Understanding God's Sovereignty and Human Free Will

"God, from all eternity, according to His own holy and wise counsel did freely and immutably ordain, or foreordain whatsoever comes to pass. And I paused at that point in the seminary classroom, and I said to my students, 'How many of you believe that statement?' Now you have to understand, this was a Presbyterian seminary, so these fellows were pretty well steeped in the Augustinian tradition, and I got like a 70% vote there, that that large number believed it." [00:56:98]

"Now, they were still puzzled as I continued this harangue, and I said, 'Don’t you see that if there’s anything that happens in this world outside the foreordination of God, that if there’s no sense in which God is ordaining whatsoever comes to pass, then at whatever point something happens outside the foreordination of God, it is therefore happening outside of the sovereignty of God?'" [03:33:54]

"Anything that happens in this world cannot happen apart from divine sovereignty. We distinguish sometimes between God’s efficacious will and His permissive will; you’ve heard those kinds of distinctions. But let me make it, state in the easiest of all possible terms. If something happens in this world, by the power of men, by the power of nature, by the power of machines, God always has the power and authority to prevent it at least from happening, does He not?" [04:93:94]

"Now, if we have one maverick molecule running loose out there, we have no assurance whatsoever that that single molecule may not be the grain of sand in the machinery of God’s eternal plan. It may be that thing that runs amuck and makes it impossible ultimately for Christ to return to this planet. It may be the thing that destroys any hope for the consummation of the Kingdom of God, and leaving all of those promises of God unfulfilled." [08:04:08]

"Remember, I gave you a semi-colon? After that semi-colon, the Confession is quick to add, 'that though God ordains whatsoever comes to pass, yet He does it in such a way as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of secondary causes taken away but rather established.' So, we’re not talking about a rigid determinism that eliminates free creatures." [09:56:38]

"His love is a just and a holy love, and a just and holy God is never required to love a rebellious creation to the extent of extending mercy to it. He could love fallen man and punish fallen man, whom He loves, as an expression of His justice. (More on that later). Let’s keep our eye now on the four things that God could do." [11:15:01]

"As soon as your mind tells you that God must be merciful, or that God ought to be kind, as soon as you think for a second that God is obligated to be merciful, a bell ought to go off in your head and alert you to the fact that you’re not thinking about mercy anymore. Because, by definition, the big difference between mercy and justice is that mercy is never, never, never obligatory." [13:25:27]

"Now, does the Bible indicate that God has provided no opportunity for anybody to be saved? We can eliminate that one as Christians, can’t we, right off the bat. There’s no argument there. We all agree that this is not the biblical view, that God has made no provision whatsoever for salvation. Now, how about the idea that God intervenes in everybody’s life and ensures the salvation of everyone?" [17:52:27]

"Now, before we debate about which one is actually the case, let me ask this question: Could God ensure the salvation of everyone, if He so decide? Does He have the sovereign power to do it? Now keep in mind that one of the most frequent objections to the Augustinian view of predestination is that God intervenes in the life of certain people and ensures their salvation, but He doesn’t do it for everybody." [20:29:36]

"Because God doesn’t just say, 'Okay, here’s the cross. Choose it if you will,' and leaves people to themselves. But God applies the work of Christ. The Holy Spirit works in people who are dead in sin and trespasses in order to bring them to faith and to ensure that the death of Christ is never in vain, that Christ will see the travail of His soul and be satisfied." [22:51:70]

"However, there are millions and millions and millions of people who never hear the gospel, who in fact don’t have the opportunity. The only real opportunity, the only thing we can really talk about here is that some have the opportunity; some who are not predestined have the opportunity to be saved. That is, this argument would be everyone who hears the gospel at least has an opportunity to be saved." [23:18:98]

"Now mercy is not justice. Mercy is non-justice, and injustice is non-justice. But injustice and mercy are not the same thing. They’re both outside of the category of justice. Here’s justice, and over here we have non-justice and non-justice is of two types - mercy and injustice. One form of non-justice is mercy. Is there anything sinful or wicked about mercy? No, mercy is perfectly good." [26:30:02]