We are going to close out the week looking at an intimate question, a dark and mysterious

question that we all face in this life.

It's inevitable.

The moment of our personal passing, a podcast listener named Jim writes in to simply

ask this, does God determine when we each die?

And was this determination made from even before we were born?

Pastor John, what would you say to Jim?

Yes and yes.

He does, God does, determine when everybody dies and he did decide that in eternity.

So those are my answers.

The first thing to say is that God governs with infinite wisdom and power everything

that takes place.

Ephesians 1, 11, God works all things according to the counsel of His will.

There is no reason contextually or biblically or theologically to limit that all things.

So God governs all things.

That applies to the giving of life and the sustaining of life and the taking of life.

He works everything, including when we are born and when we die according to the counsel

of His will.

For example, in Acts 17, 25, He is not served by human hands as though He needed anything

since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Or again, 1 Timothy 6, 13, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life.

To all things, end of Jesus Christ, et cetera, more specifically, James applies this sovereignty

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