Continuing our reading of Thomas Watson's A Body of Divinity in Part 2, God and His Creation, Section 14, The Providence of God, an objection. But some may say, if God has a hand in ordering all things that fall out, He has a hand in the sins of men. I answer, no, by no means He has no hand in any man's sin. God cannot go contrary to his own nature. He cannot do any unholy action any more than the sun can be said to be darkened. Here you must take heed of two things, as you must take heed of making God ignorant of men's sins, so you must take heed of making God to have a hand in men's sins. Is it likely that God is the author of sin and the avenger of it? Is it a likely thing that God should make a law against sin and then have a hand in breaking his own law? God in His providence permits men's sins. He suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, Acts 14.16. God permitted their sin, which He never would if He could not bring good out of it. Had not sin been permitted, God's justice in punishing sin and His mercy in pardoning sin had not been so well known. The Lord is pleased to permit it, but He has no hand in sin. But is it not said that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, you ask? Here is more than barely permitting sin. God does not infuse evil into men. He withdraws the influence of His graces, and then the heart hardens of itself. Even as the light being withdrawn, darkness presently follows in the air. But it were absurd to say that therefore the light darkens the air, and therefore you will observe that Pharaoh is said to harden his own heart, Exodus 8.15. God is the cause of no man's sin. It is true God has a hand in the action where sin is, but no hand in the sin of the action. A man may play upon a jarring instrument, but the jarring is from itself. So here, the actions of men, so far as they are natural, are from God, but so far as they are sinful, they are from men themselves, and God has no hand at all in them. So much for the first petition that God's providence reaches to all places, to all persons, and to all occurrences. A second proposition is that providences which are casual and accidental to us are predetermined by the Lord. The falling of a tile upon one's head, the breaking out of a fire is casual to us, but it is ordered by a providence of God. You have a clear instance of this in 1 Kings 22.34. A certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness. This accident was casual as to the man that drew the bow, but it was divinely ordered by the providence of God. God's providence directed the arrow to hit the mark. Things that seem to fall out casual and by chance are the issues of God's decrees and the interpretation of His will. Thirdly, God's providence is greatly to be observed, but we are not to make it the rule of our actions. Whoso is wise will observe these things, Psalm 107, 43. It is good to observe providence, but we must not make it our rule to walk by. Providence is a Christian's diary, but not his Bible. Sometimes a bad cause prevails and gets ground, but it is not to be liked because it prevails. We must not think the better of what is sinful because it is successful. This is no rule for our actions to be directed by. Fourthly, divine providence is irresistible. There is no standing in the way of God's providence to hinder it. When God's time was come for Joseph's release, the prism could hold him no longer. The king sent and loosed him. Psalm 105, 20. When God would indulge the Jews with liberty in their religion, Cyrus, by a providence, puts forth a proclamation to encourage the Jews to go and build their temple at Jerusalem and worship God. Ezra 1, 2, and 3. If God will shield and protect Jeremiah's person in captivity, the very king of Babylon shall nurse up the prophet and give charge concerning him that he wants nothing. Jeremiah 39, 11, and 12. Fifthly, God is to be trusted when His providences seem to run contrary to His promises. God promised to give David the crown to make him king, but providence ran contrary to His promise. David was pursued by Saul and was in danger of his life, but all this while it was David's duty to trust God. Pray observe that the Lord by cross providences often brings to pass His promise. God promised Paul the lives of all that were with him in the ship, but the providence of God seemed to run quite contrary to his promise, for the winds blew, the ship split, and broke in pieces. Thus God fulfilled his promise. Upon the broken pieces of the ship they all came safe to shore. Trust God when providences seem to run quite contrary to promises. Sixthly, the providences of God are a checkerwork. They are intermingled. In the life to come there shall be no more mixture. In hell there will be nothing but bitter, in heaven nothing but sweet. But in this life the providences of God are mixed. There is something of the sweet in them and something of the bitter. Providences are just like Israel's pillar of cloud that conducted them in their march, which was dark on one side and light on the other. In the ark were laid up the rod and manna. So are God's providences to his children. There is something of the rod and something of the manna, so that we may say with David, I will sing of mercy and judgment. When Joseph was in prison, there was the dark side of the cloud, but God was with Joseph. There was the light side of the cloud. Asher's shoes were of brass, but his feet were dipped in oil." Deuteronomy 33, 24. So affliction is the shoe of brass that pinches, but there is mercy mingled with the affliction, for there is the foot dipped in oil. Seventhly, the same action as it comes from God's providence may be good, as it comes from men may be evil. For instance, Joseph being sold into Egypt by his brethren was evil, very wicked, for it was the fruit of their envy. But, as it was an act of God's providence, it was good, for by this means Jacob and all his family were preserved alive in Egypt. Another instance is in Shimei's cursing David. Shimei cursed David, it was wicked and sinful, for it was the fruit of his malice. But as his cursing was ordered by God's providence, it was an act of God's justice to punish David and to humble him for his adultery and murder. As the crucifying of Christ came from the Jews, it was an act of hatred and malice to Christ, and Judas betraying him was an act of covetousness. But as each was an act of God's providence, so there was good in it, for it was an act of God's love in giving Christ to die for the world. Thus I have made clear to you the doctrine of God's providence in these several positions. Let me now speak something by way of application. Use one by way of exhortation in these particulars. First, admire God's providence. The providence of God keeps the whole creation upon the wheels or else it would soon be dissolved and the very Axel tree would break in pieces. If God's providence should be withdrawn, but for a while, creatures would be dissolved and run into their first nothing. Without this wise providence of God, there would be anxiety and confusion in the whole world, just like an army when it is routed and scattered. The providence of God infuses comfort and virtue into everything we enjoy. Our clothes would not warm us, our food would not nourish us without this special providence of God. And does not all this deserve your admiration of providence? Second, learn quietly to submit to divine providence. Do not murmur at things that are ordered by divine wisdom. We may no more find fault with the works of providence than we may with the works of creation. It is a sin as much to quarrel with God's providence as to deny His providence. If men do not act as we would have them, they shall act as God would have them. His providence is His master wheel that turns these lesser wheels, and God will bring His glory out of it all at last. I was dumb and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it. Psalm 39 9 It may be we think sometimes we could order things better if we had the government of the world in our hands, but alas, should we be left to our own choice, we should choose those things that are hurtful for us. David earnestly desired the life of his child, which was the fruit of his sin, but had the child lived, it would have been a perpetual monument of his shame. Let us be content that God should rule the world. Learn to acquiesce in His will and submit to His providence. Does any affliction befall you? Remember, God sees it as that which is fit for you, or else it would not come. Your clothes cannot be so fit for you as your crosses. God's providence may sometimes be secret, but it is always wise, and though we may not be silent under God's dishonor, yet we should learn to be silent under His displeasure. Third, you that are Christians, believe that all God's providence shall conspire for your good at last. The providences of God are sometimes dark and our eyes dim, and we can 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, Romans 8.28. The wheels in a clock seem to move contrary one to the other, but they help forward the motion of the clock and make the larynx strike. So the providences of God seem to be cross wheels. But for all that, they shall carry on the good of the elect. The pricking of a vein is in itself evil and hurtful, but as it prevents a fever and tends to the health of the patient, it is good. So affliction in itself is not joyous but grievous, but the Lord turns it to the good of His saints. Poverty shall starve their sins, and affliction shall prepare them for a kingdom. prepare, therefore, Christian, believe that God loves you and that He will make the most cross providences to promote His glory and your good. Fourth, let it be an antidote against immoderate fear that nothing comes to pass but what is ordained by God's decree and ordered by His providence. We sometimes fear what the issue of things will be when men grow high in their actings, but let us not make things worse by our fear. Men are limited in their power and cannot go one hair's breadth further than God's providence permits. He might let Sennacherib's army march toward Jerusalem, but he shall not shoot one arrow against it. Then the angel of the Lord went forth and smote the camp of the Assyrians, and hundred and fourscore and five thousand, Isaiah 37, 36. When Israel was encompassed between Pharaoh and the Red Sea, no question some of their hearts began to tremble, and they looked upon themselves as dead men. But providence so ordered it that the sea was a safe passage to Israel, and a sepulcher to Pharaoh and all his host. Fifth, let the merciful providence of God cause thankfulness. We are kept alive by a wonderful working providence. Providence makes our clothes to warm us and our meat to nourish us. We are fed every day out of the alms basket of God's providence. That we are in health, that we have an estate is not our diligence, but God's providence. Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, for He it is that gives thee power to get wealth." Deuteronomy 8.18 Especially if we go a step higher, we may see cause for thankfulness that we were born and bred in a gospel land, and that we live in such a place where the sun of righteousness shines, which is a signal providence. Why might we not have been born in such places where paganism prevails? that Christ should make Himself known to us and touch our hearts with His Spirit when He passes by others, whence is this but from the miraculous providence of God, which is the effect of His free grace. Use two. Comfort and respect of the church of God. God's providence reaches a more special manner to his church. Sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine, Isaiah 27.2. God waters this vineyard with his blessings and watches over it by his providence. I the Lord keep it night and day. Such as think totally to ruin the church must do it in a time when it is neither day nor night, for the Lord keeps it by his providence night and day. What a miraculous conduct of providence had Israel! God led them by a pillar of fire, gave them manna from heaven and water from the rock. God, by His providence, preserves His church in the midst of enemies, a spark kept alive in the ocean or a flock of sheep among wolves. God saves his church strangely. First, by giving unexpected mercies to his church when she looked for nothing but ruin. When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Psalm 136.1 How strangely did God raise up Queen Esther to preserve alive the Jews when Haman had got a bloody warrant sighing for their execution. Second, strangely, by saving in that very way in which we think he will destroy. God works sometimes by contraries. He raises his church by bringing it low. The blood of the martyrs has watered the church and made it more fruitful. Exodus 1.12. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied. The church is like that plant which Gregory Nazianon speaks of. It lives by dying and grows by cutting. Third, strangely, in that he makes the enemy to do his work. When the people of Ammon and Moab in Mount Seir came against Judah, God set the enemy one against another. The children of Ammon and Moab stood up against them of Mount Seir to slay them, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another." 2 Chronicles 20, 23. In the powder of treason He made the traitors to be their own betrayers. God can do His work by the enemy's hand. God made the Egyptians send away the people of Israel laden with jewels, Exodus 12, 36. The church is the apple of God's eye, and the eyelid of His providence daily covers and defends it. Use three. 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 scarce 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, sickness, losses, sufferings, contributed to our salvation. Here we see but some dark pieces of God's providence, and it is impossible to judge of his works by pieces, but when we come to heaven and see the full body and portrait of his providence drawn out into its lively colors, it will be glorious to behold. Then we shall see how all God's providences helped to fulfill his promises. There is no providence, but we shall see a wonder or a mercy in it. And thus far the reading of A Body of Divinity. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available. free and for sale in audio, video and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources as well as our complete mail order catalog Thank you. by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.