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Last week we talked about James 4:15, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” God expects us to make plans, but He also expects us to submit our plans to Him. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. He may or may not allow us to fulfill our plans. The amazing thing is that God has a will about what we plan to do.
But how do we know what God wants us to do? There’s a bucket full of false and misguided, unbiblical teachings about finding God’s will. Most of it isn’t much different than mystical paganism, palm reading, tea leaves, or the horoscope. Many see God’s will as a dot that you either hit or miss. If you make the wrong decision and miss, you are consigned to God’s plan B. Others see discerning God’s will like a combination lock and the lottery. If your numbers don’t line up, you’re sunk. “If human resources calls before 1 pm, I’ll know God wants me to take this job.” Many talk about impressions or feelings or promptings or following signs to figure it out. Or God talks to them directly. Justin Peters has clips of Elevation Church Pastor Steven Furtick saying, “The Lord told me to tell you.” Beth Moore said in a sermon, “God spoke to my heart. Very few times has God been this articulate with me. I asked God what he wanted me to do. ‘I’m asking you to brush his hair.’” One lady has published and is selling a whole slew of books about “Jesus calling.” She claims Jesus talks to her and she writes it all down for others to read.
Certainly God guides us through His Word. But even there, be careful. You have to be sure you are interpreting Scripture properly by looking at the context of the verses. You’ve probably heard of the guy who wanted God to tell him what to do so he prayed, then opened his Bible at random, and put his finger on a verse. It read, “Judas went out and hung himself.” Not very encouraged, he closed his Bible, prayed, and opened it again. His finger fell on another verse, “Go and do likewise.” Pretty discouraged, he tried this approach one more time and read, “What thou doest, do quickly.”
We pray, “Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” So if “the Lord wills” doesn’t mean any of the above and we sincerely want to know the Lord’s will, what do we do? What is God’s will? What does God want me to do? Buy a house or rent? Buy another vehicle or keep pouring money into this old clunker? Resign from this job or hang in there? I speak from experience with this. Some 32 years ago I resigned as a pastor after being with the church about 13 years. I did so without a job to support my family thinking I could easily find a job. Surely McDonald’s needed a trustworthy person. Did I do God’s will? If I missed the “dot” would I be consigned to God’s plan B for the rest of my life? How would I discern where God was leading me? I needed a job, so I prayed about it, went job hunting, and found either there were no job openings or I was over qualified for the job. I knew God says in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 if you don’t work you don’t eat and in 1 Timothy 5:8 if you don’t provide for your own, you’re worse than an infidel. How was God going to reveal what I should do? So, trusting Him, I decided to do what my dad had taught me well. I went into town from business to business and asked if anyone wanted their car washed while they were working. Amazingly, the response was more than I expected. People handed me their car keys and I washed quite a few cars in my garage. We also began babysitting two children. The father of one of the girls eventually asked if I’d like to help set up a paint shop for his construction company to paint and stain doors and trim for new homes in Seymour. “Thank you, Lord.” In God’s good providence one step at a time He revealed that’s what I should do for the next year. Toward the end of a year I got a phone call from Evansville, Indiana, inviting me to be involved in a church plant and that is how we got to Evansville. There were no visions, voices, or mystical experiences. Just doing my best and trusting God.
Based on “If the Lord wills” in James 4:15, I want to focus our attention this morning on two aspects of God’s will. These are both thrilling and so comforting and encouraging. We need a strong sense of the truth of both aspects, the sovereign will of God and the revealed will of God.
GOD’S SOVEREIGN WILL
God is the supreme ruler of the universe and has a sovereign, eternal plan. This is called His divine decree that the triune God determined wholly within Himself in eternity past that determines everything that happens in God’s entire universe. God doesn’t make mid-flight corrections. This will of God is certain to be fulfilled, it is all-inclusive, it is secret unless He reveals it to us, and it is designed to bring maximum glory to God.
Psalm 103:19, The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules overall.
Everything that happens in all of history, the good, the bad, and the ugly, all fulfill God’s sovereign plan. Jerry Bridges in his book, Is God Really In Control? assures us “If there is a single event in all the universe that can occur outside of God’s sovereign control then we cannot trust Him.” R. C. Sproul added, “If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.” If God is not sovereign, God is not God.
You may wonder about this when you listen to the news and the moral, social, political corruption and chaos we’re in, but God’s authoritative and inerrant Word assures us nothing happens by chance.
Ephesians 1:11, also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.
Nothing happens by chance and Babylon’s babbly King Neb, after coming to his senses while out in the cow pasture, added that no one can stop what God has decreed.
Daniel 4:34-35, “But at the end of that period, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever; For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, And His kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”
That’s good theology! That’s what we mean when we talk about a high view of God. God is absolutely sovereign over everything. He fulfills everything He decreed in eternity past. Some of it He has revealed, some of it He hasn’t.
Watch this progression of God’s sovereign will in bringing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. First, God planned in eternity past to create man and for man to sin. This was for God’s own glory and revealed His mercy and grace by sending His only Son to save sinners. He planned to provide a Savior for sinners. 1 Peter 1:20 says Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Then after sin entered the world, God promised in Genesis 3:15 that the woman’s seed would squash the head of the serpent. In Genesis 49:10 God promised the Redeemer would come through the line of Judah. In Psalm 22:16 God revealed that the Savior would be crucified and his hands and feet pierced. In Isaiah 53, about 700 years before Christ, God described in detail both the substitutionary sacrifice and the application of salvation to sinners, including justification by faith alone. Then through Daniel, God gave a timeline of 483 years until the Messiah would be cut off. God determined that Judas would betray Christ. Christ was crucified by wicked men and rose again, as God sovereignly determined. Peter proclaimed this entire sovereign plan in Acts 2:23, Christ was “delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” And in Acts 4 the apostles prayed about the fulfillment of God’s sovereign plan through wicked men.
Acts 4:27-28, 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 purpose predestined to occur.
Are you a genuine, born again believer? If so, God’s sovereignty is evident in your personal salvation! God chose you to be His before the foundation of the earth according to Ephesians 1:4: “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Your salvation was not a chance happening or from your own free will. After thousands of years passed by, you were conceived and born into this world and at some point in your life, God drew you to Himself by His Spirit and you were born again. You came to Christ, repenting of your sins and trusting in Him.
John 6:37, All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
John 6:44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Is this not wonderful and good? Until you come to see and delight in God as the ruling, reigning, and sovereign King who does whatever He pleases in heaven and earth, you have not really grasped a good measure of God. All history from creation to those 400 silent years between the testaments, to the fulfillment of prophecy and the cross, demonstrate that God is absolutely sovereign and every 24 hours is the further unfolding of His will, even including the evil things people do. God sovereignly used evil men to accomplish His predestined plan at the cross. He sovereignly used Joseph’s evil brothers to bring about good for Israel in Genesis 50:20. The sovereignty of God is all over the Bible and His fingerprints are all over history. Here’s another verse celebrating God’s sovereignty in your life and one that implies abortion is an attack on God Himself.
Psalms 139:15-16, My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.
If your heart is restless or worried or anxious or fearful, it is because you have forgotten about God’s sovereign watch and care over you. Only a sovereign God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent can cause all things to work together for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose, and who are predestined as believers to become just like His Son. You can be confident that He is at work in you to will and do of His good pleasure and He who began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ! This is why you can count it all joy whenever you fall into various trials and temptations, because your sovereign God is faithful and won’t allow anything to come your way without providing a way for you to handle it. You can live in the joy of the Lord and rejoice in the Lord always because He is your sovereign, wise, and loving Father and in total, absolute, complete control of your life and all the circumstances you face!
GOD’S REVEALED WILL
But you don’t know what God’s sovereign will is for tomorrow or if He plans for you to live through tomorrow. That’s why James said, “If the Lord wills we’ll live and do this or that.” There are two aspects to God’s will – His sovereign or decreed will, and His revealed will.
Deuteronomy 29:29,The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.
Some of His secret things He has revealed. And we rejoice in those things. Stuff we don’t understand about His sovereign will we can accept and praise Him, knowing He’s our all-wise God and in control. Someone asked Paul, “If God chose who would be saved, then how can God still find fault with us.” How did Paul respond? “Who are you to answer back to God?” (Romans 9:20). He’s the Potter, the Creator. We are the clay, totally moldable to the Potter’s hand. Make sure you’ve submitted to His will. You are responsible to repent and embrace the Savior. That’s called the doctrine of concurrence, meaning God acts, and we act, but God always acts first. And God works His will through our wills. Do you understand that? No? That’s one of those secret things that belong to the Lord. Gary Friesen in Decision Making and the Will of God wrote, “God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are asserted side by side in Scripture” (p. 206).
Now moving on to God’s revealed will. God isn’t going to tell you specifically which house to buy, which church to attend, whom to marry, or whether to accept that job promotion. In most non-moral cases you are free to do whatever you want, as long as your heart is submissive to biblical principles and is saying, “If the Lord wills we’ll do this or that.” God told Adam and Eve, “Eat from any tree except one.” They didn’t pray, “Lord, show us which tree we should eat from tonight.” They just said “Thanks” and enjoyed. God says in 1 Corinthians 7:39, “You’re free to marry whomever you want, as long as he or she is a believer.” 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “You’re free to give as much as you want. Just do it cheerfully.”
But what do we know is God’s revealed will? I looked up most of the references to God’s will or “what God wants” in the New Testament and looked at about 37 references. Just reading through them is a blessing. Let’s look at five.
One: God’s will is for you to renew your mind (Romans 12:2). This is probably the most familiar and really the starter verse for the will of God.
Romans 12:2, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
This will get you on your way into God’s will. Don’t let the godless culture suck you into the godless thinking seen every night on the news – critical race theory, promotion of abortion, and all the gender confusion. You need spiritual transformation, not cultural conformity. Prayerfully read and meditate on God’s Word daily so you can prove and discern what God wants you to do. And whatever He wants you to do will always be good, acceptable, and perfect.
Two: God’s will is for you to pray for wisdom and understanding (Colossians 1:9).
Colossians 1:9, For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
If Paul unceasingly prayed that we might know God’s will and what God wants in our lives, we should do the same, for ourselves and one another. Notice his prayer isn’t for new sandals or a healed toe, but for knowledge in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Calvin comments, “His will is not to be sought anywhere else than in His Word.”
Three: God’s will is for you to pursue moral purity (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Paul gets specific as he unfolds God’s will for us.
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5, For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
No question or doubt, God’s will is for you to maintain sexual purity. Sexual immorality is anything of a sexual nature outside of the marriage of a man and a woman. God’s will is for you to abstain from all premarital, extramarital, same sex, lesbian, homosexual, transsexual, bisexual, pansexual, self-sexual, or any other sexual immorality and perversion. This certainly includes all pornography and all that involves. God’s will for moral purity is wrapped up in that one word: abstain. Abstain means stay away from all sexual immorality, and it certainly includes the thought life.
Four: God’s will is for you to rejoice, pray, and give thanks (1 Thess. 5:16-18).
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
This is your “RPG” – “Rejoice, Pray, Give thanks.” Do these always without ceasing, and in everything, and you’ll be pleasing God.
Five: God’s will is for you to focus your heart on pleasing God (Heb. 13:21). May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Hebrews 13:2, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
But what about the Holy Spirit leading us? He certainly does lead us. He takes the truth of God’s Word and motivates us to obey it. The Spirit leads us to put to death the sinful deeds of the body (Romans 8:13). However, the Spirit does not reveal new truth or lead anyone contrary to the Word of God.
THE BIBLE IS THE REVEALED WILL OF GOD
2 Timothy 3:16-17, All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
So as you seek to know God’s will, don’t do an end run around the Bible looking for feelings or voices or other pagan approaches. God didn’t take 1500 years to put this God-breathed book together for us and then expect us to look to feelings and inner subjective impressions to guide us. John MacArthur wisely writes, “Scripture never commands us to tune in to any inner voice. We’re commanded to study and meditate on Scripture, to cultivate wisdom and discernment, to walk wisely and obey God’s Word.” (Reckless Faith, p. 192) So do you want to know God’s will for your life? Open your Bible, study it, read it, crave it, believe it, love it, delight in it, rejoice in it. Say with Jeremiah, “Your words were found, I ate them, and Your words were to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by Your name” (Jeremiah 15:16).