The Sovereignty of God
Isaiah 55:8–9 CSB
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways.”
This is the LORD’s declaration. 9 “For as heaven is higher than earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Psalm 115:1–3 CSB
1 Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your faithful love, because of your truth. 2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” 3 Our God is in heaven and does whatever he pleases.
Psalm 135:5–7 CSB
5 For I know that the LORD is great; our Lord is greater than all gods. 6 The LORD does whatever he pleases in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the depths. 7 He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.
Westminster Confession of Faith 1647
- “God from all eternity did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”
- W. Pink
“Nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation of faith. Here is a resting place for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to His own good pleasure and for His own eternal glory.”
- God’s Sovereignty over nature.
Job 37:4-13 CSB
“4 Then there comes a roaring sound; God thunders with his majestic voice. He does not restrain the lightning when his rumbling voice is heard. 5 God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. 6 For he says to the snow, “Fall to the earth,” and the torrential rains, his mighty torrential rains, 7 serve as his sign to all mankind, so that all men may know his work. 8 The wild animals enter their lairs and stay in their dens. 9 The windstorm comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds. 10 Ice is formed by the breath of God, and watery expanses are frozen. 11 He saturates clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them. 12 They swirl about, turning round and round at his direction, accomplishing everything he commands them over the surface of the inhabited world. 13 He causes this to happen for punishment, for his land, or for his faithful love.”
Psalm 104:1-24
My soul, bless the Lord! Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with majesty and splendor. 2 He wraps himself in light as if it were a robe, spreading out the sky like a canopy,
3 laying the beams of his palace on the waters above, making the clouds his chariot,
walking on the wings of the wind, 4 and making the winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. 5 He established the earth on its foundations; it will never be shaken. 6 You covered it with the deep as if it were a garment; the water stood above the mountains. 7 At your rebuke the water fled; at the sound of your thunder they hurried away— 8 mountains rose and valleys sank— to the place you established for them. 9 You set a boundary they cannot cross; they will never cover the earth again. 10 He causes the springs to gush into the valleys; they flow between the mountains. 11 They supply water for every wild beast; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. 12 The birds of the sky live beside the springs; they make their voices heard among the foliage. 13 He waters the mountains from his palace; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of your labor. 14 He causes grass to grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate,
producing food from the earth, 15 wine that makes human hearts glad— making his face shine with oil— and bread that sustains human hearts. 16 The trees of the Lord flourish, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. 17 There the birds make their nests; storks make their homes in the pine trees. 18 The high mountains are for the wild goats; the cliffs are a refuge for hyraxes.
19 He made the moon to mark the festivals; the sun knows when to set. 20 You bring darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals stir. 21 The young lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God. 22 The sun rises; they go back and lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work and to his labor until evening. 24 How countless are your works, Lord! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
- God’s sovereignty over man.
Job 12:13-25 CSB
“13 Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are his. 14 Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt; whoever he imprisons cannot be released. 15 When he withholds water, everything dries up, and when he releases it, it destroys the land. 16 True wisdom and power belong to him. The deceived and the deceiver are his. 17 He leads counselors away barefoot and makes judges go mad. 18 He releases the bonds put on by kings and fastens a belt around their waists. 19 He leads priests away barefoot and overthrows established leaders. 20 He deprives trusted advisers of speech and takes away the elders’ good judgment. 21 He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the strong. 22 He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deepest darkness into the light. 23 He makes nations great, then destroys them; he enlarges nations, then leads them away. 24 He deprives the world’s leaders of reason, and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland. 25 They grope around in darkness without light; He makes them stagger like a drunkard”
Jeremiah 10:23 CSB
I know, LORD, that a person’s way of life is not his own; no one who walks determines his own steps.
Acts 17:24-31 CSB
“24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. 30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man He has appointed.”
Romans 9:14-21
“14 What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 15 For he tells Moses, I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then, it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture tells Pharaoh, I raised you up for this reason so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed in the whole earth. 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden. 19 You will say to me, therefore, “Why then does he still find fault? For who resists his will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?”
- God’s sovereignty over all things.
Psalm 103:19 CSB
The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.
Romans 8:28–30 CSB
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
Ephesians 1:7–12 CSB
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ 10 as a plan for the right time—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. 11 In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.