Providence: The Purposeful Sovereignty of God

0:00 Let's pray together. Father, you are your own interpreter. You interpret your scriptures by your spirit in our lives, and we ask for that. A special help now as we attend to your word. brood over this assembly, I pray, to banish unbelief and resistance. The mind of the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So I pray that miracles would be wrought in transforming the mind of the flesh into the mind of the spirit. Guard me from error and make things plain, I pray. in Jesus name amen so my definition of providence is God's purposeful sovereignty the word is not used in the ESV and therefore you can't say I'm using a biblical definition because it has no biblical use and definitions are based on use. I'm distinguishing it from sovereignty because sovereignty is God's authority and power to do what he wills. And that doesn't tell you what he wills or why he wills it. And providence does, at least in my definition. So purposeful sovereignty means that providence is God's sovereignty going somewhere with an ultimate purpose and extending in a certain degree into people's lives and the universe. So answering those two questions is what we're about tonight. How far does it extend and what's he up to in the

2:07 universe? Why did he make it? Why does he run it the way he does? Here's Westminster Catechism question 11. What are God's works of providence? Answer. God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, powerful, preserving and governing, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. So the words holy and wise connotes he's going somewhere, he's doing a particular kind of thing, he has a purpose, and governing all their actions implies a certain extent, and we need to test whether that is in fact the case. So let's talk first about the extent of providence. How far does God's sovereignty intrude into the workings of creation and angelic life and demonic life and human life? Let's start with God's act of creation.

3:17 Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. Psalm 95, 6. Those words call you to get on your knees and humbly acknowledge you are made. You are a creature. You didn't make yourself. God made you. Your hands have made and fashioned me. Psalm 19. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who made us and we are his.

3:53 If you're made, you're owned. you're not yourselves you don't belong to yourself you belong to God he made you he can do anything he please with you he made you The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and those who dwell in it are the Lord's. He made us. He owns us. We're not our own. And if you're a Christian, you're doubly not your own because you've been bought by the blood of Jesus. next thing to think about is everybody in this room and on the planet is not only made but is profoundly sinful all of you deeply corrupt bent rebellious behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Psalm 51 just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned that's you you're dying because you inherited sin and you have sinned all are under sin, none is righteous no, not one we need to linger there for a minute because it has huge implications for providence.

5:35 This sinfulness of our vaunted self-exaltation, self-sufficiency, self-determination is an infinite moral outrage in the universe because it exchanges the glory of the infinite God for images, pathetic, finite images, and worships the creature rather than the creator. We, by nature, treasure many things more than God, and therefore we have committed an infinite outrage and deserve an infinite punishment that will be meted out on every one of you, either in hell or on the cross.

6:30 If you're a Christian, what you deserve will go on to Jesus. And if you're not a Christian, what you deserve will go on to you. Therefore, in all the works of providence, God can do you no wrong. Because in this world, we always deserve worse than we get. Or to put it differently, no matter how much you suffer,

7:11 you will always get better than you deserve. That's pretty significant, isn't it? in the way you relate to God? If you are tempted to accuse God of injustice toward you, you do not know the seriousness of your sin.

7:37 That may be why you're here, that you haven't thought about it very deeply and how deeply, deeply wicked you are in loving other things more than God. the whole world of nature moving on now to inanimate or non-human nature. The whole work of nature is a work of God in origin and process. He determines the number of stars. He gives all of them their names.

8:19 Billions upon millions. you are Jane, you're Tom. And then he might use numbers. I don't know how he does it. He brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. Billions and billions of stars stand forth at his bidding, go out of existence at his bidding, stay on their course at his bidding. And when we descend to earth, we hear the psalmist say, whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth, in seas and all deeps. Psalm 135, he rebuked the Red Sea and it came dry. Psalm 106, he makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth and lightnings for the rain and brings forth wind from his storehouses.

9:22 Psalm 135. Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves and they ceased. And there was a great calm. So let us say with the disciples, even the wind and the waves obey him. I wonder if you believe that today. as you read the news of Myanmar or North Carolina. or tsunamis. I mean, do you believe that every hurricane, every monsoon, every typhoon in Bangladesh, every tornado hopping through Minneapolis, every tsunami against the east coast of India in 2005, everyone is appointed by the wise purposes of God. The wind and the sea obey him. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. If he says stop, the tsunami stops.

10:28 And if he doesn't, it doesn't. One word and the tornado disperses. One word and the hurricane ceases. One word and the plane flying into the World Trade Center is blown 60 feet off its trajectory and 2,000 people are spared. Just... He does it or he doesn't. The wind obeys Jesus today. Always. not only wind and sea, but the earth. I mentioned Myanmar.

11:21 That was an earthquake. That wasn't wind. He moves mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger, who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble. He was not asleep last Friday. 3,000 people minimally are dead still buried perhaps still breathing crying will they find me If you ask Jesus, why did you shake the earth?

12:07 He was asked that question in Luke 13 when the tower fell. Do you remember what he answered? And I'll speak his word to you. Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. That's what he said. Jesus. Nobody spoke like Jesus. all the motions of the earth, the sea, the sky are in his hands by the breath of God. Ice is given. We know that about that in Minnesota and, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He gave them hail for rain. He gives snow like wool. He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down crystals of ice like crumbs who can stand before his cold I love to quote that verse in January who can stand before his cold I sent rain on one city I sent no rain on another city one field would have rain the field on which it did not rain would wither Amos chapter 4 and that means that drought and famine are from the Lord.

13:27 I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, 2 Chronicles 7. I command the clouds that no rain fall upon it, Isaiah 5. I have called for a drought on the land, Haggai 1. I summoned a famine on the land and broke all the supply of bread, Psalm 105. He makes his sun rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the just and the unjust. He caused the grass to grow for the livestock that men may bring forth food from the earth. And billions of people give him no thanks at all. I've even talked to evangelical young people who say, why do you have to pray before meals? I say, well, what kind of question is that? You don't have to.

14:22 Why wouldn't you be on your face every hour, thanking God you have something to eat? It all comes from his hand. Snap his finger. All the thousand processes that bring it to you vanish, and we kill each other in mob violence, why wouldn't you? What kind of freedom have you got? Don't need to pray. Crazy attitudes. Just out of touch with the massiveness of providence.

14:56 I hope you're not in that category. Of course you don't have to pray. Just you're crazy. if you don't feel something rising up in you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That I've got food. The whole world of nature, one great intricate process of divine providence, and we have even spoken about the lilies that he clothes or the birds that he feeds or the frogs and the gnats and the flies and the locusts that obey him when they are summoned, lions who keep their mouths shut so they don't eat prophets plants and worms that teach Jonah what he ought to know and clogged Egyptian chariot wheels who can't get out of the river before they get drowned manna from the sky sun standing still inexhaustible oil and flour opening of prison doors falling off prison chains Herod getting eaten by worms doing what they're told and the dice rolled on every game of every household on the planet turn up with God's appointed numbers the lot is cast in the lap and every decision is from the Lord in Reno or Las Vegas or when my wife and I play Scrabble Put your hand in the basket.

16:36 And you say, because you shouldn't pray to win. you say, for the kingdom and for the family. That's what you do. Seriously. That's what I do. Nations and all the affairs of men. Oh, Lord, you rule over the nations and the kingdoms.

17:12 Nebuchadnezzar had to learn this, right? Had to become like an animal. That the living may know that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over the lowliest of men. He does according to his will in the host of heaven and on earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, what have you done? The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The king's heart is like water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21. That includes Trump, Putin, Zelensky, Xi Jinping. They can do nothing but what God designs for his ultimate purposes. Relax.

18:08 And so it is with all created minds, including Satan and demons, Jesus commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey. Mark 1 27, Satan and his demons are on a leash. They can do nothing but what fits into God's plan. He even uses Satan to accomplish his saving purposes, as in Judas or Paul's thorn. nor can any man or woman act outside the sovereign will of God.

18:59 Say that again. Nor can any man act outside the sovereign will of God. And yes, that implies that God wills that sin take place. If you don't have a category for God can will that sin be without sinning, the gospel will unravel in your hands. because God not only willed that his son die, but he willed how he would die.

19:52 Namely, by being unjustly condemned and killed, which is sin. And you'd be in hell if God hadn't willed that that sin happen. Therefore, God wills sin to happen without himself sinning. Many are the plans of the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

20:32 Proverbs 19. The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. the Lord of hosts has sworn as I have planned so shall it be and as I have purposed so shall it stand so James says do not say today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit don't say that don't say I'm going to go home after the meeting tonight or go to the motel and get a good night's rest. Don't say that. instead you ought to say if the Lord wills we will live I'm 79 I don't know if I'm going to finish this message right neither do you know if you're going to get out of that pew you don't know what is your life it is a vapor instead you ought to say if the Lord wills I'll stay alive for another 30 minutes and do this or that.

21:51 I mean, that's about as detailed as you can get. Do this or that. If the Lord wills, I'll do this. If the Lord wills, I'll do that. James says, look, you've read your Bible. Now don't be arrogant and talk like you're in control of your life. You're not in control of your life. so don't talk that way So, Romans 9, 15, and 16. The Lord will have mercy on whom he has mercy and will have compassion on whom he has compassion. So then it is not of the one who wills or the one who runs, but of God who has mercy. So the affairs of nature, nations, demons, human action, God works.

22:48 Ephesians 1 11 all things according to the counsel of his will let me draw out this implication for your immediate impact that means that this all pervasive all inclusive providence includes death and life and health and sickness and disability they're all in the hands of God Satan is real we just had in the chapel this morning Paul's thorn was a messenger of Satan Satan caused the woman that had been over for 18 years Jesus said that's Satan Satan did that and I'm going to straighten her up Satan is real He's just not ultimate.

23:47 He can throw into prison. He can make sick. He can kill. Satan can kill you. Revelation 2.10 says that. But the banner that flies over is he meant it for evil. God meant it for good. what Satan means for evil, God always means for righteousness, justice, goodness. So Job's 10 children, they all died. They all died when the house fell on them. When a wind blew, a wind blew. And when they came and told Job that your children are dead,

24:44 he said, it says, Job rose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return. The Lord gave me my ten children, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

25:17 I remember just when that song, Blessed Be the Name, came out, one of our missionaries in the Far East, in the Middle East gave birth to a son and there was a problem and he died in Turkey. And they came back for relief here. They were sitting right there. Second pew. Might have been the third. But I'm sitting here. They're sitting there. First Sunday back. It was the first Sunday we sang that song. He gives and takes away. he gives and takes away my heart will learn to say my heart will learn to say blessed be your name and I and I'll trust this anybody believe this and I looked at them and their hands were just like that and I know them both very well they were just totally submitted to the sovereignty of God they may have many questions but our God is God and they're back now they've been back for 20 years Thank you.

26:21 I, you know, one of the benefits of serving at this church for 33 years and preaching a sovereign God that long is that it becomes self-selecting, right? A lot of people get changed. They fall in love with the sovereignty of God. Some people leave because they hate it and others are drawn to it because it's just the sweetest message they've ever heard. And the people, if you stay long enough, people with disabilities grow up and they write books like this. just the way I am. God's good design and disability. Krista Horning. I wonder, Krista, are you here by any chance? Okay. I didn't have any reason to think she would be. This is a book based on disabled kids in our church. And all of their parents believe what I've just told you.

27:17 they believe that Moses, when he said to God, I can't go down there and talk to Pharaoh. My mouth doesn't work like that. And God said to him, this has become an absolutely crucial text for Christa and for the nights they might be here. who made man's mouth is what God says to Moses who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind. Is it not I the Lord? There's so many people who kick against that and others who discover that's my life. That's my life. This is Johnny Erickson Tata's newest book. I ate this book like it was pizza, which is a compliment.

28:16 if my poor soul had not suffered the bruising and battering of a harsh disability I would not know half the measure of God's sustaining grace and she says that on every page of this devotion this is going to be a required text in my class on second Corinthians in a few weeks because Noel and I read it as a couple and we love Johnny and we love her faith. She calls herself in the first introduction, a five point Calvinist. I texted her. I mean, I emailed her and I said, why in the world did you say that?

29:03 You've never said that in public. And she, she wrote back and said, I'm old and, and why wouldn't I want to explain to people what kept me going for 50 plus years of disability. all the works of providence are owing to God's sovereign invasion into our lives so that you come to John 9, which is huge for the folks in this book whose pictures are all here, just God's design in disability. This text was huge in our life together as a church.

29:54 So you know what happened. Here's a man blind from birth. The disciples say, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And Jesus answers, it wasn't that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed. so with that sentence we make a transition to what's God doing with all of this pervasive providence. What's he doing? What's the goal? What's he up to? Why'd he make the world? Why is he running the world? And that text says, this man's blindness is to display the glory of God.

30:53 That's what it says. That is the answer that the whole Bible gives more than any other answer. that the works of God might be displayed, that the glory of God might shine throughout the whole Bible.

31:15 He planned that from before the creation. Ephesians 4, I mean 1, 4 to 6. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will. Here's the goal. To the praise of the glory of his grace. verse 12 says he did it to the praise of his glory verse 14 says he did it to the praise of his glory but here specifically he did it to the praise of the glory of his grace God created the universe and he runs the universe to get white hot praise for the glory of his grace from a blood-bought people.

32:14 God's free grace rooted in nothing outside himself, but only the good pleasure of his will is the apex of his glory. It's not the totality of his glory. If you picture the glory of God like a volcano, know that the highest plume of smoke or the highest reach of the lava is grace. And it's based on this massive realities of God's excellencies exploding into creation and redemption. That was true of the whole history of Israel. Jeremiah 13, 11, I made the whole house of Israel cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. That's why he chose Israel and worked with him for 2,000 years, that they might be for him a glory. The people whom I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise, Isaiah 43. Your people shall be righteous, a branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified, Isaiah 60. You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified, Isaiah 49.

33:34 So there's the whole history of Israel, all of it designed for I will be glorified in my people. That's the goal. God will get glory. That is, he will be recognized and praised as infinitely beautiful, satisfying, great, worthy. Then the Messiah comes. and when he comes to the climax of his life in ministry, he's praying like this. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.

34:12 But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. and a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. Jesus died to vindicate the righteousness of God in saving sinners. Jesus died to put the beauty of God's grace on the fullest possible display. And in doing so at the cross, he purchased a people whose reason for being is this. You are a chosen people, a possession of his own. That you may declare, proclaim, show the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Jesus bought a people at the cost of his life so that they would make much of him.

35:20 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Bear much fruit that your Father may be glorified. You were bought with a price. Glorify God in your body. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I don't think there's any question from cover to cover that the dominant way that the Bible talks about the purpose of God in providence, in salvation, in creation, in redemption, in consummation, is that he aims for his glory to be known and loved and praised. and what we love to emphasize here at Bethlehem College and Seminary is that he created us that we might enjoy his glory.

36:30 knowing his glory. Yes, essential. Loving his glory, delighting in his glory. Now, if you believe what we believe about this, it raises the affections, not just the thoughts, but what happens in your heart, not just your head, your affections, it raises them to the highest possible level because we argue that God is not glorified as he ought to be until you are satisfied in him as you ought to be. If the satisfaction is not there, he does not get from you the glory that he ought to. That raises affections as high as you can raise them to make them essential for the glorification of God in your life.

37:25 That's what we believe. try this I thought now I'm going to close this and help them see why this works and how crucial it is so let's try this I've never tried this before but here we go picture yourself before a king and you know that your job before this king is to glorify the king make much of the king magnify the king draw attention to the power and beauty and worth and greatness of the king. That's what you're here for in front of him. So, you bow. You go down. You go down way low. And with your body you say, you're great.

38:19 And all the while you are whispering with your lips, I do not admire this king. you would not be glorifying him as you ought okay we're good on that one you would not be glorifying him the way he ought to be glorified so next step now picture yourself bowing and speaking with your lips you oh king are very great and strong and majestic. But in your mind, you're thinking, I don't think that's true. I don't think that's true. I'm just saying that because it's church. he's not great he's not strong he's not majestic you are not glorifying him the way he ought doesn't matter whether you bowed low doesn't matter whether you're saying the right words your mind is saying it ain't true so you're not glorifying him with your body and with your lips the way you should third step then suppose that you not only bow and you speak, but you also think this is a great king.

39:50 This is a strong king. This is a majestic king. But in your heart, you are saying, I don't want him to be king. I don't like him. I don't like him.

40:10 I don't enjoy him. I don't delight in him. I don't treasure him. Those are all heart actions, not mind actions. And our point here at Bethlehem is you're not glorifying him as you ought. If you're doing the right thing with your body and the right thing with your lips and the right thing with your mind and the wrong thing with your emotions or nothing with your emotions. You're not glorifying him. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. And there's just no debate about whether that's essential. That is essential. Jesus said this people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me what's the problem you got my lips I don't have your heart I don't have your emotions I don't have your affections I don't have your love I don't have your delight I don't have your treasuring you're not mine this is radical we believe in conversion we believe in miracles that cause people to be born again so that new hearts stone taken out flesh put in that's how you get saved this joy that we are going to have in God for this life through many sufferings is going to last forever and get bigger and bigger and bigger.

41:52 We're almost done. Ephesians 2 7 this has got to be one of the most amazing promises in the Bible he saved us so that in the coming ages he might show his immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus It's going to take eternal ages for us to receive the fullness of the display of the glory of the kindness of God. Because we're finite. If he gave it to us all at once, we would blow up. We're not God. There will not be one single day in eternity where the mercies of God are not new.

42:53 That's what infinite means. He is infinitely capable of satisfying his people by endless revelations of his glory.

43:13 Now, one last observation. when I say that the enjoyment of God, the being satisfied in God, the treasuring of God is the essence of the way he is glorified in all the external ways. It's the essence. I don't mean it's the only way that he gets glory.

43:41 Because in the new heavens and the new earth, The totality of how he gets glory would be the heavens are telling the glory of God. The sun and the moon are shining with praises to the Lord. The earth will rejoice. The seas will roar with praise. The rivers will clap their hands. The hills will sing for joy. The field will exult and everything in it. The trees of the forest will chant their praise. The desert will blossom like the crocus. The created world, liberated and perfected, will never cease to declare the glory of God. That's the theater. it's not the main way he gets glory in the theater there's a drama and the drama is you the freedom of the glory of the children of God and the drama being played out is beholding more and more of divine grace and finding more and more divinely given resources of happiness forever and ever so that God looks upon that happiness in him as the best echo of his excellence.

45:03 That's the drama. It's a beautiful theater. I look forward to the theater. Hope my dog will be there. No cats, just dogs. I had to say it. Big cats are allowed. Lion of Judah. No.

45:26 I look forward to it. I don't I don't belittle Romans 8. I love Romans 8. It's just not the main thing. You are the main thing. The children of God, delighting in God, enjoying God, being satisfied in God, and those affections animating all the mind and all the lips and all the bowing will be the essence of how God looks upon us with delight. And thus, the cosmos, the creation, reaches its final goal with God delighting in our delight in God. Father, I pray now that you would work deep in the hearts of us the right kind of questions to ask. if people are hearing this kind of teaching for the first time, they have many questions.

46:25 And those who have heard it, we have many questions. Oh, grant that the questions would be pursued with humility over your word and that little by little or all at once, there would be a profound, deep restfulness in your sovereign care, your providential oversight of our lives. I pray.