sermonette: God's Sovereignty and Man's Choice

God Trains His Children
David C. Grabbe
Given 10-Jan-04; Sermon #646s; 15 minutes

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A number of years ago there was a genre of books that broke with the typical linear style of storytelling. There are different series that use this style, and they had such names as Choose your own adventure or Choose your fate or choose your own ending. These were not books that you read from cover to cover unless you're some kind of cheater. Instead, these books had you make choices every few pages regarding which way you wanted the story line to progress. And so you would read a few pages and then you're presented with a number of options, usually 2 or 3, and the different options would direct you to different pages where the storyline would pick up again. And then you'd read a few more pages and then you'd choose again which way you wanted it to go. Over the course of the story, you might make only a few choices before you reach the ending, or you might end up with several dozen different choices. And when you, when you reach the end of the story, you could start over again and this time make different choices and perhaps finish with a different ending. And I say perhaps because even with so many choices to be made there were in reality only a few endings. Sooner or later the story lines would all come together, and there was a predictable finale, perhaps fame and fortune, perhaps an ignominious death, or perhaps a very drab and ordinary life that was often seen by readers as a fate worse than death. These works were written in such a way that the reader had a measure of control over the path that was followed and even over the ending, but at the same time, both the options that were presented as well as the possible endings were all orchestrated by the authors. These books have long ago passed from pop culture into the dufty shelves of secondhand stores, and it is only fitting, for there is really nothing significant about their contents. They will never be considered fine literature, and their only redeeming value with the novelty of having a choice presented concerning how things turned out. I've not read one of these books in many years, but they came to mind recently as a very simple explanation of one of the apparent paradoxes of the Bible. The para paradox about which I will be speaking this afternoon is one that seems to exist between God's sovereignty on the one hand and man's free moral agency on the other. Is God truly sovereign if man can make choices that are contrary to God's will? On the other hand, does man truly have free moral agency, the capacity to make choices if God has already determined the end? Like the law versus grace debate, the reality is we will see is that there is no contradiction. These two principles fit together perfectly. But unless these elements are put into their proper places, we face the danger on the one extreme of believing God has done everything and will do everything for us, and the danger on the other extreme of believing that we are doing most of the work in the processes of justification, sanctification, salvation, and glorification. The topics of God's sovereignty and mankind's responsibility have been covered in great detail in previous sermons and articles, and these topics are much too broad to try to cover in a single sermonette, but what we will be looking at today is the intersection between these two forces. There are many biblical examples to demonstrate God's sovereignty over our physical and spiritual lives. We know that the Bible says that his will and his counsel will stand. We know that we are his workmanship and that he is the master potter, bringing us our salvation to pass, and we know that he is not willing that any should perish. We know that we are chosen from the foundation of the world, and we are predestined to be adopted children. These are just a few of the many, many statements that demonstrate God's sovereign control over His creation and which have led some, such as John Calvin, to believe in a type of fate where all encompassing predestination that leaves us as spectators of our own lives. On the other hand, there are seemingly countless verses that exhort us to be zealous and faithful in our responsibilities and obedience. We are told to make our calling and election sure, implying that it is not sure right now. We are exhorted to work out our own salvation. The book of Hebrews is all about Christians who are flipping away and reject and neglecting their salvation. And we know that God's threat of punishment in the Lake of Fire is not an idle one. He would not warn us about it if he were not prepared to follow through. It is possible for us to fall away. It is apparent that we cannot simply ignore either side of this equation because Scripture cannot be broken. Both of these sides must fit together and complement each other. And the choose your own adventure books serve as a very simple model of how this is possible. Like those books, even though there are, there are many choices to be made over the course of this life, there are really only two endings for those whom God has called. There is eternal life on the one hand in God's kingdom, and there is eternal death on the other. The choices we make lead to either one or the other, and like the books we are presented with options and choices on a regular basis. And even though we make these choices, we are doing the choosing. It is evident that we may not have as many options as we might like. In the books, the typical decision point consisted of 2 or 3, perhaps even 4 options, and at times this could be very frustrating because the choice we really wanted was not listed. And so it is with our lives. We have the freedom and the responsibility to make decisions and choices, but very often the option we really want has not been made available by God. Please turn with me to Proverbs 22 verse 6. Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it. One for us to consider this verse from the perspective of Christians in the place of the child and God in the place of the parent doing the training. God is training us in the way we should go, and so when we are spiritually mature and a part of His kingdom, we will not depart from that way. The word train in this verse means to narrow in or to hedge or to limit. And God as our perfect Father, hedges us in. He puts a hedge on either side of us, as it were, to help direct our course in life. Jesus Christ even calls this way of life the narrow way. We can begin to see that God limits us by narrowing our options. We still have to make choices, but because of the hedge that God provides on either side of us, we do not have as many options as we otherwise might if we had not been called out of this world. And incidentally, this hedge, this limiting also provides us with a sense of security. The honest psychologist will tell you that a child, a child feels more secure and happy when it knows where the boundaries are and when there are only a few options. Having too many options can overwhelm an undeveloped minds, and this applies to us on a spiritual plane just as it applies to children on a physical one. We can look back over our own histories and see this hedging that God does. We each make countless decisions over the course of our lives, and yet at each turn there is probably, there probably was not the option available that we might have considered to be perfect. As an example, if we had the choice, probably most of us would be making somewhere between a little more and a lot more money, might be driving a nicer car and living in a nicer house, but God, in His wisdom, sovereignty, and providence has not given us those options. He has not given us unlimited power or resources yet. He has hedged us in for our own good while at the same time giving us the opportunity to make choices that illustrate his character being built in us and at the same time to make choices that will help to build that character. So take another look at an example of God determining the available options and mankind's making the choice. Please turn to Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30 verse 15. Deuteronomy 30:15. See, I have set before you this day life and good and death and evil. Those who set the options here. And that I command you this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and keep His commandments in his statutes and his judgments, that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land where you go to possess it. But if you turn If your heart turned away, notice there is the choice then. For that you will not hear but shall be drawn away and worship other gods and serve them. I denounce unto you this day that you shall surely perish and that you shall not prolong your days upon the land where you pass over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record the day against you that I have set before you life and death, lusting and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your seed may live. These verses make it very plain. God sets the options before us, and we choose. The options in this case are very broad and far reaching. On the one hand, there is life, good, and blessing. On the other hand, there is death, evil, and cursing. And God even counsels us which one, which choice to make, but he leaves the actual decision making to us. Verse 16 also links obedience to God's laws and instructions with choosing life and blessing. Choosing life then is not a decision that one makes at a single point in time, or rather it is the overall direction and approach to life, as well as the specific decisions we make at each turn. It will leave you to think that we have chosen life when we are baptized, but this is actually a continual choice and not a single one. This ongoing choice, which can be synonymous with seeking first the kingdom of God, will be demonstrated in our approach to any and all of God's laws, instructions, and exhortations. It will be revealed that things like our conduct and conversation on the Sabbath. God will see it in our faithfulness and tithing and giving offerings, and God will discover it in the priority we place on daily prayer and Bible study such as we heard last week from Bill. In these areas as well as almost any other area of life, It is possible for us to be continually choosing death through neglect or through apathy through distraction, through self-justification or through outright rebellion to God's laws. We can choose to fall away to neglect so great salvation of the Hebrews were by the decisions that we make on a daily basis. Once we begin to understand the complementary nature of the interplay between God's sovereignty and man's choice, we can see countless examples of this pattern throughout the Bible. The story of Job, which is in the Old Testament, by the way. It is a very interesting case study because we not only see God's sovereignty and Job's choice, we also see God's sovereignty and Satan's choice. With Satan, God set the limits and hedged them in with regard to what he could do to Job. God gave Satan the options, and Satan made the choice of how to afflict Job. This example also shows how the choices made by one individual can affect another who has no control over the matter. The tragedies that befell Job were not of his own choosing. They happened to him out of the blue, and we are not told that there was anything he could have done to prevent them. But these tragedies which were Satan's choices, then hedged Job and put him in the place where God wanted him. Then at that point Job was faced with the choice of how to respond to his wife, to his friends, and to God. Please turn to II Timothy 1 and verse 6. II Timothy 1 verses 6 and 7. Wherefore I put you in remembrance remembrance that you stir up the gift of God which is in you by the putting on of my hands, for God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Verse 6 tells us to stir tells us to stir up the Holy Spirit, and Paul gives us similar advice in First Thessalonians 5:19, where he tells us not to quench or not to suppress the Holy Spirit. In this instance also, God by His grace and His sovereignty has given a measure of His spirit, that essence of his mind, and that motivating factor that he uses. In acting With the receipt of His spirit, we have a much greater capacity to make the right choices and submit to God's will. This is why Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. But at the same time we still have to choose to be led. God in His sovereignty provides us with the means of understanding His truths. We make the choice to either yield or to rebel. Sometimes like Job, we find ourselves in circumstances that are not of our doing. A chapter of our story may be written without our knowledge or approval and thrust upon us to read with dismay. At other times, the choice that we made back on page 2 may still be affecting our circumstances and may be affecting the options that are available to us now. It is to our advantage to honestly determine the cause of our circumstances whenever it is possible. Sometimes it seems like we have read, say, page 14 a dozen times as the same thing happens to us over and over. This is when we have time to take a step back and see what part of our decision making is out of alignment with God's will. And could be prompting him to repeatedly send us back to the same situation. At other times we find ourselves back on the same page even after finally making the right choice if we have made it for the wrong reason. Abstaining from something simply out of fear of getting caught is very different from abstaining from something because it is wrong. And eventually because, because God is sovereign, we will be faithd with such a choice that will demonstrate our true intentions and character. The choose your own adventure books are a simple example, and they certainly do not cover all of the aspects or the intricacies of these issues, but they do demonstrate the basic framework that helps us to see how God's sovereignty and man's free moral agency work together. God through His sovereignty is responsible for the calling we have received. He is responsible for the Holy Spirit working with us prior to baptism to begin to understand these truths. He is responsible for creating circumstances to both test our character as well as to build it. And he is responsible for every instance of grace bestowed upon us as we travel this path. Those that God has called then have the freedom and the responsibility to choose to submit to God in every circumstance that He creates for us, as well as those that He allows us to create for ourselves, but we absolutely need God to orchestrate events in our lives in order for the salvation process to be a success. So we can see that God is sovereign and mankind still has free choice. What mankind does not have is all of the options at any given time, because God is the perfect parent. He trains his children. He hedges us in and limits our options to those that are according to His purpose for us.