As God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. So last week we talked about predestination, kind of the more famous doctrine than providence, which is that God in His eternal decree has decreed and willed whatsoever comes to pass. And we know that God is in sovereign control of all things that have happened, are currently happening, and will happen. And no matter which way we turn, God knows which way we will go. So today we're kind of focusing in on a little part of that doctrine, which is providence. And providence is really the doctrine of how God works out in the world those things which he has decreed, that God is in control of everything. It's actually the physical kind of Maybe not physical isn't the right word, but the tangible way that God brings these things about that he has decreed. So we're going to start here just with our basic definition in the Westminster Confession, Chapter 5, Section 1. God, the great creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things from the greatest even to the least. by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy." So a good example just how we think about providence, we can even see in our passage this morning we talked about in the sermon. Hosea chapter 1. God says, you know, you've been working very hard. You've been sowing lots of seed, but you have reaped little. And he says in the end, it's because of me. It's because I have blown away this harvest of yours. And so we see there kind of this working of Providence. What could be more natural, more, you know, physical, tangible in this world than the planting of crops, the growing of crops and the harvesting of them? And yet, And also, I mean, key to understand, when we plant these crops, you don't see the hand of God visibly working. God doesn't directly interfere with those things. But it comes about by natural means of the world, by seasons, by rain, by sunshine. This brings about a harvest. But God is in such control that he can say in Haggai chapter one that it is I who causes this harvest not to be great. It's a natural thing, but also God is in control of it. This is what we mean by providence. Not that God is always working on the world in the sense that he is a puppet master moving strings, but that he works in and with the world. He works in a regular way in the world through the things that we see. His will is being constantly carried out, but not just in the sense of, again, that he's a puppet master. but that he works through the world. So to help understand that, we're going to talk about three distinctions. I don't have my whiteboard here, so you're going to have to keep these in your mind for later. The first one, we're going to talk about the distinction, and we talked about this last week, between primary and secondary causes, or maybe easier, direct and indirect causes. So remember we talked about this in predestinate, or yeah, last week, I guess that was two weeks ago now, right? When we talked about predestination, that God is the primary cause, that he directly causes the whole world in creation, but he brings his will about by indirect causes. And basically what that means is that God uses means of some kind. He causes things to happen, not just through him, Physically or I keep saying physical I shouldn't say that tangibly doing something not physically seeing God's hand at work But he uses people a famous example is the theologian Martin Luther He told his people, God does provide for you. He provides your food, but he does so wearing the mask of a baker. That's kind of an analogy he uses, that God uses things to carry out his will. He wants us to be provided for. He wills that we have food to eat. But it's not that he just magically makes food appear in our refrigerator, but we all have jobs that he has provided for us and employers. And through that, we get money. And because of this money, we're able to buy from the supermarket this food. And just because in the world around us, we see these means happening, doesn't mean it's not from God. It's happening at the same time. word to describe this, I guess. I like this word. I think it sounds fancy, and you can sound smart when you say it, is concursus. Let's say that back to me. Concursus. It's just a lot of Cs. It's so fun to say. Concursus. What that means is that the divine will and our will, because of how reality works, aligns, so to speak. And that's kind of a weird way to say that. But remember, we talked about a few weeks ago that God's will is such that it doesn't violate our will, that God wills all things to happen, that He has an eternal decree of what will happen, knows what will happen, and is in control of that. And yet, that doesn't mean that we don't have choices. We believe, as a church, that we do have choices. We do have a will with which we make choices. But our doctrine of providence says that even our choices that we make fall in line with God's ultimate purpose and his ultimate sovereignty. These two things aren't at war, but they go together. This is the way that it happens. We will something, but God also, in some sense, wills it to happen in his sovereignty. Let's see. Let's read the confession again. Section two and three. All right, section two and three. Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly. OK, so let's stop there because that was a mouthful. What he's saying there is, remember we talked about direct and indirect causes, God directly making something happen and then kind of indirectly through the world he makes something happen. So that's the distinction they're making here. When they say first cause, They mean kind of God's primary, direct causing of everything to happen in his creation of the world. That's God directly working, right? He said, let there be light, and there was light. It's a one-to-one. God directly made that happen. And remember, they talked about the decree of God, which is another way we talk about predestination, that whatever God decrees is going to come about. Yet, so the second half of section two, by this same providence, He orders them to fall out according to the nature of secondary causes either necessarily freely or contingently So there we've been talking a lot about causes what he means by that is that decree that final thing That's going to come about is going to come about through natural Happenings in the world secondary causes not God saying let there be food in the kitchen, but by him providing Bakers and him providing grocery stores and jobs so that we can feed ourselves These are all secondary causes. And if we think about it too much, there's so many secondary causes. It's amazing to think that God is in control of all of these and directs them how he may. The third section says much the same thing. He says, God in his ordinary providence makes use of means, yet is free to work without, above, against them at his own pleasure. So this is kind of sectioning off for ourselves God's freedom. God chooses primarily to use means, not just direct causes, but indirect. He chooses to use people. This is true in our Christian life as well as in just our general living. God uses people to convict us. God uses people when we confess to each other to build us up in the faith. He uses the human words here of the sermon to turn into divine words to help guide us in our life. God uses means. He uses the Lord's Supper for our sanctification, for our good, to preserve us. He doesn't just directly always act on us. Sometimes people misunderstand this, or perhaps don't understand this at all, and expect God always to work directly. And you've probably heard this from people. If God wants this to happen, it will happen. So they don't do their due diligence, or maybe they don't do any action, they wait. Or, you know, a common says is just pray about it, right? We just sometimes if we're lazy and counseling our fellow Christians, we'll say, oh, just just pray about this. And of course, it's always good to pray. I'm not saying not to pray, but we need to understand that God isn't always working in direct causes. He's not always just going to make what we want happen. It's not just God will make it happen. God will make it happen, but he also uses earthly He uses things like education so we can get a job. We don't just say oh God will provide for me I'll sit here and hopefully I'll get some money. We do it remember the illustration We talked about the sandwich a few weeks ago. You don't just sit in your kitchen and say I'm hungry Lord, please provide a sandwich you go to the refrigerator you get out your ham and your you know, whatever else you're gonna do and you make a sandwich and that is just as much God providing for you as if he magically made a sandwich appear before you And we should recognize that. That's why we pray before our meals. Growing up in a Christian family, if you have, it's probably sometimes weird to think when you pray, thank you, God, for providing this. When you know you saw your mom boil that pasta 10 minutes ago, God didn't make this meal. But why we pray is because we believe in this secondary cause. We believe that even in our mom boiling the pasta, God is providing for us. So that's what we mean by direct and indirect causes. Real quickly because we talked about this again two weeks ago. We also want to distinguish between God's revealed will and his hidden will Kind of the classic text for this is Deuteronomy 29 29 which says the revealed thing is for us and for our children but the hidden things are for God and what this means is that we as human beings living in a certain time in a certain place don't have the whole picture and We don't have the whole picture of God's plan because we, to be honest, couldn't understand it. Again, if we're trying to think about even just a simple thing about eating a sandwich, it gets incredibly complex to think of God's causes. All those causes that deal in God's plan of getting us a sandwich. I mean, think about it. The economic system, the money, who made the money, the people working at the factory. Then we go to the food. Who made the food? We can go through all of this very complex stuff. But all that to say is that we can't understand the whole picture, where we are, in our lives. But God has given us a small portion of that picture, and it's what we need. We trust God that what He has revealed is what we need. What has He revealed? This. Scripture. This is why we hold Scripture, the Word of God, to such high esteem in this church, and hopefully all true churches, because this is what we have. This is what God has given us, and it is sufficient for us for our life, for our salvation. What God has given us in here is what we know of the will of God. A lot of people talk about the will of God in a lot of different ways. But what you need to know about the will of God, you already have access to here. Not that it's always easy to understand the scriptures, not that it's going to talk to you in any way, or that you can just close your eyes and open it up and there's an answer to your question. But what we know from the scriptures is what God has revealed to us. That's what we know of God's will. What is God's will for your life? To follow what he says in the scriptures. To have faith in Jesus Christ for your salvation. Alone in Jesus Christ. And after you have that, to try your best to live as God would have us. Endeavor afternoon obedience to our Lord. Loving God and loving our neighbor. And if we fail, repent. The grace of God is gracious. We repent of those sins and continue on in our lives Uh, because of that, that is what God has told us in the scripture. That is, that is what we know of God's will. We don't know if he wants us to take a job in Fresno or, you know, stay here in Temecula. We don't know, you know, where and what we should do in every specific circumstance, but we know what we do know is in the scripture. The rest is what we call the hidden will of God. God is in control. That's what we know, but we don't know specifically how that control works itself out. So we talked about direct and indirect causes, revealed and hidden wills of God. The final thing to talk about in Providence is something called common grace versus special grace. This can sometimes be confusing, but actually it's a pretty simple idea. What we mean by that is that God is gracious to the world in many different ways. And he's gracious to the entire world, not just Christians. in some very basic ways. God still sends seasons. He still sends rain. Those who are non-Christians don't all starve, right? They are provided for by God. Their bread on the table is provided by God in secondary causes as much as our bread is provided by God. They just don't recognize that because they don't recognize God as God. That is what we call common grace, that God at this period in time is being good to all humans by giving, you know, giving them talents, giving them a loving family, if they have a loving family, giving them support. All of this comes from God. The giver of all good gifts, as scripture says in James, is God. So anything good that happens to anyone is because of God's provision, including non-believers. This is what we mean by common grace. It's why we pray for wisdom for our leaders. Even though they're non-Christians, the Lord has common grace in wisdom and thought that they can use. They can tap into as much as we Christians can. But this other facet we call special grace is to distinguish the very special way that God manifests himself to us as a church. And that is, as we said, revealed in the scripture in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the special grace. That is only what the church enjoys. We are the ones who have faith in Christ. is what we mean by special grace. And that's important to think of as we think of providence, because providence isn't just in the area of the church. God is in control of the things that happen to us in the church, but also all those things that happen outside of the church. Everything that is happening, all his creatures and all their actions are controlled by God. So as we think about this, it's important to think through what things are common, such as the rain, such as family, to the entire world, and also what is special, such as the gospel for the church. All right, so that was our three distinctions. We're talking about providence. Let me make sure I didn't miss anything. So looking back real quick to chapter 5 of the Westminster Confession, section 7 is what talks about that special and common grace distinction. It says, as the providence of God does in general reach to all creatures. So there we go. That's common grace. God's providence is for all. So after a most special manner, it takes care of his church and disposes all things to the good thereof. So while God's providence, again, general, is for all, all people have some measure of goodness because of God's grace given to them. There's a special way that takes place in the church. Romans 8, 28, God works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. That's special grace. That's a promise for us in the church through Christ Jesus, not for the world. So that was kind of in a real quick snapshot Providence. Any questions before we move on to some scripture passages? Yep, in the back. That is a great question. We'll touch on that in more specifics in the following weeks. But I'm not just going to punt. Don't worry. I'll give you an answer. The answer is that when we talk about Christ's sacrifice on the cross, we like to say that it is sufficient for all, but efficient only for some. So what we mean by that is Christ's sacrifice is eternally valuable. It is able to cover the sins of the whole world. And indeed, it is a true offer to the entire world. that if you believe in Christ, you will be saved. It's a true offer. Whether I say it to someone in this room or I go and knock on a door somewhere in this neighborhood over here and say, let me tell you about the gospel. If you believe in Christ, your sins will be saved. That's a true free offer of the gospel to all. And Christ's sacrifice is able to pay for all of those sins. However, there is only a limited number in this earth who will respond in faith. And we know from other parts in Scripture that that is because of God's Spirit working in them. And so when we say that it is efficient only for some, we're saying that the sacrifice, the actual sins that are offered on the sacrifice of Christ, are only those sins of those who would have faith. So if you have faith in Christ, your sins were already paid for by Christ on that cross. So while it's a true offer for everyone, it's only efficient for those who would have So that's kind of it in a snapshot. Thanks for that question. Yes, I would say in God's infinite wisdom. Again, this is a mystery. I don't know why he chose some or others. We know that it's nothing in them. We are told that it is nothing in ourselves that are worthy of God's choosing to reveal his special grace to us or not. All we are told is that God works in this world and brings those sinners to faith, and does in some sense pass over the rest. Again, we talked about this a few weeks ago, it's a very hard doctrine. And again, we don't know the whole picture or why, but a few things. One is, you know, God is amazingly good in picking some when he didn't have to. And two, we don't know who is who. Sometimes people are tempted to kind of give up evangelism or lose hope. Or even some people are questioning their own election, right? Well, I think this Jesus thing sounds good, but I don't know if I'm elect. But it's just not a good question to ask. The only question is, do you have faith in Christ? And if you do, you are elect. It's not a sort of special club that people are going to be banging on the doors to get in. God will work to save those. And it's just faith. That's the question. And the elder is going to come in and clean up my mess. I haven't. We will get to effectual calling later in the series. I think that does support, at the end, you know, by his almighty power in permitting death, that which is good, when you reduce the will, effectually draws us to death. So, as they come most freely. So, they're coming freely, but it's God who's making them visible by his grace. So, yeah. I mean, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah. Yeah. We, I mean, there's still choices in this whole conversation. We have to remember. Scripture is very clear. We make choices. All humans make choices. And those who have come to faith do make a choice to have faith in Christ. But even that is, again, guided by the Holy Spirit and else because of God's grace. When God bends the will of the king like a river, would you say that's a primary or a secondary? Yeah, so that's a passage in Proverbs. The exact reference is escape me. But there is a passage in Proverbs that says God does change the will of a king like he bends a river. I would say that is a secondary cause because, again, he is using that king. So an example, again, we can see in Haggai. The exiles are able to return to the land because of a decree by Cyprus, an emperor, a pagan emperor of the Medes and Persians. documented in history, not just in scriptures, that he chose to return some people and allow them to build even temples to their God again. So that is certainly the Lord's influence. The Lord calls Cyprus his servant in Isaiah and says, I will send you back, but then says it'll come through Cyprus. But again, it's not a magical. When we talk about direct, we're meaning God doing it by himself without any intermediaries, such as the creation of the world. Let there be light. There will be light. Right, and neither does the Westminster Confession, right? He says God is free to work without or above or underneath. God is always free to do in his world as he would, but it is important to notice that ordinarily he does not. And what we are led to believe in scriptures, particularly about our Christian life, because we're given the most information about that, is God is not going to directly reveal himself to us, but he's going to use the means that he has provided, the church. you know, sermons, the scripture, the sacraments, baptism, Lord's Supper. These are the things God promises to use. Each other, community, the church, those are the means that God uses. This is great. Questions? I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just curious, does God ever say anywhere in your Bible that you were to take his accountability? He's got children, he's got a wife, That is a huge question that, again, we will cover later on. But just a two-minute answer is what I would say is God's promises, as we see in the Old Testament, is for those who would believe and for their children. So we read the Abrahamic covenant that talks about you and your offspring. So in our Presbyterian church, that's why we baptize our infants, because the promise of faith, the gospel, is not just for those who believe. but is also, because God is so gracious, he knows we love our children, right? As he loves his children, he extends that grace to them as well. And we don't like to speak about an age of accountability maybe necessarily in that way, because the promise is for them. If they are not forsaking that promise, they are saved. They are part of this church community, bar none. And then we hope that they come into understanding and they can participate even more fully as they get older. But we don't like to talk about specifics. Do you want to say anything more about that, Andy, or? Any other questions? These are all great. We have so many questions that my computer froze. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's a good point to make. Thanks for saying that. Common grace extends to a lot of areas. I mean, we all know non-Christians who are great people, right? We're very close friends with them. They're loving to those around them. They care for those. They have good morals. There's a lot of good in the world. As fallen as this world is and how terrible it is, there is good left in man. And that itself is God's amazing grace. His grace, again, we have a government that is somewhat stable, at least here. governments in the world that generally provide stability for people. All of this are good gifts, again, God using secondary causes to give these good gifts. All right, we're going to get to our passages real quick to talk about providence. We actually only have two today, so be impressed. The first is Genesis chapter 50. Genesis chapter 50, we're going to do verses 15 through 21. These also are both pretty short passages. And my hope is just to show kind of on one side of the scale, God's providence in a major happening, and then on the other side of the scale, God's providence in a very minor sense. So Genesis 50, and then could someone look up Proverbs 16.33? I'm just going to throw that out there. And then hopefully, when we come to it, someone listened. Or we'll have awkward silence, one of the two. So does someone want to read Genesis 50? 50 through 21? Yes. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave us this command before he died. He said to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sins, because they did evil to you. Now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones, lest he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So probably most of you are familiar with the story of Joseph. It's a pretty popular tale. But in brief, Joseph grew up in a family of many brothers. He was a favorite, somewhat spoiled. And because of that, his brothers were angry against him one day and sold him to slavers that brought him to Egypt, away from his family. And he didn't see any of his family for many, many years. He was a slave for many years. He was falsely accused of rape and was thrown into prison for many, many years. Again, this is a long, it's a very short summary of a long story. But eventually, through a lot of very odd occurrences, becomes second in command in all of Egypt. And his wisdom allows Egypt to survive a severe famine and saving many thousands and thousands of lives. And through this, he eventually comes into contact with his brothers. Remember those who had betrayed him, who ironically now come to him for help because they do not have any food to feed their families. And long story short is Joseph is forgiving and gracious. But then at the end, there's this very interesting passage you just read in Genesis 50. This is after all this has happened. This is years later. Their father dies, and now the brothers get nervous again. Maybe Joseph is harboring some animosity, just wanted to wait till the dad was dead. Before he you know did some real damage to his brothers got some real revenge and so they come to him and they ask for Forgiveness and obviously they're very nervous. This is still a very incredibly powerful man who they treated terribly and put through years and years of suffering and This gives us an amazing insight into God's providence in this passage. This is a major world event. Egypt, again, is the power in the world at this time. Like Rome was later on, like Greece was, this is the preeminent people in this world. Civilization at its finest at this point in the world. And they are saved from a famine because of Joseph. OK, now I'm asking for participation. What is a very important thing that we are told here? You can use the word concursus. That's a hint. In this passage, what does it tell us about God's providence? What does it show us about what we've been talking about? Well, the will of Joseph's brothers was in line with God's will. And even though they meant something different, what they did was what God If you're going to think of a word for that, what would you say? Wow, that's amazing. You are super intelligent. That's what you want. No, yeah, it's very clear. In that passage, two wills are talked about, right? Very clearly, what you meant and what God meant, these two wills, and they're different, right? Because God's will is good and these brothers were evil. But it's very clear that they brought about the same event and the same event brought forth God's purposes. So even the sinful desire, which God does not cause people to sin, people choose to sin, they willed it. These brothers chose to do this, but even as they chose it, God was using it, was willing it to save lives. It's a beautiful showing of concurrence. They willed and God willed and it brought about God's purpose. And that is always the case. We are always willing things in this world, but eventually and always God's will is over against causing the things that he has decreed to happen to happen. Questions? Proverbs, I keep wanting to say Providence, Proverbs 16, 33. Did someone look that up? Or type it into their smartphones? Yeah, go ahead. So this is the very opposite. Is everyone able to hear that? Basically, the summary is the lot is cast in the lap, but the outcome is the Lord's. And this is the opposite end of the spectrum, right? We have this major world event, including probably millions of people. Lives are in the balance. Evil is being done. Good is being done. This major thing that happened over decades and decades and decades is in the hand of the Lord. It was his purpose that brought this. about. And then in Proverbs, on the opposite end of the scale, we have, you know, a game of poker happening late at night. That even that is in the hand of the Lord. That there is, that God's providence is not just these major events. It's not just that God knows the end, right? That Christ is going to come back and all this thing. He knows the end and then, you know, we're kind of waiting to see what happens in here. And he has some basic things that will help us with. No, even the smallest thing, like the roll of a die. I'm a huge board game player. If anyone out there likes board games, talk to me. But you roll die all the time. And it's a seemingly worthless, trivial thing, right? If you roll a four or a six or a two, it doesn't change major life events or even the lives of anyone around you. But even that, God is in control of, in his providence. So we can imagine if we have these two extremes, major world events, and then the rolling of a die, if God is in control of both, this middle ground here, God is also all in control of. Whether it's a major life choice, maybe it is a minor life choice, where your children will go to school, or who you choose to hang around with, or et cetera, all these things are in God's control. And that should be a comfort to us, that the purpose of this doctrine is not that we feel trapped or that, again, that we are lazy and say, well, God willed this to happen or, you know, if he wills this to be lazy or not, try our best, but rather to know that wherever we are, whatever we are doing, our loving God is in control and his promises stand and will come to pass. His promises we talked about this morning, that through Christ Jesus, we will, because we are right with God, enjoy blessing in the future. We will have hope. because of Christ. We will have that hope. That is sure. Whether we're rolling dice or whether we're thrown in prison for false accusation, God is in control and is bringing about what he has promised.