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Created Through Him

God is righteous

6/10/2012

7 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright (Psalm 11:7).

God is righteous. In this verse from Psalm 11, we learn that God shows His countenance toward the upright. There is something to consider here though, it is God that is righteous. Man is not righteous; even in the case of Abraham, righteousness was credited to him (Genesis 15:6). God alone in His sovereignty is righteous. It is only through the credit of God that we can be held as upright. It is a matter of the source of goodness. Any true goodness is of God, and God alone. To be held by God as upright is to have righteousness credited to us. Therefore, we are the benefactors of God’s goodness; we do not earn it. God alone is good; we pray that His countenance beholds us as upright.

God the seeker

6/9/2012

4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. 5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. 6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity (Psalm 10:4-6).

Although it is through God’s sovereign selection and election that certain people seek after God, God doesn’t prevent anyone from seeking Him. God simply says that there will be those that will not seek Him. The reason given is these people’s own pride. Pride prevents people from seeing God for who He is. In the end, pride is the ultimate form of denial. It is denial because it does not allow people to see their true condition before a holy God. The proper response then for the believer is to be thankful. Thankful that God is gracious. For without God’s gracious actions, all would not seek after God, to our final demise. To God is the glory, and the power to save.

Defense by God

6/7/2012

10 My defense is of God, which saveth the upright in heart (Psalm 9:10).

The actions of God are always effective. That is, the defense by God on our behalf, always works. If God defends us, we are saved. Salvation itself is an action of God. It is an action based on the defense of us by God. It is judicial in nature with God as judge, jury and defense witness. We cannot save ourselves, so God elects to act for us. This is grace. Grace is unmerited and solely a result of God’s sovereign choices. This carries over to faith as well. Faith is a gift, and it leads to an upright heart. So, our God selects us, defends us, and saves us. It is then not a matter of us cooperating with God, but rather the action of God that changes us.

Reliance upon God

6/7/2012

8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety (Psalm 4:8).

The sovereignty of God should encourage us to be reliant on God. We should be reliant on God even from our youth. Psalm 4:8 is likely the basis for the common children’s bedtime prayer, “Now I lay my head to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep….”. It is God and God alone that provides for us. This brings up the topic of free will. Freedom of the will implies a choice. But the choice must actually be possible, or it is no choice at all. So, Man’s free will is always subject to that of God. There are no choices present that are not present apart from the will of God. In essence then the choosing is action of God. When the Psalmist says, “thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety”, he means that it is a sovereign action of God that allows action, in this case dwelling in safety, to occur. When we rely on God, we are actually acknowledging His sovereign work in our lives, by choice. The choice we choose though is the result of the sovereign will of God. God provides the reliance. This is so, so that no one can boast about his or her own sovereignty. To the glory of God, God is sovereign.

God has full understanding

6/6/2012

4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding (Job 38:4).

God is sovereign because He is the Creator. As the Creator, He has knowledge that we simply do not process. Our understanding is limited to what God has revealed to us through His word. It is important for there to be congruence between what we say and what we actually know. Acknowledging the limits of both our knowledge and overall capacity is therefore very important. We fail to be humble before God when we act as if we are the creator. God alone is the sovereign over all of creation. God already knows all knowledge that Man discovers. We are privileged to be allowed to discover but this does not make us the creators of knowledge and understanding. Therefore our understanding and knowledge will be incomplete compared to that of the God that created it all.

God of power

6/5/2012

6 Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. 7 He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing (Job 26:6-7).

The sovereignty of God is not separable from the power of God. God is powerful and so He is sovereign. God is sovereign and so He is powerful. We could easily and appropriately put the adjective absolutely in front of sovereign and powerful. Job in the passage above is proclaiming God’s absolute sovereignty and absolute power. Job understands that since there is a difference between the sovereignty and power of God and that of Man, there is also a distinction between the Creator and created. This distinction forms the basis of worship. God is worshiped because of who He is; the great I AM.

Blessed be the name of the Lord

6/4/2012

20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. 22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly (Job 1:20-22).

In one day Job lost everything. God had allowed Satan to kill Job’s sons and daughters, servants and livestock; all Job had was gone in instant. While it is difficult to fathom the kind of pain Job endured, it is equally difficult to understand why God allowed it to happen. But Job understood a profound truth about God. God is sovereign and all that we have is ultimately God’s not our own. Job understood that he was in the care of God and that while Job couldn’t have understood why these things happened to him, he did trust God. By placing his trust in God, Job was seeking an eternal future, a future in which God will restore all things to their proper place and order.

The way they should go

6/3/2012

12 Moreover thou leddest them in the day by a cloudy pillar; and in the night by a pillar of fire, to give them light in the way wherein they should go (Nehemiah 9:12).

Inherent in God’s sovereignty is the idea that God leads His people. We know where to go when we keep our eyes fixed on God. God never leaves without a way of following Him. Regardless of whether it is day or night, God can be visible to us. The exact place where God leads us may not be known to us ahead of time; but regardless, it is the place we should be. This is the sovereignty of God that we should follow Him. The first command of Jesus in the New Testament is to follow. Christ is the pillar we are to keep our eyes fixed and He is the way that leads to life.

A God of purposes

6/2/2012

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 2 Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah (Ezra 1:1-2).

God in His sovereignty accomplishes His purposes through people. In this case, He uses a pagan king to authorize and support the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus was generally a generous king, often being gracious to those he had conquered. This was so because God worked through Cyrus. Cyrus did not really appear to know God, but God knew Cyrus and God created Cyrus for a specific purpose. That purpose was to allow God’s people to rebuild Jerusalem. Ultimately, people cannot not thwart God’s will and purposes for their lives. God often raises people up for very specific purposes, sometimes even without them being fully aware of those purposes. God is sovereign.

Power and might

6/1/2012

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 (2 Chronicles 20:6)?

The power of God is further evidence of His sovereignty. To be sovereign is to be extremely powerful. Powerful, as it applies to God, does not simply mean strong, there is a connotation of a totally consuming force. This force is really beyond human comprehension. Words are actually terribly inadequate to describe God’s power and might. After all, God called the Universe into existence. When we submit, worship, and put our faith and trust in God, we should feel very secure. Nothing can come against our God since nothing can withstand His power and might.

Created Through Him