God’s Providence

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, July the seventeenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently ten oh one am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Well. Probably since Saturday night, probably since Saturday night, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and now entering into Wednesday, I have found myself extremely frustrated, irritated, bothered, discouraged, and I think, if I'm even going to be remotely honest, very angry, extremely angry.

0:59 In fact, I had to do a little episode, a live broadcast yesterday kind of talking about my anger and maybe apologizing for how angry I have become and what has led to all of these emotions. Well, there's really two parts to this. The first thing that led to me being very bothered and upset and frustrated and discouraged was obviously the assassination attempt on President Trump or on the presidential candidate, the former president Donald Trump. That obviously entire situation was just like what is happening? Why is this going on? Our country is already more divided. This is just going to throw gasoline already on an open fire. This is just not good. This is bad. Okay?

1:46 Where are things going to go? Are things going to get better? Things going to get worse? Just trying to process all of that. And as I was trying to process all of that, immediately my attention turned to now how the world was going to interpret the assassination attempt, how the world was going to cover it, what their opinions were, what their predictions were. My attention immediately turned to Christianity. How was Christianity at large going to respond to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump? How were they going to respond to this, to the shooting of Donald Trump? How are they going to respond to this? How were they? Were they going to handle this in a very biblical way, in a very philological way, and a very godly way, where they going to follow some basic guidelines ensuring that everything we said was truthful, that everything we said was correct information, We were not sharing misinformation, We would not slide down into conspiratorial thinking and throwing out accusations and bearing false witness and basically engaging in gossip and slander. I was that was my hope, you know, or that was at least my question. Is Christianity at large going to handle this in a correct way or is this going to just turn into something very neative. Now I'm being honest with you, I tend to be very cynical anyway. So I was pretty cynical thinking it's gonna go really bad. It's gonna go really bad. And I was really bothered, and I tried not to make any dogmatic assertions, but there was definitely you could tell that I was really bothered in concern and where things were going

3:19 to go. So I decided, Okay, I'm not going to sit here and monitor what the world is doing. I'm not gonna sit here and worry about how Democrats are responding or Republicans are responding. I'm not going to get into all of that, because well, this is a theology podcast, and the Church should be outside of all of that. We are supposed to be looking at the world from a biblical perspective, from a thiological perspective, not a political one, not political ideology. No, it's not about that. It's about from a Christian perspective. So I decided, well, I will monitor how Christians are responding to the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. I said, I will monitor it. I put my focus on monitored how broadcasters, churches, pastors would respond to the assassination attempt via the sermon's two point oh app. Now, the reason why is because all of twenty twenty four are we've had a challenge, and that challenge we're calling it the sermons two point oh app sermon challenge, where once a day, every single day, for the entire year, you're supposed to be grabbing the sermon's two point oh app finding a random sermon random You're not choosing a specific broadcaster or anything. You're choosing a random sermon. You're listening to it. You're writing down in a notebook the name of the sermon, the broadcaster, and then you write out a summary of the sermon you listen to. And the goal was by the end of twenty twenty four you could grab your notebook, open it up, and go I listened to one sermon every single day for the entire year,

4:50 and here's the summaries of every sermon I listened to. Now two to try to make the challenge interesting and to change it up, and to add variety. There's times I would turn on the microphone. Okay, all right, guys, this week, you're only looking for random sermons on this particular passage of scripture? Are this particular subject? Right? So that we we've that's been our focus for twenty twenty four. So then I'm like, well, that's the focus. Let me make the focus then for since the assassination attempt. I'm going to be looking at how broadcasters are responding to the assassination attempt, right, because this would give me insight on where the church is, how it's thinking, is it thinking biblical in the present, and then this may give me some idea of where the church is headed into the future.

5:39 Right, So pretty simple, right, monitor, review, analyze, critique, try to maybe kind of predict where things are headed. And then I started the process of listening. I do not know how to just what I have heard so far, other than say it's been troubling, it's been bothered at troubling is probably a nice way of saying it. It's been disturbing. It has bothered me greatly. There's been frustration, there's been irritation. And then slowly but surely, it kind of descended into almost full blown anger because we have heard conspiratorial thinking, we've heard absolutely fraudulent information being given, We've heard just absolutely ridiculous things being said, and it really has just I don't even I'm almost exhausted at this point. And it's only Wednesday. It's only Wednesday, for crying out loud, like it would be different if this has been going on for like two weeks or and you could be like, okay, all right, but it's only Wednesday. The assassination a timpt occurred on Saturday, and that was Saturday evening, so it's not even really been that long, and I'm already to the point of like, this is crazy.

7:00 Now. Someone he did send me a link to a response that is much more positive that like, in other words, I could, I probably would agree with it, and probably far more so. I will be reviewing that at some point. So, but I'm so frustrated that I did not necessarily today want to immediately start the day with a review of the latest response on the sermon's two point oh app to the assassination attempt for on Donald Trump. So I'm like, so, what can I do today? What should I do today? Well, here was my thinking and almost every single response to the assassination attempt, even though for almost I don't well, I think it's very fair to say I don't think in any of the responses did anyone actually pursue this from like a very doctrinal, philological or biblical perspective. But in almost every single one of them, certain phrases were used, right, certain philological terms were used. They were just briefly mentioned and then moved on.

8:13 They weren't. They didn't because they wanted to get into oh the Biden administration did this, or it was a plot, or or this happened, or this happened, or and just making all kinds of wild claims that in many cases, in real time I was fact checking, going well, that's not accurate, that's not true, that's right, which is insane that you have to be fact checking what you're hearing, you know, coming from you know, churches, but reality you have to do that, you have to do. It's like one of the greatest things about artificial intelligence is that while you're sitting in church, you can just have your AI app open and you can just be asking AI, is that true? Is that true? Is that true? And you can just find out well, you know, maybe I should just stop coming to church because I'm hearing more lies from the pulpit than I hear from I don't know the world. Okay, maybe that's a little bit of hyperbole, but you get my fresh stration. But in all cases they mention at least thistiological concept, and the philological concept mentioned frequently is God's providence, God's providence. Some may kind of add they may not use the word, but God's decrees, God's providence, and God's decrees. So, ladies and gentlemen, starting today Wednesday, July seventeenth, twenty twenty four, for your sermons two point oh app challenge, we are going to have you

9:43 spend the next week at minimum, probably maybe a week plus listening to sermons on the sermon's two point oh app that deal with God's decrees and God's providence. Since these terms have and mentioned, but no one is exploring them in a very you know, and a deep way, at least in their responses to the assassination attempt, we're going to ensure that we pursue these things as deeply as we can. So we'll be reviewing some sermons on the sermons two point oh app on this subject. I'm going to be pointing you to some resources here in the next few minutes. I'm going to remind you now, for us and my reviewing these responses to the assassination attempt, I did go I didn't go way in depth, but I did define what we mean by God's eternal decrees and what we mean by God's providence. Now, of course, just full transparency, I approach the doctrine or the theology of God's eternal decrees and from God's providence and line most like I'm well, almost definitely with the London Baptist Confession of Faith of sixteen eight the sixteen eighty nine London Baptist Confession of Faith, for some reason, have too many dates in my mind right now, all right, because one of the things is a lot of well, well, won't get into some of the things that I've heard people say, but all right, we will, we will. I won't chase that rabbit right now. But sixteen eighty nine London Baptist Confession of Faith is

11:18 what I will be. I have used and what I already used in trying to review some of these messages about the responses to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. So that's where I know, that's probably a good idea of where I'll be coming at it from. However, even though I hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith, right, remember I am not bound by a confession of faith in any way shape performance. I mean, that's the whole kind of non Catholic approach. Right. We believe Scripture is the final authority, and that these confessions of faith or creeds are great and helpful and can summarize biblical doctrine. But we believe the scriptures are the ultimate authority. But I also have a tendency to offer criticism and challenge things within Christianity. It's one of the things we do in this podcast is I question things and ask difficult questions and be willing to admit when things don't make sense, and when you get into the discussion about God's providence and God's eternal decrees. Ladies and gentlemen, if you don't find yourself at times just going blah blah blah blah blah blah, what is happening? My brain is melting. I don't get this. This makes absolutely no sense. This is disturbing, This bothers me greatly. If you don't experience that, then I don't know if you're really studying it or you're just not real you're unwilling to look at the negative side of these concepts, because these there's a negative side of these concepts, and people have struggled with it throughout church history. They always try to think that

12:50 they've offered dissolution to make all the problems go away, but they never really makes the problem go away. So in the real responses to the assassination attempt of Donald Trump, you hear people say God spared Donald Trump's life. It was God's providence. It was God's providence according to God's decree. He stepped in God's providence and he spared Donald Trump, he protected him, he saved him. Now, of course, in any cases, in almost every case where that is mentioned, they forget that Corey, that's the name of the individual. There was a man by the name of Corey who was trying to protect his family died at the very same political rally, at the very same place where God's providence, God's decree spared Donald Trump saved his life. God did not step in to save Corey's life. Who was trying to protect his family. That man is dead. A family. Now they've lost their husband, their father, brother son, whatever the case may be. They've lost him. He's gone. While everyone's running around to this. But praise God, God's providence stepped in and saved Donald Trump. Hey two and well, in many cases, nobody even wants to mention the name of the man who died. In some cases and many of the responses, I think American Family Radio is the only one who's offered even mentioned the man's name. I think

14:22 in many cases, like Donald Trump's name has been mentioned five thousand times, but the echory is just forgotten, and which is very frustrating. But I tried to explain to you that when you were going to start talking about God's providence or God's decrees, that we need in a sense, this situation, this assassination attempt. As horrible and as tragic at as it is, it also serves as kind of a slap in our face as Christians, to force us to face the difficulty of God's providence in God's decrees. What do I mean? Well, I told you to write on paper Donald Trump and then write down Corey's name right Why? Because here. Once we talk about providence and decrees. God's providence and decrees spared saved Trump's life. Well this man died. Now did this man die apart from God's decrees, apart from God's providence, Or was God's providence and decrees just as much at work in the saving of Donald Trump but in not saving Corey? And if we say yes, now, it's typically Christian men typically who kind of just shrugged their shoulders and I'm like, well, yeah, that's just the way it works, so what And it sounds all tough and you know, yeah, okay, but yeah, it's all great until you get the phone call that your child

15:56 was just kidnapped and murdered or your child was just killed by a drunk driver, and you don't want someone to walk up to you go, well, you know, just God's providence, God's God's sovereign. He saved the drunk, you know, the drunk who killed your kid. They're okay, but your kid's dead. Hey, hey, it's just God's providence. It's just God's decree. Like yeah, now, you don't want to hear someone talk all tough like that, right, because I've had Christian it kind of just shrugged their children. Well that's just the way it is. Okay, Well, okay, well that's the way it is until it works the way opposite that you want. I mean, right now, is it God's providence and God's decree that it was at work that right now, as I speak, there are children and a children's hospital suffering horrible diseases. They will not see their sixteenth birthday, they will never have their first kiss, they will never have their first dance, They're never gonna date anyone, They're not gonna get married. No, They're going to die, probably in that very same hospital.

17:00 Is it God's decree of how many people will die today on this planet from starvation? Look up the numbers. Look up the numbers of how many children will be molested this year alone, how many women will be raped, how many people will be murdered, how many people will will will face some kind of violent crime that will leave them injured or or or you know, greatly traumatized for the rest of their life. Is that God's providence and God's decrees? Now say we can't we we love when the story's like, oh look, how look how close it was? Donald Trump could have been killed?

17:45 I mean it was just it was just a few inches and it would have been over. Oh wow, God is so powerful. God is so amazing. It's a miracle. It's so great. And you're like, but but but just just a few feet over there was another man and that the God. What about the other man? What about what about the other man? See, that's the thing we have to struggle with. That's the thing we have to be honest about. If we cannot be honest with that, then all we are doing is we've created a Christianity. We've created a Disney version of Christianity, a Hallmark Channel version of Christianity where we only want to take the good and we don't and we want to try to ignore the kind of the double edged sword to this very important topic. So here's how we're going to proceed Throughout at least the next week plus. You're going to be finding random sermons random Please note random don't look for certain kinds of churches.

18:56 But you want to look for sermons on God's eternal and God's providence. Now, what you're probably going to find is that most of the churches probably are going to be a that actually mentions God's providence and God's Decrees are probably going to be churches that are in line with either the Westminster Confession of Faith or the London Baptist Confession of Faith, meaning they're coming at it from much more of a reformed perspective. Now, if you can, and if you stumble upon people who kind of criticize, openly criticize the more reformed understanding of God's eternal decrees and God's providence, if you find any that are kind of coming at it from a non reformed perspective and may be critical of the London Baptist Confession or Westminster Confessions way of approaching this subject, then by all means, make sure you email me immediately because we definitely want to hear the counter argument.

19:53 If one is made, and how it is made, we will see how the week goes. So let's start here. So that's that's your challenge for the week. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to just once again remind you of some basic definitions of God's eternal decrees and God's providence. Then I'm going to point you to a sermon series on God's providence and God's decrees, and then I'm going to point you to a book that is free, and I'll and I'll send out the link via the church one app that you can read a very famous classic work on God's Providence, and I'm going to point you to that. So I hope this will be beneficial and helpful. And because this is a very I mean, since everyone's talking, since the term God's providence or God's decrees have been used frequently, and those responding to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, since many keep using the phrase, but nobody seems to want to actually dig into the concept and address the negative side of it. Well, then that's what we are going to do, and hopefully it's going to be beneficial. So are you ready.

21:03 Let's start with the London Baptist Confession of Faith. I've got the London Baptist Confession of Faith here. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna back up and I'm gonna go to chapter three of the sixteen eighty nine London Baptist Confession of Faith of God's Decrees. You can find the London Baptist Confession of Faith online just like that. It's everywhere, right, it's everywhere. The London Baptist Confession of Faith of sixteen eighty nine. I told everyone to be reading it already, over and over all this week, you're supposed to be just reading chapter three and chapter five the London Baptist Confession of Faith, over and over and over and over and over this week. I don't know if anyone has taken that challenge serious. But now for the next week, I want you to continue to do that. All right, here we go, and I want you to look up all the scripture references and everything. Are you ready?

21:52 Here is the sixteen eighty nine Baptist Confession of Faith of God's decree. Chapter three, paragraph one we read. Depending on your perspective, you may find this great. You may find great comfort in this, or this may actually horrify you and keep you up at night. Are you ready? Here we go? God have decreed in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably all things whatsoever comes to pass. Now just stop right there. Do you truly believe that God has decreed in himself from all eternity whatsoever comes to pass? Please note the word whatsoever do you believe God from all eternity has decreed everything that comes to pass? Do you truly embrace this? Now I've said this, I said this before, and I'll say it again. It is so easy to say

23:23 a men to this when sitting in a pew on a Sunday and you got your family next to you, and everything is wonderful. Everything is great. The birds are singing, their sun is shining, you've got a bag of skittles. Everything okay, everything is wonderful. Yeah, I'm being a little sarcastic, but everything is beautiful and wonderful. You can say, a man pastor, praise God. God has decreed from all eternity whatsoever comes to pass. Amen. It is so great on a Sunday morning with my family and my friends and everything is perfect, everything is wonderful. And then it's far different to say that on Thursday when you find out that your seven year old has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's in the brain and they've got six months to live. Theoretically sounds great. Practically it sounds great when well the news is positive, but when the news is it's difficult. Do you truly believe God has decreed in himself from all eternity, whats whoever comes to pass? Now immediately said, once you start talking about this, there's gonna be like, well, well what about this? And what about There's going to be pushback. So almost immediately the authors of the London Baptist Confession of Faith starts trying to come in here and trying to offer some kind of explanation, and people trying to work around this concept. Okay, if we believe

24:56 God from eternity decrees whatsoever comes to past, this is going to raise some serious questions. So theologians, christians, pastors have all tried to tried to offer well, okay, well he does decree whatever comes past, but that doesn't mean this, and that doesn't mean that. And we try to find a way, almost ultimately, to try to get God off the hook. And I don't know if any of the attempts work. Here's the attempt of the London Baptist Confession of Faith. All right, so he unchangeably freely from all eternity has decreed whatsoever comes to pass. Yet so as thereby is God, neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein all right, So he mean like okay, now look look, look, God decrees, everything comes to pass. But wait, wait, wait, he's not the author of sin. He's not the author of sin. Now I understand why we have to try to deal with this. I just think our attempts.

25:49 Really, I don't know how well any of our attempts actually work. So let me I've stated this a million times, let me state it again. The most troubling verse in the entire Bible, hands down, is Genesis one one. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Now, if you anyone reading that lives obviously way after those those words or were written were spoken, right, if you live after God is initial creation, which is all of us, well then you know how creation turned out. Right, So I know how the world turned out. So from the very first time I started reading in the beginning, God created, I'm like, stop, stop, stop, don't do it. Don't create, don't create the heavens and the earth. Don't do it. It's it turns out to be a total, complete, utter, dumpster fire. It's it's trash, it's garbage. Don't do it. Nothing good is gonna stop. I just want to start yelling out the text, no, no, no, God create, no do something else, God, do something else, pick a different hobby, do something, don't create the heavens and the earth.

27:07 Don't do it. You don't need them because you are perfect and sufficient in yourself. You don't need anyone, because you've got perfect harmony within the trendy. You don't need anything. Stop just stop. Don't do it. Don't do it. But he did. Now the minute he did, Well, we got questions. Okay, Now, wait a minute. God is all knowing. So if he's all knowing, he knows exactly what's going to happen. The minute it says God created the heavens in the earth. No, only do that. As you continue to read your Bible, you find out that God created this angelic being that we call Satan or Lucifer. Wait, he knew the minute he created that angelic being exactly what was going to happen.

27:49 Now, once that angelic being rebelled, God could have destroyed him. But God doesn't. Not only does he not destroy him, he allows him to come to the very creation that he created, letting him not only come to this, to the creation of earth. He lets him into the garden. He doesn't keep him out. Then he lets him tempt Eve, knowing exactly Eve's going to fall, Adam's going to fall, and this is going to bring sin into the world. He could have then killed Eve, could have killed Adam, could have killed destroyed Satan be the end. But no, no, no, no no, He lets it all happen. So even if you want to say God is not the author of sin, you cannot deny He created the world and created everything, knowing exactly what was going to happen, and did absolutely nothing to prevent it. Now I know I'm going to have the non reform people going free will, free will, free will, free will. Well, God is the one who gave free will, knowing exactly what was going to happen. Right. If if you heard that a parent right took their you know, seven year old, and said, hey, here you go, here's a loaded gun, go play, and then something happens and that that seven year old kills someone or kills themself, everyone's gonna be like, well, the parents should have known better, The parent had to know what was going on. Blame the parent, right, and the parent will get blamed. Well, God knew exactly what was

29:19 going to happen. And even if you said, well, he gave and he didn't have to give anyone for you. People always say he had to do free will. There's nothing requiring him to give anyone free will. And even if you believe in an initial free will, well, obviously, now if you if you continue to believe in some type of libertarian free will, then you have to be a Pelagian or a semi pelagiant, because you've got to deny the effect of depravity upon the will, so that even that raises all kinds of questions. But God is still the one knowing exactly what's going to happen and does nothing to prevent it or stop it. So even if you don't want to say he's the author, you still are stuck with these very troubling situations. Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature?

30:06 Okay, well, he doesn't have to offer violence to the will of the creature, especially after the fall. God doesn't have to do anything because now the will of the creature is impacted by the sinful nature. All right. Nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away? Now the second cause is kind of a nice little philosophical way of saying, okay, you see God's not the one actually doing it. Second causes is see God didn't do it, Satan did it well, but God's the one who created Satan. God knew exactly what was going to happen. So as much as you try to get God off the hook, you really, I know, we want desperately to get him off the hook, but they're really at all. Look, you go far enough back in the beginning God. Every you go far enough back God, everything's going to end. Everything goes back to the you know, right before God, everything goes right back to God.

31:00 Everything is laying at the feet of God. There's no you can try. You can spend all you can spend fifteen years, you can spend thirty years trying to get God off the hook. You can't. In the beginning. God he's the one who started it all, knowing exactly what was going to happen, and possessing the power to stop it at any time. And we know from scripture there's times he does intervene to stop certain things, and there's times he doesn't intervene to stop anything. And which appears his wisdom and disposing all things and power and faithfulness and accomplishing his decree. So in the midst of all of this he appeared. His wisdom appears, and disposing all things.

31:51 He disposes all things, and his faithfulness and accompli accomplishing his decree. What he decrees, he will accomplish. What he decrees will happen. And he decrees whatsoever comes to pass, He decrees it all. Now again, that's great when we talk about positive things. See, God from all eternity decreed that President Trump or the former president Donald Trump. However, you would like to say it all right, that Donald Trump would be speaking at a particular place on a particular Saturday, and I think Pennsylvania, I think is where it was at Butler, Pennsylvania, believe, and as someone would shoot at him, it would just barely nick his ear, but he would be spared. He would be saved because God decreed whatsoever comes to pass. See that sounds so good. And then everybody's like amen, and people may applaud praise God. Let's sing now, Terry, take your hymnals, and let's sing a praise song to God's providence, decree his omnipotence. He is our protector, He's our shield, and we thank him for protecting and shielding Donald Trump, and everybody will be amen, and nobody wants to mention Corey,

33:22 who, well, God did not protect, God did not decree to save his life, and he's dead. We don't want to talk a bit about the troubling reality of how many children were molested or abused and all the horrible things that happened on that same very saturday. See to say, God decrees whatsoever comes the past, that whatsoever includes the positive and the negative. Now we could can tenue on there's paragraph two, paragraph three, paragraph four, paragraph five, paragraph six, paragraph seven, And I want you to become an expert in those seven paragraphs. I want you to read them. I want you to meditate on them. I want you to struggle with them.

34:16 I want you to think of every implication, positive and negative. That is what you're going to be doing for the next week plus. We are going to take these things apart and we're just going to try to struggle with it as much as we can, and it's never easy. And then you can formulate where you fall it. Do you believe God? And if you say, well, I don't believe God decreed everything, okay, well then you've got things happening apart from God's sovereign control, like, well, then what does that mean? And even if God is not decreeing everything, then God chose not to decree everything, So then things are operating according to what just chance, just luck, just happenstance. Yes, yeah, raises some unpleasant questions. So but I want you to spend time on God's decree sixteen eighty nine London Babtist Confession of Faith. Please, I beg you make it a priority for the next week. Now I want to go ahead and read paragraph two, but we're already thirty five minutes into this. You know, if I try to read all of this, that's gonna take forever. You will hear me reading from the London Baptist Confession of Faith. Over the next week or so, I will be reading all the scriptures, provided we'll be talking about the scriptures. We're going to be making this a major priority. Since everyone's talking about God's providence, but nobody seems to really want to talk about God's providence. Then that's what we are going to attempt to do. Now, if we go to chapter five of the London Baptist Confession of Faith,

35:47 of divine providence, paragraph one, chapter five, or here we go, Chapter five, Paragraph one, sixteen eighty nine, London Baptist Confession of Faith. And this section is referred to of divine providence. And I'll read paragraph one, and it begins like this, God, the Good creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom, does are you ready? Here's the thing God does. He upholds, he directs, He disposed, and govern all creatures and things, not just creatures, but even things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, to the end for which they were created, according unto his infallible knowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness and mercy. So God not only does he decree whatsoever comes to pass, he upholds, he directs, He disposes, and he governs every single creature and every single thing.

37:01 And listen, he does this to the end for which they were created. In other words, he is going to dispose. God He's going to take care of it all. He's in control of everything. So do you believe God from all eternity has decreed whatsoever comes to pass. And do you truly believe that God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures and things? And if you believe both of those things, how do you understand that in light of all of the horrific, horrible things that have occurred in life in general and in your own life. I can't speak for you.

37:58 I can speak for me all the abuse I endured as a child, my mother dying while I was young, my father dying of cancer. I you know, well, I won't go through everything that happened to me in the military, But what happened to me while I was in the military, and now being one hundred percent disabled having neurological and seizures because of what happened to me in the military, that's just my own life. My daughter being diagnosed with a horrible disease that she suffers great pain from every single day. I can continue on whatever circumstance you find yourself in right now, do you truly believe that God's when controlling and directing, And if so, how should you respond now? I think one of the reasons the Bible has psalms of lament right is because people as human being and we've been talking about this in our study of Psalm Maty three. We believe in a God in whom we cannot see, and we believe that God is sovereign, and that he decrees whatsoever comes to pass, and that he governs, directs, upholds, disposes every

39:30 creature in everything according to his plan and his will. We believe all of that theoretically, We believe all of that philologically right. But we live in a world where there are circumstances and pain and suffering and tragedy, and it causes and we see that and we feel that, and that causes us to question the God in whom we cannot see. It may cause us to question his existence, his involvement, his wisdom, his sovereignty. It causes us to question it greatly. And that's why we have psalms of lament, where they scream out and pain. A psalm of lament is a spiritual cry of pain, going where are you? God? I don't understand. Why are you not doing something? Do something? Do something now? But what we have to do is in struggle through what we can see, what we can feel, to continue to hope and cling to a God in whom we cannot see, believing that God in whom we cannot see, will work all things ultimately to his glory, his honor, somehow to our spiritual good, even though we cannot necessarily see it or understand it. And that doesn't take away your pain, That doesn't remove the tragedy you endured. Nobody should throw that in your face like, oh, well, that should just make everything better.

40:52 No, you're gonna feel the pain and you're gonna struggle. That's the reality of being someone who believes in a God in whom you cannot see. Because you're gonna believe in a God and whom you cannot see while enduring things that you very much can see, and the things you see greatly calls in a question the God in whom you cannot see. That is what we've been talking about in SAW maybe three, over and over and over and over and over again. These are very difficult concepts. So here's what I want to do. First. Well, first again, I kind of gave you some some of the definitions just to remind you, challenge you on your assignment to be reading the lundin Baptist Confession of Faith Chapters three and five, over and over and over again. I'm telling you. I know you're gonna read it once and think you're good. I need you to read it like a hundred times until it almost enters into your body and it becomes a part of you.

41:55 The more you read it, the more you may see the good. You may see the beauty, you may see the horror in it, you may see the light, you may see the dark. But I want you to be confronted with it and discuss it, talk about it with your your husband and friends. Just just make it a major part of your life over the next week or so. I don't know how long we're going to go, right, So that's the really the first thing. Next, I want to point you to a book that I want you to make a priority to read. And I heard about this book and the following message. Listen carefully to what I heard. Please be seated. We we've been in a study for the last two weeks of God's providence. God's providence a good word, an old fashioned word, one that expresses this truth that our whole lives are in His hands and sends many of you or travel on vacation in and out in July. I often choose a book with which to make our study more rich. I want to try to choose one of the best books that have ever been written and use that in the summers to present to you some of these ideas. The one that we're using now is from a Puritan English Puritan

43:25 named John Flavel, called The Mystery of Providence. The John Flavl f L a v e L. John Flavl f l a v e L. John Flavl f l a v e L. John f l a v e L. John Flavl, a Puritan, and the name of the book is the Mystery of Providence, John Flavl, The Mystery of Providence, The Mystery of Providence. Now, what I'm going to do is at the conclusion of this broadcast, if you have the Church one app and you're following us Theology Central, which then makes the Church one app our app if you if you're download If you don't have the Church one app, go to the Apple App Store the Google Play Store, download the Church oh n E app that's all run together Church O n E. Then search for Theology Central, make us your chosen you you're broadcaster of choice, and then I will send out a notice at some point at the conclusion of this broadcast, and you'll get a link to the PDF version of The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel. Right, you will receive it, and then you can follow the link, and then you can save that, and then you can start reading the book today for free. Will not cost you any money. We're not violating any We're not violating any copyright or anything like that, because I will be sending you a

44:55 link to monargism dot com, which makes available lots of wonderful works. Monegism dot com should be a site you visit frequently, and you should utilize it frequently. All right, So I'm going to back that up just a little bit more. See what else he says here. I want you to hear him mention it again. And so this book is going to be a major part of what we're going to be looking at over the next week or so. All right, let me play this again. Choose a book with which to make our study more rich. I want to try to choose one of the best books that have ever been written and use that in the summers to present to you some of these ideas. The one that we're using now is from a Puritan English Puritan named John Flavel called the Mystery of Providence the Mystery of Providence. And if you're going to be gone for a couple of weeks, well don't why not pick up a copy and you'll learn much more from him than you will from me. But I will be quoting him some and just so you know, that's who John Flavel is, and that's why I'll be mentioning him. From Psalm fifty seven comes our study. This a psalm of David when he fled from Saul into the cave. We read when it looked like his life was at an end. Saul in his army right outside

46:27 David's cave where he and his men were hiding. And then the king himself comes in in the sight of David, and it looks as though it is all over. Be merciful to me, Oh God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts in you, and in the shadow of your wings, I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God most High, to God who performs all all things for me, He shall send from heaven and save me. He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

47:12 My soul is among lions. I lie among the sons of men who are set on fire, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be exalted, Oh God, above the heavens, Let your glory be above all the earth. We'll stop right there. I was letting him read a little bit of Psalm fifty seven, because Psalm fifty seven to Psalm fifty seven to two, I will cry out to God most High, to God who performs all things for me. That's the key verse for John Fleabel's book, The Mystery of Providence. So that's why I wanted you to hear that. So we're gonna if you if you want to wait for me to send out the link, I'll send out the link. If you want, you can start looking for it right now. The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel. Make that a priority. So what is your assignment for the next week or so? Well, your assignment is I guess if we want to put these in correct numerical order, number one, you're going to be grabbing the sermon's two point zero app over the next week and at least once a day you're going to find the most random sermon possible about God's decrees are God's providence. Right, that's what you're going to do. Number two.

48:28 You're going to be looking at the London Baptist Confession of Faith on chapter three and chapter five on God's decrees and on God's providence, and you're going to be reading it over and over and over. Next you're going to start reading and start working slowly. It's a Puritan work, so it's going to be slow and at tedious and at times frustrating. But try to work through it slowly, small little sections. You don't have to read a lot of the Mystery of Providence. Don't make it out like a oh, I got to read it quickly. Just who cares? Just read a little bit at a time, just a little two or three paragraphs and then just stop and just think about it all right, right, and then next that's what you were just hearing right there. That's from a sermon series, and I'm going to point you towards this sermon series. The sermon series is called The Mystery of Providence. The Mystery of Providence. There are three sermons currently in the series. Sermon number one is called David's God and Ours Psalm fifty seven to two, is Providence Real Psalm fifty seven to two, and My Life in His Hands Psalm fifty seven to two. This is a series entitled The Mystery of Providence. This series is brought to you by Redeemer Church AARP. The pastor's name is David Vance v a NCEE. David Vance. So what you may want to do while you're you need to be picking random sermons, you can go ahead and just go ahead and find this series The Mystery of Providence.

49:59 And what I'll do maybe I'll send a link out to this series, and I want you to definitely make this a priority. We will probably be reviewing some of these, so this is what I may challenge you to do. You may want to start following this series because I won't be able to review all of them, but we may review some of them, and so you'll already hear some of them in my review and then you can go listen to the rest whenever you want. In the meantime, look up other sermons on God's Providence and God's Decrees. I think the two have to be they go hand in hand and my estimation and my view, so you definitely want to do that. So do you need your assignments again? All right?

50:42 Are you ready? First and foremost, you're gonna start listening to random sermons on the sermons two point oh app on God's Decrees and God's Providence number two. You're going to be reading the London Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter three and chapter five over and over and over and I cannot even begin to say it enough, over and over and over again for the next week plus. You're gonna find a copy of John Flabel's book The Mystery of Providence, or you're gonna wait for me to send it out, and you're gonna start reading that slowly, slowly, slowly. Then you're gonna look up the series on the Mystery of Providence. You're gonna at least follow it, save it. You may want to follow that church. You can, you know, if you're using the sermon's two point oh app you can follow them. That's Redeemer Church. Redeemer Church. I already follow them. They're located in Virginia, all right, and you may want to follow them now. That will give you a good rounded approach to this subject, but I kind of want to do this. I want to end with this. Typically this subject is approached and much more of a positive way. Hey, God's providence and God's decree brings great comfort. And by no means do I want to deny any comfort that that may arise from the doctrine of God's eternal decrees and God's providence.

52:15 But I think sometimes because we so want to turn it and spin it in such a positive way, that Christians are not prepared for the obvious difficulties that arises from these concepts. Now, in church history, there's been much debate, and there's been all kinds of theological ways to try to answer these problems. I think when you get down to the end, it doesn't really solve the problem as much as as everyone thinks that it does. I think the problems continue to persist no matter But I know this, if we believe there's a God, and if we believe in God's eternal decrees, and if we believe in God's providences, then the struggle will be when we are faced with when God's providence in God's decrees seem to be going in a way which we do not like. In a way which it seems painful, hurtful, harmful.

53:14 Are we going to respond and believing in God and submitting to it no matter how much we dislike it? Are we going to respond by rebelling and saying, God, I don't care what you try to do. I'm going to do things my own way. Now, in some ways, we do that every single day because we always want our way and we do what we want. That's called, you know, sin, But it's something we are confronted with, and I think sometimes nobody wants to look at the ugly side of this. And what better way to see this play out? In one historic moment that will be talked about for a long time, the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, Because in that one incident, one man is spared, one man is saved. His name is Donald Trump. The other man by the name of Corey. He dies. Two other people I don't even know if I have even seen their names, were wounded. Don't know how severely they were wounded. I don't think I've seen an update recently, but they were wounded obviously. Then the shooter himself was killed. All of that played out in one small area, right within a small confined area. You have a shooter. God does not do anything to prevent him, stop him.

54:43 He gets access to the area, God doesn't do anything to stop it. He allows the man to shoot. He allows one bullet to just barely nick Trump's ear, but the other bullets hit people, and in one of those individ Jos by the name of Corey dies and the shooter himself is killed. All of that playing out and literally seconds just like that. Now, if you say God, see, oh, God's providence, God's decree, God's protection there, you have to also admit God's lack of protection, God's decree, God's providence right there. Now, If you throw out God, then it's all just random actions of human beings, and things happen the way they happen, and there's nothing guiding it. It's just circumstances the way they play out. There's nothing guiding it, there's nothing directing it. It just happens.

55:53 Now, in some ways, you may find more comfort from that kind of an atheistic perspective. The only problem is, well, then how do you judge the morality of it? Then there's no real purpose in life like then you're left, You're still look, you're still left with the same tragic situation. One man lives and another man dies. You're still left with that. But you can just say, well, that's just how random chance works. Right, But then there's how do you judge things? There's no purpose, there's no meaning. How did we get here? So we got here by an accident and a reality we're just the results of an accident. There's no meaning, there's no purpose, there's nothing transcending. Okay, look, you're still going to be left with some very troubling situations and issues. But we can't deny that theism are, in our case, the belief and the God of the Bible, not just Christians. We're still left with many troubling situations. So for the next week, God's providence and God's decrees, we're going to put those two together. I've given you your assignments. Now you either work to get the most out of this or you will not. And I understand, I don't know where it's going to go. I don't know, but I know this. If everyone's talking about it, then what will be our job here is to dig into it. And so that's what we're going to do. All right, Thanks for listening, everyone, have a great day. Now, according to God's eternal decrees and God's providence, I have to go help my daughter move and I don't like moving. I don't

57:23 like it. But that's God's eternal decrees and providence, right. See. It's hard to live your life seeing everything from that perspective, or at least it is for me. Sometimes. Hey, if all of a sudden, you know, I get an email and someone's like, hey, I just donated one hundred thousand dollars to your podcast and to your church, all your financial problems, for give it one hundred thousand. I don't even need one hundred thousand, twenty thousand, thirty thousand. I don't know. One hundred thousand would be perfect. Actually, one hundred thousand woud fix all problems. Okay, So I have one hundred thousand. Then I could turn on the microphone and say, according to God's eternal decrees and God's providence and his sovereignty, he has provided exactly what I need. I needed that to pay off my house. I need that to ensure that the church lasts. The podcast now is saved forever. Everything is perfect, everything is wonderful, everything is great. Thank you so very much, I give all praise and glory to God because in his sovereignty he provided exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. Yeah, I say, it's easy to say it that way, but you know, the way things are going, well, the church will be gone, and you know, I don't know what the future the podcast is and how am I going to financially support things? And you know how this is going to go. There's lots of financial there's all kinds of uncertainty. Don't know how anything's going to work. There's possibly difficulty, there's just oh, everything's kind of you know, a mess. Whether I talk about it or don't talk about it, there's just all kinds of questions.

58:55 Well, guess what if things don't work out, I have to We also believe that's God's decree, God's providence. See, when it works out great, it's so easy to think it's the most amazing doctrine in the world. When it doesn't work out great, when it goes when you get what you want and you get what you feel providence and decrees. Amen. When you don't get what you want and you don't get what you truly feel you desire, then you're like God What are you doing? God? Where are you?

59:37 What are you doing? We've got to be able to embrace both concepts if we're going to embrace these very important theological concepts. Thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless