The Decrees of God

Tonight we're doing lesson number two, the decrees of God. Last week we started off with a review of all the attributes of God because over the next eight weeks we're going to be looking at God's decrees and His works. And all of God's works — everything that He does — is based in His character. So we went over all of His attributes last week. Tonight we're looking at what we call the decrees of God. And "decrees" is not a word that we use very often. It actually sounds somewhat old-fashioned, right? You can think of a movie, maybe, where a king says, "Hear ye, hear ye," and they make a decree. Well, that's one of the words that Scripture uses to describe the will of God, okay? So we're talking about God's will. So we're looking at what that means to us and how Scripture explains God's decrees.

So let's start off with number one. The decrees of God refers to God's eternal — that's the first blank — eternal plan by which He rendered certain — that's the second blank — all events — that's the third blank — of the past, present, and future. Let me reread that. The decrees of God refer to God's eternal plan by which He rendered certain all events of the past, present, and future.

God's will of decree differs from His will of precept and His will of disposition. So let me explain that. When you read through Scripture, you find God's will being spoken of in three different ways. One way is called God's will of precept. What is a precept? It's a command, right? Yeah, it's where God says this is what you should do. His word gives us plenty of commands, and that is one way we know His will, right? I know it's God's will for me to love my enemy. I know it's God's will for me to forgive folks who have offended me, right? I know it's God's will for me to be honest, to love my neighbor as myself, because His word tells me, right? So that's one way we know God's will. And the other way we know God's will is talking about His will of precept, His will of command. So everything that God commands us to do, of course, is His will.

Another way of speaking about God's will in Scripture is His will of disposition. Sometimes God is described as feeling a certain way. For example, in the Old Testament — this is not in your notes, but I'm going to read it to you — Ezekiel chapter 33, verse 11: "Say to them, as I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But the wicked turn from his way and live, turn from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?" It's describing God's heart, right? He doesn't take glee in the death of the wicked. He's pleading with them to turn to God, right? In the New Testament, we see something very similar. In Matthew chapter 23, I believe it's verse 37, Jesus says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem." He says, "You who have killed the prophets and stoned all that have been sent to you, how I've longed for — or wished or willed — to gather your children to me, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing." We see Christ willing and inviting people. He's showing the heart of God — to come to Him — but yet people are not willing to come to Him. That's His will of disposition, okay?

The third will that we see in Scripture is what we're going to be talking about tonight, and that's His will of decree. And as we said, it's God's eternal plan by which He renders certain all events that have ever taken place and that will take place. Isaiah 46, 9 through 10 speaks about this. It says, "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." God, from eternity past, has a plan, and that plan has rendered certain every event that's ever transpired, even down to the minutest detail of our lives, and everything that will come.

You know, we are linear creatures. We are born. We don't remember our youth, right? Sometimes we don't remember much from last week. But God knows everything perfectly and clearly. He knows every sparrow that falls. He knows every hair that's on our head, for they're all numbered, right? And as we mentioned last week, these are all based in His attributes. God is omniscient, right? It means He knows all things because He's the one who made us, right? And so His eternal plan — His decrees — are based in His omniscience, based in His goodness, based in His love, His care for His creatures.

The application is this: seek God's will as revealed in His word. The first blank is "seek," the second blank is "word." Seek God's will as revealed in His word. Many times we get preoccupied with finding God's will for our life. You see that in evangelical circles, right? I want to be in the center of His will, right? Well, we have His will of precept, His will of command, right? Scripture tells us how we should love our neighbors, how we should love God with all our heart. And we also know what pleases God — that we turn to Him and that we seek Him, right? Because we know His will of disposition. We don't always know His will of decree, right? But we're to grasp what we do know and what has been revealed to us.

Sometimes as Christians we are often like a woman that a friend of mine met on an airplane. I have a friend I went to college with, a godly guy. We did Bible studies together. And for the first several years out of college, he was in the IT field and he was traveling a lot, always on planes, going and fixing people's systems and whatnot. And one time he was sitting next to a lady on the plane, a young girl who was just coming back from Mexico. She'd gone to spring break two years prior and had not returned home. She got hooked on drugs and lived in a commune down there. She was fried — her life was messed up — and she was on the plane sitting next to him, which was a divine appointment, right? And she kept on shaking something in her hands and rolling it on the tray in front of her. And it was dice. It was from the Far East, a spiritual religion called I Ching, where they roll dice to try to determine the counsel of God, to try to learn the decrees of God or learn what God's will is. And if you don't get the right answer, of course, you just keep rolling the dice.

And so he began talking to her and she said, "That's what it is." And he said, "Well, it doesn't look like it's working out very well for you, does it?" And she said, "No." She was coming home because she was out of money and trying to repair relationships with her family and friends, and she was just at her end. And he said, "Do you want to know where you can find God's will?" And she said, "Where?" And he got out his Bible, right? And began with the gospel: repent and believe, this is God's will for you, right? And that's what we can find in Scripture, right? We can know for certain God's will by looking to Scripture. That's the only place that we need to put our trust, okay?

Number two, the decrees of God govern all things. God alone has authority — that's the first blank — over His entire creation. God ordains — that's the second blank — everything that comes to pass. Nothing occurs outside — that's the third blank — God's sovereign counsel. So the first blank is "authority," the second blank is "ordains," the third blank is "outside." The decrees of God govern all things. God alone has authority over His entire creation. God ordains everything that comes to pass. Nothing occurs outside God's sovereign counsel.

Look at Psalm 135. It says, "For I know the Lord is great and our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does. In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all the deep places." It's pretty comprehensive, right? In heaven and in earth and the seas and deep places — whatever you can think of or go to or could even venture to go — God is there and God is ordaining all things.

Flip over on the back. I want to point out Ephesians 1:11. We've been going through the book of Ephesians on Sunday mornings and several weeks ago pastor preached on verse 11. It says, "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works" — some say "all things" — "according to the counsel of His will." God works everything, all things, according to the counsel of His will.

There are some Bible verses below here that are in bullet points and I'm going to ask that some of you look them up. Would someone look up Psalm 119? You don't have to read it right now, but Psalm 119, 89 through 91. Would someone else look up Acts 17:26? Ken, would you look that one up, sir? Acts 17:26?

Sean, would you look up Job 14:5? Pastor, would you look up John 21:19? Toby, would you look up Ephesians 2:10? We're going to stop right there.

These are just some examples of things that God ordains. He works all things according to the counsel of His will, and "all" means all. Did someone have the Psalm 119 reference?

Joe, would you read that for us? Psalm 119, verses 89 through 91.

"Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. They continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all things are Your servants."

He established the earth and it stands. All things are His servants, so to speak. All things serve God, even our natural order, right? We sometimes worry about hurricane season, which started this past Saturday, right? But who's the God of the hurricane? It's God, right?

Ken, would you read for us Acts 17:26? "If He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation."

This is saying God from one man created all mankind and established their habitations, their boundaries, and their times. God raises up nations. We see that all throughout the Bible, right? We see God raising up people like Cyrus to deliver Israel, right? Even people you wouldn't think would be an instrument of God's handiwork — but God does that, right? He raises up nations and He takes them down as well.

How about the length of human life? Job 14:5.

Yeah, the very days of our lives are numbered. God has appointed our limits. By a lot of worrying, Jesus says you can't add one cubit to your stature — which can also be translated as one span to your life — because your life is in the Lord's hands, right? When we're worried about traffic, when we're worried about what could go wrong, it's no doubt — we're in God's hands, right?

How about the mode of our death? John 21:19.

He even knows the way that we're going to die, right? We don't have that information, but God knows.

He knows the free acts of men, both good and evil. We're not going to read it, but Genesis 50 — we're actually going to be referring to that in a few weeks when we discuss God's providence — but that's the story of Joseph's brothers coming to Egypt, and Joseph reveals himself to them. You know, they had taken Joseph and thrown him into a pit and told his father that he was dead, that he had been ripped apart by wild animals. And Joseph had a miserable lot for a while, right? He was in slavery, in prison. And when he was able to confront his brothers, he says, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." God even uses evil acts for His foreordained purposes, right?

He also ordains the good acts of men. In Ephesians chapter 2 — which we'll be reading shortly — it says that God foreordained our good works, that we should walk in them, right? So before the foundation of the world, before this world was even created, He knew your life and He planned the works that you should walk in to His glory, right? How awesome is that? So whenever God allows you to take part in ministry and allows you to bless someone, you can't take credit for it, right? That's God — He laid this out for me, and thank you for letting me have a share in this.

The salvation of believers — we know that God has ordained that. We're going to be discussing this in depth when we look at soteriology in a few months, when we talk about election. But the Bible is very clear: whom He foreknew, He predestined — the Bible talks about that in Scripture.

The suffering of believers. When we talk about God's sovereignty, we often talk about His control over nature and His control over our days, but we don't talk about suffering that much. But even God is the one who's in control of our suffering, right? Many of you tonight are suffering in one way or another. You have physical ailments, right? Restrictions that are bothering you — may not be a physical ailment, it may be a mental condition, stress, anxiety, despair, those kinds of things — but God has control over each and every one of them.

Let me read a few of these verses for you. Philippians 1:29 says, "For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him" — there's your election, right? God decreeing our belief — "but also to suffer for His sake." Even our suffering can have purpose when we realize that it comes from the hand of God, right?

Look at 1 Thessalonians 3:3. Very similarly it says, "that no one should be shaken by these afflictions" — or tribulations, depending on your translation — "for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this." Who appointed us to this? Did the governor appoint us to this? Did the local mayor appoint us to tribulations? God did, right?

Look at 1 Peter 4:19 — I wrote 4:9 there, you'll have to forgive me — 4:19: "Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator." When we suffer, we know it's by the will of God even, and we can commit our souls to God as a faithful Creator. Even looking at suffering, which to us doesn't make sense — you know, why do we have to go through this? When the wicked prosper and they seem to have no stop in their joy and their prosperity, why do I have to go through this? — it helps to know that God has a divine design, right? That we're not privy to, but it's based, again, as all these decrees are, in His character. And God is a God of love, right? God is a God of truth. God is a God of power. He's never going to give you more than you can handle, right? He's given you the Holy Spirit within you, right? So it's all based on God's character, and because of that we also know that it's going to be finite and limited, because eventually our suffering will give way to glory, right? That's what the Scriptures promise us.

Even the establishment of Christ's kingdom is decreed. One of my passages that's quoted oftentimes in the New Testament is from Psalm chapter 2. Psalm 2 is a messianic psalm talking about the establishment of Christ on His throne, His enthronement — that we talked a little bit about a couple weeks ago on Sunday morning.

And in Psalm 2, verses 7 through 9, He says, "I will declare the decree" — here's that word, God's plan, God's will — "the Lord has said to me, you are my Son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possessions. You shall break them with the rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel."

How comforting that is, to know that Christ's kingdom is ordained by God before the foundation of the world, and He has total victory over our enemies, right? He is the one who reigns on the throne, and He's the one who reigns over our lives. And as a result, we know that what God has done for us cannot be overturned. As Romans says, Romans chapter 8, "If God is for us, who can be against us," right? Because Christ is on the throne, and He will dash His enemies with His rod.

Not only is His decree over every aspect that we can think of in our lives, but it's also God's decree — His sovereignty — over every aspect of creation. Look over on the right-hand side of the back page. Psalm 24, verses 1 through 2: "The earth is the Lord's and all of its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein." Do you dwell in this world? Then you're the Lord's, right? "For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters."

I'm not going to read all these, but if you look at these bullet points, 1 Corinthians 15 talks about how God's decrees even cover the type of seed and what each seed brings forth in the botanical world.

Genesis 24 — which woman Isaac would marry. Remember how God foreordained that? There would be a woman who would come and draw water, right? And that would be the one who would be the wife of Isaac. The flight of the ravens to feed Elijah. God can feed Elijah from the mouth of a raven. Can't He provide for us? Even when it doesn't seem possible, when we don't have any money left in the bank account, right? And we don't know where our next dime is coming from — God can send a raven, right?

The flight of an arrow. Remember King Ahab? It seems like it's chance that he's hit by an arrow in just the right place, but that was just as God foreordained. And you can read those verses later. God predicted it beforehand, and afterwards He says, "I told you so. Just like I said, this is what would happen."

Job 28:26, and then chapter 37, talks about clouds — that the clouds come from the Lord. The tornadoes are driven by God. It says that lightning follows a path, right? That path is foreordained by the Lord.

When I was growing up, my mother had my brother and I in church. My father died when I was a boy, and my mother had my brother and I in church every time the door was opened. And my mom — she was deathly afraid of thunderstorms. And we get a lot of them there in southeast Texas, of course. And every time thunder and lightning would come, she would go and get in the hall closet and say, "Come on, boys." We were teenagers and we didn't want to go get in the hall closet with our mom.

And so I'd remind Mom, I'd say, "God guides even the lightning bolts, Mom. If He wants to get you, He can get you." That didn't provide her comfort, unfortunately. It made sense to me as a teenager, but it didn't provide her comfort. But it should provide us comfort, right? To know that God foreordains even the path of a lightning bolt.

The plans and victories of Israel's enemies. Isaiah talks about how He raised up Assyria to judge Israel, and then He judged Assyria for judging Israel, right? Every bit of their history — they had no idea that God was the one raising them up and that God was going to be the one to bring them down too, right?

The time that Paul would be born, and that he would be converted and that he would be called — he was foreordained to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

Revelation 13:8 talks about the Lamb's book of life. It says, "All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of the life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Everybody's going to bow, right? Even those who oppose God. But before the foundation of the world, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, your name was already written in the Lamb's book of life.

So when you doubt your salvation and you wonder — you know, is my faith strong enough? Do I really believe enough because I'm not feeling the love of God today? — it's not about feeling, right? It's about your name being written. It's about God's promises being made, and you just have to believe His promise, right? So that is what we call God's decree over every aspect of our lives.

I'm not going to read it, but there are some bullet points there under number two — Matthew and Mark — that go right through Christ's crucifixion. They rolled dice over His garments. It says, "So it would be fulfilled." Everything — they abandoned Him — "so it would be fulfilled," as Scripture said. Every part of Christ's passion and His crucifixion and His death and resurrection were part of the decree of God, right?

So the application for number two is this: trust in Him at all times and in all things. The first blank is "times," the third blank is "things." We can trust in God at all times and in all things. Isaiah 14 says, "The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so it shall come to pass. As I have purposed, so it shall stand." No ifs, ands, or buts about God's plans.

Number three, God's decrees are certain from all eternity — that's the first blank. His plans are not based in foreknowledge, but in His foreordination. God's decrees are unconditional, immutable, and efficacious. God's decrees may seem many, but are one — that's the second blank — one act of an infinitely perfect will — that's the third blank. So the first blank is "eternity," the second blank is "one," and the third blank for number three is "perfect." God's decrees are certain from all eternity. They're not based in foreknowledge, but in foreordination.

In Scripture, in the New Testament, seven different times you'll find the word that God foreknew, or that someone foreknew. Out of those seven times, two of them are speaking of men. Paul says, "You foreknew me. You knew me before I got here," is what he's saying. He's not talking about God, but talking about people, and that's talking about foreknowledge — you've known me for a long time, right? But the other five times that it's used are all in reference to God or from the very mouth of God, and it's not talking about foreknowledge but about foreordination. In other words, it's not simply that God knows the future. It's that God knows the future because He foreordained it before there was ever a future to begin with. Before creation ever existed, God was the ground and the certainty of what would take place because of His foreordination.

His foreordination is often called His "foreloving," right? Because the very root of that word — ginosko in Greek — means to foreknow, and that's the same type of word that's translated in the Septuagint of the Old Testament for "love" — or "Adam knew his wife Eve, and they bore a child," right? God knew you intimately before the foundation of the world, and so therefore He ordered and laid a perfect plan for your life.

God's decrees are unconditional. What that means is that they're not dependent on us. God's not saying, "Well, I sure hope that Ken marries Julie, but if he doesn't marry Julie and he marries Sally instead, then I've got to have a contingent plan B," right? And you can see how crazy that would get, right? God's plan is perfect from the very beginning, and they're unconditional, right? They're not dependent on us.

They're immutable. All of His decrees are based in His character, and we looked last week at His attributes, and one of His attributes was the immutability of God — that God doesn't change, right? God who has set His love on you in His foreordination isn't going to stop loving you, right? Because He does not change. Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." Because your circumstances look bleak — maybe yesterday you were rich and today you're poor — doesn't mean God has ceased loving you. Because yesterday you were well and everything was good, and today you're not — it doesn't mean that God has stopped loving you. His plans, His decrees, are immutable because He is immutable.

And they're efficacious. Now, that's a big word that we don't use a lot. I'm glad I didn't put that as a fill-in-the-blank word. Efficacious just means that they are certain and will happen. When we talk about God's will of precept — "thou shalt not kill" — is that efficacious? What I mean by that is, does everyone have to obey that? People can rebel against His will of precept, right? I can fail — and I do fail — in loving God with all my heart and loving my neighbor as myself, right? So as a result, that will of precept is not efficacious. The will of disposition is not efficacious either. In other words, we talk about God not being pleased in the death of the wicked — does that mean that the wicked don't ever die? No, they can die, right? Those who've rebelled against the Lord will be judged. But God's decrees — His eternal plan — are efficacious. They will come to pass. They can't be thwarted. They can't be overturned. What He has decreed is eternal and will take place.

And His decrees may seem many, but they are actually one act. We say "the decrees" in plural, right? Because the scope of His plan is beyond our comprehension. When we talk about the birds of the air and the ways of our lives and our children and grandchildren yet born, right? That's beyond our comprehension, so it seems many to us. But it's all comprehended in one eternal plan, because nothing is too hard for God, right? We as finite creatures can't grasp that, but God can. And this is His infinitely perfect will.

Psalm 139:16 — David says, "Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them." So before I was even formed, God had my days already fashioned for me. They were all written in a book.

How comforting is that? I remember back in the '80s, the big thing was day planners. If you were in college, you wanted a day planner, which was like a little notebook and it had a little calendar in it. And this is before they had Palm Pilots — and then they came out with Palm Pilots, which were like a smartphone that wasn't a phone — and now we have smartphones. We have all kinds of apps to keep track of things. Praise God. We'll forget most anything if we don't write it down, but not God. He has ordained every matter of our life, and it was all written before we were even formed, right?

Humbly — this is the application — humbly serve God who rules over all. The first blank is "humbly," the second blank is "rules." God rules over all, so humbly serve Him. Whatever He sends our way, we'll say we may not understand it. We may not grasp it. But, Lord, we know it's from Your hand and we're just going to trust You. And we're going to serve You no matter what may come our way.

Number four, God's decrees are framed by all His attributes — that's the first blank — and are based solely on His good pleasure — that's the second blank. God's decrees have for their chief end the glory of God — that's the third blank. God's decrees are framed by all His attributes and are based solely in His good pleasure. God's decrees have for their chief end the glory of God.

In Ephesians chapter 1, we read in service just a few weeks back how all of His plans are for His glory. Let's look at Ephesians 1:4 through 6. "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" — that's His decree, right? His decree of salvation — "that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." That's our walk, right? "Having predestined us to adoption" — that's our relationship — "as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the" — what? — "the good pleasure of His will." God's will is good.

Again, sometimes God's providence seems daunting. And it seems like maybe God's upset with me because we're looking at our circumstances and we're seeing, you know, things don't feel right. They don't look right. But we have to trust that all of God's decrees for us are based on His good pleasure, His character, right? "Of His will to the praise and glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the beloved."

Ultimately, our glory is wrapped up in His, is it not? All things are for the glory of God. His plans for me are for the glory of God. And in Christ's exaltation, am I not exalted too? That's what God promises us — that we are blessed with Christ Jesus in all the heavenly places, Ephesians 1:3, in Christ Jesus, right? So His glory, which is the aim of all His decrees, is for our glory as well, because He shares that with us. And that just overwhelms us, that He would deem us worthy to condescend to us, to show us His glory, to show us His grace, right?

The application is this: make God's glory — the first blank — your chief aim in life — the second blank. First blank is "glory," the second blank is "aim." If God's glory is the chief aim of all His decrees, shouldn't His glory be our chief aim as well? Shouldn't everything we do be to His glory? When we share Christ with someone, shouldn't that be to His glory? When we sing a song, shouldn't that be to His glory? When we do a fellowship or an outreach ministry, isn't that to His glory? When we visit someone in the hospital, isn't that to His glory? When we pressure wash the outside walks and clean the cobwebs and clean the kitchen out, isn't that to God's glory, right? So we should make it our aim to glorify God in every single thing that we do.

Ephesians 1:9 says, "Having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself." God's good pleasure, His good will, is grounded in Himself. And our God is so great, so vast — He is the God who is infinite, right? So we know that His good pleasure knows no bound, right? And those are what govern His will.

Number five, God's decrees do not conflict with man's free will. The method by which God's decrees are executed is not revealed. We don't know exactly how God's sovereign decreed will works alongside man's free will. We don't know — it's not revealed to us, okay? A lot of things in Scripture aren't revealed to us, but we just have to trust this. So God's decrees are not addressed — that's the first blank — are not addressed to man.

We say they're not addressed to man. God doesn't tell us His plans for our life. He doesn't tell us exactly how things are going to work out. Maybe a sickness is to the glory of God and He's going to heal us, right? Maybe a sickness is to the glory of God and He's going to call us home, right? We don't know, but God does, right? We only know His decrees if He's revealed them to us in His word or after they've already come to pass, right? So it's a foolish thing for us to try to figure out God's exact plan — to turn right, to turn left. Go with what's revealed to us in Scripture, right? Go with His will of disposition. Go with His will of precept, right? But His decrees are not revealed to us.

God's decrees are not addressed to man. They do not force human action. We are not robots. God, in some incredible way that we can't fathom, is able to work His will through us. We're still freely doing what we want to do, but yet we're doing the will of God. They do not force human action and are known only after the event. All conflict between God's will and man's will is only apparent and not real. So the first blank is "addressed," the second blank is "forced," the third blank is "after."

Look at Acts 2:23. This is Peter's bold, fiery sermon on the day of Pentecost. He says, speaking of Christ, "being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death." What's he saying in that sentence? He's saying Christ's crucifixion was from the determined foreknowledge and counsel of God. This was God's plan. He was the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. This was God's decree. But yet what does it say? He says, "You have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put Him to death." He's laying the blame at their feet because they're the ones who nailed Him to the cross, right? Man was freely doing what he wanted to do — to rebel against God. At the same time, that was foreordained by God. Blows our mind.

Flip over on the back. In Acts chapter 4, very similar — Peter says, "Let it be known to all of you and to all the peoples of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone." They had healed a man and they said it's by the power of Jesus Christ — who was crucified by your hands and whom God raised from the dead — that has healed this man. And look at verse 27: "For truly against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done." Pontius Pilate was guilty because he did what he wanted to do. So was Herod. So were the Gentiles. So was the house of Israel. They all raised their hands against the anointed one, right? But at the same time, God's decree was being done. They were freely acting in their own wickedness, acting out their own rebellion, but at the same time it says, "to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done."

The application is this: live your life as being accountable to God. Accountable. So many people want to say, "Well, if God's in control of everything, then I'm not really accountable, right? Yeah, He's ordained everything, you know, so when I make a mistake, can't I blame that on God? Right? That makes sense to me. Why can't I do that?" No, because you're still responsible. His decrees are compatible with our free will. So we are therefore accountable to God.

Matthew 16:27 says, "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to His works." We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And trying to say, "Well, it's not my fault, God — You decreed all things" — it's not going to work. Christ is going to separate the tares from the wheat. He's going to judge the works. Thankfully, as Christians, our works will be the works of Christ, right? But for those who are not in Christ, they will have no excuse.

Number six, God decrees to permit sin, but not to directly produce it — that's the first blank. God decrees to permit sin, but not to directly produce it. God creates and preserves human wills, which in their self-chosen course will be evil and do evil. Think about that. We're going to be talking about this when we discuss God's work of preservation. God, who gives us life, who gives us breath — He was the same one. Christ, our Lord, was giving breath to Pontius Pilate when he stood before Him. He was giving breath to Herod. The baby in the manger was giving breath to the murderous man who wanted to kill all the babies two years and under. God sustains those who are opposed to Him and who do evil and are evil, but that does not make God evil or the cause of evil.

God's decrees do not make God the author of sin — that's the second blank — but the author of free beings who are themselves the authors of sin.

Sin was permitted because it could be overruled, and without it God's justice and mercy would be unrevealed — that's the third blank. So the first blank is "directly," the second blank is "author," the third blank is "unrevealed." Sin was permitted because it could be overruled.

From the very beginning, God was not surprised at all that Adam sinned. And indeed Adam sinned — God didn't make Adam sin. God created man upright. But was not our Lord Jesus Christ the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world? It was before Adam was ever created. It was foreordained that Adam and humanity would fall, and in doing so that would be an opportunity for us to see both God's justice and His grace. If mankind had never fallen, would we know God's justice? Would we know His holiness? Not really, right? Because how is His justice displayed but in judgment, right?

And would we know His love? Because Jesus wouldn't need to die for us if we had never fallen, right? So He permitted sin — not the author of it, but He permitted it — in order to reveal the full glory of His being, that we can know Him in His fullness, know His holiness, know His love.

1 John 1:5 through 7 says, "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." He is not the author of sin, not the author of evil. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." He permitted sin, but He also provided the remedy for sin, right? That's the glory of the Father in Christ Jesus.

The application is this: praise God for His amazing grace. Praise God for His amazing grace, that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." That's your case.