Your Keys Please - the Power of the Human Will — Joe Root

The Agony of Christ’s Surrendered Will

Twelve men stepped out into the night. One was in the lead and the others were following him. He walked down the stairway and down the trail and over the ravine to the well-known place where at last he paused.

The leader turned to the others and solemnly told them, Sit down here. I'm going to go yonder and pray. He took three out of the remaining eleven. They went a little further and then he told them, You stay here.

I'm going on. The Word of God says he went further, about as far as you could throw a rock. There he fell on his face and said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.

The sorrowful leader, as he prayed, Luke says, an angel appeared strengthening him. And he rose from his space and he walked back to the three who had fallen asleep in their sorrow and in their confusion.

And he said to them, What? Are you sleeping? Couldn't you watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went back again and again he began to pray. The Bible says, being in a great agony, he prayed the more earnestly, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Again, he went back and found them sleeping. The third time, this sweating, agonizing one went and cast himself down and cried, Abba, Father, Daddy, O Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. He wrestled his sweaty, blood-soaked body as he wrestled in prayer with his father. He had cried when he entered into the world.

The Bible tells us in the book of Hebrews, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. But up in this final, critical hour, he wrestled with his human will and with his father's sovereign will.

O Father, this cup, this cup, thy will be done. And Jesus Christ rose up from that place with his face set like a flint and with a solemn resolve to go to Calvary's cross for your sins and for mine. Tonight, by the grace of God and desiring your prayers, we would like to hold this message before you.

The Sermon’s Theme: The Power of the Human Will

The title is, Your Keys, Please, The Power of the Human Will. Turn with me, if you would, to the epistle of Paul to the Philippian church, the book of Philippians, chapter 2. I appreciate the simple definition of this event.

It's called Bible school. And surely in a Bible school, we'll have Bibles that are active and that are turning to scripture and that are looking to see what the word of God has to say. There's a brother and sister in our congregation out in Ellensburg, Washington, who have fellowshiped with us for the last 20 some years.

They came from the community there and they said one of the first things that touched our hearts as we came to church, as we came and began to worship, something that stood out, something I had never thought of.

They said it was the sound of rustling pages. It stood out. We hadn't experienced it quite like that in any other church. And we only thank God for that. I know it's the same for you. We're interested in the Bible.

This is Bible school. We're interested in the word of God that has been miraculously and marvelously preserved for each one of us. If you will turn with me to Philippians chapter 2, I just want to read a few verses as a basis for the message tonight, beginning at verse 9.

We have, prior to this, in the second chapter of Philippians, the condescension of our Lord Jesus Christ in His incarnation. The Bible says, Being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man.

He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted Him and given Him, beginning at verse 9, turn with, follow with me now,. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

I want to highlight that passage of Scripture for you this evening. It is God. Young people, each one who have came tonight to this time of worship and meditation on the Word of God, I want to remind you of what the Apostle holds before us tonight, that it is God.

And wherever you've came from, whatever circumstances have made up your life, I don't know most of you. I recognize a very few of you. But it's such a blessing to come together where the Bible is open and we're seeking direction and a message from the Word of God.

But tonight I want to just welcome you. I don't know what the uneven journey of your life has been. I don't know what sorrows, failures, struggles, temptations, heartaches, joys, victories, I don't know what all the strands and the threads that have woven together to make up your life have been.

But whatever they've been tonight, welcome in Jesus' name. The Word of God is here. The Spirit of God is present to pour out a blessing for each one of us. And so the Apostle says, It is God who works in you, notice, to do two things.

Both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Do you see that? I find that very encouraging tonight. It is God who is working in you to do two things. First of all, to will. That means to birth in my heart a desire for His will.

A desire to be obedient to His Word. A desire to follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. God works in you to will. But He doesn't stop there. It isn't just to give you the want to. It's to help you get it done.

And so He works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Isn't that a blessing? God is helping us to have the desire. Have you ever felt like, Lord, I'm not even sure if I want to follow you. I've had some times like that in my life.

I'm ashamed to say I've had some times like that in my life. But I thank God as we fall on our face and as we seek His face. The Bible tells us that He will work in us to give us the will and the power to do His good pleasure.

So tonight, we want to talk about the human will. Your keys, please. The power of the human will. As we think about the will tonight, I would like to just suggest to you that your will, if I could offer you this definition for our purposes tonight, it is the unique ability that you have to determine to consent or to refuse.

That is your will. It's the unique ability that you have to determine to consent or to refuse. That is your will. Now, we see two balancing truths in God's Word that I want to hold before you tonight before we go any farther.

God’s Sovereign Will and Human Choice

I want to make sure we're very balanced in the Scripture. And if you would turn with me, Bible school students, let's hear those rustling pages as you turn to the first chapter of Ephesians. The first chapter of Ephesians.

In the first chapter of Ephesians, verse 11 says this. It's a beautiful passage of Scripture. I'd love to talk about the whole chapter. But let's just look at verse 11 tonight. The apostle says, in whom, that's in Jesus Christ, we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.

That, beloved, is God's absolute sovereign will. And as I said, we're going to look at two balancing truths in Scripture. And so many times in the Word of God, Scripture is, shall I say, held in a beautiful tension.

There are truths that sometimes seem to be addressing different sides of the same issue. And I think it's so important that we don't jump on a ditch or in a camp and ignore a truth, but rather we can accept and embrace and rejoice in all the Word of God.

And who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor? God's thoughts are higher than ours. And so he can declare that he has an absolute sovereign will and he can also sovereignly give you the choice of your will.

And so that's the second truth we want to look at tonight. First of all, God's absolute sovereign will. It is God who works all things after the counsel of his own will. We read in the book of Romans, who has resisted his will in Romans 9?

No one. God is sovereign. But secondly, God's sovereign design to grant humanity the choice of their will. And we find a number of times in Scripture, whosoever will, that term, whoever will respond, whosoever will, let him come.

Let him come. Two balancing truths. God's sovereign will and God's sovereign design to grant you the choice of your will. We're not robots here tonight programmed by God to say, I will obey you, God. I will do whatever you say to me, God.

No, God created you to be a person, a human with personality and with a living soul. And he longs for that response. Our God is relational. He wants a relationship with each of us, but he wants us to choose to follow him.

And he holds out the invitation. And sometimes it's like it says in the Old Testament, where God says to Israel, Romans 9 quotes this all day long. If I held forth my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people all day long, he held out his hands longing for relationship because God didn't make us robots.

He wants to invite us to come and worship and give our wills to him. So your will, the unique ability that you have to determine to consent or to refuse. And I want to say again that God is sovereign.

And there are aspects of his sovereign design that I don't claim to fully understand, but I believe and I accept that God is ultimately in control of all things. But that same sovereign God has the ability to grant us human choice.

And he's done that. And so tonight, as you think about this subject of the will, I want you to reflect back on the messages today. And I'd like these questions to be in your heart and in your mind. Will you, my brother, my sister, will you in your generation choose to pick up the torch and run with it in 2017?

Will you? Will you? As you consider your will tonight, will you choose to be one of those that are blessed because they're poor in spirit? They've embraced poverty of spirit. Those who choose to mourn for sin, those who choose to, instead of exalting self, walk in meekness and those who praise God, hunger and thirst after righteousness so that you might be filled.

Will you? Will you? As you reflect on the messages today, will you, my sister, my brother, will you choose to walk by faith, trusting in God, even through difficult and sometimes confusing relationships?

Will you? Very blessed by the messages already. They touch something. They touch my will. Tonight, we'd like to look a little closer at this thought of the will. I'd like to sing a song. Let's sing 374, a couple of verses, a familiar song that was written by, it's in the Christian hymn, 374 by Francis Havergal.

Take my life and let it be the first verse. And then I'd like to sing the fourth verse together. The fourth verse, I love this hymn. It's a beautiful hymn. It has a beautiful story behind the hymn. But whenever I get to the fourth verse singing this hymn, I notice just a little struggle in my life.

You look at verse four with me as we sing it together. Let's sing verse one and then verse four.

Take my life and let it be, come be great, take my life.

You to hum, just sing ooh or hum as the sisters sing verse four again. And then sisters, I would like you to hum or ooh as the brothers sing verse five. Take my will. Brothers humming, sisters singing, take my will.

Think about it and make it thine.

Let's sing, ever, only, all for thee.

That's quite a commitment. Brothers and sisters, may God bless you as you take your will and make it His every day and perhaps in a special way this week. As we look at this message tonight, I'd like to look at four general areas as we talk about the human will.

Defining the Human Will

I want you to consider this with me. First of all, I want to just look quickly at our will. What is it? We've talked about that a little bit already. Our will, what is it? That's point number one. Secondly, we will want to look at some general balancing thoughts about the will.

Point number two, some general balancing thoughts about the will. Point number three, some Bible examples of people who wrestled with their will. That's point number three, some Bible examples of people who wrestled with their will.

And finally, point number four, your will. What does this message have to do with us this week? Your will. Point number four, what does this message have to do with us this week? Again, I appreciate your ongoing prayers.

We seek the Word of God to give us some insight tonight. Point number one, our will. What is it? Again, I will say your will is the unique ability that God has given you to determine, to consent or to refuse.

Your will is a key that you alone hold. I remember so well when I was a young man in high school. I grew up in Modesto, California. 25 years ago, my wife and I moved to Washington State. But I grew up in California and I went through the public school system my whole life.

And when I was in high school, the high school maybe had a couple of thousand people. And I remember that there was a guy that I had seen in elementary school. He was a pretty cool guy. Back in those days, he had long hair and he was rough and he was tough.

And I was just a little bit afraid of him. His name was Raymond. And I remember Raymond had a bright red, hopped up car. And it was all jacked up and back like they used to be in those days with big, wide tires and chrome wheels and a big, loud rumble in the mufflers.

And Raymond would drive that car around. And I remember well, one afternoon as we were getting out of school, Raymond went and got in his car and he began to drive around the parking lot. And one place in the parking lot, Raymond loved attention.

One place in the parking lot, he just spun his tires a little bit and squealed and made some noise and made some smoke. And and he marveled at and enjoyed all the attention that he was getting. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man, a man we called John Nark.

He was the narcotics officer in that school where I grew up and a general security officer. And I saw John start walking through the parking lot. But Raymond didn't see him. He was enjoying all the attention as he drove that big, powerful, hopped up, bright red, wide tired car around the parking lot.

And I saw John Nark slip up behind his car. Raymond was looking at all the attention he was getting. He was rumbling his mufflers once again. And he paused for just a few moments and and just put it in gear there and just looked and was relishing the attention.

And I saw John slide up beside his car, reach in beside the steering wheel, grab the keys and shut it off and put them in his pocket and start walking toward the office. He didn't say a word. And Raymond was left there, frantic and powerless.

And I saw him get out of his car and and he almost started to whimper, almost started to cry. And he followed after the man said, I need my keys. Give give me back my keys. And the man just quietly walked toward the office.

Raymond's will was conquered, in a sense, in that moment. His true will wasn't broken, but John had taken his keys. Beloved, tonight, my appeal to you is to give your keys. That's why the title is Your Keys, Please.

Not to me, but to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Spirit of God. Would you be willing to hand over the keys of your life to him? Our will. What is it? It's a key that you alone hold. Just a few other points about what is our will.

I want to say that your will is a gift from God. We've already talked about that. It's from God and it's amazing power that God has given you the omnipotent, almighty, all powerful, creative force of the universe.

God Almighty has chosen not to overpower something that you, your will, your own will. That amazing ever thought about how much power that is? That almighty God in his own sovereign wisdom would choose to give you that power.

And then choose to not overpower it, give you choice to do as you will. Another thought about the will. Your will, I want to suggest to you tonight, is a critical link. The critical link between your understanding and obeying the truth.

The critical link. It's one thing to understand the truth. One thing to understand the word of God. It's another thing to obey it, to carry it out. Your will, your will is that link between those two.

Another point under this first heading, our will, what is it? I want to say that your will can be a mighty, fortified, thick, powerful wall between you and the liberating power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Your will can be that wall. Your will can be the gap between your satisfaction with mediocrity and a full commitment to being a disciple of Jesus Christ without reserve. Your will. Your will may be the protective bars that you may put up between yourself and what your conscience is whispering.

Perhaps sometimes even shouting this week as the brothers speak to you and as the spirit of God moves in your midst. Your will, your will can become protective bars against what your conscience is whispering, sometimes even shouting to you.

Self-Denial and Following Christ

Your will. Jesus said this in the ninth chapter of the gospel of Luke. In fact, let's turn to that real quickly. We're here at Bible school. Let's hear some rustling pages. Luke chapter nine. I like to tell students when they come to our Bible school out in Washington, any of you would be welcome someday.

I like to tell them to learn to be a little bit of a fast draw, a Bible turner. It's good practice. It isn't competition. That's not we're not trying to sow that kind of spirit, but it is good to learn to be familiar with the book and learn to be able to turn there quickly.

I personally knew the man who was the fast draw champion in the state of California. In fact, I still know him. He's an old man now. He's a non-resistant man now. He's a man who loves the Lord now. But when he was a young man, I was at his house when I was a young man looking at the trophies that I remember out in his garage that were all dusty, that he had gained as a young man because he was the fastest draw with a pistol in the state of California, Nevada.

He won time after time. I never saw him do it. My brother did. My brother married his daughter and my brother said you couldn't even see it. He had his holster all greased up and he had an aluminum lightweight pistol in that holster and he could have a balloon over on the wall and they could somehow signal to start.

And you couldn't even see as he pulled out that gun and shot that balloon. He was a fast draw. For what? What's that matter? Nothing. He would tell you that today. But but to be efficient at turning to the word of God, sometimes we need to be a fast draw for Satan because he comes with a temptation.

And Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. It is written, thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. He had a fast draw scripture for Satan. So let's look at Luke 9, verse 23 and 24.

We're thinking about what is our will. Verse 23, 24. In fact, let's go ahead and well, let's just read those two verses. Let's read them out loud together. Verse 23, Luke 9, verse 23 and 24. And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it. But whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. You know, we often hear, I know in in many of our churches and well, we should the teaching of Jesus to deny ourselves and take up the cross.

That's what Jesus taught. But have you ever thought that the true essence of denying self is giving up my will to the Lord? Sometimes I can get thinking that self-denial is I'll do without this and I'll do without that.

And I'll make it hard on myself for this and hard on myself for that. And there is a time to say no, beloved. We certainly are not undermining that. In fact, I greatly encourage that. But I think beyond those things at the very core and at the very essence is I must somehow to my own will give up my own will.

And then those things fall into place and flow out of that. The true essence of self-denial is giving up my own will, or it is, shall we say, relinquishing my independence. The Bible says that just shall live by faith, doesn't it?

Somehow it just gives me a little sense of security, a little sense of ownership if I can kind of believe that, but still hang on to my own will. We pray, don't we? We often pray. In fact, let's just say the first few words of the Lord's prayer together very reverently.

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done. We can pause there. You ever thought about what you're praying when you pray that prayer, when you read those words?

Thy will be done. Romans 12 is a favorite chapter of many of us. Our heritage loves these words and well we should. It's the Word of God. The 12th chapter of Romans, the Apostle breaks into that refrain and he says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Balancing Human Will With God’s Grace

And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Our will. Well, let's go on and consider now the second heading.

Some general balancing thoughts about the will. Just a basic title there. The first section was our will. What is it? Now we're looking at section number two. Some general balancing thoughts about the will.

Get your Bibles ready. Be turning to Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine is often considered one of the more difficult theological passages in the New Testament. I'm not going to launch into an exegesis of that tonight, but I would like to again say that we cannot muscle our way to glory through a white-knuckled discipline and determination of a determined will.

I'm going to... It's just my finging on and my determination and my will, and I'm going to muscle my way to heaven that way. That's not what we're teaching here tonight. We recognize both a sovereign and a merciful God who has shown grace to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And I want you to look in Romans 9 just at verses 16, 17, and 18. Again, I'm not going to try and speak extensively about these other than just to read them. Notice Romans 9 verse 16, 17, and 18. So then it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Isn't that amazing? That's an amazing passage. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, have I raised thee up that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt then say unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? That's a good question. We're not going to get into all of that other than I will say there are balancing truths in scripture and we recognize that God is giving us a lesson here in Romans 9 as he talks about nations and he talks about his sovereign choosing.

And we recognize though that we do want to honor God as we acknowledge who has resisted his will. And we acknowledge that it's ultimately not of him that willeth of him that runneth, but the real focus is on God who has shown mercy and praised God for that.

So these are some general balancing thoughts about the will. Nay, O man, the scripture says, who art thou that replies against God? Shall the thing form say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?

And yet, before you leave Romans 9, I want you to look at something. Look down clear at verse 33, the last verse of Romans 9. And I want you to see the balance right in this very chapter. The Apostle says, As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.

And whosoever, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. We can see this opportunity of the choosing of the will right here in Romans 9. Well, I want to go on a couple more balancing thoughts as we think about the will.

The Danger of Will Worship

The Bible warns about something called will worship. Turn with me to the book of Colossians. Colossians, fast draw to Colossians chapter 2. Let's look at verses 20 through 23. This is something the Bible calls will worship.

I'm not promoting will worship tonight. I'm promoting that we yield our stubborn wills to the sovereign will of a loving and a merciful God who has chosen to sovereignly give us that choice. But look at this danger.

There's a danger that's called will worship. Look with me. Verse 20. Wherefore, if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, Why? As though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances?

Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things indeed have a show of wisdom and will worship and humility and neglecting of the body, not in honor, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh.

And we could talk about that some more. But I just want to say that sometimes there can be a danger of getting to this point that I'm going to have a will that's just very solid and very resolved. And I'm going to white knuckle my way to glory.

And I'm going to have a focus on what I don't do and what I don't touch and what I don't handle and what I won't do. And we don't want to be just about what we're not. We want to be about what we are followers of Jesus Christ.

And the Bible says those things make a nice show in will worship and voluntary humility and worshiping the body. But they really don't accomplish anything in dealing with this flesh. And we want to go deeper than just touch not, taste not, handle not.

Certainly, I want you to understand there is a place for godly choosing and discernment and even to function together with a body of believers that make wise choices together according to the Word of God.

I'm not undermining that at all. I'm only saying that we look deeper at our hearts and we don't want to just have will worship and the things that I proudly show you that I won't do or that I do do. That's will worship.

No, we want something deeper. I want that resignation like Jesus set the example. Not my will, but thine be done. We're considering some balancing thoughts about the will. Sometimes that flesh-based will worship actually manifests a will that's not broken and resigned to God.

I've seen that. I've observed it. Colossians goes on in the same book and encourages us in the third chapter to set our affection on things above. That's a choice of the will. Do you know your affection can be set?

You ever thought about that? You have affection. We all do. We have passion. We have affection. We have the ability and the power and the inclination to love and to have affection. Do you know you can set that?

Colossians 3 says set your affection on things above. Sometimes people say, I just can't help it. I just love this or I just love that. Yes, you can. You can set your affection. God has chosen to invest that power as he works in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God can help you set your affection. So we're not talking about will worship. We've looked first of all, we can't muscle our way. Secondly, we've warned against will worship. Third, I want to look under these balancing thoughts about the will.

There's a third balancing point I want to mention, and that there is a need for conviction and steadfastness. I'm not talking about being wishy-washy and having no mind. There's a place for solid, unmovable convictions.

In 1 Corinthians 16, we read these scriptures. Watch you, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Those are our words of conviction and resolve. And I so appreciate that. And I exhort you to that tonight.

Watch you stand fast in the faith, quit you like men. We're not talking about being wishy-washy. We're talking about yielding our selfish wills to the will of God. True godly conviction is standing firm on God's will.

Well, there's a fourth balancing truth I'd like to mention about the will. There is a place for decision making. It's interesting how the Apostle Paul mentioned Apollos. And he mentions in one of the scriptures, he said, I desired Apollos to come.

But he says this, it's an interesting phrase. He said, but his will was not at all to come at this time. But he shall come when he shall have convenient time. Or words to that effect. You're familiar with that scripture.

I desired Apollos, Paul said. But his will was not to come at this time. So there is a place for decision making. There is a place to make choices of the will. And submission is not groveling on the ground through underneath unbiblical tyranny and oppression.

That's not what I'm holding up tonight. That we just grovel on the ground and have no will at all. And just know that there is a place for biblical decision making. There's a proper place for appeal. There are times we must choose to make a stand that will not always be applauded by everyone.

And Jesus warned of that. So there is a place for decision making. A fifth balancing point as we consider the will. This is a serious one. Satan will violate our wills if we let him have a foothold. And 2 Timothy 2.

Turn with me there quickly. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Let's look at some very interesting words. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Notice in verse 25. The apostle writes to Timothy verse 24 and says,. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

And notice, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. Satan will violate your will if you let him have a foothold. If you let him have a foothold.

That's why in meekness, the apostle said, I want you to instruct those who oppose themselves. If we let Satan have a foothold in our life in some way, we're opposing ourselves and he can begin to violate our will.

And there are substances and there are practices that sometimes can pirate the will. You know that term pirate. When someone pirates something, they're taking over. And it's a history lesson back in the Caribbean when there were pirates like Blackbeard the pirate and others who would come up with their ship, come up on another ship and they would take over.

They would come on board. And they would pirate that ship and take over and send it a different direction and plunder that ship. Satan would like to pirate your ship, young man and young woman tonight.

Satan will violate your will if you give him an open door and a foothold. It's one of the balancing truths that I see as we discuss the will. Now, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.