God’s Sovereignty Over His Kingdom and for His Glory
By Steven J. Hogan
~ A Saturday Morning Post #388 ~
GOD IS SOVEREIGN!!! This means God is perfectly, powerfully, and comprehensively working in the world and in the lives of people to accomplish His divine purposes – and it’s for His glory and the good of His children. Thomas Watson defined sovereignty as “God’s ordering of events and issues after the counsel of His will to His own glory.” Jerry Bridges said, “God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people.”
God’s sovereignty is based on His truth, His will, and His character. Thus, we can also define it this way: God, in His wisdom, and according to His truth, foreknowledge, omniscience, omnipresence, holiness, justice, love, and mercy, predestined His plans, and by His power, faithfully carries out His purposes for His glory and His children (Eph. 1:3-14). It’s essential that you believe the fact of God’s sovereignty as it relates to your own life and the events of this world.
God’s sovereignty is humbling, for you realize that God is God and you are but man. It gives you great joy and peace for you know that God causes all things to work together for good. It builds your faith for you are focusing, not just on what you do but on what God does. It motivates you to discover the work God has planned out for you. And it results in God receiving glory, for you are observing and thanking Him for His wonderful work. Ps. 105:1-3
Some people might think God’s sovereignty eliminates man’s responsibility, but it does not. The truth is that God is sovereign over man, and yet man is responsible for his actions. This may seem confusing and contradictory, for you wonder how both can both be true at the same time, but they are. As man, we cannot know all the ways of God. Can anyone understand the Trinity, that God is three in one, or that Jesus is both God and man? You cannot figure this out, and so too you cannot comprehend the mystery that God is sovereign over man, yet man is responsible for his actions. Isaiah 55:8-9
The following verses illustrate these symbiotic truths: “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps” (Pr. 16:9). “Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the counsel of the Lord will stand” (Pr. 16:9). “Man’s steps are ordained by the Lord; how then can anyone understand his way?” (Pr. 20:24). You know what it means to plan and work, but you must also know that God is directing your steps. In ways you cannot understand, God is doing His work in and through your life. Hear what He tells you, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Phil. 2:12-13
God’s sovereignty is a very encouraging truth. The fact that God is sovereign means He wants you to work with Him in carrying out His plans for your life. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). “By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Cor. 15:10). Paul recognized two things – that his ministry was because of God’s grace and that he needed to work hard. So too, you must know that your Christian life is by God’s grace and that you need to be laboring for Him. 1 Cor. 15:58
Let’s now pick up where we left off last week, and look at more verses on God’s sovereignty:
* Nations – “God makes the nations great, then destroys them” (Job 12:13-25). “The Lord foils the plans of the nations. He thwarts the purposes of the people. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever.” Ps. 9; Ps. 33:10-11; Ps. 67; Is. 60; Dan. 2:44, 4:34-35, 7:27; 1 Cor. 15:24-28; Rev. 11:15
* Nature – “The Lord does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the sea, and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from His storehouses.” Ps. 135:5-7, Ps. 104, Is. 65:25
* Paul – “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by God’s will” (Eph. 1:1). “Go! This is my chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles.” Acts 9:18, 13:2-4, 16:7, 18:20-21, 26:14-18; 2 Tim. 4:17-18
* Persecution – “They will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” (Matt. 24:9). “If anyone is destined to captivity, to captivity he will go.” Rev. 13:10; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:18-25, 21:18-22; 1 Pet. 4:12-18; Rev. 6:10-11
* Pharaoh – “The Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘I raised you up for this very purpose that I might display My power in you and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore, God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and hardens whom He wants to harden.” Rom. 9:17-18, Ex. 7-14
* Purposes and Plans – “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). “We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” Eph. 1:11; Ps. 32:8, 33:10-12, 135:6; Jer. 29:10-11; Rom. 8:28-30, 9:20-21
* Rulers – “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases” (Prov. 21:1). “The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus.” Ezra 1:1, Ps. 47:7-9, Is. 40:23, Dan. 2:21, Acts 12:21-23, Rom, 9:17, Rev. 17:17
* Salvation – “No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). “All those who were appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.” Eph. 1:4, John 6:44, Acts 18:9-10, Rom. 8:30-31, 2 Th. 2:13
* Sickness and Health – “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Ex. 4:11). “What can I say? He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this… You restored me to health” Is. 38:9-22, Mark 1:44, Luke 4:40, John 9:1-8
* Spiritual Growth – “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6). “He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of Christ Jesus.” 1 Cor. 1:8, 3:6, 15:10; Jn 17:17; Ph. 2:12-13; 1 Th. 5:23-24
* Work – “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Eph. 2:10, Jn. 15:16, Rom. 16:3-9, 1 Cor. 15:10, Ph. 2:12-13, Col. 4:11-13
* Time – “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundary of their habitation. (Acts 17:26). “The sun stood still, and the moon stopped.” Josh. 10:13; Dan. 9:24-27; Rev. 1:3, 9:15, 20:6
* War – “Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations He has brought on the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, He burns the shields with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.” Ps. 46:10; Josh. 10:6-15; 1 Sam. 17:2; Rev. 16:13-21, 19:19-21
* Weather – “The Lord does whatever pleases Him… He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth” (Ps. 135:6). “To the snow He says, ‘Fall on the earth’… From the breath of God, ice is made… with moisture He loads the thick clouds.” Job 37:6-13, Mark 4:39
* His Word – “So is My word that goes out from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all the prophets have spoken… He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” Luke 24:25, 44-45; Josh. 21:45; 2 Chron. 10:15; Ez. 1:3; Matt. 24:33-34
* Like last time, we have an incredibly amazing list of verses giving evidence of God’s sovereignty.
One of the greatest proofs of God’s sovereignty is Christ’s 1st coming. Many Old Testament verses foretold difference aspects of His coming and they all came to pass. It was predicted that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, be born of a virgin, perform miracles, be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, be buried in a rich man’s tomb, etc. These prophecies and many more came to pass. And God had to be perfectly sovereign, He had to have wisdom, love, mercy, justice, omniscience, power, faithfulness, etc., to bring them about.
Now, close to 2,000 years later, many Bible verses about Christ’s 2nd coming are being fulfilled. You see, God knows exactly what He wants to do in the last years of this age – whether it’s in a person’s life, the church, a nation, or the entire world. All that is written in the end-times’ prophecy passages of the Old Testament, as well as in Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 17, Luke 21, Eph. 1, 1 Thess. 4-5, 2 Thess. 1-2, James 5, 1 Peter 1, 2 Peter 3, and in the book of Revelation will be perfectly and fully carried out.
It’s 2026, and this world is not sitting still – it’s on a God-given course, speeding towards a God-planned destination. Every single day, there’s God-inspired direction, activity, and movement, and it’s all leading to that time when Christ will appear in the clouds, take us to heaven, judge the world, save a Jewish remnant, and rule over the world. Every day is part of God’s comprehensive, predetermined plan to bring about the return of His Son to earth, and not one single second, not one single minute, not one single day, is wasted. God’s eternal plans are now being fulfilled to bring this age to an end and soon enough, we will be worshiping and serving in Christ’s great and glorious kingdom. Psalm 47
“To Him (the Son of Man) was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him… Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kings under the whole world will be given to the people of the saints of the highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.” Daniel 7:14, 27