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

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  Speaker 1: This is our fifth session on the providence of God,
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  Speaker 1: and we have focused on definitions. We've focused on providence
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  Speaker 1: over all things, including weather and nature and disease and
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  Speaker 1: disability and life and death and Satan. And now I
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  Speaker 1: want us to turn to God's providence, his pervasive, sustaining, governing,
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  Speaker 1: ordering of all things in relation to the decisions, the volitions,
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  Speaker 1: the will of human beings. How pervasive is God's providence
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  Speaker 1: over our will and our actions? Proverbs 16, 9. The
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  Speaker 1: mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs
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  Speaker 1: his steps. So it's good and right to be a planner,
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  Speaker 1: but don't ever think your planning is the decisive determination
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  Speaker 1: of the outcome. The mind of man plans his way,
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  Speaker 1: the Lord directs his steps. Or Proverbs 20, 24, Man's
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  Speaker 1: steps are ordained by the Lord. How then can man
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  Speaker 1: understand his way? There's a mystery in the providence of
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  Speaker 1: God over our steps. Jeremiah 10, 23. I know, O Lord,
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  Speaker 1: that a man's way is not in himself, nor is
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  Speaker 1: it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
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  Speaker 1: Proverbs 19, 21. Many plans are in a man's heart,
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  Speaker 1: but the counsel of the Lord will stand. Proverbs 21, 1.
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  Speaker 1: The king's heart is a stream of water in the
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  Speaker 1: hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will.
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  Speaker 1: Or if you even focus in on the evil, hurtful,
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  Speaker 1: decisions that people make? Are they under the control of
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  Speaker 1: God's providence? Listen to 1 Peter 4 19. Therefore those
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  Speaker 1: who suffer, Christians who suffer according to the will of God,
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  Speaker 1: shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing
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  Speaker 1: good or doing what is right and Another one, 1
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  Speaker 1: Peter 3.17, for it is better if God should will
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  Speaker 1: it so that you suffer for doing what is right
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  Speaker 1: rather than doing what is wrong. And in both of
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  Speaker 1: those texts in 1 Peter 4.19 and 3.17, it's clear
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  Speaker 1: from the context that the suffering they're talking about that
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  Speaker 1: may be God's will or may not be God's will,
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  Speaker 1: may happen according to God's will or may not happen,
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  Speaker 1: is suffering caused by the sinful persecution of other people.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the key text on the providence of God over
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  Speaker 1: the sinning deeds of man. Acts 4, verse 27 and 28.
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  Speaker 1: Truly in this city, that is Jerusalem, there were gathered
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  Speaker 1: together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both
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  Speaker 1: Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the
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  Speaker 1: peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your
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  Speaker 1: plan had predestined to take place. This is really important. Herod, Pilate,
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  Speaker 1: mocking Gentile soldiers, crowds of Jews crying, crucify him, crucify him.
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  Speaker 1: Those four people are mentioned here as doing what God's
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  Speaker 1: hand and plan predestined to take place. And all of
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  Speaker 1: it was sin. Now, when I read my Bible and
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  Speaker 1: I am so moved to trust my Bible because of
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  Speaker 1: what I see of God and Christ in it, my
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  Speaker 1: mind often says, okay, I got to do a brain
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  Speaker 1: check here. I got to alter some categories here because
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  Speaker 1: the fallen man, including me, we don't bring to the
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  Speaker 1: Bible the conceptions in our mind that we need in
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  Speaker 1: order to grasp the depths of the Bible. We get
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  Speaker 1: to adjust those conceptions. Here's an adjustment. We have to
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  Speaker 1: have in our brain this category. God is able to
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  Speaker 1: will that sin should happen without himself sinning. is that
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  Speaker 1: category in your brain. If it's not, it needs to
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  Speaker 1: be there because that's what this text assumes is in
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  Speaker 1: your head. It is designed to put it in your head.
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  Speaker 1: You don't bring your brain to the Bible and adjust text.
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  Speaker 1: You bring the text to your brain and adjust your brain.
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  Speaker 1: God is able to will that sin be happen without
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  Speaker 1: himself knowing. Sinning. Now how should we talk about this?
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  Speaker 1: Let me just give you one story and we'll be
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  Speaker 1: done with this session. And you all know this story probably.
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  Speaker 1: The story of Joseph in the Old Testament. What happens
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  Speaker 1: to him? He has these dreams. The brothers are really
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  Speaker 1: mad at him. They don't like him. And so they
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  Speaker 1: take an opportunity and throw him into a pit. Which
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  Speaker 1: is of course sin to throw their brother into a pit.
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  Speaker 1: And then They sell him into slavery. And then as
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  Speaker 1: a righteous man in the house of Potiphar, his wife
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  Speaker 1: lies about him that he tries to rape her and
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  Speaker 1: he didn't. And so Potiphar throws Joseph into jail. He's
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  Speaker 1: there for a long time. We don't know how long.
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  Speaker 1: He tells some dreams. They come true. The butler He
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  Speaker 1: says to him, remember me so you can get me
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  Speaker 1: out of this prison. He forgets him for two more years.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, he remembers him and he becomes the vice
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  Speaker 1: president of Egypt over the entire nation under Pharaoh. And
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  Speaker 1: his brothers come down for food and they meet and
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  Speaker 1: he recognizes them. 22 years have gone by between the
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  Speaker 1: throwing of Joseph into the pit and his saying of
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  Speaker 1: these words. He's trying to encourage the brothers that when
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  Speaker 1: their father is gone, Joseph won't take vengeance on them.
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  Speaker 1: And this is what he says. Chapter 50, verse 20.
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  Speaker 1: As for you, you meant evil against me. but God
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  Speaker 1: meant it for good to bring it about that many
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  Speaker 1: people should be kept alive as they are today. Now,
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  Speaker 1: look carefully at these words. It does not say, you
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  Speaker 1: meant evil against me, but God used it for good.
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  Speaker 1: That is not what it says. I've heard it paraphrased
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  Speaker 1: that way many times but it avoids the clear, powerful,
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  Speaker 1: crucial teaching. It says there were two intentions, two meanings
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  Speaker 1: going on in your sinful treatment of me. You meant
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  Speaker 1: it for evil. God meant it for good. There's the
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  Speaker 1: category we have to have in our minds today. When
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  Speaker 1: Christ died, Pilate meant it for evil. Herod meant it
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  Speaker 1: for evil. The soldiers meant it for evil. And the crowds,
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  Speaker 1: of course, meant it for evil. God didn't mean it
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  Speaker 1: for evil. God wasn't sinning at that moment. God was
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  Speaker 1: saving us from sin at that moment. We would never
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  Speaker 1: be saved from hell and from sin and from guilt
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  Speaker 1: into eternal joy if God were not in his providence,
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  Speaker 1: completely omnipotent over the wills of sinful people. So how
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  Speaker 1: do we talk about it? When something evil is done
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  Speaker 1: to us, every single time the child of God can say,
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  Speaker 1: you meant it for evil, God meant it for good,
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  Speaker 1: which is just another way of paraphrasing Romans 8, 28, right?
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  Speaker 1: We know that all things work together for good for
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  Speaker 1: those who love God and are called according to his purpose,
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  Speaker 1: even sinful acts against us. So the gift of providence
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  Speaker 1: over the wills of sinning people to us is that
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  Speaker 1: we can be sure, though they meant it for evil,
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  Speaker 1: God always always means it for good.