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Providence Over Human Decision & Action (Part 5) · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: This is our fifth session on the providence of God,
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  Speaker 1: and we have focused on definitions. We've focused on providence
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  Speaker 1: over all things, including weather and nature and disease and disability,
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  Speaker 1: and life and death and Satan. And now I want
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  Speaker 1: us to turn to God's providence, his pervasive, sustaining, governing
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  Speaker 1: ordering of all things in relation to the decisions, the volitions,
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  Speaker 1: the will of human beings. How pervasive is God's providence
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  Speaker 1: over our will and our actions Proverb sixteen to nine.
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  Speaker 1: The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord
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  Speaker 1: directs his steps. So it's good and right to be
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  Speaker 1: a planner. But don't ever think your planning is the
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  Speaker 1: decisive determination of the outcome. The mind of man plans
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  Speaker 1: his way, the Lord directs the steps or Proverbs twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty four. Man steps are ordained by the Lord. How
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  Speaker 1: then can man understand his way? There's a mystery in
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  Speaker 1: the providence of God over our steps Jeremiah ten twenty three.
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  Speaker 1: I know, o Lord, that a man's way is not
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  Speaker 1: in himself, nor is it in a man who walks
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  Speaker 1: to direct his steps. Proverbs nineteen twenty one. Many plans
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  Speaker 1: are in a man's heart, but the counsel of the
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  Speaker 1: Lord will and Proverbs twenty one point one. The king's
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  Speaker 1: heart is a stream of water in the hand of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. Or if
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  Speaker 1: you even focus in on the evil, hurtful decisions that
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  Speaker 1: people make, are they under the control of God's providence?
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  Speaker 1: Listen to one Peter four nineteen. Therefore those who suffer
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  Speaker 1: Christians who suffer according to the will of God shall
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  Speaker 1: entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing good
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  Speaker 1: or doing what is right. Another one one Peter three seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: For it is better if God should will it so
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  Speaker 1: that you suffer for doing what is right, rather than
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  Speaker 1: doing what is wrong. And in both of those texts,
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  Speaker 1: in one Peter four nineteen and three seventeen, it's clear
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  Speaker 1: from the context that the they're talking about that may
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  Speaker 1: be God's will or may not be God's will, may
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  Speaker 1: happen according to God's will or may not happen, is
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  Speaker 1: suffering caused by the sinful persecution of other people. Here's
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  Speaker 1: the key text on the providence of God over the
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  Speaker 1: sinning deeds of Man, Acts four, verse twenty seven and
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  Speaker 1: twenty eight. Truly, in this city, that is Jerusalem, they
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  Speaker 1: were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you
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  Speaker 1: anointed both herod and pontious Pilot, along with the gentiles
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  Speaker 1: and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand
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  Speaker 1: and your plan had predestined to take place. This is
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  Speaker 1: really important, Herod Pilot mocking Gentile soldiers, crowds of Jews crying, crucifying,
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  Speaker 1: and crucifying. Those four people are mentioned here as doing
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  Speaker 1: what God's hand and plan predestined to take place, and
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  Speaker 1: all of it was sin. Now, when I read my Bible,
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  Speaker 1: and I am so moved to trust my Bible because
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  Speaker 1: of what I see of God and Christ in it,
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  Speaker 1: my mind often says, Okay, I gotta do a brain
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  Speaker 1: check here. I gotta alter some categories here, because the
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  Speaker 1: fallen man, including me, we don't bring to the Bible
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  Speaker 1: the conceptions in our mind that we need in order
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  Speaker 1: to grasp the depths of the Bible. We get to
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  Speaker 1: adjust those conceptions. Here's an adjustment we have to have
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  Speaker 1: in our brain. This category God is able to will
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  Speaker 1: that sin should happen without himself. Sinning is that category
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  Speaker 1: in your brain. If it's not, it needs to be there,
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  Speaker 1: because that's what this text assumes is in your head.
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  Speaker 1: It is designed to put it in your head. You
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  Speaker 1: don't bring your brain to the Bible and adjust text.
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  Speaker 1: You bring the text to your brain and adjust your brain.
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  Speaker 1: God is able to will that sin be happen without
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  Speaker 1: himself sinning. Now, how should we talk about this? Let
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  Speaker 1: me just give you one story and will be done
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  Speaker 1: with this session. And you all know this story probably
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  Speaker 1: the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. What happens
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  Speaker 1: to him? He has these dreams. The brothers are really
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  Speaker 1: mad at him. They don't like him, and so they
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  Speaker 1: take an opportunity and throw him into a pit, which
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  Speaker 1: is of course sin to throw their brother into a pit.
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  Speaker 1: And then they sell him into slavery. And then as
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  Speaker 1: a righteous man in the house of Potiphar, his wife
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  Speaker 1: lies about him that he tries to rape her, and
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  Speaker 1: he didn't, and so Potifar throws Joseph into jail. He's
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  Speaker 1: there for a long time, we don't know how long.
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  Speaker 1: He tells some dreams. They come true. The butler, he
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  Speaker 1: says to him, remember me, so get me out of
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  Speaker 1: his prison. He forgets him for two more years, and
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  Speaker 1: finally he remembers him, and he becomes the vice president
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  Speaker 1: of Egypt over the entire nation under Pharaoh, and his
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  Speaker 1: brothers come down for food, and they meet and he
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  Speaker 1: recognizes them. Twenty two years have gone by between the
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  Speaker 1: throwing of Joseph into the pit and his saying of
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  Speaker 1: these words. He's trying to encourage the brothers that when
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  Speaker 1: their father is gone, Joseph won't take vengeance on them.
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  Speaker 1: And this is what he says fifty verse twenty. As
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  Speaker 1: for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant
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  Speaker 1: it for good to bring it about that many people
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  Speaker 1: should be kept alive as they are today. Now look
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  Speaker 1: carefully at these words. It does not say you meant
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  Speaker 1: evil again me, but God used it for good. That
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  Speaker 1: is not what it says. I've heard it paraphrase that
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  Speaker 1: way many times, but it avoids the clear, powerful, crucial teaching.
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  Speaker 1: It says, there were two intentions, two meanings going on
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  Speaker 1: in your sinful treatment of me. You meant it for evil,
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  Speaker 1: God meant it for good. There's the category we have
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  Speaker 1: to have in our minds. When Christ died, Pilot meant
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  Speaker 1: it for evil, Herod meant it for evil. The soldiers
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  Speaker 1: meant it for evil, and the crowds, of course, meant
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  Speaker 1: it for evil. God didn't mean it for evil. God
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  Speaker 1: wasn't sinning at that moment. God was saving us from sin.
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  Speaker 1: At that moment. We would never be saved from hell
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  Speaker 1: and from sin and from guilt into eternal joy if
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  Speaker 1: God were not in his providence completely omnipotent over the
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  Speaker 1: wills of sinful people. So how do we talk about
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  Speaker 1: it when something evil is done to us? Every single
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  Speaker 1: time the child of God can say, you meant it
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  Speaker 1: for evil. God meant it for good, which is just
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  Speaker 1: another way of paraphrasing Romans eight twenty eight. Right, we
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  Speaker 1: know that all things work together for good for those
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  Speaker 1: who love God and are called according to His purpose,
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  Speaker 1: even sinful acts against us. So the gift of providence
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  Speaker 1: over the wills of sinning people to us is that
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  Speaker 1: we can be sure though they meant it for evil,
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  Speaker 1: God always means it for good.