Well, we’re picking up again with our first Article of Faith in the Nazarene denomination, which states what we believe about God, who He is, how He reveals Himself to us. This is what that statement is:
We believe in one eternally existent, infinite God, Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe; that He only is God, holy in nature, attributes, and purpose. The God who is holy love and light is Triune in essential being, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Last week talked about what it means to say “we believe”, that it is faith coupled with action, and must be, and that if action is not a part of faith then it is not true faith.
We looked at where in Scripture we learn that there is one God, known by many titles as He reveals Himself to us and the way He works and relates to us in different ways, but He is still one and there is no other.
And we looked at His eternal, infinite nature. That He has no beginning or end, will not die, He exists forever outside of time.
Today, as you can see in your bulletins, we are going through the next part of the statement of faith, that we believe God is the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
The first part of that is of course, Sovereign Creator. I’ve shared before that I really like words, I like learning about the roots of words and finding different ways of using words to get a point across. That’s one of the things I really like about digging into the Bible is figuring out what some words are in the original languages and learning why that particular word was chosen over a word that may have been similar, and connecting it to other uses of that word throughout Scripture so that I can get a better understanding of how it’s used in different contexts.
The word Sovereign is one of those interesting words throughout Scripture that is interesting because of the different ways it can be used. For instance, the word Sovereign can be used as both a noun and an adjective. That’s not all that uncommon, there are lots of words that can be both nouns and adjectives, but usually depending on the sentence you’re trying to put together and the thing you’re talking about, most words can only be one or the other in the sentence they’re placed in. Words usually aren’t both a noun and an adjective at the same time.
But Sovereign, in the way that we use it when talking about God, is both a noun and an adjective at the same time. It is both who He is and something that can be used to describe Him.
As a noun, a sovereign is someone who is the supreme ruler of something, a kingdom, a nation, a people group. Think of someone like a king or queen, or even in some instances, a dictator. These kinds of persons sit over a nation, kingdom, or group of people as their supreme ruler. We understand that this means that if the sovereign says something, it gets done. If they say that something is true, then it is true because they said it is. If they make a law, it’s law. This is what a sovereign is, and they are responsible for looking out for the well-being of the entire nation, kingdom, or people group.
When we say that God is Sovereign Creator, we use it as a noun and understand that it means that God is the supreme ruler of creation. All that He has created, He also sits over as its ruler, and the truth that He has said is truth, is truth despite what others might say. When He speaks, things happen, whole stars are created at His command. Psalm 148:5 says that all of Creation praises His name because when He commanded they were created. If all of Creation obeys His word and is created by His word, then He must be the ruler of it all, or Creation would not obey His word. So we know, God is the sovereign, He is the supreme ruler.
But as I said, Sovereign is both a noun and an adjective, and when we use it to describe God, it is both at the same time. As an adjective, Sovereign means that the one who is Sovereign has supreme or ultimate POWER. We understand that when we talk about someone having Sovereignty, it means that they could do anything they wanted because they have all the power.
As we use Sovereign as an adjective to describe God’s power, we sometimes think of the word, “omnipotent”, which means all powerful. There is nothing outside of God’s power to accomplish. So with God, it’s not a matter of if He can accomplish something, it’s will He will it. He can do everything, He is capable and His power is more than enough to do it, but sometimes somethings are not within His will or His character and so will not do something because it is contrary to who He is.
For example, God could make every person obey Him and worship Him. He is capable of that. He is powerful enough to do that. He will not though because that is against His loving nature and His desire to have a willing relationship with people based in choice, not force.
Or here’s another example, God could give me a red convertible Ferrari. That is within His power to do. He is all powerful and could work behind the scenes to get one to me, but He probably won’t. Why? Because it’s an unnecessary, frivolous thing that I want because it’s a selfish lust of my heart. It would do no good, and ultimately probably wouldn’t be good for me, and He is a good God who only wants His best for me. He could do it, but likely won’t.
Let’s look at some Scripture that helps us understand God as Sovereign Creator.
Isaiah 40 is a great chapter that helps us understand God’s role in creation and the hearts of humans, and verse 26 helps us understand God’s sovereign power. “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” (NIV) Isaiah is called to look up to the heavens, even the very distant stars, and remember who it is that created them. Isaiah recalls that it is God who created them, He created the stars one by one and calls them each out by name. Then Isaiah makes the point that it is because of God’s great power and mighty strength that all of the stars that needed to be created have been created, and none of them is missing.
Now, we can make miniaturized versions of stars. Science can do that, and that’s cool. But when we look at the sheer scope and vastness of all the heavens, all the stars, all the galaxies, all the planets, all the black holes and even the emptiness of space is on such a different scale than anything we can come up with in a laboratory. Yet, this is nothing for God’s Sovereign power to be accomplished. And we understand that if God can create the heavens on such a vast scale, then we can trust that He has also created everything that we can see here on earth. His sovereign power created what we see in creation.
Let’s go to 1 Corinthians 8:6, “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” (NIV) This drives the point even more clearly and directly. Paul clearly states here that we believe that God the Father is the one from whom all things came.
His power is so supreme, so great, so ultimate, that He caused ALL things to exist. If it exists, it is because God caused it to exist. Nothing that exists can exist outside of God causing it to exist.
We can also look at John 1:3 to understand this, “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” (NIV), and of course, you can look at the account of creation in Genesis 1 to read about how God accomplished this just by the sovereign power of His word.
1 Chronicles 29:11-12 says this, “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.” (NIV) This passage talks about the greatness of His power and glory and majesty and splendor, and His power in creation to create all things and give blessings as He sees fit, and to give strength to others, but the highlighted portions speak specifically about how He is the supreme ruler, the Sovereign over all He has created. Everything in heaven and earth is His. He is exalted as head over all His kingdom, which is His creation. He is the ruler of all things. Not only did He create everything by His sovereign power but He rules as sovereign over His creation.
And we also have Isaiah 46:10, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’” This is a promise we can take to heart, in every context, in every walk of life and every situation that we might find ourselves in in this crazy world, and it is a poignant reminder for us always around election times and other times of turmoil and disunity in our society, but God’s promise is that His purpose will stand. He will do what is in His will to do.
One of my favorite little sayings that I see circulating around from time to time is that God already factored in my stupidity when He called me to serve Him, and that is a comforting thought because I know that He is working to accomplish His purposes and He doesn’t do it in spite of me, He does it through me, even using my stupidity and mistakes.
Why do we act then as if something a non-believer does is going to be able to thwart God’s purposes? Do you really think some corrupt politician, or some criminal is going to be able to throw God off His game? Do you think God has to change His plans to adjust for humanity’s sinful nature? No! He is sovereign and His purpose will stand. He will do what is in His will to do. Now we get the humble opportunity to partner with Him in that work, and He wants us to, but if we don’t He’ll find someone else. He doesn’t need us, He wants us.
I heard a really encouraging example of this at leadership retreat these past few days. A gentleman who is seeking a minister’s license on our district and His salvation testimony is incredible. He was in prison on a murder charge, given a life sentence. Two days after his arrest, he met with the Lord and had this incredible conversion which freed him from a life-long addiction to drugs, alcohol, and in his words, everything but Jesus. But even though He had this new freedom in Jesus, he was serving a life-sentence. In his time served, he pastored prison churches and saw up to 200 people come to know Christ because of his ministry. Thirty years went by. He came up for parole. Under the previous governor, the parole board denied his parole for eight years, even though his record and merit clearly showed he had radically changed.
But, then we got a new governor 4 years ago, and COVID hit and you probably already know that during that time, a lot of prisoners in our state prisons were released. That was not necessarily a good thing, and there was definitely some harm that came out of that. But this gentleman was one of those that was released. And now, because God’s purposes will not be thwarted even in the midst of choices we might not agree with, this man is getting ready to plant a church in Santa Rosa and he is 100% all in for Jesus. He has radically committed his life to the Lord and now God is giving him the open doors to minister to people in his community that many of us would never feel “comfortable” ministering to. God’s sovereign power can do all that He says He can do, regardless of humanity’s plans and actions. He is in control, and never is there a time He wouldn’t be.
He is Sovereign Creator. He is the Sustainer of the universe. A sustainer is someone who UPHOLDS or MAINTAINS something. So when we say God is the Sustainer of the universe, we are saying that we believe that God is the one who upholds and maintains the universe. He keeps it going.
I look at Psalm 104 which is another passage that talks about God’s power in creation. There’s a few verses in this Psalm that talk about God’s power to sustain what exists in the universe, to keep it going. Psalm 104:13-15, and 21, “He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of His work. 14 He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth: 15 wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. 21 The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God.” (NIV)
Here the Psalmist talks about how God causes the whole earth to provide for its inhabitants. He makes waters come from the mountains, water that we need to sustain all life on earth. The Psalmist tells us that the whole land, all of the earth is satisfied by what God does, by what He provides. The cattle of the field have grass to eat because He provides it, people of the earth have plants that provide food for them because God says so. Not only is food provided for people, but we also have wine to gladden our hearts, oil to make our faces shine, and bread that sustains our hearts. I love a good loaf of bread, when its hot and fresh out of the oven and it’s still soft and almost gooey. For me, that kind of bread is for more than just keeping me alive, it just tastes good, it’s comfort food and it makes me feel good. And that’s the point with the wine and oil as well. God doesn’t just give us what we need to live, He gives us things to make us glad, to give us comfort, to help us be joyful. He sustains us in every way we need to be sustained.
We understand that without God, not only would everything not have been created, but it depends on Him to continue to exist as well, to be sustained and have continued life. Psalm 104:27-30 goes on to say, “All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. 28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. 29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. 30 When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” (NIV)
Not only does He provide food for all living things to be sustained and have a good life, but He also gives us our very breath to live. I love that song that we sing sometimes, “Great Are You Lord”, that it is His breath in our lungs. It’s a beautiful idea, but it’s also Biblical! His breath is in our lungs, and the Psalmist says that it is His Spirit that creates and renews life and the very face of the earth.
He is not a God that created everything and walked away. He created everything, and keeps it going. He gives breath into lungs of the living, He gives His Spirit to renew and create, He provides for the needs and good of all the earth’s inhabitants. He is the Sustainer of the universe.
We believe in one eternally existent, infinite God, Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the universe…and the rest we will dive into next week.
Questions to form your quiet time this week:
1. Reflect on the attributes of God given in the message. Why is each of these attributes important to you as a believer? How do they affect how you relate to God?
2. How should these attributes of God change how we serve God with other believers? How can we encourage and build up other believers because of these attributes of God’s character?
3. Read Genesis 1:26-27. How did God make humankind? How then might we approach relationships with pre-Christians in light of this and God’s attributes from this message?