“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever His wishes.”

                       –Proverbs 21:1 (NKJV)
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               “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”
                         –Ephesians 1:11(NKJT)

Probably some of the most misunderstood and complex attributes of God is that of His decrees and His sovereignty.  Part of our problem is our finiteness; we think only with the natural mind and cannot know completely the workings of God.  Another reason is that we do not like to think of these things.  They go against our nature, because we have our own opinions, therefore we either push aside these doctrines or ignore them, or interpret them disregarding Scripture.
     In this little study I do not want to get into the argument of Calvinism versus Arminianism.  I want to simply state some facts and look at what the Bible says.  People have often asked me which of these viewpoints I take.  I almost always reply, “when I’m with an Arminian I am a Calvinist, and when I’m with a Calvinist, I am an Arminian.”  And I will leave it at that…for now.  This devotion is not for argument, however, one of its main purposes is to get you to think.  
     Right off the bat I will say–our thoughts of God are too human!  Since He is God, infinite and eternal, we cannot comprehend Him fully, therefore we bring our thoughts about Him down to the human level.  As I said earlier, if we had a truer picture of God we would have less problems and issues.  In one aspect, the God of the Scriptures is unknown.  I say that for two reasons:  first, we cannot fully know Him or imagine Him; second, we do not look rightly into His Word to come to the knowledge that He has revealed of Himself.
     Men imagine that God is moved by sentiment.  That is false, no matter the pity party we throw or the tantrums, or the threats we level, it does not move Him.  He works on His principles and through His character.  Do we really mean it when we pray, “Thy will be done?”  Hmmm, don’t worry, it will be.  Man also declares that whatever power God possesses must be restricted.  Man does not want God’s will to invade man’s “free will” (whatever that is).  Therefore, God is often “manufactured” out of the carnal mind.  In reality, it should give us confidence and build our faith in that all He has designed He does.  All that He has decreed He performs.  The Psalmist declares, “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.” (115:3, NKJV)
     “God’s dominion is total:  he wills as he chooses and carries out all that he wills, and none can stay his hand or thwart his plans.” (J.I. Packer)  God acts according to His decrees, which is defined as “determinate counsel,” “foreknowledge, foreordination, and election.”  He is sovereign over all His works.  The decrees of God is His purpose in determination with respect to future things.  They are called His “will” to show He was under no control, but acted according to His own pleasure.  Whatever is done in time was foreordained before time.
     God’s decrees are first of all–eternal, circumstances cannot alter His decrees.  No matter the effort put forth by man, or the effort put forth by Satan and his demons, God’s decrees will be carried out.  Neither time nor culture can change the decrees of God.  His decrees are always infinitely wise.  His decrees are free–meaning that there was no external cause to influence God when He made His decrees.  They came from His “the counsel of His will.”  Here are a couple of verses to contemplate:  

          “Just as He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”  — Ephesians 1:4 (NKJV)
          “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.  He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” –1 Peter 1:19-20 (NKJV)

Just think of those words, “before the foundation of the world.”  Before creation, before time, God had decreed.  Also we know that His decrees are absolute and unconditional.  The execution of them is not suspended upon any condition which may or may not be performed.  Know this!  God honors His principles!
     Now that I have fully boggled your mind with another aspect of the greatness and majesty of God I leave you with a verse from Isaiah, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'” (46:19, NKJV)  This gives us hope and confidence that we truly serve the God of gods, the Almighty–the I AM!

                    –Psalm 18:32 (NKJV)
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I have one Bible in which Psalm 118 is referred to as a “Praise to God for His Everlasting Mercy,” another “Thanksgiving for Victory,” and yet a third one, “A Call to Triumph.”  Interesting, but they all fit.  They all refer to a praise of some sort.  God is to be praised–praised for His mercy, praised for the victory we have in our lives, praised when we triumph over a foe or habit.

          10 — All nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
          11 — They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me; but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
          12 — They surrounded me like bees; they were quenched like a fire of thorns; for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
          13 — You pushed me violently, that I might fall, but the LORD helped me.
          14 — The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.
          15 — The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tests of the righteous; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
          16 — The right hand of the LORD is exalted; the right hand of the LORD does valiantly.
          17 — I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.
          18 — The LORD has chastened me severely, but He has not given me over to death.   (NJKV)

     This is the sound of war or at least harassment.  It is by enemies and there is also the scene that it may be struggles from within.  Three times the psalmist says that he was surrounded.  Perhaps you have seen actual combat, most reading this probably not.  The foes come at you relentlessly; bullets firing at you seemingly from all sides.  Or maybe the bees is a better analogy for your battle.  Have you ever been chased by a swarm of bees or hornets?  I remember my wife telling me a story of the time she visited, I think it was the Pittsburgh Zoo, and had a ball of cotton candy.  It seemed like the bees decided that they might like to have at least a taste of that sugar and began to chase her.  I’ve knocked down wasps nest and was chased, but they do not swarm like bees or hornets.  It can be quite frightful.  In this psalm it is shown that in the time of adversity there is a point where we must act.  We work in this life, we fight through the battles that face in this life–in the name of the Lord.  Why even Michael when he confronted Satan over the body of Moses, said, the Lord rebuke you.  
     “When you move forward into crises, a season of deep vulnerability or trial, the enemy wants you to think, ‘I’ll never survive this.'” (George Wood)  When this happens it would do us good to remember, I was surrounded…the Lord helped me…the Lord is my strength and song…He is my salvation…the right hand of the Lord is lifted.  Steven Lawson says, “God was his song, empowering him to overcome his own inner anxieties.  God was his salvation, delivering him from his adversity.”  Trust in the Lord–He will never let you down.
     Perhaps you have heard the story of the man who fell overboard in the sea that was full of sharks.  He yelled for help, but no one on the ship would venture to help the man.  His cries grew desperate as the sharks swam closer, diving by him, brushing him as they swam by.  Then, from the ship, there was a splash out towards the man.  Someone had jumped in to rescue the man.  Ignoring the sharks, the newcomer to the deep grabbed man by the collar then swam furiously towards the ship where there was now a ladder lowered to aid the man.  That night they held a party to the hero.  Toasts were made, smiles were all around, the captain came up to the hero and while shaking his hand asked if he had anything to say.  The hero, looked sternly at the crowd, “I would just like to know who pushed me in?”  Like this psalmist, the man was pushed “violently”.  The man in the psalm was pushed that he might not live.  We have those instances in life where we seemed pushed, but notice–the Lord helped him.
     Triumph is easily seen in these verses.  Not personal triumph, but victory because of the Lord.  The Lord, He is omnipotent, and He will use His power to save His own.  There are two things that could be taken from the 17th verse.  One, the psalmist was not expected to live, but the Lord spared his death in order that he might proclaim God’s greatness.  He was given extended life.  Or, there could be something more.  Some of the last words spoken by John Wycliffe while on his deathbed were, “I will not die, but I will live, and will again declare the evil deeds of the friars.” (Petersen)  Wycliffe died, but his message and work lived on.  Listen–we are all going to die, but what will you leave behind?  The end of life is not halted by death.  The trail we left behind is there for others to follow.  Perhaps we should be carefully noting what kind of trail we are leaving.  Will others be able to clearly see the trail to glory because of what we left behind?

               “Shrink not, Christian, will you yield?
               Will you quit the painful field?
               Will you flee in danger’s hour?
               Don’t you know your Captain’s power?
               Oft in danger, oft in woe,
               Onward, Christian, onward go.”
                        –H.K. White

                    –Psalm 25:12 (NKJV)
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               “For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me…”
                         –2 Timothy 4:10 (ESV)

This sad commentary I mentioned last week when we looked at the stony ground, but I wanted to bring it up again.  Notice the reason that Demas left Paul, he was “in love with this present world.”  Is this not the problem today?  Busyness, shallow thinking, deceit, material gain are all out there and seek our attention.  It is up to us, our choice, whether we continue on the way with Christ or choose, as Demas did to fall back into the world.

               “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.”  –Matthew 13:22(NKJV)
               “Now the one that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”  –Luke 8:14 (NKJV)

     This person has accepted the Word, and it has taken root and has started to grow, but then….  Then something happens.  They get busy.  Oh, it might be legitimate, at least for a while, in fact, they may be busy with the Lord’s work.  Work, work, work, have to make a dollar–but at what expense!  Barclay writes, “We must ever remember that the things which crowd out the highest need not necessarily be bad.  The worst enemy of the best is the second best.”  This person wants it all, God, material success, a wonderful social life; “he wants the fruitfulness that comes with the gospel, but with he also wants everything else.” (Stedman)  He will run his credit card(s) to the max trying for the finer things of life.  He does not necessarily want to work for it, but wants it now.  But if he has to work for it that work may get in the way of the gospel.  Miss one Sunday a month, then another, then after they make their money they want to take a Sunday off to enjoy their hard labor.  The Sunday School class they were part of has been put aside.  The fellowship that is needed is replaced by those in the world.  What a dreadful sight.
     Notice, this person does not hear the word “with joy”.  He simple allows the message to grow, but “life has too many other commitments that slowly choke the struggling plant, which never matures and bear fruit.” (D.A. Carson)  We see that there are two types of thorns presented in this passage:  the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.  It could be rendered “the cares of the age,” indicating that the person has not thought nor does he have his eye on the age to come.  Carson continues to say, “The idea is clear:  worries about worldly things or devotion to wealth snuff out spiritual life.”  Note also, the idea of “deceit.”  That implies that the thorns are “so subtle that one may not be aware of the choking that is going on.” (Carson)  Eventually we see that there is no fruitfulness; “all the seeming good effect [of the word] is gone, leaving the soul a very thicket of thorns.” (Broadus)
     The stony ground the seed was snatched away, adversity could not be handled, but now the plant grows, it looks good, but then distractions come and it does not mature.  There is no fruit and the fruitless branches will be cut off and thrown into the fire.  In other words, they are fruitless, no good, dead, only good for the fire.  Walter Liefeld suggests, “that this matter of being fruitful is not simply a matter of the quality of one’s Christian life but of whether one has life at all…”  
     Friend, contrary to some, there can be a falling away.  Jude warns us that, “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves.  They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees WITHOUT FRUIT, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.” (12, NKJV, emphasis mine)  John says that “they went out from us, but they were not of us…” (1 John 2:19, NKJV)  There will be a falling away–“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first…” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, NKJV)  Forsaking the truth, there will be those who fall into deceit.
     Make sure you count the cost.  Take inventory of your Christian walk which should be done on a regular basis.  Concentrate on the kingdom–“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33, NKJV)  Do not be deceived, do not let the world choke out what God has for you.  Don’t let the pleasures of this world beguile you.  “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  (Matthew 16:26, NKJV)   In short — don’t become like Demas.  Keep your eyes focused on the Lord.

       “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.”
                    –Psalm 115:3 (NKJV)
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Children often ask, “Who made God?” or “Where did God come from?”  It is hard to understand and even harder to explain, He always was!  He was just there!  That’s one reason I like that phrase by Francis Schaeffer, “The God Who Is There!”  He was before the beginning–grasp that; and He will be continual throughout the eons when time is no more–He is there.  I was criticized once when I taught this class saying that God does not need us.  He is all sufficient within Himself.  Since He is perfect, actually more than perfect, nothing can be added to Him and nothing can be taken away.  He is the I AM, He exists, He is there!  He cannot go out of existence and He never had a beginning.  As Packer writes, “God necessarily continues forever unchanged, because it is His eternal nature to do that.”
     The psalm of Moses declares, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2, ESV)  God is solitary in His excellency.  Man does not like this thought and shuns it.  He likes to think that He adds to God and if that could be remotely possible it would be creating an idol.  When God created it did nothing to God essentially for He changes not.  God’s glory can neither be augmented or diminished.  “Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods?  Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11, NKJV)  
     “God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create.” (Arthur Pink)  He determines nothing but His own mere good pleasure.  No, that is not ego.  You have to remember that “ego” is a man-made term, something that is not related to God.  He has nothing to prove to Himself (or to anyone else).  Paul writes that He “worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” (Ephesians 1:11, NKJV)  God does not gain anything from His creation; it does not make Him bigger or better.  Our obedience profits God nothing, for He is all within Himself.  
     He is referred to as the Father, which means “one who brings into existence.” (E.S. Williams)  Why do you think there is such an attack on the image of the father, the role of the father, and the responsibility of the father as well as the role of man in general?  Man does not like the thought that there is a Father in heaven who has the universe under His control.  All of heaven and all of earth are under His control.  All dominions, powers, spirits, angels, principalities, and earthly thrones are under His control and He does not need them.
     God is both honored and dishonored by men.  God would be God whether He created man or not.  Job relates, “Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him!” (26:14, NKJV)  He does not need us…yet He loves us.  He is no better if we worship Him, yet He delights in the worship of His children.  Ponder the words of Isaiah, lest we begin to get too big for our britches, “Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.  And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.  All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.  To whom then will you like God?  Or what likeness will you compare to Him?” (Isaiah 40:15-18, NKJV)
     “God’s self-existence is a basic truth.” (Packer)  Man in his worship, in his development, in his ideologies does not keep God going.  He needs no support system.  “The word ‘aseity,’ meaning that He has life in Himself and draws His unending energy from Him…was coined by theologians to express this truth.” (Packer)  Because of the limits of our finiteness this doctrine of aseity stands as a bulwark against mistakes of making something out of God that is not there.  Pink writes, “Such an One is to be revered, worshipped, adored.  His is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections.  He sustains all, but He Himself independent of all.  He gives to all, but is enriched by none.”  Paul wrote to Timothy, “…He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power.  Amen.” (1 Timothy 6:15-16, NKJV)

          “He does not have to call for help, and you can’t confuse Him.
          He doesn’t need you, and He doesn’t need me.
          He stands alone in the solitude of Himself;
          He’s august, and He’s unique;
          He’s unparalleled, He’s unprecedented, He’s supreme…”
                    –Rev. S. M. Lockeredge