Similar things, taking maybe a slightly different angle on some of them, exploring in a bit more depth, specific implications of God's sovereignty, answering some common problems that people have when we think about God's sovereignty. So we're gonna need God's help to think about and explore these things. So let's pray and ask him to help us. Father, we thank you for the assurance that we can have when we know that the whole world is in your hands. Father, these things can sometimes be something that we might struggle to think about, struggle to accept. But Lord, we know that we can rest knowing that you know the truth, knowing that you are in charge of things, and we can trust you to control the world and our lives for your good ends. Father, we know that you are loving and wise, and we know that everything is being worked out for the best that it could possibly be. Father, as we continue to think about these things, please help us. Please give us minds that understand these deep truths of your words. Please give us hearts that are open to learning and believing things about you, even if we at first struggle with them. Please enlighten us, and may this be something that we can come away rejoicing in, something that we feel closer to you because we know it. So please bless us through this talk and this subject matter, and may we come out stronger and more like Christ for what we look at. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so we're gonna think about some common specific problems relating to God's sovereignty, particularly with regards to salvation. Phil touched on God's sovereignty. God is in control of salvation. We're gonna look at four different issues, which are these. So we're gonna start by looking at salvation, and within problems to do with God's control over salvation, we're gonna think about God's control over evangelism and how that affects how we do evangelism, how we tell people the gospel. We're also gonna think about free will in a bit more detail. What does it mean for our free will that God is in control? We're gonna think a bit more about evil as well. What does it mean that God is in control? What does that mean about our doctrine of evil? How are we to understand how evil and God relate? And then prayer, which is a common problem when we start to think about God's sovereignty. We're gonna think about how God's sovereignty and God's control interplays with how we pray. And then we'll think about what to do with this information. Because as since the beginning of the week, we are gonna be doers of the word and not just hearers. So, common objections to God's sovereignty. And the first question we come up against when we say that God is in control of everything is that, does God's sovereignty mean that he chooses who will and won't be saved? Does the fact that God is in control mean that he has chosen who will be saved, who won't be saved, who will go to heaven? And in order to answer this, I want us to look at this passage, John 6. Yesterday we understood something of the depth of the Trinity by thinking about John 5. So John is a great book for your theological basics. We've got John 6 today. John 6, 35 to 51, which is on page 892 in the Bibles on your chairs. Page 892, John 6. I'm gonna read 35 to 51. So John 6 from 35. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, and this is the will of him who sent me. that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. As is written in the prophets, and they will be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the father except he who is truly, except he who is from God. He has seen the father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Okay, so another very in-depth discourse that Jesus had with these Jews that were grumbling. Maybe you spotted some Trinitarian things from yesterday. Again, similar themes come up in this passage. But what we're gonna think about is the issues that this raises to do with God's sovereignty and salvation. And we've got some important questions that we're gonna ask looking at this passage. what must someone do in order to be saved? Just looking at these verses that we've just looked at, what must someone do in order to be saved? Anyone got an immediate answer for that? So verse 40, in verse 40 he says, this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So the one who looks to Jesus and believes in him will have eternal life. That is what someone has to do to be saved. Now that makes it sound very easy, doesn't it? That makes it sound like, ah, this is our choice. We decide, are we going to look at Jesus and believe in him? That sounds like it's a free will thing. But who will actually do that? Question two. Who is it who is going to look to the son and so will have eternal life? Well, let's take a look at verse 40 again. Yeah, no, sorry, verse 50. Oh man, I'm all over the place. But yeah, verse 50 again affirms, this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. So verse 40 and verse 50 both affirm that anyone looks at Jesus, anyone believes in Jesus, eating of Jesus will not die. And this is something that the Bible always affirms, that the way people are saved is by believing in Jesus. So question two, who will actually do that? Who is it who looks at the son and believes in him? Let's look at verse 37. Verse 37, Jesus seemingly sort of comes out of nowhere, and he's telling these people that they don't believe in him, but he says, all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. So who is it who actually comes to Jesus? It's all that the Father gives to him. All that the Father has given to Jesus will come to Jesus. Now this is people he's talking about. He's saying that the Father has given him some people, and they will come to him. And everyone who the Father has given him will come to him. There's nobody who the Father has given to Jesus who won't come to Jesus. Everyone who the Father has given to Jesus will come to Jesus. And those are the ones who are going to be saved. So that's kind of a... like a lower limit, so at least all the people who are given to Jesus by the Father will come to Jesus, at least. Now, we might ask the question, are there going to be people who aren't given to Jesus by the Father who are also saved? Because that verse doesn't say that that won't happen, but verse 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. So that sets our upper limit. Who will come to Jesus? Well, at least all the ones who the father has given to him, but no more than who the father calls. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws them. So only those people who the father calls, only those people who the father gives to Jesus, will be saved, will be raised up on the last day, but all of those whom the Father gives to Jesus will be saved. So we are given both limits. We are given an upper and a lower limit. The only people who can come are the ones who are called, and only those who are called will come, but all those who are called will come. So the people who will be saved are no more and no fewer than those whom God calls. And we can see that a surface reading of this text, we might not immediately catch that that's what Jesus is saying. It's a very simple dialogue. He's talking about people coming to him and being called. He's talking about everyone who looks at him will be saved. But there's deep truths here, that the only ones who will be saved are the ones who the Father calls. It is the Father who is in charge of who gets saved, who comes to Jesus. So it's still that people look and believe. That's still the way that people are saved. But the ones who do look and believe are the ones who are called by the Father, and they can't do that unless they can. So why is this important? Why is it so important that we understand this? Why is Jesus choosing to say this at this point? What application does he bring out of it? Well, let's look at verse 39. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is key, this is one reason why it's so important to understand that God decides who is saved. Because it means that if we are saved, then we cannot be lost. Jesus will not lose any of those whom the Father has given him. So we know that no more than whom God has called and no less than whom God has called will come to Jesus, but that means that they are secure. God is in control, start to finish. If salvation was our choice, if we could decide, if we ultimately had the control to decide whether we were saved or not, then that would mean that we could un-choose. That would mean, oh, you know, maybe today I feel like following Jesus, then maybe tomorrow I don't. Maybe tomorrow I'm having a bad day. And then what if I'm having a bad day and that's when I die? That would mean that I wouldn't be saved. But if God is in control, if God is the one who has called and he has given us to Jesus, Jesus says none of those whom the Father has given me will be lost, We are kept safe because we are chosen in the first place. If God initiates, then God also holds on. And this is a formulation that we see in lots of different places in the Bible. So if you turn to John 10, just a few pages over. John 10, and I'm gonna read 24 to 30. And it's a very similar dialogue. See if you can see the same kind of things coming up again. So this is, Jesus has healed a man who's been born blind and he's being questioned, this man is being questioned by the Pharisees. So for the second time, they called the man who had been blind and said to him, give, oh, sorry, I'm in the wrong chapter. Yes, I'm in, sorry. Chapter 10, it's about the good shepherd. Forget all that about the man who was born blind. So chapter 10 from verse 24. So the Jews, he's been telling them lots of important teaching and they're questioning him to try and find out who he is. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me. But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them. and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." So again, we can see the same pattern. It is God who gives the sheep to Jesus, and the ones that he has given to Jesus are the ones who hear Jesus' call and who respond. He says, you know, you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. You can't believe unless you are first a sheep, unless you are first one of those who the Father has given to Jesus. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. How do we know who the ones are whom God has chosen? The ones that God has chosen are the ones who hear Jesus' voice and follow him. Again, we see that pattern, don't we, that we had in the other passage. And again, we've got that Jesus keeps them safe. The ones who respond are kept safe and receive eternal life. Verse 28, I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my Father's hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. So again, we get security from the fact that God has chosen who will be saved. God gives those he has chosen to Jesus, and so they hear the call and respond to Jesus, and Jesus keeps them safe and gives them eternal life. That's us, if we're believers, if we're Christians. If we are those whom God has chosen, then we can know that we are safe. Okay, so we get a much more succinct, a much more short explanation of this process in Romans 8.30. Those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified. Those he justified, he also glorified. This verse perfectly sums up this process that Jesus has been talking about in both of these chapters. First, predestined means sort of given a destiny, chosen beforehand. So those that God chooses, those are the ones who he calls. And the ones who he calls, he justifies. He forgives their sins. He makes righteous. And those he justifies, he also glorified. So it's the same people who started by being predestined. They're kept safe through the process and are glorified. Those who start also finish and it's God who calls them. That's the Bible's explanation of how this works. The father chooses. Those who are chosen respond to the call and they are given to Jesus. and through him they are kept safe into eternal life. That's us. Now, of course, this raises as many questions as it answers. It raises very practical questions, very practical implications that we might worry about. I think one big question that might come up that we're gonna think about now is, so what about evangelism? If God has decided who is going to believe and who is going to not believe, if God has chosen, and those chosen people are the ones who are called and who respond, then what does that say about, you know, if we go and we try and tell our friends about Jesus and we try and persuade our friends to believe in Jesus, but can we do that if God is the one who calls? How do we deal with that? Right, we're gonna look at another passage that's up there on the screen. Acts 13, 46 to 48, and this is part of Paul and Barnabas. They're on their missionary journey, and they're preaching, and they get rejected by the Jews. I think it's the very first place that they go to. The Jews turn them away and say, we don't want to hear what you've got to say, and this is what they say. Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles, for this is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord. And all who were appointed for eternal life believed. Now notice that Paul and Barnabas consider the Jews to have rejected their message. They've spoken to the Jews and the Jews have rejected their message. They see that as being the Jews who are doing that, but they see it as a command which they are obeying to go and preach to the Gentiles. This is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. But even though they're obeying that command, The narrator notes, and Paul and Barnabas were aware, that the people who believe are the ones whom God has appointed for eternal life. They are following the command that they have been given to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. They have no doubt about doing that. They don't see any sort of problem with God's sovereignty in doing that, even though they know that the ones who will believe are the ones who have been appointed for eternal life. The Bible never suggests that God's control over salvation should make us do less evangelism. In fact, God's control over salvation should make us want to do more. It should encourage us to tell people about Jesus. God has commanded his church to proclaim the gospel. In Matthew 28, Jesus says, go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. The early church were very active in getting around and telling everyone that they could, trying to bring people into the kingdom. It uses words like persuasion and reasoning. That's what they were doing. They were talking to people, trying to convince them. Because God doesn't work against himself. God uses us in his divine plan. Those things that he has commanded us to do, he uses them to bring about the things that he has already decided will happen. God controls the outcome, so he controls who will be saved, but he also controls the method. God might have chosen someone to be saved, but he's also chosen how that will happen. He's chosen who it is who will go and talk to them, what words they will hear, maybe their friend will tell them something from scripture, and that'll open something in their heart. Or maybe they'll hear a preacher on the radio, and they'll think, man, I never thought about God before. Maybe you, their friend, will tell them about Jesus, and God uses that, and they listen to you, and they're saved. God uses us as part of his plan. Remember, Phil talks about concurrence. It's not just that God is working and he does it mysteriously, and the world isn't involved in what God is doing. God does things through using everything in the world. God has decided who will be saved, but he uses us to bring the gospel to people. So we should see God's control as an encouragement to go out and tell people the gospel. Because if God has told us to preach, and God has decided who it is who's going to be saved, then we can trust that we're part of his plan. We are the people who God uses to bring about the salvation of the people he's decided will be saved. God ordains both the outcome and the method. And once we understand God's control, we can understand that we can be part of that whole process. We can be part of God's plan. It's also a relief to know about God's sovereignty if we are proclaiming the gospel. If we know that God is sovereign, then we can evangelize relying on God to change people's hearts, not our own persuasiveness. Now don't mishear me. We should still try and be persuasive. We should still preach as well as possible. We should still try and be very clear and tell people the whole gospel so that they can understand and so that they will be saved. But it is God who changes hearts, not our own persuasiveness, not how well we speak. God does the work. Imagine that you have spent hours and hours talking to your friend, your coursemate. You've told them about Jesus. You've told them everything you know about the Bible and the gospel. And you're getting frustrated. They just don't seem to get it. I've said it as clearly as I can. I've tried to be as persuasive as I can be. In presenting them the gospel, they just don't seem to understand. They just don't seem to think that it's important. And in that situation, you can be tempted to think, man, maybe I'm doing it wrong. Maybe I'm not good enough at this, and maybe it's my fault that they're not understanding. Maybe I need to be more persuasive. But if you understand that God is sovereign in salvation, and you can rely on him opening your friend's heart and not your clever words. You do your best, but you know that that's all you can do and you know that it's God who calls the sheep and it's God who saves them and gives them to Jesus for eternal life. And so it's a relief when we're telling people the gospel that God is the one who's in control. It's funny, because even people who don't believe that God is in control will sometimes pray. When they're doing evangelism, they'll pray, you know, God, speak to these people and open their hearts. When you know that God is in control, you can pray that with more fervor, and you can rely that that is what God is gonna do. So we can be encouraged, because we know that we are part of God's plan, but we also shouldn't be discouraged when we think that we have failed at evangelism, because we're doing our best, and it's not up to us. God is the one who changes people's hearts. So God's sovereignty in salvation, God's sovereignty over evangelism, it's still something that we need to do and we need to put all our effort into and do with all our strength, but it's not us who saves people, it's God who does. But we can be part of that plan. Okay, so the next question. Free will. If God is sovereign over everything, including salvation, do we really have free will? Can we say that we have free will? Well, it's an interesting question, and I think it raises another question that we don't always think of, which is, what do we mean by the term free will? What does free will mean? Do we think about freedom to do whatever we want to do? Is that what we want to think that we have? Do we want to be making our own decisions, not be influenced by someone else? What is free will? Do we really have free will? Well, one thing that we can say for certain is that we have responsibility for our actions. The whole Bible affirms that you die for your own sin. You know, from the very start, Adam had the responsibility in the garden. He had the option. You obey or you don't. You eat the fruit or you don't. And whatever you do, you are held accountable. If you sin, you die. So God judges us for what we do, we are responsible. But does that mean that we have free will? Does that mean that we ultimately have to choose if God holds us responsible? Phil raised a good verse earlier, Proverbs 21.1, but I wanna look at both Proverbs 21.1 and Proverbs 21.2. So this is what it says. In the Lord's hand, the king's heart is a stream of water. I'm afraid this isn't ESV. In the Lord's hand, the king's heart is a stream of water that he channels towards all who please him. A person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart. So in the first verse, we have this strong affirmation that God controls the heart. God directs the heart of the king. Everyone's heart is controlled, even the heart of a king, but it's immediately followed by the fact that, well, a person may think their own ways are right, but the Lord weighs the heart. An affirmation that God holds us accountable for what we do. God considers us responsible. God decides whether what we're doing is right or wrong. The Bible does not consider God's control over our hearts to be a problem with God's right to judge our hearts. Both of these things are put right next to each other. God is in control of our hearts, but God has the right to judge our hearts. Everyone's heart, even a king's, is in God's hand to direct, but we are still weighed to see whether what we're doing is right or wrong. The Bible tells us that both are true. This is a very hard question to answer, because do we have free will? Well, experientially, when I woke up this morning, I decided what T-shirt to put on. I thought, I'm gonna go out and do this, or I'm gonna do that. But it's all in the Lord's control, and we're held responsible for it. Here's a possible thought experiment. I don't like to get too far into the realms of conjecture, but here's something to think about that might help us with this. What would be the alternative to saying that God is fully in control of our wills? If we said that God wasn't in control of our hearts, if God didn't decide what we did, what would be the alternative? Would it mean that we were free? Is anything free from all influences? If we've decided that God controls what goes on in the whole world, well, what I do on any given day isn't just a spontaneous decision. It's based on what's happened before. It's based on the things I see. I decide what I want to eat because, well, I've tried that food before and I know that it's good. It's not that I just randomly wake up and I'm like this or that. There's something that influences what I do. The way that other people treat me has made me who I am. In every area of our lives, we have external influences on us so that everything we do is affected by other things. That would be the alternative to saying that God is in control of everything, would be saying that, well, you know, it's kind of like an atheistic worldview where you say that, well, you know, these things happen, we start as gravity and molecules and then it hits the next thing and it hits the next thing and eventually we end up where we are here and it's all like a series of events that have caused each other. That's the alternative and it doesn't give us any more freedom of will than saying that God is in control. In fact, it makes it sound, it makes it, It makes us realize that it's much better that we can understand that God is in control, because it means that we're not at the mercy of these random influences and forces and what other people affect us that decides what we do. Nothing is free from all influences. But yes, the Bible affirms that God's, the King's hand is in the Lord's, sorry, the King's heart is in the Lord's hand. God does have control over our wills. But God can still decide whether what we're doing is right or wrong. You can still judge us for it. Okay, we're gonna think about evil. If God is sovereign over everything, including our hearts, does that mean that he causes evil? Now, this is a tricky question. And the way that we're gonna attempt to answer it is by doing some line drawing. I'm not gonna get you drawing on pieces of paper, don't worry. But we're gonna draw lines, we're gonna draw boundaries. of things that we can say and things that we can't say. So we may not come out with a conclusive answer of exactly how God's control and evil works. We may never understand that, but there are things that we can say. Do you remember earlier in the week we talked about the pomegranate? You might not understand the whole thing, but there are things that you can say about it, and even if they don't seem to agree, you can know that they're all true. So there are things that we can say about God's sovereignty and how it relates to evil, And there are things that we can't say. So I've got them in pairs here. So we can't say that God tempts us. And we can't say this because James 1, 13 to 15 says, when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death. James is very clear, we cannot say that God tempts us. Now we know that God has control over evil in some way, but God does not tempt us to do evil. How are we to understand that? Where does temptation come from? It comes from within us, it comes from inside us. But God controls our will, so how can we say that he doesn't tempt us? But the Bible's very clear, God does not tempt us. It's one of these things that become hard to understand, but we know that we cannot say that God tempts us, whatever we believe. We can say that God uses evil in his plans. Phil already took us to this bit in Genesis 50, but this is earlier in the chapter. Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery. He was a prisoner for many years in Egypt, but then he ended up as king, and God had used it all, and then when the brothers When he's confronted by his brothers, when he comes face to face with them again, this is what he says. Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Another example of God using evil in his plans. The brothers' actions were evil. What they did was wrong. They were tempted within their own selves, like what James says. The brothers were tempted to do evil and sold their brother into slavery, but God used that in his plan. God used that evil. It was all decided ahead of time what was gonna happen, and it had a good outcome. We've already looked at Acts 4. Indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. Herod and Pilate crucifying Jesus. That was the evil in their own hearts that led to that. It was the evil in the hearts of the Pharisees and the Jews who handed him over. But it was in God's plan. They did everything that God had decided was happening. Another example from 1 Kings 22. This is when Ahab is deciding whether or not he should go into the battle that ultimately he will die in. And he gets all these prophets, and these false prophets all say, yes, yes, you should go and you'll fight and you'll be victorious. Go and win that battle. And he gets the prophet of the Lord, Micaiah, who he doesn't want to hear, because Micaiah never tells him anything good. But this is what Micaiah says to him. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there? One suggested this and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. By what means? The Lord asked. I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets, he said. You will succeed in enticing him, said the Lord. Go and do it. We can see here, now obviously, what the false prophets are doing is evil. It's wrong to lie in the name of the Lord. And what this spirit is doing, what the spirit is causing them to do, it seems like that is an evil thing, that the spirit entices an evil action in these false prophets. but the Lord is giving permission for them to do it. And you can see that it's part of his plan. It's part of the plan that God sets up for Ahab to be killed, that this evil spirit will give these evil prophets their message, but God allows it. God's plan involves it. So we can't say that God tempts us, but we can say that God uses evil in his plans. We also can't say that evil ever happens that God does not allow. I'm not going to read the whole of Job 1 and 2, but you probably know the story of Job. Satan comes before the Lord, and the Lord's showing off because he's so proud of his servant Job. And he says, have you seen Job? There's nobody like him. He's righteous. He's a good guy. He loves the Lord. And Satan's like, ah, well, it's only because you've given him such an easy life. You know, if you started to afflict him, if you made him hurt, he would turn on you. And the Lord tells Satan what Satan is allowed to do. He says, okay, you can go and remove all of his comforts, but you can't touch him himself. And then later when Satan comes back and Job still hasn't turned against the Lord, the Lord allows Satan to go a bit further and he says, okay, fine, you can touch him and you can make him ill, but you can't kill him. And everything that Satan does, God tells him how far he can go. So the evil cannot happen if God is not allowing it. God decides how much evil can occur and what can't. We heard earlier, again, the example of the sparrow. And not two sparrows sold for a penny, yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your father's care. God is in control of everything that happens, even the evil. He decides how much evil is allowed. Things do not die without God allowing it to happen. But we can say that we are still responsible for our own evil, even if it is in God's plan. And we must repent for our evil. Deuteronomy 15 to 20. This is the Lord talking to Israel, and this is what he says. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to keep his commands, decrees and laws. Then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away, and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed, and you will not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God. Listen to his voice and hold fast to him for the Lord is your life and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So we are responsible for what we do. The people of Israel, God said, these are your options. You're going into the land of Canaan and you need to stick with me or you'll end up going away and you'll follow idols. I'm setting before you these options, life or death. What did he say to them? He says, choose life. We're still responsible for our own evil, even if it's in God's plan. The Bible never says that we don't have the choice or the responsibility for what we do. Luke 22, 22, this is talking about Judas. The son of man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him. Jesus says, I'm gonna die because that is what the whole plan of God has been. It's always been decided that the son of man is going to die, that Jesus is gonna die. And of course, Judas is part of that plan. Judas is part of God's plan that Jesus will be betrayed by him, but he says, woe to that man who betrays him. So Judas is still responsible. Evil still comes to him because of what he does, but it was all part of God's plan. God does present right and wrong as a choice, and he holds us accountable for what we do, even when it is clear that it has been planned beforehand. And so it's something that we need to repent for. We need to repent for our evil. We can't say, I've done evil, but it must be just because it was God's plan. If we've done evil, we need to repent, because we are still responsible for it. Psalm 51 is the classic psalm of repentance. David repenting to the Lord, because he says, I've done evil, I've done wrong, please forgive me. Because evil is our responsibility, so we need to repent for it. God does present right and wrong as a choice. He holds us accountable for what we do, even if he has planned that we will do it beforehand. Most importantly, We can say that God thoroughly hates evil. God is light, in him is no darkness at all, says 1 John 1.5. Psalm 11.5 says, the Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked, those who love violence, he hates with a passion. It is not the case that God is sitting back and watching everything that happens and he's unemotional about it and he's saying, That's part of my plan, and that's part of my plan, and I'm kind of playing chess, and it's all good, and in the end, my purpose will be worked out. While these things are happening, God hates evil. He loves good, and he hates evil. When he sees the wrong that goes on in the world, when he sees injustice, when he sees people suffering, God hates it. God hates the evil that goes on. Even though it's part of his plan, even though in the end, it will mean that the outcome is the best that it could be, The evil now means that there will be good later. It means that when the world is destroyed, we've got the new heavens and the new earth and we will be with Christ. And all of that will come because we have been through the evil here. But while it's going on, God hates it. God allows it, he plans it. But it never says that God is not anything but negative, hateful towards evil. So we cannot say, sorry, we can say that God thoroughly hates evil. So those are some lines that we've drawn of things that we can and we can't say about God's control and how that relates to evil. Scripture does have a hard limit final word on what we can say about specifically free will, salvation, evil, and the control of God. And it's in Romans 9, you probably wanna turn there. I'll tell you the chapter in just a sec, the page in just a sec. Romans nine is on page 945. Page 945. Romans nine is all about God being in control and God choosing who will be saved and who will not and how that relates to free will. It's something that Paul sort of tackles here. So reading from verse 10. So this is talking about Rebecca in the Old Testament. She has twins. Not only say, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? Is God unjust because before these people were born, he said, I love one and I hate the other? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, so this is Pharaoh in the Exodus, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is moulded say to its moulder, why have you made me like this? Has the potter not write over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honourable use and another for dishonourable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy? which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. So what Paul comes to here when the person asks the question, well, if God is in control, then why does he blame us? Surely he can't blame us if he's decided what we will do. But the answer that Paul gives is, who are you to answer back to God? We are what has been made. God has made us. It's a very humbling answer. And it reminds us that although we can go so far, we can think about these things, and the Bible tells us about these things and gives us some insight. Although we can think about it, ultimately we can't question God. We can't say, well, that's not right. We can't say that God is unjust. There is a limit to how far we can think about it. Lays down the vital principle that God's sovereignty is not an excuse for disobedience either. We still have to obey, we're still responsible. God is in control. But he does hold us to account. And we are not to question his justice. We are the things that have been made. Okay, so, this is where we are so far in our outline. We've thought about salvation and particularly how God's control pertains to evangelism. Thought about free will, we thought about evil. Let's think about prayer. This is a very important application. God has planned everything, what's the point in praying? I wonder if this question has occurred to you. If God has already decided what is gonna happen, then if I pray, surely that doesn't change it, right? God is in control, then why would I pray if I can't make any difference to the plan? Let's compare these two passages. So Genesis 15, 13 to 16. You probably, you don't need to go there necessarily. Genesis 15, 13 to 16 says this. Then the Lord said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there. And they will be afflicted for 400 years, but I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve. And afterwards they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. And they, so this is the offspring, shall come back here in the fourth generation. For the ethnicity of the Amorites is not yet complete. So why did God rescue Israel from Egypt? Think about that passage that we just read. Why did God rescue Israel from Egypt? Well, because it was part of his plan. It was his promise to Abraham that the Israelites would come out and they would inherit the land of Canaan, long before that ever happened. So Abram, you know, it's 430 years before the Exodus happens, but this is God's plan. He says to Abram, this is what's gonna happen. Okay, that seems like an easy answer, but let's go to Exodus 3. Exodus 3 and verse 7 to 10. So this is when the Lord is talking to Moses and he's going to send him to rescue the people from Israel. So this is 430 years later. The plan is working perfectly. They're in Egypt. They're going to be brought out. And this is what the Lord says. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the land, out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me. And I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Why did God rescue Israel from Egypt? Because he heard their cry and he had compassion on them. when they cried out to him, when they prayed, because their labor was hard and they were suffering. God took pity, and so he decided, I'm gonna rescue them from Egypt. Now, it was always in the plan, but we see these two things working together. God's plan and the Israelites' prayers. God does answer prayer, but we see that the Israelites' prayers were a part of the plan that God already had. You know, Jesus is very clear in the New Testament that God hears and answers prayers. He says very blanket statements that sometimes can be very hard because they seem so generous. He says things like, ask and it shall be given to you. That doesn't seem any qualifiers to that. Ask and it shall be given to you. He's encouraging us to pray because God answers prayers. But Jesus does recognize that God is sovereign even when he's teaching about prayer. In Matthew 6, you probably know these words from the Sermon on the Mount. He's teaching the disciples about prayer And he says, when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Jesus is referring to God's big plan, to God's knowledge of everything that's ever gonna happen. God knows what you need before you ask him. But does that mean that you don't pray? Of course not. Our prayer is a part of God's plan. It means we can pray confidently. We know that God understands what we're asking. He's in control of everything. We know that God has a plan. We can pray as part of that plan. From a purely logical point of view, God's control gives us that motivation to pray, that we know that God has planned everything beforehand, and we know that he plans things to be consistent with his word. The Bible is true because God does not lie. And so if his word says that he will answer prayer, particularly persistent prayer, there's lots of assurances given about God answering when we pray to him. And so the logical conclusion is that he must sovereignly plan what we will pray in order to bring about that answer. He must plan that people will pray for things, and then he gives the answer to that prayer. So he plans what he's gonna do, but he also plans that that will happen because people pray. This can give us confidence that our prayers are heard. And either way, understanding God's sovereignty is never an excuse to not do what he says. And Jesus tells us to pray. Even if there was no other reason, we should pray as obedience to that command and leave the rest to God. We can have confidence in prayer because of God's sovereignty. Okay, so we've thought about God's sovereignty over salvation, evil, free will, prayer. What do we do with this information? How can we be those who put it into practice? Here are four things that I think we can do as a result, as a response. Rejoice in the truth of eternal security. Those two passages that we read right at the very beginning, John 6 and John 10, Jesus connects the idea that God is the one who chooses, God is the one who calls. He connects that with the truth that those who God calls will not be lost. We can rejoice that if God has called us, if we are in Christ, we are secure. God does not lose those he calls. God is in control, we cannot slip through his fingers. We cannot make ourselves be unchosen. We can be bold in evangelism. You know that God will call those whom he has chosen. You know that nobody's will is too stubborn for God to not call them because it's not up to people's wills, it's up to God. Your friend who's an angry Muslim and who says, I'm never gonna believe. You know that that's not too powerful for God to break into their hearts. Spread the gospel. Trust God to open hearts. You can be bold because you know that God's in control of doing the opening. Don't worry that you're not gonna say it right. Try and say it right and try and be faithful to God's word as you're proclaiming the gospel because that's important. We need to tell the truth and we need to try and do it well to try and be persuasive. But don't despair that you're not possibly good enough for God to use, because God's in control of who gets saved. Be comforted that God uses even bad things for good ends. Be comforted in bad times. We don't necessarily need to know the reason that bad things happen. Sometimes people try and work it out and they say, oh, this bad thing happened and then this good thing resulted. And then when they're going through bad times, they think, maybe in the future I'll see the good that results. Maybe they will. But we do know that none of it is outside of the plan. Even if we never see within our lifetimes the good that happens because of the bad, we know that all things are working together for good for those who love the Lord. We know that God is in control and so if bad things are happening to us, it's for God's good reasons. So be comforted that God uses even bad things for good ends. And pray confidently and persistently In all things, we can trust that God will act in line with what he has said he will do. And his word says that he answers prayer. Can God answer prayer? He can, because he's in control. Will God answer prayer? He will, because he said he will. Be confident in prayer. Okay. Let's have, we'll take it, we've got two minutes or so before lunch, so we'll take a couple of questions. I think we're going to do a more thorough question time later, so don't worry too much if you don't get your question answered now. Comfort. What's the verse? Isaiah 45, verse 7. Let me just read. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. Bad things don't happen that God doesn't permit. Bad things don't happen that God doesn't have as part of his plan. So I think that what it's talking about here when it says, I don't know what version you're using, when it uses the word evil, it's talking about bad things that happen, but the evil inside a person's heart, the evil that's there, I think we have to be careful and we can't really say that God causes evil inside people because of what James says, that God does not tempt anyone, but we're tempted when our own nature draws us astray. But bad things that happen in the world, I mean, you know, we talk about God causing earthquakes and hurricanes and yeah, and I think, so bad calamities and disasters and things that aren't intentional evil on people's parts. Yeah, we can say that God causes that. Okay, so yeah, I mean, it's important to remember that the baseline is nobody deserves mercy. So all of us in the world, we deserve God's punishment. But yes, so like you say, there are people who have lived and died and have never heard of Jesus. Now, God is in control. So if he has decided that someone will be saved, then they will be saved. So if God has decided someone will be saved, then they will hear about Jesus, they will hear the gospel and be saved. But yeah, like you say, there is a verse that says, it's in Luke 12, that the one who doesn't know as much will receive fewer blows, is what it says. And the one who knows but doesn't do what they're supposed to do, they will receive many blows. So I think there are verses to support the idea that people who don't outright reject Christ, they have maybe a lesser punishment. It's still punishment because baseline is still we are all evil and we deserve God's wrath. But I think that we deserve more wrath if we see the way that God has given for us to be rescued and we reject that. That makes God more angry. So yeah, I think you are correct, yeah. OK, I think it's lunchtime. As I've said, there will be another question time later. We ready for lunch, guys? We've got another five minutes. We can take more questions. Yes? I just want to speak to you about the special data, some data that we came out from rumors. And somehow, it comes out that God gave them over to the Antichrist. So it gets me thinking. It's almost like they rejected God. That's what it looks like. Even if the person doesn't want it, he rejects it. This whole idea, I don't know if you get my question. Yeah, yeah, and I think you're right. So yes, I mean, because of Adam turning away from God, we all are born sinful. We are born enemies with God. And that's not just, it's not just an unfortunate accident. We're born enemies with God. And as we grow up, it shows, you know, we do bad things because that's who we are. And naturally, we would not turn to God. Human nature is evil. We don't want God. And you can see this, children, what do they do? They grow up lying, and they grow up stealing, and kids aren't good. From when we're young, we're doing things that God doesn't want us to do. And so naturally, we would not turn to God, because we would naturally not like God. So yes, it's like you say, God needs to call us. If we weren't called, we would never try and make peace with God. So it's only by God calling us, like you used the word, God forcing the gospel. I mean, you probably can't say that. God changes our hearts. Without us, we wouldn't do that, but God does it to us, and so then we love God. Yeah. Does that answer? Okay. Other questions? Okay, well, I'll pray, and then We'll have a, there might be a couple of minutes before we can actually have lunch, but there will be question time later. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we can trust that we are secure, because you have us within your hands, you have us within your control. Jesus has said that he will not lose any that the Father has given him, but will raise them up on the last day. We thank you that we can trust that we have that security. We thank you that although you are in control of everything, you see fit to use us as part of your plan. You use us to bring about the salvation of other people, to tell people about Jesus. You use us to be your kingdom here on earth. Father, we thank you that we are a part of that. We pray that you'll help us to trust more. We pray that you'll help us to rejoice in the fact that you are in control. We pray that we might be able to pray and get to know you more, being comforted by these truths. We thank you for the food that we are gonna eat shortly, and please bless us this afternoon as we finish off for the week and as we have the final talk. Help us to stay alert and don't abandon us after that, but may we continue to put these truths into practice, to wrestle with them, to think more big thoughts about God. In Jesus' name, amen.