What is God Sovereign over, and what isn't He Sovereign over

[DeaconDean]

It has been said and used in my dear brothers (twin1954) signature:

"People will allow God to be sovereign everywhere but on His throne."

Ain't it the truth.

God Bless

Till all are one.

 

[PrettyboyAndy]

I found this pretty informative:

God Is Sovereign Over . . .

Seemingly random things:

The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.
(Proverbs 16:33)

The heart of the most powerful person in the land:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he turns it wherever he will.
(Proverbs 21:1)

Our daily lives and plans:

A man’s steps are from the LORD;
how then can man understand his way?
(Proverbs 20:24)

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:21)

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)

Salvation:

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
(Romans 9:15-16)

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
(Acts 13:48)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
(Romans 8:29-30)

Life and death:

See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
(Deuteronomy 32:39)

The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
(1 Samuel 12:6)

Disabilities:

Then the LORD said to [Moses], “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
(Exodus 4:11)

The death of God’s Son:

Jesus, [who was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
(Acts 2:23)

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 plan had predestined to take place.
(Acts 4:27-28)

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief. . . .
(Isaiah 53:10)

Evil things:

Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the LORD has done it?
(Amos 3:6)

I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
(Isaiah 45:7)

“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. . . . “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
(Job 1:21-22; 2:10)

[God] sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. . . . As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
(Psalm 105:17; Genesis 50:21)

All things:

[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will.
(Ephesians 1:11)

Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:3)

I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
(Job 42:2)

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
(Daniel 4:35)
https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2011/10/18/what-is-god-sovereign-over/

 

[PrettyboyAndy]

God is soverign over everything, however, we can't say he is soverign over our Sin, God can not make us sin, so there must be some degree of free will...

 

[twin1954]

God is soverign over everything, however, we can't say he is soverign over our Sin, God can not make us sin, so there must be some degree of free will...

God does not make us sin but He does purpose to allow our sin for our good in some way. Our sin belongs to us and is actually the only thing we can claim as ours and not given to us by the hand of God. God purposing our sin does not mean that He makes us sin He simply allows it for His wise and perfect ends. If it weren't for our sin we would not need a Savior. If we didn't still live in this body of sticking death we would begin to think that we are more than we are. God has purposed our sin to teach us to hate it and loathe even the things touched by the world. He uses it to wean us from the things of the world and to help us let go of those things in the world we hold on to tightly.

Oh how I long to be totally without sin and to be totally committed and totally consecrated to the Lord. But I must wait until that day when I lay down this stinking corpse I now live in and put on a new body like unto His body. Until then I fight against myself daily.

As for free will, yes we have a will but it has never been free. We, as believers, are free now to serve our Master and Lord but our will is weak and full of our old nature. I am often amazed at how man has taken the very weakest part of his nature, the will, and set it up as a god.

 

[BryanMaloney]

God is Sovereign over all things. People just no longer understand what "sovereign" means. The word does not mean "petty little meddler who diddles into every tiny little detail of what happens". Sovereign means the proper and correct ruler. He has FULL authority, FULL "maiestas", which is Latin for "supreme power and dignity"--"majesty" is not really a good translation, anymore. Sovereignty does NOT mean that someone diddles in every little detail that he's sovereign over. Someone can be sovereign over all the peasants in a kingdom without deciding what every one of them individually eats for supper. That sovereign is still in charge. The problem is that many people have piddly-diddly little minds, so they can only interpret Divine Sovereignty in piddly-diddly little terms. In their pigeonhole minds, they think that, if God is Sovereign, that means that God piddles and diddles into every picayune little detail. God certainly has the Power to do that, but it doesn't mean that He is COMPELLED to do that. For some people who want God to be a weakling, anything that God is not compelled to do is something that God cannot do.

 

[twin1954]

I found this pretty informative:

God Is Sovereign Over . . .

Seemingly random things:

The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.
(Proverbs 16:33)

The heart of the most powerful person in the land:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
he turns it wherever he will.
(Proverbs 21:1)

Our daily lives and plans:

A man’s steps are from the LORD;
how then can man understand his way?
(Proverbs 20:24)

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.
(Proverbs 19:21)

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)

Salvation:

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
(Romans 9:15-16)

As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
(Acts 13:48)

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
(Romans 8:29-30)

Life and death:

See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal;
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
(Deuteronomy 32:39)

The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
(1 Samuel 12:6)

Disabilities:

Then the LORD said to [Moses], “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”
(Exodus 4:11)

The death of God’s Son:

Jesus, [who was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
(Acts 2:23)

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 plan had predestined to take place.
(Acts 4:27-28)

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief. . . .
(Isaiah 53:10)

Evil things:

Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the LORD has done it?
(Amos 3:6)

I form light and create darkness,
I make well-being and create calamity,
I am the LORD, who does all these things.
(Isaiah 45:7)

“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. . . . “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
(Job 1:21-22; 2:10)

[God] sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. . . . As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
(Psalm 105:17; Genesis 50:21)

All things:

[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will.
(Ephesians 1:11)

Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
(Psalm 115:3)

I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
(Job 42:2)

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, “What have you done?”
(Daniel 4:35)
https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/justintaylor/2011/10/18/what-is-god-sovereign-over/

Andy, have you read Pink's "Sovereignty of God" that I linked for you. It would settle a lot of these questions.

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Sovereignty/index.htm

 

[Tree of Life]

Our confession of Faith (Westminster) says that God is sovereign over human sin but that God is not the author of sin. An example of this principle in Scripture would be from Genesis 50 and Joseph's conversation with his brothers. They sold him into slavery and greatly sinned against him. But Joseph sees the sovereign hand of God working even in their sinful decision. And so he says to them:

19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Ge 50:19–20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The same events were the evil plans of men and the good plans of God. So even the sins of men are part of God's good plans for his people. Some theologians in wrestling with this distinguish between the action and the quality. Let's consider the actions in the Joseph story. These actions proceeded from both Joseph's brothers and, apparently, from God. But the quality of the action preceding from the brothers was sinful, while the quality of the action preceding from God was righteous.

 

[StanJ]

Psalm 37:23
The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and he delights in his way. (NASB)

 

[DeaconDean]

Andy, have you read Pink's "Sovereignty of God" that I linked for you. It would settle a lot of these questions.

http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/Sovereignty/index.htm

That is GREAT read and one I highly suggest.

I love and often quote from the chapter on The Sovereignty of God and the Human Will.

God Bless

Till all are one.