Oh, Heavenly Father, it is daunting to try and think about your greatness and your majesty and your glory.
! We're very conscious of not only the inadequacy of our minds to grasp this truth, but also the sinfulness of our hearts, which pushes against this kind of truth about your bigness and your greatness.
So, Lord, we pray this evening that you would especially help us, not only in sort of understanding the concepts here, but also joyfully submitting to your greatness and your majesty and your glory.
Lord, we do recognize that you revealing your greatness to us, even though we can't grasp it or understand it fully, you do reveal it to us because you love us and you want us to know you.
And so we pray that we'd submit with joy as we read your word together this evening, as we think about it. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Good evening. Come and join us.
Sit on the back row that we took away. Yeah, there you go.
We've come this evening to chapter three of the Baptist Confession of Faith and to what it calls God's decrees.
Let me give you a brief recap. It's been a couple of weeks.
So these sessions, we've been looking at how the 1689 Baptist Confession outlines answers to questions that we're all still asking.
The 1689 Baptist Confession, if you've never heard of it, was an amended version of the Westminster Confession, which was written just down the road at Westminster Abbey in the Jerusalem Room,
which apparently you're not allowed to go into. But anyway, you can go and ask if you like.
The Westminster Confession was written in the midst of the English Civil War when Parliament was fighting the crown.
And it was quickly followed and largely copied and pasted by the Savoy Declaration, which was written by the Congregationalists.
And then the Baptist Confession, which was written by the Baptist.
Now, the decrees of God in chapter three are all about God's sovereignty.
That is God's power over all things.
This is the idea that God rules and reigns not only just over the good things in our world, but also over the bad things, the evil things in our world.
That all things, everything without exception is accomplishing God's plan.
So both good and wicked accomplish the purposes of God.
Now, before we dive into what the Confession says, I want to read to you a string of Bible references.
My intention here is to overwhelm you, right?
Not just in a kind of like, oh, my goodness, there's so much information.
I can't take it all in, but it will do that.
But also, I want you to see that this is that the writers of the Confession are trying to capture a theme that comes all the way through the scriptures, right?
They're not just kind of proof texting an idea off just a couple of verses.
So I want to start at the beginning of the Bible.
We're going to start in Genesis chapter 50.
Genesis chapter 50, Joseph's brothers following the death of their father, Jacob, are worried that Joseph might now take the opportunity to pay them back for selling him into slavery.
And so Joseph replies to them.
But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid.
Am I in the place of God?
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Now, notice what he says.
He doesn't say, you intended to harm me, but God allowed you to do it.
He doesn't even say God knew what would happen.
Rather, he says, in a parallel to them, you intended it for evil.
God intended it for good.
So although the brothers intended it, it was in their will to do it,
their intentions, their will only ever accomplished what God's intention was.
Now, when you start to think about the implications of all that, it is incredible, isn't it?
It means that in all of the intentions of the brothers' hearts in throwing Joseph down the well, in selling him into slavery,
all of those intentions were submitting to, in some sense, unconsciously to the grand intentions of God to save his people.
And so he was involved even at that level of what was going on.
Not just knowing, but intending to accomplish a purpose.
Exodus chapter 3, God speaking to Moses about how he's going to work in freeing the Israelites from Egypt.
He says this,
Notice this, that God's will shapes the disposition of the Egyptians towards the Israelites.
That the Egyptians aren't coerced against their will to give generously to the Israelites as they leave,
but rather that the Egyptians willingly give their gold and silver to the Israelites as they leave,
because God willed it.
So God wills it, and they carry it out willingly.
Their will turns out to be God's sovereign will.
Jump forward a few books in the Bible to 1 Samuel chapter 19.
Here we have the nation of Israel under Saul, and David is the king in waiting.
Everybody knows it.
David is growing in popularity.
They sing the song, don't they, that David's killed a lot more people than Saul.
Everyone is more excited about David than they are about Saul.
Listen to what is said about Saul.
Once more, war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines.
He struck them with such force that they fled before him.
But an evil spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand,
while David was playing the lyre.
Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear,
but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall.
At night, David made good his escape.
It's incredible, isn't it?
God is not evil, right?
God is holy.
That is the witness of all the scriptures.
But still, God is in control of Saul's evil intentions in such a way
that it is described as he sends the evil spirit into Saul,
which gives him the desire to kill David.
The desire to kill David is not God's desire.
That's a wicked desire, isn't it?
But the desire that Saul has to kill David is not outside of God's control.
In fact, he stands behind it.
It works in submission to his will and his purpose.
King Ahab, the king of Israel, the bad king.
I would love to read you the whole story.
But basically, this is what's going on.
They're about to go into war together.
The king of Israel is going to go with the king of Judah.
And they seek out the prophets to see what the outcome is going to be.
And they all prophesy that it's going to be amazing
and that King Ahab is going to win a victory.
And then Micaiah continues.
He says,
One suggested this and another that.
And finally, a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said,
I will entice him.
By what means?
The Lord asked.
I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets, he said.
You will succeed in enticing him, said the Lord.
Go and do it.
So now the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours.
The Lord has decreed disaster for you.
It carries on.
So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, went up to Ramoth Gilead.
This is where they're going to have the great success
because all the prophets have said they're going to be really successful.
But the prophets decreeing success is because of a deceiving spirit
that the Lord has put in their mouths.
The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat,
I will enter the battle in disguise, but you wear your royal robes.
So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
Now the king of Aram had ordered his 32 chariot commanders,
don't fight with anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.
When the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat,
they thought surely this is the king of Israel.
So they turned to attack him.
But when Jehoshaphat cried out,
the chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel
and stopped pursuing him.
But someone drew his bow at random
and hit the king of Israel between the sections of his armor.
The king told his chariot driver,
wheel around and get me out of the fighting.
I've been wounded.
All day long, the battle raged
and the king was propped up in his chariot facing the Arameans.
The blood from his wound ran onto the floor of the chariot
and that evening he died.
As the sun was setting,
a cry spread through the army,
every man to his town,
every man to his land.
So the king died and was brought to Samaria
and they buried him there.
They washed the chariot at the pool in Samaria
where the prostitutes bathed
and the dogs licked up his blood
as the word of the Lord had declared.
Now, right, that's a longer passage
and we don't have time to get into the detail of it.
But just notice the depth of God's control.
God puts the lying spirit into the lives of the prophets
so that they entice him into battle.
This is just like with Saul again, isn't it?
It's exactly the same kind of language.
And then he, God is so in charge
that the apparently random firing of an arrow
through the sky in the heat of battle,
it lands in the only place possible
for it to kill King Ahab.
Now think about what that means.
It means that God's suffering control
is over the flight of every arrow,
the flight of every drone
or every missile or every bullet,
all landing in exact spot
in which the Lord intends it to.
And it's not just that he's
governing the physics of that, right?
That might be one thing for us to believe,
that God governs the physics of our world
so that objects fly in certain directions.
He also rules over the desires of human hearts
that are involved in the firing of those arrows as well.
Now that's all Old Testament narrative stories.
I could have given you more,
but the Old Testament stories of God's sovereign power
are just a small sample
of how the Bible deals with God's sovereignty.
The prophets then come.
And in lots of ways,
the prophets are the preachers of the Old Testament.
They take what's written,
especially in the law
and in the accounts of history
and the revelation of God that they're receiving
and they preach it to the people.
And what do they say?
Well, here's a couple of examples.
Isaiah 46.
Remember the former things,
those of long ago.
I am God and there is no other.
I am God and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times,
what is still to come.
I say my purpose will stand
and I will do all that I please.
From the East, I summon a bird of prey,
from a far off land,
a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said,
that I will bring about.
What I have planned,
that I will do.
Exactly the same idea, isn't it?
God's will governs and rules history.
He is God.
There is none like him.
He does what he pleases,
even to the point of summoning birds of prey,
foreign armies and leaders
to come and accomplish what he has planned
because what he has planned
is what he will do using all means
because all means are in his control.
Now you jump forward to the New Testament,
you find that Jesus speaks of God's authority
in this same way to account for people's attitudes towards him.
So now we've moved from sort of geopolitics,
now into the areas of belief and unbelief
and attitudes to Jesus.
Jesus, if you like,
is the new Joseph.
He is the new people of God.
He is the new David.
And so what we're seeing in God's sovereignty
and control over their attitudes to those people
is now seen in their attitudes to Jesus himself.
John chapter six,
Notice that.
For people to come to Jesus,
it has to be God's action first.
He has to enable them.
Coming to Jesus is impossible for them
without the enabling of God.
God's will has to make the first move.
God has to will it and enable it.
Again, same idea.
John chapter 10,
Jesus answered,
I did tell you,
I did tell you I was the Messiah,
but you did not believe.
The works I do in my father's name testify about me,
but you do not believe
because you are not my sheep.
My sheep listen to my voice.
I know them and they follow me.
I give them eternal life
and they shall never perish.
No one shall snatch them out of my hand.
The unbelief of the people
is because they are not my sheep.
So they will not listen to his voice.
Interestingly, what they respond,
the Jews after this is,
what do they say?
We're not going to listen to him.
That's what they say.
Why listen to him?
He's crazy.
Don't listen to him.
But they don't listen
because they are not his sheep
and so they do not believe.
The early church then in the book of Acts
bring the same doctrine to the fore
and they use it to explain the atonement,
Jesus' death at the cross.
So the church pray,
Acts chapter four,
they say,
indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate
met together with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel in this city
to conspire against your holy servant,
Jesus, whom you had anointed.
They did.
So they conspired against Jesus, right?
They planned and they plotted.
But they did, verse 28,
what your power and will
had decided beforehand would happen.
In other words,
even in following their desires,
even in their plotting and their scheming,
they are only ever doing
what God had already decided should happen.
Again, it's the same idea, isn't it?
Herod, Pontius Pilate,
the Gentiles and the people of Israel,
even in their conspiring,
are only ever accomplishing
what God had decided would happen.
Now, then the epistles,
the apostles take this same doctrine,
not only to explain our reactions to Jesus,
not only to explain the atonement,
not only to explain history,
but also to explain personally
how you and I experience salvation.
Ephesians chapter one,
praise be to God,
the father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Why?
For he chose us in him
before the creation of the world
to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love, he predestined us
for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ
in accordance with his pleasure and will
to the praise of his glorious grace,
which he has freely given us
in the one he loves.
In other words,
our belief finds its root,
not in our hearts first,
but in the eternal will of God
who decided before the creation
who would be saved.
Those are the ones predestined,
not because of anything they had done,
because they have, by definition,
not done anything,
not just because they were going
to become Christians anyway,
but because God decided.
The root of the action
is in the will of God.
He decides for reasons not given
and for reasons only contained within himself,
because at that point,
nothing else existed.
So God's sovereign will
over belief and unbelief,
over our responses to Jesus,
over the atonement,
over the events of all of history.
Those are just a quick run through
some Bible passages.
Talk to the person next to you.
What is striking or surprising
about what we've read?
What does it mean about God
and what he is like?
Have a think about those questions
for a moment.
We'll feedback,
and then we'll come up
with four conclusions.
Go for it.
Okay.
Any,
anyone want to feedback?
Anything that was said
in a Greek?
Yes,
come.
Come.
You said something helpful
about the section,
the 1 Samuel verses,
about the evil spirit from the Lord.
You said a line about something like how,
although God,
God and wickedness can't be together,
I just,
I thought that was helpful
when you said it,
but it's just a problem.
Okay.
I'm not quite sure what I said.
So,
He's not making the evil,
like,
no.
I think it's like,
if you've called it,
God's made that back.
Right.
Yeah.
God is in control
of Saul's evil intentions
in such a way
that he is able
to send the evil spirit
into Saul
so that he seeks
to kill David.
The desire to kill David
is not God's,
that's wicked,
but the desire that Saul
had to kill David
is not outside of God's control.
In fact,
he stands behind it.
Yeah,
so,
the Bible is really clear
that God is not wicked,
but he stands behind wickedness
in such a way
that he is not morally responsible for it,
but it is not outside of his control.
And it's really important
that we hold that.
We don't know all of the
details about how exactly
that works.
But if that is not true,
you have a world
in which God's purposes
can be thwarted.
You and I might not be saved.
Right?
The church might not survive.
The gates of hell
might prevail.
Yeah?
But we're told they won't
because God is so...
Yeah.
Dane,
did you have your hand up?
Were you...
No, no.
That's right.
Okay.
Yeah.
And also,
what's the point in praying
if God can't answer the prayers?
Yes.
What's the point in praying
if God can't answer the prayers?
Jim Packer,
speaking,
I think,
to university students,
I think in Cambridge,
I don't know,
probably in Cambridge,
but it's always there,
isn't it?
Right?
In the...
It becomes a book called
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God,
and he says,
I know you all already believe
in God's sovereignty
over belief and unbelief,
and I can prove it to you.
You all pray
for your friends and family
to come to know Christ.
And if God had no power
or control,
what would be the point in praying?
Because you're better off
stop wasting your time praying
and go and nag them
to become a Christian
because the solution
lies in their heart,
not in God's.
Great.
Let me conclude
with the four things
that the confessions
sort of greet these together,
and we can ask questions
along the way through.
The confessions essentially
then say four things
about God's decrees.
They take passages
like the ones
that we've looked at
and others,
and this is what they say.
The number one thing,
God is in charge of everything.
The creed puts it like this.
From all eternity,
God decreed everything
that occurs
without reference
to anything
outside himself
because there wasn't
anything outside himself,
right?
He did this
by the perfectly wise
and holy counsel
of his own will
freely
and unchangeably.
Yet God did this
in such a way
that he is neither
the author of sin
nor has any fellowship
with any in their sin.
This decree
does not violate
the will of the creature
or take away
the free working
or contingency,
dependency,
on second causes.
On the contrary,
these are established
by God's decree.
In this decree,
God's wisdom
is displayed
in directing
all things
and his power
and faithfulness
are demonstrated
in accomplishing
his decree.
Notice here
that the confession
wants to say
that it is not
God's sovereignty
versus human freedom,
right?
Both of those exist
at the same time
and actually
it is God's sovereignty
itself,
his power
over all things,
which provides
the realm
for human freedom.
Without God's sovereignty,
you would have
no freedom.
Without God's power
and control
over all things,
you would have
no freedom
or responsibility.
So that's how
it states it.
The point is that
God rules over
big things,
small things,
hidden things,
invisible things.
He decrees,
declares,
decides what will happen,
not by seeking
somebody else,
but in himself.
And notice again,
this is what we were
talking about with Daisy,
he is not the author
of sin,
he is not morally
responsible for it,
he is not
being wicked,
but neither is he
forcing or violating
the will of the creature.
So people do
what they want,
the archer wanted
to fire the arrow,
the Jews wanted
to kill Jesus,
Joseph's brothers
wanted to sell him
into slavery,
but still the Lord
decrees those things
to accomplish his purposes.
Now the point of this
is that we would see
his wisdom,
God is the author
of the story,
works all things
to accomplish
his decrees.
Now one of the ways
that theologians
have sort of tried
to square the circle,
is that what you're saying?
Or whatever,
about this,
is to talk about
the two wills of God,
not in opposition
to one another,
but sort of over one another.
So they talk about
God's sovereign will
and God's moral will.
Okay,
so God has a
sovereign will
over all things
which cannot be
thwarted or defeated.
So let's think
about the cross.
It is in God's
eternal plan
from before the
foundation of the world
that God the Son
would take on human flesh
and die on a cross
for the sins
of his people,
right?
That is in God's
sovereign overall plan
that cannot be
thwarted or changed.
And yet in his
moral will,
right,
in terms of what
God wants
and desires
for people,
what is moral
and good,
having murderous
intent
towards the divine
Son in human flesh
is about as wicked
as you can get,
right?
There isn't really
anything as immoral
as that,
right?
That is the height
of immorality.
So you've got the cross
being both
in his sovereign will
but against his moral will.
And lots of things
work out like that,
don't they?
So that God can
sovereignly decide
that something
against his moral will
will happen
whilst he is not
morally responsible
for it in order
to accomplish his
purposes in glory.
And that's exactly
how it works
with the cross,
isn't it?
People are held
responsible for the
wickedness of killing
the Son
and yet in their
wickedness they
accomplish God's
sovereign plan
and purpose.
You might want to say
all things work
together for good
for those who love
God and are called
according to his
purpose.
Secondly,
this is more
than knowing
what will happen.
I think,
say,
we were talking
in the group
at the back
there a moment ago
just that the
question that comes
to mind is why?
Why?
Like why?
Why choose some
people and not all
people?
And we don't know
the answers to these
questions,
don't we?
So sometimes what we
try and do is
accommodate God's
sovereignty to something
that we can understand.
So we might want to say,
oh well God,
because he's sort of
outside of time
and because he is
bigger and greater
than anyone or
anything else,
he can sort of see
what will happen
in human freedom
and he can sort of
retrospectively decide
that and foresee it.
But the creed is very,
or the confession
is very careful
to say that
that is not the case.
It's more than
Jesus just knew
who would believe
in him
and so settled
on choosing them.
It's rather that
God's intentions
in those things
are being achieved.
So chapter three,
part two,
the confession says,
God knows everything
that could happen
under any given
conditions.
However,
his decree
of anything
is not based
on foreseeing
it in the future
or foreseeing
that it would occur
under such conditions.
In other words,
he's not just like
a really good chess player
who can see like
ten moves ahead
or whatever
and then just
outmaneuvers everybody
to accomplish
what he wants.
Rather,
actually,
his will
is what decides
what will happen.
God stands over history.
He is the author
of history.
Now,
that's really important,
isn't it?
Because it means
that he is not
a passenger
of fate
or human freedom
who just happens
to know where
things might go
and just is a better
player of history
than you or I.
The Bible never talks
about God like that.
God intends
Joseph's brothers
to sell him
into slavery,
which means that
he steered
even Joseph's arrogance
and his brother's
hatred of his arrogance.
He provided the well
for them
at just the right opportunity.
He made sure,
didn't he,
that Reuben
didn't have a chance
to rescue him
so that he would
get sold
into slavery.
Number three,
this decree
includes salvation.
This is probably
the most difficult
part of all this.
It's one thing,
isn't it,
to realize that
God decrees events.
It's another thing
to see and admit
that he governs
belief and unbelief too.
But again,
that's what we found
in the scriptures.
Jesus says it,
no one can come to me
unless the Father
enables it.
You do not believe in me
because you're not my sheep.
And so the confession says,
by God's decree
and for the demonstration
of his glory,
some men and angels,
men using as in humanity,
are predestined
or foreordained
to eternal life
through Jesus Christ
to the praise
of his glorious grace,
echoing Ephesians 1.
Others are left
to live in their sin,
leading to their
just condemnation
to the praise
of his glorious grace.
Part five,
those men and women
who are predestined
to life
were chosen by God
before the foundation
of the world
according to his eternal
and unchangeable purpose
in the secret counsel
and good pleasure
of his will.
He chose them in Christ
for eternal glory
purely as a result
of his free grace
and love
without anything else
about them
serving as a condition
or cause
moving him to do so.
Now it's really important
that you read this carefully.
The confession
is really clear
to separate belief
and unbelief
and how God
stands behind
both those things.
So notice what he says
in chapter 3,
part 3.
Notice he says,
God's decree
and for the demonstration
of his glory,
some men and angels
are predestined
or foreordained
to eternal life
through Jesus Christ
to the praise
of his glorious grace.
Others are left
to live in their sin.
The confession
is surprised
by the grace
of God
to sinners,
not the condemnation
of sinners.
Right?
Left to our own devices,
we would all be lost
and condemned.
That's the point,
isn't it?
The wonder
of the confession,
the wonder
of the scriptures,
the wonder
of Ephesians 1
is that God
in his kindness
chooses to save any
because nobody
deserves it.
There is no condition
in humanity
which deserves
the salvation
that we receive
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is nothing
in us
that would deserve
the love
that Christ has shown
in coming and dying
on the cross.
So there can't be
a reason in us.
And so he stands
behind belief
and unbelief
in slightly different ways,
doesn't he?
He graciously
and for reasons
only known
and understood
by himself,
he loves
and saves some
and others
are left
to live in their sin
leading to their
just condemnation
to the praise
of his glorious grace.
Now I realize
that it is difficult.
The asymmetry
between them
is important
to hold on to
but it doesn't answer
all of our questions.
But really I think
we're supposed
to be in awe
and wonder
that God
for some reason
known only to himself
has chosen to love us.
As he describes
in the Old Testament
when he's trying
to explain
why he loves Israel,
he says,
I loved you
because
the next phrase,
I loved you
because
I loved you.
That's his answer.
I loved you
because I loved you.
You want to know
a reason for my love?
It's because of my love.
The cause is
within God himself.
Now just think
about what that means,
right?
Just think how that works,
right?
Just think
that God
stands behind
then
in his sovereign power
all things
that brought you
to faith
in Jesus Christ.
Now I can't remember
everyone's testimony.
I was trying to think
of someone's testimony here
but I'm going to pick Ray
and you can correct me,
Ray,
where I'm wrong,
right?
So the Lord
sovereignly decided
that Ray
would be born
on Salisbury Road
above the laundrette,
right?
And that in his
teenage years
he would encounter
the gospel
and be drawn
into friendships
with other believers.
And so
it's not an accident
that those people
were in his life
at that time.
You know,
the conversations
that were had
that encouraged Ray
to start thinking
about the gospel,
they were not
accidents,
right?
The Lord
did that.
Now why would
the Lord do that?
Well because
in time eternity
before Ray
even existed,
the Lord
chose
to love him
and save him
and as he
sovereignly rules
over all things,
organises all of that
for the purpose
of eventually
Ray freely
responding to the call
of the gospel
in his life.
And if you're a Christian
this evening,
God's done all of that
for you.
I had the privilege
of being raised
by Christian parents
who prayed for me
and shared the gospel
with me.
Oh yeah,
well that just means
that you're conditioned
to believe.
You've never really
kind of had chance
to freely respond
to the gospel.
What if
God is so sovereign
that his intention
to save me
involved placing me
in the particular family
that he placed me in
whereby I would hear
the gospel
in the way that I did
in order for me
to be saved?
You know,
the flyer that was left
on the car windscreen,
the person that gave
the gospel to you
as you were walking
out the tube station,
you know,
the Christian friend
who just wouldn't give up
inviting you to church,
none of that was an accident.
None of that was an accident.
The Lord stands behind it all
working in order
to accomplish his purpose
in eternity.
Incredible, isn't it?
Incredible truth.
Okay.
Just as God has appointed
the elect to glory,
so he has,
by the eternal
and completely free purpose
of his will,
foreordained all the means.
It's how the confession
puts it.
I don't know whether
I put that on your handout.
He's foreordained
all the means.
Isn't just that he says
this is the end,
but he goes,
this is how we're going
to get there as well.
Finally, number four,
and this is really important.
We're going to end here.
Oh gosh, it's nearly 7.30.
We need to treat this doctrine
with great care.
Yeah, this is really important.
I think our struggles
with the doctrine
of God's sovereignty
are probably not so much
to do with the logic of it
or the absence
of Bible material on it.
There's so much
Bible material on it
and actually,
the logic of it
in terms of the bigness
of God
makes absolute sense,
doesn't it,
of the God
that we worship.
The problem that we have
with it is that
it's badly used
or abused
by Christians
who wrongly apply
the doctrine
or contradict other things
that the Bible also says
which we'll come to
in weeks to come.
So the Confession says this
in its final section
on the decrees of God.
It says this,
the doctrine
of the high mystery
of predestination
is to be handled
with special prudence
and care
so that those
heeding the will
of God revealed
in his word
and obeying him
may be assured
of their eternal election
by the certainty
of their effectual calling.
In this way,
the doctrine
will give reasons
for praise,
reverence
and admiration
of God
as well as humility,
diligence
and rich comfort
to all who sincerely
obey the gospel.
Here's the point,
the Bible's teaching
on God's sovereignty
and his predestination
of those who would believe
is not written,
one,
to answer all the questions
you might have,
it's not.
Two,
it's not written
to contradict
human freedom
and responsibility
because the Bible
teaches that too.
Three,
it's not written
to prevent you
from sharing the gospel
with people
or praying for people,
it's exactly the opposite.
Instead,
it's written
because God wants you
to know
that you are saved
because he loves you.
Ultimately,
he is holding you,
you are not holding him
and he wants you
to know that
because if you think
your Christian life
is you holding on to God,
you will not make it.
Only if you understand
and only if it's true,
which it is,
that God holds on to us
will we make it to glory
because if you know
anything about yourself,
you should know
that your grip on God
is way too weak
to last
through life's trials
and purposes.
But God has a hold on you,
says the confession,
says God's words,
and history is
accomplishing his purpose.
He will finish
what he has started
in your life.
He's not just working it out
on the fly.
Whoa,
didn't realize
that would happen.
Goodness me,
I didn't realize
that their children
would be wayward
or difficult.
I didn't realize
that their parents
would not approve
of their new faith
in Jesus Christ.
He's not shocked
by any of those things,
is he?
But he's working
all things out
for the purpose
of his glory,
that you can trust him
and praise him
and give him
all the glory.
I've finished there.
Any questions
as we wrap it up?
Yes.
So, like,
how does this
inform our daily lives?
I understand
how, like,
completely understand
how predestination
is comforting to us
and is something
that we can fall back on.
But, like,
in our daily lives,
how does this impact?
Like,
does God,
if I miss a bus,
God's sovereignty is that?
If I choose what,
and the vitamin S,
does God's sovereignty
end up?
How does that
live through the daily life
besides salvation?
Yes.
If God is sovereign
over all things,
how does that affect
daily life?
So,
it shouldn't paralyze you
into not making
any decisions,
right?
Because God
gives you responsibility
to make decisions
and to move forwards
and to do things.
You know,
you can't go into M&S
and just say,
I'm just going to stand here
until God writes
in the sky what I'm,
you all right?
Yeah.
So,
you are to go and move forward
and make those decisions.
But you are to understand
that underlying
all of those things
is God's sovereign
purposes that can
never be thwarted.
So,
if you take those two wills,
I seek to live my life
in obedience
to God's moral will.
But it is not my ability
to live according
to his moral will
that will determine
ultimately the ends.
That is in God's
sovereign purposes,
isn't it?
So,
even when I sin,
I don't worry
that God's purposes
and glory are going
to be thwarted by that
because even those things
are in his
control.
So,
it brings great comfort
to me
and it relieves
a lot of
anxiety and stress.
So,
like you say,
yeah,
the bus that you missed,
that's in God's
plan and purpose,
isn't it?
You may,
that doesn't mean
that it will become
obvious why that happened,
does it?
You may never know,
but you do know
that that is in
God's sovereign hands.
You know,
when you worry
and you panic,
you basically have to say
to yourself,
don't you,
you know,
Lola,
Steve,
whatever,
do you really genuinely
believe in the bigness
of God?
Or do you suddenly
think that God
is now out of control
and that all of these
things have happened
because he's just
kind of lost it?
Oh,
no,
I don't believe that.
Oh,
right,
okay.
It will all be
all right then.
Everything will be okay.
I don't,
in terms of doctrines,
like the kind of cash
value of that in my
day-to-day life is massive,
absolutely massive.
Yeah.
Any other questions?
So where is our
responsibility
in the whole scheme of things?
Right,
where is our responsibility
in the whole scheme of things?
We will come to that,
right?
So we do have
responsibility
and we are held
responsible for our
obedience or disobedience
to God's moral will.
Absolutely right.
That,
that responsibility
is,
is not in opposition
to God's sovereign
will and purpose.
It is secured
by his sovereign
will and purpose.
But you're still,
you and I are still held
morally responsible
for what we do.
You know,
so,
you know,
Galatians 6,
don't,
you know,
don't be deceived.
God cannot be mocked.
You reap what you sow,
right?
So there is a,
a direct relationship
between what we do
and the lives
that we receive.
But even that
is in God's
sovereign plan and purpose.
Ultimately,
you have to say,
don't you Clifford,
that you don't understand,
I don't understand,
exactly how,
what the Bible says
about my responsibility
and God's sovereignty
can be married together.
I don't understand that.
I do know that
the Bible teaches both
and I can't
kick this one out
in order to keep this one
and I can't kick that one
out to keep this one.
I have to hold the two
in tension with one another
because the Bible says both.
Well,
my good intention exists.
Yeah.
Yes.
I can't resolve it for you
ultimately.
Yeah.
Great.
Let me pray.
I know we've run over time
but that was all
in God's plan.
Let me pray.
Heavenly Father,
what a wonderful joy it is
to know that we leave
this room tonight
absolutely inside your will
and your sovereign purposes
that nothing that will happen to us
will come as a surprise to you
or outside of your intentions for us.
Thank you that we can know
that what you've started
in our hearts,
you will finish.
There is a day
when we will stand
transformed into Christlikeness,
living with you
for all eternity
in a world remade
by your power
for your glory
forever and ever.
We long for that day
and we know
we will be there
because you are holding us,
not us holding you.
And all things in our lives,
little and big,
are working together
for your good purposes.
So we pray
that we'd trust that
and we'd enjoy that
this week.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you.