Understanding now what I could
never have understood before, I observe and realize that my
life has been and is a constant testimony to the fact and a verification
of the fact that God moves in a mysterious way his wonders
to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea. He rides upon the storm. And therefore, I want one more
time to speak to you and rejoice to preach to you about the providence
of our God. I just read again in Psalm 107. I encourage you to read that
psalm at your leisure. The psalmist writing by inspiration
declares that whoso is wise and will observe these things. And
if you go back and read the psalm, you'll see how that the psalmist
is speaking of all the various ways in which God deals with
men, to bring them down, to strip them, to humble them, to break
them. How that God in his providence
deals with the souls of his elect, ultimately to grant them life
and faith in Christ. What the psalmist says, whoso
is wise and will observe these things, the judgments of God
in providence, the works of God in providence, all the work of
God's hands day by day, even they shall understand the loving
kindness of the Lord. This which God has done and that
which he is doing and all that he shall do. is but the expression,
the display, and the work of the loving kindness of our God
for his elect. Now God make me wise and make
me learn that. Divine providence is the daily,
constant, sovereign rule of our God over all things for the accomplishment
of his eternal purpose of grace and predestination. Predestination
is God's sovereign, eternal, unalterable purpose by which
he has ordained from eternity and ordered from eternity according
to his own good pleasure and sovereign will all things which
come to pass in time. That's predestination. Providence
is doing it. Predestination is what God purposed. Providence is God bringing to
pass in time what He purposed in eternity. We recognize according
to the book of God that God in heaven predestinated everything
that is, has been, or shall hereafter be. And we recognize that God
in providence so governs the universe. so completely rules
and disposes of all things in the universe, not just on this
earth, but in heaven, earth and hell, in all high places and
in all deep places. He rules everything and everybody
absolutely for the accomplishing of his eternal purpose of grace
in predestination. Somebody talks about the plan
of God, as if the plan of God is, you know, it's kind of up
for grabs. We make our plans, and we say,
like, this is what I'm planning to do, but if it rains, I can't.
This is what I'm planning to do, but if the car gets flat
tire, I can't. That's not God's plan. God's
plan is absolute and unalterable, because His plan is the plan
of God Almighty and depends on no condition. It is his purpose
of grace in predestination. Providence is the daily execution
of God's plan. Now hear me well. Be sure you
understand the doctrine of Holy Scripture with regard to divine
providence. Nothing in the universe, nothing,
not even the thought of a man, Nothing in the universe happens
by luck, chance, fortune, or accident. Everything which comes
to pass in time was purposed by our God in eternity and is
brought to pass in time by his wise, adorable, and good providence. Nothing just comes to pass. It comes to pass according to
God's purpose and according to God's power. And all that comes
to pass in time is that which God purposed in eternity, in
sovereign predestination. Nothing comes to pass in time
except that which God sovereignly brings to pass according to his
own purpose of grace in eternity. That which God predestinated
in eternity and brings to pass in time in his providence is
for the good of his people and for the glory of his own great
name. Now, I'm going to work my way
to our text, but I want us to read several portions of scripture
because I've just made some statements that to most people seem just
utterly astounding, unbelievable, to most people who are unfamiliar
with the scriptures. unfamiliar with Christianity
and unfamiliar with God. Most religious people, these
things would sound just unbelievable, astounding, contrary to Scripture.
But I want you to see in the Word of God that what I have
said and what I shall yet say is exactly the doctrine of Holy
Scripture. Turn with me to Psalm 76. Psalm
76. Now I'm going to read just a
few portions of scripture. And when I've read these few
portions of scripture, I would challenge anyone to suggest that
these scriptures teach anything other than what I've just declared.
That God Almighty, in His good providence, sovereignly brings
to pass all things exactly according to His will and purpose of grace
and divine predestination. The wise man tells us plainly
that the scriptures are the word of God given by inspiration.
And here we read in Psalm 76, verse 10, Surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou
restrain. Sometimes we get ourselves in
dangerous, precarious, perilous situations and we I wonder what
this person's going to do, what that's going to do. I think unceasingly
from this text of Scripture, the wrath of man will praise
Him. And the remainder of wrath, anything that wouldn't praise
Him, He's not going to let anybody do. That's just what the text
says. All things are of God. Look at
Proverbs 16. Now, we won't read the whole
chapter, but I want to pick out three or four, maybe five verses in
this chapter and it'll whet your appetite to understand the whole
thing. Proverbs 16 verse 4, the Lord hath made all things, now
about everybody say they believe that, but read the next two words. The Lord hath made all things
for himself. God made everything that is for
himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. And the word means the day of
judgment. Lord said to Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have
I raised thee up that all my name might be declared, that
I might declare my name in you, that all the world might know
by what I do with you that I'm God indeed. He said, Pharaoh,
I raised you up so I'll dump your carcass in the Red Sea and
everybody would thereby understand that I'm God. And I have yet
to meet anybody who speaks English who hadn't heard the tale of
Pharaoh and what happened to him at Red Sea. They understand the one
who ducked him in the river is God. He said the Lord made all
things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Look in verse 9. A man's heart deviseth his way. This is what I'm going to do.
Let's hang on and see. A man's heart deviseth his way,
but the Lord directs his steps. Verse 33. The lot is cast into
the lap. Now we don't cast lots anymore.
It was something similar to throwing dice. Take those dice and shake
them up. Seven come eleven. Roll them
out. The whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. You mean preacher? God even determines
how those little cubes roll around and which numbers come up? Oh,
yeah. He determined it from eternity and brings it to pass in time.
And that fact is as much a display of his glorious godhood as is
the fact that his son hung on the tree and redeemed us. You
understand that? He's God over everything. Look
in Proverbs 21. Proverbs 21, verse 1. The king's
heart. Now, we don't have any in our
land. We hardly even know what a king is. But a king in these
days was the most powerful human being in any nation sitting on
any throne. The king had absolute power to
do anything he wanted to do with anybody he wanted to do it, except
for one thing. He was in God's hands and he
still is. The king's heart, not just his
arm, not just his Senate, not just his Congress, not just his
thoughts. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it, whithersoever he will. Down in Mississippi, Shelby and
I are driving along, and they raised a lot of rice, and they
had these canals, and you see, I guess they have some kind of
specific equipment, I haven't seen them working, but they re-eject
portions of the fields. And they dig the canals so they
can flood their fields. And they put them wherever they
want them. It's just dirt. They turn the water in any direction
they want to. This is exactly what God says about the king's
heart. Like canals in an irrigation field, God turns the king's heart
wherever he wants, wherever he will. Look in Isaiah 46, verse
9. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God. And there is none else. Now,
what he's saying is this. I'm God. This is how I describe
myself. And there's no other God besides
me. And there's no God other than this God who does exactly
as I now describe myself. Look at it. I am God and there
is none like me. Verse 10. Declaring the end from
the beginning. What does that mean? That means
he declares from eternity what he's going to do in the end of
all things, and then he begins doing it. That's exactly what
it means. Now, you hear these prophecy
yahoos, they come along, they got all kinds of predictions
and say the Lord's going to do this, the Lord's going to do
that, this is going to happen. When the Lord comes again, this is
going to happen at the end. We had some watchtower fellow, Russellite,
come by and left a tract on the door, asked a question, who's
really in charge of this world? And somebody actually spent good
money to say the devil's in charge of this world. I mean, spend
good money, send it all over the world. The devil's in charge.
I wonder when they reckon he's going to give up charge. But
one of these days, the Lord's going to be in charge again.
Just exactly how do you have any basis for believing any promise
in Holy Scripture? or any prophecy of the Word of
God. If you do not understand that
God Almighty declared the end of the thing from the beginning
and only on the basis of His sovereignty can we believe His
Word to be true. Read on. Read what it says. Declaring
the end of the thing from the beginning, verse 10, and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done, this is what
it said, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Everything that pleases me is
what I'm doing. Everything. Rita, Elijah, you
better flee from Jezebel. She's going to kill you if she
can. But I'll tell you what, I'll send a raven to feed you
every day. A raven? Now maybe a parrot,
maybe a dog, maybe a cat, but a raven? Whoever heard tell of
a raven feeding anything hardly feeds its own young. Carnivorous
bird? Listen to what he says. Calling
a ravenous bird from the east. He says to his children down
in Babylonian captivity. He said, I'll tell you what I'm
going to do. I'm going to raise up a king by the name of Cyrus. And that
king, that pagan king, It's going to come. He's going to come by
this gate down by this river, walk in this road, and he's going
to bring you out. Now, how are you going to accomplish
that? The man that executed my counsel from a far country. Yeah, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I purposed it. I will also do
it. That's God. That's God. All right. Look in Daniel chapter
four. Daniel chapter four. Verse 34, old brother Nebuchadnezzar. I recall when I was in college,
the first year I was in school out in Springfield, Missouri,
they passed a rule that you couldn't talk about predestination or
election unless you was cussing it. And the only way they could
ever deal with Daniel chapter four, the only way they'd ever
deal with it. You know what they said? They said, this wasn't
inspired. This was written by a pagan. Well, this pagan knew more about
God than the preacher did who was telling me about that. In
Daniel chapter 4 verse 35, at the end of the days, after I'd
been crawling around like a wild beast in the field, at the end
of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
and mine understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most
High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation
to generation. That means he's always been king,
and that means he's been ruling ever since Adam took his first
breath, and he's going to keep on ruling until the sons of Adam
quit breathing. And all the inhabitants of the earth, all of us, all
of us, are reputed as nothing. And he, he who is God, he doeth
according to his will in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and nobody's going to slap him on
the wrist and say, stop doing that. None can stay his head
or say unto him, what doest thou? Look at verse 37. Now, now, since
I know who he is. Since I know who he is, now I,
Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the king of heaven,
all whose works are truth and his ways judgment. And those
that walk in pride, he's able to erase. I've done found out. All right, look at Romans chapter
11. In a Bible class, as Lindsay is rapidly approaching this 11th
chapter of Romans, And in chapters 9, 10, and 11, the Apostle Paul,
wrapping up his doctrinal portion of the book of Romans, is instructing
us plainly how that God's purpose from eternity was not merely
the salvation of a few Jews over in Palestine, but the salvation
of His Israel, the Israel of God, His elect, scattered through
all the nations of the earth, through the blood atonement of
His Son, and the gracious effectual call of His Spirit. And the gospel
will go forth into all the world so that the Gentiles chosen of
God might be brought in and so all the fullness of the Gentiles
would be brought in and all Israel shall be saved. Now in order
to accomplish this, it was necessary that the Jews reject Christ.
It was necessary that they provoke the Romans to nail him to the
cursed tree. It was necessary that the Jews be blinded and
be cut off, that the physical nation be brought under the judgment
of God. And somebody looks at that and
says, well, what's happening? How can this happen that blindness
in part has happened to Israel so that the light of the gospel
might go to the Gentiles and God call his elect by thus blinding
and judging that nation? Look at verse 33 of Romans chapter
11. When the Apostle Paul who wrote these three chapters, when
he comes to the conclusion of this matter and considers how
that God has in grace and in mercy sent judgment to the reprobate
that he might give life and mercy and grace to the chosen. He says
in verse 33, all the depth, all the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out for who hath known the mind
of the Lord or who hath been his counselor or who hath first
given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again for
of him I've told you so many times be sure you get it That
means here's the source. Of. That's a word of source.
Of him. And through him. That's the word
of channel or the word of execution. Through him. All things came
from him. All things are brought to pass
through him. Look at it now. And to him. In
their ultimate end. are all things to whom be glory
forever. Amen. Now that's the Bible's
description of God's providence. Look at one more text of scripture.
I'll give you a brief, brief summary of this text and the
Lord willing, we'll come back to it again another time. Romans
chapter eight and verse 28. Here in these 25 verses, God,
the Holy Spirit, uses a text of scripture, I suppose,
that is more often quoted, partially at least, than any other portion
of scripture other than John 3.16, and is less understood
by most people, I dare say, even than John 3.16. Romans chapter
8, verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good. to them that love God, to them
who are thee called according to his purpose. May God the Holy
Spirit inscribe those words in our very hearts. Teach us to
understand, teach us to believe it, teach us to walk in the light
of it. Here is a delightful persuasion
we know. We know. The word know here is
not a word for speculative knowledge. It is not a word for theory.
It's not a word for doctrine. It's not even a word for philosophy,
logic, or sound reason. It is a knowledge of confident,
assured persuasion based upon fact and experience. We know. We know these things by the revelation
of God's word. I've just read it to you. You
can read through the scriptures over and over and over again.
The Lord is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. There shall no evil happen to
the just, but the wicked shall be filled with mischief. The
Lord God speaks as he represents his church in Gomer and himself
in Hosea and he declares, in that day when I'm married to
you, I will make a covenant for them with the beast of the field
and the fowls of heaven and with the creeping things of the ground
and I'll break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the
earth and I'll make them to lie down safely. We know, we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God.
We know these things, and we walk in the comfort of these
things, the comfort of God's good, wise, adorable providence,
because we've been taught these things by the word of God and
by the inner witness of God's spirit in our own souls, as he
teaches us the things of God. The Apostle John said, you have
an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. He said,
he that is born of God, he has the mind of Christ. He understands
everything. The believer is a man or woman
who has been taught of God and understands those things pertaining
to the character of God and the work of God necessary for his
sole salvation and his comfort in this world. We know. We know. These are not debatable issues.
We know the wisdom, goodness, and grace of God's adorable providence. because we've experienced it. Ralph Barnard used to say, nobody
believes anything they haven't experienced. I asked him one time, I said,
Mr. Barnard, do you really believe
everything in that book? He said, oh, no, no, no. He said, I've
read it all, but I haven't experienced it all yet. We only believe what
we've experienced. We who are born of God are persuaded,
really persuaded. of what Paul teaches here. If
you have this persuasion, it'll keep your soul in peace. Indeed,
it's the only thing that will keep your soul in peace when
sorrows like sea billows roll. Now then, here the apostle describes
for us a divine providence. We know that all things work
together for good. Believers are not like the babbling
fools who would dare to instruct God and say, if I were God, I'd
do. If there's a God in heaven, then
why all the sickness and the famine and the war and the pestilence
and the disease and the sorrow and the death and trouble that
men endure? Surely that's evidence that God doesn't rule. Oh, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God Almighty doesn't answer to
men. He doesn't bow to your judgment.
Believers don't talk like that. Believers don't speak like the
Philistines and say, it was a chance that happened to us. Oh, no. We speak like Job. Naked came
I out of my mother's womb and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave, Lord take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Samuel came to Eli and he said, Eli, you've been a pretty good
priest, but you've been a lousy daddy. Because you didn't withstand
your sons and correct them when it was in your power to do so.
And because you've been such a lousy father, I'm going to
kill them both and take the priesthood away from your family. That's
pretty sharp. That's pretty sharp. This was
Eli's response. It is the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. David fleeing from his son Absalom
because of his sin with Bathsheba in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
And Shemai comes out and starts doing dirt in the air and leaping
and dancing. Aha! Look at you now! Look at
you now! And starts to cuss. David called
him everything under the shining sun except a legitimately born
son. And Abishah said, let me go over
there and kill that fellow. And this was David's response.
Let him alone. Let him cuss away. for the Lord
had bitten him. You mean the Lord told him to
cuss? No, but that's what David meant.
That's what he said. The Lord had bitten him. It may
be. Here's my conclusion of this.
It may be the Lord will look on my affliction and the Lord
will requite me good for his cussing this day. Our God is
not idle. He is the one person who's always
on the job. He never needs to rest, never
needs to recuperate, never needs to regroup, never is in confusion. God Almighty, our God and Heavenly
Father is always at work doing exactly according to his purpose
in all things with all people at all times for the saving of
those sinners chosen by his grace, redeemed by his darling son,
who shall be called by the power and grace of his Holy Spirit. Now, the Lord willing, I want
us to spend a little time meditating on this, preaching on this. And
I'm going to come back to this text another time next Tuesday,
the Lord willing. And I ask you to read over Psalm
107. Read over the 91st Psalm. Read
this eighth chapter of Romans. and seek from God the Holy Spirit
some understanding in the wonders and mysteries of his providence. Truly, God moves in a mysterious
way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the
sea. He rides deep, deep, deep in
unfathomable minds of never failing skill. He treasures up his bright
desires. and works his soul.