We're turning in God's Word to Psalm 115. Psalm 115, and we're going to read from the opening verse of the chapter here. Psalm 115, and we'll read some verses at the beginning of this Psalm. Psalm 115, and we'll read from verse number one. The Psalm is said, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy true sake. Wherefore, should the heathen say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, but they handle not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Amen, and we'll end our reading there at the end of the verse 11. Let's pray and seek the Lord together in a word of prayer, please. Our loving Father, we thank Thee for Thy word. Lord, we say in the words of this opening verse, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name, give glory. Lord, we pray that this message will bring glory to thee today. We pray, O God, that our hearts might be open to receive thy word. Hush down the world, we pray. all that would cause our minds to be distracted. Even, O God, things that have happened this morning in our home place, or things that will happen this afternoon, all we pray closes in with God. Shut us in for these moments. May our hearts be open to hear from Thee. Lord, grant, O God, a willingness to obey Thee in that which God would have us to hear apply to our hearts and our lives and so send thy spirit fill me with thy holy spirit i pray grant an anointing we ask of thee grant oh god the words the meditations of our heart to be acceptable in thy sight our lord and our strength and our redeemer we pray these are prayers in and through jesus precious name amen and amen One of the most comforting truths and attributes of God revealed to us in the Word of God is the attribute of God's sovereignty. When we think of the word sovereignty, we know that another mind would immediately come into our minds, the word sovereign. And those words, those two words are closely related to one another because it is a sovereign. It is a sovereign who exercises his or her sovereignty. over the territory and over the citizens of their realm. In the most absolute sense, God is sovereign over all. He is sovereign over all. And as sovereign over all, He alone has the power and the authority over all things. Today we want to continue our study in beholding our God and our study on the attributes of God. And so today we want to behold our sovereign God. Now the subject matter is vast. will not be extensive in our coverage or exhaustive, but there are a number of points that I want us to consider in this message with regard to the sovereignty of God. So we may as well get into it. We may as well get into it at this present moment of time. Firstly, I want to begin by thinking with you about the meaning of God's sovereignty, the meaning of God's sovereignty. To understand what we're talking about today, I believe that we need to define what is meant by the sovereignty of God. God's sovereignty is simply God's rightful, his rightful control and reign over all things. It is God's right to govern and to control the universe that He has created. When we speak of God's sovereignty, we mean the supremacy of God. We're speaking about the kingship of God. We're speaking about the Godhood of our God. The sovereignty of God is the biblical teaching that all things, and I want to emphasize that, all things are under God's rule and control. and that nothing, and I emphasize that word nothing, nothing happens without his direction and without his permission. The sovereignty of God is not merely that God has the power and the right to govern all things but that he actually does so and he always does so and without exception. And they quote a number of men who define God's sovereignty in the following ways. A.W. Pink said, the sovereignty of God may be defined as the exercise of his supremacy. He went on to say, when we say that God is sovereign, We are affirming his right to govern the universe, which he has made for his own glory, just as he pleases. We affirm that it is his right as the right of the potter over the clay, that he may mold the clay into whatsoever form he chooses, fashioning out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. We affirm that he is under no rule or law outside of his own will and nature, that God is a law unto himself, and that he is under no obligation to give an account of his matters to any. A.W. Tozer wrote, God's sovereignty is the attribute by which He rules His entire creation. Dr. Norman Gleiser said, sovereignty is God's control over His creation. Dealing with His governance over its sovereignty is God's rule over all reality. Sovereignty is God's rule over all reality. Now, when we think of the attribute of God's sovereignty, how different is the God of the Bible from the God of modern Christendom? The God of our modern world is a helpless, effeminate being who commands no respect from anyone. As A.W. Pink again put it, the God of the popular mind is the creation of a mushy sentimentality. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence. The God of many a present-day pulpit is an object of pity rather than of awe-inspiring reverence. But our God, the God of the Bible, is one who holds sovereign sway over the entire created universe and every created being therein, whether that being be angelic, human, or animal. God holds absolute sovereign sway over His entire creation and every being therein. This is what we mean. when we speak of the sovereignty of God, His right as the sovereign to rule over His entire creation. In whatever way He pleases, He has to answer to none but to Himself. But secondly, as we think of the sovereignty of God, we want to consider the scripture's affirmation of God's sovereignty. You see, the sovereignty of God is not just some attribute that is written about by theologians in their theological books. But rather, the sovereignty of God is an attribute that is repeatedly presented to us within the inspired Word of God. From the book of Genesis right through to the book of the Revelation, we come into contact with our sovereign God. Within the Scriptures, God reveals himself to us as the supreme, almighty, sovereign one. And he does so in passages such as Genesis 18 and the verse 25, if you want to turn there, Genesis 18, the verse 25. Now, Abraham is the speaker here, and he's speaking about God's sovereignty in relation to the punishment of the wicked. the sparing of the righteous in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. We read verse 23, and Abraham drew near and said, speaking of to God, will they also destroy the righteous with the wicked? For adventure there be fifty righteous within the city, will they also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? Be that be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked. Be that far from these, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Of course he will, for he is sovereign over all. And whether it is with respect to the punishment of the guilty or the sparing of those that are righteous, God will sovereignly rule and decree that which will come to pass with respect to those two groupings of individuals. The judge, the sovereign of all, will always do right. He'll always do right. Sovereignty of God is spoken of many times within the Psalms. I give you just a number of references. Psalm 47, verse 2, for the Lord, most high is terrible. He is a great king over all the earth, over all the earth. Psalm 83 verse 18, that men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the most high over all, over all the earth. In the psalm that we read today, Psalm 115, the verse number three, but our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Not what man would have him to do, but whatever God himself would have himself to do. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Psalm 135, verse 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. God does what he pleases. His sovereignty is with respect to that which happens in heaven, earth, the sea and even the deep places. I believe that that refers to even hell itself, the deep places. Daniel 4 verse 35, Nebuchadnezzar said these words, he doeth according to his will. in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? He is sovereign in these matters. That's what Nebuchadnezzar said. Now, these references are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Bible texts that point us to the sovereignty of God. Because wherever we go in the Scriptures, We find that God is designated clearly as the sovereign over all. The Bible is crystal clear. that God's sovereignty rules over all, or God's sovereignty rules over all, that He does what He wills, that there is no one or nothing that can thwart His purpose, there is none that can stay His hand, that all things work together for good to them that love God, and that He is orchestrating all things that happens in human history as a means of advancing His own glory. God is in control. sovereign he must be. Someone has said that if there be a maverick molecule in this world doing its own thing, God would no longer be sovereign. There's not a molecule, there's not an atom in this world that is doing its own thing today, but all is under our sovereign King's control. Now, there's going to be comfort and challenge to our hearts as we continue to think out this truth, but personally speaking, I would rather side on the Bible's presentation of a sovereign God, knowing that God is in complete and absolute control of everything, rather than to think, as some would have us to think, that our God is in control of nothing. We affirm, as Paul affirmed in Romans 9 verse 5, that God is over all. He's over all, over all things. As we continue to think about the sovereignty of God, I want us to consider then in the third place, this will be, I suppose, our longest point today, I want you to think about the extent of God's sovereignty. The bottom line is that God's sovereignty that is founded upon His infinite wisdom extends to all things." I've said that. I repeat it for emphasis. It extends to all things. All things. I want to develop that truth for a few moments. I want you to see and show you from the Word of God, first of all, that God is sovereign over creation. He's sovereign over creation. Let me ask you this question. When God created this universe and everything therein, was it because there was some lack? Was there some lack in His own being whereby He could only be satisfied by such a creation? Did God create this world to bring complete fulfillment and satisfaction to Himself? Was that the reason why He created this world? Well, you know that's not the case. You'll remember, as we thought about the doctrine of God and we thought about the being of God, there was something about his being that we spoke upon. We spoke about God being a self-satisfying being. He is self-satisfied. In and of himself, he is satisfied with himself. He needs not something outside of himself to bring him full satisfaction, but he, in and of himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, They are satisfied in their own personages and in the Holy Trinity. So then why did God create this world? Why did He create the Milky Way? Why did He create the planets? Why did He create the angels? Why did He create man? Why did He create animals? Why did He create the world? Well, that question is simply answered for us in the book of Revelation. Chapter four, the verse number 11, for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. You see, in creation, God exercised his sovereign right to create. He did not have to create, he chose to create. And he chose to create all things as they are. Now there might be some parts of your frame, your physical makeup, that you're not very keen on. Every time you look into the mirror, you might think to yourself, I wish that, well, maybe my eyes were a different color, or my ears were a little smaller, or my nose was more petite. And you maybe think along those lines, but remember that whenever God created you, God sovereignly created you the way that he wanted you to be. God made you the way that you want to be. And to change that would be to therefore say that God has made a mistake with respect to how He has made you. God sovereignly made you the way that He made you. And He has sovereignly made this world and all that is therein and beyond in the way that God would have it to be made. I found a very interesting Again, another quote from A.W. Pink. He throws out a few questions about God's sovereignty when he's speaking about the created world. He asks the questions, why should two-thirds of its surface, speaking of planet Earth, why should two-thirds of its surface be covered with water? And why so much of its remaining third to be unfit for human cultivation or habitation? Why should there be vast stretches of marshes, deserts, ice fields? Why would one country be so inferior topographically to another? Why should one be fertile and another almost barren? Why should one be rich in minerals and another have none? Why would one abound in rivers and lakes and another be almost devoid of them? Why should one be constantly troubled with earthquakes and another be almost entirely free from them? Why? Because it pleased, he said, the creator and the upholder of all things. That's why. God has sovereignly decreed it to be so, and as we look out at creation with all of its variations, we have to stand back and say, even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in my sight. Matthew 11 verse 26, such diversity in creation is due to the good pleasure of our sovereign God. God sovereignly has created us. I was thinking about that last night. I was looking at my fingernails, and I thought, Why do your fingernails keep growing but your fingers don't? Do you ever think of that? Very simple thought. I should have been maybe sleeping last night, but I was just sitting thinking about that. Why is it that there comes a stage in life, now obviously children's hands, they go bigger and they go until they reach a stage that their hands actually stop growing, but your fingernails don't. Why? because of God's sovereign purpose. God has sovereignly made us in that way. What a simple thought it is, even to our hearts. And yet, even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight. God is sovereign over creation. He rules over all, all in this world and beyond these worlds. And so if you're an individual that is cowering with respect to the thought that some meteorite is going to smash into planet Earth in the coming days, the next 100 years or so, you need to fret not. If that is God's sovereign will, then it is his sovereign will, but I read something different in scriptures. I read that God is going to burn up The heavens and the earth and all that is are in, so do not panic about such things. The sovereign king of heaven is under, all things are under his control and plan, even in creation. Secondly, God is sovereign over human life. God is sovereign over human life. God's sovereignty has decided the day of our birth, as well as the day of our death. Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1 and 2, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. From this we see that God is sovereign over the issues of life and death. There is a set time to be born and there is a set time to die, or as Hebrews 9, 27 puts it, an appointed time. And as it is appointed unto men, once to die. But after this, the judgment. Job acknowledged that on the death of his 10 children. When he said, by faith, in Job 1, verse 21, the Lord gave, The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Job was acknowledging in those words the sovereignty of God with respect to the death of his children. You see, their deaths were not seen by Job as a sudden accident, but rather as a sovereign appointment. He did not see their deaths as a sudden accident. but as a sovereign appointment. Albert Barnes made this comment about Job. He said he traced the removal of his property and his loss of children at once to God and found consolation in the belief that an intelligent and holy sovereign presided over his affairs and that he removed only what he gave. John Gill put it like this, Job did not attribute his losses to secondary causes, to the Sabians, to the Chaldeans, to the fire from heaven, to the wind from the desert, but to God, whose sovereign will and overruling hand were in all. Now I admit that the death of any loved one is difficult to cope with. The death of any loved one is hard even to recover from. But should we as finite creatures call into question God's sovereign will when it comes to the timing of their deaths? God decreed it. The sovereign God decreed it because the Lord has taken them away. And so grieving one today in this house, think of the death of your loved one as part of then God's sovereign will and rest there, rest there. God has sovereignly willed it. And what a tragedy it would be for our prayers to be answered and Christ's prayers to be overridden. By us keeping them here on earth, would it not be better for them to be with Christ, which is far better? Those who die in Christ. And for them to stay on this earth and destroy the testimonies that they died with. Go on in this life, become backslidden and cold in heart and leave this world without a testimony. Is it not better for them, was it not better for them to die with a testimony for God? God was sovereign in their being taken from us. And there are times within the Christian ministry that I'm at a loss. When I go into homes and into families and into situations where an individual has been taken away, and at the end of the day, we have to just rest upon this, that God is sovereign in the issues of life and death. There was a time to be born for them. There was a time for them to die. And so for us all, there will be a time when we'll run the last lap of life's race and will come to the end of life's journey at the appointed time of the sovereign God of heaven. So do we kick against that? Do we resent God for it? Or do we rest that God has sovereignly decreed it? I rest there. And I trust God that someday, up there, I'll understand. God is sovereign in the matter of human life. And because he is, brethren and sisters, the life issues such as abortion, such as euthanasia, must be opposed by the Christian, for God alone is sovereign when it comes to the issues of life and death. We must not take that to ourselves. That is God's prerogative as a sovereign. In the third place, God is sovereign over the minutest details in life. You know, we would tend to think that the God of heaven is concerned with the great things in life, but is disinterested and small in the insignificant details of life here on earth, and yet that is not so. And I note for this reason that a fall of a spiral from the sky is known and directed by God. Matthew 10, 29, 30, are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. And if God is in sovereign control of the sparrows' fall, is he then not in sovereign control of your life and mine? The minutest details in life God is sovereign over. Fourthly, God is sovereign in the salvation of His people. God is sovereign in the salvation of His people. Why are some people saved and others left to perish? That is a question that has plagued many down through the years, has been hotly debated by theologians down through the years, but the answer to the question is, and the answer to it is found in the sovereignty of God. God sovereignly has chosen to save some and to pass others by, and that is the prerogative of the sovereign. We have no right to question God on that matter, for we should all have been passed by, and we should all have been damned and sent to hell. Now Romans 9 is the classic chapter on the issue of God's sovereignty and salvation. In light of God loving one son of Isaac, Jacob, and hating, and that's the word that's used. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Paul asked the question, Romans 9 verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. How dare we question God in this matter? That he loves one and hates the other? That's what Paul is saying here. Is there some unrighteousness? Is there sin in God? God decreeing that this should be the case? That he loves some and he hates others? Then he goes on to say, for he saith to Moses, I will have mercy. whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, so then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." It's God's right, His prerogative, to set His love on some to pass others by. If you're a Christian here today, If you have a saving interest in Jesus Christ, that should thrill your heart. God has sovereignly set his love on you and passed others by, others more moral than you, others who would have served God in a greater way than you, but God has set his love on you. And that was his sovereign right, his sovereign right. You see, when we come to view God's sovereignty and salvation as within many areas of our lives that we cannot understand, we have to stand back and say like Eli these words, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Let him do what seemeth him good. But I ask you today, if you're not a Christian, has God shown you mercy? Has God shown you mercy? If not, you need to be like blind Bartimaeus. Today in this service, you need to lift your heart to God by faith and cry to God, God, God, show me mercy. Jesus, thy son of David, have mercy on me. Or like that man in the temple as he went to pray, that publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner. That's your cry today, sinner. Let not the sovereignty of God in the matter of salvation cause you to shirk your own responsibility to repent and to believe the gospel. That's what God calls you to do. Someone once said, I've said it here before, election is God's business. Repentance is man's business. Make sure you mind your own business. Make sure you mind your own business. Many would say, but has God chosen me? Have I been elect? Well, why not repent and believe the gospel and then enjoy the very thought that I have been chosen by God before the foundation of the world? Oh, shirk not your responsibility, sinner. We will think about that. We need to keep going. God is sovereign. In the fifth place, I believe we're at now, He's sovereign over the suffering of believers. It is difficult to be a suffering child of God. It's difficult to have a long-term physical ailment, mental ailment. It's difficult to be a suffering child of God, but even our days of suffering are under the control of our sovereign God. That ought to be a comfort to you. The Apostle Paul, he said these words, Philippians 1 verse 29, for unto you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. It's given to you. It's given to you to suffer. Think of it today. If the very hairs of my head are numbered by God, My afflictions and my distresses cannot be the result then of chance, blind fate, accident, but that they are the providential accomplishment of God's eternal purpose. In other words, all things are going to work together for good. to them that love God and to them who are the cold according to his purpose. Charles Spurgeon, he said, when you go through a trial, maybe you're there. He said, the sovereignty of God is a pillow upon which you lay your head. Let us remember then in our sufferings that our sovereign God never lets so much even as a shadow fall across our lives without intending it to be for his glory and for our good. Even our sufferings are under his control. What did Paul say? That which befell him happened for the furtherance and the falling out of the gospel. All that he suffered, he saw God's sovereign hand in it all. Like Joseph we say, ye thought evil against me, but God, he made it for good. God is sovereign over world history. When we look at the events in world history and politics in our own generation with bewilderment at times, we must remember that above earthly monarchs, above prime ministers, above presidents, above dictators, there is a heavenly sovereign who is ruling over the affairs of world history. We are reminded in Exodus 9 verse 16 that God raised up Pharaoh. Now Pharaoh was no friend to the children of God in Egypt. But we read that God raised up Pharaoh for a specific purpose in the days of Moses. And what was that purpose? Exodus 9, 16. For to show in thee my power, that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. Think of the day whenever David went against Goliath. And whenever he went out against Goliath, Goliath was no friend to the children of Israel, to the people of God, but God had raised up Goliath. And David said the reason why, that all the earth may know that there is a God in heaven. That was the reason. God had brought him on to the scene of history. in order to accomplish his purpose. Did he not do that with Cyrus? Whenever God moved upon the heart of that wicked king in order to bring them back from Babylon, back into Jerusalem, God had raised up this man for that specific purpose. Proverbs 21, verse 1, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. And as rivers of waters he turneth it whethersoever he will. Psalm 22 verse 28. The kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among the nations. God is the governor. He's over all. And thank God today we can rest on the sovereignty of God, aware that God's hand is on the rudder of world history, and He is doing in this world, as Acts 4.28 reminds us, whatsoever His hand and His counsel have determined before to be done. In other words, nothing, nothing in world history this nation's history has taken our God by surprise. One Reformed preacher said this, in governing the universe God controls all occurrences, events, and actions. It may seem to some people that this world is out of control, but such is not the case. Tragedies come, trials buffet us, the unexpected occurs, Yet despite outward appearances, God fully controls all events and brings all occurrences to their appointed end. The 20th century theologian John Murray made this comment, we must be reminded that all events, all events believer, all events great and small are embraced in God's sovereign providence. He has not resigned the reins of government. Present history, he said, is not moving towards chaos. It is moving in the grand drama of God's plan to the accomplishment His holy designs and to the vindication of His glory. Brethren and sisters, the sovereign God of heaven is on the throne today. So what are you getting flustered about? Why is your blood pressure rising as you look out into world history? God is still on the throne. He's still king. And He's sovereignly ruling over all things. Now what He's doing, we may not know. Maybe what He's doing in our nation is to humble His people, to cause us to seek after God. But if that's what it takes, then may God send it this way. But God is in control. So don't be getting worried whenever you turn on the news tomorrow. And you're sitting listening to the headlines, and you're reading the headlines in the newspaper. Remember, God's hand is on the tether. His hand is on the river. And He's moving the ship of world history to the great drama of His coming again. He's setting all things in their rightful place. I need to go on. Look at the time. I could say that he's sovereign over other gods and over demonic forces. I don't have time to speak of that, but just remember that when Christ was on this earth, the devils, the devils waited for his command before they moved out of that man of Gadara into that herd of swine. They waited for his command because they recognized that the sovereign one is here. We're in the presence of the sovereign. Thank God he's sovereign over demonic forces, and there'll be Christians, and they fear. They fear, so they do. They hear individuals speaking about demonic forces, and we're not to be ignorant of the devil's devices, but we must remember, we must remember what Balaam said to Balak. How can I curse that which God has blessed, and I paraphrase? God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. We're safe and secure under the blood of Christ. Christ is in sovereign control. Fourthly, we want to think about the opposition to God's sovereignty. Give me just a little more of your time, please. You see, no doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders, controls, and rules over everything. The carnal mind abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to God's eternal decrees. And most of all, the flesh hates the notion that salvation is entirely a sovereign work of God. Opposition to the truth of God's sovereignty also arises when the truth of man's responsibility is placed alongside it. Does the sovereignty of God reduce us to be a mere puppet? God's in control of all things, so am I to go through life singing, whatever will be will be? Is that how I am to live my life? Oh no, because alongside God's sovereignty, sovereignty is man's responsibility. Some would ask, are those two truths compatible? Of course they are. they're compatible because they're in the book, they're in the book, they're in the Word of God. Now that does not mean that I can understand it, but God calls us to believe it, to receive it by faith. Let me give you an example where the sovereignty of God and man's responsibility stands side by side together in God's Word. I am thinking about the event there in Genesis chapter 24, Abraham sends out his eldest servant to seek a bride for his son Isaac. That bride did not miraculously turn up at the tenth door of Isaac. She didn't just appear one day. She didn't just arrive on the scene one day. No, instead a human agent was employed to find a bride for Abraham's son, and that was human responsibility. yet in the midst of that search for a bride we see God's overruling, we see God directing and sovereignly guiding the steps of Abraham's servant so that he would eventually meet Rebekah at Nahor's Well, just outside the city. You see, the servant, that servant came to acknowledge God's overruling sovereignty in the whole matter when it came to finding a bride for his master's son, Abraham. I'm speaking of Isaac. Listen to what he says, Genesis 24, verse 27. I being in the way, the Lord led me. I being in the way, and in that statement there is the blending together of human responsibility and divine sovereignty. I being in the way, that's human responsibility. But then there's God's sovereignty. The Lord led me. The Lord led me. And so we find it there together, they're bringing together these two thoughts. Yes, God is sovereign over all, but there is human responsibility. Now, this is why I say this is opposed. You'll find people in this land who will laugh at us and question us why we're having a gospel mission, why we're going to go out onto the doors. and knock the doors and invite people in. They're going to question us with respect to that. Is God not sovereign in salvation? Yes. But He says go into all the world and preach the gospel. He says to go out into the highways and byways and to compel them to come in. Can we bring them into Christ? No. But we can bring them into the house where they can meet with Christ and Christ will bring them in. There is human responsibility. Other people say, why pray? Why pray? I believe they dealt with that in the Balaamina Week there, the Young People's Week. Why pray? If God is sovereign, if God is going to do what he does, why pray? Because men are always to pray and not to faint, that's why. Because God tells us to pray. When ye pray. Christ said it to his disciples. When ye pray. Not if, but when. There is The sovereignty of God. God is sovereign. That's a biblically revealed truth. Man is a responsible being. That is a biblically revealed truth. How these two truths outwork themselves without impinging upon each other is not for me to say. One modern Reformed preacher explained it like this. Just as the reels of a train track which run parallel to each other appear to merge in the distance, So the doctrines of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, which seem to be separate from each other in this life, will merge in eternity. Our task, he said, is not to force their merging in this life, but to keep them in balance and live accordingly. The secret things belong unto the Lord. And that's where we have to leave it sometimes. That's where we have to leave it. Let me make a brief comment on the application of God's sovereignty to our lives. As we think of God being sovereign over all things, governing, ruling over all things, that means that all that befalls you and I in this world must be seen as being sovereignly ordained and ordered by God. That means that every trial, That means that every valley, and every tear, and every disappointment, alongside every joy, and every mountain, and every smile, and every blessing has come to us by our sovereign God. You see, brothers and sisters, our God is too wise to err, and His dealings with us too loving to cause his child a needless tear. That does not mean that we will understand all that occurs in our lives, but it does mean that the sovereign God in his inscrutable wisdom has saw fit to bring such things to pass. And so when we cannot understand life's events We are to simply bow before the sovereign will of God and say, not my will, but thine be done. Joseph Charles Philpott said, God has sovereign supreme disposal over all events and circumstances. If we could see by the eye of faith that every foe, every fear, every difficulty and perplexity, every trying or painful circumstance, every looked for or unlooked for events, every source of anxiety, whether present or in prospect, are all under his dominion and at his sovereign disposal. If we could see that, what a load, he said, of anxiety and care would be taken off our shoulders. Brothers and sisters in the dark seasons of life, there is no truth that is more needed to comfort and to sustain the downcast Christian than that of God's sovereignty. May this message have helped all those who've been asking the question, why? Why? and that today that you'll come to rest your head on the pillow of God's sovereignty. He hath done all things well. That's what we will say when we get to the better land. We will trace God's hand in it all and we will say that he has done all things well. May God help us to rest on God's sovereignty today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Let's pray. Our loving Father, we bow before thee, the sovereign God of heaven. We rejoice, O God, that thy sovereign purpose has brought us to this house today to hear this word. Lord, I'm praying that it may have been a blessing, a help, an encouragement to thy people. Oh, that our eyes might be lifted to the throne where the king reigns and shall forever reign. We bless thee that the sovereign one is in control and is regulating and governing everything. that is happening in our lives and will happen. And though we may not understand now, we believe that we will understand it better by and by. Help us therefore then, when we do not understand what God is doing, to at least by faith acknowledge that God's hand is in it all. and that He is guiding and ruling all things. Answer prayer and help us, dear Father, to leave this house encouraged in our God. And may we know the blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit abiding. upon each family who know Christ and each individual who has a saving interest in the Redeemer. Answer prayer, for we ask these, our petitions, in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen and Amen.