I'd like to begin today with
a reading of some Scripture. I ask that you would keep these
verses in mind as I make comments today, given the short time frame
to prepare. This is more of what I would
call a devotional than it is a sermon. I ask that you bear
with me and I pray that God will use this even so to bless our
hearts, to give us a word from our Savior. The first passage
I'd like to read for us today is from Acts, chapter 15, and
it's verse 18. Scripture says, known unto God
are all his works from the beginning of the world. The second passage
that I'd like to read is from Isaiah, chapter 46, verses 9
through 11. And the scripture says there,
remember the former things of old for I am God and there is
no other. I am God and there is none like
me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from the ancient times things not yet done. Saying my counsel
shall stand and I will accomplish my purpose. calling a bird of
prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed,
and I will do it." From the Proverbs 16, verse 9, the heart of man
plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Again, in Proverbs
16, verse 33, The lot is cast into the lap,
but every decision is from the Lord. Proverbs 19 verse 21, many
are the plans in the mind of a man, but it's the purpose of
the Lord that will stand. Now from Romans chapter eight,
verses 28 through 30. And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called
according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he
also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order
that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those
whom he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also
justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. From the book of Hebrews, chapter
2, verse 10. For it was fitting that he for
whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory
should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Philippians chapter 1, verse
6, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. These Scriptures may seem a bit
disjointed. Let me explain my mental process
so that you can kind of grasp where this is coming from. A
lot of things have been in an odd state of flux in my life,
in the timber industry as a whole, in the economy as we all know.
And I have had a hard time going into this Thanksgiving season
with an attitude of Thanksgiving. Times are difficult. And my own
personal attitude was getting crooked, was getting out of sorts. And I knew in my heart that as
a Christian, I shouldn't be going in the direction that I was going.
And I needed to get back to that balance that we have as Christians
in Christ. So I spent the last two weeks
going back through the Scripture, revisiting some things that I
knew, but I needed to know again. In such times, I like to meditate
on two particular doctrines or subjects in the scripture that
thrill my heart, that bring me back to a peace of mind and a
peace of heart, and that is the doctrine of God's providence
and the doctrine of election. Our general topic today is the
providence of God. I think that shows in the scriptures
that we read, and I would ask that you keep those in the back
of your mind. We may or may not touch on those particular verses
again, but bear in mind, keep them in your thoughts as we go
through this. Again, I say this is not really
a directed or a hard sermon, if you will, as much as it is
a devotion. It follows my thought processes over the last couple
of weeks as I've been reading and trying to come back to a
balance in my life. The providence of God, as we
are aware, in days past was a very popular topic. It was something
that God's people spoke of often. We go back through the Reformational
period especially and the founding period of our country. You can
read sermon after sermon after sermon by preachers on the providence
of God that God has brought His people through to this place
and is working in this place to achieve His purpose. But now, You don't hear very
many sermons on the providence of God. You don't. Our theology
as a people, as a nation, as a Christian presence in this
country have changed, and providence is not mentioned much anymore.
If it is mentioned, we keep it in a historical setting. We say,
well, in the founding period of our country, They spoke of
the providence of God and were very willing to speak of it then
and to recognize that they believed in the providence of God. But
we don't necessarily bring it forward. And yet as God's people,
we really do need to bring it forward. We need to know and
we need to sense in our daily lives that God is present. That God is not just present,
but actively working in our lives whether we recognize that or
not. It's an important thing for us
to know, to grasp, and to hold our hearts. What do we mean when
we speak of the providence of God? We mean that God is active
in this world. We mean that He is active in
the lives of His people. That He is hands-on leading and
guiding our lives and the events of our lives, even to the point
that we will recognize that God is controlling the events of
the world. To properly understand the providence
of God, we must believe that God is the absolute sovereign
of the universe. We must believe that God can
do and does whatever He wants to do without obligation to any
or without explanation due to any. To properly understand the
providence of God, we must understand that God has a plan and a purpose
and that He will bring His plan and purpose to bear. He will
make it happen. Standing alongside the providence
of God is predestination. And along with predestination
stands election. That being said, now we can understand
why people today will not speak of God's providence. Sinful man
and Apostate Christianity will not stand for a God that will
tell them what to do. It's that simple. It's that simple. We should always keep before
us and remember the deception of the serpent in the garden.
You shall be like God. Or you might could render that
you shall be your own God. It's that simple. You can boil
all of this, sin in our lives, all of the bad theology that
we possess, you can boil it down to that, that I want to be my
own God. In our sinful hearts, we will
not admit that anyone, even God, is greater than ourselves. We
will not admit that anyone has control over our lives. We stand like Israel of old when
they proclaimed boldly, arrogantly to Jesus Christ, we are Abraham's
descendants and we have never been slaves to anyone. They stood there. They said that
to Jesus Christ denying they were in any kind of bondage And
yet on every street corner was a Roman soldier armed and ready
to kill a Jew who stepped out of line. Likewise, mankind stands before
God, denying the sinfulness of our own hearts, denying our own
arrogance, and we say we control our own destiny. We will be our own gods. Now
here today, in this place, we do understand that God is sovereign.
God has so moved on our hearts that we do understand that God
is sovereign. That we didn't do the things
we think we did. He did. He brought them to bear. Thank God. He has delivered us
from the arrogance of our own sinful hearts. We take comfort
in knowing that God is sovereign. We know that God is actively
involved in our lives, even down to the minutest of details. And that is a comfort. That's
a blessing to know. It's a blessing to know. In anticipation
of the Thanksgiving holiday, as I said, I started to go through
things, started thinking about the providence of God as a corrective
to my own heart, my own wayward heart. And in reading through
the scripture and then thinking through even the Thanksgiving
holiday as we practice it, of course, you come to the story
of the pilgrims who came to this country. A people who were preserved
and cared for by God through terrible times. And I feel they're
a worthy example to use here. I realize that the story of the
pilgrims is not drawn from the scripture, but it's a story of
God's people in a time and a place and how they did rely on God
for their satisfaction. Consider the story. It was a
people, a small band of people who were suffering religious
persecution in England. They had opportunity. to come
to a new land where they would be free to worship God as they
so pleased. They took that opportunity. They
took a very dangerous ocean voyage. They suffered sickness and disease
along the way. They settled in a land that was
not settled. It was nothing but dense forest
and strange native people. They had little provision and
no knowledge of the land or how to work the land where they settled. Once in place, they suffered
horrible, horrible weather, some sort of plague or epidemic that
took many of them to bed sick, even some to death. But God persevered them. He brought
them through. and they blessed God for it. They recognized in their own
writings, in their own legacy that they leave us, that they
recognize the hand of God even in all of this, and they blessed
God. Let's look at a little detail
on the story of the pilgrims. I think it's interesting, and
it's something I probably knew in elementary school, but had
set aside for many years. The pilgrims were separatists
in England. They wanted to worship God free
and apart from the Church of England. They were persecuted. They first went to Holland, and
there they couldn't stand it. The society was loose and immoral,
and it was corrupting, and they couldn't stand to be there. They
could worship God as they wished. The state in Holland didn't care.
But the society as a whole was so immoral, they couldn't stand
it. They had opportunity to sail to the newfound land of America,
the colonies, they took that opportunity. There were 102 passengers
on the Mayflower, the ship they commissioned to go. There were
30 crew members. The trip took 66 days to cross
the ocean. The ship was not a big ship.
It was medium to small size. They were crammed in there like
sardines. The weather was incredibly rough.
They were seasick almost from day one. Then some sickness spread
through. Two of the Pilgrim passengers
died on the way to the United States, or to the colonies, excuse
me. They arrived. Storms forbid them
from going to where they were supposed to go originally, so
they found a place on the coast that they could harbor, and they
pulled in. We know the place is Plymouth
Rock now. Wasn't their original destination,
but it's where they could harbor in the storm. There was no holiday
inn for them. There was just forest. They had
a hundred people they needed to house immediately. The weather
was not good. It was November 21st, the day
they landed. Winter was fixing to be upon
them. They had a ship captain who wanted
to leave immediately. He said, our window of opportunity
to leave is narrow. If I don't leave now, the ship's
going to be here for the winter. We won't be able to leave during
the winter months. They did convince him to stay. They set out and
immediately built what was called a longhouse. It was just one
longhouse, and all of them lived in the one house. There was one
big room. That's all they could get done
before the bad weather hit. There were Indians around, what
we call Indians now, native peoples. They saw them in the distance,
but they had no contact with them at first. which may have
been a blessing. After they got the long house
built, then what they called in their writings a general sickness
swept through the colony. Some people think it was influenza. In the process, 46 pilgrims died. That's leaving 54 of the original
102 living. Of that, only 16 of the living
were men. The rest were women and children,
and there were more children living than there were women.
This was a colony that was destined for failure. They needed men
to do the work, the hard work of building a place to live. They only had 16 men. The Indians, as I said, were
watching. They were there, but they didn't
engage them, which was a blessing. After the general sickness, then
the longhouse burnt. It burnt down. So they all ended
up back on the Mayflower until the snows melted. So they were
back in the Mayflower again, which was harbored in the water. The Mayflower left in April. After the snows, they built another
longhouse. and the Mayflower left. So they're
back on their own again. At this time, an Indian, a native
named Samoset, had heard about them from other Indians, fishermen
up the coast. Samoset had learned English from
prior English sailors. He came to visit them to find
out what their intentions were and found them in a state of
disarray. And he said that he spoke English,
but he knew of another Indian named Squanto who spoke better English than
he did, and he would get Squanto down to visit with them. Squanto
came. Squanto had been sold by his
people, his own people, or by Indians, not his own tribe, but
another tribe, to sailors. Squanto had been a slave and
learned English as a slave. He spoke very good English. He
went back after speaking with the pilgrims and learning their
intentions and spoke to his chief, Massasoit. And Massasoit came
and met with the pilgrims, and they established a relationship.
They did not feel threatened by the pilgrims, and they felt
that they should help them, and they did. The pilgrims established a good
relationship and even treaty relationship with the Indians.
The Indians helped them. They taught them how to hunt,
how to fish, how to plant. And then we have the story of
the first Thanksgiving. All the while, if you read the
notes left by the pilgrims, you find that they believed through
the good times and through the bad times that God's hand was
in it all. If you looked at the settlement,
As it was, as it appeared, you'd think this thing was a terrible
failure. And how could you say that God was involved in this
deal when they lost people? People died on the ship. They
lost half their people in an epidemic once they got there.
They didn't know anything. How could you say God was involved
in that? Well, God is sovereign and whether we understand it
or not, he was working his will, his purpose. And in the process
of time with that humble beginning, God established what would become
the greatest Christian nation the world had ever known. There
was a grander purpose far beyond what even the pilgrims understood. It's kind of an inspiring story
when you think about it. It's a story that's fraught with
tragedy, but it's also full of the providence
of God, the goodness of God towards the people. Let's remember all of this, think
about it, and bring it forward. God didn't quit working in the
lives of His people with the pilgrims. He didn't quit then. Let's remember and be thankful
that God is actively involved in our lives even today, whether
we know it or not. This is kind of where the rubber
meets the road. We see in the lives of the pilgrims and truthfully
in the lives of God's people from the Old Testament. If we
go back to Bible examples, the most prevalent one that comes
to mind is Israel as slaves to Egypt, they were in the shackles
of Egyptian slavery for 400 years before God brought them out.
God's providence can be bright and sunny. At times it can be
dark and gloomy, stormy. I can't explain the dark days.
except that God has so designed it for His purpose. But God promised
Israel of old, and the promise is true for us as His people,
as the seed of Abraham, as those who are elect, those who are
redeemed by Jesus Christ, that He will never leave or forsake
us. We find that in Deuteronomy 3.6,
and we find it again restated for us in Hebrews 13. three through
five. God will never leave us or forsake
us. As dark as our days may appear,
as blind to the hand of God as we may be, brothers and sisters,
take heart that God is standing with us and indeed, whether we
know it or not, is working on our behalf. These are things
I need to remember. I needed to remember well in
the days coming up to Thanksgiving because I wasn't there. Not in my heart. When times are
good, we are quick and eager to proclaim God's providence. You get the job you've been hoping
for, you Ask that special someone in your life to marry you. Things
are going this way. And you're quick to say, this
is God working. I know it. I know it. You lose your job. You come back from the doctor
with something you didn't want to hear. It's not so easy to stand up
and say this is the providence of God. It's not so easy then
to say, God is working in my life. These are the times that we can
be blind to the actions of God in our lives. We can't see His
hand moving and working in those days. It's hard to thank God in the
dark days. But it's in the dark days that
we need to hold to the truth even more. And these are the truths that
we hold to, that we remember, that should be meaningful to
us. First truth, God is sovereign. All of human history is known
to God. In fact, all of human history
is by God's design. None of the things that happen
to us catch God by surprise. He's not going to wake up tomorrow
morning and say, oh my goodness, what happened? Not going to happen. Scripture I read, the first one,
the very first one. Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of the world. The events of life surprise you
and I. They don't surprise God. God
is sovereign. Truth to remember, God has a
purpose in all things. The events of our lives are not
random and they're not meaningless. There are those who will tell
you that the creation of the universe, and therefore every
event that happened after this big bang, are by chance, by circumstance. A certain meeting of molecules
does this, and then this happens, and this happens, but it's random. No, it's not random. God has
a purpose in all things. Now, I will not tell you that
you or I can understand that purpose. God is gracious to us
and at times will reveal to us His purpose, His intent in something
happening. But He doesn't always. And the
truth is, we're not big enough to understand it if He did. But
that doesn't diminish the truth that God has a purpose in all
things. The part of the purpose that
we can understand is that God intends to make us His people
into the image of Jesus Christ, His Son. So all that is happening
in our lives is to focus us in a direction and to bring our
lives into conformity with that of Jesus Christ. That part of
the purpose we can understand. That's what it's all about for
us. Now here's the hard part of that. Jesus, according to the Scripture
in Hebrews 2, verse 10, was made perfect through suffering. This is a verse that troubled
me for a long time. How can Emmanuel, God with us,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of man, the very definition
of perfection, be made perfect? Well, what the Scripture is talking
about is that he was tested and proven perfect. through suffering. All that he suffered was in conformity
with the will of God, with the plan of God, with the purpose
of God, and Christ was proven to be the Savior through what
he suffered. Well, we can expect to be proven
through suffering as well. We can expect to be proven They're
suffering as well. The good times don't prove my
faith. It's easy to be a happy Christian
when everything's going well. When life is falling apart, it's
much more difficult to demonstrate Christlikeness. But it's in the
dark days that our faith is found out, proven, and indeed built
up. During those dark days, God uses
the hard times for a number of reasons, and here's some that
apply. Some one, two, or all three of
them may apply at any given time. One reason that we go through
dark days is to expose sin in our lives, to bring us to conviction
and to purge us of that sin. Sometimes we need dark days to
make us aware of how sinful we are. A second purpose in suffering
is to draw us near to God. Through the dark days, through
the hard times, through the bad things, we begin to realize in
a very real way that there is nowhere we can go for help. We have but one hope and that
is in God. The hard times for God's people
will draw us closer to God. A third purpose in our suffering
is to develop Christ-like character in us. As we suffer, as we draw near
to God, we become more like Christ. None of these are easy on us. None of these are easy on us. but every one of them is needed
in our lives. Every one of them. These things
that I've spoken of, having sin exposed in our lives, being drawn
near to God, developing Christlike character, these are all worth
our praise and thanksgiving. The fact that God dwells with
us and works with us, as it says in Hebrews, He disciplines us.
And that proves that we're sons, not illegitimate children. God
loves us as family, and He will discipline us to bring Him closer
to Himself. And that is worth our praise.
God cares for us. He loves us, and He will spend
the time it takes to make us into the sons He loves. During dark days, as Israel was
in exile, God promised, For I know the plans I have for you, declares
the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not
to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a
future. Then you will seek me and call
upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me and when you seek me with all
of your heart. That's from Jeremiah chapter
29, 11 through 13. God's promise to a people in
exile. They didn't feel his presence,
but he promised he was with them and indeed working for them to
draw them back to him. God's promises is true today
for his children as it was then. And I hope that we can sense
that always. It is my prayer that God may
be gracious to us all. so that we may see his hand leading
us, guiding us, holding us tight to his bosom through all the
events of our lives, those that we perceive as good and those
that we perceive as bad. God will never leave us nor forsake
us. May we always sense God's providential
care in the good times and bad. May we recognize the blessings
of God in our lives Be they huge blessings that we can see and
recognize as His blessing, all the way down to the tiniest of
blessings, things that we may not even think about. May He
open our eyes and our hearts to see His moving in our lives. God is always enriching us, whether
we know it or not. Whether we know it or not. Having
said all that, let me just end by saying that our God is sovereign
and that His love is from everlasting to everlasting. I thank you for your time. As
I said, this is more of a devotional today than it is a hard sermon.
I hope that it has been a blessing, that there was something said
that would encourage your hearts. I know as I studied over the
time that I was blessed, I needed to remind myself, my heart, that
God is involved in my life. We all need that. We need to
sense God's presence. And I hope that today we do.