04-17-11 Free Will And The Way Things Are

There was a movie that came out a number of years ago

about a pig called Babe.

It told the story of a pig

who learned to heard sheep like a sheep dog.

Every so often throughout that movie

a new scene in the show would be introduced

by some cute little mice appearing in the corner of the screen saying, “The way things are!”

And then the scene would go on

to reveal some inalterable rule of life on the farm.

If you’ve got a copy of the notes for this morning in your hand,

you know already that I’ve titled this lesson, “Free Will And The Way Things Are”.

It’s a funny thing about free will.

Because God has given every one of us

the ability to make very real choices,

choices that have a profound,

and often eternal effect on both our own lives

and the lives of others,

we can sometimes mistakenly begin to feel as though

our free will has the power to alter “The Way Things Are”.

And sometimes it can,

and then sometimes it can’t.

And knowing the difference between the two

is literally the key to success in life.

Hopefully, that will make more sense to you

by the time I finish talking this morning.

We are going to return

to our study of the book of Romans.

We will spend our time during the next few minutes

laying a foundation for our entrance into the 10^th chapter of Romans.

As we move back into this study

it will help you to remember

that Paul wrote chapters 9-11

to explain the nature of God’s relationship with the Nation of Israel

in light of His establishment of the Church.

Given the fact that, through Christ,

God has extended to every human being,

both Jew and non-Jew alike,

the invitation to enter into a Father/child union with Himself

solely on the basis of our faith in the death of Christ for our sins,

how has this affected His relationship with Israel?

And before we finish these three chapters

we will see Paul offering us

some fascinating information

specifically about God’s relationship with Israel in the light of the church.

But there are some other things going on in these three chapters as well,

things that have a far greater significance

than just within God’s relationship to Israel.

It is in these three chapters

that Paul takes two of the most difficult concepts in all of Scripture,

the sovereignty of God,

and the free will of Man,

and sets them side by side.

Years ago I shared with you

a joke one of my friends in Trinidad told me when I was living there in 1970.

I share it with you again

because I think it illustrates well

why we so often have such trouble

with some of the statements we find in passages like the ones we are studying here in Romans 9-11.

My friend came walking up to me carrying an empty pop bottle.

He said, “Hey, Larry! I have a question for you.

God is everywhere isn’t He?”

I said, “Yes, God is everywhere.”

Then my friend said, “So then that means He’s inside this bottle?”

I said, “Yes, He’s inside that bottle.”

Then my friend took his free hand,

whipped it onto the top of the bottle

and bellowed, “GOT HIM!!”

And you’re wondering what in the world

that could possibly have to do with the book of Romans, huh?

I think there is something inside of every one of us

that wants to do that same thing with God mentally.

We want to be able to contain Him,

to “figure Him out” in a way that answers all of our questions,

in a way that allows us to feel mentally comfortable with Him.

We want Him bottled,

packaged in a container that doesn’t offend our finite reason and logic.

But when we get to Romans 9-11

the cork flies out of our bottle,

and the bottle explodes forever.

Part way through our study of Romans 9 last week

we heard Paul saying to us,

ROM 9:20 ...who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?

ROM 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?

And in clear, powerful language

we heard Paul telling us

that, when God established free will in us, His creation,

He did not, at the same time,

in any way forfeit or limit His absolute right to sovereignly intervene in the affairs of man.

Free will, our free will,

is in no way an illusion,

or some kind of Divine game God is playing with us,

but neither is it what we human beings

so often like to pretend it is -

the ability to establish for ourselves

some kind of alternate creation

in which God does not exist,

proclaiming to ourselves and to our world

that morality and truth are purely private matters,

matters that can be determined by each individual for their own chosen approach to life.

In the words of the little mice,

our free will does not change

the way things are.

The mental games we so often play with ourselves as human beings

really are quite remarkable.

I have heard folks say things like,

“Well, I really don’t believe God exists.”

Or, “Well, I know that’s what God has said about that,

but I really don’t believe that’s true.”

And when they say those things,

there is a part of their mind

that feels as though, because they have said it,

and because they really believe it,

it has to be true.

The free will given to us by our God

truly does give us the absolute ability

to accept and believe anything we choose to accept and believe.

But it does not in any way alter the reality of who God is,

nor does it change the structure He has established for us, His creation.

Now it may seem like I’m getting a little off track here, I know,

but I find this whole thing so fascinating.

You see, logically, as created beings,

the only sensible thing we could ever do in our relationship with our Creator

is to discover to the best of our abilities

who He is,

and what kind of structure He has created for us,

and then to order our lives in patterns consistent with Him and the structure He has created.

And that discovery process

would logically have to begin with whatever clear revelations of Himself

our Creator has given us,

revelations such as His own appearance

on this earth,

in human form.

JOH 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

JOH 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

But our human logic

runs into a problem with this -

because we know

it will involve our using that remarkable free will of ours

to then choose to submit to this God who is there,

and when it comes right down to it

most of the world just simply does not want to do that.

So, what most people do is to create for themselves

a mental concept of God

that then allows them to feel more comfortable

in excluding Him from their thinking.

There are some powerful illustrations of this process in Scripture.

One of my favorites is in that parable Jesus told about the talents.

You’ll probably remember the story.

It’s found in Matthew 25, beginning with verse 14.

The Lord describes a man going on a journey,

and before he leaves he gives to one of his slaves 5 talents of gold,

to another 2, and to a third 1.

Then after a long while he returns

and finds that the first two have taken what was entrusted to them

and made good profits with it.

But it is the comments of the third slave,

when he was asked to give an accounting of his stewardship,

that fascinates me.

He says,

MAT 25:24 "... 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed.

MAT 25:25 'And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground; see, you have what is yours.'

Now, obviously, the parable is used by Jesus

to describe our relationship with God.

And this last slave says,

“ I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed...”

Now, where did that slave come up with that concept of his master?

The only thing that slave had ever received from his master

was kindness and generosity.

This was the same Master

who dropped a talent of gold into his hands,

allowing him to do with it anything he chose.

And of course, when we take this parable

and plug it into our relationship with our Creator,

the slave’s concept of his master

is not even a remotely close description of God Himself.

When John described the God who really is, he said simply,

JOH 1:16 For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

But then, where did that slave come up with his twisted concept of his Master?

He created it in his own mind,

and he did so because it freed him from having to “mess up” his life

with the thought of any kind of responsibility or accountability to this Master of his.

Those are typical games we human beings play.

How often have we heard someone say,

“Well, if God would do this,

or do that,

or allow this,

or allow that,

then He’s certainly no God I want to have anything to do with.”

And with a skillful bit of mental slight-of-hand

they then create for themselves a “God”

that they are more comfortable excluding from their thinking.

And my point is simply this:

true free will

is not the ability to create for ourselves the God we want,

it is the ability to choose for ourselves

how we will respond to the God who really is.

Now, as we were studying Romans chapter 9 last week,

we heard Paul telling us in that chapter

that God created all that is,

and reserves for Himself

the absolute right to do whatever He chooses

with whatever He has created.

But that is not where Paul stops this discussion.

In fact, there is a phrase in the last verse of that 9^th chapter

that forms the heart of Paul’s message to us

in these three chapters, 9, 10, and 11.

It is a phrase so important

that Paul repeats it,

word-for-word, 11 verses later.

It is actually a quotation from the Prophet Isaiah.

Talking about this Creator God

who can do whatever He chooses

with whatever He has created,

Isaiah says,

ROM 9:33 just as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed."

It is that phrase, “And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”,

that Paul uses as the springboard

to move us from his discussion about the sovereignty of God

into his comments about the power of our free will

to shape our own destiny.

He wants it clearly understood

that we cannot change who God is.

In His own self-portrait God says simply,

“I AM WHO I AM!” (Ex. 3:14)

But we can change how we choose to relate to Him.

And that, my friends, is the heart,

the central core of the free will given to us by our Creator.

Every day we live,

in fact countless times throughout each day,

every one of us chooses for ourselves

how we will relate to the God who is.

And those are the choices that determine

everything else in our lives.

And with that in mind,

I want us to look again,

and to look closely at that one phrase given to us by Paul

as our introduction into this whole discussion about our free will.

And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.

Do you know what I see happening there?

This is our God saying to us,

“I have given you the right and the ability

to decide how you will respond to Me.

You can pretend I’m not here,

you can pretend I don’t exist,

you can try to use Me for your own ends,

you can try to control Me or manipulate Me through religious games.

You can decide you know yourself

and your needs

better than I do

and reject all that I’ve said to you.

You can worship other gods more to your liking,

gods you control,

gods who require no submission,

no trust,

no obedience.

But here is the choice I put before you this day.

Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense...

That rock is Me -

it is Myself.

And at first you will be offended by it.

You will look at it,

you will look at ME,

and decide my intrusion into your life

is altogether offensive.

It will mess up all of your goals,

all of your well-ordered priorities,

all of the things you are clinging to

that you believe you must have for happiness.

But hear Me, my creation -

hear now the promise I make to you.

I, your God,

the only one you have,

the only one who is,

I say to you now,

He who believes in ME will NOT be disappointed."

Yes, He is the potter,

yes, He has shaped you as He has shaped you.

And yes, there are times when everyone of us

shakes our little clay fist at Him

and cries out, “Why did you make me like this?!”

But His offer to each of us is clear.

When we stop shaking our fist,

and when we allow ourselves to settle down on the potter’s wheel,

and, most of all,

and this is the really hard part,

when we choose to believe in Him,

to trust His hands,

His shaping,

His molding in our lives,

we will find Him telling us things

we could never have heard before.

We will hear Him revealing to us

why He has made us like this,

why He has molded us in the fashion He has chosen.

And in those conversations,

and in those discoveries

we will also begin to understand for the first time

our purpose,

our place in His world.

Free will does not give us the ability

of changing the way things are.

It simply gives us the absolute freedom

to choose for ourselves

whether we will live in harmony with the way things are,

with the way HE is,

or whether we will fight against them.

And the beginning of the correct use of all free will is found in this one statement:

And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.

He who believes in Him...

he who believes in what He has said,

he who believes in His love,

and His forgiveness,

and His endless grace,

and His compassion,

he who believes in Him,

and in that belief

chooses to run to Him

rather than from Him will not be disappointed.