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The Secret and the Sure: Resting in God’s Providence Without Demanding His Secrets · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to reform thinking. So what if I told you the
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absolute darkest, most unjust crime in human history was not
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an accident? Right, like it wasn't just a
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slip up. Yeah, not a lapse in cosmic
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management, but actually planned down to the millisecond and
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totally governed by an absolute, unshakable authority.
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It's a heavy thought, you know. It really is.
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Today we're doing a deep dive into a stack of sources that
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tackle this precise collision. The mission for you, the
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listener, is to unpack a massive theological concept with us.
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Which is the Christian doctrine of Providence.
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That's right. We're going to look at how a
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person can rest in God's absolute governance over the
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universe without demanding to know all of His hidden secrets.
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Yeah, and it's a topic that is incredibly sweet, but also
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undeniably hard. So hard.
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I mean, it brings immense comfort to know that nothing in
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your life is ruled by blind chance, right?
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Or demonic whim. Autonomous human action.
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But that comforting thought, well, it collides violently with
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the reality of human evil and the sudden tragedy and immense
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suffering we see in the world every single day.
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Absolutely. It is the literal definition of
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a theological collision. Yeah.
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And we're going to look at sources that synthesize these
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concepts today, not to solve some, you know, abstract
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philosophical puzzle for academics.
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Right, We're not just doing mental gymnastics here.
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No, not at all. The goal is to establish a rock
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of refuge for real life, to see how the Scriptures provide both
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absolute certainty and distinct boundaries.
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Meaning we get the truths we have to know to endure and
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worship alongside the clear instruction that hey, there are
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hidden workings we just don't need to understand.
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Precisely. But before we look at the
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historical texts from the early church and the Apostle Paul, we
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really need to address the current cultural crisis.
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Oh man, the cultural crisis regarding how people view God's
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authority. The modern evangelical landscape
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is facing a severe theological famine.
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It's bad. The numbers on that famine are
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frankly alarming. Yeah, our sources cite a
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Ligonier Ministries state of theology survey.
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It reveals so much. But what people actually believe
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in the pews right now and. What did that data show?
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OK, so get this. According to their data, 48% of
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professing evangelicals in the United States agree with the
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statement. God learns and adapts to
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different circumstances. Wow.
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Almost half. Almost half, half of the people
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surveyed believe that God is up there, you know, reacting,
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learning new information as human history unfolds.
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And then, like, adapting his plans accordingly, yeah.
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Let's just pause and think about what learning actually implies
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for a deity. Right, because if you learn
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something, it means you were previously ignorant of it.
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Spot on. So why is that specific
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statistic viewed by the authors of our sources as a catastrophic
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departure from historical orthodoxy?
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Well, it's catastrophic because it completely overturns the
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historical adherence to absolute divine sovereignty, the very
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doctrine described in confessions from the Reformation
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era. Because you're treating the
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creator of the universe like an improvising reactor.
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Yeah, you're describing A deity who waits to see what humans
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will do and then formulates a response.
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It strips God of his omniscience.
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His complete knowledge of all things past, present and future.
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Right. And it strips him of his
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omnipotence, which is his supreme strength and authority.
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And the sources actually trace this modern view back to some
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pretty ancient errors, don't they?
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They do. For instance, they mentioned
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Pelagianism. OK, unpack that for the
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listener. What is Pelagianism?
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Sure. So to put it simply, Pelagianism
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is a teaching from a 5th century monk named Pelagius.
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He argued that humans are born with a totally clean slate,
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spiritually speaking. So no inherited sinful nature,
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right? He taught that people can just
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pull themselves up by their own moral bootstraps to choose God
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without any special divine assistance.
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So basically, human nature is neutral.
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Yeah. And we are the decisive factor
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in our own salvation. That's the idea, and the sources
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also mentioned Arminianism, which originated in the 17th
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century and. How does that differ?
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Well, it argued that while God does offer grace, human free
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will has the final veto. So in that view, the human
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choice is the final deciding factor.
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Got it. And today those older ideas kind
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of manifest in modern movements, right?
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Like open theism. Yeah, open theism is a big one.
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It argues that the future does not actually exist yet, so
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naturally not even God can know it.
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That is wild. I know according to this view,
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God is up in heaven, guessing, taking risks, reacting to our
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choices, just like we are reacting to our circumstances.
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Which just elevates human autonomy to such a high
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position, it completely compromises divine sovereignty.
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The creator who decrees all things from the beginning gets
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replaced by like a celestial middle manager.
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Right, a middle manager who is constantly adjusting to the
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unpredictable choices of his creatures.
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And the consequences of that view are just massive when you
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apply it to real life. Oh, absolutely.
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How does it play out practically?
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Well, if God is just adapting to human choices, he cannot
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actually guarantee the promise found in Romans 8, right?
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That all things work together for good.
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He can't promise that if he doesn't control all things.
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Right and adapting God offers 0 comfort in the face of sudden
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tragedy or malicious persecution.
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Because if a drunk driver crosses the center line or a
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corrupt government decides to persecute believers.
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And adapting God is just watching it happen, trying to
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figure out how to salvage the situation after the fact.
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I actually think about it like Agps navigation system.
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Oh, that's a good analogy. How so?
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The modern adapting view of God is like AGPS that is constantly
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saying recalculating every time you make a wrong turn, you know
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you have the wheel, you're driving wherever you want.
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And God is just the voice on the dashboard.
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Frantically trying to draw a new route based on your autonomous
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decisions. But the biblical view presented
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in these texts is that God is the architect.
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He designed the entire map, the roads, the vehicle and the
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destination long before the journey ever began.
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That GPS analogy illustrates the mechanism perfectly, because if
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God is just recalculating, then he does not have supreme
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authority over the evil that erupts in the world.
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And if he doesn't have authority over the evil, he cannot offer
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genuine comfort when you are suffering through it.
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Which is key. The sources highlight that
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people stumble over God ordaining sinful choices far
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more than they stumble over Him ordaining righteous choices.
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Of course they do. It's a tough pill to swallow.
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It is, however, if the Bible demonstrates that God's
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Providence covers even the darkest, most wicked human
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actions, then the case for His Providence over everything else
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becomes an unshakable fortress. We really have to cast aside the
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philosophical assumptions of secular modernism, the ones that
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insist God must step back and allow complete human self
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determination. Yeah, we do.
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But I want to stop right there and ask a question that I know
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you, the listener, are probably thinking.
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Go for it. Because if we look at basic
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everyday logic, the modern world insists that humans must possess
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total self determination for their choices to be justly
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praised or blamed. Right.
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The philosophical term often used for that is libertarian
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free will. Yeah, which basically means that
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for a choice to be truly free, you must have been able to
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choose the exact opposite under the absolute identical
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circumstances. That's the definition, yes.
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So isn't that just rational thought?
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I mean, how can a court of law or God himself find fault with
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someone if that person is not the autonomous author of their
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choice? If God drew the map and designed
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the route, how is the driver responsible for the crash?
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That is probably the most common objection out there, and the
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authors of our sources anticipate it directly.
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What's their answer? The answer lies in separating
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human philosophical assumptions from biblical revelation.
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Could break that down. Well, the assumption that
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libertarian free will is essential for moral
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accountability is just that, a philosophical construct.
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It's a limitation placed upon God by finite human logic.
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So we're assuming that because we can't synthesize absolute
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sovereign governance with true moral responsibility in our own
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minds, God can't do it either. Spot on.
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The Scriptures require us to recognize the flaw in that
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logic. The Bible teaches a concept
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called compatibilism. Compatibilism.
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OK, tell us about that. It's the idea that absolute
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divine sovereignty and true human moral responsibility are
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completely compatible. They coexist without cancelling
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each other out. So we don't need to comprehend
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the precise metaphysical mechanics of how God governs
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sinful choices without turning humans into mindless robot.
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No, we don't. We only need to know that He
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does govern them, and that He remains entirely just in doing
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so. Which is a huge paradigm shift.
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And to see how the early church handled this precise tension
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practically, we have to look at their first major crisis in the
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book of Acts. Let's walk through that
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historical Crucible. The texts take us to Acts
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Chapter 4. Yeah, to appreciate what is
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happening here, we have to set the scene.
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Peter and John are at the temple, specifically at a place
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called the Beautiful Gate. And they've just healed a man
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who had been lame from birthright.
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And this creates an absolute scene.
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A massive crowd gathers, and Peter and John use the commotion
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as an opportunity to preach the resurrected Christ.
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Which is a bold. Move very bold because it gets
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them immediately arrested by the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of
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the Jews. And the texts point out a
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chilling historical detail here. Oh.
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This part gave me goosebumps. The leaders of this council,
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Anas and Caiaphas, are the precise men who maliciously
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orchestrated the crucifixion of Jesus just months earlier.
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It's wild. So Peter and John are standing
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there, staring down the literal murderers of their savior.
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Facing severe threats of violence, the psychological and
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historical tension in that room must have been staggering.
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Unbelievable. And you have the Sadducees
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involved here too. The sources described the
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Sadducees as the theological liberals of their day.
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Because they belong to the wealthy aristocratic elite who
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ran the temple complex. Right.
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Yeah, Theologically, they rejected anything supernatural.
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They didn't believe in angels, they didn't believe in demons.
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And crucially, they entirely rejected the concept of a bodily
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resurrection. Which makes Peter's sermon a
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direct hit. Absolutely.
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They also held the political might, maintaining A delicate,
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compromised peace with Rome just to keep their authority.
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So when Peter and John stand in the temple preaching a physical
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resurrection of a man the Sadducees just executed.
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It is a direct assault on their entire doctrinal foundation and
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their political authority. So upon their release under
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these severe threats, the Church's response is incredibly
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revealing. What did they do?
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Well, they didn't form a political action committee.
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They didn't resort to pragmatic church growth strategies.
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Or retreat into some seeker sensitive model to avoid
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offending the hostile culture. No, they went back to the
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gathered believers and prayed A deeply theological prayer.
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They plunge straight into historical theology and biblical
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Providence. They needed to make sense of the
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terrifying existential threat staring them right in the face.
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And I just love how the sources breakdown the specific Greek
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syntax of that prayer in Acts 4.24 through 30.
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It's a master class in theology. Let's look at the words they
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used. First, they address God as
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despita. In English we hear the word
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despot and automatically think of a cruel tyrant.
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Right? Addictive.
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Yeah, it has a terrible connotation today, but the texts
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clarify the Greek usage here. In the original language,
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Desputa denotes an absolute monarch.
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An unquestionable owner who possesses total rights over his
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creation. Right, They're addressing the
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absolute sovereign Creator of the universe, affirming his
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complete ownership of the situation before they even voice
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a single request. That's such a grounding way to
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pray. And then they immediately quote
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Psalm 2, identifying Jesus as the fulfillment of the anointed
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king who faces the fuel rebellion of the nations.
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They look at the Sanhedrin, the Roman authorities, the hostile
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crowds. And they categorize them all as
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the heathen raging against the Lord's Christ.
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Which leads directly to the crucial vocabulary, the passage
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specifically in verse 28. Yes, this is where it gets
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really deep. The early church prays
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acknowledging that these enemies were gathered together to do
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whatever God's hand and counsel predetermined determined to
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occur. And that word predetermined is
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fascinating in the Greek. It is.
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The Greek word used is perizzo. The authors explain that the
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root of this word, herizzo, was actually used in ancient Greco
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Roman property disputes. Like marking land.
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Exactly. Spot on.
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It described the physical act of driving pegs into the ground to
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mark out the unalterable boundaries of an estate.
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Oh wow, and the prefix pro means before.
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Right. So before time began, God drove
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the pegs into the ground, marking out the clear boundaries
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of history. That paints such a vivid
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picture, and the subjects performing this predestination
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are God's hand representing His omnipotent action, and His
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counsel representing His wise purpose.
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So the crucifixion was the result of the unbreakable union
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of infinite wisdom and unstoppable strengths.
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Yeah, look closely at the list of bad actors mentioned in Acts
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4.27. You have Herod Pontius Pilate,
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the Gentiles and the people of Israel.
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A whole coalition of enemy. They all conspired against
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Jesus. Every single one of them acted
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out of their own sinful motivations, right?
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Pilot acted out of political cowardice.
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The religious leaders acted out of envy.
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The crowds acted out of mob mentality.
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Yet the text explicitly states they did whatever God's hand and
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counsel predetermined to take place.
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OK, let me ask a follow up question on that because this is
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where the friction really starts for people.
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Let's hear it. Does the word parizo simply mean
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that God, in his infinite omniscience look down the
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corridor of time, foresaw the wicked choices these men would
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autonomously make and then planned his redemptive strategy
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around? Them like he was just
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anticipating their roofs. Yeah.
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Was he just playing a perfect game of chess in response to
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their opening moves? The authors provide a
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categorical rejection of that idea.
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That concept is often termed prescience or simple
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foreknowledge. Why is that rejected?
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Because if God only foresaw what Pilate and Herod would do and
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then reacted to it, then He left the salvation of humanity up to
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the capricious whims of a Roman governor and a Judean tetrarch.
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Oof, when you put it like that it sounds terrifying.
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It does. The biblical text completely
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destroys the concept of total human self determination.
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Here the cross was not an accident foreseen, it was a
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destiny for ordained. The conspiracy of those wicked
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men was the precise mechanism God predestined to occur.
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Right. And the theological distinction
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to make here is between primary and secondary causes.
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Let's unpack that primary and secondary causes.
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God is the primary cause decreeing that the event will
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certainly happen, but He uses humans as secondary causes.
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He fully utilized their wicked intentions to accomplish His
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redemptive plan. And He did so while preserving
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their guilt. They acted according to their
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own wicked desires. No one forced Pilate to be a
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coward. No one forced the Pharisees to
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be envious. Absolutely, but those desires
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were sovereignly utilized to fulfill the exact boundaries of
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God's script. Pilate and Herod were held
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entirely accountable for their actions, yet they did what the
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hand and counsel of God had marked out beforehand.
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OK, so if Acts 4 establishes this historical reality that God
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ordained the darkest human sin, the murder of the sinless Son,
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to bring about the greatest good, the conversation logically
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moves to how this is defended theologically, right?
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How do we defend the justice of it?
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Yeah, if God drove those pegs into the ground, how on earth is
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it fair to punish the people who are just acting within those
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boundaries? Which brings us to the Apostle
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Paul and his letter to the Romans.
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Specifically, Chapter 9, the deep dive, shifts to Romans 9.14
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through 24. Paul anticipates the precise,
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instinctive human objection we just discussed.
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He writes, Is there unrighteousness with God?
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And Paul's answer is an emphatic, categorical denial.
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He says by no means. Now, to really grasp Paul's
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argument, the sources set a vital historical backdrop that
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we just cannot ignore. Set the stage for us what's
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happening in Rome. Paul is writing this letter in
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the late 50s of the 1st century to the church in Rome, and this
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church is dealing with severe Jewish and Gentile tension.
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Why so much tension? Because the Roman emperor
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Claudius had previously expelled all the Jews from Rome in 8049,
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when the Jewish believers left, the Gentile believers naturally
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occupied positions of greater visibility and leadership within
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the house churches. Right, they had the run of the
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place for a while. Exactly.
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Spot on. Then Claudius dies in 1854, the
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edict is lifted and the Jewish Christians return.
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You can imagine the massive cultural and theological clash
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that resulted 0. Absolutely.
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But beyond the local church politics, there was a burning,
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agonizing pastoral crisis. What were they struggling with?
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The Jewish Christians are wondering if Jesus is the Jewish
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Messiah. Why are all these Gentiles
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believing while our own ethnic people are largely rejecting
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him? Has God's word failed?
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Did God make a promise to Israel that he cannot keep?
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That's the burning question, and Paul answers this by looking
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through the lens of Covenant history.
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He doesn't point to human free will as the decisive factor,
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does he? No, he points to God's sovereign
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election, specifically focusing on the historical figures of
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Moses and Pharaoh. The examples of Moses and
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Pharaoh are so striking. Paul looks at Moses and quotes
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God saying I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
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The sources make a crucial point here that we often miss.
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Mercy is a gift, not a wage. Right.
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By definition, mercy cannot be demanded if you can.
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Claim something as a right or as a wage for your good actions.
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It completely ceases to be mercy.
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It is a gracious bestowal from the Creator.
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And then Paul looks at Pharaoh. This is where it gets really
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intense for the modern reader. It really does.
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The text says God raised Pharaoh up specifically to display
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divine might and fame. Pharaoh's stubbornness wasn't
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just a random phenomenon that God later converted into a
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teaching moment. The sources explained that
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hardening is a judicial action upon a Sinner.
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That distinction is paramount, and it really requires careful
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explanation. Let's.
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Do it? What does hardening mean here?
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When God hoardens a heart, He is not taking an innocent person
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who wants to do the right thing and forcing them to be evil
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against their will. Not at all.
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Hardening confirms and deepens A rebellion that is already
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present in fallen humanity. God is not the author of fresh
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evil in the heart of Pharaoh. He is judicially handing Pharaoh
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over to the stubbornness that Pharaoh already deeply desires.
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Yeah, this pairing of Moses and Pharaoh proves God's absolute
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freedom. He has the sovereign right to
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show mercy, which is entirely unmerited.
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And He has the sovereign right to harden, which is a just
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judicial response to sin. Both actions are ordered toward
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the public manifestation of His authority and the publication of
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His name across the earth. Paul defends the righteousness
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of God in the actual unfolding of salvation history, proving
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that divine freedom is not some novel concept Paul just
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invented. It's the very way God is dealt
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with humanity from the beginning.
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All right, let's walk straight into Romans 9.110, because Paul
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knows what his readers are going to ask next.
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He anticipates the pushback. He plays the devil's advocate.
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Yeah, he writes. You will say to me, then why
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does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?
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It is the exact question we raised earlier.
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It is if God's will is the decisive factor and He hardens
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whom He wills and has mercy on whom He wills.
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It feels like human accountability completely
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collapses right here. The logic seems undeniable to
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us. If I cannot resist the boundary
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pegs God drove into the ground, how can you blame me for staying
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within them? It is a brilliant rhetorical
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move by Paul because he voices the complaint that dresses
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itself up in logical respectability while concealing
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a deep rebellion of the heart. Against the Creator.
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The authors emphasize that Paul does not soften the truth to
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resolve the tension for the reader.
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Notice what he does not do. He does not say, well, you
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misunderstand. God doesn't really find fault.
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Nor does he say God's will isn't actually decisive.
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You have libertarian free will. He holds both realities in full
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view. God's will is effective and man
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remains fully accountable. Instead of submitting God to
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creaturely judgment, Paul rebukes the posture of the
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questioner. He asks, Who are you, O man, to
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answer back to God? And then he introduces the
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famous analogy of the Potter and the clay, asserting that the
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maker has absolute authority over the lump of clay to fashion
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1 vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use.
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That Potter and clay analogy restores the creator creature
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distinction in a very blunt, unvarnished way.
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It really points out that we are not self originating beings who
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have the standing to summon God to the bar of our human reason.
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The Creator has inherent rights over the creation.
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This tension between God's effective will and human
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accountability brings up the concept of compatibilism.
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Again, right, these two seemingly opposing realities
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coexist, and this leads us to examine what we are actually
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meant to know versus what God intentionally keeps hidden from
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us as a secret. The texts draw a firm, bright
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line between what Scripture reveals and what it keeps
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hidden. They reference Deuteronomy
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29.29. The secret things belong to the
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Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us.
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We are given sufficient revelation for faith and
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obedience. We know that God is absolutely
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holy and without sin. We know that mercy is completely
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free, we know that judicial hardening is real, and we know
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that human accountability remains entirely intact.
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What we do not need to know, and what Scripture refuses to
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provide, is the metaphysical mechanism of how God's eternal
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decree and human volition interrelate in every single
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historical instance. We don't need a tightly solved
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philosophical equation to trust the character of God.
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No, we don't. The sources discuss a concept
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called the asymmetry of divine causality, which helps clarify
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this tension tremendously. Let's look into that asymmetry.
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What does it mean? It means God's orchestration of
22:12
good and his orchestration of evil are not morally equivalent.
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OK, so when God shows mercy, it's a direct, gracious
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bestowal. He actively works in the human
22:22
heart to produce the good. But when he hardens or ordains
22:25
an evil act, he does so indirectly.
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It is the judicial action that removes restraint and confirms
22:31
the rebellion already present. God can see to it that sin
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happens without himself sinning. And the authors use a brilliant
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analogy here to explain the mechanism comparing God's
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Providence over evil to a nuclear engineer handling
22:44
radioactive uranium. Oh man, it is a highly effective
22:48
illustration. Uranium is incredibly dangerous.
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It's deadly. Left unmanaged, it causes
22:53
radiation poisoning and widespread destruction.
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But nuclear engineers know how to build a reactive with control
22:59
rods, heavy water and massive containment vessels.
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They manipulate the radioactive material to generate electricity
23:06
for an entire city without getting poisoned themselves.
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The sources argue that if finite, fallible human beings
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can engineer ways to handle highly radioactive material,
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manipulating it to produce useful, necessary energy without
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contaminating themselves in the process, then surely the
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infinitely wise God can handle the deadly radioactive evil of
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human sin. Exit to bring about His holy
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redemptive purposes without suffering any moral
23:32
contamination Himself. God's holiness remains
23:34
unimpeachable even as His Providence governs explicitly
23:37
sinful acts. He manages the uranium of human
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depravity to power the reactor of redemptive history, all while
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remaining perfectly pure. But you know, if you're
23:48
listening to this, you might be thinking, are we just supposed
23:50
to shut our brains off then? Are we embracing irrationalism
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when the math doesn't seem to add up to our finite minds?
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Yeah. If we can't know the secret
23:59
mechanism of how the primary and secondary causes perfectly
24:02
aligned in every situation, do we just stop thinking all
24:05
together? The authors explicitly clarify
24:08
that this is not a call to irrationalism, it is a direct
24:12
confrontation with human insolence.
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Paul isn't telling the Roman church to stop thinking, He's
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commanding them to stop judging God.
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There's a vast difference between a holy ignorance that
24:23
fosters childlike trust and a skeptical demand for exhaustive
24:27
comprehension. The demand to have a complete
24:30
philosophical explanation for every tragedy, or to have a tidy
24:34
answer for every theological tension, is very often an
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expression of intellectual pride.
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The creature wants mastery where he was made for trust.
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True wisdom recognizes the boundary of revelation.
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It walks right up to the edge of what God has spoken, and when it
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reaches the boundary of the unrevealed secret things, it
24:52
bows and worship. We know enough about his
24:55
character to trust him fully and we are told that we do not need
24:58
to know more than he has revealed.
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Moving from the theological heights down to the dirt and
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grime of everyday life, we need to focus on how this doctrine
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practically alters the way a listener lives, suffers, and
25:10
prays. Because the authors insist that
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the Doctor of Providence is not an abstract puzzle for academics
25:16
to debate in a classroom. No, it is an Apostolic
25:19
instrument designed to humble, stabilize and comfort the Church
25:22
in the trenches of real life. Let's look at the practical
25:25
applications, starting with finding comfort and suffering.
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The immediate practical application is that affliction
25:30
is never random. If God's Providence is absolute,
25:34
then no suffering enters a believer's life apart from
25:37
fatherly wisdom. The sources draw heavily on the
25:39
story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is here.
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Joseph's life is a master class in the doctrine of Providence.
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He was hated by his brothers, thrown into a pit and sold to
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Midianite traders. Taken to Egypt, sold to
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Potiphar, falsely accused of assault by Potiphar's wife and
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thrown into a dungeon. Forgotten by the cupbearer and
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left to rot for years. Yet at the end of his life,
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looking his terrified brothers in the eyes, Joseph says What
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you meant for evil, God meant for good.
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Notice the intentionality in that phrasing.
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He doesn't say you did evil and God somehow managed to salvage
26:14
it. He says God meant it for good
26:16
from the very beginning because. If God does not rule over evil,
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he cannot offer comfort when evil erupts.
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If a tragedy is outside of God's control, then it is truly
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chaotic, meaningless, and terrifying.
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But because he governs even the darkest moments, the believer is
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guarded against absolute despair.
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The sources also apply this doctrine to how we view history
26:35
and society today. Yes, they specifically critique
26:38
the modern impulse to interpret history entirely through human
26:41
power dynamics or Marxist sociological frameworks like
26:44
critical race theory. The authors of our texts argue
26:47
that viewing history merely as an endless random series of
26:51
societal clashes between the oppressors and the oppressed,
26:55
driven solely by material forces, leaves humanity in a
26:59
state of constant panic and anger.
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These frameworks assume that human institutions are the final
27:04
arbiters of reality. But the biblical view of
27:07
Providence argues that history is governed by God's sovereign
27:10
decrees. True justice and historical
27:12
meaning are found in understanding that God is
27:15
orchestrating all events for His glory and the redemption of His
27:19
people, not in endless secular struggles.
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The authors use this doctrine to offer a completely different
27:25
foundation for viewing the world.
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When you view society through the lens of absolute Providence,
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you are freed from the panic of thinking that corrupt
27:32
politicians or broken institutions have the final say
27:36
over human destiny. Another massive practical
27:39
application the sources highlight is the grounding for
27:41
prayer. Which is funny because a common
27:43
objection is that if God is completely sovereign, there is
27:45
no reason to pray. Right.
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But the sources argue the exact opposite.
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If God were not sovereign over human hearts and historical
27:52
outcomes, prayer would be a mere sentiment, A hopeful wish cast
27:57
out into the void. It would be a wager, we pray,
27:59
precisely because God governs outcomes.
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We ask Him to convert sinners, heal the sick, and restrain evil
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rulers because He actually has the authority, the right, and
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the omnipotence to open hearts and alter physical events.
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Providence does not weaken prayer.
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It is the very foundation that makes prayer rational and
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effective. It also completely changes the
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way we approach evangelism and ministry.
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When you understand that salvation is dependent on God's
28:27
sovereign mercy, not human free will, it rescues you from pride
28:31
when you see fruit in your ministry.
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You can't boast that your eloquent speech or your clever
28:35
presentation save someone. The pressure is off.
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But equally, it rescues you from despair.
28:39
When you face hardness and rejection, you realize you are
28:43
called to faithfully sow the seed to speak the truth with
28:45
love. But God alone gives the
28:47
increase. I look at this doctrine like a
28:49
massive load bearing pillar in the middle of a building's floor
28:53
plan. A load bearing pillar.
28:55
I like that. How so?
28:56
Well, when you first walk in, it seems entirely in the way it
29:00
obstructs your view, it forces you to walk around it, and it
29:03
feels like an offensive obstacle to human autonomy.
29:06
But if you try to remove that pillar, the entire roof caves
29:10
in. The weight of the world's
29:11
suffering and evil will crush you without it.
29:14
Once you understand its function, you stop trying to
29:16
remove it and you start resting under the shelter it provides.
29:19
That is the pastoral goal of the texts we are analyzing.
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The obstacle becomes the rock of refuge.
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But to reach that point of rest, one must address a very common
29:30
lingering fear which leads to another objection.
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The fear of fatalism. Yes, a listener might ask, if
29:37
God has already written the boundaries of history, if he has
29:39
already driven the property pegs into the ground, why should I
29:43
bother pleading with a rebellious friend to believe the
29:45
gospel? Why should I pray for a sick
29:47
family member if the outcome is already locked in?
29:50
Does this not lead to absolute apathy and a passive approach to
29:53
life? Right.
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And how did the author's counter that objection?
29:56
Forcefully, by pointing out a crucial biblical principle, the
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same God who ordains the end also ordains the means to
30:05
achieve that end. God predestined the salvation of
30:08
his people, but he also predestined the fervent
30:11
preaching of the gospel as the exact mechanism to gather them.
30:16
Look back at the early church in Acts 4.
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Knowing that God predestined the conspiracy against Jesus did not
30:22
drive the apostles to apathy or silence.
30:25
They didn't sit in the room and say, well, God is sovereign,
30:27
let's just wait and see what happens.
30:28
No, it drove them to pray for boldness, and they went out and
30:32
preached aggressively in the temple.
30:33
Courts Providence is a strong tower for obedience, not a
30:36
pillow for laziness. Knowing that God guarantees the
30:40
outcome is the very thing that gives you the courage to engage
30:43
in the process, regardless of the opposition you face.
30:45
So as we bring this deep dive toward a conclusion, we need to
30:48
summarize the core insight we have extracted from these texts.
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The secret things belong to the Lord, but the revealed things
30:55
belong to us. We have seen that the Cross of
30:57
Christ is the undeniable proof that divine sovereignty and
31:01
divine goodness meet in perfect blazing harmony.
31:04
The worst injustice in human history was the mechanism God
31:08
used purchase our salvation. God's hand and counsel are
31:11
always at work executing His perfect will, even when the path
31:15
looks incredibly dark and confusing to our finite eyes.
31:19
The sources continually point back to the cross as the final
31:22
answer to human doubt. It is the guarantee that God is
31:26
not a distant, unfeeling determinist.
31:28
The hands that govern the boundaries of human history, the
31:31
hands that drove the pegs into the ground, are the very hands
31:35
that were pierced for our transgressions.
31:37
We can trust the Father's absolute governance because we
31:39
have seen the Son's absolute sacrifice.
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I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over, building
31:44
on everything we have covered today.
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Think about the most confusing, painful, or unresolved chapter
31:49
of your own life. The moments that make absolutely
31:52
no sense to you, where the pain seems is pointless and the
31:55
tragedy feels random. If the absolute worst event in
31:59
human history, the malicious, unjust crucifixion of the
32:02
sinless Son of God, was utilized by God's hand and counsel to
32:05
bring about the greatest salvation the world has ever
32:07
known, how am I viewing your own dark chapters through the lens
32:11
of God's unsearchable holy governance?
32:14
Entirely eliminate your fear of the future.
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If God can handle the radioactive uranium of the cross
32:19
and produce the light of the world, He can govern the messy,
32:22
painful details of your life for your good and His glory.
32:25
Rest in that rock of refuge. You know enough to trust the
32:28
Creator even when you cannot trace His exact steps.
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Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.