7/20/08 Circumstantial Will of God sermon 3
Circumstantial Will of God sermon 3
07/20/08
This is the 3rd sermon on the “Will of God”. I am doing this series because I believe that unless a person has a correct understanding of the will of God, at least as much as a person can have an understanding of God, they are not able to grasp the significance of God in their life.
While I am breaking down the will of God into 3 wills; intentional, circumstantial, and the ultimate will of God, God does not have 3 wills, but only one will. I am just doing so that we all will be able to better understand the will of God. Last week I talked to you about the intentional will of God. This week I am going to talk to you about the circumstantial will of God. The following week I will talk to you about the ultimate will of God, wrapping up the final week with what we now do with this knowledge, now that we know more about the will of God.
Last week, to put it in a nutshell, we found out that God’s intentional will is that his human creation is to walk in fellowship with him and do good toward others. I think we would all agree with God’s intent; it is simple enough and not unreasonable. Love God above all things and love others.
I am sure that everyone here this morning desires to do what God wills, but we don’t do it; so what is the problem? The answer is simple. Deep down our problem is our sinful self who wants to be number one above all things. It is sin, the sin that became an inescapable part of us when Adam and Eve decided that God must have been holding out on them. They were not satisfied with living in a wonderful place, free of pain, sorrow and death. They wanted to know what God knew. Now knowledge in itself is good, it is part of God’s intentional will that we seek after knowledge when it is used for good. The problem was that they did not trust God that he had given them all they needed and would need in the future.
God’s intentional will was that they and all future generations would truly trust, in other words, have faith in him to provide for all their needs, both physical and spiritual. This will of God still exists today, but it is hampered and even stopped, although it is only temporarily hampered and stopped, because of the same sin that Adam and Eve fell prey to; that is, not completely trusting God’s Word that he would provide all we need.
So, because of this, God’s intentional will is changed, not changed in that his intentional will is no more, but that that will has to operate under different circumstances, the circumstances of a sinful creation that now opposes God’s intentional will. We see that change right after Adam and Eve sinned, before they were forced to leave the Garden. In Genesis 3 we read, “The Lord God said to the serpent; ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.’” And now we see the circumstantial will of God at work, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise (actually the Greek word means crush) your head, and you shall bruise his heal.” Right there, God’s will is seen in a different way. His intentional will still holds, but because of sin, our sin today, his will has to now operate in a different way, for his human creation is no longer walking in fellowship with him and doing good to others.
God has to do something different to bring us back into his intentional will. He promises in that last verse that I read, a Savior that will, under different circumstances than God desired, bring us back into fellowship and doing good toward others. We see that promise come to pass in the circumstances of the cross. Jesus, having free will as we do, could have said that he wanted to just skip the whole bloody affair, but we read in Matthew 26:39 and following, that Jesus prayed to God the Father, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” He prays this prayer three times and it is in that prayer we get a glimpse of God’s intentional will and circumstantial will coming together.
Leslie Weatherhead gave a great example in his book, The Will of God, that might make what I just said easier to understand. He writes, “Think of a father in cooperation with his son planning the boy’s career. The will of both may have been, let us say, that the boy should become an architect. Then comes the war. The father is quite willing for his son to be in the armed forces, but that career is only an interim or circumstantial will for his son, for his will has changed in the circumstances of evil which produced the war.”
Just the way the father’s intentional will for his son was temporarily changed under the circumstances of evil, God’s intentional will for his human creation has temporarily changed because man’s free will has created circumstances of evil that cut across God’s intentional will of fellowship and good. Now Jesus, in his accepting the will of the Father, did not go to the cross like someone who had no choice. He had complete trust in the Father that he would raise him from the dead. In other words, Jesus knew that even though he was going to suffer more than anyone could even imagine, that even though he would die, he would be brought back to life and never suffer or die again. God used the circumstances of evil to accomplish his intentional purpose of having us walk in fellowship and doing good. Now that same promise hold true and will be fulfilled for us also. That explains God’s circumstantial will in our spiritual lives. Thus we have faith ultimately in the end we will be with God in the new heaven and earth.
But what about God’s circumstantial will for our lives as we live them? There is the problem that we all face in our lives, the problem of disease. Is disease God’s will? I hear it quite often. The disease was caused by God, usually as punishment. In fact, to be honest with you, I have said the same thing, when a person has come to faith because of the disease. The problem is that disease is the result of evil and since God cannot do or make evil, it cannot be from God even if good comes out of it. We say at times that disease and death is the will of God while at the same time we do everything we can to fight disease and death.
Look at it this way. If disease was Gods’ will, then why has God given us the wonders of science and medicine? If disease is God’s will then why did Jesus heal people? Would he not have been interfering with the Father’s will? Why do we pray for God to heal someone? Do you see the conflict in saying that disease is the will of God, even when good comes out of it?
It is a problem and that is why we are studying the will of God this month. That is why we are looking at the circumstantial will of God today. We just need to know more about how God’s will works in our lives so that we can live our lives trusting him, thus living better lives.
I could use all kinds of examples to show you what I mean, but Weatherhead in his book, The Will of God used the example of a woman that cannot have children. Her body, as are all women’s bodies, is designed by God to have children. She loves children. She has the ability to care for children, but she cannot have children, so she often hears from her Christian friends, “It is the will of God that you cannot have children.” We might say that, but it is not true, for God’s intentional will, his original will is that women have children. That is why woman are made as they are.
So it cannot be God’s will that she does not have a child. This is where God’s circumstantial will comes in for this woman. She, because she lives in a sinful world and is sinful herself, has been afflicted with a terrible thing, not being able to have children.
She has two choices. The first, to become bitter and angry toward God for willing this on her, a false understanding of God’s will, or under God’s circumstantial will, she can accomplish good. She can adopt or care for other’s children. She can enter professional fields such as being a nurse or a doctor that provides medical care for children. She can become a scientist that tries to discover cures for children’s diseases, or she can, as seen in the video last month, be used by God in the church to be a youth counselor.
I have used the example of a woman that cannot have a child as an example, but I have also counseled those who are single and frustrated by their seemingly inability to find a spouse, that they too, under their circumstances work our God’s circumstantial will in their lives, which of course is to bring about God’s intentional will.
As we learned last week God’s intentional will is always good. It can be nothing less. God’s circumstantial will is the same, for it is always good. God’s intentional will is his doing alone, while God’s circumstantial will requires in a sense our help, our cooperation.
Jesus trusted fully in the Father to care for him, so he willingly cooperated with the Father’s circumstantial will that he live a life of suffering and die so that God’s intentional will would be accomplished.
While we will never have the faith that Jesus had, we need to have a stronger faith in God’s promises that he will not abandon us and that he will give us what we need, so that we can, under the circumstances in which we live, accomplish his circumstantial will, which leads to his intentional will being done. Amen.
07/20/08
This is the 3rd sermon on the “Will of God”. I am doing this series because I believe that unless a person has a correct understanding of the will of God, at least as much as a person can have an understanding of God, they are not able to grasp the significance of God in their life.
While I am breaking down the will of God into 3 wills; intentional, circumstantial, and the ultimate will of God, God does not have 3 wills, but only one will. I am just doing so that we all will be able to better understand the will of God. Last week I talked to you about the intentional will of God. This week I am going to talk to you about the circumstantial will of God. The following week I will talk to you about the ultimate will of God, wrapping up the final week with what we now do with this knowledge, now that we know more about the will of God.
Last week, to put it in a nutshell, we found out that God’s intentional will is that his human creation is to walk in fellowship with him and do good toward others. I think we would all agree with God’s intent; it is simple enough and not unreasonable. Love God above all things and love others.
I am sure that everyone here this morning desires to do what God wills, but we don’t do it; so what is the problem? The answer is simple. Deep down our problem is our sinful self who wants to be number one above all things. It is sin, the sin that became an inescapable part of us when Adam and Eve decided that God must have been holding out on them. They were not satisfied with living in a wonderful place, free of pain, sorrow and death. They wanted to know what God knew. Now knowledge in itself is good, it is part of God’s intentional will that we seek after knowledge when it is used for good. The problem was that they did not trust God that he had given them all they needed and would need in the future.
God’s intentional will was that they and all future generations would truly trust, in other words, have faith in him to provide for all their needs, both physical and spiritual. This will of God still exists today, but it is hampered and even stopped, although it is only temporarily hampered and stopped, because of the same sin that Adam and Eve fell prey to; that is, not completely trusting God’s Word that he would provide all we need.
So, because of this, God’s intentional will is changed, not changed in that his intentional will is no more, but that that will has to operate under different circumstances, the circumstances of a sinful creation that now opposes God’s intentional will. We see that change right after Adam and Eve sinned, before they were forced to leave the Garden. In Genesis 3 we read, “The Lord God said to the serpent; ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.’” And now we see the circumstantial will of God at work, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise (actually the Greek word means crush) your head, and you shall bruise his heal.” Right there, God’s will is seen in a different way. His intentional will still holds, but because of sin, our sin today, his will has to now operate in a different way, for his human creation is no longer walking in fellowship with him and doing good to others.
God has to do something different to bring us back into his intentional will. He promises in that last verse that I read, a Savior that will, under different circumstances than God desired, bring us back into fellowship and doing good toward others. We see that promise come to pass in the circumstances of the cross. Jesus, having free will as we do, could have said that he wanted to just skip the whole bloody affair, but we read in Matthew 26:39 and following, that Jesus prayed to God the Father, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” He prays this prayer three times and it is in that prayer we get a glimpse of God’s intentional will and circumstantial will coming together.
Leslie Weatherhead gave a great example in his book, The Will of God, that might make what I just said easier to understand. He writes, “Think of a father in cooperation with his son planning the boy’s career. The will of both may have been, let us say, that the boy should become an architect. Then comes the war. The father is quite willing for his son to be in the armed forces, but that career is only an interim or circumstantial will for his son, for his will has changed in the circumstances of evil which produced the war.”
Just the way the father’s intentional will for his son was temporarily changed under the circumstances of evil, God’s intentional will for his human creation has temporarily changed because man’s free will has created circumstances of evil that cut across God’s intentional will of fellowship and good. Now Jesus, in his accepting the will of the Father, did not go to the cross like someone who had no choice. He had complete trust in the Father that he would raise him from the dead. In other words, Jesus knew that even though he was going to suffer more than anyone could even imagine, that even though he would die, he would be brought back to life and never suffer or die again. God used the circumstances of evil to accomplish his intentional purpose of having us walk in fellowship and doing good. Now that same promise hold true and will be fulfilled for us also. That explains God’s circumstantial will in our spiritual lives. Thus we have faith ultimately in the end we will be with God in the new heaven and earth.
But what about God’s circumstantial will for our lives as we live them? There is the problem that we all face in our lives, the problem of disease. Is disease God’s will? I hear it quite often. The disease was caused by God, usually as punishment. In fact, to be honest with you, I have said the same thing, when a person has come to faith because of the disease. The problem is that disease is the result of evil and since God cannot do or make evil, it cannot be from God even if good comes out of it. We say at times that disease and death is the will of God while at the same time we do everything we can to fight disease and death.
Look at it this way. If disease was Gods’ will, then why has God given us the wonders of science and medicine? If disease is God’s will then why did Jesus heal people? Would he not have been interfering with the Father’s will? Why do we pray for God to heal someone? Do you see the conflict in saying that disease is the will of God, even when good comes out of it?
It is a problem and that is why we are studying the will of God this month. That is why we are looking at the circumstantial will of God today. We just need to know more about how God’s will works in our lives so that we can live our lives trusting him, thus living better lives.
I could use all kinds of examples to show you what I mean, but Weatherhead in his book, The Will of God used the example of a woman that cannot have children. Her body, as are all women’s bodies, is designed by God to have children. She loves children. She has the ability to care for children, but she cannot have children, so she often hears from her Christian friends, “It is the will of God that you cannot have children.” We might say that, but it is not true, for God’s intentional will, his original will is that women have children. That is why woman are made as they are.
So it cannot be God’s will that she does not have a child. This is where God’s circumstantial will comes in for this woman. She, because she lives in a sinful world and is sinful herself, has been afflicted with a terrible thing, not being able to have children.
She has two choices. The first, to become bitter and angry toward God for willing this on her, a false understanding of God’s will, or under God’s circumstantial will, she can accomplish good. She can adopt or care for other’s children. She can enter professional fields such as being a nurse or a doctor that provides medical care for children. She can become a scientist that tries to discover cures for children’s diseases, or she can, as seen in the video last month, be used by God in the church to be a youth counselor.
I have used the example of a woman that cannot have a child as an example, but I have also counseled those who are single and frustrated by their seemingly inability to find a spouse, that they too, under their circumstances work our God’s circumstantial will in their lives, which of course is to bring about God’s intentional will.
As we learned last week God’s intentional will is always good. It can be nothing less. God’s circumstantial will is the same, for it is always good. God’s intentional will is his doing alone, while God’s circumstantial will requires in a sense our help, our cooperation.
Jesus trusted fully in the Father to care for him, so he willingly cooperated with the Father’s circumstantial will that he live a life of suffering and die so that God’s intentional will would be accomplished.
While we will never have the faith that Jesus had, we need to have a stronger faith in God’s promises that he will not abandon us and that he will give us what we need, so that we can, under the circumstances in which we live, accomplish his circumstantial will, which leads to his intentional will being done. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 2:27 PM
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