Christ Revealed in His Own Word #92
Wednesday, April 9, 1997
Brian Kocourek,
Pastor Grace Fellowship
Sunday morning we examined
paragraph [105] where Brother Branham
was speaking of God being able to speak for Himself, and write for Himself, but
He chose to speak to man through His Prophets. And therefore we are looking at
God’s choice and therefore His sovereignty in choosing whatsoever He
wills. Now, God is not like you and me.
We have a free moral agency to choose, but we are limited to either God’s way
or the devils way. Even if you pick your own way, it is still the devils way
and will lead to death most certainly. [Proverbs
14:12] tells us, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a
man, but the end thereof, are the ways of death.” Therefore, a man might have a choice, but most
certainly his own choice will end in death and not life. In [Jeremiah
10:23] we read, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man
that walketh to direct his steps.” and, so we see that if man is left to himself, he will utterly
choose the wrong way and the wrong steps. That is why we glory in
Predestination, because the Love of God so constraineth us that it causes us to
walk in the way. [Psalm 37:23] The
steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord: and he delighteth in His way.”
This evening, I would like
to continue our examination of the Sovereignty of God. After all, Brother
Branham said, “He didn't have to do it
that way, but that's the way He chose
to do it.” And, when we look at Sovereignty we must look at choice, for
that is what makes God Sovereign. Now,
in review, we saw that the word, Sovereignty
according to Webster: is
the state or quality of being sovereign. and it shows the power and
status of the one who is sovereign. And of course the word Sovereign means: Above or superior to all others
in rank, rule, and power. One who answers to no other. And
comes from two words, super and to reign. Therefore, to be sovereign means to reign
over supremely.
As I stated, Sunday morning,
most people don’t believe God is Sovereign until something happens that they
have no control over. Then they will reluctantly acknowledge that God alone is
the only one who can help them over the hurdle. Yet all the while they are
secretly hoping that they can get themselves out of whatever mess they are in.
So, really then, what most people have a God of convenience. One who’s there
only when they need Him, and when they don’t have a nee, they forget He exists.
Now, we began our study of the Sovereignty of God by examining what
Webster said, sovereignty is. He said
there are 3 basic attributes which make up sovereignty: #1) rank, #2) rule, and #3)
power. And since God is
perfected in three’s, we began by examining these three attributes of the
sovereign God.
We began Sunday morning by
showing that rank has to do with position. And in particular, showing that this
rank has to do with being the
Supreme One in that rank. We are talking about
Rank has to do with Authority,
although it is not authority. But it has to do with the level of authority. The word rank comes from the word range
which means to place in a certain order. So we see by definition, that God in
order to be Sovereign, has no equal, and there is none beside Him. In examining
the scriptures we find that they declare that God is above and all else is
beneath and He will not share His Glory with no other. There is but One God
period. We then examined the relationship of God and man, and the conduct
expected from man by God. After all rank has certain prescribed behavior that
is expected from those of lower rank, and one of these is respect. [Malachi 2:1-4] Here we see that God is
God alone, and will not share His glory with any other.
In [Exodus 34:14] we read that God is a jealous God and will not allow
for us to worship other things in His place. And we know that the word worship,
according to Webster, comes from two words, worth and ship. Worth is
the value we place on something, and the suffix (ship) is the state or
condition of the assessment. Therefore our worship has rank as well, and rank
is the order in which we place God.
either He is pre-eminent in our heart, mind and soul or He isn’t.
[Matt 22:36] when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is,
He replies..“To love the Lord your God,
with all your heart, all your soul, and mind.” But in the Book of [Mark 12:30] He adds one other
ingredient, and that is strength, which we find God Himself
speaking of in the Book of [Deuteronomy
6:4-18]. So actually when God speaks in His Word about loving Him with all of our heart, He is speaking about
Loving Him with all of our understanding. Then when He speaks of loving Him
with all of our Soul,
He is speaking of loving Him
with all that we are as a person, because our soul is who we are, it is our
life.
Finally we are told to love
Him with all of our strength, which is all of our energies. Because, love
without our energies is still non productive. Just talk! He said, teach them
diligently to our children! That takes an effort, and that shows your love to
God.
Finally we saw this rank in
[1 Cor 15:23-28] So we see that the
Son is subject to the Father, and shall be still. [Q & A] “On top of Mount Zion will set the Lamb. And
the city will need no light, for the Lamb is the Light thereof. And above the Lamb will be the Father,
which is the Logos, God, the great Light, the eternal Light that'll shine just
above the throne. And Jesus will not be on His Father's throne, He'll be on His
throne. And the Father will hover over
the Son,..”
Now, as we said earlier in
this message, sovereignty has to do with rank, and this rank has to do with
choice, God’s Choice, which is God’s Will. After, all, rank is a matter of
choice, position, and placement. Therefore, if we are to learn of the
sovereignty of God, we must first learn the first rule of this sovereignty,
which is that God has the supreme Rank, He is Number One, and that He
therefore has a specific order to
everything that pertains to His Sovereign Position.
During the course of our
study on the sovereignty of God we shall move next time into the second rule of
sovereignty which is rule, itself. And we know that Rule is authority, and then
authority becomes power for power is authority. Thus as we study the Sovereignty of God we shall also see how it
is that God becomes. For we know that
God is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent. Yet the Omniscience must come
before the other two, for God is not omnipresent as if He is in all places at
all times and filling all space, but His Omnipresence comes from the fact that
He is all knowing, (omniscient). And thus of the three,... Omniscient,
Omnipotent, and Omnipresent, the greatest of these, and the highest order, is
Omniscience. And this is where Sovereignty comes forth from. God’s power and
strength comes from His Omniscience. For could you imagine having all power and
not knowing how to use that power?
Notice how we begin with
rank, and move into rule and then into power. Notice that this process moves
from a passive into an active. Rank, rule and power. Rank is simply order and position, while rule is an excercizable
authority. An authority which has moved into action and is controlling.
Now, as we said earlier, the
three attributes of sovereignty are Rank, Rule, and Power. For the next few
minutes tonight I want to look at the second attribute which is rule and
examine this by the scriptures as best we can.
According to Webster, the
word RULE: means, “to have supreme authority, to govern. Therefore, when we think
in terms of rule, we must think in terms of authority. And when we think in terms of Authority, we
are looking at the right to rule, as well as having the power to ensure our
right to rule. So here we have not only a rightful placement, but also the power to back up that placement. You see how closely Rank and Rule tie in
together. What good would rank do if no one else considered it. But when you
have Authority, it means you have the power to back up your rank. And that is
what we are talking about when we speak of sovereignty.
[Psalm 103:19] here we see placement and also with that placement we
see the exercise of authority. The word ruleth here is a Hebrew Word which
means to exercise dominion.
In [Psalm 66:7] we see that God rules by His Power. Therefore, rule,
which is authority must have power behind it in order for it to have the
strength needed to bring to pass whatsoever the rule declares.
And what is the reason for
needing this power and might to rule? We see our answer in [2 Chronicles 20:6], here you will see
that the power and might is to back up the authority so than none can resist
the rule.
[Romans 9:10-23] here the scriptures speak of God having power over
the things that he created.
When the people wanted to
question Jesus authority, each time he reverted to the power of God behind His authority.
[Matt 9:1-8] Notice how Jesus Uses the power to authenticate His
Authority, tying His authority back tot he author Himself.
[John 9:1-34] Again notice how the blind man uses the argument that
power is authority, and the exercise of God power shows therefore
inconclusively the presence of God.
[John 14:10-12] What we begin to see here is that Rule and power go
hand in hand, and rule which is authority can not be exercised without power.
Therefore, the power vindicates the position of the ruler.
In [Matt 22] Jesus told us that men err when they don’t know the
scriptures nor the power of God. The problem is that many times they think they
know the scriptures, but they can not make the connection between the Word and
the Power.
In [2 Tim 3:5] We see that they shall have a form of Godliness but they
shall deny the power, which is the vindication of the Real authority. That
which vindicates is the power of God upon the Truth.