What is free will?
God gave man free will.
The important thing is that God is God, and that little man will not ever change that.
In teaching us the apostle Paul uses the illustration of the potter and the clay. God is the Potter and we are clay.
God took man out of the dust of the earth and formed him.
He did not start with a monkey.
Man made a monkey of himself. God did not make him like that.
The psalmist says,
Psalm 103:14 "… He remembereth that we are dust"
We forget this sometimes.
As someone has said, when dust gets stuck on itself, it is mud.
Abraham took his correct position before God when he said,
Genesis 18:27 "… Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes."
Romans 9:21-24 "Hath not the potter the power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?"
God reaches into the same lump of humanity and takes out some clay to form Moses. Again, He reaches in and takes out of the same lump the clay to make Pharaoh.
It was all ugly, unlovely, sightless, and sinful clay at the beginning.
His mercy makes a vessel
"unto honour" that is, a vessel for honorable use.
It is the Potter’s right to make another vessel for
"dishonour" or common use.
Romans 9:22-24 "What if God, willing to show His wrath and make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; And that He might make known the riches of His mercy which He had before prepared unto glory, Even us, whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."
We must firstly establish in our own hearts, that
GOD IS FREE TO ACT IN THE MYSTERY AND THE MAJESTY OF HIS SOVEREIGNTY.
The apostle Paul teaches us here that God deals in MERCY, even with vessels of wrath.
We have a marvelous, and very wonderful, God who is patient, kind, and longsuffering.
He did not fit them for destruction.
The rebellion and sin of the clay made them ripe for judgment.
God would have been right in exercising immediate judgment,
but He dealt with these vessels, not as lifeless clay, but as creatures with a free will.
He gave them ample opportunity to reveal any inclination they might have of obeying Him.
Although God hates sin and must judge it in a most final manner, His mercy is constantly going out to the creatures involved in it.
God suggests that the
"vessels of wrath" are the Jewish nation, which was destroyed in a.d. 70.
The Lord Jesus, you recall, announced this destruction, but He wept over the city, and He prayed from the cross,
Luke 23:34 "… Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
If the Lord Jesus had not done this the crowd would have been guilty of the unpardonable sin of putting to death the Son of God.
When the final judgment came in a.d. 70,
God saved a remnant!
These were "vessels of mercy."
God extends mercy!
He extends mercy because He is God of very God.
Who are we to question God.
I bow very low before Him today.
The Lord Jesus came into His own universe but His own people did not receive Him.
But,
John 1:12 "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."
Notice this is for those who believe on His name.
That is all that one has to do but just listen to what it implies. With the verb to believe there is always a preposition. You must believe into the Lord Jesus, or upon the Lord Jesus. It is like me standing beside a chair and believing that it will hold me if I sit on it, but to prove that it will hold me, I must sit down on that chair. Now I am committing my entire weight upon it and it is holding me up.
The question is my dear friend,
Is the Lord Jesus Christ holding you up today?
Are you trusting Him?
Are you resting in Him?
Or are you just standing by the side of the chair?
Free will, is to get on board.
To be in Christ Jesus is to depend on Him entirely.
To sit down in Him where He is seated at the right hand of the Father and rest entirely from all your worries and troubles because they are in His almighty hand.
Are you able to sing this hymn truthfully?
In the joy of what Thou art.
I am finding out the greatness,
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For by Thy transforming power,
Thou hast made me whole.
O how great Thy loving-kindness!
Vaster, broader, than the sea:
O how marvelous Thy goodness,
Lavished all on me!
Yes I rest in Thee, Beloved,
Know what wealth of grace is Thine,
Know Thy certainty of promise,
And hast made it mine.
Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,
I behold Thee as Thou art,
And Thy love, So pure, So changeless,
Satisfies my heart;
Satisfies its deepest longings,
Meets, supplies its every need,
Compasseth me round with blessings;
Thine is love indeed.
Ever lift Thy face upon me,
As I work and wait for Thee,
Resting 'neath Thy smile Lord Jesus,
Earth's dark shadows flee;
Brightness of the Father's glory,
Sunshine of the Father's face;
KEEP ME EVER TRUSTING, RESTING,
FILL ME WITH THY GRACE.
Amen.
Are you willing to make a decision to trust the Lord Jesus as your Saviour?
1 Kings 11:19 "So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice."
King Solomon had a unique privilege. This man dedicated the temple, and when he did so, the glory of the Lord filled that temple. Not many men ever had that privilege.
But Solomon’s heart was turned away from the Lord because he married many foreign women who worshiped false gods.
There are people today who say,
"Why did God permit Solomon to have so many wives?"
God did not permit it.
God was angry with Solomon.
Someone will say,
"But God allowed it, didn’t He?"
God you see will not interfere with your free will as a believer.
If you go into sin, He will let you.
God let Solomon because He will not interfere with a man’s free will.
But, God was angry with Solomon for allowing his idolatrous wives to turn him away from Him.
AND GOD DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Just as the death of Christ rent in two the veil in the temple, so God reached to the top of the kingdom, and right down through that kingdom He made a rent - dividing the kingdom because of Solomon.
God was angry with Solomon.
GOD NEVER EVER COMPROMISES WITH EVIL OR SIN.
WE DO NOT FIND ONE INSTANCE IN HIS WORD WHERE HE COMPROMISES WITH EVIL OR SIN.
GOD HATES SIN!
AND GOD HATES EVIL!
The record states that when Solomon, one of His own, went into sin, God was angry with him.
God did not approve of what this man did.
As far as I am concerned, I would not want to have been in Solomon’s shoes.
God, in the Old Testament, was angry with sin; and when the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, walked on this earth in human flesh, He was angry with sin.
On every occasion He revealed His antagonism toward it.
The clay on the wheel down at the potter’s house has no will. But I do! That clay cannot cooperate with the potter. I cannot either! I quoted the Genesis account of the creation of man for a purpose - God created man in His own likeness. He took man physically out of the dust of the ground;
God made man.
Then He breathed into his breathing-places the spirit of life and man became a living soul.
The clay has no will,
but you and I have free will,
and we can exercise it.
We can cooperate with the Potter.
Now I want to ask the Potter a question:
What is Your purpose in putting me on the potter’s wheel?
Why do You bear down on me?
Why do You keep working with me? Why, Potter, do You do this?
I am not being irreverent, but I do like to ask honest questions.
Why, O Potter, do You do this? What are You after?
Now to find out I go back to the potter’s house. I do not discover here the purpose for my life, but
I learn something more important than that.I learn that the potter has a purpose.
I watch the potter there.
He is serious; he means business.
He is not playing with the clay.
This is His work.
He is giving His time, His talents, and His ability to working with the clay.
Jeremiah 18:3–4 "Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there He was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that He made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so He made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make."
Dear reader, this is not a cat-and-mouse operation. This is not the potter’s avocation, it is His vocation.
This is not his hobby. This is not something with which he is amusing himself.
God knows what he is doing.
This tells me that God is not playing with us today. He is not experimenting with us.
God has purpose!
And that comforts me.
The Potter has a purpose.
As an onlooker, I stand with Jeremiah and I ask,
"What is He going to make?"
Jeremiah says,
"I don’t know. Let’s watch Him."
As we observe, we cannot tell what the finished piece will look like, but the potter knows.
He has a plan.
He knows what he is doing.
The onlooker does not know his purpose, nor does the clay.
But, someday we will know.
When God puts us on the plastic wheel of circumstance, we can be very sure that He means to accomplish something.
His own purpose.
The psalmist said,
Psalm 17:15 "I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness."
Someday I’ll be like Him!
1 John 3:2 tells us: "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
That is going to be a fair morning, it is going to be a brand new day!
And God will be vindicated!
We will see that He was not being cruel when He caused us to suffer.
Someday, some glorious day, we will see that the Potter had a purpose in each one of our lives.
Notice again how Paul wrote to the
Ephesians 2:1 "And you . . . were dead in trespasses and sins."
And if that is all, then I’m through, too.
But there is more:
Ephesians 2:7 "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
In the ages to come we will be a demonstration.
We will be on display, revealing what the Potter can do with lifeless clay.
He receives the glory.
Oh it is going to be so very wonderful to be a vessel in the Master's hand.
GLORY HALLELUJAH CHRIST HAS SET ME FREE!
FREE TO CHOOSE HIM TO BE MY SAVIOUR.
FREE TO ALLOW HIM TO HAVE HIS OWN WAY IN MY LIFE.
There is a name I love to hear.
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in my ear,
The sweetest Name on earth.
Do you love the name Jesus?
Will you not please ask Him right now to be your Saviour and make a free will decision to allow Him to have His way in your life.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay; Mould me and make me
After Thy will, While I am waiting, Yielded and still.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master today! Whiter than snow Lord,
Wash me just now, As in Thy presence Humbly I bow.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, Help me, I pray! Power, all power
Surely is Thine! Touch me and heal me, Saviour divine.
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being Absolute sway! Fill with Thy Spirit
Till all shall see Christ only, Always, Living in me.
Played by Losinda.
AMEN!
Reply to Caryl@cherith.co.za.
THIS PAGE UPDATED: 24-11-2007.