The Sovereignty of God and Man's free will ~ A W TOZER

#salvation # arminianism #free will
A W TOZER masterfully resolves the existing tension between God's sovereignty and Man's free will. He reconciles how God is able to remain sovereign while still allowing man to have a free will.

Salvation. Martin Lloyd Jones, soteriology, Leighton flowers, William lane Craig, Dr James white, A W Tozer, free will.

[hardcoreveritas]

The man was a spiritual genius and giant of the faith.

[erikacox]

Its as simple as that. Thank you Tozer and MLJ (whom I listen and respect as one of the great preachers of God) agreed or couldn't refute it.

[rickysikes]

I dedicated one year of my Bible reading to going through the whole Bible just to find out if it is predestination or free will. I put a P at every verse for predestination, and a C for free choice. Sometimes I had a P and a C at the same verse. I found it is both. Others said that could not be possible, but God is not limited in what and how He can do anything. It is both.

[PatrickFarrell_KJV]

Excellent analogy. Praise God that He’s sovereign and praise God that we have free will to choose.

[jonathansheldon]

I believe free will is such a beautiful gift from God because he gave us something he didn’t want full control over, when he could have had full control.
Here’s something of your own my child, that’s all yours and I won’t touch it… I will give you a fraction of the same free will that’s is completely mine..
God made us in his image with a will

[opindras.bangerh]

Joshua 24:14-15 KJV — Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

[chrisarmstrong]

god says i will have mercy on whom i will have mercy, i will harden whom i will harden, all that will may come to the water and drink freely, God told paul that he was chosen from before the foundations of the earth, romans 9 says before they had done anything good or bad, so that Gods election will stand Jacob i loved and Esau i hated, when sovereign God says i chose you you did not choose me, yet he sets a choice before us, choose this day who you will serve, our choice does not make us a sheep, it reveals that we are a sheep, for his sheep know his voice and will come, our God given free will is limited within the confines of God election, (choose, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, its hard to kick against the pricks)you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink, is his free will, yet if you put salt in his feed, he will drink.praise God for his sovereignty and his purpose always being fulfilled, for who are you ol man how can the thing formed say to him that formed him, why did you make me this way?

[PhienNguyen]

Whiles of Canada can prevent the carrying on of the doings of this nation. Now, I come to a little matter here that I want to take up, and I think that I'm the only person who ever thought about this. If anyone else did, they never wrote it down in a book, or if they did, I never saw the book. And if they ever preached it, I wasn't present when they did. Neither was anybody else who has told me they heard it. I shared this thought once with Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, and he didn't deny it. He smiled. He didn't say he believed it or that he didn't. I mention him because he is one of the great English authorities in theology.

But what about man's free will? Maybe some of you dear people would rather not have your minds troubled about this. Maybe you'd rather just rest. But if you'd like to have your mind troubled, then I'd like to trouble it for you. Because, as someone once said, the business of a prophet of God is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Some of you comfortable people need to be afflicted, and one of the first ways to do that is to get you thinking about divine things.

Now, here's the matter of man's free will and God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty means that he's in control of everything and that he planned everything from the beginning. Man's free will means that he can, anytime he wants, make any choice he pleases and thus, apparently, defy the purposes of God and will against the will of God. How are we going to figure it out?

Well, over the years, the church has split into two camps. One says, "I believe in the sovereignty of God. I believe that God planned everything from the beginning, that God decided some would be saved and some wouldn't, and that Christ died for those who would be saved but didn't die for those who wouldn't." That's what certain people believe, following John Calvin. On the other side, there are those who say, "Christ died for all, and I believe it. Man is free to make his choice." But those who teach the exclusive sovereignty of God say that if man is free to make a choice, then God isn't sovereign. If a man can make a choice that God doesn't like, then God is not having his way.

I figured that out one time. I guess the pastor is getting ready for the baptismal service, but he's the theologian here and can straighten me out on this. Here's how I figured it out, and I'd like to share this thought with you.

God's sovereignty means absolute freedom, doesn't it? It means God is absolutely free to do anything he wants to do anywhere, anytime, forever. That's what it means. Man's free will means that man can make any choice he wants to make, even if it goes against the will of God. Theologians lock horns over this, like two deer out in the woods, battling until they both die.

I refuse to get caught on either side of that dilemma. Here's what I see: God Almighty is sovereign and free to do as he pleases. Among the things he pleased to do was give me freedom to do what I please. When I do what I please, I am fulfilling the will of God, not contradicting it. God, in his sovereignty, gave me the freedom to make choices. Even if my choice isn't what God would have made for me, his sovereignty is fulfilled in my making the choice. I can make the choice because God, the great sovereign, said to me, "In my sovereign freedom, I bestow a little bit of freedom on you. Now choose you this day whom you will serve, be good or bad at your pleasure, follow me or don't follow me, come on or go back, go to heaven or go to hell." That's in your lap, and you've got to make your choice.

The sovereign God put that in my lap and said, "This is yours, and you must make that choice." When I make a choice, I am fulfilling his sovereignty because he willed that I should be free to make it. If I choose to go to hell, it's not what his love would have chosen, but it does not contradict or cancel out his sovereignty. Therefore, I can take John Calvin in one hand and Jacob Arminius in the other, and walk down the street. Neither would walk with me, I'm sure, because John Calvin would say I was too Arminian, and Arminius would say I was too Calvinistic. But I'm happy in the middle. I believe in the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man. I believe that God is free to do as he pleases, and in a limited sense, he has made man free to do as he pleases within a certain framework, but not a very big one.

After all, you're not free to do very many things. You're free to make moral choices, decide the color of your necktie, choose your food, and whom you'll marry (if they agree), but not many other things. The things you are free to do are gifts from the God who is utterly free. Therefore, anything I do and choose, I'm fulfilling the freedom God gave me and carrying out God's sovereignty.

Now, let me give you an illustration to shed some light on this. Suppose a ship leaves New York City bound for Liverpool, England, with a thousand passengers on board. It's a great big ship, like the Queen Mary, the United States, or the Queen Elizabeth. They’re taking a nice, easy journey, and the passengers are there to enjoy the trip. There is an authority who carries papers saying, "You are to bring this ship into the harbor in Liverpool."

When they leave New York and wave to the people on the shore, the next stop is Liverpool. But out on the ocean, they soon lose sight of the Statue of Liberty and haven't yet seen the English coast. There they are, floating around on the ocean. What do they do? Do they all feel bound? Are they all in chains, with the captain walking around with a stick to keep them in line? No. The officers of the ship say, "Here’s a shuffleboard court, a tennis court, a swimming pool, over here you can look at pictures, over there you can listen to music." They’re perfectly free to roam around as they please over the deck of the ship, but they’re not free to change the course of that ship. It’s going to Liverpool. Whatever they do, they can jump off if they want to, but if they stay on board, they’re going to Liverpool. Nobody can change that, yet they’re perfectly free within the confines of that ship.

So, you and I have our little lives. We are born, and God says, "I’ve launched you on the sea of birth, and you’re going to go into the little port we call death. In the meantime, you’re free to roam around all you will. Only remember you’re going to answer when you get over there. Be free." So we throw our shoulders back, throw our weight around, demand and declare that we can do as we please, and boast about our freedom. All right, we’ve got a little freedom. But remember, you can’t change God Almighty’s course. God has said that those who follow Jesus Christ and believe in him shall be saved, and those who refuse will be damned. That’s settled and eternally sovereignly settled. But you and I have freedom in the meantime. We can do anything we want, and while most people don’t pay much attention, we’re going to answer for that sometime, according to the sovereign will of God.

Now, God has certain plans that he’s going to carry out, and I want to talk to you a little bit about those plans.

[machitect]

With so many Christians being misled by so many, and it’s hard to tell anymore nowadays, I find my rest in Tozer’s teaching.

[InHisGrace]

I love this beautiful Brother, Dr Tozer,
much,
PREACHING ACCORDING TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURE'S.
THANK YOU
LORD GOD ALMIGHTY 🕊️
FOR SENDING HIM.

Ephesians 1:11

“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to:

THE PURPOSE of HIM WHO WORKETH ALL THINGS after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL:”

Period & AMEN. 🐑💙🕊️👣💕

GOD ALMIGHTY IS ALWAYS IN COMPLETE CONTROL.

JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.


J

[TheRomansGuy]

Tozer clearly explains sovereignty and free will. Such a shame so many theologians are so confused on this. Looking at you MacArthur, White…

[paulsevers]

sadly, as this the first time I have ever heard Tozer speak, I do not find this an adequate explanation

[machitect]

Choosing Him makes it all the sweeter for Him.

[reza_shak]

I find calvanism is often misrepresented. Man is free to do as he pleases, the problem isn’t that he has no choice, the problem is, apart from the spirit, he will always choose the wrong thing, as he pleases.

It’s what pleases man that is the problem. Evil comes forth from his heart continually. The ways of God are not pleasing to him, rather, they are an offence and foolishness.

[kevanlane]

Man is free just like a man is free to do as he wants in a prison cell 😢, his freedom is limited because of his fallen nature

[chrisarmstrong]

everything was correct except the jumping off the ship part for the confines are the hands of God which are like a giant wall on the ship that no man can climb

[opindras.bangerh]

Deuteronomy 28:1-2 KJV — And it shall come to pass, IF THOU SHALT HEARKEN DILIGENTLY UNTO THE VOICE of the LORD thy God, to observe and to DO ALL HIS commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God...

Deuteronomy 28:15 KJV — But it shall come to pass, IF THOU WILT NOT HEARKEN UNTO THE VOICE of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

[katiefaith]

And God said to Cain....Why did you kill your brother? When you knew the right thing to do, you chose to do the wrong thing... There you have it people ..free Will you are a choosing machine? Don't forget it

[angloaust]

John15v16 would Indicate the
Authority of Christ
The disciples followed him
Without question
When asked later if they too would leave him
Where would we go thou has the words of eternal life
However later in the garden
When he was arrested they fled!

[waynelonn]

Can man’s “free will “ choices lead to a predetermined outcome? I believe so if God is truly sovereign. God made us and formed us to such an extent that he can choose who will be saved and at the same time know we will make a free will choice to choose him. Our will is free but not random. This is grace.
This applies for the children God saves. Those who are lost are not capable of escaping from the depravity inherited from Adam. God will have mercy on whom he will. Without God’s grace none would be saved.