What Difference Does Providence Make?
00:00:00.000 | Well, what difference would it make in your life if you saw God's providence as true and
00:00:09.840 | biblical and beautiful?
00:00:11.920 | Something so incredible you could build your entire life on it.
00:00:15.760 | Would it change your life?
00:00:17.760 | Pastor John is betting it will, and so we want to focus on these implications for a
00:00:21.600 | season here on the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:00:25.240 | As you know, Pastor John's big book, Providence, releases this month.
00:00:28.440 | It's a huge 700-page long book, has over 3,000 Bible citations.
00:00:33.320 | But over the course of the next several weeks, we want to look at the so what's of the doctrine
00:00:38.800 | and show you how some of the most important key life application points are relevant for
00:00:43.400 | your busy life.
00:00:45.720 | So for the next several weeks, we're going to put our sermon clip Wednesdays on hold
00:00:50.000 | in order to focus on the immediate implications of providence.
00:00:53.800 | Today is week number one, an introduction to a series with 10 episodes to follow.
00:00:59.360 | Here now is Pastor John to introduce our new Wednesday series.
00:01:04.200 | Tony, let me give at least three reasons why this feels so right to me, so urgent, to build
00:01:14.200 | 11 sessions on providence into the flow of Ask Pastor John.
00:01:21.800 | First, what is in this book on providence and in these episodes is the foundation of
00:01:33.080 | every single answer I ever give on this program.
00:01:38.840 | If people understand what I mean by the providence of God and its benefits, it will inform and
00:01:47.480 | deepen every single answer that they ever hear on this podcast.
00:01:54.280 | That's reason number one.
00:01:56.360 | Number two, since God's providence is all embracing and all pervading, it relates powerfully,
00:02:06.880 | meaningfully, immediately to every situation in every person's life.
00:02:14.200 | Everything is outside the providence of God.
00:02:17.680 | His design in his providence at every moment of our lives is relevant for how we live and
00:02:25.660 | how we respond to everything that comes our way.
00:02:29.000 | I really want our listeners, and this would be another reason why it feels so fitting
00:02:36.000 | to put the series here, I really want our listeners to have this book on their shelf
00:02:42.980 | as a reference book for a hundred issues in their lives and ministry.
00:02:47.760 | I know, and you know, Tony, that most people do not read 700-page books, but they do put
00:02:56.600 | them on their shelves if they have 3,000 Bible references in the index that enables them
00:03:05.360 | to find the issue they're dealing with and see how the providence of God relates to it.
00:03:11.000 | And I am jealous that our listeners, our listeners especially, have access to those thousand
00:03:18.340 | passages of Scripture that bring the providence of God to bear on their lives.
00:03:24.420 | So Tony, I love this family of listeners to Ask Pastor John, and I wouldn't press the
00:03:32.340 | providence of God into our ordinary flow of question and answer if I didn't think it would
00:03:38.300 | be really worth everybody's time.
00:03:41.660 | Somebody asked me how long it took me to write the book on providence, and I said, "Oh, about
00:03:47.860 | 50 years."
00:03:50.340 | And of course what I meant was that this book is the consummation or the capstone of all
00:03:56.900 | the most important things I have ever discovered about God and his ways and his goals in the
00:04:03.660 | Bible.
00:04:04.660 | This book is the most comprehensive statement of the things in Scripture that I regard to
00:04:11.460 | be most important for worshiping and living and dying.
00:04:16.880 | What we want to do in this series of Ask Pastor John is draw out 10 effects, 10 real-life
00:04:25.100 | implications of seeing and savoring this vision of God's providence as real and beautiful.
00:04:32.900 | In other words, what difference would it make in your life if you saw this vision of God's
00:04:39.660 | providence as true and biblical and beautiful, if you embrace it and build your life on it?
00:04:47.980 | So that's where we are going, 10 powerful effects of seeing and savoring the all-pervasive
00:04:56.660 | providence of God.
00:04:58.540 | But in this first session, I think it is absolutely crucial that I make clear what I mean by the
00:05:08.180 | word providence, the reality providence.
00:05:11.940 | What's the definition?
00:05:13.260 | What's the extent?
00:05:14.260 | What's the nature?
00:05:15.260 | What's the goal?
00:05:17.100 | That is the whole book, and we're going to do it in just a few minutes.
00:05:20.500 | And then following are 10 sessions that bring out 10 real-life implications of embracing
00:05:27.180 | this reality.
00:05:28.900 | So first, by providence, I mean God's purposeful sovereignty, purposeful sovereignty.
00:05:36.540 | In other words, the difference between God's sovereignty and God's providence is that His
00:05:42.180 | sovereignty is His right and power to do all that He pleases.
00:05:48.060 | And His providence is the exercise of that right and power purposefully.
00:05:55.780 | Providence is God's use of His power and His authority to bring about an ultimate purpose
00:06:02.980 | for the universe, which cannot fail.
00:06:06.940 | What then is the extent of His providence?
00:06:10.620 | How far does it reach?
00:06:12.140 | How detailed is it?
00:06:13.380 | What does it include?
00:06:14.780 | And my answer from Scripture is that God's providence is all-pervading and all-embracing.
00:06:22.120 | There is nothing, nothing in the universe that lies outside God's meticulous and infinitely
00:06:30.180 | far-reaching governance.
00:06:33.220 | In Ephesians 1.11, Paul refers to the predestining God as "him who works all things according
00:06:42.920 | to the counsel of his will."
00:06:45.560 | The climax of the book of Job in chapter 42, verse 2 says, "I know you can do all things,
00:06:52.600 | and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted."
00:06:56.960 | Isaiah chapter 46, verse 10, God says that part of what it means to be God is "my counsel
00:07:05.840 | shall stand, I will accomplish all my purpose."
00:07:11.600 | So He governs all things, all His purpose is achieved, no purpose can be thwarted.
00:07:19.240 | And that is true, Jesus said, of the smallest details, like a bird falling from the sky,
00:07:24.160 | Matthew 10.29.
00:07:25.160 | Isaiah said it was true of the biggest things, like placing the stars in place and calling
00:07:31.320 | them all by name, Isaiah 40, verse 26.
00:07:34.960 | And Luke said in Acts 4.27 and 28 that this providence even governs the sinful actions
00:07:42.320 | of Christ-killing Herod, Pilate, Jews, Gentiles, all of us, basically.
00:07:49.840 | The extent of God's providence is all-pervading and all-embracing.
00:07:56.280 | What about its nature?
00:07:58.040 | And what I mean by that is that does He govern by coercion?
00:08:03.640 | Is that the nature of it?
00:08:05.320 | Does He take away the meaningfulness of human volition as He governs all things and all
00:08:11.400 | people?
00:08:12.400 | No, the nature of God's providence is formed by His wisdom and justice and mercy.
00:08:19.800 | Daniel 4, all His works are right and His ways are just.
00:08:26.840 | Psalm 104, how manifold are Your works in wisdom, You have made them all.
00:08:34.600 | The judge of the universe always does what is right.
00:08:39.520 | Genesis 18.25, no angel, no demon, no human is ever treated worse than they deserve.
00:08:49.320 | None.
00:08:50.480 | The nature of God's providence is infinitely wise and always just.
00:08:57.400 | And finally, what is the goal of providence?
00:09:02.400 | If providence is purposeful sovereignty, what's the ultimate purpose of it all?
00:09:09.080 | Creation, history, redemption, where's it all going?
00:09:15.100 | When I first started to write this book, I thought it would be a book about the nature
00:09:20.560 | and extent of providence, period.
00:09:23.300 | That's all, just those two.
00:09:24.960 | And as I began to write, I realized I can't speak meaningfully about God's governing all
00:09:33.280 | things and His doing it in a just and wise way without talking about how God makes His
00:09:41.960 | wise choices.
00:09:44.120 | Tens and billions of them, unless these choices are made to take the universe somewhere rather
00:09:52.880 | than being whimsical or being made willy-nilly.
00:09:57.120 | So the goal of providence now takes up one-third of the book.
00:10:03.320 | So here's my one-sentence summary of those 250 pages.
00:10:09.480 | The ultimate goal of God's providence is to glorify His grace in the spiritual and moral
00:10:18.720 | and bodily beauty of Christ's undeserving, blood-bought bride, the Church, the redeemed
00:10:28.440 | from all ages, as she enjoys, reflects, and thus magnifies His greatness.
00:10:39.440 | And beauty and worth above everything in the new heavens and in the new earth.
00:10:48.600 | Now perhaps we are ready to turn with some understanding to those 10 real-life effects
00:10:58.960 | of embracing this all-pervading, all-embracing, infinitely wise, infinitely just providence
00:11:07.440 | of God as He pursues the glory of His grace in the joy of our souls in Him.
00:11:17.280 | I'm looking forward to it.
00:11:18.680 | Amen.
00:11:19.680 | I'm looking forward to it as well.
00:11:20.680 | Join us next Wednesday for part two when we look at the affectional side of providence,
00:11:25.800 | namely how seeing and savoring this providence awakens and sustains wonder and awe and holy
00:11:32.160 | reverence within us.
00:11:34.400 | Looking forward to that part.
00:11:35.400 | But first up, next time on Friday, Pastor John joins me back in the studio.
00:11:40.520 | And next up is a really important question we get all the time.
00:11:43.320 | Basically, how often should we be questioning our salvation?
00:11:46.840 | How much is too much when questioning the legitimacy of our own conversion?
00:11:53.280 | I'm Tony Reinke.
00:11:54.280 | We'll see you on Friday for that.
00:11:55.720 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author and pastor John
00:12:00.360 | Piper.
00:12:01.360 | We'll see you Friday.
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