The Works of God - Preservation & Providence (2)

About four and a half years ago, we started a journey through teaching on wins denights on major doctrinal truths. We took about a three-year detour on the life of Christ, which was not planned, but turned out that way, and I believe it was of the Lord, but now we're about to finish up the study of what the Bible teaches about God. We were this close last week to finishing that study. Now it may take us that long tonight to do it, but we were that close last week, and so we're going to give it our best shot to finish up tonight and actually begin our next study as well. It's a little different, but we're going to do both tonight. We don't have enough for a whole lesson, I don't think, on what the Bible teaches about God. So you have one study on the front of your outline and another study on the back. We have an introduction and we'll get hopefully to both of those tonight. Let me just remind you of what we have talked about, especially last week, on the providence of God. We talked about God's preservation and providence, and we defined what preservation was that God maintains and sustains His creation by the very nature of His creative word, but also by direct intervention, providential intervention, and the affairs of nature. We saw that the Bible says he actually moves all things along toward the purpose for which he created them. So he's very active in his creation. Then we looked also at the providence of God. The providence of God, by definition, is that God guides and directs all events in the universe to bring about the fulfillment of His purpose. So it fits with His plan and purpose, but providence more is how He does it, how He actually works all things together for good to bring about the fulfillment of His wise plan. And we looked at four passages in the scripture there on the screen for you last week. We talked about the means of His providence, three ways that He carries out His providence. First of all, by nature itself, and we saw that basically the timing of natural events is where we see the hand of God's providence, how He times various things. And then we saw it's also by direct intervention. God moves all things toward His purpose and plan through miracles, directly intervening in nature. And then also through the deeds of people, we looked at the example of the book of Esther, and how God was working through a number of unusual events in people's experience to bring about His purpose and plan. And that's true for us as well. If we are sensitive and really looking for God's hand, we can see it all the time. In God working out the details of our lives to accomplish what His purpose and plan is. And so that's what we, what we looked at last week, and we, we finished last week by getting right up to the application. And so that's what I want to finish with tonight. The application of the truth of God's providence. What does that mean to us? And I want to suggest four things and then take whatever others you might have before we move on this evening. One of the ways that we can draw blessing and application for our own lives from God's providence, the fact that He works all things together for good, is, is it guarantees our security? Guarantees our security. To know that God is in charge, to know that He is purposefully working all things toward the conclusion of His plan and purpose, grants to us the security that we are truly saved and that He will finish His work. And that's what Paul's really talking about in Philippians chapter one and verse six, although we didn't put this verse on your outline, it certainly fits. Paul says, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. So the one who began that work, part of His providence is that He will carry that on. He will continue doing that work until the day of Christ Jesus when Christ comes back for us. So knowing that God is providentially working all things toward His purpose grants us the security of our salvation. It is involved in our security, certainly grants us in our experience, the assurance of our salvation. Any comment or question about that? Not necessarily our good. Well, it is for our good, but not as defined by us. He works all things together for good and it is our good, it's for His. Well, we may not understand it, we may not see it. And again, the important thing is to define good the way God defines it. You know, when we think of God working all things together for my good, it's what feels good, looks good, makes me turn out good, you know, whatever. And we may not be defining, we aren't defining good the way God does. What God's definition of good is is found in the very next verse of Romans 8, 28 and 29. And that is what He's working toward is us being in the image of Christ. And that's good. That's the good He's working to it. It's good for us, although we may not see it at the time, we may not feel it at the time. But as it reflects on Him, He's working all things together for His glory. It's His glory and our good that He's working toward in all things. Okay? Good. Thanks, John. That's the same apartment looking at this as. Yeah. And nobody would say that those are good. But God works all things together for good. And He takes the bad and the good things as we look at them and brings good out of them, brings them toward a good plan, purpose and result. So He can bring good even out of the most tragic of circumstances. John? Yes. Yeah. Great, great example of God, providentially working things for good. And there's so many things when you read history, so many things like that. It reminded me of a similar event in the Revolutionary War where General Washington had Cornwallis and his troops surrounded it at Yorktown. But the British had a huge fleet of ships coming to allow them to escape. But all of a sudden the storm hit in the Atlantic and those ships were not able to reach Yorktown in time. And that's when Cornwallis surrendered. So the Revolutionary War would have gone on further and we may well have lost that war simply by attrition if that act of God had not happened. Certainly many examples of that in history. Okay, the second application is this is an application that we should have from the Providence of God. And that is that the Providence of God prohibits presumption. Prohibits presumption. And by that I mean that we cannot automatically presume that God will not allow anything to hurt us. The Providence of God is not a guarantee that everything is going to look good or feel good or I'm never going to have any problems in life. God's on my side after all, isn't he? So I'm never going to have any problems. I'm never going to have any heartaches or tragedies. It doesn't mean that to believe that is to presume upon God. And one of the best examples of this is Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. You're familiar with the story in Daniel chapter 3 where they told the king if we are thrown into the Blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it and he will deliver us from your majesty's hand. And notice the distinction there. He's able to deliver us from the furnace. He will deliver us from your hand. It may be through death. It may be through a miracle, but we know we're going to be delivered from your hand one way or the other. He is able to deliver us from the furnace. But even if he does not, we want you to know your majesty that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you've set up. So basically the three Hebrew children, as we know them, we're not presumptuous upon God's providence that everything would work out in their favor, but they knew that however it did work out, God would deliver them. And so God's in control. Now God did see fit to deliver them from the fire and we know the rest of the story, but we cannot presume upon God just because he's a goddess of providence that he's in control of all things does not mean that we're not going to have a problems or no tragedy or heartache or those kinds of things will happen. They may. They may well happen and do happen to every believer. But God is still working all things together, both the good and the bad, to bring ultimate good, which is likeness to Christ in our lives. Okay, third application of the providence of God is that it is inscrutable. And that's a good word, basically, which means you cannot see it ahead of time. That's when we begin to presume, when we begin to think, okay, I know exactly how God's going to do this. I know what God's going to do. We only can can determine his providence by looking back and seeing what he did. It's inscrutable. We do not know how it's going to work out. We don't know what God is going to do in the future. And Romans 11, 33 really highlights that. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsurczable his judgments and here it is right here. And his paths beyond tracing out. In other words, the paths that God is going to lead me in, what he's going to do in the future, by way of his providence and working all things together. If we go, they're beyond tracing out. I can't see them ahead of time. I can look back and see how God worked and be grateful for his providence. But I can't, it's inscrutable. I can't see that ahead of time. Now, I can pray and trust God and I may think I know how things are going to work out. They may not work out the way I think they will. But in looking back, we can always see that God was working all things together for good. So we can't be presumptuous and we can't proclaim to know that we know exactly how God's going to do everything, either his ways or past tracing out. One final thing and then we'll open it up for any other questions or comments you have. And that is the providence of God. One of the applications we should take to heart is that it should promote caution in pronouncing God's judgment. This is very important for us to balance. Because we do not always know what God is doing. We do not know the goal toward which he's working specifically in every situation. We need to be very careful not to be pronouncing God's judgment with things that happen because we might misread those things. In fact, we often do misread the events that happen. Now, here's what I'm talking about. Oftentimes you'll see a natural disaster and some Christians will be quick to jump to say, oh, God's judging our nation. Or God is doing this because of these people or whatever or recalls of this sin. Well, he may be. But again, his paths are beyond tracing out. It's not always possible for us to know exactly why he has done what he's done. And we need to be careful about jumping to conclusions about God's judgment. Let me give you two or three biblical examples of that kind of caution. Turn in your Bible, actually open your Bible and turn the pages. I'm not asking you to turn in your Bible. Professor one time of preaching said never say that. Never tell people to turn in their Bibles. Open your Bible to Luke 13. Okay, Luke 13. It's funny how things like that come back to you. Luke 13, where Jesus addressed a couple of these historical events that were being misread by people. Luke 13, Jesus says in verse one, now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood pilot had mixed with their sacrifices. In other words, some Galileans, some Jews that pilot had killed in the temple and mixed their blood with the blood of the sacrifices they brought to the temple. So they were killed in the temple. Horror of horrors. They are killed in the temple. And the reason they would bring this up to Jesus is to say, now Jesus, you tell us why this happened. You explain why this happened and they may have assumed that they knew why it happens. Jesus turned the whole thing on the head when he says in verse two, do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? That obviously, because he knew what they were thinking, that obviously was their conclusion. Why did those Galileans die? They must have been evil people. They must have been bad people, worse than other Galileans, or God would not have judged them like this. So they must have jumped to the conclusion. That's God's judgment against those Galileans. And Jesus said, is that what you're thinking? Now, look at his response in verse three, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will all perish. Now, please understand what Jesus is saying. He's not going to explain why they died. He's not going to give you a nice neat little package, rational explanation as to why they died. He's basically going to say, if you're going to jump to conclusions about God's judgment, you're missing the whole point. The whole point is that all of us are going to die in some way at some time. And if you're not ready, that's when you will face God's judgment. So you got to be ready to die. So unless you repent, you will perish. And the word perish is the word which means eternal judgment. So Jesus is saying, don't miss the point here. Don't try to read God's ways, God's judgment into historical events. Just make sure you're ready to die. That's the key thing to think about here. And then he gives a second example. They didn't raise this one, but he knows that's probably in their thinking, verse four, were those 18 who died when the tower in Salon fell on them? Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? Again, this looks like an act of God. A tower falls on 18 people. Surely God must be judging them. Okay. How many times did we hear when Katrina hit New Orleans? That was God's judgment on that wicked city. Well, it might have been, but we don't know that. Jesus is raising the same kind of thing. Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you too will all perish. So because we understand the providence of God does not give us the right to say, okay, I know what God's doing. Yeah, just ask me. I know what he's doing. This is the reason he did this. Be careful about jumping to those conclusions because we can miss it and we can miss it very easily just like Jesus pointed out the people who were thinking these things missed it entirely. The thing to really think about is I need to make sure I'm right with God. If I'm not, that's when I face his judgment, I will perish. That's the key thing to think about. So, Jesus gives two examples. There are two examples in the book of Acts, Acts 28, Acts 28. And this is really an example from pagan superstition, but it is religious superstition. And by the way, a lot of our pronouncements about what God is doing may amount to nothing more than religious superstitions. We do not know the mind of God. So we better be careful in making pronouncements. Look at, look at Acts 28, verses one through six. This is where Paul and his comrades on the ship going to Rome have been shipwrecked and they've washed up on an island in the Mediterranean called Malta. Verse one, once safely unsure, we found out that the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built the fire, welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and as he put it on the fire, a viper driven out by the heat fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, here's their conclusion. They're jumping to conclusions about God's judgment. This man must be a murderer for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess justice has not allowed him to live. That's their conclusion. But it doesn't turn out that way. Verse five, but Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happened to him, and notice they changed their minds and said he was a God. That wouldn't right either. They were wrong in both counts. Both judgments were wrong. The first one, well he must be a terrible sinner. God's judging him. That was wrong. Oh, nothing happened. He must be a God. That was wrong, too. It just is an example of how we need to be very careful about jumping to conclusions about we know exactly what God's doing here and start reading into historical circumstances. What we believe to be the mind of God, we need to be very careful about that. Now, there are sometimes we may be able to understand what God's doing, but we need to be careful to make dogmatic assertions about that because we could be wrong. Okay? Okay. Comments or questions about some of these applications to God's providence.