The Godhood of God # 7

The Godhood of God # 7

In his sermon on Psalm 68:20, 21, "unto God the Lord belong the issues of death" - the late Charles Spurgeon well said, "The prerogative of life or death belongs to God in a wide range of senses. First of all as to natural life - we are all dependent upon His good pleasure. We shall not die until the time which He appoints - for our death time, like all our times, is in His hands. The wolves of disease will hurt us in vain, until God shall permit them to overtake us. The most desperate enemies may waylay us - but no bullet shall find its billet in any heart unless the Lord allows it. Our life does not even depend upon the care of angels, nor can our death be compassed by the malice of devils. We are immortal until our work is done - immortal until the immortal King shall call us home to the land where we shall be immortal in a still higher sense. When we are most sick, we need not despair of recovery - since the issues of death are in Almighty hands. "The Lord kills and makes alive!" When we have passed beyond the skill of the physician, we have not passed beyond the support of our God, to whom belong the issues of life and death."

"See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me, I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal - and no one can deliver out of My hand!" (Deut. 32:39)

3. The Absolute Godhood of God is Seen in Giving of the Scriptures. What part or lot did  man have in the composition of the Bible? NONE whatever! Its very words are the words of God. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." No part of it was of human origin, "for the prophecy came not at any time by the will of man" (2 Peter 1:21). Did not holy men of God speak "moved by the Holy Spirit?" And how did they then record what the Holy Spirit communicated to them - in words of man's selecting? Nay truly, "not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches" (1 Cor. 2:13). Balaam longed to speak otherwise  then he did - but he could not. Caiaphas prophesied "not of himself" (John 11:51). Pilate was asked to make a change in the one sentence which God moved him to write, but he declared "What I have written I have written" (John 19:22).

God acted sovereignly in the writing of the Scriptures as in everything else. The very words wee chosen by Him - and did He not sovereignly choose? Did He take counsel with either angels or men as to the words He should select for the communicating of His thoughts? No indeed!

4. The Absolute Godhood of God is Seen in Salvation.  God's absolute and irresistible proprietorship has been, and is being displayed, in the spiritual realm as manifestly as in the natural.

Isaac is blessed - but Ishmael is cursed. Jacob is loved - but Esau is hated. Israel becomes God's favored people - while all other nations are suffered to remain in idolatry. Jesse's seven sons were all passed by - and David the shepherd boy was found to be the one after God's own heart. The proud Pharisees were rejected - while publicans and harlots were sweetly compelled by sovereign grace to sit down at the Gospel feast. The rich young ruler, who from his youth up, had kept the commandments, was allowed to go away from Christ "sorrowing," even though he had sought Him with real earnestness and humility - while the reprehensible Samaritan woman (John 4) who never sought Him, is made to rejoice in the forgiveness of her sins. Two thieves hung by Christ on the Cross, they were equally guilty, equally needy, equally near to Him. One of them is moved to cry: "Lord, remember me" and is taken to Paradise - while the other is allowed to die in his sins and sink down into a hopeless eternity.

Many are called - but few are chosen.

Yes, Salvation is God's sovereign work! "God does not save a man because he is a sinner - for if so He must save all men,for all are sinners. Nor because he comes to Christ - for "no man can come unless the Father draws him." Now because he repents - for "God gives repentance unto life." Now because he believes - for no one can believe except it were given him from above." Nor yet because he holds out faithful to the end - for "we are kept by the power of God." It is not because of baptism - for many are saved without it, and many are lost with it. It is not because of regeneration - for the new birth is a gift of God. It is not because of morality - for the moralist is the hardest to reach, and many of the most immoral are saved. The ground of distinguishing grace is the Sovereignty of God: "Even so Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight!" 

But is God partial? We answer: Has He not a right to be? Again we quote from Mr. Spurgeon's sermon "The Royal Prerogative", "Spiritually, too, this prerogative is with God. We are by nature under the condemnation of the law on account of our sins, and we are like criminals tried, convicted, sentenced, and left for death. It is for God, as the great Judge, to see the sentence executed - or to issue a free pardon, according as He pleases. And He will have us know that it is upon His supreme pleasure that this matter depends. Over the head of a universe of sinners, I hear this sentence thundering: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy - and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Shut up for death, as men are by reason of their sins, it rests with God to pardon whomever He may. None have any claim to His favor - so it must be exercised upon His mere prerogative, because He is the Lord God, merciful and gracious, and delights to pass by transgression and sin."

~A. W. Pink~

(continued with # 8)