Series: 2 Corinthians
Title: By the Will of God
Text: 2 Corinthians 1: 1
Date: February 2, 2017
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
2 Corinthians 1: 1: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christby the will of God,…
Our subject is “By the Will of God.” The “will” is the desire orchoice. All intelligent beings have a will.The naturedetermines the will.
The triune God is Holy, he is Wisdom, he is Righteousness. God’s will is in harmony with all his divine perfections. His will is only what is holy, right and best to be done according to all his divine perfections.Since God’s will is perfect it is called “the counsel of his own will”.
Ephesians 1: 11: [God]…worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
“The counsel of God’s will” is not a way to do things, the counsel of God’s will is the way to do things. He is “wonderful in counsel and excellent in working.” (Is 28: 29)
Proposition: The way in which Paul was made an apostle of Jesus Christ is the way in which God’s people are made everything that we are by God—that is, by the will of God.
Paul was made an apostle by the will of God.Timothy was made our brother by the will of God.The church is made the church of God by the will of God. God’s peopleare made saints by the will of God.We are saved, not by our will, but by the will of God. So the way in which Paul was made an apostle of Jesus Christ is the way in which all God’s people are made everything we are by God—by the will of God.
BY THE ETERNAL WILL OF GOD
God is eternal. Therefore, his will is eternal.Whatever God willed, he willed from eternity.
Isaiah 46: 9: Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10: Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Acts 15: 18: Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
God knows all his works from the beginning of the world because God willedthem all from the beginning of the world.And God is immutable. Therefore his will changes not.
Malachi 3:6: For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
James 1: 17: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Hebrews 13: 8: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
So when Paul says I am “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God”, it was from eternity that God willed for Paul to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.
Likewise, all spiritual blessings by which God makes his people everything we are—entirely new creations—was given us by God’s willfrom eternity.
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6: To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved….
In eternity, there was no cause outside of God, that made him willing to choose whom he would and pass by whom he would. As it is with all God’s elect, in eternity, it was simply God’s will to choose Paul in Christ, to redeem him by Christ, to call him to faith in Christ. Then with Paul,it was God’s eternal will to make him an apostle of Christ. Paul said,“when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace…” (Gal 1: 15)
Likewise, for you and me, when God makes a dead sinner a saint in the new birth orwhen he makes a saint a pastor, it is because God willed it from eternity. He told Jeremiah,
Jeremiah 1: 5: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Everything God made usin time—righteous, holy, redeemed, complete in Christ—everything God makes his child in time was God’s will from eternity.
2 Timothy 1: 9: Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10: But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
Now, we cannot discern God’s will by looking at our will. If we will to do something at the beginning of a day, within the hour our will can be brought to nothing. Does God have the power to bring to pass what he willed from eternity?
BY THE SOVEREIGN WILL OF GOD
God’s people are made what we are, not only by the eternal will of God, but also by the sovereign will of God working what he willed from eternity.
God rules all creatures and all events according to the counsel of his own will.Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the will of God. Not even a hair from our head falls without the will of God. Everything that comes to pass in time comes to pass by God’s sovereign will.
Yet, no one can perform anything that is not God’s will. If it is not God’s will then God sovereignly restrains it.
Lamentations 3: 37: Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
Psalm 33: 10: The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. 11: The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Proverbs 16:9: A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.
Proverbs 19:21: There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.
God’s will is worked so sovereignly by God that sinners do God’s will even when they do not know they are doing God’s will. Look at Christ and all that wicked men did to him.
Acts 4: 27: For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, 28: For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Why did the president stop immigrants from seven nations from passing into this country for a certain period of time? For the same reason every ruler does what he does, “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will,…until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” (Rev 17: 17)
Proverbs 21: 1: The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
So many in this day are stressed out, and anxious. The cure for anxious care is our sovereign God and Savior. (2 Cor 4: 8-10; 16, 18) If you would cure anxious care fill your ears and new hearts with God’s word rather than feeding the old fleshly man with worldly news and music and doom and gloom. Listen to faithful sermons rather than the noise of this world. Read God’s word rather than the news of this world.Christ said the same to us.
Matthew 6: 31: Therefore take no [anxious] thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32: (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33: But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
What about the sins that men commit? Is that according to God’s sovereign will? Indeed. The sinnersins because that is the will of hisdepraved nature. Therefore, he is guilty for his sins. But when God is pleased he fulfills his will using even the sins of a sinner. God only has to give men over to the lust of their own hearts. Men do exactly what they want to do.But the sinner is only permitted to sin, if it is God’s sovereign will. And that is for the purpose of bringing praise to God’s name.
Psalm 76: 10: Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
Here is the point, by the sovereign will of God, all things that come to pass, including sins, only come to pass by God’s sovereign will and that because God is working it to glorify himself in Christ in the salvation of his people.
We only have to look at the garden to see this. Sin entered by one man and death passed upon all Adam’s race,according to God’s sovereign will. It is obvious God knew sin would enter because before sin entered, God chose a people unto salvation in Christ. According to God’s sovereign will, he permitted sin to enter the world and death by sin, because it was God’s will to manifest the glory of his righteousness. Through sin, God manifest how he made justice and mercy kiss in the death of his Son in place of his people.
So brethren, knowing the fall of the whole human race was God sovereignly working his will, we should not fret over lesser evil that comes to pass. God is in full sovereign control working his will!
Romans 11: 36: For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
BY THE EFFECTUAL WILL OF GOD
Like Paul, God’s people are made what we are, not only by the eternal will of God, not only by the sovereign will of God, but also by the effectual will of God. To put it simply, God’s will is always effectual in the saving of his people, in putting down all our enemies and in glorifying his name. God’s will is not a mere wish or want, nor is it dependent on man.God alone always effects his will.
Daniel 4: 35:…he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
In the same manner that nothing comes to pass except what God sovereignly wills, so everything the Lord wills, heeffectually brings to pass.
Isaiah 14: 24: The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought [will], so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed [will], so shall it stand:…27: For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
No one ever frustrated God from effectually performing his will. If they could, they would be superior to God. But he is the LORD of hosts, the most High God!
Psalm 135: 6: Whatsoever the LORD pleased,that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
In Christ we behold the eternal, sovereign, effectual will of God manifest and glorified! We saw in eternity, that it was not based on anything in us, but by God’s eternal, sovereign will, God choose his people in Christ andeffectually blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him and he passed by whom he willed.
Romans 9: 15: For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy…16: So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Then at the time God willed, God our Father sent forth Christ his Son into the earth to accomplish his eternal will: totake away that first old covenant in which his sinned in Adam—by Christ being made sin for us and being made a curse as the last Adam for his people; and to establish the second, new, everlasting covenant of grace by making his people perfect in him.
Hebrews 10: 5: Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God….9: Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second10: By the which willwe are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all… 14: For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Now, think of the worst time of your life when you were in uttermost depravity and ignorance, dead, lost, ruined, without God and without hope.Think of every storm God effectually overruled, the powers and principalities he effectually overruled, the winding road he brought you down to effectually cross your path with the gospel. Then through the gospel of Christ,
James 1:18: Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
John 1: 13: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God
Then, he put us in his church and now together we spread his gospel with fear and trembling, remaining faithful to God, one way:
Philippians 2:13: For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
Right now, God holds this world in store until the last elect, redeemed sinner shall be effectually quickened and called because God
2 Pet 3:9…is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance….15: And account the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation;
His will is always effectual. Therefore, we know he will lose nonebut will make us all be with him in glory because he has effectually
Ephesians 1: 9…made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10: That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
So like Paul, no believer has any reason to be distressed or perplexed or to worry over anything. But our confidence is that all that God has made us in and by Christ, all that God is doing in us now, and all that Godshall make us in glory hereafter is not by our will. Let us not boast of our will, let us not look to our will to save us, to calm us or give us peace. Our confidence is that we are saved and kept securely in Christ and by Christ by the eternal, sovereign, effectual will of God!God our Savior and his will is the cure for all our anxiety!
Amen!