Our Attitude Toward God’s Sovereignty – Part2

Arthur Pink

One Of Entire Submission

A true recognition of God's absolute sovereignty, will exclude all murmuring. This is self-evident—yet the thought deserves to be dwelt upon. It is natural to murmur against afflictions and losses. It is natural to complain when we are deprived of those things upon which we had set our hearts. We are apt to regard our possessions as ours unconditionally. We feel that when we have prosecuted our plans with prudence and diligence, that we are entitled to success; that when by dint of hard work we have accumulated a 'competence,' we deserve to keep and enjoy it; that when we are surrounded by a happy family, no power may lawfully enter the charmed circle and strike down a loved one. And if in any of these cases disappointment, bankruptcy, death, actually comes, the perverted instinct of the human heart is to cry out against God. But in the one who, by grace, has recognized God's sovereignty, such murmuring is silenced, and instead, there is a bowing to the Divine will, and an acknowledgment that He has not afflicted us as sorely as we deserve.

A true recognition of God's sovereignty will avow God's perfect right to do with us as He wills. The one who bows to the pleasure of the Almighty—will acknowledge His absolute right to do with us as seems good to Him. If He chooses to send poverty, sickness, domestic bereavements, even while the heart is bleeding at every pore—it will say, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right! Often there will be a struggle, for the carnal mind remains in the believer to the end of his earthly pilgrimage. But though there may be a conflict within his breast, nevertheless, to the one who has really yielded himself to God's sovereignty, there will presently be heard that Voice saying, as of old it said to the turbulent Gennesaret, "Peace be still"; and the tempestuous flood within will be quieted and the subdued soul will lift a tearful but confident eye to heaven and say, "May Your will be done!"

A striking illustration of a soul bowing to the sovereign will of God, is furnished by the history of Eli, the high priest of Israel. In 1 Samuel 3 we learn how God revealed to the young child Samuel that He was about to slay Eli's two sons for their wickedness, and on the morrow Samuel communicates this message to the aged priest. It is difficult to conceive of more appalling news for the heart of a pious parent. The announcement that his child is going to be stricken down by sudden death is, under any circumstances, a great trial to any father—but to learn that his two sons—in the prime of their manhood, and utterly unprepared to die—were to be cut off by a Divine judgment, must have been overwhelming. Yet, what was the effect upon Eli when he learned from Samuel the tragic tidings? What reply did he make when he heard the awful news? "And he said, It is the Lord—let Him do what seems good to Him!" (1 Sam. 3:18). And not another word escaped his mouth. Wonderful submission! Sublime resignation! Lovely exemplification of the power of Divine grace to control the strongest affections of the human heart and subdue the rebellious will, bringing it into unrepining acquiescence to the sovereign pleasure of Jehovah.

Another example, equally striking, is seen in the life of Job. As is well known, Job was one who feared God and shunned evil. If ever there was one who might reasonably expect Divine providence to smile upon him, (we speak as a man,) it was Job. Yet, how did it fare with him? For a time, the lines fell in pleasant places unto him. The Lord filled his quiver by giving him seven sons and three daughters. He prospered him in his temporal affairs until he owned great possessions. But suddenly, the sun of life was hidden behind dark clouds. In a single day Job lost not only his flocks and herds—but his sons and daughters as well. News arrived that his cattle had been carried off by robbers, and his children slain by a cyclone. And how did he receive this news? Hearken to his sublime words, "The Lord gave—and the Lord has taken away!" He bowed to the sovereign will of Jehovah. He traced his afflictions back to their First Cause. He looked behind the Sabeans who had stolen his cattle, and beyond the winds that had destroyed his children—and saw the hand of God. But not only did Job recognize God's sovereignty, he rejoiced in it, too. To the words, "The Lord gave—and the Lord bath taken away," he added, "Blessed be the name of the Lord!" (Job 1:21). Again we say, Sweet submission! Sublime resignation!

A true recognition of God's sovereignty causes us to hold our every plan in abeyance to God's will. The writer well recalls an incident which occurred in England over twenty years ago. Queen Victoria was dead, and the date for the coronation of her eldest son, Edward, had been set for April 1902. In all the announcements which were sent out, two little letters were omitted— D. V. (Deo Volente) God willing. Plans were made and all arrangements completed for the most imposing celebrations that England had ever witnessed. Kings and emperors from all parts of the earth had received invitations to attend the royal ceremony. The Prince's proclamations were printed and displayed—but, so far as the writer is aware, the letters D. V. were not found on a single one of them. A most imposing program had been arranged, and the late Queen's eldest son was to be crowned Edward the Seventh at Westminster Abbey at a certain hour on a fixed day. And then God intervened, and all man's plans were frustrated. A still small voice was heard to say, "You have reckoned without Me," and Prince Edward was stricken down with appendicitis, and his coronation postponed for months!

As remarked, a true recognition of God's sovereignty causes us to hold our plans in abeyance to God's will. It makes us recognize that the Divine Potter has absolute power over the clay and molds it according to His own imperial pleasure. It causes us to heed that admonition—now, alas! so generally disregarded, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." (James 4:13-15). Yes, it is to the Lord's will we must bow. It is for Him to say where I shall live—whether in America or Africa. It is for Him to determine under what circumstances I shall live—whether amid wealth or poverty, whether in health or sickness. It is for Him to say how long I shall live—whether I shall be cut down in youth like the flower of the field, or whether I shall continue for three score and ten years. To really learn this lesson is, by grace, to attain unto a high grade in the school of God; and even when we think we have learned it, we discover, again and again, that we have to relearn it!

Claim The Christian Life Through His Grace!

Having been part of a Church where I was taught to learn to mimic godly behavior and I was also taught to pray for this Christian life, I could not reconcile what was going on in my life when God decided to move in and suddenly, inwardly, this life had become such a dynamic life. I was conscious of the fact that I had something alive in me; something was new inside of me. If it was not for the incomparable gentleness of the Holy Spirit, I would have been more apprehensive thinking that I was on my way of becoming schizophrenic. I simply could not understand why I was living literally with someone inside me.

It was only after I stumbled on A.W.Tozer book, “The Pursuit of God” that this Christian life made sense to me. Through it, I understood the realness of this life. I also understood, having surrendered my life completely, with no conditions and no reservations, few months back meant that I stopped praying for this life to happen to me. Instead I moved in to claim it through believing so that I could become part of it. Through reading Tozer’s book it felt as if my Christian life thus far was like I was holding onto half a dozen pieces of a puzzle, then someone came and said here is the box with all the other pieces. When I opened the box to put the half a dozen pieces I was holding onto, I found the puzzle was so big with millions of pieces. While the half a dozen pieces I was holding onto were important to complete the puzzle, but I would have never known what this puzzle was about with my few pieces.

You would make a mistake to think that this is no longer Salvation by grace. Because while I was sitting in the pews, learning to put into practice some sort of man made Christianity, I had never heard a sermon on surrendering to God, I had no idea that Christians could surrender to God either. I knew nothing of God, yet He stirred my heart. He provoked something in me that demanded an answer. In fact, I was so far from Him that even His stirring seemed unreal.  What God provoked in me was so faint I was still looking for help to understand, so, I talked to pastors and elders. In every case I was dismissed. Only one of the elder dared to say something and it would have been better not to have said anything at all because the answer I received was to make fun of me with my surrendering idea.

When I share with you how spiritually blinded people in my Church was and how stupid I was, I do not do it because I take pleasure in it. Not that I want to belittle people that I love dearly. I share because it is not about me or them. I top the cake when it comes to stupidity. In fact, when I examine myself and see how deep I was in my stupidity, and how deep the depth of my spiritual darkness was, I cannot help but being grateful that He got hold of me in spite of me. When God delivers us from certain situations, He intends for us to share the blessings. At the end of the day, it is not about me or the ego of the leaders of the Church I used to attend. It is about Him!

Through going with Him and living my life in Him, I have learned, each step I took in surrender, claiming the holy life to make it my own, claiming oneness with Him, learning to be a disciple, beholding the truth, grow in spiritual maturity etc, are all One Blessed  Continuous String of Grace. All the after effect of Salvation that I have received and continue to receive from Him, are the product of the work Christ has done on the cross. I was not aware of them, nor that I knew how to get anyone of these blessings to be inwardly mine. When we say “the old has passed away and behold everything new” this newness of life is deeper than we can possibly imagine and it continues daily throughout our earthly pilgrimage. 

Beloved, at one point, we have to stop praying this life in us, stop hiding behind excuses, stop blaming our leaders, and stop trying to corner God to make Salvation fit into our neat little boxes. I can tell you without a doubt that God will not hold our religions against us. But, He will certainly hold against us the fact that we have not found Him was not His fault but our sins of pride, stubbornness and laziness.  BELIEVE! This is the difference between the first “follow me” Christ said to Peter in Mathew 4:19 and the other “follow Me” in John 21:19. You cannot deny that Peter had become a new man to the point He was given to the Master completely and followed boldly His footsteps with no fear for his own life. He was not perfect, but work in progress.

It is all Salvation by grace through faith. We are saved! We are being saved! We will be saved! Oh! The beauty of it all. – I cannot wait to see Him!

The Law of Surrender!

By A.W. Tozer

The Bible says that we are to present our bodies "as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God." Of course, if you give your body, you give everything it contains. That means giving yourself wholly to God, and the idea of giving yourself wholly to God contains three laws. The first law is the law of surrender. If you do not surrender, it will be totally impossible for the Lord to do anything for you. Surgeons have to have the surrender of their patients. If I went to a surgeon and insisted that I was going to tell him how to do the job and not only that but stay awake and resist him, the surgeon could not work. It would be impossible. Surgeons must put their patients to sleep so they cannot resist, so they are in a state of surrender. That is the law of surrender.

A more beautiful and biblical description is the story of the potter and the clay, which illustrates the law of surrender further. The potter has soft, yielding clay, but if the clay does not surrender, the potter cannot do a thing with it. If there are burnt places, hard places or unsurrendered places in the clay, though the potter be a genius in making vessels, the artist still could not make anything useful and beautiful out of an unyielding blob of clay. It is possible for an object to be useful but not beautiful, like a garbage can. It is also entirely possible to be beautiful and not useful, like the lily. The lily has no utilitarian place in the world. It is possible to have a vessel that is useful without being beautiful. 

The old cream crocks in our spring house on the farm were useful all right. You could pour the milk in them, wait for the cream to rise and skim it off. They were not beautiful, but they were quite useful. Everybody has in their home beautiful little knickknacks. They are utterly useless, simply to be enjoyed for their beauty. But God wants His vessels to be both useful and beautiful. If God is going to make those kinds of vessels out of us, however, we are going to have to yield to the law of surrender. Give yourself to God as a living sacrifice and let Him have you--all of you