A. W. Tozer Sermon: Calvinism & Divine Sovereignty

tonight which is very difficult to give I need all the help I can get turn that ray of setup so she rings wherever is in control of the end of the loudspeaker and but it's very difficult to give was the devil doesn't like to hear it so I want you to let me pray for a minute we last God the purge the devil out now Lord our vision from the dead thou art seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty all Power has been given under day in heaven and in us and we come now pray together as I will go through this congregation like a healing wings and we pray be an antidote to the devil's poison and driving we pray from our presence that we may have no hindrance from me that the word of the Lord may go forth and run and be glorified and redound to the high praise of the Godhead and we pray that all will help us by people Lord were slow to hear or slow to remember we're quick to forget we're stodgy and stiff helpless Lord we pray that we may run in a way of thy Commandments and be quick to a baby forgive our slowness forgive and unbelief or give our sluggishness forgive with padey the hotbed state brain cleanse and deliver may we hear from thee tonight may we go out of here with our faith having gone way up the mountain maybe look down on what we formerly looked up to help thy servants as I try to speak and all all of us as we here for Christ's sake amen now tonight I have a number of tips which I'll read and they are found in various parts of the scriptures various sections I have this passage Deuteronomy 4 39 no therefore this day inconsiderate in thine heart that the Lord he is brought in heaven above and upon earth beneath there is none else would Ronna me 32 39 and 40 see now that I even I am he there is no God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand where I lift up my hand to heaven and say I live forever job 12 9 to 10 1617 3313 who knoweth not in all this DD's that the hand of the Lord had brought this in whose hand is the soul of every living thing in the breath of all mankind with him his strength and wisdom they deceived and the deceiver are his he leadeth consulars away spoiled and make up the judges fools why the stout strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters Jeremiah scene 6 house of Israel cannot I do with you at this Potter set the Lord behold as the clay is in the Potters hand sorry in my hand o house of Israel Daniel for three and 35 how great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders his kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and his Dominion is from generation to generation and all inhabitants of the earth are refuted is nothing you do it 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 their 1:3 the Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all equip the wicked the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet now I am to speak tonight on the sovereignty of God to say that God is sovereign is to say that he is supreme over all things to say that God is sovereign is to say that there is no one above him it is absolute the Lord over creation it is to say that his lordship over creation means that there is nothing out of control there is nothing that God hasn't foreseen and for plans and has in full control it means that even the wrath of man must ultimately praise God and the remainder of Wrath God will restrain it means that every creature in earth and in heaven and in Hell must ultimately bow the knee and only Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father now God's sovereignty is God's absolute freedom let's really begin there for there's where the sermon begins but God's sovereignty is his absolute freedom to do all that he wills to do God's sovereignty does not mean that he can do anything but it means that he can do anything that he wills to do and the sovereignty of God and the will of God are bound up together so that God can do what He wills to do the sovereignty of God does not mean that God can lie for God does not will Kalai God is truth and therefore God cannot lie for he wills not to lie God cannot break a promise because the break of promise would be to violate his nature and God does not will to violate his nature therefore it is silly to say that God can do anything but it is scriptural to say that God can do anything he wills to do and it means that God is absolutely free so that no one can compel him and no one can hinder him and nobody can stop him it means that God has freedom to do as he pleases always everywhere and forever now if there's anybody in the wide world of sinful men that should be restful and peaceful in an hour like this it should be Christians except for the burden the Holy Ghost puts on them there is a burden which the Holy Ghost puts on us and that is another matter that is the burden that the Holy Ghost put on Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and Paul when you wept and other Saints when they pray and under the I'm mighty anointing and burden of the Holy Ghost that's one thing it is quite another thing to be under the burden of worry and apprehension Christians should not be under the burden of apprehension and weigh because they are the children of God that can is free always free that has not one rope on him not one not one chain on him not one not one hindrance anywhere upon him because he's absolutely sovereign and that God can always do as he pleases and he can do as he pleases anywhere and he can do as he pleases all the time and forever it means that if God is free to carry out his eternal purposes to their conclusions now I believe this I believe this since I first became a Christian I fell into the hands of good teachers when I became a Christian and they taught me this and I have believed it with increasing joy ever since that God is absolutely free to carry out his eternal purposes to their conclusion God does not by ear God does not doodle and follow his whatever happens to come into his mind or let one idea suggest another God works according to the plans which he purposed in Christ Jesus before Adam walked in the garden before there was a Sun or moon or star or galaxy the follow was an angel before the throne or a Seraphim with burning wings and burning voice God planned because God is God and as I had said already has lived out tomorrow's intimate Aries time in his bosom and God is carrying out his eternal purposes now you may be perfectly sure of that however the prophetic teachers may change their mind or however a theology what they call a contemporary theology brother what a name contemporary theology is whatever ideas some over bright young chaps sitting looking through his thick glasses in the seminary fast they decide is the right thing to believe God Almighty has already given us his theology and I don't give a snap of my finger for contemporary theology I believe in theology which is contemporary surely but it also was ancient as the throne of God and is eternal as the eternities to come and this we're Christian belonging this we are in this mighty river being carried along by the sovereign purposes of God and the sovereign God involves all of our attend all power now I think you can see instantly that nobody could be sovereign anywhere that didn't have power to affected will and nobody could be sovereign who didn't have authority to exercise his power a king or queen or a president or anybody that rules over men or governs men in any measure must have authority to govern and then he must have power to make good on his authority he cannot stand up and say now do this please if you're if you feel like doing it do it he says do it and then he has an army in a navy and an Air Force and the police force back of him he has authority to command and power to carry out his commands and God has to have both of these I can't conceive of a God who has power and no authority Samson was a man who had power but no authority and didn't know what to do with it there are men who have authority but no power United Nations is a pathetic example of Authority without power they have authority but they have no power in the Congo now we see an example they'll stand up and say no we order you to do the sin that and the Congolese laugh and say you and who else and do as they please authority without power to carry out that Authority is a joke and power without authority puts a man where he can't do anything but God Almighty to be sovereign must have Authority and power now we've already seen in previous sermon that God has all the power there is that God is infinite in his perfection and his from one of his perfections is his absolute power that is his omnipotence God is omnipotence and has all the power there is now the next question is has God the authority and I think it's too rather foolish even to discuss it it's an absurdity even to bring the subject of God's Authority up can anyone imagine God having to request permission and anybody imagine the Great God Almighty maker of heaven and earth having to send in a memo somewhere to a higher authority and ask if I might please roll this star over there or if I might please do something with this galaxy under God Almighty doesn't apply to anybody can you imagine him applying to a higher authority to wound could God apply I want to ask you who is higher than the highest and who was there that was before he was and who is mightier than the Almighty whose position dates back before the eternal begin things whose throne with God Neil I want to ask you for authority where would God go and say please come and help me please come and help me because I'm in trouble and I'm doing pretty well but I need some extra power when when with the Great God Almighty apply to anybody for power no my brother god almighty says there's no one greater no one greater I am the first and I am the last and beside me there is no God gay I know not any now there is a religion and I studied at some it is to my mind the best of the non-christian and on Revelation religion those who are not centered around Christ it's cause or Oh Austrian ISM a long word sometimes called Parsi ISM it's fire worship and Sun worship and they postulate a theological duality that is they say that there are two God the good within the bad one it's a neat way of getting around things you know they say there are two gods a good one in the Bedouin there's or must and arimin or must is the good God he sometimes called Mazda and it's from the light is shining down here now is very likely a Mazda light and in there they're electric lights after the old god of light Mazda well the mother or Maz he was a good God and he made everything good but then there was a rascal of a god named abdomen and this cattleman came along and everything good God made the Ahram and made something bad there God made the Sun Shine the devil made the snow alamin made the snow God made lovin Owlman made hatin God made life and almond made death and so there were two gods both of them creating now God Almighty declares this couldn't be so God Almighty declares that he is the sole creator and he made all things visible and invisible it tells us in Colossians that Jesus Christ our Lord but in him were created everything and God didn't leave anything out when he created them he said that in Jesus Christ there was created everything in heaven and that are in earth and visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist in the beginning God made the heaven and earth and God made the earth in the heaven and all things that are therein so there was no other creating god that is one thing that God did not give to anybody else God can impart some of his attributes God can impart the attribute of love for instance he can impart the attribute of mercy he can impart the attribute of kindness but he can't pre impart the attribute that enables him to create God Almighty is alone the Creator so there are not two gods there's only one but sin is loose in the universe and this I do not understand it is called the mystery of iniquity and it said that it already works this mystery of iniquity I do not understand I do not know why a holy God could allow to get loose in his world this iniquitous thing and I know that God contains it and I know that God's plans took it into account and I know that when God laid his plans for the foundation of the heaven and the earth and the creation of Adam I know that God knew about sin and knew about it wild fugitive presence in the universe he knew it would be here and so he took it into account though this outlaw is now in the heavens this outlaw sin can no more change the purposes of God or frustrate the plans of gods in an outlaw somewhere hiding in the walls of Canada can prevent the carrying on of the doings of this nation now I come to a little matter here that I want to take up and I think that I'm the only person that ever thought about this or for anybody ever thought about it before me he never wrote it down in the book or if you wrote it down in the book I never saw the book and if he ever preached it I wasn't present when he preached it neither was anybody present that ever told me that he had heard it I gave this thought one time in the presence of dr. Martin lloyd-jones and he didn't deny it he smiled he didn't say he believed it didn't say that he didn't my quote him because of course he is one of the great English authorities in theology but what about man's free will now maybe some of you dear people would rather not have your minds troubled about this maybe you'd rather just ought rest you would why do it just the rest but if you'd like to have your mind troubled when I'd like to trouble it for you because as I told you quoting somebody else that the business of a prophet of God is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfort it and some of you comforted people need to be afflicted and one of the first ways to afflict you is to get to thinking about divine things now here's the matter of of man's free will and God's sovereignty God's sovereignty means that he's in control of everything and he planned everything from the beginning man's free will means that he can any time he wants to make any choice he pleases and thus in apparently depay the purposes of God and will against the will of God now how are we going to figure it out well down the years to two divisions of the church have screwed up one has said I believe in the sovereignty of God and I believe that God planned everything from the beginning and the God ordered the son would be saved in some wooden and the christ died for those who would be saved but he didn't die for the others who wouldn't be saved now that actually what certain people believe following John Calvin then on the other side way over on the other side there are those who say Christ died for all and I believe it and that man is free to make his choice but those who teach the sovereignty of God in this exclusive way say that if man is free to make a choice then God isn't sovereign because the man can make a choice that God doesn't like then God's not having his way well you know I figured that out one time and if I don't know I guess the pastor's getting ready for the baptism service but he's the theologian of the pulpit here but then he'll straighten me out on this but you know how I figured this out and I'd like to give it to you I'd like to give you this thought and see what to think of it now God's sovereignty means absolute freedom doesn't it means God's absolutely free to do anything it wants to do or wills to do anywhere anytime forever that's what it means and man's free will means that man can make any choice she wants to make even if he makes a choice against the will of God there's where you lock horns and the theologians like to deer out in the woods lock horns and wall around to live both die I refuse to get caught on either Horn of that dilemma to change the figure absolutely refute because here's what I see I see that God Almighty is sovereign he is free to do as he pleases and among the things he pleased to do was give me freedom to do what I please and when I do what I please I am fulfilling the will of God not controverting it for God has in his sovereignty sovereignly given me freedom to make a free choice and even if the choice I make is not the one God would have made for me he's sovereignty is fulfilled in my making the choice and I can make the choice because God said the great sovereign God who is completely free said to me now in my sovereign freedom I just owe a little bit of freedom on you now choose you this day whom you will serve be good or be bad at you at your own pleasure follow me or don't follow me come on or go back go to heaven or go to hell laughs in your lap and you've got to make your choice now the sovereign God put that in my lap and said this is yours and you must make that choice and when I make a choice I am fulfilling his sovereignty in that he sovereignly will that I should be free to make a choice but if I choose to go to hell it's but his love would have chosen but it does not controverted cancel out his sovereignty therefore I can take John Calvin in this hands and Joseph our minutes and when you take up our minutes in the other hand walk down the street he the one I'm with walk with me I'm sure because John Calvin would say I was to us remaining in our ministry shadaloo Calvinism but I'm happy in the middle I believe in the sovereignty of God and I believe in the freedom of man I believe that God's free to do as he pleases and I believe that in the limited sense he has made man free to do as he pleased within a certain framework but not a very big one after all you're not free to do very many things you're free to make moral choices you're free to decide the color of your next time what foods you'll have new mule Mary she'd agree and you're you're free to do a few things but you're not free to do many but the thing is you are free to do our gifts from the God who is utterly free therefore anything I do and make a choice I'm fulfilling the freedom God gave me and therefore I'm fulfilling God's covenant in tearing it up now my brother and sister I got a little illustration here what you made up and I think that it'll give you some light on what I'm talking about suppose that a ship leaves New York City bound for Liverpool England and that I suppose that that ship has sailed is on board great big ship Queen Mary or the United States or Queen Elizabeth some of the big ships they're gonna take a nice easy journey and enjoy to have the passengers enjoy the trip and somebody there is an authority and he carries papers and those papers say you are to bring the ship into the harbor in Liverpool all right when they leave New York and wave to the people on the shore the next stops Liverpool that's it but out there on the ocean pretty soon they're loose the Statue of Liberty and they haven't come yet in sight of English coast so there they are out floating around on the ocean what do they do but they all feel bound are they all in Chains is everybody in Chains and the captain walking around with a stick keeping them in no the officers of the ship say now here's droplet board court and there's a tennis court and there's a swimming pool and over here you can you can look at pictures over there you can listen to music they're perfectly free to roam around as they please over the deck of this ship but they're not free to change the course of that ship it's going to Liverpool whatever they do they can jump off if they want to but if they sail on boards are going to Liverpool nobody can change that yet they're perfectly free within the confines of that ship so you and I have our little lies we are born and God says now I've launched you on the sea I've launched you on the sea from the sea of breath and you're going to go into the little port we call that the meantime you're free I'm around all your will you remember you're going to answer when you get over there be free so we'd throw our shoulders about to throw our weight around and we demand and declare that we can do as we please and we boast about our freedom all right we got a little freedom all right we have it but remember you can't change God Almighty's course and God has said but they that follow Jesus Christ and believe on Him shall be saved and they that refuse to be shall be damned and that settled and eternal is sovereign ly settled but you and I have freedom in the meantime we can do anything we want to do and while most people do they little attention but we're going to answer for that sometime according to the sovereign will of God now God has certain plans that he's going to carry out certain plans and I want to talk to you a little bit about those plans which God is going to carry out and show you what the arm now God has his way in the whirlwind in the storm the scripture says and the clouds are the dust of his feet now when God is carrying on his plans he's moving in a and direction and when the enemy comes along you're exercising his little freezin which God has given him to be an enemy of God and he intersects the will and purpose of God then there's trouble as long as everything goes smoothly everything goes smoothly as long as we move in the will of God there is no jar but when we got out of the will of God then there's trouble always trouble on our hands one time God made the creation the heaven in the earth then there was a mysterious hail juice in there a gap a gap that we don't understand and that gap came between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved on the pace allotted what had happened in there something had happened the angels had fallen or the demons that we now know had fallen there had come a great fall from the heavenly places perhaps it was Satan or some of Satan's legions appel and brought darkness upon the world God Almighty moved up out of that darkness and the Spirit of God rooted upon the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light and God began a work of recreation and here he created the earth and and put man upon it and started things all over again when the fall had come and it looked as if man was lost forever Satan I think Milton was right in his Paradise Lost when he pictures Satan as saying I think that I can do god more harm by injuring his his human race than I can buy climbed into him and so he gave up the idea of taking heaven by military storm and he came to the garden in there he tempted the woman and the race was fallen and it looks as if God's plans once more had been controverted and that God could not now carry on his plan to fill his well where the people made after his own image but I heard a southern preacher say a long time that the first Adam was a wheel spinning on an axle and he said when the wheel was spinning and threw off the actual God put the other add the second Adam on the last Adam on his right so when the first Adam was fell the second Adam stepped in in fact he's been in the man of God from the beginning of creation God had his way in the world in them the storm and made the clouds of history to be the dust of his feet and when Israel was down in Egypt God wanted to take them out of Egypt and take them back into the promised land again but Israel I mean a exercising its a little Authority which God had allowed it to have said we will not let you go and God said let my people go and then came the clouds in the dust of God's feet and the ten terrible plagues when God struck down out of heaven at the ten guards of he get lice and flies and the rest of it and when it was all over there was a dead one in every home in Egypt and Israel was free singing her 15th chapter of Exodus free on the other side of the river the hosts of peril were all dead men my brother when we go when history goes along with God all is well when history goes contrary to the ways of God then there a storm and flood and fire but when it over God has his way in the whirlwind in the storm and makes the clouds to be the dust of his feet look when Jesus Christ our Lord was born I don't know how much our Lord Jesus weighed let's get you a date pounds I suppose eight maybe seven to nine I would think you'd be an average-sized baby boy alright suppose you weighed nine pounds 8 pounds everyone's a little 8 pound boy couldn't hold his head up his mother had to hold his head up foreign couldn't speak had no teeth and I suppose very little hair a poor helpless little lad if they let him alone even for a little time you'd have tried awhile and died helplessness was there helpless the helplessness of a baby did you ever take a tiny new baby in your arms and notice how they did just drooped sobering it has no strength at all no no power can take a little but it has no strength he hadn't been born very long when the Herod sent over to find out where he should be born in orders he might slay all babies and finding and filling them he gave the order that the baby should be slain and this tiny little piece of humanity so small he had to be nursed to sleep on his mother's bosom here God Almighty allowed in the tyranny of history God allowed this tiny baby Jesus to be arrayed against the whole Roman Empire but who won before many decades had gone by the Roman Empire went down into dust and disgrace the baby Jesus grew to manhood was crucified and rose again from the dead and God raised him and seated him up yonder the baby that once stood opposed to the Roman Empire now looks down upon an empire that doesn't exist anymore I remember back in the days of Stalin and before two-round Stalin's takeover they were then saying and you could buy the books anywhere in this face they were saying that bearded God will pull him out of the sky and the God who had looked down upon tails and said let there be light and the God who had looked down upon Egypt and said let my people go and the God who had looked down upon a woman in parens head you can't slay my son but had allowed the Empire to slay itself that god looked down quietly upon this feast because stalin and heard him say we'll pull that Virgin God out of the sky but that Great God Almighty still in his sky I saw says in the book of Revelation how I love this this passage in the book of Revelation beautiful to me beautiful it is I don't have to know all that it means but it says after this I looked and behold a door was opened in heaven and the first voice which I heard was as robbers trumpet talking with me which said come up hither and I will show thee things which must be Hereafter immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven a throne was set in heaven while in his dead they pickled him and put him on display in the Kremlin and you can go there and see him man lying alongside of Leni moon where one of these times huh gee mr. K will be lying looking up and not seeing anything there there will be what a trio they will make lime they're the ones who are going to pull a bearded God out of the sky but the God who makes the ruins of history to be the dust of his feet we're looking at pitying smile upon three of the worst men that ever lived in the world but God is still on his throne and I saw in a throne was set in heaven and one sat on the throne he the tenth was to look upon like a Jasper and a sardine stone and it was a rainbow round about the throne rainbows don't go clear around they only go halfway have you ever noticed that rainbow starts here arches around stops there but this rainbow started here in art material made a full circle though God were saying the Greenham old rainbow meaning immortality and endless mass circles my throne no one can destroy him and the Jesus death again this time it looked more terrible than it had at the first where he lived his life on earth among men he was 33 years old now and the time came when he should have been king over Israel so the people thought with how at this time give the kingdom to Israel now then they took him out there and nailed him on the cross I heard a Welsh preacher say one time and I think he's right I didn't say that those disciples never believed they couldn't anybody could nail Jesus on the tree he said when Judas Iscariot sold Jesus he never believed that Jesus could die when Peter forsook Jesus he never believed that Jesus could die I believe he's right they believe that his man is wondrous man and it could still the waves it could heal the sick and cast out the devil to make the blind to see they believe that this Jesus could not die or if he died they believed he would rise again in my majesty and be king over Israel so there he lay now hung for a little while I'm across I came and took him down the grace sadness and tears there wrapped him up in his burial robes and he put the appointments in to try to give him some kind of embalming laid him in Joseph's new tomb two days later two men Delphis and his friends walked alone on the road to Emmaus and as they walked a man arrived beside them he said to them why do you look so sad and why are your dear boy are your voices low why do you seem so depressed they said you must be a stranger in Jerusalem I'm paraphrasing now but here's what they said in the face don't you know that a great prophet arose we believed it was the son of God we didn't believe he could die or if he died we believed he would rise now this is the third day and nothing's happened all our hopes of cave-in there's nothing but bleak discouragement before us then he began to talk to them and when he talked to them he made as if he would go by and they said come on back and go in and liliane when he broke the bread they saw the nail that had been in his hand and they looked at each other and he disappeared from their sight they leapt to their feet and said did not our hearts burn what almighty had come down and have done the wonderful miracle of all miracles he had raised the man that had died from the grave and had glorified him so the sovereign God had had his way in the whirlwind and the storm again now my friends we are shaping up to a period in history the like of which there has never been since Jesus Christ and the Roman Empire stood opposed one to the other and the God who was lived back their lives now and I had no fear no doubt and I can sleep restfully because I believe that God has his plans laid and will carry them out and what are the plans of God well God's promises to Abraham and Israel God made them and God will carry them up and I can settle on that God said to Abraham that you're going to have this land and he said to Israel if you're going to this that you're going to the house of Jacob he's going to reign over the house of Jacob forever and I believe that God will fulfill his promises to Abraham lizra and I don't think that there'll be any possibility of stopping God from doing it God has also deed decreed that a ransom company should be called and glorified right after the second world war our missionaries began to sound a Blue Note and they began to say we only have so many more years left yet for missionary activity and young people that were felt called to the mission field didn't go because they said what's the use of getting ready for the mission field because it looks as if the doors were closing one after the other closing tight but you can be absolutely certain my brother after God who is free to do everything he wants to do and is perfectly free anywhere all the time to do everything he wills to do and who wills to do everything he's purposed to do will carry out his purposes one of his purposes is that I shall bring out a ransom people from every tongue and people and pride the nation and color and race and ethnic origin around the world and he shall make them to be like his holy son they shall be the bride of his son and they shall walk down this streets leaning on the arm of the and Jesus Christ the Son of God shall introduce them to the father ransomed and redeemed and purified for there were virgins and they walked with the lamb and they were clean I believe in this I don't believe that Protestant divisions and I don't believe that the totalitarian authoritarianism of the Roman Church and I don't believe all the sex and false isms that are abroad everywhere I don't believe they'll change the purpose of God nor stop God nor hinder him God will have his way in the world and in the storm he'll make the clouds of dust of his feet and God has declared the sinners shall be cleanse out of the earth and His purposes they shall be cleansed out of the earth the sinners are pretty deeply entrenched now so deeply entrenched the United States there is a group a group of people a certain racial origin and they're organized from coast to coast and from the Canadian border to the Mexican border and they're so well organized that they have crime under their control to a point or not even the president can oppose it and where authorities can't oppose it what if the I can't oppose it they trying to do their best but they don't succeed and if they do arrest them some supreme court turn them loose on insufficient evidence you've been reading about it sin is pretty well entrenched in the world organized like a cancer that's going to work on the body of a man I've heard them said heard to say of a certain man has a cancer at the base of his neck and it's going down into his spinal cord and it's gone down into his stroke it's going up into his head and it's don't ever hurt its roots or ever her like an octopus of course that man didn't last long unless the sovereign God is running his world his human race couldn't last long cancer of iniquity like some bowel disease has its roots down everywhere but God says that he's going to cleanse sinners out of the earth there shall be a new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness God has ordained the sinners yut shall be renovated I say sinners shall be cleansed away now nothing can stop God nobody can stop God no unforeseen circumstance can stop God somebody says yes for just a minute God God means well and God powerful in God's love has authority but some unforeseen circumstance may derail his train why there are no unforeseen circumstances when you start out to walk a block there are unseen circumstances a black cat may run in front of you policemen may call your side you may drop dead currently around on the sidewalk and break a legs you can tell unforeseen circumstances are everywhere around you and me the God knows none for the sovereign God knows nothing about unforeseen circumstances he has seen the end from the beginning and he needs not ask what's in the manning knows every man so there can be no unforeseen circumstances and then there can be no accidents and why because God's wisdom prevents an accident you start driving down the highway you're only going 40 miles an hour the tire blows you turn over in the ditch somebody made that time didn't quite know how to make it this is a hang together ride I used to make tires when I was a kid in my teens and the rubber factories in Akron Ohio and I know some of the workmanship we put in those limits of wonder they didn't blow out for to get out of the factory but the wisdom God Almighty's wisdom never had to blow out anywhere God Almighty knows what he's doing and he's utterly wise and there can be no accident nobody can counter mandon order one that greatest difficulties they said during the war with countermanded orders you know they had so many tough general general Montgomery and general Alexander and General Eisenhower and General Sparkman general isn't general losses and these men were busy and one man would give an old another man and countermanding that happened you read the little accounts of it here in land some fella start somewhere and what he else's say just a minute I got an order from so-and-so canceling that ran in circles said I just got an order from somebody else telling me to do it round they went but I want to ask you who can counter man an order given by the great club Almighty when God the sovereign God says it shall be this way it's that way and nobody can change it then we can think possibly that guard might sail because a weakness but the omnipotent God couldn't be weak because God has all the power there is H bones and cobalt bombs and baby a bones and full-grown a bones and all the rest of them there nothing there nothing there marbles there poise God plays with him not God in His infinite strength and infinite wisdom and infinite authority and power is having his way in the whirlwind in the storm that's what sovereign God means I'll have to hurry and say what does all this mean to us it means my brother and if you walk out of this church contrary to the will and way of God God does not will that you should do it but he will that you should be free to do it and when you really choose to walk against the way of God you choose freely to go on the road to perdition and there's one thing about heaven and hell nobody's in either place by accident hell is populated by people who chose to go there if they did not choose a destination they chose the highway they're there because they love the way that leads to darkness and they were free to take it because a sovereign God had granted them that much freedom everybody in heaven above is there because he chose to go there nobody wakes up and finds himself in heaven backs at it and says I never plan to come here no says that the rich man died in hell he lifted up his eyes and the poor and the poor good man died and went to his own place he went where I belong cause he he belongs there Judas died he went to his own place and when Lazarus died he went to his place places they'd chosen so my friend ray all did remember this and whoever's not on God's side on the losing side this matter of consecration in the deeper life this matter with vidiians to the Lord he smiled and shrugged and make it look as if it was something we could do or not do as we please my brother consecration to the will of God is an absolute necessity if you're going to be on God's side and if you're on God's side you can't lose and if you're on the other side you can't win there it is as easy as that no matter how nice we may be how righteous how much we give the missions how much we pay up and how moral we are if we're all posing God we can't win but if we'll surrender and come over on God's side we can't lose man who is with God can't lose because God can't lose God is the sovereign God who's having his way in the world wind in the storm and when the storm is over the whirlwind of history has blown itself out the God who sat on the throne with a rainbow around about those hills sit on that throne beside him we'll be able to ransom company who chose to go his way heaven will not be filled with slaves there will be no conscripts marching in the armies of heaven every man will be there because he exercised his sovereign freedom to choose to believe on Jesus cry and surrender to the will of God I've I strive a style against him sinner who will not give up his sin why strive us all against him I talked to a young man he may be here tonight I don't remember his name and I wouldn't use it if I did but I talked to a man last Sunday night and he said something to this effect I can't say yes to God I can't say it I can't surrender the very fine likeable young man intelligence on me but he couldn't say yes to the winning side so he was saying yes to the losing side if you say yes to God you can't lose and if you say no to God you can't win my ascribe is now against you oh that's our trouble mother and sister is striving with God that's your trouble you're striving with God so why don't I get buildable what you're striving with God God one should go this way and you go part way in in your Vera there's always a controversial there between you and God what about you tonight are you on God's side completely hope hope holy forever everything your home your business your school your choice of a partner in life everything you've chosen Christ's ways because Christ is Lord and Lord is sovereign and you know it's foolish to choose any other way it's folly to try to outsmart God it's folly try to fight against him why strive us all against me how my friends I'd like to pray for you and I'd like to ask you there are those who would say I believe in this sovereign Lord and I believe in the right I have certain right to make choices I'm afraid that I haven't been able to say yes God's will I haven't seen how terrible it is to fight against God and I have a controversy with the Almighty I want you to

Channel: Amyra B.

Views: 57,265

Rating: 4.7738094 out of 5

Keywords: A. W. Tozer (Deceased Person), Calvinism (Religion), Divine, Sovereignty, Determinism, Meticulous, False Doctrine, Heresy, Soteriology, Theodicy, Salvation, Redemption, Biblical, Anthropology, Hermeneutics, Gospel, AW, Tozer, Limited, Atonement, Irresistible, Grace, Total, Depravity, Unconditional, Election, Sound, False, Doctrine, Evil, Christianity, Inability, Sermon

Id: K_jdenfTPJ8

Length: 50min 32sec (3032 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 21 2015