and about the sovereignty of
God and the will of man. But generally speaking, where
men have difficulty with the concept of the sovereignty of
God and man making free choices of his own, is that if God is
sovereign over all things and ultimately rules in everything,
how can man be held accountable for his actions which God does
weigh and which God will hold man accountable for his actions?
How can those two things be true? Now the clearest and most reasonable
answer is found in Romans chapter 9 when the man asks the questions
if he indeed is sovereign and how can he be upset if I am what
I am if he made me the way I am. And of course the answer to that
is you don't have the right to ask. Who art thou, O man, that
replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it? Why hast thou made it? They just simply
don't have a right as a creature to ask whatever the Creator has
done. But as God speaks of man's willingness
to come to Him, as He speaks of man's willingness to do that
which is natural to him, which is sin against God, man does
in this world, you and I do, choose. And yet our choices and
our will falls under the rule and power and purposed will of
God. How then can God hold us accountable
for what we are, for the choices we make? We'll try to answer
that today and finish up this lesson. And as I said, I got
some help from old brother Maddox who really did a fine job on
this particular verse of scripture. The scripture reads this way,
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of
water he turneth it whithersoever he will. Now we saw the last
time the will of every being but that of God waits on power
to perform. All wills of creatures, intelligent
creatures, humanity, wait on power to perform. God does not.
God has the power to perform his will and always does perform
his will. Now man's ability to choose what
he wants is fact. A man will always choose what
he wants, but just because he chooses does not mean that he
has a power or the ability to perform what he chooses. He chooses,
but that doesn't mean he has power to do it. And we saw Satan's
desire last week in his heart, and his will was to rise to the
estate of deity. He said, I will be like the Most
High. I will sit in the high seat of
the congregation. I will be Elohim. I will be God. He had a will to do it. It was
his choice to do it. But a greater will than his was
employed, and not only was his choice thwarted, The greater
will cast him into a place that he was not willing to go. He
didn't want to go to hell. That wasn't his choice. It was
God's choice. But his will was to be like God,
and God said, no, I'm going to put you down in hell in Isaiah
chapter 14. Not only was his will proved
powerless, but it was also overcome by God. Those were overcome by
God. We also saw that man's will was
so lacking in power to perform that God Himself, when speaking
of man and his will, gave man's will attributes of the inanimate
objects. Inanimate. Declaring that man
was as clay. As clay. Entirely malleable in
the hands of the potter. He said that in Romans chapter
9. Does not the potter have power over the clay? And he's talking
about men. He's talking about the Adamic
lump of humanity and dividing that lump and making some unto
vessels of honor and some unto vessels of dishonor. That is
to say, some to receive mercy and grace and some to be used
by God but tossed away once their usefulness was ended. Now, God
did that with the great lump of humanity, but He addresses
men who would say, why hast thou made me thus? He says, you're
clay. You're clay. You can't respond. It's like being inanimate. And
in both cases, Satan and man, the choices they made were freely
made. They were not forced to make
these choices. They were freely made. but were so insignificant as
to accomplishment that they were seen as free but impotent. Free but impotent. Now what this
tells us is that man's will, though free to choose, is subject
to and operates entirely under the will and direction of God. It's like this is man's will
and this is God's will. Man can do what he wants inside
here, but he's always doing exactly what God has ordained. Now, he
don't know it, and he's doing it freely. He's not saying, I'm
doing God's will when he goes out and does evil. He said, I'm
doing what I want to do. But he's also, without realizing
it, being moved and guided to do God's will. Man's will functions
freely within the will and purpose of God, and even if his choice
is evil, He will not go beyond and will
even in that evil be used of God to accomplish what
God has ordained to be done. Man is free to choose. And yet
even in his evil choice, he will accomplish what God has ordained
to be done. We saw that on the cross in Acts
4.28. For against our holy child Jesus, both Pontius Pilate and
Herod and the Jews and the Gentiles gathered together. What did they
do? They're against Christ. They're going to nail Him to
the cross. They want to get rid of Him. That's what they will
to do. That's what they desire to do.
They hate Him. They don't choose Him. They despise Him. They want
to get rid of Him. And so they act upon their choice. And they, as Christ gave them
leave and allowed them and suffered them to do so, took Christ and
nailed Him to a tree and crucified Him and said, Away with this
man. Crucify Him. We will not have Him to reign
over us. But while they were doing that, driving those spikes
in his hand, plaiting that crown of thorn and put it upon their
heads, taking their fist and smiting him in the face, pulling
the hair off his cheeks, spitting in his face, taking a Roman cat
of nine tails and plowing, I forget, 380 furrows in his skin, ripping
the skin from his flesh. And he didn't look like no little
man up there with a cannon teeth down and a drop of blood on his
head. He looked like a destroyed beast hanging on that tree, naked.
He said his visions were more than the sons of men. And they
did all that. And while they were doing that,
our God says this, Against thy holy child Jesus, whom God has
raised up against thy holy child Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Herod,
the Jews and the Gentiles were gathered together to do what?
What they wanted to what their wills desired to do whatsoever
God's hand had before prepared to be done. That's what they
were doing. They were acting freely, weren't
they? But they were accomplishing God's will. Because all God's
creatures are God's creatures. Now our text speaks of the truth
of God's sovereign will and man's dependent and divinely controlled
will. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it whithersoever
he will. And again we see that God attributes
to man's heart, the motivator of his will, properties of the
inanimate. He calls man's heart like water. It's an inanimate thing. It doesn't
really have a wheel, does it? Water doesn't choose. But the
properties of water can be attributed to the properties of the wheel,
and that's why it's used this way. It is compared to water.
The water does not have a wheel. Like clay, it has properties
that reflect the nature and character of man's wheel. First of all,
water is unstable. Rubin is unstable as water is
what it was saying water always flows downward and seeks the
path of least resistance always Always water takes the shape
of the container into which it is poured Water can be square
Or rectangular, how? Just pour it into a square container
or a rectangular container and that's what shape it will be.
So it takes the shape of its environment or whatever surrounds
it. Those are properties of water.
And one does not have to stretch the imagination to make the comparison
between the properties of water and those of natural man's will.
Now the word rivers here in this text would better be interpreted
rivulets, actually. And really, its best interpretation
is a small irrigation canals. It's a horticultural term, a
horticultural term. And these small irrigation canals
are cut between specific plant beds or flower gardens. You have
a central canal going down the middle of them. And then you
have other canals off the central canal running to each one of
the gardens. And that's what this is talking
about. That's the meaning of this. It's designed to water
crops, small irrigation canals. So the king's heart is compared
to the water in irrigation canals that is directed to nourish a
particular garden or flower bed. Now these ditches are used to
control the direction of the water in the particular plant
bed. The first thing to realize is
that there is a gardener. Somebody dug these canals. Somebody dug these irrigation
channels. That's the first thing. And this
gardener has planted the beds and likewise dug the ditches
to take the water to its designated area. Secondly, as it was in
the East at that time and at the time of the writing of this
proverb, as it is still today, the water was in a cistern on
a higher plane than the gardens and when it was released by the
gardener it would flow downward to the lowest point. Naturally,
that's where it's going. It always does. Thirdly, the
gardener placed at each ditch, at each intersection, a small
gate. A small gate. And with the mere
touch of his hand or his foot, he could direct the water to
this bed or that bed. All he had to do was move the
gate. He didn't move the water. The water was headed in this
direction. He simply moved the gate, the water's flowing downhill,
here's the gate, here's the gate, and he simply turns the gate
in front of the water and the water moves in that direction toward
that bed. That's all there is to it. All he did was move the
gate. And so it says, the king's heart
lays like this canal, like these waters flowing down toward the
gardens that God has dug according to purpose. And if the water's
going in one direction and God wants it to go here, He simply
moves the gate. And the water doesn't change
except in direction. It's still doing exactly what
its properties demand it to do. Going downhill, seeking the path
of least resistance. The gardener does not touch the
water. He doesn't pump the water. He simply directs it to where
he wants it to go. He simply uses the properties
of the water, allowing the water to act as water will, and directs
it to where it's designed. That's what this is talking about.
So here we see the water's representative of man's will. What's he going
to do? Always what he does. Always acting the same way, he'll
always have the same properties, he'll always move in the same
direction. By nature, he'll do what man does. But along the
way, God will close one gate and open another. And man, still
acting, still being water, still flowing downhill, will come and
turn. The water didn't turn, he was
turned. The water was just still seeking the lowest place, because
that's what water does. This is the analogy or metaphor
that our Lord uses to declare the manner in which He turns
the King's heart, withersoever He will. Man's will is the water. The natural tendency or will
is to flow downward in the easiest course or the path of least resistance. Gravity assures this. Gravity
is like man's nature, which dictates the manner in which man chooses
and acts. The water flows down the ditch
naturally, freely, freely. It does so without compulsion,
nor does the gardener force it to flow downward. It's just water
and that's what it does. The gardener simply releases
it or suffers it to do what it will naturally do. This is a
picture of man's heart and thus is the indicator of man's will.
God does not force men to choose evil. He doesn't have to. Man does it. He always chooses
the path of least resistance and it's always in a downward
spiral. Always is. God does not force
man to choose evil. It is natural to carnal man as
it is for water to react to gravity and always flow downward. Man
acts freely just like the water does, just like the water does.
But there is a gardener in this picture, and he has designed
a way to direct the water without changing the nature of the water.
In fact, he employs the sure properties of the water, and
by placing an obstacle in his path, turns the water to his
desired place. The water's nature is not manipulated.
Its nature is not manipulated. It's still going down. Because
that's what it does. It's still flowing freely. Because
that's what it does. He's not changed the water's
nature. He simply changed its direction. And so is the king's
heart and the king's will. Man chooses to do thus and so.
He freely acts according to his nature. And unbeknownst to him,
a course has been laid out for him to be used to his potential
and the purpose of God. All creatures, whether you are
in Christ or out of Christ? You're the water. You're the
water. He moves men. Man moves as man moves. You use
freely without being forced. God closes a gate and opens another.
Man simply follows the dictates and properties of his will. Here's
a gate. This is an easier way. It's a
downward path. That's what water does. And that's
what you do by nature. What you do by nature. Thus man
is accountable. Accountable because he does what
he does as he chooses. And he wills to do it. He does
what he wants to do. And all the while he is under
the direction of a sovereign God unbeknownst to him. But he
does what he does. God simply stops his path here,
and opens a path here, and stops one here, and keeps him alive
in this old world. Thus both the will of the water
and the will of the gardener are satisfied, aren't they? Water does what it wants to,
right down this little path. Now the gardener directs it to
feed his garden. So the gardener is satisfied,
and the will of man is satisfied. The water is satisfied. Both
of them are doing what they do. but the waters being water. There
are many examples of this in scripture. Joseph is a prime
example of this. Joseph, his brothers hated him
because he did come and tell them that dream where all of
them were going to bow down to him. You know, the eleven seas
bowing down to Joseph. He didn't like that. Well, they
didn't like that. And so they lied and they killed
the lie. They put blood on Joseph's coat
of many colors and showed it to his daddy and said, Joseph's
been killed. But he hadn't been. They sold him into slavery in Egypt,
into a caravan. Now, while he was there, he was
signed to the house of Potiphar, but that messed up because Potiphar's
wife wanted him. She wanted to lay with him, but
he ran from her. She kept his coat. He ran so fast he left
his laundry behind to get out from under her. Then he was put in jail again,
and the Pharaoh had a dream, and he couldn't interpret a dream,
and none of his seers could interpret a dream, so they called for Joseph.
They said, I heard this fellow down here, he can interpret dreams.
He used to work at Potiphar's house. Okay, let's talk to him. And so the Pharaoh had a dream
about seven lean cows and seven fat cows and didn't know what
it meant. So he asked Joseph, and Joseph said, well, I'll tell
you what's going to happen. You're going to have seven years of fat. Crops are going to be full. He
said you need to build storehouses and store all the grain you can.
Because after that you're going to have seven years of famine
or seven lean years. And if you haven't stored up
a great amount of food you're going to starve to death and
Egypt's going to perish. Now, all the while his brothers are
back home happy as hogs in mud because they got rid of that
sorry brother of theirs. God allows seven years of greatness. Egypt makes huge storehouses,
stores all the grain there, and then God sends those seven lean
years. And those brothers down there
who are happy as hogs and mugs right now, suddenly they're without
food. What are they going to do? Somebody said, well, I've
heard there's corn in Egypt. You reckon? They said, I know
what I'll choose to do. I know what I want to do. I want
to go to Egypt and get me some And so the brothers ride out
to go to Egypt to get some corn. And who do they run into? The
man that they had put into slavery. And what did Joseph say? You
meant it for evil. God meant it for good. They were
doing exactly what they wanted to do when they sold Joseph into
slavery. But what they didn't realize,
they were setting up their own Savior. to save them down the
road. And not only that, those people
there are going to stay in Egypt. Why? Because way before that,
Abraham one night went into a trance and into a dark dream and God
says, I'm going to raise you up a great nation. But they're
going into captivity in a strange land for 430 years and then I'm
going to deliver them out. That's way back in Genesis 15.
They've got to get to Goshen because they're going to be saved
by the blood of the Lamb. All that takes place. Why? Because
men did what they wanted to do, they did what they decided to
do, and yet they were controlled and directed by the hand of Almighty
God. His brother said, we got rid
of him until they saw him. And he revealed himself to them
and said, don't worry about it. Y'all tried to do a bad thing
to me, but it's a good thing for you. God meant it for good. David chose to have an illicit
affair with Bathsheba and paid dearly for his actions fourfold
as he said he would. But out of that union was born
Solomon, who was the one who built the Temple of the Lord,
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was somewhere around Galatia
and wanted to go to Asia Minor. He said, I was going to Asia
Minor but the spirit prohibited me. The spirit inhibited me. I had my plan to go here and
I was stopped for this reason or that. Then one night he had
a dream about a man in Macedonia. And the man in Macedonia was
crying, come and save us. Come and help us. And so he gets
up and goes to Macedonia. There ain't no man there. But
there's a woman down by the river. Her name is Lydia. Now, before
they started, Lydia was in thigh attire, and Paul wasn't far from
them. They was about seven or eight miles from each other. You think
about this. They was next door neighbors, practically. Paul
here, Lydia here. Paul's trying to go up here.
Lydia's a seller of a purple. She needs to go down to Caesarea
Philippi to sell her purple clothing, probably to the Roman guard in
Philippi. So they split ways. Now they're
about 900 miles apart. And God sends Paul down to her,
sitting by a riverside, having a prayer meeting. Paul preached
the gospel to her. The Lord saved her. That's how
the gospel came to Cherokee, North Carolina. The first European
church was formed in Lydia's house. Paul wanted to do something. God closed the gate. But down in Macedonia, he opened
up the gate and the water flowed that way. See what I'm saying?
This is God's will and man's will. This is how it's seen.
Think of the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says He was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. And you've
taken with wicked hands and have slain. He was delivered unto
you. He was turned over to their will.
That's what it says. A pilot. He let Barabbas go free in Luke
23 and turned Christ over to their will. Their will. Their choice. They chose to kill
Christ and acted on their evil desire. And unbeknownst to them,
the ditch had already been dug, the gate had already been opened,
and they did their evil deeds exactly as God had ordained.
Which I just quoted a few moments ago in Acts 4.28. They acted
freely and were accountable for their deeds. For even Peter said,
You slew Christ. Wait a minute. God was sovereign
over that whole thing. You know, I was just doing what
He made me do. Don't try that on God. It ain't
going to wash. You're doing what you wanted
to do. And yet you were overridden. God directed me. So the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth
it whither so ever he will. And that's how God is sovereign
and man still is free to choose and responsible for his action.
That's how it works. Father, bless this understanding.
Pray in Christ's name. Amen. Good day.