Who Worketh All Things

Introduction: The Profound Doxology and a Key Statement

0:03 Again this morning to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1. Those who were with us last week will know that we have resumed our careful study of this tremendous paragraph, beginning with verse 3 and ending with verse 14, which is, without a doubt, the most profound doxology to be found anywhere in the Word of God. As the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians in order to further ground them in an understanding of their great salvation in Christ, the contemplation of that very salvation is so affecting and so affects the mind and spirit of the Apostle that he cannot write, after the manner of the Book of Romans, the logical, clearly developed argument of the theologian, but rather he breaks into this great eulogy, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

1:21 who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing. And yet, though he's caught up in eulogy, he is not merely caught up in ecstasy, for his mind is clearly delineating various facets of that great salvation in Christ, for which he blesses the Godhead. He is the God and Father of Christ. And last week we sought to come to some understanding of the third great blessing which is peculiarly attributed to the Lord Jesus, the second person of the triune Godhead, as found in verses 11 and 12, the blessing of inheritance in Christ, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. And then the Apostle answers some questions about that, Why did we obtain it, having been predestinated to it? What is the goal of God in bringing us to it? That we should be to the praise of his glory.

2:25 Who has a title to that inheritance? Those who have hoped in Christ. And so I sought to give a balanced exposition of those two verses, and in so doing, I had to exercise great discipline in passing over in a very surface manner, one of the most profound statements in all of the Word of God, which the Apostle gives in verse 11. That statement being, According to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will.

Contextual Integrity of Scripture

3:00 Now there are some statements in Holy Scripture, which, if wrenched out of their immediate setting, become absolute untruths. An example is the statement in Colossians, Colossians 2.21, Touch not, taste not, handle not. And so temperance societies, looking for some kind of a buttress to their position, have wrenched Colossians 2.21 out of its setting, and will have in their letterhead such and such a temperance society, Colossians 2.21, Touch not, taste not, handle not. However, when you read the context, you see it's teaching just the opposite. He says, don't be subject to men's rules, for instance, touch not, taste not, handle not, which things are to perish with the using.

3:49 Now, unless you think I'm making a backhanded slap at the temperance societies, you read Colossians 2, and you'll see that the context is such that that verse, without its context, becomes a total untruth. And there are many such verses in the Scripture. However, there are some verses in Holy Scripture, yes, some very...

4:12 There are many very phrases in Holy Scripture, which are so succinct and compact and accurate statements of general truth, that you can lift them right out of their context, and they still stand as profound statements of biblical truth. Now, one such statement is the statement which the Apostle gives us in verse 11, God who worketh all things after the counsel, of his own will. Last week, we saw that the setting of that verse is such that the Apostle is trying to convey to the Ephesians that what God does in the realm of grace, he gives this inheritance on the basis of his foreordination. What he does in the realm of grace in giving an inheritance is simply one specific manifestation, manifestation of what he does in the totality of the administration of his universe. And so this statement, the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, is one of those great statements that can be lifted out of its context, carefully analyzed and expounded and applied, and put right back into its context,

Reasons for Expounding God's Sovereign Will

5:38 and you need not change one aspect of your thinking, concerning it. And so I could not resist the temptation to pass over or to come back and to treat this phrase as a profound statement of a basic biblical truth before moving on to our consideration of those blessings in Christ which have particular reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. For there is that transition beginning with verses 13 and on through to verse 14, verse 14, in which the Apostle focuses his praise particularly upon the work and person of the Holy Spirit in our so great salvation in Christ. But now this morning, we want to backtrack, take that phrase and seek to open it up and apply it in some of its relevant areas as we sit in the presence of God this morning. Now I have several reasons for doing this. The first one is that it's always appropriate to take a statement which delineates some aspect of the character of God and to expound it in some measure of thoroughness, since, as we've seen in past weeks, we are to worship God not only in spirit, but in truth.

7:00 And so if the Apostle Paul, in the midst of his worship, or remember, this is a worship paragraph, if in the midst of his worship he expresses a concept of God so profound as this, his God is the God who works all things after the counsel of his will, it is appropriate for us in our worship to think of him as the Apostle thought of him. So the first reason then for going back and expounding this phrase is that it might assist us and raise the level of our worship. Secondly, it is particularly necessary in our own days, in our own generation, when many views are assumed and propagated which openly deny this concept, the concept that this is God's world, the concept that God is in this world actively working out the counsel of his own will. On the one hand, there is the idea very prevalent in secular circles that this world is operated by no other principle other than time plus space plus chance. Everything is held in the icy grip of a chance world. There is no common substructure of order.

8:23 There is no purpose, no plan, no beginning, no middle, no end. And this comes out most clearly, of course, in the evolutionary philosophy which permeates so many areas of our own society. And then on the other hand, you have the idea that we as men can and do control our destiny. We've got problems, sure, but as WOR has announced for several days, there's going to be a special program in which a history expert is going to demonstrate that every problem we have, many have had in the past and many have solved it and we can solve it.

9:04 That's the express purpose of the program. So there is the concept on the one hand, that nothing is controlled. Everything is left to chance and therefore people who take this philosophy seriously either go into absolute abandonment to their fleshly lust. Eat, drink, tomorrow we die.

9:24 No meaning, no beginning, no middle, no end. Let's live like animals since that's all we are. And on the other hand, you have it expressed in this kind of thought. We as men have what it takes to control and shape our own destiny.

9:40 Into such a context, these words need to come with ringing affirmation and power. God worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. And so this morning we're going to seek to grapple with this grand statement of God as the great designer and controller of His universe. God who is the purposeful, powerful, and all-powerful and all-embracing executor of His own will and plan.

The Fact of a Divine Plan Affirmed

10:16 To think our way through the text, we shall first of all consider the fact of a divine plan affirmed. Secondly, the execution of a divine plan explained. And then thirdly, some practical implications of what has preceded. First of all then, this text, brings before us an affirmation that there is a divine plan to the universe.

10:50 Notice the words which the apostle uses. Having been foreordained according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will. And these are the three key words which speak most powerfully to the fact that there is a divine plan. Purpose, counsel, and will.

11:22 And those words, when traced out in their biblical setting, are words all of which convey this one central thought, there is a divine plan for the world, yea, for the universe. Let's look at them very briefly. The scripture teaches with reference to God's purpose that whatever His purposes may be, they are rooted in eternity. Turn over to chapter 3 and verse 11 in this same epistle where the apostle Paul speaks of the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Speaking of God's purpose to manifest through the church, His own manifold wisdom unto principalities and powers, he says that this function of the church in time is consistent with the purpose of eternity. What is transpiring in time is according to the plan that was laid before time. Eternal purpose.

12:39 The same thought comes before us in 2 Timothy 1 in verse 9. Where the apostle Paul says who hath saved us and called us not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Here purpose and grace are conceived of as having their roots in eternity. And what is rooted in eternity is part of the divine plan long before the circumstances of time develop.

13:17 Long before the world and all the intricate machinery of this world in its physical aspects and in the world of men long before that machinery is constructed and set into motion. God says there was eternal purpose. There was that which He Himself had planned. God's purposes the scripture reveals are not only rooted in eternity but they also are a reflection of the disposition of His own sovereign will.

13:51 And so here in chapter 1 we find a phrase such as we have in verse 9 making known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself as God lays His plans as God frames His purposes to what does He refer in the laying of those plans and in the establishment of those purposes. This text tells us that they are a reflection of the dispositions of His own sovereign will. It's expressed in verse 5 in this way according to the good pleasure of His will. There is a plan for God's universe and the word purpose takes us back into eternity. The word purpose focuses upon the dispositions of God's sovereign will and the word counsels is the word that brings us into the realm of what God determines based upon His own intelligence and deliberation. His counsels are those things that He frames intelligently and deliberately acting in infinite wisdom but in an unbounded freedom. In the exercise of His own will.

15:20 And so the word counsel is found in that kind of a setting in Acts chapter 4. We find a use of this word which indicates this. Acts chapter 4 and verse 28 27 and 28 For of a truth in this city against thy holy servant Jesus whom thou didst anoint both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel foreordained to come to pass. And you see the word counsel and foreordination wedded together. And so I submit to you then that you cannot confront the biblical words purpose, counsel, His own will without coming to the conclusion that God is asserting to us that there is a divine plan. A plan in which God consulted with no one but Himself. A plan that is bounded by nothing outside of Himself.

16:37 Plans and purposes consistent with His own wisdom and the absolute freedom of His own sovereign will. Oh what delight and joy it should bring to the child of God to know that this world in all of its seeming confusion is not in the hands of some blind fate. As Spurgeon said in his own inimitable way fate is blind but providence has eyes. And the eyes of providence are the eyes of a wise and a gracious God.

17:14 Fate is blind and this world is not in the hands and under the control of blind fate. No, no. Counsel, purpose, His own will. There is a divine plan and the one who has made that plan is the gracious, wise, benevolent God.

17:34 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Also it should give us comfort to know that the world and its destiny and its events and circumstances is not at the mercy of a capricious God. You see the gods of the heathen were but a projection upward of their own humanity. And as men and especially heathen potentates were known to be very capricious they would act out of their present whims.

18:06 So they thought of their gods in that light who would act without reason but simply on the basis of whim. No, no. There is the divine plan which is according to the counsel the intelligent reflection of his own will. There is deliberation the reasons for which may not be unfolded to us but that God has reasons is bound up in the very use of the word the counsel of his will.

18:38 And thank God we are not only to rejoice that blind fate does not control the world or a capricious God but we are not at the mercy of God. We are at the mercy of the human manipulators. The experts who would give us to believe that they control the world's destiny. They control the structures that society will take and all the rest.

The Execution of a Divine Plan Explained: Fact, Manner, and Extent

19:02 No, no. There is a divine plan according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will. Well then the text brings before us a second truth. Not only the fact of a divine plan affirmed but the execution of a divine plan explained.

19:28 You have the fact of the execution the manner of the execution and the extent of the execution all in these words who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. The fact that the same God who makes the plan executes the plan is bound up in the word who worketh all things. He not only has the counsel of his own will and the purposes which are a reflection of that counsel but he is actively at work in the execution of them and so that word worketh not only affirms the fact that God executes his plan but that word tells us the manner in which he executes it. For this is a very interesting word who worketh. It's the word from which we get our English word energy. The English word energy is simply a transliteration.

20:31 You go word for word take the Greek letter and put the English equivalent right through and you come up with our word energy. Now it's dangerous business to define Greek words by English usage and I don't want to do that this morning but this is one of the words in which the English very very helpfully opens the key to the meaning of the Greek word. We could translate it God who energizes all things according to the counsel of his will. When there's energy there's power in operation and so Williams in his translation of the New Testament translates this verse this way God who carries out in all things the plan of his will. Weymouth translates it whose might carries out in everything the design of his will. So the statement is one in which it is asserted that the same God who made the plan is actively presently and powerfully at work in the execution of the plan. Now I happen to get the Popular Science magazine and this is not a commercial for Popular Science magazine although it has saved me some money.

21:53 As well as given me some innocent diversion and the other day I was reading an article on how your 72 cars will be made and so what it did is it took you back to the beginnings of the 72 cars way back I think about three years ago so it was out of date long before it ever got off the assembly line and it said that the first place the thing starts is with the designers designing engineers and they using their creativity try to create to come up with drawings of what the 72 cars should look like. Well after they come up with some acceptable drawings that are approved they pass their plans on to the structural engineers who go to work in actually trying to carve out a mock-up of that thing. Now the moment they pass their plans on they're carrying these guys are working on the 73s now you see they make the design and make the plan but they're never out there actually putting the bolts on the car they're not there actually spraying the paint though they make the design they have absolutely nothing to do in its execution. They're the fellows who sit in the drawing room drawing pictures. It's somebody else out there who's got that pneumatic bolt fastener and who's out there with the spray can and who's out there with the welding torch these are the fellows who actually execute what they've designed but not so with God.

23:20 You see he does not design the plan and say well that's my job to design now we'll leave it to other things and other forces and secondary causes just to carry it out and now he'll go on and as it were contemplate the beauty of the design while somebody else does the work. No, no. The same God who lays the plans in the designing room is there on the assembly line carrying that design into fruition and so the apostle Paul says in this text there is not only a divine plan but there is the execution of that plan and the execution of that plan rests upon the present powerful activity of the same God who made the plan. He's the God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Turn please to the book of Isaiah for what is perhaps the most eloquent forceful statement of this principle in the Old Testament there are many statements of it but this is probably the most eloquent that God not only makes the plan but executes it. Isaiah 46 verses 9 through 11 remember the former things of old for I am God and there is none else I am God and there is none like me

24:49 now he's going to tell us what there is about him as the true God that sets him apart from anything else that is called God or worshipped as God this is what he says declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and how shall it stand and I will do all my pleasure you see counsel is his purpose and God says the execution is certain because I execute it my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure and then he gives a specific illustration calling a ravenous bird from the east it's a figure of speech the man of my counsel from a far country yea I have spoken I also will bring it to pass I have purposed I will do it and then a beautiful statement of what Paul is saying he's saying I'm purposing judgment upon my people and there's a heathen potentate who shall lead his armies in to execute the judgment and God says I'll call this ravenous bird I shall bring him according to my own counsel I have

26:19 purposed I will do it and so you see the same statement by the prophet Isaiah there is a divine plan the counsel of God but there is the execution of that plan by that self same God now if we study the rest of scripture we know that in the execution of that plan God takes into account and incorporates into his execution many factors and secondary means and all the rest but behind beneath above outside and inside means first second third means it matters not he is the God who is working all things after the counsel of his will and so you have the fact of his execution stated he worketh the manner of his execution explained in the very word he worketh actively worketh and then the extent of the execution in this word he worketh all things now the all things cannot be limited to the immediate context Paul has spoken of one particular thing that has been worked out by God in the lives of the Ephesians namely they have obtained an inheritance but he says that one particular thing that

27:48 has come to you according to divine purpose by divine execution is but one little facet of the totality of the execution of the divine plan and he has brought in essence he says to the Ephesians he has brought this particular blessing to you according to divine counsel in the power of divine execution because he brings all things into every area of his creation according to divine counsel and by divine execution so then these words who work with all things take into account all the factors which comprise all the ingredients of all aspects of all of God's universe and it asserts that God worketh in them all when I try to think on such things as these I find then that I feel in the words of the hymn writer in vain my thought would seek to pierce those mysteries of a world and a universe under the control of God the extent of the divine plan and its execution he worketh all things and let me just throw out a few biblical illustrations of some of the most unsuspecting

Biblical Illustrations of God's All-Encompassing Execution

29:18 things that scripture says are under not only his divine plan but his divine execution is there an accident in which a man just happens to be taking a little siesta behind a bush when he's out hunting and another hunter shoots an arrow into the bush and it takes his life what's behind all of that well listen to the perspective God sought to give his people Israel about such an accidental death and I read now from Exodus 21 this is the perspective God was conveying to his people Israel as he's revealing himself to them he says in Exodus 21 verses 12 through 14 he that smited the man so that he dieth shall surely be put to death and if a man lie not in wait but God deliver him into his hand then will I appoint thee a place whither he shall flee and if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile thou shalt take him from mine altar that he may die you see what God is saying for premeditated murder there is death but there is special provision here for involuntary manslaughter but do you see God's definition of involuntary manslaughter if God deliver him into his hand accidental death

30:48 death by divine plan and divine execution I didn't say that that's what's there God interprets quote involuntary manslaughter accidental death God interprets it as his delivering of a man into the hand of the one who involuntary manslaughter took his life are decisions based upon chance factors like the casting of lots mere inconsequential circumstances what does the scripture give us to believe about the disposition of the lot Proverbs 16 and verse 33 Proverbs 16 and verse 33 the lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing their of is of the Lord you mean God is actively present when men seek to determine certain factors of guidance in the rest by the casting of the lot this is no approval of that means of guidance it's simply saying where this is used and has been used God is actually at work in the disposing of the very lot there's an interesting account of this in the book of

32:18 Ezekiel it concerning the very way in which the children of God would be delivered into the hands of the heathen potentate who would seek the oracles of his heathen deities and who would open up the innards of an animal for divination and yet God says in spite of these means that he uses to discern which way he should go and which nation to conquer God declares that in and through even his seeking advice by means of heathen divination I will guide him to execute my counsel against my people the outworking of the purpose of God is there in the necessity of restraining the wills of men God says I will act directly upon their wills to restrain them look at Exodus 34 and verse 24 and it's particularly appropriate because of our reading of the 121st psalm this morning here the men of Israel in accordance with God's command three times a year would leave their lands and their wives and children go on up to the appointed place of worship there they were exposed to their enemies still in the land still desirous of recapturing some of that real estate which they had taken from them by God's appointment notice what God says about those

33:47 times when they would have to leave their lands and their loved ones in obedience to God's command Exodus 34 and verse 24 for I will cast out nations before thee and enlarge thy borders neither shall any man desire thy land when thou goest up to appear before the Lord thy God three times a year see what God is saying he says I will neutralize the consciousness of unregenerate Canaanites in order to keep my promise to protect you when you come up to worship I'd say that's intruding on men's will can you imagine what it must have been like to be some Canaanite and you see the people of God in that land and all the year long you're just green with envy and you're scheming how to get

34:57 the wives and the kids but who cares about their land anyway can you imagine what must have happened to somebody they couldn't understand why they thought the way they did God says here in his word no man shall desire thy land it doesn't say they shall desire but I'll send myriads of angels to restrain them God could have done that but instead he actually changed their desires and they

35:32 will that's why when God's ready to get his people out of Egypt it says God gave the children of Israel favor in the eyes of the Egyptians so they just loaded them down with gifts and precious things favor why this crowd had caused so much trouble this is the crowd that had caused the death of the first born this is the crowd that had caused the blighting of their crops this is the crowd that had caused all of these other things as far as they were concerned and yet it says God gave them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians meddles with men's affections and wills according to the counsel of his own will in the outworking of the plan of God is there the necessity of governing and directing even evil to accomplish God's purposes yes or if

36:29 God worketh all things after the counsel of his will part of the things of this universe is the reality of evil yet the scripture says that without in any way implicating himself in responsibility for the evil for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempted he any man yet the scripture says God controls and directs all of the actings of evil to accomplish his own purposes Joseph understood this well so that he says in those well known words in Genesis 50 and verse 20 ye meant it for evil and what was the ye meant it all of that scheming about getting rid of Joseph and selling him as a common slave after they were dissuaded from actually taking his life and all that followed he meant it for evil but God meant it for good what you did was evil and you had an evil intention for your evil deeds but a mighty God overruled your evil intention and your evil deed to bring good he says now this day you stand before me spared by the provisions that I'm able to give you and God had all of your wickedness woven into the very fabric of his plan it was your wickedness and you will be accountable for it but God in it and through it

37:59 was working out the counsel of his own will there was no more wicked deed ever perpetrated upon God's earth and when wicked men with wicked hands took the spotless son of God and by the manipulations of a puppet court had him condemned to death then cast into his teeth railing accusation abused him spat upon him and then illegally took him out and put him to death yet the scripture says and this is not hidden away in a corner as something that is some kind of contraband perspective only to be brought out in the dusty halls of theology rooms when you're talking on the decrees of God no no that first sermon preached on the day of Pentecost is one in which Peter makes as an integral part of his declaration this very concept and I read now from Acts 2 and verse 23 him Jesus being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay he was delivered up by God's counsel you flew him and in your soul is slaying of him you but fulfill the counsel of God you're

39:29 guilty for slaying him but all of your wickedness did not frustrate God's purpose the same perspective is delineated in Acts 4 the verse we read earlier in another connection the Gentiles the heathen were gathered together Pontius Pilate to do what to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done and what was done the actings of that puppet court all of the lies and the false accusations and yet as they pray they pray to a God in whom they have this confidence he works all things after the counsel of his own will and even the death of their beloved Lord is not looked upon as a tragic accident but is that in which the Father's purpose is being executed well we could go on and look at many other areas but I hope these samplings are enough to show that when Paul says the extent of the divine plan and its execution is all embracing he worketh all things he's not asserting something that is foreign to the whole drift of scripture he is simply stating in succinct terminology that which is the pervasive teaching of the word of the living life of God no wonder this

The Mystery and Worshipful Response to God's Sovereignty

40:59 same Paul when contemplating the mystery of the interaction of the divine will and the human will involved in the calling and then the rejection of Israel in the calling and then in the possible rejection of the Gentiles if they are high minded contemplating how the divine purpose and human will divine sovereignty and genuine valid responsibility interact and impinge upon one another when he's done with all of this he breaks out in that great psalm or hymn of praise in Romans 11 33 to 36 who hath known the mind of the Lord or being his counselor hath taught him with whom did God take counsel then he goes on to say that of him and through him and unto him are all things to whom be glory forever and so then the God whom we worship is the God who has a plan counsel purpose will and he's the God who executes that plan he work it he executes it by powerfully presently pervasively operating in his world and the extent of that execution touches all things now of what practical use is such

42:28 a staggering concept well again one could preach a series of sermons on the practical implications implications and usages of this great doctrine but may I just underscore very quickly several for the child of God and one or two for the unconverted in our midst this morning first of all when one begins to understand this statement of scripture the child of God will find that one it provides fuel for intelligent God honoring worship you and I sit here this morning in the quiet of this building and yet all we need to do is stop for a moment and think of what the state of that world is out there into which we go tomorrow in which we move in which we work in which we rub shoulders with our fellow men and if we're honest we're going to we must admit that much of it seems to have no sense it seems to be a confused upside down chaotic situation no cohesive substructure but if I believe Ephesians 111 the God whom I worship is the God who worketh all things after the counsel of his will that he has a plan and that he is powerfully

43:57 presently executing that plan you see I have few to worship God in the midst of all the apparent chaos it was Paul's contemplation of this that caused his heart to break loose in this great hymn of praise let me illustrate this past summer as a year ago this past fall when my wife and I were in Wales but then we were there as a family we went to a place about five six miles out of Aberystwyth where they have an old hand loom it's called the Larry Mills and they still weave the fabric in fact the coat that my wife wears in the wintertime that sort of brownish one was made on one of those hand looms and I never cease to be fascinated when I go there's a young chap there same one was there this year that was there a year or two ago when we were there to see him operate that thing there are hundreds of the pieces of wool tied that form the warp of the material and every morning he ties all of those strings and that thing comes down and is wrapped over a bobbin at the bottom and tied fixed out at the other end and then either side there are these shuttles with the different kinds of material in them and down below he has several petals a whole range of petals almost looks like the petals set up on

45:29 one way or another to make the shuttles go back and forth and then he's constantly working with his feet which determines which shuttle goes through which brings the different colors and out of all of that come these beautiful patterns of Welsh tapestry and when I watch that fella operate that thing and he sits there just so nonchalant going like this and his feet going and all the rest I

45:59 that piece of material it seems like there's too many things he's got to remember how many threads have gone this way and what colors that way and pulling this thing the right way and all the rest and so when I'm done watching him and seeing what he's really doing and all the things he's got to keep together in order to turn out this beautiful piece of Welsh tapestry which he has first of all conceived in his mind or seen on a piece of paper in terms of its design and pattern I have an augmented appreciation of that young man's mind of his physical coordination and everything about him that is poured in to working out after the pattern of his own plan this beautiful piece of Welsh tapestry now all he's got is tapestry no life no will no choice almighty God has on the loom of the history and destiny of the universe angels men devils all of the factors that make up human existence from the tiniest movement of an atom to the great movement of the galaxies and involved in all that are creatures with freedom of choice he does not coerce them he does not force them against their wills and yet on that movement of with all of those factors and all of the intricate involvement what is he doing working all

47:29 things after the counsel of his own will and oh beloved when that grips us it'll send us down on our faces crying out worthy art thou oh lord our God to receive glory and honor and power you find it hard to worship you come in Sunday mornings and meditate on Ephesians 111 let your mind begin to stretch with that biblical concept and you will find solid fuel for intelligent God honoring worship listen to Spurgeon as he speaks on a related theme the theme of providence as it is illustrated in the life of Esther Mordecai and the events with Haman and King Ahasuerus etc and Spurgeon says the thing that is amazing in this whole story of Esther and the deliverance of the people of God that though the divine will is accomplished yet men are perfectly free agents Haman acted according to his own will Ahasuerus did whatever he pleased Mordecai behaved as his heart moved him and so did Esther we see no interference with them no force of coercion hence the entire sin and responsibility rest with the guilty one yet acting with perfect freedom

48:58 none of them acts otherwise than the divine providence had foreseen I cannot understand it says one my dear friend I'm compelled to say the same I do not understand it either I have known many who think they comprehend all things but I fancy they had a higher opinion than themselves than truth would endorse certain of my brethren deny free agency and so get out of the difficulty others assert there's no predestination and so they cut the knot as I do not wish to get out of the difficulty and have no wish to shut my eyes to any part of the truth I believe both free agency and predestination to be facts how they can be made to agree I do not know or do I care to know I'm satisfied to know anything which God chooses to reveal to me and equally content not to know what he does not reveal there it is man is a free agent in what he does responsible for his actions and guilty when he does wrong and he'll be punished but there is one who ruleth over all who without complicity in their sin makes even the actions of wicked men to serve his holy and purposes believe these two truths and you will see them in practical agreement in daily life though you'll never be able to devise a theory for harmonizing

Practical Implications for Believers

50:27 them on paper oh may God give us this perspective such truths are not to be the subject of detached theological debate they're to be the fuel for worship he worketh all things after the counsel of his will that's the first thing it'll do for you as a Christian time is gone and I just don't know what to do because I feel the practical implications are so important well let me give you the heads and maybe next week I'll preach on them it will provide a perspective for intelligent God honoring study of the word when you begin to study the scriptures not for little snippets of something that'll warm the cockles

A Word to the Unconverted: God's Counsel for Salvation and Damnation

51:19 of God in eternity and time to gather glory to his own person then the book comes alive thirdly it provides us with a solid basis for confidence in the face of life in general fourthly it provides us with a solid basis for comfort and resignation in the face of sorrow and perplexing providences then it provides us with a solid basis for confidence in prayer and in service and I think maybe I'll preach on those next week because I just don't feel it be right to pass them over but I do want to close with a word to the unconverted in our midst there's some of you in this place today who are strangers to the new birth strangers to the knowledge of sins forgiven strangers to cleansing through the blood of the lamb strangers to repentance and faith and this text has a word for you the God who works all things after the counsel of his will is the God who has said this is my counsel he that believeth not shall be damned that's part of the counsel of the will of God to damn impenitent unbelieving sinners and my friend is sure as you sit here God will accomplish the counsel of his will to you unless you repent unless you repent unless you

52:49 flee to Christ unless you embrace the salvation that he not only sets before you and says that's there for anyone who will come in some distant way but the salvation that he sets as it were in your very lap the gospel feast is spread Jesus Christ is bled and died and ascended to the right hand of the Father and in his name he commissions us as his servants to say in Christ dead be reconciled to God the word of faith is nigh you in your heart and in your mouth if thou shall confess with thy mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved I say to you dear children perhaps perplexed by some of these things as we adults are perplexed don't be perplexed about this issue God's counsel is that if you do not repent and believe you shall be damned but his counsel is that all who come to his son shall be received he that cometh unto me him that cometh unto me Jesus said I will in no wise cast out God commandeth all men everywhere to repent this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his only begotten son don't trifle with this great God this God who's working all things after the counsel of his will will surely damn all impenitent sinners but

54:19 thank God he will surely save all sinners who cast themselves upon his son and seek his mercy in Jesus Christ who is the God whom we worship this morning he's the God who has a plan he's the God who executes that God that plan may we be found worshiping him as the God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will amen let us pray