The Sovereignty of God
Few speak of it. Others pay but lip-service to it. Yet this is the fundamental truth upon which rests all doctrine.
That God is sovereign means that He is in complete control and governs all things without exception (Deut. 10:17; Ps. 86:8-10; 89:6; 97:9). He rules over those events in creation as earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves and even the snow and rain (Job 37:6; Ps. 97:5; 135:6; Is. 29:6; Rev. 6:12). He rules over the sickness and death of every individual (Is. 30:20). He rules over all men both good and evil (Ps. 2; Prov. 21:1; Is. 45:1-4). He rules over the devil and the fallen angels (Job 1:12; 2:6; Rom. 16:20). Nothing happens by chance or accident (Ps. 135:6; I Sam. 6:9).
This truth has important implications in the preaching of the gospel and the truth of salvation through the blood of Jesus. May then this sovereign God be presented in the preaching as a great beggar pleading with the sinner to accept Christ before it is too late? How could a sovereign God be placed in such a position? Can this very sovereign God who “speaks and it is done and commands and it stands fast” (Ps. 33:9) be reduced to such a position as to have His Son knocking at the door of the sinner’s heart, pleading for admittance? God forbid. Could a sovereign God present a “well-meant offer of salvation” to all—which the majority of mankind can simply reject? If our God is the sovereign God, why then do so many in our day present Him in the above manner? We are speaking, you understand, not about another man but about our God. We are not free to minimize His greatness nor compromise His power. God must remain God in our consciousness but also in our worship—as well as in our evangelism.
The sovereign God chose His elect people from eternity (Eph. 1:4). He gives those to Christ and draws them so that they come to Him (John 6:37, 44). God opens the heart of the elect sinner so that he believes (Acts 16:14). Though we are called to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, Scripture reminds us that it is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13). The good works of the Christian are foreordained by God that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10). God preserves and glorifies His people (Phil 1:6). This all necessarily follows out of the truth that God is sovereign.
Do you believe what God has clearly shown to us in His Holy Scripture about Himself? It is the privilege and high calling of every child of God to worship God as He has revealed Himself in His word. We of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church in Northern Ireland confess all of the above and desire to worship this sovereign God accordingly.
Who Are We?
We, who send out this little paper, are the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of Northern Ireland (CPRCNI). It is our desire both to introduce ourselves and also set forth the truths of Scripture as we believe these must be taught and preached.
There are many who would insist that we have in our land sufficient number of churches. There is no need for another. We are convinced, however, that when one cannot find such a church where the word of God is preached faithfully in harmony with Scripture, then Christ calls to come out. We and our children must serve the Lord in due order.
The CPRCNI was originally formed in January 1988 by a number of Reformed believers from different church backgrounds who were unhappy with the compromise and weakness of the existing Reformed denominations. It was their desire to establish a church which would bear a clear and distinctive witness to the Reformed faith as historically confessed by their forefathers in the Westminster Standards, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dordt.
We are not ashamed to confess our faith in
- the inspiration, inerrancy, authority and sufficiency of Holy Scripture (II Tim. 3:16);
- double predestination including both election and reprobation (Rom. 9);
- the absolute sovereignty of God;
- the unconditional establishment, maintenance, and realization of the covenant of grace through Jesus Christ with believers and their spiritual children (Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:39);
- the necessity and power of the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 10:14-15), which is the promise of God to His chosen people, as opposed to the “free offer [or ‘well-meant offer’] of the gospel”;
- the need for the Christian to be separate from the world in life and thought (II Cor. 6:17); and
- the regulative principle, that is, doing in worship only those things which Scripture requires: preaching of the Word, administration of the sacraments, giving of alms, praying, and singing psalms.
We invite all those who love the Reformed faith to join with us. We must have a sound witness to the faith of our fathers for which many of them even gave their lives.
Martin Luther on the “Free Will” of Man
What does Martin Luther write about the bondage of the will on the basis of John 6:44? This is what he has to say:
When Christ says in John 6: ‘No man can come to me, except My Father which hath sent me draw him’ (v. 44), what does he leave to ‘free-will’? He says man needs to hear and learn of the Father Himself, and that all must be taught of God. Here, indeed, he declares, not only that the works and efforts of ‘free-will’ are unavailing, but that even the very word of the gospel (of which He is here speaking) is heard in vain, unless the Father Himself speaks within, and teaches, and draws. ‘No man, no man can come,’ he says, and what he is talking about is your ‘power whereby man can make some endeavour towards Christ’. In things that pertain to salvation, He asserts that power to be null. ‘Free-will’ is not helped by what [Erasmus’] Diatribe quotes from Augustine in an attempt to discredit this plain and powerful Scripture: that is, the statement that ‘God draws us as we draw sheep, by holding out a branch to them’ (cf. Augustine, Tract. in Joannis ev., 26.5). From this simile the Diatribe would have it inferred that there is in us a power to follow the drawing of God. But the simile does not hold in this passage. For God displays, not just one, but all His good gifts, even His own Son, Christ, and yet, unless He inwardly displays something more and draws in another manner, no man follows Him; indeed, the whole world persecutes the Son whom He displays! The simile well fits the experience of the godly, who are already ‘sheep’ and know God as their Shepherd; living in, and moved by, the Spirit, they follow wherever God wills, and whatever He shows them. But the ungodly does not ‘come’, even when he hears the word, unless the Father draws and teaches him inwardly, which He does by shedding abroad His Spirit. When that happens, there follows a ‘drawing’ other than that which is outward; Christ is then displayed by the enlightening of the Spirit, and by it man is rapt to Christ with the sweetest rapture, he being passive while God speaks, teaches and draws, rather than seeking or running himself. (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will [1957 edition], 310-311).
J. C. Philpot (1802-1969):
I am bold to say that no man ever had his strength in God until he had lost all his own. I am bold to say, from Scripture and from experience, that no man ever felt or ever knew, spiritually and experimentally, what it was to put his trust and confidence in God, who had not been thoroughly weaned and emptied from putting all trust and confidence in himself.
William Rushton (1796-1838):
The direct tendency of a “yea and nay gospel” is to produce a worldly profession of Christianity. Every attempt to render the gospel more acceptable to me, by softening down any of its offensive doctrines, is itself an act of conformity to the world in the very worst form.
Dead in Sin?
Is the faith of our fathers living in your life? In your church? We sing the song: “Faith of our fathers living still …” and no doubt the faith is living. But the question is, “Where is that faith living and confessed?” And, “What is the faith of our fathers?” It was expressed over 350 years ago by our church fathers at the Synod of Dordt (in the Netherlands). We use the familiar acrostic: TULIP to help us remember what our fathers said the Bible teaches:
T – Total Depravity …
That means simply MAN IS DEAD. The Bible says that you and I are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1-6) unless we are born again. DEAD!!! More than that, the man or woman who is dead in sin hates God, and his “carnal mind” is “enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7). His will is stubbornly steeled against God. This biblical idea changes a lot of modern talk about salvation.
Consider what that means:
- Can a man do good works then, if he is not a Christian who is born again? No. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23).
- Can a man want to be born again and follow instructions on “how to do it?” No, for that would be like saying that a man in a grave can desire to come out of the grave, or follow instructions on how to be made alive. It would be like trying to lure him out of the grave. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:33).
- Can any man “accept Christ” as his personal Saviour, so that he becomes saved after that? Of course not. Accepting Christ is a good work done only by a Christian. Only AFTER God makes a person alive, can he and will he accept Christ. “No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44).
- Can you “offer salvation” to anyone? That is surely impossible. One might as well offer food to a dead man than salvation to a dead sinner (Eph. 2:1-2).
ONLY GOD CAN MAKE US ALIVE. AND GOD DOES THAT SOVEREIGNLY—WITHOUT OUR AID, WITHOUT OUR ASKING. From beginning to end, “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). This is the faith that we preach, because it is biblical, because it is the FAITH of our fathers, which we love, still living in our hearts and because it gives God all the glory! (to be continued…)
