Sermon Tone Analysis

! *ACTION Philippines Field Conference 2015*

Before I dive in to this first topic of our conference I want to give reason as to why the topic “The Sovereignty of God and the Freewill of Man” has been included in the conference.

The overall thrust of the conference is to motivate us unto being better stewards of our resources acquired.

As I mentioned in my promotion for the teaching theme of the conference several months ago at a team meeting, it is important that we understand that stewardship does not end when we board that final flight home.

We raised funds for ministry, and hopefully we applied those funds in the manner in which we indicated when we raised them, but what about after we are gone?

Can we wash our hands of whatever takes place after we have gone and chalk it all up to the “sovereignty” of God?

In my ministries I spend time trying to explain to pastors and leaders as to why it is important that we teach God’s truth in a manner that the people can understand and thus in turn formulate their own action points.

It is not wise for a teacher to only “tell” people what to do, as you will be developing people who are unable to discern and make any adjustments when it is required of them to do so.

Most believers want to be told what to do, and that is just fine for many pastors as they want to be able to tell people what to do and know that they will respond accordingly.

But this is not the healthiest means to grow believers as they are unprepared for the times false teachers start introducing destructive teachings.

Yet on the other hand, I also see Bible teachers who like to dazzle the congregation with their well-prepared sermons only to have the congregation walk out of the worship center with nothing.

My own wife once told me that pastor “so-and-so” was a better teacher before he went off to seminary.

What she was saying is that he was better able to communicate at a level where the common person understands before he was trained in structuring a message in a linear and intellectual manner.

I have addressed this issue with several pastors and their comments are something as such: “we need to teach at levels that challenge people to higher levels of understanding and comprehension.”

That sounds nice, but the people are walking out with nothing and as a result no life change is taking place.

We as missionaries are guilty of such grandiose assumptions, such as the latter part of my simile that I just shared, when we assume that “if we build they will come;” they being the future funds that we currently provide for our staff’s livelihood, the workers that are needed to sustain the ministries that we start, and the leadership that is essential to keep the ministry moving forward into the future.

At the church that I am currently aiding a decision was made to announce future job openings that we project will evolve, and the first to indicate interest is a man, who is married, has a family, and who happens to work for a para-church organization that is wholly funded by one missionary; a missionary who at any time may no longer be on the mission field.

This session is intended to squelch Christian fatalism that is often cloaked in the veneer of the expression “God is sovereign.”

Believe you me, I do indeed have a high view of God, and furthermore, I have, what I feel is, a solid logical framework for the sovereignty of God as it correlates to the free-will of mankind.

This framework has formed within me theological convictions that pulls the rug out of any fatalistic notions and forces me to deal with a reality that there is a dichotomy in life that at all times God is sovereign but my decisions do matter.

We are going to be looking at selected scriptures that demonstrate the sovereignty of God in action and then we will take a jet-tour through Romans and see human liberties working hand-in-hand with God’s sovereign will.

Yet there is one last bit of house-keeping that I need to take care of before we get to the heart of this session; for the record, the vantage point from which I will present my premises is neither Calvinism nor Arminianism but rather a contemporary understanding of Molinism that has been introduced to me in the teachings of William Lane Craig.

We do not have time in this session to discuss what Molinism is but for a quick snapshot you should understand that I will be presenting propositions that are under-girded with the notion that God knows how everyone will respond in any set of circumstances, and based on Him pre-scripting history, and His intimate awareness of who we are, He, through the exercising of His providence, orchestrates all events so that we are constantly in places where we freely make our own choice, but the ramifications of that choice are working towards the outcome of His will.

(Acts 2:23 (NASB95) — 23 *this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.*)

The three key factors for all of this to work are: 1) God knows how we will freely respond [foreknowledge], 2) God has predetermined history, and 3) God orchestrates all events so as to create the environment where we can freely choose [providence].

!! *The Sovereignty of God*

Now the first issue that we want to study is the sovereignty of God.

We will do so by starting with a quick look at Ezekiel 1:15-21.

Yet before we look at this section of scripture let’s gain a grasp of the context of the passage.

In Ezekiel 1:1 we note that Ezekiel has the privilege of having the door of heaven opened which allows him to look into the throne-room of God.

Then in Ezekiel 2:3-4 we note that Ezekiel is being sent out, or commissioned, for ministry.

The overall context is Ezekiel’s call to ministry.

If we were to study further into chapters two and three we discover the intensity of that calling, if Ezekiel did not fulfill his ministry, then he would be held accountable [this is libertarian freedom].

Back within the context of chapter 1, we see that the verses preceding the passage that we will be looking at, reveal that there are four angelic beings surrounding the throne of God.

(If the number is figurative or literal is irrelevant to our discussion.)

From these four creatures lights go forth, (Ezekiel 1:13) and these lights are thought to be, by various commentators, angelic beings doing the work of the Lord’s bidding.

Notice if you will the presence of the “spirit” in Ezekiel 1:12 and again in Ezekiel 1:20.

You will notice that it is the “spirit” that is dictating the movement of the four angelic beings.

Is this the Holy Spirit that we are looking at?

More than likely as the “spirit” is functioning in a similar manner as the Holy Spirit when He directs the affairs of the Church in the book of Acts.

Then in the verses following the passage that we will be looking at is the throne of our Lord.

What we are seeing is a hierarchy of organizational structure.

First we have the Lord on His throne, we then have the Holy Spirit guiding the movement of the four angelic beings, and then you have what is likely angels being dispatched by the four living beings to engage in the affairs of the Lord.

Let’s now look at our passage for consideration:

*“Now as I looked at the living beings, behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living beings, for each of the four of them.”

“The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another.”

“Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved.”

“As for their rims they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes round about.”

“Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved with them.

And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose also.” “Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction.

And the wheels rose close beside them; for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.”

“Whenever those went, these went; and whenever those stood still, these stood still.

And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose close beside them; for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels.”*

Ezekiel 1:15–21

I want us to focus on the wheels.

Some things that we need to understand about the wheels are, first, according to Keil and Delitzsch, they are not of a chariot, as there is no chariot found within the context.

Keil and Delitzsch believe that /“the sense is: the wheels were, in their motion and rest, completely bound by the movements and rest of the creatures, because the spirit which ruled in them was also in the wheels, and regulated their going, standing, and rising upwards.

By the רוּח (rûaḥ-spirit) the wheels are bound in one with the cherub-figures, but not by means of a chariot, to or upon which the cherubim were attached.”/

Keil and Delitzsch don’t attempt to explain what the wheels are but only what they do.

So therefore if the wheels were not of a chariot (MacArthur calls the wheels a “war machine”) then the question arises “what do the wheels represent?”

Let’s look at some excerpts from Ironside’s “Expository Notes on Ezekiel, the Prophet:”

/“Wheels, with their ever-recurring revolutions as they move on through the ages, suggest the great changes to which men and nations are subject.

Nothing is at a standstill; everything is in constant motion.

This is as true in nature, the material universe, as in the moral and spiritual realms.

Solomon marveled as he watched the great wheel of the world go round.”/

/“We say that history repeats itself.

This is but another way of saying that the wheels are continually revolving.”/

/“And there are wheels within wheels, so arranged that we cannot follow their intricacies.

But we see them everywhere, different principles working at one and the same time, in the world, in politics, in the church, in all phases of human society.

So true is this that the mind becomes bewildered trying to keep all the different movements in mind, until we are tempted to think that all is utter confusion, and there is neither order nor sanity in the universe.

But the spirit of the living creature is in the wheels and all are controlled by a higher power than the merely human, or blind chance, or what men call fate.

Moreover, there are eyes in the wheels, and these speak of intelligence and careful discernment and discrimination.”/

/“And so as the wheels move on, though so high that we are unable to comprehend fully what God is doing, we may rest in this precious truth, that nothing moves but at His command or by His permission.”/

For Ironside the wheels represent the cycles of life.

The government that oversees our political environment, our church and ministry life, our family life, and whatever the other cycles may be that affect our lives.

Now maybe Ironside took a little liberty at giving definition to what the wheels are, but the consensus is that this passage deals with God’s sovereign rite and ability to rule, and this would be important in mobilizing Ezekiel unto his ministry.

Yet what exactly is sovereignty?

There are three aspects to sovereignty; the first is governance, the second is the power and ability to execute the desires of governance, and the third is territory and the subjects within the territory to be governed.

To be sovereign is to have the authority and ability to rule over a territory and subjects.

We see all of this present in our passage – or within the greater context.

We saw a hierarchy of organizational structure and this correlates with governance.

We then saw God’s power and ability as demonstrated by the dispatching of the angelic beings as well as the presences of the Spirit.

Last, we understand the territory and subjects by the fact that God is dispatching Ezekiel to pronounce judgment on both Israel and the nations, which is the overall thrust of the book.

Yet before we move I what to distinguish the difference between sovereignty and providence.

Sovereignty is, as we just defined, the authority and ability to rule over a territory and subjects.

Providence on the other hand is to exercise power and knowledge to guide human destiny towards a predetermined end.

Providence could be thought of as a virtually composition attribute combining sovereign authority, omniscience, and omnipotence.

It is interesting to note that these three attributes, which make up providence, are also present within the text.

The eyes see thus illustrating that God knows; angels are dispatched thus illustrating authority; and the Spirit is present which is the “seat” of the power of God.

!! *The Free-will of Man*

Next we need to understand that mankind does indeed have some form of free-will.

Now how “free” the “will is” is highly debated.

As a matter of fact, everyone does not necessarily embrace, from a theological perspective, free-will.

Dr. Craig states in his Defenders podcasts transcripts /“Luther, for example, held that human beings are, as he put it, free in things below but bound in things above.

That is to say, Luther was willing to grant that human beings have freedom of the will with respect to earthly affairs…”/ Furthermore/ “But, when it comes to things above (that is to say, spiritual matters), there man’s sinfulness has bound his will so that man is not free to choose for God and to appropriate his grace.

Rather, this must come entirely from God’s side.

It is God who elects and chooses and saves whom he will.”/

Dr. Craig continues with a second example: /“Calvin was even more stringent in his view of the bondage of the will.

Calvin would not even allow freedom in things below.

For Calvin, in virtue of God’s sovereignty and providence, everything is determined by God.