Beholding the God of Sovereign Supremacy

Bruce Ware explores the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, emphasizing His ultimate authority and control over all creation. Ware highlights the implications of God’s sovereignty for believers, including trust in His plans and submission to His will, even in difficult circumstances. He encourages Christians to find comfort and assurance in the knowledge of God’s supreme power and providence.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

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All right, well, we’re just going to handle something light and frothy over lunch, you know. It definitely is what we’re going to look at this afternoon, one of the most pressing, difficult, persistent questions that I mean people generally ask about. Even if they’re not believers, you know, but especially if you’re a believer and you come to a place where you understand that God created the world and he rules over the world, and that he has sovereignty. What does that mean? And if he’s sovereign, how is it that we are responsible and free?

And so, these questions are big questions that have been asked through the history of the church. And so, I’m going to try to take you through some biblical teaching that I hope will give us, at least, you know, a biblical look at this. If you get it, I just—I’m not pushing anything on you by any means, but I just want you to know that what we’re talking about here.

I’ve developed quite a bit more in my book that’s entitled *God’s Greater Glory*. And so, if you want to read more on this, that would be the place to go. *God’s Greater Glory*—don’t confuse it with another book with a similar title, *God’s Lesser Glory*, which is one of my critiques of open theism, of the openness view that argues that God doesn’t know what’s going to happen. And of course, a lot of things follow from that. But the book *God’s Greater Glory* is really my attempt to understand, from Scripture, who God is. It really includes things we talked about this morning, as well as providence—how God works in the world in relation to good and evil, and that sort of thing. So, all right, well, definitely y’all have a page.

Okay, good, that’ll help a lot. You can see their definition of Divine Sovereignty, I put at the top: “God plans and carries out His perfect will as He alone knows is best over all that is in heaven and earth, and He does so without failure or defeat, accomplishing His purposes in all of creation from the smallest details to the grand purposes of His plan for the whole of the created order.”

Now that’s a mouthful. I mean, it’s one of those definitions you have to kind of read through several times to get it, but essentially what it’s arguing is that God is the one who plans everything that happens in history, and He carries out everything that happens in history, everything that is in heaven and earth.

He does so without failure or defeat, so there never is a point in God’s plan or the outworking of that plan that God says, oh shucks, you know, things did not work out the way I had wanted it to or something like that.

And so it is done without failure or defeat. He accomplishes His purposes in all of creation, from the smallest details, so there’s nothing that is too small to be considered in the orbit, as it were, of what God has planned and what He carries out, from the smallest details to the grand purposes of His plan for the whole of the created order.

Now I propose to you that this definition is in fact what the Bible teaches, and you probably are aware that there is a real difference of opinion on this among Bible-believing evangelical Christians. What this definition reflects is an understanding that would be characteristic in the Reformed view as opposed to the Arminian position. Many of our churches, many denominations and churches, would be aligned whether they know it or not in the Arminian tradition coming from Jacob Arminius, who himself studied under a leading Calvinist of his day, Theodore Barbaza. But Arminius gave up some very fundamental ideas that he was trained in when he was trained as a Calvinist, gave them up, and really began this other track that you see in the Reformation churches.

You have one that’s a Calvinist track, a Reformed track, and the other an Arminian track, and broadly speaking, most churches are in one or the other of those tracks, although within each of them there’s lots of variety and nuances that are distinctive, but nonetheless, it’s broadly that. And what distinguishes the two, really, is on divine sovereignty. In the Arminian view, they would not hold this meticulous sovereignty that is expressed in this definition.

They would rather hold kind of a general idea of sovereignty, that God, in fact, here’s how the Arminian would state it, is that God sovereignly chooses, when he creates free human beings, he sovereignly chooses to relinquish sovereignty. Do you see what I mean? He sovereignly chooses to give up the control over what free human beings choose, because if they choose it freely, he can’t control it. If he controls it, they can’t be doing it free. So they see freedom and sovereignty as an either-or. Either God controls it, or we control it.

If God controls it, we don’t. If we control it, he doesn’t. So he created us with a freedom in which he gives up, then, the right to control what we do, and accepts all kinds of things that he doesn’t like, including hell. He didn’t plan that, doesn’t want it, wishes it weren’t there, and he would want everybody to be saved. He didn’t want sin to happen in the first place, and so on. So he accepts all kinds of things he doesn’t like.

Because he values the freedom that he has given to us, as the Armenian understands that. Whereas a Reformed person would understand the Bible’s teaching about divine sovereignty to be entirely comprehensive or, what’s the word I’m looking for here? Exhaustive. Exhaustive, meticulous divine sovereignty. Covers everything that happens to meticulous detail. Everything fits within the scope of what God plans and what he carries out without failure or defeat.

How that fits with freedom, then, I mean, quite frankly, is more difficult to explain in the Reformed tradition than it is in the Armenian tradition, because the Armenian is an either or, which makes sense to most people. You know, if God controls it, we don’t. If we control it, he doesn’t. And, you know, that kind of has an intuitive appeal that is easier to see and accept.

In the Reformed tradition, if you hold that God controls things and we do them freely, the both and, not either or, that is much more difficult to comprehend and accept. But it’s my thesis to you, my proposal this afternoon, that that in fact is what the Bible leads us to, that conclusion of what is sometimes called compatibilism. The compatibility of a strong sovereignty, meticulous, exhaustive sovereignty, is compatible with genuine human freedom and responsibility. That it’s a both and, not an either or, and how that works is part of the challenge of all of this.

But my main claim is, my main claim is, even if we can’t figure out how it works, the Bible leads us to this. We end up needing to hold both of those things. God is in control of everything and we are free and responsible. The and, not a but. We are required to hold that because that’s what the Bible teaches. That’s my main purpose in what I’m presenting to you this afternoon. Are you with me?

We can do this more informal with a smaller group, so if you have questions along the way, feel free to raise your hand and we’ll interact. But on the other hand, just let me have an idea of time here, because I don’t want to hold you longer than you would like to be here this afternoon. So, what are we looking at? Just so I know. Okay, is that acceptable? If we go until 2 o’clock? We’re kind of praying and out the door at 2? Are you sure? Okay, alright.

I just don’t want to, you know, expectations matter in life, so if we know what we’re looking at, that’s helpful. Okay, a few passages where you see sovereignty so clearly manifest that I put there, just to kind of get on the table a couple passages right off the bat. Daniel 4, if you have Bibles, it’s actually better before you get your food. You won’t be able to do this once your food comes. My French dip was great, by the way, or whatever it was, sirloin something or other dip, but it was so good.

So, I’m full and content, so you will be soon. Daniel 4 is an amazing place because Daniel had told Nebuchadnezzar, this great and glorious king of Babylon, that God would prosper him and grant him the growth of his and all this prosperity that would come. I mean, God revealed that through Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar before it happened. And so, you would think that when the success came to Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom was great, that he would be quick to give thanks to God and glory to God, but he was not.

It went to his head, as is so prone to do with all of us. God blesses Car’s church. Don’t let it go to your head. You know, I mean, you just constantly remind yourself all glory should go to God for what happens. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t. And so, in Daniel 4, pick up at verse 28 with me. Verse 28. All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. What’s that, all this? All this prosperity and growth and the blessing on his kingdom happened as Daniel had prophesied.

²⁸ All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. ²⁹ At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, ³⁰ and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:28-30, ESV)

My, twelve months later, I guess that’s how long it takes to forget that God did it. So, God humbled him. Literally, sent him out into the pasture with the cattle for seven years. His hair grew for seven years. His fingernails grew.

His beard grew, grazing with the cattle for seven years. I mean, you can imagine what this guy looked like at the end of that time. Well, at the end of those seven years, then, God restored his reason to him. Pick up with me at verse 34. At the end of that period of time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven. My reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever. So, obviously, he’s had a paradigm shift. He now understands God is the one to be praised.

Here’s what he says: His dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing.

³⁴ At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to 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, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:34-35, ESV)

Kind of sounds like Isaiah 40 from this morning, doesn’t it? But there’s a different meaning here. We’ll talk about that in a second.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of the heavens and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can ward off His hand, keep His hand from being extended, or say to Him, “What have you done?” Obviously, with an accusation attached. Not a simple honest question, “What are you doing, God?” but a finger-pointing, “What have you done?” An accusatory question.

Okay, now look just particularly at verse 35, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. In what respect?

Well, here you can tell what it means by looking at the next phrase, but He does according to His will. So in what sense are they nothing? They cannot prevent the will of God from being accomplished. They are incapable of keeping God from doing His will. So the inhabitants of the earth, again this amazing statement that indicates the totality of humanity, all the inhabitants of the earth, how capable are they of preventing God from doing what He wills? And the answer is they cannot.

But He does according to His will in the host of the heavens and among the inhabitants of the earth. Where else do you read in the Bible about heaven and earth? One very famous place. Genesis 1, right? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So here, heaven and earth, obviously, is an indication of how wide His sovereign rule is. Everything, all that He had made, He does according to His will among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can ward off His hand.

No one can keep God’s hand from being extended, and interestingly, no one can point a finger at God and say to him, what have you done? No one can charge God with injustice. So, it’s a very strong statement of divine sovereignty, that God rules over everything, his will is done, people cannot thwart God from accomplishing his purposes, nor can they accuse God of wrongdoing. I mean, that becomes particularly significant when you think of sovereignty and evil. You know, sovereignty and evil, God controls, wow, and yet he cannot be held morally culpable for that evil.

And more on that shortly. Another passage that just states it so briefly, but powerfully, is Ephesians 1:11. In this context in Ephesians 1, in fact this is the passage we’ll look at tonight on the Trinity, because it is so Trinitarian. But here, Paul says that we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his, which by the way is the Father, his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will. It’s an amazing statement to provide for Christian people a confidence that the inheritance that has been promised, they will receive.

How do you know you will receive the inheritance, the promised inheritance God has promised you? How do you know that? Because the God who promised that inheritance is the one who works everything after the counsel of his will.

¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, (Ephesians 1:10-11, ESV)

If everything is worked after the counsel of his will, you can be sure that this part of his will, namely that you’ll have your inheritance, will be done.

And the statement, “He works all things,” that really is, it has to be absolutely everything because, again, if you look at your Bibles, you don’t have to turn to this now, but verse 10, just make a note, that verse 10 indicates, also uses “all things,” and there it’s “all things are summed up in Christ, things in the heaven and things on the earth.”

Heaven and earth again, so we know it means absolutely everything. So then, when he says in verse 11, that he works all things after the counsel of his will, why would we think that the all things of verse 11 is a subset of the all things of verse 10? There’s just no reason; exegetically, it makes no sense to do that, and so it’s a bold statement that God works everything in heaven and earth, according to the counsel of his will, very strong sense of exhaustive, meticulous sovereignty.

OK, now, a passage that I think is just very important to come to terms with on sovereignty, is from Isaiah 45. It is the most stunning, shocking, actually, passage on divine sovereignty in the Bible, and it would be good for us to take a look there, so again, before your meal comes, you have a chance to have your Bible out in front. That may change momentarily, but we’ll take advantage of it while we can. In chapter 44, at the very end, we have read, encountered Cyrus.

Beginning at chapter 44, and verse 28, we read this:

²⁸ who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.'” (Isaiah 44:28, ESV)

Trying to give you a bit of context here, God is declaring to his rebellious people that the day is going to come when he will restore them.

Even though they’re going to go into exile, he will bring them back, and the person he will use to bring them back into Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and to rebuild the wall will be this pagan king, Cyrus, who hasn’t even been born yet. It’s still a hundred and fifty years later from the time Isaiah prophesied this to when Cyrus is born. And so, God is prophesying here that this man Cyrus will be the one through whom I will rebuild Jerusalem. I will make you once again my people as I bring you back.

Keep reading now in chapter 45. Thus says the Lord to Cyrus his anointed, which is an amazing thing because he’s a pagan king. But God anoints him to be his servant in fulfilling his purposes for Israel. Thus says the Lord to Cyrus his anointed who I have taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him, to loose the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut. I will go before you Cyrus and make the rough places smooth.

I will shadow the doors of bronze, cut through their iron bars. I will give you the treasures of darkness, hidden wealth of secret places so that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name. Wow, this is amazing. “Verse 4, for the sake of Jacob my servant, Israel my chosen one, I have also called you, Cyrus, by your name. I have given you a title of honor, though you have not known me.” Isn’t that incredible?

Cyrus has no clue that he is the anointed of God, fulfilling the will of God, bringing about the long-promised decree of God that Jerusalem would be rebuilt. Cyrus is doing all of this, and he doesn’t even know that Yahweh is his God, and he doesn’t know Yahweh is using him for this purpose.

¹ Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: ² “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, ³ I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord , the God of Israel, who call you by your name. ⁴ For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. ⁵ I am the Lord , and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, ⁶ that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord , and there is no other. ⁷ I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:1-7, ESV)

It is a shocking passage. Let me just run through, if you have your outline, some of the key things here and then we will focus primarily on verse 7.

Notice, first of all, God names Cyrus as his shepherd, his anointed, and king. You can see those in those verses, which is an astonishing thing. Cyrus hasn’t been born yet. It is a passage that completely shows the bankruptcy of open theism, this view that God doesn’t know the future and can’t control human free choices. Who gave Cyrus his name? Probably mom and dad. God announces ahead of time what it is going to be, so he knows the free choice of Cyrus’ parents.

He knows the life he will live to bring him to the place where he will be brought, where he will come about as king? When you start thinking about all that God must know in advance to make this prediction, it’s astonishing. And to say that God can’t, cannot know future free choices of human beings just looks ludicrous when you begin to examine it, which is the openness view. I don’t know if you’re aware of that view, but it has had a significant impact within evangelicalism. It’s a very troubling view.

Okay, so he named Cyrus as his shepherd and anointed. Number two, God governs the life and activities of Cyrus. He governs the life and development of the one named Cyrus, obviously, to be trained in the kinds of things he needs to be in order to become king and do what he does. God governs the activities and successes of Cyrus as king.

So, look again at chapter 45, verses 1 and 2. The Lord says to Cyrus, whom I have taken by the right hand to subdue nations before him.

See, Cyrus, king of Persia, the Persians conquered the Babylonians. You know, in terms of biblical history, the Syrians were the ones who were, first of all, had the greatest ascendancy, world domination, who then brought judgment against the northern kingdom of Israel. We are in the middle of an aside here. You know the date of the captivity of the northern kingdom, taking Samaria and taking the people captive to Nineveh, to Assyria, do you know the date? 722 BC, you ought to know these. This is just, you know, Bible history that every Christian ought to know.

722 BC is when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and took them captive. Babylon conquered Assyria. Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 4. They were the next nation of ascendancy, the greatest power, and they conquered the southern kingdom, Judah, as it’s called, destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, and took the people captive in 586 BC.

So after the Assyrians and the Babylonians, the next major power were the Persians, and the Persians wiped out the Babylonians. Cyrus was given such power by God that he devastated cities throughout Babylon, throughout this great kingdom of Babylon, so much so that when Cyrus came to the city of Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar had built with its hanging gardens, you all know it’s one of the seven wonders of the world, is that Babylon that was built by Nebuchadnezzar, that he took pride over.

When Cyrus came to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar opened the front gates of the city and let him come in so he wouldn’t destroy the city and all of the grandeur. It would be like destroying Paris, you know, thankfully that never did happen like it could have, and so they were able to preserve Babylon from that destruction.

¹ Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: ² “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, (Isaiah 45:1-2, ESV)

So anyway, God provided for Cyrus, even though he didn’t know it. Of course, what he would think is, “Hey, I’m a great commander, I’m commanding the greatest nation, and this is really cool.” I mean, this is what he would have thought. The fact is, everything that is happening is what God ordained for him to do.

Letter C, God governs the life and activities of Cyrus, though Cyrus does not know God. We saw that stated twice as I read that. Small letter D, God governs the life and activities of Cyrus for the sake of his people. He’s doing this all because of his promise to Israel that he will save them and bring them back to the land and prosper them.

Okay, capital letter B, God’s sovereign control over the full spectrum of life, both good and evil. Verses 5-7 are astonishing. Let me just read them again; they’re on your handout there.

I am the Lord, there is no other besides me, there is no God. I will gird you, Cyrus, though you have not known me, that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides me. Just get the significance of that sort of prelude to what is about to be said. Several times it’s stated, I am God, there is no other God but me. I am the Lord, I alone am God.

So when he goes on to describe who he is, it’s as if God is saying, “Get it, this is who I am as God. If you want to understand God, this is who I am.” What does he say?

⁵ I am the Lord , and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, ⁶ that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord , and there is no other. ⁷ I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord , who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:5-7, ESV)

Okay, number one, assertion of exclusive claim to deity. So this is God. As the song or the prayer we read this morning, it is so; what easy isn’t the right word?

Tempting and enticing to shape God’s claim to deity, to claim to in our image. This is what we do in our culture. I don’t know if you’ve read The Shack. The Shack is a powerful example of what happens when the culture leads in describing what God ought to be like. It is a powerful statement of the cultural vision for who God ought to be. The problem is, this is not the God of the Bible. The God that’s in The Shack is pathetically far removed from the God of the Bible. But we tend to do this.

So God is saying, get it right for me. I am God. Let me define for you who I am. And what does he say about himself? In verse 7, divine control over the full spectrum of light and darkness, well-being and calamity.

There are a number of passages in the Bible that I’ve called spectrum texts, which are like this one, verse 7, in which God says, I control both sides of the spectrum. Everything that is good and everything that is evil. Everything that is horrible, bad, terrible.

Everything in both of those categories is controlled fully by me. I was going to come to this later, but turn to page 2, turn to the back, and just look there at a couple of other spectrum texts. Deuteronomy 32:39.

³⁹ “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. (Deuteronomy 32:39, ESV)

See now, this is at the end of the song of Moses that the children of Israel are to sing as they go into the promised land. And this is toward the end of it. See now that I, I am He; there is no God besides me.

It is I who, now look at the spectrum, put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal. There is no one who can deliver from my hand. Or 1 Samuel 2, this is Hannah’s song at the birth of Samuel. She says, “The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich. He brings low and He exalts.” It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Both sides of the spectrum. Everything that’s good and everything that’s bad.

Lamentations 3:37-38. Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth? Wow. These are just very, very strong passages. Okay, the strongest one though is Isaiah 45:7. So, now at the top of the page, page 2, I skipped ahead, so back. The strength of the terminology, especially for God’s control of evil, is astonishing. Did you cut something out of the outline at this point? No? You don’t think so? Okay.

Because he reformatted it, and I thought I had something else in here, but here’s what should be here, anyway, is this. There are two exegetical observations that are just amazing. If you know Hebrew, two exegetical observations of verse 7 that are stunning. Here they are. Number one is in verse 7 that the writer, Isaiah here, uses a weak, a weaker verb and a stronger verb in describing God’s control of good and evil respectively. And the stronger verb is the one that is used in both pairings. We have two pairings, right?

We have, he forms light and creates darkness. He causes well-being and creates calamity. So we’ve got light and darkness, well-being and calamity. right? And in those two pairings, the stronger verb is used with the evil side, with the bad side. And it is the word bara, it’s the word create. So look in your own Bibles, you can see this, that he forms light, that’s the word yatsar, he formed Adam from the dust of the ground. But that’s also the word that’s commonly used of an artisan, a sculptor or a pottery maker, to form, shape something.

That verb is used commonly of us. The word bara, create, is only used in the Old Testament of God. Only. And so it’s just stunning. This is the verb, bara, that’s used in Genesis 1:1. Barashit, bara, Elohim, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. That’s the verb. And this verb is only used in the Hebrew Bible with God as its subject. It’s the verb that’s used in Psalm 51, what verse is it? 10 maybe? Create in me a new heart, O God. Restore a steadfast spirit. Create. Only God can bara.

And so here, if I were writing this, I just will tell you this, if I were given by God the charge of writing this, I would not have written it this way. I would have written, he creates light, the stronger verb. I mean goodness, let there be light. That’s exactly what he did in Genesis 1. I would say he creates light and he forms darkness. He creates shalom. That’s the word. And he causes calamity. But all I can tell you is it is what it is. And it is stunning.

Stunning that it is written this way. It is shocking that it is written this way. So, he forms light and he creates darkness. He causes well-being and he creates evil. Ok, here is the second observation: The strongest Hebrew words in the Bible for all that is good and all that is evil are the two words used in the second pairing. So, the first word is Shalom. He causes well-being. Goodness, that word is so rich it can be understood as he causes life, joy, prosperity, and fullness.

Everything that is good in life is captured in that term Shalom. So, God causes that, but he barras raw. It is a very short little Hebrew word. Raw, it is transliterated R-A. That is the full extent of it. But it is the most common word in the Hebrew Bible for everything that is terrible. When a city is devastated, the word raw is used. When people are beaten and whatever, raw is used. So, it is a word that conveys, well, it is most often translated.

It occurs over 300 times, and two-thirds of the translations are evil. It translates it as evil. So, God barras raw. Wow! Honestly, if you know what you are reading, your head just drops and goes, “This is shocking, this is stunning.” So, all I want to say is, God wrote it this way. We don’t have the right to redefine God when God is telling us, “I am the Lord. There’s no other; there’s no God besides me. I’m the one who does this.”

I’m the one who causes well-being and creates calamity; I am the Lord who does all these things.

⁷ I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord , who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:7, ESV)

You know what we do when we read that? We bow and we accept, even if we cannot explain. Because who do we think we are to tell God that it can’t be? But honestly, this is what most of the Christian Church does. They will not let God speak for himself, and they all know it can’t be, can’t be so. Okay, it’s a stunning passage.

I just wanted you to see that now. A key principle, notice I put it in bold, and yes, Kevin brought that through good. But put it in bold here: God fully controls both good and evil, yet God is wholly good and is not evil in any respect. I honestly cannot even begin to tell you how important it is to comprehend these two truths together.

I think of them really as twin pillars of a doctrine of divine providence that we ought to hold as Christian people. One is Isaiah 45:7: God has absolute control over both good and evil. We cannot compromise that, but the other, the other, the other pillar of divine providence is this: God is good, and in no respect is God evil. Now, can’t you see where there is such a tendency, if you hold one, to deny the other? So, if God controls both good and evil, then what must God be?

Oh, He must be both good and evil. Wrong! But here’s the more common one. The more common one is this: God is good. I mean, goodness, what is God in our culture? If there’s anything the man in the street would say about God, it is He is love. Good, you know, the goodness there. So, here’s the other denial, the way it works: God is good and in no respect is He evil. Therefore, God can have nothing to do with evil. Right, you see that?

So, here we see again this problem of accepting one but not both of these biblical teachings, these pillars of who God is and His providential work in the world. Okay, now to help us with this, I just want you to see these other passages that I have listed there as sort of a text to put alongside what is stated in Isaiah 45:7. So, when it says in Isaiah 45:7 that He is the one who forms light and creates darkness, boy, bring to mind 1 John 1:5.

Even though God controls both light and darkness, 1 John 1:5 says, “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” Do you see the significance of that? He controls both light and darkness, but He is light and there is no darkness in Him.

And for the other pair, the other couplet of Shalom and Ra, alright, so God causes well-being and creates calamity, or creates Ra, and Shalom and Ra, and Shalom or creates Ra, think along with that of Psalm 5:4, which says, “you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, no Ra, it is the same Hebrew word as in Isaiah 45:7, no Ra dwells with you.” So, I just want you to see this. You know, there you have it. These twin pillars of Divine Providence.

And honestly, I could stop right here and just say, this is what the Bible says. Whether we can ever explain how it can be that God, while being only light and only good, controls light and darkness, good and evil, even if we can’t explain it, we must bow before it and accept it. I think that’s so important for Christian people to affirm. And not go with our reasoning that says, well, if God forms light and darkness, if He controls good and evil, then He must be good and evil. Wrong.

Or, again, the other one is the much more common one. God is good. He has no evil in Him. Then He cannot have anything to do with evil. Wrong. Again. And so both have to be held together. Okay, but there is more to say. And it has to do with the fact that the Bible makes clear that these go together. This compatibility of God’s sovereign control over good and evil and our responsibility for evil that takes place is, in fact, taught in Scripture. So I have here three examples. We won’t do all three of them.

I bet most of you already, at some point, have talked about the Joseph narrative. Have you in the past, on other occasions? That’s the first one there, Isaiah 45. That’s an amazing account where you remember the story that Joseph’s brothers are jealous. They sell him into Egypt. But then, when Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers, what he says is astonishing. Let’s just read it. I’ll comment on it briefly. Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.”

Would anybody, having read the story that leads up to this, complain about that statement? Did they do it? Did they sell him into Egypt? Yes, absolutely. I mean, nobody reading the narrative would have one bit of hesitation affirming the truth of that. I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. Again, he states it again, but now keep reading. For, here it comes, God sent me before you. Ah, that’s where the shock comes. You need ketchup?

Yeah, we don’t need that on the tape. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to distract you. Oh, that’s fine. You got mine, so that’s fine. That’s fine. Yeah, that’ll be important. People are going to wonder, what in the world is that about? We’re eating dinner. That’s what’s happening. So, don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For, God sent me.

⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. (Genesis 45:5, ESV)

What I want you to see in that statement is, all of a sudden, what was not apparent in the narrative. Go back and read it yourself. It’s not there.

There’s no indication that when the brothers were sold into Egypt, God was doing this. But, guess what? He was. And so, here we have, it’s actually two players, not one. So, when you answer the question, how did Joseph get to Egypt? The full answer is not, the brothers sold him. That’s part of the answer, but the other part is, God sent him. So, all of a sudden, we have these two factors, not just one, going on. Now, here’s the next question. Which of these is one of the two more ultimate over the other?

Do you hear the significance of that? Hi, Kevin. I just got my silverware out of your shoes. I know they’re snipping the tape, yeah. Both are involved. The brothers sell Joseph to Egypt. God sent him. So now the question is, yeah, both are involved, but is one more ultimate than the other? Does one take higher priority than the other? Okay, so keep reading. “Don’t be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me.

Therefore, God sent me to preserve life.” Verse 7, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant of the earth.”

Notice what’s happened. In that statement, in verse 7, I know you’re eating and you can’t look, but just listen to me. He’s saying again what happened. And verse 7 is, “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant.” What’s different in this statement? The brothers drop out. They’re not even mentioned. It’s as though, I mean, what the brothers did almost is insignificant in comparison to what was really happening. Namely, God was doing this. The brothers drop out. So, in answer to the question, is one more ultimate than the other?

Boy, it looks like from verse 7, yeah, God is. Now, if you’re not convinced yet, look at the last verse, verse 8. Therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God. There we have it. So, you go back and read the Joseph narrative, and there’s no indication as you’re reading it, God is behind this. He’s doing this. He’s working in some way to cause the brothers to do what they do to get Joseph to Egypt. But in fact, that’s exactly what’s happening. And yet, the brothers are fully culpable.

I don’t have on here Genesis 50:20, where, you know, Jacob has died, the brothers are worried that Joseph is going to take revenge, and Joseph says, “Am I in God’s place to do this?” In other words, “God will take care of you, I don’t need to.” And then he says, “you meant it for evil,” referring again to them sending him to Egypt, selling him to Egypt. “you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

²⁰ 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. (Genesis 50:20, ESV)

Not “you meant it for evil and God turned it to good.”

No, both in the past. You meant it, God meant it, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. So at the very same time the brothers are selling him to Egypt, God is working through what they are doing to accomplish his purposes. Not just making good out of it, but causing it to happen. He’s the main actor. It was not you who sent me here, but God. That makes no sense if your framework is, after they had done this, God figured out a way to make good out of it.

That does not account for, “It was not you who sent me here, but God.” you understand that point? Okay, so you realize the compatibility of divine sovereignty and human action. The brothers are culpable; they are responsible for what they do, and yet God is sovereign over it.

The Isaiah 10 passage is a remarkable one as well, where he begins, Isaiah 10:5. “Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger, the staff in his hands is my indignation.” Now, “woe to Assyria” would indicate what? What does that language convey about God’s disposition to Assyria? Wrath.

They are in trouble; they are about to receive God’s judgment. But look at how they are described. Woe to you, Assyria, you who are what? The rod of my anger, the staff in his hands is my indignation. You are doing my will; you are my rod, accomplishing my purposes, my staff doing what I wanted to do. So, Assyria, you are in such big trouble, you who are doing my will. Go figure, right? Okay. Keep reading. So he says to them, “I send it.”

This is God speaking to a Syrian who’s going to bring judgment to the northern kingdom. What was the date again? Northern kingdom taken captive in 722. All right. So this is what this is about. I send it against a godless nation. I commissioned it against the people of my fury, which the people of his fury happens to be who? Israel. Great, but yes, it’s true, the rebellious people of Israel, to capture booty, to plunder, to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet, it does not so intend; Assyria does not so intend.

What does it not? Intend, doesn’t it intend to plunder and capture and so on? Doesn’t it intend to do that? Yeah. So, what does it not intend?

It does not intend to be doing this as a tool of God, accomplishing God’s will. Assyria, just like Cyrus, has no clue that everything they’re doing is fulfilling God’s ordained purpose. But yes, they are, so it does not so intend; it doesn’t plan so in its heart. It isn’t planning to carry out the will of Yahweh, but rather its purpose is to destroy, cut off any nations. Okay, and so then, verse 12, He says, “So it will be when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion.” Think, what is that work, God?

Completes on Mount Zion, judgment, right judgment. So when God has completed that, he will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his heart.”

Verse 15, he says, “Is the axe to boast over the one who chops with it? Who’s the axe? Assyria. Who’s the one who chops with it? God.”

And so Assyria takes all this pride and arrogance over the fact they’re so powerful and mighty, when God has given them the strength to do it, and what they do is evil, and God holds them accountable for it. In other words, what they do as they do it is evil, yet God ordained they do it because it’s just for God to do it. Does that make sense to you?

God can justly kill people who deserve judgment, even though Assyria would be murdering or would be acting in malicious, hateful, prideful ways to do that to those people. Do you see that? I mean, murder takes place. Goodness, one person murders another. They’re guilty of murder, even though God is the one who gives life and takes life. So God cannot murder, just like God cannot steal, just like God cannot covet. Why cannot God murder? Because every single human being is owned by Him.

He has rights over it, and He can take life or give life or take it as He chooses. We’re the ones who don’t have the right to do that. That’s why the conquest, I don’t know if you’ve ever struggled with this, but why is it Assyria coming in and wiping out Israel? They’re guilty for it, even though God ordains they do it. But Israel coming into the Promised Land and wiping out the nation, the Canaanites who were there in Israel, in Palestine, why are they guilty of wrongdoing?

Because God has rights over them, that’s why, and they’re fulfilling the will of God knowingly, unlike Assyria who is not. Okay, so that’s another amazing example of compatibilism, that you go together. And then the last one that I have there is obviously the cross of Christ. Who put Jesus on the cross? How do you answer that question? God did. Okay, that’s part of it. That’s the bigger part of it, again, in terms of which one has priority. Delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.

²³ this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. (Acts 2:23, ESV)

But is that the whole answer?

You nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. So, who put Jesus on the cross? Jews did. Romans did, who were jealous, angry, spiteful, and completely wrong in what they did, unjustly putting Christ on the cross. And yet, as they did that, they fulfilled what God ordained to take place. He was put on the cross by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. Yet, you nailed him to the cross by the hands of godless men. So, here you have it, folks.

You’ve got these clear cases in the Bible where God controls an evil… I mean, look, all three of these things are evil. These examples that I gave you are evil. You know, Joseph’s brother selling him into Egypt, that’s an evil thing. Assyria, wiping out Israel because of their pride and arrogance to loot them and get everything from them, that’s evil. Putting Christ on the cross, that’s evil. But every one of those things is accomplished by God for good purposes. Right? So that Genesis 50:20, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

Isn’t that the cross also? Those people who put Jesus on the cross, they meant it for evil. But guess what? God meant it. He didn’t turn it into something good. He meant it for good. He accomplished it. So that really is the paradigm we work with.

So, what does this have to do with sovereignty and suffering? Well, we realize that God reigns over everything that happens, including suffering. Do you know that Arminians, their category for understanding suffering is this: Suffering is gratuitous. I don’t know if you’ve heard that word, but it’s common in Arminian literature.

Gratuitous, pointless, purposeless. I mean, think of it for a moment. You get cancer or you lose a child or something like this happens. What comfort is there in thinking this is totally pointless? It serves no good purpose at all. God is hands-off and he’s going, I feel as badly about this as you do. That’s the Arminian understanding. But the reform, the Biblical understanding would indicate that this suffering is in place for divinely ordained good purpose.

And what strength there is in that, in the midst of suffering, to know God’s good hand, wise hand, has ordained this happen for good. I don’t know if any of you around this table have gone through things where that resonates huge in your own souls, but many Christian people have. Boy, Johnny Erickson taught us.

If she were here, she would bear witness at how great strength and hope and comfort it has been to her to know that the suffering that she has endured now for all these years, I forget how long she’s been quadriplegic, but all these years was ordained by God for good. Good for her and good for the ministry the Lord has given her. So it strengthens us in supplication. Sovereignty and supplication, does it rule out prayer? Because God is sovereign? What’s the point in praying?

No, it strengthens prayer because we realize we pray to a God whose hand cannot be thwarted, right? Who will accomplish all his goodwill, and this God has ordained at least some of what he has chosen to do will only happen as his people pray. In other words, prayer is the divinely ordained necessary means to the ends that he has ordained being accomplished. Now, that’s not on everything. I mean, God does a whole lot of things that we don’t pray about, and we’re not called to pray about.

I mean, so let’s not limit, you know, the whole activity of God to what we pray about. But I am saying this, that a portion that includes significant things that God has ordained happen will only happen as his people pray. But there’s hope and confidence and boy, power in praying to a sovereign God whom you know cannot be thwarted in accomplishing his will. Now, I’ll just say one very, very quick story.

When we were moving from Illinois to Kentucky, this was 10 years ago when I went to teach at Southern Seminary. We had our house up for sale in Illinois, no buyers, and we had already signed on a house in Kentucky, and we really were hoping we could get in there.

No buyer would come, no buyer, no buyer, and so I finally called the finance person in Kentucky and said, “When do I need to have somebody sign on the dotted line on my house here in order to have time to process the receiving, the paying, the closing, you know, and so on, on the two houses?” And she looked at the… and she said, “you need a buyer in one week.” And I said, “Goodness gracious.” We were selling it by owner also, you know.

So I decided to fast and pray, and about two days later, the Lord brought to my attention, while I was reading my Bible, the passage in Exodus where God says to the children of Israel, before you leave, now remember this is after the plagues have happened to Egypt, right? Before you leave, ask the Egyptians for their silver and their gold and their clothing and they’ll give it to you. Because I will cause them to look on you with favor. That’s what he said. That’s what God said. So I thought, ah, that’s it.

All God has to do is cause one person out there to look on our home with favor, and it’s sold. So I started praying that way. I said, Lord, all we need is one buyer. We don’t need 50 people to come by the house. So what? All we need is one person in whose heart you have caused them to look on our house with favor, and we’ve got this thing done. So I prayed toward that, and we opened the house that weekend. People came by. A few people came by. Nothing happened.

Sunday night, and we needed somebody by Thursday. Sunday night, about 8 o’clock, the phone rang, and this woman said, I just saw your ad in the paper. I know it’s late, but can I stop by and look at your house? Yes. So she comes over, and literally, we open the front door. She isn’t even in the glass door yet into the house. Her jaw drops open, and she says, I love it. And we show her through the house. In every room she walks into, she says, this is perfect.

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. And then she said, “Can I bring my fiancé over? He works in construction.” I thought, “We’re dead. I mean, we need to do nothing.” Roof, the furnace, I mean, just tons of stuff was wrong. He came over and guess what? He loved it. Everything, I mean, and she brought over eight friends in the next three days, and every one of them walks in, “This is perfect.” I mean, I just sat there in stupefied amazement at what was going on. They didn’t know what I knew.

Namely, God was causing them to look on this house with favor. So they signed on Thursday and we moved to our home in Louisville. I mean, it was just an astonishing thing that happened. So, prayer to a sovereign God, wow. I mean, we can’t presume to know His will. So we pray with humility saying, your will be done, not mine, but still we pray with confidence knowing nothing can keep His hand from accomplishing His purposes. That’s true for this church. And so pray boldly. Humbly but boldly.

And then sovereignty and salvation, boy, the doctrine of election is a stumbling block to so many people. But if it were not for the fact that God is sovereign in His grace, don’t you love that movement, C.J. Mahaney? Sovereign grace. If He is not sovereign in His bestowal of grace, none of us would be saved. It’s that simple. You don’t like election, then you don’t like salvation.

Because you would never come if God did not choose you and give to you grace by which eyes are opened, blindness is removed, and enlivening takes place to your heart. You see Christ for who He is, and you come only because God worked in an irresistible, efficacious way in your heart. If you like salvation, you better love the doctrine of election. I mean, I’ll say this again tonight: isn’t it amazing that in Ephesians 1, when Paul said, Paul begins this list of why God should be praised.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love (Ephesians 1:3-4, ESV)

The doctrine of election, that most Christian people would not have on any list of why God should be praised, is first on Paul’s list. If you’re saved, sitting around this table, you are so because God is sovereign in saving.

If he left it up to you, no way, it wouldn’t happen. Okay, we’ve got, as far as I know, we’re at the two o’clock point. And if you want to stay and ask questions, I’m happy to stay as long as you’d like to. And if you anytime need to leave, please feel free to do so, but otherwise we’ll… I don’t know how this is working. I have it all separated out. If you want to… Do you want to answer some questions? Sure, I’d be happy to. One thing, could you clarify?

I mean, it’s typical, a typical way to understand sovereignty and human responsibility is just appealing to mystery. It’s just like, well, I know this is true, and this is true too, and I can’t really solve it, and so it’s a mystery. Who knows? Could you just explain how what you’re saying maybe is slightly different from that? Yeah, well, you know, and I didn’t really talk about the nature of freedom, which we would have to to answer this, which I’m happy to do, though, but I, you know, the main thing I think…

The first and main place we have to come to as Christian people is accepting the twin pillars of providence. God is good and good only, but he controls good and evil. And also then, these twin realities that God controls both good and evil, but I’m responsible for every evil thing I do. So we have to affirm that. If the only way you can is by saying, yes, this is what the Bible says, and it’s a mystery, thank you very much. Then, so be it. I mean, we leave it there.

But I don’t think we have to leave it there. I just haven’t said enough here to explain the next step you can go. And that is, what you really have to do is analyze what human freedom means. Are you up for three minutes on this? Okay, the Armenian understanding of freedom, they call it libertarian freedom. And what they mean by it is simply, when you choose one thing, you could have chosen the other. It’s a very simple idea called the power of contrary choice. If you chose this, you could have chosen contrary to that.

Power of contrary choice, you could have chosen. If you choose A, you could have chosen B. That’s freedom. And it has an intuitive sense. It sounds so reasonable. You know, I had that French dip, or whatever it was called. I could have had a hamburger. You know, when you said hamburger, I gave it a thought. I thought, yeah, that sounds pretty good. Ended up with the French dip. So you think, well, that’s libertarian freedom, isn’t it? There are two problems with libertarian freedom. One is a philosophical one.

Libertarian freedom never explains why we choose what we choose. It has no explanation for why we choose what we choose. Why? Here’s why. If all things being just what they are, when I make a choice, and I choose A, I could have chosen B. Then everything that goes into my choosing A would be identical to going into my choosing B. Which means there’s no difference in reason for why I would choose A over B, or B over A. And hence, no reason, specific reason, for one over the other.

And so you end up with libertarian freedom, you end up with an arbitrariness to your choosing. If that’s what we’re really doing, which we’re not, but if that were what we’re really doing, it’s arbitrary or capricious. Sometimes critics of libertarian freedom call it then a freedom of indifference. Really, to make sense of it, you have to be indifferent to A or B, in order to say, if I choose A, I could have chosen B. All things being just what they are, when I choose A, I could have had this.

There’s no reason, then, for choosing one over the other. So the philosophical reason is weighty. The second reason libertarian freedom fails, though, is biblically. My favorite example is just the Bible. That is, the Bible itself is inspired, right? So it is God’s word and human words. But how do we account for this Bible being fully what God wanted it to be, every word what God wanted, if the authors of the Bible wrote with libertarian freedom? That is, every word they wrote, they could have written otherwise, and God cannot control what they write.

Well, if God can’t control what they write, how do we end up with the Word of God? I mean, goodness, you have to say, if Paul wrote his letters with libertarian freedom, and God can’t control what he writes, we end up with the Word of God. I mean, God goes, wow, I got really lucky. Really lucky, you know? I mean, that’s really the only thing you could say to that. Okay, so if libertarian freedom fails, philosophically and biblically, what’s the alternative?

And the alternative is called by Edwards, Jonathan Edwards and others, a liberty, rather of indifference, a liberty or a freedom of inclination. A freedom of inclination, which says, our freedom is constituted by our ability to choose what we most want. What we most want. And so, I mean, that’s really what happened when I chose that, I’ll call it a French dip because I forget what it was called on here. Prime rib dip. Prime rib dip, okay.

When I chose that prime rib dip instead of a hamburger, it’s not that I had a power of contrary choice. It’s rather that as I thought about the menu items, I came up with the one thing I most wanted. Now maybe it just barely won, but it won. Right? It won. In my heart and affections, that’s the thing I wanted most and that’s why I ordered it, right? And so really, you’re free to choose what you most want. To choose according to your highest inclination.

Okay, and of course, so Paul is free when he writes what he most wants. Now, how is that compatible with divine sovereignty? Because God is able to control the factors which give rise to what we most want. Not that he will do that in every case, but he can do that. So that Paul, writing the letter to the Ephesians, works in Paul’s heart. I mean, it’s man moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God, right?

So the Holy Spirit works in Paul’s heart to give to Paul a strongest inclination to say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But if you ask Paul, “Are you writing what you want?” Absolutely. It’s out of my heart. I mean, I’m writing exactly what I want to write. I’m free in doing this. No one’s constraining me. This isn’t secretary, God say that again, I should write what, you know?

He is writing out of his own heart and mind, but it is a heart and mind that has been moved by the Spirit, so that God can control the factors which give rise to our highest inclinations. I think this is how you explain Joseph’s brothers. How did God control? Well, think of it for a minute. He gave Joseph those dreams. Do you remember that in the story? I mean, the dreams were so important that when they saw Joseph coming, this is in Genesis 47, I think.

When they saw Joseph coming, the first thing they said was, here comes that dreamer. So what were those dreams about? Remember? The brothers will bow down and honor Joseph, bow down at his feet and honor him.

⁵ Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. ⁶ He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: ⁷ Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” ⁸ His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. ⁹ Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ¹⁰ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” ¹¹ And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. (Genesis 37:5-11, ESV)

They hated those dreams. Do you suppose God knew when He gave Joseph those dreams it would have that effect upon them? Yeah, I think so. So what was God doing? He was doing justly and rightly. Nothing wrong in what God did, it was true, they would do that, they did do that.

God was doing justly and rightly that which would give rise in their hearts, given the right occasion, to the highest inclination, sell the bum. Sell him into Egypt. Notice, notice in the story, when the plot was, the plot was first to kill him. That’s not going to work. Reuben was there and he interceded and he said, no, don’t kill him, you’ll bring our father down to the grave. Then when the Midianite caravan came along, guess what? Reuben is gone. So they decide, they’ll sell him into Egypt.

When Reuben came back, he was aghast that they had done this. Is this coincidental? That when the plot is to kill him, Reuben is there and keeps it from happening. When the plot is to sell him, Reuben is gone and they do it. So, God orchestrates circumstances in such a way that it keeps them from killing him, that they have their strongest inclination now to sell him, and they do it. That is told us, you know, in the text. They just did this.

But then, when Joseph reports, “It was not you who sent me here, but God,” so that freedom of inclination is a powerful idea that shows the compatibility with divine sovereignty, whereas libertarian freedom cannot. Thank you for the question. It’s very, very helpful.

Yes, sir. Yeah, I was wondering about, with Socrates’ supplication, your thoughts on when, I think it’s in the Old Testament, where, like, I’m probably wrong, but it’s, I think it was when he was going to die, and then the Lord changed his mind and gave him 14. Yes, yes, 15, yeah.

You know, it’s interesting. There are these occasions when God changes his mind, and in a number of them, there are occasions when what leads up to that is God telling people something he didn’t have to tell them. In this case, he told Hezekiah. I mean, goodness, how many people does God, I mean, this sounds crude, but it’s true, how many people whose lives does God, I’m not saying this right, how many people does God kill every day, and he doesn’t tell them at a time? Well, just about all of them.

I mean, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, he gives life, he kills. So, every person who dies, dies at God’s command. If you don’t believe it, just ask yourself the question, he’s God, he’s omnipotent, could he sustain the life of that person a minute longer? An hour longer? A day longer? Yes. But he doesn’t, right? Does he know what he’s doing? Yes. So he controls it, OK. So, instead of just, you know, taking Hezekiah’s life like normal, he tells him.

Well, what does, what do you think God thinks Hezekiah’s going to do upon hearing, you’re going to lose your life? He’s going to pray. And so, actually, what looks like, what looks like God going from plan A to plan B, oh, Hezekiah prays. How about that? Okay, I’ll do that. Instead of plan A to plan B, it’s actually plan A part 1 to plan A part 2. That involved Hezekiah’s prayer as part of the movement. In other words, it brought him into it. Same thing with Israel’s disobedience when they built the Golden Calf.

You know, God tells Moses what they have done and how ticked he is. Why not just go down there and destroy them? Why didn’t He tell Moses? So Moses would pray. Did anything that Moses prayed, did God go, “Ah, good point, Moses.” What does He remind him of? “God, you’ve made a covenant with these people.” “Oh, the covenant, Moses. Thank you. I forgot. Yeah, Israel. Okay, I gotcha.” I think, really? So Moses isn’t telling God anything He doesn’t know.

But what it is, is so kind of God, through prayer, to involve us in the outworking of His purposes, rather than just doing it. And that’s really what prayer is. It’s a divine invitation to us to get involved with God in His work. It’s the kind of God to do that. Same thing with Jonah. Why tell Nineveh? Forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed. Why tell them? So they’ll repent. People say, well, God changed His mind. He goes, oh, how about that? They repented. Okay, I’ll be merciful.

Well, if that’s what happened, so God was surprised by the repentance of Nineveh, so He forgave them instead of destroying them. If that was true for God, then, in the story, Jonah comes off smarter than God. Right? Because why didn’t Jonah want to go in the first place? I know you would be a compassionate God, and that’s why he didn’t want to go. I mean, you would think this prophet who hates the Ninevites would be about as cheerful as you could imagine to go and pronounce 40 days of your toast.

I mean, he’d be very happy to say that. Why didn’t he want to go? He knew that wasn’t the real purpose. So if he knows that and God doesn’t, yeah, chocolate up for Jonah. Smarter than God. You see? Yeah. Other things? Anything? With, like, compatibilism and free will, like, basically my understanding of that is that you’re not free when you choose A or B. The freedom I speak of is when you’re acting upon your desires. Yes, that’s right. Uh-huh.

So it’s not a freedom to say, like, I had the freedom to, outside of a determined sovereignty, but within completely determined life, you have the ability to act upon your desires. Right. That’s what compatibilism is saying. Yes, that’s right. I mean, and of course that means that you make your choices out of factors that give rise to inclinations. I mean, the reason you picked that sweater this morning has something to do with factors that would lead you to view that sweater. Same thing I did, you know. I think that’ll look nice on me, you know.

I don’t know if it does, but, you know, you think that way. So, I mean, the food you eat, I think that, you know. So we make these choices, but there always are factors that work together to give rise to one highest inclination. You didn’t wear your wardrobe; you picked out one sweater. I didn’t eat everything on the menu; I picked one thing. I noticed some of you ate. No, I’m just kidding. But, you know, so that’s what it is. And these factors are ones over which God exerts control, or can.

My model, if you read “God’s Greater Glory,” I explain this more fully, is that on most things, God is hands-off in terms of letting the normal processes work. Factors that give rise to having cereal for breakfast instead of eggs and toast are fine with Him. But if it matters, like with Joseph’s brothers, He can intervene and bring about circumstances in such a way that it will give rise to this highest inclination to do this one thing that God wants done.

But there’s a host of things in life that basically God just lets, I mean think of it in terms of natural law. What is God’s relationship to the wind that’s blowing right now? Is he in a direct causative way making it happen exactly as it is? That’s possible. That’s possible.

I think it’s more likely to say he creates laws of nature that function generally speaking the way they do, but he controls any time he wishes for a storm to go one way or the other, or a storm not to hit some place or to hit some place. You know, my daughter Rachel was in the February 5th tornado that hit Union University, dead on on the dormitories. That’s where it hit campus was the dorms. 1,200 students in those dorms that were devastated by this category 4 tornado.

Winds of 240 miles an hour if you can believe it. And not a single Union University student lost his or her life, not a one. And the stories of God’s preservation of them are incredible. Meticulous providence, no doubt about it. Anyway, I think to see that is to see that God can, anytime He wants to, regulate exactly as He wishes. But otherwise, a whole lot of things He allows to be simply what they are. Anything else? Alright, alright. Well, you gave me good attention while you were chomping down your good lunches, and I appreciate that.

And some of you I guess we’ll see tonight.