Good evening church. Old Testament reading comes from Genesis chapter 2 this evening. Genesis chapter 2, we'll be reading verses 1 through 17. You'll find that page 2 of your pew Bible. Genesis 2 verses 1 through 17. lest the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, when a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight, good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Delium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it. and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat it for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now let's look to our new Testament reading in Hebrews chapter one, Hebrews chapter one. That's on the Pew Bible, page 1001, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1-4. There the Word of God says, Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Well, may God add his blessings to this reading of his word. You can be seated. Seeming we're continuing our series on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. If you do not have a copy, I want to remind you that these are available in the book racks in the foyer. You can grab one of these, might help you to go along with us as we continue this series. This evening, we're in questions 11 and 12. Thus far in the Shorter Catechism, we've concerned ourselves with man's chief end. That's where the Shorter Catechism begins. We went on to the being and person of God. And we asked the question, what is God? And then we moved on to the act of God's creation. Well, this evening, as the divines continue to build up this realm of knowledge for us, we consider the question of how God interacts with his creation. How does this God whom we have discovered and learned about, how does he interact with that that he has made? More specifically, how does God interact with the crown jewel of his creation? The crown jewel of God's creation being mankind. God created many things, but he only created one thing in his image, and that was the man of dust, Adam, you and I. How does God interact with his crown jewel, mankind? Well, this evening we're gonna, excuse me. This evening we're going to be looking at the Doctrine of Providence. When we come to the Doctrine of Providence, we come to what many would consider the defining characteristic of Reformed theology. Or in other words, another way to put it, is our theology, what we hold to, what we believe. And it is a defining characteristic of Reformed theology. Not that we have a Doctrine of Providence. Every branch of orthodox theology has a doctrine of providence. But not every branch of Christian theology holds to the doctrine of providence in the way that we hold to the doctrine of providence. Here especially, before we jump into the catechism, I want you to note two things about how we approach the doctrine of providence, and you'll see it in questions 11 and 12. The first and most important thing that I want you to see when we approach the doctrine of providence is that we must affirm all that the Bible teaches. We must affirm all that the Bible teaches. Especially in the area of providence, what is normally done is to accept a lower view of God's providence. And the reason for this is that a lot of people want to protect the idea of the freedom of mankind. In other words, though the scripture might present a strong doctrine of God's providence, we devise that it simply cannot mean what it often appears to mean. Because if it means what it appears it means, then it also means that mankind doesn't have the freedom that we want mankind to have. And that makes us very uncomfortable. Just to share with you, well, Pastor, how do you know that that makes us very uncomfortable? I remember as a first semester seminary student, sitting in seminary, I went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Trained as a Southern Baptist, don't hold that against me, but had an excellent, excellent Well, all of my professors were excellent, and I laud Southern Seminary even to this day, but I heard the doctrine of providence explained, and it bothered me immensely. The idea that I wasn't as free as I thought that I was was concerning to me. So I took that summer, I started in the winter term and the spring term, and so I had a summer break. I thought, well, I'm going to take summer break and I'm going to study the doctrine of Providence, and I will likely transfer to another seminary because I don't want to be taught things like the doctrine of predestination and the doctrine of election. Yes, I know what that verse seems to say and that other one, I know that, but I was very uncomfortable with it. So I did. I studied it. I bought Lorraine Boatners, The Doctrine, The Reformed Doctrine of Providence, or I think that's the name, or Predestination. Thank you for that. I did read it. And I bought Martin Luther's Bondage of the Will. And my idea of the freedom of man was ruined in a summer. But I didn't come to it skipping. I was drug into having the right doctrine of providence. Because I really love the idea. That my will was completely free to do what I wished to do. So we take verses like John 644. Jesus says. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up. On the last day. Most honest reading of the text leads one to affirm the doctrine of providence, even the doctrine of election. However, objections arise, and those objections tend to focus on those whom Jesus is speaking to, those who had an improper regard to Moses as if one could be superior to him, those who were unwilling to believe that Jesus could be superior to Moses, those that thought too highly of themselves, All of those things are true considering John 644, but it's also true that no one can come to the Father unless they are drawn by the Father. In other words, I agree that John 644 might say more than the doctrine of election, but it doesn't say less. than that. And so when we approach the Doctrine of Providence, we must affirm all that the Bible teaches, even if it makes us uncomfortable. The second thing that we need to consider as we begin looking at the Doctrine of Providence is that we must start at the beginning. We must start at the beginning. This is especially important when we consider mankind and understand this doctrine and how God interacts with mankind through the doctrine of providence. We will not be able to preserve a biblical understanding of God's sovereignty, especially as it relates to mankind, unless we begin in the beginning. If we fail to grasp the covenant of life, as the catechism will speak of it, or the covenant of works, and the subsequent fall of man and what the fall brought upon mankind, we will never be able to understand or have the biblical understanding of God's providence as it relates to mankind. The reason for this, some biblical doctrines of providence, again, protect the freedom of mankind and fail to take the beginning into account. Yet when we look at the beginning, man's failure to keep this covenant, this covenant of works, this covenant of life, and the impact of Adam's sin destroys the idea of man's freedom. If we look in the Old Testament, all through the Old Testament, we find this reality affirmed, as well as the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we have passages like Ecclesiastes 9.3, which says, this is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live. And after that, they go to the dead. Solomon doesn't paint the picture of the human heart completely unbounded and free. Solomon uses the darkest hues in his palette to paint the heart of man. Not only does Solomon do this, but of course, Jeremiah does this as well. You're familiar with Jeremiah 17, nine. He said, the heart is deceitful above all things. and desperately sick, who can understand it? Well, where do Solomon and Jeremiah get their idea concerning the human heart? Where does that happen? Where does the human heart become full of evil? Where does it become sick? It becomes sick in the beginning. And we understand that that to be the case. Jesus affirmed this understanding in John chapter eight, Jesus answered them. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. And how many of us practice sin? Paul affirms in Romans 616 in verse 20. He says, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. Paul says, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard of righteousness. Why is this so? All of this is so because of Adam's failure to keep this covenant of life. And we'll look at that in more detail in just a moment. Let's deal with question 11 of the shorter catechism. Question 11 is, what are God's works of providence? The answer, God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and their actions. We've seen how God executes his decrees in the work of creation and now we turn to consider how he executes his decrees in the works of providence. And the catechism helps us by informing us that God does so by preserving and then governing of all of his creatures and their actions. And so we look at it in these two ways, that God exercises providence by preserving all his creatures and their actions. So first we look at how does God preserve all his creatures and their actions, and by that we see his providential hand. Well, the Apostle Paul explained while preaching on Mars Hill, speaking of God, in Him we live and move and have our being in Acts 17, 28. Here's a recognition that everything is under the holy, wise, and powerful preservation of God. In science, we might talk about the laws of nature. We would learn about the laws of nature. But what the laws of nature are from the standpoint of God are Hebrews 1, 3. God upholding all things by the word of his power. Why does the world operate the way that it does? Well, there are many ways that we could answer that. A scientist might go to explain biology, might go to explain astronomy, and there are many other ways we might explain how the world and why the world operates the way that it does. But God says that it operates the way that it does because God upholds all things by the word of his power. We seem to forget that God not only executed his decrees in creation, first by speaking all things into existence out of nothing, but we must remember that God preserves all things in the very same way, by the power of his word. Consider what Colossians says, Colossians 1, 16 and 17. For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him, what does it say? All things hold together, or all things consist. And so Paul and Colossians affirm, yes, God did create all things by the word of his power. But we are not deists. We are not those who believe that God in his might created all things and created it all very good and then left it alone. No, dear ones, we believe that God is involved preserving all things through Jesus Christ, the Lord. He preserves all things by the word of his power. What this means for us is that we can believe the scriptures. We can believe passages like Romans 8, 28, which says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. We can't believe that. if we don't simultaneously believe that in Jesus Christ all things hold together. Jesus Christ is the one who preserves all things. And dear one, Jesus Christ is the one who preserves you. He's the one who preserves you. He's the one who preserves your life. And so we consider this Thomas Watson The great Puritan divine said, pertaining to this very question, you that are Christians believe that all God's providences shall conspire for your good at last. The providences of God are sometimes dark and our eyes dim, and we could hardly tell what to make of them. But when we cannot unriddle providence, Let us believe that it will work together for the good of the elect. And I say amen. Because in Jesus Christ. All things hold together. That means in Jesus Christ I hold together. That means in Jesus you hold together. He upholds all things by the word of his power. He upholds you. He upholds me. by the word of his power. He preserves us, but he also governs. He preserves and he governs. Westminster Catechism tells us that God governs all creatures, actions, and all things from the greatest to the least. The confession tells us that. That he governs all creatures, all actions, and all things from the greatest to the least. And when it comes to the idea of God governing all things, we are all completely fine with the idea that God governs the big things, aren't we? We want God to have the big things. But when it comes to the little things, we start to get a little nervous. Does that mean that God indeed governs even the smallest things? Well, it appears to be so. Dear ones, have you ever thought that for the big things to happen, there must be 10,000 little things that bring them about? Consider that the Bible teaches that God has complete control over all things, even nature. The word says he makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. God governs creation. He governs the ways of man. The prophet Daniel says that the Most High rules the kingdoms of men, Daniel 4.25. Going so far as to say he changes the times and the seasons, he removes and sets up kings, Daniel 2.21. It is the Lord who determines the times before appointed and rules the bounds of our habitation. Act 1726. You know, it's very, it's really easy. To be a Bible believing reformed Presbyterian. When we like the things that God does. I thought just came to me as I read over. Daniel 221, to read it again. He changes the times and the seasons. He removes and sets up kings. And I'm thinking he probably does presidents too, don't you? Yeah. And it's really easy to be good, solid, reformed Presbyterian when we like the ones he sets up. But the truth is, is that the ones he sets up are the ones he sets up. But it isn't just kings and princes, but his governing stretches even to your very own life. Consider 1 Samuel 2, 6 through 8, the Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to shill and he raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts up the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. The word says in Proverbs 16, 1 that the preparations of the heart are in man, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. And Philippians 2.13 reminds us that it is God who works in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure, governs even us. Again, Thomas Watson helps us to see that faith in the goodness of God is necessary. when we consider his wise, holy, and powerful governing of all things, even our own lives. Faith in the goodness of God is necessary. I just mentioned the election of a president. That is due to the providence of God, the governing providence of God. Difficult things that we see on the news, like the war in Ukraine, is unjust as it is. is due to the governing providence of God. So what do we do with these things? Well, we have faith in the goodness of God, the God who in his wise providence has decreed war in Ukraine, has decreed the presidents that we have and will have, the kings that sit on thrones. is a good and gracious God. Just as we should not judge the beauty of a puzzle by a single piece, so we cannot judge the goodness and beauty of God's work in our lives by a single occurrence here or there. Watson wrote the following. See here, that which may make us long for the time when the great mystery of God's providence shall be fully unfolded to us. Now we scarcely know what to make of God's providence and are ready to censure what we do not understand. But in heaven, we shall see how all his providences contributed to our salvation. When we come to heaven, and see the full body and portrait of his providence down into its lively colors, it will be glorious to behold. Here's what Watson is saying. Think of the worst thing that's happened to you in your life. The worst thing that's happened to you in your life. I have no idea what that is for most of you. know what it is for me. Think of the worst thing that's ever happened to you in your life. There will be a time in glory when you consider the providence of God, the preserving and governing providence of God, when you will look back at the tapestry of all that God has done and you will believe and perhaps even declare, it is good. It is good that that happened. It is good. For dear ones, whatever hurt appears there, it will appear in a brilliant display of God's glorious grace to you. And you will say, It is good. So do not judge. I don't know what many of you are going through, but perhaps the piece that you hold into your hand right now is painful, is difficult, and you just cannot see how it will fit into the puzzle of your life for your good. You cannot see it. Dear one, trust in the goodness of God. Trust in God. Allow him to place that puzzle in his tapestry of grace. It is good for you have been promised all things. Work together. For your good. All things. And so allow God to use it. Believe in the doctrine of providence. For the doctrine of providence means not only did he allow you to suffer that pain, but because God is sovereign, he can also take that pain and turn it into something more glorious than you could ever imagine. God governs all creatures, nations, and things from the greatest to the least. This takes faith, but we affirm that he does. Question 12. What special acts of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? Here's where we go back to the beginning. The answer to this is that when God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death. Well, having considered that God preserves and governs all things in his wisdom, holiness, and power, we now look more closely to consider how he does this toward mankind. And the first thing that we are told here is that God enters into a covenant with man. Most of us understand what a covenant is. As a children's catechism explains, a covenant is an agreement between two or more persons. But that's where the comparison ends. Right there. That's where the comparison ends. God's covenanting with mankind is nothing like how men might covenant between themselves. For instance, if you and I are to make a covenant, then what we would do is we would agree on the terms of that covenant. Before we establish the agreement, we would agree on whatever terms those were. You would say, yes, I agree to those terms. And I would say yes, and nowadays we would have a lawyer write up a document and we would come and we would sign on the line and perhaps we'd have it notarized. And we would agree and we would enter into covenant in that way. This is not helpful when it comes to understanding how God covenants with us. Instead, I want you to look again to Genesis 2, 15 through 17. Because here's where we find this covenant that the divines call the covenant of life, which just about everyone else calls the covenant of works. Genesis 2, 15 through 17. And I want you to notice that Adam isn't asked for his acquiescence to the terms of this covenant. God determines what the terms are. to this covenant. And there's a reason for this. There are many reasons for this. I might share two. The first reason is that, well, who is man to determine what man will do? This is God. He's the creator. He just created Adam. He just breathed him into existence, spoke Adam into existence, formed him from the dust, breathed life into him. So who is Adam? But there's another reason, there's another reason that Adam doesn't get to decide if he agrees to these terms, and I'll tell you that in a minute. But let's look at the covenant. Genesis 2, 15 through 17. God said it is not good, nope, sorry, I'm moving past, I gotta get my glasses on, there we go. Then the Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man. Here it is saying you may surely eat every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat it. From the day that you eat of it. You shall surely die. Here's the idea. Adam. Walks in perfect obedience. And will never taste death. Seems like a wonderful plan for Adam. Adam who has no say in the terms is given these terms. Keep the garden, tend it, rule as God's vice-regent on earth. Shepherd creation. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and you will have eternal life. We know the rest of that story, don't we? Genesis 3, what happens? The serpent deceives both Adam and Eve. They eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and fall. And they break the terms of the covenant. Consider these words by G.I. Williamson as we think about this covenant and how God creates covenant with man. He said, when God enters into a covenant with man, it is not what we would call a 50-50 proposition. God does not consult with man in order to decide what the covenant will be or what the terms of the covenant will be. No. In God's covenants, his absolute sovereignty is expressed. In other words, he alone decides that there shall be a covenant. He alone decides what the terms of that covenant shall be, and he alone imposes that covenant upon himself and upon man. And you say, well, that just seems unfair, Pastor. Here he has given a covenant to Adam and he hasn't allowed Adam to say anything about it. And then we read in Genesis 3 how they break this covenant that they didn't agree to the terms and now death enters the world. What's the deal here? Well, I want you to know that God doesn't do away with this covenant. God, in fact, keeps this covenant. In effect. And you say, how miserable is that? How will man ever keep a covenant of works? Well, we know the story, don't we? We know that. No man ever kept the covenant of works. Until. Jesus kept it. Until Jesus. Kept it himself. Why does Adam have no say in this covenant? Why does man have no say? I would suggest to you that the foremost reason is because God will keep this covenant through his son, Jesus Christ. There will be a man to come that will keep this covenant, this covenant of works. What happened to Adam? Well, what happened to Adam was death. Came to Adam. Death came to Eve and all her children. But what comes with Christ? Eternal life. Listen to what Paul says. 1st Corinthians 15. 22. 21. For as by a man came death, who's that man, Adam? by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. Verse 22, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. That, friends, is the wonder of the doctrine of providence. It's due to the doctrine of providence that you and I can be saved And this is entirely consistent with what we have just said. God preserves and governs all things, and he does so by way of a covenant. The danger in thinking of the covenant is something that man has a part in creating is that we begin to think that we've earned something from God. But of course, we know that we've earned nothing. But judgment and it's Christ who keeps. The covenant. Jesus, in fact, deals with this idea in the Gospel of Luke. Turn to Luke 17. Luke 17 verses 7 through 10. This idea that we earn something. For doing what we should do in the first place. is addressed by Jesus here. Jesus says, will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at table? Will you not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat and drink? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. This is our duty, obedience to God, obedience to the law. And I will argue that even this is grace. Friends, when we consider What Jesus Christ has done, we see that God has preserved and governed us. That God has preserved and governed human history in such a way as to provide for our salvation. So that when we say with Paul, a wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? We can also say with Paul, thanks be to God. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that friends. Is due. The gods Providence. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for who you are. Thank you that you are a God who. So exquisitely. Works out every detail. To the glory of Jesus and the good of your people. Well, I pray for those of us who are at present wondering how the dark providence is going to fit into the tapestry of our life. And yet, Lord, you tell us that you are good, that your ways are good. And you tell us to trust you. And so, Father, I pray that you would help us to do that very thing. That when we hear of the providence of God, the sovereignty of God. The election of God. That those things wouldn't be harsh doctrines to us. But that they would be as you have intended them to be. Doctrines of sweet comfort to our souls. So God, I pray that you would work in our hearts even now to bring that about. That's the testimony of your word. Testimony of your word is your faithfulness to your people. And father, you work in ways that we would never have devised. Father, even our salvation came. In a way that man would never have imagined. But Lord, your ways are best. And so help us to humble our hearts and help us to trust you, O Lord. Help us to look to you in faith and help us to rejoice that you are God of perfect providence. Oh God, we love you and we thank you for all of these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, church, would you stand upon your feet and receive the blessing of the Lord? Beloved, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ Be with your spirit, amen. Go in peace, thank you.