Dear Lord, desire for our hearts to reciprocate that love, to love you because you first loved us, to have our our lives taken up in a wholehearted devotion and service to the great king. We ask that you would grant unto us this grace that even as we seek your face, that we might find you afresh this morning and as we draw near to you, that you in keeping with your promise, would draw near to us as well and demonstrate your power of your presence to us. And we thank you that you are not silent, that you are a God who has spoken to us and you have given to us Holy Scripture as a perfect, a sufficient and inspired and infallible word. We thank you for its transforming influence under the ministry of the Holy Spirit to convict of sin and to bring us the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ to come with power and to break the rock in pieces and to be as a burning fire. We ask that you would teach us to live upon this word and to confess and to acknowledge that we cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from your mouth, and that we might, with Job, esteem your word better than our necessary food, and that we would have our souls made fat and glad in all of the truth that you have given to us. We pray for your people, that we would be sanctified by your truth. Your word is true. We ask, O Lord, that that you would not enable or cause your word to return to you void, but that it would accomplish all of the purposes for which you have sent it. Thank you that you are a God who inhabits the praises of your people, that as we lift up our our voices and with them lift up our hearts, our souls in in adoration of you, that you are pleased to come and to inhabit the praises of your own. We ask the Lord that you would be lifting up the light of your countenance upon us and speaking words of peace to us. We confess that we are sinners and we could cry out with that one of old that would say, Son of David, have mercy upon us. We confess that we are. We have walked against your holy law, a law which is good. a law which is spiritual and just, a law which, for your people, is the delight of our inward man. And yet we have transgressed it. We confess our pride, how full of ourselves we are, and how inclined we are, and the secret of our own hearts to nurse and coddle empty vanities. And we confess our unbelief, that though you have given us a strong word and confirmed it in your faithfulness, nevertheless, we continue to stumble. We do believe and we pray that you would help our unbelief. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, in our our inclination to idolatry, the love of self, to placing people and things in our affections and ambitions before you. We bewail this. We confess, O Lord, that it is repugnant and sinful. With that, we would confess all of our sins and ask, O Lord, that you and your faithfulness and justice would forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thankful we are that that you have given sight to your people so that we would not deny that we have sinned and thereby deny you and your word and demonstrate that the truth is not in us. But rather, you have given us a sight of ourselves and you've given us a sight of the Savior, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation for sin. Lord, we ask that you would give us that joy that belongs to your people and the fresh forgiveness of sins as we take our refuge again. in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness. We ask for your blessing upon this gathering of souls, and we pray that you would come among us, that you would give us spiritual discernment, that we might understand the things of God, that you would help us in making the application of this truth to our lives, and that we would find our souls both comforted and strengthened in all that you have called us to. We pray as well for those faithful churches of the Lord Jesus Christ scattered across the landscape of this country who are seeking to preach Christ crucified and who in sincerity love your word. We ask that you would grant them every help that you would send your word forth with power from among them. Sabbath to Sabbath. and that you would be pleased to multiply your fruitfulness in the expansion of your kingdom and in the in-gathering of sinners and in the up-building of the Lord's people. We ask, O God, that you would be blessing the work and the cause of missions. We pray especially this morning for the labor of our own church in Zambia and for the Lachmans and ask that you would show them We thank you for the deliverance and answer the prayer and bringing them out of the struggles with malaria and keeping the baby and Mrs. Lockman's womb safe. And we commend them to you and pray, oh Lord, that you would own Pastor Lockman's labors and that you would take all of the seed that are being sown in preparing native Zambians to teach their own and their own tongue, the biblical truth of the Reformed faith, that it might take root and that we might see many, many churches established in a nation turned and made to incline in the ways of God, to run in your ways. We ask, O Lord, that you would hasten the day when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and that you would be pleased, O Lord, to to hasten the day when we would see the ingathering of your ancient people, Israel, and grafted back into the stock, which is Christ, a work which would be life from the dead and with them the fullness of the Gentiles. We pray, O Lord, that you would that you would bring forth your kingdom with power then and that we might see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ reigning among us. And so we plead all these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen. I ask you to turn with me in your Bibles and the Old Testament to the book of Job. We'll read together from Job chapter 23. Book of Job, Chapter 23, or in the middle of that Old Testament book, you'll be well aware of the account that's given to us of God's dealings with him. And this is one of those precious passages in which we see a God-fearing man, a believer, wrestling in the dark with the struggles of sorrow and suffering under the providence of God, and yet the expression of faith and confidence, knowing that God would bring good. In fact, that God would bring gold out of all of the dealings that Job is experiencing. So let's give ourselves then in worship to the reading of God's word from Job 23. Then Job answered and said, Even today is my complaint bitter. My stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I may come even to his seat. I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power? No. But he would put strength in me. There the righteous might dispute with him, so should I be delivered forever from my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He tideth himself on the right hand, but I cannot see him. But he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps. His way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. And he is in one mind, and who can turn him? What his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. Therefore am I troubled at his presence, when I consider I am afraid of him. For God maketh my heart soft, And the almighty trouble with me because I was not cut off before the darkness. Either have he covered the darkness from my face. God bless the reading of his word, and then I would draw your attention to some words from Second Chronicles again in the Old Testament, Second Chronicles. Chapter 32, read just a few verses about Hezekiah. Second Chronicles 32 verses 24, 25 and 26. This is another arena in which the Lord's people face God's providence, namely in God's purposes, the purposes of God and the struggles that his people have with sin. Second Chronicles 32 verse 24. In those days, Hezekiah was sick to the death and prayed unto the Lord. He spake unto him. He gave him a sign. But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him. For his heart was lifted up. Therefore, there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding, Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart. with he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. One of the great physicians of the soul in the history of the church was a man named Samuel Rutherford. Those of you who have been here in past conferences have heard much about him in book reviews and other addresses, and if you have follows the admonition that I've given year by year over the last nearly half dozen years at this conference and have plunged yourself into those seraphic letters that he wrote in seeking to bring edification to the recipients, the original recipients, the edification which we ourselves continue to profit from. And you'll have come across several quotes, really dozens of choice quotes out of those letters pertaining to the struggle that comes about as a result of the convergence of the Christian with sin. And the impact of those two things coming together, the Christian and sin, really express themselves in various arenas. One is struggle with sin itself, temptation, the sole trial of having to face the enemy within. Another arena is suffering. This is the consequences of sin, the pain that we live and labor under. And another is sin that is outside of us, in other people, but that implicates and impacts us. and our struggle with the mystery of how it is that they prosper in those simple dealings with us and with the Lord's people. And so there's Rutherford writing in the context in which every generation finds themselves. And he says things like the Lord gets his choicest wines out of the wine cellar of affliction. And he says to another, the Lord had 10,000 crosses from which he could choose. And he chose the cross, which was tailored to fit your circumstances. And that's true of every one of us and all of the circumstances that we face. What I want to do this morning with the Lord's help is to take up this theme of the doctrine of Providence and to consider what I think, at least, is that the three arenas in which this hits us practically, the three most common arenas that this doctrine affects or impacts us in our practical life. The first has to do with sin, our struggle with sin. The second has to do with suffering, and the third has to do with what I'm going to call sowing and reaping or the whole idea of retribution in Providence. So, first of all, the struggle with sin, the believer's sin. If you're listening carefully to the catechism And you hear it describing the works of providence as God's preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. And if you're thinking as you're reading or quoting that catechism question, it'll dawn on you and all their actions, all their actions means that his providence includes their sinful action. And there the Christian begins to have all sorts of questions, which, if we had time, we would have to devote the whole week to answering. But God's providence is comprehensive. And it means that his providence includes sin. And there are two things which I wish we had time to develop theologically, but we're just going to have to state for the most part this morning. There are two things that we have to affirm. God's providence includes sin, and God is not the author of sin. These two things have to both be affirmed from Scripture. His providence includes sin, and yet he is not the author of sin. And when I say his providence includes sin, I mean that God is active in his providence, because you see, this is one of the things that would distinguish biblical apostolic Christianity in its expression within the reformed faith from other competitors, those who have given themselves to believing a lie or various degrees of error. The Bible says that God is active in all of his providence. There's not he's not passive in these things, and it is helpful for us to think in terms of God permitting sin. But where we put that whole idea of permission determines whether we're in truth or whether we're in error. Because it would be wrong to say that God does not will to hinder sin. That's the wrong answer. Be easier if this was written out on a board in front of you. The right answer is God wills not to hinder or prevent sin. He is active in his providence in these things. And so you'll notice in our confession It'll speak about how God controls these things, and it's not by their permission. When the divines use that language, they're actually being extremely careful in the theological articulation of this doctrine. They deny that it is a their permission or a mere permission. They're saying God is active in these things. Listen to Calvin. If the binding, if the blinding and insanity of Ahab be God's judgment, The figment of their permission vanishes because it would be ridiculous for the judge only to permit what he wills to be done and not also to decree it and to command its execution by his ministers. My point is, and I can't belabor it, God is God's providence includes sin. The other thing that has to be said at the beginning is that God is not the author of sin. God cannot condone sin. Children, who is the author of sin? Or where do we find the source of sin? And the answer is easy. Man. Man is the author of sin. We can put it that way. The source of sin is found within man himself. And so God is not causing someone to sin. He is not the source or author of sin. Again, Calvin says, Hence, it happens that today so many dogs assail this doctrine with their venomous bitings, or at least with barking, for they wish nothing to be lawful for God beyond what their own reason prescribes for themselves. My point really is. by way of introduction. God, God's providence includes sin. God is not the author of sin. And what I want to really do is get to the, the, the, the, where the rubber hits the road in terms of practical, the practical implications of this, because the question then results, okay, I'm responsible for my sin. You can see that. And God and his mysterious work of providence ordains sin. The question is, What is his holy and it's obviously holy? What is his holy purpose in doing this? What holy purpose does he have in this or why does God in his providence leave me as a Christian in sin? I desire to be rid of sin. The word of God requires me to be rid of sin. God has the ability to deliver me from sin. And so, why is it that I still have sinned, at least until the last day? And I think that the answer, the short answer, I'm going to give you a long answer. The short answer is because God wants to humble us. And that's what we see with Hezekiah in the passage we just read. God blesses him. He sins against God and in gratitude. And then God spikes him and He cries out and the Lord delivers him. But what does the passage say? God was humbling Hezekiah in these things. You see the same thing with David in Psalm 51, the way in which God is humbling him under that. You see with Paul, Paul says, I have this struggle. There's this this messenger of Satan is tormenting me and I have this thorn in the flesh. And we all speak about how God's grace is sufficient. We forget what said a few verses earlier, and that is the Lord sent that messenger to buffet him. And the purpose was, Paul says, the Lord was humbling him, that he wouldn't be exalted with these great privileges given to him in vision. God was humbling Paul with these things. And so it doesn't really surprise us. God works by degrees. He created the whole cosmos. Not in an instant, but in six days. He didn't bring the Israelites through the wilderness in an hour, but in 40 years. From the time of creation to the time of Christ's coming, there were 4,000 years. From the time of Christ's ascension to the present, we've already gone 2,000 years. He said he was going to bring the flood, and it took 100 years before it came. The Lord works by degrees in these things. What I want to do is to focus especially on understanding God's providence in relationship to the believer's sin. And this brings us to what my own congregation has heard me say many times to the most well, at least one of the most pastoral paragraphs in the whole Westminster Confession. Chapter five, paragraph five, we have an exceedingly rich store of biblical truth addressing this question, I'm going to actually use that paragraph, something of an outline to answer the question, why does God in his providence leave me in sin? And there are a few things. The first thing the confession talks about this is to chasten us for former sins. The first reason is to chasten us for former sins. Christ loves us. And in loving us, he leaves us in sin to wrestle with it and to be bruised by it in order that we might see that sin is our greatest burden in this life. The other stuff that we're inclined to think about sin is our greatest burden. You think of how we will neglect in sin will neglect the means of grace, and then we have inadequate strength to overcome other sins. And you can see the Lord's taking us to the woodshed, isn't he? We are struggling with one set of sins because he's chastening us for other sins. The neglect in that instance or example of the means of grace. Sometimes we have fears and not faith. And the Lord will give us over to our fears in order to strengthen us. Or we'll indulge ourselves in the love of self. Self love. And just like a child who indulges themselves in the you know, a piece of cake laden with really, really rich icing, they get sick to them, stop their stomach from from eating too much of it. The Lord will make us sick of sin at times by leaving us in it in order to chase us for former sins. Sin becomes bitter to us so that we can, like those in scripture, at times find ourselves saying that sin is even more bitter to us than death itself. And we begin to see the increase of our hatred for sin. So he chases us for former sins and we benefit from one another in this way. You know, we have a family and one child acts out and they have to go get a spanking and the other children have big eyes and keen ears and they're watching all that's taking place. And they're, if they're wise, profiting from what they're observing right in their siblings. And it's the same for us. Another reason is not just chasing for former sins, but discovering hidden corruption. The Lord comes to us and he blows the fog from off of our hearts in order to show us where our heart is, that the enemy is indeed alive, though not well. That we still have a hidden corruption there. This was part of what was happening with Hezekiah, because if you go not just to Second Chronicles, but to Isaiah 38 verse 15, you'll see this brought out further. Or you think of God leaving some of the Canaanites in the land in order to try his people. The Lord grants a context in which some graces, graces like faith and patience and hope and others have a context in which they can grow with strength against all of the opposition and difficulty that we face. He discovers to us our hidden corruption. Here's the problem. Even as Christians, we often think we're right. In fact, we are plum sure that we're right. We are thoroughly convinced that we're right. And we would take some pretty significant risks in order to demonstrate that we're right at times. And God in mercy comes along and says, you're wrong. God shows us that we're wrong. This is a way of humbling us. Sometimes leaving us in sin is also the only way in which a pattern of sin in our life can be brought to the surface so that As we are exercised in our soul before God and self-examination, we begin to see there's a pattern here. And the Lord, having left us for a season, brings that pattern to the surface in order that under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we might see it addressed and mortified. And so there's a sense in which for the Christian, it's a happy thing, though it's a painful thing. It's a happy thing to be awakened when we are spiritually asleep. If we are spiritually groggy, apathetic, it is a sweet thing to be roused from that slumber. Another reason is increasing our dependence upon God. Why does God in his providence leave me in sin in order to increase our dependence upon him? Think about it. If you're a Christian in your walk before him. Sin gives you so many errands for going to God. In fact, it's one of the biggest lists if we can use that illustration for sending you to the Lord throughout the day and every day, making you frequent in prayer, one, because of your need for pardon, two, because of your need for grace and help. And so it sends you constantly to the Lord in dependence upon him. We tend to be careless. We tend to be self-sufficient. We tend to be full of ourselves. And the Lord wants us to be, in contrast, acutely aware of our need for Christ and his blood so that there would be a close dependence upon it, so that there would be a constant dependence upon it. He wants us to be persuaded of our need for things like the preaching of his word, the need for the reading of his word and prayer and the sacraments and so on. To see our need for the means of grace, the Puritans would say that the means of grace are the buckets, the bucket that we put down into the well and with which we draw out Christ. The means aren't the end in themselves. They're the bucket that God has given to us through which we draw Christ out of out of the well. We need to see our need for fellowship with our brothers and sisters, for friendship, for the support and counsel and exhortation. How often, as we sing through the Psalms, do we see the psalmist saying two words, help Lord, and not only not always in those words, but often in those words, help Lord. This is the expression of the Christian walking independence upon the Lord, growing in greater love to Christ. You see this in the Song of Solomon, that beautiful display of the relationship between Christ and the church as it's worked out within that book and the intensity or the intensifying nature of love after separation so that there's a coming together and an intensity of dependence and love. Another reason is watching against future sin. You know, we have in the facilities here, in our room, bunk beds, which I don't have, to no surprise, probably, at home where I sleep. And so, you know, you sit down and what happens? The first day that I was here, to my children's amusement, I would sit down and whack my head on the bunk that is above me. I'd sit down on the edge of the bed and hit my head. And then, you know, a few minutes later, I did again. What happens? Well, I may be slow at times. But I got the point eventually. I began to watch when I would sit down and look for this thing over my head. And so it's the same in the Christian's walk. The Lord leads us in providence to make us more watchful against future sin. We begin looking for it. We begin having our heads smacked against the brick of sin again and again. We begin to watch for it when we're hit with sin. You think about after sickness, I think every time we get sick to any significant degree, we all probably say to ourselves, I can't wait to feel better. When I get better, I'm going to change how I do things in order to be healthier. And immediately after getting well, there's some zeal to care for for our health to prevent future sickness. Well, isn't it even more the case with with our soul and our walk before the Lord? It improves, it strengthens us in our closeness to God. Here's Job and in the passage that we read. And if you fast forward to chapter 40, what happens is he gets to the end and he lays his hand over his mouth and he says, I've spoken before, but I'm not doing that again. I'm going to be quiet now and I'm going to let God speak and I'm going to be and I'm going to be silent before him. So the Christian learns to anticipate temptation. and to watch before we get to it. If we know that on Sunday mornings we have had for weeks and months and years assaults from the devil to be frustrated and irritated and everything else, then you would think we'd say to ourselves, there's a peculiar season in which we always face temptation so that we're discombobulated before going to church. And therefore, the Christian prepares for it and expects it. And things are are put in order and we pray and walk into those circumstances looking with our eyes wide open for this temptations for sin. And it's the same in so many areas within our life. When we get the victory, we don't think to ourselves, well, there we are, done with that, we can move on. We realize it's going to be back. We're in a minefield and we have to be careful with every step. Another reason is because In God's providence, the sin glorifies Christ and his grace. Leaving us in sin is to the end of exalting Christ and free grace in him, because we see the greatness of his pardon. We see the matchless beauty of this. We see all of the ways in which glory redounds to Christ so that we are driven More and more, the more we see how deep the stain goes, the more we are aware of how powerful the cleansing is to remove that stain. The Lord shows us our bankruptcy. He shows us our emptiness. And in doing so, he shows us simultaneously his sufficiency, his adequacy, his fullness. You can take a little child and have you know, babies that are here at the conference, some that are very, very young, who aren't strong enough to get up on their two feet and run across the floor. And you can take a child like that. And the daddy can hold the child up on its feet. And it can't fall. It's being held up on its feet. But the weakness of the child is seen when left to its own weight. And so for the Christian, It is, it is, we are clearer about our dependence upon God's grace when at times left to our own weight, which is inadequate to hold us. And that's clear with us, isn't it? Then it is even with the angels. So God will get glory out of everything, including the believers sin. Let me say, we're going to come back to this in a minute, but I'll say before we pass on, for those who may be thinking, maybe even some tempted further than to just think that, OK, well, if we understand this whole idea, we find ourselves really at the end of Romans five, you know, sin abounds, grace abounds much more than we should continue in sin. This is the classic antinomian approach to things. We need to be warned about what the Bible says to sin knowingly and deliberately and without shame to do so against the admonition and clear instruction of God's Word. There's no excuses for that. One can't say, well, the Lord brings so much good out of sin, therefore, I shouldn't have much fear of it. No, to think that to yourself should be terrifying. To be entertaining that kind of ideology should strike terror into your heart because it's expressive of the hardening of the heart. That's the kind of thing that comes upon a person whose heart is being hardened before the Lord. It's the opposite way that grace works. Grace works the other direction. Grace sees sin as the enemy and wants to be rid of it rather than to entertain it. But for the Christian, we have comfort that after much toil, after much temptation, after much tribulation and trial, we are eventually going to come to the end of this journey. And then we will sing of the free grace of God. More loudly than we would have otherwise, as those who have tasted the bitterness of sin, so God is infinitely wise and he makes such excellent medicine. for such poisonous ingredients within our life. The first arena is providence and the believers sin. The second is providence and the believers suffering. So from sin to suffering, the struggles with suffering. And what happens is we were afflicted and we have pain and we have sometimes overwhelming pain, pain that takes your breath away. intolerable, loathsome pain. And for some folk, it is equally loathsome and intolerable for them to think that God did it. To have to face the music and to say, God is the one behind all that is taking place. is too difficult, so we need to address that. We need to go to God's word with those struggles, because what we find, though we may be inclined to think this is too much to think that God is the one who controls this and is allowing these things to take place, what we find is that there's actually a depth of consolation in this for us. whether it's bereavement, whether it's our dreams being dashed before our very eyes, whether it's our health being crippled or our finances being taken away, or the pain of watching children go off in ways that displease the Lord or see relationships shattered or our job or our marriage or you know, struggles with mental issues or fears or being accused by other people falsely. We can multiply them, couldn't we? I don't need to. Because you know in your own life, you know in your own circumstances precisely where God has put his finger. But the fact is, in just listing off some of these things, the fact is suffering is normal. And that's where we need to start. Suffering is normal. because sin is normal in this world. Abnormal in terms of how God created it, but in terms of where we find ourselves now, suffering is a part of our life. And we can't think if I just get through this little thing, then there's going to be this placid glass sea that I'll sail across for the rest of my life. You've been dropped into a hurricane, and you get out of the hurricane, when you reach the shores of glory and not before. Providence and suffering. We see a few things. We see that it is good. Why is Romans 828 so incredibly popular with God's people? Because it speaks to us, doesn't it? About God is good and God is bringing good out of things that are otherwise painful and difficult for us. God's providence is dark to us. That's what Job's saying in Job 23. He's saying it's dark. I can't see a thing. I go forward, he's not there. Backward, he's not there. I'm surrounded by darkness. But he knows the way that I take. When he's tried me, I'll come forth as gold. Providence is dark to us, but not to God. We are puzzled. God is not puzzled. And the Lord, of course, mixes sunshine with our clouds in order to buoy us up and sustain us. But there's so much that we are left without understanding. Job has to be read in the way that God has given it to us, which means we see the end at the beginning. We see what's unseeable from the opening verses. But as you read it, I hope you read it at times from Job's perspective. Because Job doesn't see any of the things that we see in reading the book. He didn't know anything about what was happening in heaven. He didn't have any idea about all the cosmic battle that was being focused in upon him. It was dark to him. And you could say that about all of the narrative passages of scripture, can't you? I mean, Jacob traced his light, look at Joseph, how much of that providence was dark to him, and yet God at an end. that was exceedingly good that he was aiming at. And that teaches the Christian to live by faith. So live by faith, not by sight. This is this is this is something of a theme song for me, so I'll try not to take too long saying. We use the words live by faith, not by sight, and we have no idea what they mean. I mean, there's there's such there's such common currency in terms of Christian expression, we've lost the depth of the meaning of them. And here's what happens, how I've described it. Some of you have heard me say this before. We say to ourselves in the midst of suffering, if I knew how this was for my good, if I knew how this was for God's glory, if I knew when it would be over, if I knew what God was doing in it, if I knew, and then we've got a list of a dozen questions. If I knew all those things, then I could be upheld. Then I could be sustained. Then I could make it. Then I would be OK. I could endure whatever trial the Lord's given me. Hogwash. What that means is if I could live by sight, then everything would be OK. If God will give me the answer to all my questions, then everything will be OK. But providence and suffering is intended to teach us to live by faith, which means I'm going to believe God's promises. even when I can't see how all those promises are going to be fulfilled. I'm going to walk by faith even when I don't have answers to all my questions. I believe it's for my good, though I have absolutely no clue how. And I believe it's for God's glory. And I'm going to actually have my faith exercised in ways that wouldn't be exercised outside of this context. Because I'm confident in who God is and what he's doing. God is dealing with us. And we see these things from God's hand. And this is why we said yesterday, we can't dwell too much among the second causes, because it may be really mean people, and it may be other, you know, temporal close at hand things that are causing us difficulty. But it is God who is dealing with us. And he is good. So we need to think about our mercies, we need to magnify our past mercies of all that God has done in order to strengthen our hearts. God has rights, we don't. You can open the Bible and you're not going to find a list of my rights. God is the one with all of the rights, not us. And his providence is better than my desires. And he will take away good in exchange for something that is better. And I believe it, even when we can't see it. It's also God glorifying. Trials strip us. It's interesting how trials, more than almost anything, trials strip us and leave us with nothing but God himself. I should say acute trials. There are types of trials in which God strips us of everything and leaves us with nothing but himself. And there's a sense in which it's as if the Lord is sitting us up on the edge of the bed like we do with our children. And he's saying, now, do I have your full attention? And there's a sense in which, unlike other circumstances for the Christian, in those circumstances we say, Lord, you now have my full attention. You now have my full attention in what you're doing with me. Because those trials can do two things. And they can never do both. They do one or the other. They either drive us to the Lord Jesus Christ, or they drive us away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Our response to trial does one or the other. And the point is that the aim of trial for the Christian is for us to take everything to Christ. It is to be driving us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's also to be bringing us to where we're where we are consumed with God's glory as an end in itself, not as a means to our own ends. We get that backwards. We're to pursue God's glory as an end in itself, not as a means to do something for us. Let me put it this way. The way in which you know that's the case is because when you're in trial, you're often consumed with how God would be glorified in delivering you out of that trial. That says something about us. Rather than being consumed with how God will be glorified with you in that trial. It's a world of difference between those two things. Brokenness brings humility. Some rocks take more blows to break, some of us take more trials to break, but all of it's to loosen our grip on this world. And really, isn't there? There's a sweetness in this for the Christian, because our appetite for heaven is strengthened in this context in ways that are very sweet to us. The Lord loosens our grip. We had all these ideas about our life and about what we're going to do and what's going to happen and so on. The Lord takes us into the furnace and all of that goes up in smoke and our grip on the things of this world is loosened. And we begin to say, you know what? This really isn't all that it was made up to be. And our appetite for heaven is increased. And we're brought to learn something about patient submission to Him rather than our thoughts rising against God. to submit, to bring ourselves under, to yield, to coalesce, to say, Lord, you can have your way. And when we find ourselves, which is appropriate, if we do it believingly and reverently, we find ourselves saying, how long, Lord? We sing in the Psalms, and as many of the prophets said, we're not saying how long, Lord, with an attitude that says enough is enough and I'm finished with you and your ways. But how long, Lord, in terms of I need to continue to wait patiently for you and to yield to you. And really, we have to face the question, am I willing to endure as long as he sees that? It would be nice if we could avoid that question. If that question wasn't necessary, it would be wonderful. But it is necessary. Am I willing to endure as long as the infinitely wise and all good holy God sees fit to bring these things to pass? That's faith. Faith isn't something cheap that you can put on the shelf and say, isn't that nice? It is the anguish of soul. in walking with and before the Lord and rejoicing in his glory, even when it seems as if it is at par expense. His providence in suffering is also gracious, just as the physician who takes a knife and sticks it into you only to bring about healing through that surgery. God is gracious and at times vexing us in order to bring about spiritual healing. But the difficulty is for the Christian, unlike when we go to the doctor and submit to surgery, we kind of were persuaded that we may be apprehensive, but this is a good idea for the Christian. When we are vexed most, the thing that we doubt most is the love of God. So there's where there's the front lines. If you want to go right to the heart of the matter, the front lines of the Christian dealing with providence and suffering. It can be really reduced to this. The Christian doubts most the love of God in those circumstances. And it is in those circumstances that we have to believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God. This is another reason that Romans 8 28 is so popular because being persuaded that God It's not as if God loves us, but he suspends his love in this situation. His love is being expressed in this situation. Believing that at all costs and refusing to deny it at all costs. God is coming to us and he's gracious because he's heating up the furnace in order to put the gold in and burn the dross off. Our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed day by day, and the gold is being purified, and we're increasing in holiness. And sometimes we feel less godly when we're suffering than when we're not suffering. And that's because the Lord is heating up our life and the dross is coming to the surface, isn't it? And there are times when we say, And I've used this illustration before, maybe at this conference. We say to ourselves, I can't see that I'm being made more holy for it. I can see the pain and I can see the difficulty, but I don't see that I'm more godly or holy through the process. And the illustration that I love to use in that context is, you know, I woke up this morning and looked at four of five of my children lying in bed and they haven't grown a centimeter since yesterday. In fact, I can't tell that they've grown at all since last week or last month. If you're looking at them day by day, you don't see growth. But if you look at them this year and then look at them next year at this time, you can see growth. And so in God's day to day dealings with us, it's hard to perceive how he's growing us in holiness. But he is. And in the big scope of things, we will be able to see how God is bringing blessing out of this. So for the Christian, we're married to the king. And if we're married to the king, That means we have the whole kingdom. And if we have the whole kingdom, then whatever it is that the Lord is doing with us and in us, that may be difficult when weighed in the balance over against all that is ours in Christ Jesus, it seemed as it ought to be seen for what it is. Therefore, we can leave what belongs to God in God's hands and walk by faith in the Savior. So, the first arena is providence and the believer's sin. The second is providence and the believer's suffering. And then the third, and I'll try to be brief, is sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping. And what I'm trying to make simple in that expression, sowing and reaping, is the idea of retribution. If you break down the word retribution, you'll find re and then you'll find the root for the word tribute. Tribute means reward. Re means again. So the idea is for the Lord to pay back or to pay again something or someone. And so this whole idea is that God so governs the world and he rewards the good and he punishes the evil in this life and in the next. And no one gets away with anything. And so the Christian looks like Asaph looked at his world in Psalm 73, and we say the godly are prospering, excuse me, the ungodly are prospering and their wind in their sails. Everything's going well. Those who fear the Lord are suffering. And he's saying, what's the point? Why do I pursue godliness when this is all it does? We're going to sing about that in a couple of minutes. That brings us to this whole third arena of providential payback, if you will, of how we sow and reap. And the Lord is pleased to bring about just consequences in his providence to all that's happening. Sometimes he'll take the wicked and use their own scheming to ensnare them. Haman builds the gallows and he hangs on them. You have The enemies of Daniel creating a wall and having him thrown in the lion's den, and they themselves end up being thrown into the lion's den and devoured. There are times when the Lord does that. God is just in dealing with men. And there are times when he delays his judgment. But the fact is, no one can complain at whatever they get, because whatever they get is either what they deserve or less than what they deserve. The Lord is just in all of his dealings. There are consequences for our actions, both as a Christian and as we look at the world around us, God's providence in the world around us. And those consequences ought to be a deterrent. You think about how the Psalms are full, those who sing the Psalms regularly, this concept is very familiar to us, because the Psalms are full of a believer crying out to God under mistreatment, asking God to make things right, to repay enemies, and so on. But the Bible, not just the Psalms, are full of this whole idea, and you can see it even In God's providence, as it's recorded in the Bible, the Egyptians kill the infant seed of God's people. And then you fast forward and there is the Lord, first of all, wiping out their whole firstborn and then drowning all of them in the Nile. They took the babies and threw them into the Nile to kill them. God takes their whole nation, as it were, and throws them into the Red Sea and kills them. There's retribution. There's providential payback, if you will. Laban, you have Jacob deceiving his father. And what happens? Not much longer. Laban deceives Jacob with Leah. And we at times are made to feel that most. in the areas that we have ourselves been most guilty. The Lord works. David kills Uriah in order to take his wife, and God says, David, the sword will not depart from your house. You go to places like the Book of Judges, and you have Adonai Bezek, and even he sees this whole principle. In fact, I know we're short on time, but let me just read you two verses from that. Judges 1. verses six and seven. It says, But Adonai Bezik fled and they pursued after him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his great toes. And Adonai Bezik said, Three, four and ten kings having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table. As I have done, so God has requited me. They brought him to Jerusalem and there he died. He saw, and this is God, justly dealing in equity with him. Point is, you can't sin with impunity. God is not mocked. What you sow, you will also reap. Sometimes God punishes people for specific sins. There's Herod taking glory to himself. God kills him dead on the spot for not deferring that glory to God. You have Nebuchadnezzar who does the same in the Old Testament. Daniel 4. He's sent out like an animal into the pasture. The believers at Corinth. are participating in the Lord's Supper, and they're eating unworthily, not serving the Lord's body. They're sick. Some of them are dying. We could go on and on. The fact is, and young people, this is good for you. Don't believe Satan's lies. You know, Satan says, well, your sin won't hurt anyone. Well, you won't get in trouble if you're not caught. Well, God will overlook these things. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. There is a reaping where we've been sowing and we shouldn't play the fool and believe otherwise. But the objection is still there. The objection that that we see ASAP making in Psalm 73. Why do the wicked prosper? Well, here's Augustine's answer, which I think is as good as any you can find. He says, quote, If no sin were punished here, no providence would be believed. And if every sin should be punished here, no judgment would be expected. The fact is that though God delays his judgment, we cannot deny his judgment. Only those who are in Christ is there for now no condemnation for everyone else. The sentence has already been passed and the sentence is death and it may be delayed, but it will not be denied. There is a miserable state of condemnation. which God has reserved. And though he may be silent, he is never blind. And so you see it in places like Psalm 50. Oh, you thought I was just like you and you thought you could do all these things and I would not see it. That says you're wrong. I may have been silent, but I am not blind. I've seen it. And you may laugh now, but God will laugh then. Execution sometimes is fast. like with Nadab and Abihu or Ananias and Sapphira, and sometimes it's slow. After all, it did take a hundred years after Noah first announced the coming of the flood before God actually brought the flood. Why does God delay? Well, there's a time we could unpack a lot of reasons. One, because it's mercy to some. Others, because he's giving them space, as Revelation 2 says, giving them room to repent. Sometimes it's because he's demonstrating his goodness. Sometimes it's for the good of his church and the purposes of the advance of his kingdom. Sometimes it's to harden sinners and to prepare them for further destruction. Romans 1, he gives them space so that they might be plunged deeper and deeper and deeper into the abyss of sin in order that greater and greater and greater damnation judicial hardening might be keeped up against them. Prosperity does not equal security. Power does not equal security. And therefore, though God delays his punishment, it should not be abused with carnal security, with the pursuit of pleasure, with contempt of God and all that is sacred. Because though it is delayed, it will come. And when it comes, there is no escape. There is no remedy. There is no reversal. And so for the Christian, we look not at what is immediately in front of us. When we look at the world and we see the wicked prospering, we see it in the context of the doctrine of providence and what God is and will do. But it also comes home to us. And even the Christian is chastened, taken to the woodshed by the Lord. And when we deal hardly with other people in sin, flagrantly. It should not surprise us when the Lord takes us to our own woodshed at times in order, in love, to bring us to see ourselves and our sin and our need for amendment in these areas. The Lord reminds us that there is a sowing and a reaping, and so we should beware of having jealousy of the wicked. We should beware of having discouragement in trial. and we should all live as those who are prepared to meet the Lord. May God make it so.