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The Sovereignty of God: Part Four
'Personal' from John W. RitenbaughGod's management of His creation is absolute and unwavering. He rules over the nations with active governance, ensuring that His will is accomplished precisely as He has determined. No force, whether human or angelic, can delay or alter His purpose, for His counsel shall stand with unyielding assurance. He is not an absentee landlord but is deeply and intimately involved in the operations of His creation, sustaining, maintaining, guiding, and propelling all things by the word of His power. God does not merely create and step aside to let impersonal laws govern; instead, He actively manages and directs everything according to His purpose. He speaks, and light appears; He commands, and the waters gather as He desires, shaping and controlling His creation with precision. From the Flood to the confusion of languages at Babel, and the plagues on Egypt, His involvement is evident as He supervises events and determines outcomes, even using the inanimate elements of creation to execute His will. His sovereignty extends to daily affairs, both in times of blessing and disaster. He sends snow, frost, and hail, and at His word, they melt; He causes the winds to blow and waters to flow. God selectively exercises His authority over nature, protecting or punishing as He sees fit, whether through plagues, famines, or earthquakes, increasing their intensity and occurrence as part of His purposeful plan. He even commands animals and tiny organisms to act according to His will, demonstrating His dominion over every aspect of creation. God's management ensures that His spiritual purpose overrides all, blessing or cursing based on His sovereign choice, often beyond human expectation or natural law. He is moving events at His pace, preparing His people for the Kingdom on His schedule, and no unreadiness on their part can delay Him. His faithful involvement guarantees that His purpose will resolve far better than any human design or natural process could achieve.
The Sovereignty of God (Part Four)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughGod's management of His creation is absolute and unyielding. No one can stay the hand of God or turn Him from the successful conclusion of any purpose of His. He has ways of getting us to yield, molding and shaping us into what He desires so that we will be ready when the time comes. God always has alternatives, and if we will not cooperate, He can replace us with someone better, for we are the weak of this world. There is every reason to be encouraged that He will use every means at His disposal to prepare and save those He has called into His purpose, right on time, because nobody stops Him from doing what He sets His mind to do. God works against deadlines that He sets for Himself, scheduling events with precision. His sovereignty ensures that if He has a deadline for the return of Jesus Christ, it will come off exactly when He has planned it. No plan of God will be held up by any person or group who is not prepared; it will happen in spite of us. He actively manages His creation, not stepping aside to let impersonal laws govern, but sustaining, maintaining, guiding, and propelling the universe with continuous power. The stability of creation speaks of His ongoing involvement, and if He stopped, the creation would cease to operate. God governs both the animate and inanimate aspects of His creation. He overrules mankind's dominion, ensuring that sin does not destroy everything, as seen in events like the Tower of Babel where He intervened. He manipulates the elements, as during the Flood and the plagues of Egypt, tweaking the laws of creation to achieve His purposes. The wind and sea obey Him, and He causes natural phenomena like earthquakes to occur as part of His plan. His authority is evident in every aspect, ensuring that everything happens right on time, and if we yield to Him, we will be ready as He prepares us for His purpose.
The Sovereignty of God: Part Five
'Personal' from John W. RitenbaughIs God sovereign over angels? What about mankind's choices? God's sovereignty is absolute as He directs events toward the culmination of His plan.
The Providence of God (Part Three)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughWe have to exercise faith, realizing the timing will be right for us, enabling us to accept His provisions and decisions for us without fear or anxiety.
The Sovereignty of God (Part Two)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughNothing and no one can thwart God's purposes. We need to develop the faith to yield and conform to His will as clay in the potter's hands.
The Sovereignty of God (Part Five)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughA converted person, accepting God's specific care with His children, realizes that both prosperity and deprivation are tools in the Creator's workshop.
Fearing God's Worthiness
CGG WeeklyRealizing God's willingness to help and knowing His worthiness begin to build in us the vital components of genuine, sincere worship.
The Sovereignty of God: Part Three
'Personal' from John W. RitenbaughConsider two end-time, dominant forces: the Beast power of Revelation 13 and God. To whom will we yield to in the coming years?
How Big Is God?
Sermon by Richard T. RitenbaughWe must not have a one-dimensional perspective of God. Our puny minds can only grasp a tiny sliver of what God really is.
Image and Likeness of God (Part Five)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughThe true nature of God differs greatly from the trinitarian concept. Having created us in His form and shape, God is developing us into His character image.
The Unique Greatness of Our God (Part Four)
CGG Weekly by Richard T. RitenbaughThe Bible tells us that, far from being the unconcerned and inattentive Creator that the Deists envisioned, God is intimately involved in His universe.
Themes of Ruth (Part Two): God's Providence
Sermon by Richard T. RitenbaughAs we count the 50 days toward Pentecost, we should consider the events of our lives, coming to understand that they reveal God's on-going maintenance.
Why We Observe Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughWe keep Unleavened Bread because of what God did to bring us out of sin (typified by Egypt). While God compels us to make choices, He is with us all the way.
Eternal Security (Part 1)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughSome of the harshest criticism we receive is for our position opposing the doctrine of eternal security and stating that works are required for salvation.
Self-Government and Responsibility (Part One)
Sermon by John W. RitenbaughWe need free moral agency to be transformed into God's image. Unless one has God's Spirit, he cannot exercise the internal control to be subject to the way of God.
His Eye is On the Sparrow (Part One)
Sermon by John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)As God has His eye on the sparrow, He has had His eye on us through the entire process of scattering so the tests we have endured will bear good fruit.