The sovereign nature of God makes the entire heavens and earth subject to Him. Paul alludes to this in his message to the Athenians. “He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings” (Acts 17:26). He is sovereign and He determines the boundary for all of His creation.
David speaks of this in relation to the seas. “You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to the earth” (Psa. 104:9). Before God separated the land from the sea in the creation, there was no boundary. In this psalm, David evidently speaks of the flood when again there was no boundary. God is sovereign, for He has promised that never again would there be a universal flood. Our sovereign God determines boundaries.
Before the Jews entered the Promised Land, Moses talked of the boundaries of that land. Four chapters of the book of Joshua are devoted to describing the boundary God had determined for each of the tribes. They were marked clearly and God said, “Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set” (Prov. 22:28). Our sovereign God determines the boundaries, and they are immovable.
God has set a boundary around Satan in the book of Job. Satan complained about the hedge God had placed around Job. He could not go beyond that boundary. There is a New Testament hedge around Christians. “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape” (1 Cor. 10:13). Our sovereign God determines the boundary.
There is a boundary around the teachings of the Bible set by God Himself. The entire basis of denominationalism has ignored this boundary. In the first century, every church was the same as every other church, for God commanded them to all “…speak the same thing, and that there by no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10). There are over 20,000 different denominations in our land because men have failed to let God be sovereign in their religious lives. Our God has set the boundary of our religious lives, and we cannot add or remove anything He has said.
It is God who determines who is a citizen in His kingdom. The boundary is not a prayer written by some man called the sinner’s prayer. Jesus said that one cannot see or enter the kingdom without a new birth. He describes this birth as involving both water and Spirit (John 3:3-5). Our sovereign God has set the boundary. Are you listening to Him?