Posts Tagged ‘God’s sovereignty’

Satan will be vanquished

Posted: May 21, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, Galatians, May
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And though this world with devils filled
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure
For, lo, his doom is sure;

one little word shall fell him.

John Piper comments:

An example of the word that can fell Satan in our lives is Galatians 4:3–7, “When we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir.”

Do you see what that means? It means that when the appointed time came, God looked down on his own world under the dominion of Satan and said to his Son, “Prepare for the invasion. The artillery of the enemy will be heavy. In fact, before you get very far on the beach you will be killed. But I will raise you from the dead and the beachhead you established will spread until it invades every tongue and tribe and nation. And I will free town after town from slavery to demons and slavery to the law. And we will draw into our movement all those who trust in you, my Son, and we will send your Spirit to empower them and bring them to glory. And they will be my children and heirs of everything I have. Satan will be vanquished, all unbelievers will be banished to outer darkness, and our glory will fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.”

Life does not have a “delete” key

Posted: May 20, 2013 by Pam Larson in 2 Samuel, Devotionals/Commentaries, May
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Steve Zeisler, in a message on 2 Samuel 12-19, preached at Peninsula Bible Church:

old typewriterTypewriters have become obsolete, like slide rules and rotary telephones. I think that’s a good thing. Typing was one of my worst classes in high school. Fine motor skills are not my strength. And unfortunately for me there was no way to fake competence in typing class. We had to turn in perfect papers. Had we been allowed to make errors, I could type 60-70 words per minute, but I could only achieve half that with accuracy.
MacBookBlackNow, as you know, the modern counterpart of the old typewriter is the word processor. With a word processor, you need not print a hard copy until you’re ready to. The document exists only in computer memory, and there is a delete key, an undo command, a spelling checker, and all kinds of things to fix your mistakes before you ever print it out. It seems to me that’s a much better way to do things.

chessSimilarly, old games used to consist of real manipulatives: chess pieces, Scrabble letter tiles, and so on. You knew whether you had done well or not because the evidence was in front of you. Modern games, of course, are electronic, and if anything bad happens, you just hit the “start over” button, and all the deaths you’ve died are wiped out.

It turns out, though, that real life is much more like the old typewriter than the modern word processor.Real life has consequences that cannot be altered with a delete key.

We’ve come now in our series of studies to the long-term outcomes of David’s rebellion. David imagined himself to be a sort of god, ordering life and death of his subordinates-until the awful day when Nathan came and faced him with his sin. David’s heart finally broke before the Lord, and the interior suffering to which he had been subjected was finally relieved as he admitted publicly, “I have sinned against the LORD.” 

Now what follows is the account of David’s loss of control. Where once he seemed to be in command of everything, at the center of his own universe, now he can’t stop things from unraveling.

In the last message, we heard Nathan’s prediction to David: “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house….” And he further predicted the rending of David’s own family. It would become a circle of violence, pride, defiant betrayal, and finally public humiliation.

Now, there is a redemptive aspect to all this. It is good that David loses his authority over everything. He becomes a man who is yielded to God rather than one who challenges God, and the good work that happens inside David is his restoration to a loving relationship with God.

Thousands of unguessable ways God rescues

Posted: May 13, 2013 by Pam Larson in 1 Samuel, Devotionals/Commentaries, May
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The reading for today, 1 Samuel 29-31, brings us to the end of this book.  Bob Deffinbaugh offers this encouraging commentary at Bible.org-

God’s sovereignty is so apparent in the rescue of David and his men from military service, service to the Philistines and against Israel. God uses David and even his sin to achieve His ultimate purposes. God does not cause David to sin, nor is this sin excused. But in the end, God’s sovereignty (absolute control) is so great that He can even employ the disobedience and sins of men to further His own purposes. He used the sinful betrayal of Joseph by his brothers to save the nation Israel. So God uses sinful men in our text. He used David, as we have seen. He uses the naivet of a king like Achish and the foresight and practical wisdom of the four Philistine commanders. He will even use the Amalekite attack for a good purpose. I love what Davis says about God’s use of His enemies:

“We see it again. What instruments does Yahweh use to rescue his servant from his dilemma? The commanding officers of the Philistine army. It was not the first time Yahweh had turned enemies into saviors (see 23:19-28). Philistines make such unwitting but effective servants! Who has ever been his counselor?! (Cf. Isa. 40:13-14).”158

“What our text does teach is that even in our folly and fainting fits, we are still no match for our God, who has thousands of unguessable ways by which he rescues his people – even by the mouths of Philistines. He can make the enemy serve us as a friend. He not only prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies but also has the knack of making the enemies prepare the table!”159

I think we sometimes unthinkingly assume God is a saving God only at the cross of Calvary. The fact is that God has been and still is a saving God. He has been saving men from the beginning of history. God is a rescuer. He rescued Noah and his family from the flood (Genesis 6-9). He rescued Abram from Egypt and from the hand of Abimelech in Gerar (Genesis 13, 20). He rescued Lot and his daughters from Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). He rescued Jacob and his family from extinction as a separate nation (Genesis 37ff.). He rescued the Israelites from Pharaoh, and from the evil hand of many other kings and nations. He constantly rescued the Israelites from their surrounding enemies during the days of the judges. If God needed practice in saving men (which He most certainly does not!), He would be very good at it by now.

But all of these earlier deliverances do not hold a candle to the great and final act of deliverance that He brought about for men in the sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died for our sins, bearing our punishment. He not only takes our sins upon Himself, He offers His righteousness to us so that we may have eternal life and dwell with Him for all eternity. And God accomplished this through the sinful betrayal of Judas, the jealousy and scheming of the Jewish religious leaders, the cooperation of Gentile Roman rulers (who sought to be politically correct), and the passivity (and even participation) of the people. This He did so that sinful men might be forgiven for their sins and receive the righteousness which God offers to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

To read the rest of the commentary, click here:

Why should we emphasize that God loves, forgives, and saves for his own glory?

Posted: May 12, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, May, Psalms
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Many of the Psalms, including the one for our reading today, praise God for His mighty works and awesome deeds.  Some of these Psalms even declare the ultimate reason God does these things.

Notice the phrase in Psalm 106:8  Yet he saved them for his name’s sake,  that he might make known his mighty power.

Dr. John Piper explains-

Why should we emphasize that God loves, forgives, and saves for his own glory?

Two reasons (among others).

1)  Because the Bible does.

I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25)

For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalm 25:11)

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! (Psalm 79:9)

Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. (Jeremiah 14:7)

We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne. (Jeremiah 14:20-21)

God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)

Your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. (1 John 2:12)

2. Because it makes clear that God loves us with the greatest love.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be  with me  where I am, to see my glory. (John 17:24)

mirrorsGod loves us not in a way that makes us supreme, but makes himself supreme. Heaven will not be a hall of mirrors but an increasing vision of infinite greatness. Getting to heaven and finding that we are supreme would be the ultimate let down.

The greatest love makes sure that God does everything in such a way as to uphold and magnify his own supremacy so that when we get there we have something to increase our joy forever—God’s glory.

The greatest love is God’s giving himself to us for our eternal enjoyment for ever, at the cost of his Son’s life (Romans 8:32).

To read more posts like these, go to DesiringGod.org

God means what He says and does

Posted: May 11, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, May, Psalms
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Have you ever read Psalm 105 and counted how many times either God says, “I DID___” or how many times the Psalmist says, “HE (God) DID ______”   Try it today!

_joseph_brothers_Here is one example from Psalm 105:16-17  When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread,  he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

Indeed, even Joseph proclaims to his brothers in Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

C.H. Spurgeon, in the Treasury of David comments:

He sent a man before them, even Joseph. He was the advance guard and pioneer for the whole clan. His brethren sold him, but God sent him. Where the hand of the wicked is visible God’s hand may be invisibly at work, overruling their malice. No one was more of a man, or more fit to lead the van than Joseph: an interpreter of dreams was wanted, and his brethren had said of him, “Behold, this dreamer cometh.” Who was sold for a servant, or rather for a slave. Joseph’s journey into Egypt was not so costly as Jonah’s voyage when he paid his own fare: his free passage was provided by the Midianites, who also secured his introduction to a great officer of state by handing him over as a Slave. His way to a position in which he could feed his family lay through the pit, the slaver’s caravan, the slave market and the prison, and who shall deny but what it was the right way, the surest way, the wisest way, and perhaps the shortest way. Yet assuredly it seemed not so.

  • Were we to send a man on such an errand we should furnish him with money—Joseph goes as a pauper;
  • we should clothe him with authority—Joseph goes as a slave;
  • we should leave him at full liberty—Joseph is a bondman:

yet money would have been of little use when corn was so dear, authority would have been irritating rather than influential with Pharaoh, and freedom might not have thrown Joseph into connection with Pharaoh’s captain and his other servants, and so the knowledge of his skill in interpretation might not have reached the monarch’s ear. God’s way is the way. Our Lord’s path to his mediatorial throne ran by the cross of Calvary; our road to glory runs by the rivers of grief.

Providence and a Pit Stop

Posted: May 11, 2013 by Pam Larson in 1 Samuel, Devotionals/Commentaries, May
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And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.  And the men of David said to him, “Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.’” Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.  And afterward David’s heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord’s anointed.”  So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.
—1 Samuel 24:3-7

Bob Deffinbaugh, in a message “A Time to Kill or Not”

This is truly an amazing story. Who would ever have thought that “nature’s call” would result in the peaceful parting of David and Saul on such an occasion? God is sovereign. He is in absolute control of all things, and “all things” includes things as basic as the “call of nature.” By means of this very natural (our children would say “gross” or something of the sort) event, some very supernatural things happened. First, David and Saul met and parted, yet without the shedding of any blood. Saul confessed things we would never have expected from him. David not only repented of his act of cutting off a portion of Saul’s robe, he kept his men from killing Saul. And all of this is the result of Saul looking for a pit stop, and finding it in the very cave where David and his men “just happened” to be hiding. God is able to employ “nature” to achieve His purposes. What a marvelous God we serve!

But you, O Lord….

Posted: May 8, 2013 by Pam Larson in Devotionals/Commentaries, May, Psalms
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But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever;

you are remembered throughout all generations. Psalm 102:12

It would be interesting to read through the Bible and mark every “…but God” that you come across. In Psalm 102, the author is clearly distressed and depressed. “But you, O Lord…” He remembers God’s sovereignty and His eternal existence.

Charles H. Spurgeon comments in The Treasury of David:

brilliantsunsetIn the first part of the Psalm, Ps 102:1-11, the moaning monopolizes every verse, the lamentation is unceasing, sorrow rules the hour.

The second portion, from Ps 102:12-28, has a vision of better things, a view of the gracious Lord, and his eternal existence, and care for his people, and therefore it is interspersed with sunlight as well as shaded by the cloud, and it ends up right gloriously with calm confidence for the future, and sweet restfulness in the Lord.

The whole composition may be compared to a day which, opening with wind and rain, clears up at noon and is warm with the sun, continues fine, with intervening showers, and finally closes with a brilliant sunset.

God’s sense of humor?

Posted: May 2, 2013 by Pam Larson in 1 Samuel, Devotionals/Commentaries, May
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In 1 Samuel 5, we see an example of God’s sense of humor.   The people of Israel  were using the Ark of the Covenant like a good-luck charm,  taking it to battle with them.  Their enemies,the Philistines, ended up slaughtering them and capturing the Ark.   The Philistines placed it in their temple before their god, Dagon.   This god was half fish, half man.  (Could it be a transitional life-form?  According to evolutionary theory, we came from the water, as a fish, then just kept transforming ourselves, right? Could we picture Dagon as a mascot for evolution?)

The Philistines came into their temple the next day and found Dagon flat on his face before the ark!  They set him back up. The next morning, there he was again, but this time Dagon was not only turned over, but dashed to pieces, losing his head (wisdom?) and hands (power?) -so that nothing but the stump remained.  The people were trying to honor Dagon, but God had other plans: dashing their pride and exposing their foolishness. It really was a rather comical picture. God  positioned Dagon in a position of submission to His ark!

This incident is an example of God laughing at the foolishness of those who would oppose Him.  Psalm 59:7-9 states,

There they are, bellowing with their mouths
with swords in their lips—
for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?”

But you, O Lord, laugh at them;
you hold all the nations in derision.
O my Strength, I will watch for you,
for you, O God, are my fortress.

And indeed, on a serious note, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” (Phil 2:10)

God is on His throne, and although it may seem as if the enemy is winning, God WILL triumph, and ALL will bow in submission to Him!

Draw near in the dark days

Posted: May 2, 2013 by Pam Larson in 1 Samuel, Devotionals/Commentaries, May
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1 Samuel 3-5 describes a very dark period in the history of Israel.  In 1 Samuel 4:10-11 we read, “

So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.  And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.”

God was no longer fighting for His people, and without Him they suffered defeat at the hands of the enemy.

“The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” (2 Chron. 15:2).

We see the same principle  in the New Testament in James 4:8-10  

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

What is prayer? Is prayer effective?

Posted: May 1, 2013 by Pam Larson in 2 Corinthians, Devotionals/Commentaries, May
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In Him we have set our firm hope, that he will deliver us, as you join in working for us by prayer, so that the blessing that comes to us from the prayers of many persons might result in thanksgiving to God by many as they see our deliverance. —2 Corinthians 1

Pastor Coty Pinckney asks:

Does prayer really do anything? Does prayer get results? If you ask me to pray for you – and I don’t do it – are you worse off?

Many people have one of two unbiblical views of prayer:

First, the Star Wars view: Prayer is a force to be channeled. In the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker takes the divine power that is available, “the force,” and channels it to good purposes.Darth Vadar takes that same force and channels it to evil purposes. Both of them twist the available divine power to suit their own ends.

While few Christians would say that we can accomplish evil purposes through tapping into the power of prayer, many still think of prayer as our setting an agenda, our deciding on a plan,our laying out a program and then tapping into God’s power to accomplish it. This is still the Star Wars view of prayer.

The second view is, in part, a reaction to the first. These folks say, “Prayer doesn’t change God! God has already determined what He is going to do, and prayer will not change that. God is in control. He is sovereign. Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us. So there’s no need to pray for anything other than a change in myself.”

The second sounds like it is honoring God. This view recognizes God as sovereign, almighty, and wise. That being the case, who are we to channel His power for our uses?

But both of these views are unbiblical.  Both are wrong.

What is prayer? Is prayer effective?

The correct answers to these questions can only come from the Bible. We can speculate all day based on our experiences. We can talk about how we prayed in the past and there were results, or there weren’t. But there is no authority in those experiences. We can’t experiment with God: “I’ll try praying this time and see if anything changes. If it does, I’ll know prayer works; if it doesn’t, I’ll know not to bother with it in the future.” God is not like two chemicals, such as gunpowder and oxygen, which whenever mixed with sufficient heat will explode.

No. The way to get knowledge about prayer – the way to get any true knowledge about God – is through His Word, the Bible. What does the Bible say?

The entire sermon is very insightful, and I recommend it highly.  Click here if you would like to read the whole sermon.  Here is part of the conclusion:

The Sovereign God Works Through Prayer For His Glory

Consider [2 Corinthians] 1:10b to 11 once again:

In Him we have set our firm hope, that he will deliver us, as you join in working for us by prayer, so that the blessing that comes to us from the prayers of many persons might result in thanksgiving to God by many as they see our deliverance.

What is the result of prayer? Prayer results “in thanksgiving to God by many as they see our deliverance.” Note the order of events here:

  • Paul is in trouble.
  • The Corinthians pray.
  • Paul is delivered – this is the “blessing that comes to [him] from the prayers of many.”

Then what? Is that the end? Prayer produced Paul’s deliverance, and that’s it?

No! The whole purpose of prayer – the whole purpose of everything that God does – is to show what God is like. The whole purpose of creation is to display God’s character. And God answers prayer to show what He is like to three groups: those who pray, those who are prayed for, and those who hear about it.

So here Paul says that prayer results in thanksgiving to God. This, rather than Paul’s deliverance, is the most important result of the prayers of the Corinthians.

Note this very carefully. Paul is not primarily asking for deliverance from peril. Isn’t that where we normally focus? On deliverance? But that’s not Paul’s focus. Paul’s focus is the glory of God.

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