God is supreme -
God is and was and forever shalt be. He hath no beginning and no end. He has no creator. There is none like unto Him. He is alone and only God.
There is none that can answer Him again. There is none that can answer or thwart his wise decree. He is supreme.
2 Chronicles 20:6
God is and was and forever shalt be. He hath no beginning and no end. He has no creator. There is none like unto Him. He is alone and only God.
There is none that can answer Him again. There is none that can answer or thwart his wise decree. He is supreme.
2 Chronicles 20:6
And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?
1 Chronicles 29:11-12
"Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all."
John Calvin wrote four books titled, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion.” The individual books were titled in this order: The Knowledge of God the Creator, The Knowledge of God the Redeemer, The Mode Of Obtaining The Grace Of Christ. The Benefits It Confers, And the Effects Resulting From It, and Of The Holy Catholic Church.
Calvin’s premise was specific in writing the books in this order. In order to come to God, we must first understand who God is and furthermore understand who we are in the light of God’s character. If we approach God in this manner, we will be first humbled before we are exalted to the throne of grace. We will first have a realization of our rags before we are brought to the place were we can be clothed with righteousness. In fact, we will never fully understand the depravity of our own soul unless we fully understand the magnificence of God.
God is supreme over all. His Lordship extends even to the ends of the universe. There is none to be compared unto Him.
He is in control of all things:
“God’s supremacy over the works of his hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter, irrational creature, all perform their Maker’s bidding. At his pleasure the Red Sea divided and its waters stood up as walls (Exodus 14); and the earth opened her mouth, and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit (Number 16). When he so ordered, the sun stood still (Josh. 10); and on another occasion went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (Isaiah 38:8). To exemplify his supremacy, he made ravens carry food to Elijah (1 Kings 17), iron to swim on top of the water (2 kings 6:5), lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames. Thus ‘Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.’ “ (Psalm 135:6) - A. W. Pink in the Attributes of God
He is not only in control of all life, but He is also in control of the wills, the desires, and the passions of man. He decrees that one man’s heart should be hardened as in the case of Pharaoh [Exodus 7:3] or that another man should seek after him as in the case of the leper [Matthew 8:2]. In this case, we build the argument that those that are called according to the purpose of God’s elect had there wills bent and shaped in order that they would seek God’s face. God is indeed supreme over the actions of man. Thomas A. Thomas in his book, A Reason for The Hope states, “His plan He has decreed, and what He has decreed He shall bring to pass. God controls whatsoever comes to pass in this world, and He works all things in agreement with His eternal counsels” (Ephesian 1:11). So, for us to say that I have accepted God into my heart or to claim by some alteration of God’s decree I have denied God or have resisted God from coming into my heart is utter foolishness. Also, to say, “ I prayed a prayer and accepted God into my heart,” is also foolishness and seeks to put man on the same plain as God. No man can will or not will His salvation. God, before the foundation of the world, decreed that certain individuals would be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and that certain individuals would not be saved. No man can effect a change in this all wise and perfect decree of God. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” [Romans 8:28-30] “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” [Ephesians 1:5]
This idea of resisting or accepting God as your Savior denies the supremacy of God. You are seeking to transfer the glory of God for salvation to yourself. You are saying, “I am the determinate of my reality.” You would be willing to say, “God is supreme, but He is not the determinate of my thoughts, He can’t determine my actions, I can do what I want to do.” I don’t know what you worship, but that is not God.
Objection: If God is supreme and sovereign as you say He is, than why is there so much wickedness and evil in this world? Why are people “allowed” to do so much evil?
Our God can do no evil. We serve a perfectly righteous and holy God. In the area of sin, man has a free will. This free will is bound by sin and to sin. It can do nothing else. A similar question can arise from the one above. Why sin? Why did God ever allow sin to enter into the world and death by sin by Adam? God created man under His decree to do as He ordained. At the garden, God gave a command that Adam and Eve were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Conditional obedience was set in place. Adam failed. God allowed them to have the free will to break His commandment. He commanded them to obey and they fell. This was not any flaw in man. Because at that time, man could will to do good or they could will to disobey. They chose to disobey. So, at that time, our wills came under bondage to only do that which was wicked.
In the area of our fall, God new what man would do and could have prevented it; however, He chose not to in order to bring more glory to himself. This is the purpose behind all of God’s will.
Objection: If God is sovereign and allows certain events to happen, how can man be responsible for his actions.
First, in the Scriptures, we are told that God created some people for honor and some for dishonor. [Romans 9:21] God is God. We do not have the responsibility or the ability to ask God why. The answer will always be, “Because He is God.” “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” [Romans 9:20]
I will admit there is an apparent conflict between the sovereignty or supremacy of God and man’s responsibility. In the end, we have to step back and say, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” [Romans 11:33] Furthermore, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:9]
Second, as we stated before, man can do nothing but do evil apart from the salvation of God. Man is wicked. “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” [Psalm 14: 3] Because of this, because of our rebellious spirit, which has been in us since the fall, we are responsible for all of the sin in the World. We cannot lay that to God’s charge. It was our decision to eat of the forbidden fruit. We chose rather to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season that to forever dwell in the presence of God.
Dear reader, we are wicked men that have been created by a supreme Creator. We deserve eternal damnation. Seek after God. The same God that formed the earth, that spoke and the devils trembled, that walked on stormy seas, this same God that dwells in the Heavens has the power to save you from your sin. This should cause you to tremble. Because that same God that has the power to save you also has the power to destroy your body and soul in the lake of fire. “Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.” [Psalms 33:8]
To my fellow brother that has been freed from the bondage of sin, what a glorious God we serve. He is truly magnificent. He is a wonderful God. We may now have a better understanding of who we are in the light of His countenance. May the Lord bless you. May you have a relationship with this God. Yea, may you run swifter, may you redeem the time more ardently, may you glorify this God.
Sola Deo Gloria.
1 Chronicles 29:11-12
"Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all."
John Calvin wrote four books titled, “The Institutes of the Christian Religion.” The individual books were titled in this order: The Knowledge of God the Creator, The Knowledge of God the Redeemer, The Mode Of Obtaining The Grace Of Christ. The Benefits It Confers, And the Effects Resulting From It, and Of The Holy Catholic Church.
Calvin’s premise was specific in writing the books in this order. In order to come to God, we must first understand who God is and furthermore understand who we are in the light of God’s character. If we approach God in this manner, we will be first humbled before we are exalted to the throne of grace. We will first have a realization of our rags before we are brought to the place were we can be clothed with righteousness. In fact, we will never fully understand the depravity of our own soul unless we fully understand the magnificence of God.
God is supreme over all. His Lordship extends even to the ends of the universe. There is none to be compared unto Him.
He is in control of all things:
“God’s supremacy over the works of his hands is vividly depicted in Scripture. Inanimate matter, irrational creature, all perform their Maker’s bidding. At his pleasure the Red Sea divided and its waters stood up as walls (Exodus 14); and the earth opened her mouth, and guilty rebels went down alive into the pit (Number 16). When he so ordered, the sun stood still (Josh. 10); and on another occasion went backward ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz (Isaiah 38:8). To exemplify his supremacy, he made ravens carry food to Elijah (1 Kings 17), iron to swim on top of the water (2 kings 6:5), lions to be tame when Daniel was cast into their den, fire to burn not when the three Hebrews were flung into its flames. Thus ‘Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.’ “ (Psalm 135:6) - A. W. Pink in the Attributes of God
He is not only in control of all life, but He is also in control of the wills, the desires, and the passions of man. He decrees that one man’s heart should be hardened as in the case of Pharaoh [Exodus 7:3] or that another man should seek after him as in the case of the leper [Matthew 8:2]. In this case, we build the argument that those that are called according to the purpose of God’s elect had there wills bent and shaped in order that they would seek God’s face. God is indeed supreme over the actions of man. Thomas A. Thomas in his book, A Reason for The Hope states, “His plan He has decreed, and what He has decreed He shall bring to pass. God controls whatsoever comes to pass in this world, and He works all things in agreement with His eternal counsels” (Ephesian 1:11). So, for us to say that I have accepted God into my heart or to claim by some alteration of God’s decree I have denied God or have resisted God from coming into my heart is utter foolishness. Also, to say, “ I prayed a prayer and accepted God into my heart,” is also foolishness and seeks to put man on the same plain as God. No man can will or not will His salvation. God, before the foundation of the world, decreed that certain individuals would be saved by the blood of Jesus Christ and that certain individuals would not be saved. No man can effect a change in this all wise and perfect decree of God. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” [Romans 8:28-30] “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” [Ephesians 1:5]
This idea of resisting or accepting God as your Savior denies the supremacy of God. You are seeking to transfer the glory of God for salvation to yourself. You are saying, “I am the determinate of my reality.” You would be willing to say, “God is supreme, but He is not the determinate of my thoughts, He can’t determine my actions, I can do what I want to do.” I don’t know what you worship, but that is not God.
Objection: If God is supreme and sovereign as you say He is, than why is there so much wickedness and evil in this world? Why are people “allowed” to do so much evil?
Our God can do no evil. We serve a perfectly righteous and holy God. In the area of sin, man has a free will. This free will is bound by sin and to sin. It can do nothing else. A similar question can arise from the one above. Why sin? Why did God ever allow sin to enter into the world and death by sin by Adam? God created man under His decree to do as He ordained. At the garden, God gave a command that Adam and Eve were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Conditional obedience was set in place. Adam failed. God allowed them to have the free will to break His commandment. He commanded them to obey and they fell. This was not any flaw in man. Because at that time, man could will to do good or they could will to disobey. They chose to disobey. So, at that time, our wills came under bondage to only do that which was wicked.
In the area of our fall, God new what man would do and could have prevented it; however, He chose not to in order to bring more glory to himself. This is the purpose behind all of God’s will.
Objection: If God is sovereign and allows certain events to happen, how can man be responsible for his actions.
First, in the Scriptures, we are told that God created some people for honor and some for dishonor. [Romans 9:21] God is God. We do not have the responsibility or the ability to ask God why. The answer will always be, “Because He is God.” “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” [Romans 9:20]
I will admit there is an apparent conflict between the sovereignty or supremacy of God and man’s responsibility. In the end, we have to step back and say, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” [Romans 11:33] Furthermore, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:9]
Second, as we stated before, man can do nothing but do evil apart from the salvation of God. Man is wicked. “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” [Psalm 14: 3] Because of this, because of our rebellious spirit, which has been in us since the fall, we are responsible for all of the sin in the World. We cannot lay that to God’s charge. It was our decision to eat of the forbidden fruit. We chose rather to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season that to forever dwell in the presence of God.
Dear reader, we are wicked men that have been created by a supreme Creator. We deserve eternal damnation. Seek after God. The same God that formed the earth, that spoke and the devils trembled, that walked on stormy seas, this same God that dwells in the Heavens has the power to save you from your sin. This should cause you to tremble. Because that same God that has the power to save you also has the power to destroy your body and soul in the lake of fire. “Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.” [Psalms 33:8]
To my fellow brother that has been freed from the bondage of sin, what a glorious God we serve. He is truly magnificent. He is a wonderful God. We may now have a better understanding of who we are in the light of His countenance. May the Lord bless you. May you have a relationship with this God. Yea, may you run swifter, may you redeem the time more ardently, may you glorify this God.
Sola Deo Gloria.
