The Root of Beautiful Patience

00:00:00.000 | [Music]

00:00:04.000 | Pastor John's new book is about the precious doctrine of God's providence.

00:00:08.000 | The title is simply "Providence." God governs over all that

00:00:12.000 | he has created. He reveals this to us in a thousand

00:00:16.000 | texts. More than a thousand texts in the Bible. It's all over the place.

00:00:20.000 | And by welcoming us into this incredible revealed reality,

00:00:24.000 | God calls us to see and savor this truth for ourselves.

00:00:28.000 | He wants us to treasure his providence so much that it brings

00:00:32.000 | tangible change to how we live our lives. To that end,

00:00:36.000 | we are setting aside Wednesdays on the podcast to look at a few of the implications.

00:00:40.000 | There are ten of them in the series. Last time, in episode 1583,

00:00:44.000 | we looked at how the providence of God protects us from the trivializing

00:00:48.000 | effects of contemporary culture and from the widespread habit

00:00:52.000 | of trifling with everything, even the great

00:00:56.000 | things of God. That was implication number four.

00:01:00.000 | Here now with implication number five is Pastor John to explain.

00:01:04.000 | I suppose, Tony, that among all the

00:01:08.000 | challenges that characterize our lives and the lives of

00:01:12.000 | those who write to us, the frustrations of ordinary

00:01:16.000 | life and how to cope with them are

00:01:20.000 | right near the top of our concerns. In other words, things

00:01:24.000 | come into our lives that are unplanned, unexpected,

00:01:28.000 | either very frustrating or sometimes

00:01:32.000 | very painful. And the question is,

00:01:36.000 | is it possible to be patient with all

00:01:40.000 | the unexpected, frustrating things that come into our lives?

00:01:44.000 | And that's where this fifth real-life

00:01:48.000 | benefit of seeing and savoring the all-pervading

00:01:52.000 | providence of God, the purposeful sovereignty

00:01:56.000 | of God, comes into play.

00:02:00.000 | And it is this. Believing the providence of God,

00:02:04.000 | embracing the providence of God, enables us

00:02:08.000 | to be patient and faithful in

00:02:12.000 | the long, dragged-out, often unexpected

00:02:16.000 | trials of life amidst the most inexplicable

00:02:20.000 | circumstances, detours,

00:02:24.000 | delays that from our limited viewpoint make

00:02:28.000 | no sense. Believing the providence of God

00:02:32.000 | transforms that experience.

00:02:36.000 | James, in his book, in the New Testament,

00:02:40.000 | points us to the connection between God's providence and our

00:02:44.000 | patience. James 5, 7, "Be patient,

00:02:48.000 | brothers, until the coming of the Lord.

00:02:52.000 | Behold, the farmer waits for the precious

00:02:56.000 | produce of the soil, being patient about it until he

00:03:00.000 | gets the early and late rains. You too, be

00:03:04.000 | patient as an example, brothers, of

00:03:08.000 | suffering and patience." You have heard of Job

00:03:12.000 | and the endurance of Job

00:03:16.000 | and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings,

00:03:20.000 | that the Lord is full of compassion

00:03:24.000 | and is merciful. So James

00:03:28.000 | says that our patience in life

00:03:32.000 | as we, like a farmer, sow our seed

00:03:36.000 | faithfully in the spring and then wait and wait

00:03:40.000 | and the summer months are long and they're hot and we don't know

00:03:44.000 | if the seed is growing the way we want. Our patience

00:03:48.000 | as we wait will be strengthened

00:03:52.000 | and sustained if we look at the story of Job

00:03:56.000 | and take special notice of his endurance

00:04:00.000 | and God's passion and love and care.

00:04:04.000 | He calls it "merciful purpose" in it all,

00:04:08.000 | which is amazing because it's a very painful story.

00:04:12.000 | Satan gets permission from God in chapter 1 of Job

00:04:16.000 | and God permits Satan to actually kill

00:04:20.000 | all 10 of Job's children and Job meets the news

00:04:24.000 | by falling on his face in verses 20 and 21 of

00:04:28.000 | chapter 1 and worshipping the Lord instead of hating God

00:04:32.000 | for taking his children and says, "Blessed

00:04:36.000 | be the Lord. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken

00:04:40.000 | away." Satan then returns to God

00:04:44.000 | again and he gets permission to go afflict Job

00:04:48.000 | with boils from the top of his head to the bottom

00:04:52.000 | of his feet and his wife tells him, "Look, just curse

00:04:56.000 | God and die." And Job responds again

00:05:00.000 | with patience and endurance in faith in God's providence

00:05:04.000 | and says, "Shall we receive good at the hand of the

00:05:08.000 | Lord and not receive evil?" And at the end

00:05:12.000 | of the book in chapter 42, Job expresses

00:05:16.000 | one of the most sweeping and powerful statements

00:05:20.000 | of God's providence in all the Bible when he says,

00:05:24.000 | "I know that you can do all things and that no

00:05:28.000 | purpose of yours can be thwarted."

00:05:32.000 | And for that faithfulness, God

00:05:36.000 | had mercy on Job and restored his fortunes

00:05:40.000 | including his children and James says

00:05:44.000 | that lesson in providence from the book of Job

00:05:48.000 | is the foundation of the patience of our

00:05:52.000 | life. So, saturate your mind

00:05:56.000 | with such scriptures day after day. Be exposed

00:06:00.000 | to God's utterly unexpected ways in

00:06:04.000 | the Bible until you become accustomed

00:06:08.000 | to trust him in the dark because of what he's shown you

00:06:12.000 | in the light, especially the light of his word. Isaiah

00:06:16.000 | 55, 8 says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts,

00:06:20.000 | neither are your ways. My ways, declares the Lord."

00:06:24.000 | And then let's immerse ourselves

00:06:28.000 | in the biblical portrayals of his providence.

00:06:32.000 | If we do that, we become less vulnerable to panic,

00:06:36.000 | less vulnerable to perplexity and dread because

00:06:40.000 | God has shown us again and again and again

00:06:44.000 | that things are not what they seem and that he is always

00:06:48.000 | weaving something wise out of the painful

00:06:52.000 | perplexing threads that look like a tangle

00:06:56.000 | in our lives. Think, just think of this. This has

00:07:00.000 | moved me so much. Think what practical

00:07:04.000 | effect it would have on our lives for

00:07:08.000 | wonderful counterintuitive patience if we believed

00:07:12.000 | that our frustrating delay at the red traffic light

00:07:16.000 | was God's keeping us back from an accident about to happen.

00:07:20.000 | Or if we believed that getting our leg broken

00:07:24.000 | in the accident was God's way of revealing

00:07:28.000 | an early cancer in our leg

00:07:32.000 | that because it's discovered would save our lives for

00:07:36.000 | another 50 years instead of dying

00:07:40.000 | within a year. Would we be angry that he ordained

00:07:44.000 | the breaking of our leg if that was the case? Or if we

00:07:48.000 | believed that the frustrating middle of the night phone call that made us

00:07:52.000 | so angry that we were awakened was only to help us smell the smoke

00:07:56.000 | in the basement and keep our house from being burned down.

00:08:00.000 | God says in his word that's what he's doing

00:08:04.000 | in every one of our frustrations. Yes, he is.

00:08:08.000 | The key to patience is faith

00:08:12.000 | in the all-embracing, all-guiding, all-wise, all-

00:08:16.000 | gracious providence of God to transform all the interruptions

00:08:20.000 | of his children into rewards.

00:08:24.000 | Can we not then write in big letters

00:08:28.000 | as a heading over our lives and over every frustration

00:08:32.000 | "Satan, you meant that for evil. God meant

00:08:36.000 | it for good." Is the great Romans 8:28

00:08:40.000 | really true? Can it be believed that owing to

00:08:44.000 | God's all-pervading, all-embracing, all-wise, all-gracious

00:08:48.000 | providence, God is working everything together for

00:08:52.000 | our good as his children?

00:08:56.000 | One closing story. Benjamin Warfield was a world-renowned

00:09:00.000 | theologian who taught at

00:09:04.000 | Princeton Seminary for almost 34 years until his death in 1921.

00:09:08.000 | Many people are aware of his famous

00:09:12.000 | book, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible, but

00:09:16.000 | what most people don't know is that in 1876

00:09:20.000 | at the age of 25 he married Annie Pierce Kincade,

00:09:24.000 | took a honeymoon to Germany, and during a storm

00:09:28.000 | Annie was struck by lightning and

00:09:32.000 | permanently paralyzed on their honeymoon.

00:09:36.000 | After caring for her patiently

00:09:40.000 | for 39 years,

00:09:44.000 | Warfield laid her to rest in 1915 and there was no

00:09:48.000 | Job-like restoration at the end of that story,

00:09:52.000 | only death into the arms of Jesus and someday a new

00:09:56.000 | body. Because of Annie's extraordinary needs,

00:10:00.000 | Warfield almost never left his

00:10:04.000 | home for more than two hours at a time for

00:10:08.000 | 39 years. But when Warfield

00:10:12.000 | came to write his thoughts on Romans 8:28,

00:10:16.000 | this is what he wrote, "The fundamental thought

00:10:20.000 | is the universal government of God, providence.

00:10:24.000 | All that comes to you is under

00:10:28.000 | his controlling hand. The secondary thought

00:10:32.000 | is the favor of God to those that love him.

00:10:36.000 | If he governs all, then nothing but

00:10:40.000 | good can befall those to whom

00:10:44.000 | he would do good. He will so govern

00:10:48.000 | all things that we shall reap only good

00:10:52.000 | from all that befalls us."

00:10:56.000 | That is the root and power

00:11:00.000 | of beautiful patience

00:11:04.000 | and steadfastness in Job, in Warfield,

00:11:08.000 | and in you. So the fifth

00:11:12.000 | real-life effect of seeing and savoring

00:11:16.000 | the providence of God is the amazing power to be

00:11:20.000 | patient and faithful through the most

00:11:24.000 | inexplicable circumstances of life.

00:11:28.000 | So let's sing with William Cooper, "Judge not

00:11:32.000 | the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his

00:11:36.000 | grace behind a frowning providence.

00:11:40.000 | He hides a smiling face."

00:11:44.000 | Beautiful patience. That's how we get it, through seeing and savoring the providence

00:11:48.000 | of God. That's incredible. Thank you, Pastor John. It's pretty sobering to stand

00:11:52.000 | over the matching graves of Benjamin Warfield and his bride Annie

00:11:56.000 | off by themselves, side by side, in the Princeton Cemetery.

00:12:00.000 | If you live near Princeton, New Jersey, you can go and see them and witness a sort of

00:12:04.000 | monument to love and patience that comes from treasuring God's

00:12:08.000 | providence. It's really moving. We return Friday to hear from a

00:12:12.000 | heartbroken father of a teenage daughter who is living in sin.

00:12:16.000 | She is sexually active. The father is hurting and wants to know

00:12:20.000 | what to do next. Pastor John will weigh in and try to help

00:12:24.000 | this dad. That's next time. On Friday, I'm Tony Rehnke, your host, and we will

00:12:28.000 | see you then. Thanks for listening.

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00:12:38.000 | you

The Root of Beautiful Patience

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