THE WILL OF GOD: AN OPEN SECRET Sermon Notes

THE WILL OF GOD: AN OPEN SECRET Sermon Notes

James 4:13–17
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

INTRODUCTION EXAMPLE
The 19th ct. philosopher Soren Kierkegaard told a story about a man who was invited to a friend’s house for dinner. On the way there, a tile fell off the roof of a house and killed the man. Obviously, the man accepted the invitation but did not show up – for reasons beyond his control. Kierkegaard wondered how the host would have responded if the man would have accepted the invitation but qualified it with I will come definitely except in case a roof tile falls on my head and kills me on the way there – then I can not come”. This comment sounds like a joke but It is actually quite serious and quite accurate. Life in this world is perilous and little things can permanently alter our plans.

JAMES SCRIPTURE COMMENTARY
-James never condemns their planning but rather their godless self-assurance!
They had a starting time, a location, a goal, a target date – all good
but they forgot the BIG IF. See Proverbs 16:9 and 19:21, then james 1:5

INTRODUCE GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL
-CERTAIN
-EXHAUSTIVE
-PERFECT
-SECRET (EXCEPT IN FORETELLING PROPHECY)

Deuteronomy 29:29
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Secret - (sātar) to hide or conceal (by covering), lit. or fig.:— keep close, (keep) secret.

Isaiah 45:15
15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

Revealed - (gālâ) uncover, remove. especially used of the ear by taking away the hair, of the face by taking away a veil to make naked; hence, to disclose, reveal.

Romans 11:33–34
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”

Acts 2:22–23
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

-God’s eternal decree included the foreordination of evil

Acts 4:24–28
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

-Herod, Pilate, Roman soldiers, Jewish leaders

THE WILL OF DECREE is what God has ordained. This you TRUST.
Decree – refers to a divine determination, plans, counsels, purposes, the sovereign commands of the LORD of all! (see Frame 314-315). Decretive (the will of God’s good pleasure), similar to antecedent will, the real or essential will of God, secret will, hidden decrees.

Augustine – “The will of God is the necessity of all things.”

Examples:

Genesis 50:20
Joseph says to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Here God’s revealed will to Joseph’s brothers was that they should love him and not steal from him or sell him into slavery or make plans to murder him. But God’s secret will was that in the disobedience of Joseph’s brothers a greater good would be done when Joseph, having been sold into slavery into Egypt, gained authority over the land and was able to save his family. (this from Grudem)

Genesis 45:7
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.

II. THE WILL OF DESIRE is what God has commanded – what he desires from His creatures.

This you OBEY. Preceptive (states of affairs God sees as desirable), similar to consequent will, expressed or signified will, revealed will, will of command, will of precept

Ecclesiastes 12:13
Both secret (inscrutable purposes and sovereign will) and revealed things (his commands and his word).

III. THE WILL OF DIRECTION walking in the way of wisdom and guidance

This you DO (Walk, don’t wait)

Isaiah 46:9–11
9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ 11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

Isaiah 41:21–23
Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. 22 Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. 23 Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.