Sermon Tone Analysis

*Lesson 12*

*/The Glory of God/*

*/Eph 1:12/*

 

Ok, last week we looked at Eph. 1:11, one of the strongest verses in the Bible on “The Sovereignty of God”.

When we looked at the doctrine we said several things about God’s will.

First of all, God’s will is free.

This means that nothing in God’s created universe conditions God’s will.

He is absolutely free to do whatever He wants that is compatible with His character.

Second, when considering the free will of God we find that there is the secret will of God and the revealed will of God (Deut.

29:29).

Since humans are unable to penetrate God’s secret will we can only speak about God’s revealed will.

There are 3 basic aspects to the revealed will of God.

First, God’s /ultimate will/, second, God’s /effective will/, and third, God’s /permissive will/.

When we talk about God’s ultimate will we are talking about things that God directly brings to pass without the help of any responsible agents such as angels or men.

All things in God’s ultimate will are absolutely certain to take place because God by His omnipotence makes them take place.

Next we looked at God’s effective will.

When we talk about God’s effective will we are talking about things that God indirectly brings to pass.

By indirectly we mean that God brings them to pass through responsible agents such as men or angels, etc….

As with God’s ultimate will, all things in God’s effective will are absolutely certain to take place because He effects them.

Finally we looked at God’s permissive will.

When we talk about God’s permissive will we are talking about things that God allows or permits to take place.

God allows things to take place that are contrary to His moral character and are therefore not God’s will for our lives.

All sin and the effects of sin are under God’s permissive will.

God’s permissive will includes all the commands of God in Scripture.

We are able to resist God’s commands in this life.

Every time we break one of His commands, although He knew we would break it, we are out of the will of God.

The permissive will of God therefore, offers a command which men may follow or break.

However, for those who love God, for those who have been called according to His purpose even evil things work out for the good (Rom.

8:28).

Here’s the chart we looked at briefly last week showing the 3 Aspects of God’s Will plus where the Scripture places responsibility.

*3 ASPECTS OF GOD’S WILL*

* *

*GOD*

* *

* *

* *

\\ *ULTIMATE                                       EFFECTIVE                           *

*-direct                                                 - indirect*

*                                                *

*men and angels*

*                                                                                                                                                                        *

*PERMISSIVE*

*- indirect*

* *

*~*everything above the line God is responsible for.

Everything below the line men and~/or angels are responsible for* *.*

  

Let’s look at some biblical events and doctrines and see what aspect of God’s will these might fit into.

Some of these do not fit into a hard category, there is some overlap, so some issues may fit more than one category.

Who is responsible for the following and what aspect of God’s will to they fit under?

*Suffering                                                                     P*

*Judgment                                                                    U E*

Convicting ministry of Holy Spirit                                  U

*Creation                                                                      U*

Redemption                                                                  U E?

*The Fall of Man                                                         P*

*Physical Laws of Universe                                        U*

Determinate Counsel of God                                         U

*Discipline                                                                    UE*

*Prayer                                                                         U (Rom 8) E (John 15) P (unansw)*

Reconciliation                                                               U E?

*Temptation                                                                 P (James 1)*

*Witnessing                                                                  E P*

*Plan of God                                                                 U*

*Inspiration of Scripture                                              E*

*Evil                                                                              P*

Drawing                                                                       U E? (the Word as an instrument)

Faith                                                                             P Human

Salvation                                                                      U E (blood of Christ)

Grace                                                                           U E?

Propitiation                                                                   U E?

 

HUMAN WILL: INDEPENDENT OR COMPATIBLE?

 

Remember, several weeks ago we looked at the relationship between divine sovereignty and human freedom.

We talked about two types of freedom that men have discussed.

At the time I called this indeterminism and compatibilism.

I’m trying to simplify my terminology so I’m going to use /independence /instead.

So, there are two types of freedom: /independent /and /compatible/.

/Independence// /at base says that a person has free will.

Remember that we taught that God has free will and we said that what it means for God to have free will is that nothing in God’s created universe conditions God’s will.

He is absolutely free to do whatever He wants that is compatible with His character.

Does man then have “free will” in that sense?

If we do have free will in that sense then I could always choose contrary to the choice I made.

Given this type of freedom I see no way for God to be in control of the universe and to make anything certain that involves creature choices.

I cannot find a single verse that says that man has this kind of freedom.

This idea is simply assumed to be true, it is assumed to be axiomatic to human nature.

But the Bible never says this.

A second type of freedom was what we call /compatabilism/.

By this is meant that there is still genuine freedom if God works by /non-constraining/ causes.

That is, God never forces you to act contrary to your will, desires or wishes.

The example we used was getting a person to leave the room.

There were three ways this could be accomplished; 1) carrying them, the most extreme form of constraint, 2) putting a gun to their head, another form of constraint, or 3) convincing or persuading them by a perfectly certain argument (e.g. if you leave the room you’ll find that a brand new car is waiting for you).

This is /a /solution but it may not be /the /solution.

However, I do think that this protects both divine sovereignty over the entire universe and genuine human responsibility or freedom and it certainly does not distort at all any verses where human choices and divine sovereignty are in the same passage (e.g.

Acts 2:23; 4:27-28).

In every case humans were doing what they wanted to do (volition) but at the same time they were doing what God determined to occur.

They were not being forced to do something against their will, desires, or wishes.

Turn to Prov.

16:9, 33.

What about Acts 4:27-28?

I want you to contemplate how it could be possible to reconcile these passages on a view of freedom that says that men could always have chosen contrary to the choice they made…..

This is just one example of several passages that show the interaction between divine sovereignty and human freedom.

I don’t think it is possible on an /independent/ view of freedom to make sense of that passage because if the human will was /independent/ then Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and Israel could have always chosen not to nail Jesus to the cross….therefore

the cross would not be a certain event.

The key event to all of history could have been prevented.

How can we reconcile the certainty of this event with independent human freedom?

No one for 6000 years has ever given an answer to this question.

If indeterminist freedom is really what we have then that would mean that God was not in control of the universe because human free will would be outside and independent of God.

Ultimately, that means that God’s plan can be thwarted and the Bible says that’s not possible (Prov.

16:4; Isa.

46:8-13; Rom.

11:36; Heb.