Can You Say No to Sovereignty? (Matthew 23:39)Thursday November 13, 2025
Mat 23:37-39
You will NEVER (double negative) see Me again until …
Jewish leaders will have to want Him to come back. How is this not a violation of the sovereignty of God?
Sovereignty:
He is Creator and His dominion is perfect and final.
All majesty and glory belong to God.
All material things are His by the most absolute ownership.
The authority of God is established over the redeemed by the purchase which that redemption has accomplished.
Does man have free-will? Yes, man can reject the Sovereign will of God. “How often I wanted to gather you …”
If man could not choose by his own self-determination, God’s judgment would not be just.
First stop: Mat 12
Mat 12:30-32 "He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters. 31 "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
Unpardonable Sin is National: Salvation will be offered to individuals, even the Sanhedrin and leaders, even after the cross (Act 2-4). But because of this sin, Jerusalem would experience the wrath of the third cup - “Your house will be left to you desolate.”
Sign of Jonah: Jesus tells them that no sign will be given but the sign of Jonah. Resurrection of Christ (they would reject). Resurrection of the two witnesses in the Tribulation.
No one will be able to legitimately say God is unfair.
Witnesses: Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba (repentance of Gentiles)
Parable of the unclean spirit. Mat 12:43-45 "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it. 44 "Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. 45 "Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation."
The unclean spirit goes out: the repentance that happened through the ministry of John the Baptist.
House still empty: they rejected Christ.
Last state: house left desolate and the Jews scattered throughout the nations (diaspora).
Bringing the diaspora home: Confession and desire for Christ.
Deu 30:4-5 "If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. 5 "The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
Confession of sin: Lev 26:40-42 'If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility against Me — 41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them into the land of their enemies — or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will remember the land.
Jer 3:11-18 And the Lord said to me, "Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 "Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord; 'I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,' declares the Lord; 'I will not be angry forever. 13 'Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,' declares the Lord. 14 'Return, O faithless sons,' declares the Lord; 'For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.'
15 "Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. 16 "It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land," declares the Lord, "they will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord.' And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 "At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the Lord,' and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 "In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.
Vv. 17-18. These are Millennial Kingdom promises. And in reference to it, in vs. 13 (just as in Lev) they will have to confess.
Desire: Zec 12:10 "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
Hos 5:15 I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
Their guilt was rejecting the Messiah. To return to His place means that He must have left it. Where would that be?
Then, look at the result:
Hos 6:1-3 "Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. 2 "He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. 3 "So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth."
Significance of the Tribulation:
God uses circumstances as He wills to mold His clay. It is still up to the people to respond.
The tribulation is the most terrible time the earth has ever seen.
Mat 24:19 “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.”
Greatest evangelism ever: 144,000 indestructible witnesses; angels in the heavens, two witnesses:
Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people;
Two witnesses (Rev 11): The two dead witnesses are left there, unburied, for all to see and after 3 and a half days (likely representing the time of 3.5 years they exerted their power) they come alive (sign of Jonah) for all to see and are then taken alive to heaven in the sight of all.
When we put them all together; the crisis, 144,000, angels, two witnesses - God works to His end and some believe.
God protects the Jews who believe during the Great Tribulation.
Rev 12:13-17 And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. 14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. 17 So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Summarize: They will confess and they will desire Him and God makes sure of it.
Is there anything God can’t do in your life? And if so, why do we complain that He is not doing this or that, or that He is doing that or this? It is because we have forgotten this.
Rev 22:20-21 "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.
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