Saturday, May 23, 2009

The Sovereignty of God

It Has Been Given to You
May 21, 2009

By Mike Ratliff

4 But to this day g the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. (Deuteronomy 29:4 ESV)

God is Sovereign. He is on the throne in Heaven. He is high and lifted up. The seraphim around the throne of God cry to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” The arrogant and the proud have no portion with Him for all who encounter Him will immediately see their sin and cry, “Woe is me for I am ruined!” These may fall on their face before the throne, but they do so because “It has been given” to them to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. They have been given a heart to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear the truth, grasp it, know it, believe it, submit to it, and be changed forever by it.

10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, x “To you it has been given to know y the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 z For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, a even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because b seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, c nor do they understand. (Matthew 13:10-13 ESV)

The Lord Jesus affirms that the ability to comprehend spiritual truth is a gracious gift of God, which He bestows sovereignly on His elect (v11). On the other hand, the reprobate are passed over. They reap the natural consequence of their own unbelief and rebellion, which is spiritual blindness (v13). God’s sovereign choice lies behind the hardening of their hearts towards the truth of God. Our Lord spoke in parables to the multitudes. These parables served as instruments of judgment by hardening the impenitent. Is this still going on today? Yes it is. When we teach the truth to the skeptical and all it does is make them even more defiant then we know for sure that they have been hardened. The reverse is true as well though. When people actually believe the Gospel and are saved it is because God has drawn them to the Son (John 6:44) in His mercy and by His grace through the faith He gives them they believe and repent and are justified (Ephesians 2:1-10). More...

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