Broadlands Bible Church
October 18, 2023
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Thesis: The will of God and the wills of men are alike in respect to their place in the function of "personality", but different in respect to the question of primacy.
Introduction: We have considered the issue of "constrained choices". The Bible contradicts human thinking in respect to this issue. Men have exalted their ability to make choices and pursue them as means to "life"
above the other issues of personality, but God's Word subjects the will to two matters which have greater control over the person who is making choices and pursuing his/her options: "Love" and "Faith".
In our study this evening, we are going to turn our thinking to the biblical thesis that even God's will is "constrained" by His "Love" and "Truth", and when man's "will" comes into an irreconcilable conflict with God's "will", both the wisdom of God and the power of God guarantee that God's "will" will overrule man's "will".
- I. The Bible Says "It Is Impossible For God To Lie": Hebrews 6:18.
- A. This is a declaration that the will of God has limits.
- 1. If it is impossible for God to lie, He cannot "choose to lie" or "act upon a lie-based choice"; His "will" is constrained by this impossibility.
- 2. At the heart of the issues of God's will and man's is whether, or not, God will ever permit a man to move Him to lie.
- B. The roots of this "impossibility".
- 1. The issues of "possible"/"impossible".
- a. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus said "...nothing shall be impossible to you".
- b. In Matthew 19:26 we read, "And looking at them, Jesus said to them, 'With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible".
- c. All biblical texts are in harmony with each other [there are no contradictions in God and His words align with His "holiness"] so that it is our task to consider and to reconcile those words in our own minds.
- 1) The starting place for this reconciliation of seeming contradictions is the inescapable reality of the necessity of "faith".
- a) Not only is it true that "without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews 11:6), it is also true that "without faith, nothing is possible".
- i. "Possibility" is inescapably rooted to the exercise of power to accomplish.
- ii. The exercise of power to accomplish is impossible without the issues of the "Love" that creates an attempt to "accomplish" and the "Faith" that sponsors the hope of success.
- b) If there is no foundation for "faith", there can be no "method" to pursue the goal.
- 2) The most critical issue of "faith" is whether, or not, The Message (1 John 1:5) is believed.
- d. Any attempt to pit the divine attributes against each other is an attempt to eliminate God.
- 1) If there is no God, there is no truth.
- 2) If there is no truth, there is no reason to argue about whose viewpoint is valid, and if validity of viewpoint is impossible to establish, everything grinds to a dead, cold, halt.
- e. Biblical statements must always be taken within the text/context where they appear.
- 2. The issue of finitude/infinity in respect to power to be exercised is that man is incapable of correctly judging God (man either "believes" what God has told him, or he "makes God a liar" so that he cannot function with any consistency at all).
- a. This reality must have the distinction between what God means by the words He has chosen to express Himself and what man thinks God means by the inspired words of God on paper.
- b. This reality insists that men have a "reasonable" basis for their claim to have understood God correctly.
- 3. The bottom line to this issue is God's inherent internal consistency and the harmony of His essential nature.
- B. The fruit of this "impossibility".
- 1. If God can lie, Life is impossible and Death is inevitable.
- 2. If God cannot lie, anyone who believes him cannot Die and will Live.
- II. The Consequence Of Man's "Will" Being Contrary To God's "Will"
- A. If the will of man is genuinely contrary to God's will, God will simply overrule man and nullify both his "will" and the effectiveness of his pursuit.
- 1. Man has no "power to accomplish" except as a delegated power from God.
- 2. Man's "power" is rooted in his "creation-reality" of limitations that are inescapable by reason of the fact that he is not "all mighty".
- 3. Man has the "power" of choice, but it is limited by the presence of "values" and "beliefs", none of which exist apart from both the impact of "Sin" upon man and the impact of "God" upon man.
- B. Additionally, if the will of God is exercised to overrule man's will, He always has "options" as to how He will overrule.
- 1. He has the option of simply blocking the effectiveness of man's pursuit by bringing it to naught.
- 2. He also has the option of undoing man's "will" by persuading him to "believe" something that will cause him to cease his own pursuit.
- C. In any case, God's will is the ultimate determination of man's "choices": John 15:16 and Philippians 2:12-13.
