The Word of God that I've been thinking about in these past weeks and that my own heart and soul need is the Word that's explained in Lord's Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism. So, I want to call your attention to that after we read the Scripture that's the basis of the Catechism in Romans chapters 5 and 8. Romans chapter 5 and Romans chapter 8. surprise that Romans 8, but Romans 5 may be a surprise as a basis for Lord's Day 10 and the truth of providence. But I ask you to listen for especially three words or three concepts in these two passages. Pain, patience and hope. Pain, patience and hope. You'll find all three of those words and all three of those concepts in both of these passages. First of all, Romans 5, we'll read the first five verses. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Then in Romans chapter 8, we'll begin reading at verse 19. 18 rather, and read to the end of the chapter. Remember the three words and ideas to listen for, pain and patience and hope. Romans 8 verse 18, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature, that is the creation, waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature, that is the creation, was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, errather, that is risen again. who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." It's on the basis of passages like that that we have the teaching in Lords Day 10 of the Heidelberg Catechism. You'll find that in the back of this altar on page 7. Lord's Day 10 questions 27 and 28 and their answers. What dost thou mean by the providence of God? The almighty and everywhere present power of God whereby as it were by his hand. And I want especially the children this morning to be thinking about that one word, hand. The almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were, by His hand, God upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures, so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand. Then 28, what advantage is it to us to know that God has created and by his providence doth still uphold all things, that we may be, and here's one of those words from Romans 5 and 8, patient in, and now here's another, pain, that is adversity, that we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and that in all things which may hereafter befall us, and here's the concept of hope, In all things which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move. Let's pray and ask God's blessing on the preaching. Our Father which art in heaven, Thy Word to us is precious. And we pray that as it is spoken this morning, it may be a power to address us in the pain that we endure that may be physical, that may be emotional and spiritual and powerful in addressing us in our pain so that we may live in patience and in godly hope. Strengthen Thy servant to bring us Thy Word and enable us, wherever we are, to hear and understand and believe. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. The Father's hand is everywhere. The Father's hand is everywhere. There's a saying that people sometimes use when they're talking about a capable man or perhaps a busybody, but I'm not interested in the busybody. He has his hand in everything. Wherever you look, he's involved. He's influencing everything. And so we say he has his hand in everything. Now, that's an analogy to bring home the truth that when we look at the Father in heaven, we must say He has His hand in everything. There is nowhere that God's hand is not involved and in control. And I want us this morning, all of us, with the eyes of faith, and not now with these eyes, but with these eyes in our hearts that God has given us, to look everywhere and see God's hand. And in your mind's eye, by faith now, look on the other side of the world, in the province of Wuhan in China, three or four months ago, or whenever it may have been, God's hand forming one little virus in one little food market where one person was infected with that virus. God's hand was there. And that one person went home and infected his family. God's hand did that. And then they visited others who were infected. And 1 became 4. And 4 became 16. And 16 became 256. And after that, you can't do the math. And that's how it goes. But it's not math. It's the hand of God which three or four or six months ago created a new virus all the way on the other side of the world so that after a little while, someone got on a train and went to Beijing and got on a plane and came to other countries of the world. God's hand put them there. God's hand brought them to Chicago and New York and San Francisco and Washington State. And then God's hand brought that virus into the nursing home. And God's hand brought that virus to Detroit. And God's hand brought that virus to West Michigan. Look with the eyes of faith and don't see random and chance. Nothing comes by chance. All things come by His hand. But then with your eyes of faith, turn from this earth and look up and remember what the Catechism says. Heaven and earth. And we remember that God's hand controls the angels. And God's hand governs the devils. Everything is under the control of God. O Lord God of our fathers, art thou not in heaven? And rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? And in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? 2 Chronicles chapter 2. And then with the eyes of faith, come back down to this earth. And not look some place, but some time, like six thousand years ago, when God by his hand formed the worlds and with His hand, out of the dust, formed us and breathed into our nostrils the breath of life so that we became a living soul. God, with His hand, was there in creation. So that we say, Thou art our Father. We are the clay. Thou art our potter. And we are all the work of thy hand. Isaiah 64 verse 8. And then go ahead in history a little bit. It was the hand of God that opened up the deeps so that the waters came out and turned on the faucet, as it were, of the heavens so that the floods came down. And it was God's hand that came down at the Tower of Babel to confuse the tongues. It was God's hand that was everywhere. And it was God's hand that reached down into Egypt and redeemed His people. So that we may read what we do in Hebrews 8. I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt. God's hand is on earth. God's hand is in heaven. God's hand is in the past. God's hand is in the present. And God's hand will be in the future too. Whatever shall hereafter befall us. Wherever you look, wherever you think, there is God's hand. In death and in life, angels and principalities and powers and things present and things to come. God's hand is everywhere. And then with the eyes of faith, think not time, think not space, think categories. God's hand is in the good and God's hand is also in the evils. So adversity and prosperity, the catechism says. And Romans 8 says, but also death. God's hand is there. I form the light and create darkness, said God in Isaiah 45. I make peace and create evil. Not sin. That's not the reference to that word evil. Not in Isaiah 45 and not in the Catechism. Evil is a reference to hardships and troubles and diseases and viruses. I create evil. I, the Lord, God says, do all these things. Shall there be evil in the city? The prophet Amos asks. And the Lord has not done it. And the answer all of us give, not because with these eyes we understand and see, but because with the eyes of faith we believe the truth of it, we say yes. The Lord has done it when there's evil in the city. Wherever, whenever, whatever, God's hand is there. But it's not just God's hand. Now, with the eyes of faith, you must trace from the hand that controls all of these things to the one whose hand it is. It's your Father's hand. The God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who, for the sake of Jesus Christ, is your God and your Father. It's His hand that's in the Wuhan province of China and brought it here. It's His hand that governs all these things. And when we confess and believe and embrace that truth today, we not only can endure, And we not only even can prosper and grow, but we are even able to rejoice because we say our God is a good God. It doesn't mean we don't groan because we do groan. And Romans 5 and Romans 8, 10, Lord's Day 10, talk about that too. There's pain. There's suffering. There's trouble. And it's not just now. God's people have endured pain and troubles for a long, long time. And many of our congregation have been enduring troubles that predated the coming of the virus to town. And we pray for them, and we think of them, and we're thankful for the healing for some of them, like Mike and Linda, too. There's pain. There's groaning. There's sorrow. But in it, in it, we have hope. And we can live in patience. And those are the two, in the second point of the sermon this morning, those are the two realities that I want to focus our attention on. So, the theme of the sermon this morning is, Father's hand is everywhere. Father's hand is everywhere. And then, see, in the first place, the comfort of that truth. In the second place, how that truth is going to show in our lives. And then in the third place, what's the ultimate basis? What's the foundation for that truth? of providence, which is for us such a great comfort. So the truth of that comfort, how that comfort is going to manifest itself in our lives, and then in the third place, the ultimate basis for that truth and that comfort. Let's put this all in perspective. The comfort of the doctrine of providence is not the only comfort that we have, though it is a great comfort that we have. Our comfort is in the forgiveness of sins and in the hope of heaven. Let's put this doctrine of providence in perspective. I say our comfort starts with the forgiveness of sins and the hope of heaven. But it doesn't end there. It includes this great doctrine that we are looking at this morning, the doctrine of providence. But let's put the doctrine of providence aside for a moment and imagine what great goodness God shows to us in giving us the forgiveness of sins. In fact, our comfort starts there. And we have to recognize that too as we put the doctrine of providence in its proper place and perspective in our lives. Our comfort starts with the forgiveness of sins. Therefore, being justified by faith, Paul says in Romans 5, which comes before Romans 8. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. And, Romans 5 says, we have hope in glory. We anticipate heaven. So our comfort starts with the forgiveness of sins and the knowledge of and confidence that when we die we're going to go to heaven. But it doesn't end there. And if it ended there, we would have a great deal, but we would not have enough. We'd have a great deal. Think of that, what we have as compared to what the heathen have. They don't have the forgiveness of sins. And they know that when they meet the great judge of heaven and earth, their end is not heaven. And so they can't live in hope. They don't have the kind of comfort that we have. If we only had that comfort, the knowledge of the forgiveness of sins and the hope of heaven, we would have fuel enough for our gratitude to last us forever and ever and ever. Enough to make us happy. Enough to make us live in gratitude to God all the days of our lives. But we wouldn't have enough. And God has purposed that we, in addition to the blessing of the forgiveness of sins and the hope of heaven, have this blessing, the doctrine of providence, that truth that from this time in our life all the way through to the day we go to heaven, God's hand is doing us good. Imagine if we didn't have that. If we didn't have the knowledge that from now until we die, it's all good and the hand of God is blessing us, even though it might not feel like that. Imagine if we didn't have that. Then we'd be like the convicted prisoner who was accused of murder, knows he's innocent, but spends all of his life in jail. He knows he's innocent. And at the very end of his life is vindicated by the discovery of a new technology that proves he did not do what put him in jail. He's innocent. In the end, he's going to be vindicated that all of his life he spends in jail and misery without profit. And our life is exactly not like that. We're innocent. In the end, we're going to go to heaven. But we have this comfort, that everything that happens in our lives happens by the hand of God, who is a God of goodness to us. That's why Romans 8 says, all things work together for good. And that's why Lord's Day 10 of the Catechism says, all things by His fatherly hand. All things. Now, let's make that practical and real. How many of you are going to go somewhere for spring break? and now can't. How many of you would like to be working and now aren't, making a wage, but the income isn't coming in? Or to be more trivial, but still important to some, no sports, no finishing of the basketball season, no starting of the soccer season, no baseball, no track, It's gone. God took it away. What about you seniors in high school? Graduation. And the choir trip is off. And the last concerts are off. Can't go to school and see your friends. All of that is between the forgiveness of sins and going to heaven. What do we think about all of those things? Some of God's people are sick. Some of God's people are lonely. Let's not rob ourselves of the great comfort of the gospel that says God's hand is here for good now as well. Let's not be content with less than the fullness of the promises of God. Then understand that that comfort of God's providence is not that He's going to either spare us troubles or cause that we do not feel the pain of those troubles. Our comfort, I say, is not that God is going to spare us from troubles. Our comfort is not that He's going to make the rough places plain here. That He's going to exalt the deep valleys and take the high mountains and bring them low. That's not our comfort. God does not promise that he's going to give us a life that's smooth, where we're always, as it were, smelling the roses. There are some religions that teach that and promise the people of God that. And if your life isn't smooth and if you're not smelling the roses, then either your faith is too weak or your life is not godly. And when your faith becomes stronger and your life godlier, Then you will have a life of ease and peace and good and pain free like others have. But God's Word and our experience don't teach us that. When Paul said in Romans 8, 28, all things work together for good, you think about what they meant for Paul and what Paul experienced. Shipwreck and beatings and prisons and thorns in the flesh. groaning. Think of what Paul talked about in verse 26 when he says that the creation is groaning. And then in verse 26, we groan too. And the Spirit makes intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And think what he says in verses 35 to 37. There's tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and peril and sword and Some of God's people are killed, were counted as sheep for the slaughter. Paul was under no illusion that the life of God's people, if their faith was strong enough and their life godly enough, would be easy. That's not the comfort that we have. If you look back to the Old Testament and think about what the prophet said in Isaiah chapter 42, he didn't say, When you face the waters, God will take you around them, or confront the fire, God will bring you over it. He says, when you go through the water and when you go through the fire, I will be with you. And we're establishing the point now this morning that the comfort that we have in the doctrine of providence is not that God will keep these pains from us. Nor is the comfort that when we have these troubles, we won't feel the pain as though God anesthetizes us and we're numb to the pain. You go to the dentist, you want him to numb your gum. You cut your finger and want the doctor to stitch it, you want him to numb the finger so that you don't feel the pain when that needle goes through your flesh and he drills through your tooth. We'd sometimes like God to do that for us when we endure. the troubles, free us from any feeling of pain, but that's not either what God promises His people is our comfort. If that were the case, then we'd say about sickness, it's the same as health. Poverty, it's no different than wealth. Barren years, well, they're just the same as fruitful years. And if I live or die, it doesn't really matter to me. I don't feel any different either way. But that's not Christianity. That's paganism. That's the old philosophy of stoicism. That's Buddhism. Live in such a way that you don't feel anymore. Be impassive, have no expression. No, that's not our comfort. Our comfort is that in times of trouble, God's hand is there working good. In times of trouble, God's hand is working good. Now, it's not the time this morning to explain and emphasize that it's not always bad and the life of God's people is not always trouble. There are times of prosperity. God sometimes does send rain and fruitful years and meat and drink and health and riches. And in fact, the reason it's hard for us today is because that's all we've ever known. That's all we've ever known. Most of us for 50 years and more. That's about all we've had. Fruitful years, health, prosperity. And sometimes God gives that to us and we mustn't be guilty, feel guilty when he does give these things to us. And we mustn't view with suspicion those who have great wealth. The Word of God in 1 Timothy 4 says, sanctify it by the Word of God and prayer and enjoy it. And the Word of God says in 1 Timothy 6, you who have wealth, use it properly. So there are times that God sends prosperity, but there are times when God sends adversity. And that's what we need to focus on this morning. It's difficult to find comfort in that, but the solution is easy for us who are believers. This solution is the reality that we not only have an outward life, but we have an inward life. We not only have an earthly existence, we have a spiritual existence. We not only have a relationship to this earthly creation in which we were born and find our way in now, but we have a relationship to God in heaven and the new creation. And it's that life of Christ that's in us and that relationship to God That's being prospered and blessed by the afflictions that God sends to us here. If we didn't understand that, we'd be in trouble. We'd only feel pain. We'd have no comfort. This life goes down. These earthly possessions are taken away. This pleasure that we enjoy in this body isn't there anymore. But God is not working on that. But God's working on that other life that we have within us. Now think again of what we read in Romans chapter 5. We stand and rejoice in hope in the glory of God. And not only that, thinking of heaven, but verse 3 says, not only so, but we glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation works patience. Patience where? Inside us. And patience works experience. Inside us. And experience works hope inside us. And hope makes not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad inside us in our hearts. We must not be thinking only of this earthly existence. We must be thinking of the existence that we have inside in our relationship to the Lord. Think of all the Old Testament examples of that for a moment. We can't take the time to list them, but think of, for example, Joseph, who for how many years, from age 17 to 50 or 60, didn't understand why his earthly life was falling apart, sold as a slave by his brothers into Egypt, falsely accused and put in prison, and then though he was exalted from the prison to be A leader in the land of Egypt, he didn't have his family until finally, at age 50 or 60, they came back and then it began to dawn on him. It wasn't his earthly existence that God was working on. It was the existence of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or just a little while later, Moses. He couldn't understand, even though he knew that God was calling him to be the deliverer of Israel out of Egypt. why he had to flee and live in Midian for 40 years, tending sheep in the wilderness. And every experience there in the wilderness, God was using to form him to be the kind of leader that God willed him to be starting at age 80 until age 120. But for all those years, he didn't understand. Think of David. and David's troubles, and David's fleeing from persecutors, and why David was able to write Psalm 119, that we are able to sing, affliction has been for my prophet. Before my affliction I wandered, but now thy good word I obey. Think of Daniel in the land of Babylon, and let your mind's eye go to Christ. and all of the troubles that the Lord Jesus Christ endured so that the book of Hebrews was even able to say about Him, He, in all of His crying and tears and making supplication to the Father, He learned obedience through suffering. Within, God's going to work. Within, God's hand is. laboring to form and to shape us and to make us what we ought to be in relationship to Him. You ask the old saints about their early life. They're not going to be interested in talking to you about the good times and their wealth. But they'll wax eloquent about the troubles that they faced and the hardships they endured and the pain they experienced. All of which God used to bless them and do them good. Ask them. And when you become old, you talk about them and you tell the young that affliction was for my profit. And when we believe that, then that's going to show in our lives. It's going to appear to others. that we actually have that comfort in us. How? In patience and in hope. That truth of God's providence and belief in that truth will produce in us these two virtues of patience and hope. That's Lord's Day 10. that we may be patient in adversity. That's the advantage of knowing the doctrine of providence. And then, of course, thankful in prosperity. But then, hopeful in regard to the future. The word hope isn't used there, but that's the idea. We look ahead to see those things that shall hereafter befall us. And we are not afraid. We are hopeful. So those two graces, God works in us When he works in us, faith in that doctrine of providence. Tribulations, Romans says, work patience. Now, understand clearly what patience is. Patience is the ability to bear a very, very heavy load without being crushed. That's the literal meaning of that word patience, to endure under a heavy load. to keep on going and not stop as you're bearing that heavy load by the power of Christ in us not giving up. That's what the Apostle Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians 4. He was troubled, he was perplexed, he was persecuted, he was cast down, but he was not distressed. when he was troubled. He did not despair when he was perplexed. He was not forsaken when he was persecuted. And he was not destroyed when he was cast down. That's patience. To keep on going when the load is heavy and the burdens are great. When the pain is severe and the disappointments are like you've never had before. Keep on going. And that's a correction of our misunderstanding of patience. as though patience is like waiting in the doctor's office when the doctor's late. And you don't like to wait. And you wonder why the Secretary of State makes you wait. And there you twiddle your thumbs, as it were, and you say to yourself, well, I need to be patient, so I'll just sit here and not become angry. And tell the doctor a word or two, or complain to the government about their bad system. And we think patience is simply waiting, doing nothing without being angry. And that's not patience. Patience is activity. Patience is obedience while I'm enduring these hardships. Patience is even being busy with my work at the same time that I am suffering. That's patience. That's the biblical idea of patience. So, in the first place, patience is going to appear in our lives as activity, as obedience, and as busyness. I don't stop my work now, though I'm tempted to. I don't discontinue what I'm called to do when everyone is stopping, it seems. You can't go to the restaurant, you can't go here or there, you can't do your normal work, and then we're tempted to do no work. or let the work that we can do and really ought to be doing be put on pause until everything goes back to normal. That's not patience. Patience is activity. Patience is busyness. Patience is keeping on with the family responsibilities. Patience is even growing in my ability to do these things as I ought to do. Patience is working in areas that I never worked before. Patience is Bearing that heavy load and keep on going. Maybe it's being as creative as one young mother I heard said to her little boy, we're going to play ding dong ditch it. And now not as a prank, but we're going to ring the doorbell and put some food on their porch and go on to the next home. And ring their doorbell and put some food on their porch and go to the next home. They had never done that before. Now is a time for us to work, not to stop. In the second place, patience appears in our lives by being faithful and content today. Today, my temptation is to say, when these calamities be overpassed, then I'll be happy again. When these troubles are gone, then I'll get back to work and then I'll be content. And the reality is patience is to be content in these adversities and be happy while God is sending these hardships to me and not say, well, A couple of weeks, it'll be over, then we'll get back to it. You think of the Old Testament examples of this. And the classic example, I suppose, should be Israel and Babylon. When Israel was taking captivity out of their land and brought to the land of Babylon, you can understand the calamity that was for them. Uprooted from their homeland into a strange land and people. And God sent the prophet Jeremiah to say to them, while you're here, build houses and plant gardens and harvest your crops. While you're here, get married and bear children and live your life because it's going to be a while before you go back. In your hardships, be faithful and busy and work. Don't wait till they're over to be faithful. You think of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament. How many years didn't he spend in prison? In prison. And you would imagine that Paul would say, well, I can't do anything in prison. I can't be productive here. But I dare say that the most productive years in Paul's life were when he was in prison, writing epistles and preaching to those who visited him and encouraging those who came to see him. Paul produced while he was enduring these hardships. He didn't stop. You think of Luther and the Ortberg Castle. Spirited away by his friends because his life was threatened. Hidden away in that dark dungeon, as it were. He could have said, well, when the year is up, I'll go back and get to work. But he didn't. In that castle, he translated the New Testament. He worked, he preached, he taught, he wrote. And that's the way the people of God need to be today, too. You must not say, and I must not say in the middle of these troubles, I'll get back to it when they're finished. Now you and I must manifest our confidence that God is doing good by patience. And then in the third place, patience manifests itself in our interest in learning and asking. Probably this question especially. What's God doing in this? How is God working? Let's stop. Shall we? Talking about the virus and its spread and all of the miserable regulations that hinder our lives. Let's let that not be the main topic of our discussion when we get together with the people of God, if we're able. Let's put away the news feeds. Let's turn off Facebook and the other social media sites. And when we converse, as we have the ability to converse, Let's ask ourselves this question. What's God doing? What am I learning? What's He teaching me? Before this, I had a handful of responsibilities and a handful of possessions. And one at a time, God took them away. My vacation? My travel? My work? My school? What do I have left? Is there anything important left? What's left? And if nothing is left, then we have something to learn that our life consists of more than school and vacation and sport and possessions. A man's life consists not in the abundance of things. And we as believers find some things that are left and what's left is for us vital. We learn that. And then let's ask ourselves the question, what obedience did we grow in? If Christ could learn obedience through suffering, read the book of Hebrews, chapter 5, then we certainly are able to learn obedience. Let's ask those questions of ourselves and to one another. And then let's ask this third question, too. How long will it take us to forget everything we learned during this time of trouble. If God would tell you tomorrow, you may go back to what you're doing. You may have all of those things that you lost in this time. Life would go on as it did three weeks ago. How long would it take you and me to forget? Patience is enduring, bearing up under that burden, continuing in our work as we're able, and learning. Asking God, teach us. Lord, teach us. Be careful, people of God, that we're not impatient. That we don't work. That we don't grow. That we don't learn. That we're always complaining. That we're always only criticizing. That we're angry. Mom's angry with the kids. Kids are angry with each other. Dad's angry at Mom. Don't be impatient. And don't try to anesthetize yourself in these troubles. Sometimes we'd like God to anesthetize us, to numb us to the pain, but sometimes we take that responsibility on ourselves. And you understand why the news has reported that the sale of alcohol has spiked 70% in the past couple of weeks. Be careful, people of God. How you handle these things, don't be impatient. And the second way this belief of providence manifests itself in our lives is in hope. First, in patience that we bear up under the burden. And second, with regard to hope. Patience has to do with the here and the now. And hope has to do with the there and the then. We look into the days to come. We don't know what's going to be for us in those days to come. And we say, I am not afraid. I am hopeful. That's what the Word of God teaches in Romans 5, in Romans 8, and that's what the Lord's Day teaches in Lord's Day 10. But let's be careful that we not misunderstand what hope is. Hope is God's grace to look into the future and see good and only good, and to be confident that in the future there's good and only good. That's hope. Hope is God's grace to be fearless with regard to what's coming in the days ahead. Hope is looking into the future by God's grace without being able to know what details are there for me in the future and say about that future, it's going to be good because the hand of God is not only here and now in my life, the hand of God will also be there. Everywhere in heaven, on earth, In China, in the United States, in the past when He formed us and guided the worlds up to 2020, in the present, in our lives now, but God's hand is also in the days and years to come. And that's why I say, I'm not afraid. Be careful, people of God. Don't fall into the temptation that I fall into every day. and say, I sure hope this is passed soon. I sure hope the government's executive order will be lifted soon. I hope I'll be able to work again soon. I hope the restaurants will be open again soon and we can reschedule our vacation and the choir trip and the last concert and graduation and all of the rest. I sure hope that I can have these things back again. Be careful. people of God. That's not an expression of hope. That's not biblical hope because the fact of the matter is we don't know that. And though we mustn't be pessimistic, we mustn't be blind to the reality that God might not give to us a normal life again. You might not go back to work. or school for much longer than you expected. You might never be able to reschedule that spring break trip or the honeymoon you hadn't gotten yet. It's God's prerogative to do what He will with this world and His creation. And we all know and we all confess that someday He is going to bring this world to an end. And for the people of God, it's not going to be, with regard to our earthly life, a pleasant end. Now, that's not our hope that things are going to be better soon. I trust, I think I may say that, that probably they will be in a month or so, but that's not biblical hope. Biblical hope is whatever God is pleased to give me in the days to come, in whatever things may hereafter befall me, I place my firm trust that nothing will separate me from the love of God. And I live that way. It's going to be good. The doctrine of providence, God's hand is everywhere. It's the hand of my Father who's good. That doctrine manifests itself in my life in that I am patient by His grace and that I have hope by His grace. And the ultimate ground of that comfort is where it all starts for us in the forgiveness of sins. I said at the beginning of the sermon this morning that our comfort doesn't stop there. It isn't limited to the forgiveness of sins. And it isn't limited to our hope that we go to heaven in the end. But it also includes the confidence that God is working now and doing good to me now. I said it includes that. It's not limited to forgiveness and the hope of heaven. But if you don't have that, You don't have anything. There is no hope for you. There can be no patience for you. Just imagine the unbeliever. His sins aren't forgiven. The cross of Christ did not pay for his sins. He's going to face the judge of all the heavens and the earth someday. And it's not going to be pretty. How can a man live that way? How can a man die that way? That's not pretty either. But when you and I know That 2,000 years ago, that same hand of God that scooped you out of the dust, out of your mother's womb and gave you life. That same hand, 2,000 years ago, sent His Son to live like us and be miserable with the misery you and I have never endured. To become a man of sorrow is acquainted with grief. To be always falsely accused and miserably treated and finally go to the end of his life on the cross. The hand of God left him there and abandoned him there. And then the hand of God crushed him there. For you and for me. The hand of God, His Father. The hand of the God who loved him and whom he loved sent him. for our sakes, so that our sins could be paid for. And if that's true, then reread Romans 8. If God be for us, who can be against us? If He didn't spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us everything? Everything. The ultimate basis, people of God, is in that great reality that there is for us forgiveness and we're righteous with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and being justified by faith, we have peace with God. I can live in all of the misery of this life if God is pleased to give me more misery with the knowledge that He's not against me because of my sins. And the ultimate basis even goes back farther than that. It wasn't 2,000 years ago only in the sending of Christ on the cross, but it was all the way back into eternity when the hand of God in His decree gave you and me to Christ. and entrusted us into His care so that when He did come, the hand of God sending Him to this earth, when He did come, He said in His prayer, all that thou gavest Me, I've lost none of them. And I'm not going to lose any of them. In eternity, the hand of God gave us to Christ so that we belong to Christ. And then 2,000 years ago, Christ came to carry out that will of the Father to keep us and to do us good. And so you may be sure and not doubt ever that whatever befalls us in the days to come is by the hand of God for your good and mine. And therefore, I'm not afraid. Amen. Father in Heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word. May it keep us in the days to come. May it remove any anxiety from us. May it give our hearts peace. And may it give our lives and tongues and all of our being the ability to live in Thy fear and to Thy glory. Today especially, Teach us to live today. Forgive, Father, when we sin in that and deliver us from evils. For Jesus' sake we pray, Amen.