Systematic Theology (part 46)

So today we're going to be looking at Providence. Last week we looked at creation. Now this is a subject we've actually touched upon about six months ago, but there are some elements about it that I think would be helpful for us to dig into and then have and discuss.

So but before we begin, let let me open us with a word of prayer. God, dear

God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for providing. We thank you for your providence that governs this universe and each of our lives.

Help us a lot this morning as we open your word to to grasp the immensity of your hand in all that transpires every moment, every day, every year.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay, so I have a few things to just get us started and then

I want us to read a bunch of verses and I want to kind of direct your thinking towards some questions that I think will be helpful in engaging with the subject.

And maybe I'll give this as a preface. I want you to think of three groups of people.

One of them is maybe unbelievers that do not know the

God of providence that we are talking about and how do we communicate something very vital to them about providence.

Then I wanted to think of those who are Christians but don't have a good handle on the sovereignty of God, the hand of God that touches upon every aspect of creation of life.

And how would we communicate this aspect of providence.

And the third one is like most of you here who have a very biblical handle on what sovereignty of God is and what are some of the challenges that providence provides.

What are some of those places where we come up against a wall and how must we live in light of the providence of God.

So those are the three things broadly speaking I would like you to keep in your mind as we go through this material.

And my hope is that we will be able to engage. There is a lot of questions that should come up as we go through this and I hope we'll be able to engage, expose the questions and then be able to interact with it.

So the question right on top you have is providence. If God controls,

I think the key word there is control, all things, can our actions have real meaning.

And a side note from that is what are God's decrees.

And so the first one will deal with the issue of freedom, responsibility and our ability to make choices.

And the second one will talk about, the second big subject we're going to talk about is the problem of evil.

Hopefully we can cover this today, if not we'll finish up by next week. So the definition right on top,

God is continually involved with all created things. So last week we saw creation, now he is involved with his creation.

So that first, he keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.

We touched upon this last time. He creates with certain properties, but you're going to see that he sustains those properties of his creation.

The second one amps up the problem a little bit more, where we see this, he cooperates with created things in every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do.

So there is a relationship between God and the created universe in which he enables them to accomplish what he has designed them for.

And the third one is that he directs them to fulfill his purposes. God's sovereign purposes happen through the agency of his creation.

So those are the three elements. The first one is a preservation. God keeps all created things existing and maintaining the properties with which he created them.

Let's again, as we normally do here, if you can raise your hand for these verses, I'll have each of us read it, we'll go quickly through them unless there are questions.

Who'd like to read Hebrews 1 .3? Thank you, Linton. Colossians 1 .17?

Thank you. Acts 17 .28? Thank you.

Nehemiah 9 .6? Thank you. And 2 Peter 3 .7? Thanks.

And the last one, Job 34 .14 -15? Thank you. All right, let's go through them quickly.

So who has Hebrews 1 .3? so here you see this the word he upholds the universe by the word of his power again pop quiz does anyone remember what that upholds refers to when it's talking about the work of Jesus Christ master

Mike preached on this back the word there is a

Pharaoh in Greek and it is got this idea of carrying but not just like a static way it is taking and delivering it to its destination it is

God making this universe and we have it's talking about Jesus Christ bringing the universe to where it needs to go so he is the one who sustains it who makes sure it gets to where it needs to go so that's

I'll just stop with that the next verse is Colossians 117 and in him all things hold together and I think one of those things that we really want to remember is for especially that first category of people who don't believe in God this world holds together rather beautifully it's got a lot of properties it seems to be functioning executing things but what they do not realize is that you have

Christ holding together all these things all the properties with which he has made them they sustain because you have the

God of the universe holding them together if for a moment God were to say I'm taking a break you don't have a universe anymore so it is

Christ again last week we saw Colossians 116 talking about creation and today we see the way in which he sustains it so the next verse is act 1728 and again we covered this passage last week we touched upon this passage last week

Paul here in Athens talking to the Stoics and Epicureans and here he is giving them taking what pagans actually had with an understanding of the this divine power and then talking and Paul takes what is right in the sense that it is in God that we live and move and have a being but then he redirects them from this plethora of gods to the one true

God to which to them was the unknown God and again for us today in him in in God we live and move and have our being we think of living moving and existing as properties that belong to us you know we are pretty capable of living and moving and having our existence except for the fact that we need to be conscious every moment that we live is because of God God is the one who enables us to live

Nehemiah 6 9 6 thank you and again you look at creation and all of created things and he is the one who gives life to all that we see second

Peter 3 7 thank you and again this was talking about the judgment to come the passage it talks about creation and then then destiny of all of created order but then you see that word that he keeps them up until that point in time

God is the one who preserves that's the point of all these verses he sustains these things in the last verse

Job 34 14 to 15 and once again the breadth of life that we have is we are on lease if you will if God were to expire the lease we expire we cannot sustain ourselves it is

God who gives us this breath and all of these verses hopefully give you that I sense of even from the grand scheme of all of the universe being upheld to every single life that lives is because of God's preservation and just a comment and then maybe if there's questions we look at it so the point

B that you see there God is not continually recreating everything he preserves what has already been created there were two views on this crate to ex nihilo one of those was you know he created everything out of nothing at the beginning which is what we hold and then he preserves it and there is another view that was held

I don't know how many people hold it now but I don't know if it was Edwards there was someone who held someone popular or famous who held this that Schofield is that right

I don't know so his thing was there is a recreation happening every moment so it's like create

OX in a halo from this moment and next moment that's not what we hold we hold that there was creation

God gives life to every creature that is born but the he creates them with properties with which they function and he upholds those properties so they sustain themselves through so the the point that you have there on C is all created things are real and have properties last time we looked at some of the other world views where you know there's an illusory effect to creation or the creation is all or the universe is all that is real and what we see here is

God and do endows them with properties that are indeed real and the basis of this is the

Creator God who made it and preserves it any any thoughts or comments on this section that's a great question and I don't have the answer for that so we know that I don't know who it was

I was reading someone recently who said you know God didn't need the five loaves and two fish to begin that miracle he could have done a more explicit create creation from nothing right there so what we do know is that that that he blessed the food he broke it and in that breaking you see a multiplicity but where that multiplicity came from I think the text would probably lead us to a simple reading the text would lead us to him look at something happening there as a creation there is extra matter that wasn't there before and I think is that what you were driving to it and and again when you think of the law of thermodynamics we're thinking of closed box you know this is the sum total of your mass and energy in the universe and without an external agency you cannot add to it or remove from it it can only be transformed and here you have the

God of the universe inside this closed box and that's what changes the equation for us but thank you that was excellent and and I think that's one of the joys of reading the scriptures you know we get to see this powerful miracle that happens and as we just contemplate and reflect upon the power of God at work there it fills us with all we can always understand everything but it just opens their eyes a little wider any other thoughts on this section if does everyone have one of these if not please there's more near the door thank you okay the next section is concurrence and so when we look at preservation we look primarily at the properties of what was created being being sustained by God and I don't think as believers we have any big questions with that as we saw unbelievers may have a difficulty understanding this but it exposes questions like this law of conservation of energy and even why it is so but the next one brings up a if I want to say brings that question up a little bit more challenging in terms of understanding how

God works with his created universe and so with concurrence God cooperates with created things in every action the keyword that I want to emphasize is cooperate and again

I don't know if I mentioned this today but this outline is from Grudem so I'm using his outline we have some supplemental material that we'll be touching upon but all the content of your sheet is from Wayne Grudem and he directs their distinctive properties to cause them to act as they do so you have these properties functioning in a certain way but there is

God directing and I and that's really those two elements that I want us to be thinking of as we go through this because it'll help us answer the bigger questions of agency and evil later

I think if you understand this well we'll get we will be better prepared to answer those questions so would someone like to read

Ephesians 111 just raise your hand and here you see and of course if you remember

Ephesians 1 as a whole we have the Father Son and the Spirit we have the purpose of God in the life of his believers and how he plans it and executes it and here you saw we are being predestined and God is the one who works according to the purpose of his will but we're going to win the next section on we're going to look we're going to go from the simplest to the more complex and I'm not going to read all the verses we'll just read a few of these for just to set the base as we move along so if someone can read

Psalm 148 verse 8 thank you and then Joe actually let's do

Matthew Matthew 545 thanks again can you read that one more time a little louder thanks okay thank you coming out of our winter or maybe still going through winter

I don't know you look at this no storms you've had and then you saw the end of that verse fulfilling his word not one flick of snow drops without God's without God's ordaining them or directing them and that's really what

I want us to be thinking of here is inanimate creation functioning as God ordains it as word of God directs it so that's the that's the thought

I want you to keep in your mind and the next one is Matthew 545 again the purpose of the text there as Jesus is talking sermon on the mount is the way in which

God handles both the those who trust in him and those who do not he gives this common grace of Sun and Sun and rain but I want us to just take a moment to think about this so go back to a science class why does the

Sun rise because the earth rotates and is why does the rain fall you have evaporation the water cycle it's gravity to bring it down and there are some conditions atmospheric conditions now you know

I was talking about watching the weather I like watching TV when there is bad weather because you get to see all these cool graphs and maps you know you get to see and actually the last storm we had the previous day was such a beautiful sunny day

I was like oh come on there can't be any snow tomorrow and sure enough all day snow and here was this thing and humans made in the image of God were able to detect those whatever pressure and temperature and wind directions and then create a computer model that predicts you know how these things are going to happen and science has helped us understand the conditions that bring these events to pass whether is a rising of the

Sun or the falling of the rain so once again thinking of the definition that we have here

God cooperates with with created things in every action directing their distinctive properties to cost them to act as they do the problem with the first group of people that we talked about is that the more we understand the properties of in this case inanimate objects we cannot say okay we know what causes them to function the way they do the

Sun rising or the rain falling and we don't need any more additional explanation you know

God would be redundant you know what is that Occam's little razor right I don't need more than one reason to explain this phenomenon because I cannot understand what causes it and then here in the

Bible what Rachel read for us it's God's word that causes the hail and the snow to come it is

God who makes the Sun rise and the rain to fall both on the just and the unjust and and this is really where we are talking about concurrence it is

God who made the Sun and the rain and and the snow it is God who directs them to function as they do and now right between them you have the properties with which he has made them the

Sun or the earth to rotate the pressure conditions to change as they do and God is not the

God of deism where he just made it and he's stepping back and he's like I don't care if it rains today it doesn't rain tomorrow he is he and I think the word

I you know going back all the way up to Providence he controls or he ordains all things so they happen come to pass according to the properties that they possess that make sense maybe

I'll stop there any questions on this section because I think if we get this it will be easier for us to move along the chain straightforward yes amen actually you know here in New England we know that no matter what computer model you have

I mean God can change that equation rather quickly for us and and and it just reminds us you know we are we are made marvelously in the image of God but we are not

God things can change today yes yeah and I think with Newtonian physics for example

I think you know there is this discovery into the handiwork of God to understand it and you know here is this guy on the seashore picking a few curious people or two yeah

I think that's how we described it but then the subsequent generations are like oh we know how the universe works we don't need

God sad reflection and I think just back to what you mentioned Charlie the this this two sides like you rightly pointed out we have the universe displaying the handiwork of God Psalm 19

Romans 1 when we see these things we ought to it ought to evoke or at the creator of all this wonder and splendor that we see and yet we don't have

God standing in heaven like you know like one of the Greek gods and you can look at him and say oh if I don't obey him

I would be incinerated or my existence would go away like we looked at some of these verses there is faith needed in order to trust in God and on the other side of the equation you have an inherent problem inside of humanity after the fall where we have this this awareness of the divine that is intentionally suppressed we call the depravity so there is that's why

I think you said we need a supernatural work for our eyes to be open to stop from just oh

I can describe what is happening to why we have this instead of nothing and to look at the foundation of this universe as it were in the sustenance of this universe and the and actually the direction what we saw in Hebrews 1 3 where this is heading all that it's only by faith as God makes that reveals that to our to our eyes but again the the context of this inanimate creation is we observe this physical universe we see how things are happening with has certain properties and we are able to discern them but the

Bible is explicit that God is the one who controls directs and ordains things to come to pass and that he uses the properties or directs the properties of these the universe that he created to do what they do either on a regular basis or as he and actually some of the verses we skip it talks about how in war you know there is like you have examples in the

Old Testament hail comes down these were not you know just coincidental that they happened when the enemies of Israel were routed

God directed them intentionally so there is not just there is a purpose with which he brings about things so that's inanimate creation the next one is animals again we'll just do maybe just one verse if someone can read actually we'll do both some 104 27 to 29 would like to read that thank you judge and the next one if you can read both of these verses

Matthew 6 26 and Matthew 10 29 thank you so we'll begin thank you some 104 is at the end of the verse thanks judge so here you have animals you know if you you can think of your kitty cat or your pet dog or you can think of the lions and predators out in the wild and you can think of any any of creation the birds and actually let me reserve my thought just keep what

George said in mind when we have the next verse read Matthew 6 and again you're looking at the providence of God for that little cat the little bird the big lion and the elephant in the jungle when their food when it comes to their life the way again when you look at the mechanistic universe in the physical creation to now this animate creation what do what do birds do they wake up in the morning they go ahead and pick for that worm and they eat that worm and then they go to sleep and after I don't know how long sparrows live at some point in time they die or do you have a hawk that finishes the business a little earlier or you have a predator you know there's a drought in Africa and then you know they have a challenge finding that water source they migrate they they grow weak and then and some other predator comes and gets it you know so you look at National Geographic you look at PBS and that's what we get to see we get to see you know this beautiful ecosystem of everything that is set there and you kind of expect some things with predictability there are some things that happen that you wish didn't happen and again we're getting ahead for the problem of evil but but what does the

Bible say about this these animals and birds they look to their father or your father provides for them not one of those two sparrows falls down without your father no you know without your father's ordaining them their breath returns when

God takes it away and once again you know it becomes a little more challenging because now you see things that actually function they don't just it's not like the earth's rotation right it's fun and it is spinning and it is spinning and it's spinning here is a bird that has to wake up in the morning and go and scrounge for its worm and yet it is the father who feeds them who make sure that that worm was there when that bird been looking for it and you have this bird that is breathing and you know it's not like I've got a breath strike today it

God is the one who gives that property to that bird and make sure that that bird is functioning and once again I want you to just think of this these things function the way

God created them God is the one who gave them that property and sustains that property and the key thing

I want you to be thinking of is God directs those properties to function the way they do so if you are like me and watch this beautiful nature shows and in PBS it's tempting sometimes to forget that the direction of God that moves these things because they describe beautifully what happens but the why and the grand scheme of the father that not one sparrow falls down without his care that not one animal of all this immense life on this planet none of that can sustain without God giving them breath and they die when they expire so I just want you to remember that direction of these animate creation by God any thoughts on that before we move praise

God thank you just the grandness to the little littlest details our

God is sovereign alright so let's look at the next one seemingly random or chance immense good luck thank you once again you know a lot was used in the

Old Testament and by non -christians as well you know in terms of playing a game or gambling or whatever it is you know this seems random let me ask you is the casting of an unloaded loaded dies is not random an unloaded die is it actually random or is there some way you can predict the numbers that come out of it as I was preparing for this one of the things that someone said was you know do a science experiment with like you know this particular number loaded on the top and provide a certain amount of force and the and the topography on which it is actually being pushed you know at the most simplistic level if I had one on top and I pushed it this way you know it's gonna slide all the way down and I know that'll

I have a one on top but once it starts tumbling maybe I can get complicated enough in my physics and it's friction and whatever the rotation weight of the die as it moves along and I might be able to predict it to some degree but in realistic you know

I don't know where I'm starting from where I'm throwing where it's going to and and it is random on a human sense and again we may not be able to define the what at this point but let's say a couple of generations from now the

Lord Terry's and we are able to define it what this verse actually wants us to remember is what we think as random and chance on this side of eternity

God is the one who directs it to fall where it may and which is why we don't use good luck because there's no like some random events that could come and we hope that they randomly fall along aligned with the goodness that it may occur to you but rather it is the providence of God that brings about what from our standpoint may still seem random you know whether it's calamity or it is a blessing in a positive way whether it's health or or wealth or anything else so whatever it is that comes about from our perspective it may seem random and once again those the properties of these things here we don't discern those properties how they come to pass we just think it is random and we see that God is ordaining those events even the random ones to accomplish his purpose the next one let's actually let me just read the next one events fully caused by God and fully caused by the creature as well and really that's what we are trying to get in all of these things

God directs God works through the distinctive properties of each created thing so that these things themselves bring about the results that we see so when we look at the results of inanimate animal random things they there are certain things in them that causes the results we can observe those results but the

Bible tells us that he is the one who controls and directs those properties to bring about what he intends now with that the next one the affairs of the nations let's just read let's read two of them job 1223 who would like to read that Thank You Pauline and then we'll have act 1726 who would like to read that pastor

Steve job 12 once again you know whether we are in our country at this point in time we know that God is a one who is working in our nation when you look back in the passages of time you know the

Roman civilization the Greek civilization you can go back as far as you want and or your wherever whichever country you came from and what

God didn't what happened in all those circumstances people were greedy or people were flourishing you see how

God is the one who directs those the paths not just of these animals but of nations as a whole fastest team and this one is a little more comprehensive starting with Adam to Babel and to Noah and Noah and then

Babel you get to see this boundaries that he allots and executes and when these people were settling the earth they weren't saying well where is my boundary that God has given for me

I you know well Abraham had a little bit of that coaching if you will you know he should get out and you don't know where you're gonna go but I'll define it for you when you get there and he does but these people went where God had ordained they just said

I like this China and I'm going to China and and whoever whatever it is that they went but it is

God who had ordained those and I and we want to just remember that in the nations and the broader scope of life on this planet now we have this next section maybe we'll stop with that section for today on if there's no questions we might get into the problem of evil this one touches upon all aspects of our life and I need us to read a few of these verses to get this settled in because I think with this we'll be equipped to get into the next subject the challenge of evil let me actually read have many of these threads so please be ready to raise your hand

Matthew 6 11 it's okay if you've read before thank you

Haley Philippians 419 thank you and Psalm 139 16

Job 14 5 thank you

Galatians 115 thank you Jeremiah 10 23 thank you let's stop with that and then if because we may not be able to keep all these verses in our mind so let's begin with Matthew 6 11 okay food from God thank you

Philippians 4 from daily bread which is your daily sustenance to your needs it is

God who provides for your needs and this is for believers some 139 16 and in the womb to the events of my life

I can look back at these years every single one of them was ordained even before I was conceived but here in this text in the womb and Job 14 5 and when

I'm gonna die so the end of my day here is in God's hands maybe

I should ask this question before we move on don't answer this is that a scary thought or a comforting thought and why and are you glad you don't know that that God hasn't revealed it to you just yet Galatians 115 well this is

Galatians 115 okay so this is Paul talking about this and we have a similar one in Jeremiah 10 okay

I apologize I was thinking of Jeremiah's call in Jeremiah 1 which is similar to Galatians 1 where God before he was born he was called and here it is it's not in man's way to ordained to order his steps but it is

God who helps and again you know this is just a sampling of the various aspects of our life and all of these things thinking of that distinction of the properties we can see how they function on their own in in in one plane and yet all of these verses the biblical data says that God is the one who ordains them and brings them to pass and some of these are not just concurrent in their operation but God ordains it before they come that they would happen in line with his will and I think really that's what

I want us to really let settle in our minds as we get into to the next next subject you know what foot for the sake of time we'll do the rest of these verses and we'll stop here and I'll just throw out some questions for agency and evil that we'll pick up next week so let's continue with Proverbs Proverbs 2024 who'd like to read that Charlie Proverbs 16 1 thank you

Psalm 33 14 to 15 thanks day and Philippians 2 13 thank you all right we'll begin with Proverbs 2024 can you read that one more time

Charlie hmm man's steps are from the Lord how then can man understand his ways

Proverbs 16 1 and here you're looking at an agency type of text actually the last few verses were dealing with agency you prepare in your heart based on and I think

I want to use that term property again the way you're built you have some data you have certain ways of processing it and you prepare your heart to answer to to handle the situation that you are in in this particular case speaking and then you're looking for help from God in how you deliver that you accomplish what you are going to do so there are certain things you think of and the way you say it this one is a little more nuanced in terms of what you do and how

God directs them in almost like dividing them apart but as you've seen in the broader context it is everything that we do is ordained and here this is the difference between the cogitation and the vocalization of your actions the next one is

Psalm 33 fashions the hearts of them all and observes their deeds in and I'm hoping now with all the preliminary verses we've looked at you can start to see again this the properties that God is endued upon each of you so I want you to be thinking he who fashions my heart and then observes my deed so this is let me stop and let's look at the next verse and then we'll we'll speak on this

Philippians 2 13 can you go to the previous verse and read that to thank you very much so this is more famous verse and I think this is as believers you can actually grasp this very strongly because God you committed your life to God as God saved you and rescued you and the first part verse 12 says you work out your salvation with fear and trembling so what

God has put in you he has saved you you work it out you energy oh you exercise live out your salvation that's your responsibility that's what you do that's what you want to do that's what the properties that God has given you as a believer enable you to do and then you also have

God who was 13 for it is

God who works in you and this is where I think the issue becomes a contradiction for the first two groups of people we started with where they say

I can't handle that you know I can handle the part where I need to work out my salvation fear and trembling I have the properties God has given me and I'm going to look at things look to God for help and do it but then comes this part where God who works in you how does he work to will to to even want those desires that are good and pleasing to God it is he who enables me to seek those things that are good

I'm not constantly thinking when I was preparing for the Sunday school I was terrified it's a tough subject and I'm reading a lot of things and I'm like okay you know

I want to do a good explain this as clearly as I can but it is God who works in me to will and to do whether good or bad you know

I accomplished what I did but it is God who is working and it really that's those two things is what

I want us to walk away from this morning is we have certain properties we function according to those properties as a believer we have this explicit verse you've seen all the other verses talking about all people they function in a certain way and yet it is

God who controls and directs and ordains things that come to pass and and I really want us to think of this concurrence we live in a world where there is a disconnect between the observable universe and the

God who is behind it and we as Christians we want to be biblically faithful to how God operates behind this so let me stop there we'll take any questions and then we'll close yes

Charlie no actually that's a actually if you think of it in a very specific application of salvation here is my nature pre salvation

I am able to do a lot of things but I can't please God that's one thing I don't have the ability to do on my own and when

I have a regenerate heart which God regenerates and then he enables me with his spirit now we have both my new nature and the

Spirit of God enabling me to accomplish that the desires that he gives and like you said that's precisely what happened you know

I couldn't do these things on natural abilities now I have a supernatural ability because God has intervened in my life and transformed me changed my properties if you will to do what

I freely will but I can't do it because unless God enables me and he directs me and that's that's that's a good example any other thoughts so I want you to leave it the problem of evil so our bundle for this point we didn't we make suffer one verse we didn't look at evil now how does concurrence work when evil comes to pass and then looking at the former two categories the ones who don't believe in God and those who don't believe that God controls all things how does my natural agency of freedom and choice happen when my the result of my choice is predetermined you know

I'm going to freely choose to close with prayer right now but God ordained it to happen as well so I think those are the two questions we'll look at next week let's pray a loving and gracious father we thank you a lot for this time what a what a marvelous

God you are help us Lord to worship you as you truly deserve this morning we commit at our morning service into your care may you