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Well, it's really good to see
you guys. We're going to go ahead and start by opening with a word
of prayer. And tonight we're going to be talking about God's
providence, God's providence. So let's go ahead and pray and
then we'll get it, jump right on into our subject. Most gracious
heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for
your love. We thank you for your mercy and
your grace. We thank you that you are a forgiving God and a
compassionate God. And Lord, I'm just thankful for
the privilege and the joy and being able to come here and share
your truth, your word with the folks in this room. Lord, we
are all sinners. We have all fallen short of your
glory. And so we need your mercy and your grace. We need your
forgiveness. We need your power. We need your
might. And so I pray that you will help
us tonight to focus on your truth. Your word is truth. Help us to
hear that truth. Help us to receive that truth
and help us to believe that truth. And I pray that you will give
us the strength to walk in that truth as well. Lord, I ask that you
will hide me behind your cross and just allow your words to
speak tonight. In Christ Jesus' name we pray, amen. So we're
gonna be talking about providence tonight. This is our, as we continue
our study of the Baptist Catechism. All right, so we're gonna be
talking about providence tonight. Before we begin to talk about
Providence, we want to go ahead and define it. Providence is
a place in Rhode Island, right? Providence, Rhode Island, is
it Rhode Island? But that's not what it means
here. Providence means the care or preparation in advance. This
is just your basic dictionary definition. Care or preparation
in advance. Prudent management. Providence
means prudent management or care or preparation in advance. And
finally, in a theological sense, the care, guardianship, and control
exercised by God, divine direction. All right, let me read that again
and then we'll go ahead and talk about what we're gonna talk about
tonight. Providence is the care, the guardianship, and control
exercised by God. It is divine direction. So the premise that we want to
base our study on tonight is the word of God teaching us that
God is in control. Can you all say that with me?
God is in control. And not only is God in control,
but God is good. So the foundation of what we're
gonna be talking about tonight are those two facts. God is good. Everything that he does is good.
And God is in control. And what is God in control of?
Everything. All right. God is in control
of everything or he is not God. He is in control of all of creation. He created it and he can do with
it what he pleases. God is the creator and he can
do with the creation what he pleases. God is in control of
all of creation. So if you got your little study
sheet you have there, we're gonna have to go fast tonight. The
other night it took us 55 minutes to do about 18 questions and
tonight we got 41 questions. So we're gonna have to pick up
the pace a little bit in order to get done. But I wanna share
a quote with you to begin with. regarding providence. This is
from a guy named Abraham Booth. Abraham Booth was a theologian
back in the 1700s, 1800s. And he said, that abundance after
which the carnal heart so eagerly pants is adapted to gratify not
the demands of reason, much less the dictates of conscience, nor
yet the legitimate and sober claims of appetite, but a fond
imagination, pride of show, the love of secular influence, the
lust of dominion, and a secret desire of lying as little as
possible at the mercy of God's providence. All right, let me
read it again, because that sounds really confusing, but it's really
simple. That abundance after which the carnal heart so eagerly
pants. All right, what is a carnal heart?
It's an unregenerate heart. And so the carnal heart eagerly
pants. Right? What is the carnal heart
eagerly panting after? The desires of the flesh. And
his desires are adapted to gratify. Not the demands of reason. Not
things that are logical and make sense, but much less the dictates
of conscience, nor the sober and legitimate claims of appetite,
but a fond imagination, pride of show, the love of secular
influence, and the lust of dominion, and a secret desire. So there's
a secret desire in the carnal heart of man to rely as little
as possible upon the providence of God. All right, so we started
the class off by saying the providence of God is God's what? guardianship and control his
care his guardianship and Control and what brother Booth was trying
to say to us here is is that in our fallen nature? We don't
want anything to do with God's care God's guardianship or God's
control Because if God is in control
then that means that what I'm not I And to the carnal heart, that
is a problem. You see what he was saying? The
carnal heart desires after gratification. It doesn't matter if it makes
sense or not, it's what gratifies his desires. The carnal heart does not pay
attention to the dictates of conscience. Even when our conscience
tells us we're doing something wrong, we continue to do what
is wrong. Pride of show. The love of secular
influence. We like to belong. We like to
be appreciated. We like to feel like we count. The lust of dominion. We want to be in charge. We want
to be in control. We want to be the one calling
the shots. and a secret desire to rely as
little as possible on the providence of God. Have you ever noticed
when it is that you really get close to God and pray and go
to church and read your Bible and do, it's when we're in trouble.
You ever notice that? It's like when I'm in trouble.
When things have gotten out of control, I finally go, you know
what, I better turn to God here. And there's a direct relevance,
there's a direct correlation between how much control we give
God and how much control we take and how much control we have
in our lives and how lack of control we have in our lives.
The more we allow God to control our lives, the more controlled
our lives become. The more we turn our back on
God and try to control things ourselves, what happens to life?
It gets out of control. Why is that? It's because the
carnal heart doesn't want anything to do with God. The natural man
refuses to trust God. He doesn't want God in his life.
And so we have to understand that there's a battle going on
inside of us in our fallen nature to trust the God who created
us. And it's only through the grace
of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and a trust in His Word
that gives us the strength and the willingness to turn and to
follow Him and to trust Him. So what we wanna do is we're
talking about providence tonight, is we wanna look at some Bible
verses and we wanna figure out why is it that I should trust
God? Like, what is it that I'm trusting in when I say I trust
in God and God's providence? So, our Baptist Catechism question
tonight, question number 14, class says, what are God's works
of providence? Okay, y'all can repeat with me,
ready? God's work of providence are his most holy, wise, and
powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their
actions. Let's read that again. What are
God's works of providence? God's works of providence are
his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all
his creatures and all of their actions. So God's providence
is most holy and most wise. God sees the whole picture. God
sees the beginning from the end. God sees eternity past to eternity
future, and he knows everything that's taking place right now.
He is the only one that has the right, the ability, and the knowledge
and wisdom to make proper decisions about what is happening, because
he's the only one that sees the whole picture. And so it tells
us that his providence is most holy and wise, but he preserves,
what does it mean to preserve? Save it, to take care of it,
to keep it from harm. Preserve, govern, what does that
mean? Yeah to have authority to lead
and control and so he has the powerful preserving and governing
of who all his creatures and all of their actions All right. So let's look at some Bible verses
to back up what we learned there Psalm 145 17 Psalm 145 17 Psalm 145 and 17 says this, the
Lord is righteous in all of his ways and holy in all of his works. Everybody there? Did everybody
turn there? All right, I saw you all raise your hand with
your Bible at the beginning of the class. I think they made
you all do that for a reason, right? Make sure you're putting
your eyes on it. The Lord is righteous in all
his ways. Does God do anything unrighteous?
No, why why not because he is righteous in all of his ways
everything that he does is right All right. Why are you letting
this happen to me God? And the answer is because Because
I'm holy and righteous and you're not That's the answer when we
ask God why is he letting this happen the answer is because
I is for your good and my glory is what God tells us. Even the
bad things that happen in our lives are for our good and his
glory. We know that all things work together for, right? To those who love God, to those
who are called according to his purpose. So Yahweh is righteous
in all of his ways and holy in all of his works. So God's works
of providence are most holy. We see that in scripture now.
Let's turn to isaiah 28 29 Just to the right a little bit there
isaiah 28 and 29 And what does it say isaiah 28 verse 29 says This also comes from Yahweh of
hosts who has made his counsel wonderful and his wisdom great
God's counsel is wonderful and his wisdom is great then back
to Psalm 104 24 Psalm 104 24 Now we're quickly going over
these things. I want to leave this piece of
paper with you I'm praying that you'll go back and take this
and dig into it yourself and pray and meditate on what it's
saying Psalm 104 and verse 24 tells us this. How numerous are your works,
O Yahweh, in wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full
of your possessions. Who owns it? God, he owns it. What does he own? Everything,
that's right. Everything, he owns it all. How
numerous are your works, O Lord, in wisdom you have made them
all. The earth is full of your possessions. Why did you make me this way,
God? Because. Now the carnal heart wants to
argue with God and argue with his providence. The spiritual
heart, the one who has the spirit of God in them recognizes that
God is the one in control and yields to what he says, to thus
saith the Lord, okay? So his count, his providence
is most holy and wise. It is powerful preserving, Hebrews
1.3. To preserve means to keep safe,
right? To keep it from rotting. You
got some fig preserves, you can put them on your toast in the
morning at breakfast time and they'll stay for a long time
in that jar without rotting. All right, but if you go out
there and try to get some figs off of a tree and just leave
them sitting there in the yard, what happens to the fig? They rot, right?
Or either the raccoons and the possums come by and steal them
from you. But the truth of the matter is, once you make fig
preserves out of them, they'll last for a long time. You put
them in that jar and keep them sealed, and then you got some
good breakfast material there. So preserve. Hebrews 1.3 tells
us, Hebrews 1.3, He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation
of His nature. And what does He do? He upholds
all things by the word of His power, who having accomplished
cleansing for sin, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high. So, number one, let me ask you
this. Who accomplished the cleansing for sin? Jesus and who sat down
at the right hand of Matthew, huh? Jesus. So who is this verse
talking about? Right Jesus and what does it
say about Jesus? He is the radiance of God's glory
He is the exact representation of God's nature and he Jesus
upholds all things by the word of his power He upholds all things
by the word of his power. How many of y'all remember that
little song? He's got the whole world in his hands. He's got
the whole world. That's what this is saying right
here in Hebrews 1.3. He upholds all things by his
word. He's the one that's in control. He's got it all. Amen? All right. And governing all
of his creatures and their actions. He governs all the creatures
and their actions. Psalm 103.19. Won't be peeking
out that top of my glasses. He was looking it up. I'll make sure y'all doing that Psalm 103 19 Psalm 103 19 says
this Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens and his
kingdom rules over all He has established his throne, and he rules over all. He's established his throne.
Where's his throne? In heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Now, when you watch the news
tonight, you might say, well, it don't look like he's ruling
a whole lot. But the truth of the matter, God is in control
of even the chaos. There is nothing going on that
he's out there pulling his hair, going, I can't believe, oh, there's
Earl, look at him. I can't believe he's doing that.
God's in control of even your actions, Earl, and even who you
are. Now, God is in control, but you're
still responsible for your actions. You can't say, well, you made
me this way. Why'd you make me this way? And then what did Paul
say? Who you are, you're back with him. Can the clay say to
the potter, why did you make me thus? So we ain't got no room
to argue. All right, Matthew 10, 29 through
31. Matthew 10. Verses 29 through 31. And it says this. Are not two sparrows sold for
an Assyrian? And yet not one of them will
fall to the ground apart from your father. But the very hairs
of your head are numbered. So do not fear, you are more
valuable than many sparrows. Right? He governs all of his
creatures. From the earthworm to the sparrow
that eats him. Right? To you and to me. And he knows how many hairs you
got on top of your head or how many you don't have on top of
your head. Amen? Right? Every time one rolls down the
shower and goes down the drain, he knows about that hair. There's
an old theologian named R.C. Sproul that said it this way.
He said, there is not a radical molecule in all of the created
order. Not one radical molecule. There's
not one molecule of oxygen out of sorts, out of balance. God
controls everything down to the last atom, A-T-O-M, and the A-D-A-M,
right? Think about that, there's not
one molecule out of place. God's in control of it all. Yeah,
and sometimes we forget that, don't we? Right, because as Brother
Booth told us at the beginning of our lesson tonight, our carnal
hearts don't want him to be in control, because if he's in control,
I'm not. All right, so question number
one to back up our catechism question, is God's providence
universal? Yes, the answer is yes. And that
103.19, I think we've already looked at that, didn't we? 103.19,
what did it say? His kingdom rules over all. God
is the king. His kingdom rules. His kingdom
come, his will be done. Have you ever wondered why we
pray that when we pray? He told us to pray that, didn't he? When
you pray, pray like this. Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Well, it's already gonna be done,
why are we praying it? Ever thought about that? Why
did Jesus tell us to pray that way if his kingdom is gonna come,
his will is gonna be done? Why am I praying that? Huh? Well, we do glorify him with
our prayers, but think about this. Your prayers are not gonna change
God. It's to remind yourself that
God is in control. You know God does not change.
I am the Lord, I change not. So when you're praying to him,
he's not gonna go, you know what, you're right. I think I'll change
my mind and we'll do it your way. We'll do it your way. But
a lot of times in our prayer life, that's our attitude. I
wanna convince God that what I need is right. Listen, he is not a Buddha that
you rub his belly and get your wishes. Right? He's not a magic
eight ball that you can ask a question and he's going to give you the
answer you want to hear. He's God. And so when we pray, we're not
praying to change his mind, we're praying to change ours. His will will be done. His will
is being done right now. So question number two, does
this kingdom extend to all the worlds? Yes. Whatsoever the Lord
pleased that he did in heaven and in earth now notice that
it said to extend to all worlds What is that talking about? Huh Well all of the worlds but
remember even everything in this universe Mercury Venus Mars Pluto
the Milky Way all of the galaxies out there. We can see that's
all a part of this world and But there's another world out
there too, isn't there? This young lady's reading a book called
The Unseen Realm. There's a what? Spiritual world
out there, isn't there? Well, it could be. The Unseen
Realm. We don't see it, right? But that's
God's world too. This world is God's world, that
world is God's world, and any world that's out there is God's
world. Because he created it all. All right? So does his kingdom extend to
all worlds? Yes. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that he did in heaven and in earth. That which he pleased,
he did in heaven and in earth. Now the third question, does
this kingdom extend to all creatures? Yes. And y'all look, we're using
that Hebrews passage again. He upholds all things by the
word of his power. Without his word, there is no
power. Without his word, there is nothing upheld. Could you
imagine that if God stopped speaking, the whole created order would
just unravel? It'd just be gone. He upholds
this very moment in time that we have. He upholds that fan to keep it
from dropping on your head. He upholds gravity. He upholds
how fast the earth rotates around the sun. He upholds the little
bitty baby in the mother's womb. He upholds everything. He's in
control of it all. He upholds it all. Well what
about the inanimate creatures? Does his kingdom extend to inanimate
creatures? Now what is an inanimate creature?
I had to think about that a little while when I read this one because
when we think of a creature, we think of something that's
alive. But this is more talking about the Pleiads and the band
of Orion. What is that? The Pleiads and
the band of Orion. Yes, the constellations, the
stars in the sky. So that's actually in the book
of Job. He binds the sweet influences
of the Pliads and he loosens the band of Orion. Every one
of those stars that's up there right now is there because he
put them there. And they're there because he's
up holding and keeping them there. And every month, once in a while,
when the sun's coming up one morning, you're out there sitting
on the porch and, Joan, we're not out there smoking, right?
We're just out there looking at the sky. I told her to hear me. But we sit out there in the morning
every once in a while. I just saw one this week, Monday
morning. I was out there working in the parking lot and what happened?
Star fell. You know what happened? God put
up holding it. It's time for it to go. He let
it go. And in a flash it was gone. Right? So yes, his kingdom does extend
to all of the inanimate creatures. Well, what about to the animal
creation? In Jeremiah 8, 7, it says, the
stork knows her appointed time. What in the world does that mean?
The stork knows her appointed time. Deliver babies? That's what I
thought of when I saw it, too. Yeah, that's a great guess, but
it's wrong, because that's exactly where my mind went, too. To move
to another area? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the migration
of the birds. Have you ever thought about that?
I got, right now, I don't have as many hummingbirds right now
as I had earlier this summer because most of them have gone,
and I'm trying to get my hummingbird feeder in because them knuckleheads
will stay around and die in the cold. If you leave hummingbird
feed in the hummingbird feeder, you're liable to attempt one
to stay instead of going, migrating south and going down to South
America for the winter. And then they turn around and
come back. Actually, most of them only make
it about to Miami, but then they turn right back around when it
starts warming back up, and they follow the blooming of the flowers
all the way back up the coast. But they just know when it's
time to do that, like nobody tells them that. And I've seen
them, they tag ducks now, when they fly from way up in northern
Canada, up above Canada, and then they come flying south,
and it takes them like three days, but they get up to like
100 mile an hour, they find these wind streams, and they catch
the wind streams, and they ride with the wind. And they time
them and see how high they go and how low they go and where
they go. And every year, they take the same path. And nobody
gets, I mean, it's not like they can ask Siri. They don't have
a GPS. You know, I mean, they just know where to go. Why? Why do they know where to
go? Because God's ingrained it in them to do what they do. He
ingrained it in the sun and the moon and the stars to do what
they do. God is in control. and his kingdom rules over even
over the animals of the creation. Number six, does God's providence
order all events relative to particular persons? Yes, look what it says, Job 14,
five. Man days are determined, the
number of his months are with God. God knows right this very
second when you're gonna draw your last breath. and you're
not gonna get an extra one over what he knows. He knows if you're
gonna live 10 more minutes, 10 more days, 10 more years, 10
decades. God knows. He knows right now
how long you're gonna live and how many breaths you have left
in your body. Man's days are determined. Now,
the natural man don't like to hear that, do he? We like to
think that we, oh no, my days aren't done, I got plenty of
time left, right? That's what we think. But God is in control of even
our days. Does his providence rule sway over the kingdoms and
societies of men? We just had a big election in
this country. Whether you're happy about it or not, the point
is, is that a president was elected, And the House and the Senate
both flipped over the parties. And whether you like that or
not, it happened. And no matter what you think, God is in control
of even the United States government and even the Russian government
and the Chinese, the wicked Chinese communists over there and wherever
you want to talk about. God was in control when Adolf
Hitler was in charge with the Nazis. God has been in control
all throughout history. Have you ever thought about,
till most of the Christians in this country were praying for
a certain person to win the election, right? But there were some Christians
that were praying for somebody else to win. Well, whose prayers
is God gonna answer? You know, when your team's playing
on one side of the field and another man's team's playing
on the other side of the field, he's praying that his players do better than
your players. Whose prayers is God gonna answer? I read a story
about Mark Twain called Innocence Abroad. It was about him taking
a trip when he was a young teenager and going over to Europe and
seeing all kinds of things. And they was on the Atlantic Ocean
and they were traveling from up around New York and going
across to the United Kingdom. And the winds, the waves were
terrible, like they really thought they were gonna lose their ship.
And there was a bunch of people on that ship, there was a bunch
of very pious religious people some Puritans on the ship and
they all fell down on their knees and were all praying to God,
saying, oh God, please give us safe passage. Now Mark Twain
is an atheist, so I don't take anything he says for truth, but
he said he was standing out on the deck holding onto the rail
and there was another boat going the other way. And he was thinking
to himself, he said, well if there's some people on that boat
and they're praying too, and both parties are asking for fair
winds so that they can have safe travel, somebody's not gonna
get it. You know what I mean? If God answered this boat's prayer,
the other boat's gonna get in a storm. And it's the same way in the
mind of your lives. God is in control of all the storms. God
is in control of the wind, the sun, the moon, the star, and
the bee. And the best thing for us to do is just to hold on and
ride it out. Get in the boat with Jesus and ride out the storm. Let Him be in control. Alright? So, Does God exercise special providence
over some places? Well, in Deuteronomy 11, 12,
it said that the land of Canaan was the land that God cared for.
Are there times when God poured out his special providence on
a particular country or a particular people? Of course. Yeah. And it says then, it says,
over some persons. And it says that God exercises
special providence over some persons. Well, He is the Savior
of all men, but especially of them that believe. Does God show favor to people? Yeah, God can show favor to people. He's not a respecter of perfect,
but God's favor is poured out on God's grace and favors poured
out on people Yeah Nope nope Does he? This he does love everybody,
but does he give everybody the same opportunities? Oh? You have more opportunities than
the children of Israel did in the Old Testament. They had not
seen Jesus yet and seen him nailed to a cross. They didn't have
66 books of the Bible to tell them about what happened and
why it happened. So you've actually been blessed
with something that they didn't have. The writers of the Bible
even say that. They say that the prophets, they
were dying to see the things that you've seen. So you have
more favor as far as the revelation of God's will and God's purpose
and God's plan than somebody that lived 2,000 years ago. Now,
they can be just as saved as you are because they're putting
their trust in God's promise. Whether they see it clearly or
not, it's still His promise. Heaven's going to be just as
real for you when you get there as it is now. You don't understand
all of it now. You can't see the big picture
yet. But that doesn't change the reality of what's coming.
You see how that works? But God does show favor to certain
people. You do realize, this is something
that you should wrestle with in your life. You should think
about this. There are people that have died never hearing
the name of Jesus. Like there are tribes and nations
of people that have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. What do we do with that? Well,
first of all, we're supposed to go tell them. Absolutely.
Yeah, we're supposed to send a missionary to go tell them
about it. But there are people that have died and they were
here. Yes, sir? I mean, not everyone's of the elect. Well, that's very
true, but that's God's business, not ours. Oh, I know. That's
what I'm just pointing to. Yeah. I know that. But so the question
was, does God show partiality or not partiality, does God show
favor to certain people? Yes. Yeah. And you know whose
business that is? God's. Just make sure that the
favor that's been shown to you, you appreciate. And you do his
work. And trust him, and walk with
him, and follow him. Absolutely. Because to whom much
is given, much is required. Amen. So. That's about 48. That's about 48. Thank you very much. What was
it? Luke 12, 48. If much is given, much is required.
Thank you, Joan. You gave me something tonight.
I'll do something with it. Thank you for that. Luke 12,
48. Alright. So, is it desirable
to be interested in God's special providence? Should we be interested
in that? Yeah. Remember me, oh Lord, with
the favor which you bear to your people. Number 11, does God's
providence extend to all actions? Yes. A man's heart devises his
way, but God directs his step. Think about that. Boy, if that
won't put something in your craw, wouldn't you a natural man? I
got plans, God. I'm gonna do it this way. And
what did God say? No, I'll direct your steps. And
many of us in this room can look back on that reality and say,
thank God he did, because I was stepping right into hell. My
heart was devising hell and destruction for my life, and God directed
my steps a different way. Does God's providence extend
to all natural actions? Take that one, Acts 17, 28. In
him, Christ we live and move and have
our being Acts 17 28 in him we live and
move and have our being I Like this one number 13 does
God's providence rule in fortuitous actions. I Now, you might not
know what a fortuitous action is, but I'll show you one. Look
what it says there in 1 Kings 22, 34. A certain man drew a
bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints
of his harness. What had happened was, Ahab was
going out to fight the battle, remember? And one of the prophets
came to him and said, you gonna die in this battle? And Ahab
said, no, we'll go ahead and go anyhow. And they went, and
it was a soldier, and he just pulled back his bow and he just
basically let it go. and it landed right in between
the armor and hit the king, killed him. It was just a random lucky
shot. He didn't even know he was shooting
at the king. But God's hand was on that arrow
and made sure it got to the point it was going to. So a fortuitous
act is something that just seems to be like random and just falls
out of nowhere. Like, a fortuitous act might
be you get a call and say, hey, you know, yeah, this fellow was dying down
here and he had a winning lottery ticket in his hand and he said,
make sure to give it to Henry. You know, and that's a fortuitous
act. Earl, you're getting a free lottery ticket. You know, and
you go, well, why did I deserve this? Well, the man was dying,
he said, make sure he gets it. That's a fortuitous act. God is in the random, because
with God there is nothing random. It's random to us because we
can't see the big picture. But nothing's catching God by
surprise. And what all of these things
should be doing is driving us to rest and be assured in what
God is doing. Just knowing that he's in control,
all right? What about the good actions of
men? Psalm 37 says, the steps of a
good man are ordered by the Lord. What about evil actions? Is God
the author of evil? No, that's a big no. But God
does permit evil, doesn't he? God allows wicked men to be wicked,
does he not? So does God's providence rule
sway over evil actions? Well, look at Genesis 45, eight.
It was not you who sent me here, but God. Now that was who? Who's
saying that? That's a big quiz. That'd be
a hard one to just pick up unless you didn't. Genesis, who is it? It was not you who sent me here,
but God. It's Joseph. He was in Egypt. Remember what he told his brothers?
Don't be hard on yourself. You thought it was you that sold
me into slavery and sent me here, but it was God who was making
sure that I got here to preserve your lives. Was the actions of
his brothers evil when they sold him into slavery? You better
believe it. But God used the evil actions
of men to make sure that his man got second on the throne
in Egypt so that he could take care of him later on. So does
God's providence rule in evil actions? Yes. Even when the wicked
men are being wicked, God is still in control. He took wicked
men and had them nail Jesus to their cross and brought salvation
to all of his people through their wickedness. God allowed
them to be wicked. He allowed them to do what they
did. And they thought that they were doing something that was
going to get rid of Jesus and shut this man up finally. And
in reality, they were bringing salvation to the world through
their own evil actions. You ever thought about that?
It's like the most wicked act that ever took place on the face
of earth, and God took the most wicked thing that ever took place
and turned it around and used it for our salvation. So, can God bring good out of
evil? You thought evil against me,
but God meant it for good. That's Joseph again. Remember,
that's what he said. You meant it for evil, God meant it for
good. Our God's providence is mysterious.
You better believe it. His judgments are a great deep.
His ways are beyond finding out. What does he say? My ways are
not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts. We think
we got him pegged. We think we got him figured out.
Oh, the devil thought he had it figured out too, didn't he?
The devil thought he was going to destroy the creation, and
through sin, God brought a Savior into the world. Through the sinful
acts of men, God made sure that a Savior got into the world.
All right? Now, His providence is mysterious,
but are they harmonious? Is His works of providence harmonious? Tonight our singing was not very
harmonious. If the neighbors heard us, they
probably thought somebody was getting beat in here. But that's okay, because
we were making a joyful noise unto the Lord, right? But harmonious
means what? It's all in symphony. It's all
in harmony. It's all in accord. So even all
of the random chaos and all of the random beauty that you see
going on around you, there's nothing random about it. It's
all God's creative symphony. doing what he does, all right? Is preservation an act of providence? What does it mean? We already
talked about preservation. What does it mean to say you're
being preserved? You're being kept alive, right? So is preservation
an act of God's providence? Yes, he holds our souls. He holds our souls in life. God is the one that upholds you
and keeps you and preserves you. Did God preserve us in our infant
state? Now what's crazy about this,
this question was asked back in the 1600s, 1700s. And this
has more relevance today than it ever did, doesn't it? Did
God preserve us in our infant state in our mother's belly? Did he? You better believe he
did. What did Jeremiah say? You knew
me before you formed me in the womb. All right. Will he preserve us in our declining
years? Yeah. To the hoary head I will
carry you. What is a hoary head? Come on
guys, y'all know this one. I got the wordsmith back there
in the back corner. He can tell me what it means, but I want
somebody else to tell me. What is a hoary head? Hoary, H-O-A-R-Y. Hoary head. You got a hoary beard. Yeah, a grave. Yeah, so even when we get gray
and old, God is still preserving us, even in our declining years. Some of us, if you're in this
room, don't you mean, we can raise our hand, I'm 55. I'm on
my declining years. There ain't no way I'll make
it to 110. I can tell you, I'm on the downhill slope. I will
not make it to 110. I'll be lucky to make it to 65,
the way I've lived my life. And some of you in this room,
it'll be the same thing. You beat yourself up pretty good
when you were younger, and you're gonna pay for it when you get
older. Just go ahead and count on it. Right? But in our declining
years, God is still sustaining us. Isn't that good to know?
Right? Even when I creak and I crack
and I hurt, and I can't hear good anymore, I can't see good
anymore. God is still sustaining me, he's still taking care of
me. That's wonderful to think about. In our declining years,
he will take care of us. Does he give us food? You better
believe it. Acts 14, 17 says he fills our
hearts with food and with gladness. Does he give us rest? Now this
is one thing that I can always give God praise for this. I don't
have any trouble sleeping. Man I can go yeah right now.
I can get out in a car and sit down go to sleep It's nice to
be able to lay your head down know everything's gonna be okay
There's been times in my life where I had a tough time sleeping
But what does it say does he give us rest yes, he gives his
beloved sleep Who are his beloved? The beloved the ones that be
loved I That's what it means to be the beloved. You be loved.
And what does he do for his beloved? He gives us sleep. He lets your
body rest. We're the problem a lot of times
with that, ain't it? We're the ones that don't wanna rest. We're
the ones that don't wanna, we fret and toss and turn. Just
simply will not trust him. Does he preserve us from threatening
dangers? Have you ever thought about that?
I mean, how many times have you come that close to dying and
didn't even know it? There's been a lot of times you
come close to dying and you know it. But think about all the times
that you didn't even see that car. And you never even know
it came close to you. And God's preserving you in all
of that. Does he endow us with wisdom
for our several trades? Yeah. We actually did this, this
was actually in our Bible study at my church, my senior Bible
study on Monday nights. One of our deacons is teaching
through the book of Exodus. And we're talking about Bezalel
and Aholiab. And he just said B and O because
he was having a hard time saying those two names. And I don't
blame him. Bezalel and Aholiab were filled with the spirit of
God in all manner of workmanship. filled them with His Spirit and
gave them the skill and the ability to work with their hands and
make the stuff needed for the tabernacle. And so for you in
this room, God will give you talents, God will give you skills,
He will give you abilities, and He gives those to you so that
you can, for your good and His glory, so that you can glorify
Him and you can bring others to Him. So, Does God's care extend to even
the meanest of creatures? Now that's not talking about
grizzly bears. That's not what it's talking about when it says
meanest creatures. Meanest being in the smallest. Remember mean,
median, mode? Y'all remember that in math class
when you were a kid? Mean, what is mean? The smallest. Mean, median is
the middle, the average. So, does God care extend to the
meanest of creatures? Even the little slug, I just
found a slug today and some fruit, I was at my store and I found
a disgusting looking little slug in there. It looked like a snail
without a shell, you know what I'm talking about? But it was
big, it was about as big as my thumb and he had a little tongue
sticking out of it, disgusting. But God took care of even the
little slug, he got that big, he didn't get no bigger. He's
not a slug anymore. He's a spot. He's a greasy spot
on the floor. But for a while, God sustained
him. Got him that big. Got him as big as my thumb. And
I was just a little old slug. Earthworms, crickets, tadpoles. You ever thought about that?
Little, you know, what about bed bugs? Right? What about... Yeah, they're disgusting,
but God's in control of even them. Well, you don't have bedbugs. But if you have them, then God's
in control of them. Right? That's what he means,
but it means the meanest creature. Like the little smallest of creatures
that you don't even ever think about. And God's even in control
of them. Creepy-crawly things? Okay, so
let's end that phobia tonight. Who's in control of them? No,
you're not. Yeah, but who's really in control
of them? All right, so rest in him and he'll keep the creepy-crawly
off of you. And if he don't, it's for your
good and his glory. I mean, but all seriousness aside,
I mean, and I'm not joking about that. Do you know people with
phobias about like, they're constantly washing their hands and worrying
about germs and things? Like, what's the point of worrying? You can't see them. And you're
fretting over something you're certainly not in control of anyhow.
Just wash your hands when you come out of the bathroom. Don't
put your hands in your mouth. But y'all remember when COVID
came around, boy, the world went gone crazy. Stay six feet away
from me. And, but God is in control. God's
in control of the viruses. He's in control of the germs.
He's in control of everything. Don't go out there and wallow
around in a, you know, in the flowerbed or something. You wind
up with chiggers. I mean, that's being stupid. But God's in control
of everything. The spiders, the crickets, and
everything. I always tell my cat, my cat's
always coming in the house with My cat's always coming in with
mice and birds, and he even brought a baby raccoon in one day. I
didn't even know it was a baby raccoon. It was a little tiny
one, about that big. I thought it was just a big marsh
rat. My neighbor who rescues animals,
I showed her a picture after he had already killed it, and
she said, oh, that was a baby raccoon. And my cat just brings stuff
in all the time. And you know what I tell him every day when
my cat goes outside? One day that owl or that bald eagle that's
out there is going to get you and fly off with you, and then
I'm going to laugh. Because it's gonna, you know, you've been
killing all these little things, something's gonna get you. But
even if that happens, I can't live my life worrying about my
cat getting eaten by a bald eagle. Like, he's ignorant. If he goes
out there and gets eaten by a bald eagle or a coyote or something,
that's what's gonna happen. I can't live my life worrying
about that little cat like that. And it's the same thing with
everything. with our families, our loved
ones, our friends, our kids. They're in God's hands and you're
fretting and worried about them ain't going to change it one
lick. Well it could be, they could
be an idol. That could be a problem is that
you're worshiping them and looking for them to give you something
that only the It's not that you don't care for your kids and
you take care of them and you love them and you pray for them.
That's not the point. The point is when you lay around
worrying about them all the time, you're being anxious. And what
does he say? Be anxious for nothing. And you
know what? The reality is that you probably
had a mom or a grandma that was worried about you the same way.
And you weren't even thinking about it, were you? Well, your
kids ain't thinking about it either. So God is in control
of everything. And a God who's in control is
terrifying to someone who doesn't trust Him. But for those of us
who call Him our Father, our Lord, our Savior, it should bring
us comfort and hope and assurance that He is in control. We got
to wind down. We're going to do just a couple
more questions and then we're going to finish for tonight.
You can go through and get the last of the questions for yourself. Let me just read them and then
we'll close with a word of prayer. God is in control of the government. God is in control of The laws
and the ordinances of nature. He's the one that tells the sun
how long you sit there and shine. He's the one that tells the earth
how fast to move around the sun. He's the one that tells all the
stars where to be and how to be. He tells the tides when to
come in and go out. He's the one that brings the
hurricanes and the tornadoes. He's God. He's in control of
all of that. He maintains the laws and ordinances
of nature. He sometimes suspends them and
acts contrary to them. There have been miracles that
have been taking place where God just simply flipped nature
over on its head. And said, nope, you're not going
to work right today. You're going to work the way
I tell you to. And he upholds all of the creatures. And he
can restrain those creatures. Remember how he shut the mouths
of the lions with Daniel? He exercises government over
the church. God's government is supreme over
the governments of this world. God's providence is most wise.
God's providence is most holy. God's providence is absolute. It is effectual and uncontrollable. God's providence is effectual. What does that mean? Effectual. If something is effective, what
does that mean? It works. God's providence is effectual
and uncontrollable. You're not going to change him. God's providential government
is an argument for trust and confidence, for silence and submission,
and for praise and thanksgiving. So let me read those three again
and then we'll close with prayer. Because God is good, because
God is in control, because God's providence is maintaining all
things, that is an argument for us to be trusting and confident
of God, to live our lives in silence and submission to his
will, and to praise him and thank him for all things, amen. Father, thank you for this time
you've given us together tonight. Thank you for being a God who
we can trust to take care of us. Help us to realize that when
we fret, when we're anxious, when we're constantly worried
about this world around us, we're constantly worried about what
tomorrow is gonna bring, we're constantly worried about having
enough food or enough money or enough medicine or enough love
or enough relationships or enough whatever it may be, God, you
will supply all of our needs according to your riches in heaven
in Christ Jesus, and I pray that you will help each and every
one of us in this room to trust that reality, that you are God,
that you are good, that you are in control, and that we can trust
you, that we, oh Lord, can be assured and confident in you,
that we can be silent and submissive to you, and that we can be filled
with praise and thankfulness for who you are. In Christ Jesus'
name we pray, amen.
Providentially Speaking
Series Friday Night Devotionals
Question 14: What are God's works of providence?
Answer: God's works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful, preserving governing all his creatures, and all their actions. ~The Baptist Catechism
| Sermon ID | 119241452503841 |
| Duration | 56:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Bible Study |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 1:3; Matthew 10:29-31 |
| Language | English |
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