God's Hand Of Providence

I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 104, a psalm which clearly speaks of God's providential care over his creation, one of a number indeed, and also in a particular way, I bring to your attention Proverbs 16, verse 33, which we'll also read in a moment. In connection with that, please turn with me in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 17. Page 17, Lord's Day 10. The second of two Lord's Days dealing with God the Father. We began to consider God the Father, our confession of God the Father last week. Tonight, Lord's Day 10, page 17, as we give expression to what we believe with the answers to these questions. Question 27. What do you understand by the providence of God? Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God, by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them, that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things, in fact, come to us not by chance, but from his fatherly hand. How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us? We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love. All creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will, they can neither move nor be moved. Psalm 104. As we hear now, God's holy, inspired, inerrant, infallible Word. Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, You are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps Himself in light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of His upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds His chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants. He set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke, the waters fled. At the sound of your thunder, they took to flight. They flowed over the mountains. They went down into the valleys to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross. Never again will they cover the earth. He makes springs pour water into the ravines. It flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters. They sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from His upper chambers. The earth is satisfied by the fruit of His work. He makes grass grow for the cattle and plants for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth, wine that glads the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart. The trees of the Lord are well watered. The cedars of Lebanon that He planted. There the birds make their nests. The stork has its home in the pine trees. The high mountains belong to the wild goats. The crags are a refuge for the conies. The moon marks off the seasons and the sun knows when to go down. You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. The sun rises and they steal away. They return and lie down in their dens. Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening. How many are your works, O Lord? In wisdom you made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro in the Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there. These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified. When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in His works. He who looks at the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the Lord. But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. Indeed, that psalm says much about God's creative work and His care of all that He has made. And I was reminded in preparing this sermon for tonight, reminded in this past week that there's absolutely no way that we can begin to exhaust the beautiful truth of God's providence. But Lord willing, we will at least be able to gaze upon it and get a glimpse of the beauty of God's providence tonight. And I draw your attention to a somewhat but interesting Proverbs. Proverbs 16, verse 33. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, life goes on all around us. Our lives progress day by day, sometimes when we're really even not thinking about it. The events of life are ongoing. We work, we sleep, we recreate, and with all of the details that make up these activities. In the world and in the space around it, there are weather patterns from which storms are produced or heat or cold. There are earthquakes, there are falling stars, there are eclipses. We experience what to us seem to be coincidences or surprises or even ironies. Things happen. Flat tires. Bee stings. Disasters. All of a sudden, one day, the appearance of a bird nest and a tree that you didn't see the day before. Or snails slowly crawling across the sidewalk. There are times of economic recession or inflation. There are times of political crisis, times of war. The sun rises in the morning. It sets in the evening. Life happens. Life goes on. Why? And how? Well, for many, it's just fate. Chance. By accident. Due to the alignment of the stars. Filled with all kinds of karma. Some who believe that there is a God or some sort of a supreme being follow the teaching called deism. Which says that after God created the heavens and the earth, that He is now hands off. It's as if He wound up the universe and the universe is now spinning like a toy top until it runs out and then everything will be over. Or there's also the error called open theism, also called the openness of God that says that God doesn't really know from moment to moment what's going to happen, but as it happens, as it unfolds, He deals with it and He helps us to deal with it. Or the reverse, that God sees and knows all things ahead of time, yet He is not able to do anything about it. Yet, beloved, all of these false teachings dethrones God and robs people of their comfort. The truth is, there is nothing that surprises God. There is nothing that He has not prepared. There is nothing outside of His plan or outside of His control, not even the most seemingly unimportant details of life, like the lot of Proverbs 16, verse 33. And why is this? Because the Eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is my God and Father for the sake of Christ His Son, is the Almighty Creator who, as answer 26 from last week says, who still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence. Now, His eternal counsel and providence are not synonymous. They're not the same thing. His eternal counsel is His plan. It is His purpose. It is His will, which Paul says in Ephesians 1, God works out. And that working out, then, is God's providence. It is His execution of His plan. That plan which Paul also makes clear is God's glory through the redemption of His church, the salvation of His people. Our God, beloved, is the one and only God. And this God is the God of providence. And we confess this not because we find the word providence in Scripture. We don't find it in Scripture. We confess this, though, because we find evidence of this all throughout Scripture. We find evidence, even as we read, we find evidence of God's control of the universe and of the physical world and God's control and care of the animals and nations and God's control of man's birth and life and successes and failures and God's control of things that seem accidental or are insignificant. How God cares for the protection and the provision of His people as well as God's control over the wicked. And the history of the world, the history of mankind, is God's history of revelation and redemption which is the execution of God's redeeming His saving plan. And we see that unfolded throughout Scripture leading to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, we see in the Word of God how God preserved the line leading to the Messiah again and again and again when it's seen that that line would be snuffed out. He preserved that line leading to the Messiah, for example, through the birth of Seth or through the flood or by way of the preservation of Joseph and David and Israel on numerous occasions or the Jews in a particular way during the time of Esther. His preservation of the Christ child himself from wicked Herod. And each of these historical events involved details that were put in place and were governed by God. And God's plan, beloved, will culminate with the return of Jesus Christ putting away all of His enemies and the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. God is moving everything toward that end. Which means that everything that takes place, whether big or small, whether easy or difficult, whether in joy or sorrow, even the deeds of wicked man, everything that takes place, every detail is for us. It is for God's people. The wicked world does not see that. The wicked world does not believe that. The wicked world does not realize that it is just scaffolding. We've used this illustration some years ago that just as when a building is being built and there's scaffolding around it, once that building is complete, that scaffolding is torn down, put away, never to be seen again. The wicked world does not realize that it is just scaffolding for the building of the church. And once that church is complete, once Jesus Christ comes again, that scaffolding of the world will be torn down. It will be put away forever and ever, never to be seen again. And only those who by the grace of God understand God's providence in our salvation through Jesus Christ, only they also then understand God's providence in this life itself leading to that eternal marriage feast of the Lamb. What is God's providence? Answer 27 says, Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty, all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand. Notice the emphasis on the hand of our Father. Found again in answer 28. All creatures are so completely in His hand. Providence, we might summarize, is God's fatherly hand. Guiding, directing, providing for this life every single detail. And doing so for the salvation of His children. Beloved, all of life, whether one believes it or not, flows out of the Father's hand. Our comfort is God's hand of providence. And God's hand of providence comforts us, first of all, because of its presence. Its presence in power. The catechism really says it beautifully. The almighty and ever-present power of God. And that reminds us that our God is sovereign. He is omnipotent. Boys and girls, that means that our God is all-powerful. Omnipotent. All-powerful. All power belongs to Him. There's no power in all the universe that exists outside of God's power. He is also omnipresent. That means He is everywhere present. Present everywhere all the time. And He is also omniscient. And that means all-knowing. He knows all things and He knows it perfectly. Our God is sovereign. And being a sovereign God, there is no detail of this universe nor is there any detail of our lives that He is unaware of or is outside of His control. And beloved, that is especially comforting or ought to be especially comforting to you and me in times of sickness and strife. Yet it ought to make us a little bit nervous when we know that we are living in disobedience. The presence of God's hand of power is indeed revealed in Scripture as we look again through the history of Revelation, the history of God's people. We think of the flood, or we think of the ten plagues, or we think of the parting of the Red Sea, or the provision of manna, or we think of the widow's jar of oil and handful of flour by which God sustained her and her son and Elijah for that time, or the ravens that fed Elijah for that time. And these and other historical events that we find in Scripture like them, they seem to capture our attention because we see them as miraculous. Yet, beloved, God's hand of power is also to be recognized by you and me in daily life, in the tiny ant, in the cells of the body as we have learned to know what they do, or in the mighty thunder, or in earthquakes, or in tiny seeds that grow to be huge trees and plants. God's hand of power is to be recognized by us, boys and girls, in scrapes and bruises on our knee again and again and again that keep healing. The truth is, all of life is miraculous. Every detail of life is miraculous. And in all of life is evidence of the almighty, ever-present power of God, even in the lot. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. Now, we might think in our day and age of dice. Rolling the dice, games of chance, choosing straws, and whoever gets the short straw loses or wins, depending on what they were choosing the straws for. Now in Scripture, lots were used by some superstitiously. They were used without faith. We think of wicked Haman. You recall that he cast lots to determine a date on which he hoped to massacre the Jews in the days of Esther. Or we think of the sailors on the ship that cast lots to determine that Jonah was the disobedient one. Only notice there that even though they cast them without faith, they cast them superstitiously, yet God gave them the proper answer through their casting of lots. We think of the soldiers around the cross of Jesus who cast lots for His undergarments. Others cast lots simply to choose between two or more acceptable choices. And lots were also used by believers to determine the will of God. Nowhere do we find in Scripture where they were commanded to use lots. Some want to tie them to the urim and thummim that the high priest had when God established the high priesthood, but there's no proof of that. Nowhere are they condemned. They seem to be acceptable if they were used properly. Again, we're not told how they were to be used properly. However, they were used by believers and they were used to make important decisions. We think of Aaron, cast lots to choose which goat would be the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. Or Joshua, cast lots to determine how the land was to be divided for the tribes after the conquest. Lots were used to determine the guilt of suspected criminals. The apostles, after prayer, cast lots to choose the successor for Judas Iscariot. And all who cast lots, whether with faith or without faith, the people were satisfied with the answer through the lot, and believers believed the answer was God's answer. Now, beloved, the casting of the lot by itself seems to be a minor uneventful action, simply throwing them to see how they land as it were. However, the point of Proverbs is that it's not a matter of physics, even though God is the one who made the laws of physics. It's not a matter of statistical probabilities, but it's every answer. Even though it seems mindless to cast the lots, yet it's every answer was directed by God's hand of providence, His hand of power to serve in the second place, its purpose. Notice the purpose of God's hand of providence. Again, answer 27. Providence is the almighty and ever-present power of God by which He upholds as with His hand heaven and earth and all creatures and so rules them so that nothing happens by chance. The purpose of God's hand of providence? To uphold and to rule. He upholds all creation and all creatures therein. It must all be maintained because nothing runs, nothing operates, Nothing lives on or by its own power. Again, as Psalm 104 makes clear, and Psalm 145, the same thing. One commentator says, that creation, meaning that which God has made, is not something that can continue by itself outside of God. And then he says, wise people, and it is to be kind of this idea, waving the fingers. Wise people, in other words, those who think they are wise, but his point is they're really ignorant. Wise people do indeed sometimes think that. They think that creation can continue by itself outside of God. He goes on, but senseless animals know better. As the psalmist says, verse 27, these all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. And notice again the things that we read. Verse 10, he makes springs pour water into the ravines. It flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field. the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Verse 13, He waters the mountains from His upper chambers. The earth is satisfied by the fruit of His work. And the psalmist talks about the trees that God planted, providing a home for the birds. The heavenly bodies, as the Bible reminds us, stay in their orbits, and the oceans stay in their boundaries. Seasons pass through their cycles. The earth brings forth fruit. Man lives and moves all of this only by the power of God. A part from which everything would collapse and creation would become chaos. As the psalmist also points out in verse 28, when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified. When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the earth. The purpose of God's hand of providence is to uphold all that He has made, including you and me. But then also to rule, to govern all that He upholds. To rule it in order to accomplish His purpose. As Belgic Confession Article 13 says of Providence, He rules and governs all things according to His holy will so that nothing happens in this world without His appointment. According to His holy will, according to His plan, And His ultimate purpose, beloved, is the gathering and the glorification of Christ's church. And even though it may be hard for us to fathom every Al-Qaeda or terrorist attack, every stock market surge, every lightning strike, every trip to the grocery store, every drop of rain, every sickness and cure from it, every bit of adversity and prosperity, everything that happens in this life and world is governed by God toward His purpose. Indeed, we have many purposes in our life that we enjoy, some that we don't enjoy, that all come to pass. All the details that God orchestrates and all of these purposes that we enjoy or aren't so crazy about are used for God's ultimate purpose as He rules all things. All things. Even as believers, we sometimes tend to limit God's providence. I do. I speak this way often. But we tend to limit God's providence, at least in how we speak of it. When we experience, for example, to us, surprising or unexpected or ironic or coincidental things, we might say, well, providentially, this happened or that happened. We speak that way, especially when whatever it was that took place fixes a dilemma or maybe provides an answer that we were looking for or affects our life in a positive and a joyful way. Well, providentially, this happened. You see, beloved, when things go well, we just take it for granted that's how it's supposed to be, don't we? When things go bad, we want to shout out, well, how can this be? Yet notice, the catechism reminds us that even the things that we make light conversation about on a daily basis, the weather, the crops, the flower garden, the lawns, leaf and blade it says, what we eat or drink, or questions of how are you, dealing with health or sickness, or even the economy, prosperity and poverty, even those things that we tend to make light conversation about and don't treat as very important, they are all under God's providential rule. God who even uses His enemies. We think about the history of Israel, how God used Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Cyrus. And if you think about it, even those like Cyrus or the Messiah who were foretold many, many years before they were on the scene of history, how God foretold of them in His Word, even by name, Cyrus, yet all the details needed to be orchestrated so that that would actually come to pass and take place. God uses His enemies. He uses natural disasters. He uses hardships. He even uses sin. Even the sin of His people. He uses all of it to achieve His purpose. Indeed, often we are disobedient. We violate God's will of command. Yet that does not violate God's will of decree. His plan, His purpose. He uses it. He leaves nothing to chance. The lot had the appearance of and to some was all about chance. But beloved, as we consider the testimony of Scripture, it was not by chance that Pharaoh's daughter went to the river that day so that we would say that baby Moses was just lucky that she was there. It's not by chance that Queen Esther's husband, King Ahasuerus, couldn't sleep that night and he asked for the book of the records to be read to him and he was reminded of what Mordecai had done, thus frustrating Haman's plans. It was not by chance that the big fish was at the right place at the right time to swallow Jonah. Or as we think about Joseph, that ultimate story about God's providence, it was not by chance that the Ishmaelites had come by to purchase Joseph or that he was sold to Potiphar and no one else or that he became acquainted with a cupbearer in prison or that the prosperous years and then the years of famine came which forced his brothers to go to Egypt. Oh, we look at that story. It's easy for us to see because it's all laid out for us from beginning to end and we see where the end result was at. But beloved, that's true of us too. That's true of each one of us. The very same thing. God is orchestrating it all. It is hard for us to see at the time, especially if we face difficulties. But as the saying goes, hindsight truly is 20-20. And as we look back and see how the details of our life fit together, good and bad. How they fit together like puzzle pieces. God did that. And He is still doing that. And that puzzle will be complete one day. Nothing that we encounter, Nothing that we experience or do is by chance or accident, but it is all a part of God's plan to accomplish His purpose for the church and ultimately its purpose, as Joseph said to his brothers, is God meant it for good. As Paul says in Romans 8, 28, in all things work together for the good of those who love Him. Beloved, God's hand of providence is to be comforting to the child of God because of its presence, because of its purpose. but also finally because of its provision you might say well wait a minute isn't providence all about provision well again as we speak about providence that includes the wicked doesn't it but I'm talking here about its provision its benefit only for those who know him as our heavenly father for Jesus sake question 28 how does this knowledge of God's creation and providence help us we can be patient when things go against us the older version says patient in adversity thankful when things go well thankful in prosperity and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love all creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they can neither move nor be moved its provision broadly speaking beloved is peace in all of life knowing that we are safe in the hand of God just think about that think about the hand of God we are in the hand of God it's not as if he's holding us like this by his fingertips and could drop us at any moment we are safe inside the palm of God's hand ours is peace in all of life that is demonstrated by a relationship of love for God love which is demonstrated through patience and thankfulness and trust its provision includes patience in adversity When things go against us, apart from the comfort of peace with God by faith, we all know that adversity will only result in anger and frustration and hatred and lashing out. But knowing that God is in control and is using adversity and will turn it to my good, the Holy Spirit blesses the child of God with the fruit of patience. Not just a hopeless resignation, saying, oh well, I can't do anything else anyway. Not just hopeless resignation in spite and anger, but a patient endurance and confidence, knowing that whatever the reason for the adversity, He is sanctifying us. He is correcting our character. He is preparing us for glory. Patience in adversity. But also the provision of thankfulness and prosperity when things go well. Again, apart from faith, prosperity we know leads to arrogance and pride and independence and one thinking that they have no need for God. But understanding God's hand of providence opens the eyes of the child of God to see that He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. That He is to receive all the credit for giving what I certainly don't deserve even if it seems like I gained it myself. Patience and adversity. Thankfulness and prosperity. But confidence and trust for the future. For every day of life. Confidence and trust that nothing will ever happen to separate us from God's love. Nothing will ever happen to overrule or change His plan. Nothing will ever happen to destroy our salvation. We may go through troubles of life, even severe troubles. Yet the providence of God helps His children, we might say, to be well-balanced so that the threats of danger do not terrify, so that horrible news does not crush and devastate. It doesn't mean that we are not affected by these things with sorrow and disappointment, but it means that the child of God is not overrun by anxiety and hopelessness because we know that we are in the Father's hand. Oh, to be honest, we do forget at times. We do question God. We do fall into sinful action and even responses at times. And then we are to be comforted by God's providence in our salvation that we are His children and He has promised to orchestrate our repentance and our return to Him. Beloved, God's providence includes for you and me in this life that we know Him, that we obey Him, that we walk in the way that He has revealed to us pleases Him. His providence for you and me as His children includes that we be used of Him. His providence includes that we live confidently, knowing that God is in charge, that He is in control, and therefore we are to have no fear, need not have any fear in any situation of life. We don't have to worry about what happens to us tomorrow, what may come upon us. But instead, to confidently live as God's calling card to the world, that it is my Father in heaven who leads and guides me and will perfectly accomplish His plan for me and for all who believe. Because God's greatest providence is His providence of salvation through Jesus Christ. Apart from whom, for one, is His providence of eternal torment. No matter how good that one's life or how smooth that one's life may be, apart from Jesus Christ, there is only God's providence of eternal torment. But for those who by the grace of God look to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and trust in Him alone, for those who are in Christ Jesus, our security that is in Him for eternity. That security that we have guarantees that God's providential care over us in this life, over every detail, that it will bring us to glory. indeed beloved life goes on for you and me as God's children safe in God's hand of providence Amen let's pray together Heavenly Father indeed there are so many things in this life that come upon us that we don't understand so many times when we want to question why yet we praise you O Lord that you lift our eyes to see that you are the God of providence providence in all of life and therefore we can be content O Lord to leave our questions unanswered to know that these things do not need to concern us to know that You simply call us to live as children of the Most High God in confidence of who You are and what You have done and are doing and will do for us in Christ Jesus. We thank You for the gift of life. We thank You that our lives are so completely in Your control that we are safe and secure forever and ever. We praise Your name for this blessed assurance in the name of Jesus Christ we pray these things Amen