The Will of God

As the golfer approached the first tee, a hazardous hole with a green surrounded by water, he debated if he should use his new golf ball. Deciding that the hole was too treacherous, he pulled out an old ball and placed it on the tee. Just then he heard a voice from above say loudly: "Use the new ball!" Frightened, he replaced the old ball with the new one and approached the tee.

Now the voice from above shouted: "Take a practice swing!"  With this, the golfer stepped backward and took a swing.  Feeling more confident, he approached the tee when the voice again rang out:  "Use the old ball!"

The will of God, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else.

Robert asked me a question on Thursday night, and I wanted to share a better answer if I might from God’s Word.

If we were to look to the ultimate standard regarding doing God’s will, you should look no further than the Lord Jesus.

John 6:38 says, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.”

John 8:29: “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”

BEN PATTERSON NOTED: My wife, Lauretta, once remarked to me, “I know I’d die for Christ.  If I were put in front of a firing squad and commanded to renounce Christ or die, I know I’d say ‘Shoot me!’  That would be easy.  The hard part is living for Christ, not dying for him.”  She is right.  One huge, heroic act would be easier than a lifetime of little daily decisions, especially when it may take a lifetime to discover that the promises of God were worth the no we said to ourselves and to the world each day.

Our pastor used to say that the will of God is not a piece of paper filled out with a list of all the things that we would do for God on it, but rather it is a blank sheet of paper where we say to God, “Not my will, but thine be done!”

Matthew 26:39: “And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Gethsemane:

Gat- a place of pressing

Shemanim- oils

JESUS CAME TO A PLACE OF PRESSURE— PRESSING—

VANDER LAAN: During Jesus' time, heavy stone slabs were lowered onto olives that had already been crushed in an olive crusher. The slab's weight squeezed the olive oil out of the pulp, and the oil was collected. The image of the gethsemane on the slope of the Mount of Olives where Jesus went the night before his crucifixion provides a vivid picture of his suffering. The weight of the world's sins pressed down upon him like the heavy slab of the olive crusher. His sweat. LUKE 22:44: “...and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground...”

Someone noted that in this garden, Jesus “underwent stress of cosmic dimensions.”

“In human life there is a close connection between our hymns and our olive-presses. We pass from the supper to the garden, from the emblems to the reality. But not all can enter into the fellowship of our Lord’s unknown sufferings.“

Father: the source of all knowledge

Think of the relational aspects of this prayer: O my Father.

the Father knows of His purpose for the Son

Isaiah 53:10-12: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; For he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, And he shall divide the spoil with the strong; Because he hath poured out his soul unto death: And he was numbered with the transgressors; And he bare the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.”

The purpose of the giving of the Son is to ensure that all of our sons might be set free. His Son for our sons! His life for our lives! This is that vicarious, substitutionary gospel that we preach!

It was Vance Havner who noted, “My Christ is the virgin-born Son of God who lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary, atoning death, rose bodily from the grave and is coming again to reign.” That, too, is my Jesus!

TELEOLOGICAL-

If the Father had a plan for His Son in the darkest days of human history, why would you think that He has not orchestrated every purpose in your life, too?

the Father knows of the Preeminence of the Son

Philippians 2:5-11: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

kenosis- pours Himself out as a drink offering

same word: Romans 4:14: “For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:” II Corinthians 9:3: “Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, ye may be ready:”

Here, it means that Jesus lays aside His rank and dignity and becomes in respect as NOTHING.

The broader principle here is that of humility and submission. The Father knows that a greater honor will be bestowed upon Jesus the Crucified One.

the Mediator has arisen to the Right Hand- Hebrews 2:9: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

the Father knows that to pacify the Son

Luke 22:43: “And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.”

not the first time that happened

temptation by Satan in the wilderness

Matthew 4:11: “Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.”

If- the source of all doubt

If it be possible- there is no other way— but IF there were another way, let this way be that way…but He knows as God that there is no other way.

It is as if the Lord Jesus sees the magnitude of HIs sufferings which await Him. In a physical body He will absorb and endure the contradiction of sinners against Himself— and He utters as a man— maybe so as to help us to understand that being in the will of God has some IF in it— some faith— some trial— some discombobulation— and that is the point. He is looking to the FATHER and saying, “I don’t understand— and the future seems unclear— but I’m trusting you through it all because You are my Father!”

This is the humanity of Jesus at play here. He as God has surrendered and humbled to the Cross— but as a man, the agonies of the cross bear on His mind.

Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

IF....

Sarah had only brought forth a son in the flower of her youth

Gideon could have only fought the Midianites with the 32,000

Pharoah would just die and his successor would let the people go

Nebuchadnezzar fealty for Daniel would have delivered him from the night with the lions

Vashti had simply danced for Ahaseurus...

we think that in these cases life would have been simpler— and maybe in a sense it had been easier- but it wasn’t God’s way.

IF GOD WANTED IT THAT WAY...

DANIEL WOULD HAVE NEVER KNOWN THE LIONS DEN

AND JOSEPH WOULD HAVE THE THRONE WITHOUT THE PRISON

DAVID WOULD HAVE NEVER KNOWN SAUL’S JEALOUSY

AND JOB WOULD HAVE NEVER LOST HIS FAMILY

STEPHEN WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN STONED

AND THE BEATINGS OF PUAL WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN KNOWN

BUT GOD WANTED IT THAT WAY (2X)

EVERY TRIAL— EVERY TEST— WAS ONLY FOR THE BEST

IT WAS ALWAYS IN HIS PLAN

THOUGH YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND

AS THE FATHER MOLDS THE CLAY, GOD JUST WANTED IT THAT WAY

IF GOD WANTED IT THAT WAY

NO ONE WOULD HAVE EVER KNOWN THE TRIAL OF BLOOD

AND TYNDALE WOULD HAVE E WORD OF GOD COMPLETED

PREACHERS WOULD HAVE NVER HEARD THEIR CHILDREN CRY

AS THEY WALKED ALONG TO THAT STAKE TO DIE

NERO WOULD HAVE NEVER HAD THE THRONE

COLISEUMS OF ROME WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN KNOWN

BUT GOD WANTED IT THAT WAY...

Nevertheless- the source of all submission

Mark 14:36: “And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”

I’m going to Heaven with my sins forgiven because of the nevertheless.

Think of these:

Philippians 1:23-24: “For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Luke 5:4-5: “Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.”

Ezekiel 33:7-9: “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”