A sermon exploring the doctrine of God’s providence, examining how His hand is actively involved in all aspects of life, from the grand movements of history to the smallest details of creation.
Transcript
We’re going to think of this today. We’re going to be thinking more doctrinally about the idea of God’s provision in all things, the doctrine of providence. That’s where we hope to go today.
Let me begin by reading verse Romans chapter 8, verse 32. This is God’s holy word.
He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?
Let’s pray and ask God to bless His word today.
Father, as we think about your precious word, this verse and the verses that we will read later, we thank you for it. We recognize, Lord, that there was you were under no obligation to reveal yourself in any kind of a way to a sinful people who was under your judgment. But out of grace and mercy, you have given us your holy word, teaching us about yourself, teaching us about our responsibility to you, and Father, giving us great provision. We praise you, Father, for all that you are and all that you do for us. And we pray that today we would begin to understand your work better, your work of grace and provision, that we may be able to appreciate it a little more. Thank you, Father, for all of your kindnesses to us. We praise you in Christ’s name. Amen.
Understanding God’s Providence Today
I’m not a very good joke teller, but I was thinking about telling you that this is a joke first of all is one of the ways that you kill a joke. And I’ve never been very happy with this joke, to tell you the truth. It’s a very old one. I’ve seen it multiple times in the “Laughter the Best Medicine” in the Reader’s Digest over the past countless decades that I’ve been reading that, off and on.
It was an old story of a guy who was doing some he was doing some hiking, and he comes to this little point, he’s not paying good attention, and he falls over the side of a little cliff, and he catches himself just as he falls. You all know the story already. You remember this. He’s holding on to a little branch, and he cries out, “Is there anybody up there who can help me?” And he hears a voice like from the heavens, a deep voice say, “I’m here. Trust me. Turn loose and trust.” And he says, “Is there anybody else up there who can help me?”
It’s not a very funny joke, really, not at all. And it’s an interesting joke because it kind of explains the way people think today. We live in a time when people don’t know in any experiential way or think about the personal relationship of God with this world, the relationship that’s called the immanence of God, the fact that God is in control of this world, that he sustains this world. We don’t think that way very much any longer. I’m not sure why that is, but it is true. I know it’s true. We have changed as a people in the way we think.
I’m not saying that this was ever an easy topic for people, but it certainly was more common. All you have to do is read a few good books and you’ll know that people fought differently, talked differently a few generations back. And even in my own life, I’ve been able to see some movement away from people normally thinking about God, and how they think about God, and his provision in every way.
In fact, one of the ways that you can see that is in the word providence. When’s the last time you’ve heard someone use the word providence? Maybe in Sunday school, I mean in the Bible study this morning. I don’t know. Not very often. We don’t talk about providence that much any longer. But if you go back to reading people who hardly believed in providence, actually, if you read the writings of Thomas Jefferson, for example, or any of the people at the founding of this nation, that word providence came up a lot. People saw the world in terms of God’s hand being in it, in everything, and in every way. As we’ve moved and society has become more focused technologically on the technology and sciences and all of these types of things, we’ve moved away from that everyday experience of God.
It’s really kind of interesting. Even in the hymns we sing. When I was a kid, one of the hymns, it was the most popular hymn. You heard it all the time. It was in surveys. The hymn that was absolutely considered more popular than any other hymn, sung more often in churches than any other hymn, was the hymn “How Great Thou Art.” Everyone sang that hymn. And what’s the hymn about? Well, “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the works Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed.”
You see, when people would live outside, when people lived their lives and they were more connected to the earth around them, when the thunderstorm came up, when there was a great storm, an earthquake, or actually any act of nature, even the planting and the harvesting of crops, everyone saw God’s hand in those things. Now, when people think about a thunderstorm, they think about a low-pressure system coming in, you know, and all of the the things that have to do with temperature and humidity, those kinds of things. They don’t think about God’s hand being in any of these things. And yet the Bible is quite different in its instruction about the cause of all these things. And if we don’t understand that God is behind all things like that, then we don’t understand God, and we certainly don’t understand his doctrine of providence.
Now, when we talk about providence, what we are saying is that God’s hand is in absolutely everything that happens in this created world. Everything. God’s hand either in a real way is in everything that happens, the big and the small. And I know that, you know, we’ll try to discuss this and think about it a little more in terms of definition. I know that this doctrine leads to some big questions. And I’m going to here are a few of the questions. I’m not going to answer any of these questions today, but you can think about the questions. I mean, one of them is how does God’s providence interact with our own with our own responsibilities and our own will? How does that how does that come about? How does God’s sovereign providence interact with our free choice? What about the providence of God in evil and suffering in the world? Those are big questions.
We may look at some of these things in future weeks. We’re going to hope to start a study, maybe looking at the book of Esther, probably beginning next week. And one of the reasons I’m talking about providence today is because something that you see in that book. But, you know, what about evil in the world? We’re going to study that when we’ll be looking at the book of Job in particular, that really deals in a very direct way with the relationship between God’s sovereign providence and the bad things that happen to people. So we will pursue some of these things in the future. But today, we’re just thinking generally about providence. What is it? How, you know, how do we understand God’s connection with this world?
Well, the word “providence” comes from the word the idea has to do with the word “provide.” And the word “provide” comes from a Latin word, and the first part of the word is the word “pro,” which means in front of or before, and the second part is the word “videre,” which means to see. It’s the word that we get video from. So the idea of seeing, the idea before. When you put those two words together, and you would think that what we’re talking about is being able to see beforehand, you know, having having an idea to foresee. But the word doesn’t mean foresee. The word means to provide, to make provision for. And I’m not going to explain why, how we get there from that, this morning. But I might talk about it tonight if you come back for that. We’ll talk about what it means to how we ended up with that word. And it’s a word that’s not found in God’s word. You don’t find the word this word providence in God’s word. It is found the the idea and the teaching is everywhere in the word of God. And so we’re going to be thinking about these places as we see it described.
But there’s a lot of lots of definitions that have been given. For example, in the Baptist Faith and Message, which was written in the year 2000, the the Southern Baptist doctrinal statement, describes says, under the title, “God the Father,”
God as Father reigns with providential care over his universe, his creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history, according to the purposes of his grace. He’s all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He’s fatherly in his attitude toward all men.
So that’s that statement of faith. If you go back a few centuries to the London Baptist Confession of 1689, they devote seven paragraphs to the doctrine of providence. And I’m going to read just the first one.
God, the good Creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom, does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things from the greatest to the least, and by his most wise and holy providence to the end for which they were created, according to his infallible foreknowledge and free and immutable counsel of his own will to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.
That’s a really good description of what we’re talking about with providence because we’re talking about God’s oversight and control of all things as they as it flows, as things flow.
And, you know, as we as we begin to think about what we’re talking about is God’s control of the flow of history, God’s control of everything as it unfolds. God is he oversees it so that things will happen in just the way that he wants it to happen.
Biblical Examples of God’s Providence
There’s a by way of illustration, let’s turn to a passage in Matthew. It’s very familiar to you. I think I alluded to this last week. And I want us to think about it a little a little deeper. Matthew chapter 6, in verses 26, in fact, just to get the full context, and we can apply the the principle as our Lord intended. Let’s go back to verse 25 and I’ll read 25 to 30. And this is Jesus’ instruction on the Sermon on the Mount, he says,
For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God who clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?
Now, when Jesus writes those words, his intent, there’s a lot of glorious things there that we can think about. We can think about the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, and we can think about the beauty of nature. But his point is a very practical point. He’s saying, “Don’t worry. Don’t become anxious. You can trust God.” But the interesting thing here is why the reason that he gives. And the reason that he gives is because he is saying, “God takes care of the birds of the air. He himself takes care of the birds of the air.” He’s the one who causes the beautiful bloom on the flowers of the field. He’s the one that brings that about.
Now, if he were just saying that figuratively, this whole passage would have no real meaning. The reality here is that Jesus clearly believes that God himself takes care of the birds of the air, and he really does bring about the flowering of the plants in the field. He is responsible for he is he is the one who is ultimately behind these things. You see? And so that’s saying that if God is behind all of these things, there’s purpose in those things. And one of the purposes that that Jesus extracts from that is that he cares for these little things in such a way, don’t you think he cares in an equal way for you at least? He’s going to look after you. He’s going to meet your needs. He’s going to if he provides for them, he will provide for you. Teaching of God’s providence.
Let’s look at another one. It’s very similar. Matthew 10, 29 to 31. Jesus is teaching, and here he says,
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear, you are more valuable than many sparrows.
It’s even more profound here because he is not just talking about caring for the for the sparrows as they fly. But he’s also talking about when they fall to the ground. When when the sparrow falls to the ground, when it dies, that’s in the hand of God as well. That’s what he’s talking about. And the application is that he cares. We can trust the goodness of God with the circumstances of life. He knows all about the sparrows of the field. More than just knows. He’s he’s sovereignly in command of all the the large and small things of life. Even the hairs of your head. As you get older, like I am, you you begin to notice that you have fewer and fewer hairs. Actually, you think the opposite. You think, “Why is my hair growing down my forehead?” And then you realize the sad truth, you know, those are the lone survivors. The rest have retreated up to higher ground.
Anyway, God knows the number of hairs on your head, and when they fall out, that’s part of his his providence as well. When the hairs began to thin, when my hairs began to thin, he’s got purpose in that.
The Purposeful Nature of Providence
One of the one of the interesting things is that I want to get to and hope to is is this idea of purpose in what God is doing. The idea here isn’t that this is a mechanical thing, and that God is doing these things, and these things are just happening like a machine. It’s not like God started the process and he’s leaving it to run. That’s that’s called deism. That’s the idea that God created everything, but he just left it off and he’s God’s out there doing his own thing, and everything’s just happening. Now, he started the machine going. That’s not the way it is. It’s not the way the Bible describes it. God is in control of everything as it unfolds, as it flows.
And and it’s like a flowing. He’s like the architect who is in charge of the construction of the building. He he has planned it and he’s carrying it out by his design. He’s like the artist who is creating a beautiful painting, or the writer who has created a wonderful story. And all of history is like that. It began, and it has a middle part, and it has a conclusion. And the conclusion is purposeful. God has a design in all that he’s doing that’s beautiful and glorious and wonderful, and we’re part of that design. He has all of this he’s purpose in all of this, and so we are to understand understand this better.
I am thinking about it, when we’re thinking about the details of this. I was reading, I came across an illustration that John Piper gave when he was talking about this. He’s talking about experiencing nature, you know. And he particularly sunsets. He was talking about how he sees a sunset, and how God has in his grace has allowed him to begin to see God in all things. When he looks around the world, he he calls that he’s got a title for it. He called that a “God-entranced” view of the world. And if you think of entranced, entranced means that you’re looking at something and you can’t take your eyes off of it. You’re seeing God in all these things. That’s what he means by it. But if you think of “entrance,” it’s like the window opens, and you can see God in all these things. That’s what he’s talking about, being able to see God in all the little details of life.
And in this he says, “I see reality differently.” He says, “I used to look at a sunset when I was jogging and think and think that God has created a beautiful world.” Now, I’m going to interrupt this illustration and tell you, I remember I had a had a kid in my church, who was a a young teenager. And I had a conversation with her, and she I was talking about a sunset. She said, “I’ve never seen,” I mean a sunrise. She said, “I’ve never seen a sunrise.” And I said, “Well, you know, it’s really worthwhile. You should try that.” And in a few weeks later, she’d gone on an airplane trip, and on her way back, she she couldn’t help but see a sunrise. You know, it probably was pretty majestic over the she was flying over the ocean and seeing the sun come up over the ocean, must have been quite an experience. And so when she got back, she said, “I saw the sunrise.” I said, “Well, what do you think?” And she said, “It wasn’t much.” You know? So at least she saw it, but she didn’t appreciate it. She’s got a few steps to go. You should at least be able to see that God’s created a beautiful world. If you can’t do that, you don’t know what beauty is. Anyway, Piper says, “I used to look at the sunrise when I was jogging and think that God has created a beautiful world. Then it became less general and more specific and more personal.” And I said, “Every morning God paints a different sunrise. He never gets tired of doing it again and again.” You know, it’s become personal now. I see this sunrise, I see it from this perspective. God in a sense has done that for me. I see this beautiful thing. And God’s hand is in this.
And then he says, “Now, he doesn’t do it again and again. He never stops doing it. The sun’s always rising somewhere in the world. God guides the sun 24 hours every day and paints sunrises at every moment without one second of respite and never grows weary or less thrilled with the work of his hands. Even when clouds cover and keeps keeps man from seeing it, God is painting a spectacular sunrise above the clouds.” That’s true. You know, God is in all of these things. The sun rises because God brings that about.
A place to see that is in one of the places is in Hebrews chapter 1. If you flip over to that and look at verse 3. I’ll read all of this as well. The book of Hebrews has to do with the writer of Hebrews is writing it to Jewish people, to the Jewish audience, and he is explaining why all the order of the Old Testament, the Jewish practice of the Old Testament has been superseded by Christ, why Christ is so much greater and better. And he begins talking about revelation of God. God spoke a long time ago through the prophets, that’s the word of God, the revelation of God. And then later in verse 2, “In these last days he’s spoken to us in his Son.” He sent Jesus Christ who’s a more perfect revelation. That’s what he’s saying. Look at verse 3. He’s talking about Christ, about the Son of God.
And he is the radiance of his glory, that is, Jesus the Son of God is the radiance of the Father, and the exact representation of his nature. And look at this. He upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He upholds all things by the word of his power.
It’s saying that Jesus Christ, who is the creator God, causes all things that exist to continue to exist in a flow, really. In a flow. And how do you know that how do you know that it’s, you know, not just not just causing it to stay existent? He he it’s talking about all of the things that were talking exactly about what we’re talking about this morning. For example, I mean, more more specifically in this passage, he upholds all things by the word of his power. That Greek word that’s translated upholding is the same Greek word that’s used to carry. He carries it along by the word of his power. All the things that in in existence is carried along by the word of his power. There was a a Greek philosopher, his name was Heraclitus, and he was known for his philosophy that everything is in a state of flux. And he was his famous saying is that you never walk through the same river twice. You know, and so what he meant is, you know, obviously we do walk through the same river twice. But what he what he’s talking about is the water that washes over your feet when you step into the river goes on down the river and ends up in the ocean. And the next time you step into the river, there’s new water from the mountain that’s flowing down that’s that’s washing over your feet this time. It’s different. It’s flowing on. It continues. Time does that. History does that. Everything flows on and changes. This passage in Hebrews 1:3 is saying that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, carries things along. Carries the flow along. It’s not that he just sustains the atoms so that they’re there. It’s saying that he is carrying them along in the changes that that come about. He’s he’s carrying it along, just like just like the the same word is used to the paralyzed man that Jesus told to pick up his bed and to carry his bed and walk. So the idea is purposeful control over the thing being carried from one place to the other. That’s what Jesus Christ does for for all things, and everything. So, and it’s present tense. It’s a present participle. It means he is continually doing this. There’s no end to it. Right now in the present tense, the way we are here, the flow of things that’s happening in this room, come about because Jesus Christ is sustaining it and holding it and carrying it along. That’s the idea.
So that’s the that’s the idea. And he does it for purpose, in fact, for purposes. You think about something like a butterfly. I should look at my phone here, see how much time I got. I could go on and on, I think, because I’m not adequately prepared. When I’m in a situation like this, and I don’t have really a precise outline like I should have, then I can go on for a long time. So pray I don’t do that. Anyway, when you’re thinking about if God, if God, for instance, if he if he creates a a little larva hatches out or forms its chrysalis and a butterfly is is opens up and and it flies away. Well, God can have a million purposes in that one little thing, allowing that and bringing it to happen. There can be literally millions of purposes in something as small and insignificant in our mind as that. And it doesn’t take too much of an imagination to start thinking about possibilities. I mean, all sorts of things can happen with that little butterfly. For one thing, it’s going to have likely have offspring, and there’ll be many, many more butterflies that continue for generation after generation, each of them having their own impact on something. I mean, it could be just a bird catching it and eating it and sustaining the life of that bird. And then maybe that seagull that has caught it and eaten it and has life because of that is the one that landed on the what was Eddie Rickenbacker, he was out in the ocean, a seagull lands on his head, they’ve been starving for a month in the ocean, he was stranded out there, he catches it and they all live. That’s a stretch. I know that.
But you see, there could be purposes in something like that that we can’t imagine. A little boy can go out and see the butterfly and see it on a plant and and reach out and it land on his finger. And he can decide to study biology and grow up to be a doctor. And he’s the person who does the the surgery on your dad’s heart when he has heart surgery. You know, there’s infinite and to say that there’s a million purposes in one little thing like that is is is saying there’s probably far more. There’s probably an infinite amount of reasons that God does the things that he does, even in the smallest of things. There’s there there can be literally millions of purposes. But there’s one great purpose that all these things flow into.
The Ultimate Purpose: Salvation and Glory
And we find that in in Romans chapter 8. We begin to see God’s purposes and the goal of his providence. And we’ve talked about God ultimately God created this world, and all that flows into his own glory. But what I want us to think about this morning is how that works in terms of our relationship with him. All the creation flows and he’s working to bring a people for his own name. He’s actually bringing out people from every tribe and tongue and nation to to will eternally bring glory to him, who will share in his glory.
It’s not just that not just that they glorify him and praise him, it’s that they experience his nature in ways like this, like we’re doing this morning, thinking about the wonders of all that he’s done for us and how everything works. And and if that doesn’t, you know, if thinking about this, it should give us some comfort, knowing that it is a good and perfect God who does this, who has good ends. But it but it should also stir our heart to worship him.
So God in Isaiah I’ll just read Romans 8:18.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present moment are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
And that means what Paul is saying there is that when we go through difficulties and and some of the all of this providence that we experience, not all of it is things that we enjoy. There’s things that we experience in life that’s that’s miserable, that’s sad and sorrowful and, you know, hurts. But all of these things that we suffer isn’t to be compared with the glory that it will be revealed to us. There’s great glory that will be revealed to us for all of eternity.
Isaiah 40 verse 5 says,
Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Colossians 3:4,
When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
1 Peter 5:1,
Therefore, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed.
We it’s not just that we experience the glory of the of God and as a wonderful as a wonderful reward that is eternal and a blessed and we share in the glory.
There’s something that’s it’s really extraordinary. You know, Romans 8:23,
And not only this, but we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
You know what that’s talking about? He’s talking about we’re looking for and waiting for the time when God gives us a new glorified body. When God God that’s called glorification. When that’s the doctrine of glorification, that the day will come when God will raise your body incorruptible and glorious, and that will be be your body. You will have a perfect, glorified body. Right now, if God saves you, you have the ability to not sin. You know, but when you have received that glorified body, you will not be able to sin. You will be you will have a glorified, wonderful, glorious body and a body that can receive and and experience the incredible, beautiful glory of God forever and ever, to appreciate it, to know it, to be able to enjoy it. We’ll be able to enter into that in a full way.
It’s an incredible thing to think about the glory that we can have forever and ever. That’s the purpose. God works all the tiny details of history from the beginning to the end in order to produce a a salvation for his people, which he presents as the bride of Christ, sharing the beauty and the glory of all all the, you know, working to make a spotless and pure and perfected bride and people.
So in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 12, it says this is the the purpose,
so that the name of our Lord will be glorified in you, and you in him.
We’re going to be glorified in Christ forever and ever. That if you want to know the flow of the of all of this, the great purpose. There are millions of purposes. There’s one great purpose, and the purpose is to work a great work of salvation to the glory of God, ultimately. So that we can share in that glory and experience the beauty and the glory of God forever and forever and ever.
Conclusion
So, we are to we’re to trust his providence and trust trust his care for us. God’s got a sovereign plan. He’s got purpose for each of us. “A man may plan his way, but the Lord directs his steps,” the Old Testament says. He’s got purpose in the things that he brings into our life. We’re going to look at some passages particularly in the book of Esther, where wicked people seek to destroy God’s people. And you can find that in numerous places in the Bible. You can find that in the book of Acts when when they plotted to kill the Apostle Paul, for example. Wicked people can plot, but it’s only going to happen if God allows that for some particular reason. They can plot all they want to, but they can’t touch a person a child of God, unless it’s in the plan of God for great purpose.
And so we’re going to we’re going to see that in the most extraordinary way, I think, as we began to explore that in in the book of Esther. We can trust God. We can trust God because he is good and righteous and perfect, and he’s got great purpose for us. The whole book of Romans chapter 8, it’s all about his care and he’s working to bring about the great good for his people.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you for your care and kindness. Thank you, Lord, for your your merciful grace to us. We ask, Lord, that you help us to trust you. Help us to see you in all the events of life. I know there’s so many questions about this because this is just a definition and hardly any demonstration of its truth. But I know, Father, all of scripture verifies it. So we ask, Father, for your your your blessing to to guide us in this, to teach us. And Father, prepare our hearts to be able to see you and trust you, to learn of you and to to understand more about you. We ask this in the in the name of our Savior for his own sake and glory. And we pray, Father, that you use this to strengthen and sanctify us. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus for his sake. Amen.
Let’s go ahead and close with the Doxology, if you would.
[Music and Singing]
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.