We know God rules good now, and we know God will rule evil eventually. This daily devotional looks at how God rules evil now, too.
Nuggets
- God is at the top of the hierarchy and demands loyalty.
- When witnessing, disciples need to present the gospel in the manner that leads to identification and acceptance.
- Worldview people use their rage and vanity as common ties to oppose God.
- God designed the Plan of Salvation, which utilized a violent death to atone for our sins.
I am going to pull something out of the drafts folder for this devotion. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow where I get the results of the MRI, so I plan on doing a music day then. I didn’t want to start something big and interrupt it.
Depending on the news, I may do another music day or the next installment in the Sunday Morning Bible Study series. Then we’ll get back to the Transforming for Perfection series.
For this devotion, we are looking at a piece of Clarkson’s sermon entitled The Lord Rules Over All. The section that caught my eye was how God even now rules evil. Clarkson wrote:
“He rules and orders not only that which is good, but that which is evil and sinful (Psalm118:12; Acts 14:19).(1) He limits and bounds it, so that it proceeds not so far as Satan and the depraved will of man would have if.(2) He overrules it to good ends, and disposes it to excellent purposes (Acts 4:27, 28; Acts 2:23).”
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As with all devotions that are a foray into what someone else meant, it may be easily discernible, or it may not be. They are interesting verses. I am not sure I would have chosen all of them, but ….
Let’s dig in and see what the verses tell us. I am just going to do bullets here.
God Rules Good and Evil
“They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire among thorns; in the name of the Lord I destroyed them” (Ps. 118: 12 CSB)
God is at the top of the hierarchy and demands loyalty.
- Bees generally just swarm when they feel threatened.
- Bees are skillful in making their homes.
- Bees are industrious, having a hierarchical structure to facilitate the work.
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- Even though there was a hierarchy, there was a loyalty to the queen bee.
- Here is an attachment to the hive.
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We Need to Believe in the Gospel
“In Iconium they entered the Jewish synagogue, as usual, and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed” (Ac. 14: 1 CSB)
When witnessing, disciples need to present the gospel in the manner that leads to identification and acceptance.
• Iconium was a major city in Asia Minor close to Ephesus, Tarsus, and Antioch.
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• Thomas wrote, “The preaching that ends in enlightened practical faith is that which Christ ordained, and what the world wants.”
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- The missionaries were coming from a difficult reception in Antioch. Instead of throwing in the towel, they expanded their mission. Hazard wrote, “Though they had turned to the Gentiles, they had not turned away from the Jews.”
- The Word was presented in a way that people from diverse backgrounds could all identify their need for the Savior.
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• The gospel is designed to place faith and repentance in mankind.
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• We need to taylor the presentation of the gospel to where it will produce the most results. Hanna wrote, “He evidently did not disregard the character of his audience, the kind of evidence he should produce, and the manner of expressing his thoughts, any more than he showed carelessness as to his subject, which was always ‘Christ, and Him crucified.’ Increase depends more upon the good seed and soil, and warm rains and sunshine, than upon the sower, yet the skilful (sic) sower is the successful husbandman. So in the economy of grace the teacher and his methods have a prominent place in the production of results. To the teacher the responsibility of speaking rightly is as great as the responsibility of trusting supremely.”
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Worldview People Band Together Against God
“For, in fact, in this city both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your will had predestined to take place” (Ac. 4: 27-28 CSB)
Worldview people use their rage and vanity as common ties to oppose God.
- Thomas described rage and vanity as emotions exhibited by enemies of Christ.
- It is not uncommon for enemies of Christ to band together.
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- While Herod and Pilate worked against Jesus, Denton reminded us that, “in their blindness and sinfulness they did just so much and no more than God had determined to be done.”
- Salvation comes to us because of God’s mercy.
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God’s Plan of Salvation
“Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him” (Ac. 2: 23 CSB)
God designed the Plan of Salvation, which utilized a violent death to atone for our sins.
- Jesus voluntarily went along with the Plan of Salvation because He knew that was the only way in which our sins would have atonement.
- In order for His sacrifice to be acceptable to God, Flavel said that Jesus’ life must be violently taken from Him.
- This type of death fulfilled the requirement of being lifted up to an altar.
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- South wrote, “To restore life is only the prerogative of Him who gives it. Physic may repair in piece of nature, but not create it. Neither is it in the power of a spirit or demon to inspire a new life; for it is a creation, and to create is the incommunicable prerogative of a power infinite and unlimited.”
- Only God could raise Jesus from the dead.
- South wrote, “The hypostatical union of Christ’s human nature to His Divine rendered a perpetual duration under death absolutely impossible. For how could that which was united to the great source and principle of life be finally prevailed over by death, and pass into an estate of perpetual darkness and oblivion?” I take that to mean that, because of Jesus’ 100% divine nature, He would not have been able to stay dead.
- Part of Jesus’ divine nature is that He does not change. He is eternal.
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- Gladden contended the victory over the grave was a moral victory as love conquered death.
- Gladden wrote, “The expectation of future existence in the abstract may be more or less shadowy; but the expectation that virtuous life will continue rests on the very foundation of our moral nature.”
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Making the Connections
God rules both the good and evil because He is at the top of the hierarchy and demands loyalty. He demands this loyalty because of all of His attributes: eternal, unchanging, yada, yada, yada. He deserves to be on top.
To read a devotion in the Finding Our Center series, click on the button below
Worldview people use their rage and vanity as common ties to oppose God. They would love to oppose God and win. They aren’t going to in the end.
God does limit them now, because like we said, He is in control now. That makes Satan livid!
When God calls us to salvation, He gives us the faith to believe in Him. It is a moral victory over sin.
How Do We Apply This?
When witnessing, disciples need to present the gospel in the manner that leads to identification and acceptance. We have to take into consideration their backgrounds and what their needs are.
God is Sovereign God. He was yesterday. He is today. He will be tomorrow.
Father God. Lord, You rule over good and evil. We put our faith and trust in You. Amen.
What do you think?
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