GOD'S PERFECT WILL AND HIS PERMISSIVE WILL

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: ROMANS 12:1, 2




INTRODUCTION:


  1. I would like to preach this morning on a very important subject -- the will of God -- what God chooses, what God prefers, and what God eternally purposes.
  2. Romans 12:2 says, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
  3. Romans 12:2 tells us that there is a perfect will of God, and we may "prove" it, that is, know it.  And we should want to know it.
  4. Furthermore, our Lord says we are to pray for it.  Our Lord said in Matthew 6:9 and 10, "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
  5. Romans 12:2 says, "that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
  6. The use of the word "perfect" implies that there must be something less than the perfect will of God.  This is quite obvious.
  7. If our Lord's perfect will was automatically carried out, then He would not have instructed us to pray for it -- "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."
  8. God's perfect will is done in heaven, but not here on earth.   The apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica, "Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us" (I Thess. 2:18).
  9. God's will is to preach the Gospel to every creature, but millions have never heard the name of Jesus.
  10. Second Corinthians 4:3 and 4 says, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
  11. Here we see that Satan, "the god of this world," is hindering God's will by "blinding" the minds of men so that they do not believe the gospel.  Therefore, the devil is leading multitudes of people to hell.
  12. Second Peter 3:9 says God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
  13. First Timothy 2:4 says God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."  God's will is for souls to be saved.  God's will is for us to go out and win souls.

 

I. GOD'S PERFECT WILL IS WHAT HE INTENDED

  1. God's perfect will is what He intended.  His permissive will is what He allows.
  2. There are many examples of this in Scripture. For example, God's perfect will was for Abraham to have a son with his wife Sarah.
  3. In Genesis 15:5, the LORD took Abraham out under the starry sky, and the LORD said to Abraham, "Look now toward heaven, and tell (count) the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be."
  4. That was God's perfect will.  The LORD had already told Abraham back in Genesis 12:2, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing."
  5. This "great nation" was to be the nation of Israel, and it was to be through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel).   Furthermore, the Messiah was to come through Abraham.  Matthew 1:1 says, "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."
  6. So God's perfect will was for Abraham to have a son with his wife Sarah, and that son was Isaac.
  7. But in the next chapter, we read in Genesis 16:4, that Abraham went in unto Hagar, Sarah's handmaid, "and she conceived."
  8. That was God's permissive will, not His perfect will.  God allowed it, but God did not approve of it.
  9. That is why we read in Genesis 22:2, the LORD said to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah."
  10. God referred to Isaac as Abraham's "only son," though Ishmael was Abraham's first son, the son he had with Hagar the Egyptian handmaid.
  11. Think of the consequences!  The descendants of these two half brothers have been fighting each other for over 4,000 years.
  12. Consider the situation in the Middle East.  Consider September 11, 2001.
  13. The whole world has been dragged into this ancient conflict between Isaac (the son born according to God's perfect will) and Ishmael (called "he that was born after the flesh" in Galatians 4:29).
  14. In spite of man's best efforts to stay out of it, the whole world has been affected by this ancient conflict.
  15. And this conflict that has raged between the Ishmaelites (Arabs) and the Israelites will continue right up till the Battle of Armageddon.
  16. Muhammad, the most famous descendant of Ishmael, started the religion of Islam.  His followers now number over one billion people, and are responsible for worldwide terrorism.
  17. This is the permissive will of God, not the perfect will of God.  Psalm 29:11 says, "The LORD will bless his people with peace."
  18. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the Prince of Peace, says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you" (John 14:27).
  19. This is God's perfect will.   "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isa. 26:3).
  20. Another example can be found when the children of Israel journeyed to the Promised Land. Psalm 106:9 says the LORD "rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness."
  21. But Psalm 106:13-15 says, "They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."
  22. It was not God's perfect will for His people to disobey Him.  It is never God's will for believers to backslide.  So Psalm 106:15 says, "And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul."
  23. It is never God's perfect will to send leanness to our souls, but if we get away from God's perfect will that is exactly what will happen.
  24. Afterwards, the Israelites demanded a king.  They wanted to be just like all of the other nations.  But that was not God's perfect will.
  25. Israel was to be a theocracy.  God was to be their king (cf. I Samuel 8:1-9).
  26. Samuel the prophet tried to explain this to the people, but they refused to listen.  First Samuel 8:19 and 20 says, "Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us.  That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."
  27. First Samuel 8:22 says, "And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king."
  28. This was God's permissive will, but not His perfect will.
  29. Saul was the first king of Israel, and he became a terrible king. His reign characterized the rebelliousness and the disobedience of the people of Israel.
  30. Hosea 13:9-11 says, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.  I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?  I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath."
  31. In other words, God allowed them to have a king, and then used that same king (Saul) to chasten them.
  32. Then God in His mercy and grace replaced Saul with David, a man after God's own heart.  David prayed, "Teach me to do thy will" (Psalm 143:10).
  33. David also said in Psalm 40:8, "I delight to do thy will, O my God."
  34. But even David, a man after God's own heart, and the man who wrote these beautiful Psalms got away from God's will.
  35. First Thessalonians 4:3 says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication."
  36. The seventh commandment is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14).  But David committed adultery with Bathsheba.
  37. The tenth commandment is, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife" (Ex. 20:17), but David coveted Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
  38. Hebrews 13:4 says, "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."  Even the great King David could not escape the judgment of God.  No one can.
  39. We can trace this throughout Scripture: God's perfect will and God's permissive will.
  40. It was not God's perfect will for Joseph's brothers to mistreat him, and cast him into a pit, and then sell him to a company of  traveling Ishmeelites (Genesis 37), but God allowed it, and later on Joseph said to his brothers, "God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt... But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (Genesis 45:7, 8; 50:20).
  41. That is why the apostle Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
  42. Bro. Redick quoted this Scripture the other night in reference to September 11, 1991.  The Muslim terrorists thought evil against the USA, but God brought much good out of it.  Thoughtful Muslims throughout the world were bothered by that cruel attack and have turned from the darkness of Islam to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

II. GOD'S WILL IS THAT WE BE NOT CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD (ROMANS 12:1, 2).

  1. When we consider Israel, we need to remember that when they desired to be like the other nations they got away from the will of God.
  2. First Samuel 8:19 and 20 says, "Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; That we also may be like all the nations..."
  3. These other nations were idol-worshipping pagans, and Israel wanted to be just like them.
  4. This displeased Samuel, who was a great and godly man.   But the LORD said to Samuel, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them" (I Sam. 8:7).
  5. God wanted to reign over Israel.  Psalm 10:16 says, "The LORD is King for ever and ever."
  6. Psalm 29:10 says, "The LORD sitteth King for ever."
  7. The LORD is not just the king of Israel.  Psalm 47:2 says, "For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth."
  8. Psalm 47:7 says, "For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding."
  9. But when the Israelites desired a worldly king, so that they could be just like the other nations, they turned away from the will of God.
  10. God does not want His people to be conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2).
  11. Strong's Concordance says the word "conformed" means, "to conform one's self (i.e. one's mind and character) to another's pattern."
  12. The devil wants to conform our minds to his pattern.  He is called the "god of this world" in II Corinthians 4:4. Satan does this through the media, particularly television and movies.  He does it through popular music and through the school system.
  13. Our forefathers understood the importance of a Bible-centered education, and so the Bible was read and taught, and teachers prayed with their students, etc.
  14. But the devil has ruined the public school system here in America.  Carl and I are glad that some of our young people are inviting their friends from school to church services.  Keep up the good work because these young people need the Gospel.
  15. One of the reasons I preach against men wearing earrings, and women wearing jeans is because these fashions are worldly.
  16. The same Greek word translated "conformed" is found in I Peter 1:14, "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance."

 

III. WE CAN KNOW THE PERFECT WILL OF GOD (12:2).

  1. The word "prove" in Romans 12:2 means, "to test, and examine, and to scrutinize, and then to recognize as genuine after examination" (Strong's Concordance).
  2. "But let a man examine himself" (I Cor. 11:28).
  3. The Greek word is usually translated "prove" as in Romans 12:2. "Prove your own selves" (II Cor. 13:5).
  4. "But let every man prove his own work" (Gal. 6:4).
  5. "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord" (Eph. 5:10).
  6. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (I Thess. 5:21).
  7. The Bible says we can know God's will if we sincerely desire to know God's will.
  8. Ephesians 5:17 says, "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."
  9. This is referring to God's perfect will. God wants us to know it and to understand it.  He says we are "unwise" if we do not know it.
  10. If we do not know God's will, all we have to do is ask (James 1:5-7).   Here we have simple instructions on discerning the will of God.  Evangelist R. A. Torrey said, "The way to know the Spirit's leading is found in James 1:5-7. This involves five things:
  • First, that you sincerely desire to know the will of God, and therefore the Spirit's leading;
  • second, that you realize your own inability to decide ("lack wisdom");
  • third, that you definitely ask God to show you His will;
  • fourth, that you confidently expect God will show you;
  • fifth, that you go step by step as He does show you."
  1. F.B. Meyer said there are certain practical directions which we must attend to in order that we may know the will of God. He said they are the following:
  • Our motives must be pure.
  • Our will must be surrendered.
  • We should feed our minds with the teachings of the Word of God.  We cannot know the will of God without knowing the Word of God.
  • We must be much in prayer for guidance.
  • We must wait for the gradual unfolding of God's plan in providence. "God's impressions within and His word without are always corroborated by His Providence around, and we should quietly wait until these three focus into one point."

 

CONCLUSION:

  1. F.B. Meyer told the story of crossing the Irish Channel on a dark and starless night. Back in those days, they did not have the sophisticated technology for navigation that we have today. As he stood on the deck by the captain he asked him, "How do you get into the harbor on such a night as this?"  The captain replied, "You see those three lights? Those three must line up behind each other as one, and when we see them so united we know the exact position of the harbor's mouth."
  2. F.B. Meyer concluded, "When we want to know God's will there are three things which always concur—the inward impulse, the Word of God, and the trend of circumstances! God in the heart, impelling you forward. God in His Book, corroborating whatever He says in the heart; and God in circumstances, which are always indicative of His will. Never start until these three things agree."


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