Trembling at Sin, Marveling at Grace
00:00:00.000 | The doctrine of God's providence is the theme of Pastor John's new book, Providence.
00:00:09.800 | To see and savor God's providence makes a very definite impact in our lives.
00:00:15.020 | We cannot live properly if we fail to understand how God governs over his creation and how
00:00:20.640 | he governs over our lives.
00:00:21.960 | In the past two Wednesdays and in the several Wednesdays ahead, Pastor John is celebrating
00:00:26.960 | the real-life impact.
00:00:29.400 | This doctrine makes on our lives.
00:00:32.560 | There are a total of 10 implications.
00:00:34.600 | Last time in episode 1574, we looked at how providence confronts our lethargic worship.
00:00:40.680 | That was implication number one.
00:00:43.060 | Here now with implication number two is Pastor John.
00:00:47.600 | My second answer to the question, what are the real-life effects of knowing and loving
00:00:55.640 | the all-pervading, all-embracing providence of God?
00:01:01.440 | My second answer is this.
00:01:05.000 | Seeing and savoring, which is just another way of saying knowing and loving.
00:01:10.360 | I love them both.
00:01:12.600 | Seeing and savoring this providence makes us marvel at our own salvation and humbles
00:01:20.920 | us, yes, with trembling joy, humbles us because of our sin.
00:01:28.440 | By his providence, from eternity to eternity, God chose us, his elect, he chose us from
00:01:39.120 | eternity.
00:01:40.500 | When he saw that we deserve nothing but condemnation, he predestined us to be his children and share
00:01:47.480 | the likeness of his son in spite of our unworthiness and treason and recalcitrance.
00:01:56.240 | He purchased us at the cost of his son's life, his only son's infinitely valuable,
00:02:05.760 | precious life.
00:02:07.400 | He called us the way he called Lazarus, out of death.
00:02:13.000 | He caused us to be born again, and he did all of that before we thought anything, felt
00:02:20.880 | anything, believed anything, did anything, indeed, before we could think anything, feel
00:02:29.520 | anything, believe anything, do anything.
00:02:34.080 | This is why the apostle Paul said all of it was to the praise of the glory of his grace.
00:02:42.720 | Ephesians 1.6.
00:02:44.960 | And then he gave us freely the will to believe, the will to repent, and through that believing
00:02:55.120 | and repenting, he justified us, declaring us to be righteous, perfectly righteous in
00:03:01.880 | the presence of the all-holy God, forgiving all our sins and becoming 100% for us and
00:03:08.960 | not against us, 100% for us in every experience of our lives, no matter how painful or pleasurable.
00:03:18.560 | And he gave us his Holy Spirit as a seal so that we would be infallibly kept for the day
00:03:25.720 | of redemption.
00:03:27.640 | And he is working in us now what is pleasing in his sight.
00:03:35.480 | And he will keep us, he will keep us from falling and bring us safely to glory.
00:03:43.840 | He has taken away the sting of death, and he will bring us through it into the all-surpassing
00:03:50.080 | presence of Christ.
00:03:52.000 | He will perfect our souls, raise us from the dead, give us new bodies like his glorious
00:03:58.560 | body, present us with a new world, new heavens and a new earth for our eternal habitation,
00:04:06.680 | where his glory will be the light and the Lamb will be the lamp.
00:04:13.320 | It is a great tragedy that millions of Christians do not know that this is true about them,
00:04:21.280 | that all of it is owing to the all-pervading, all-embracing providence of God.
00:04:28.440 | They have been taught a salvation with themselves as the decisive cause at the point of their
00:04:37.320 | believing, their conversion.
00:04:40.820 | This view of their own decisive power obscures the glory of what God has actually done for
00:04:47.920 | them.
00:04:48.920 | It strips them of stunned thankfulness for the gift of faith.
00:04:53.880 | It dulls the intensity of their amazement that they were raised from the dead.
00:04:59.360 | It takes away the wonder of their perseverance.
00:05:04.260 | They think it's owing to their own steadfastness instead of the omnipotent moment-by-moment
00:05:10.640 | keeping of God.
00:05:13.320 | When my mother was killed in a bus accident in Israel, my father almost died in the same
00:05:19.320 | accident.
00:05:20.320 | He was home on the same plane with the body of my mother, and after nursing him to the
00:05:25.840 | point where his injuries could take it, he and I drove alone to the cemetery to pick
00:05:33.080 | out a grave marker.
00:05:35.360 | We discussed what it would say, and both of us were very happy to settle on 1 Peter 1,
00:05:44.760 | verse 5, and on her gravestone or her grave marker—it's made out of brass—are the
00:05:51.560 | words "Kept by the power of God."
00:05:56.680 | I have stood over that grave many times in the last 46 years and praised God for his
00:06:04.360 | sovereign providential majesty in keeping her believing and in keeping me to this very
00:06:15.120 | moment a believer.
00:06:18.440 | I mean, keeping me from making shipwreck of my faith.
00:06:22.320 | He is the reason that hasn't happened.
00:06:25.280 | It is a glorious thing to see that the sovereign God chose me, predestined me, purchased me,
00:06:34.240 | raised me from spiritual death and helplessness, gave me faith and adopted me, forgave me for
00:06:41.400 | all my sins, justified me, gave me his Holy Spirit.
00:06:46.360 | And I say it is a glorious thing to see that it is God's invincible providence that he
00:06:53.920 | is keeping me.
00:06:56.360 | The older I get, the more amazed it becomes.
00:07:00.360 | I think that must have been what moved Jude, the second to the last book in the New Testament,
00:07:08.120 | to close his book with the greatest doxology in the Bible, and all of it is to celebrate
00:07:16.440 | the keeping power of God, that God keeps his own people from making shipwreck of their
00:07:24.800 | faith and being lost.
00:07:27.360 | Perseverance, eternal security is not automatic.
00:07:32.200 | It is the work of God's sovereign providence.
00:07:36.040 | Here's what he says.
00:07:37.040 | "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before
00:07:43.760 | the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus
00:07:51.200 | Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forevermore.
00:08:01.040 | Amen."
00:08:02.040 | That's just the greatest doxology in all the Bible, and all of it was drawn out of
00:08:09.640 | Jude's heart by "you keep us from stumbling."
00:08:15.280 | Oh that we could see and savor this providence.
00:08:20.360 | Oh how we would exult in the freedom and the fullness and the sovereign effectiveness of
00:08:27.040 | our salvation.
00:08:29.040 | If we see God's providence as it really is, we will be glad that it is all from God
00:08:35.360 | and through God and to God.
00:08:37.880 | We will be made humble and happy and hopeful.
00:08:42.080 | We will give all glory to God.
00:08:45.320 | The lowliness we feel because of our unworthiness will be accompanied by and tempered by the
00:08:52.400 | wonder of God's merciful and infinitely loving providence.
00:08:58.000 | I love the way Jonathan Edwards describes this experience.
00:09:02.200 | This is what he says, and I have quoted it so many times.
00:09:07.040 | "The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires.
00:09:13.320 | Their hope is a humble hope, and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory,
00:09:18.280 | is a humble, brokenhearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit and more
00:09:26.880 | like a little child and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behavior."
00:09:35.760 | This lowliness goes hand in hand, or maybe I should say hand in glove, with an amazed,
00:09:45.080 | joyful marveling that we are saved and how God saved us, how he is saving us, how he
00:09:53.280 | will save us from eternity to eternity by his all-wise, merciful, all-embracing providence.
00:10:02.040 | So the second effect of seeing and savoring the providence of God that I want you to enjoy
00:10:10.560 | is this.
00:10:12.000 | It makes us marvel at our own salvation and humbles us with a kind of trembling joy because
00:10:21.760 | of our sin.
00:10:22.760 | Amen.
00:10:23.760 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:10:25.300 | This is a key implication for seeing and savoring the precious reality that God governs his
00:10:29.720 | creation by his providence, and he governs us by his providence as well.
00:10:33.680 | This is the theme of Pastor John's new book by the simple title, "Providence."
00:10:38.140 | Check it out.
00:10:39.140 | Thank you for listening to the podcast.
00:10:40.760 | On Friday, we return with another question from a listener.
00:10:43.200 | Up next is a question from Elliot, who wants to know, "Am I too hard on myself?"
00:10:49.240 | Am I too hard on myself?
00:10:53.320 | And how would I know if I was too hard on myself?
00:10:56.120 | I'm Tony Reinke.
00:10:57.120 | We'll see you on Friday for that question.
00:10:58.800 | Thanks for listening.
00:10:59.800 | We'll see you then.
00:10:59.800 | [END]
00:11:00.040 | 1.
00:11:01.040 | Is there a time and place in your life when you feel that you have more of a right to
00:11:02.040 | be happy than you do in your current life?
00:11:03.040 | A. I don't think so.
00:11:04.040 | I don't think there's a time and place in my life.
00:11:05.040 | I don't think there's a time and place in my life where I feel that I have more of a
00:11:06.040 | right to be happy than I do in my current life.
00:11:07.040 | I don't think there's a time and place in my life where I feel that I have more of a
00:11:08.040 | right to be happy than I do in my current life.