Biblical Decision-Making (part 1)

You know dealing with biblical decision-making this is part of Mike asked me to address something in the book from the book For husbands and one of the things I'm a there's so many different topics. But one that I find that we have to do every day hundreds of times a day is making decisions.

We have to make them in the job. We need to make them in the home if you're married and if you're a parent. It's just constant decision-making and some of the decisions have great weight and it can take us down a path that is very difficult to recover and you reap what you sow and.

The Challenge of Daily Decision-Making

So when I was a young believer, I didn't know I Didn't know how God was going to communicate to me. What he wanted me to do. Yeah, I would read passages like in 1st Samuel chapter 23, you don't need to turn there, but this is David.

And you know you're reading through the Bible this is what I need and he's he's gonna fight. It says here. They they told David he was in the city of Kaila behold the Philistines are fighting against Kaila and are robbing the threshing floors.

And so that David it says inquired of the Lord shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David go and attack the Philistines and save Kaila. But David's men said to him behold we're afraid here in Judah.

How much more than if we go to Kaila against the armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the Lord again and the Lord answered him arise go down to Kaila and I will give the Philistines in your hand.

I mean wouldn't you like that? I mean wouldn't you like that just to say, okay, Lord I I don't know whether to take that job or this job. What you know, take that job. Okay, I mean You know, I mean if we had that kind of direct Communication.

Oh, that'd be that'd be great but Hebrews 1 tells us that in times past God spoke like that in Person would show up at times in the Old Testament showed up in person as Jesus incarnate. And he'd spoke through dreams and visions and various things.

But now it says in Hebrews 1 now that's passed now. He speaks through his son and You take that this is how he speaks today through his work and When you get into decision-making it's such a broad topic I'm gonna try to do a brief overview of decision-making.

And again, it's taking a couple of paragraphs in chapter 10. I'm gonna expand on it a bit. Because we always need to be stirred up to remembrance of things. We already know. Just so our how are we doing on this area of making decisions an outline that I'm proposing here and it's in your your notes is first of all the importance of it of making decisions.

That please the Lord. And that's should be our goal and aim every day. Key definitions when you talk about the will of God. Some presuppositions that we operate off of and should Accurately interpreting God's revealed will because once you open up the pages of Scripture people go everywhere.

Pulling text out and they don't do not mean What they are saying they mean so how to interpret God's Word correctly then methods and motives to be cautious of and I have used all of these motives and methods.

That I'm going to talk about tonight most all of them and I just want to show you some of the danger and making Decisions according to those then how do we make decisions? Biblically on a daily basis we won't have time.

Well, maybe have time for one short case study and Then there's some further resources, which I think are in your notes, I believe. If you want to do some extra reading, yes. They are on page four. Numerous books have come out quality books.

The Conversion and Early Questions of a New Believer

So the importance. When I was a new believer just brand new in the Lord and I grew up in a home where my parents. My dad preached for several years. He was a pastor then he went in and was a professor for 26 years.

I Heard the gospel ever since I can remember. And I made numerous decisions for Jesus and I every camp meeting. I was there on Friday night at the bonfire. You know asking Jesus in my heart Billy Graham's on TV.

I'm walking forward, you know to the TV. I was responding in all my emotions, but a week or two after I was I was living for me. Nothing lasted in my life and in my teen years It became more and more Real.

That I was not a Christian. Didn't want the light Christ and I didn't want to be around my parents and In God's providence our family moved to South Carolina and they gave me an option stay at home. My senior year of high school or go to a private boarding school a Christian boarding school up in Asheville, North Carolina.

And I said get away from home. I'm I'll do it and I went there and God and again, it is just Providence placed me with a An 18 year old guy a missionary kid from Argentina Who's now living in a Providence, Rhode Island, which I'm gonna go stay with them.

It's really neat to think what God has done over the years and he lived for Christ. I was watching his life Hearing chapel messages. We were studying the book of Colossians in a Bible class and God Quickened my heart.

He gave me the grace to repent and the faith to believe when I was 18 Trusted in Christ and since then by God's grace have been persevering and I just praise God for that. But as soon as God saved me, I was 18 years old.

I had all kinds of questions. What am I supposed to do with my life? What vocation do I go into ministry? Where do I go? What do I do? What college do I go to do? I go to college. Do I get married marry who I?

Had numerous decisions. And so the importance is every day we're making decisions. Some of them are quite weighty and What you decide to do? So I started reading and people were giving me here. This is how you make decision.

This is how you make decisions. Let me just read a few of the ways that people make decisions. That I've been collecting these over the the years, but I'll just read a few of them. This one Really happened out at Grace Community Church associate pastor a couple came in that we're having all kinds of marital problems ever since they married and The associate pastor at the time asked them whatever Made you determined to marry in the first place?

And this is recorded in Dick Mayhew's book on how to interpret the Bible for yourself. The husband Recounted how he had gone to his pastor at another church. Seeking to know the will of God for himself and his girlfriend who is now his wife.

That pastor at the other church reminded the young man of how Joshua and the Jews had marched around Jericho several times and how the walls collapsed. Then the pastor suggested that the boyfriend literally walk around his girlfriend several times.

And if the walls of her heart collapsed then he could be sure God wanted him to take her for his wife. So he obeyed he circled the girl several times and popped the question have the walls of your heart tumbled.

She responded by saying she felt strange inside. But that was the clue. Get up and run. All right. Or blow the horn or something and They both concluded that her heart had fallen in love and so they married each other.

Now here's a lady J. Haddon Robinson talks about this lady and in his church at the time. She couldn't decide whether to go to California and visit some relatives. And she said that one morning she went to her room prayed for God's direction while she was on her knees she glanced up at her digital clock and it read 747 and she knew that was a type of aircraft and That she was sure God had told her through the numbers on the plate face of the digital clock to go to California.

J. Haddon Robinson says I must confess. I wasn't convinced. I would have been more impressed if the clock had read 767 or DC 10 or He said such an occurrence would have been truly amazing maybe even miraculous but to turn to a rather run-of-the-mill coincidence a divine guidance is dangerous and Then he says realizing I was not over overly impressed by her sign.

The woman asked me don't you think God can speak to Christians that way? And J. Haddon Robinson says of course God can do that. He can even speak through a jackass and according to his word He did just that in numbers 22, but that doesn't mean I go down to the barnyard in order to get guidance.

This is a book written by believers on how to diet and This is a prayer. You're supposed to pray. It's in chapter 3. And it says father in the name of Jesus. I need specific guidance and direction in my life right now regarding my eating habits.

You see I need help in losing the extra pounds on my body. Show me your will. Please speak to me and show me how much weight you want me to lose. Now if you look at the digital clock you could really be in trouble.

Or how much you want me to weigh and how many calories I need to eat each day. Speak. Lord your servant is listening. Oh. What is supposed to happen there? Are they supposed to be a voice? Impressions you said well, maybe maybe it's impressions.

Okay. Well. Here's a book. It's entitled impressions from God or Satan and how to know the difference and In God's providence, it's out of print this is a. This is what it says. You can detect the devil by one of two things.

The devil always talks loud. Jesus always talks low and tender. When a spirit makes an impression on my mind that impression can be made in a loud Boisterous sort of way or the conviction can come quietly gently and sweetly.

So now is that a loud impression or a soft impression? And it's misusing a text in in first Kings 19 When the Lord spoke to Elijah. But what about the rest of Scripture when God speaks? And when Jesus taught the 5 ,000 He didn't have a microphone and I guarantee you he wasn't whispering.

When he was talking to that multitude. One of the things I have to deal with on a reoccurring basis are those who have been exposed to experiencing God. The book and a whole movement and this is what he says Henry Blackaby in the end of chapter 10.

God has always been speaking to his people. Today he speaks by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will use the Bible comma Prayer circumstances other believers to speak to you. Then he said this the method however is not the key to knowing God's voice.

You learn to know the voice of God through an intimate love relationship. God may choose to speak to you in a way that's just unique to you now that that just opens up a door you don't want to go through and.

And then his new book that he came out with he and his son is Hearing God's voice. It's a whole big book now on how to hear the voice of God outside of Scripture and of course what I deal with is a lot of counseling issues and over and over again, there are key people in the Christian counseling movement.

Who are our mystical they're just mystics they believe God is going to speak to them outside of Scripture. And one is Larry Crabb. He says this is in his book when the pressure is off. He said a few months ago I was brushing my teeth at 3 in the afternoon.

Why then I'm not sure that's not my habit. I could just stop there and say if you're brushing your teeth at 3 in the afternoon, and you don't know why you're doing that. It's probably time to just go back to bed.

Right. Well, he goes on and he said in My deepest heart where the inaudible is clear. I heard the Spirit this capital s Holy Spirit. I heard the Spirit say and these are the exact words. That's what he says here.

And these are the exact words quote. But now we're into we're in special revelation here and he hears this. I want to tell you something. I want to tell you what you've been wanting to know. And he says it lasted for about 15 seconds and then he wants more and so there's another few pages of this.

Of quote that the Spirit telling him, you know, Larry you've been doing it all wrong for the past five decades. You've been doing it all wrong. There's a new way and so he started a new ways ministry.

He has a new ways ministry now based on this three o 'clock afternoon experience. And I thought a real test would have been if I if I was prolific as he was as. And is and I wrote all those books during the five.

The decades there that were all wrong according to the Spirit. And the Spirit told me Stuart you've written all these books and really you've been doing it all wrong. I think I would try to use the money I had and purchase all of them and burn them, but that hasn't happened here is a.

This is probably the classic of all classics. You know what a promise box is or promise calendar? It's where people take verses out of the Bible just cut them out. Put them in a looks like a loaf of bread.

It's like an evangelical fortune cookie on your table. You just pull it out. What's the promise of the day? It's they're misused. They're not many of them. Most of them are not even promises. They're just verses.

Well, this was a promise calendar. Someone gave me and I cut it out because you probably wouldn't believe if you didn't see this thing. I ripped it out stuck it in here. This is the promise of the day.

Luke 4 7. So if you worship me, it will all be yours. The promise of the day from Luke 4 7 if you worship me. It will all be yours. That happens to be Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness and He said if you worship me, it will all be yours.

And this is the kind of thing that if you're not careful, you know, well, is that biblical? Well, yeah, but That's. Anyway, the importance is is vital every day we make decisions. I'd like you to turn to Colossians chapter 1 and I want to just see let you see how important this is from a biblical standpoint of Knowing God's revealed will and walking according to it.

Praying for the Knowledge of God’s Will

Caution is one. This is one of the prayers of the Apostle Paul for the new believers in Colossae. It's not hard to remember this. It's it's one petition that he prays over and over and over again. Repeatedly praises one petition for the Colossian believers.

He says in verse 9 and so from the day we heard he and Timothy We have not ceased to pray for you. Asking and here's the petition that you may be filled with the complete or the knowledge of his will and All spiritual wisdom and understanding that's the petition.

That's it. He just prayed that they would be the word is to be under the dominating influence of the will of God. That word play Rao same thing to be filled with the Spirit is just be under the complete dominating control of the revealed will of God the will of God that we are to know and live by and The purpose comes next So that As to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him when people say I want to know the will of God.

Why? Why do you want to know what God's will is? It ought to be so that you can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And what does that look like. Well, he uses numerous expressions here there he paints it like a portrait.

Several key things of what your life will look like if you are under the influence of God's revealed will. And walking that way on a daily basis. He says first you will be bearing fruit in every good work.

Secondly you'll be increasing in the knowledge of God. Third You'll be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might and In two ways, you'll be strengthened. You'll be strengthened and very difficult Trials that would be the endurance and Patience that's usually with people.

So you'll grow stronger and stronger and you'll do all of that with joy and You will be giving. Thanks. You're gonna be much more thankful person. To the father who is qualified you to share in the inheritance of the Saints in light.

And this, you know really gets to the gospel here. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. And whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins and then it goes into a whole treatise on the preeminence of Christ.

That was Paul's prayer and it wasn't just Paul if you have your you're right there in Colossians look at chapter 4 and You'll see one of the members of the class the Colossae Church Epaphras in chapter 4 verse 12.

It says Epaphras Who is one of you a servant of Christ Jesus greet you. He's always struggling on your behalf in his prayers. Now, what's he praying? That you may stand mature and fully assured in what all the will of God.

You know Ephesians 5 tells us and that we are not to be foolish but understand what the will of God is. We go through the importance of the topic in our daily lives it is just all day long we're making decisions and Within scripture very important that we walk according to his word and you even find the Apostle Paul and others Timothy papyrus, they're praying that God's people would walk according to his revealed will now some key definitions a Lot of you know this so this is not a in-depth Lesson here on the decreed will of God or his preceptive will.

When you get into his decreed of will you are talking about his will of purpose or Sometimes known as his sovereign will or his secret plan. That he has predetermined. He works everything according to it and Ephesians 111.

This is his sovereign secret plan. The only way, you know, his decreed of will is by looking backwards. Everything that's happened is has been his sovereign decreed. Will you cannot know this ahead of time unless it's revealed in scripture in the form of prophecy.

You just don't know what God's decreed will is a minute from now in your life. You don't know. You don't know if the Lord is going to return you're gonna he's gonna take you home. You do not know what next the next minute holds.

That's secret. It belongs to God. This is the Deuteronomy 29 29 the secret things belong to the the Lord and Where you find him carrying this out is in his Providence. His Providence is a secret unfolding out of his sovereign will.

You may say I think I know what the Lord's up to. Probably not. I Mean how many times have you tried to read what God is up to and you were wrong? And the only way you know his Providence is look backwards and just see how he orchestrated everything that occurred.

It's interesting. I know God's decreed will for your life right now that you're here in this church. And I know providentially He brought you here because you're here. I don't know the future but I can look backward and just just be in awe of of his sovereign decreed plan and all of our lives.

That's the will he is responsible for he takes care of that it runs perfectly. Then you move into another aspect of his will. Called his preceptive will sometimes known as his moral will sometimes known as his revealed will.

It's the Bible. This is what God holds us responsible for. This is either going to come to us through direct commands or through principles. That's how he's going to guide us. That is what he wants us to know.

He wants us to know his his commands and his principles. They will be a lamp Unto our feet and a light unto our path. God's preceptive will Biblical principles. You also get involved in the area of wisdom.

Which is knowledge the knowledge of God applied To your life For the glory of God. That's wisdom. It's not just knowledge. It's knowledge applied to your life for the glory of God. That's when you pray for wisdom.

You just shouldn't sit there. You should be reading and thinking of God's Word. Lord now help me to know how to apply your word to my life for your glory. You think of that in James 1 when you're in trials and It's not mystical.

I Came across an excellent Work by RB Kuiper. RB Kuiper, I think he taught at Princeton back in the old days and He he calls Mysticism he says the essence of mysticism is to separate the operation of the Holy Spirit From God's objective word.

Now think about this. The essence of mysticism is to separate the Holy Spirit from his objective word. This permeates churches in America a People saying well, you know the Lord told me What what passage?

Oh, I'm not talking about the Bible. Oh. It's it's the black of the approach it's the. It's more and more. I mean, I'm finding it in all kinds of authors very popular speakers are all talking that way that God's talking with them on an ongoing basis like back in the Old Testament and They're separating the operation of the Holy Spirit from God's objective word.

And I think. But not just me. It's a it is very dangerous and two things. To remember there is no way to prove it was God. That's number one. Once you leave the scriptures, there's no way to prove it was God.

So well, it was definitely God. There's no way to prove it. What was that still small voice that doesn't prove anything. So you can't prove it that it was God once you leave the pages of Scripture number two.

There is no safeguard from error. Once you leave the pages of Scripture. There's no safeguard once you leave Scripture. I mean You you are in a minefield. Before long, I think God told me this and I think God, you know wants once you all to take, you know.

Several offerings today. I mean you watch these TV people and the things they tell them. And they violate Scripture and then they say well God told me. You know a guy's marriage is in shambles a well-known person down in Atlanta his marriage is in shambles and they.

They said, you know. You really should step down out of leadership and he's he comes back the next week and says, you know God told me that I should stay here as a pastor. And they went okay violating the objective word for some experience.

The Apostle Peter said we saw Jesus transfigured. We touched him. We walked with him and then he says down and at the end there in verses 20 and 20. We said but we have something more sure. More sure than our experience is up there and that is the prophetic Word of God.

It's more sure than any experience you've ever had. So our confidence must be in the word. So be careful of this keep with the the Word of God. Some presuppositions you don't need to write all of these down.

I just want to run through them very quickly. Some things you probably already there. But we don't need to know God's decreed will that's up to God. God is going to take care of that. He probably providentially will bring it all to pass.

His plan he starts it. He'll finish it. He declares the end from the beginning in Isaiah 46. The Holy Spirit's role is to convict teach and conform us all into Christ likeness through the vehicle of the Word of God.

Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. You can abbreviate some of these if you you'd like or I can just leave this. These slides. God only guides or leads his people today by by Providence or by Scripture.

Providence that's his decreed will. Scripture that is our responsibility to study it carefully and obey it. So you see, okay, he's in he's responsible for his decreed will and his Providence. I'm responsible for his revealed will and to obey it by the help of the Spirit.

God is a very gracious God Who has provided everything we know everything we need in order to do what he wants us to do. Everything provided for salvation and sanctification. Excuse me through the knowledge of his son Jesus Christ.

And God through Christ has given us his everything we need. God holds us fully responsible to search out and follow his preceptive will in all of life. We'll be judged by that. It won't be well, you didn't hear me speak to you softly.

You missed that at three o 'clock in the afternoon when you were brushing your teeth, I mean you missed this you missed that. No. You know when I think of the Lord and here are his children us. Who say Lord, I really want to please you today.

What would it be like if if my son at the time I mean now he's 21, but let's say he was 10 and he comes in he says hey dad I'd really like to please you today. I said what if I said well. Do something guess what it is.

Guess what? I would like for you to do today. Well dad. Do you want me to do this? Huh? Just guess just you know try it. So he goes out maybe mows the yard comes in missed it. You know dad. You want me to sweep the garage?

I don't know. Just see if you can find out what it is. It cleans out the garage. Nope that wasn't it. What kind of parent would that be. And. Yet we think of God that way you know people. I really want to know what you you want.

But you don't speak you know and I'm here guessing. The Lord says no, that's why I like dr. MacArthur's a little book. You know found God's will. It's not lost. You don't have to discover it read it. You know it's right here you have to go find it just read it study it obey it.

And God holds us fully responsible to do that if we make decisions based on biblical commands and principles. Which is called faith by the way walking by faith? We can fully trust that we are pleasing God in our decision and fully trust that he will providentially by circumstances out of our control.

He'll just change our choice. He'll change our steps. Proverbs 16 9 a man's heart plans his way, but God redirects his steps. God is sovereign. And I didn't read on in that passage and 1st Samuel 23 when David Saul was going after David.

And I don't know if you remember this, but they were on both sides of the mountain. David and his soldiers were on one side. Saul and his soldiers were on the other and Saul was catching up and I mean they were coming to the place where Saul was going to attack him and.

And in God's providence oh the Philistines someone comes a messenger and says oh the Philistines are attacking and Saul right there ready to pounce on David. Had to uproot and go back up and fight the Philistines.

God will protect he will oversee. Just we need to be responsible with the word. We need to help those who are married help our wives with this as well. I don't want to be careful how I say this that comes out, right?

Many men. Many men good. I mean just solid men even in church history. When you find them sometimes veer off to the right or to the left. If you study close enough you'll usually find their wife. Getting into something and pulls her husband with her.

It's it's you can almost look down and see different people and say they're so solid here. Why are they going in that? Get to know their wife and probably that's the reason women tend to be More feeling oriented and.

The emotions will lead them and they tend to be now this is a general sweep here. Not not so concerned about doctrine and it behooves us as men. And I'm not saying all women are like that. You probably saying well, you don't know my wife.

Well, she is just as solid great praise God for that. Well across the board. You look at a lot of the women's books and they are as they're an inch deep and a mile wide and. As men. This is an area we need to lead them we need to excel in this grow in doctrine and teach our wives.

My wife and I we have the best talks because she's so doctrine oriented. She can't even sing certain songs because you know, it's not theologically correct and she won't sing it. I'm going out now. That's someone who's thinking Praise God for that.

So this is a time to rightly interpret and apply the Word of God. We must use a prayerful literal historical. Contextual grammatical math. That's a long thing. But you're used to hearing that a careful way of studying God's Word not this yank out Luke 4 7 and claim it for the day.

No one is ever outside of God's decreed plan. There's no Catastrophe or anything that takes the Lord by surprise. Always the remote cause. Every believer I think needs pastoral oversight. Needs people in their lives to try to help them especially on the more weightier decisions.

But they just don't lean on their own understanding or say this. I think this is right the weightier the decision. The more we ought to seek some brotherly counsel. Principles what principles in Scripture would help us.

The insistence of Jesus in the Old Testament writers was never on the importance of discovering the will of God. They weren't trying to discover it. It was always upon the necessity of doing it. It was if they took for granted that we would know what we were supposed to do the battle for us.

Seems to be in the diligent study of it the application of it and with proper motivation. I Just find. Many people are just slothful. They they're just lazy. They don't want to do the hard work of looking at biblical commands and principles on decisions.

They have to make JC Ryle the pastor in the 1800s in England. Writes the Bible must be our standard. Whenever we are confronted with a question about Christian practice, we must apply the teaching of the Bible.

Sometimes the Bible will deal with it directly. I Left Roadmap, sometimes the Lord's Word is very specific on what to do a Brother sins. What are you supposed to do go to him? What if he doesn't listen take something else with you?

You know very specific then it says here. Often though the Bible will not deal with it directly and then we must look for general principles. Think of a compass. It give you a direction to go in he says it does not matter what other people think their behavior is not our standard.

The Bible is a standard for us. It's by the Bible. We must live. Well, I'm looking at the time I want to get through how not to make decisions. And then we'll take a break don't make any decisions during the break just Just.

But these are principles you all are familiar with again. Taken out of Dr. MacArthur's book how to get the most of God's Word. Very common in the area of what's called hermeneutics just Bible study methods.

Take it as literally where you can and then you look at the different genres of Scripture. But the literal principle the historical principle what what? What was going on back then as best as we know do some Bible study on that the grammatical principle now?

You're getting into the words and their meaning and how they're put together. Then the correlational or synthesis principle don't just take something out of one portion. One other portion seemed to contradict it so whatever your you think is being taught there it has to correlate since there's only one divine author and He doesn't contradict himself, and he doesn't stutter.

So when he speaks it all correlates the synthesis principle and then the practical principle. So what the Bible isn't just for knowledge is for knowledge applied. So it has to be how do I all theology is practical, so how do I live this out?

These are different Areas is taken from Rick Holland has done some work on this on Trying to look at the different structures and be careful when you're in some points to consider. Try to understand each section of Scripture when you're pulling verses out and counseling from it.

Be sure the linguistic studying the grammar syntax. There's some really good helpful tools out there. And I think of one particular when I came across it was a prophet at the master seminary Dr. James Roscoe who wrote this pamphlet on the dangers of word studies.

I mean people will take a look at a word, and they'll make it mean you know all kinds of things. The amplified Bible version type. You know they'll see all this word could mean six things. I like that I like that meaning that really goes with what I want for this passage.

Well. You're going to be more careful than that. What was it? How was it used at that particular time maybe by the same author in the same context? So context context context. The whole Bible. There's another point of biblical history in that the whole Bible is for us, but the whole Bible is not to us and so it's important to.

Look, who is it? Who are they talking to and is that? Universally applied through all of time for God's children and. Each type of Scripture has its own set of rules especially when you're getting into prophecy.

I mean wherever you can take it literally take it literally, but Song of Solomon, I mean you're going to have to say that and there's some allegorical that there's some Figurative I should say speech here.

I can't just take that literally what's going on in the song of Solomon. I mean there are other things are going on here, so in the proper genre. Use the proper rules of interpretation now. I'm going to go through some ways to not Be very cautious of these some of them.

Just don't do them. Other ways be very cautious of these. I think they're listed in your notes misusing the Bible. Luke 4 7. Do I need to say any more? Don't don't just hunt and peck and open up the Bible and just Point your finger and look for some sort of guidance that way.

Oh. That happens so often probably the most common error personal advice. Advice can be helpful. But one of Jesus closest men advised him and advised him wrongly. Peter. Right you're not going up to Jerusalem.

And then the thing you don't want to ever hear or see is see Jesus look at you and say get thee behind me Satan. Personal advice is as good as its biblical. You can have a lot of godly people counsel wrongly or advise wrongly.