Absolute Power - Part 1

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Tonight, we return to the issue of God's character and who He is, and we come to the issue of God's omnipotence, His absolute power. One of the most common yet most potent examples of God's power that you and I see constantly in the creation is the thunderstorm. We saw several of this spring that reminded us who's really in charge in our world. It's interesting when you stop to think about thunderstorms, scientists have estimated that at any given moment, including this exact moment, somewhere in the world, there are 2000 thunderstorms roaring across the earth's surface. That means that in a given day there are about 44,000 thunderstorms circling the globe. And I don't know how they determine this, but scientists tell us that the average thunderstorm releases the energy equivalent to a 20 kiloton nuclear weapon, the average thunderstorm and everyday there are 44,000 of them, every moment that you and I carry on our lives somewhere in the world there are 2000 of them generating each the equivalent of a 20 kiloton nuclear weapon or a small nuclear power plant. We can't imagine the kind of power it takes to sustain 2000 thunderstorms every moment, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for all of human history. But that says nothing when you stop to think about just that, that says nothing about all of the power it takes to sustain the rest of the universe in those same moments in time. And that obviously says nothing about creating all of it from absolutely nothing. Imagine the power that's involved.

The truth is when God created the universe, and this is where we'll go over the next couple of times together, God really exhausted none of His power. To Him it did not tax His power at all. In fact, we're told in the scripture that He brought it all into being out of nothing, how? By the mere word of His mouth. In other words, God exhibited in creating the entire universe that you and I see an equivalent amount of power that you and I show when we speak. It was nothing to God in fact, Job 26:14, after Job describes the entire universe and all that God has created and all that He's doing to sustain the world, he calls all the universe and its workings, the fringes of God's ways, a faint whisper, and he ends verse 14 this way "so who can understand His thunder." In other words, who can understand the thunder of His power? If all we see in everything around us is the mere whisper of the power of God, then who can comprehend a full force of His power? To create everything we see around us required only His words. That's the power of God.

We want to talk about God's omnipotence, which is the word usually used to describe this attribute. The word omnipotence comes from two Latin words, meaning all and power. He is all powerful, it really describes two basic concepts: the first is God's sovereign will, or you could say His free will or His sovereignty. In each case, God has the freedom of will to decide whatever He wants. In other words, this describes God's power to choose or to decide what He wants to do. It also includes absolute power, this is how we normally define omnipotence in the technical sense this is God's omnipotence it is His power to do whatever He wills to do. Power to execute His will. It tells us how much and which power God has, it describes God's power to do. So when we talk about omnipotence technically we're talking about two things, we're talking about God's sovereign will that He has the right and the power to decide to do whatever pleases Him and we're talking about then his power to execute whatever His will decides to do.

Tonight, we're going to look at the first of these God's sovereign will and Lord willing two Sunday nights remember next Sunday night is our church picnic, but the Sunday night following we'll come back and look at the second of these God's absolute power. So with that in mind, let's look then at this first God's sovereign will or His free will. God's right to choose to do whatever He will. Let's start as we always do with some definitions. What do we mean by this quality of God? Well Grudem puts it this way, "God's will is that attribute of God, whereby He approves and determines to bring about every action necessary for the existence and activity of Himself and all creation." In other words, basically, God wills to do everything related to Himself and God wills to do everything related to His creation. Here's a simpler one, John Frame says, "God's will is anything He wants to happen." That's the bottom line, anything He wants to happen.

Now, when you look at this definition, there are several crucial components. First of all, when we talk about God's will, we need to say it's free. God's will is free. In other words, God's choices are determined only by His own nature and His purposes. Nobody twists God's arm, nobody forces God to do anything. God isn't obligated unless He has chosen to obligate Himself. Also, God's will is immutable. Once God determines what He's going to do, as we looked at His immutability several weeks ago, it doesn't change. God's purpose and will once decided, and as we'll see in the future, it was decided in eternity past all the decisions God's make were made in eternity past, which is a mind boggling thing to quote Jackie Stanford. God's will is efficacious. God's will is efficacious, whatever God has decided that will happen. Very important when you talk about God's will to understand these things; it's free, it's simply because of who He is and what He chooses to do. It will not change, and it will always be borne out in reality if He decided to do it.

Now let's move from definitions to some general scriptural expressions of the will of God. Some general expressions about God's will and purpose. The first is Revelation 4:11 and I'm not going to go through all of these in detail. I just want to throw these up here and then we're going to get the kind of the crux of where the sort of rubber meets the road for us. But here you see that it was God's will to create. "You created all things and because of Your will, everything exists, and was created." Psalm 135:6, you can't find a more general statement of the will of God than this, "Whatever the Lord pleases, He does," in other words whatever the Lord desires to do whatever He wills to do He does, "in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the deeps." In other words there's just nothing excluded. Whatever God decides to do happens.

Let's turn to Ephesians 1; I want you to see this one up close and personal there in your copy of the word of God. Ephesians 1, now obviously, this is in the context beginning in verse 3 of all of the spiritual blessings God has meted out to us in Christ. If we were to go through this passage and at some point we will, you'll see that there is a constant reoccurrence of a particular theme, and that is God's will or God's purpose. But it sort of comes to a crescendo in verse 11. Notice what Paul says, "We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined" now watch these next words, "we've been predestined according to the purpose of God," and then he describes God in a fascinating way. "We've been predestined according to the purpose of God, the God who works all things after the Council of His will." Now what's interesting about that is that expression all things, Paul frequently uses in other places to refer to everything that exists in all creation. I won't take the time to take you there, but I have in my notes here about 10 different times Paul uses this expression to say I'm talking about everything without exception. The word works in our verse here in Ephesians 1:11 is a word you'll recognize. The Greek word is energeo, the word from which we get energy acting power. It means to bring about, to produce, and it's in the present tense, so we could really translate it like this listen to this translation which reflects the idea in the text here in the Greek language. God who continually brings about everything in the universe according to the counsel of His will. God, who continually brings about or produces everything in the universe, according to a council of His own will.

Now, what is people's first response when you hear that? That God produces everything in the universe by the decisions of His own will, He affects everything. What is the normal person's response to that? It's just not fair. It doesn't seem fair. Charles Spurgeon writes of this this way, "No doctrine is more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football 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." But that is exactly what Paul teaches. God is affecting, He is producing, bringing about everything in the universe according to the council of His own will.

Now those are some general expressions of the will of God but let's look at some distinctions. When we talk about God's will almost all theologians regardless of their strife or background agree that God's will is not a simple thing, its complex. But we understand that, our wills are complex, think about yourself for a moment. We have different wants or different desires, and we arrange those in sort of an order of priority don't we? Let me give you an example this afternoon I had a desire for sleep, the last couple of nights with the thunderstorm and then last night I was up for some other reason so I had a desire for sleep that was one desire I had, but I didn't because I had a stronger desire to make sure that I was completely ready for tonight. So I made a decision to take the one desire I had, which was for sleep and to postpone it because I had a higher and greater desire which was to make sure I was ready for tonight and later I'll fulfill that desire. I might have decided not to fulfill it at all, even though it was a genuine desire. You see how our wills work? They make decisions on different values of priorities that we have.

While it's not perfect that is an analogy to the complexities of God's will, God, also, according to Scripture, has differing desires which the bible teaches us are differently valued and prioritized. Some of God's desires, He fulfills immediately. Others, since He decided to create the world, have to wait to be fulfilled. Example, does God have a desire? Is it His will, His purpose, His desire that every being in the universe fall down and acknowledge the Lordship of His Son? Absolutely. But does that happen today? Has that happened for the thousands of years since the world was created? No. Why? Because God had another desire and that was to display His great glory and His mercy and His grace and eventually His wrath and so He postponed if you will, that desire that He has until the time is right and it will come. There will be a day when every intelligent rational human being will fall down and acknowledge and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

So it's important to see how all of that works together. God has one united will or purpose but theologians have agreed that there are different distinctions within that larger concept of the will of God. The best theme I believe that represents what the scripture teaches, is what is called the decretive verses the preceptive will of God. We use these words in two senses, the decretive will of God is what God has determined will happen and the preceptive will of God is what we are obligated to do. We're going to look at these in detail here in just a moment. Both of these are found in one particular text and that's Deuteronomy 29:29, notice on the screen, "The secret things" Moses says this is on the planes of Moab and he's giving them the sort of second law describing for them God's will and purpose and he says this, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God," in other words there are some things that God has no intention of revealing. Things that are true about God, things that are true about His purpose, His plan the future, etc. "but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law." You see in that verse both of these issues what God has determined will happen those belong to the secret things He hasn't told us what's all that's going to happen in the future. He's told us a few things, just enough to whet our appetite but we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow in any of our lives. Those things belong to the Lord. But He has revealed in His precepts certain things that we do know and we are to abide by.

So let's look at both of these in some detail. Let's start with the preceptive will of God or the will of precept as it's often called. This speaks of God's revealed will that is the word of God, right here in the pages of scripture. The preceptive will of God is God's revealed will and in it you find two things. You find those rules of life that are laid down for us in scripture hence it's called precept. But you also find something else here and that is those outcomes that God desires in some way but does not choose to bring about; in other words, that which reflects His ideal. Let me give you an example. Ezekiel 18:23 says, "God desires that the wicked would turn from his ways and live." That's God's will. Is that God decretive will? Did He determine that that would come to pass that every wicked man would turn from his way and not die or not perish as he says there in Ezekiel 18? No, He didn't determine that. But He expresses that that is His preceptive will. That is what He has commanded people to do; that which we are obligated to do is turn from our sins and respond to God.

Same thing in Second Peter 3:9, "God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." Is that God's will and purpose? Absolutely, that is God's ideal that is the best thing that could happen but has got sovereignly determined that that will happen? No He has not, for other reasons and purposes which will talk about later when we get to the doctrine of salvation. The preceptive will does not always come to pass. It's God's will but it doesn't always come to pass. For example, Matthew 5:48 says, "Be perfect as your father is perfect." Is that God's will? Absolutely, it's laid down in scripture that's what He wants for all believers. But obviously that didn't happen today in a single Christian alive in the world. So it was His preceptive will, but His preceptive will doesn't always happen, doesn't always come to pass. And His preceptive will can be known. Back to Deuteronomy 29:29, "the revealed truth belongs to us." He's revealed this and He expects us to know it and He expects us to live by it. This is His will for us.

Now let me give you just a few biblical examples of God's preceptive will. And I'll run through these, I already mentioned Ezekiel 18, Matthew 7:21, Christ says, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter." Now was that a will that could be known? Absolutely, because He goes on to explain exactly what that will is. He says you know the will of God because it's the words I've spoken to you and if you do them then you live. And so it was revealed, it was the preceptive will of God it was revealed to us.

John 7:17, "If anyone's willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself." Here how does a person discern God's will in this verse? Through what? Through the teaching, through the teaching it's revealed what God wants what God expects what God wills. Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, which is good and acceptable and perfect." Notice that the transformation happens by the renewing of the mind and through the renewing of the mind which happens how what did we discover several weeks ago? How are our minds renewed? Through the scripture, through in taking the scripture, our minds our thinking is renewed, our thinking is renovated and through that we become able to discern what the true will of God is. That's not talking about finding out what job God wants you in. That's talking about learning the real will of God that's recorded here on the pages of scripture. We will talk about what job God wants you in a little later tonight.

A couple of more Ephesians 5:17, "Don't be foolish, but understand what the will the Lord is." You can understand it and then he goes on to explain. It's to be filled with the Spirit, it's to be dominated by the word of God according to the parallel passage in Colossians 3. First Thessalonians 4:3, "This is the will of God, you're sanctification; that you abstain from sexual immorality." This is God's preceptive will, it's revealed, it's known you and I can take it to the bank. We can say this is what God wants. First Thessalonians 5:18, "in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." I know this is what God wants.

But let's move on from the preceptive will which is essentially what God has revealed in scripture either specific commands that you and I are to follow or His ideals laid down in the word of God. Let's move to the next distinction in God's will which is His decretive will or His will of decree. This is the will of God through which He determines whatever comes to pass. He determines whatever comes to pass. This is often called by theologians and we will get to this in the future God's eternal decree. But let me just give you a brief summary of it, this is the best summary that I've seen of what's called the eternal decree, again I'm just going to blow through it. 'But, God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass, yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, nor is the liberty of contingents or contingency of second causes taken away but rather established.' Let me just short circuit all of that to you. Essentially God's decided whatever's going to happen but He didn't do it in a way that it does violence to your real ability to make decisions, nor does He take away second causes. That is the fact that He isn't immediately acting in everything. And again we'll develop that when we get to this issue. The point I want you to get is the first line. God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordained whatever comes to pass. That is the decretive will of God.

It's further developed in that same document. 'Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions, yet had He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or is that which would come to pass upon such conditions.' In other words God didn't look down the corridor of time and make His decisions based on what He saw but He chose freely because of what was in Him. And we will develop again all of this when we get there but I want you to get the big picture. So in other words everything that happens, God determines. Everything that happens in our world God determines. Either He wills to cause or He wills to permit it through the agency of men and angels. For example sin-God doesn't cause sin, but He wills to permit it. He didn't have to will to permit sin but He chose to do that. So in the end God's sovereign will is the determination to do what pleases Him.

Turn to Isaiah 46 verse 8. We've come to this passage before; it's so foundational to understanding the nature of God. God says, "Remember this," this is Isaiah 46:8, "Remember this, and be assured; recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me." And here's what distinguishes Me as the true God. "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose (my plan) will be established and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.'" He says listen here's what distinguishes Me as the true God as opposed to all the false gods, one of the things. And that is that I declare the end. That is I declare the goal, the target toward which everything is moving and I have a plan or purpose to get there and in the end My good pleasure what I want will be accomplished.

So when we talk about God's sovereign will we're really saying three things. God's sovereign will or His decretive will, will certainly be and completely be fulfilled. We'll look at Daniel in just a moment. His sovereign will is exhausted, remember we saw that in Ephesians 1:11, God determined what? All things. He works all things and as I told you that phrase is used consistently by Paul to describe everything in the universe. He works all things after the counsel of His own will. And God's sovereign will is secret, that is, He doesn't let us in except on small little parts of that great eternal plan. We don't know it, we don't know what God's sovereign will is until it happens. That's how you know it was God's sovereign will, is when it happens, unless God chose to reveal it beforehand.

Now let's look at some biblical examples just so you don't think I'm making this up. All right? Some biblical examples that present the concept of God's sovereign will. Genesis 50 verse 20 is a familiar, one you remember that Joseph says to his brothers there in that context after they discover that he's now the prime minister of Egypt, and they fall down concerned after their father's death that he's going to somehow wreak vengeance on them. He says no, "As for you, you meant evil against me," you actually acted you actually made a decision, you had intents and purposes, so this principle of God's sovereign will doesn't undermine the fact that each of us makes genuine decisions. "But God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive." Here was God sovereignly orchestrating a divine plan that included the free decisions of Joseph's brothers to affect His own purpose and plan. What an amazing God we serve.

Psalm 115 verse 3, "our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." He does whatever he pleases. Daniel 4:35, Nebuchadnezzar says, "God does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth." In other words there is no hiding place from the sovereign will of God, and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, why did You do that? Let's turn to Matthew 11 verse 25, just after the denunciation of the cities of Galilee for their refusal to believe in Him, in verse 25, "At that time" Matthew says, "Jesus said, "I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants." In other words, Lord You have decided, Father You have decided to whom to reveal the truth about Me. "Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight." This is what You wanted to do. Verse 27, "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." Christ is saying Father the only way a human being can ever get the reality of who I am is because You reveal it to him and You did an amazing thing, You decided to reveal it to those who were the unwise, the infants if You will and hid it from the wise and the intelligent and this is the way You wanted it. You did this because this was Your will and plan.

And yet I want you to notice that at the same time you see that reality what is the next verse say, verse 28, here's the preceptive will God, God decided to whom He would reveal the true character of Christ and yet verse 28 here you have the preceptive will of God, a command. "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." There's the balance that the scripture forever provides. God sovereignly determines everything that will come to pass but He places the responsibility for our choices freely on our shoulders. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." So at the same time that Christ says, Father You reveal it to whomever You choose, He turns and says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give your rest."

Acts 2:23 says, "This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God," Peter obviously in his sermon on the day of Pentecost says, "you nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death." God had a predetermined plan when it came to the death of Christ and the people who carried it out were simply fulfilling God's great eternal plan. A little different way it's expressed in Acts 4:28, "In this city there were gathered together against Your Holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel," watch this "to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose destined to occur." In other words, God had determined what would happen. You see that phrase 'to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined.' Literally it says to do the things which Your hand. In other words it's referring not merely to the death of Christ but to all of those things that surround it, all of those circumstances that surrounded His death. It was all predetermined by God. The things which Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur. Some say that if God's will is the ultimate cause of all things then that must mean God willed sin. And yet the text goes on to say that it happened through lawless men. For those lawless men who executed Christ were still responsible for their actions. Later when we look at providence, we'll look at how God's providence, His sovereignty intersects with human decisions and even with human evil acts. Because God uses as we saw on Genesis 50:20, He even uses the evil acts of men to accomplish His purpose without in any way being tainted by them or forcing them. Amazing realities.

Romans 9:18 and 19, going to the issue the divine election, "He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, "Why does He find fault? For who resists His will?" God chooses and exercises His sovereign will in divine election. At some point again we'll deal with that in detail, but I just want you to see this is another expression of the sovereign will of God. First Corinthians 4:19, "But I will come to you soon," Paul says, "if the Lord wills." Paul had already decided he wanted to go he already decided it was part of the best plan for his ministry and yet he acknowledges that that may not be part of God's decretive will. It may not be what God had planned for him and so he acknowledges that. Ephesians 1:11 we already looked at, "He works all things after the council of His will." Nothing is excluded from his sovereign purpose.

Now here's the bottom line of what God, what scripture teaches about the decretive will. Listen carefully, God's sovereign will is the cause, is the final cause of all things. Now, that has some very serious ramifications. And I want to look at them together with you. So we have, before we look at the ramifications, just to remind you we have these two basic distinctions in the will of God. You have the preceptive will that's the revealed will of God found on the pages of scripture. And you have the decretive will of God which is the sovereign determinations of God in eternity past about everything that would ever come to pass.

Now what are the ramifications for us of those two biblical teachings about the will of God? First and this is obvious, so I won't spend any time here obey the precepts of God's word. That is obviously and clearly God's will for you. You don't need to wonder if this is what God wants. He's expressed what He desires, He's expressed what He wants and your decision and mine is whether we are going to obey it, whether we're going to follow it. Secondly submit yourself to God's sovereign decretive will for your life. Turn to James chapter 4. This is exactly the message James has in chapter 4 of his epistle. God has a sovereign secret will for your life, He's determined everything that will happen in your life and you and I are to submit ourselves to that plan and purpose of God. And here's how it's expressed by James verse 13, James 4, "Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." These are reasonable plans here's someone laying out a plan for a day or a year and deciding what they ought to do we all do that. We all make plans and in fact we're encouraged by scripture to make plans. Christ even in talking about becoming His disciple He says you know what person who's going to build a tower doesn't first lay out plans and consider that he has enough money and material to build a tower. It's reasonable to make plans. So there's no problem so far. That isn't the issue.

Notice James goes on, "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow." You don't know what God has in mind; you don't know the secret decretive will of God for your life. You don't know what tomorrow will bring. "For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while and vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that." In other words if that's part of God's eternal purpose and plan for me, then it'll happen. Its okay for me to make decisions, it's okay for me to plan, but I acknowledge that God's eternal will trump's mine. I may decide to go to a city and spend a year there and tomorrow I have a pain in my side and I go to the doctor and discover that I have terminal cancer. That's James' point. You don't know what God has planned. You don't know His purpose, so when you make your plans submit yourself to the reality that God is sovereign that's what he's saying. Acknowledge that God is sovereign. "Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance." It's arrogant not to acknowledge God's sovereign purpose in all the details of my life. All such boasting is evil I'm going to do this I'm going to do that; James says only if God wills.

Therefore, and this verse is often quoted out of its context, "Therefore to one who knows the right thing to do," that is to submit to the providence of God, to submit to His sovereign will and purpose, "and does not do it, to him it is sin." Submit yourself to God's eternal sovereign plan for your life. Listen, some of you are going through difficult dark troubled waters. Circumstances that you didn't bring upon yourself, but trials that are hard for some of us to imagine, know what your response should be to that? You should submit yourself to the plan and providence of God. You should say, God, as Christ did in the garden, not my will, but Yours be done. Whatever plan you have mapped out for me, I submit myself to it.

Number three; trust God's sovereign purpose to bring good out of all of life's circumstances. This is the balance. We submit to God's sovereignty, we submit to his eternal plan in all the details of our lives. But we can trust Him. God isn't capricious. God isn't sort of a cosmic chess player just having a good time watching the pieces move around the board. God has the best of purposes and plans. Romans 8:28, is the familiar verse, teaches that great principle. God is causing and here again underlying this verse is the concept of God's sovereign will. God is causing all the things that He brings into your life to work together, to weave together for your good if you love God, and you're the called according to His purpose. What an amazing truth.

As you and I look at the circumstances of our lives, as we look at the events that occur, we can be certain that God is accomplishing them and that however it looks to us; God will bring good from it. Our good, not our happiness, He didn't say that, not our pleasure-but our good. Genesis 50:20, at some point we'll get to providence and I'll have to go to that whole story and unpack it for you because here's a, Genesis 50:20 is a great illustration of this principle. We look at the life of Joseph and primarily we concentrate on what? The end, when he's the prime minister. But he spent approximately 13 years from the time his brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery until he was the prime minister of Egypt. For 13 years of Joseph's life he was imprisoned or he was working for Potiphar, his name was mud in the house of Potiphar because of the accusations of his wife, and then he even had a setback in prison. 13 years is a long time to wait, but God had a plan. And he took three steps back, but one giant step forward. You can trust God to bring good out of all life circumstances.

And then finally and we need to develop this a little bit because this is where sort of the rubber meets the road for all of us. A ramification of God's sovereign will is revel in the freedom that this truth brings to making life important decisions. Here's where we all live isn't it? Okay so God has a sovereign will and purpose for my life, but I've got to make a decision next week about what job to take, what college to go to, whether or not to have another child. All of those decisions of life that we're bound up with constantly-how exactly do we go about making those? Well this truth about the character of God is a very freeing one as I think you'll see. Turn to Exodus 13, I wasn't going to turn here in the interest of time but I think I will because I want you to see a fascinating insight into God's working and directing in the lives of His people. Exodus 13, in verse 17 it says, "Now when Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near;" That was the short route, He didn't do that. "For God said, "The people might change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt." Hence God led the people around by the way of the wilderness to the Red Sea and the sons of Israel went up in martial array from the land of Egypt." Now what's going on here? What you have in these two verses is a fascinating glimpse into the mind of God. When it comes to His divine guidance of our lives or directing our lives according to His sovereign will. We know He does it but here's a glimpse into how it happens.

Notice when you see this you're sort of taken into the control tower as it were. You know you and I when we go to the airport and we sit there forever in the airplane looking out the window at the tarmac there doesn't seem to be another plane for miles around and yet we're sitting there for another 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes waiting to move. We don't understand. We just trust that somewhere locked away in some room with really sophisticated equipment is somebody in a control tower type environment who knows what's going on and who can direct the planes to the right spot and we're trusting that person to do it. And we understand that, but as Christians sometimes we don't like that and we think as Christians God owes us the favor of taking us out of the airplane and taking us into the control tower where we can see why He's doing all the things He's doing. God isn't going to do that. He doesn't usually do that. Rarely do you and I understand why God does what He does in our lives. We just have to trust Him, just like we trust well hopefully more than we trust the air traffic controller or the people in the control tower to direct us around the airport. But in these two verses God takes us into the control tower.

Now notice what happens here. God has a plan. We know God has a plan, if you go back to Genesis 15, God told Abraham that he was going to take his descendants into Egypt for 400 years and when 400 years was done He was going to bring them out with a great arm. God had a plan all the way back in 2100 BC and now we're at 1445 BC. So God had a plan at a long time before this and He's working that plan out. His plan includes the actions of evil people notice verse 17, "when Pharaoh had let the people go" you see God's plan was able to incorporate even a wicked godless man named Pharaoh. But God had already determined when He told Abraham that it was only going to be 400 years and it didn't matter who was pharaoh they were coming out. So God had a plan and His plan even included the wicked evil decisions of a man named Pharaoh. And notice that His plan is not arbitrary. This is what I love about this little glimpse of the mind of God. God's plan for these people wasn't arbitrary. He lets us know what He's thinking.

Moses says, "For God said" now who did God say this to? Well He obviously revealed it to Moses but the indication of the text is that God is talking to Himself. God said to Himself the people might change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. God was thinking His plan through. Now, remember, God knows everything immediately. God doesn't have to think to make a decision like you and I do, so this language is to help us understand something about God and His character. God's plan for these people was not arbitrary. He had a purposeful intentional plan. God has specific reasons for each move that He makes. And His plan has specific purposes. Notice His plan is based on personal knowledge of these people and their circumstances. Verse 17, "for God said, "the people might change their minds." He knew they'd been slaves for 400 years, their descendants had been slaves before them and now they're coming out of the land of Egypt and He says, I know the contingencies here and I know how these people are at this stage in their lives and I know that if I lead them the shortest route, then they might change their minds. The people might, God, this is amazing, listen to this; God's plan for your life is based on His personal knowledge of you and your circumstances. So Moses says so "God didn't lead the people by the way of the land of the Philistines, even though it was near because the people might change their minds." Listen this is exactly what God says in First Corinthians 10:13, God will not direct you into a situation that you can't handle. He's not going to put you in a situation where you can't deal with the pressures of that and you're going to be tempted to sin, or you're going to have to sin. That's what's going on in the mind of God here; He's making that conclusion about where these people are at this particular time. So when you think about God's purpose and plan when you get this little insight into how God's mind works as He orders our lives He's taken into consideration who we are, our circumstances, our experiences, where we find ourselves we know that He will work His purpose and will. That's the encouragement, but here's the question. So how does God's eternal plan or His sovereign will intersect with what we call the will of God for us? How do we know for sure what God wants us to do?

Let me show you a little diagram that I borrowed from a book that I've recommend to you, by Gary Friesen called Decision Making in the Will of God, now this is for those of you who've been out of school a while, this is a Venn diagram, all right? Now follow along with how I've marked it here, this circle is God's sovereign will, this circle on the right side is God's moral will that is His will as revealed in scripture that is His preceptive will; that which is revealed in scripture. Now let me show you the various parts of this diagram. Where you see the number one those are those actions that fulfill both the sovereign and the moral will of God. For example, God commands something in His word and someone did it. That's that overlapping space it was God's moral will, His perceptive will, and somebody obeyed it and so after it happens we know what? It was His sovereign will as well. So that's that area in the middle right here.

The second section where you see the number two depicts those actions that are outside of God's moral will that is His revealed will in scripture yet within His sovereign will. For example the sin of those who crucified Christ, was that part of God's preceptive will? Did He say thou shalt kill, murder and innocent man? No that's absolutely contrary to His moral will or His preceptive will, but it was obviously what in His sovereign will. He determined to allow their sin and He determined to cause the death of His Son.

Category three where you see the three indicates those things that are commanded by God in scripture that have not or will not come to pass. For example, you and I are commanded to love God with our whole every moment of our lives. That's God's preceptive will. But has that happened? No, so it obviously isn't in God's sovereign will because it hasn't happened it hasn't occurred. And then finally the fourth category are those potential sinful actions that don't come to pass which I don't really need to spend any time on. And then number five that little circle in the middle are those actions that are consistent with the moral will of God but are not directly commanded or prohibited by it. This is where decisions like where to work fall in. They are consistent with God's revealed will although not directly commanded by it or prohibited by it. But once they're decided and done, they fall within God's sovereign will.

Now with that background, let's consider how God guides or directs the believer in his life. There are four ways God guides believers. We've seen these tonight as we've looked at it. We've seen a couple of them we're going to see a couple more. First of all there's sovereign guidance. God's secretly guides believers in all things by sovereignly controlling all the events that happen to them according to His sovereign will. Listen there's nothing going to happen to you even in the exercise of your own free will that isn't in the sovereign plan of God. So God directs you by His providence, He directs you by the circumstances He works in your lives. He also guides by special guidance this one is no longer an option for us, God in the past supernaturally guided believers in unique cases by divine voice, by angel, by dream, or miracle according to special revelation that's no longer an option for us. So God does direct us sovereignly in His providence He works the circumstances of our lives He no longer does this.

Thirdly there's moral guidance. God directly guides believers in moral conduct by His revealed commands and principles in the word of God. So God has this sovereign plan He's working and providentially He guides and directs our lives in ways we don't even know and imagine. And morally God directs all of our lives in terms of the decisions we make by His word. And then finally there's wisdom guidance. God guides believers in non-moral decisions that is, those things that aren't directly revealed in the word of God, by biblical wisdom according to that which is best for that particular believer.

So when you have a decision to make it's going to fall into one of two categories, just to simplify it. First of all there are moral decisions those decisions that are directly addressed in God's word. For example, I'll get to an example in a moment. Or secondly there are those non-moral decisions that you need to make that those things that are not directly addressed in God's word, like where are you going to work? Where are you going to live? Those things aren't directly addressed in the word of God. So how do you make those decisions? Well, when it comes to moral decisions, those issues that are addressed directly in God word, just follow the moral will of God that's laid out, the preceptive will of God that's laid out in the scripture. For example, you don't need to pray about whether or not to marry an unbeliever, that's a no brainer, that's revealed in the word of God. There are a lot of decisions that you and I sweat over that we don't need to sweat over because they are revealed in the word of God exactly what God wants.

But in fairness there are a lot of decisions that are in the second category. That is, the bible doesn't directly address them so what do we do then? Well first of all we consider any aspects of that decision that are addressed in the word of God. For example, God's word may not tell you where to work but it does address a get rich attitude. If you're struggling with that kind of attitude and that's why you want that particular job then God's word does speak to that situation and that decision. And a lot of times we sell the word of God short here because it often speaks in principle to some of these strictly non moral decisions that we have to make. Consider what the Bible says about it and then use godly wisdom. Make the wisest choice that you can make.

So you have a decision to make about something that isn't directly addressed in the word of God. What should you do? You have this, number two, you have a decision to make what do you do? Here is what I would suggest is a biblical, is consistent with what the scriptures teach about this issue. First of all pray. Pray for God's wisdom, and there are a number of passages that address this Second Chronicles 1:9-12, Colossians 1:9 and 10, James 1:5 pray that God would give you wisdom. Pray for God's will to be done in humble submission on the will of God. Remember Christ taught us to pray in Matthew 6:10, in the disciples' prayer, Lord, Your will be done. Can I paraphrase it? Both Your preceptive will, that is, may I and others obey Your commands and may Your sovereign will and purpose be done and fulfilled in my life. Pray in humble acceptance of God's sovereign will. I quoted earlier Matthew 26:42 where Christ in the garden says, Lord if I can be spared this cup, if it can pass from Me, that's what I want, but nevertheless not My will but Yours be done. So as you pray don't insist that God do it your way; humbly submit to His divine sovereign purpose.

Secondly search the scripture to see if God's word speaks to your situation in any way. Thirdly use the tools through which God provides wisdom, use the channels that He said give wisdom to man. His word says that we can pray for wisdom. His word says the scripture gives wisdom. His word says that we're responsible to do some research. You know if you're trying to decide, I told the college and career recently, if you're trying to decide what career path you're going to follow, then do some research. God isn't going to bless your laziness, if you get into your career and your career field goes down the tubes because you didn't bother seeing that the particular career you are on is a dying trade. Do some research, seek counsel from others. The bible says we can gain wisdom through counsel, the proverbs say. So there are a number of tools that God has given us to acquire wisdom use those tools.

Number four, analyze your legitimate options. In other words, those options that are consistent with the scripture, carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each. Sometimes if it's a big enough decision, I'll give you an example, when Sheila and I were trying to decide about whether or not to come to Countryside. I sat down and I wrote out I went through this exact process, and I sat down and I wrote out the advantages and disadvantages of all the options that were in front of me. I was analyzing those legitimate biblical options and I was saying okay what are the advantages what are the disadvantages and taking the time and effort to weigh them to analyze them.

Number five and this is the hardest part for most people - pull the trigger, make a decision believing that God will direct you. If you've done everything up to here, if you've done everything, your homework, when you come to this then you can just make a decision. Trusting God, you've already prayed God grant me wisdom, God I want Your sovereign will to be done so direct me providentially. If this isn't what you want then close this door, but give me wisdom through the council of others as I seek Your word, as I analyze the options. And now God I trust that You have done that and this is the decision that I've made. If it's the wrong decision then I still pray that you would shut it down, providentially redirect me. But this is the decision.

And then finally, thank God for His providential direction. Thank God for His providential direction. Lord thank You for helping me sort through this process for making this decision and thank You that wherever this ends because I have followed what Your word teaches it will be the best thing for me and it will be what You will use to bring good in my life. I don't know about you but when I came to this understanding of what the scripture teaches about how to pursue the will of God, it was incredibly freeing. Most people make decisions by this sort of emotional I think God is doing this, I've got peace about this, I've got peace about that, I know how some people use that expression, they mean I've analyzed all the options and I'm pretty uncomfortable with some of the issues. But other people use it and they literally mean I'm just trying to feel my way along.

I have to give you this one illustration as I close, when I was in college there was a guy on the floor above me who was forever trying to determine what God wanted him to do. He didn't believe this, he didn't practice this, instead, he followed a very mystical approach to discerning God's will. I'm not making this up, if he had a decision to make, he would take a penny from his room and he would go to the gumball machine at the end of the hall. This is in a Christian college mind you, and he would take the penny and put it in the gumball machine and say, God, if you want me to date this girl let me get a yellow gumball. And he'd pull the lever and if a yellow gumball dropped she was in, and if it wasn't then she was out. We talked to him, tried to urge him from scripture, you can't make decisions like that. You can't hang out fleeces, which is what a lot of Christians do, that's all he was doing. Don't lay out a fleece. But he wouldn't hear us. He did finally stop however, and here's how he stopped. He went to the gumball machine at the end of the hall, I hate to admit this and he put up penny in and he said Lord if this really isn't how you want me to discerning Your will, then let me get a yellow gumball. And in God's great providence a yellow gumball dropped out of the machine and he never did it again. Folks God has an eternal plan and purpose for your life. You will never know that eternal plan until after it happens what God has called you and me to do, is to make wise biblical decision and He will honor that. Let's pray together.

Father thank You for the evening we've enjoyed thank You for the truth of Your word, thank You for the wonderful reality that You are in charge that nothing happens outside of Your sovereign will and purpose. But Lord You've held us responsible to obey Your word and to make wise decisions. Lord help us to do that, help us to honor You in how we conduct our lives. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.