This sermon was preached on Sunday
evening, May 19th, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville,
New Jersey. Now by way of introduction, let
me give you a little background as to what conditioned my mind
and spirit to select the subject that I will address with you
tonight. Those of you who are not familiar
with the preaching schedule, perhaps would be interested to
know that this is the last time for a while that I'll be preaching
Sunday evenings. Those of you who are here on
a regular basis know that generally Pastor Nichols and I divide the
public ministry here on the Lord's Day, but in June he will be starting
a series in the adult class on our confession of faith, and
then I will be preaching in the mornings, and then in the evening
Professor Martin will be preaching several times and then we're
going to have some guest preachers on the last Lord's Day of each
month until August, during which time when Mrs. Martin and I are
away in Australia and the Philippines, we will have guest preachers
each Lord's Day evening during that time while Pastor Nichols
will be preaching in the morning and Professor Martin will be
teaching the adult class. So we do have a schedule around
here, though it may be rather difficult to follow it at times. Well, as I sought the Lord's
mind about what to bring in this one last opportunity that I would
have to address you from the Word of God apart from our normal
studies in Mark in the morning, as I reflected upon the experience
of the recent weeks in pastoral counseling, it seemed that again
and again I was turning to the Scriptures and opening up a basic
theme in the Word of God with those who came and sought my
counsel, and as I reflected upon this and prayerfully considered
how best to use our time tonight, I came to the conviction that
these who came to me seeking help and pastoral counsel were
not exceptional people. That is, their needs and concerns
were not so peculiar that to use them as an index for what
I ought to preach would be irresponsible and unwise. But I believe just
the opposite was true, that they represented a cross-section of
our people here and of Christians in general. And so, with their
concerns as a backdrop to selecting the subject, the subject I have
chosen for tonight is some common pitfalls in connection with the
doctrine of divine providence. Some common pitfalls in connection
with the doctrine of divine providence. And as we take up this subject,
we will begin, first of all, by taking a few minutes to define
what we mean by the term divine providence. I'm going to speak
to you on pitfalls in connection with divine Well, what is the
thing concerning which we will examine some pitfalls, or with
reference to which we shall examine some pitfalls? Well, I can do
no better than turn to the old, shorter catechism. Question number
eleven, what is God's providence? And the answer is, the works
of God's providence are His most wise, holy, and powerful preserving
and governing all his creatures and all their actions. Divine providence is God's most
holy, wise and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures
and all their actions. And this definition of the confession
is simply an attempt to bring together a truth taught from
Genesis to Revelation, that God is in control of the world which
he has made, and everything and everybody in it. It is the truth
expressed in such text as Daniel 4.35. He does according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. Psalm 103 and verse 19, Thy kingdom
ruleth over all. We read in Nehemiah
9, in verse 6, after celebrating in that prayer the doctrine of
creation, the man of God goes on to say in verse 6, Thou preservest
them all. All that God has created, He
powerfully, wisely preserves. It's the truth brought into very
tender expression in the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew
10, 29 and 30, in which he says that not a sparrow falls to the
ground without your heavenly father. The very hairs of our
head are numbered so that the biblical doctrine of divine providence
in a very real sense is simply the truth that What comes to
pass in time, in every detail, in every circumstance, is but
an exegesis of what God purposed in eternity. God's decree, or
sometimes called His decrees, are what God has planned in eternity. Providence is the unfolding,
the exegesis, the opening up and the explanation in time of
that which God has purposed in eternity. So that in Ephesians
1.11, the doctrine of divine decree and providence are brought
into the closest conjunction where we read, He works, providence,
all things after the counsel of His own will decree. What
is decreed is worked out in providence. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. Now, for many of you, this is
an old truth, and it is this truth which you find to be such
a tremendous instrument of stability in the midst of a troubled world.
You see, Romans 8.28 can only be a source of comfort if this
doctrine of divine providence is true. We can take comfort
that all things are working together for good only because we believe
God, by his most holy, wise, and powerful will, is preserving
and governing all men and all creatures and all their actions.
It's because of the doctrine of providence that we can derive
comfort from such a text as Romans 8.28. However, This glorious, comforting doctrine
becomes a dangerous doctrine when wrongly applied and used
for things it was never intended to be used for. And now what
I propose to do is simply to give you a public pastoral counseling
session as I, in the second place, having defined divine providence,
describe and expose three common pitfalls in connection with this
doctrine. Now, I'm not saying these are
the only pitfalls, nor am I saying that I'm giving a comprehensive
statement of the proper use of the doctrine of divine providence.
My scope of concern is very limited. I am giving to you what I have
proven in my own pastoral experience in dealing with the sheep of
Christ are three common pitfalls in connection with this doctrine. Pitfall number one. Pitfall number
one is the attempt to read the heart of God in terms of the
providence of God. Many of God's people often err
in their spiritual pilgrimage when they attempt to read the
heart of God by the providence of God. Now let me explain the
error and then expose the error. In explaining the error, this
is what I mean. If the providences which befall
me are bright and sunny and favorable, making life joyful and relatively
easy, then God must be showing His love to me. God's heart must
be towards me with favor, and I read His unseen heart in his
seen and tangible providences. So when the providences are bright
and sunny, resulting in a relatively easy and joyful existence, I
seek to read in those, quote, favorable providences the heart
of God, and I say from his providences his heart must be towards me
in love and goodwill. However, if the providences that
befall are dark and cloudy and foreboding and mysterious, making
life miserable and difficult and uncertain, then God must
be showing me that he hates me, or if he doesn't hate me, he's
upset with me and he's irritated with me and he's taking it out
on me in his providence. Now you see, it's only the person
who believes in providence that can ever be guilty of this sin.
The person who thinks that all of life is just up for grabs,
pure chance, time plus space plus chance operates everything,
he doesn't have this problem. There's no meaning to favorable
providences or to unfavorable providences, because it's all
up for grabs and pure chance operates throughout the whole.
But you see, when you believe this doctrine, that God, by His
most wise and holy will, is preserving and governing all His creatures
and all of their actions, then what happens to me personally
in my little world of people and things does have significance. God has brought these things
to me and upon me. And believing that, then many
times Christians are tempted, and not only are tempted, they
fall prey to this pitfall of seeking to read from God's providences
the disposition of God's heart. Now that's the error, a very
common error. Now let me expose it. And I will
expose it by beginning with a simple statement and then proving it
from Scripture. The heart of God is revealed in the Word of
God in terms of our spiritual, moral and ethical relationship
to God. Let me give that to you again.
The heart of God is revealed in the Word of God in terms of
our spiritual, moral and ethical relationship to God. The Scripture says in Psalm 146
and verse 8, God loves the righteous. You see, God's heart is towards
a people of a certain ethical and moral and spiritual character. He loves the righteous. Yes,
by grace He has made them righteous through the righteousness of
His Son. By grace, He has made them righteous through the regenerating
work of the Spirit and the implantation of a principle of obedience.
By grace, He is making them righteous through the power of the Spirit,
enabling them to be conformed increasingly to Christ. But His
love is in terms of the spiritual, moral, and ethical relationship
that He sustains to them and they to Him. Conversely, Psalm
5 and verse 5 says that God is angry with, or God hates, all
workers of iniquity. God's heart is against those
who live in the practice and willful pathway of sin. John 3.36 says, The wrath of
God abides on him who believes not. The heart of God towards
man is to be understood not in terms of his providences, but
in terms of what he has revealed in his word on the basis of our
spiritual, moral, and ethical relationship to him. God often
brings dark and difficult, what we would call negative providences
upon the righteous, and ripens the wicked for judgment with
continual favorable providences. Now that's clearly taught in
the Word of God. It was the great problem of the
psalmist in Psalm 73. As he looked out in terms of
divine providence, this is what he saw. The providence of God
was bringing to a righteous man what things. Psalm 73 and verse
14. All the day long I have been
plagued and chastened every morning. He saw himself in a constant
string of difficult providences. On the other hand, when he looked
at the wicked, he says in verse 3, I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. Providence was smiling
upon them. They didn't have horrible, lingering
deaths. They weren't plagued like other
men. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than their heart
could wish. When he looked at God's providence,
this is what he saw. God is favorable and therefore
loves the wicked. God is unfavorable and therefore
has a controversy with the righteous. And it was not until he went
into the sanctuary of God, considered their latter end, and came to
grips with the fact that their true state was to be understood
in terms of their spiritual, moral, and ethical relationship
to God, that he got everything sorted out and saw things as
he ought to see them. And then, of course, we have
the book of Job, and this was precisely the problem with Job's
so-called comforters. Job, according to God's estimation,
not man's, God's estimation, was the holiest man upon the
face of the earth in his generation. And it was the very basis, this
relationship to God in ethical, moral, and spiritual uprightness,
that became the occasion of his severe trials. But looking upon
him, you would say, if ever God's heart is against the man, it's
against Job. Look at the providences that
have come upon him. In a day, he loses all his possessions,
his children, etc., and in a few more days, he becomes of one
mass of putrefying sores, and it was difficult for sensitive
people even to stand in his presence. The providences were dark and
foreboding, and those dark providences lay upon him day after day, night
after night, week after week, all the while others were basking
under a clear blue sky of favorable providences. Furthermore, the
Scripture teaches us that these very dark providences, rather
than being the indication that God doesn't love us, are the
very validation of His love. Revelation 3 and verse 19, whom
I love, I chasten and rebuke. Hebrews chapter 12, verses 3
and following, you know the passage well. Despise not the chastening
of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved of Him. For whom
the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges. And yet because we
have subtly imbibed this false notion that favorable providences
reveal the heart of God, the temptation in so many of God's
children, and I've counseled not a few of you in this place,
is when God brings a concentration of dark providences, you immediately
begin to reason from your dark providences to something in the
heart of God that is other than His love. You're not the only
one who's done it. Old Jacob did it. You remember
when God was through his providence, dark, bitter providences, working
out his own redemptive purposes, raising Joseph to that place
of great influence in Egypt in order to preserve the godly seed
that would come and settle in Egypt in a period of famine.
God is inexorably and marvelously carrying out his ancient promise
that he would bruise the head of the serpent And yet when one
dark providence after another comes upon the old patriarch,
he cries out in Genesis 42 and verse 36, Jacob their father
said unto them, Me, you have bereaved of my children. Joseph
is not, and Simeon is not, and he will take Benjamin away. All these things are against
me. No, they weren't. All those things
were for him. All of those dark providences
were the revelation of God's love and His commitment to His
covenant promises. And old Jacob fell prey to this
pitfall of trying to read the heart of God in the providence
of God, and it's losing business. Now, I'm fully aware that there
are times when dark providences may be the revelation of God's
anger toward His children. 1 Corinthians 11, for this cause,
many are weak and sickly among you, and not a few sleep. I am
not ruling out the fact that a dark providence can be God's
spanking for evil done in one of His children. But what I am
addressing is the notion that a dark providence or a combination
of dark providences necessarily reveal that God's heart is against
me. And child of God, you must resist
that temptation. God's heart is not to be read
in His providences, it's to be read in His Word in terms of
your relationship to Him. If you're a man or woman of faith,
then you are in the orbit of God's covenant love. If you are
walking uprightly in the light of His Word with a blameless
conscience, a conscience void of offense, then God may, in
His own inscrutable wisdom, plunge you into a series of the darkest
of providences. But His heart towards you has
not changed, and you are to hold on to your way, and you are to
hold on to the integrity of your conscience. You are to be able
to look up into a sky that is so thick with dark clouds of
dark and dismal and foreboding promises and say, God, I believe
your heart is toward me in love and pity and compassion as much
as if I were looking up into a cloudless sky." You see, God
is committed to something more than keeping you comfortable.
He's committed to making you holy, and He's going to beat
up on you a little bit in the process. He's more concerned
about your conformity to Christ than your physical and material
and psychological and social comfort. Furthermore, he's more
concerned about the issues of eternity than time, 2 Corinthians
4.18. He's more concerned about the
inner man than the outward. The outward is decaying, the
inner is being renewed. He's not indifferent to the outward,
but he's more concerned about the inner than the outward. So
when Paul has an outward affliction that he says, I simply cannot
go on in the work of God with this impediment to my physical
strength, and he cries to God to remove it, God says no. There's
an inward malady that's worse. The outer won't cripple you,
but the inner will. And lest you be exalted above
measure because of all of your privileges, Paul, I'm allowing
this outward pressure to be the instrument of keeping you consciously
weak and therefore consciously humble, because I can use a physically
weak but humble man, but I will not use a physically strong and
proud man. Dear child of God, this can be
revolutionary for some of you. Because God is not going to take
us to heaven, in the language of A. W. Tozer, all wrapped up
in a Christmas package with a nice little neat bow on it. If we
get there, we're going to get there beat up a bit, scarred
and bruised, some of the edges knocked off and splintered. So
there are going to be dark providences. Now don't go around and say,
well, God must not love me because everything's going well. There's
Christians like that. They'll hear a message like this and then
they'll flip it right around and say, well, if dark providences
are the indication of God's love, then God must not love me. Everything's...
and they're going around looking for trouble. No, don't go looking
for trouble. Don't go trying to help God chasing
you with dark providences. What I'm saying is, whether the
sky is blue or dark and foreboding, read the heart of God in the
Word of God. and in terms of your ethical,
moral, and spiritual relationship to God, and stop trying to read
a transcript of his heart in his providences. That's the great
pitfall. All right, pitfall number two. Pitfall number two with regard
to the doctrine of providence is the attempt to understand
the specific and the full purpose of God. in any given set of providential
circumstances. The attempt to understand the
specific and full purpose of God in any given set of providential
circumstances. Now, we'll approach it the same
way. Explain the error, and then expose it, or the pitfall. If
a set of providences is come, which, for me, and respect to
my routine, is large or small, then immediately I'm tempted
to say, well, I've got to find out what God is saying to me
in this providence. For example, you're going to
work tomorrow morning and on the way to work, you get a flat
tire. A sensitive Christian will almost immediately say, well,
Lord, what's your purpose in this? And his wheels will begin
to move to try to find and discover some specific purpose for this
specific providential circumstance that is out of the ordinary.
It becomes more intense if a man loses a job where he felt he
had real security and suddenly he's called in and given the
spiel and given the pink slip and his whole life, as it were,
is numb with the shock of this unexpected hiatus in his career. The loss of a loved one, ongoing
discipline of singleness, widowhood, these ongoing trials, the combination
of dark providences or the combination of favorable providences, often
as God's people, we attempt to understand the specific and the
full purpose of God in any set of providential circumstances.
What is God saying to me in this providence or in these providences? Well, let me expose the error
of this pitfall. The truth is, dear brothers and
sisters, that only an omniscient God who sees the whole fabric
of His plan knows the full significance of any part of that plan as it
comes to light in your life and mine. And I'm going to try to illustrate
it. I wish I had a bigger thing to do it with, but this will
at least help those of you who are up closer. Now, this block represents
your present set of circumstances. And you see some threads, that's
my red lines going this way, and some threads this way, the
warp and woof of the fabric. You've got a question mark. What
is God saying in this, in this, in this? And all together combine
these present strands of God's providence. What is God saying
to me now in the light of what I see of his providences? Well,
you see, the problem with that is this, that in your present
set of providences, Here are these little strands. All you
and I can see is one little part of the threads going this way
and the threads going this way. But you know what God sees? He
looks, if I may use the spatial imagery, He looks down upon us
and He sees the present in terms of every single thread, the warp
and whoop of the whole fabric that constitutes the now. But
He sees more than that. He sees how each thread goes
all the way back into his eternal counsels, and where each thread
is going in the consummation of his purposes. Furthermore,
he sees how each thread is being used in my life to prepare me
for heaven, how it's impinging on the lives of others for eternity
with him, and being woven into the fabric of his purposes with
regard to manifesting his justice upon the ungodly. Now, do you
see how stupid it is for us to try to figure out what any given
factor means when an omniscient eye alone sees the whole thread
at any given point and sees the roots of the thread and the ultimate
destination of the thread? So, child of God, stop trying
to play God. And when you're in a given set
of providences that trouble you, that have upset your normal routine,
don't go before God asking God to make you like Him and to give
you the ability to see all that He has purposed in this particular
set of providences. It is losing business. Now, there
are two qualifications. It is perfectly proper to pray,
Lord, if you are seeking to expose some sin in my life, if you're
seeking to nudge me in the direction of a new dimension of your purpose
for me by these providences, help me to understand, as I study
your word, what principles apply to the providence. I'm not saying
that providence cannot be God's means to get our attention to
some principles of his word. I'm not saying that at all. Nor
am I saying that providence cannot be the instrument by which God
reveals sin to us. But you see, for us to demand
that we be able to understand why we got the flat tire is sheer
impotence. Just take care to safely repair
the tire, change the tire in a way that is responsible and
doesn't tempt God. And don't, while you're getting
out the lug nuts, be trying to figure out, oh, what's God saying
to me? You see, that seems very spiritual.
But you may get your head knocked off with an oncoming car when
you're preoccupied with trying to interpret the providence when
you ought to be occupied with finding a safe place to change
your tire. Now, that doesn't sound very
spiritual, but that's your duty, because the scripture says, Thou
shalt not tempt the Lord by God. And all you need to know is that
all things, including your flat tire, work together for good.
But God doesn't say you'll know precisely the good at any given
point. Now, sometimes God mercifully lets us live long enough to see
our providences interpreted partly. Partly. For example, Genesis
chapter 50. When Joseph was thrown down into
the pit, sold as a slave, ended up in the household of Potiphar,
I would imagine that that strange combination of dark and horrible
providences It meant very little to him. Later on, some years
have passed, and he's able to see that there was both rhyme
and reason to all of these dark providences. Genesis 15, the
end of that moving scene, when he's disclosed himself to his
brethren, he could say, verse 20, As for you, you meant evil
against me, but God meant it for good to bring to pass as
it is this day, to save much people alive. He says, now I
can see the purpose of that strange combination of dark providences. Out of a motive of jealousy and
ill will, you sold me to be a slave. There was no love lost between
us. You meant evil God who governs
all men and all their actions in all realms, he was providentially
guiding even the channels cut by your malicious attitudes in
order that this day the whole clan might be spared down here
in Egypt. But you see, that was only part
of God's providence. And Joseph only saw part of it,
and he was content to rest until God unfolded even that part.
But you see, there was another part. A preacher in 1985 was
going to need a vivid illustration of this pastoral problem. That's
right. And when God let Joseph be sold
and speak these words, part of his purpose was to give me the
fuel to give you pastoral counsel. God knew all of that. I didn't.
Joseph didn't, but God did. And you see, only the omniscient
eye of God can see all the threads in the whole tapestry. And to
be men and women of faith is to say, God, all I see is a little
piece of the thread, and it doesn't even look like it belongs in
the fabric. But you put it there, and you know why you put it there.
And someday, when I sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
in the kingdom, and sit down with my Lord, I'll have him exegete
every strand. And then he'll show me how it
all was wisely woven together. So child of God, remember the
hymn we often sing. Blind on belief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and
he will make it plain. Second pitfall is attempting
to understand the specific and the full purpose of God in any
given set of providential circumstances, that is none of your business. Yours is to bow in faith and
confess God's ways, to be right and just and good, even if you
never live long enough to make any sense out of what He's done.
And then there's pitfall number three. And this one is one that
is a very difficult one to speak upon in a balanced way, but I'm
going to make an attempt to do it because it needs to be said.
Pitfall number three is the attempt to make the providence of God
the indicator of the will of God. The attempt to make the
providence of God the indicator, the finger pointing in the direction
of the will of God. Now, let me explain the error.
Someone is not sure about whether he ought to take this job or
that job or the other. And he says, Now, Lord, I trust
your providence. If you want me to take that job
in such and such a place, you open the door. If you don't,
you close it. And if the door opens, he comes
to his pastor and says, I've been praying about a job opportunity
in three places. A door is open in such and such
a place. I believe God has opened that door. Providence is pointing
the way. And so he moves forth. dead certain
it's the will of God, because there was an open door. Three
years later, you see the man. He's lost all his joy, all his
vibrancy, all his spiritual vigor. When you begin to talk with him,
you find out what his problem is. He's found no decent ministry. The job has consumed so much
of his time and energy, his marriage is coming apart at the seam.
He's lost all contact with his children. Everything is coming
down around him in a shambles. And he says, I realize now that
that open door was not an indication of the will of God. I should
have considered other factors rooted in the word of God. Someone's
praying about whether they ought to marry a certain man or woman.
And so they say, Lord, I commit it to your providence. If you
create in them an affinity for me and they like me and are attracted
to me and I to them, then I'll take this as from you. Ten years
later, The bitterness, the horrible, horrible, locked-in misery of
a misfit marriage. The person looks with bitterness
upon the day that they used providence as an indicator of the will of
God. That's what I mean about this
pitfall. Using an open door, someone's
favorable disposition, something in providence to indicate the
will of God. Now let me expose that error.
The will of God with which we have to do is the will of His
precepts and not His providence. Providence exegetes God's decrees. That's His business. My business
is to walk in the light of His precepts, walk in the confidence
that in His providence He is guiding me, yes. But my mind
and my rational faculties are not to be taken up with looking
at what seem to me to be the indicators of providence, but
I'm to be taken up with the precepts and principles of the Word of
God and responsibly applying them to my circumstances in dependence
upon the Holy Spirit. Psalm 1 describes the blessed
person in what language? He does not walk in the counsel
of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in
the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in contemplating the
providence of God, and upon God's providence he meditates day and
night. No, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his
law doth he meditate day and night. He fills his mind with
God's precepts, Psalm 119, 105. David did not say, Thy providence
is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. He says, Thy word
is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. Jesus said in John
14, 21, If you love me, keep my commandments. He that loveth
me keeps my commandments, and I will love him and manifest
myself to him. Now, I'll qualify in a moment.
Hang in there with me while we establish this. Let's look at
some examples in Scripture. where people erred by thinking
providence was an index of God's will. Look at Jonah. God had
spoken his word. He was to go to that wicked city
Nineveh and cry out against it for its sins. But he went in
the opposite direction, to flee from the presence of God, Scripture
says, and when he came down to the seashore, what did he find?
He found a set of unusually favorable providences. A ship going to
the place he wanted to go to was there. The winds were favorable. They had a seat for it. They
had a berth for it. He had the amount of money needed.
Even favorable winds. Everything in Providence seemed
to smile upon Jonah. An old Scottish preacher who
has a powerful sermon on this matter of taking the will of
God from Providence and not the scriptures draws this out beautifully. At either time, I probably would
have brought excerpts of it and read it to you, but it's the
most moving thing. And then he begins to enter into dialogue
with Jonah, who thought he could determine the will of God from
providence, and begins to ask him, when the waves begin to
crash upon the ship and everything is turned into a frenzy because
of Jonah, where is his favorable providence now? But you see,
Jonah is an example of this. Look at Judas. It says that he
was continually seeking a convenient set of circumstances to betray
the Lord Jesus. John 18 tells us that when he
came out that night with the band of soldiers and the chief
priests and their cohorts, he was able to know where he was
in the garden because he said, Jesus oft times resorted thither
with his disciples. The providence of God was favorable
to Judas's most dastardly deed. Are we going to say, then, that
that was the will of God's precept? No, God had said, Thou shalt
do no murder. God had said to Jonah that he
was to go to Nineveh. Now let's look at the flip side
in the life of a man of God, such as Paul. He said in Romans,
chapter 1, that many times he had purposed and apparently even
made plans to go to Rome. Romans, chapter 1, verse 13,
I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oft times I purposed
to come to you and was hindered hitherto. Every time he made
plans to go, the door got slammed in his face. So what did Paul
say? Well, God must be showing me in his providence I have no
business going to Rome. I'll give up the idea. Not on
your life. Going to Rome was a matter of obedience to the
revealed will of God. So he was prepared to keep knocking
and knocking and knocking and knocking until the door went
open. And many Christians, the first
time they meet a closed door in any area, oh God is closing
the door in providence, they run away. Why do you know? How
do you know that God closed it to tell you to go away? How do
you know He didn't close the door to develop some calluses
on your banger? To develop some spiritual muscle? To pray and bang the doors down
in the name of the Lord? If that door stands before you
in the path of duty, it's not there to say, go another direction. It's there to make a man and
woman of courage out of you. a man or woman of faith, a man
or woman of holy persistence. Dabney, the great southern theologian
and preacher and writer, in his masterful treatise on the calls
of the ministry, he goes after men who have all of the indications
that God's hand may be upon them for the ministry, but there's
some negative and dark providence standing in the way. And he says,
who are you to pontificate as to what the purpose of that hindrance
is? You say, well, I can't. I have
this hindrance or that hindrance. He says, who are you to say why
God put the hindrance there? The hindrance is there in divine
providence. Yes. But the purpose of that
hindrance, who are you to exegete it as though you were God? Could
it be that God's put that hindrance there for the very purpose of
making you more a man of God, to press clean through that hindrance
by holy diligence and by the use of spiritual weapons? Demosthenes,
the great Greek orator, could have concluded, even as a pagan,
that he was never to be an orator. He had impediments in his speech.
And you know the famous proverbial story of how he would go down
by the seashore and fill his mouth with stones and learn how
to speak above the roar of the ocean until he could be heard
distinctly. What did he do? He didn't take
the providential factor of a speech impediment and lay over and play
dead. You see, that element is too
much with us, brethren. We need to be done with that.
Keep our noses to the Book of God and determine our duty from
Scripture. Let's go back to the two illustrations
and show how it works in practical experience. Take this fellow
with the job. Instead of saying, Lord, there's
three places, three opportunities. Whatever one opens up, that's
your will. No, no, he should have sat down and with his Bible
said, now God is a man on the threshold of my career as a workman,
a husband, a provider, a Christian man. What are my priorities as
dictated by the book of God? And if he did that, he would
have found that number one, he's to seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness and all other things would be added.
So he writes down priority number one, wherever I pursue my career,
I must be in a setting where I can seek first the kingdom
of God. He goes to his Bible and learns that the church is
the pillar and ground of the truth. So he says, I must go
where there is a church that is committed to the Word of God.
Furthermore, he reads in his Bible, Fathers, nurture your
children. Whatever career I pursue in whatever
circumstances, I must not sell my children to the corporation. I won't do it. I will not. I'd sooner dig dickies than be
a vice president or a general at the expense of the souls of
my children. He gets his priorities out of
the box. That's where he gets them. All
of them. Then he goes to the company and
sits down and says, all right, what's your job description?
Here it is. Here are my qualifications. All right, what are the terms
of work? Here they are. He investigates. Is there a church within reasonable
distance? He asks some probing questions about what will be
expected of him. He does not allow a lovely open
door to settle all the issues. He thinks the issue through with
hammered out biblical priorities and the widest door with the
most promise. If he's got to stumble over a
precinct, he says, I'm not going to take it. Now, it may mean, as one of our
brethren, highly qualified in a specific professional field
in this congregation, it may mean you have to drive a cab
in New York for a year. That's right. With a graduate
degree, drive a cab in New York. Why? Because you've got principles
from the Word. Oh, dear man, will God give us
men like that in this generation? I pray he will. It's none of
that stuff that will be the life and instrument of blessing in
this church for another generation. But about the guy that says,
well, if she likes me and I like her, then God must be in it.
No, no, my friend. The devil can very easily stir
up the hormones and the chemistry of mutual interest. What he does
is he goes to his Bible and says, Lord, if I'm thinking as a man
of God, what am I to look for in a woman? Well, above all else,
she must be a woman who's in a state of grace, who manifests
the grace of God in life and character. She must be a woman
who has a biblical concept of marriage and of the home, or
at least is willing to be taught those concepts. And he hammers
out of Scripture what he's to look for. And he may have very
little positive chemistry the first time he dates the woman
who seems to have some of those qualities. That doesn't turn
him aside. is willing to stay with her long
enough until her true virtue that may not hang out in her
measurements is seen. Some of you men are too worldly
in what you're looking for in a wife. If God blinded you for
five years, it'd be the best thing that could happen to you.
You'd get a godly wife in the meantime. Then when he gave you your sight
back, she'd be awfully beautiful because you would have lived
with the glory and the beauty of godliness. And it even affects
what your eyeballs see. Some of you are altogether too
worldly. Some of you girls, that's your problem too. You're too
worldly in what you're looking for in a man. I know one of our women here
has confessed this. God had to knock her on the head hard. She
had it all figured out. Oh yes, she wanted a man of God
for a husband, but she figured out the height and weight and
everything else. And God had to work her over pretty good.
Humble her. I'm not going to say publicly
who it is. I know she'd be willing to tell you how she thanks God
that God opened her eyes to her following. Now, you see what
we're talking about now, this pitfall, this pitfall of trying
to interpret the will of God by the providence of God in major
decisions of work, career, husband, wife, all of these things know
where to go to scripture and be regulated by scripture. And then as we prayerfully commit
ourselves to implement the path marked out by scripture, You
see, this is where the doctrine of providence is our comfort. I can proceed in the path of
biblical obedience, independence upon God, and in the strength
of His Spirit, confident that because He, by His most wise,
holy, and powerful will, is governing and preserving all His creatures
in all their actions, This God can bring any force to bear,
any influence to bear upon my path that is for my good and
His glory. And I go forth not looking for
providence to mark out the way. I look to the Word to mark the
way. But I'm confident that divine
providence will guide me in that way. And then when I stop and
look back, and this is where Flavel's book is so helpful,
The Mystery of Providence, I can look back and even here with
my limited sight, seeing through a glass darkly, I can see some
of the marvelous ways that God providentially hedged me up,
overruling my stubbornness and my folly and my short-sightedness
and my wrong motives to deal so graciously with me. So look
back at providence and admire. Look up at providence and trust.
But don't look into providence and try to come up with a full
interpretation of what God is doing. Don't look at providence
and read from providence into the heart of God. And don't try
to see the path of God's will marked out by providence. Child
of God, don't abuse the precious doctrine of divine providence
by falling into any one of those three pitfalls. And I would be
very surprised if there are not many of us who would acknowledge
tonight, if we grasp what I've tried to convey, that we've been
guilty on all three counts. I have, many times. And let me
say in closing, this is one of the reasons why I abominate all
of the mystical, subjective elements of the deeper life teaching and
much of the charismatic teaching. Because it lends itself to this
very thing and it becomes tyranny. Tyranny! Because with your puny
little mind, you're constantly on that vicious treadmill of
trying to figure out what God is saying in this and saying
in that and saying the other. And you can so easily, if you're
of a sensitive temperament, misinterpret what God is doing and bring false
guilt upon yourself and talk about having God's second best
and third best and fourth best and seventeenth best. If I had
to live by that rule, I'd probably got his 178th best, somewhere
down the line. on the bottom of the heap, that
it's a wonderful thing to be able to stand where we stand
today and say, I am here by the kind and gracious providence
of a wise and a loving God. Now, if you're not a Christian,
much of this, you've probably sat here and said, what in the
world is the big deal? You see, my friend, if that's
been your disposition of mind, it's because you don't know the
God of the Bible and you've never come to love him. Because once
you come to know him and love him, then pleasing him is the
thing that matters more than anything else. And that's why
it's only us funny folk called Christians that have these problems.
But you see, it's only us funny folk called Christians that are
going to be with him forever in joy and peace and the glory
of his presence. And we're going to be there not
for anything we've done, but we're going to be there because
of what his beloved son did, who in God's time was sent to
be the savior of sinners. who don't know how to live, who
can't face death with confidence, darkened, blind, rebel sinners. And my dear non-Christian friend,
that Christ and His salvation is offered freely to you in the
Gospel, that through that Savior you might come to know this God
and know the joy of walking with Him and being with Him forever
when He returns in the person of His Son. Let us pray. Our Father, we are so thankful
that you have given us your word to be a lamp unto our feet and
a light to our pathway. O God, we ask that you will make
of us as a congregation a people who are determined to live by
the word of God, to have your word as a lamp unto our feet
and a light to our pathway. Forgive us when through ignorance
and misguided zeal We have sought to read your providence as though
we were omniscient. Forgive us, Lord, when we have
carelessly used a favorable providence and an open door to walk in a
path contrary to your word. And then, Lord, forgive us when
we've dishonored you by reading so falsely your heart as we've
attempted to interpret it through your providences. Cleanse us
of these sins in the blood of Christ. and give us strength
by the Holy Spirit that we may no longer walk in them. Help
us and seal your word to our hearts. We ask these mercies
with thankfulness in Jesus' name. Amen.