Is it possible to know God’s will for your life? Today, R.C. Sproul helps us understand the important distinction between the revealed will and hidden will of God. Receive R.C. Sproul’s book Everyone’s a Theologian, his 60-message teaching series Foundations: An Overview of Systematic Theology as a special-edition DVD collection, and lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, all for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3887/donate Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Have you ever wondered what God's will for your life is? The only way you're going to know the hidden will of God for you today is to wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow will make clear to you what the hidden will of God was for you today.
When we find ourselves in difficult situations, we sometimes cry out with a little bit of panic, what should I do now? And we wish that God would just answer us. But when we consider the will of God, we need to make a distinction between God's revealed will and His hidden will. These kind of distinctions are vital, and that's why this week's series can be so beneficial.
It's a 60-message overview of systematic theology to help you know what you believe, why you believe it, how to live it, and how to share it. Don't forget that you can own this series on a special DVD set and receive R.C. Sproul's book, Everyone's a Theologian. And you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org.
And I'll tell you more about this resource offer at the end of today's message. Well, here's Dr. Sproul on the will of God.
Several years ago, we had a radio program, a little five-minute vignette entitled Ask in which the whole format was of my answering questions that people wrote in or called in during the taping of this program. And we kept track of the questions that people asked, and the number one question that we heard more often than any other was the question, how can I know the will of God for my life?
So, obviously, people who are earnest in their Christian faith and who understand that God is sovereign and who want to live a life in obedience to Him want to know what it is that God wants them to do.
And when people ask me that question, I usually go into a lengthy discourse on the various meanings of the term will of God in Scripture, and they say, when you want to know what God's will is, I want to know what will are you talking about. But before I go into those things, let me turn your attention to a statement that we find in the book of Deuteronomy. the 29th chapter, verse 29.
And this is a text that I think we all need to be aware of, particularly when we're struggling over this question of the will of God for our lives. It reads as follows, "'The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this law. Now, where this is found in Scripture is very important.
The book of Deuteronomy is the second book of the law, as it were, and there has been now a recapitulation of the entire law that has been delivered by Moses from God to the people. And at the conclusion of this account of the giving of the law, we find this text that makes a distinction between the hidden will of God and the revealed will of God. And let's take a moment on those.
The Reformers, Luther in particular, talked about the difference between what was called the deus absconditus... and the deus Now, we've already talked about this in another perspective, saying with regard to our limits of our knowledge of God that we don't have a comprehensive knowledge of God.
We talked about the incomprehensibility of God, saying that God has not revealed to us everything that could possibly be known about Him or about His intentions for the world. And so that which we recall is unrevealed, the hiddenness of God is called the deus absconditus, that which God has run away from and is hidden from us. And yet at the same time, we are not left totally in the dark.
to grope after our understanding of God. It's not like God has, in fact, run away and is completely in hiding and has not disclosed anything to us about Himself. On the contrary, there is also what Luther referred to, again, the deus revelatus, that part of God which He has revealed. Well, that's incorporated here in this text. The secret things of the Lord our God belong to Him.
That refers to what we call the hidden will of God. Now, usually when we're speaking of the hidden will of God, we have in our mind the decretive will of God. And when people say to me, what is the will of God for my life? I say, remember that the Bible uses the word will of God in several different ways. The first way in which we talk about the will of God is what we call the decretive will.
And the decretive will of God is that will of God by which God sovereignly brings to pass whatsoever He wills. Sometimes it's called the absolute will of God. Sometimes it's simply called the sovereign will of God. Sometimes it's called in theology the efficacious will of God. But normally we talk about the decretive will of God.
That is, when God decrees sovereignly that something should come to pass it must needs come to pass. The Bible frequently speaks about the determinant for counsel of God, where when God has decreed from all eternity that Christ should die on the cross in Jerusalem at a particular time in history, it must needs come to pass. It comes to pass through the determinate counsel or will of God.
That's what we're talking about when we're talking about the decretive will of God, that will that God brings to pass by the sheer power of His sovereignties. It's irresistible. It has to happen. When God calls the world into existence, it comes into existence. It cannot not begin. The lights cannot not come on when He says, let there be light. That's the decretive will of God.
Now we also talk about the preceptive will of God, and we understand that the decretive will of God cannot be resisted. The preceptive will of God not only can be resisted by us, but is resisted all the time. The preceptive will of God is a reference to God's law, to His commandments. This is the will of God that you not have any other gods before Him.
Now, when people call me and they say, how can I know the will of God for my life? I want to say to them, what will are you talking about? Are you talking about the decretive will of God? Are you talking about the hidden will of God? If you're talking about the hidden will of God, the first thing you have to understand about the hidden will of God is that it's hidden.
And when people say to me, you know, what does God want me to do in this sort of case? I said, how do I know? I study theology, but I can't read God's mind. All I can do is read God's Word. And what God's Word does for me is give me His revealed will. And that's enough of a task to last me my lifetime trying to sort out everything that's in this book that God has revealed.
And if you're asking me about that, I can help you with it. But if you're asking me about His hidden will, you're asking the wrong person, because I have no earthly idea what is in God's mind where He has not revealed Himself. Now, Calvin made his comment at this point. He says, where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from from inquiry. Let me say that again.
Where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry. Now, to translate that into modern nomenclature, we would say something like this, the hidden will of God is none of your business. That's why it's hidden. It's a marvelous thing, and it's a virtuous thing to want to know what God wants you to do.
He may have a secret plan for your life that's absolutely none of your business, but He may at the same time lead you and direct your paths. Again, there's nothing wrong with seeking what we call the illumination of the Holy Spirit or the leading of God in our lives. And usually that's what people are concerned about when they call me.
They're not trying to deal with the fortune-telling, those things that are prohibited by Scripture, but we do have this ungodly desire to know the future. We want to know the end for the beginning, and that is none of our business. That is God's business, and it's not for us to know the end from the beginning.
And that's why God is so severe in His warnings in Scripture against those who try to find out the future through illicit means, Ouija boards, fortune tellers, tarot cards, and that sort of thing. Those things are considered off limits for us as Christians. But what does the Bible say about His leading? In all our ways, if we acknowledge God, what? He will direct our paths.
But it all keeps coming back in this concept of acknowledging God to a way in which we are encouraged by Scripture to learn the will of God for our life. And that is by focusing our attention not on the decretive will of God, but on the preceptive will of God. If you want to know what God's will is for your life, let me say what the Scripture does say.
Scriptures say that this is the will of God for you, even your sanctification. But you say, I already know that. I want to know whether I'm to take this job in Cleveland or in Sandusky or in San Francisco, or if I'm supposed to marry Jane or Martha or Helen. What's God's will here for me? I said, well, God's will for you is your sanctification. And they said, wait a minute.
You sound like a broken record. I just told you I understand that. But what I want to know is whether I'm supposed to take the job in Ohio or in California and whether I'm supposed to marry this girl, that girl, this girl. I said, let me tell you how you determine which of those girls you marry, if any of them, and which of those jobs you take, if any of them.
What you do is you study closely the preceptive will of God. You study the law of God, and you learn the principles by which you are to live your life from day to day. Why does the psalmist say that the godly man meditates in the law day and night? Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, or standeth in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of God. His delight is here on the preceptive will of God." And on that log does he meditate day and night. And it's that person who will be like the tree planted by rivers of living water, bringing forth its fruit in its season. But the ungodly are not like that, but are like the chaff which the wind just drives away.
Now again, if you want to know which job to take, you have to master the principles, and you may discover, for example, that the revealed will of God tells you that you're to make a sober analysis of your gifts and talents. And then you look at this job that you've been offered, and you make a sober analysis of what? Of the requirements for that job.
And under God, you realize that that job's job description does not meet your gifts soberly considered. So what do you do? What's the will of God? The will of God is that you not take it. The will of God is that you look for something else. The will of God is that you match your vocation, your calling with the job opportunity.
Now that requires a lot more work than pushing a Ouija board around a table. That means applying the law of God in the details to all the various things in life. Now what about which woman do I marry?
Well, you look at everything the Scripture says about marriage, everything that Scripture requires with respect to God's blessing on marriage, and having done all that, you may discover that you have three ladies, all of whom meet the biblical requirements. So which one are you supposed to marry? The answer to that is easy. Which one do you want to marry?
Because as long as they are all within the approval of the preceptive will of God, then you are free under God to do what you want. You have complete liberty here now to act according to whatever it is that pleases you. And so you don't need to lose any sleep about the will of God. Because if you're worried about the hidden will of God here... And you're saying, am I in the middle of God's will?
Am I maintaining the hidden will of God? If you're asking about the decretive will of God, you can't be out of the decretive will of God. But again, that's none of your business. And the only way you're going to know the hidden will of God for you today is to wait until tomorrow. that tomorrow will make clear to you what the hidden will of God was for you today.
But you are not going to know tomorrow what the hidden will of God is for you for the day after tomorrow, because it's the hidden will of God. We want to know the will of God in terms of the future when the emphasis in the Scripture is the will of God for us in terms of the present. And that has to do with His commands. Again, let's go back to Deuteronomy 29, 29.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God. Now, I don't want to be flip when I say they're none of your business. But one thing we can say with certainty, they're none of your possession. They belong to God. And that which belongs to Him in this regard does not belong to you, and it does not belong to me. That's why these things are not our business, because they are not our property.
They're His. But those things which are revealed belong to us. so that God has taken something of the secret plans and the secret desires of His mind, and He has removed the secrecy. He has taken the veil away. That's what revelation is. A revelation is a coming out of hiding, a disclosing that which once was hidden.
And now God has been pleased to give this unspeakable blessing to His people to share with us. not to share with us in the sense of communicating information. And we use the term sharing in that regard. If I give my testimony, I say, let me share something with you, and I then share my viewpoint, which you may or may not want to share in from the beginning.
Nobody's investing in it heavily on the stock market anyway. But in any case... When God shares his knowledge with us, that means to share in the sense of giving it away, letting somebody else participate in it and use it. And so God gives to us that which properly belongs to Him. This knowledge that is ours through revelation, again, properly belongs to God, but God says, here, it's yours.
I'm giving it to you. And that's what the author of Deuteronomy is saying here. Moses is saying that the secret things belong to God, but that which He has revealed belong to us. And not only to us, but to our seed or to our children.
Now go back in the book of Deuteronomy and see how concerned Moses is that that unspeakable blessed possession, that property of knowledge that God has taken from His own mind and given to His people, is given not only for us but for our children, and the priority of passing that on to our children is one of the main emphases here in this book. And again, why?
That we may do all of the words of this law. You see, again, God's revealed will is given in and through the preceptive will and that this revelation is given that we may do something. that we may be obedient. Now, let me just recall the context in which I've said this.
I started off by saying, I get all these telephone calls and letters from people saying to me, how can I know the will of God for my life? Why don't they call and say, how can I know the law of God? People don't call me and ask me, how can I know the law of God? Because they know how they can know the law of God. They just look it up in the Bible. They can just study the law of God.
But that's not the number one question I get. In fact, nobody says that. How can I know the law of God? Because it's so manifestly easy. Now, it would be a different question if somebody said, how can I do the law of God? And there are people who are concerned about that, although not too many. But again, what most people are asking about when they say, how can I know the will of God?
They're asking about a knowledge of the future, which is closed. And if you want to know the will of God in the sense of what God authorizes, what God is pleased with, what God will bless you for, again, it keeps coming back to the preceptive will, which is clear, and that is His law. And you say, but wait a minute. We live in the New Testament. The law is in the Old Testament.
This is one of the chief values that the Old Testament law has for the New Testament Christian. is that whatever else the law applies to, and there are obviously parts of the Old Testament law that don't apply to the New Testament Christian, we understand that. But remember that in the Old Testament, the law reveals the character of God, and the law reveals to His people what is pleasing to God.
And so, as a New Testament Christian, I study the Old Testament law when I'm trying to find out what pleases God. And even though some of that legislation is not repeated in the New Testament, the unveiling of the character of God continues in the New Testament. And I have the great value of having that law which is the what? The lamp unto my feet, the light unto my path.
So again, if I'm looking... for my way that I'm groping in darkness and I want to know the will of God for my life and I need a lamp to show me where I'm supposed to go, if I need light to show me the pathway where my feet should take, where is it? It's in the law of God. It's in the preceptive will of God. Again,
Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us, to our children forever. Why? That we may do all the words of this Lord. The will of God is that we obey every word that proceeds forth from His mouth.
I hope you found that helpful, understanding the difference between God's perceptive will and His hidden will. That was R.C. Sproul on this Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. You know, it seems like we've lost our grasp on theology these days in the church, or at least an emphasis on it. And that's why Dr. Sproul taught this series.
Across 60 messages and over 22 hours of teaching, you'll learn how the truths of Scripture relate to each other in perfect harmony. Contact us today with a donation of any amount and we'll send you this DVD set and unlock the series and study guide for you for life in the free Ligonier app. Give your gift when you call us at 800-435-4343 or at renewingyourmind.org.
If you prefer to read and slowly mull over these topics, today's resource offer also includes his book, Everyone's a Theologian. So give your gift at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes. When we consider the will of God for our lives, the question arises, how does God accomplish His will? Join us tomorrow as R.C.
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