The Sovereignty Of God
"He That Hath An Ear To Hear, Let Him Hear"
"Let He That Is Athirst For The Water Of Life, Partake Of It Freely"
"For I Testify Unto Every Man That Heareth The Words Of The Prophecy Of This Book, If Any Man Shall Add Unto These Things, God Shall Add Unto Him The Plagues That Are Written In This Book:"
The Doctrine of the Bible, Vs The Teachings Of Modern Popular Religion
Allen Bailey
Introduction
"So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up,
that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all
the earth.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he
hardeneth"... Rom 9:16-18
Man, being a spiritually depraved creature by his inherent, fallen, sinful nature, and the thoughts of his heart being only evil continually: "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with (or in) man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years..."And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually..."Gen 6:3-5. .."The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.."Psa 14:2-3."...."As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.."Rom 3:10-19.
The natural man will not (because he cannot) spiritually seek the glory of his Creator; but for the most part, seeks only his own natural, selfish, earthly ends. All his conceptions of God (since he is by nature under the sentence of death) is therefore seen only in a purely legal sense; (as the relationship between a servant and a master, or a criminal and a judge; We may, and do hear a lot of rhetoric from the religious world, as they constantly use the term "love", but in their spirit they cannot reach the true love of God as it is in Christ Jesus as long as they remain in this state of darkness and death. It is only through the manifestation in our souls of the mercy that is in Christ that we can find any true goodness in ourselves, and as we experentially partake in our flesh of His sufferings, as He suffered in the flesh for us, do we find that where sin has abounded in our flesh unto death, grace in Christ has much more abounded unto our Life in Him. As the prophet spoke of Him, so we find in our own experience:
"...I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
My flesh and my skin hath he made old: he hath broken my bones.
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.
He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.
He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.."Lam 3:2-22
... This was written by Jeremiah when he saw (and felt) the sufferings and ensewing glory of Christ. "... These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth..." Heb 11:13.
Jesus said, unless your eye is made single to God’s glory, then your whole body is (yet) full of darkness. "...But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" Mat 6:23 "..The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness...." Luke 11:34
"...And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his
kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And he
saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and
multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
...And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall
make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire...
For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom
unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled..." Rev 16:10 - 17.
It appears that the (religious) world is evidently, at this present time, and have been for a
considerable time, under the dispensation of the fifth angel, because this principle is
amply illustrated in the vast majority of the preachers and teachers in Christendom,
concerning their teaching (or lack of ) on what is clearly taught (in a renewed mind)
from the Holy Scriptures concerning the absolute Sovereignty of God.
Man... (or the advancement of mere human glory), now for a long time in professed Christendom, has been
for the most part, substituted for the glory and majesty of God Himself; It seems that in
modern teaching, God Himself, must bow to, and His Will be made subservient to the
Will of Man; thus in our time, men being encouraged by the blindness and vanity of their
natural minds, and the unbounded and shameless audacity of famous heretics, (John
Wesley as a good example) have relegated the Power and Divine Prerogative of the
Eternal God to a secondary place in this earth, in order to maintain the supremacy of their
own fancied wills "..Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive
with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest
thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?"...
"...Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What
hast thou brought forth?..." Isa 45:9-10
"...Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour, and another unto dishonour?
What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he
had afore prepared unto glory,..." Rom 9:18-23
..."And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen..." Mat 20:11-16..."
"...Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more
than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen...". Rom 1:21-25
I have, in my experience, on several different occasions, been compared by some, as to my belief and assertions on this subject, as being the same in sentiment as Moslems, Stoics, etc.;
On this point, I can only reply to modern Christendom, as Christ did to the Jews in His day:
"...The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it:
because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is
here..." Mat 12:41; Because even nature itself teaches more about the sovereignty of
Almighty God than is being proclaimed from the majority of Christian pulpits: "...For the
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;...
"...Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it
unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so
that they are without excuse..." Rom 1:18-20.
Now, I don't say that natural men necessarily love what they can understand by nature, because there can be bare knowledge, where there is no love (of The Spirit). "... And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose..."Rom 8:28. (That is, God's elect children.)
Few men, called of God, before and since the days of the Apostles, have been given the
vision and fortitude to take the proclamation of these important doctrines in hand.
Among these notables have been: Moses, Nebuchadnezzer, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, The Apostle Paul, the Apostle John, Augustine, Luther,
Calvin, Jerome Zanchius, John Owen, Toplady, Gill, Huntington, and in more recent
times, Authur Pink, Gilbert Beebe, Silas Durand, James Poole, C.C. Morris,
All renowned servants of God in their times , not to mention many others, then and now.
Many that have even acknowledged these doctrines to be truth as taught in the Holy
Scripture have either purposefully avoided the notice of them (for obvious reasons) or
declared them to be of such a minor importance, that the omission of them would be
better for practical and present circumstances; thus they presumptuously attempt (with
their human wisdom) to non-plus The Holy Ghost, The Divine Author of His Own
Word, As being the Omnipotent and Omniscient Judge as to what is good and wholesome
for the Church of God.
Many others have even charged that the preaching of these truths is detrimental to the
prosperity and advancement of the Kingdom Of God; That any emphasis upon these
subjects will even encourage the children of God in a state of complacency and cause
them to cultivate a practice of neglect and slothfulness. Others have even stated that the
belief of these doctrines would lead one to licentious living. If true, then the Apostles
appear to very inconsistent in their writings (which were inspired by the Holy Spirit.)
"...All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick
and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
long-suffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own
lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away
their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables..." 2 Tim 3:17-4:4
The following warnings and admonitions were given by the Lord Jesus to His disciples
shortly before His departure from out of this world. We understand that these divine
predictions were given explicitly to them concerning the near-approaching events of that
age of time; however, I believe that these statements can also be taken in a general way
by His people in all future ages of time - And this general admonition is certainly
appropriate for God’s people in all ages of time, for we are encouraged to always
watch and pray, for we know not in what day (age) or hour (our experience) our Lord
cometh. "...And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to
pray, and not to faint;..." Luke 18:1
"...And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and
fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you
up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my
name's sake.
And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to
gainsay nor resist.
And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and
some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
In your patience possess ye your souls..." Luke 21:11- 19
"...Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground
without your Father.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my
Father which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is
in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a
sword..." Mat 10:29 - 34.
"...And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory
of His Power; When He shall come to be admired in all them that believe (because our
testimony among you was believed) in that day..." 2 Thess 1:7. Even so, come Lord
Jesus. Amen
OAB
Feb 24, 1999
