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God's Sovereignty and Your Mistakes
Dr. Robert Jeffress
Pathway to Victory
I'm continually amazed at the number of people who argue with the idea that God has a detailed master plan that governs our lives. They picture God as passively watching and waiting for us to make our choices as free human agents and then adjusting His plan to fit our preferences.
Do we really believe God would surrender control of His creation to the whims of His creatures? Is it plausible that a universe so intricate in design is run by Someone whose motto is "The best ability is flexibility" when it come to planning?
My former pastor Dr. W.A. Criswell once observed:
Before a stone was laid in the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, the idea was born in the mind of Sir Christopher Wren. He saw it in his mind and purposed it in his heart. Before he struck a chisel against the heavy rock marble, Michelangelo saw the mighty Moses in his mind and purposed it in his heart. ...Why should it surprise us then that God, the designer and architect of the universe, should have a plan and purpose for His creation? The greater the project, the more necessary the plan.
God has a detailed plan for the universe that governs everything that happens in His creation. The apostle Paul described that plan when he wrote,
"Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Ephesians 1:11, emphasis added).
"All things" fall within God's intricate design for His creation. "All things" also encompasses everything that might affect your life.
Your circumstances. The decisions of governmental leaders (Proverbs 21:1), the outcome of the rolled dice in a Las Vegas casino (Proverbs 16:33), and the change of seasons (Daniel 2:21, NIV) are just some of the external circumstances that God directs. Obviously, each of these forces has the power to impact your life.
Your physical and emotional makeup. "All things" also includes the smallest details of your life. The color of your eyes, the number of hairs on your head, and even the bent of your emotions were all designed by God. The psalmist expressed that truth this way:
For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well (Psalm 139:13-14).
Most Recent User Comments
Vince2659
3/3/2009 1:29 PM
I used to be a hardcore predestinarian Calvinist, but I eventually came to see that I was glossing over a lot of the Scriptures. "God works all things after the counsel of his own will" is NOT synonymous with "God *predestines* all things after the counsel of his own will." Proverbs 21:1 does NOT say that God preordains EVERY decision. Proverbs 16:33 is NOT talking about "every roll of dice in Vegas," it is talking about the casting of lots, a means used in the Bible to discern the will of God in a situation -- so of course "its every decision" is from the Lord. And to say that because God ordained my birth and the bent of my emotions, then he must have ordained every single thing I do, feel or experience afterward, is simply to force an absolutist logic onto the Word that the Word itself neither teaches nor requires. God is not so weak that he has to control the movement of every speck of dust in order for his master plan to succeed. That's a *human* need, not a divine one.
dchanson45
3/3/2009 12:55 PM
Dr. Jeffries, THANK YOU for your sound Biblical exegesis on a topic critical to our understanding, of our human condition in general and status as adopted sons of God in particular.
As for the posters who disagreed...well, you can tout human autonomy/antinomianism (what the humanist really means by "free will") all you want. But our Lord through St. Paul long since anticipated and confounds you.
[Romans 9:19] One of you will say to me: "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded cannot not say to the Molder, "Why did you make me like this?"
Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable?
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction?
God causes all things to work together for good! Amen.
As for the posters who disagreed...well, you can tout human autonomy/antinomianism (what the humanist really means by "free will") all you want. But our Lord through St. Paul long since anticipated and confounds you.
[Romans 9:19] One of you will say to me: "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded cannot not say to the Molder, "Why did you make me like this?"
Does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable?
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the objects of His wrath, prepared for destruction?
God causes all things to work together for good! Amen.
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Did God choose for Adam and Eve to sin? Surely he compelled them to sin and eat of the tree. Sending Satan to tempt them so that they would fall and mess up all of creation ever since.
If that is true then all the death and decay in the world is in fact Gods own fault. What a sadist then to watch all the death and dying to even cause it with natural disasters. Truly everything is Gods fault. That's your God. In control of everything.
However, that is not the God of the Bible.
My God hates sin. He allowed the fall of Adam and Eve because he wanted his creation to have the freedom to choose to love him or not. If you follow Jesus you do so by LOVING GOD and loving that which he created.
When someone builds a house they have plans. They follow the plans and the house is built. They don't concern themselves with every nail. Sometimes a nail won't make it into the house.