In John Morganti's sermon on 'The Sovereignty of God,' he emphasizes the vastness of the topic, suggesting the potential for an extensive series on it. The sermon centers on Isaiah 46, which vividly demonstrates God's sovereignty. Morganti highlights the futility of idolatry, contrasting it with the belief in a sovereign God who is free to enact His will without constraint. He outlines three critical components of God's sovereignty: God's complete freedom, His ordaining of all events, and His flawless execution of His plans. The sermon explores the tension between God's sovereignty and human free will, asserting that while God is in control, humans make real choices for which they are accountable. Morganti warns against presumption and pride in understanding God's sovereignty, cautioning against apathy and prayerlessness. He encourages believers to trust in God's sovereignty, find comfort in His control, and be motivated to love and prayer, emphasizing that while God uses means, His plans remain unthwarted.

Good afternoon. A brother and I during lunch were just talking about how this is such a comprehensive topic, the sovereignty of God, and we could really have a 300-part series on the sovereignty of God and still just be scratching the surface. I'll try to hopefully make this profitable. There are many texts in Scripture that demonstrate the sovereignty of God, but I think one of the clearest and most explicit is Isaiah 46, 9 through 11. But I think reading the entire chapter will give us some context and provide some insight.

So let's read chapter 46 of Isaiah. Bell bows down, Nebo stoops. Their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, a burden to the weary beast. They stoop, they bow down together.

They could not deliver the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity. Listen to me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by me from birth, who have been carried from the womb. Even to your old age I am he, and even to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you. To Whom will you liken me and make me equal?

And compare me that we should be alike. They lavish gold out of the bag and weigh silver in the scales. They hire a goldsmith and he makes it a god. They prostrate themselves, Yes, they worship. They bear it on the shoulder.

They carry it and set it in its place and it stands From its place it shall not move Though one cries out to it yet. It cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble. Remember this and show yourselves men. Recall to mind, O you transgressors, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand.

I will do all my pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from a far country. Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it.

Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted who are far from righteousness. I bring my righteousness near. It shall not be far off. My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory." Notice how the Lord speaks of the false gods of the pagan nations around Israel, which Israel had actually begun to worship.

He says the craftsman takes up the gold, makes an idol, and then bows down to it to worship it. And he carries it out to the temple. And These gods have no power to save, no power to act, no power to even speak. And so he says that these worshippers cry out to their god, to their false idol, and he can do nothing. In fact, the idols themselves are carried into captivity.

It is against this backdrop that the Lord speaks of his sovereignty. So we see that the alternative to believing in the sovereignty of God is not Arminianism, it's not open theology, which is basically just a complex system where they say that God doesn't know the future it's it's not even open theology the alternative to believing in the sovereignty of God is idolatry that's the alternative is worshipping a different God one who is powerless to bring about his purposes, who is dependent on human actions, and unworthy of our worship. Of course, I'm not suggesting that everyone who claims to be an Arminian or doesn't have a comprehensive understanding of God's sovereignty as an idol worshiper. But as J. I.

Tacker says in Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, he says, all True Christians affirm God's sovereignty. On their feet they may deny it, but on their knees they accept it. When they pray that a hurricane will pass by them, they're acknowledging God's sovereignty over nature. And when they pray for the salvation of a loved one, they're acknowledging that God is sovereign over salvation. And so really every true Christian believes in the sovereignty of God.

I think it's safe to say that Most of us here have a solid grasp of what we mean when we say that God is sovereign. When we talk about God's sovereignty, at least more than most of us had when it came to Robert talking about the assiety of God. But let's take a few minutes to drill down into verses 9 through 11 of Isaiah 46 so it might gain you an even deeper understanding. Remember the former things of old for I am God and there is none and there is no other I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my council shall stand and I will do all my pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my council from a far country. All right, so this is such a foundational text for understanding the sovereignty of God because it really brings out three critical components of God's sovereignty.

The first one is that God is completely free. The Messiah says, I am God and there is none like me. So because there is no one equal to God, much less higher than Him, much less superior to Him, He's free to do as He pleases. There's no one to question His motives or question His actions. He does exactly as He pleases.

And no one can stop him. And because there is no standard higher than himself, everything he does is right. It's right because God says it's right. So when God causes a man to be born blind, as we saw in the message last week, God is perfectly free to do that. And He has done no wrong to the person.

And in Romans 9, we're told that as the great potter, he is free to make one pot for holding the king's precious gourmet wine for the feast, and he's free to make another pot to hold waste. God is free to do that. He's the potter. He can make one pot for honorable purposes and one for dishonorable. He raises up Pharaoh for the purpose of displaying his power through Pharaoh's disobedience and ultimate destruction.

On the other hand, he makes Moses for the purpose of displaying his saving love as he leads his people out of bondage and into the Promised Land. In both cases, he has acted in perfect righteousness. Now, some might object, but that's not really fair. Well, as one of my professors at Southeastern liked to say, my theology professor, he would say, God is fair to some, and he's more than fair to others. We think of the parable of the workers in Matthew 20 verses 13 through 15 where this man goes out to hire laborers to work in his vineyard and he goes out very early in the morning, I think 6 o'clock in the morning or something, and gets the first round of labors and they're more than happy to work for the wages he's promised them.

And then he goes out a couple hours later and gets another batch of workers and he promises them the same amount. And then he goes out a few hours later and this happens several times throughout the course of the day. And then I think about an hour before the work day is over, he brings in the final round of workers and they all get paid the same thing. And the ones who got their first thing are saying, hey, this isn't fair, we've been working here all day. And the master, the owner of the field says, Hey, didn't I promise you something?

And isn't it up to me to promise what I want to pay? And you accepted it. So yes, that's a picture of God's sovereignty among other things. So the second aspect of God's sovereignty that we see in this passage in Isaiah is that God ordains or appoints or plans all that comes to pass. It says, declaring the end from the beginning, my counsel shall stand.

So those are two different little sections. God's counsel is his planning or purposing what is going to happen. This is the basis for God knowing the future. So when God says that he knows the end from the beginning, it's not just that he's omniscient, it's not just that he knows all things, is that he says that because he causes those things to happen. He plans the future.

So when God says in Genesis 3 that the seed of the woman will strike or crush the head of the serpent and the serpent will strike the heel of the woman's seed. It's not just that he knew what was going to happen because he knew everything, but that he planned and appointed the fall and he planned and appointed Christ's redeeming work for this would bring the greatest joy to his elect and the greatest honor to Jesus Christ so the question that that many people have asked and that I think all of our hearts are prone to asking, you know, so if God knew that Adam and Eve were going to eat of the fruit, why did he put that tree in the middle of the garden? That question totally misses the point. God didn't just know that they were going to eat the fruit. He appointed it.

He intended it to happen. That doesn't mean that God was the author of their sin or that he was pleased with it, But he did intend for it to happen Just like when Joseph was speaking to his brothers and said that what they intended for evil God intended for good God intended for all those things to happen to bring about his good purposes And not only did God ordain or appoint the salvation, the plan of redemption in general, but he also ordains and appoints the salvation of individual believers through Jesus Christ, as we're told in Ephesians 1. He says that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And then in verse 11, also in Ephesians 1, he says that we are predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. Do you see the similarities in language from Ephesians 1 to Isaiah 46?

It's amazing how God wove that together. And the third and final component of God's sovereignty that at least this verse brings about brings out is that God executes his plan without fail. He says, I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it.

If all the powers of the spirit realm and all the and the physical realm teamed up to try and thwart to try and hinder the smallest part of what God wanted to do, of what God had purposed to do, they would be absolutely powerless to do it. In fact, It would actually advance God's plan. As in this verse, the man who executes my counsel from a far country. So this man that God is talking about refers to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, executing God's judgment on his people. So in that case, God was using means to accomplish his purpose.

God may use means, he may not. That's his prerogative. Let's return for a minute to the example of God's promise that the serpent would strike Christ's heel and that Christ would strike his head. How did God ensure that this would happen? How did God really make sure?

Because a lot of things had to line up in order for that to happen? Well, the short answer is that God did it. In Acts 4, 27 through 28, the apostle Peter prayed, For truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together To do what now this is it? This is the kicker to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done It was the father who killed the son, yet he used means. Herod, Pontius Pilate, the unbelieving Jews, and Gentiles, those were all his means of doing that.

But the knife, so to speak, was in God's hand. We can't read that passage without thinking of Abraham getting ready to sacrifice Isaac. He's got the knife in his hand, Isaac is on the altar, but then God stays his hand, he says, no Abraham, don't do it. And then this ram comes out of the thicket. But in this case, that didn't happen.

Nobody stayed the Father's hand. He carried through his purpose in order to bring his elect to glory. So to summarize these three aspects, God's sovereignty is his authority and power to plan and carry out whatever he intends to happen. This 1689 SLBC offers a bit more comprehensive definition but with the same essence. Chapter 3 paragraph 1 of God's decree says, God hath decreed in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass.

Yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established, in which appears his wisdom in disposing all things in power and faithfulness and accomplishing his decree. So I think one of the greatest mysteries of the sovereignty of God is found in the statement, Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature. In other words, in God's sovereignty, he never violates the will of the creature. It conveys the biblical truth that even though God reigns sovereignly over all things, we're not robots, we're not automatons or puppets. We're not just passive spectators who watch God's plan unfold.

We make real choices, and our choices really matter. And we will be held accountable to God for our choices. You think of when King David called a census in Israel And one of the accounts that says that Satan prompted David to do that, and one account it says that God prompted David to do that. So which is it? And What was David's role in all this?

Well, I think in my mind the answer is that Satan was the one who prompted David to take this census because it was evil. It was out of unbelief. It was out of pride. It was out of the desire to see the great military strength of the nation of Israel. And that was from Satan.

But God ordained that that would happen. And so ultimately, this was appointed by God to at least to some degree judge Israel. And so was David still accountable in all this? It seems like he was more of a passive party. No, David's flesh, his sin, was fully active and he was giving full rein to that.

And so, David was held accountable, and the nation suffered greatly because of him, because of his action. In Romans 14, verses 14 and 15, Paul says, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself, but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food, you are no longer walking in love." Now listen to this, Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died." Wow, don't destroy your brother for whom Christ died? Is he talking about his brother's salvation, his brother's eternal destruction? Seems that way.

And 1 Corinthians 8, 10, and 11 is even more explicit. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge, Shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? What? I thought if God elects somebody, they're safe.

Well, yes, they are. But here's the thing. He's showing us that what we do is important. It really matters. And, you know, yes, at the end of the day, if that person perishes, he was not among the elect.

But it's kind of like how Jesus says, with regard to Judas, he says, he says, yeah, the son of man had to go, had to be killed, as it is written of him, but woe to that man through whom it happens. Like, this was ordained by God, yes, but woe to him, woe to that man or that woman who causes someone who for all they know is a genuine brother or sister to fall away and to perish. Woe to that person. God is sovereign. Our choices matter.

We must hold these two biblical truths in tension and not try to use fallen human logic to resolve this tension. That always leads to heresy. So if you think about it, logic might say, well, it was actually a benefit that that person fell away when I said this or did this, because that just shows that the person wasn't truly saved. God says, no, that's the logic of Satan. It's not the wisdom of God.

So, applications. So what? What does the sovereignty of God mean to us? Everything. First of all, It provokes us to awe.

Romans 11, 33 says, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. The more we understand of God's sovereign rule over all things, the more our hearts are staggered in his power and wisdom and moved with gratitude that God would would choose such wicked sinners as we are. Such people who can offer him nothing. There is nothing about us that commended us to God for him to save us. Just his sovereign love that he chose to set on us.

That's it. It should give us also great comfort, as our brother Paul mentioned in the sermon, that God's sovereignty over even persecution should give us great comfort. And what a great comfort it is to know that God is on the throne and that everything his children experience is molding them into the image of Jesus Christ and is preparing them for glory. The hymn writer expressed this truth beautifully in the song Like a River Glorious, who probably maybe you're even thinking about this as I was speaking. Every joy or trial falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the Son of love.

We may trust him fully, all for us to do. They who trust him wholly, find him wholly true. So beautiful. And thirdly, This should provoke us to love. In the passage we read in Isaiah 46, God says, I will do all my pleasure.

Again, echoing that language in Ephesians 1-5, it says that God predestined us to the adoption of children according to the good pleasure of his will. It pleased God, it delighted God to save sinners from the path of destruction and from eternal torment, from his wrath. Let this provoke us to love. You know, in 1st Corinthians 8, Paul says, any man who thinks he knows anything knows nothing yet as he ought to know it. But if any man loves God, that man is known by God.

So, again, this is God, the person of God, the attributes of God, the being of God, it's just so comprehensive and we'll spend eternity in his presence just discovering new things more and more about him and delighting in him more and more. And so the man who understands everything that the Bible says about God's sovereignty and he thinks he has a good grip on it, but it doesn't translate into love, that man or that woman doesn't know anything about God's sovereignty. Paul says he knows nothing yet as he ought to know it. All that we know of God should provoke us to love. And if it doesn't, then it's worthless.

So I also want to bring some challenges to us. The first one is again don't let fallen logic take us beyond the scriptures. That's I think a really important point, because our logic, our reasoning, will bring us often far beyond where the scriptures permit us to go. Second challenge is that we would not become presumptuous. When we understand that God is orchestrating all things, it can be tempting sometimes to read into our circumstances and try to discern what God is doing.

And there's, in some sense, there's biblical warrant to do this. You know, Joseph looked back over all the circumstances and said, hey, what you guys intended for evil, God intended for good, that many lives should be saved. Okay, Joseph, you read that, and it's in Scripture, we know that he read that well, he interpreted it well. But, while we can and should praise God for his work in our circumstances and through our circumstances, we need to resist the temptation to think that we see the big picture. God may be doing something completely different from what we think he's doing as we look at our circumstances, or he may be doing something so far beyond what we think he's doing that it's just that it's even detrimental to us to try and figure it out.

I think of Elizabeth Elliott in her book Through Gates of Splendor at the very end. That might even be an appendix or something. She says, a lot of people have come up to me and said, At least you can see now why all this happened. Her husband was killed and some of the other missionaries that were killed. People would say, yeah, now you can see after all these Indians got converted, you can see why that happened.

Elizabeth Ellie is like, well, it's really not that cut and dry. It's not that black and white, as much as we would like to see things like that. Because there were a lot of problems that came from that, a lot of things that she couldn't explain. And so if we go by our fallen understanding, trying to interpret things, and then a curveball is thrown at us and something we don't understand, then that just totally shakes our whole conception of God and his goodness. So let us just remember that.

Another thing we have to be aware of is pride. Think about the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. In Luke 18-11, Jesus says that the Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself, God I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector." Oh, that Pharisee recognized God's sovereignty. He recognized that God had made him a Jew, and that nothing he had done was through his own strength, or at least so he was coming out in his words, but in reality he was full of pride. And his belief in God's sovereignty was just a cloak for that.

Insensitivity to the suffering of others. That's another danger of understanding or a right belief in God's sovereignty. Think about Job's friends. Job, don't you know this is from God? All these things are from God and God doesn't do these things to good men.

It's not that we shouldn't talk about God's sovereignty to those who are suffering. Sometimes that's our only comfort. That's the only way we can derive any comfort in a trial or in a place of suffering is just knowing that this is not meaningless. This is not pointless. This is appointed by God for His glory and my sanctification.

But that being said, we need to make sure that we're weeping with those who weep and not just trying to explain their situation with divine sovereignty. And finally, Two more challenges. Apathy and indifference can be a temptation. It's easy to use our understanding of God's sovereignty to hide apathy. I've talked with unbelievers who have asked, if God saves whomever he wants, then why do I even need to do anything God's just gonna you know swoop down change my heart and it'll be done there's nothing I can do in the meantime so you know what do you why are you even preaching why are you even telling me about Christ God's gonna do it if he wants to and really all that shows is apathy and difference to the state of their own soul they don't care about their own soul and they would rather devote themselves to other pursuits.

And so they say, oh yeah, God and his sovereignty, yeah, he'll do it. Now, of course, they wouldn't use the word sovereignty, but that's the essence of it. I was driving in the car not too long ago with one of my daughters, and she said, She said, Daddy, well, what if I'm not among the elect? What if I'm not one of God's chosen people? And it just, you know, it kind of broke my heart, because she's not, you know, she's not using, you know, clearly there's no excuse there for apathy or indifference.

It's just genuine concern, you know, like, well, Daddy, if God chooses who he wants to be saved then what do I do if I'm not chosen I said you know God makes promises to God is sovereign but he holds himself to his promises. And he promises that you will find him when you seek him with your whole heart. That's a promise from God. And He will be true to that. So seek Him with your whole heart.

Don't be apathetic about the state of your own soul. Don't be indifferent. Or that can go with others too. We all know, I'm sure, the story of William Carey, how when he was preparing to go to India as a missionary. And somebody stood up and said, you know, young man, God will save those heathen if he wants to.

And again, it's just that betrays nothing but indifference to the eternal state of those who do not know God. And that's a horrible place to be. And finally we can use our understanding of God's sovereignty as an excuse for prayerlessness. You know you might might say well if God is going to do everything that God wants to do and nothing happens that he doesn't want to happen, then what's the point of me praying? And of course, this betrays, I think in many cases, the sense of just laziness and apathy again, But it also reveals a misunderstanding of God's sovereignty, because again, God has sovereignly appointed to use means sometimes.

And you think of how James says that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and that he prayed that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't rain for three years. And that he prayed that it wouldn't rain and it didn't rain for three years. And then he prayed that it would rain and it did. Well, you go back to that passage, I think it's in 2 Kings, and God had told Elijah that he was going to send rain and to go to Ahab and tell him. And so Elijah goes and then they have that whole showdown with God and the priests of Baal at the altar and putting water around it and all that kind of stuff and God sends down fire from heaven.

And then Elijah, what does Elijah do? God has already told him he's going to send rain, but Elijah goes up on a mountain puts his face to the ground and prays for rain. This is a man who understood God's sovereignty and who understood that God has ordained prayer to be a means of bringing about his will in this world. He got out of his face and prayed, and he asked his servant, do you see anything yet? Nope.

Gets back down out of his face and prays. See anything yet? Yeah, actually I see a cloud the size of a man's hand. Gets back down out of his face and prays. Prays and prays and prays until God sends rain.

Question. What if Elijah hadn't prayed? Would God still send rain? God would have appointed it through some other way kind of like Esther you know if you remain silent you know Esther Esther's uncle Mordecai tells her if you remain silent, you can be sure that God will raise up salvation in some other way. But as for you and your family, you will be destroyed.

God is sovereign, God is powerful, but Elijah understood that God hears our prayers and that He answers them. So, just some encouragement for us. May the Lord continually remind us of these things and provoke us to love. I pray real quick. Father in heaven, Lord, thank you that you are worthy of our worship.

Lord, you are not like the gods of the peoples who cannot hear, cannot speak, and cannot save, cannot do anything, O Lord. But you are able to accomplish all your purposes, O Lord. You are able to bring them to pass, O God. You are powerful, you are free, and all that you do is right Lord. Help us to trust in you Lord in every situation to look for your goodness and your kindness, but not not to try to Comprehensively understand and interpret what you are doing, but just to trust In Jesus' name.