God's Sovereignty
Renewing Your Mind
Ligonier Ministries
4.8 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What is the extent of God's control over the world? Does He choose who receives salvation and who doesn't? And does that make Him unfair? Today, R.C. Sproul teaches on God's sovereignty, His mercy, and His justice.
Get the new 40th-anniversary edition of R.C. Sproul's book Chosen by God, plus his video teaching series on DVD, when you donate today. You'll also get digital access to all 6 messages and the study guide: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/
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Meet Today's Teacher:
R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew's Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine.
Meet the Host:
Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of media for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, and host of the Ask Ligonier podcast.
Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If God is totally sovereign, and if people are fallen and some perish, |
| 0:08.0 | how can God, who is sovereign, allow evil in the world? |
| 0:13.0 | How can God allow people to perish? |
| 0:26.1 | I've never actually met a Christian who comes out and says, |
| 0:28.4 | I don't believe in the sovereignty of God. |
| 0:32.8 | After all, the Bible says that he is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. |
| 0:40.6 | That is, until tragedy strikes, it can be in those moments, those trials, when we might be tempted to question, is God still on his throne? |
| 0:44.0 | Hi, I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and thanks for joining us today for renewing your mind. |
| 0:49.3 | This week, we're studying the topic of predestination, God's sovereignty, and it's an important topic, |
| 0:56.0 | but it's also a controversial one. It's why we need to handle this subject with care, |
| 1:01.3 | with grace, with charity. I think one of the reasons why we might be tempted to limit the scope |
| 1:08.2 | of God's sovereignty, especially when difficulties and tragedies come our way, |
| 1:12.6 | is in an attempt to protect the character of God. |
| 1:16.6 | But as we'll hear from Dr. Sprawl today, far from protecting God's character, we're actually distorting it, |
| 1:22.6 | and distorting it so much that we're denying God himself. Here's Dr. Sprawl. |
| 1:31.3 | I want to focus our attention on the sovereignty of God. |
| 1:36.3 | And one of the reasons why I think it's important that we really begin here |
| 1:41.3 | with our study of the doctrine is that here is an area in which virtually all |
| 1:46.0 | Christians agree. We agree that God is sovereign. How we understand the sovereignty of God |
| 1:54.0 | may differ from Christian to Christian, but certainly we would all make the confession that God is sovereign. |
| 2:00.0 | I like to tell one of my favorite stories that took place in the seminary where I teach a couple of years ago. |
| 2:06.6 | I had announced in my theology class that the following week I would be lecturing on chapter 3 of the Westminster Confession of Faith, |
... |
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