Was privileged to teach adult Sunday School at Crestview yesterday and wrap up our summer series on the Fundamentals. We ended thinking of God’s Will and Guidance, so I took time to lead people through a Bible Intensive time of Psalm 16. And, we ended with this particular Ask Pastor John episode on How Is God Directing My Life. This is an excerpt from a sermon entitled, the Path To Full and Lasting Pleasure. Here’s the video… (the excerpt I showed begins at the 27:28 mark). If you missed Sunday School and would like a Psalm 16 to mark up, stop by my office. I have some extra copies. Enjoy!
Submitting to God’s Word and Your Relationship With God
An importantly relevant word from Tim Keller on 1 John 2:3-6, which we’ll look at this coming Lord’s day:
“Unless you see the Bible as God’s Word … That’s certainly how Jesus saw it. That’s certainly how John saw it. Unless you see the Bible as the place where you can find God’s will, you can’t actually have a personal relationship with God. “What do you mean?” you say. Well, let me put it to you this way.
“Plenty of people say, “I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I do! I believe in much of what the Bible says, but there are many things in the Bible you just can’t believe anymore. There are things in the Bible we just can’t follow anymore. We realize there are contradictions, and there are some things that are primitive. So I believe in most of the Bible and in the general principles of the Bible, and I believe in Jesus, and I have a personal relationship in Jesus, but I can’t believe everything in the Bible.”
“Now let me show you what you’ve just done. First of all, there is nothing between the two positions I’m about to outline. When you say, “Some things in the Bible are right and some things are wrong,” the only way you can say that is if you have faith at the moment you’re saying that in some other source of authority by which you can sift through the Bible. In other words, as soon as you say the Bible is only partially right and partially wrong, the only way you can say that is on the basis of faith in some authority which is completely and always right.
“You can’t doubt everything at once. You can only doubt something from a platform of faith in something else. Here’s what’s going on. If you say even one verse in the Bible is not true but the rest are, what you’re actually doing is you’re saying, “My discernment, my experience, my reason, my feelings are a more sure authority for deciding what God’s will is than the Bible.”
“So either (and there is nothing in between) … Even if you say there’s one verse that’s wrong, either your experience and your judgment can sit in evaluation of the Bible, or the Bible sits in evaluation of your judgment. Either your feelings are judged by the Bible, or the Bible is judged by your feelings.
“I’ll put it another way. Either your understanding is judged by the Bible, or the Bible is judged by your understanding. There’s nothing in the middle. Now I’m not going to try to prove which one is right to you right now, and you certainly have the right to believe your judgment is valid, more valid than the Bible. You know, be careful. In the 1890s, there were people who were saying these are things modern people can’t believe anymore in the Bible. They’re very different than in the 1990s. They’ll be very different than in the 2090s. I’m not going to try to prove which is right and which is wrong.
“Let me just show you the implications and ramifications of what you’ve just done. There is never a place now where you can see a standard that can cross your moral will. Do you know what’s happened to you? Now that you say, “This doesn’t seem right to me. Yes, the Bible says it’s wrong, but I can’t believe that. Yes, the Bible says this is wrong, but I can’t believe that.”
“In other words, if something doesn’t feel right to you and the Bible says it is right, or if something feels right and the Bible says it’s wrong, now there is no possibility of moral discipline. There is no possibility of a higher standard than your own feelings and your own experience and your own judgment. What that means is you can’t have a personal relationship with God. You’re treating God like a microphone now. If it feels right to you, that must be God’s will. How will you ever know a God who can say even though it feels right, it’s wrong? Because now what feels right is right.
Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013). This particular citation is from a 1994 sermon entitled “The Freedom of Obedience”
Recap – Will of God
Today’s sermon from Colossians 1:10 entitled “Walking in the Will of God” is up and online. Continuing the thought he began in 1:9, Paul elaborates and unpacks what walking in God’s will looks like. This morning, specifically, the characteristics of those walking in God’s will are:
1) They live to please the Lord
2) They are blossoming in good deeds
3) They are growing in their knowledge of God
I thought these principles can be applied in many ways…
These are great things to pray for another believer.
They are great characteristics to pursue.
We can have confidence that, as we practice them, we are “walking in God’s will.”
Any thoughts?
Knowing God’s Will
In yesterday morning’s sermon, I alluded to some ideas about how we view the will of God and what ramifications this has for our life.
Too many people narrowly define the will of God in terms of this or that decision they are facing. I think God, in His Word, is wanting us to see His will as something larger (i.e. sanctification in 1 Thessalonians 4:3, believing in Jesus as Savior in John 6:40). When we narrowly define God’s will in terms of who we will marry, which job to choose, or other decisions like this, we run the risk of missing out what God’s will actually is for us.
For more info, I would also recommend Kevin DeYoung’s excellent work, Just Do Something.