Who's in Control?

Who is in Control?

You can listen to this message here: https://youtu.be/NlaLXwcWTz4 

 

Before I get into the heart of my message today, we need to remind ourselves of three fundamental truths – and we need to remind ourselves of those truths again and again during our days left on earth. For if we forget them, or minimize them, or doubt them, then we will set ourselves up for failure when life splinters all around us.

 

First, at our faith’s most fundamental level, we must trust that when God says He is love itself, that He is, therefore, love itself. When His word tells us “He is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds” (Psalm 145:17), that He IS righteous and kind in all He does or does not do. As St John tells us, “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

 

So, that is the first thing of which we must ever remind ourselves. The second is this: We must acknowledge to ourselves again and again, our utter inability to understand the mind of God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

And St Paul tells us: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” (Romans 11:33ff)

Thus, it is entirely natural and normal for God to do things or not do things that leave us confused, perplexed, and baffled. And that should be okay, because we will trust His goodness in all circumstances. 

And the third thing we must never forget is that God is utterly sovereign over all of His creation – from planets in orbit to every individual alive today. Presidents, kings, prime ministers, and ayatollahs – there is not one person among the 6 billion people living today – not one who can take his or her next breath without our Sovereign God’s express permission. And let me say it as clearly as I can: We cannot understand history itself – past or current history – without understanding the Scriptures – because the Scriptures tell us who is in control of – and who orchestrates – history.

 

 

God tells us through Isaiah: Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales . . . All the nations are as nothing before Him; They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”  (Isaiah 40:15-17)

 

And from the time God spoke these words to Isaiah until this very hour, nothing has changed regarding God’s authority over nations and of their leaders.

And so, when life is unfair and tragic and out of control, we must seek the Holy Spirit to increase our trust in God to do what is good and right and just. We do not have to understand – or like what is happening. We simply must learn to trust His goodness, because God cannot be anything else but good.

 

Otherwise, unless the Holy Spirit supernaturally plants these three truths in our hearts and nurtures them, fear will inevitably replace faith, and we will do things we never dreamed we would do.

 

And speaking of fear, last week I spoke from Romans 13, one of the favored texts of tyrants and dictators who seduce biblically illiterate Christians into silence – even into compliance – with their evil governments.

 

I also focused attention on Jesus’ warning about a time that may be fast approaching in our beloved America – a time when neighbors and friends and even family members will betray one another, thinking they are following God’s commandment in Romans 13.

 

What I said last week might have generated fear in some of your hearts. And I want to address, but only for a moment, that emotion of fear because, as St. Paul wrote, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

 

There is not a person here who does not know that fear has spread its dark tentacles like a gangrenous cancer throughout our society. Fear has hurt relationships between friends – and even among families.

 

Fear feeds on itself. And if we are as close to the second coming of Christ as many Christians believe we are, then no one should expect the global fear to dissipate. It will only increase, and the love of the many will grow cold and colder.

 

Thus, it should be no wonder why God commands us, for example, in Isaiah 8: “You are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. Then He shall become a sanctuary.” (Isaiah 8:13-14a)

So, Christian – seek the supernatural help of God the Holy Spirit to cease fearing what everyone else fears. As I mentioned a moment ago, such fear will only cause us to do evil. Instead, by God’s help alone, make Him what you fear. Make Him what you dread. THEN will He be for us a place of refuge and peace.

Which brings us now to part two of a three-part message I believe God wants me to bring to all of us as we watch the world around us shatter like Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall. I have titled this message: Who is in Control?

 

Look with me at Romans 15:4: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

 

Hope. When we read the word ‘hope’ throughout Scripture, the word most often means in context a ‘confident expectation’ of something which God has promised. A confident expectation because God cannot lie to us. Ever.

 

Hope rooted in faith not only mitigates fear, hope rooted in faith vanquishes fear. Hope rooted in faith sends fear screeching back into hell where it originates. It is faith in our faithful God which is the victory that overcomes the world. (See 1 John 5:4)

 

So, what does God say in His word about His sovereignty over presidents, kings, and ayatollahs that emboldens our confidence to face whatever it is that we may face in our future? What does He say that can nurture our hope?

Well, God says quite a lot – and for good reason, because He wants to remind His children of His unparalleled power.

 

Take Pharaoh for example. Pharaoh and his government forced God’s chosen people into subjugation. Moses tells us they “put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor . . and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly (Exodus 1:11-14). Pharaoh even ordered Jewish families to drown their newborn boys in the Nile.

 

Persecuted for their faith, enslaved because of their faith, murdered because of their faith. -- how many of the millions of enslaved Jews asked the question of God: Why?

 

But when He told them, I suspect many were not entirely happy with the answer – just as if He would tell US what He is doing in our world, I suspect many of us would not like His answer.

Here is what God said about the pompous and murderous Pharaoh: “[F]or this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth.” (Exodus 9:16)

 

The Jews believed Pharaoh was too powerful an enemy to be vanquished. But He was not. Many likely believed God had abandoned them. But He had not. He was just waiting for the right time according to His timetable – and His timetable alone – to bring their deliverance AND to demonstrate across the millennia even to us in the 21st century that the mighty ones who think of themselves as gods are nothing more than tools in the sovereign hands of the Almighty God.

 

The same can be said about the Babylonian tyrant Nebuchadnezzar some 900 years later. According to both Biblical and extra-Biblical writings, especially those of the Jewish Talmud, Nebuchadnezzar was a vicious and sadistic ruler who ravaged nations, cities, towns, and people according to his whim. It was he who burned Jerusalem and the Holy Temple to the ground. Jeremiah tells us: “Her priests are groaning, her virgins are afflicted . . . . her adversaries have become her masters, her enemies prosper.” (Lamentations 1:4-5)

 

And in the aftermath of Nebuchadnezzar’s rampage through Jerusalem, the psalmist writes: “O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, how blessed will be the one who repays you with the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones against the rock.” (Psalm 137:8-9)

 

The pagan king thought he was in supreme control over all the affairs of state and of life – until he met the supreme God of heaven and earth. For the sake of time, I will quickly remind you of a few incidents in his life, recorded for us by Daniel, that worked together to teach Nebuchadnezzar who REALLY was in supreme control over the affairs of state and of life.

 

The first incident he witnessed was the miraculous deliverance of Shadrack, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. Here is what he said in response to that deliverance: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.”  (Daniel 3:28-39)

 

And let me remind us of the time when God reduced the pompous pagan king to the level of a beast of the field. When it was all over, and God restored him to his throne, here is how Daniel records it for us in the fourth chapter of his book:

 

“But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ (Daniel 4:34-35)

Fast forward to 2021. For anyone paying attention with spiritual insight, it is impossible to watch world events unfold and not recognize that a supernatural evil is parading across the globe. And for those whose eyes and ears have been spiritually opened and whose hearts are tied to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we know presidents and prime ministers and kings and ayatollahs are not at all in control of anything. ANYTHING.

 

It is our God, and Him alone, who is in total, complete, and unassailable control of all the events of this growing darkness we hear about on the nightly news. This is not to say God is DOING the evil. It is simply that we acknowledge that evil could not take its next victim anywhere in the world – including in Afghanistan – without our Sovereign God’s permission.

 

Remember what Jesus said to Pilate just before the Roman governor handed Him over to be crucified? When he reminded Jesus that he had authority to crucify Him or free Him, Jesus responded, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above.” 

 

Listen to it again!  Our Father in heaven is in absolute control of what happens to nations AND what happens to individuals – you and me.

 

You and I are invincible – until God alone says we are not.

 

And until you and I let the Holy Spirit implant and nurture the three truths I spoke of at the beginning of this message, the encroaching evil will do what evil does – generate fear in the hearts of God’s children and causing US to do evil. Hear what the psalmist said about that: Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.⁸ Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. (Psalm 37:7-8)

What again are those three truths that I cited at the beginning of this message?

 

First, we must remind ourselves of every day is that God is the very definition of goodness. And love. That theme is repeated on almost every page of Scripture.

 

Second, we cannot ever hope to understand the mind of God. We can never know fully know why God does what He does, or why He does not do what He does not do. At our faith’s most fundamental level, we must recognize our utter inability to understand the mind of God.

And third, God is utterly sovereign over all of His creation – and that includes every president, king, prime minister, and ayatollah. No one can take his or her next breath without our Sovereign God’s express permission.

So, when life is unfair and tragic and out of control, May God help us to remember these three truths: we cannot understand God, except to know that He tells us He is sovereign. And that He is the essence of goodness and love.

 

For the one who has learned to really, really trust our good and loving God, it will not matter what life brings to us – as tragic as that might even be.

 

For when we have learned by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to really trust our loving Father, we will find ourselves saying with Job: “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.” (Job 13:15).