Sweet Will of God

Introduction

How do you know that you’re getting older? What are some of the signs, particularly maybe some of the mental signs that let you know you’re getting older? I’m asking for a friend. This morning I got dressed. Shirt, tie, jacket, fully ready to come to church, and went and took one last look in the bathroom mirror and realized I had completely forgotten to shave. So the whole process had to start over again. That may be a sign. Another sure sign, and maybe you’ve experienced this, is to walk into a room and realize you have no idea why you’re there. You’re sure that at some point in that process you had a thought in mind or a task in mind. But when you pass through the portals of that door, your memory just disappeared.

You ever done that? What’s maybe even worse than that? Have you ever been standing at the front door of your house? And realize I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.

By the way, if you’re having that lapse, I have a tip for you. Now it requires you having the courage to go and grab a tailpipe of your car. But that’s a sure sign. I’m thankful that this morning, as we’ve gathered together at this hour, that not one of us has forgotten why we entered this room. We know why we are here today. And it’s important for us to be reminded. We are here because of God. We’re here for God. We are here solely to worship our God. We need to be reminded of that from time to time, don’t we? To never forget why we are here. And so from time to time in our lessons, we need to be reminded. We need to talk about worship.

But even more fundamental than that, we need to talk about God, the God whom we worship. And so sometimes it bears repeating to just focus upon God and who He is, to remind us, as if we need reminded, but still to remind us why we are here and who we are worshiping. This morning I’d like to talk about the subject that we just sang about. The will of God.

1. The Determined Will of God

I want to talk about God this morning as we begin this day of worship. And specifically, I want to talk about the will of God. I believe when we use the expression will of God, we find in Scripture that it’s expressed in at least three ways. And let’s talk about those three ways. The three wills of God. First, and maybe this is where we need to begin, if we talk about the will of God, we must first talk about his determined will. In our Bible reading this morning, Elijah read from the sermon in Acts chapter 2, where it says, God decided, through his determined will to send his only begotten Son. When we talk about the determined will of God, we’re talking about something that God in his power and in his sovereignty has decided to do.

And because of his position, nothing can thwart that will.

It means that he has ultimate power. All power, all authority resides in him. But it also carries with it a secondary idea that not only does he have that power, but he has that power by fiat. That is, nobody gave it to him. It is his. It rests and resides in him alone. There’s no higher power. There’s no delegating power. We might illustrate it this way. Imagine the uncomfortable illustration of you getting a traffic ticket. And you feel you were innocent of that offense. There’s multiple layers and levels to which you could make an appeal. You could first begin with the officer who’s issuing the ticket. And maybe plead with your case with him. But if you’re unsuccessful there, there may be someone, and I don’t know all the rankings of police officers, but there may be someone in that department higher than him that you could go to that person and make an appeal.

Short of that, maybe if you know the mayor. Or you could go to traffic court and before that judge or that magistrate pleads your case. And let’s just imagine, I know this is a serious, a silly scenario, but let’s just imagine that if it were possible, and they would listen to this such a trivial case, that you could take it all the way up the judicial system to the Supreme Court. That there’s always some power above the other. When we talk about the power of God, when we talk about the determined will of God, there is no person to whom we can appeal. And he is the only one in him resides not only this authority and power, but he is the only one with the power, with the authority, with the justice, with the mercy and the love to rightly exercise that power.

And so there’s a couple ramifications from that. Number one is let’s be careful in our complaints. Because do we realize that every complaint implies that I could do it better? And in our complaints, we must be careful that we’re not questioning the power of God and the will of God. And we must also understand that God’s will and God’s wisdom is greater than our prayers. And so if our prayers are against God’s will, they will not, and we can be thankful, they will not be answered. Let’s think about this. You remember, you don’t have to turn back there. You’ll remember Genesis chapter one and in verse one, won’t you? When we’re first introduced to God, we’re introduced to his determined will. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

No one could do that but God. And no one could stop our God from doing that. Chapter 2. And in verse 7 of the book of Genesis. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. If there was ever a real life illustration of the determined will of God, it is that.

As so many times is the case, the poet can express it far better than we ourselves. And look what the poet says in 1 Chronicles 29, beginning with me in verse 10. Therefore, David blessed the Lord before all the congregation. And David said, 1 Chronicles 29, verse 10, David said, Blessed are you, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty. For all that is in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord. And you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you reign over all. In your hand is power and might. In your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.

What’s our response to the determined will of God? Like David, our response should be praise. Do you realize, studying Psalms here in the auditorium, you realize how many of the Psalms, the Psalms of praise, originate that praise because of the creative power of God. That demonstrates, as we’ve seen, powerfully his determined will. Our response is to praise Him. Our second response is that of Job’s. Look over in Job chapter 42. Job in his turmoil questioned God. And God answered. Notice Job’s reply to God’s answer, Job 42. Job 42 and in verse 2, Job says to God, I know that you can do everything. And that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. The first response is that of the poet David. The first response to the determined will of God is praise.

The second is that of Job, and that is submission. You can do everything. And so Job follows this by saying, So I’ll be quiet. I will submit. We see in God the determined will of God. We see his power, so as the Proverb writer would say, nothing can stand against Him.

2. His Preceptive or Revealed Will

But when we look at the scriptures, we see God’s will and that word or that expression, the will of God expressed in a different way, and what we might call His preceptive will. Or another way of saying that is His revealed will. God’s will for our lives has been revealed through His Word, the Bible. And so sometimes we use the will of God or God’s will as synonymous with the Scripture. So God has revealed His will to us.

That God simply spoke. And everything we see and know came into existence.

Psalm 19 points that out, doesn’t it? That looking at the stars, or we would say looking at the mountains and the valleys and the rivers can show us the power of God. But that revelation is limited in its knowledge. Well, I can see the power of God. And maybe I can learn a little bit about that God and draw some conclusions. But there’s so much I don’t know about that God just from nature. Number one, I don’t know his name. I don’t know what, if anything, he wants from me in return for all that he has done. I might draw some vague implications, but I really don’t even know whether he’s a malevolent God or a benevolent God. And in comes the preceptive or the revealed will of God.

To where God more fully and completely reveals himself and his nature. And understand this, the only way we can truly know God is through his revealed will. We encourage Bible study. Whether it’s through our annual Bible readings, whether it’s through our classes here, your home study. And we do that for various reasons. But understand, I believe not the only, but the fundamental reason we read the scriptures. The fundamental reason we study God’s word is to know about Him. Yes, I learned what He wants me to do and how I can therefore obey the gospel. But that’s second to first opening up His Word, His will, and knowing about Him. And these first two wills are connected. I will not truly appreciate and submit myself to the revealed will of God until I fully understand and appreciate His determined will.

That He is God.

Because generally speaking, we’re stubborn people, aren’t we? You may be the exception to this rule, but we usually have two responses when someone tells us what to do. First of all, is who are you. And then if we’re honest, many times our second response is, I don’t do that. Are you like that? I confess I am. When we lived in North Alabama, there was a preacher study in Athens, Alabama, that was held at the East Side Church Building in Athens, Alabama, and some preachers would get together, and one of the preachers would be assigned to give some kind of talk or some kind of discussion for about an hour, and then the most important thing is we’d break for lunch. But we we’d meet in the church building here at Athens, and so we’d all the preachers assemble and we’d sit in the midsection kind of like this, and all set kind of toward the front.

And so it was inevitable that when you came for this study that you’re going to be sitting in someone else’s seat. And you could see their stuff there. And at this particular church building, there were a lot of little footstools. I’m assuming for the ladies.

I was setting this one study. And big bold, sharpie letters, it says, Do not move. Exclamation point. I looked at that stool. I looked at those all capital letters. Do not move. Exclamation point. You could probably guess what I did. I bent down and slid the stool two inches to the left.

I couldn’t help it. Do not move. My first inclination was, I must move this stool. But when it comes to God, I hope that we can honestly sing.

But it’ll only yield when we understand who God is. That He has every right, every right to dictate to me what I do. And He has every right to expect nothing from me but submission. We talked about our response to the determined will of God. What should be our response to the revealed will of God? Look over in the book of Ephesians, chapter 5. In Ephesians chapter 5. Look with me beginning in verse 17. Therefore, because, as he had said in the previous verse, because the days are evil, we’ll come back to that. But because the days are evil, he says in verse 17, therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

What’s our response to the revealed will of God? Is to understand it. To understand what God wants from me. And to understand that in every sense of the word, so that I can submit to it. And so I willingly open up the word of the one who simply spoke. And this world came into existence. And I say, as the prophet did, speak, for your servant heareth. Tell me, God. Tell me who you are. Tell me what you would have me to do. I need that. That’s not only a sign of submission, which it ultimately and firstly is, but it’s also for my benefit because as Paul said, we know, we need to know what the will of the Lord is. We need to understand that because the days are evil.

Just briefly, what does that mean the days are evil? Well, it might mean that the days are evil. It might mean that the days are full of evil stuff. And because there is evil around us and surrounding us, we need to know what is pure and good, and that is found in the will of God, the revealed will of God. But maybe, just maybe it means the days are evil in another sense. The days are evil in the sense that the days are ticking away. And we blink and a year has passed. We sleep and a decade has passed. And so the days are evil in the sense that the calendar and the clock is against us. And so we need to know what the will of the Lord is.

3. His Desired Will

And so we redeem the time, the same apostle says. We buying up the opportunities to be able to understand and to know the will of God. The determined will of God and the preceptive or the revealed will of God, which brings us to our third point. We have what we might call his desired will. We talked about the determined will. The determined will of God is when God says, I’m doing this. I’m creating the world. Not one person, not an army of persons, could have stopped God’s will. Our Bible reading again, God determined to send his son. There was no one who could stop that. The Jews conspired with the Romans and thought they had stopped him by nailing him to the cross, but they were really just fulfilling his will.

Which was demonstrated and further exclamated that his will would be done when the preacher goes on to say, God raised him up. There’s certain things God’s going to do. And there is nothing to stop him. But let’s think about what a wonderful God we serve. A God that possesses that much innate power. Because he also possesses that much innate mercy, grace, and love has decided on many things to let us decide. That’s powerful. Some wrestle with this and have a problem with thinking that if God is a sovereign God, that everything that happens has to be by his heavy-handed will. But please understand this that an all-powerful being, an all-sovereign being, does he not possess within himself the power to decide to let us decide? And he’s done that.

He wants us to serve him, but he doesn’t force us to. Because our God, who is love, understands that love is only truly love when it is voluntarily offered, not forced. I think I can illustrate this. Particularly if you had siblings growing up. I had two older brothers. We fought all the time. And so much of my childhood memories are of spanking. Followed by, go tell your brother you’re sorry. Did I do it? Yes, I did. I didn’t want another spanking. But if I had to do that a hundred times, which is probably a low estimate, go and forcibly apologize to my brother. I can count in the whole of a doughnut the number of times I really meant that. Because I was forced to say it.

God didn’t want that kind of love and allegiance. Serve me as if you have a choice. God who spoke, and this world came into existence, now says, Come unto me. Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 3. A familiar verse in 2 Peter chapter 3 and in verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness. In other words, it’s not that God lacks power and ability to do his will, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to his repentance. See, God does not always impose his will.

Conclusion

And it says of her in Revelation 2, verse 21, that God gave her time and chance to repent. But she would not. Did God want her to repent? Did God want her to change and to come to Him? Yes. That was His will. But she would not. What a God we serve. A God so powerful. So majestic, so sovereign, who reaches down into His very own creation and says, Here are my words. Here is who I am. Will you therefore come and serve me? Will you make the choice to come and serve me? May we always say, let in me thy will be done. Will you pray with me this morning? Dear God and Father, we’re so thankful that you are who you are. We’re so thankful for your power and your might.

So powerfully demonstrated. We’re so thankful that we can be the recipients of the physical blessings that come, and the spiritual blessings that come through your determined will.

Father, we fall down before you. You who are so worthy of our worship. But we also fall down before you in tears and regret, so sorry for our rebellion, for our complaining, for our griping. We submit to you, Father. So thankful for your revealed will. So thankful that you would humble yourself to communicate to such feeble and weak creatures that you would tell us who you are, why you’ve done the things that you’ve done, to let us see your glory.

Father, we know why we’re here. We’ve gathered to honor and to serve the one who far deserves our worship and our love.

Continue to humble us before you.

Amen.