Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast. My name is Kosti Hin and I have the pleasure of being your host. For the Gospel is all about providing sound doctrine for every day people. And on today's episode, I want to unpack what the Bible teaches about the will of God.

God, one of the most common questions I get is a pastor. How do I know God's will? Now some people try to feel their way into it. Others will freeze up and they're paralyzed with fear when making decisions because they're afraid to make the wrong decision. And that's really understandable. I think we've all been there a time or two. Others think, well, God's sovereign. So he just controls every person like a puppet. You know, it really doesn't matter what you do. He's just going to do it anyway. And others will think that God controls not

nothing at all. And he just sort of shows up at the end of life and make sure everything ends up okay. I would say this too many people are confused about God's will. I want to be clear about it on our podcast. So that you can make decisions. You can assess and discern. You could even dream big. You could serve the Lord. You could have joy. You could desire things in life and to accomplish something in life and to make good decisions. And you could have

peace of mind knowing that you are in God's will. Pastor Anthony Wood did a great video on this exact topic on our YouTube channel. So if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel and you're listening to this podcast all the time, humorously. What are you doing with your life? Let's go subscribe. We've got a lot of free, short, clear videos for you. But more seriously, subscribe and get the free content. Grow from it. Learn from it and share it on your social media. It's a great way.

To be more edifying in this time where social media is so chaotic and conflicting. The author of Hebrews is making something clear about the will of God that it's supposed to be a doing thing. In other words, you are supposed to do the will of God in Hebrews 13, 20 and 21. This is what it says. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead are Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant. Equip you with.

Everything good that you may do his will. Big key phrase there. Working in us that which is pleasing in his sight. There's another element of doing through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever a men. I know in my own life. I'm sure in your life. I want to do God's will. I want to please Jesus to whom glory be do forever and ever. Amen.

Well, how do we do that? And how do we understand the will of God? Well, let's look at this. First, I want to talk about information. That's kind of what to do and what it's all about. And then transformation, which is how to do it. How do you do the will of God? The first reality that I want you to have and understand is that you need to educate yourself with the right information.

We need to know what the Bible says about God's will. The Bible talks a lot about God's will. People will say, you know, I feel like this or here's what I experienced or this, that and the other. But the Bible speaks about two particular wills. And I'm going to prove that to you. The first is God's predestined will. Theologians call this his sovereign will or his secret will or his decreed will. It's a kind of will that nobody can stop or

control. God's predestined will saves whoever he wants. He sent Jesus to the cross and nobody could stop it. That was his will. It is totally under his control. He has determined the time when Christ will return. You can't stop that neither can I. It's predestined.

He has orchestrated tiny details without us even realizing it. He divinely appoints people. He appoints seasons and trials, successes, failures, opportunities, changes and more. This is a will that you need to know about.

But really you don't need to be worried about. I'm going to say that again. God's predestined will or his secret will. The things that he has decreed are things you don't need to worry about.

But you need to know about. In other words, how are you going to die one day? God knows that. How long will you live? The Bible says that he's numbered your days already.

You don't need to worry about it every day because you're never going to know anyway until glory. Some examples of God's predestined will.

One, it can't be resisted. Romans 9.19. The Bible says this and it's really God saying it. You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?

But who are you, oh man, to answer back to God? Will the molded thing say to its molder? Why have you made me like this? When God is talking about salvation.

And whom he saves in Romans chapter 9, we see that his will cannot be resisted. Another example of God's predestined will is in Acts 166 and we see that he controls opportunities.

The Bible says and they went through the region of Fergia and Galatia having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

There's an interesting moment in which God's predestined will control the opportunity that early church apostles had, whether to speak the word in a region or not.

Another example of God's predestined will is in Psalm 115 verse 3. I say this with a touch of humble humor because there's no way around this.

God's predestined will means he can do whatever he wants. God's predestined will is whatever he wants. Psalm 115 3, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.

I love deeper answers. I love to know the why. I love when people help me understand and they reason with me. But there is a moment in which you come upon passages like Psalm 115 3 and you simply say, God, you have decreed.

You have predestined your will. There is a will in which you are going to do whatever you want. Whatever pleases you, you do it.

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