Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order: Where We Are & How We Got Here

The Sovereignty of God over Nations

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Civil Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2012-01-25

Synopsis: Pastor John Weaver expounds Job 12:23-25 to demonstrate that God is absolutely sovereign over all nations, both in their rise and their fall. He argues that God increases and enlarges nations according to His will, and He also diminishes and destroys them, often by removing wisdom from their rulers. The lecture addresses the problem of evil by explaining that God permits only enough wickedness to bring glory to Himself and restrains the rest. Applications emphasize that America's decline is evidence of God's judgment on foolish leaders, and believers should find comfort in God's control and seek the unshakable kingdom of Christ.

[John Weaver] The book of Job, chapter 12, if you would, please. And we're going to read verses 23 through 25. The message today is entitled, The Sovereignty of God Over Nations. Notice Job, chapter 12, verse 23. The Bible says, he, and we're talking about God,"...he increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them. He enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

[John Weaver] They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them stagger like a drunken man." When you and I look around today at all of our nations, including America, we can actually say that, like the Bible, men's hearts are failing them for fear. I mean, you look at the turmoil, look at the trouble that practically every nation is in. We look at China. We look at North Korea. We look at Iraq and Iran. We look at some of these nations that we think, as a whole, may be threatening us. And yet, we never stop to think of one simple truth.

[John Weaver] And that is that God is sovereign. And that sovereignty extends over the nations. Now when I say that God is sovereign, I want you to understand that he is the only sovereign. There can only be one sovereign and the word sovereign or sovereignty excludes anything or anyone else. There cannot possibly be two sovereigns. So sovereignty belongs to God exclusively. Let me just give you a couple of verses by way of introduction. In Isaiah 43 in verse 11, God said, I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. In Isaiah 44 in verse 6, Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. And then in Isaiah chapter 45 in verse 6, that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside me, I am the Lord, and there is none else. And then in Isaiah 45 in verse 22, he says, Tell you and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together.

[John Weaver] Who had declared this from the ancient time? Who had told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me, a just God and Savior. There is none beside me. So God then is exclusively the sovereign.

[John Weaver] Now I want you to understand that God's sovereignty extends to anything and everything. There is nothing over which God is not sovereign. I remember years ago when I was in the university, we were talking about God's sovereignty and it was a class packed full of young preacher boys. And I remember this one young man raised his hand and the professor called upon him and he said, well, sir, he said, I believe that God is sovereign over all the big things but not the little things.

[John Weaver] And when he said that, before I even caught myself, I said out loud, oh, what utter blasphemy. And of course, everybody looked at me and the professor looked at me and I said, I'm sorry. I said, I didn't mean to say that out loud. But I said, Sir, if you don't correct him, I am, because every big thing is made up of a series of a lot of little things. And if there's even one thing over which God is not sovereign, then God is not God, because that thing is over and above God and independent of God. And he said, the professor said, Mr. Weaver is right. And certainly I was right, because God is sovereign. He is sovereign. He extends to everything.

[John Weaver] Now, we're in Job chapter 12. I want to begin reading at verse 13, and let's read through verse 22, and let me just show you how God's sovereignty extends to things that you and I hardly ever think of. Notice Job chapter 12, and let's begin with verse 13. With Him, that is with God, is wisdom and strength. He, God, has counsel and understanding. Notice what God does now. Behold, he, God, breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. He, God, shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he, God, withholdeth the waters, and they dry up.

[John Weaver] Also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. With him, that is with God, is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counselors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. He looseth the bonds of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.

[John Weaver] He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death." Now I want you to note, God is sovereign over all of these things and He does all of these things. God's sovereignty means that God is sovereign over everyone and everything and that everyone and everything is under His control.

[John Weaver] Now God's sovereignty not only includes individuals and families and churches and states but even nations as well and I might add that His sovereignty includes The wicked nations as well as the righteous nations. The wicked people as well as righteous people. And it should be a comfort to the saints of God to know and understand that God is sovereign over every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation. That means this dictators, tyrants, despots, presidents, congresses, Parliaments and all types of rulers are under his direct sovereign control.

[John Weaver] Now, once that concept is grasped and realized, there's a question that automatically arises in everyone's mind. And what's that question? Here it is. Well, pastor, if God is sovereign, And if God is in control of every dictator, every ruler, every nation, every state, if God is in control, why then does he allow so much wickedness and so much rebellion in the world? It's a good question. I want to answer that. I want you to hold Job 12, but I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 76 and look at verse 10. Psalm 76 in verse 10. So if God is sovereign, if God is in control, why then does he allow so much wickedness and so much rebellion in these nations, in individuals, in families, in rulers? Well, notice what the Bible says in Psalm 76 and verse 10. It's exceedingly plain. Psalm 76 in verse 10, the psalmist says, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Now notice what he said, surely the wrath of man will praise thee and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

[John Weaver] Now the word wrath is the Hebrew word Kame and it refers to fury, to wrath, to venom, to poison, to anger, to indignation, to furious and burning anger and displeasure. So you take all the anger, all the indignation, all the poison, all the venom, all the wickedness that has been, that is, and that will be. Notice what the scripture says now. Surely the wrath, that wicked rebellious spirit of man and his wicked actions, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. And the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Now here's my question. How much wrath How much wickedness, how much rebellion will God allow? Here's the answer. Just enough that will redound to his honor and his glory and the remainder of wrath will he restrain. Now notice what the Bible says.

[John Weaver] Look in Psalm 76 verse 10 again. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee.

[John Weaver] Now the word praise literally means to confess, to give thanks, thanksgiving, to make a confession. Literally, ultimately, fully, and finally, man's wickedness and man's rebellion is going to offer up thanks and praise unto the one true and the living God. Let me give you one quick quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He said this, it, talking about the wrath of man, it shall not only be overcome but rendered subservient to God's glory. Man with his breath of threatening is but blowing the trumpet of the Lord's eternal fame.

[John Weaver] Furious winds often drive vessels more swiftly into port. The devil blows the fire and melts the iron, and then the Lord fashions it for his own purposes. Let men and devils rage as they may. They cannot do otherwise than but to subserve the divine purposes. Everything that man does, everything that wicked people do, is going to ultimately serve the Lord's purposes. You've heard me say it. I don't always understand it, but here it is again. Everything is going wrong just right.

[John Weaver] Because God is in control. He has not lost control.

[John Weaver] Now notice what the Bible says. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and that which will not praise God he will restrain He won't allow it to happen. Let me give you an illustration I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 20 Genesis chapter 20 and let's begin reading there with verse 1 most of you know there has been in this passage a famine in the land and Abraham and Sarah head out because of the famine. And Sarah evidently was a very beautiful woman. And Abraham was very concerned because he thought, well, she's so beautiful.

[John Weaver] Somebody will kill me just to get my wife. So, you know, he said, you tell everybody you're my sister. You know, you've got to understand back in those days, her being his sister would have been a means of protecting her because no one could have approached her without first asking his permission since he would have been the head of the family. But watch what happens in Genesis 20 and verse 1.

[John Weaver] And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country and dwelled toward Gerah and Shur and sojourned in Gerah. And Abraham said of Sarah's wife, she is my sister. Now look, and Abimelech king of Gerah sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said unto him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he, nodding to me, she is my sister.

[John Weaver] And she, even she herself, said, he is my brother. In the integrity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore I suffered thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live, and if thou restore her not, know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine. Now notice what happened.

[John Weaver] Abimelech saw Sarah and he said, She's a beautiful woman. I'd like to add her to my harem. And she went into his court. And God appeared to Abimelech and said, if you touch her, you're dead man. I'll kill you. Now, the Bible said Abimelech had not come near her. What did God do to stop Abimelech? I don't know. Maybe he gave him a case of 24-hour virus.

[John Weaver] I have no earthly idea. But I know one thing for sure. He never touched her. And God said, I have withheld thee from sinning against me. I've stopped you. Therefore, I suffered you not to touch her. In other words, obviously, therefore, to defile the lineage of Christ would not be glorifying to God. And God did not allow that to happen. The wrath of man shall praise the Lord, and the remainder of wrath shall he restrain.

[John Weaver] That's why the Bible says very clearly in Proverbs 21 in verse 1, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he willeth. Now listen to that. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as rivers of water. He turns that heart any way he pleases, anywhere he pleases. So the truth of the matter is this.

[John Weaver] Why does God allow wickedness? Why does God allow rebellion? Here's the answer. Just enough to get honor and glory for himself. You say brother Weaver, how in the world could sin and wickedness and rebellion glorify God? Well, let me ask you a question. Do you realize that if there was no sin, if there was no rebellion and wickedness, we would never comprehend the holiness and the justice of God and God's righteous anger and indignation against it. And if there was never any sin or rebellion, we would never even grasp God's mercy and God's grace when He saves people out of that sin and out of that rebellion. In other words, sin and wickedness ultimately are going to redound to God's honor and God's glory. And what will not glorify Him, He will restrain, He will withhold.

[John Weaver] Now, as you go back to Job 12, I want you to understand everything that God has said in Job chapter 12, verses 13 through 22, talking about rulers, talking about men, He now applies to nations in verses 23 through 25. So God is just as sovereign over the nation as He is over the individual. The Bible says in Proverbs 22 and verse 28, or Psalm 22 and verse 28, For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the governor among the nations. God is the governor among the nations. In Psalm 113 and verse 4, the Bible says, the Lord is high above all nations.

[John Weaver] And His glory filleth the heavens. I want you to turn very quickly to the book of Isaiah chapter 40. And let me just show you three quick references. Two of them is Isaiah, one's in Jeremiah. Look in Isaiah chapter 40. And let's begin reading there with verse 15. Isaiah 40 and verse 15. Look what God says. Isaiah 40 verse 15. The Bible says, Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as a small dust to the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. You know, when you and I think of the nations in this world and their greatness and their power and their might, I mean, we're awed. God says, they're just a drop in the bucket. They're nothing to God. Just a drop in a bucket. Look in Isaiah 40 and verse 17. All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counting Him less than nothing and vanity. Wow. Look in Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 7. Jeremiah 10 and verse 7.

[John Weaver] This shows you basically the greatness of God and the weakness of men. Jeremiah 10 verse 7, notice what the scripture asks, Who would not fear thee, O king of nations? For to thee doth it appertain, for as much as among all the wise men of the nations and all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee. Notice if you would, God is called the king of the nations.

[John Weaver] That is, He's their sovereign. He rules over them.

[John Weaver] Now as you go back to Job chapter 12, please, I want you to notice just two points today. Look if you would please in verse 23 for the very first thing. He said, He increaseth the nations and destroyeth them. He enlargeth the nations and straighteneth them again. First of all, it's the sovereignty of God that increases and enlarges nations. It's the sovereignty of God that increases and enlarges nations. You want to know why America got as far as she got? Because of God's sovereignty.

[John Weaver] I had someone call me yesterday and was asking me about some of the founding fathers. And he said, I know not every one of them or each one of them was a Christian. I said, that's true. the majority of the founding fathers were Christian. But I said, you have to understand this, those men who were not Christian were so deeply influenced by the Christian religion that it pervaded every part of their being and everything that they did.

[John Weaver] For instance, most people count Benjamin Franklin a deist. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin, was personal friends with George Whitefield and that Benjamin Franklin often went to hear Whitefield preach. And he calculated at one time that his voice could be heard while he was preaching to approximately 40,000 people. And they didn't have megaphones and electronics back then. But if Benjamin Franklin was a deist and was not a Christian, I want you to consider what he said since he was the oldest man at the Constitutional Convention. Here's what he said.

[John Weaver] Let me give you the quote. He's speaking to George Washington and to all the other men who were there. And he said, in the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintendent providence in our favor.

[John Weaver] To that kind providence, not luck, not fate, not fortune, to that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. And I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.

[John Weaver] We shall be divided by our little partial local interest, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse? Mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments to be by human wisdom and leave it a chance war conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service." Isn't that amazing?

[John Weaver] Now if Benjamin Franklin was not a Christian, he certainly had Christian understanding and Christian principles, he understood this simple truth that no nation can rise without the divine providence and help and blessing of God. And the scripture tells us it is God who allows the nations to increase and expand.

[John Weaver] Now there are multitudes of examples in the scripture and I'm going to show you a little bit later about Israel. But the same truth is given concerning the pagan nations as well. For instance, if you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 25, let me show you what God says in reference to Nebuchadnezzar and to Babylon. Watch this, if you would, please. Jeremiah, chapter 25, beginning there with verse 9. Jeremiah 25, verse 9. God says, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant," that's what he called Nebuchadnezzar, my servant, and will bring them against the land and against the inhabitants thereof and against all the nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, that is all those nations, and make them an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations. Note now, moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the of the millstones and the light of the candle and this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these

[John Weaver] nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. What did God do? God took a pagan man and a pagan nation and sent them to conquer because his people had sinned against him and God says they're going to serve him for seventy years. Notice in Jeremiah 26 beginning there with verse 1 Jeremiah 26 verse 1 Look if you would Jeremiah 26 verse 1 in the beginning of the reign of Joachim the son of Josiah king of Judah Came this word from the Lord saying thus said the Lord stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak in all the cities of Judah Which come to worship in the Lord's house all the words that I command thee to speak unto them diminished not a word If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purposed to do unto them, because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will hearken to me, and walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened, then

[John Weaver] will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse in all the nations. So the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking, These words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah made in and speaking all that the Lord commanded him and said unto all the people, etc. They said to Jeremiah, thou shalt surely die.

[John Weaver] Now don't you know what God did? God told the people, I'm sending Nebuchadnezzar. I'm sending the Babylonians.

[John Weaver] Now listen, if you will listen to my preacher, if you will hear him, if you will repent, if you will obey me, I will withhold this. But if not, I'm going to send him. and you're going to die. And that's exactly what God did. God sent a pagan king and a pagan nation to conquer.

[John Weaver] Now, we're specifically told in relationship to Israel, if you will turn back to Isaiah 26, and look at verse 15, we're specifically told it was God who increased and enlarged Israel. We all know that. But look at Isaiah 26 and verse 15, Isaiah says, Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord. Thou hast increased the nation. Thou art glorified. Thou hast removed it from the ends of the earth. And the word removed there means Thou hast extended it. In other words, You have enlarged it to all of the ends of the earth. So God can enlarge and extend the kingdom of His people. Or He can enlarge and extend the kingdom of the wicked. Why?

[John Weaver] Because he's sovereign over both. In the book of Habakkuk, don't turn there, let me just quote it. Chapter 1 and verse 6, God says, For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who shall march through the breadth of the land to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. God said, I'm raising them up. I'm going to send them to the land. They're going to possess lands that are not theirs. So it doesn't really matter if we're talking about a Christian nation or a pagan nation or anything in between, if there can be anything in between the sovereignty of God is over every nation. And it's the sovereignty of God that allows that nation to expand and to enlarge. It is God who gives that nation the ability to conquer. The ability to understand, the ability to comprehend, the ability to apply a work ethic. It's God. Listen, it is God that even allows one nation to conquer another nation or another people. Now, let me try to answer another question before it's asked because I know it's going to come into your mind.

[John Weaver] Look what God did. God took Israel. and sent them into the land to conquer nations that had been there for hundreds of years, some maybe even thousands. So here's the question, pastor, how just is it for God to take some upstart people, some young little group, some young little nation and send them in to conquer and to take land away from a people that have been there for hundreds and thousands of years. How just can that be? How just could it be in our thinking For God to allow a little old insignificant puny Cuba to come in and whip America and take our land and take our cities.

[John Weaver] Well, let me first establish one principle from scripture. Here it is. I'm going to ask you the question that I'm going to give you the scripture. Who is the rightful owner of the world and everything in it? God, the sovereign God of heaven and earth.

[John Weaver] Now just listen, you don't have to turn here, but in 1 Chronicles 29 verse 11, here's what King Asa confessed. He said this, thine, O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and that is in earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom of the Lord and thou art exalted as head above all. Most of you can quote Psalm 24 in verse 1, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. Did you know that that verse is quoted twice in the New Testament? In 1 Corinthians 10 in verse 26, the Bible says, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. 1 Corinthians 10 verse 28, for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. In other words, here's the principle that we've established this world and everything in it belongs to God. It is His.

[John Weaver] Here's a second question that must be asked in light of that truth. Does God not have the right to do with His own as He pleases? Let me show you. Turn in your Bibles very quickly to Matthew 20. Matthew 20. I love this passage. Matthew 20. And let's begin reading there in verse 1. You see, the problem is this. Many times we want to claim a prerogative or a right for ourselves that we won't allow God to have. Look in Matthew 20, verse 1.

[John Weaver] Our Lord says, for the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. Now look, and when he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into the vineyard. It's six o'clock in the morning. And he went out about the third hour, nine o'clock and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, go you also in the vineyard and whatsoever is right, I'll give you. And they went their way. Again, he went out the sixth hour. 12 noon, dinner time, and the ninth hour, three in the afternoon, and did likewise. About the 11th hour, say five in the afternoon, he went out and found others standing idle and said to them, why stand you here idle all the day? And they said to him, because no man hath hired us. He said to them, go ye also in the vineyard, and whatsoever is ripe, that you shall receive. So when the evening was come, the lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, call the laborers and give them their hire, beginning from the last into the first.

[John Weaver] And when they came that were hired about the 11th hour, that is, they'd only worked one hour, they received every man a penny. And when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more and they likewise received every man a penny. Remember they agreed for that. And when they received it, they murmured against the good man of the house saying, These lasts have wrought but one hour, but thou hast made them equal unto us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day. But he answered one of them and said, friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a penny?

[John Weaver] Take that thine is and go thy way. I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good? Can God not do with his own as he pleases? And the answer is yes. God can. Everything belongs to Him and God may do with it as He pleases. God has the sovereign right to dispossess anyone from His creation either temporarily or permanently. And most of the nations that God dispossessed were nations that refused to honor Him and to glorify Him and obey Him. In other words, they refused to give God His just due as a righteous landlord, and when they refused to give Him His just due, He justly kicked them out. The Bible says in Proverbs 29 and verse 2, Give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord the glory due in His name, and worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness. In Psalm 96 and verse 7, Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people.

[John Weaver] Give unto the Lord glory and strength. And then in Psalm 96 and verse 8, Give unto the Lord the glory that is due in His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Let me ask you a question. If you owned a house, if you owned several houses, would you allow renters to remain in your house or houses? who never paid any rent and constantly and continually destroyed your property. Would you allow them to remain?

[John Weaver] Or would you kick them out? And if you kick them out, would you be just and right in doing so? What's the answer? Yes, you would. You were the owner. You can do with it as you please. And if someone's not going to pay what they justly and rightly owe, they should be dispossessed. The same is true not just of someone in our time who owns a house. The same is true when God is sovereign over the nations. When nations do not give God His due, this earth is His. He may lawfully, righteously, and justly kick them out.

[John Weaver] Years ago I was preaching in Ohio and attending the church was an American Indian. And the pastor took us out to eat every day and this American Indian and a few other men went with us. And the American Indian was, you know, fine. I mean, you know, he's kind and gracious and cordial. until the very last day. And the last day that I was there, he looked sullen, mad, angry, kept his head down most of the time. I called his name.

[John Weaver] I said, what in the world is wrong with you? And he looked at me and said, you white men stole our land. He should not have said that. I said, let me tell you something. First of all, it's not your land. It's God's land. I said, secondly, your people were out worshiping the sun and the moon and the stars and the trees and the water and the birds and anything that walked instead of the one true and the living God.

[John Weaver] You refused to give Him honor. You refused to give Him glory. I said, moreover, you not only killed people, you ate people. He looked at me and said, how did you know that? I said, it's alright, I know because I do some studying. You did that. I said, let me tell you something. God had the absolute right to take the land away from you and give it to us and God has the absolute right to take the land away from us and give it to someone else if we fail Him and refuse to honor and glorify Him. And He does. It belongs to Him. God is the one who increases and enlarges nations.

[John Weaver] I want you to go back, if you would, to Job chapter 12 and look again very quickly at verse 23 because here's the second point. Now watch. Job 12 verse 23, look what he says. He increases the nations and destroys them. He enlarges the nations and straightens them again. Here's the second point. The sovereignty of God diminishes and destroys nations just like God increases and enlarges them and builds them up It's God also who diminishes and destroys them. God has entire and complete control over every nation.

[John Weaver] The sources of prosperity are in His hand. And in His pleasure, He may visit any nation with famine, with pestilence, with war. He may diminish our numbers. He may arrest our property. He may do whatever He pleases. Our prosperity is in His hand. I want you to look very quickly at Psalm 105. Look at Psalm 105. And of course, you will recognize that this is what God has done to Egypt. But look if you would at what is stated that God actually did. Psalm 105, notice if you would verse 11. Psalm 105 verse 11.

[John Weaver] Saying unto thee, will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance? When they were but a few men in number, yea, they were few and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he, that is God, suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land.

[John Weaver] He broke the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. whose feet they hurt with fetters, he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of his substance, to bind his princes at his pleasures and to teach his sinners wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. Now look, and he increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies. Isn't that amazing? Oh, but look at the next verse.

[John Weaver] He turned their heart, that is the Egyptian's heart, to hate his people and to deal suddenly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen. They showed his signs among them and wonders in the land of Ham.

[John Weaver] Now look what God did. He sent darkness and he made it dark. And they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance in the chambers of their kings. He spake and there came diverse sorts of flies and lice in their coast. He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land. He smoked their vines also and their fig trees and broke the trees of their coast. He spake and the locusts came in caterpillars and that without number and did eat up all the herbs in their land and devoured the fruit of the ground. He smote also the firstborn in their land, the chief of their strength." Notice if you would, God is doing all of this.

[John Weaver] And if you'll skip down to verse 44, And gave them the lands of the heathen, and they inherited the labor of the people, that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws, praise ye the Lord. God often permits a nation to acquire territory and afterwards shuts them up reduces, they lose that territory, he reduces them and sometimes shuts them up in their natural boundaries and sometimes even reduces their natural boundaries. You know what men do? Men say, oh, it's natural events.

[John Weaver] It was the flood, or it was the drought, or it was state intrigue, or it was political intrigue, or it was this or it was that. And very few people ever see that God is behind Everything it is God who set it up one and take it down another now listen to what the scripture says in Psalm 75 verses 6 and 7 Listen carefully God says for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south But God is the judge he put it down one and he set it up another God's the one who puts down the rulers, and God's the one who sets them up. In Daniel 2 and verse 21, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, And he, God, changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, and he setteth up kings.

[John Weaver] He giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. It's God who removes kings, and God who sets up kings. Spurgeon had this to say, He said, men forget that all things are ordained in heaven. They see but the human force and the carnal passion, but the unseen Lord is far more real than all of these. He is at work behind and within the cloud.

[John Weaver] The foolish dream that he is not, but he is near even now and on the way to bring in his hand the cup of the spiced wine of vengeance, one draw of which shall stagger all of his foes. Certainly, you and I understand how God destroyed the people in the flood. We not only understand how God destroyed the people in the flood, we understand how He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. Where are all the nations that God cast out before Israel?

[John Weaver] Ask yourself, where are the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Hivites, and all the otherites? They're gone. the kingdoms of Persia and Greece and Babylon and Rome. Oh, the geographical locations may still be here, but the national power and the empires are gone. They've vanished. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 15 and verse 6, And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city, for God did vex them in all adversity. God did vex them. Nation was destroyed, the nation went, God vexed them.

[John Weaver] I want you to look back in your Bibles to Job 34. In fact, you can hold Job 34. We'll come back to that passage just a little bit later. But I want you to see this one verse right now. Look in Job 34 and verse 29. Job 34, verse 29. Look what it said of God. When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? And when He hideth His face, who then can behold Him, whether it be done against a nation or against a man only? God says, when I give quietness, nobody can cause trouble. And when I had my face, you're done for. Whether it's against a man or against a nation, it doesn't matter. I want you to listen to what God specifically said concerning the nation Israel. In fact, you might want to turn there. Look in Jeremiah 31. You can see a wonderful illustration of this. And notice if you would beginning there in verse 27, Jeremiah 31 verse 27. Look at it. Look what God says, Jeremiah 31 verse 27.

[John Weaver] Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith the Lord." Now, yes, here is a promise that God says He's going to build and plant Israel. But I want you to note what God said. Just like I watched over them to break down and to pluck down and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict, it was God who built them up, it is God who broke them down. Very clearly. God is the one that destroys them. God is the one that diminishes. God is the one that destroys.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to go back, if you would, please, to Job chapter 12, because this is where it really gets interesting to me. You know, you grasp this simple fact that, yes, it's God that enlarges. It's God that increases. It's God that diminishes. It's God that destroys. We've read all of that in verse 23. But I want you to look at verse 24 and 25. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

[John Weaver] They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man. Now we're talking about how God diminishes and destroys nations. How does God diminish and destroy nations? Verse 24, He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth.

[John Weaver] Now, let me stop there. The word heart refers to the mind, to intelligence, to common sense, to wisdom. Wait a minute. How does God diminish and destroy a nation One of the ways is by taking away the mind, the intelligence, the wisdom, and the common sense. But now look at it. He taketh away the heart, that is the mind, the wisdom, of the chief of the people. Now the chief of the people refers then to the rulers of the earth, or the rulers of the nation. When he taketh away the heart, the wisdom, of the chief of the people, it means, basically, He takes away their wisdom. He takes away their understanding. He takes away their common sense and he leaves them as absolute fools. The perplexion and the perplexity and the confusion of the rulers of the earth is strikingly resembled here to a lost man in the wilderness. Look at it in verse 24. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way."

[John Weaver] In other words, they don't know which way to turn. They don't know which way is up, which way is down. It's like when you're having vertigo either underwater or up in the air. You don't know where to go. You don't know where to turn.

[John Weaver] Now let me give you an illustration of this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 2. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and look at verse 24. Here is an excellent example with Sihon. Deuteronomy 2 verse 24. Notice, if you would, what God says, beginning there of verse 26. Here's what Moses did. Moses said, and I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth, verse 26, unto Sihon, king of Hejban, with words of peace, saying, let me pass through thy land.

[John Weaver] I will go along by the highway. I will neither turn into the right hand nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me meat for money that I may eat and give me water for money that I may drink. Only I will pass through on my feet as the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir and the Moabites which dwelt in Ard did unto me until I shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord our God gave us. But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let him pass by for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinance that he might deliver him into his hand as appeared unto this day.

[John Weaver] Now let's stop right there just for a moment. What did Moses do to this king? He sent him words of peace. And he said, let me pass through the land. He said, I'll go along by the highway. I won't go to the right hand or to the left. I won't mess up any of your property. And you will sell me meat for money. You can make money off of us. And you can sell us water to drink.

[John Weaver] And Moavry said, I can give you references. Edom and Moab allowed us to do this. We never messed up their land. They made money on us as we passed. Just let us go through. That's all we want. Now, who's going to miss an opportunity like that to make money and have references already? Now, it is true that God hardened Sihon's heart, but He hardened it because, once again, Sihon was already a wicked, ungodly, reprobate man and his people And God was going to give Israel that land, and He did. But the point I'm trying to make is, here was a king who was absolutely devoid of common sense. Why would you not take up an offer like this? I mean, there's references, opportunity to make money, words of peace. No, he was just going to fight. They were going to pass through his land.

[John Weaver] You know what the Bible says in Job 5 and verse 13? Listen to this. He taketh the wise in his own craftiness, and the counsel of the forward is carried headlong. In other words, he captures them and he throws them down. What did he say in Job 12? We read it earlier. Now listen carefully. He looseth the bond of kings and girdeth their loins with a girdle.

[John Weaver] He leadeth princes away spoiled and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trustee, and taketh away the understanding of the age. He forth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty." In other words, when God begins to diminish and destroy a nation, He makes their leaders absolute fools. Look in your Bibles to Job 34. Job 34. You're already getting my application. I don't even have to make it. Look at Job 34 and let's begin with verse 24. Job 34 verse 24. Look what the Bible says concerning God. Job 34 verse 24. He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead. I've already been telling you about that from Psalm 76. Psalm 75. He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead.

[John Weaver] Therefore He knoweth their works and He overturneth them in the night, so they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others, because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways. So that they caused the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted. When he giveth quietness, who can make trouble?

[John Weaver] And when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? Whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only, that the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." What is God saying? God says, when I diminish, and when I destroy, They are done for. It is that simple. You know what the Bible says in Isaiah 19 verse 13 concerning the princes of Egypt?

[John Weaver] Now listen, the princes of Zoan have become fools. They have seduced Egypt, even those that are the stay of the tribes thereof. Their princes became fools. I want you to go back one last time to Job 12. Watch this. Job 12. Verse 24 and verse 25, we're talking about God diminishing and God destroying nations. He taketh away the heart of the chief of people, verse 24, of the earth and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. That's one illustration. Here's the other.

[John Weaver] They grope in the dark without light. He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.

[John Weaver] Now, let me ask you. What is the usefulness and what is the worth of a lost, wayward, drunken, staggering, stumbling man? Such a man cannot even find his own way out of a house, much less lead a nation One of the greatest evidences, listen to me, one of the greatest evidences that we know that America is being diminished and destroyed is because in the judgment of God, He has made most of our leaders absolute fools.

[John Weaver] They have no common sense. They have no understanding. They're useless and they're worthless. And you've got to remember that a fool in the Bible is not a mentally deficient person. A fool in the Bible is someone who will not listen, someone who will not receive instruction, someone who will not take correction. And when God begins to diminish and destroy, He takes away the wisdom, the common sense, the understanding of the rulers.

[John Weaver] Now let me make just a couple of applications. Listen carefully. Here's the first one. God is the true and the only sovereign. It's God who puts up one ruler and takes down another. And do you realize God can soon confuse and confound the most cunning of the politicians. He can take their wits and make them reach their wits' ends. And it is God who will do that. How do I know?

[John Weaver] Because He's promised in the Scripture to abase the proud and to exalt the humble. In fact, In Ezekiel 21, verse 27, he said this, Thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low and abase him that is high. You remember old proud, arrogant Nebuchadnezzar? Is this not great Babylon that I have built for my name and for the honor and the glory of my name? What did God do? God drove him insane for seven years. For seven years he ate grass like an ox, let his fingernails grow like bird claws, his hair like bird feathers. And when God restored him, Nebuchadnezzar said this in Daniel 4 and verse 37, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to a base. Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that God is able to bring a man down no matter how high he is in authority.

[John Weaver] And God will do it. And my prayer is that He'll do it soon. One last passage, I do want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, because I want you to see, here is another reason to seek Christ, to trust Him, to obey Him, and to be in His kingdom. Look what the scripture says, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24, And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.

[John Weaver] Now watch, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. Are you listening? And this word yet once more signified the removing of those things that are shaken, as of those things that are made, and those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Well, what is one thing that cannot be shaken that's going to remain? Verse 28, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace. whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire." What is God going to do to the kingdoms of this world? Destroy them. Remove them.

[John Weaver] Until, as Hobie pointed out, that stone came out of the mountain, cut without hands, and broke the beast, and the beast fell to pieces. That stone is none other than Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And when our sovereign God finishes, the only kingdom that will remain will be the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, who deserves all honor, all praise, and all glory. What a comfort it is to know What a comfort it is to know that Obama is really not in charge in this country.

[John Weaver] Thank you, Father, for Your Word and Your truth and Your blessing. Help us to love Thee, to live Thee, for Thee, and to serve Thee. And Lord, to stand fast in the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ, in whose name we ask and pray. Amen.

The Sovereignty of God over Nations

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	sZ61NAY0SKI
Subject	Civil Government
Course	Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order: Where We Are & How We Got Here
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-01-25
Dictation Name
Book	Book 009: Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order — Chapter 22
Source Timed Segments	89

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: God's Exclusive Sovereignty

God is the only sovereign, and His sovereignty extends to everything, including nations. The idea that God is sovereign only over 'big things' is refuted.

The book of Job, chapter 12, if you would, please. And we're going to read verses 23 through 25. The message today is entitled, "The Sovereignty of God Over Nations." Notice Job, chapter 12, verse 23. The Bible says, "He," and we're talking about God, "...

Scripture Reading — Job 12:23-25

he increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them. He enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them stagger like a drunken man."

When you and I look around today at all of our nations, including America, we can actually say that, like the Bible, men's hearts are failing them for fear. I mean, you look at the turmoil, look at the trouble that practically every nation is in. We look at China. We look at North Korea. We look at Iraq and Iran. We look at some of these nations that we think, as a whole, may be threatening us. And yet, we never stop to think of one simple truth.

And that is that God is sovereign. And that sovereignty extends over the nations. Now when I say that God is sovereign, I want you to understand that he is the only sovereign. There can only be one sovereign and the word sovereign or sovereignty excludes anything or anyone else. There cannot possibly be two sovereigns. So sovereignty belongs to God exclusively. Let me just give you a couple of verses by way of introduction. In Isaiah 43 in verse 11, God said,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 43:11

"I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior."

In Isaiah 44 in verse 6,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 43:11

"Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God."

And then in Isaiah chapter 45 in verse 6,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 43:11

"that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside me, I am the Lord, and there is none else."

And then in Isaiah 45 in verse 22, he says, "Tell you and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together.

Who had declared this from the ancient time? Who had told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me, a just God and Savior. There is none beside me." So God then is exclusively the sovereign.

Now I want you to understand that God's sovereignty extends to anything and everything. There is nothing over which God is not sovereign. I remember years ago when I was in the university, we were talking about God's sovereignty and it was a class packed full of young preacher boys. And I remember this one young man raised his hand and the professor called upon him and he said, "Well, sir," he said, "I believe that God is sovereign over all the big things but not the little things." And when he said that, before I even caught myself, I said out loud, "Oh, what utter blasphemy." And of course, everybody looked at me and the professor looked at me and I said, "I'm sorry." I said, "I didn't mean to say that out loud. But I said, Sir, if you don't correct him, I am, because every big thing is made up of a series of a lot of little things. And if there's even one thing over which God is not sovereign, then God is not God, because that thing is over and above God and independent of God." And he said, the professor said, "Mr. Weaver is right." And certainly I was right, because God is sovereign. He is sovereign. He extends to everything.

God's Sovereignty Over All Things (Job 12:13-22)

A reading of Job 12:13-22 shows God's control over rulers, judges, and the mighty, demonstrating His comprehensive sovereignty.

Now, we're in Job chapter 12. I want to begin reading at verse 13, and let's read through verse 22, and let me just show you how God's sovereignty extends to things that you and I hardly ever think of. Notice Job chapter 12, and let's begin with verse 13. "With Him," that is with God,

Scripture Reading — Job 12:13-22

"is wisdom and strength. He, God, has counsel and understanding."

Notice what God does now.

Scripture Reading — Job 12:13-22

"Behold, he, God, breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. He, God, shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he, God, withholdeth the waters, and they dry up.

Also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. With him," that is with God, "is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counselors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. He looseth the bonds of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.

He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death." Now I want you to note, God is sovereign over all of these things and He does all of these things. God's sovereignty means that God is sovereign over everyone and everything and that everyone and everything is under His control.

The Question of Wickedness and Rebellion

If God is sovereign, why does He allow wickedness? Psalm 76:10 answers that the wrath of man will praise God, and the remainder He restrains.

Now, once that concept is grasped and realized, there's a question that automatically arises in everyone's mind. And what's that question? Here it is. "Well, pastor, if God is sovereign, and if God is in control of every dictator, every ruler, every nation, every state, if God is in control, why then does he allow so much wickedness and so much rebellion in the world?" It's a good question. I want to answer that. I want you to hold Job 12, but I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 76 and look at verse 10. Psalm 76 in verse 10. So if God is sovereign, if God is in control, why then does he allow so much wickedness and so much rebellion in these nations, in individuals, in families, in rulers? Well, notice what the Bible says in Psalm 76 and verse 10. It's exceedingly plain. Psalm 76 in verse 10, the psalmist says, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Now notice what he said, "Surely the wrath of man will praise thee and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."

Now the word wrath is the Hebrew word chemah and it refers to fury, to wrath, to venom, to poison, to anger, to indignation, to furious and burning anger and displeasure. So you take all the anger, all the indignation, all the poison, all the venom, all the wickedness that has been, that is, and that will be. Notice what the scripture says now. "Surely the wrath," that wicked rebellious spirit of man and his wicked actions, "surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. And the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Now here's my question. How much wrath? How much wickedness, how much rebellion will God allow? Here's the answer. Just enough that will redound to his honor and his glory and the remainder of wrath will he restrain. Now notice what the Bible says.

Look in Psalm 76 verse 10 again. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee." Now the word praise literally means to confess, to give thanks, thanksgiving, to make a confession. Literally, ultimately, fully, and finally, man's wickedness and man's rebellion is going to offer up thanks and praise unto the one true and the living God. Let me give you one quick quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He said this, "It," talking about the wrath of man, "it shall not only be overcome but rendered subservient to God's glory. Man with his breath of threatening is but blowing the trumpet of the Lord's eternal fame.

Furious winds often drive vessels more swiftly into port. The devil blows the fire and melts the iron, and then the Lord fashions it for his own purposes. Let men and devils rage as they may. They cannot do otherwise than but to subserve the divine purposes." Everything that man does, everything that wicked people do, is going to ultimately serve the Lord's purposes. You've heard me say it. I don't always understand it, but here it is again. Everything is going wrong just right.

Because God is in control. He has not lost control. Now notice what the Bible says. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and that which will not praise God he will restrain." He won't allow it to happen. Let me give you an illustration. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 20. Genesis chapter 20 and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Most of you know there has been in this passage a famine in the land and Abraham and Sarah head out because of the famine. And Sarah evidently was a very beautiful woman. And Abraham was very concerned because he thought, "Well, she's so beautiful.

Illustration: God Restrains Abimelech (Genesis 20)

God prevented Abimelech from sinning with Sarah, showing He restrains wrath that would not glorify Him.

Somebody will kill me just to get my wife." So, you know, he said, "You tell everybody you're my sister." You know, you've got to understand back in those days, her being his sister would have been a means of protecting her because no one could have approached her without first asking his permission since he would have been the head of the family. But watch what happens in Genesis 20 and verse 1. "And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country and dwelled toward Gerar and Shur and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah's wife, 'She is my sister.'" Now look,

Scripture Reading — Genesis 20:1-7

"And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said unto him, 'Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife.' But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, 'Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he, nodding to me, she is my sister.'

"And she, even she herself, said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, 'Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore I suffered thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live, and if thou restore her not, know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine.'" Now notice what happened. Abimelech saw Sarah and he said, "She's a beautiful woman. I'd like to add her to my harem." And she went into his court. And God appeared to Abimelech and said, "If you touch her, you're a dead man. I'll kill you." Now, the Bible said Abimelech had not come near her. What did God do to stop Abimelech? I don't know. Maybe he gave him a case of 24-hour virus.

I have no earthly idea. But I know one thing for sure. He never touched her. And God said, "I have withheld thee from sinning against me. I've stopped you. Therefore, I suffered you not to touch her." In other words, obviously, therefore, to defile the lineage of Christ would not be glorifying to God. And God did not allow that to happen. The wrath of man shall praise the Lord, and the remainder of wrath shall he restrain.

That's why the Bible says very clearly in Proverbs 21 in verse 1,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 21:1

"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he willeth."

Now listen to that. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as rivers of water. He turns that heart any way he pleases, anywhere he pleases. So the truth of the matter is this.

God Increases and Enlarges Nations

It is God who causes nations to expand and prosper, as seen in Israel and even pagan nations like Babylon.

I had someone call me yesterday and was asking me about some of the founding fathers. And he said, "I know not every one of them or each one of them was a Christian." I said, "That's true. The majority of the founding fathers were Christian. But I said, you have to understand this, those men who were not Christian were so deeply influenced by the Christian religion that it pervaded every part of their being and everything that they did." For instance, most people count Benjamin Franklin a deist. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin was personal friends with George Whitefield and that Benjamin Franklin often went to hear Whitefield preach. And he calculated at one time that his voice could be heard while he was preaching to approximately 40,000 people. And they didn't have megaphones and electronics back then. But if Benjamin Franklin was a deist and was not a Christian, I want you to consider what he said since he was the oldest man at the Constitutional Convention. Here's what he said.

Let me give you the quote. He's speaking to George Washington and to all the other men who were there. And he said, "In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintendent providence in our favor. To that kind providence, not luck, not fate, not fortune, to that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. And I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.

We shall be divided by our little partial local interest, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse? Mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments to be by human wisdom and leave it a chance war conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service." Isn't that amazing?

Now if Benjamin Franklin was not a Christian, he certainly had Christian understanding and Christian principles, he understood this simple truth that no nation can rise without the divine providence and help and blessing of God. And the scripture tells us it is God who allows the nations to increase and expand. Now there are multitudes of examples in the scripture and I'm going to show you a little bit later about Israel. But the same truth is given concerning the pagan nations as well. For instance, if you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 25, let me show you what God says in reference to Nebuchadnezzar and to Babylon. Watch this, if you would, please. Jeremiah, chapter 25, beginning there with verse 9. Jeremiah 25, verse 9. God says, "I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant," that's what he called Nebuchadnezzar, "my servant, and will bring them against the land and against the inhabitants thereof and against all the nations round about, and will utterly destroy them," that is all those nations, "and make them an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations. Note now, moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle and this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 25:9

nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." What did God do? God took a pagan man and a pagan nation and sent them to conquer because his people had sinned against him and God says they're going to serve him for seventy years. Notice in Jeremiah 26 beginning there with verse 1. Jeremiah 26 verse 1. Look if you would. Jeremiah 26 verse 1: "In the beginning of the reign of Joachim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the Lord saying, 'Thus said the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak in all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminished not a word. If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purposed to do unto them, because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will hearken to me, and walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened, then

will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse in all the nations.' So the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah made an end of speaking all that the Lord commanded him and said unto all the people, etc. They said to Jeremiah, 'Thou shalt surely die.' Now don't you know what God did? God told the people, "I'm sending Nebuchadnezzar. I'm sending the Babylonians."

Now listen, if you will listen to my preacher, if you will hear him, if you will repent, if you will obey me, I will withhold this. But if not, I'm going to send him. And you're going to die. And that's exactly what God did. God sent a pagan king and a pagan nation to conquer.

Now, we're specifically told in relationship to Israel, if you will turn back to Isaiah 26, and look at verse 15, we're specifically told it was God who increased and enlarged Israel. We all know that. But look at Isaiah 26 and verse 15, Isaiah says, "Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord. Thou hast increased the nation. Thou art glorified. Thou hast removed it from the ends of the earth." And the word removed there means Thou hast extended it. In other words, You have enlarged it to all of the ends of the earth. So God can enlarge and extend the kingdom of His people. Or He can enlarge and extend the kingdom of the wicked. Why?

God's Right to Dispossess Nations

Since the earth is the Lord's, He has the right to dispossess nations that refuse to honor Him, illustrated by the parable of the laborers and the American Indian encounter.

Look what God did. God took Israel and sent them into the land to conquer nations that had been there for hundreds of years, some maybe even thousands. So here's the question, pastor, how just is it for God to take some upstart people, some young little group, some young little nation and send them in to conquer and to take land away from a people that have been there for hundreds and thousands of years. How just can that be? How just could it be in our thinking for God to allow a little old insignificant puny Cuba to come in and whip America and take our land and take our cities. Well, let me first establish one principle from scripture. Here it is. I'm going to ask you the question that I'm going to give you the scripture. Who is the rightful owner of the world and everything in it? God, the sovereign God of heaven and earth.

Now just listen, you don't have to turn here, but in 1 Chronicles 29 verse 11, here's what King Asa confessed. He said this,

Scripture Reading — 1 Chronicles 29:11

"Thine, O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and that is in earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom of the Lord and thou art exalted as head above all."

Most of you can quote Psalm 24 in verse 1, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." Did you know that that verse is quoted twice in the New Testament? In 1 Corinthians 10 in verse 26, the Bible says, "For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." 1 Corinthians 10 verse 28, "For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." In other words, here's the principle that we've established: this world and everything in it belongs to God. It is His.

Here's a second question that must be asked in light of that truth. Does God not have the right to do with His own as He pleases? Let me show you. Turn in your Bibles very quickly to Matthew 20. Matthew 20. I love this passage. Matthew 20. And let's begin reading there in verse 1. You see, the problem is this. Many times we want to claim a prerogative or a right for ourselves that we won't allow God to have. Look in Matthew 20, verse 1.

Our Lord says, "For the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. Now look, and when he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into the vineyard." It's six o'clock in the morning. "And he went out about the third hour," nine o'clock, "and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, 'Go you also in the vineyard and whatsoever is right, I'll give you.' And they went their way. Again, he went out the sixth hour," 12 noon, dinner time, "and the ninth hour," three in the afternoon, "and did likewise. About the 11th hour," say five in the afternoon, "he went out and found others standing idle and said to them, 'Why stand you here idle all the day?' And they said to him, 'Because no man hath hired us.' He said to them, 'Go ye also in the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that you shall receive.' So when the evening was come, the lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their hire, beginning from the last into the first.'

"And when they came that were hired about the 11th hour," that is, they'd only worked one hour, "they received every man a penny. And when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more and they likewise received every man a penny." Remember they agreed for that. "And when they received it, they murmured against the good man of the house saying, 'These lasts have wrought but one hour, but thou hast made them equal unto us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a penny?' "Take that thine is and go thy way. I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?" Can God not do with his own as he pleases? And the answer is yes. God can. Everything belongs to Him and God may do with it as He pleases. God has the sovereign right to dispossess anyone from His creation either temporarily or permanently. And most of the nations that God dispossessed were nations that refused to honor Him and to glorify Him and obey Him. In other words, they refused to give God His just due as a righteous landlord, and when they refused to give Him His just due, He justly kicked them out. The Bible says in Proverbs 29 and verse 2, "Give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord the glory due in His name, and worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness." In Psalm 96 and verse 7, "Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people.

Give unto the Lord glory and strength." And then in Psalm 96 and verse 8, "Give unto the Lord the glory that is due in His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts." Let me ask you a question. If you owned a house, if you owned several houses, would you allow renters to remain in your house or houses who never paid any rent and constantly and continually destroyed your property. Would you allow them to remain? Or would you kick them out? And if you kick them out, would you be just and right in doing so? What's the answer? Yes, you would. You were the owner. You can do with it as you please. And if someone's not going to pay what they justly and rightly owe, they should be dispossessed. The same is true not just of someone in our time who owns a house. The same is true when God is sovereign over the nations. When nations do not give God His due, this earth is His. He may lawfully, righteously, and justly kick them out.

Years ago I was preaching in Ohio and attending the church was an American Indian. And the pastor took us out to eat every day and this American Indian and a few other men went with us. And the American Indian was, you know, fine. I mean, you know, he's kind and gracious and cordial. Until the very last day. And the last day that I was there, he looked sullen, mad, angry, kept his head down most of the time. I called his name.

I said, "What in the world is wrong with you?" And he looked at me and said, "You white men stole our land." He should not have said that. I said, "Let me tell you something. First of all, it's not your land. It's God's land. I said, secondly, your people were out worshiping the sun and the moon and the stars and the trees and the water and the birds and anything that walked instead of the one true and the living God. You refused to give Him honor. You refused to give Him glory. I said, moreover, you not only killed people, you ate people." He looked at me and said, "How did you know that?" I said, "It's alright, I know because I do some studying. You did that. I said, let me tell you something. God had the absolute right to take the land away from you and give it to us and God has the absolute right to take the land away from us and give it to someone else if we fail Him and refuse to honor and glorify Him." And He does. It belongs to Him. God is the one who increases and enlarges nations.

God Diminishes and Destroys Nations

God also diminishes and destroys nations, as seen in Egypt and other empires. He removes kings and sets up others.

I want you to go back, if you would, to Job chapter 12 and look again very quickly at verse 23 because here's the second point. Now watch. Job 12 verse 23, look what he says. "He increases the nations and destroys them. He enlarges the nations and straightens them again." Here's the second point. The sovereignty of God diminishes and destroys nations just like God increases and enlarges them and builds them up. It's God also who diminishes and destroys them. God has entire and complete control over every nation.

The sources of prosperity are in His hand. And in His pleasure, He may visit any nation with famine, with pestilence, with war. He may diminish our numbers. He may arrest our property. He may do whatever He pleases. Our prosperity is in His hand. I want you to look very quickly at Psalm 105. Look at Psalm 105. And of course, you will recognize that this is what God has done to Egypt. But look if you would at what is stated that God actually did. Psalm 105, notice if you would verse 11. Psalm 105 verse 11.

"Saying unto thee, will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance? When they were but a few men in number, yea, they were few and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he," that is God, "suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their sake, saying, 'Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.' Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. Whose feet they hurt with fetters, he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of his substance, to bind his princes at his pleasures and to teach his sinners wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. Now look, and he increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies." Isn't that amazing? Oh, but look at the next verse.

"He turned their heart," that is the Egyptian's heart, "to hate his people and to deal suddenly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen. They showed his signs among them and wonders in the land of Ham." Now look what God did. "He sent darkness and he made it dark. And they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance in the chambers of their kings. He spake and there came diverse sorts of flies and lice in their coast. He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land. He smoked their vines also and their fig trees and broke the trees of their coast. He spake and the locusts came in caterpillars and that without number and did eat up all the herbs in their land and devoured the fruit of the ground. He smote also the firstborn in their land, the chief of their strength." Notice if you would, God is doing all of this.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 105:11-36, 44-45

And if you'll skip down to verse 44, "And gave them the lands of the heathen, and they inherited the labor of the people, that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws, praise ye the Lord." God often permits a nation to acquire territory and afterwards shuts them up, reduces, they lose that territory, he reduces them and sometimes shuts them up in their natural boundaries and sometimes even reduces their natural boundaries. You know what men do? Men say, "Oh, it's natural events. It was the flood, or it was the drought, or it was state intrigue, or it was political intrigue, or it was this or it was that." And very few people ever see that God is behind everything. It is God who set it up one and take it down another. Now listen to what the scripture says in Psalm 75 verses 6 and 7. Listen carefully. God says, "For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the judge: he put it down one and he set it up another." God's the one who puts down the rulers, and God's the one who sets them up. In Daniel 2 and verse 21, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, "And he," God, "changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, and he setteth up kings.

He giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding." It's God who removes kings, and God who sets up kings. Spurgeon had this to say, He said, "Men forget that all things are ordained in heaven. They see but the human force and the carnal passion, but the unseen Lord is far more real than all of these. He is at work behind and within the cloud. The foolish dream that he is not, but he is near even now and on the way to bring in his hand the cup of the spiced wine of vengeance, one draw of which shall stagger all of his foes." Certainly, you and I understand how God destroyed the people in the flood. We not only understand how God destroyed the people in the flood, we understand how He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. Where are all the nations that God cast out before Israel?

How God Destroys: Removing Wisdom from Rulers

God destroys nations by taking away the heart (mind, wisdom) of their rulers, making them fools who stagger like drunk men, as illustrated by Sihon and the princes of Egypt.

Now, I want you to go back, if you would, please, to Job chapter 12, because this is where it really gets interesting to me. You know, you grasp this simple fact that, yes, it's God that enlarges. It's God that increases. It's God that diminishes. It's God that destroys. We've read all of that in verse 23. But I want you to look at verse 24 and 25. "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man." Now we're talking about how God diminishes and destroys nations. How does God diminish and destroy nations? Verse 24, "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth." Now, let me stop there. The word heart refers to the mind, to intelligence, to common sense, to wisdom. Wait a minute. How does God diminish and destroy a nation? One of the ways is by taking away the mind, the intelligence, the wisdom, and the common sense. But now look at it. "He taketh away the heart," that is the mind, the wisdom, "of the chief of the people." Now the chief of the people refers then to the rulers of the earth, or the rulers of the nation. When he taketh away the heart, the wisdom, of the chief of the people, it means, basically, He takes away their wisdom. He takes away their understanding. He takes away their common sense and he leaves them as absolute fools. The perplexion and the perplexity and the confusion of the rulers of the earth is strikingly resembled here to a lost man in the wilderness. Look at it in verse 24. "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way."

In other words, they don't know which way to turn. They don't know which way is up, which way is down. It's like when you're having vertigo either underwater or up in the air. You don't know where to go. You don't know where to turn.

Now let me give you an illustration of this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 2. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and look at verse 24. Here is an excellent example with Sihon. Deuteronomy 2 verse 24. Notice, if you would, what God says, beginning there of verse 26. Here's what Moses did. Moses said, "And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth," verse 26, "unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 'Let me pass through thy land.

I will go along by the highway. I will neither turn into the right hand nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me meat for money that I may eat and give me water for money that I may drink. Only I will pass through on my feet as the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir and the Moabites which dwelt in Ard did unto me until I shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord our God gave us.' But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let him pass by for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinance that he might deliver him into his hand as appeared unto this day.

Now let's stop right there just for a moment. What did Moses do to this king? He sent him words of peace. And he said, "Let me pass through the land." He said, "I'll go along by the highway. I won't go to the right hand or to the left. I won't mess up any of your property. And you will sell me meat for money. You can make money off of us. And you can sell us water to drink."

And Moses said, "I can give you references. Edom and Moab allowed us to do this. We never messed up their land. They made money on us as we passed. Just let us go through. That's all we want." Now, who's going to miss an opportunity like that to make money and have references already? Now, it is true that God hardened Sihon's heart, but He hardened it because, once again, Sihon was already a wicked, ungodly, reprobate man and his people. And God was going to give Israel that land, and He did. But the point I'm trying to make is, here was a king who was absolutely devoid of common sense. Why would you not take up an offer like this? I mean, there's references, opportunity to make money, words of peace. No, he was just going to fight. They were going to pass through his land.

You know what the Bible says in Job 5 and verse 13? Listen to this. "He taketh the wise in his own craftiness, and the counsel of the forward is carried headlong." In other words, he captures them and he throws them down. What did he say in Job 12? We read it earlier. Now listen carefully. "He looseth the bond of kings and girdeth their loins with a girdle.

He leadeth princes away spoiled and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trustee, and taketh away the understanding of the age. He forth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty." In other words, when God begins to diminish and destroy a nation, He makes their leaders absolute fools. Look in your Bibles to Job 34. Job 34. You're already getting my application. I don't even have to make it. Look at Job 34 and let's begin with verse 24. Job 34 verse 24. Look what the Bible says concerning God. Job 34 verse 24. "He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead." I've already been telling you about that from Psalm 75. He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead.

"Therefore He knoweth their works and He overturneth them in the night, so they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others, because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways. So that they caused the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted. When he giveth quietness, who can make trouble? And when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? Whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only, that the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." What is God saying? God says, when I diminish, and when I destroy, they are done for. It is that simple. You know what the Bible says in Isaiah 19 verse 13 concerning the princes of Egypt?

Now listen, "The princes of Zoan have become fools. They have seduced Egypt, even those that are the stay of the tribes thereof." Their princes became fools. I want you to go back one last time to Job 12. Watch this. Job 12. Verse 24 and verse 25, we're talking about God diminishing and God destroying nations. "He taketh away the heart of the chief of people," verse 24, "of the earth and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way." That's one illustration. Here's the other.

"They grope in the dark without light. He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man." Now, let me ask you. What is the usefulness and what is the worth of a lost, wayward, drunken, staggering, stumbling man? Such a man cannot even find his own way out of a house, much less lead a nation. One of the greatest evidences, listen to me, one of the greatest evidences that we know that America is being diminished and destroyed is because in the judgment of God, He has made most of our leaders absolute fools.

Application: America's Foolish Leaders and God's Judgment

America's decline is evidence that God has made its leaders fools. God abases the proud and will shake the nations, leaving only Christ's unshakable kingdom.

They have no common sense. They have no understanding. They're useless and they're worthless. And you've got to remember that a fool in the Bible is not a mentally deficient person. A fool in the Bible is someone who will not listen, someone who will not receive instruction, someone who will not take correction. And when God begins to diminish and destroy, He takes away the wisdom, the common sense, the understanding of the rulers.

Now let me make just a couple of applications. Listen carefully. Here's the first one. God is the true and the only sovereign. It's God who puts up one ruler and takes down another. And do you realize God can soon confuse and confound the most cunning of the politicians. He can take their wits and make them reach their wits' ends. And it is God who will do that. How do I know?

Because He's promised in the Scripture to abase the proud and to exalt the humble. In fact, in Ezekiel 21, verse 27, he said this, "Thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low and abase him that is high." You remember old proud, arrogant Nebuchadnezzar? "Is this not great Babylon that I have built for my name and for the honor and the glory of my name?" What did God do? God drove him insane for seven years. For seven years he ate grass like an ox, let his fingernails grow like bird claws, his hair like bird feathers. And when God restored him, Nebuchadnezzar said this in Daniel 4 and verse 37, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase." Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that God is able to bring a man down no matter how high he is in authority.

And God will do it. And my prayer is that He'll do it soon. One last passage, I do want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, because I want you to see, here is another reason to seek Christ, to trust Him, to obey Him, and to be in His kingdom. Look what the scripture says, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24, "And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.

Now watch, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, 'Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.' Are you listening? And this word yet once more signified the removing of those things that are shaken, as of those things that are made, and those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Well, what is one thing that cannot be shaken that's going to remain? Verse 28, 'Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.'" What is God going to do to the kingdoms of this world? Destroy them. Remove them.

Until, as Hobie pointed out, that stone came out of the mountain, cut without hands, and broke the beast, and the beast fell to pieces. That stone is none other than Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And when our sovereign God finishes, the only kingdom that will remain will be the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, who deserves all honor, all praise, and all glory. What a comfort it is to know. What a comfort it is to know that Obama is really not in charge in this country.

Study Guide

Major Themes

God's Exclusive Sovereignty

Summary: God alone is sovereign over all things, including nations, and there is nothing outside His control.

Evidence: The speaker states, 'There can only be one sovereign and the word sovereign or sovereignty excludes anything or anyone else.'

Sovereignty Over Nations' Rise and Fall

Summary: God both increases and destroys nations according to His will, as stated in Job 12:23.

Evidence: The message is based on Job 12:23: 'He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again.'

The Problem of Evil and God's Restraint

Summary: God allows only enough wickedness to bring Him glory and restrains the rest, as Psalm 76:10 teaches.

Evidence: The speaker explains, 'Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.'

God's Right to Dispossess Nations

Summary: Because the earth belongs to God, He has the right to dispossess nations that refuse to honor Him.

Evidence: The speaker argues, 'This world and everything in it belongs to God. It is His... Does God not have the right to do with His own as He pleases?'

Judgment Through Foolish Rulers

Summary: God diminishes nations by removing wisdom from their leaders, making them stagger like drunk men.

Evidence: Job 12:24-25: 'He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people... they grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man.'

The Unshakable Kingdom of Christ

Summary: All earthly kingdoms will be shaken and removed, but the kingdom of Christ remains forever.

Evidence: Hebrews 12:28: 'Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved...'

Key Arguments

Sovereignty must be absolute

Summary: If God is not sovereign over even one small thing, then that thing is above God, and He is not God.

Evidence: The speaker recounts a classroom incident: 'If there's even one thing over which God is not sovereign, then God is not God, because that thing is over and above God and independent of God.'

Wickedness ultimately glorifies God

Summary: God permits wickedness only to the extent that it redounds to His glory, and He restrains the rest.

Evidence: The speaker explains Psalm 76:10: 'How much wrath? How much wickedness, how much rebellion will God allow? Here's the answer. Just enough that will redound to his honor and his glory and the remainder of wrath will he restrain.'

God uses pagan nations for His purposes

Summary: God raised up Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar as His servant to judge Israel, showing His control over all nations.

Evidence: Jeremiah 25:9: 'Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant...'

God has the right to dispossess nations

Summary: As the owner of the earth, God can justly remove nations that fail to give Him due honor, like a landlord evicting destructive tenants.

Evidence: The speaker uses the analogy: 'If you owned a house... would you allow renters to remain... who never paid any rent and constantly and continually destroyed your property?'

God destroys nations by removing wisdom from rulers

Summary: A key method of divine judgment is to take away the understanding of leaders, leaving them as fools unable to govern.

Evidence: Job 12:24: 'He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.'

America's decline is evidence of God's judgment

Summary: The foolishness of American leaders is a sign that God is diminishing the nation.

Evidence: The speaker states, 'One of the greatest evidences that we know that America is being diminished and destroyed is because in the judgment of God, He has made most of our leaders absolute fools.'

Scripture References

Job 12:23-25

Context: Primary text for the sermon, declaring God's sovereignty over nations.

Isaiah 43:11

Context: Used to establish God as the only Savior and sovereign.

Isaiah 44:6

Context: Affirms God as first and last, with no other God.

Isaiah 45:6, 22

Context: Declares there is no God besides the Lord.

Job 12:13-22

Context: Demonstrates God's sovereignty over rulers, judges, and the mighty.

Psalm 76:10

Context: Key verse explaining that the wrath of man praises God and the remainder is restrained.

Genesis 20:1-7

Context: Illustration of God restraining Abimelech from sinning with Sarah.

Proverbs 21:1

Context: The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, turned as He wills.

Psalm 22:28

Context: The kingdom is the Lord's, and He is governor among the nations.

Psalm 113:4

Context: The Lord is high above all nations.

Isaiah 40:15, 17

Context: Nations are as a drop in a bucket and counted as nothing before God.

Jeremiah 10:7

Context: God is the King of nations, with none like Him.

Jeremiah 25:9

Context: God calls Nebuchadnezzar His servant to bring judgment.

Jeremiah 26:1-6

Context: God warns Judah through Jeremiah to repent or face destruction.

Isaiah 26:15

Context: God increased the nation of Israel and extended its borders.

Habakkuk 1:6

Context: God raises up the Chaldeans to possess lands not theirs.

1 Chronicles 29:11

Context: All in heaven and earth is the Lord's.

Psalm 24:1

Context: The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness.

Matthew 20:1-15

Context: Parable of the laborers, illustrating God's right to do as He pleases with His own.

Psalm 105:11-36, 44-45

Context: God's sovereign acts in Egypt, including plagues and dispossession.

Historical References

Benjamin Franklin's speech at the Constitutional Convention

Context: Franklin, though often considered a deist, acknowledged God's providence in the founding of America and called for prayer at the convention.

Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon

Context: Used as an example of a pagan king and nation raised up by God to judge Israel.

Sihon, king of Heshbon

Context: Example of a ruler whose heart God hardened, leading to his defeat by Israel.

Nebuchadnezzar's insanity

Context: God humbled Nebuchadnezzar by driving him insane for seven years until he acknowledged God's sovereignty.

American Indian encounter

Context: The speaker recounts a conversation with an American Indian about God's right to dispossess nations that reject Him.

Important Quotes

Everything is going wrong just right.

Significance: A pithy summary of the sermon's theme that God's sovereignty ensures all events, even wicked ones, ultimately serve His purposes.

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

Significance: Key verse explaining why God allows some wickedness but not all; it is the biblical foundation for the argument.

The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he willeth.

Significance: Proverbs 21:1 quoted to emphasize God's direct control over rulers.

He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

Significance: Job 12:24, central to the point that God destroys nations by removing wisdom from leaders.

One of the greatest evidences that we know that America is being diminished and destroyed is because in the judgment of God, He has made most of our leaders absolute fools.

Significance: Direct application of the sermon's thesis to contemporary America.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.

Significance: Hebrews 12:28-29, pointing to the unshakable kingdom of Christ as the ultimate hope.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?

Significance: From the parable in Matthew 20, used to argue God's right to dispossess nations.

Discussion Questions

How does the concept of God's exclusive sovereignty challenge common views of human autonomy and national power?

Context: The sermon emphasizes that God alone is sovereign and that all rulers are under His control.

In what ways does Psalm 76:10 help reconcile God's sovereignty with the existence of evil and wickedness in the world?

Context: The speaker uses this verse to explain that God permits only enough wickedness to glorify Himself.

How should the truth that God raises up and brings down nations affect our prayers for our own country?

Context: The sermon applies the sovereignty of God to America's current state and calls for prayer.

What are some practical ways we can discern whether a nation's leaders have been given wisdom or had it taken away by God?

Context: Job 12:24-25 describes God removing the heart (wisdom) of rulers as a form of judgment.

How does the parable of the laborers in Matthew 20 illustrate God's right to do as He pleases with nations?

Context: The speaker uses this parable to argue that God, as owner, can dispossess nations that dishonor Him.

What comfort can believers take from the promise of an unshakable kingdom in Hebrews 12:28?

Context: The sermon concludes with the assurance that Christ's kingdom will remain when all earthly kingdoms are shaken.

Applications

Trust in God's sovereign control over nations

Summary: Believers should find comfort in knowing that God, not human rulers, is ultimately in charge of world events.

Evidence: The speaker says, 'What a comfort it is to know that Obama is really not in charge in this country.'

Recognize God's judgment in national decline

Summary: The foolishness of leaders is a sign of God's judgment; believers should discern this and respond with prayer and repentance.

Seek the unshakable kingdom of Christ

Summary: Since all earthly kingdoms will be shaken, believers should focus on serving God in Christ's kingdom with reverence and godly fear.

Evidence: Hebrews 12:28 is quoted: 'Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved...'

Give God the glory due to Him

Summary: Nations and individuals must honor God as the rightful owner of all, or face dispossession.

Evidence: The speaker warns, 'When nations do not give God His due, this earth is His. He may lawfully, righteously, and justly kick them out.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:29:26Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T15:27:00Z

Clean Transcript

The Sovereignty of God over Nations

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

The book of Job, chapter 12, if you would, please. And we're going to read verses 23 through 25. The message today is entitled, "The Sovereignty of God Over Nations." Notice Job, chapter 12, verse 23. The Bible says, "He," and we're talking about God, "...he increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them. He enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
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They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them stagger like a drunken man." When you and I look around today at all of our nations, including America, we can actually say that, like the Bible, men's hearts are failing them for fear. I mean, you look at the turmoil, look at the trouble that practically every nation is in. We look at China. We look at North Korea. We look at Iraq and Iran. We look at some of these nations that we think, as a whole, may be threatening us. And yet, we never stop to think of one simple truth.
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And that is that God is sovereign. And that sovereignty extends over the nations. Now when I say that God is sovereign, I want you to understand that he is the only sovereign. There can only be one sovereign and the word sovereign or sovereignty excludes anything or anyone else. There cannot possibly be two sovereigns. So sovereignty belongs to God exclusively. Let me just give you a couple of verses by way of introduction. In Isaiah 43 in verse 11, God said, "I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior." In Isaiah 44 in verse 6, "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." And then in Isaiah chapter 45 in verse 6, "that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside me, I am the Lord, and there is none else." And then in Isaiah 45 in verse 22, he says, "Tell you and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together.
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Who had declared this from the ancient time? Who had told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me, a just God and Savior. There is none beside me." So God then is exclusively the sovereign.
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Now I want you to understand that God's sovereignty extends to anything and everything. There is nothing over which God is not sovereign. I remember years ago when I was in the university, we were talking about God's sovereignty and it was a class packed full of young preacher boys. And I remember this one young man raised his hand and the professor called upon him and he said, "Well, sir," he said, "I believe that God is sovereign over all the big things but not the little things."
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And when he said that, before I even caught myself, I said out loud, "Oh, what utter blasphemy." And of course, everybody looked at me and the professor looked at me and I said, "I'm sorry." I said, "I didn't mean to say that out loud. But I said, Sir, if you don't correct him, I am, because every big thing is made up of a series of a lot of little things. And if there's even one thing over which God is not sovereign, then God is not God, because that thing is over and above God and independent of God." And he said, the professor said, "Mr. Weaver is right." And certainly I was right, because God is sovereign. He is sovereign. He extends to everything.
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Now, we're in Job chapter 12. I want to begin reading at verse 13, and let's read through verse 22, and let me just show you how God's sovereignty extends to things that you and I hardly ever think of. Notice Job chapter 12, and let's begin with verse 13. "With Him," that is with God, "is wisdom and strength. He, God, has counsel and understanding." Notice what God does now. "Behold, he, God, breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. He, God, shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he, God, withholdeth the waters, and they dry up.
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Also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth. With him," that is with God, "is strength and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver are his. He leadeth counselors away spoiled, and maketh the judges fools. He looseth the bonds of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle. He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away the understanding of the aged. He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty.
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He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death." Now I want you to note, God is sovereign over all of these things and He does all of these things. God's sovereignty means that God is sovereign over everyone and everything and that everyone and everything is under His control.
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Now God's sovereignty not only includes individuals and families and churches and states but even nations as well and I might add that His sovereignty includes the wicked nations as well as the righteous nations. The wicked people as well as righteous people. And it should be a comfort to the saints of God to know and understand that God is sovereign over every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation. That means this: dictators, tyrants, despots, presidents, congresses, parliaments and all types of rulers are under his direct sovereign control.
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Now, once that concept is grasped and realized, there's a question that automatically arises in everyone's mind. And what's that question? Here it is. "Well, pastor, if God is sovereign, and if God is in control of every dictator, every ruler, every nation, every state, if God is in control, why then does he allow so much wickedness and so much rebellion in the world?" It's a good question. I want to answer that. I want you to hold Job 12, but I want you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 76 and look at verse 10. Psalm 76 in verse 10. So if God is sovereign, if God is in control, why then does he allow so much wickedness and so much rebellion in these nations, in individuals, in families, in rulers? Well, notice what the Bible says in Psalm 76 and verse 10. It's exceedingly plain. Psalm 76 in verse 10, the psalmist says, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Now notice what he said, "Surely the wrath of man will praise thee and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
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Now the word wrath is the Hebrew word chemah and it refers to fury, to wrath, to venom, to poison, to anger, to indignation, to furious and burning anger and displeasure. So you take all the anger, all the indignation, all the poison, all the venom, all the wickedness that has been, that is, and that will be. Notice what the scripture says now. "Surely the wrath," that wicked rebellious spirit of man and his wicked actions, "surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. And the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Now here's my question. How much wrath? How much wickedness, how much rebellion will God allow? Here's the answer. Just enough that will redound to his honor and his glory and the remainder of wrath will he restrain. Now notice what the Bible says.
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Look in Psalm 76 verse 10 again. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee."
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Now the word praise literally means to confess, to give thanks, thanksgiving, to make a confession. Literally, ultimately, fully, and finally, man's wickedness and man's rebellion is going to offer up thanks and praise unto the one true and the living God. Let me give you one quick quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He said this, "It," talking about the wrath of man, "it shall not only be overcome but rendered subservient to God's glory. Man with his breath of threatening is but blowing the trumpet of the Lord's eternal fame.
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Furious winds often drive vessels more swiftly into port. The devil blows the fire and melts the iron, and then the Lord fashions it for his own purposes. Let men and devils rage as they may. They cannot do otherwise than but to subserve the divine purposes." Everything that man does, everything that wicked people do, is going to ultimately serve the Lord's purposes. You've heard me say it. I don't always understand it, but here it is again. Everything is going wrong just right.
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Because God is in control. He has not lost control.
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Now notice what the Bible says. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and that which will not praise God he will restrain." He won't allow it to happen. Let me give you an illustration. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter 20. Genesis chapter 20 and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Most of you know there has been in this passage a famine in the land and Abraham and Sarah head out because of the famine. And Sarah evidently was a very beautiful woman. And Abraham was very concerned because he thought, "Well, she's so beautiful.
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Somebody will kill me just to get my wife." So, you know, he said, "You tell everybody you're my sister." You know, you've got to understand back in those days, her being his sister would have been a means of protecting her because no one could have approached her without first asking his permission since he would have been the head of the family. But watch what happens in Genesis 20 and verse 1.
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"And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country and dwelled toward Gerar and Shur and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah's wife, 'She is my sister.'" Now look, "And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said unto him, 'Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife.' But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, 'Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he, nodding to me, she is my sister.'
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"And she, even she herself, said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, 'Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thine heart, for I also withheld thee from sinning against me, therefore I suffered thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live, and if thou restore her not, know that thou shalt surely die, thou and all that are thine.'" Now notice what happened.
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Abimelech saw Sarah and he said, "She's a beautiful woman. I'd like to add her to my harem." And she went into his court. And God appeared to Abimelech and said, "If you touch her, you're a dead man. I'll kill you." Now, the Bible said Abimelech had not come near her. What did God do to stop Abimelech? I don't know. Maybe he gave him a case of 24-hour virus.
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I have no earthly idea. But I know one thing for sure. He never touched her. And God said, "I have withheld thee from sinning against me. I've stopped you. Therefore, I suffered you not to touch her." In other words, obviously, therefore, to defile the lineage of Christ would not be glorifying to God. And God did not allow that to happen. The wrath of man shall praise the Lord, and the remainder of wrath shall he restrain.
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That's why the Bible says very clearly in Proverbs 21 in verse 1, "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he willeth." Now listen to that. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as rivers of water. He turns that heart any way he pleases, anywhere he pleases. So the truth of the matter is this.
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Why does God allow wickedness? Why does God allow rebellion? Here's the answer. Just enough to get honor and glory for himself. You say, "Brother Weaver, how in the world could sin and wickedness and rebellion glorify God?" Well, let me ask you a question. Do you realize that if there was no sin, if there was no rebellion and wickedness, we would never comprehend the holiness and the justice of God and God's righteous anger and indignation against it. And if there was never any sin or rebellion, we would never even grasp God's mercy and God's grace when He saves people out of that sin and out of that rebellion. In other words, sin and wickedness ultimately are going to redound to God's honor and God's glory. And what will not glorify Him, He will restrain, He will withhold.
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Now, as you go back to Job 12, I want you to understand everything that God has said in Job chapter 12, verses 13 through 22, talking about rulers, talking about men, He now applies to nations in verses 23 through 25. So God is just as sovereign over the nation as He is over the individual. The Bible says in Psalm 22 and verse 28, "For the kingdom is the Lord's, and He is the governor among the nations." God is the governor among the nations. In Psalm 113 and verse 4, the Bible says, "The Lord is high above all nations.
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And His glory filleth the heavens." I want you to turn very quickly to the book of Isaiah chapter 40. And let me just show you three quick references. Two of them is Isaiah, one's in Jeremiah. Look in Isaiah chapter 40. And let's begin reading there with verse 15. Isaiah 40 and verse 15. Look what God says. Isaiah 40 verse 15. The Bible says, "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as a small dust to the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing." You know, when you and I think of the nations in this world and their greatness and their power and their might, I mean, we're awed. God says, they're just a drop in the bucket. They're nothing to God. Just a drop in a bucket. Look in Isaiah 40 and verse 17. "All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counting Him less than nothing and vanity." Wow. Look in Jeremiah chapter 10 and verse 7. Jeremiah 10 and verse 7.
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This shows you basically the greatness of God and the weakness of men. Jeremiah 10 verse 7, notice what the scripture asks, "Who would not fear thee, O king of nations? For to thee doth it appertain, for as much as among all the wise men of the nations and all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee." Notice if you would, God is called the king of the nations.
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That is, He's their sovereign. He rules over them.
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Now as you go back to Job chapter 12, please, I want you to notice just two points today. Look if you would please in verse 23 for the very first thing. He said, "He increaseth the nations and destroyeth them. He enlargeth the nations and straighteneth them again." First of all, it's the sovereignty of God that increases and enlarges nations. It's the sovereignty of God that increases and enlarges nations. You want to know why America got as far as she got? Because of God's sovereignty.
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I had someone call me yesterday and was asking me about some of the founding fathers. And he said, "I know not every one of them or each one of them was a Christian." I said, "That's true. The majority of the founding fathers were Christian. But I said, you have to understand this, those men who were not Christian were so deeply influenced by the Christian religion that it pervaded every part of their being and everything that they did."
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For instance, most people count Benjamin Franklin a deist. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin was personal friends with George Whitefield and that Benjamin Franklin often went to hear Whitefield preach. And he calculated at one time that his voice could be heard while he was preaching to approximately 40,000 people. And they didn't have megaphones and electronics back then. But if Benjamin Franklin was a deist and was not a Christian, I want you to consider what he said since he was the oldest man at the Constitutional Convention. Here's what he said.
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Let me give you the quote. He's speaking to George Washington and to all the other men who were there. And he said, "In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of superintendent providence in our favor.
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To that kind providence, not luck, not fate, not fortune, to that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings, that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. And I also believe that without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.
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We shall be divided by our little partial local interest, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse? Mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments to be by human wisdom and leave it a chance war conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service." Isn't that amazing?
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Now if Benjamin Franklin was not a Christian, he certainly had Christian understanding and Christian principles, he understood this simple truth that no nation can rise without the divine providence and help and blessing of God. And the scripture tells us it is God who allows the nations to increase and expand.
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Now there are multitudes of examples in the scripture and I'm going to show you a little bit later about Israel. But the same truth is given concerning the pagan nations as well. For instance, if you would turn in your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah, chapter 25, let me show you what God says in reference to Nebuchadnezzar and to Babylon. Watch this, if you would, please. Jeremiah, chapter 25, beginning there with verse 9. Jeremiah 25, verse 9. God says, "I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant," that's what he called Nebuchadnezzar, "my servant, and will bring them against the land and against the inhabitants thereof and against all the nations round about, and will utterly destroy them," that is all those nations, "and make them an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations. Note now, moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle and this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment and these
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nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." What did God do? God took a pagan man and a pagan nation and sent them to conquer because his people had sinned against him and God says they're going to serve him for seventy years. Notice in Jeremiah 26 beginning there with verse 1. Jeremiah 26 verse 1. Look if you would. Jeremiah 26 verse 1: "In the beginning of the reign of Joachim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the Lord saying, 'Thus said the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak in all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminished not a word. If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purposed to do unto them, because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will hearken to me, and walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened, then
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will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse in all the nations.' So the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah made an end of speaking all that the Lord commanded him and said unto all the people, etc. They said to Jeremiah, 'Thou shalt surely die.'
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Now don't you know what God did? God told the people, "I'm sending Nebuchadnezzar. I'm sending the Babylonians."
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Now listen, if you will listen to my preacher, if you will hear him, if you will repent, if you will obey me, I will withhold this. But if not, I'm going to send him. And you're going to die. And that's exactly what God did. God sent a pagan king and a pagan nation to conquer.
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Now, we're specifically told in relationship to Israel, if you will turn back to Isaiah 26, and look at verse 15, we're specifically told it was God who increased and enlarged Israel. We all know that. But look at Isaiah 26 and verse 15, Isaiah says, "Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord. Thou hast increased the nation. Thou art glorified. Thou hast removed it from the ends of the earth." And the word removed there means Thou hast extended it. In other words, You have enlarged it to all of the ends of the earth. So God can enlarge and extend the kingdom of His people. Or He can enlarge and extend the kingdom of the wicked. Why?
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Because he's sovereign over both. In the book of Habakkuk, don't turn there, let me just quote it. Chapter 1 and verse 6, God says, "For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who shall march through the breadth of the land to possess dwelling places that are not theirs." God said, "I'm raising them up. I'm going to send them to the land. They're going to possess lands that are not theirs." So it doesn't really matter if we're talking about a Christian nation or a pagan nation or anything in between, if there can be anything in between, the sovereignty of God is over every nation. And it's the sovereignty of God that allows that nation to expand and to enlarge. It is God who gives that nation the ability to conquer. The ability to understand, the ability to comprehend, the ability to apply a work ethic. It's God. Listen, it is God that even allows one nation to conquer another nation or another people. Now, let me try to answer another question before it's asked because I know it's going to come into your mind.
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Look what God did. God took Israel and sent them into the land to conquer nations that had been there for hundreds of years, some maybe even thousands. So here's the question, pastor, how just is it for God to take some upstart people, some young little group, some young little nation and send them in to conquer and to take land away from a people that have been there for hundreds and thousands of years. How just can that be? How just could it be in our thinking for God to allow a little old insignificant puny Cuba to come in and whip America and take our land and take our cities.
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Well, let me first establish one principle from scripture. Here it is. I'm going to ask you the question that I'm going to give you the scripture. Who is the rightful owner of the world and everything in it? God, the sovereign God of heaven and earth.
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Now just listen, you don't have to turn here, but in 1 Chronicles 29 verse 11, here's what King Asa confessed. He said this, "Thine, O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and that is in earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom of the Lord and thou art exalted as head above all." Most of you can quote Psalm 24 in verse 1, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." Did you know that that verse is quoted twice in the New Testament? In 1 Corinthians 10 in verse 26, the Bible says, "For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." 1 Corinthians 10 verse 28, "For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof." In other words, here's the principle that we've established: this world and everything in it belongs to God. It is His.
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Here's a second question that must be asked in light of that truth. Does God not have the right to do with His own as He pleases? Let me show you. Turn in your Bibles very quickly to Matthew 20. Matthew 20. I love this passage. Matthew 20. And let's begin reading there in verse 1. You see, the problem is this. Many times we want to claim a prerogative or a right for ourselves that we won't allow God to have. Look in Matthew 20, verse 1.
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Our Lord says, "For the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is a householder who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. Now look, and when he agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into the vineyard." It's six o'clock in the morning. "And he went out about the third hour," nine o'clock, "and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. And he said to them, 'Go you also in the vineyard and whatsoever is right, I'll give you.' And they went their way. Again, he went out the sixth hour," 12 noon, dinner time, "and the ninth hour," three in the afternoon, "and did likewise. About the 11th hour," say five in the afternoon, "he went out and found others standing idle and said to them, 'Why stand you here idle all the day?' And they said to him, 'Because no man hath hired us.' He said to them, 'Go ye also in the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that you shall receive.' So when the evening was come, the lord of the vineyard said unto his steward, 'Call the laborers and give them their hire, beginning from the last into the first.'
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"And when they came that were hired about the 11th hour," that is, they'd only worked one hour, "they received every man a penny. And when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more and they likewise received every man a penny." Remember they agreed for that. "And when they received it, they murmured against the good man of the house saying, 'These lasts have wrought but one hour, but thou hast made them equal unto us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.' But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong. Didst thou not agree with me for a penny?'
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"Take that thine is and go thy way. I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good?" Can God not do with his own as he pleases? And the answer is yes. God can. Everything belongs to Him and God may do with it as He pleases. God has the sovereign right to dispossess anyone from His creation either temporarily or permanently. And most of the nations that God dispossessed were nations that refused to honor Him and to glorify Him and obey Him. In other words, they refused to give God His just due as a righteous landlord, and when they refused to give Him His just due, He justly kicked them out. The Bible says in Proverbs 29 and verse 2, "Give unto the Lord, give unto the Lord the glory due in His name, and worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness." In Psalm 96 and verse 7, "Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people.
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Give unto the Lord glory and strength." And then in Psalm 96 and verse 8, "Give unto the Lord the glory that is due in His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts." Let me ask you a question. If you owned a house, if you owned several houses, would you allow renters to remain in your house or houses who never paid any rent and constantly and continually destroyed your property. Would you allow them to remain?
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Or would you kick them out? And if you kick them out, would you be just and right in doing so? What's the answer? Yes, you would. You were the owner. You can do with it as you please. And if someone's not going to pay what they justly and rightly owe, they should be dispossessed. The same is true not just of someone in our time who owns a house. The same is true when God is sovereign over the nations. When nations do not give God His due, this earth is His. He may lawfully, righteously, and justly kick them out.
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Years ago I was preaching in Ohio and attending the church was an American Indian. And the pastor took us out to eat every day and this American Indian and a few other men went with us. And the American Indian was, you know, fine. I mean, you know, he's kind and gracious and cordial. Until the very last day. And the last day that I was there, he looked sullen, mad, angry, kept his head down most of the time. I called his name.
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I said, "What in the world is wrong with you?" And he looked at me and said, "You white men stole our land." He should not have said that. I said, "Let me tell you something. First of all, it's not your land. It's God's land. I said, secondly, your people were out worshiping the sun and the moon and the stars and the trees and the water and the birds and anything that walked instead of the one true and the living God.
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You refused to give Him honor. You refused to give Him glory. I said, moreover, you not only killed people, you ate people." He looked at me and said, "How did you know that?" I said, "It's alright, I know because I do some studying. You did that. I said, let me tell you something. God had the absolute right to take the land away from you and give it to us and God has the absolute right to take the land away from us and give it to someone else if we fail Him and refuse to honor and glorify Him." And He does. It belongs to Him. God is the one who increases and enlarges nations.
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I want you to go back, if you would, to Job chapter 12 and look again very quickly at verse 23 because here's the second point. Now watch. Job 12 verse 23, look what he says. "He increases the nations and destroys them. He enlarges the nations and straightens them again." Here's the second point. The sovereignty of God diminishes and destroys nations just like God increases and enlarges them and builds them up. It's God also who diminishes and destroys them. God has entire and complete control over every nation.
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The sources of prosperity are in His hand. And in His pleasure, He may visit any nation with famine, with pestilence, with war. He may diminish our numbers. He may arrest our property. He may do whatever He pleases. Our prosperity is in His hand. I want you to look very quickly at Psalm 105. Look at Psalm 105. And of course, you will recognize that this is what God has done to Egypt. But look if you would at what is stated that God actually did. Psalm 105, notice if you would verse 11. Psalm 105 verse 11.
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"Saying unto thee, will I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance? When they were but a few men in number, yea, they were few and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he," that is God, "suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved kings for their sake, saying, 'Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.' Moreover, he called for a famine upon the land.
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He broke the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. Whose feet they hurt with fetters, he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of his substance, to bind his princes at his pleasures and to teach his sinners wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. Now look, and he increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies." Isn't that amazing? Oh, but look at the next verse.
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"He turned their heart," that is the Egyptian's heart, "to hate his people and to deal suddenly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen. They showed his signs among them and wonders in the land of Ham."
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Now look what God did. "He sent darkness and he made it dark. And they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance in the chambers of their kings. He spake and there came diverse sorts of flies and lice in their coast. He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land. He smoked their vines also and their fig trees and broke the trees of their coast. He spake and the locusts came in caterpillars and that without number and did eat up all the herbs in their land and devoured the fruit of the ground. He smote also the firstborn in their land, the chief of their strength." Notice if you would, God is doing all of this.
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And if you'll skip down to verse 44, "And gave them the lands of the heathen, and they inherited the labor of the people, that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws, praise ye the Lord." God often permits a nation to acquire territory and afterwards shuts them up, reduces, they lose that territory, he reduces them and sometimes shuts them up in their natural boundaries and sometimes even reduces their natural boundaries. You know what men do? Men say, "Oh, it's natural events.
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It was the flood, or it was the drought, or it was state intrigue, or it was political intrigue, or it was this or it was that." And very few people ever see that God is behind everything. It is God who set it up one and take it down another. Now listen to what the scripture says in Psalm 75 verses 6 and 7. Listen carefully. God says, "For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the judge: he put it down one and he set it up another." God's the one who puts down the rulers, and God's the one who sets them up. In Daniel 2 and verse 21, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, "And he," God, "changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, and he setteth up kings.
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He giveth wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding." It's God who removes kings, and God who sets up kings. Spurgeon had this to say, He said, "Men forget that all things are ordained in heaven. They see but the human force and the carnal passion, but the unseen Lord is far more real than all of these. He is at work behind and within the cloud.
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The foolish dream that he is not, but he is near even now and on the way to bring in his hand the cup of the spiced wine of vengeance, one draw of which shall stagger all of his foes." Certainly, you and I understand how God destroyed the people in the flood. We not only understand how God destroyed the people in the flood, we understand how He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. Where are all the nations that God cast out before Israel?
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Ask yourself, where are the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Hivites, and all the otherites? They're gone. The kingdoms of Persia and Greece and Babylon and Rome. Oh, the geographical locations may still be here, but the national power and the empires are gone. They've vanished. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 15 and verse 6, "And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city, for God did vex them in all adversity." God did vex them. Nation was destroyed, the nation went, God vexed them.
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I want you to look back in your Bibles to Job 34. In fact, you can hold Job 34. We'll come back to that passage just a little bit later. But I want you to see this one verse right now. Look in Job 34 and verse 29. Job 34, verse 29. Look what it said of God. "When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble? And when He hideth His face, who then can behold Him, whether it be done against a nation or against a man only?" God says, when I give quietness, nobody can cause trouble. And when I had my face, you're done for. Whether it's against a man or against a nation, it doesn't matter. I want you to listen to what God specifically said concerning the nation Israel. In fact, you might want to turn there. Look in Jeremiah 31. You can see a wonderful illustration of this. And notice if you would beginning there in verse 27, Jeremiah 31 verse 27. Look at it. Look what God says, Jeremiah 31 verse 27.
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"Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, saith the Lord." Now, yes, here is a promise that God says He's going to build and plant Israel. But I want you to note what God said. Just like I watched over them to break down and to pluck down and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict, it was God who built them up, it is God who broke them down. Very clearly. God is the one that destroys them. God is the one that diminishes. God is the one that destroys.
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Now, I want you to go back, if you would, please, to Job chapter 12, because this is where it really gets interesting to me. You know, you grasp this simple fact that, yes, it's God that enlarges. It's God that increases. It's God that diminishes. It's God that destroys. We've read all of that in verse 23. But I want you to look at verse 24 and 25. "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
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They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to stagger like a drunken man." Now we're talking about how God diminishes and destroys nations. How does God diminish and destroy nations? Verse 24, "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth."
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Now, let me stop there. The word heart refers to the mind, to intelligence, to common sense, to wisdom. Wait a minute. How does God diminish and destroy a nation? One of the ways is by taking away the mind, the intelligence, the wisdom, and the common sense. But now look at it. "He taketh away the heart," that is the mind, the wisdom, "of the chief of the people." Now the chief of the people refers then to the rulers of the earth, or the rulers of the nation. When he taketh away the heart, the wisdom, of the chief of the people, it means, basically, He takes away their wisdom. He takes away their understanding. He takes away their common sense and he leaves them as absolute fools. The perplexion and the perplexity and the confusion of the rulers of the earth is strikingly resembled here to a lost man in the wilderness. Look at it in verse 24. "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way."
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In other words, they don't know which way to turn. They don't know which way is up, which way is down. It's like when you're having vertigo either underwater or up in the air. You don't know where to go. You don't know where to turn.
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Now let me give you an illustration of this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 2. Deuteronomy chapter 2 and look at verse 24. Here is an excellent example with Sihon. Deuteronomy 2 verse 24. Notice, if you would, what God says, beginning there of verse 26. Here's what Moses did. Moses said, "And I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth," verse 26, "unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, with words of peace, saying, 'Let me pass through thy land.
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I will go along by the highway. I will neither turn into the right hand nor to the left. Thou shalt sell me meat for money that I may eat and give me water for money that I may drink. Only I will pass through on my feet as the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir and the Moabites which dwelt in Ard did unto me until I shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord our God gave us.' But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let him pass by for the Lord thy God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinance that he might deliver him into his hand as appeared unto this day.
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Now let's stop right there just for a moment. What did Moses do to this king? He sent him words of peace. And he said, "Let me pass through the land." He said, "I'll go along by the highway. I won't go to the right hand or to the left. I won't mess up any of your property. And you will sell me meat for money. You can make money off of us. And you can sell us water to drink."
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And Moses said, "I can give you references. Edom and Moab allowed us to do this. We never messed up their land. They made money on us as we passed. Just let us go through. That's all we want." Now, who's going to miss an opportunity like that to make money and have references already? Now, it is true that God hardened Sihon's heart, but He hardened it because, once again, Sihon was already a wicked, ungodly, reprobate man and his people. And God was going to give Israel that land, and He did. But the point I'm trying to make is, here was a king who was absolutely devoid of common sense. Why would you not take up an offer like this? I mean, there's references, opportunity to make money, words of peace. No, he was just going to fight. They were going to pass through his land.
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You know what the Bible says in Job 5 and verse 13? Listen to this. "He taketh the wise in his own craftiness, and the counsel of the forward is carried headlong." In other words, he captures them and he throws them down. What did he say in Job 12? We read it earlier. Now listen carefully. "He looseth the bond of kings and girdeth their loins with a girdle.
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He leadeth princes away spoiled and overthroweth the mighty. He removeth away the speech of the trustee, and taketh away the understanding of the age. He forth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength of the mighty." In other words, when God begins to diminish and destroy a nation, He makes their leaders absolute fools. Look in your Bibles to Job 34. Job 34. You're already getting my application. I don't even have to make it. Look at Job 34 and let's begin with verse 24. Job 34 verse 24. Look what the Bible says concerning God. Job 34 verse 24. "He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead." I've already been telling you about that from Psalm 75. He shall break in pieces mighty men without number and set others in their stead.
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"Therefore He knoweth their works and He overturneth them in the night, so they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others, because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways. So that they caused the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted. When he giveth quietness, who can make trouble?
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And when he hideth his face, who then can behold him? Whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only, that the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." What is God saying? God says, when I diminish, and when I destroy, they are done for. It is that simple. You know what the Bible says in Isaiah 19 verse 13 concerning the princes of Egypt?
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Now listen, "The princes of Zoan have become fools. They have seduced Egypt, even those that are the stay of the tribes thereof." Their princes became fools. I want you to go back one last time to Job 12. Watch this. Job 12. Verse 24 and verse 25, we're talking about God diminishing and God destroying nations. "He taketh away the heart of the chief of people," verse 24, "of the earth and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way." That's one illustration. Here's the other.
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"They grope in the dark without light. He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man."
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Now, let me ask you. What is the usefulness and what is the worth of a lost, wayward, drunken, staggering, stumbling man? Such a man cannot even find his own way out of a house, much less lead a nation. One of the greatest evidences, listen to me, one of the greatest evidences that we know that America is being diminished and destroyed is because in the judgment of God, He has made most of our leaders absolute fools.
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They have no common sense. They have no understanding. They're useless and they're worthless. And you've got to remember that a fool in the Bible is not a mentally deficient person. A fool in the Bible is someone who will not listen, someone who will not receive instruction, someone who will not take correction. And when God begins to diminish and destroy, He takes away the wisdom, the common sense, the understanding of the rulers.
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Now let me make just a couple of applications. Listen carefully. Here's the first one. God is the true and the only sovereign. It's God who puts up one ruler and takes down another. And do you realize God can soon confuse and confound the most cunning of the politicians. He can take their wits and make them reach their wits' ends. And it is God who will do that. How do I know?
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Because He's promised in the Scripture to abase the proud and to exalt the humble. In fact, in Ezekiel 21, verse 27, he said this, "Thus saith the Lord God, remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low and abase him that is high." You remember old proud, arrogant Nebuchadnezzar? "Is this not great Babylon that I have built for my name and for the honor and the glory of my name?" What did God do? God drove him insane for seven years. For seven years he ate grass like an ox, let his fingernails grow like bird claws, his hair like bird feathers. And when God restored him, Nebuchadnezzar said this in Daniel 4 and verse 37, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride, he is able to abase." Nebuchadnezzar learned the hard way that God is able to bring a man down no matter how high he is in authority.
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And God will do it. And my prayer is that He'll do it soon. One last passage, I do want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12, because I want you to see, here is another reason to seek Christ, to trust Him, to obey Him, and to be in His kingdom. Look what the scripture says, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 24, "And to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel, see that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escape not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven.
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Now watch, whose voice then shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, 'Yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.' Are you listening? And this word yet once more signified the removing of those things that are shaken, as of those things that are made, and those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Well, what is one thing that cannot be shaken that's going to remain? Verse 28, 'Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.'" What is God going to do to the kingdoms of this world? Destroy them. Remove them.
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Until, as Hobie pointed out, that stone came out of the mountain, cut without hands, and broke the beast, and the beast fell to pieces. That stone is none other than Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And when our sovereign God finishes, the only kingdom that will remain will be the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, who deserves all honor, all praise, and all glory. What a comfort it is to know. What a comfort it is to know that Obama is really not in charge in this country.
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Thank you, Father, for Your Word and Your truth and Your blessing. Help us to love Thee, to live Thee, for Thee, and to serve Thee. And Lord, to stand fast in the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ, in whose name we ask and pray. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-06T01:29:26Z

The Sovereignty of God over Nations

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

Pastor John Weaver expounds Job 12:23-25 to demonstrate that God is absolutely sovereign over all nations, both in their rise and their fall. He argues that God increases and enlarges nations according to His will, and He also diminishes and destroys them, often by removing wisdom from their rulers. The lecture addresses the problem of evil by explaining that God permits only enough wickedness to bring glory to Himself and restrains the rest. Applications emphasize that America's decline is evidence of God's judgment on foolish leaders, and believers should find comfort in God's control and seek the unshakable kingdom of Christ.

Introduction: God's Exclusive Sovereignty

God is the only sovereign, and His sovereignty extends to everything, including nations. The idea that God is sovereign only over 'big things' is refuted.

Scripture Reading — Job 12:23-25

he increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them. He enlargeth the nations, and straighteneth them again. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way. They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them stagger like a drunken man."

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 43:11

"I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior."

In Isaiah 44 in verse 6,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 43:11

"Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God."

And then in Isaiah chapter 45 in verse 6,

Scripture Reading — Isaiah 43:11

"that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none beside me, I am the Lord, and there is none else."

And then in Isaiah 45 in verse 22, he says, "Tell you and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together.

God's Sovereignty Over All Things (Job 12:13-22)

A reading of Job 12:13-22 shows God's control over rulers, judges, and the mighty, demonstrating His comprehensive sovereignty.

Scripture Reading — Job 12:13-22

"is wisdom and strength. He, God, has counsel and understanding."

Notice what God does now.

Scripture Reading — Job 12:13-22

"Behold, he, God, breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. He, God, shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he, God, withholdeth the waters, and they dry up.

The Question of Wickedness and Rebellion

If God is sovereign, why does He allow wickedness? Psalm 76:10 answers that the wrath of man will praise God, and the remainder He restrains.

Illustration: God Restrains Abimelech (Genesis 20)

God prevented Abimelech from sinning with Sarah, showing He restrains wrath that would not glorify Him.

Scripture Reading — Genesis 20:1-7

"And Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said unto him, 'Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken, for she is a man's wife.' But Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, 'Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he, nodding to me, she is my sister.'

That's why the Bible says very clearly in Proverbs 21 in verse 1,

Scripture Reading — Proverbs 21:1

"The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he willeth."

Now listen to that. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as rivers of water. He turns that heart any way he pleases, anywhere he pleases. So the truth of the matter is this.

God Increases and Enlarges Nations

It is God who causes nations to expand and prosper, as seen in Israel and even pagan nations like Babylon.

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 25:9

nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." What did God do? God took a pagan man and a pagan nation and sent them to conquer because his people had sinned against him and God says they're going to serve him for seventy years. Notice in Jeremiah 26 beginning there with verse 1. Jeremiah 26 verse 1. Look if you would. Jeremiah 26 verse 1: "In the beginning of the reign of Joachim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the Lord saying, 'Thus said the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak in all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminished not a word. If so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil which I purposed to do unto them, because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will hearken to me, and walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened, then

God's Right to Dispossess Nations

Since the earth is the Lord's, He has the right to dispossess nations that refuse to honor Him, illustrated by the parable of the laborers and the American Indian encounter.

Now just listen, you don't have to turn here, but in 1 Chronicles 29 verse 11, here's what King Asa confessed. He said this,

Scripture Reading — 1 Chronicles 29:11

"Thine, O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in heaven and that is in earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom of the Lord and thou art exalted as head above all."

God Diminishes and Destroys Nations

God also diminishes and destroys nations, as seen in Egypt and other empires. He removes kings and sets up others.

Scripture Reading — Psalm 105:11-36, 44-45

And if you'll skip down to verse 44, "And gave them the lands of the heathen, and they inherited the labor of the people, that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws, praise ye the Lord." God often permits a nation to acquire territory and afterwards shuts them up, reduces, they lose that territory, he reduces them and sometimes shuts them up in their natural boundaries and sometimes even reduces their natural boundaries. You know what men do? Men say, "Oh, it's natural events. It was the flood, or it was the drought, or it was state intrigue, or it was political intrigue, or it was this or it was that." And very few people ever see that God is behind everything. It is God who set it up one and take it down another. Now listen to what the scripture says in Psalm 75 verses 6 and 7. Listen carefully. God says, "For promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the judge: he put it down one and he set it up another." God's the one who puts down the rulers, and God's the one who sets them up. In Daniel 2 and verse 21, Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, "And he," God, "changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, and he setteth up kings.

How God Destroys: Removing Wisdom from Rulers

God destroys nations by taking away the heart (mind, wisdom) of their rulers, making them fools who stagger like drunk men, as illustrated by Sihon and the princes of Egypt.

Application: America's Foolish Leaders and God's Judgment

America's decline is evidence that God has made its leaders fools. God abases the proud and will shake the nations, leaving only Christ's unshakable kingdom.

The Sovereignty of God over Nations

John Weaver | YouTube

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	YouTube
Media ID	sZ61NAY0SKI
Subject	Civil Government
Course	Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order: Where We Are & How We Got Here
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-01-25
Dictation Name
Book	Book 009: Civil Government: Power, Nations, and Constitutional Order — Chapter 22
Source Timed Segments	89

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: God's Exclusive Sovereignty: God is the only sovereign, and His sovereignty extends to everything, including nations. The idea that God is sovereign only over 'big things' is refuted.
God's Sovereignty Over All Things (Job 12:13-22): A reading of Job 12:13-22 shows God's control over rulers, judges, and the mighty, demonstrating His comprehensive sovereignty.
The Question of Wickedness and Rebellion: If God is sovereign, why does He allow wickedness? Psalm 76:10 answers that the wrath of man will praise God, and the remainder He restrains.
Illustration: God Restrains Abimelech (Genesis 20): God prevented Abimelech from sinning with Sarah, showing He restrains wrath that would not glorify Him.
God Increases and Enlarges Nations: It is God who causes nations to expand and prosper, as seen in Israel and even pagan nations like Babylon.
God's Right to Dispossess Nations: Since the earth is the Lord's, He has the right to dispossess nations that refuse to honor Him, illustrated by the parable of the laborers and the American Indian encounter.
God Diminishes and Destroys Nations: God also diminishes and destroys nations, as seen in Egypt and other empires. He removes kings and sets up others.
How God Destroys: Removing Wisdom from Rulers: God destroys nations by taking away the heart (mind, wisdom) of their rulers, making them fools who stagger like drunk men, as illustrated by Sihon and the princes of Egypt.
Application: America's Foolish Leaders and God's Judgment: America's decline is evidence that God has made its leaders fools. God abases the proud and will shake the nations, leaving only Christ's unshakable kingdom.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Sovereignty must be absolute

If God is not sovereign over even one small thing, then that thing is above God, and He is not God.

The speaker recounts a classroom incident: 'If there's even one thing over which God is not sovereign, then God is not God, because that thing is over and above God and independent of God.'

Wickedness ultimately glorifies God

God permits wickedness only to the extent that it redounds to His glory, and He restrains the rest.

The speaker explains Psalm 76:10: 'How much wrath? How much wickedness, how much rebellion will God allow? Here's the answer. Just enough that will redound to his honor and his glory and the remainder of wrath will he restrain.'

God uses pagan nations for His purposes

God raised up Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar as His servant to judge Israel, showing His control over all nations.

Jeremiah 25:9: 'Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant...'

God has the right to dispossess nations

As the owner of the earth, God can justly remove nations that fail to give Him due honor, like a landlord evicting destructive tenants.

The speaker uses the analogy: 'If you owned a house... would you allow renters to remain... who never paid any rent and constantly and continually destroyed your property?'

God destroys nations by removing wisdom from rulers

A key method of divine judgment is to take away the understanding of leaders, leaving them as fools unable to govern.

Job 12:24: 'He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.'

America's decline is evidence of God's judgment

The foolishness of American leaders is a sign that God is diminishing the nation.

The speaker states, 'One of the greatest evidences that we know that America is being diminished and destroyed is because in the judgment of God, He has made most of our leaders absolute fools.'

Scripture References

Job 12:23-25: Primary text for the sermon, declaring God's sovereignty over nations.
Isaiah 43:11: Used to establish God as the only Savior and sovereign.
Isaiah 44:6: Affirms God as first and last, with no other God.
Isaiah 45:6, 22: Declares there is no God besides the Lord.
Job 12:13-22: Demonstrates God's sovereignty over rulers, judges, and the mighty.
Psalm 76:10: Key verse explaining that the wrath of man praises God and the remainder is restrained.
Genesis 20:1-7: Illustration of God restraining Abimelech from sinning with Sarah.
Proverbs 21:1: The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, turned as He wills.
Psalm 22:28: The kingdom is the Lord's, and He is governor among the nations.
Psalm 113:4: The Lord is high above all nations.
Isaiah 40:15, 17: Nations are as a drop in a bucket and counted as nothing before God.
Jeremiah 10:7: God is the King of nations, with none like Him.
Jeremiah 25:9: God calls Nebuchadnezzar His servant to bring judgment.
Jeremiah 26:1-6: God warns Judah through Jeremiah to repent or face destruction.
Isaiah 26:15: God increased the nation of Israel and extended its borders.
Habakkuk 1:6: God raises up the Chaldeans to possess lands not theirs.
1 Chronicles 29:11: All in heaven and earth is the Lord's.
Psalm 24:1: The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness.
Matthew 20:1-15: Parable of the laborers, illustrating God's right to do as He pleases with His own.
Psalm 105:11-36, 44-45: God's sovereign acts in Egypt, including plagues and dispossession.

Historical References

Benjamin Franklin's speech at the Constitutional Convention: Franklin, though often considered a deist, acknowledged God's providence in the founding of America and called for prayer at the convention.
Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon: Used as an example of a pagan king and nation raised up by God to judge Israel.
Sihon, king of Heshbon: Example of a ruler whose heart God hardened, leading to his defeat by Israel.
Nebuchadnezzar's insanity: God humbled Nebuchadnezzar by driving him insane for seven years until he acknowledged God's sovereignty.
American Indian encounter: The speaker recounts a conversation with an American Indian about God's right to dispossess nations that reject Him.

Important Quotes

Everything is going wrong just right.

A pithy summary of the sermon's theme that God's sovereignty ensures all events, even wicked ones, ultimately serve His purposes.

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

Key verse explaining why God allows some wickedness but not all; it is the biblical foundation for the argument.

The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever he willeth.

Proverbs 21:1 quoted to emphasize God's direct control over rulers.

He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

Job 12:24, central to the point that God destroys nations by removing wisdom from leaders.

One of the greatest evidences that we know that America is being diminished and destroyed is because in the judgment of God, He has made most of our leaders absolute fools.

Direct application of the sermon's thesis to contemporary America.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:28-29, pointing to the unshakable kingdom of Christ as the ultimate hope.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?

From the parable in Matthew 20, used to argue God's right to dispossess nations.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does the concept of God's exclusive sovereignty challenge common views of human autonomy and national power?

[Context]

The sermon emphasizes that God alone is sovereign and that all rulers are under His control.

[Question]

In what ways does Psalm 76:10 help reconcile God's sovereignty with the existence of evil and wickedness in the world?

[Context]

The speaker uses this verse to explain that God permits only enough wickedness to glorify Himself.

[Question]

How should the truth that God raises up and brings down nations affect our prayers for our own country?

[Context]

The sermon applies the sovereignty of God to America's current state and calls for prayer.

[Question]

What are some practical ways we can discern whether a nation's leaders have been given wisdom or had it taken away by God?

[Context]

Job 12:24-25 describes God removing the heart (wisdom) of rulers as a form of judgment.

[Question]

How does the parable of the laborers in Matthew 20 illustrate God's right to do as He pleases with nations?

[Context]

The speaker uses this parable to argue that God, as owner, can dispossess nations that dishonor Him.

[Question]

What comfort can believers take from the promise of an unshakable kingdom in Hebrews 12:28?

[Context]

The sermon concludes with the assurance that Christ's kingdom will remain when all earthly kingdoms are shaken.

Applications

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