“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with
mine own?-Matthew 20:15.
The householder says, “Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with mine own?” and even so does the God of
heaven and earth ask this question of you this morning.
“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine
own?” There is no attribute of God more comforting to
his children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty.
Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most
severe troubles, they believe that Sovereignty hath
ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules
them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all.
There is nothing for which the children of God ought
more earnestly to contend than the dominion of their
Master over all creation-the kingship of God over all
the works of his own hands-the throne of God, and his
right to sit upon that throne. On the other hand, there
is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of
which they have made such a foot-ball, as the great,
stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the
Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God
to be everywhere except on his throne. They will allow
him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds and to make
stars. They will allow him to be in his almonry to
dispense his alms and bestow his bounties. They will
allow him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars
thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the
waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends
his throne, his creatures then gnash their teeth; and
when we proclaim an enthroned God, and his right to do
as he wills with his own, to dispose of his creatures
as he thinks well, without consulting them in the
matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated,
and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God
on his throne is not the God they love. They love him
anywhere better than they do when he sits with his
sceptre in his hand and his crown upon his head. But it
is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is
God upon his throne whom we trust. It is God upon his
throne of whom we have been singing this morning; and
it is God upon his throne of whom we shall speak in
this discourse. I shall dwell only, however, upon one
portion of God’s Sovereignty, and that is God’s
Sovereignty in the distribution of his gifts. In this
respect I believe he has a right to do as he wills with
his own, and that he exercises that right.
We must assume, before we commence our discourse, one
thing certain, namely, that all blessings are gifts and
that we have no claim to them by our own merit. This I
think every considerate mind will grant. And this being
admitted, we shall endeavour to show that he has a
right, seeing they are his own to do what he wills with
them-to withhold them wholly is he pleaseth-to
distribute them all if he chooseth-to give to some and
not to others-to give to none or to give to all, just
as seemeth good in his sight. “Is it not lawful for me
to do what I will with mine own?”
We shall divide God’s gifts into five classes. First,
we shall have gifts temporal; second, gifts saving;
third gifts honourable; fourth, gifts useful; and
fifth, gifts comfortable. Of all these we shall say,
“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine
own?”
I. In the first place then, we notice GIFTS TEMPORAL.
It is an indisputable fact that God hath not, in
temporal matters, given to every man alike; that he
hath not distributed to all his creatures the same
amount of happiness or the same standing in creation.
There is a difference. Mark what a difference there is
in men personally (for we shall consider men chiefly);
one is born like Saul, a head and shoulders taller than
the rest-another shall live all his life a Zaccheus-a
man short of stature. One has a muscular frame and a
share of beauty-another is weak, and far from having
anything styled, comeliness. How many do we find whose
eyes have never rejoiced in the sunlight, whose ears
have never listened to the charms of music, and whose
lips have never been moved to sounds intelligible or
harmonious. Walk through the earth and you will find
men superior to yourself in vigour, health, and
fashion, and others who are your inferiors in the very
same respects. Some here are preferred far above their
fellows in their outward appearance, and some sink low
in the scale and have nothing about them that can make
them glory in the flesh. Why hath God given to one man
beauty and to another none? to one all his senses, and
to another but a portion? why, in some, hath he
quickened the sense of apprehension, while others are
obliged to bear about them a dull and stubborn body? We
reply, let men say what they will, but no answer can be
given except this, “Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight.” The old Pharisees asked, “Did this
man sin or his parents, that he was born blind?” We
know that there was neither sin in parents nor child,
that he was born blind, or that others have suffered
similar distresses, but that God has done as it has
pleased him in the distribution of his earthly
benefits, and thus hath said to the world, “Is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?”
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
