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HopeLives365

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2025: God's Love and Justice

Mark Finley

01 God Loves Freely

02 Covenantal Love

03 To Be Pleasing to God

04 God is Passionate and Compassionate

05 The Wrath of Divine Love

06 God’s Love of Justice

07 The Problem of Evil

08 Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence

09 The Cosmic Conflict


Welcome back to another lesson, God's Love and Justice. We're on lesson number 8. What have you learned during this series of lessons? Have you learned some things that are really significant? I know I have.

Lesson number 8, free will, love, and divine providence really enters into some very profound thoughts about God. I was really blessed as I studied this lesson, learned a great deal. And I hope that as we study it together, you will learn a great deal too. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you with all of our hearts that Jesus is on the throne, that you are the sovereign God, but that you give us free choice, that Love necessitates and requires choice.

And Lord, we pray that as we study this lesson, as we choose to study it, that the blessings of God would just flood into our lives in Christ's name. Amen. If you were asked to define the word providence, how would you define it? Our author defines it under Sabbath Afternoon's lesson as providence is the term used to describe God's action in the world. So providence is when God acts.

Now, have you ever heard somebody say that was providential? Maybe they were going to buy a new home and they looked at this home. It fell through. They looked at that home and it fell through. Then they found the very home of their dreams.

That's providential. Somebody else applies to college, a young person, and they get in to the college that they really have wanted to get in because of the fact that they've done very, very well on a particular exam. And they were the last 1 to get into that college. And they say, it's providential. I was the last 1 to get into the particular discipline that I wanted.

Whoa, how providential was that? Is everything providential? Do we see God's actions in the world? Certainly. But is everything providential?

Is it providential that millions are hungry in the world tonight? Is it providential that tens of thousands will die from a famine? Is it providential when a Christian young person gets hit by a car and killed? Is it providential with war, conflict, strife? Is it providential when tornadoes destroy homes and whole communities?

It's certainly not. So when we talk about the providence of God and God's action in the world God's providence does not negate free will Sometimes God's providence operates in spite of or despite our free will. But God's providence does not negate our free will. Last paragraph in Sabbath Afternoon's lesson, talking about the fact that God's providence does not determine everything. God's providence is not determinism, which says that everything is determined beforehand.

In contrast, strong biblical evidence shows that God does not determine everything that happens. Instead, he grants humans free will, even to the point where they, and angels, can choose to act directly against his will. Now, does this mean that God is not sovereign, that he's not in control? Sunday's lesson, the sovereignty of God. Now, let me share with you an insight about the sovereignty of God.

God's sovereignty determines the great plans, his great plans, in the controversy between good and evil. God is sovereign. There would be Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The sovereign God decreed that. God is sovereign.

He decreed that Christ would come, that he would die for humanity. God is sovereign. He decreed that Jesus would be raised from the dead, that Christ would indeed intercede in the sanctuary above, that he would come again. So the sovereignty of God determines the great plans that God has to save humanity in the plan of salvation. But that sovereignty does not...

It is not a premeditated sovereignty that determines our choices. Somebody once asked me, was Judas predestined to betray Christ? And the answer to that question is this, somebody was going to betray Jesus. Zechariah predicted that Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, But it didn't have to be Judas. See, somebody else could have made those choices.

Judas made a choice. So the providence of God guides in the affairs and destinies of human beings. But God does not providentially guide every action. That's a matter of choice. The sovereignty of God, the unchangeable, immutable sovereignty of God, has a divine plan of salvation.

But within the context of his plan, we make individual choices. Now, God is almighty. But our rebellion or lack of spiritual choices can determine God's action. God's action is not necessarily fixed toward every human being. Let's look at that in Psalm 81, verse 11 to 14.

Psalm 81, verse 11 to 14. And we read it this way, starting with the 11th verse. But my people would not heed my voice, and Israel would have none of me. Verse 12, So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels. O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways.

I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries." Now notice, God's desire was that Israel would walk in his ways. God's desire was that Israel would be obedient to him. But Israel turned away from him. They chose to turn their back on him. Therefore, God allowed the enemies to come upon them.

The point is, God is sovereign, but his sovereignty does not interfere with individual choices that individuals desire to make. We find this again, for example, in Isaiah 30, verse 15 and 18. Isaiah 30, verse 15 and verse 18. We find the same concept. Reading verse 15 of Isaiah 30.

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy 1 of Israel, in returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Now let your eyes drop down to verse 18. Therefore the Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you. Therefore he will be exalted that he may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice, blessed are those who wait for him." So what does this text tell us?

It tells us in verse 15 that as Israel returns to God, they would find their strength. It tells us in verse 18 that God is waiting for them to return. In other words, God is not manipulating that return. God is not forcing that return. We find a similar thing in Isaiah 66, verse 4.

Isaiah 66, verse 4. It's extremely important that this concept be fixed in our minds. Isaiah 66, and verse 4. So will I choose their delusions and bring their fears on them. Why?

Because when I called, no 1 answered. When I spoke, they did not hear, but they did evil before my eyes and chose that in which I do not delight." So they chose what God didn't delight. They did evil in his eyes. He was appealing, appealing. His sovereignty did not determine their choice.

Their free will did. Last paragraph, Sunday's lesson. While many people believe that God must always get what he wants, the Bible tells a quite a different story. Again and again, scripture depicts God as experiencing unfulfilled desires. That is, what happens often runs counter to what God states that he actually prefers to happen.

In many instances, God explicitly declares that what is happening is opposite of what he wants. A Good example of this is when Israel desired a king. Was that God's primary will for them? No, it was not. Did God delight in their getting a king?

No, he wanted them to trust him, but he gave them the freedom of choice, did not cast them off when they didn't make the right choices. Does this mean that God is not sovereign? Does it mean he's not almighty? Not at all. There Monday's lesson is a word that I was unfamiliar with, although I studied the Greek language in college for 3 years, I either forgot this word or was not familiar with it.

It's Monday's lesson. Can you pronounce it even? It's a challenge, isn't it? Pantokrator. Pantokrator.

You know what that word means in the Greek language? It means almighty or all-powerful. So again and again God is mentioned as all-powerful. Revelation chapter 11 verse 17. We serve an all-powerful God.

We serve an almighty God. Revelation chapter 11. And you're looking there at verse 17. It says, we give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the 1 who is and was and who is to come, because you've taken your great power in reign. You've taken your great power.

God is a God of incredible, almighty power. We find this too in Luke 1.37. God gives us freedom of choice. The sovereign God does not determine those choices. But God is a God of all power.

When we turn to him in spite of our wrong choices, he works miracles in our life. Luke chapter 1, we're looking there at verse 37, studying about this amazing God that we serve, this all powerful God that we serve. Luke 1, verse 37, here we go. "'For with God, nothing will be impossible.'" With God, nothing will be impossible. And you remember in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, it talks about the God who created the world, the God who spoke and worlds came into existence, the God who spoke and created sun, moon, and stars, The God who spoke and all creation came alive.

This all powerful, almighty God is your God. He is my God. But if God is so powerful, if God is almighty, Why is it that he doesn't step in and stop all this evil? It's simply because he has given to us the freedom of choice. He's given us freedom to make decisions.

Last paragraph, Monday's lesson, accordingly most Christians agree that God's all powerful, omnipotent, meaning that God has the power to do anything that does not involve a contradiction. That is anything that's logically possible and consistent with God's nature. But there are some things that are not consistent with God's nature. Force is not consistent with God's nature. Predetermining our choices is not consistent with God's nature.

Manipulating us to serve him is not consistent with God's nature. Why is it? Why is force or manipulation not consistent with his nature? Because remember 1 John 4, it says God is love. And love never forces, love never coerces, love never manipulates.

So there are some things that God cannot do. And that is, He cannot force us to serve Him because His love will not allow Him to do that. Tuesday's lesson, paragraph, right under to love God. That God is all powerful does not mean that he can do the logically impossible. Accordingly, God cannot causally determine that someone freely love him.

If freely doing something means to do something without being determined to do it, that is forced to do it, then by definition, it's impossible to make someone freely do something. You cannot force somebody to freely do something. If you force them, they're not freely doing it. You remember in Matthew 22, verse 37, the Lord speaks and he talks to us about what the most important commandment of all is. Matthew 22, and you're looking there at verse 37.

And here the Lord says to us, Jesus said, you'll love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first great and great commandment. And the second's like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If God forced me, I could not love God, because love cannot be forced. Incidentally, some people think that these texts love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself, they have the estranged idea that that is a New Testament concept and that the 10 Commandments are irrelevant.

But do you know that those are both quotes from the Old Testament? When God gave to the children of Israel and Moses the 10 Commandments, Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 and Deuteronomy 6, 5, he summarizes the 10 Commandments, says, love God with all your heart and all your soul. Then in Luke 19, verse 18, he says, love your neighbor as yourself. So love is the fulfilling of the law. If we love, we fulfill the law.

But wait, what is the law? To love God and love your fellow man. But what does it mean to love God? That's the first 4 tables of the 10 commandments. Loving your fellow man is the last 6 commandments.

So free will necessitates love and love necessitates free will and without that there is no free will so there can be no love so therefore God gives us the choice it says the greatest commandment to love God provides evidence that God does indeed want everyone to love him. However, not everyone does love God. Why then does God simply not make everyone love him again? That is because love to be loved must be freely given. Now, there's some things that God cannot do.

Hebrews 6 verse 17 says in 18 that God cannot lie. Titus 1 verse 2 says God cannot lie. If God lies, it's contrary to his nature. So God freely enables us to choose. And in the ability that we have to choose, then God is not a liar, because he has given us that choice, and he allows us to make that choice.

Last paragraph, Tuesday's lesson, if God has committed himself to granting creatures free will, humans possess the ability to exercise their freedom in ways that go against God's ideal desires. Tragically, many people do exercise their freedom in this way. And accordingly, There are many things that occur that God wishes did not, but that are strictly speaking up to God. They are. God allows people to choose, but Some things we have to leave up to Him for people making their choices.

Now, there's an interesting lesson, Wednesday's lesson I thought was very interesting. God's ideal and God's remedial will. What is the difference between those 2? What's God's ideal? God's ideal is that every human being make positive choices to serve him, to love him, and receive the abundant blessings that come from doing that.

That's God's ideal. What's God's remedial will? When we make mistakes, when we sin, when we rebel against Him, God's remedial will is grace in action to pick us up when we fall, to pardon us when we sin, and to give us new strength. So God has an ideal will, but God also has a remedial will. Now the word predestination means to predetermine ahead of time.

Did God predetermine, did God have a predetermined plan for our life ahead of time? He did. When people ask me, do you believe in predestination? My comment to them is, what do you mean by predestination? If by predestination you mean that God had a predetermined plan to save us, certainly I believe in that.

But I do not believe in a rigid predestination that forces people to follow God's plan. God has a predetermined plan. It is his celestial roadmap from earth to heaven. But whether I follow the map or not is up to me. God has a pre-designed plan for our lives.

Look at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 9 to 11, Wednesday's lesson. Reading, having made known to us the mystery of his will according to the good pleasure which he purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in 1 all things in Christ. See this is his pre-designed plan he wants to gather all things He wants to gather each 1 of us, you, me, together in Christ. He wants to save us. That's his pre-designed plan.

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance. So by Christ, we have obtained an inheritance. He opened the door of heaven for us. We have an inheritance. Verse 10, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together in 1 all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth.

Verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be the praise of His glory." God has predestined us for salvation, but whether we receive it or not is a matter of our choice. Commenting on this passage, the author says, last paragraph, Wednesday's lesson, this passage makes perfect sense if 1 simply recognizes the distinction between what we might call God's ideal will and God's remedial will. God's ideal will is what God actually prefers to occur and which would occur always if everyone did exactly what God desires. God's remedial will, on the other hand, is God's will that has already taken into account every other factor, including the free decisions of creatures, which sometimes depart from what God prefers. So God's remedial will is that will which takes into account our failures, and he reaches out to us to remedy that effect.

But what is God's plan for us? Has he predestined us? On the drawing board of heaven. And here's good news my friend, on the drawing board of heaven, God has a pre-designed plan for you to be saved. And how can that be possible?

Thursday's lesson, because Christ has overcome the world. If everything occurred according to God's ideal will, there would never have been evil, but only the perfect bliss of love and harmony. Eventually, the universe will be restored to this perfect ideal will of God. In the meantime, God is working out his will in a way that takes into account the free decisions of his creatures. Why is it that we can have confidence that in the midst of this evil, wicked, rebellious world that God's plan can be carried out in our lives.

We read about it in John chapter 16 and verse 33. It says, These things have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace, in the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. Here is the the incredible good news that Jesus Christ has overcome the world in Christ and by Christ and through Christ and because of Christ, we can be overcomers. The world may pressure us.

The world may squeeze us, try to squeeze us into its mold. The world around us may impact us and influence toward evil. But as we trust Jesus. As we give our lives to him, all the demons in hell cannot take us out of God's hand. We are his children now and forever.

For that, we should be thankful. Is there a pre-designed plan for our lives? There certainly is. And God is doing everything, absolutely everything to save us. Sends his angels to beat back the forces of hell, sends his Holy Spirit to convict us of what is right.

But the choice to respond is ours. He has a pre-designed plan, but it is not a rigid plan that forces us into loving him. Love must be freely given. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much that you don't force or manipulate, that love must be freely given and we want to give our love freely to you.

O Lord, take our love as human as it is, sanctify and refine it, and save us in your kingdom, in Christ's name, amen. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org.

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Series

Sabbath School 1st Quarter 2025: God's Love and Justice

08 Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence

Parent Series

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Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

01 God Loves Freely

21m

02 Covenantal Love

23m

03 To Be Pleasing to God

24m

04 God is Passionate and Compassionate

24m

05 The Wrath of Divine Love

23m

06 God’s Love of Justice

26m

07 The Problem of Evil

21m

08 Free Will, Love, and Divine Providence

23m

09 The Cosmic Conflict

21m

Sound Doctrine