The Sovereign Authority by Apostle Michael Orokpo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Why Knowing God Matters

The apostles were committed to learning and studying the ways of God — Jesus summarized his entire ministry as an attempt to unveil God to people. In John 17:6, he said: I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me. This is the summary of his earthly work. And in verse 12, he said he kept those God gave him by the power of that name. A people who do not know God will fall by the wayside.

There are eight measurable benefits of knowing God:

• Quality of life. John 17:3 — this is eternal life: that they might know thee. The quality of a man's life is greatly imparted when he grows in the knowledge of God. The power of sin is broken. Character is transformed. It just shows that somebody has met God.
• Victory in life. Daniel 11:32 — they that do know their God shall be strong and shall do exploits. Weak people who are easily overcome by circumstances simply do not have strength in their spirit. Those who wait on God and grow in the experience of God — nothing breaks them.
• Peace. Isaiah 26:3 — he keeps him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him. There is no news in the world that should take sleep from a believer's eyes. 2 Peter 1:2 — grace and peace are multiplied through the knowledge of God.
• True wisdom. Job 28:28 — the fear of the Lord is wisdom. Wisdom guides decisions. Wisdom keeps a man from foolish appetites. A man without wisdom gets 10 million and uses it to marry a third wife when he cannot handle the second. A man with wisdom multiplies it until it becomes 2 billion. Wisdom is whispering to him.
• Character transformation. 2 Corinthians 3:18 — beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into that image from glory to glory. When people start knowing God, he shows through their character. Appetites that should have buried them are mortified.
• Freedom from sin. 2 Peter 1:3-4 — according to his divine power, he has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him. People who know God escape the corruption in the world through lust.

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• Fruitfulness. Colossians 1:10 — as you increase in the knowledge of God, your fruitbearing capacity also increases.
• Deliverance. Hosea 4:6 — my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Knowing God delivers you from danger, from evil, from all forms of attack.

The Sovereign Authority: What Makes God Sovereign

When we speak of sovereign authority, we are talking about God's supreme position — unmatched, alone in his class, incomparable in any respect. Isaiah 46:9 — I am God and there is none else. I am God. There is none like me.

Sovereignty has three components: his divinity, his deity, and his authority.

God's Divinity: The Communicable Attributes

These are attributes God shares with his children — but he alone is the source, and only he manifests them in absolute form.

• Perfect righteousness. Deuteronomy 32:4 — all his ways are judgment. He has never made a mistake. He has never erred. Whatever God says is what it is. If he says it is well with you, it cannot be a mistake.
• Perfect love. God does not just have love — God is love. 1 John 4:8. His love is unconditional and eternal. Nothing you can do will make him change his mind. Even when we were rebels, useless in the flesh, he gave himself — his best — to redeem us.
• Complete truth. John 14:6 — Jesus is the truth. There is no guile in God. No manipulation. All truth flows from God. Outside God you cannot know truth.
• Absolute faithfulness. 2 Timothy 2:13 — God abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. The cosmos remains because he is faithful. Times and seasons do not change because he is faithful. Bank on whatever he tells you — with your life.
• Absolute holiness. 1 Samuel 2:2 — there is none holy as the Lord. Holy means in a class of its own, with an integrity that cannot be compromised. Everything God does is in a class of its own.
• Infinite wisdom. Romans 11:33 — the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God are past finding out. God built the universe with wisdom. He designed the eye, the ear, the butterfly, the ant — all with a precision that staggers science. Even when Satan was killing Jesus, it was a miscalculation: killing him procured salvation. When you think you are fighting God, you are helping him.

God's Deity: The Incommunicable Attributes

These are things only God possesses. No spirit being can manifest any of them — which is why only God should be worshipped.

• Omniscience. God knows all things at all times and in all places — past, present, and future. Not just externally but internally. He knows everything inside himself and outside himself, simultaneously, within every second.
• Omnipotence. God has authority over all things, including authority to keep himself in authority. Absolute power does not corrupt God. He has enough authority to put power in check and still have authority over all powers.
• Omnipresence. Psalm 139:7-10 — wherever you go, God is there. He is everywhere at every time and in every time — including yesterday, tomorrow, and before time began.
• Immutability. Malachi 3:6 — I am the Lord, I change not. His nature never alters. His ways never change. His standards are absolute. If he says yes, forever it is yes. When a sinner repents and does not die, it is not because God changed — it is because the sinner changed position from death to life.
• Eternity. Psalm 90:2 — from everlasting to everlasting, he is God. He is alpha and omega — not beginning and end but beginning end: he is at the end and at the beginning simultaneously.
• Self-existence. Exodus 3:14 — I am that I am. Only God depends on himself to exist. Every other being depends on God both to exist and to find purpose. You cannot find meaning outside God.

The Offices of God: Dimensions of Sovereign Authority

Sovereign authority differs from all other authority in three ways: it is not delegated, it has no jurisdictional limits, and it does not need to be under another authority to function. God has offices — positions only he occupies.

1. Creator. Only God brings things into existence from nothing. You can transform. You can discover. But only God creates. Genesis 1:1. This is why everything belongs to him — he made it all. Nothing was made outside him.
2. Governor of the universe. God sets the laws and boundaries that maintain cosmic order. The reason you walk on two legs is because God ordained it. The reason the sea has boundaries is because God wrote it. Hebrews 1:3 — upholding all things by the word of his power.
3. Judge. At the end of time, every creation will stand before God. Revelation 20:11-15 — the dead, small and great, will stand before God. Even death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. He is the only one with the moral jurisdiction to judge because he both created all things and set the law for the realm in which we live.
4. Power to save and destroy. Matthew 10:28 — fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul. Only God has this power. James 4:12 — there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.
5. Power to predestinate. Romans 8:29-30 — God predestinates, calls, justifies, and glorifies. Things do not happen randomly. He sequences and curates the manifestation of things in time. Everything you are, God is aware of. He created the path and the possibility for you to enter it.
6. Authority to delegate authority. Even civic authorities exist because God allowed them. Romans 13:1 — the powers that be are instituted by God. Genesis 1:26-28 — let them have dominion.
7. Authority to set times and seasons. Daniel 2:21 — he changes times and seasons, removes and sets up kings. Satan cannot tell you when you will be destroyed if God says it is your season of promotion.
8. Power to exercise ownership. Psalm 24:1 — the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The silver is his. The gold is his. Even the person who calls himself an atheist belongs to God.
9. Power to exalt and demote. Psalm 75:6-7 — promotion does not come from the east, west, or south. It comes from the Lord. No man lifts men — only God does. If God lifts you, nobody can bring you down.
10. Power to reveal and conceal. Deuteronomy 29:29 — the secret things belong to God. If God hides something, you cannot find it. He gives access. He grants revelation. The reason Satan kept miscalculating in the crucifixion is that the plan was hidden in plain sight.