]

Part of that question would seem to hinge on wether God Himself odained the Fall by direct determination, or else permitting the Fal and ordained His response to that act?

 

[Dachaser]

Spurgeom himself staed that He accepted both as truths that God rules over all men, but also that those same Men choose to do what they intened to do!

 

[Stope]

Part of that question would seem to hinge on wether God Himself odained the Fall by direct determination, or else permitting the Fal and ordained His response to that act?

I think the question needs to go even further back, and that is, where di the concept/fact/reality/existence of sin come from in the first place?

 

[Dachaser]

was sin not first found in satan himself then? As he was the first sinner?

 

[C. Matthew McMahon]

He does not though direct determine all things, correct? he still uses secondary means such as decisions to accomplish His plans and purposes?

Absolutely. God oradains rain and wets the ground. But the rain makes the ground wet.

 

[Stope]

was sin not first found in satan himself then? As he was the first sinner?

How then was Satan equipped with Sin unless it was created/given him first?

 

[KGP]

was sin not first found in satan himself then? As he was the first sinner?

How then was Satan equipped with Sin unless it was created/given him first?

I would not at all be comfortable saying that Satan was equipped with sin. I would say rather that Satan was created mutable, or that he was created with a weakness or lack of some kind. God cannot and does not imbue his creation with sin, but he does create beings with lack. Adam was created lacking something that was then provided for in the Creation of Eve. We do not charge God with sin for that of course. So I think it is in the same vein with Satan and the fallen angels.

It really isn't worth spending too much time going beyond that for most people. God hasn't told us, so priority goes to living out the hundred or so imperatives of the NT and living/thinking in the realms of our assigned domain, whatever it may be.


I will say this though; I think that a right view of sin is necessary to a proper understanding of God's total sovereignty. That God is God and all else is his creation should be enough to convince us that indeed the creator is right to dispose of his creatures as he chooses. But there is bound to be an inward struggle on this point to receive this truth in light of our propensity to esteem the visible world of men above the God whom is invisible spirit. And so when it comes to God's sovereignty and how it plays out in the world and in individuals lives, it is immensely helpful in a pastoral sense to go beyond the Creator/Creation relationship and establish how much greater the gulf has become with the reality of sin.

If we consider how God ought to deal with us as violators of his good and holy statutes (and how he will deal with such violators at the last day) we shall soon learn to gladly accept the abundance of mercy and grace he provides to us daily through his governing providence. If we seek him and read the scriptures (such as Job) we shall learn that even our hardships and failures and dark days of sadness and struggle and pain all spring from the same unchangeable purpose for which we were given Christ. God has throughout all eternity never loved us less than to the fullest; it was in this fullness of love that God gave us Christ, it is this same fullness of love that gives us seasons of darkness, distress, and various trials. We don't naturally think this way, but the scriptures will have our assent on this point.


And as for me, when I consider how God gives some men over to sin with all it's miseries, while ruling over them in their state of rebellion for good purposes they will never partake in, and finally condemns them to eternal hell on the last day for their wickedness; I cry out for the God of mercy to arrange and ordain every facet of my life. I will happily and without complaint receive whatsoever he may bring upon me rather than be cast off by him to be ruled by every imagination of my wicked heart.

 

[Dachaser]

Satan and Adam seemed to have been given when created real free will, weren't they?