The extent of God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom is a question that pretty much everyone contemplates at some point. For us as Christians, it is a riddle that we probably bat around in our minds regularly. We want to know, how sovereign is God and how does it relate to our free will. Do we even have a free will?
When we look at the Bible we find that there is a resounding (and maybe even confusing) “yes.” If we ask the Bible, “Is God sovereign?” The answer is an emphatic “Yes, absolutely.” We may even follow up by asking, “How sovereign is He?” And, as we’ll see from our text today, the answer is “He is completely sovereign. He controls every minute detail of creation.”
But we will automatically retort: Don’t mess with my free will! We’ll want to say that if God is completely sovereign, then that must mean that we are nothing but robotic automatons, right? But we don’t want to say that. We want to say we have a free will.
So the question becomes, what does the Bible say about our free will? And the answer is yes. Yes, we have a free will. The Bible shows us that God has granted us a free will. He has created us in such a way as to allow us the liberty to choose and act as free persons.
And that too is shown in our passage this morning. It may sound a little crazy, and we should be willing to admit that we cannot understand it fully. There is a sense in which it is a mystery. But both are laid out in Scripture and there is no attempts to reconcile the two as if they are contradictory.
So this morning, we are going to try and sort through this little riddle as much as we can. And we are going to look at two basic points.
I. Concurrence
The first thing I want us to look at his what we call “concurrence.” Concurrence is a fancy word that means “flowing together.” A current is a river that flows. The prefix “con” means “with.” Put them together and you have a flowing together. When you concur with someone, you agree with them. Your ideas flow together.
So, when we talk about the doctrine of concurrence, we are talking about the flowing together of God’s sovereign decree and man’s free actions. Everything that happens is 100% due to God and 100% due to man.
First look at verse 1. It says “The plans of the heart belong to men, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”
Now, if you have a different translation, you might have something slightly different. And the Hebrew is a little difficult here. Literally the Hebrew says, “To man the plans of the heart.” In other words, man has plans. He has plans that he is making. He is exercising his free choice as he seeks to work out what he is going to say and where he is going to go. There is a future ahead and he’s seeking to use his God given free will to determine how he ought to proceed.
But the second part of this proverb says that “the answer of his tongue is from the Lord.” So man plans what he is going to say, but what comes out of his mouth is specifically ordained of God. God makes him speak what He wanted this person to speak.
So you say, “So God caused him to say something he didn’t want to say?” No. He’s not a like a little puppet or experiencing some psychological trauma of God making him say something against his will. Instead of seeing these two things as in opposition to each other, you should see them as two items that are uniquely joined together: The person plans it. It developed within his own brain. His mouth moved on its own accord and voiced the exact words that he had conjured up. But the thing that came out was exactly what God wanted. We can even say that the answer he gave was God’s answer.
Now, again, the Hebrew is a little difficult here. And that’s why you may have something different in your version. But don’t think that I’m trying to build my case on the basis of one obscure verse who’s translation is a little controversial. We don’t do that. We know that Scripture has to be interpreted by Scripture. And all we have to do is skip down to verse 9 and we see almost the exact same thing.
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Everything is pretty much the same. The only difference is that instead of talking about your speech, its talking about your steps—your course of life.
This message may be too much for you. You might think that it’s a bunch of bunk and you decide that you’re going to get up and walk right on out of here. I say go right ahead. You do it, and God will establish your steps. But now that I said that you’re going to say, “Well, I’m not going to move an inch.” That’s fine. God’s going to establish you right there in that chair.
The word establish means to “fix in its place” or “securely determine.” You might fix a picture of your family securely on your wall in your home. That’s what God does when it comes to the actions of all his creatures. He ordains it. He determines it. He fixes them in their place. And it is so secure that it cannot be otherwise.
But you’ll say, “See, that’s God overruling and infringing on the free will of man.” No it is not. The verse says that the man makes these plans in his heart. It is all his own doing. God did not make him make those plans. They were his own free thoughts and acts.
So you see, that is concurrence. It is the flowing together of God’s sovereignty and our freedom. All of what we do and all of what God does are mingled together in some mysterious, wonderful design.
Now, I hope you understand this, because what I’m going to say next may be a little more difficult. These two verses show that God is operating concurrently with man’s actions.
But the question arises, “what about evil?” When it comes to the sinful actions of man, is God operating concursively then? And the answer to that question is yes.
II. Man’s Freedom to do Evil
If we take verse 1 and verse 9 and think about how man plans sinful actions (like a premeditated murder), is God ordering those actions too? The answer is a qualified yes.
But you hear this all the time. If there was a school shooting or a terrorist bombing that kills 10-20 people and severely wounds many others, you’ll hear people say, “Where was God in all this?” And the answer is that he was right there.
Now, let’s add the qualification: Is God the author of evil? Absolutely not. God is holy and he cannot instigate people to do something evil. We have to recognize that the full responsibility of wicked actions is all on man. Man’s sinful nature impels and drives the evil. As the passage says, the plans of the heart are man’s. The premeditated murder was completely the result of the evil thought process of a depraved man.
Look at verse 5. Here is a verse that highlight’s man’s freedom and his being the source of evil. Verse 5 says, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord, be assured, he will not go unpunished.”
Where is the evil? It’s in man’s arrogant heart. It is because of his pride. It flows out of the deep, dark, ugly recesses of the soul of man. And God’s so holy and so repulsed by his wickedness that he must punish it.
This is where we can qualify what man’s freedom means. Does man have the freedom to choose to do good? We can say yes. He has the liberty. But we are going to acknowledge that he doesn’t have the ability. Being a sinner, he’s going to choose what is in accord with his nature, isn’t he?
For instance, can a fish choose to fly? No, of course not. Why not? It’s because he’s a fish (and fish don’t fly. Fish swim). A fish will always choose what is in accord with his nature.
That’s the way it is with sinful men. Men always choose in accord with their nature. If you are a sinner, what will you choose? Something that is sinful or something that is holy and good? The answer is obvious.
So there’s man’s free will. It is free, but it is in bondage. It is free to choose good or evil, but—because the heart is proud, and lifted up against God--it lends itself to sin.
But does that mean that God is not in control of their actions. Not at all. God’s still active and working in and through it. Wicked people are still very much part of God’s plan. Their actions are still part of God’s good purposes. God, though he cannot sin himself (or be the primary cause of sin), still is sovereign over it and He guides and directs it for His divine ends.
As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what verse 4 communicates. It says, “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” God has made everything. He controls everything. He has a purpose for everything. He is governing each thing in his mysterious way so that it advances and achieves His divine plan. And when we say everything, we mean everything. Even wicked people.
You know wicked people have a purpose. We might say they have a twofold purpose. Maybe more reasons in God’s plan, but at least two. Their first purpose in this world is to build the church. The evils that they do will only cause more people to be brought into the church and help to build godly character among those who are Christians.
Last week I shared about the church in Iraq and how it is growing by leaps and bounds. Maybe you read about it in this week’s newsletter. In the 1970’s the Muslims outlawed Christianity and started to purge the land of it. But all the violence and bloodshed has only caused the Iraqi people to become more and more disenfranchised with Islam. And as a result, people have become open to reading Bibles and listening to the gospel.
There you see God as sovereign over the sinful actions of men, using it for his glory and purpose.
We also know that sinful actions become our trials. And these trials are the very items God uses to develop greater Christian maturity. “Consider it all joy when you face trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
So wicked people are on this earth for the purpose of building up the church of Jesus Christ. But as this verse says, God’s got another purpose. They are destined to be condemned by God. “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.”
III. Reprobation & Election
This is the side of God’s sovereignty that a lot of people don’t like to talk about. It is what we call the doctrine of reprobation. God not only decides who will be saved, he determines who will be damned as well. This verse is saying that God specifically creates wicked people so that he may judge them when Christ comes again.
Now, this too is not built on one obscure verse. There are a number of references for this in the Bible. Let me point out one. In the book of Romans Paul talks about God’s sovereignty in election. He anticipates a question that the people would ask and he says, “If God is in complete control, why does he find fault? Who can resist his will?” And Paul says, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” And then he gives the illustration of the potter and the vessel of clay. He says doesn’t the potter have the right to create one piece for honor and one for dishonor?
If you created a vase, you have the right to do with it as you please, right? You can set it up in your house on a pedestal so that everyone can look at it. Or you can throw it down on the ground and smash it to pieces with a baseball bat, can’t you?
Paul says, “God has that authority with his creatures.” When it comes to men, God may save them or he may damn them. Either way, he is glorified in it. One shows the wonder of his grace, the other displays the rightness of his justice.
This, of course, brings up the question of free will. What can we say about it? Well, we can ask, “What do sinful men naturally incline towards?” What do sinners freely choose? They choose sin. They choose what is in defiance to God.
That’s what verse 2 is getting at, isn’t it? “All the ways of man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.” Man thinks he’s pretty good, but what’s really going on inside of him? How good of a person is he? When the heart is weighed in the balances of God it is found to be anything but good.
So what does man freely choose? He chooses what is in accord with his nature. He chooses sin because he is a sinner. This is why men are reprobates. It isn’t like God is forcing them to do evil. They willingly choose to sin and bring judgment upon themselves.
This is why we say that the only time God overcomes someone’s will and makes them do what they do not naturally want to do is when he saves them. And thank God for that. God in his grace changes our hearts and he changes our wills, causing us to be born again. He enlivens us and, in so doing, makes us willing and able to obey him from the heart.
So when it comes to the question of did I choose God or did God choose me, the answer is yes. You freely and willingly chose to follow Christ. But it was only after the work of God’s grace. God changed your heart and made you able.
Remember I said you had the liberty but not the ability to do good? After your being born again by God’s Spirit, you now have the ability.
That’s the doctrine of Irresistible grace. What happens is that God, in his grace, changes our wills and makes us inclined to love, honor, and serve him from the heart.
You find this right in our text too. Its right there in verse 6. It says, “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.” How does one turn away from evil? It is by the fear of the Lord. Where does the fear of the Lord come from? It comes from God. It comes from his steadfast love (hesed, mercy, grace) and faithfulness. There is no other way to be saved than by God’s sovereign grace.
There’s a reason why verse 6 follows verses 2-5. Verses 2-5 show man’s inclination to sin and judgment. But verse 6 is placed here to remind us of God’s divine intervention. It is here to say that just as God is sovereign in the damnation of sinners, he is sovereign in the salvation of sinners—people who do not in the least bit deserve even the smallest token of his benevolence.
Well that is the doctrine of God’s sovereignty as it relates to man’s freedom. You see there is only one instance of man’s freedom being violated. And that is in his being converted. Every other moment God acts and man acts.
But we got to talk about our response to this doctrine. If we agree that God is sovereign and man has a free will, how then are we to respond? What ought we to do with our free will? The answer is found in verse 3. It says “Commit your way to the Lord.”
IV. Man’s freedom best employed in submssn to God’s sovereign will.
The proper response to God’s sovereignty is to commit to God—commit to following God, to seeking his kingdom, to obeying his law, to seeking his will. And what’s going to happen when you do this?
The second half of the verse tells us. It says “he will establish your plans.” It is the same word we saw in verse 9. God will firmly fix your ways and he will sovereignly direct your steps so that you walk in that way and come to abide in his will.
So you see the interplay here: If you submit to God and employ your free will in the service of Him, He will start working on your behalf. As you work out your salvation, He will work in you what is good and holy.
The promise in the NT is “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things (the things pertaining to your life, like food and clothing)—all these things will be added unto you. The message is, if you employ your free will in service to God and commit to His way, God will take care of you.
You know what will happen then? You’ll find that you start to enjoy more peace in your life. Look at verse 7. It says, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” If you commit your way to the Lord, you’re going to find that there’s a lot less drama in your life. The people who hate you the most will at least tolerate you (if not turn all the way around and become your friend).
In other words, God will make even your worst relationships more amiable. That’s God’s sovereignty working on your behalf.
When we look at the Bible we find that there is a resounding (and maybe even confusing) “yes.” If we ask the Bible, “Is God sovereign?” The answer is an emphatic “Yes, absolutely.” We may even follow up by asking, “How sovereign is He?” And, as we’ll see from our text today, the answer is “He is completely sovereign. He controls every minute detail of creation.”
But we will automatically retort: Don’t mess with my free will! We’ll want to say that if God is completely sovereign, then that must mean that we are nothing but robotic automatons, right? But we don’t want to say that. We want to say we have a free will.
So the question becomes, what does the Bible say about our free will? And the answer is yes. Yes, we have a free will. The Bible shows us that God has granted us a free will. He has created us in such a way as to allow us the liberty to choose and act as free persons.
And that too is shown in our passage this morning. It may sound a little crazy, and we should be willing to admit that we cannot understand it fully. There is a sense in which it is a mystery. But both are laid out in Scripture and there is no attempts to reconcile the two as if they are contradictory.
So this morning, we are going to try and sort through this little riddle as much as we can. And we are going to look at two basic points.
- God’s sovereignty and man’s freedom are two realities which are in full accord with each other, neither conflicting nor making the other somehow limited or obsolete.
- Man’s freedom is best employed when it is put in submission to the sovereignty of God’s will.
I. Concurrence
The first thing I want us to look at his what we call “concurrence.” Concurrence is a fancy word that means “flowing together.” A current is a river that flows. The prefix “con” means “with.” Put them together and you have a flowing together. When you concur with someone, you agree with them. Your ideas flow together.
So, when we talk about the doctrine of concurrence, we are talking about the flowing together of God’s sovereign decree and man’s free actions. Everything that happens is 100% due to God and 100% due to man.
First look at verse 1. It says “The plans of the heart belong to men, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”
Now, if you have a different translation, you might have something slightly different. And the Hebrew is a little difficult here. Literally the Hebrew says, “To man the plans of the heart.” In other words, man has plans. He has plans that he is making. He is exercising his free choice as he seeks to work out what he is going to say and where he is going to go. There is a future ahead and he’s seeking to use his God given free will to determine how he ought to proceed.
But the second part of this proverb says that “the answer of his tongue is from the Lord.” So man plans what he is going to say, but what comes out of his mouth is specifically ordained of God. God makes him speak what He wanted this person to speak.
So you say, “So God caused him to say something he didn’t want to say?” No. He’s not a like a little puppet or experiencing some psychological trauma of God making him say something against his will. Instead of seeing these two things as in opposition to each other, you should see them as two items that are uniquely joined together: The person plans it. It developed within his own brain. His mouth moved on its own accord and voiced the exact words that he had conjured up. But the thing that came out was exactly what God wanted. We can even say that the answer he gave was God’s answer.
Now, again, the Hebrew is a little difficult here. And that’s why you may have something different in your version. But don’t think that I’m trying to build my case on the basis of one obscure verse who’s translation is a little controversial. We don’t do that. We know that Scripture has to be interpreted by Scripture. And all we have to do is skip down to verse 9 and we see almost the exact same thing.
“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Everything is pretty much the same. The only difference is that instead of talking about your speech, its talking about your steps—your course of life.
This message may be too much for you. You might think that it’s a bunch of bunk and you decide that you’re going to get up and walk right on out of here. I say go right ahead. You do it, and God will establish your steps. But now that I said that you’re going to say, “Well, I’m not going to move an inch.” That’s fine. God’s going to establish you right there in that chair.
The word establish means to “fix in its place” or “securely determine.” You might fix a picture of your family securely on your wall in your home. That’s what God does when it comes to the actions of all his creatures. He ordains it. He determines it. He fixes them in their place. And it is so secure that it cannot be otherwise.
But you’ll say, “See, that’s God overruling and infringing on the free will of man.” No it is not. The verse says that the man makes these plans in his heart. It is all his own doing. God did not make him make those plans. They were his own free thoughts and acts.
So you see, that is concurrence. It is the flowing together of God’s sovereignty and our freedom. All of what we do and all of what God does are mingled together in some mysterious, wonderful design.
Now, I hope you understand this, because what I’m going to say next may be a little more difficult. These two verses show that God is operating concurrently with man’s actions.
But the question arises, “what about evil?” When it comes to the sinful actions of man, is God operating concursively then? And the answer to that question is yes.
II. Man’s Freedom to do Evil
If we take verse 1 and verse 9 and think about how man plans sinful actions (like a premeditated murder), is God ordering those actions too? The answer is a qualified yes.
But you hear this all the time. If there was a school shooting or a terrorist bombing that kills 10-20 people and severely wounds many others, you’ll hear people say, “Where was God in all this?” And the answer is that he was right there.
Now, let’s add the qualification: Is God the author of evil? Absolutely not. God is holy and he cannot instigate people to do something evil. We have to recognize that the full responsibility of wicked actions is all on man. Man’s sinful nature impels and drives the evil. As the passage says, the plans of the heart are man’s. The premeditated murder was completely the result of the evil thought process of a depraved man.
Look at verse 5. Here is a verse that highlight’s man’s freedom and his being the source of evil. Verse 5 says, “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord, be assured, he will not go unpunished.”
Where is the evil? It’s in man’s arrogant heart. It is because of his pride. It flows out of the deep, dark, ugly recesses of the soul of man. And God’s so holy and so repulsed by his wickedness that he must punish it.
This is where we can qualify what man’s freedom means. Does man have the freedom to choose to do good? We can say yes. He has the liberty. But we are going to acknowledge that he doesn’t have the ability. Being a sinner, he’s going to choose what is in accord with his nature, isn’t he?
For instance, can a fish choose to fly? No, of course not. Why not? It’s because he’s a fish (and fish don’t fly. Fish swim). A fish will always choose what is in accord with his nature.
That’s the way it is with sinful men. Men always choose in accord with their nature. If you are a sinner, what will you choose? Something that is sinful or something that is holy and good? The answer is obvious.
So there’s man’s free will. It is free, but it is in bondage. It is free to choose good or evil, but—because the heart is proud, and lifted up against God--it lends itself to sin.
But does that mean that God is not in control of their actions. Not at all. God’s still active and working in and through it. Wicked people are still very much part of God’s plan. Their actions are still part of God’s good purposes. God, though he cannot sin himself (or be the primary cause of sin), still is sovereign over it and He guides and directs it for His divine ends.
As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what verse 4 communicates. It says, “The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.” God has made everything. He controls everything. He has a purpose for everything. He is governing each thing in his mysterious way so that it advances and achieves His divine plan. And when we say everything, we mean everything. Even wicked people.
You know wicked people have a purpose. We might say they have a twofold purpose. Maybe more reasons in God’s plan, but at least two. Their first purpose in this world is to build the church. The evils that they do will only cause more people to be brought into the church and help to build godly character among those who are Christians.
Last week I shared about the church in Iraq and how it is growing by leaps and bounds. Maybe you read about it in this week’s newsletter. In the 1970’s the Muslims outlawed Christianity and started to purge the land of it. But all the violence and bloodshed has only caused the Iraqi people to become more and more disenfranchised with Islam. And as a result, people have become open to reading Bibles and listening to the gospel.
There you see God as sovereign over the sinful actions of men, using it for his glory and purpose.
We also know that sinful actions become our trials. And these trials are the very items God uses to develop greater Christian maturity. “Consider it all joy when you face trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
So wicked people are on this earth for the purpose of building up the church of Jesus Christ. But as this verse says, God’s got another purpose. They are destined to be condemned by God. “The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.”
III. Reprobation & Election
This is the side of God’s sovereignty that a lot of people don’t like to talk about. It is what we call the doctrine of reprobation. God not only decides who will be saved, he determines who will be damned as well. This verse is saying that God specifically creates wicked people so that he may judge them when Christ comes again.
Now, this too is not built on one obscure verse. There are a number of references for this in the Bible. Let me point out one. In the book of Romans Paul talks about God’s sovereignty in election. He anticipates a question that the people would ask and he says, “If God is in complete control, why does he find fault? Who can resist his will?” And Paul says, “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God?” And then he gives the illustration of the potter and the vessel of clay. He says doesn’t the potter have the right to create one piece for honor and one for dishonor?
If you created a vase, you have the right to do with it as you please, right? You can set it up in your house on a pedestal so that everyone can look at it. Or you can throw it down on the ground and smash it to pieces with a baseball bat, can’t you?
Paul says, “God has that authority with his creatures.” When it comes to men, God may save them or he may damn them. Either way, he is glorified in it. One shows the wonder of his grace, the other displays the rightness of his justice.
This, of course, brings up the question of free will. What can we say about it? Well, we can ask, “What do sinful men naturally incline towards?” What do sinners freely choose? They choose sin. They choose what is in defiance to God.
That’s what verse 2 is getting at, isn’t it? “All the ways of man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.” Man thinks he’s pretty good, but what’s really going on inside of him? How good of a person is he? When the heart is weighed in the balances of God it is found to be anything but good.
So what does man freely choose? He chooses what is in accord with his nature. He chooses sin because he is a sinner. This is why men are reprobates. It isn’t like God is forcing them to do evil. They willingly choose to sin and bring judgment upon themselves.
This is why we say that the only time God overcomes someone’s will and makes them do what they do not naturally want to do is when he saves them. And thank God for that. God in his grace changes our hearts and he changes our wills, causing us to be born again. He enlivens us and, in so doing, makes us willing and able to obey him from the heart.
So when it comes to the question of did I choose God or did God choose me, the answer is yes. You freely and willingly chose to follow Christ. But it was only after the work of God’s grace. God changed your heart and made you able.
Remember I said you had the liberty but not the ability to do good? After your being born again by God’s Spirit, you now have the ability.
That’s the doctrine of Irresistible grace. What happens is that God, in his grace, changes our wills and makes us inclined to love, honor, and serve him from the heart.
You find this right in our text too. Its right there in verse 6. It says, “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.” How does one turn away from evil? It is by the fear of the Lord. Where does the fear of the Lord come from? It comes from God. It comes from his steadfast love (hesed, mercy, grace) and faithfulness. There is no other way to be saved than by God’s sovereign grace.
There’s a reason why verse 6 follows verses 2-5. Verses 2-5 show man’s inclination to sin and judgment. But verse 6 is placed here to remind us of God’s divine intervention. It is here to say that just as God is sovereign in the damnation of sinners, he is sovereign in the salvation of sinners—people who do not in the least bit deserve even the smallest token of his benevolence.
Well that is the doctrine of God’s sovereignty as it relates to man’s freedom. You see there is only one instance of man’s freedom being violated. And that is in his being converted. Every other moment God acts and man acts.
But we got to talk about our response to this doctrine. If we agree that God is sovereign and man has a free will, how then are we to respond? What ought we to do with our free will? The answer is found in verse 3. It says “Commit your way to the Lord.”
IV. Man’s freedom best employed in submssn to God’s sovereign will.
The proper response to God’s sovereignty is to commit to God—commit to following God, to seeking his kingdom, to obeying his law, to seeking his will. And what’s going to happen when you do this?
The second half of the verse tells us. It says “he will establish your plans.” It is the same word we saw in verse 9. God will firmly fix your ways and he will sovereignly direct your steps so that you walk in that way and come to abide in his will.
So you see the interplay here: If you submit to God and employ your free will in the service of Him, He will start working on your behalf. As you work out your salvation, He will work in you what is good and holy.
The promise in the NT is “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things (the things pertaining to your life, like food and clothing)—all these things will be added unto you. The message is, if you employ your free will in service to God and commit to His way, God will take care of you.
You know what will happen then? You’ll find that you start to enjoy more peace in your life. Look at verse 7. It says, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.” If you commit your way to the Lord, you’re going to find that there’s a lot less drama in your life. The people who hate you the most will at least tolerate you (if not turn all the way around and become your friend).
In other words, God will make even your worst relationships more amiable. That’s God’s sovereignty working on your behalf.