God's Eternal Decree - Part 2

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We return tonight to the discussion about God's eternal decree. You know, when we talk about God's eternal decree, we're talking about an eternal plan; we're talking about this plan in reference to everything in the universe, but obviously primarily in terms of the spiritual side of the plan of God. But the same truth can be worked out in every part of God's creation – for example, when we talk about science, we talk about the laws of science. The laws of science are really nothing but an observation of the eternal plan and purpose of God worked out in time. Whether you look at the macro level of the heavens – you can see in the revolving of the spheres of heaven and in the orbits of all of the stars and all of the galaxies, you can see that there has obviously been a plan in place that has caused those globes to circle in their orbit – but my mind goes from the largest of the universe to the smallest, and that is to the cellular level. We're soon going to get to our study of creation, and I'll talk a little more about the cell at that point, and perhaps even as early as this next Sunday night, we'll begin to get into that some with, I think, a video that I want to show you that dismantles the Darwinian theory of evolution. But when you look at the cell, the cell is a very complex thing – it is filled with tiny machines, with manufacturing lines, if you will, with repair departments down at the very smallest level of the cell. But that cell, each cell in your body, contains more information than can be imagined; it contains all of the road map for how to duplicate that cell, for all that needs to be done to work within that cell, in the DNA – that speaks of a plan. There was – whether you look at the heavens or whether you look at the individual cells in your body – there is obviously a plan in place that is being worked out as time goes along. The more complex the system, the more essential plans are, and so, it follows logically that God must have a plan. God must have started with a plan that included specific ends for all of creation, and specific means to accomplish those ends. This is exactly – not only is it logically true, it's exactly what the scriptures teach; theologians call this plan God's eternal decree.

Let me briefly review with you what we discussed last week – we looked at a number of definitions, the most famous being the first here; the Westminster Shorter Catechism question number 7. What is the eternal decree? "The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass." Klooster writes, it's "a theological term for the comprehensive plan for the world and its history, which God sovereignly established in eternity." Grudem: "The eternal plans of God, whereby, before the creation of the world, He determined to bring about everything that happens." You get, in these definitions, that there is a plan. The Westminster Confession says "God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass."

Now, when we talk about the will of God, it's important to note that we mean a couple of different things – God's moral will; that is, His will of precept or command; these are the commands and laws God lays down for all of us, which demand obedience, but which we often disobey. God's moral will, or His will of precept or command, is often violated in the world; in fact, it's more often violated than not. But then there is God's sovereign will, what theologians call the will of decree – this is the eternal, unchangeable and immutable plan of God, which is always carried out, always being the operative word, in human history. Never does God's will of decree fail to occur; He has sovereignly ordained whatsoever comes to pass. Why does He do this? "To His own glory" – and we looked at that in some detail. In terms of the scripture for this, we cited a number of them; some overarching scripture. Psalm 103 says "The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all." Psalm 115: "He does whatever He pleases." We looked at Isaiah 44, where God stakes His own divinity on the issue of His planning and purposing beforehand. In the crucifixion of Christ, we saw in Acts 2:23 that God had a plan, a predetermined plan, carried out in time by sinners; and the familiar Romans 8:28 makes the same point. But I want us to turn, just to get up to speed, back to Ephesians 1, for those of you who weren't here – and let me remind you of this foundational passage, and this will bring us, I believe, up to where we left off last time.

Ephesians 1 – this chapter lays out God's eternal purpose, God's eternal plan. He talks about, in verse 3, the wonderful "spiritual blessings" that have been made available to us who are in Christ. Verse 4 – he begins to talk about how that these spiritual blessings were determined to be ours before we ever were born, and in fact before the world was ever made. Verse 4 – "He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world," speaking of eternal election; that is, in eternity past, God chose those who would be His own, "that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us to adoption." So, He predetermined that we would be adopted as His sons – why; through what mechanism? Notice the end of verse 5 – "according to the kind intention of His will" – because God decided. Verse 6 – why did He decide? "To the praise of the glory of His grace" – this was God's ultimate motive in predetermining that we would be adopted as sons; it was so that His glorious grace would be praised and lifted up. Verse 7 – "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight" – now, here's where we get to the heart of the passage – "in all wisdom and insight, God made known to us the mystery of His will." As you know, the word mystery in scripture is referring to that which was previously not revealed, was a mystery to us, but now has been revealed, and so we have come to know the mystery of God's will. You know, so many people are looking for God's will – we'll talk a little bit about that later tonight – well, here's God's will; it's laid out in this chapter. And His will was "according to His kind intention, which He purposed in Christ," and here's what He had in mind, verse 10: "with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times." In other words, at the right time, when He determines to "sum up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on the earth," in other words, to bring everything in the universe in subjection to Jesus Christ, to make Him, as he says in Colossians, "come to have first place in everything" – that's God's purpose, that's what God's doing, that's what He's about in the world. We saw that in Philippians 2, didn't we – where He had "humbled Himself," and therefore God highly exalts Him, gives Him a name above every name, so, at the name of Jesus – what? "Every knee would bow," and "every tongue confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God, His Father." This is what God is doing – this is the eternal plan of God, to draw out a people for His Son, that those who have been saved and redeemed would be to the praise of His glory, and that Christ would come in all the universe to have first place in everything.

Our salvation, folks – I hate to tell you this – isn't primarily about us. Oh, it is about us; God is marvelous, He showed us grace, He's adopted us into His family – but why has He done that? He's done that so that His Son might come to have first place in the entire universe, that everything would come under Him and be subjected to Him. If that's God's will for all the universe and for all creation, then don't you think that ought to be what we're pursuing now, as believers? Has Christ come to have first place in everything in your life? That's where God's moving; that's where the universe is moving; "all things in heaven and on the earth." "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance," verse 11, "having been predestined" – now, here's the heart of what we've been looking at; watch how God is described at the end of verse 11: "according to His purpose, who works all things after the counsel of His will." God is described as the one who works everything – it's all inclusive, in both English and Greek – He works all things after the counsel of His will. God has this great eternal plan, and to accomplish this eternal plan to bring everything in subjection under His Son, to bring Jesus Christ to have first place in the universe, to make every knee bow and every tongue confess, whether they end up in heaven or hell, that Christ would be glorified, and that He, therefore (the Father) would be glorified and His grace would be glorified. He has set out with a plan, and that plan is what He is working, and He determined that plan in eternity past – that is the eternal decree.

Now, that brings us to discuss the characteristics – and this is where we left off last time – of God's eternal decree. There are some specific ways we should describe this eternal decree, so we really round out our understanding of it – first of all, think of it as one; that is, as a unit. It's better to think of God's decree, singular; or plan, singular; rather than His decrees or plans; God has one great eternal plan, one great eternal decree that He is seeking to accomplish. We see it here in Ephesians 1 – this is what God's about; everything else is just details. Folks, you pick up the newspaper; the newspaper tomorrow will be filled with details – are they part of God's eternal plan? Yes – not a single thing that happens in our world is outside of His plan, as we'll see in a moment – but it's just the details. We know what the central driving purpose of the plan is; it's recorded for us here, right here. We know, as Paul says, the mystery of God's will. It's a unit – Berkhof writes, "There is therefore no series of decrees in God, but simply one comprehensive plan, embracing all that comes to pass."

Secondly – and this is the key word – it is comprehensive. It is comprehensive; it embraces both God's actions – let me start over and say that differently; emphasize it differently – it embraces both God's actions, and the actions of every created thing in the universe, including the actions of free creatures; that is, those of us who make decisions; it is comprehensive. But let me take this apart a little bit – let's take a moment and leave our list and look at what we mean by comprehensive; well, obviously, it includes all events. We're not going to look at each of these references – you can jot them down, and I'll try to remember this week to print this out so that we can have them in the back next week if you want to pick them up – but it includes everything. We saw that in Ephesians 1, didn't we? God is the one who works – what? "All things after the counsel of His will." There's absolutely nothing outside the eternal plan and purpose of God – remember, the catechism says, "whatever comes to pass." There's absolutely no event in life that's outside of God's eternal plan, no event in the universe, or nor has there ever been an event in the universe, nor – and here's a great comfort – will there ever be an event in the universe outside of the eternal decree of God; there is not a stray molecule in God's universe.

It also relates – and this, of course, I'm going to flesh out the "all events" here – but it relates to all the details of our lives. Turn to Job 14. Job says something very interesting; it's said in Psalm 139, but here it's said a little differently. Job 14; he begins in verse 1 talking about man. "Man, who is born of a woman, is short lived and full of turmoil." He talks about the frailty of human life, and then he says this in verse 5 – "Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You, and his limits You have set so that he cannot pass." Psalm 139 says "all the days that were ordained for us were written when, as yet, there was not one of them" – here, Job says it a little differently, but he says the same thing. You want to talk about days, you want to talk about months, of how long you will live and how long I will live? It is written in the eternal plan of God. It's absolutely comprehensive in all the details of our lives; there isn't a single thing that happens to you or that happens to me that is outside of this plan. That's what I want you to see – whatsoever comes to pass is a part of this eternal plan of God.

It includes the free righteous acts of men – in other words, we're not denying here that we all make choices, we all make decisions; we'll talk about how that relates in a moment, but you make decisions, I make decisions. Even the decisions we make for righteous behavior, for righteous acts, fall within the purview of God. Ephesians 2:10 – he says, "For we are God's workmanship" – literally, God's masterpiece, is the idea of the word – "created in Christ Jesus for good works," – now, watch this – "which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." We saw the same thing in Philippians 2, where we're to "work out our own salvation" – and yet, how does that happen? It's as "God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure." So, even our decisions to do the right thing are part of the eternal plan of God – our free decisions.

The free wicked acts of man are also in this – and we saw this in Acts 2 and the crucifixion of Christ. Turn to Acts 4 – let me show this to you in a little different light. Acts 4:25 – you remember that when the apostles were released by the religious authorities, verse 23, "they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them, and when they heard this, they lifted up their voices" to heaven, and they start to pray; notice their prayer.

O Lord, it is You who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, and You, by Your Holy Spirit, through the mouth of David, your servant, said this: "Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples devise futile things? The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ."

Of course, this is from Psalm 2, and they're saying this was a prophecy of what happened here in this city. Verse 27 – "For truly 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." This psalm, and what follows it, all have to do with the free wicked decisions and acts of men. He lists all these people that were involved in this plot – Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the peoples of Israel – they all had a hand in the crucifixion of Christ. They were, back in verse 25, raging against the Lord, devising things against the Lord. Verse 26 – they took their stand, they gathered together against the Lord and against His Messiah. In other words, they're making free decisions to go against Christ, because of their antipathy, because of their antagonism to Christ. God didn't make them come to those conclusions – they came to those conclusions on their own – and yet, notice the next verse, verse 28. They did "whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur." What could be stronger than that? They made sinful decisions, sinful choices, expressed those sinful decisions and sinful acts – unthinkable acts – and yet God and His eternal decree lay behind the sinful decisions of men.

It includes accidental or insignificant events. Proverbs 16:33 talks about "the lot being cast in the lap, but its every outcome is from the Lord;" a simple mechanism of, on a human level, chance – as it turns out to be, every decision that came from it was in the Lord's plan and purpose. But I want you to turn to Matthew because this is my favorite – Matthew 10. Of course, there are so many passages we could go to; I love the – remember the flight of the arrow that's directed by God against the king of Israel? But Matthew 10:26 – Jesus says:

Don't fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light, and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; rather fear Him, who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.

Now, notice verse 29 – "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?" This is the smallest copper coin that they would have had; it would be like our penny, basically worthless, something you might even walk past if you saw it on the ground. "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent" – in other words, on a human level, their lives are esteemed worthless; what happens to them doesn't matter. The smallest little coin will buy two of them; they're disposable – and yet, verse 29: "not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father." What's He saying here? He's saying that the smallest bird, its flight and its fall, are controlled by the sovereign hand of our Father – and He goes on to say, if God takes care of these things, isn't he going to care for you? But the point is, even accidental and insignificant things, like the falling of an insignificant bird to the ground somewhere in God's earth, are superintended by the eternal decree.

It also speaks – it's comprehensive in the sense that God determines the means as well as the end, or the ends. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2, and notice verse 13. "But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation." There is eternal election – here is the great joy that God, in eternity past; if you're in Christ tonight, God, in eternity past, before the world ever existed, before you were ever a gleam in your parents' eye, God chose you for Himself for salvation. But God, not only in His eternal plan, determines the end; that is, that you would be saved, but He also determined the means through which this would occur. Notice the rest of the verse – God chose you from the beginning "for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit;" that is, here, it's not talking about progressive sanctification, that process by which we become holy, but it's talking about positional sanctification; that is, what happens at the moment of salvation when we are set apart to God by the Spirit of God. So, it happens, this salvation that we were chosen for – God said, here's how it's going to happen; here are the means I'm going to use. First of all, it's going to be the Spirit's work in setting you apart unto Me, and secondly, here's the other means I'm going to use, notice the rest of the verse: and through "faith in the truth." In other words, when God determined to save you, He didn't say, I'm going to zap you, and you're going to come along kicking and screaming – no, He said, I'm going to save that person; I've chosen them for Myself, and here's the means I'm going to use. The Spirit, at a moment in time, will set them apart unto Me for Myself, and they will believe in the truth; they'll hear the truth, and they will respond to the truth. Isn't that what we read in Acts 16, where it says that God opened Lydia's heart to receive the truth? That was the means God used. We can get into lots of arguments but let me put it to you very simply: If no one had proclaimed the truth to Lydia, and she hadn't believed the truth, she wouldn't have been saved. That was the means God chose – but because God chose her, it was guaranteed in time that someone would proclaim the truth to Lydia, and that God would open her heart and that she would believe – because that's the means He always chooses in salvation. It's very important that you understand this – God uses means, and in His eternal great decree, He not only decreed what the end would be, but He decreed the means that He would use to get you there.

It comprehends – sort of, to sum it all up – this great eternal decree comprehends all things in heaven and on earth; in other words, there is absolutely nothing exempt from this plan. Daniel 4:34-35 – you remember these wonderful words of Nebuchadnezzar: "But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is everlasting" – in other words, He's always in charge – "and His kingdom endures from generation to generation." So, here he's making a statement about the length of God's kingdom; He's always been in charge, He'll always be in charge – God's not like most kings who pass from the scene and who are succeeded by someone else. In verse 35, he talks about the extent of His reign; he's talked about the length of it in verse 34; now, let's talk about how comprehensive it is. Verse 35: "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth." What's excluded from that? He does, according to His will, among the inhabitants of Earth and among heaven – absolutely comprehensive.

Well, there's so much more that we could say about the comprehensiveness of God's eternal decree, but let's return to our characteristics – not only is it one or unitary, not only is it comprehensive, but it's also free. In other words, it is moved solely by God's own pleasure. In Isaiah 40 – let's turn there; I want you to see this. Isaiah 40; and there are other references to this as well, but we'll just look at this one. Isaiah 40:13 – Isaiah is waxing eloquent about the greatness of God, and he says this in verse 13. "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him?" Now, notice verse 14 – "With whom did He consult?" The word consult is an interesting Hebrew word; it's a word that means to consult for the purpose of creating a plan. Who did God check out His plan with? Who did He seek consultation fees from? You know, we're really big in our day and culture in hiring consultants for everything – Isaiah is essentially saying, look, God didn't have any consultants – when God determined everything that would ever happen, He consulted nobody. "Who gave Him understanding? Who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding?" He's saying here, listen, nobody – it's a rhetorical question – absolutely nobody has had input into the decision of God; it is a free decision moved solely by His own pleasure. The reason and motive for God's plan lies completely within His divine nature, and it is not occasioned by or conditioned on anything outside of God. I mean, after all, God was alone when He fixed His plan – in eternity past, there was only God, and so nothing influenced God except God.

His plan is also eternal – He decided in eternity past. You can see this in Ephesians 1:4, where "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world," in 2 Timothy 1:9, where He determined to give us grace in eternity past. God's great plan is eternal, not that it's eternal in the same sense that He is – by eternal here, we mean it's eternal in that it goes back before anything was made.

His plan is also wise – we won't turn there in the interest of time; you can look at Ephesians 3:10-11 and Proverbs 3:19 – God is wise. Basically, everything that is true of God is true of His plan – for example, it's immutable because God's nature is immutable; in other words, it never changes. When God made His plan, because He himself is immutable, He doesn't change, then His plan was immutable as well. But the key issue; the key characteristic, in addition to comprehensive, is that God's plan is efficacious, is what theologians say – it's efficacious. In other words – listen carefully – the eternal decree infallibly determines the certainty of the events that He decreed; they will happen. Isaiah 46 – God makes this point. Isaiah 46:10 – we looked at this verse last time but look at it in a little different context. Verse 10 says, "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.'" Whatever God plans, He'll do.

You know, sometimes we make plans – and, in fact, there are people who are known for making plans but never carrying them out, deciding, you know, I'd love to do this – wouldn't you love to do this someday? And we talk to our spouses, and we throw around plans of, we'd love to do this and love to do that – and we just never get around to it; we never execute that plan. Not true of God – God's eternal plan is efficacious; it will be done. Now, theologians usually subdivide God's efficacious decree into two classes; first of all, directive – stay with me now – directive; that is, God determined to affect these things either through necessary causes or His own actions. When God said it's going to happen, He said, look – some things I'm just going to do; I'm going to do them, and it's going to happen because I do it, because I act. He is the author; He directly brings these things about. For example, Isaiah 45:18 says God creates. God creates – He created through Christ, He didn't use any means – He spoke everything into existence; God just decided He was going to act – these are called directive actions. For example, God establishes human government. Daniel 2 – He says, listen, I establish it, I set it up, "I determine who's going to rule." He raises Christ from the dead – you see, these are things that God acts and does Himself.

But there are also aspects of things that God does that are called permissive; that is, God has determined to allow created free agents to affect these things. For example, the crucifixion of Christ – did God crucify Christ; was that directive? No, it was permissive – He decreed to permit sinful man to do what He wanted done. God's decree guaranteed that man would sin, but He did not cause this by operating immediately upon His will. And both of these things will happen; what God directs, and what He permits; these will both happen – but God is the author of the first, man is the author of the second. God decreed to permit man to affect this second set of things, and primarily there, we're talking about certainly sinful acts.

Now, let me give you an obvious example of what I mean by this, directive and permissive – the crucifixion of Christ. Luke 22:22 says, "For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed." Acts 2:23, we looked at – "This Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death." And then we just read Acts 4 a few minutes ago – what you see in each of these verses is that the crucifixion was the fulfillment of the eternal decree of God, but notice that in each of those verses, you have the sin of those who were involved in the crucifixion. God didn't directly cause them to sin – they made that choice; He permitted them to express that sin. So, when you look at the relationship of God's eternal decree and man's sin, here's what you learn. Man's sin in the eternal decree – first of all, God does not act upon and in our wills to cause the sin; God doesn't make anybody sin. God can't be tempted with evil; neither does He tempt any man. Don't ever think, because of the eternal decree – well, that's just part of God's plan; I mean, He made me do that. No – God says He will not take any responsibility for our sinful choices. Man's sinful acts do not frustrate the eternal plan of God, but neither is God the author of them. Enns, in his Little Theology book, says this: "All acts, including sinful acts, conform to the eternal plan of God, but He is not directly the author of all acts, and in fact, God takes no responsibility for sinful acts at all."

Secondly, man's sin is not simply passively permitted, out of God's control and separate from His plan. In other words, God doesn't just say, I don't like it, I wish it weren't so, but I guess I'll just have to let it go – no, God is very actively involved in using sin. And this brings us to the third point; God's decree renders every sinful act absolutely certain – but God simply determined not to hinder the sinful choices that we make, and then to do something amazing to direct them, and to control the results to accomplish His own purposes. God, in an amazing work of His wisdom and His providence, takes our sinful choices, weaves them into His eternal plan to accomplish ends that we could never imagine nor ever plan. The most obvious example of this is Genesis 50 – you remember Joseph? "You meant it" for what? Evil. They made sinful choices – they wanted to hurt their brother, they were sick and tired of his boot-licking ways to his father, they were tired of how he was getting all the attention, they were sick of his dreams and of his special treatment – and so they wanted to get rid of him. Did God act upon their wills to cause them to do that? Absolutely not – but was this sort of out of God's control? No – their sinful decision to sell their brother was absolutely certain from eternity past, and yet they were the cause of it; they made the decision to do it because God determined not to hinder their sinful choices and to direct and control the results to ends they never could have imagined – that's what Joseph says in Genesis 50:20. He says, "you meant it for evil," but what? "God meant it for good" to bring about this good result – this is the amazing thing about God; absolutely amazing.

Now, you're sitting there – you may have some objections to what I'm talking about. There are a couple of groups that deny the eternal decree – Pelagians, who believe that man has every capacity to choose good, and liberal theologians both deny the eternal decree. Those are the only two groups that I know of that deny it; not a group you want to be a part of. Semi-Pelagians, and Arminian theology, restrict God's decree to simple foreknowledge – in other words, God only decrees what He knows is going to happen; He doesn't actually determine it. But, as we saw, God's decisions are free; there was nobody there when God made the choice, and in fact – and we'll get to this when we get to election – but in some cases in scripture, God knows what's going to happen, and He still chooses something else; and we'll look at that later.

What are the concerns, though, with the objections I brought up? There are several – first of all, wait a minute; this doesn't allow for man's free will. No, that's not what it's teaching at all – we are responsible for our actions. Our actions are real, we make real choices, real decisions, we really act. Our actions have real results and they do change the course of events – for example, if I abused my body through the use of alcohol and drugs, I would probably die sooner than if I didn't – and yet we just saw that God determines my days and my months. Well, back to – remember, God chooses to use means – He determines the means, so God not only determined how long I would live, but He decreed to use secondary causes; that is, my own decision to abuse my body with alcohol and drugs. Does that make sense? God decreed not to prohibit my sinful choices, and then to direct those according to His own purpose, if this is how I act. So, it doesn't violate man's free will at all – we still make, absolutely we make choices; God's amazing providence directs our choices to ends that we can never imagine.

Others say, wait a minute, nope, there's a problem here – it is inconsistent with human responsibility. You say, God decreed everything, then all of a sudden, you're exempting us from responsibility to do anything. Now, there are a couple of examples – there are a number in the scripture – but let me give you a couple of examples to show this isn't true. We won't turn there, but you remember in Acts 27, God, through Paul, says, look, I'm going to save the ship and I'm going to save everybody in the boat – it's absolutely certain that everybody in the boat is going to be saved; you remember the story? But Paul says it's equally certain that the means to secure that end was that everybody had to what? Stay on board – if they got off the boat, what happens? They die. God had decreed that everybody on that boat would survive, but he decided to use the means of the responsibility they had to stay on the boat, as was commanded by Paul; it doesn't at all undo human responsibility. Let me take another example, one that's closer to home. Critics say, look, if you teach this stuff, you are going to kill evangelism – was that true? If you go to Romans 9, Romans 9 lays out sovereign election – I mean, you can't do much with it, all right? It's there; we'll get to it when we get to salvation. So, what does he say in Romans 10? Turn to Romans 10. God has chosen – "those whom I have loved, I have loved; those whom I have hated, I have hated." So, how does that affect human responsibility? Romans 10:13 – "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." There, it's put on the human individual; call upon the name of the Lord; it's your responsibility. Or, in other terms, in other places in the scripture, "repent and believe" – that's what He calls you to do. It doesn't undo human responsibility; God didn't say to look on your chest, you know, and see if you have a knee there – He says, "repent and believe." That's human responsibility – but notice it goes even deeper. Keep reading – verse 14; now, remember, we're talking about, in chapter 9, we just read about election, or we would have read if we had time to go there, about sovereign election. "How, then," verse 14, "will they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?" You see what's going on here? God sovereignly determines those whom He will save, and He's also sovereignly determined the means through which He will do it. They will not be saved unless they hear the message, and they will not hear the message unless you and I go. It doesn't destroy human responsibility at all.

You say, well, what about prayer – I mean, does this eternal decree just obliterate my prayer life? I mean, it seems inconsistent with my responsibility to pray. Not at all – again, prayer is a means God uses to accomplish His eternal plan. You'll remember, several weeks ago we looked at 2 Kings 20:5, the story of Hezekiah – God said, Hezekiah, you're going to die, get your house in order, you're going to die. What does Hezekiah do? He prays – and what does God do? He responds and gives him 15 more years – that was part of God's sovereign plan. God knew that was going to happen, and what means did God choose to use to accomplish that in Hezekiah's life? His prayer. This is the amazing thing about prayer, folks – when we pray, we have the opportunity to participate in the eternal plan of God. God may have very well chosen to use the means of our prayer as the means He would use to accomplish part of His eternal plan – now, that's exciting; that'll drive you to your prayer closet.

The other objection is, wait a minute – all this makes God the author of sin. Well, first of all, that's impossible; we know that from the scripture, James 1:13, "God cannot be tempted with evil." 1 John 1:5 – "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" – and there are so many verses that drive home the reality that God absolutely cannot be the author of sin. But it's not true that the eternal decree and understanding of it makes God the author of sin. You see, properly understood, the decree makes God the creator of free moral beings who are themselves the authors of sin – God created free moral beings who could choose to sin; God didn't create sin. The decree does not determine to produce sin, but to permit it, and then to direct it to His own ends and purposes – so, the objections don't stand.

That brings us very quickly to the application – what should this do to us? Well, first of all, it should cause us to stand in awe of God. I love that, at the end of Romans 11, when Paul has laid out God's great eternal purpose of salvation, and he says, "Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom of God. Its ways are past finding out; they're unfathomable." You can never get to the bottom of the ways of God, and he ends up with this doxology. Listen, folks – what we've studied tonight should absolutely cause you to drop to your knees in awe of God.

Secondly, it should demolish your pride. Turn to James 4 – God wants it to do this; James 4:13 – "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.'" Listen – what are you saying?

You don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. 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." But as it is, you boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows the right thing to do and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.

In other words, it's sin for you now, in understanding, to keep boasting, or to keep talking about what you're going to do tomorrow and next year. No, the knowledge that our lives are superintended by a sovereign God should absolutely demolish our pride and should bring us to the point where we don't just say, "if God wills," but we mean it with all of our hearts.

Thirdly, it should encourage us to trust God with our lives. Turn to Psalm 33 – I love this. First, the psalmist lays out God's eternal decree, verse 10. "The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation." In other words, nobody's plans are going to overcome God's plans – God does what He chooses. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for his own inheritance." Now, watch this – verse 13.

The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From His dwelling place, He looks out on all the inhabitants of the Earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army; a warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor does it deliver anyone from its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord, He is our help and our shield. Our heart rejoices in Him because we trust in His holy name. Let your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, according as we have hoped in You.

Now, do you see what's going on here? The psalmist says, listen, understand that God's in charge, and when you understand that God's in charge, you realize that He is where you should put your confidence. Don't put your confidence in an army, in your great strength, in your great intellect, in your wealth, in your plans – no, we hope in God, we trust in God, because we know He's in charge; His counsel will stand from generation to generation.

Fourthly, it should make us thankful for all of God's blessings. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – give thanks, what? "In everything … because this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." When you understand that everything that happens in your life truly comes to you from the hand of God, when you understand that every circumstance you face comes to you from the eternal decree of God, whatever you're facing tonight, whatever circumstance in which you find yourself, it is an expression of the eternal decree of God in your life. It should make you thankful for all the blessings you enjoy, and it should encourage you to trust God with your future.

It should allow us to remain calm in the midst of the most troubling circumstances – we looked at this last week; we concluded our time last week with this point: God is in charge. I don't care what's happening, I don't care how dark it looks – the decision was made in eternity past, and God did it for His glory, and for your good. God only has in mind your eternal good – it may not look that way; it may be hard for you to fathom, maybe hard for you to understand. It may even be your own choices, your own, perhaps, bad choices, your own sinful choices that have gotten you into the mess you're in. You're accountable for those sinful choices, for those unwise choices, and yet the amazing thing is, God uses even that to accomplish His will in your life.

It should give us great peace in making decisions in life. Turn to Proverbs – when we understand the eternal decree, it really assists us with decision making. Proverbs 16:9 – "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Make your plans, lay out your plans, but in the end, God is the one who directs your steps. You have a decision to make? God has mapped out everything that will ever happen in your life, so what do you do when you have a decision to make? Well, the first thing you do is you come to the word of God, you search to see if the scriptures speak to the issue of the decision you have to make. For example, you're going to get married? Great, get married – but the scripture describes that we're to marry only in the Lord. There's God's will – that person isn't a believer? It's not God's will – it's done, it's over. So, if the scripture speaks to it, that's the first thing you look at, but what if the scripture doesn't speak to it? Then you do what the proverbs urge you to do in making decisions, and that is to make decisions by wise counsel. You wisely research the issue, you find out all you can, you seek counsel from those who are older and wiser and more mature than you, who understand the issue better than you do, you pray for God's direction and His guidance – and then you pull the trigger. You make a decision, and the beauty is, when you've made that decision and you look back, you can say this was the sovereign plan and purpose of God, because it happened. If it happened, then it was part of God's eternal plan. Our responsibility is, just before it's done, to fulfill our obligation to make sure the word of God doesn't speak to it, where we need to obey the word of God, and to make sure that we do everything wise we can in making that decision. But in the end, when it's done, it is part of the eternal purpose and plan of God – remember, God's purpose cannot be thwarted, it cannot be frustrated, even by our bad choices. He may use our bad choices to accomplish that plan, but it's part of His purpose.

Then finally, it ensures the fulfillment – this great eternal decree, and this is such a comfort – ensures the fulfillment of all prophecy and promise. Everything you and I have to hope for in the future – from the promise of eternal life to the promise of forgiveness, to the reality that we will stand before God and not endure His wrath – all of those promises are guaranteed to us by the eternal decree, because God has said this is how it will happen. I don't know about you, but for me it is an amazing comfort to know that I'm not in charge. I don't usually quote movies, as you know, but there is a line in the movie Rudy that I've never forgotten, and it's this: "There is a God, and I'm not Him." What an amazing comfort that is to me, and I trust it is to you as well. Let's pray together.

Father, our hearts are so filled with joy over what we've studied tonight. Lord, it's such a burden off of our shoulders to know that there is a God, and we are not Him. Lord, we thank You that You rule from heaven, that Your sovereignty rules over all, that there isn't a stray molecule in Your universe, that our lives are in Your control. The lives and purposes and plans of others against us, either for good or for evil, are in Your control. Even our sinful choices are within Your eternal purpose. We're still responsible to obey, we're still responsible to make wise choices – and yet, in Your amazing providence, in Your amazing wisdom, You can even superintend all of that. Lord, we fall down before You in awe of Your greatness; it boggles our minds. But we thank You and we praise You that You are our God, our Father, in Jesus Christ.

It's in His name we pray. Amen.