Our Sovereign God
We are to trust God,
knowing that He is ultimately in control
of all that transpires on planet earth.
Here's Dr. Gene Getz to explain:
This Principle is really incredibly illustrated,
dramatically illustrated here in the lives
of the children of Israel.
Particularly those of course,
who were taken into Babylonian captivity.
The key word of course, in this Principle
is God's sovereignty.
And we're going to see the way in
which God's sovereignty is actually expressed.
How it is worked out in the lives of the
children of Israel who were in captivity.
Now think about this:
Jeremiah actually prophesied
the 70-year length of this Babylonian captivity.
And that's a very specific prophesy--70 years.
This is what he said, Jeremiah 25:11:
This whole land will become a desolate ruin...
And of course, there he's referring now
to the land of Israel where
the children of Israel lived.
Jerusalem and the southern kingdom
particularly, the northern kingdom of course.
Already the children of Israel had been
taken into captivity by the Assyrians.
But he prophesied this in relationship to
what was going to happen.
...This whole land will become a desolate ruin,
and these nations will serve the king of
Babylon for 70 years.
That's a prophecy.
But notice if you go on into Jeremiah's prophesy,
you get to chapter 29, verse 10:
For this is what the Lord says:
"When 70 years for Babylon are complete,
I will attend to you and will confirm
My promise concerning you
to restore you to this place."
And this is where we pick up the story
in relationship to the book of Ezra.
The 70-year captivity is coming to a close
and we're seeing what is going to
happen here in relationship to the
fulfillment of this prophecy.
And it's beautiful because Jeremiah also
expressed the very heart of God
in verse 11 of chapter 29:
"For I know the plans I have for you"--
this is the Lord's declaration--
"plans for your welfare, not for disaster,
to give you a future and a hope."
And so even though Jeremiah says:
You're going to go into Babylonian
captivity for 70 years.
You're going to be released from
Babylonian captivity because My plans
for you have not changed.
And this of course, goes all the way back
to the Abrahamic covenant where God said:
I'm going to give you a land.
I'm going to give a seed.
I'm going to give you a blessing.
And of course, that blessing projects
even ahead to the coming of the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now here's another amazing thing
in relationship to God's sovereignty.
And this indeed is phenomenal.
This is indeed miraculous.
We're going to see that God actually
put into the mind of a pagan king to cause
Jeremiah's prophesy to come true.
And we read about that here
in Ezra, beginning in chapter 1, verse 1:
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia...
Now keep in mind that Cyrus is not God-fearing.
He worships many gods.
He's a pagan. But notice:
...the word of the Lord spoken through
Jeremiah was fulfilled. ...
The very thing that we read about
in relationship to what was going to
happen at the end of that 70 years,
it was fulfilled.
And it's fulfilled through a pagan king.
This is God's sovereign work in the mind
and the heart of a pagan king:
...The Lord put it into the mind of
King Cyrus to issue a proclamation
throughout his entire kingdom
and to put it in writing: ...
Now notice what this proclamation actually is:
...This is what King Cyrus of Persia says:
"The Lord, the God of heaven,
has given me all the kingdoms of the earth
and has appointed me to build Him
a house at Jerusalem [in] Judah."
[To build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.]
Now notice again, he acknowledges
the Lord, the God of heaven.
But the fact of the matter is that the Lord,
the God of heaven is just another god to Cyrus.
And yet he recognizes God as a god.
And this is very important to understand
because God had given him, he says,
all the kingdoms of the earth.
In other words, he's acknowledging that
he's had success.
So this God must be important.
And so God is actually speaking through
the mind of this pagan king.
Now here's a very important observation:
Though Cyrus worshiped various pagan gods,
he had an encounter with the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
who made it clear that he was to make sure
the temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt.
Now that is indeed God's sovereignty.
Pagan king, an idolater, polytheistic, many gods.
And yet God is using him to fulfill the
promise that God had made to the
children of Israel.
To fulfill the prophecy that was given to Jeremiah.
So here we see the sovereignty of God
in an incredible way. And in essence,
when you look at the whole story of the Bible,
that is in essence, the story of the Bible.
In the Old Testament we see God is sovereign
through His dealings with the children of Israel.
He has a plan.
But as we flow into the New Testament,
we see God's sovereignty in relationship to
the church, the body of Jesus Christ.
God's sovereign plans are at work.
They're unfolding in relationship to
God's redemptive plan.
And of course, Peter and John,
if you go to the book of Acts,
really understood this.
When we read in Acts chapter 4,
after they had gotten out of prison.
They were actually not incarcerated
but they were certainly at that point,
being restricted by the Sanhedrin.
And they were released from control
of the Sanhedrin.
And they said this in relationship to
what was going on in Jerusalem--
we read in Acts chapter 4:
For, in fact, in this city...
And of course that's Jerusalem--
we're projecting way ahead centuries now. Jerusalem:
...In this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel,
assembled together against
Your holy Servant Jesus,
whom You anointed, to do whatever
Your hand and Your plan had
predestined to take place. ...
Now here again we get into that
incredible mystery.
Did Herod have freedom? Absolutely.
Did Pilot have freedom?
Did the Jews have freedom?
Yes, they had freedom.
And yet in God's scheme of things they
were fulfilling His plan,
which God had planned ahead of time.
Again, we see the sovereignty of God
and the outworking of that plan
in a way that's beyond our ability
to comprehend and even explain.
And so Peter and John go on to say:
...And now, Lord, consider their threats...
But this is interesting. The threats of the Jews
and those who hated the Messiah
and hated Jesus Christ.
And of course, they didn't believe He was
the Messiah. But they hated Christians.
And so here they're saying in prayer:
...Lord, consider their threats, and grant
that Your slaves [or Your servants] may speak
Your message with complete boldness.
In other words, what he is simply saying is:
We need Your help to be able to fulfill
the plan that You have designed for us.
Now how do you explain that?
In other words, what they're saying is:
If we do not have Your strength,
and if we do not make right decisions,
we will not obey You.
We will not follow through on what
we're supposed to do.
So again, you see this blending of the
human and the divine.
God's sovereignty and man's free will.
When all is said and done however,
God is in control.
He is the sovereign God. And that's what
we see illustrated here with the
children of Israel in the book of Ezra.
Now the Reflection and Response question
that I want us to think about is this:
How can believing in this divine
mystery regarding God's sovereignty
and our human freedom
bring hope and comfort to Christians
rather than fear and confusion?
The fact of the matter is, that there are those
who are exposed to the concept that
God is sovereign and God is in control.
And it creates fear in their lives.
They overreact to that.
Where indeed, God wants us to be
reassured by this wonderful concept.
Now let me review the more general Principle
that comes out of this passage
which I've called "Our Sovereign God:"
We are to trust God, knowing that He is
ultimately in control of all that
transpires on planet earth.
This is dealing with God's sovereign control
in terms of life. In terms of the universe.
In terms of history.
But I want to take you to a more specific
aspect of that Principle as it relates
to our salvation.
And if you go to Romans,
you'll find a Principle there in your
Life Essentials Study Bible,
which I've called "Security in Christ."
And this is a more specific aspect
of God's sovereignty:
No matter the circumstances of life,
we are to take comfort in the fact that we are
secure in Christ, now and eternally.
This is dealing with our salvation.
And we see this beautifully expressed
in that passage of Scripture in
Romans chapter 8, verses 28 and 30:
We know that all things work together
for the good of those who love God:
those who are called according to His purpose.
For those He foreknew He also
predestined to be conformed to the
image of His Son, so that He would be
the firstborn among many brothers.
[Paul continues.] And those He predestined,
He also called;
and those He called, He also justified;
and those He justified, He also glorified.
Now what we need to understand is this
is looking at life and eternity from God's perspective--
as the sovereign God.
And the fact of the matter is
that in my own life, that once I grasped this truth,
it was so reassuring.
Especially coming out of my background
where I was not taught to be secure in my faith.
The fact is that I believed I was saved by faith
but kept by works.
And so consequently, my life was like
a roller coaster. Just up and down,
up and down.
Because I was living my life based on
how I felt rather than on what God said.
And when these verses gripped me.
When I really understood that from the
mind of God, and in His mind, that
I'm not only justified, I'm already glorified.
And that's what we read in the
beginning of the letter to the Ephesians.
That we're already seated with
Jesus Christ in the heavenlies.
Now you see, that's from God's perspective.
We can't understand that. But at the
same time the Bible teaches
that we must receive Christ.
We are responsible.
And we have a free will.
And we can literally reject the message
of salvation that God gives us.
But in His plan, once we receive Christ,
we look back and we can see. And look forward
that we have been called by the Lord Jesus,
in His mind, from eternity past and on
into the future of eternity.
And that's a very reassuring concept.
And so let me just restate that Principle--
Our Sovereign God:
We are to trust God,
knowing that He is ultimately in control
of all that transpires on planet earth.