Systematic Theology (part 27)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Providence of God Providence of God. Can someone help us understand?

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What what is providence? Excellent. That's a good summary of how God provides for and sovereign over and make sure all little details and our birthdays and everything we

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Have we receive from him and so we give thanks to him the word

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Provid providence actually the I don't have the Root word, you know if I had gotten it, right that would have been a nice.

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Haha but the root word in Latin, I think comes from pro video and the idea there is

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Seeing with video is see and pro is down so, you know to see down God knows things down and Ordains things down and make sure things that come down are according to his goodwill and purpose, so that's really the

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Sense in which it comes but there are three aspects. I want us to focus on today Maybe some of them should be pretty straightforward we look at a few scripture texts just to remind ourselves of the providence of God that is so foundational to our life and to our worship, but also some

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Challenging thoughts in terms of how the providence of God should Make us think more deeply about the things we observe around us.

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So Let me let me give you a short definition and that will help you think about this before we look at the scriptural verses one of the theologians says this

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God is continually involved The word continually involved with all created things in such a way that one

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He keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.

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He keeps them existing and Maintaining them with the properties with which he created them the second one and the first one should be pretty straightforward

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There should be no challenges. We look at a few verses. It'll it should be clear the second one. He Cooperates with created things in every action

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Directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do. So there there is this synergy between God's work and Creation both animate and inanimate in terms of going towards The direction to make them do the things they do and then the last thing is this is sovereignty

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He directs them to fulfill his purposes ultimately God Sovereign will is take is executed through his providence

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So those are the three big categories the first one we will start with should be pretty simple I need some volunteers if someone can

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Well, just raise your hands and I'll give you the verses. I need someone for Hebrews 1 3 who can read that Just raise your hand.

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You don't have to turn there right now Okay, one Pauline in the back second verse Colossians 1 17

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Brad third acts 1728 I saw a hand there. Okay, and then fourth

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Nehemiah 9 6 I Thought I saw a hand in the back somewhere. Oh, I need someone for Nehemiah 9 6

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Thank you, and then 2nd Peter 3 7 Thank you, and then the last one

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Job 34 14 to 15 Thank you. All right, so each of you has a verse so what we're going to do is we're just going to briefly look at this versus just to remind ourselves of the

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Providence of God and how they relate to Providence. So who has Hebrews 1 3 a

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Pauline, thank you. Thank you. So talking about Jesus Christ We've been in Hebrews 1 with pastor Mike and he actually talked about this verse

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I don't know how many of you remember it he upholds all things by the word of his power

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Does anybody remember what pastor Mike said about that word upholds What do you think that word upholds?

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I mean, maybe you don't remember that pastor Mike said it but you actually remember what that means He upholds all things by the word of his power the root word

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Greek there is Like it carry, you know to hold it and take it from point

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A to point B So it is not just a passive way in which God is holding up the universe

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He is actually taking every single thing This is Jesus Christ and he carries it from where it is to where it needs to be.

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So it is this carrying this active work of God in making sure that the universe does exactly what it needs to do and bring it about to its

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Intended destination and he does that by the word of his power any questions any you may be right. I don't remember the question was this is in a

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Continuous sense the verb that is used there. Was it an heiress or a present active indicative?

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I don't remember I didn't study that deep But but the fact is that Jesus is the one without him holding up Your universe doesn't stay as it is or it doesn't go where it needs to go

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So the next verse, um, if you have any thoughts or questions, please ask because we're going to go quickly through these

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The next one is Colossians 1 17 Yes In him all things hold together and again that is talking here about Jesus Christ Here is that Christological passage talking about how

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Jesus is pre -eminent He is the one who created all things and he is the one who holds all things together.

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You know when I actually look at this Verse I always remember, you know, what is it that holds the

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Protons neutrons electrons in our something called matter together, you know, we think of all those inter

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The nuclear forces and things like that. No when we look at the definition of Providence He is the one who gave those properties to these things and he's the one who holds them together

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So under what conditions do these things exist it is because God provides and watches over and holds the universe together

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According to his goodwill the next one acts 1728. So here Paul Speaking in Athens.

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He is quoting some of the pagan poets and he actually Commends them for some of the things that they do have right like the broken clock is right twice

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But here he says in him we live in Him we move and in him the last part of it is the key here for Providence have our being so our existence

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Is there in God, you know, we we are not we are not autonomous apart from God We are

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God's creatures and he is the one who gives us our existence So if God were to disconnect himself from us, we will no longer have a being we will no longer exist

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And that's part of Providence to understand that he is the source of our life and our existence Nehemiah 9 6 you preserve.

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Can you read that part again? Thank you. So here he talks about all of creation this is

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Ezra in in the book of Nehemiah and then he says you preserve all of them and Therefore if you deserve the worship, and I think that's probably the only verse that because the word

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Providence is not there Strictly in this in the Bible. It's one of those theological terms we used to describe all of these aspects that we've been covering and that verse in my mind seems like the closest you preserve and That should convey to you the idea of Providence very directly

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Second Peter 3 7. Did you see Providence in that verse? Do you want to read that one more time?

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That looks like a judgment verse. Where is the providence of God there? That's right And you know

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Sometimes it's easy because we know the meaning of the sentence where this Peter is trying to focus our attention on you know

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There is a judgment that is to come and sometimes the elements that build up to that sentence I read too fast and I miss out and so it's good for verses like this to just pause and say, you know

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He is the one who's keeping this universe as it is until you know

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The appointed day and great great reminder again the last one Job 34 14 and 15.

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Thank you And I think this is Eli who in his wisdom talks about the providence of God And I think this is one of those pictures just worth reminding ourselves of right now

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God were to withdraw his spirit You know, none of us would be sitting here. We wouldn't have birthdays. We would be in the grave

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It is God who provides for and sustains each of our lives and existence

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So I think that's hopefully gives you a broad idea of providence. This is really what we are talking about the entire universe

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He is the one who's upholding it. He is the one who's keeping it. He's the one who gives us breath that Helps us to live in him

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We have our being so all of these verses talk about the providence of God and so we never want to take for granted

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The active role of God in this universe in each of our lives so last week we touched upon this a little bit, so what are some of the

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False Ideas of the relationship of God the Creator to his creation that these texts refute excellent so he

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Contrary to the days we would say that God doesn't just make this universe with all the properties and then let them be

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Autonomous that they just exist on their own. He is disinterested or disconnected from the universe that is

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Antithetical to the scriptures as we just saw here He does create a wonderful universe with all of its

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Properties with all the laws with which they function, but they do not a function apart

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From the hand of God that upholds his universe and the next time maybe we will talk about miracles where God does

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Intervene in the laws of nature in order to do his Purposes those he does in specific points in time in order to demonstrate that he is the

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Lord He he is not under the laws of the universe, but rather he is a lot of the laws of the universe

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But so that would refute deism these scriptural texts anything else that this providence of God would refute

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In terms of false understanding of relationship between creator and creature excellent, so this talks about the

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Lordship of Of our God. He is not just someone who is here to Fulfill the whims of the creatures, but rather he is

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Lord. He does what is best? He is the one to whom we need to look up to Any other thoughts okay?

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In the third aspect we're going to look more directly at it, but you're right Just the understanding of he is the creator.

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He is his Lord He is over everything should remind us that we are just not in equal terms with God.

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You know God is here I am here. We cannot work together and figure out what we can do he does his sovereign will All right, so now let's go to the next section so we've looked at the preservation how

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God upholds the universe and all of life Let's look at a few different areas where we get to see how

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God inter Well actually cooperates, we'll just use that term cooperates with created things in their actions

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I have a few verses I want us to go quickly through them And then we'll stop when we come to the controversial ones if someone can read

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Ephesians 1 11 Yeah at this time when you get the verse you can you can read it

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Ephesians 1 11 so it answers flows initial comment having been predestined, so that's

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God's foreknowledge In choosing the people that he would

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Save and then it goes on to talk about According to the purpose of him who works all thing according to the counsel of his will this part of it is talking about the sovereign aspect of his work in all of In all things basically there's nothing that is excluded from there so one part of this work

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Of God is that it is Sovereignly done. This is God's counsel his will that actually happens now

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Let's look at a few more things, and then we'll talk about how this cooperation Applies so the next one

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I'll have a bunch of verses Let's just pick Psalm 148 verse 8 this one actually kept me thinking this week if someone can read

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Psalm 148 verse 8 Can I get a hand Thank you.

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Yes Can you read seven and eight okay, can can anyone guess why this kept me up Thinking about it

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No, we don't have to guess why I what I was kept up. What about this verse is interesting

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You know maybe just waking you up in the morning Fire and hail let's look at the second half of it the first half is talking about his animate creatures the second one is inanimate creatures

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Creation fire and hail snow and mist stormy wind Fulfilling his word very true actually when

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I was reading this was the hurricane was just going through Haiti When I read this particular verse, and I was thinking

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Wow fulfilling his word God is the one who Directs all of these and then when you look at it.

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I mean obviously Psalms are written in a poetic fashion They want to help you think through you know just the beauty of how

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God does different things more than just the Details of how God does these things, but the

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Psalmist you're inspired by the Spirit of God writes in an You know making them

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You know today We see a lot of movies that make these animals into humans I mean the other day we saw this movie where everything but the human was human in that movie

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I think some of you know what I'm talking about and Here he is talking about these things

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Fulfilling his word it and if you think like me You probably are thinking of mark for where?

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Jesus speaks to the wind and the waves and the storm that was there and the response of the disciples was

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They obey him you know there is this you know concept that we normally have it like a dog or a human being which now

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Is transferred into the inanimate realm where you have these things? We normally don't think of them as they're just under the forces of nature, or you know the way that God Just does these things, but here it is the concept that these actually are

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Creatures they are part of God's creation, and they are subject to his rule, and he is the one who?

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Gives this word and they've they fulfill it they obey it They do what God would have them do we'll hold the thought of the storm a little bit later

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And then we'll just let that settle in in terms of God's Creation fulfilling what he asked them to do any any other thoughts other than the

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Problem of evil Okay, let's look at the next section, and I think you know we can maybe take a couple here

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Let's if someone can read Actually, let's do this Matthew 6 26 who can read

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Matthew 6 26. I need a hand Thank you, and then the next one is

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Proverbs 16 33 Thank you So first let's look at Matthew 6 26 there's a few other verses here in Psalm 104 and Matthew 10, but it talks about Creatures that are not made in the image of God and God's providence again in that passage it is the argument from the lesser to the greater

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So if you are worrying don't worry because God will provide for you And then as an example he picks the fowl of the air the birds, and they don't have bonds

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They don't have a job with a paycheck they They are fed by the father and I think you know when we think of the deistic conception of you know

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God just made the plants and the trees and the seeds for the birds to gather he gave them the

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Sense to go and pick the worms and the seeds and everything else But he is the one who feeds them is not not one sparrow falls without the father knowing it

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So don't worry about What you will eat and drink and things like that, but here the focus is

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God is the one who actively feeds You know every time a squirrel runs across my car your car.

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You know Okay, there is a God in heaven who watches over these crazy creatures

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But The next one is proverb 1633 amen, and this is one of the reasons pastor

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Mike doesn't like you to say good luck You know chance you know these are terms that our culture just uses because you know these are things that are outside our control

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You know unless it's a way to die You know most of the times you can't predict what the number is that is going to come

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But God is sovereign over every single detail that happens from our perspective

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Seems random, but in God's perspective There is not one molecule that goes outside of his sovereign will he directs everything according to his good purposes

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And I want to say one thing right here because I think this is probably a good place to say it you know when we look at as flow mentioned when we think of The sovereignty of God in election we know that we really have nothing to contribute everything is pretty much

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God ordained You know he for according to the counsel of his will he directs his path and on this side we have

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Evil and that's what I want us to spend some time talking about and we know that God does not Commit evil, but he is sovereign over evil, and then maybe somewhere right in the middle is this verse where you have these random

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Events from a human perspective that we can't really see You know the outcomes that come out because we cannot understand maybe

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God's sovereign will or we don't know We really cannot dot connect the dots to see what is happening

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And then right in the middle you have on maybe more on this side things about your sanctification and many of us here

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Know that sanctification is different than justification in Justification God Monarchistically acts he gives you a new heart.

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He gives you faith. He Enables you to worship him when it comes to sanctification we

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Work with God you know the verses Philippians to Work out your salvation with fear and trembling we are the ones who are responsible for and do our part because it is

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God who wills Who does anybody know to finish that verse?

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According to his good purpose, so it's God who is at work in you both to will and To do so it both the desire as well as the power come from God so there you see the synergy

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So if you just look at the scale you can see there is some things in which we are involved in and then there are different Elements where we know that God's umbrella sovereign of sovereignty covers it all

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But we can only understand so much as the scriptures would give us Information on and so when it comes to this end is where I think

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We'll need to say here's what the scripture says and here's what it doesn't and we need to be Creatures who just trust our sovereign

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God okay, so back to our verses so I Have a few more, but I don't think we are going to read the verses

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He is sovereign over the affairs of nations and especially in our time when with the presidential elections

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We want to strongly remember this actually know what just given our context. It's good to read this Why don't we read?

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Job 12 23 Someone whoever gets there first just go ahead and read it and here you

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I think that's can you read that one more time if You just look back in History you can see that happen in multitudes of nations civilizations are just where world powers and then going away and Let me ask this question

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I'm kind of tempted to bring in this left extreme back in do you think our God is? capricious in the way in which he raises nations and Destroys them he just you know what today.

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I'm gonna raise this and tomorrow. I'm gonna destroy it. I think I got an answer No Because that's the kind of gods the pagans worship

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They don't understand this whimsical God because they see all these forces and events that are happening

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And they say you know maybe I can appease them to somehow be you know less whimsical But the God of the Bible is the opposite of whimsical so Knowing what we know about the rest of Scripture.

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Maybe we'll just use this as our jumping board Well, how do you think that you can talk about the good counsel of God not just the counsel of God that is?

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Willy -nilly, but rather the good counsel of God that relates to just this verse Job 12 23 he is the one who makes nations great, and he's the one who destroys them, and how does that relate?

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To another element that is not explicitly called out in this verse I I think

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I'll let pastor Bob wait for a moment because I I know that he's He I just enjoy he should be teaching here, but someone else if you can think about what what else is

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Happening and I think if you don't know the answer think of concrete examples from the Bible in terms of nations being raised and nations

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Being destroyed and that will give you the answer to this question Let's have

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Brian excellent. You know honestly I wasn't looking for that But that's a very important aspect to keep in mind because we as humans just keep our eyes on the temporal

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Things of the world and you know why is this? Nation destroyed, I don't know if Syria is overrun.

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It's like. Oh, you know this is terrible and Sometimes our minds are so earthly focus We are just getting all our data from the newspapers and looking at it in the human plane that we forget the big picture

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And I think that's exactly what? We need to remind ourselves off end of the day.

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It's not about us. It's about God's glory and overarching Lee everything belongs to him and he is

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Bringing them to his Intended end and how they all work together.

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He's not accountable to us He doesn't have to explain to us although he does in the scriptures some of the things that we actually do see

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So we need to remember everything belongs to Jesus He is King he is Lord, and he will one day rule over all of these nations as their

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Lord and Master So that's excellent, and I think we should any time we attempted to kind of get too low and say you know

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What's going on we need to lift our eyes back up to God in heaven who rules from his throne

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I'm looking for one other aspect Excellent, and I think that just builds on what

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Brian said in a more concrete way So you can look at it in the Old Covenant and in the New Covenant and how?

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We can look in the way in which God had Done things in order for the coming the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ.

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Can someone think of some examples? Especially when it comes to nations between Genesis 1 and end of Malachi excellent really you know that was my the first answer

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I was looking for and that's that's great because when you think of historically what God did with the

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Kingdoms in the Old Testament, so we think of Babylon and Assyria and I think if you think of the book of Habakkuk you get to see how

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God Habakkuk prays to God for the Evil that's happening in the nation of his people and God's response was

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You know Habakkuk could have been very happy if he said, you know, I'm coming down and I'm gonna judge He would have been very happy if he said, you know,

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I'm going to Be gracious and forgive and you know, they would repent but God says to Habakkuk, you know,

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I'm bringing my servant and he is going to He is going to destroy these people and then

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Habakkuk's idea was wait a minute we are sinning but those guys are pretty Much more horrible than we are, you know, this is not what

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I was looking for Lord And then God says, you know, I am the judge of all the earth I will judge them as well.

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And I think you just covered that beautifully, you know here We just see one strand of God's purposes in his people and as things go and you need to be very careful to remember

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God was not capriciously bringing the Enemies of his people upon them.

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They were Quote -unquote freely Exercising their will to sin, you know

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They were rebelling against God and God didn't just destroy them because he said, you know What your time's up and I'm going to destroy you these people were fully responsible for bringing the destruction that was promised them

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When God first told them, you know You need you either trust in me or you run out to the pagan gods Trust in me and I will provide for you and if you run after them

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I will bring judgment upon you and God was fulfilling his word And so here we just see one thread of what God had promised

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He had prophesied he had revealed and when we look back we can see how the sovereignty of God Leading to the coming of first coming of Christ Worked so beautifully with a responsibility of men, you know

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Babylon didn't get a telegram From heaven drop down to say, okay today you go down and attack

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God's people. They came up with their own Quote -unquote free will it's like here is a nation.

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I'm going to go and attack, right? So they they thought they were doing what they wanted to do what they didn't know

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They didn't get the memo was God was sovereign over all of these things as these nations came up and went so when we look at So when we look at these nations around so even outside of the scriptures, you know, you get to see like the

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Roman Empire You get to see how they and of course we have Rome prophesied in in the

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Bible But you get to see how this nation rises up and then you get to see how it gets

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Destroyed and you can look at it through the lens of scripture What is going on in this nation and you can get to see the purposes of God now

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You can't always connect the dots as clearly unless it's revealed when it's revealed We know the mind of God as it were but knowing the character of God and the way in which

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God's sovereignty and and man's Responsibility work together. We can trust in God no matter which nation goes up and which nation comes down So right now as we are in this cusp of an election

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It is not in the confidence We place in the leaders not in the confidence of the nation as a people whether they are wicked or sinful or righteous

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But rather in the character of God that he brings about his good and intended purposes through it all so we trust in him

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Irrespective of whether it is his will to raise up our nation or whether it is his will not to and so So just just just a thought to keep in mind any other thoughts to add pastor

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Bob Would you like to add something to this? And I think it's helpful to remember as a nation as a culture and as individuals, you know here is where we stand before God and God is sovereign over it and let's maybe just use that as a turning point into Theodicy the problem of evil.

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I'll just give you a few things to peg our minds and then we'll talk about it in the time We have left

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The scripture nowhere shows that God Directly does anything evil he does not sin

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He does not tempt you to sin and he does no evil

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So there's you can you can search the scriptures as much as you want one. You won't find that but he does ordain he does

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Ordain that evil deeds that come about through Quote -unquote free will actions of moral creatures

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I'm using this quote -unquote because I think most of you here know what I'm referring to but we'll talk about that Maybe next week

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So he does ordain that even the evil deeds that come about Freely done by moral creatures bring about his intended purposes and therefore the

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Bible never blames God for evil And he is never to be blamed for evil James one should cover that so with that said

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I think the very famous verse should be Genesis 50 verse 20 where Joseph talks to his brothers the brothers do a horrible deed

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They wanted to kill him and then they sell him and he goes through these years of misery from a human perspective

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But ultimately God raises him up and that was the path. He intended for Joseph to go through that He would be quote -unquote the

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Redeemer, you know that one that they would Look up to to find help during that time of famine and the whole

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Family of Abraham grows into this nation of Israel in in Egypt So humanly speaking, you know, that's not what we would have designed for God did not make

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Joseph's brother Sin, they just were jealous They were they hated their brother and they did exactly what they wanted to do

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But God ordained that even that horrible sin would work out his intended purposes in the life of Joseph and Joseph gets to be the benefactor if you will, you know

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We don't think of us being benefactors when evil is done against us, but God so our eyes are never looking toward the perpetrators of evil against us, but rather we look at the

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God who is Sovereign over these events because he is your father

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He makes sure that everything that happens in your life, and that's why we can say Romans 8 28 with joy all things every single thing works together for good for those who love

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God and are called according to his purpose because That's what he does. So with that said maybe

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I'll just throw the floor open and maybe we can get some brave soul to talk about The Problem with this, you know, what what are some of the things that?

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Keep you up at night when you think of this Text the idea that there is genuine evil evil is not just an illusion that is suffering and pain all around us and God is sovereign over these none of these things happen outside of his will and Yet God is not

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Actively the cause of any of these Sins and really if you trace evil all the way back up, you know, that's the earliest that we can get back to so here you have

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Lucifer an angel made good and then Pridefully thinking he could supersede his creator false and now the question becomes

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God's ordaining it right so we know the Moral creature this angel not a human being choosing to do what he chooses and again, that's where people get challenged to define what evil is

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I think Augustine Called it correct me if I'm wrong the absence of the good

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I believe so he tried to get around this because he's trying to reconcile the sovereignty of God in ordaining and willful sinfulness of creatures to say, you know

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Evil is not really a something positive a positive meaning something that has an existent in and of itself

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It is just the lacking of something good. So when you think of pride You know the

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When you start to lose the humility that you need to have as a creature. That's when pride comes in So God is not the source of these

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Things that come up that somehow these good things start to fall away and then you get evil

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I think that's one of the ways Augustine tried to reconcile a good creation

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Falling so that was one of the ways that people try to Think through and understand.

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Yes And I think that just goes back to the character of God, he's a holy

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God He never condones any of this and you see that constantly in the

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Bible that Even though these sinful creatures whether it's angels or humans

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Go against his will his Will we didn't talk about this?

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Maybe next week. We will go against his commands his precepts

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God Uses them for his good, but at the same time he never He will judge what is evil, so let's let's maybe just stop there any other thoughts before we close

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Amen, thank you for saying that so maybe I'll just a couple of comments and we'll close As the current state of affairs we have plenty of information to understand the fall the nature of man and why we see evil and how

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God is sovereign over it and Ruling justly to bring about its good purposes when you talk about free.

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Will man is free To act within the bounds of his nature and as a fallen man his free choices often tend to evil rather than to good and And ultimately we need to remember