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The Providence of God (Part 1) · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: We're beginning a 10-part series on the doctrine of the
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  Speaker 1: providence of God. And what I'd like to do first
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  Speaker 1: is define the word and then talk about, just a
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  Speaker 1: few minutes, why this is so important to me. But
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  Speaker 1: in the providence of God this morning, I was having
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  Speaker 1: my devotions in the book of Ruth. And in chapter 4,
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  Speaker 1: verse 13, it says this. And Boaz took Ruth to
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  Speaker 1: be his wife. And he went into her. And the
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  Speaker 1: Lord gave her conception. And she had a child. Now,
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  Speaker 1: almost everybody in America, church included, would probably.
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  Speaker 2: Say Boaz married her. They had sexual relations. She got pregnant.
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  Speaker 2: She had a baby.
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  Speaker 1: That's not the way the biblical writers think. Right in
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  Speaker 1: the middle of the most natural process you can imagine,
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  Speaker 1: without any evidence at all that Ruth had any difficulty conceiving,
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  Speaker 1: she wasn't barren, she wasn't infertile, it simply says God
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  Speaker 1: gave her conception.
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  Speaker 2: That's providence.
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  Speaker 1: So, let's talk about a definition. That's my example right
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  Speaker 1: off the front burner of this morning's devotions. It's all
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  Speaker 1: over the Bible. The Bible is a pervasively providential book.
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  Speaker 1: But let's talk about the word providence first. You can
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  Speaker 1: hear in the word providence the word provide, right? Provide
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  Speaker 1: meaning supply.
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  Speaker 2: See to something. Get it done. Take care of it.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the word provide, interestingly, has got two Latin words, pro, vide, provide.
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  Speaker 1: Pro meaning either forward or on behalf of, and vide
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  Speaker 1: meaning to see, to see forward or to see on
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  Speaker 1: behalf of, and so it sounds like it should be
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  Speaker 1: translated into English like foresee, but We have this phrase
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  Speaker 1: in English called see to. Isn't that interesting? To see to,
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  Speaker 1: see to something, which is almost provide, see to something
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  Speaker 1: means to take care of it, not just to see
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  Speaker 1: it and see it forward, but.
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  Speaker 2: To take care of it.
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  Speaker 1: And that's getting at the heart of what the term
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  Speaker 1: providence means.
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  Speaker 2: And here's another interesting thing.
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  Speaker 1: That little hiddenness about the connection between seeing and seeing
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  Speaker 1: to isn't just a trick of Latin etymology. It's rooted
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  Speaker 1: in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. Do you remember
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  Speaker 1: the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac to the
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  Speaker 1: mountain because God had said inconceivably to sacrifice your son?
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  Speaker 1: And when the son says, Daddy, where's the sacrifice? Here's
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  Speaker 1: what he said. He says, where's the sacrifice for the
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  Speaker 1: burnt offering? And Abraham says, God will provide for himself
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  Speaker 1: a lamb. And then when the ram is discovered, they
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  Speaker 1: name the place and the name they give is, it
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  Speaker 1: shall be provided. Now here's the catch. In the Hebrew language,
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  Speaker 1: The word provide is simply the ordinary word see. The
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  Speaker 1: Lord will see. It will be seen. And here's the question.
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  Speaker 1: Why in the Hebrew mind, this God-centered, God-saturated Hebrew mind,
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  Speaker 1: did God simply seeing mean he'll take.
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  Speaker 2: Care of it? He'll see to it. He'll make sure
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  Speaker 2: that there's a a lamb, a sacrifice. And my guess.
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  Speaker 1: Is that their worldview was so God-saturated and their God
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  Speaker 1: was so powerful, so pervasively involved in his creation, they
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  Speaker 1: couldn't even conceive of a God who simply saw passively.
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  Speaker 2: If God sees, he sees too, right? He's involved. And
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  Speaker 2: so all they need to.
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  Speaker 1: Say is, God sees, meaning he'll take care of it.
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  Speaker 1: So behind the word provident is the word provide, and
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  Speaker 1: the word provide, both biblically and in our ordinary usage,
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  Speaker 1: has come to mean supply, take care of, meet the
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  Speaker 1: needs of. And so God's providence is his seeing the
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  Speaker 1: world and all that he has made in an engaged
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  Speaker 1: way by which he upholds the world and takes care
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  Speaker 1: of the world and guides or governs the world and.
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  Speaker 2: Orders the world.
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  Speaker 1: So let's go to a couple of catechisms and just
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  Speaker 1: let me read to you historically what the doctrine of
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  Speaker 1: providence has meant. Here's the Heidelberg Catechism, question number 27.
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean by the providence of God? Answer,
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  Speaker 1: the almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as
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  Speaker 1: it were, by his hand, he upholds and governs heaven
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  Speaker 1: and earth, all creatures, so that herbs and grass, rain
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  Speaker 1: and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health
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  Speaker 1: and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come
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  Speaker 1: together not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. Or,
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  Speaker 1: Westminster Larger Catechism question number 18, what are the works
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  Speaker 1: of providence? Answer, God's works of providence are his most holy, wise,
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  Speaker 1: and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures, ordering them
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  Speaker 1: and all their actions to his glory. That's an amazing reality.
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  Speaker 1: Spurgeon loved it. He loved this doctrine. I love this quote.
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  Speaker 1: He says, I believe that every particle of dust that
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  Speaker 1: dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more
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  Speaker 1: or less than God wishes, that every particle of spray
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  Speaker 1: that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well
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  Speaker 1: as the sun in the heavens. and that the chaff
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  Speaker 1: from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars.
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  Speaker 2: In their courses.
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  Speaker 1: The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as
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  Speaker 1: much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence.
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  Speaker 2: The fall of leaves.
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  Speaker 1: From the poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling
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  Speaker 1: of an avalanche. When people said to Spurgeon, that is
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  Speaker 1: not reality.
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  Speaker 2: That's fatalism. That's stoicism. Here's what he said.
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  Speaker 1: What is fate? Fate is this. Whatever is must be.
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  Speaker 1: But there's a difference between that and providence. Providence says
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  Speaker 1: whatever God ordains must be. But the wisdom of God
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  Speaker 1: never ordains anything without a purpose in it. Everything in
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  Speaker 1: this world is working for some great end. Fate does
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  Speaker 1: not say that. There is all the difference between fate
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  Speaker 1: and providence that there is between a man with good
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  Speaker 1: eyes and a blind man. So that's what has historically
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  Speaker 1: been meant by providence. It's what I mean by it.
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  Speaker 1: And let me just end like this. Why would somebody
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  Speaker 1: like me, who's a Christian hedonist, care so much about this?
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  Speaker 1: When I say Christian hedonism, I mean God is most
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  Speaker 1: glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him.
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  Speaker 1: I don't mean when I glorify him, it brings me satisfaction.
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  Speaker 1: That's theoretically true. I mean that when I look at
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  Speaker 1: God in the Bible, especially in the gospel, especially in
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  Speaker 1: the cross, especially in Jesus on the cross, rising from
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  Speaker 1: the dead, ruling the world, this glorious Christ. When I
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  Speaker 1: see him, I find in him my deepest treasure and satisfaction.
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  Speaker 1: And when I do, God or Christ in God or
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  Speaker 1: God in Christ is made to look beautiful because of
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  Speaker 1: my satisfaction in him. and I regularly add the sentence,
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  Speaker 1: God is most glorified in me when I'm most satisfied
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  Speaker 1: in him, especially when I walk through suffering. At those
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  Speaker 1: moments when the world says, oh, he should be angry,
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  Speaker 1: he should be bitter, he should be depressed, and instead
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  Speaker 1: I am able to maintain my tear-streaked joy.
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  Speaker 2: In God, I make God look good at that moment.
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  Speaker 2: And here's the point.
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  Speaker 1: Not in a thousand years could I maintain that joy
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  Speaker 1: in God if I weren't assured God can take the
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  Speaker 1: tear-causing troubles of my life and in complete omnipotent providence,
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  Speaker 1: work them together for my good. So providence and Christian
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  Speaker 1: hedonism are both essential in our lives.