the Westminster Shorter Catechism now and we're on question 11. And I want to start out actually by going ahead and reciting this question and then we'll go back and do some of the earlier questions and then we'll actually recite question 11 again. I told Nathan to put it up the first time but not the second time. You'll have to have it memorized by then. So question 11. 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 their actions. Now, we have already been introduced to Providence with questions 7 and 8. where we learned about God's decrees. So those are the next ones that I want to review. Let's review these two questions. Question seven. What are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His own will, whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. So, of course, that shows that everything is included. And in question eight, how does God execute His decrees? God executed His decrees in the works of creation and providence. So God's decree, according to these answers, these questions, is His plan. Remember the principle things that are set forth here. We saw and see here that it is an eternal plan, not something that God makes up and fabricates as he goes along as if one responding to things. but something that he has fully planned from the start to finish before the world was made. We saw that in some of our reading in Acts. We also see here that it is a purposeful plan. He works in a way that displays his glory. That's his purpose in everything that he does. His perfection, majesty, beauty, goodness, wisdom, holiness, power, justice, everything about God is displayed in the way that he carries out his plan. We saw also that it is a plan that encompasses everything, absolutely everything from which nation rises to power at a certain time in history, to the number of hairs that are on our heads, from the human will to the pattern that the frost makes when it forms on our windows in the wintertime. God's decree is that eternal, purposeful, all-encompassing plan. And as question eight says, that plan is executed or carried out by the works of creation and providence. God planned everything and then he carries out that plan with creation and providence. So we might say that he planned it all Then he made it all and then he controls it all according to his plan and purpose. And the controlling it all is what we call his providence. So let's look at question 11 again. Let's recite that one again. Question 11. 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 their actions. So he keeps all the things that he has made, preserves them in the way that he has planned or decreed. He preserves and governs them, as it says. So that is God's providence. It's important for us to recognize that God's hand is in all that happens. We need to acknowledge that. Whenever anything happens, we need to say, the Lord has done it. And then we need to respond in an appropriate way with trust, humility, thanksgiving, and dependence. Remember the idea of humility is what Job ran into as his trials went on and on and on. At first, he was beautiful in his response. But then he began to struggle with humility and began to want to say maybe things should have been done in a different way. Very great temptation, isn't it? But the Lord came to him and corrected him for that. The scriptures uniformly attribute that whatever happens to God, that God did it. We saw that in our New Testament scripture reading from Acts. In the first one, we saw that even in the wicked deed, of crucifying the Lord, most wicked thing that could ever have been done. It was the plan of God that was carried through. The same event, this is an interesting thing to think about, was the will of Satan. Satan was pleased when Christ was crucified. It was the will of Judas. He had betrayed him and turned him over to be delivered. It was the will of the chief priests. It was the will of Herod. But it was also clearly the will of our sovereign God. Acts 4 27-28 we read, We're gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. It may be hard to understand how God could use agents like Satan and the wicked rulers of Israel to carry out his purposes. But it makes sense when you realize that the wicked are doing what they do for an entirely different reason than the reason that God has appointed it. God is doing it for purposes that are righteous and holy, while the wicked are doing it for evil. His wisdom is such that he can operate in that way. You remember when Joseph spoke to his brothers, Joseph of the Old Testament, and he said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. He was recognizing this very same thing in the passage that we read in Acts 13, 44 through 48. We saw that God's plan extends to all those who believe the gospel for salvation. Paul had preached the gospel in Antioch of Pisidia. We're told in verse 48 that as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. No more than that believed and no less than that believed. In the passage we read from Acts 15, we saw how James affirmed that the Lord is the one who does all things. including pouring out the Spirit the way he did on the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius. And then he says, known unto God from eternity are all his works. In Acts 17, we saw that Paul affirms that the Lord is the one who gives all life and breath and all things. And that's taken away. It's God that takes it away. He's also the one who made us and who determined our preappointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings. In Acts 18, we saw where the Lord told Paul that at Corinth, when men raged against him, that he would not let them harm him, that he would protect him and not let anyone harm him because he had people in that city to save. And Paul was able to stay there much longer than he stayed in other cities. In the Old Testament scripture reading, God's providence is also clearly attested as this Old Testament reading speaks about how God brings various blessings, trials, and judgments into his people's lives in a variety of ways. The passage is Deuteronomy 8. So I'll read that now. Deuteronomy 8. Give me your attention and consider well. Every commandment, the Lord says, which I command you today, you must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness. to humble you and to test you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. Let me pause there. See, God led them in a certain way that was designed to test them and humble them so that they would come near to him. That's something like what we talked about this morning toward the end of the sermon this morning. God's at work to bring us to himself. Verse three, so he humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you should bless the Lord your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and that he might test you to do you good in the end. Then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to you, your fathers, as it is this day. Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish. is the nations which the Lord destroys before you, so you shall perish because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God. There we end the reading of God's word. May the Lord bless the reading of his holy word to us. You can see how this passage demonstrates that things don't just happen. That's one of the main points of this passage, that Israel must not forget what they learned so clearly in the wilderness, that God causes all things to fall out according to his plan. He gives us every morsel of food that we have ever eaten. It was clear in the wilderness that he was feeding them and giving them drink because water came out of the rocks and bread came down from heaven to feed them. But the danger was that when they settled in the land and they start eating and start producing from their fields and making bread in the normal way, that they'll forget that it is God and His providence who feeds them. We have a tendency of where if we don't have any food and we pray and God provides the food, And of course, well, we should, but we give thanks to God and say, oh, this came from God. But if we've gone out and worked and planted the ground and grown our crops and then we're eating those crops and bringing them in, bringing in the harvest, then we say, look what I have done. No, we need to give thanks to the Lord. His plan entails not only miraculous things and not only overall outcome, in this case, bringing them into the land, but it also encompasses everyday things, everyday work, getting food on the table in the ordinary way. So depend on God just as much for the bread that you receive by your labor is the bread that you might receive by miraculous intervention. And this is true in great matters as well as small matters. The Bible teaches that God is the one who determines what nation will have dominion at any time in history. But he also determines something as mundane as how many hairs you have on your head at any given moment. The point is, things don't just happen. God causes them to fall out according to his plan and purpose. That is providence. And therefore, we should acknowledge His hand in all our ways. We should give thanks for sending Jesus from heaven, for having Him born of a virgin, as well as for the bread that's on our table. God warned Israel that they would be tempted to forget him when they had regular provision of food. And so it seems that it always is. We need to be very, very careful about becoming smug and complacent and not thanking God. The problem is not that we have many things. Some people think it's bad if you have a lot of nice things. God says, I give you beautiful houses. The problem is that we don't give thanks to God and see that it's from him. We should depend on Him to raise us up at the last day, and we should depend on Him to give us our daily portion in this world. If He is the God of all providence, we need to look to Him for all of these things. We should recognize that our trials come from His hand to humble us and to test us. and at times to chasten us, and we should receive them with humble gratitude. God says that he sent trials to them in the wilderness for this very purpose. So we have to accept the hard things, the deprivations, as well as the pleasant things. Something that very much speaks to us right now. Everything is in his hands. The doctrine of providence, which is Everywhere affirmed in the scripture is that everything is from God. The Lord preserves and governs all his creatures and all their actions. And I might add all that concerns us. Now, let's take a closer look at how he preserves and governs us in particular. OK, so that's one of the things that says that he he governs and preserves all things. So first, how does he govern us? At the most basic level, God is the one who set up the terms. that define our relationship that we have with Him. He makes covenants with which He governs us. He's a governor, you see. So this is as it was when the provinces of Canada came together at Confederation. They determined the terms of their relationship with one another. They established rules to define that relationship. God is the one who has established the rules and the articles that define our relationship with Him. That is part of His providence, His governing of us. At creation, He established a covenant of works with us. telling us to continue to obey him perfectly, which we were quite capable of doing, by the way, and forbidding us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He promised life to us, eternal life, if we continued in obedience, but assured us that we would die if we transgressed. So it was a covenant that had stipulations and sanctions. This was his governing providence toward us. He set the rules. After we fell, He came to those who He had chosen to redeem with terms for a new relationship, in which He promised to redeem us, called the covenant of grace. In this relationship, He promised to send a Redeemer, His only Son, who would die for our sins on the cross, and who would pour out His Spirit on us to turn us to God. By this we would have full salvation, complete forgiveness of sins, and entrance into new life. He calls us to repent and believe the good news of this restoring grace. That is the essence of the relationship that he establishes with his elect people. Now we are called in that covenant of grace to put ourselves in God's hands to be shaped by him and to be forgiven by him. If we don't do that, then we're rejecting our God and his covenant of grace and we're going astray from him. So these covenants are at the root of God's governance of us. But there are also many other things that are involved in governing us. He governs us by his word. beyond those covenants, which, of course, are word covenants. But as we learned in question two and three earlier in the catechism, he has given us his word to direct us as to what we ought to believe and how we ought to live. As our great king, he has published his statutes and ordinances and commandments for us in the Bible so that we might know his will. This is our special privilege as his people. As it says in Psalm 147, 19 through 20, that we have something that other people don't have when we have God's word, something precious. It says, he declares his word to Jacob. That's us, of course, now, his statutes and his judgments to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation. And as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise the Lord. Our response should be to listen to his word each day, diligently, that we might be blessed It's Proverbs 834 says, Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my house. It's talking about people seeking wisdom. And of course, God's word is the way of wisdom. So don't deprive yourself or your children of this blessing by neglecting family worship or ignoring personal reading of God's word. Another way He governs us is by ministers. We're told that those who minister His Word are His gifts to us. According to Ephesians 4.11, when He ascended on high, He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers to minister His Word. With these, he also gave ruling elders to govern his church. They are responsible to receive and to remove members according to what God has directed in his word, baptizing and admitting to the supper those who are worthy and rejecting those who do not have a credible profession. And they are to shepherd the flock. And the members are instructed in Hebrews 11, 13, to obey those who rule over you and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. So you see, this is a precious relationship of governance where God has provided for us and cares for us in these ways. He also rules by other kinds of officers, the civil magistrates, kings and rulers are called his ministers of justice in Romans 13, God's ministers of justice. It doesn't matter if they're ungodly. When Paul wrote that was to the Romans, it was Roman officials. And we're told there in Romans 13, one, let every soul be subject to the governing authority for there is no authority from God. I'm sorry, for there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Whoever our rulers are, they were put there by God. God uses them to restrain wickedness and maintain law and order, and we should be grateful for them. He also uses them sometimes to judge us and to chasten us and to test us. And sometimes it doesn't mean that they always do God's will, not at all. But it means that God has put them there with his purpose in mind for working in his church and that we might be brought to him. Like we saw this morning, God puts us in situations, you see, in his providence where we will seek him and where we're drawn to depend on Jesus Christ. We see our need to do so. Then in the home, of course, God has appointed parents and particular fathers as his governors. What if children were brought into the world and they had no one that was particularly appointed to care for them and to be ministers to them? It would be a sad situation. Of Abraham, God said in Genesis 18-19, For I have known him in order that he may command his children in his household after him. that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. What a blessing children have in Christian homes, they have parents that God has appointed over them to care for them and to bring the word to them so that God's saving promises can be fulfilled in them. God's plan was that Abram would govern his house, that they might follow the Lord as he was following the Lord. You fathers are given this responsibility of governing and you neglect your duty when you do not carry this out for children and children. You are commanded to obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. It's a blessing for you. God uses them to govern you. He also governs us by conscience, our own conscience. This is a government that he has built into every person. Though, of course, it's corrupted by the fall, everyone still has a conscience. There's still much in it that is of inestimable benefit to our society at large in restraining wickedness. Romans 2.15 says that the Gentiles show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. It reminds me of a story with a number of years ago, a very gentle woman that I knew that was ministering among some of the street people in Halifax. There is a guy that was a crack dealer and she was working, helping out an individual that was buying from him and had a bill and she was afraid that he would be tempted to buy more. So she went with him. And when she met the crack dealer, she began to tell him that she was a vibrant Christian. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for what you're doing here. You're ruining people's lives. And she began, what would your mother think of this? And he broke down. His conscience was smitten. And he actually repented and the law caught up to him right after that. I went to see him in prison not too long after that when he had been jailed, but he was still calling on the name of the Lord at that time. I lost touch with him after I moved. I don't know whatever happened with him, but hopefully he's still serving the Lord today. And as believers, you see, we're also kept from many things by our consciences. so that we ought to aim, the way Paul did, to always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and man. How good our Heavenly Father has been to us to give us consciences, to govern us, one of the things that he uses. In his providence, he also governs us by rewards, judgments, and chastisements in the ordinary operation of his working in providence in history. You know the story of Jonah, God told him to go to Nineveh to preach and in rebellion he boarded a ship that was going in the opposite direction. God brought chastisement upon him through a storm at sea, followed by three days in the belly of the fish to smarten him up. As one man put it, God didn't make him go against his will, but he sure made him willing to go. That's what happened with Jonah through God's providence. You know of Israel and how when they rebelled, God sent famines and that failing, he sent storms. and enemy nations who oppress them and even who took them captive and who eventually destroyed Jerusalem and who destroyed the temple. The Bible tells us in Proverbs that those that the Lord loves, he chastens. This is great mercy to us when he chastens us. He doesn't just let us go on. He brings these things in our lives. He governs us this way. And with the ungodly, how often do we see them judged by God? The great example of all examples, of course, to us is the great flood in Noah's day, when the whole world was washed from the filthiness of mankind because of their wickedness, all except Noah, who is delivered with his family. And the prophets are full of oracles, not only that pronounce chastisement upon his people, but also of judgment against Moab and Edom and Philistia and Ammon and the Canaanites. We could go on and on telling how he will judge them. And then he does judge them in those ways. It's all him. He's the one that decides what's going to happen to each one. And of course, at the end of the age, we're told that Jesus Christ will call everyone from their graves to be judged by him. So it says in John 5 and then in Hebrews 4, 4, 13, it states, there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. God knows what you're thinking. You will be judged accordingly. He is the great governor of all men. And therefore, we all have to answer and give an account to him of what we have done. The final judgment will be one of the greatest acts of his government governance in all the world. And I should mention here that he also uses the ministers I spoke about before to bring judgments and rewards to his people. Elders to bring church discipline. Magistrates to punish us for crimes. Parents to chasten us and reward us. It is all his judgments. These are his agents. that he uses to bring that chastisement to us. And then he governs us. Another way he governs us is by placing us at times and places that he has appointed for us together with our circumstances of life. We already saw that in Acts 17, that he has determined and pre-appointed times and the boundaries of our dwellings. Psalm 87 indicates he determined whether you'd be born in a godly family or outside of a godly family. That was God's decision. He brings you into situations of life that he has determined. Mordecai, well said to Esther when the Jews were threatening with annihilation by the scheming of an Amalekite, Esther 4.14. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. You're not here by accident. You're here in this place at this time as the queen because God put you here. And he told her that if you don't act, God will deliver in some other way. But this is your responsibility to respond where God has put you. So you're not in the place you are by accident. You're not in the home that you're in by accident. There may be things you don't like about your home. There may be things you like very much. But God has put you there, whether it's good or bad. The sorrows, the joys, the whole situation is from the Lord. He's given you your state of health that you have. He's given you your ability to get wealth, as we saw in Deuteronomy 8. that you fail and succeed in various ways, that's all from God. It is for you then to cheerfully serve Him where He has put you. You can glorify Him whether rich or poor, whether you've got a good family or a bad family or health or wellness, whatever you have. He is also the one who provides for us, as we saw in Deuteronomy 8, by secondary means like sowing and reaping. Still just as much from Him. He warns you as his people that when you prosper, you must not, Deuteronomy 8, 17, say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is this day. Cheerfully serve him with those abilities and those opportunities and those possessions that He has given you, giving thanks for everything and learning from your God, drawing near to Him. That's His purpose again. Always, always His purpose is to bring us to Him if we are His people. He reconciles us to Him, shows us our dependence upon Christ, that we may learn to depend on Him and cling to Him, which we will be doing for all eternity. That will be the big difference in heaven, that we'll be living unto the Lord and doing His will and cheerfully depending on Him rather than going in rebellion against Him. So you see how large this subject of God governing us is. There's more that we could say, but let's move on to look at how the Lord preserves us. Because that's the other aspect of his providence. He governs and he preserves. How does the Lord preserve us? First, let's look at how he preserves our physical lives. We've just seen it in Deuteronomy 8. He provides for our needs, giving us power to get wealth so that we can live. Usually, he does this by ordinary means, but sometimes by miracles. In Matthew 6, Jesus says not to be anxious about these things. like the Gentiles are, but to trust in your Father's provision. Matthew 6, 28. And along with that, He provides protection for us. It's our duty to defend ourselves, but we must always look to Him as the one who keeps us safe. We don't need to get desperate. trying to defend ourselves or anxious or fearful or worried. Some people have a temptation to do that with this epidemic that we have now. But we're told that God is the one who defends us if we're in a situation fighting against an enemy. Some ways we're fighting against an illness here. Proverbs 21 31 says the horse is prepared for the day of battle. So your medicines and your protections that you use, it's proper to use them. But deliverance is from the Lord. He determines the outcome of the battle and whether whatever tools you have used will work or not. He is the guardian of our health. It's a big thing for us right now. Each day he uses the immune systems that he has given us to protect us from all kinds of sickness. When medicine makes us well, we need to recognize that it is ultimately the Lord who made us well in His providence, bringing about that He had the medicine and whatever it was that we needed that worked for us in the time and place that we lived. In Isaiah 38, 21, Isaiah is told to apply a poultice on a boil that Hezekiah had that was taking his life. Hezekiah prayed and God was delivering him from death. He actually told him to go and put this poultice on as a medicine and that he would get well. God could have healed him without that. But he appointed it showing that his approval of such things. The Lord promises people that if they followed him, he would, Deuteronomy 7 15, take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt, which you have known. but will lay them on all those who hate you. Do you see the sovereignty? God says, I won't put them on you, but I'll put them on someone else. This is how I'm going to work. He's the one that determines that our health is in his hands. If we remain free from illness, let God be thanked. If illness is brought upon us as his children, trust him, look to him to learn from it because he's brought it for good in your life. The Lord also protects us from physical harm watching over us. Psalm 91 11. For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. Satan complained, about Job that he had a hedge around him and he couldn't get at him and do the things he wanted to do. Now, of course, God then appointed for Satan to do those things that he'd been very anxious to do to Job. And he was ready to go because it was God's sovereign purpose in Job's life. But before that, he couldn't touch him because God hadn't appointed it. Know as well that when wealth and health are taken away from us, this is also God's providence. Job was very wise and very right in Job 121, when he said, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Sometimes people say, well, we know from the first chapter that it was Satan who took away the things from Job. Well, it was, but God was over Satan. God is over Satan. Just as we saw when Jesus was crucified, how did Satan and Herod and Pilate and all the different ones that were involved, the chief priests, how did they all carry out their will? It's because it was appointed by God for those things to happen. Sometimes God takes away our health or wealth to correct us or chasten us. As he says in 1 Corinthians 11, to those who came in an unworthy manner to the Lord's Supper, sometimes to use us for the furtherance of his glory, our kingdom, he brings trouble into our life, like the man that was born blind. It wasn't because of his sin, but in order that God might be glorified through him. And sometimes it is to work in us and make us holy. But always we must trust him and praise him. Now let's look at how he preserves our spiritual lives, our physical lives. Peter says it quite plainly in 1 Peter 1 5, that we are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. One of the principal things that the Lord uses for our preservation is his word. He gives it to us, preserves it among us, gives us ministers and also friends, ministers that preach it and friends that use the word to encourage us and remind us of things, family members. It's a great curse when he gives us a famine of hearing the word of God. Then our children grow up without hearing the gospel and we don't hear it anymore. The Lord also preserves us spiritually by keeping us from temptations. Often we don't even see all that he does in this regard. Jesus taught us to pray that we would be led not into temptation. And that's often a prayer that's answered. When Israel was coming out of Egypt, we're told that God did not lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was the nearer way. For God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. He didn't want to give them more than they can handle. Isn't that interesting? So when they did face enemies, God had prepared them where they should have been able to stand. And if they didn't, it was their own fault. He promises that he will never give us more than we can handle. First Corinthians 10, 13, that he is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. So don't ever say, I don't have all that I need in the Lord to deal with what's going on in my life. That is a lie from Satan and it will lead you astray. You should never entertain such thoughts because they are false thoughts. God has provided for you and will never tempt you beyond what you're able. Now, will it be what you're able in your own strength? Of course, we're never to live in our own strength. But with his aid in every situation, we are able to go on serving him in a blameless way. The Lord preserves us when we do fall by delivering us from the temptations that we have given into. For example, when David sinned and did not repent, you know, he sinned with Bathsheba and he didn't come to the Lord immediately. We're told in 2 Samuel 12 1 that the Lord sent Nathan to David. And if you know the story, Nathan set David straight. I won't go into the details, but the Lord commands us to go to those who are caught in sin, but know that when someone does come to restore you, that it's not just that person obeying God, but it is God sending that person, that he's the one who burdened their heart and brought it about that they actually came. So you can thank that person that came to you to straighten you out, but thank the Lord also who is the one who sent that agent. Related to this, the Lord preserves us by graciously surrounding us with people to support and encourage us. Paul testifies of this in 2 Corinthians 7, 6, where he says, nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. Paul had a really good, he had a really hard task. And there were times when he needed encouragement from friends. And he was overwhelmed sometimes with all the opposition that he had. Who wouldn't be? It was very, very heavy. But you see, God provided for what he needed. He brought friends just at the right time. Even the Lord Jesus himself had comforters. Very rarely with his disciples, they never knew what was going on, but when there were no people to comfort him, God sent angels to comfort him. In 2 Corinthians 1, the Lord is called the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God. So you see in this, his preserving love, that he puts people around us to help us. He preserves us by restraining our enemies, confounding them. Another way he preserves us here, by restraining our enemies, confounding them, removing them, and subduing them. Romans 16, 20, and the God of all peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly, the Romans were told. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 1 John chapter 5 tells us that the wicked one cannot touch us. He cannot make us fall away from God. That's the context. Not that Satan can never tempt us or do such things, but he cannot make us fall away from God. In the end, the Lord will remove all our enemies. 1 Corinthians 15, 25 through 26. For he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Why is that called the last enemy? I thought Jesus already overcame death. He did for himself, but he has not yet delivered us from death. We are going to die and he will overcome that enemy for us as well. That's part of his care and preservation of us. And finally, I should point out that the Lord preserves us by the renewal of our hearts, the working of the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit, we have been sealed unto the day of redemption. He is the guarantee of our inheritance. if he has begun his work in us. So once a spirit has begun work in you and conversion and brought you to Christ, the spirit is going to stay there so that you will never depart utterly from the Lord. First John 3 9 says whoever has been born of God does not sin in the way of rejecting God as his God for his seed. The seed of life remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. Doesn't mean that we don't sin at all, but it means that we do not sin in such a way that we depart from our Savior and walk no more with Him. If we've come to Him, He'll never cast us out. So you see how our gracious God governs us and preserves us in His gracious providence. We're even told that the Lord Jesus upholds all things by the word of His power. He rules over all things around us and the whole world as part of His working in us as His people. He moves the world, in other words, around the good of His people in shaping His people and doing His work in them. how we ought to rejoice that his plans are directed toward bringing us to our final destination of glory. Because he is God, he always governs and preserves us in a way that is holy, wise, and powerful. Our catechism is right to point out that his works of providence are his most holy, Wise and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all his actions. This will be the last thing that we'll look at. His government is always done in a way that is holy, wise, and powerful. Holy in that there is no injustice, no corruption. No wrong, whatever, but only good. The Lord is righteous and just in all his ways, and his mercies are over all his works. In our fallen condition, we often complain that God has done something that seems unfair to us, that seems unjust, but we're completely wrong. to make such an accusation against our holy God. The Lord cannot be unjust. The reason so many Christians question God's fairness in their afflictions is because they have never really come to terms with the fact of what we all deserve. How could we ever say that we received if we really do deserve to go to hell? How could we ever say that anything that has come to us has been unjustly deserved? We must accept what the Bible says about hell as eternal suffering, and also that God is perfectly just to send people there, and it will change our whole frame of reference. Then we will find it easy to accept the hard things that he sends into the world because we'll see God's mercy in them. If it is all the actions of God who is perfect in holiness and who is blameless and without blemish, let us bow humbly before his majesty and purity now, lest that same majesty and purity become our ruin. I believe that this is one of the things that have destroyed many souls in our day. That they look at the world and they say there's suffering in the world. I hear people say this. There's suffering in the world. This is not just. This is not right for God. They accuse God. of acting unjustly, and then they deny him and say, I don't believe that there is a good God that is in heaven, because from my judgment, I don't think he's good. It's a terrible thing. It lends them in isolation from God and everlasting misery. So that's the first thing. God is holy in his providence. Now, the second thing, that his providence is also wise. This means simply that God knows how to govern the world. God knows what he's doing. We looked at this in previous sermons about his decrees, and I mentioned it earlier in this sermon that that Job, when he struggled, it was with the wisdom of God and what God was doing in his providence. The Lord came to him and began to challenge him, asking Job, Job, were you there? Were you there when I made the world? Were you by my side telling me how to do things? Because I wasn't quite sure what was going on. You said, oh, you should do this, you should do that. He said, did you even understand the things that I've made? Do you even know how they work? Have you even seen everything? He overwhelmed Job with a display of his wisdom and being the one who made and rules the world. And Job shut his mouth and repented in dust and ashes. We're mere creatures and in no position to question God and what he chooses to do. He is wise and it is for us to wait for understanding when we cannot see it now. He is so high above us, we can't understand his works, not in the least. Remember Romans 11, 33 through 34 that says, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has become his counselor. So is God acting in holiness and wisdom in sending coronavirus? Of course he is. Finally, the third assertion is that God's providence is powerful. That means that God does whatever He pleases in heaven and earth and nobody can stop Him. Nobody can come in and grab His arm and prevent Him from... No, no, no, don't do that. You can't stop God. Psalm 115.3 says, Our God is in the heaven. He does whatever He pleases. Isaiah 46.10, He Himself says, My counsel shall stand. and I will do all my pleasure. God challenges the other so-called gods. Let them tell you what they're going to do next. Let them tell you what they have done in the past and how things have come about, how they have shaped things. In Isaiah 40, 25 through 26, he says, to whom then will you liken me or to whom shall I be equal? Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by name, by the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one is missing. God holds them in their place. So you see that these three words that are used to these three words that are used to describe God's providence. His works are holy, wise and powerful amount to saying that. He always does what's right. He always knows what he's doing, never makes wrong judgments about it, and that he is able to do whatever he wants. So brothers and sisters, let us bow humbly before the majesty and the purity of God and all of his providence. He rules over all things with holiness, wisdom, and power. It is yours to put your complete trust in Him. And I tell you, when our salvation is complete and we're in glory for all eternity before our great God. we're then going to see fully the beauty of that holiness and that wisdom and that power of God as we will dwell before Him in what is called glory forever and ever. We will see the goodness and perfections of our God and we will honor Him and give praise to Him We need to learn to do that now. We limp along. We struggle along. But that's our destiny to see the fullness of our God who reigns and who rules over all that he has made. What a gracious God he is. Let's sing of his throne. Psalm 97. I need to I need to go to prayer before we sing. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, how we praise You, O Lord, that You have revealed Yourself to us. Lord, You have revealed that You are the God who works all things according to the counsel of Your own will. You have revealed to us that You are the God who preserves us and governs us in all of our ways, Lord. We are kept by the power of God. You have revealed to us that You are the one who acts in holiness and who acts in wisdom and who acts in power. And Lord, I pray that as we see that majesty and that beauty revealed in the Holy Scriptures, that we would adore you and that we would magnify your name and that we would trust you, Lord. There is so much that is lacking in us, Lord, how we need to humble ourselves and to bow before you. And oh, Lord, I pray, Lord, for I pray for all of your people today, Lord, we're serving you in this world, Lord. And there are many things that that try us and stretch us. You have appointed it that way. And we pray, Lord, that we would trust you when. when those things come into our lives that are hard for us and that are difficult, that we would not doubt your wisdom and your holiness and your goodness also. And of course, your power that, Lord, there's no one else that's controlling things, not as though you've lost control of the situation. Father, I pray for those among us who are sick or who are injured or who are suffering with financial difficulties. Oh, Lord, I pray that you would be pleased to bless them, Lord, and to help them, help them to follow you and to walk with you through those times and to know that you're the God who comforts them. And may they look for that, Lord, not in a wrong way, but may they welcome the comfort that you bring and not harden themselves against it as you would bring friends that would bring words of encouragement, words of scripture to them. Father, that they would also welcome the ministers and even the civil magistrate and their work that they bring things to us. Oh Father, how we pray for all of these that are over us in authority or that are our peers that would encourage us. We pray that there might be a mutual work and an ongoing work of helping one another and blessing one another. Oh, Lord, it is our great desire that you would be glorified in all the earth through us and through your people and through your hand operating and controlling the things that go on. Father, that we would see these things and that we would bow before you. We praise you that at the last day your glory will be revealed and everyone will bow humbly before you. Everyone will have to acknowledge that that you are Lord. Oh, Father, we pray also that in your providential working that that the kingdom of grace would go forth into the world and that the kingdom of Satan would be destroyed. We pray, Lord, that by your working, that you would gather those people into your church, that you would gather those that we love. Father, we pray for for all of them, for you have called upon us to to plead with you, Lord, that they might be saved. Lord, we pray that you would hear our prayers, help us to be faithful witnesses to them. We pray that your word would go forth through the preaching of the word and through the example of our life and testimony that we would adorn the doctrine of Christ. Father, that your kingdom would be more and more seen. People submitting to you and following you and bowing to you. Leaders asking how they should govern according to your will. Oh Father, bring that glorious kingdom. We look so forward to... the kingdom of glory that that I was speaking to your people about earlier. Father, when that day comes, what a wonderful thing it will be when you are reigning and everybody is doing your will. Lord, people think that it would be a bad thing for that to happen, but it's the opposite, Lord. It's a wonderful, beautiful, glorious thing. And we look forward to that. And we ask you, Lord, that you would help us now to do your will. more and more, Lord, that we would understand your will, that we would read your word with hunger and eagerness, and then we would apply the things that you have revealed to us, Lord. And we pray that having received those things, Lord, that that we might then walk in them, that we might walk in the truth, knowing and doing your will, Lord, for you have revealed it to us graciously. And you also give us strength so that we can follow you. Lord, enable us to obey. Enable us to obey when people are opposing us in our obedience or when it is going to harm us in some worldly way. We pray that we would know that it will do good to our souls if we obey you in those times. Father, and that that will be far better for us. Oh, Lord, our eyes are on you. Please, Lord, do provide for all of our needs. You're the God of all providence. You're the one who gives us our daily bread. You're the one that gives us everything that we need in this world. We pray, Lord, that you would give us what is suitable for us, that we might seek after you, that we might find you, that we might know you. Father, we don't want to be in a situation where we cease to trust you, where we become proud and self-sufficient. Neither do we want to be in a situation where we become desperate and are tempted to steal. But we pray, Lord, that you would give us what is sufficient and right for us, and that if we have a lot or even a little, that we would always give thanks to you, hearty thanks for whatever we have. Say it when we have a lot, because we're such strange creatures. When we have a lot, that's when we don't thank You. When we have a little, we thank You for every little bit that You give us often. Oh Lord, have mercy on us, we pray, and help us, for we are a people in this present time in history that have a lot, and in the place where we live, all of us have a lot. And Lord, we give You thanks for all of these things. Lord, we do pray that you would guard us from those temptations and pressures that would lead us astray. We talked about how that you do that, Lord. You didn't send your people by the way that they weren't ready to go. And we pray that you would do that for us also, and that we would know that you do that, and that we wouldn't complain that you brought us into the situation that we were forced into sin. You will not do that. Father, we pray that we would hang to you. And we also pray that you would deliver us from those things that have taken hold of us, that you would allow us to escape, that we may be able to be free of bondage to sin, and that we may be able to serve you. For Lord, you have given us grace that sin might not have dominion over us. We're not under the law that only tells us how to live, but we're under grace that not only tells us how, but also enables us to live and to serve you by the working of your spirit. So, Father, we bring all of these prayers to you, Lord. Our eyes are on you. We look to you for for our blessing and our salvation. And we pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. glad that he is on the throne, who is holy, wise and powerful in all of his governing. Receive now the blessing of the Lord, our God. Now to the king, eternal. Immortal, invisible to God, who alone is wise, the honor and glory forever and ever. and His grace be with you all. Amen.