Discovering God’s Permissive Will

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Transcript:

If you’ll turn with me to Genesis chapter 3 this evening, we’re going to take a look tonight at the second of three aspects of God’s will. In case you have napped this afternoon and need a refresher from this morning, we talked about God’s sovereign will, which is one of the ways that we see God’s will revealed in Scripture. And those are the times when God says, now hear me on this, God is always sovereign, even when he allows us free choice.

But there are times that God in his sovereignty says and has the right to say, this is how it’s going to be. There is no choice in this matter. I said so.

And it doesn’t matter who’s for it or who’s against it. I’m God. I say it.

This is how it’s going to be. And we saw that all throughout Genesis chapter 1 this morning, that God said, let there be light, and there it was. There was light.

Didn’t matter that he didn’t have anybody else’s permission. He just did it. And, you know, sometimes God says it, and that’s the way it is.

Now, you may take exception with that. Well, what do you mean sometimes God says it, and that’s the way it is? Okay, when we’re talking about the truth of something, God says it, and that’s always the way it is.

But when we’re talking about God’s will, sometimes he says it, and he allows us a choice to do it or not to do it. Now, it’s always to our benefit to do what he says to do. But sometimes he allows a choice, and other times he says it, and there’s no choice, there’s no debate.

That’s just how it’s going to be. I gave you a number of examples this morning that, first of all, God said, let there be light. There was light, no debate, no vote on it.

There was just light. God sent the Son. God sent Jesus Christ to the cross.

That was his plan from before the foundation of the world. And all these things that we see that tried to prevent that from happening were unsuccessful because that was something God sovereignly decreed and said, no, Christ is going to be slain for sinners. God’s sovereign will.

It didn’t matter who or what was opposed to it. We see at the end of times, God’s going to bring all this to an end. And there’s not a thing that any of us or all of us together can do to stop his judgment.

Because he sovereignly decreed it. There are some times when God says, you know what, this is my will. This is what’s going to happen.

Get with the program. And it’s sort of like likening it to being a parent. When I tell my children, you’re going to pick up your toys.

I don’t want to. I didn’t ask. You’re going to pick up your toys.

If I have to walk behind you and hold your hand and move your hand onto the toy and make your hand, grasp it and pick it up and put it in the toy box, you’re going to pick up your toys. That’s just what’s going to happen. There’s no alternative here.

But folks, we know from the scriptures and we know from life experience that there are times that God says, this is what you need to do, and I’m going to give you a choice in the matter. God’s sovereign will says, this is what I’m doing regardless, but there are other times when God says, this is what you should do, and this is where we see the other two aspects of God’s will, at least the ones that I see and I’m going to be talking about during this series. This is where we see these other two aspects come in, God’s permissive will, which we’re going to talk about tonight, and God’s perfect will, which we’re going to be talking about next Sunday morning.

And in case this is confusing, I don’t know if it will help you or not, but I made up a little chart that I’ll try to remember to bring with you that helps you understand, okay, which is which. And again, don’t feel like you have to understand categories, categories. Now, what kind of will is this of God’s that he’s.

. . Don’t worry about what kind of will it is.

If God’s telling you to do it, just focus on the doing. But I want us to understand when we talk about God’s will, It’s revealed in some different ways. Tonight we’re going to talk about his permissive will, which is when he says, this is what you should do, and you have a choice to do it.

What happens if we don’t? And then next Sunday morning we’ll talk about his perfect will, which is what God says. This is the ideal situation.

This is my best for you. When I tell you to do something, this is what happens if you do it. Okay, but we’re in Genesis chapter 3 now.

We’ll come back to Genesis chapter 2 next week. But starting in verse 1, it says, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And no good story ever starts with the phrase, now the serpent.

And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Now, a couple problems with this. First of all, that is not what God said, you may not eat of every tree of the garden.

He’s twisting the word of God. And that’s something that the devil is very skillful at doing, is twisting God’s word. He did that with his temptation of Christ in the wilderness.

He does that with us. He twists God’s word, mixes in a little bit of truth with a little bit of lie, and evidently it started to get her a little confused, I would like to think. If we want to give her a little credit here, we can say she was confused at best. But it’s more than that.

When he says, hath God said, did God really say that? Folks, you know, that old snake knew exactly what God had said. This was not a question.

Did God say this or did God say that or did God really say anything at all? This was a question of God’s authority. Because where up to this point have we seen his authority expressed?

It’s been in his word. Folks, we see, I watch cartoons with the kids, and sometimes they’ll have people create things. The kids have not watched this, but I remember being a child.

They like Mickey Mouse, but I remember being a child and watching the old cartoon of Mickey Mouse where he was a wizard, or he was a wizard’s apprentice, and he had the gloves and I think a wand at some point, and with his hand gestures, he would just make things dance around the room and make things appear. Okay, God, ladies and gentlemen, God didn’t create with his hand in Genesis chapter 1. That would be incredible enough.

Folks, God spoke into existence everything that there is. Now, that’s not to say that God couldn’t create with his hand. But in Genesis chapter 1, he created by the authority of his word.

And so for the servant to come along and say, did God really say that? He’s not just questioning events. Did he really say this?

Did he really say it that way? Did this really play out that way? He’s questioning God’s authority.

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Okay? So she begins to try to correct him.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. And here where he’s just kind of hinted at this attack on God’s authority, Here it’s just blatant where he comes out and opposes God. You’re not going to die.

For God doth know in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God’s knowing good and evil. You’re not going to die. God is tricking you.

God doesn’t want you to eat from that tree because he knows. The only reason is because he knows that when you eat of that fruit, you’ll know as much as he does. You’ll be like God.

folks it’s the first lie ever told and it’s a lie that’s still told today in numerous churches and numerous faith systems and numerous philosophical systems if you’ll just do x y and z you can be like God you can become God you know what Satan knew how effective this was I think because it’s what got him he tried to usurp the place of God and was cast out of heaven for it and so it says in verse 6, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Now there’s a lot about this that I don’t understand. Adam, come on.

Tell her to put the fruit down. You’ve just condemned all of humanity here. For whatever reason, I mean, Adam Adam heard what God said.

People read it and look at it differently in their speculation. Was she actually there when God said it? Or did she hear it second hand from Adam?

We don’t know. Theologians speculate on it. But the fact is Adam heard from God.

Why? Why are you going to eat the fruit? But then again, why do we give in to sin and temptation also?

However this played out, however we look at the story reading between the lines of the details that were not given here. Folks, the problem began in the beginning of verse 6 when she looked at the tree and saw that it was good for food. She started thinking in her mind.

See, sin begins inwardly. She began thinking in her mind, it’s good for food, it’s pleasant to the eyes, desired, a tree to be desired to make one wise. We see the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life all at work right here in verse 6.

And so the result of that sin begins inwardly and then shows up outwardly and she took the fruit and she ate it and she gave it to her husband and he ate with her and verse 7 says that their eyes were opened both of them and the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. This is just a strange picture to me, because it’s hard for me to imagine God walking through the garden. I don’t know what that looked like, but we know that Adam and Eve evidently had a close relationship with the Lord as we were created to have, and it was not unusual for God to be among them and for them to be in his presence.

And yet when they heard God coming for the first time, this relationship was severed. And they found the need to hide themselves from the presence of God. So they hid in the midst of the trees of the garden.

Now, part of me says, well, they didn’t have as much revelation from the Bible as we have, so I can give them a pass for not knowing this. But on the other hand, I think, but they walk so much more closely with God than maybe we do. So maybe they should have known this, but it strikes me as odd that you would try to hide from God when he sees everything.

He knew about their sin before they were ever created. He knew that they were going to do this. So it’s just an odd concept to try to hide from God.

And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? Okay, don’t think for a second that God didn’t know where he was. But God wanted Adam to know that God knew where he was.

Where are you? You’re not out here walking with me where you’re supposed to be. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? Now I’ve heard lawyers say there’s a rule in trials that you never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to.

Folks, God can’t ask a question that he doesn’t already know the answer to because he already knows the answers. This is for the benefit of Adam admitting what God already knows. Who told you you were naked?

God knows they have figured this out. Did you eat from the fruit of the tree? He already knew that.

A lot of times when I go ask, did you eat a Tootsie Roll? I already know the answer to because I’ve seen the wrapper and the chocolate on the chin. This is sort of the situation God’s in.

He knows exactly what they’ve done, but he wants them to fess up and admit it. And the man said, the woman, I love this. Chapter 3 is so tragic and so comedic at the same time because we are just like this.

Verse 12 said, the man said, the woman whom thou gave us to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. So he directly, instead of taking any responsibility on himself, this is just like human nature, isn’t it? Instead of taking any responsibility himself, he directly blames Eve.

Who does he blame indirectly? There you go, he blames God. The woman whom you gave me, by the way, she gave it to me and I ate, but God, it’s your fault for putting her here in the first place.

She gave it to me and I ate. And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And so we shift blame again and pass it around.

And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. The snake tricked me. Nobody wants to take responsibility.

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this. I wish we had it recorded, by the way, before we get into verse 14. I wish we had it recorded where God asks the serpent, why he did what he did and what his answer would be.

We don’t have that. It says in verse 14, And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. And upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise thy head, excuse me, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Okay, and this, you know, one of the earliest prophecies of Scripture, and we can see its truth and we can see its fulfillment. Is there enmity between his seed and hers to this day?

Yeah, I don’t like snakes. I hate those things with a passion, and most people do. And you know they’re not so fond of us either.

There was enmity between the devil and between the seed of the woman. He bruised Christ, and Christ crushed his head. We see also in there the whole thing about crawling on the belly, and people say, well, snakes, there’s no archaeological evidence snakes ever had legs.

That I don’t know about, but I do know that in the last hundred years or so that they’ve discovered an organ in the head of a snake where that forked tongue that crawls along in the dust actually picks up scent molecules from the dust and laps them up and puts them in what’s called the Jacobson’s organ. I learned all sorts of things teaching science. Puts them in the Jacobson’s organ, and they’re able to track prey that way by licking up the dust. Funny how God knew that all those years ago, and it’s in the Bible when science had to catch up.

Anyway, and he said unto the woman, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow. Thou shalt bring forth children. you know, I’ve never been there.

I’ve been next to it. And I can tell just by observing that it’s not a pleasant experience. And quite frankly, one that I’m glad I don’t have to go through.

But childbirth, he said, would be a painful experience. And he said, thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee. All sorts of explanations for what this means.

The best one I’ve heard, the one that makes the most sense to me, is that there would be a desire to rule over the husband, but he won’t rule over you. And then he says to Adam, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat bread all the days of thy life, thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return unto the ground, for out of it was thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Okay, so God’s curse to Adam was not work. Work existed before the fall.

Adam was responsible for the garden and for the animals, but what God’s curse here was was the difficulty of work. Now there are things working against him. There are weeds, there are thistles, there’s the searing heat, the sweat of his brow.

And so work would become a difficult prospect from that point. And Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them.

And I’ve shared with you before, I’m sure that this is one of the earliest pictures of Christ that I see in the Old Testament, one of the earliest road signs that they were given pointing to the Messiah, that this is the first time the innocent die for the sins of the guilty, whatever animal was killed to make the clothing of skins. It says in verse 22, And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is to become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to until the ground from whence he was taken.

So he drove out the man and placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. So he says as a final consequence, they were to be cast out of the garden of Eden and that garden was to be guarded there. So what we see in this chapter when it comes to God’s will is that God has expressed his will for something that should happen.

God’s will for them was to live in perfect harmony with him, to have this close relationship where they would walk with him, where they would love him, where they would worship him, and he would in turn care for them. And what he expected in return was that they simply refrained from eating from the fruit of this single tree. God said, that’s my will.

That’s what I want you to do. Looking forward to next Sunday, I would say that is God’s perfect will for them. But when God gives us a choice, God knows better than any of us that the correct choice is not always made.

And we sometimes stray from God’s perfect will for us. But you know what? Even in our straying, God still has control and God still puts limits on us and says you can only go this far.

This is where his permissive will comes in. I want you to do this. I don’t want you to do this.

But I’m going to allow you to do this, and I’m only going to allow you to go this far. I gave you the example this morning of Job. It’s interesting to me that Satan had to come to God to ask permission to do anything to Job.

And when Satan wanted to change the terms of the agreement, he had to come back to God and ask permission. Because he couldn’t do anything that God didn’t permit. So looking at God’s sovereign will this morning, does God decree and cause everything to happen?

No. Not everything that happens did God say, I’m going to do that, and I’m going to do that, and I’m going to cause that. But there are some things that God says, I’m going to allow that.

God allows us individually and collectively to deal with the consequences of our choices. And so here, he said, I want you to have this perfect relationship with me. I want you to stay away from that tree.

don’t eat it, but I want you to walk with me in the garden. But he says, I’m going to allow them the free will to choose. See, God evidently didn’t want to create robots who would just love him because that’s what they’re programmed to do.

That’s not really love. If you have a dog, unless you’re just horrible to it, it probably loves you unconditionally. If it’s your dog.

I’ve loves the kids, even though he’s scared of them. He can’t help it. He loves them because he’s theirs.

He’s part of their pack, or they’re part of his pack, depending on which day it is. It’s unconditional love, but it’s not quite the same as being loved by a person, because there doesn’t really seem to be a choice being made. They love because they can’t help it.

God created us, I believe, because he wanted someone who would make the choice, the conscious choice, to love him and serve him the way he deserved. And to do that, he had to create us with free will. And he had to allow the option for us to disobey.

It doesn’t mean that God wants us to disobey. It doesn’t mean that God wanted them to eat from the fruit of the tree. But it means God allowed for that possibility.

Because if they weren’t free to disobey, then they wouldn’t be obeying freely. Does that make sense? And I’ve given the example before, when I’ve taught on this subject, of Benjamin when he was, I’d say he’s probably about two years old.

We had a real problem with him wanting to play with chords. It was before he was two years old. I’m sorry, when he was younger.

When he was starting to crawl around and toddle around, he wanted to play with chords. And I’d always tell him, don’t you play with the chords. Don’t play with the cords.

Don’t play with the cords. Because, you know, he didn’t always know if they were, even if they were unplugged. I don’t want him playing with cords because he doesn’t know when they’re, when they’ve got electricity, when they don’t.

It’s just better to don’t play with the cords. And so I would tell him, don’t play with the cords. Don’t play with the cords.

Don’t play with the cords. That was my, my perfect will for him was to leave the cords completely alone. But children, unfortunately, have free will.

And so sometimes he didn’t always heed daddy’s warnings and leave the cords alone. Sometimes he would go play with the cords, and a lot of times I would go grab him before he’d even get to the cords and tell him don’t play with the cords. When they’re that age, you don’t know, they’re just starting to crawl and toddle around, you don’t know how much they understand.

And so it finally got to the point where there were times when I’d see him crawling over toward a cord. And if it was unplugged, if it was something that wasn’t going to hurt him, I’d actually resist the urge to jump up and stop him. I’d say, okay, I’m going to permit him to grab the cord and play with it for just a second or two.

For that reason, or for the reason so that he, you know, in a second when I get up and go get him, and I take the cord away from him, pull it out of his hand, and gently, you know, just gently swat his hand and say, no, no, leave the cords alone. Now he’s associating what I’m talking about. Didn’t mean that I ever wanted him to play with the cords.

I was never going to take him by the hand and say hey let’s go stick our fingers in the light sockets oh my goodness what kind of parent does that but to say you know what I want you to leave the cords alone but I know you’re not going to so I’m going to watch you you know I wasn’t going to let him stick his fingers in the light sockets I wasn’t going to let him play with a cord that was going to hurt him but I was going to let him disobey me just enough that when I finally stepped in and disciplined and he understood what was going on. And folks, God’s permissive will works in much the same way. Now, he puts limits on what he will allow us to get by with.

We don’t always know what those limits are. I’m not sure that they’re always the same limit for everybody because I’ve seen people, I’ve seen believers get by with things or seemingly get by with things. They’ll answer for it eventually.

But I’ve seen believers do things and go on with seemingly a clear conscience that I’m like, if I got anywhere, if I stepped even a fraction out of line as far as you did, I feel like God would tackle me to the ground. But God puts a limit on how far he’ll allow us to go, and he’s got a reason for it. And if we disobey, if we disobey because we’ve been given a choice, it’s because he’s determined to give us the choice to disobey.

He didn’t make us do it, but he allowed us to disobey, and for whatever reason, he says, but you can only go this far. You can only go this far. and then God steps in.

You can only play with this, I still don’t want you to play with any chords, but you can only play with this chord, and then I’m going to step in. You can only play with that chord for three seconds, and then I’m going to step in. See, God permits things to happen that he didn’t necessarily cause or approve of.

So God’s permissive will, first thing tonight, is that it entails, God’s permissive will entails things that might happen. When we talk about God’s permissive will, it’s not the same as his sovereign will. It doesn’t mean it’s definitely going to happen.

and it doesn’t mean that he caused it to happen. God’s word to Adam and Eve, it was a command. He said, don’t do this.

It was not a declaration you’re going to eat or you’re going to not eat. If that was true, it’d be his sovereign will. He would have been making the determination.

If God said, you’re not going to eat, they wouldn’t have eaten. God would have just taken the tree somewhere else if they got near it. God said, don’t eat.

It was a command. It was a choice for them to make. But when he gave them a command, something that they had to do, to give them the choice to do it, there also was the choice to not do it and to disobey him.

God knew that there was the potential for disobeying, and really God knew that they would. Now, God’s perfect will, as I said already, was that they would abstain from eating from the tree, but he permitted them, he allowed them to fall into disobedience. He didn’t cause it to happen.

He didn’t cause it to happen, but he allowed it to happen. But hear this, if he hadn’t allowed it to happen, Man could have never gone there. Man could have never stayed.

Now that doesn’t mean that God is responsible. That just means God is sovereign. And if God hadn’t allowed it to happen, it couldn’t have happened.

But God gave man the choice. And so he told them, but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Now that’s Satan coming back and asking about it.

God had told them, don’t eat from the fruit of the tree. God said, that’s my perfect will. But within that, there’s always the possibility of the other happening.

And so God’s permissive will, unlike his sovereign will, entails things that could happen. God’s permissive will, second of all, requires a choice on our part. There’s a choice.

In the sovereign will we talked about this morning, there is no choice. God says it. He’s going to do it.

You don’t have to accept it. He doesn’t need your acceptance. Just get out of the way.

But unlike that one, it’s not set in stone, God’s permissive will. And by the way, God’s permissive will is not, well, we’ll come back to this in just a minute. It’s not set in stone.

God allows the possibility of certain things happening through disobedience. God says, okay, I make the allowance here that you’re going to possibly disobey, but you’re still only going to run this far from me. Look at the story of Jonah, just very briefly.

Jonah was going as far as he could away from the will of God. God said go to Nineveh, which is in the northern part of present-day Iraq. Jonah booked a ship to Tarshish, which is in modern-day Spain.

You can’t get much further. I mean, past Spain, they didn’t know what there was. You couldn’t get much further away.

He thought, I’m going to go as far from the will of God as I possibly can. Now, God allowed him to disobey. God allowed him to go to Joppa and get on that boat.

But at some point in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, God drew the line and said, all right, that’s far enough. I’ve allowed you to disobey me, but it’s time to do what you’re supposed to do now. And God’s permissive will allowed him to go a little ways and then reined him in.

And so it requires a choice on our part where God allows us to fall. God allows us to choose. God allows us to disobey.

And that’s what we saw in verse 7. She saw the tree was good for food. I’m sorry, verse 6.

She saw it was good for food. She saw it was pleasant to the eyes. And already she’s thinking, I’m going to disobey.

She was making the choice. Not the choice that God wanted her to make, but the choice that God allowed her to make for the sake of free will. So permissive will entails things that might happen.

It requires a choice on our part. And third of all, God’s permissive will should not necessarily be our aim. When we’re talking through this whole series about we need to find God’s will, It is not God’s permissive will that we want to find.

I hope we’re clear on that. We don’t want to think about what is the worst that God will potentially allow me to do. How far can I stray?

How much fun can I have before I get in trouble? We accidentally, I was telling Janet this morning, we accidentally last week found the Rio Grande Gorge in New Mexico. I didn’t know such a thing existed until we’re driving along, and suddenly there’s a bridge.

We’re like, why are people taking pictures? And they were out taking pictures and we drive onto this bridge and it’s a thousand feet down. And Charlo was terrified.

In tears. And then the GPS led us around and suddenly we’re on a gravel road and the road just disappears and you’re going down the side of the gorge. And that was not a pleasant experience for her.

It was not a pleasant experience for me having to try to get her not to panic while I’m also trying to drive down the side of this 1,000-foot cliff. Let me tell you what. When you’re on the side of a 1,000-foot cliff, you want to hug the mountain.

You want to hug the mountain side. You don’t want to be this driver, and you definitely don’t want to be in the passenger seat of this driver who says, how close can I get to the edge before gravity corrects me? Because what’s on the other side of gravity correcting the situation is not going to be pleasant.

Folks, by the same token, we don’t want to look for God’s permissive will and say, how far will God permit me to go? How far out of bounds can I step before he reins me in? When we’re talking about finding God’s will, we want to find what we’re going to talk about next Sunday, God’s perfect will.

Now, God, as we talk about these, there are things that God says, I’m going to do it. That’s my will, and I’m going to do it. There are these other areas where he gives us a choice.

We have the choice to obey and really do what God say

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