Jeffrey C. Long

This sermon more then any other I’ve preached lately could provoke discussion or debate. I encourage you to comment at the bottom of message. I look forward to your thoughts.

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Interesting things in the newspaper lately in reaction to the tsunami disaster

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20050113-9999-1c13wrapup.html

One Hindu leader told The Dallas Morning News, “Whenever the cosmic order of life is disrupted, these events can happen,”

A Muslim leader remarked “Everything is predetermined by Allah and the reward for this suffering will come in heaven.”

http://www.volunteertv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2786331&nav=4QcHV06V

Some local Buddhists say society brought the tragedy upon itself, but through prayer and good deeds redemption can happen. Tashi Norbu is a Buddhist monk. He says, “Every kind of problem we face or individually as a group or community is the result of Karma.”

People of every faith are asking “What is the relationship between their God and human events.

In fact, I have not seen this type of questioning about God’s interaction with the world in my lifetime. We saw a little bit of it when the trade towers were attacked on September 11th. But even then, there was little consideration of whether God was involved.

People wonder

Are these just random events in a world governed only by the forces of nature?

Did their God make the tsunami happen? Or did he allow it to happen?

Was their something that they did wrong that provoked the wrath of either God, or the consequences of collective karma?

In each case, people of different faiths each come up with a different answer that satisfies them

Proverbs 27:7 tells us “A full soul loathes a honeycomb;

But to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.”

People who are hungry will be satisfied by anything, even if it is bitter, because it fills them up. And so they will accept the answers given to them by their gods.

If you were asked to explain God’s relationship to the tsunami disaster, do you know what you would say?

Today we are going to examine two ways of looking at how we are to live our lives that are wrestled over from the Bible.

The first is predestination. And the second is free will.

Let’s read from Ephesians Chapter 1:3-6

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love; 5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace,

First lets look at this idea of being predestined.

It says here that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world. And predestined us for adoption as children.

What does this word predestined mean?


Predestined

Strongs Bible dictionary defines it as to limit in advance, to predetermine or determine before, to ordain, predestinate.

So it means that God has determined in advance, before the foundations of the world even that he is going to choose us, that he is going to determine before or ordain that we would be adopted as his children.

Free Will

Go back to verse 3 and notice something with me. Paul declares “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is taking an action that appears to be a result of his free choice.

So in these verses we discover something remarkable. That both free will and predestination are put together.

Now one of the problems that people have had with these two Biblical concepts is that they seem logically contradictory.

I have been so helped by an author named Dennis Woods who has written a book called Discipling the Nations. In it he describes an event in history that shines light on dealing with logical contradictions or paradoxes in the Bible.

“The first generation of Puritans held the Bible in high regard. Unfortunately, they also relied on human reason and natural law to demostrate or establish the authority of God’s Word. Perry Miller observed, “…in the Puritan mind confidence in the certainty of God’s Word was matched by an equal confidence in the infallibility of logic.” Their outlook was tainted by the idea that reason is sufficient in defending the supreme authority of the Bible. If we rely on human reason and natural law as the fundamental authority to defend Scritpure, we thereby diminish the authority of Scripture. Ironically, if we trust in anything other than the Bible to establish the authority of the Bible, we thereby assert the ultimacy of that “anything other”- whatever it may be.

“Human reason is clearly a gift of God and a tool to be used in unlocking the mysteries of God’s Word and God’s world. However, we must not forget that it is a creaturely, dirivative tool. Reason always operates from, or on the basis of, some source of authority. If that authority is the Word of God, well and good. However, if the source of authority is the autonomous mind of man or nature, we quickly run into trouble. This is reason run amok.”

-Discipling the Nations “Dennis Woods”

See when we deal with Predestination and Free Will, we try to make them fit together logically. Or we try to defend one against the other based on logic. For example, the person who supports Predestination says logically that if God is omnipotent, then he must be sovereign over all events in the world and thus he predestines what will occur. The person who defends free will says that if God is sovereign over everything, then he responsible for the evil that occurs and since that goes against the nature of God, he must not be responsible for everything.

But I agree with something that my pastor used to say. He quoted Chuck Smith, the founder of the Calvary Chapel churches who said:

“When I come upon two passages in the Scriptures that seem to contradict each other, they must both be true; because the Word of God is completely true and infallible.”

So, both must be true. In fact we find in verse 3 these two ideas already sandwiched together. Paul speaks both of blessing God, which is choice we are told to make, and also that God chose us before the foundation of the world.

Let me share an illustration of both concepts working together, and then we will discuss a few practicals and we can all go home with some new tools under our belt.

Author Philip Yancey writes:

In high school, I took pride in my ability to play chess. I joined the chess club, and during lunch hour could be found sitting at a table with other nerds poring over books with titles like Classic King Pawn Openings. I studied techniques, won most of my matches, and put the game aside for 20 years.

Then, in Chicago, I met a truly fine chess player who had been perfecting his skills long since high school. When we played a few matches, I learned what it is like to play against a master. Any classic offense I tried, he countered with a classic defense. If I turned to more risky, unorthodox techniques, he incorporated my bold forays into his winning strategies. Although I had complete freedom to make any move I wished, I soon reached the conclusion that none of my strategies mattered very much. His superior skill guaranteed that my purposes inevitably ended up serving his own.

Perhaps God engages our universe, his own creation, in much the same way. He grants us freedom to rebel against its original design, but even as we do so we end up ironically serving his eventual goal of restoration.

If I accept that blueprint–a huge step of faith, I confess–it transforms how I view both good and bad things that happen. Good things, such as health, talent, and money, I can present to God as offerings to serve his purposes. And bad things, too–disability, poverty, family dysfunction, failures–can be redeemed as the very instruments that drive me to God.

Citation: Philip Yancey, “Chess Master,” Christianity Today (5-22-00), p.112

See how we see both things at work. God is the chessmaster who controls the game, but at the same time, we have the freedom to make our own moves. Both concepts are true.

Now some practicals about how to live this in our lives.

1. I believe that it is important to live our lives with the belief that God is in charge of everything. Because if we don’t, human pride will rise up and believe that we are responsible for the good or bad in our lives or the good or bad in other people’s lives. I know that believing this can wind up seeming as though God is culpable for the bad that occurs in the world. But I would rather live with a dangerous God who is all-powerful then with a safe God whose power is limited.

2. I believe that as we live in a world where God is all-powerful, he calls us to make moment by moment decisions that choose to make him Lord over our lives. 
Balthasar Hubmaier was a 16th century Anabaptist writer. The Anabaptists were the forebearers of the Mennonite church. He wrote “faith must express itself also in love to God and the neighbor. Thus John teaches us when he says: Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and truth.” Faith must be constantly choosing love. Let me say it again. Faith must be constantly choosing love. To love God and to love our neighbor. So, even under the sovereign hand of God, we are given responsibility to choose to love.

3. We should not let these issues divide us. Another Anabaptist writer, Hans Denk wrote “Whoever submits his will to the will of God, he is free for good and imprisoned for good. Whoever does not so submit his will is free for evil and imprisoned for evil. Whoever is one’s master frees one to do in his service whatever he desires. God coerces no one to remain in his service whom love does not coerce. The devil, however, is unable to force anyone to stay in his service who has once seen the truth.” “It, therefore, makes no difference whether one speaks of the free or the bound will; one must understand the difference on both sides. The word itself is not worth the discord.” This subject is not worth discord between people because both truths, that God predestines the paths of our world, and that we are called to make decisions to love are true.

4. Finally, predestination can lead a person to wonder whether or not they are predestined and chosen by God. We find a beautiful passage to answer that question in I John 3

I John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.

I John 3:18 My little children, let’s not love in word only, neither with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him

I John 3:23 This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. 24 He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us.

We know we are chosen by God because

A. We choose to love the brothers verse 14

B. We choose to love not in word only but in truth and in dead verse 18

C. And finally because we keep Jesus’ commandments.

If you are doing these three things, then you can have the confidence that God has chosen you before the foundation of the world.

If you aren’t doing these three things and you worry that maybe you aren’t chosen by God, I have a suggestion for you. Start doing them so that you know that you are called.