Matthew Stuckey here from Verity Baptist Church Manila providing another video on Calvinism
and I wanted to talk to you about the idea of God being sovereign.
And so sometimes you'll hear people throw out this word sovereign
and sometimes people ask you, do you believe that God is sovereign?
Now the problem with this is that this is not a biblical word.
Now just because it's not a biblical word doesn't mean it's not true.
The word rapture is not in the Bible but the Bible talks about the rapture
and we see that in Matthew 24, 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 and other places as well.
But the thing is if somebody's going to use a word that's not in the Bible
we need to know what do they mean by that.
And so if somebody says, hey, do you believe that God is sovereign?
It's kind of like, well, what do you mean by that?
You know, maybe yes, maybe no depending on what you mean by that.
See, I mean, I believe God's sovereign in terms of the fact that God is control
and he can choose to just do what he wants if he wants to
but he does allow the devil to be the God of this world.
Like the Bible says, he allows us to have free will and choices
and so when all this wickedness takes place
it's not God's sovereign will that this wickedness took place.
Because he does give us free will.
It doesn't mean he wants us to do those things but he doesn't force us.
And so if somebody says, do you believe that God is sovereign?
It's like, well, what do you mean by that?
I mean, yes, you know, he's in control
but he doesn't mean that he forces us to do certain things.
It's like, for example, with my son.
Now, look, you know, my son, if I want, then I can prevent him from playing outside.
You know, I can prevent him from doing certain things that he wants.
But, you know, honestly, a lot of times I like to let him just go to the park
and just run around and I'll be there to watch him and stuff like that.
And he doesn't always make the choices I want.
And sometimes I wish he didn't do some of the things he does.
But, you know, I allow him sometimes to have that free will, to have some fun
and, you know, sometimes you learn from your mistakes.
And you know what? God is the same way.
He allows us, as children of God, to make our own choices.
And quite honestly, sometimes we choose to sin.
We choose to do what's wrong.
And with the world being as messed up as it is, you can't blame God
and say, well, you know, God's sovereign. He's in control.
This is his sovereign will.
Look, sometimes things happen
and it's not something that was what God wanted to have happen
but he gave us free will to decide what we wanted to do.
Thank you and God bless.