We have two portions of scripture we want to read this morning in addition to the law. First, from Psalm 104, Psalm 104, verses 24 through 35. Psalm 104, verse 24. O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all. The earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships. There is that Leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. that Thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled. Thou takest away their breath, they die and return to the dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created, and Thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever. The Lord shall rejoice in His works. He looketh on the earth and it trembleth. He toucheth the hills and they smoke. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet. I will be glad in the Lord Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord. And then Genesis 22. Genesis 22, 1 through 14. And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went into the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. He took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went, both of them, together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham, his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them, together. And they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham! And he said, Here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Thus far, the reading of God's precious word. Dear congregation, Scripture tells us plainly to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways, and He will direct all our paths. It teaches us that nothing is too big or too small for the living God. God cares, boys and girls, for every sparrow and every hair of our head is numbered. We call this truth, this amazing truth, God's providence. And this morning, I'm called to expound this truth to you, which I want to do from two texts, the portions we've read, and from Lord's Day 10 of our Heidelberg Catechism. First, I want to look with you at Psalm 104, 27 and 28. These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. And then Genesis 22. 2, 7, and 8. And he said, God said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. Verse 7, And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went, both of them together. Lord's Day 10 of our Heidelberg Catechism, questions 27 and 28. What dost thou mean by the providence of God? The almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were, by his hand he upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures, so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand." What advantage is it to us to know that God has created and by His providence does still uphold all things? That we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and that in all things which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move. With God's help, then, we want to consider with you this morning our Father's amazing providence. First, we will look at its definition. Definition of providence. Second, its dilemma. And third, its delight. Our Father's amazing providence. Definition, dilemma, delight. When an artist completes a task, He puts his artwork somewhere. If it's a statue, he normally puts it on a pedestal. If it's an oil painting, he normally hangs it on a wall. And then he can turn around and turn his back on it and go back to work on a new piece of art. And he can forget about what the old piece of art was all about. But when God, as the great artist and architect of this world, created the earth, boys and girls, there was no place to hang it, to put it as it were. And Job tells us, he stretcheth out the north over the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing. Think of that. The earth and everything God created. He hangs on nothing. He suspends it in space. A wonderful, amazing thing. It shows He's an omnipresent God. And it shows that all of creation rests in His hands. Yes, He held and He still holds the whole world in His hands. And He infuses the whole creation continuously with energy so that it can be sustained. You see, if God were to act like that artist and He were to turn His back on what He created, the whole world would descend into utter chaos. They were to drop the world, so to speak, boys and girls, out of his hands. It would fall into the abyss, into nothingness, into chaos again. But God doesn't do that. God keeps and preserves and governs what he creates. And that's what providence is all about. God's providence is His ordering of all issues and all events after the counsel of His own will to His own glory. Let me say that again. God's providence is His ordering of all issues and all events after the counsel of His own will, that's what Ephesians 1.11 says, to His own glory. Now, even though the word providence is only used one time in the Bible, and then in a meaning different than our meaning this morning, the matter of providence is on nearly every page of the Bible. And the verb to provide is also in many places in the Bible. In fact, the verb, to provide, comes from a Latin verb, providera, which corresponds with the Greek pranoia. And in Scripture, this means to foresee not only something and foreknow it, but also to give what is necessary for it, so that it happens. So God's providence isn't just a knowledge ahead of time of what's going to take place, but providence actually provides what is necessary to preserve and govern everyone and everything to reach the ordained end of God. That's why the Heidelberg Catechism defines providence this way. The almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were, by His hand, He upholds and governs, those are the two key words, upholds and governs heaven and earth and all creatures according to His eternal counsel. Now we read, of course, of this all throughout Psalm 104, which I've read a part to you. There we're told that God provides food for man and beasts. We're also told in Psalm 36, Lord thou preserveth man and beast. So just as children, as you depend on your parents for food and for clothing and for shelter, so the Heavenly Father provides for your mom and dad and for you and for all creatures, everything you need. That's why our text says in Psalm 104 this morning, that thou givest them, that whatever God gives to us, we gather. Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. We all get good from the hand of God. Now, theologians have long said that God's providence consists of two important acts to events or matters, if you will. The first is called preservation. You find that in that word uphold, don't you? By his hand, the catechism says, he upholds, or you could say preserves. This is preservation. All things. Preservation. is peculiarly ascribed in the Bible to the Father, the Creator, who is also the Provider. But it also speaks about the Son being involved in this work. Hebrews 1 verse 3, He upholds, speaking of Jesus, all things by the word of His power. And we read also in Psalm 104 of the Holy Spirit being involved. In verse 30, just two verses beyond our text, Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created, and Thou renewest the face of the earth. The Spirit is involved in creation and in the constant renewal in energy to keep things supplied with the energy they need to be preserved, to keep them in continued existence. The Spirit, you see, renews the face of the earth every springtime. When the buds come out again, the grass begins to grow. This is the work of the Spirit, the common work of Spirit in nature, renewing the face of the earth. And so when Jesus said, My Father worketh hitherto and I work, He didn't mean to say that the Spirit doesn't still work. All three of them still work at this great work, this amazing work of providence. Now some people think that when God created the world, it says that He rested from His labors, that He stopped working. That's not what it means, though. It only means that He stopped creating. He didn't create any new matter. But God goes on working. He goes on upholding what He has created. In fact, every breath you breathe is the work of God. Every time you blink your eye, you move your hand. Every time your senses work, you smell something, you see something, it's the ongoing energy God gives you in his divine act of preservation. Job says, God is but to let go his hand and I become nothing. I fall into the abyss. God is but to let go his hand and I die. Every second, every tick of the clock that we still live is an act of good, an act that comes from God opening His hand, an act of mercy, an act of kindness. So we are completely dependent on God for food and drink, for health. You know that when you're sick, don't you? When you're very sick, even to be able to take a swallow of water, or one bite of bread, you know is a gift of God. You see, it's God who blesses in every way. It's God who blesses the farmers. When they sow their seed and work the land, they still must do the work. But it's the blessing of God that this whole nation, the whole world depends on if God were to withhold His hand. They'll send only drought year after year. We would all suffer and die. We would be victims of famine. In fact, when God sends drought or flood or tsunamis on the earth, scarcity often results. But that's not God's normal way. That's not God's nature. That's not His fatherly hand. God delights to give. Like a mother. You know, a mother just... She delights to give to her children, doesn't she? She delights to set good food. She delights when they eat. When they eat healthy. When they eat well. She likes to see her children grow. Gives her a certain pleasure. That's how God feels about His creation. He fills us with good, says our text. He preserves us. Do you ever stop to think about that? And what that means for you? And what that means in relationship to sin? Just imagine God doing everything for you. And you taking all that energy you get from food and drink and from all his supplies, and using it to sin with those eyes that he so wonderfully created, with those hands that he so wonderfully made, with those feet to which he gives such wonderful ability. What a tragedy to sin against God. As a pastor, I've often thought, as I've seen people, rear children and seen sons and daughters go prodigal on their parents and seen their pain and felt their tears and their agony. I've often thought, I've often prayed, Lord, When my children get older, please don't let them go that way. What an unbearable burden it must be to spend 20 years of your life pouring in energy and love and compassion and giving, giving, giving to your children and then have them go AWOL on you, have them rebel on you. What a tragedy. But you see, that's what we do every time we sin against God. We're going AWOL on God. The God who preserves us. The God who gives us everything. We use the very gifts of God. We turn our back on God. We slap Him in His face. We reject Him. Sin is rejection of God. What a tragedy sin is. And doesn't God have a right then on the Day of Judgment to bring us into account with what we've done with our eyes and hands and feet and heart and mind and affections and will? Of course He does. He gave it all to us. And He gave it all to us for one reason, teenagers, to be used to the glory of God. So every time you turn your feet in a direction and go into a place you don't belong, You're besmirching that glory. God's preservation speaks of our accountability to God. But the second part of doctrine of providence is government. Government. Our instructor says, he upholds, that is he preserves, and governs heaven and earth and all creatures. Ephesians 1, 11 says that He works all things after the counsel of His own will. You see, God is a secret will. And that secret will, He determines the direction of all things so that everything serves to His great goals. And what are His great goals? Well, you know those, of course. His glory and the well-being of His church. And so between paradise and the second coming of Christ, there is this thing that we call history. I mentioned in prayer already, His story, God's story. Between paradise and the second coming of Christ, that long period of development of all events lies under divine control, so that every single thing takes place for God's glory and the well-being of His church. Even sin? Yes, yes. We say it with trepidation. We say it with mystery. Yet we must say it that God will even permit evil to take place. He allows evil in the world. He regulates it. He checks it. He punishes it. But He also uses it to shape it toward his great goals. And there's lots of examples of that in the Bible. One of the most striking ones is David numbering the people of Israel. We read in 2 Samuel 24 verse 1 that that's David's sin. But we also read that the Lord was kindled against Israel and so moved David against them to say go number Israel and Judah. And then we read in verse 8 of that same chapter that Satan was also involved. Or rather, 1 Chronicles 21.1, Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And so some people read this and say, now who really did this? Did God do this? Did Satan do this? Did David do this? In a sense, all three were involved, weren't they? And yet God controls Satan and man and overrules evil for a greater good. and yet never in such a way that God himself is tainted with evil, or touches upon evil, or moves us to evil. God is never, never the author of sin. Now, this is always mysterious, and we can't grasp all this. Providence can be a very complex issue. But the Bible is very plain that God overrules heaven, and earth, and hell. God overrules good and evil. Satan isn't in charge of hell. God is in charge of hell. Satan isn't in charge of sin. God overrules sin. Amos 3, 6 says, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in the city? And the Lord hath not done it. God commits it. As a sinner, but God decrees it, you see. God suffers it, God directs it, God permits it. God's not just a helpless bystander. On 9-11, or when other tragedies or evils take place, as a sovereign God, He uses the evil of man to fulfill His plan in ways we can't comprehend. That's what the whole book of Job is all about. God and Satan are engaged in a tremendous struggle. God wants to show Satan he is sovereign. And so he manifests that through allowing Satan to come with evil to Tim's yoke. You see, the fact that God could prevent sin, and yet both directs and decrees sin, and thus absolutely controls all the sinful deeds of men, that doesn't make him the author of sin. He himself always remains sinless, spotless, holy, undefiled. But the question you will raise, of course, because that's the natural question of our corrupt hearts all the time. The question you will raise is, but if God directs all things, aren't we somehow less responsible? Doesn't that diminish our responsibility for sinning? God's in control anyway. And the answer, of course, you know is no. But can you explain why? Let me give you three quick reasons why. The first is this. Though the providence of God gives a sinner the power, the consideration, the possibility of choice to act against the commandments of God, We always act freely, voluntarily when we sin. God never compels us to sin. God never moves us to sin. God's secret decree doesn't twist our arm to sin. We are responsible. We voluntarily sin. That's the first reason. The second is this. Don't forget, God created us. God created us prone to not sinning. He created us fully qualified to gain eternal life. You see, it's not His providence that stands in our way. It's our disobedience that is at fault. God can't take responsibility or lower His demands of perfection on account of our open rebellion. performed without the least compulsion on our part, on his part. And then thirdly, let us remember that God's providence doesn't only extend to sin, but it also extends to all the innumerable invitations and callings and warnings that he gives us in a fatherly way. And even things like famines and sicknesses and so-called accidents and wars, these are all God's calling to us to show us our responsibility and to drive us unto Himself. Now, these three reasons don't take away the mystery of providence. Providence is a mystery. Sometimes it's a dilemma. That's our second thought this morning. A dilemma. And what a dilemma it can be. Such a dilemma that many people, especially the natural man, often denies providence. Isn't that true? People talk about fortune, or chance, or mother nature, or fate, rather than God's guidance. Or they attribute things to luck, or to the stars. Incidentally, this whole area of horoscopes and being guided by astrology and stars is straight from the devil. God condemns it. In Deuteronomy, it may seem innocent, it may seem foolish, but many people are deceived by it. This whole area, you see, we shouldn't tolerate anything, even in our language, that is an affront to the providence of God. We shouldn't even use the words, Good luck. There is no such thing as luck if we believe the doctrine of providence. There's no such thing as chance. No such thing as coincidences from a divine perspective. You see, it's all God's providential guidance. The fact that the world thinks in terms of good luck and chance and coincidences. Well, we can understand that, of course, because the world has lost God. It's lost its grip on the Word of God. It doesn't interpret life in terms of the Bible. It lies in the grip of the evil one. But then a believer should use the world's language here and imply that His every event is not somehow shaped by God, is disastrous. Every detail of our lives is shaped by God. There's nothing blind and capricious about God. There's nothing meaningless that happens in our lives. Totally without reason. That's what the world says, you see. Things happen to us. It's Mother Nature that brought Katrina. It's just a capricious and arbitrary and cruel event, they say. Well, it's no wonder that these same people say, life is meaningless. Life is absurd. They even say that. Because there's no God in control. There's no organizing person or principle. Life is just trivia pursuit. There's no overriding philosophy. There's no overriding theology. There's no undergirding scripture. There's nothing out there. Life is nothingness. Life is rootlessness. Life is absurd. So, you can see it in modern art productions, you can see it in modern literature. There's tragedy, there's emptiness, there's rootlessness. But the Christian must not think this way. There are no accidents. No coincidences, no accidents. If you see a bird fly into a window, your first response of your nature is, well, that was an accident. And humanly speaking, of course, well, yes, it was an accident. But the Bible says there's not one sparrow that falls to the ground without his will. What could be more of a chance than casting a lot? Yet the Bible says the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. You see, everything, everything comes ultimately from the hand of God. John Calvin had some very helpful language to explain this. He said, in all that happens to us, there is a primary cause and there is a secondary cause. The secondary cause is the thing that, the object that gets in the way, for example, the window got in the way of the bird. That's the secondary cause. There was a window there. The bird flew into the window and it fell to the ground. The window killed it. That's a fair way of speaking, isn't it? in terms of secondary causation. But Calvin said, the Christian learns to think of primary causation. So no matter what happens to me, my first response when I'm living close to the Lord, not when I'm backsliding, but when I'm living close to the Lord, my first response is, it's my Father. He's the primary cause. of all things. It's my Father. And my Father knows best, you see. And when you understand this primary causation, and you can believe it, and you can embrace it, the peace it gives you as a believer is indescribable, even though no circumstances change, because you rest in this primary causation, you rest in your Father's will. Now, I'm not saying this is easy to do. Actually, the Holy Spirit alone can give it to us in the midst of affliction. Sometimes we have it for five minutes and we let go of it again. We begin to look at secondary causes. But the more we mature in grace, you see, the more we talk to ourselves, we hold soliloquy, that is conversation with your own soul. Like David did. Oh my soul, why art thou cast down within thee? Hope in God. Praise the health of thy countenance and thy God. So we say, when we begin to go back to secondary causes, yes, but he said this, or yes, but she did that to me. Yes, but. Yes, but. Yes, but. We say, no, no. No, my soul, don't go down that road. It's God's providence. It's your Father's will. He works all things together for good. It will come out well. Trust Him. You see, that's the way to speak, in the midst of the dilemma of providence. Now, we read in the Bible, of course, many of the saints had great dilemmas as well, didn't they, in terms of providence. I just read to you from Genesis 22, one of the greatest problems, confronting God's providence that any saint ever had to experience. Abraham waiting all these years for a son, and God says to him, now take your son, your only son, the son whom you love, God is underscoring it, and offer him up to Me. The son of promise. The son through whose loins the Messiah is to come. The son upon whom the covenant of all ages does hang. Offer this son to Me. What a dilemma. What a dilemma. You see, God can sometimes seem to contradict Himself between His promise and His providence in our lives. And these things create dilemmas. God had told Abraham, in Isaac, shall thy seed be called. And now He says, take him and offer him up. This is the greatest trial Abraham ever had to face. All of the trials were nothing compared to this. What could God be doing? God, who is his friend, seemed to be his enemy. But isn't that true also in your life, dear child of God? That there are times, times of affliction, times of great trial, when God doesn't solve problems, when they don't go away, when they seem to be compounded. And you look to God as the primary cause, and you say, Lord, it seems that thou art dealing so strangely with me. Thy pathway is in the sea, and my footsteps are not known. Thy ways are past finding out. Thy promise seems to contradict thy providence. The promise was, in Isaac will thy seed be called. The providence Go and sacrifice thy son, thy only son, whom thou lovest. And then we read verse 3, Abraham obeyed. That takes grace. Abraham obeyed. How could he obey? Trusting his father. Trusting that his father knows better than what he knows. That's not easy. And when you talk to people, when you pastor people, when you counsel other believers in the congregation, don't take this flippantly. Don't go to some brother and sister, oh, well, say there's a primary cause given to the hands of the Lord. Don't you know there's a reason for this? And you say that coldly. No, no, that's not what God wants us to do. There are times we just simply have to admit we're just human beings and we don't know the answer. We don't know the answer. And we just commend each other into the hand of God. Far better it is to say to an afflicted brother and sister, my brother, my sister, I realize how deeply grieving you must be. How hard it is at such times to understand the providences of God. And yet the Lord can help you in the greatest trials. He has promised. Not to give you a trial above and beyond giving you the grace you need to care and bear that very trial. But don't pretend to say to an afflicted believer that you know all the reasons why. That's showing ignorance. It's showing that you want to be wiser than the Word of God. God's providences are higher. His ways are higher than our ways. And many times we can only say, Lord, what thou doest in my life now, not only, but what thou doest in my friend's life and in that child of God's life, I don't know. I do know, I shall know hereafter. Well, that's the way to approach, to come alongside, to love, to support, to encourage each other, to trust. in the Lord, even when we don't understand. To say with our catechism instructor here, remember, my dear friend, that all things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand. Behind a frowning providence, said the poet William Cooper, he hides a smiling face. He will help you through. And so you see, our task, our calling as believers is the calling of Abraham to obey, to fall in line with God's providence even when we don't understand His ways. Realizing we are not victims of fate, we are not products of chance, but we are children of the Heavenly Father for believers. And so, God will make it well. though we don't understand how. So we fall in line. Abraham obeyed. God can give you the grace to do that too. But happily, there's a wonderful side to providence. Providence is a great delight. These wait all upon thee. that thou mayest give them their meat in due season, that thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good," Artaxas. So, the stress here is that God gives to everyone his or her own meat in due season. John Calvin says this, The miracle of this is the greater from the circumstance that God, by making the earth fruitful at stated seasons, extends in this way His blessing for the rest of the year, which threatens us with hunger and famine. How wretched would we be when the earth in winter shuts up her riches were not our hearts cheered with the hope of a new increase in the spring. Calvin then goes on to say that in wintertime, it may seem like God's hands are closing, but then faithfully every year you see, that's what the text says, thou openest thy hand. Thou openest thy hand. And we are filled, literally, in the Hebrew, we are delighted. We are satisfied with good. Now if that is true, Here in Psalm 104, which is speaking primarily about things natural, food and drink, things in God's general providence, how much more is that not true for God's people when they become recipients of what theologians call special providence? What a tremendous, tremendous, amazing thing special providence is. When the love of God the Father is poured upon me, The same love that He gives to His Son, He gives to me. John 17, Jesus prayed, The love of which thou hast loved Me, that thou wouldst love them also. You see, in God's paternal love, if I'm a believer, everything comes to me from the right hand of His favor and His mercy, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, in this awesome, stupendous, fatherly love. And that fatherly love is now being administered by the Lord Jesus Christ, who arose from the dead, who ascended on high, and who can say, all power is given to me by my Father in heaven and on earth. All power in your life too, dear believer. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, you see, administers to you this fatherly love of God in every providential dealing, directing all the world. Yes, the whole world is in His hands. The Redeemer, the elder kinsman, your older brother is looking after you. And He will care for you. He will care for your soul. He will care for your body. And you will find great delight in His good. So what advantage then is this doctrine of providence to us? Well, we find delight in three of its great gifts to us by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And our instructor lists them for us very beautifully in famous words in question 28. The first, he says, is patience in adversity. What a wonderful delight it is to have patience in God, for Christ's sake, by the Spirit, in adversity. You see, adversity brings us, day by day, doesn't it, into contrasts in our lives. The Catechism speaks of these contrasts here in these terms. Rain and drought. health and sickness, riches and poverty. You see, these are the ups and downs, the ebbing and flowing of daily life. And our instructor says, question 27, all these things come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand. Now, what happens when I get patience and adversity is I believe that my poverty is from my Father. My sickness is from my Father. My drought is from my Father. The tears and sorrows are from my Father. Then I don't say, the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me, but I believe in my adversity, that He loves me more than a mother loves a sucking child. I trust Him. Though in my grief no answer yet has brought relief. How is that possible? Well, it's possible only by faith, of course. By faith, we then learn to say through the ministry of the Spirit, I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Faith then says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And when faith embraces that, you see, when it sees everything coming from the primary cause of my Father's heavenly love, We have patience in adversity. We have wonderful submission, wonderful peace, wonderful composure. Then faith embraces the plan of God as my master weaver. It says with a well-known poem of the poet, my life is but a weaving between the Lord and me. I may not choose the colors, for He can view the pattern upon the upper side, while I can see it only on this, the younger side. Sometimes he weaveth sorrow, which seemeth strange to me, but I will trust his judgment and work unfaithfully. It is he who fills the shuttle, and he knows what is best. So shall I weave in earnest, leaving to him the rest. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reasons why. The dark threads are as needed in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned. You see, patience in adversity is something far deeper than simply resigning yourself to what's happening to you. Sometimes, People think that way. Well, they say, I'm being patient. I can't do anything about it anyway. I'm not complaining. I realize God's in control. I just have to grin and bear it. That's not patience and adversity. That's inner rebellion and adversity. The Buddhist, the Muslim, the unbeliever can reach that point. No, Christian patience goes much deeper. Christian patience is the fruit of the Spirit. Christian patience surrenders all into my Father's hand. It doesn't just tolerate adversity. It doesn't just endure adversity. It perseveres in adversity. It keeps on weaving in adversity. It keeps on going when it seems that God is coming against me as my greatest enemy. Christian patience says, though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. You see, it's Christian patience and adversity that gives us the strength not merely to drag our crosses and burdens through this life, but to carry our crosses cheerfully behind the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a big difference, congregation, between a cross-dragger and a cross-carrier. Do you drag your crosses along because you cannot change things anyway? Or do you carry your cross behind Jesus because you feel your Father's loving, chastening hand that makes you say, Heavenly Father, Thou art so unspeakably good to me. That this cross is but a light thing compared to what I deserve. But I also know it will be for Thy glory and for my good. Christian patience is the opposite of rebellion. Christian patience is not silent rebellion, but it is unboosoming prayer. It is submissive, trusting, surrendering prayer. Lord, teach me to will what Thou dost will, and not to will what Thou dost not will. And Christian patience is not only prayer. Christian patience is also praise. It is not only the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, but it is also blessed. Praise be the name of the Lord. Christian patience sings in the inner prison. It rejoices in persecution, for it feels the Father's hand of love. Oh, what a grace this is. Patience in adversity. Have you ever had times in your life where you delighted in this gift? But secondly, thankfulness and prosperity. Thankfulness and prosperity is a delight. What a joy it is when I see that I deserve nothing but death and hell, and then I look at what God gives me. What a joy it is then to rejoice in His salvation, to rejoice in His kind providence to me. Not to be like the nine lepers as we heard Thursday morning with the superficial thanksgiving, but to fall on my face before God with a one truly thankful leper and say, Lord, I'm unworthy, but to Thee be the glory. What a wonderful thing that is to delight in God, to praise Him, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, not even the little benefits, the so-called little blessings. When we're thankful in prosperity, we see blessing in everything. We see cause for thanks in everything. I told you before how after one of my dad's surgeries, I came into the hospital room and he was weeping, and I asked him what he was weeping for. He was weeping for joy because a nurse came in and moistened his lips with an ice cube, and he thought he could have one drop of liquid in his mouth when the rich man in hell Couldn't get one drop of water to cool his tongue, and he said, I deserve to be there with that rich man, and I'm so thankful for this one drop of water on my tongue. That's thankfulness and prosperity. And you see what happens. It's most of the time, we push that all away. We take life for granted. We take God for granted. We take our friends for granted. We take our spouses for granted. Our children for granted. Our church for granted. Our office bearers and ministers for granted. We take everything for granted. And we're murmurers in the wilderness of this world. But if we have just a little sight of what we deserve, and a little sight of the goodness of God, We bow in incredible thankfulness. And we say, who am I? Who am I? And what is the house that thou hast brought me hitherto? And that colors our whole attitude of life. And we wake up in the morning with a sense of delight! The goodness of God! And a delight that we get to serve Him today. This is the best cure for every kind of depression. Delight in God. Delight thyself also in the Lord, says the psalmist. Oh, what a joy that is. That colors everything. Colors even our view of the world and the events that are happening in the world all around us. Today, I mean, today it's a pretty sad picture, isn't it? Every day you pick up the paper with just a little bit of fear. How many hundreds are going to die today in Iraq? There's an unending amount. Or am I going to read something today about the gains of the gay lobbying movement? Or something more about these rogue nations who have ambitions for nuclear power? Where will it end? Will our children be able to live out their lives before the Lord Jesus comes in the clouds? There is much depressing news locally, nationally, internationally. But faith says, God is King forever. Let the nations tremble. Faith says, I believe in primary causation of all things. I am thankful to God for all He's given. Today He's not forsaken me. Today I live in amazing prosperity and I owe it all to God. We take our bad times to the Lord. You see, there's always bad times. The difference between the world and the believer is the world doesn't know what to do with bad times. The world moans and groans over bad times. And we Christians, We also must not be immune to bad times. We are not to respond like a stoic to bad times, with no emotion. But we are to take, like Daniel, we're to take our bad times in the Babylon of this world to the Lord. To the Lord. That's the difference. With gratitude. Recognizing that our bad times are not nearly as bad as we deserve them to be. Is that what you're doing? And then thirdly, we delight in God's providence because it gives us a firm trust for the future in God. The future you see may be unknown, but if we know God is the holder of it, all shall be well. If we're holding our Father's hand, all shall be well. Much may be taken from us, but if the love of God is not taken from us, We have everything we need. Nothing shall separate me, says our instructor, from His love. We place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father that nothing shall separate us from His love. That gives delight. Then we sing with the psalmist in sweet communion, Lord, with Thee I constantly abide. My hand Thou holdest in Thy own to keep me near Thy side. then all is well. Then we can cross over the most dangerous events, the most dangerous roads in our lives, but if we are little children and our Father has our hand in His with a firm grasp, we shall make it safe to the other side, even across the Jordan. All shall be well. And so we cling to Him with delight because He clings to us with love. We hold Him fast because He holds us fast. We love Him because He first loved us. You see, the love of God, the love of the Heavenly Father in Jesus, that's the content of our trust. That's our guarantee. That's our treasure. That's our foundation. And so we go forward, delighting in our Father's will. Well, let me summarize all this by asking you in conclusion, How would your life be enriched if you truly believed in God's providence? If you truly delighted in God's providence? If you really believed that the Father rules over all your personal thoughts and words and actions and everything that happens to you? Well, you'd be a very content person, wouldn't you? You'd place all your cares in the Father's hand. You'd rest more in holy submission. You'd realize your dependency on God. You'd fix your eye on Him. As a child, don't you sometimes look at a small child and you say, what a wonderfully easy life this is. Everything's taken care of for this child. This child can be joyful and happy. And yet, that's the way we're called to live. Trusting in the Lord. Isn't that true? Except you become like a little child. You shall not see the Kingdom of God. And of course, you'd be more patient, wouldn't you? You'd be more patient in adversity. You'd be more thankful in prosperity. And you'd trust God more for the future. You'd be able to say, with John Ryland, in his beautiful poem, Sovereign ruler of the skies, ever gracious, ever wise, all my times are in thy hand, all events at thy command. His decree who formed the earth fixed my first and second birth. Parents, native place, and time all appointed were by Him. He that formed me in the womb, he shall guide me to the tomb. All my times shall ever be ordered by his wise decree. Times of sickness, times of health, times of penury and wealth, times of trial and of grief, times of triumph and relief, times the tempter's power to prove, times to taste the Savior's love, all must come and last and end as shall please my heavenly friend. Plagues and deaths around me fly, till he bids I cannot die. Not a single shaft can hit till the God of love sees fit. What a way to live. And what a way to die. Delighting in God's providence. Is that the way you live? But what would happen to you if you were to die tonight? Could you say, thou openest thy hand and fillest me with good? Could you say that? Do you trust in God? Do you really grow by His means of grace? Reverend Bennis Rock has brought you God's Word for already more than five years. Next week, I will have been here twenty years. You've heard 25 years of sermons. Have you ever bowed under God's goodness? That's the whole purpose. He calls you. He calls you, Romans 3 says, by His goodness, that His goodness may lead you to repentance and to faith. He doesn't waste His goodness upon you. Oh my friend, don't be faithless, but believing. Don't destroy yourself with your soul-numbing unbelief. I read to you a little of what Calvin said. on our text this morning, but at the very end of his statement he says this, Now if the Lord supplies wild and brute beasts with sustenance in due season, by which they are fed to the full, His blessing will doubtless be to us an inexhaustible source of plenty, provided we ourselves do not hinder it from flowing to us by our unbelief. God is still dealing with you tonight. Today, He's still saying to you today, seek me and live. He's still calling to you teenagers, my son, my daughter, give me your heart. But you say, will the Lord have me? Will the Lord have me? I'm such a sinner. I've got such a bad history. If He knew who I was, You would know it would be hopeless. There's no way from me to God. That's right, my friend. There's no way from you to God. But there is a way from God to you. That's the Gospel. And that's what Abraham told Isaac when they were walking up the mountain together. Father, where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Isaac said, and Abraham said, my son, God will provide. God will provide. Himself. Himself. His own son. A lamb for a burnt offering. That's the answer. You need to. And God did just that. As Abraham's about to plunge the knife into his own son, the angel stops him. There's a ram in the thicket, caught by his horns, offered as a substitute for Isaac, picturing the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ. On Calvary, Jesus had no substitute. He was the ram. The Father took the knife into his own son. and spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, so that sinners like we might hear the cry, this is a faithful saying, and worthy to be accepted of all, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. So now, because of what God has done in Calvary, There is an open, loving Father's hand filled with blessing. There's an open, loving Father's heart moved with compassion. And there is an open, loving Father's house, one day to go open forever in glory for sinners. And so we surrender our lives, and may you do so too, to the faithful under-shepherd. to the faithful shepherd, Jesus Christ, and say as his sheep, the Lord my shepherd holds me within his tender care and with his flock he folds me. No want shall find me there. In pastures green he leads me. With plenty I am blessed. By quiet streams he leads me and makes me safely rest. Amazing prominence. Amen.