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Is the Doctrine of Providence Biblical (Part 2) · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Last time we tried to define the word providence and
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  Speaker 1: the doctrine of providence. Now the question turns to is
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  Speaker 1: this doctrine biblical? What the Bible teaches? So here's the
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  Speaker 1: definition that we landed on, God's preserving and governing all
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  Speaker 1: his creatures, ordering them and all their actions for His glory.
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  Speaker 1: So a pervasive, sustaining, governing ordering of all things in
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  Speaker 1: the universe is that biblical. And our focus in this
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  Speaker 1: session will be mainly on nature, not so much the
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  Speaker 1: actions of man, but what happens to man in nature.
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  Speaker 1: How pervasive is the providence of God in man's surroundings.
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  Speaker 1: Let start with Ephesians one eleven. In Christ, we have
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  Speaker 1: obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose
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  Speaker 1: of him. And here comes him who works all things
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  Speaker 1: according to the counsel of his will. Now, one of
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  Speaker 1: the things that's amazing about verse eleven of Phasians one
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  Speaker 1: is that that last phrase, that relative clause that begins
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  Speaker 1: with who isn't needed in order to make the point.
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  Speaker 1: He could have just said like this, in Christ, we
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  Speaker 1: have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the
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  Speaker 1: purpose of his will. That's pretty strong that by his
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  Speaker 1: will through predestination, we have an inheritance. But he goes
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  Speaker 1: on to make it even stronger by saying, this one
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  Speaker 1: who has purposed according to the council of his will
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  Speaker 1: works all things. So he's adding a pervasive statement to
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  Speaker 1: buttress this particular statement. He works all things after the
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  Speaker 1: counsel of his will. And it doesn't say he works
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  Speaker 1: in all things. That word can be used that way
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  Speaker 1: when it's followed by in. It's a direct object. Here
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  Speaker 1: he works all things, he produces all things, he effects
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  Speaker 1: all things after the council of his will, which is
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  Speaker 1: an echo of lots of biblical texts like Isaiah forty
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  Speaker 1: six 't nine. I am God, and there is no other.
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  Speaker 1: I am God, and there is none like me declaring
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  Speaker 1: the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things
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  Speaker 1: not yet done, say, my counsel shall stand, and I
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  Speaker 1: will accomplish all my purpose. And what's so amazing about
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  Speaker 1: that verse is that it begins with I am God.
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  Speaker 1: In others, this is what it means for me to
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  Speaker 1: be God. My godness consists in the fact that I
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  Speaker 1: don't just know the future. I do the future. I
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  Speaker 1: bring about my purposes. They happen. So all things are
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  Speaker 1: brought about by God's divine rule. Really, really all things.
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  Speaker 1: Proverbs sixteen thirty three. The lot is cast in the lap,
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  Speaker 1: but every decision is from the Lord. Where does a
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  Speaker 1: statement like that come from the role of every dice
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  Speaker 1: in Las Vegas? Decision from the Lord? Pull that lever,
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  Speaker 1: what comes up? That's from the Lord. That's pretty pervasive providence.
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  Speaker 1: That's what it says. My wife and I play scrabble.
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  Speaker 1: We put our hand in the bag to pull out
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  Speaker 1: our seven letters or our three letters. Who decides what
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  Speaker 1: letters wind up in her hand? In my hand? God does.
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  Speaker 1: You can talk about more about that and the implications
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  Speaker 1: it has for marriage, relationships and so on, but we won't.
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  Speaker 1: We won't do that here. Proverbs one thirty five, verse six.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven, on earth,
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  Speaker 1: in the seas, all deeps, way out there where nobody's
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  Speaker 1: watching except God. He does what he pleases. P. One
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  Speaker 1: fifteen three. Our God is in the heavens, He does
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  Speaker 1: all that he pleases. Pervasive providence. Fish obey him Jonah.
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  Speaker 1: One worms obey him Jonah. Four lions shut their mouths
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  Speaker 1: when he says, shut your mouth Daniel six. Snakes become
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  Speaker 1: harmless and lie down with lambs. When he says so
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah eleven, he makes the horse to leap Job thirty nine, frogs, gnats, flies, locus.
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  Speaker 1: You know the story the Exodus. They all do his bidding.
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  Speaker 1: They come, they go. When he says go, tell them
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  Speaker 1: to go, Moses, they're gone, Tell them to come, they come.
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  Speaker 1: God rules all of nature like this. What about weather
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  Speaker 1: Psalm one O seven twenty five He commanded and raised
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  Speaker 1: the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the
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  Speaker 1: sea Matthew eight twenty seven. The disciples said to Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: The disciple said of Jesus, what sort of man is this?
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  Speaker 1: Even the winds and the sea obey him. So Jesus
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  Speaker 1: rises from the dead Matthew eighteen and says, all authority
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  Speaker 1: in heaven honor has been given to me. The wind
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  Speaker 1: and the waves still obey Jesus. To try to sweep
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  Speaker 1: this under the rug during hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, floods is deceptive.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus rules the wind and the waves today no less
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  Speaker 1: than he did when he was on earth Psalm eighty
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  Speaker 1: nine eight. Oh Lord, you rule the raging of the
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  Speaker 1: sea So we're not trying to solve any problems right
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  Speaker 1: now that this raises for us in the goodness of God.
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  Speaker 1: We're just asking is this biblical? Is this what's taught
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  Speaker 1: in the Bible, that God is pervasive in his providential
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  Speaker 1: governance and sustenance and ordering of all things in nature?
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  Speaker 1: Some one eight seven Praise the Lord from the earth,
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  Speaker 1: fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind, fulfilling his
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  Speaker 1: word some one oh five sixteen. The implication is clear.
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  Speaker 1: He summons a famine on the land and breaks the
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  Speaker 1: supply of bread or Hagi chapter one, verse eleven. And
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  Speaker 1: I have called for a drought on the land and
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  Speaker 1: the hills. So I conclude this is a picture biblically
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  Speaker 1: of a pervasively providential rule over all of nature, in
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  Speaker 1: all of its aspects, from the smallest to the biggest.
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  Speaker 1: And the question is what impacts should that have on us?
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  Speaker 1: Let me end with this, James or verse thirteen to seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will
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  Speaker 1: go into such and such a town, spend a year there, trade,
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  Speaker 1: make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow
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  Speaker 1: will bring. What is your life? For you are mist
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  Speaker 1: that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will
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  Speaker 1: live and do this or that. As it is, you
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  Speaker 1: boast in your arrogance, and all such boasting is evil. Wow. Wow,
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  Speaker 1: our lives are not in our hands. If the Lord wills,
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  Speaker 1: you will live another minute, I'll finish this talk. If
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  Speaker 1: the Lord wills. If he doesn't, I die, and he
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  Speaker 1: does me no wrong. He rules. If the Lord wills
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  Speaker 1: we live or do this or that? How sweeping can
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  Speaker 1: you get? How detailed can you get do this or that?
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  Speaker 1: Let's go to some business in Chicago. Well, you will
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  Speaker 1: get there and do this or that. If the Lord wills,
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  Speaker 1: he is meticulously in charge of what happens to you. Therefore, oh,
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  Speaker 1: the effect that should have on us of humbling us
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  Speaker 1: and causing us to live moment by moment before the
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  Speaker 1: face of an all ruling God. One last thing, If
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  Speaker 1: the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that?
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  Speaker 1: As it is, in saying things that don't show you
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  Speaker 1: believe that you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting
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  Speaker 1: is evil. In other words, the doctrine of the providence
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  Speaker 1: of God leads us to a choice. Either you can
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  Speaker 1: live in the light of God's pervasive, all ruling providence,
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  Speaker 1: or you can be arrogant. That's what James says in
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  Speaker 1: chapter four, verse seventeen.