LibertyChurch

Sermons / Mark

September 13, 2015

The Ways of God

Dr. David J. Vaughan · Mark

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Opening Prayer

Let’s pray and then we’ll have the kids go to class. Father, we thank you for the worship today. We ask that you’d open the word to us. We thank you that you condescend to teach us. We pray that you would speak to us today, give us ears to hear. I pray that our hearts would be the good soil today. I pray the same for our children in the class today. Open their hearts, Lord, to understand Your ways, Your kingdom, Your salvation, and Your great love. [audio unclear]

Take Heed What You Hear

“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man scattered seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Then He said, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.” With many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it, but without a parable He did not speak to them, and when they were alone He explained all things to His disciples. Here in Mark 4:26-29, Jesus tells a parable really of spiritual growth, or really a parable about the ways of the kingdom.

Three Things About God’s Ways

This parable is illustrating what Jesus had said about things being hidden, but eventually being revealed. Alright. What we’re going to learn today is we’re going to learn about God’s ways, and we’re going to learn three things about God’s ways. One, that His ways are inscrutable. Secondly, that His ways are gradual, and thirdly that God’s ways are effectual.

God’s Ways Are Inscrutable

First of all, God’s ways are inscrutable. Notice he says here that a man scatters seed on the ground in verse 26, verse 27, and should sleep day and night, and the seed should sprout and grow, and he himself does not know how. The more you think about the things of God, the more you realize how little you understand. Think about salvation. We think the plan of salvation is very simple, and in one sense it is very simple. What about substitutionary atonement for a moment? How is it that an obscure Jew who died in Palestine 2000 years ago, how is it that his death somehow covered my sins when I didn’t even exist yet? Do I really understand that? Does anybody understand that? How is it that God somehow takes my sins and puts them on another person and when that person dies, [audio unclear] Jesus says when talking about the new birth, He said the Spirit blows where it wills, but you don’t see where it’s coming from or where it’s going. In other words, you really don’t understand the things of God. Because God’s ways are inscrutable. They are mysterious, if you will. We could give numerous examples of things that we talk about and learn about and read about in our Bibles that in fact we don’t understand when you really think about what they mean. Another reason that God’s ways are inscrutable is because God works in ways that are different than the way that men work. He uses what I call different means. What do I mean by different means? What I mean is that God often uses weak things to confound strong things. A great example is Abraham and Sarah, right? You know the story, right? Abraham was too old. His wife was too old to have children. I mean, they were old. You guys think I’m old? They were old. They were beyond the ability to have children naturally. So they were weak. As it says in Romans 4, you can turn there if you like. I’m not going to wait for you though. In Romans 4, it says, As it is written, “I have made you”—talking to Abraham, God speaking to Abraham—“a father of many nations,” verse 17, “in the presence of Him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” So God speaks something and He says this is true, or this will be, or this is, when in fact it isn’t yet. “Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ’So shall your descendants be.’ And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform, and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Abraham’s body was dead, Sarah’s body was dead. It was not possible from a human point of view for what God spoke to come to pass, yet because it was spoken by God, it came to pass. So God takes something weak and then uses it to confound something strong. He takes something dead, the deadness of Sarah’s womb, and then produces life out of death.

Contrary Means: Abraham and Joseph

God uses different means. God uses contrary means. Contrary means. The best example of this in the Bible is the story of Joseph. Now, I wish we had time to read all the way through Genesis 37 through the end. It’s an astounding story. If you haven’t read in a while, go back and look at it. In the story of Joseph, what we see is that God came to Joseph in a dream. And in his dream he said, your parents and your brothers will bow down to you. You will be exalted. Now he didn’t have any other details, but he knew that he would someday rule. He’s the youngest, so he should not have been the ruler, right? That would have been maybe the oldest son. So God gives him a vision. And he says, someday your father is going to revere you yet what did his father do his father rebuked him so then he said, God says in the vision that your son—I mean, your brothers, your siblings—are going to bow down to you but what actually happened in the story his brothers betrayed him God said you’re going to be exalted and yet when you read the story we find out that Joseph ends up in a pit, he’s sold into slavery, he ends up in prison.

Now the amazing thing about the story is that everything that happened to Joseph, are you listening? Yes. Say yes. Yes. Everything that happened to Joseph until the point of fulfillment, everything that happened to Joseph was contrary to the vision. Everything he was experiencing would have told him, my vision will not come to pass. Everything that was happening to him would have told him, God is against me. Everything that was happening would have spoken to his heart, God is not for me. And yet what we see in the story is that the betrayal, the slavery, the prison were all God’s contrary means to fulfill his purpose for Joseph. That is to say God was working through treachery and hatred and envy and betrayal and it was the will of God using the evil of man to accomplish his purpose for Joseph. Now, explain that to me. It’s inscrutable, how God can take the worst aspect of a man’s heart, people’s hearts, their devious schemes, their hatred, their envy, and all of these things, and he uses evil to produce good. So all along the way as we read the story, and the thing we have to remember, you can read the chapters in about 15 minutes or so. But in Joseph’s case, from the dream to fulfillment, it was 13 years. And that’s a long time. Not only is it a long time to wait for God to fulfill his word, it’s a long time when everything that is happening to you appears to be against the promise. And yet it was the very things that were working against him from a human point of view. These things were the hand of God for him. What would have happened to Joseph if he had escaped out of the pit? What if he had escaped from prison? What if he had fled the difficult circumstances because they appeared not to be according to the will of God? Maybe God’s will for him would not have been fulfilled. We don’t know. But what we do know is God uses contrary means to fulfill his will for people. And so when something happens to us, which seems contrary, it may be the very thing God is using to accomplish His purpose for you. God uses small things. He uses unknown things. He uses contrary things. He uses weak things. God works in ways which are literally inscrutable to us. And the longer you walk with the Lord, the more you begin to understand, or should I say, you begin to see this. As you look back at your life, you see decisions you made which you intended for this purpose, and God worked for a different purpose, a better purpose. Even mistakes and folly and sometimes even our own sins end up being used by God to accomplish His purpose. Truly just as the seed springs up, we know not how. We cannot understand how God works in his providence to fulfill his will, and yet he does. Look at Proverbs 20, verse 24. It says, “A man’s steps are of the Lord. How then can a man understand his way?” He can’t. Not really. In 16:1 it says, the preparations of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. 16.9, a man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

So God has a plan and a purpose, and God is working out his plan and purpose for his people, not only his church, but for each of us individually. And sometimes our experience seems to be contrary to what we would assume the will of God is, and yet God is in fact still working, he’s still present, he’s still active, even at the time you may feel the most deserted and the most abandoned by him. We can only imagine what Joseph felt when he was in the pit, when he was in slavery, when he was in prison. And one of the striking things about the story for me is that through the entire process, Joseph says nothing. It’s an astounding silence. And so what are we left to think? Do you think he was murmuring and grumbling and complaining? Think he was whining? Or do you think that he was steadfast in faith? We don’t know. [audio unclear]

God’s Ways Are Gradual

Actually, back to our parable in Mark, Jesus talks about the seed that grows up here and he says, in verse 28, for the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head and after that the full grain in the head. We see this of course in the Christian life, that sanctification is a progressive process.

We grow in grace, we grow in knowledge, we grow in holiness. God has a lot more patience than we do, apparently. And so, God works things out in time, and he works things out over time, and God acts in due time.

God Works on a Different Timetable

But the thing we have to understand about the working of God in time is that God works on a different timetable. My timetable is now. I don’t like red lights. I don’t like crowds. I don’t like to wait. I’m not very patient. My wife tells me that all the time.

I’m not very patient. I said, I’m glad I got two Holy Spirits.

God works on a different timetable. Are you hearing me? God takes a long view, even a multi-generational view. One of the most striking scriptures to me is in Genesis 15. You want to see it? You want to read it? Okay, we’ll turn there. We can read it together then. It is freezing in here. I got icebergs coming off my nose. Genesis 15. Okay, so in Genesis 15, this is where God ratifies His covenant with Abraham.

It says in verse 6 that Abraham believed the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness. That’s a very important scripture; it’s quoted in the New Testament. It’s used by Paul in Romans 4 to argue that salvation is by faith, justification is by faith, not by works, not by circumcision. And he uses Abraham as an example. He quotes the scripture. Abraham believes God, it is imputed to him for righteousness, then Abraham falls into a sleep and God does this ceremony, which we won’t go into detail, but basically he cuts the covenant. He slays an animal and does this. And God makes a covenant with Abraham. But notice this in verse 13.

Then He said to Abraham, “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them.” He’s talking about Egypt. “And they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.” So God, of course, knowing all things, foreseeing all things, tells Abraham beforehand that his descendants—well, we now know—would be in Egypt for 400 years. I don’t know about you, but 400 years seems like a long time. You know what I mean? Like, hey God, how about 350? 300? How about 275? How about 350? How about 400, if a generation is 50 years, that’s 8 generations, that’s a long time.

So you say, why? And I say, I don’t know. But God, for his purposes, determined that it was the best that Israel be in bondage for 400 years. And think of the period between the Old Testament and the New. Guess how long that was? That was 400 years also. So for 400 years, God doesn’t speak before John the Baptist shows up on the scene, and then Jesus arrives. Why 400 years? Why did God wait? Well, we don’t know. So we’re told that when Jesus came, when Jesus died, Paul says in several places that Christ died in due time. Due time is not your time. Due time is God’s time. Due time is when God deems it’s the right time. And you say, well, why this time? Why 400 years? Well, we don’t know why. We just know that God works on a different timetable. God takes the long view. He does this with human history. The world is on fire right now, are you aware of that? I mean, the world’s on fire. I believe we’re probably gonna see a world war soon. The world’s on fire. But the world is in God’s hands. And so God is working purposes now in the world, which we can’t see because we don’t see the future. And a lot of times what God is doing in the world, I mean the world looks like chaos, certainly this, I mean it appears that God has abandoned the earth sometimes, when in fact God is working out his purposes in human history. And so God governs, and in that government of God and the providence of God, that includes my life and your life. This isn’t just about God governing cosmic events or world events, but God governs our lives also. And as God governs our lives, He works on a different timetable. And we see this repeatedly in Scripture in the lives of individuals that God has called. Abraham is a classic example. He calls Abraham, he gives him a promise that he’s going to have a child, and then God waits and waits and waits and waits. And he lets Abraham fail, right? Abraham said, well, okay, God, I’m tired of waiting. I’m going to do it my way. Hagar, in here, we’re going to have a baby. Abraham fails, but then eventually God fulfills his promise to Abraham. You know how long it was? It was 25 years. 25 years. That’s a long time to wait, isn’t it? Especially when you’re already 75 when you get the promise. The same thing with Joseph, as I’ve already said. Joseph was called, he was seventeen, he was finally on the throne when he was thirty years old. That’s thirteen years. David was anointed twice as king. He was anointed by Samuel when he was a teenager and then he was pursued by Saul for years because Saul did not want to give up the throne. But eventually David then was anointed again and was established king And that was a period of 16 years. Jesus, when he was 12, was in the temple teaching and his parents said, what are you doing? And he said, I’m about my father’s business. Don’t you know, I need to be doing this. And I believe Jesus understood at that age what he was called to do. And yet he subjected himself to them. And then he did not, we hear nothing again about Jesus for how long? 18 years. 18 years. That’s a long time. Right? It’s a long time to wait when you know God has something for you to do. And yet we see this pattern over and over and over in Scripture. Now, sometimes God will give a word and He fulfills it immediately. But so often in the Scripture when you read, this is one of the benefits of reading the Old Testament especially, is you see God giving a promise, makes people wait, he allows situations to grow more contrary to the promise, and then God brings it to pass. And it’s what one author has called – the death of a vision. Where God gives a vision, and it’s really from him, and then he lets your vision die. So that he later can resurrect it. He can resurrect it. And you see this pattern throughout Scripture. A God is not in a hurry to fulfill His plans and His purposes, even though we are.

If God gives you a call, a vision, a word, a promise, then if it’s truly from Him, if you continue to walk in faith, He will bring it to pass in His own time. And no one can tell you when that time is. It may be tomorrow, it may be five years, it may be 10 years, it may be 20 years. God spoke to my wife and I years ago that she was going to be in the pro-life movement and she had to wait 20 years. But God brought it to pass in ways that neither one of us could have really ever conceived. And so we have to realize that God is working on a different timetable because I think what happens a lot of times is Christians get called, they get a word from God, And then they put their hand to the plow and because they don’t see immediate results, they quit.

They get discouraged and quit. Well, God wanted the vision to die, but He didn’t want you to quit. He wanted you to be faithful with or without results. He didn’t want you to quit. If God tells you to do something, you do it whether you see fruit or not. If God tells you to do something, you do it whether you see results or not. Because the fruit and the results are not in your hand. They are in God’s hands. We are called to be faithful. And being faithful means we have faith. And that means we believe that God will work His will in His time and in His way. And so we obey the Lord and we do what he calls us to do and we have to leave the results in his hand. Quitting is not an option for the Christian. That’s not an option for us. Especially quitting because you’re not seeing results. And I think often Christians will quit, and if they just persevered, there would have been a great harvest, but they give up. And it’s because they don’t see things on God’s timetable. God takes the long view. He may have called you to something when you’re young, and He won’t fulfill it for forty years. You don’t know when He’s going to fulfill it. But He wants you to be faithful. If He calls you to do something now, then put your hand to the plow. And as Jesus said, don’t look back. You don’t look back. You put your hand to the plow and you do what God has called you to do and you leave the results with Him. Amen?

God’s Ways Are Effectual

So God’s ways are inscrutable. They are gradual. But also God’s ways are effectual. They’re effectual. In the parable in Mark, Jesus says that the man sows the seed, the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that, the full grain in the head. Well when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. The harvest has come. In other words, there will be a fulfillment. The seed becomes the blade, becomes the head, becomes the full grain, then becomes the harvest. God’s ways are effectual. The question is effectual for what? They are effectual for the fulfillment of His plan and purpose. God works to fulfill His plan and His purpose.

The Counsel of the Lord Stands Forever

Look at Psalm 33. Psalm 33. Let’s just start in verse 1. It’s a great psalm. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous. For praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise is beautiful to God. “Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth.” He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance.” Amen? God makes the plans of the nations of no effect. No matter what the rulers of the earth may decide, they do nothing without the permission of God, because He is working and overruling whatever they intend, to fulfill a greater purpose, which is the purpose of Him. His counsel cannot be thwarted. His counsel cannot be stopped. In Acts chapter 2, Peter’s rebuking the Sanhedrin for their part in the crucifixion of Jesus and he says this. In verse 22 of chapter 2, he says, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.” Well, well, well, it was God’s, God predetermined it and God purposed it so it’s going to come to pass, yet he says, but you did it. Now explain that to me. You can’t, it’s inscrutable. The relationship between God’s sovereign plan and man’s will is an inscrutable mystery. We only know what the Scripture reveals to us. What it reveals to us is that God’s plan will stand. But it also reveals that man is responsible for his actions. So we do what we need to do because we’re responsible for our actions. But God will accomplish His purposes in His time and in His way. That is all we know. And we can argue about it and we can write books about it and we have been doing it for centuries but the fact of the matter is when you get down to it, we will never fully understand the relationship of God’s sovereign will and man’s will. But we know what the Word tells us. It tells us that the Lord’s plans will be established, and so we trust that. We also know whatever I do, I will stand before God and give an account for that. Well I trust that too. And I walk in light of both of those truths. God’s plan will stand. Look at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted and to beloved, in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together and one all things in Christ which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. In him 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 to the praise of His glory. God’s will, God’s plan, God’s good pleasure. This is what God is doing in the earth. You sound disappointed. And I think many Christians are disappointed because they want their will done and not God’s will done. Often unanswered prayers are simply God saying, my will, not your will. God is doing His purposes on the earth and our job is to get in line with the purpose of God. Are you hearing me? Our responsibility is to get in tune with the will of God and the mind of God and the purpose of God and live according to that revelation. And when we do, then we actually see things like answered prayer. Because Jesus said that when we pray, that we’ll receive it if we pray according to His will. Praying according to our will, there’s no guarantee that we’ll get an answer. But if we pray according to His will, we are promised an answer. And so our calling as Christians is to be conformed to the will of God. Remember the Lord’s Prayer? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done. Yeah. Thy will be done. Not my will be done. your will, God. And so God always fulfills His will. That’s why His will is, we can say it’s effectual.

His Glory, Not Our Prosperity

But you may have things in your life, and you’re like, well God didn’t do this for me. This didn’t happen. Well, guess what? Maybe it wasn’t God’s will. Maybe your will did not get fulfilled. I’m sorry that happened to you, because I know it can be disappointing, and I know it can be painful. But God has much bigger things to do than to make us all happy. Are you hearing me? God is about… God is doing more important things than making American Christians comfortable. He’s doing more important things than giving us all a nice life. God is not beholden to the American dream. He’s not beholden to our security, our financial prosperity, in spite of what the prosperity preachers are saying. The reality is, is that God is doing something much greater than American affluence and middle-class success. He’s doing things on the earth which are going to have eternal ramifications for millions of souls. That’s what God is doing. And if the fulfillment of God’s will means that I lose my prosperity, or I lose my influence, then we should say, praise the Lord. Luther said that if we really had the right kind of heart, I’m paraphrasing, we would be willing to go to hell and praise God. If it served his glory, if it served his glory, then in that we ought to rejoice. If his gain is my loss, then I should rejoice in my loss.

If his glory is expanded in the eyes of men by my shame, then I should rejoice in my shame.

Are you hearing me? This is what Paul meant when he talked about losing all things. We want to gain everything. We want God to get glory, but hey, we want some glory too. We want God to get glory, but we want wealth. We want God to get glory, but we want comfort. But what did Jesus really say? He said take up your cross and deny yourself daily and follow me. Now I believe that Christian life is fuller and richer and more fulfilling than the non-Christian in life, but not in the ways that we generally think of Jesus said if you forsake everything for him he’ll give you even more brothers and sisters and houses and then eternal life. But he’s not going to give you necessarily a pension plan, a 401k, a nice house in the suburbs, smart kids. You don’t know, I mean, we have really distorted the will of God in the church today, I believe.

We have identified God’s will with our prosperity and our success and our influence and our peace. And surely that’s what God wants for me. God wants me to be happy, you see. Well who could deny that, right? God wants you happy only in the way that He defines happiness. And that’s where we get confused. The reasoning is certainly, God loves me, so therefore He wants me to be happy. Well, of course, who could argue with that? Nobody. Is it true? Yes. If you properly define your terms, and you define what real happiness means, and in Scripture, happiness is always found in the way of holiness. Always. Because the great destroyer of happiness is sin. And the degree to which we conquer sin, to that degree we experience true joy and holiness in our lives. It’s not found in the path of acquisition. Jesus said that a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses. It’s not more stuff. It’s not bigger stuff and nicer stuff. That’s not the path of happiness. And yet you hear it preached. I heard a preacher this morning when I turned the TV on at 6 in the morning. Sure enough. The prosperity message is everywhere. We have ever so subtly, and unfortunately in many cases not so subtly now, taken the cross, which is a symbol of loss, shame, and death, and turned it into a symbol of prosperity and success. It was never meant to be turned into that. But don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying God doesn’t want you happy. He does. But happiness is only found in His will. And His will might mean He’ll call you to live on less than you have now.

He may call you to sacrifice, relationships, friendships. He may call you to put away favorite hobbies, or maybe he’ll call you to put away some of your cherished ambitions, which are not from him. I don’t know. That’s between you and God. But I know this. The true prosperity of the soul never comes apart from his will. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.” And when you’re walking in the will of God, you know peace. It doesn’t matter if the storms are raging around you, you’re in the eye of the storm. If you’re in the will of God, that’s the place you want to be. God is working inscrutably in your life. He’s working gradually and He is working effectually. He’s working to fulfill His plan for you, and He’s working ultimately for His glory. One last scripture, then we’re going to close in 1 Corinthians 1. First Corinthians 1, verse 26: “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.” Why would God do this? That no flesh, no person should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s stand and pray. Lord, we glory in You and we thank You, Lord, that Your will toward Your people is good. And Lord, I pray that we would learn to surrender our lives, our careers, our money, our relationships, our homes. I pray that we truly surrender these things to Your will. And You would teach us how to pray, Father, Thy will be done, not my will. Teach us to pray, Lord, for Your kingdom to come and Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the place of true prosperity and peace. But we ask it, Lord, not for our sakes. We ask it so that You might be glorified in our lives, in our families, and in our church. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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