Proud Planning (1)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
In Romans 12, a familiar passage in the Word of God, verse 2, Paul, you remember, gives us this profound exhortation. I alluded to it when I opened up the service this evening. "Do not be conformed to this world. Do not be conformed to this world." And there are a lot of fascinating Greek words bound up in that command. But that's not our text to exposit this evening.
Only to say this, that literally what Paul is saying here in this particular verse is, don't allow the mindset of the age in which you live to conform you into its mold. Don't allow the mindset of the age in which you live, this present age, to conform you to its mold. This mindset, this world, isn't passive. It's not neutral. It is active, and it's actively seeking to mold God's people into its own image, to conform us into its own mold. Don't allow the mindset, the way of thinking of the time period in which you live, to force you into its mold. Paul was deeply concerned that the thinking of the culture in which we live would influence our own.
You see, there's a constant battle going on for our minds. God the Holy Spirit, using His Word, according to Romans 12, wants to renew our thinking. Now, we have to have our mind renewed by the Word of God. And in the renewed thinking, we will experience, to use Paul's words, ‘metamorphousthe’. We will experience a ‘metamorphousthe’—that's the Greek word he uses. It's a reference to this radical transformation as our thinking is changed. At conversion, there is this tectonic change in our thinking. And as believers, then, there is this continuous change that takes place day by day as we submit our minds, our lives, our hearts to the Word of God to be our compass, to be our sanctifying means.
Unfortunately, we are all too influenced by the thinking or the mindset of the world in which we live, and we need desperately the Scripture. We need to hide it in our hearts. We need to read it. We need to traffic in the Scripture—not for the sake of trafficking, but so that we can be immersed and let our minds be marinated to really absorb all the flavor, all the nuances, all the truth that we come across by the grace of God. We hear the world's thinking and its mindset from our childhood, from our youth, and we are assaulted by it every single day. And so often, we're influenced by it, and it's a very real problem, beloved.
One clear example of this concern has to do with the issue of what causes the events and circumstances of our lives. That's one of the things we contend with. What lies behind our decisions and our actions? You may not even be aware of this, but you have probably been influenced by one or more of the common philosophies of our age and perhaps not even be aware of it, but it's still a reality. You see, when it comes to explaining what lies behind our decisions, our actions, our circumstances, there are four primary perspectives, four primary philosophies, four primary mindsets, four primary perspectives of exactly how our decisions, how our actions take place.
The first one is called naturalistic determinism. Naturalistic determinism. This is the perspective, the mindset, or the philosophy that says, well, we do what we do because of natural processes. Nature or the laws of nature determine what happens to us. That's how it works. You probably heard of him before—B. F. Skinner wrote that, and I quote, "All human behaviour is completely controlled by genetic and environmental factors.". In other words, we are simply the product of our genetic code and circumstances, or the atmosphere, or the environment in which we live.
Out of this perspective, you'll hear things like this: "Oh, listen, well, he can't help it, it's just the way he is, right? He can't help it, it's just the way he is." You'll hear, "Well, you know, his environment caused him to be the way he is. It's his upbringing, the home in which he grew up, that shaped him, and he can't help who he has become as a result of that shaping influence in his life." And that is a problem, especially when actually it is transported into the Christian realm. "Oh, well, you know, he's got a temper, he's Middle Eastern."
A second common philosophy of why we do what we do, why circumstances in our lives are the way they are, is fatalism, or determinism. This is the one that says that all of the events and circumstances in our lives come to us from fate. It's just fate. Every event, including human thinking and action, is determined by an unbroken chain of prior events. To put it differently, you would say this: all of the actions that occurred in the past before us have unalterably determined every detail about our lives, and there's absolutely nothing you and I can do to change it. In other words, you and I are the product of the past.
This mindset, or philosophy, or perspective also permeates our culture. It is the perspective that says you're locked into this path you're on by past events, and there's nothing you can do to change it or correct it. That's fatalism or determinism.
A third perspective that permeates the culture today is called causalism. This philosophy says that the circumstances of our lives happen by, well, random chance. It's just random chance. My life is a result of random events strung together only by mere mathematical probability. Life is inherently random. Today, the most far-reaching example of this mindset or philosophy is—you got it—the theory of evolution. It's random. It just happened by a set of random, unlikely mathematical probabilities.
But, beloved, here's the bottom line. Chance can do nothing—nothing. It cannot cause anything because it doesn't exist. Chance is only mathematical probability. It has no power to do anything.
Well, there's a fourth perspective that deals with the question of the cause of events and circumstances in our lives. Now, this one—this last one—is by far the most common, the most popular today, and really very destructive: self-determinism. Self-determinism is the perspective that says, my life is solely the result of my own will, my own decisions. It says something like this: I am in control. I am in control. I am the master of my destiny. I'm the captain of my life, the captain of my fate.
The refrain of this perspective—and you hear it so often everywhere, in every context—is what? I'm sure you'll find this familiar. It's this: you can be whatever you want to be. You can be whatever you want to be. You hear that from teachers, and they think, wow, this is a great teacher. "You can be whatever you want to be." To will is to make it so.
In this worldview, this self-confidence is the greatest virtue. Self-confidence. It's the opposite, by the way, of self-denial. If you believe enough in yourself, if you have sufficient self-esteem, then there's no limit to your potential. You can be whatever you want to be. And our culture preaches this at us day after day after day after day. By nature, this last perspective is what most people want to believe by default, because we want to be—or at least we want to seem to be or believe to be—in control of our lives and our circumstances.
But let me break the news to some— to those who perhaps have not really absorbed this. It's dead wrong. And it's this common perspective, philosophy, mindset of self-determinism—this sad illusion that you and I really are in charge, that you and I are really in control—that James, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, unmasks for us in the last five verses of this fourth chapter in his letter.
And we're going to set the table, simply. The theme of those five verses is simple, and it is this: acknowledging and submitting to God's rule, God's control over our lives. Acknowledging and submitting—not just acknowledging, but also submitting—to God's control, God's rule over our lives. It's the recognition of God's supremacy in the details of life.
You see, Scripture thunders against all pagan philosophies with the declaration that there is a God in Heaven who rules over the affairs and the circumstances of men, just like the psalm that we opened up with declares, "The Lord reigns." Not the Lord and me. Not the Lord and Satan. Not the Lord and—no, no—the Lord reigns. Instead of by nature, or by faith, or by chance, or by your own will, Scripture is clear. Scripture teaches that the events and the circumstances of my life and your life come to us by order from the throne of God.
There is a throne standing in Heaven, and that throne is not vacant. God is on the throne. God is in control. He rules and He reigns. Although I am responsible for the decisions I make and for the sins that I choose to commit, my life and every detail of my life is under the control of an utterly sovereign God. And that is the response that is so foundational to the Christian life and experience. Absolutely foundational. In fact, it is a foundational Christian response to acknowledge and to submit to God's rule over the circumstances of life, and that is the very response that James is calling for here in these verses. It is to acknowledge God's control over every single facet of your life and to gladly, willingly accept what He brings. Whatever my God ordains is right.
Now, to help us understand the key issues in this text and make sure that we respond appropriately, what I want us to do this evening, and, Lord willing, next Sunday evening, is to really break James' exhortation into three parts, three components. The first one that I want us to consider tonight is this: Let us consider the underlying truth of God's rule. Let us consider the underlying truth of God's rule.
You see, James is writing these words, these five verses, to a group of Jewish Christians. Jewish Christians. He knew this group very well. In fact, he had been their pastor for at least ten years before the persecution described in Acts chapter 12 arose, and they had been driven out of their homes into Asia Minor. They became part of the diaspora, as we studied together in the opening verses of this epistle. And so, for all those years, for that ten-year period at least, he had taught these people the Old Testament Scripture.
Remember, the book of James that we're studying was probably the first book in our New Testament that was written. So James taught them the Old Testament through the lens of what he had learned from the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is very important to understand when we come to these verses here in this chapter, because James knows what these people know. And because he knows what they know, he doesn't need to cover ground again. He could simply pick up with the application, which is essentially what he does in these five verses. He just goes right to the heart of the application. But behind this paragraph, you have this huge body of Old Testament doctrine, which James doesn't directly teach because his readers already knew it. They had already been taught. They already understood it.
Now, we, on the other hand, need to carefully look at those truths that lie behind and inform James' comments in these verses, which are very practical. So we're not ready to come to this application yet until we understand the teaching that lies behind it, and so that's what we're going to do this evening. You see this paragraph? In this paragraph, there are two great principles, two great truths that work their way out in the Old Testament, and these people would have known.
Truth number one is this: you are not in control. This is really important. You and I are not in control. Truth number two: God is. It's very simple. I'm not in control; God is. God is in control of absolutely every circumstance in our lives. And by the way, as we learn more next week and the following, Lord willing, this is not an excuse for sin. This is not an excuse for laziness. This is not an excuse for complacency or passivity. God holds us responsible to be wise, to make good decisions, informed decisions, biblically informed decisions, to refuse sin, to pursue righteousness. But none of that in any way changes the core reality: the Lord reigns.
We often speak of this reality by using the word sovereignty—the sovereignty of God. Sovereignty is a wonderful word. It's a great word. But like any word we use often, if we're not careful, we can sort of lose our grip on what it really means. We can sort of muddy out the word, and it becomes foggy in our minds as to what that word itself really means. When we say that God is sovereign, we mean that God exercises absolute control, total control, total absolute control.
Or we could put it this way: God's control of your life and my life is perfect, total, comprehensive, exhaustive, undiluted, unqualified, unquestioned, unhampered, unlimited, autocratic, supreme, ultimate, and infinite. That's what we mean when we say God is sovereign. He is King. He is Master. He is Lord.
And the readers of James' letter would have understood these truths because the Old Testament rehearses this perspective of God's sovereign control over creation over and over again. Psalm 103:19—and we are going to go through some scriptures together. “Yahweh has established His throne in the heavens, And His kingdom rules over all." Psalm 115:3, “our God is in the heavens” – and I love this, “He does whatever He pleases." Psalm 135:6, “Whatever Yahweh pleases, He does, In heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deeps."
Isaiah—turn with me to Isaiah 46. You can see Isaiah here in his prophecy. Isaiah 46, this chapter that oozes with the sovereignty of God. We read, beginning with verse 9b: "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring"—I mean, how powerful is that? How awesome is that?—"declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My counsel will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’, Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My counsel from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have formed it; surely I will do it.'" That's it. Period. Paragraph. End of story. God said it. It will get done. And He declares the end from the beginning and everything in between. What an awesome God is our God.
Do you understand how important this truth of God's absolute control over human activity really is, beloved? Do we really understand it? Do we really grasp how immense the profundity of it? You see, the Old Testament saw this as the very cornerstone of the person and character of Yahweh—the very cornerstone. This is at the heart of what it means to be God. The doctrine of God's sovereignty, or His providence, as we will see, is absolutely foundational.
So foundational, because if God isn't in charge, then He isn't God. There's no ifs and buts. Either He's in charge and He's God, or He's not in charge and He's not God. Absolute sovereignty. To be God is, by definition, to be in control and to be sovereign.
And if He is God, then the Westminster divines correctly understood the Scripture when they wrote this shortly after the Reformation. Listen to what they wrote, and I quote, "God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." He's God. And that's exactly what the Scriptures teach.
Now, when we speak of sovereignty, there's another nuance closely related. I mentioned it already. Related to sovereignty is that other word, providence. Sovereign is what God is. Providence is what God does. Sovereign is what God is. Providence is what God does. Sovereignty declares that He's absolutely in control, and providence tells us how that absolute rule works itself out in your life and in mine and in every circumstance and in every event.
You see, the readers of James would have understood this—that in the Old Testament, they learned that God controls everything to ensure that all the purposes for which He created them are, in fact, accomplished. And that was the foundation of what James is teaching them. Turn with me to Isaiah 14. And all of this, as you understand, is really preliminary. It is setting the table for our really looking in detail at James 4:13-17. Next time, Lord willing, we'll begin to do that. But we need to understand what they understood, and this needs to be really the backdrop to James 4:13-17.
Isaiah 14, here, Isaiah the prophet gives this prophecy against the great nation Assyria, this great empire. And in verse 24, it says, “Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened” – Sovereignty – “and just as I have counseled so it will stand.” Then he goes on to describe what he's going to do. And he says, I'm “going to break," – verse 25, – "Assyria in My land, and I will trot him down on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder." He's saying, I let Assyria deal with the northern tribes, take them into captivity. But I'm going to deal with Assyria in My way, in My own time.
Verse 26: "This is the counsel that is counseled against the whole earth." And here he widens his perspective, not merely to the judgment on Assyria, but to the reality that there's a coming judgment against the entire earth. And he goes on to say, "and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations." Now watch this, verse 27: "For Yahweh of hosts has counseled, and who can thwart it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?" God wants us to understand and to know that He will accomplish His purposes. Completely, He will accomplish them in the earth.
Nebuchadnezzar came to this understanding as well in Daniel 4:35 when he said, "But He," – referring to Yahweh, God, – "does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth; And no one can strike against His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?'"
We understand this in our lives, don't we? The circumstances that we face that are clearly out of our control, brought upon us by the hand of providence. But how? How? Specifically, how does God's providence intersect with our own individual lives? That's a question that I want us to consider in the next few minutes that we have together. How specifically, how does God's providence intersect with our individual lives? What would the readers of James' letter have understood? Well, let's consider, briefly, a little sketch.
First of all, here's how it intersects. First of all, God's providence directs our birth. Oh, how we need to grasp this, beloved, so that when we get to Romans 8:28, we get it, and our hearts are steadied, and we have a calm confidence in the face of whatever it is that we're facing. First of all, God's providence directs our birth, our death, and all of the circumstances of life in between.
You remember Job, of course, and the horrific circumstances that were brought to bear upon his life by providence. He lost his family. He lost his health. He lost his wealth and all that he had amassed over the many, many years. And all that he had left was his wife, who was no helper at all. She was more like a thorn in his flesh. She told him, you remember, "Curse God and die." Come upon me. God is very involved. This was appointed for me. My wealth and my family were appointed for me, and the loss of them was appointed for me as well. No wonder he was able to say, "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Turn with me to Psalm 139. You're familiar with this great psalm that rehearses the omniscience of God as well as His omnipresence. Psalm 139. David recounts the amazing reality that God has formed us and shaped us in our mother's wombs. In verse 14 of Psalm 139, we read the following words: "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well."
Now notice verse 15: "My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And intricately woven in the depths of the earth." He said, You were involved, Lord, in the entire process. Literally, my bones were not hidden. Verse 16, here's the crux: "Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance." In other words, God, You saw when I was still in this embryonic form, when I was still in my mother's womb. And You just didn't see, but You were working and directing and knitting me together and making me the person that I am.
And then notice what he says: "And in Your book, all of them were written The days that were formed for me, When as yet there was not one of them." What an awesome God. And here's the application of this. David was saying to the Lord, God, You knew when I would be formed. You knew the day of my birth. You knew the day of my death. And You mapped out every day between my birth and my death before I was even born. God is in control of our birth, of our death, and all of the circumstances of life in between. God is in control.
Secondly, we could say that God—and this is really not completely separate from the first point. It's more really detailed. It builds on the first point. Secondly, God's providence directs our successes and our failures. He's sovereign. God's providence directs our successes and our failures.
Turn back with me to Genesis 39. As you do this, I just want to recommend a book by a Puritan, John Flavel, on the providence of God, ‘The Mystery of Providence’. It's an incredible book. If you can grab a copy of this, it would do you well. In Genesis 39, you see this in the life of Joseph. And it's easy to misunderstand why things happen in the lives of men like Joseph. But notice what Moses tells us in Genesis 39.
Of course, Joseph has been sold by his brothers into Egypt, slavery into Egypt. He's there under Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard. And in verse 2, we're told, we read this, "And Yahweh was with Joseph. And Yahweh was with Joseph.” – Beautiful words – “so he became” – what? “a successful man”. You see it? Do you see the “so"? Look at the word "so." Yahweh was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. Yahweh was with Joseph”, and with the result being what? Success. He became a successful man.
Why do you think Joseph prospered in Egypt? Why? Do you think it was because he really was sharp? Bright? Smart? Is that why? You think that's why Potiphar just had to notice that he was brilliant, smart, clever? Did he have prowess? Well, obviously God used the skills and gifts that He had given Joseph, but in the end, he could have been skilled and gifted and spent his whole life rotting in some Egyptian prison. But instead, it says, verse 3, "Now his master saw that Yahweh was with him, and how Yahweh caused all that he did to succeed in his hand." Who gets the credit? Yahweh. Not Joseph. Oh, look at me, I'm smart, I'm clever, I know how to deal and wheel. No, no, no, no, it's Yahweh. It's the Lord.
And notice verse 21 in the same chapter. Now Joseph finds himself in prison, you remember, because of the whole situation with Potiphar's wife. He refused her advances. He paid the price. He stood his ground. He was a man of conviction. He had a fear of God in his heart. And verse 21, we read, "But Yahweh was with Joseph and extended lovingkindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. So the chief jailer gave into the hand of Joseph all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's hand because Yahweh was with him; and whatever he did, Yahweh made to succeed."
Beloved, do we understand this reality in our own lives? That our successes and failures are in the hand of God? Deuteronomy 8, Moses talking to the new generation of the children of Israel, gathered on the east of the Jordan, ready to take the promised land. And he says to them there in Deuteronomy 8 and verse 11, "Beware. Beware, beware, beware. Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes, which I am commanding you today." Skip down to verse 17, "Lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand made me this wealth.'"
Don't ever, don't ever forget God. Don't ever forget to give Him all the glory and the credit. You ever tempted to look at whatever successes you've enjoyed in life? You made some investments, and it was great, and you made so much money, and you put plans together, you bought a home, you renovated it, you sold it, made money, whatever it is, whatever it is. School, studies, whatever it is. You ever tempted to look at whatever successes you've enjoyed in life, whether it's position or wealth, prosperity, intelligence, whatever it is, and to give yourself credit for it? Listen, to whatever extent you have had success in this life, it comes, it comes from the hand of God, beloved. And He could just as easily have caused the opposite to occur. He's sovereign over our successes and failures.
Proverbs 21, verse 30, we read, "There is no wisdom, there is no discernment, And there is no counsel against Yahweh." He says, listen, go ahead, come up with your greatest and best plan. Have the greatest wisdom in how you approach the problem. It will not stand against the Lord's counsel.
And then He gives an illustration in verse 31 of Proverbs 21. He says, "The horse is set for the day of battle." Now, you've got to understand what that means in the ancient context, the ancient world. This was the latest, greatest technology—war chariots drawn by war horses. If you had that, then you were on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to war and weaponry. These were the weapons that gave you the edge, that gave you the great advantage over the enemy.
And the writer of Proverbs says, "The horse is set for the day of battle," and it seems that you have a great advantage, “But salvation”, – deliverance, – “belongs to Yahweh." Don't think it's your horse or chariots and weaponry and cutting-edge technology. That advantage in and of itself does not guarantee you victory. God is the One who grants success.
Thirdly, we could say that not only does God's providence intersect with all of the circumstances of our life from birth to death, not only our successes and failures as well, but thirdly, and this is important, God's providence intersects with our free—and I put free in quotation marks—actions and decisions. You and I need to understand this. Proverbs 16, verse 9 says, "The heart of a man plans his way." You can make your decisions, you can make your plans. I will do this, I will do that. I'm going to plan this and plan to do this, and next year I'm going to do this and that. I'm going to build me a house, and I'm going to build barns, tear down the old ones, make new ones, bigger, better. "The heart of man plans his way."
And by the way, the word "way" here translated in English, the Hebrew word, is singular, and it refers to your entire life, really. You remember—maybe some of you are at this point now, but some of you are older—you remember a time when you sort of mapped out your life, you had it all in your mind, you planned your way, you envisioned what your life ought to look like, and you had your plans. Graduate from high school, graduate from university, especially graduating, getting my degree, my diploma, whatever it is, and you planned it all, you have it all mapped out. But Proverbs goes on to say, "But Yahweh directs his steps." And "steps" is plural, implying the little moment-by-moment decisions and actions that we take.
God is sovereign, beloved, even over our free actions and decisions. Proverbs 19, verse 21, "Many thoughts are in man's heart." Many, many thoughts, many plans are in man's heart. It's right to plan. There's nothing wrong with planning. We should plan. "Many plans are in man's heart. But, – “But it is the counsel of Yahweh that will stand." Understand that only as our plans mesh with the great plan of God do our decisions and actions stand. God directs our steps in such a way that His sovereign purpose is laid out for us.
Proverbs 21, verse 1, speaks of the most powerful men in the ancient world, the kings, the monarchs. And it says, "The king's heart like channels of water in the hand of Yahweh; He,” – God,” – turns it wherever He pleases." Like that, right? The imagery—it's vivid imagery, by the way—behind this verse: irrigation canals and irrigation ditches in the ancient world. In Israel, if you wanted something to grow, you had to direct water to that place because there wasn't enough natural rainfall to keep everything watered. Today we have sprinklers. In the ancient world, they had to have irrigation canals and ditches, and to direct the water through that series of channels or canals, there were gates that could be closed, and the water would be then redirected.
And God's saying, that's how I direct the heart of the king. I open this gate, and I shut this gate, and I direct his heart wherever I choose. It flows down, if you will, in whatever channel I choose. God is sovereign even over our decisions.
And finally, and this is important as well, He's sovereign over our sins. He's sovereign over our sins. You know, it is easy to accept the fact that circumstances beyond our control are directed by a sovereign God. Sickness comes, death of a loved one. We understand and we say, well, that's from the Lord, the hand of God.
And we encounter incredible health difficulties, and we say, well, you know, the Lord is in control, and that's God. And we can even accept the clear teaching of Scripture that God is involved in the small things and the seemingly accidental things, like the flight of an arrow, to use biblical imagery or language or example. And one such example from the Old Testament is an arrow that struck the divide of the king's armor. You remember in 1 Kings 22, there's no such thing as random, or the casting of lots. We understand all of this, but this is important.
It's hard to understand and to accept, but it is there, that God's providence intersects with our sin. This is exactly what the Bible teaches. God, who's holy, holy, holy, pure, good, undefiled, determined to allow sin, not to hinder the sinful choices of His creatures, for His own purpose or purposes. And let me say this again to qualify it. Again, God doesn't cause sin. He is not the author of sin. He doesn't tempt us to sin. We studied that extensively in James 1. But our sin becomes part of the eternal plan of God. As one author put it, and I quote, "Men's sinful acts do not frustrate the eternal plan of God, but neither is God the author of them. All acts, including sinful acts, conform to the eternal plan of God, but He is not directly the author of all such acts."
You see, God takes no responsibility for our sinful choices, absolutely none. We get the responsibility, all of it, because we make those choices. But in the miracle of divine providence, God, the sovereign God, God directs and controls the results of our sinful choices, often to ends that we could not have foreseen and that were unintended. The most powerful Old Testament illustration of this is in the life of Joseph as well. Turn back to Genesis 45. Genesis 45—you of course remember the story. Joseph finally does make it to become the second most powerful man in Egypt, a prime minister of Egypt. And in chapter 45, he first encounters his brothers who sold him into slavery.
Notice verse four, Genesis 45, verse four. I often wondered what went through the hearts of these brothers when this happened. Verse four: “Then Joseph said to his brothers, "'Please come near me.'" And they came near, and he said, "'I am Joseph, your brother, whom you, you, you sold into Egypt.'" What a moment that must have been.
Then he says, I want to tell you something. I have a theology lesson that I want you to learn. Here's some deep doctrine, heavy-duty doctrine. Listen carefully, he says to them. "So now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here”. You, you did it. You're responsible, you did it. You committed this sin. You're responsible, he says. "'So now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. So God sent me before you to establish for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive for a great remnant of survivors.”
Here's the point. Verse eight: "'So now it was not you who sent me here, but God, and He has sent me as a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.'" Joseph says, listen, I want you to get it. I want you to understand—you were acting, you were sinfully choosing to sell me into slavery. You're responsible, you sinned against me, you sinned first and foremost against God, but you need to understand also that God was sovereignly working through it as well to send me here to accomplish His purpose.
This is amazing about divine providence. Even sinful acts are under His divine control. That ought to give us comfort. They occur only by divine permission and according to God's ultimate purpose. So as you can see, everything in our lives from beginning to end is under the sovereign control of an utterly sovereign God. And when you examine the Scripture, what the Scripture teaches, you can understand why Charles Hodge wrote, and I quote, "'The circumstances of every man's birth, life, and death are ordered by God, whether we are born in a pagan or Christian land, whether weak or strong, with many or few talents, whether we are prosperous or afflicted, whether we live longer or shorter time, are not matters determined by chance or by the unintelligent sequence of events, but by the will of God.'"
How? How does God do this? How, how, how does this—my mind can't—well, He does it by what we call in theology the doctrine of concurrence, concurrence. And let me explain concurrence very simply. It's simply this: God is the first and greatest cause, but He uses secondary causes. That's it. God is the first and greatest cause, but He uses secondary causes.
You see, this providence and sovereignty doesn't deny that men really do act. We really do make decisions, nor does it deny that God has established natural laws in the universe. But these secondary causes—the acts and decisions of men, the working of natural laws—are superintended by God to absolutely guarantee that they fulfill His great plan for His creation. He does; He works all things, all things, according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1).
And of course, the best illustration of this in all of Scripture is none other than the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Acts 2. This is a signature text on this. You only need this text to see it all come together. Remember in Acts 2, Peter says to them, in verse 23, preaching the Word of God, he says, "this Man," – referring to Jesus Christ, a Man attested by God, miracles and wonders, “this Man delivered over by"—who?—"the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death."
You see the balance. They were making a terrible, sinful choice to kill Christ, and yet they were only fulfilling the predetermined plan of God. And God was using and directing their sinful choices to ends they could have never foreseen and never anticipated. That's the amazing reality of our God. He is sovereign.
Beloved, this is a great dividing point. You see, Christians love and find help and comfort in the truth of God's sovereign providence, and we should find that comfort as well. We, as believers today—loss of a loved one, loss of employment, loss of business, serious illness—Christians find their confidence in the goodness and the kindness of their God in the midst of dark providence.
You speak to believers going through these difficult and heart-wrenching circumstances—where do you think they have found their greatest comfort and help? It's in the knowledge of God's sovereign control over every detail of life.
Let me conclude by quoting Spurgeon on this matter. Listen to him. He says, "There is no attribute more comforting to His children,” – God's children, – “than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances and the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There's nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of His own hands, the throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne."
But on the other hand, unbelievers find this truth absolutely offensive. Spurgeon continues, "On the other hand, there's no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His dispensary of alms to bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof or light the lamps of heaven or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean. But when God ascends His throne, then His creatures gnash their teeth."
And he concludes, "We proclaim an enthroned God and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well without consulting them in the matter. Then it is that we are hissed and vilified, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach.
It is God upon His throne whom we trust,”
Like it or not, God is on His throne, and there's not even a single stray molecule anywhere in the vast reaches of His universe. As R. C. Sproul often used to say, “there's not a maverick molecule in this universe. It's all under His control.” That is without question what both Old and New Testaments teach, and this is the underlying truth that lies behind James 4:13-17, which we will examine together next Lord's Day, Lord willing.
May this encourage your heart as you face tomorrow, as you face the week ahead, and whatever it is that is on your plate right now. Child of God, may the truth of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, and the doctrine of concurrence warm your heart, settle your heart, and fill your heart and mind with the peace that surpasses all understanding. God is on the throne; He rules and He reigns, and nothing is outside of His reach or outside of His control. And God is for me in Christ Jesus, not against me.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for the truth of Your Word. We thank You for the wonderful confidence that we can have that You, God, are in absolute total control. You are the Sovereign of Heaven and Earth. You rule and You reign. You are God, and we are not. Help us to live like those who have a renewed mind, not like pagans. Help us, O Lord, to embrace and live in the light of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, and the concurrence that works it all together.
Lord, we thank You. We bless Your holy name. Settle our hearts, we pray. Minister to Your people, Lord. May the truth of this doctrine of the sovereignty of God, the sovereign rule and reign of God, settle the hearts of Your troubled saints in this place, especially those who are going through difficulties, challenges, and uncertainties. Lord, may they rest in this magnanimous truth that we can be certain that our God is a sovereign God. He rules and He reigns, and it's all under His control. Even the hearts of kings and monarchs and presidents and prime ministers—they're like rivers of water. You sway them in whatever direction You want.
Lord, help us to live every single day, moment by moment, in light of this magnanimous truth. May our eyes be fixed on You. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Only to say this, that literally what Paul is saying here in this particular verse is, don't allow the mindset of the age in which you live to conform you into its mold. Don't allow the mindset of the age in which you live, this present age, to conform you to its mold. This mindset, this world, isn't passive. It's not neutral. It is active, and it's actively seeking to mold God's people into its own image, to conform us into its own mold. Don't allow the mindset, the way of thinking of the time period in which you live, to force you into its mold. Paul was deeply concerned that the thinking of the culture in which we live would influence our own.
You see, there's a constant battle going on for our minds. God the Holy Spirit, using His Word, according to Romans 12, wants to renew our thinking. Now, we have to have our mind renewed by the Word of God. And in the renewed thinking, we will experience, to use Paul's words, ‘metamorphousthe’. We will experience a ‘metamorphousthe’—that's the Greek word he uses. It's a reference to this radical transformation as our thinking is changed. At conversion, there is this tectonic change in our thinking. And as believers, then, there is this continuous change that takes place day by day as we submit our minds, our lives, our hearts to the Word of God to be our compass, to be our sanctifying means.
Unfortunately, we are all too influenced by the thinking or the mindset of the world in which we live, and we need desperately the Scripture. We need to hide it in our hearts. We need to read it. We need to traffic in the Scripture—not for the sake of trafficking, but so that we can be immersed and let our minds be marinated to really absorb all the flavor, all the nuances, all the truth that we come across by the grace of God. We hear the world's thinking and its mindset from our childhood, from our youth, and we are assaulted by it every single day. And so often, we're influenced by it, and it's a very real problem, beloved.
One clear example of this concern has to do with the issue of what causes the events and circumstances of our lives. That's one of the things we contend with. What lies behind our decisions and our actions? You may not even be aware of this, but you have probably been influenced by one or more of the common philosophies of our age and perhaps not even be aware of it, but it's still a reality. You see, when it comes to explaining what lies behind our decisions, our actions, our circumstances, there are four primary perspectives, four primary philosophies, four primary mindsets, four primary perspectives of exactly how our decisions, how our actions take place.
The first one is called naturalistic determinism. Naturalistic determinism. This is the perspective, the mindset, or the philosophy that says, well, we do what we do because of natural processes. Nature or the laws of nature determine what happens to us. That's how it works. You probably heard of him before—B. F. Skinner wrote that, and I quote, "All human behaviour is completely controlled by genetic and environmental factors.". In other words, we are simply the product of our genetic code and circumstances, or the atmosphere, or the environment in which we live.
Out of this perspective, you'll hear things like this: "Oh, listen, well, he can't help it, it's just the way he is, right? He can't help it, it's just the way he is." You'll hear, "Well, you know, his environment caused him to be the way he is. It's his upbringing, the home in which he grew up, that shaped him, and he can't help who he has become as a result of that shaping influence in his life." And that is a problem, especially when actually it is transported into the Christian realm. "Oh, well, you know, he's got a temper, he's Middle Eastern."
A second common philosophy of why we do what we do, why circumstances in our lives are the way they are, is fatalism, or determinism. This is the one that says that all of the events and circumstances in our lives come to us from fate. It's just fate. Every event, including human thinking and action, is determined by an unbroken chain of prior events. To put it differently, you would say this: all of the actions that occurred in the past before us have unalterably determined every detail about our lives, and there's absolutely nothing you and I can do to change it. In other words, you and I are the product of the past.
This mindset, or philosophy, or perspective also permeates our culture. It is the perspective that says you're locked into this path you're on by past events, and there's nothing you can do to change it or correct it. That's fatalism or determinism.
A third perspective that permeates the culture today is called causalism. This philosophy says that the circumstances of our lives happen by, well, random chance. It's just random chance. My life is a result of random events strung together only by mere mathematical probability. Life is inherently random. Today, the most far-reaching example of this mindset or philosophy is—you got it—the theory of evolution. It's random. It just happened by a set of random, unlikely mathematical probabilities.
But, beloved, here's the bottom line. Chance can do nothing—nothing. It cannot cause anything because it doesn't exist. Chance is only mathematical probability. It has no power to do anything.
Well, there's a fourth perspective that deals with the question of the cause of events and circumstances in our lives. Now, this one—this last one—is by far the most common, the most popular today, and really very destructive: self-determinism. Self-determinism is the perspective that says, my life is solely the result of my own will, my own decisions. It says something like this: I am in control. I am in control. I am the master of my destiny. I'm the captain of my life, the captain of my fate.
The refrain of this perspective—and you hear it so often everywhere, in every context—is what? I'm sure you'll find this familiar. It's this: you can be whatever you want to be. You can be whatever you want to be. You hear that from teachers, and they think, wow, this is a great teacher. "You can be whatever you want to be." To will is to make it so.
In this worldview, this self-confidence is the greatest virtue. Self-confidence. It's the opposite, by the way, of self-denial. If you believe enough in yourself, if you have sufficient self-esteem, then there's no limit to your potential. You can be whatever you want to be. And our culture preaches this at us day after day after day after day. By nature, this last perspective is what most people want to believe by default, because we want to be—or at least we want to seem to be or believe to be—in control of our lives and our circumstances.
But let me break the news to some— to those who perhaps have not really absorbed this. It's dead wrong. And it's this common perspective, philosophy, mindset of self-determinism—this sad illusion that you and I really are in charge, that you and I are really in control—that James, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, unmasks for us in the last five verses of this fourth chapter in his letter.
And we're going to set the table, simply. The theme of those five verses is simple, and it is this: acknowledging and submitting to God's rule, God's control over our lives. Acknowledging and submitting—not just acknowledging, but also submitting—to God's control, God's rule over our lives. It's the recognition of God's supremacy in the details of life.
You see, Scripture thunders against all pagan philosophies with the declaration that there is a God in Heaven who rules over the affairs and the circumstances of men, just like the psalm that we opened up with declares, "The Lord reigns." Not the Lord and me. Not the Lord and Satan. Not the Lord and—no, no—the Lord reigns. Instead of by nature, or by faith, or by chance, or by your own will, Scripture is clear. Scripture teaches that the events and the circumstances of my life and your life come to us by order from the throne of God.
There is a throne standing in Heaven, and that throne is not vacant. God is on the throne. God is in control. He rules and He reigns. Although I am responsible for the decisions I make and for the sins that I choose to commit, my life and every detail of my life is under the control of an utterly sovereign God. And that is the response that is so foundational to the Christian life and experience. Absolutely foundational. In fact, it is a foundational Christian response to acknowledge and to submit to God's rule over the circumstances of life, and that is the very response that James is calling for here in these verses. It is to acknowledge God's control over every single facet of your life and to gladly, willingly accept what He brings. Whatever my God ordains is right.
Now, to help us understand the key issues in this text and make sure that we respond appropriately, what I want us to do this evening, and, Lord willing, next Sunday evening, is to really break James' exhortation into three parts, three components. The first one that I want us to consider tonight is this: Let us consider the underlying truth of God's rule. Let us consider the underlying truth of God's rule.
You see, James is writing these words, these five verses, to a group of Jewish Christians. Jewish Christians. He knew this group very well. In fact, he had been their pastor for at least ten years before the persecution described in Acts chapter 12 arose, and they had been driven out of their homes into Asia Minor. They became part of the diaspora, as we studied together in the opening verses of this epistle. And so, for all those years, for that ten-year period at least, he had taught these people the Old Testament Scripture.
Remember, the book of James that we're studying was probably the first book in our New Testament that was written. So James taught them the Old Testament through the lens of what he had learned from the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is very important to understand when we come to these verses here in this chapter, because James knows what these people know. And because he knows what they know, he doesn't need to cover ground again. He could simply pick up with the application, which is essentially what he does in these five verses. He just goes right to the heart of the application. But behind this paragraph, you have this huge body of Old Testament doctrine, which James doesn't directly teach because his readers already knew it. They had already been taught. They already understood it.
Now, we, on the other hand, need to carefully look at those truths that lie behind and inform James' comments in these verses, which are very practical. So we're not ready to come to this application yet until we understand the teaching that lies behind it, and so that's what we're going to do this evening. You see this paragraph? In this paragraph, there are two great principles, two great truths that work their way out in the Old Testament, and these people would have known.
Truth number one is this: you are not in control. This is really important. You and I are not in control. Truth number two: God is. It's very simple. I'm not in control; God is. God is in control of absolutely every circumstance in our lives. And by the way, as we learn more next week and the following, Lord willing, this is not an excuse for sin. This is not an excuse for laziness. This is not an excuse for complacency or passivity. God holds us responsible to be wise, to make good decisions, informed decisions, biblically informed decisions, to refuse sin, to pursue righteousness. But none of that in any way changes the core reality: the Lord reigns.
We often speak of this reality by using the word sovereignty—the sovereignty of God. Sovereignty is a wonderful word. It's a great word. But like any word we use often, if we're not careful, we can sort of lose our grip on what it really means. We can sort of muddy out the word, and it becomes foggy in our minds as to what that word itself really means. When we say that God is sovereign, we mean that God exercises absolute control, total control, total absolute control.
Or we could put it this way: God's control of your life and my life is perfect, total, comprehensive, exhaustive, undiluted, unqualified, unquestioned, unhampered, unlimited, autocratic, supreme, ultimate, and infinite. That's what we mean when we say God is sovereign. He is King. He is Master. He is Lord.
And the readers of James' letter would have understood these truths because the Old Testament rehearses this perspective of God's sovereign control over creation over and over again. Psalm 103:19—and we are going to go through some scriptures together. “Yahweh has established His throne in the heavens, And His kingdom rules over all." Psalm 115:3, “our God is in the heavens” – and I love this, “He does whatever He pleases." Psalm 135:6, “Whatever Yahweh pleases, He does, In heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deeps."
Isaiah—turn with me to Isaiah 46. You can see Isaiah here in his prophecy. Isaiah 46, this chapter that oozes with the sovereignty of God. We read, beginning with verse 9b: "For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring"—I mean, how powerful is that? How awesome is that?—"declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My counsel will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’, Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My counsel from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have formed it; surely I will do it.'" That's it. Period. Paragraph. End of story. God said it. It will get done. And He declares the end from the beginning and everything in between. What an awesome God is our God.
Do you understand how important this truth of God's absolute control over human activity really is, beloved? Do we really understand it? Do we really grasp how immense the profundity of it? You see, the Old Testament saw this as the very cornerstone of the person and character of Yahweh—the very cornerstone. This is at the heart of what it means to be God. The doctrine of God's sovereignty, or His providence, as we will see, is absolutely foundational.
So foundational, because if God isn't in charge, then He isn't God. There's no ifs and buts. Either He's in charge and He's God, or He's not in charge and He's not God. Absolute sovereignty. To be God is, by definition, to be in control and to be sovereign.
And if He is God, then the Westminster divines correctly understood the Scripture when they wrote this shortly after the Reformation. Listen to what they wrote, and I quote, "God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass." He's God. And that's exactly what the Scriptures teach.
Now, when we speak of sovereignty, there's another nuance closely related. I mentioned it already. Related to sovereignty is that other word, providence. Sovereign is what God is. Providence is what God does. Sovereign is what God is. Providence is what God does. Sovereignty declares that He's absolutely in control, and providence tells us how that absolute rule works itself out in your life and in mine and in every circumstance and in every event.
You see, the readers of James would have understood this—that in the Old Testament, they learned that God controls everything to ensure that all the purposes for which He created them are, in fact, accomplished. And that was the foundation of what James is teaching them. Turn with me to Isaiah 14. And all of this, as you understand, is really preliminary. It is setting the table for our really looking in detail at James 4:13-17. Next time, Lord willing, we'll begin to do that. But we need to understand what they understood, and this needs to be really the backdrop to James 4:13-17.
Isaiah 14, here, Isaiah the prophet gives this prophecy against the great nation Assyria, this great empire. And in verse 24, it says, “Yahweh of hosts has sworn saying, “Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened” – Sovereignty – “and just as I have counseled so it will stand.” Then he goes on to describe what he's going to do. And he says, I'm “going to break," – verse 25, – "Assyria in My land, and I will trot him down on My mountains. Then his yoke will be removed from them and his burden removed from their shoulder." He's saying, I let Assyria deal with the northern tribes, take them into captivity. But I'm going to deal with Assyria in My way, in My own time.
Verse 26: "This is the counsel that is counseled against the whole earth." And here he widens his perspective, not merely to the judgment on Assyria, but to the reality that there's a coming judgment against the entire earth. And he goes on to say, "and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations." Now watch this, verse 27: "For Yahweh of hosts has counseled, and who can thwart it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?" God wants us to understand and to know that He will accomplish His purposes. Completely, He will accomplish them in the earth.
Nebuchadnezzar came to this understanding as well in Daniel 4:35 when he said, "But He," – referring to Yahweh, God, – "does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth; And no one can strike against His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?'"
We understand this in our lives, don't we? The circumstances that we face that are clearly out of our control, brought upon us by the hand of providence. But how? How? Specifically, how does God's providence intersect with our own individual lives? That's a question that I want us to consider in the next few minutes that we have together. How specifically, how does God's providence intersect with our individual lives? What would the readers of James' letter have understood? Well, let's consider, briefly, a little sketch.
First of all, here's how it intersects. First of all, God's providence directs our birth. Oh, how we need to grasp this, beloved, so that when we get to Romans 8:28, we get it, and our hearts are steadied, and we have a calm confidence in the face of whatever it is that we're facing. First of all, God's providence directs our birth, our death, and all of the circumstances of life in between.
You remember Job, of course, and the horrific circumstances that were brought to bear upon his life by providence. He lost his family. He lost his health. He lost his wealth and all that he had amassed over the many, many years. And all that he had left was his wife, who was no helper at all. She was more like a thorn in his flesh. She told him, you remember, "Curse God and die." Come upon me. God is very involved. This was appointed for me. My wealth and my family were appointed for me, and the loss of them was appointed for me as well. No wonder he was able to say, "The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Turn with me to Psalm 139. You're familiar with this great psalm that rehearses the omniscience of God as well as His omnipresence. Psalm 139. David recounts the amazing reality that God has formed us and shaped us in our mother's wombs. In verse 14 of Psalm 139, we read the following words: "I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well."
Now notice verse 15: "My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And intricately woven in the depths of the earth." He said, You were involved, Lord, in the entire process. Literally, my bones were not hidden. Verse 16, here's the crux: "Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance." In other words, God, You saw when I was still in this embryonic form, when I was still in my mother's womb. And You just didn't see, but You were working and directing and knitting me together and making me the person that I am.
And then notice what he says: "And in Your book, all of them were written The days that were formed for me, When as yet there was not one of them." What an awesome God. And here's the application of this. David was saying to the Lord, God, You knew when I would be formed. You knew the day of my birth. You knew the day of my death. And You mapped out every day between my birth and my death before I was even born. God is in control of our birth, of our death, and all of the circumstances of life in between. God is in control.
Secondly, we could say that God—and this is really not completely separate from the first point. It's more really detailed. It builds on the first point. Secondly, God's providence directs our successes and our failures. He's sovereign. God's providence directs our successes and our failures.
Turn back with me to Genesis 39. As you do this, I just want to recommend a book by a Puritan, John Flavel, on the providence of God, ‘The Mystery of Providence’. It's an incredible book. If you can grab a copy of this, it would do you well. In Genesis 39, you see this in the life of Joseph. And it's easy to misunderstand why things happen in the lives of men like Joseph. But notice what Moses tells us in Genesis 39.
Of course, Joseph has been sold by his brothers into Egypt, slavery into Egypt. He's there under Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard. And in verse 2, we're told, we read this, "And Yahweh was with Joseph. And Yahweh was with Joseph.” – Beautiful words – “so he became” – what? “a successful man”. You see it? Do you see the “so"? Look at the word "so." Yahweh was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. Yahweh was with Joseph”, and with the result being what? Success. He became a successful man.
Why do you think Joseph prospered in Egypt? Why? Do you think it was because he really was sharp? Bright? Smart? Is that why? You think that's why Potiphar just had to notice that he was brilliant, smart, clever? Did he have prowess? Well, obviously God used the skills and gifts that He had given Joseph, but in the end, he could have been skilled and gifted and spent his whole life rotting in some Egyptian prison. But instead, it says, verse 3, "Now his master saw that Yahweh was with him, and how Yahweh caused all that he did to succeed in his hand." Who gets the credit? Yahweh. Not Joseph. Oh, look at me, I'm smart, I'm clever, I know how to deal and wheel. No, no, no, no, it's Yahweh. It's the Lord.
And notice verse 21 in the same chapter. Now Joseph finds himself in prison, you remember, because of the whole situation with Potiphar's wife. He refused her advances. He paid the price. He stood his ground. He was a man of conviction. He had a fear of God in his heart. And verse 21, we read, "But Yahweh was with Joseph and extended lovingkindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. So the chief jailer gave into the hand of Joseph all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's hand because Yahweh was with him; and whatever he did, Yahweh made to succeed."
Beloved, do we understand this reality in our own lives? That our successes and failures are in the hand of God? Deuteronomy 8, Moses talking to the new generation of the children of Israel, gathered on the east of the Jordan, ready to take the promised land. And he says to them there in Deuteronomy 8 and verse 11, "Beware. Beware, beware, beware. Beware lest you forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His judgments and His statutes, which I am commanding you today." Skip down to verse 17, "Lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand made me this wealth.'"
Don't ever, don't ever forget God. Don't ever forget to give Him all the glory and the credit. You ever tempted to look at whatever successes you've enjoyed in life? You made some investments, and it was great, and you made so much money, and you put plans together, you bought a home, you renovated it, you sold it, made money, whatever it is, whatever it is. School, studies, whatever it is. You ever tempted to look at whatever successes you've enjoyed in life, whether it's position or wealth, prosperity, intelligence, whatever it is, and to give yourself credit for it? Listen, to whatever extent you have had success in this life, it comes, it comes from the hand of God, beloved. And He could just as easily have caused the opposite to occur. He's sovereign over our successes and failures.
Proverbs 21, verse 30, we read, "There is no wisdom, there is no discernment, And there is no counsel against Yahweh." He says, listen, go ahead, come up with your greatest and best plan. Have the greatest wisdom in how you approach the problem. It will not stand against the Lord's counsel.
And then He gives an illustration in verse 31 of Proverbs 21. He says, "The horse is set for the day of battle." Now, you've got to understand what that means in the ancient context, the ancient world. This was the latest, greatest technology—war chariots drawn by war horses. If you had that, then you were on the cutting edge of technology when it comes to war and weaponry. These were the weapons that gave you the edge, that gave you the great advantage over the enemy.
And the writer of Proverbs says, "The horse is set for the day of battle," and it seems that you have a great advantage, “But salvation”, – deliverance, – “belongs to Yahweh." Don't think it's your horse or chariots and weaponry and cutting-edge technology. That advantage in and of itself does not guarantee you victory. God is the One who grants success.
Thirdly, we could say that not only does God's providence intersect with all of the circumstances of our life from birth to death, not only our successes and failures as well, but thirdly, and this is important, God's providence intersects with our free—and I put free in quotation marks—actions and decisions. You and I need to understand this. Proverbs 16, verse 9 says, "The heart of a man plans his way." You can make your decisions, you can make your plans. I will do this, I will do that. I'm going to plan this and plan to do this, and next year I'm going to do this and that. I'm going to build me a house, and I'm going to build barns, tear down the old ones, make new ones, bigger, better. "The heart of man plans his way."
And by the way, the word "way" here translated in English, the Hebrew word, is singular, and it refers to your entire life, really. You remember—maybe some of you are at this point now, but some of you are older—you remember a time when you sort of mapped out your life, you had it all in your mind, you planned your way, you envisioned what your life ought to look like, and you had your plans. Graduate from high school, graduate from university, especially graduating, getting my degree, my diploma, whatever it is, and you planned it all, you have it all mapped out. But Proverbs goes on to say, "But Yahweh directs his steps." And "steps" is plural, implying the little moment-by-moment decisions and actions that we take.
God is sovereign, beloved, even over our free actions and decisions. Proverbs 19, verse 21, "Many thoughts are in man's heart." Many, many thoughts, many plans are in man's heart. It's right to plan. There's nothing wrong with planning. We should plan. "Many plans are in man's heart. But, – “But it is the counsel of Yahweh that will stand." Understand that only as our plans mesh with the great plan of God do our decisions and actions stand. God directs our steps in such a way that His sovereign purpose is laid out for us.
Proverbs 21, verse 1, speaks of the most powerful men in the ancient world, the kings, the monarchs. And it says, "The king's heart like channels of water in the hand of Yahweh; He,” – God,” – turns it wherever He pleases." Like that, right? The imagery—it's vivid imagery, by the way—behind this verse: irrigation canals and irrigation ditches in the ancient world. In Israel, if you wanted something to grow, you had to direct water to that place because there wasn't enough natural rainfall to keep everything watered. Today we have sprinklers. In the ancient world, they had to have irrigation canals and ditches, and to direct the water through that series of channels or canals, there were gates that could be closed, and the water would be then redirected.
And God's saying, that's how I direct the heart of the king. I open this gate, and I shut this gate, and I direct his heart wherever I choose. It flows down, if you will, in whatever channel I choose. God is sovereign even over our decisions.
And finally, and this is important as well, He's sovereign over our sins. He's sovereign over our sins. You know, it is easy to accept the fact that circumstances beyond our control are directed by a sovereign God. Sickness comes, death of a loved one. We understand and we say, well, that's from the Lord, the hand of God.
And we encounter incredible health difficulties, and we say, well, you know, the Lord is in control, and that's God. And we can even accept the clear teaching of Scripture that God is involved in the small things and the seemingly accidental things, like the flight of an arrow, to use biblical imagery or language or example. And one such example from the Old Testament is an arrow that struck the divide of the king's armor. You remember in 1 Kings 22, there's no such thing as random, or the casting of lots. We understand all of this, but this is important.
It's hard to understand and to accept, but it is there, that God's providence intersects with our sin. This is exactly what the Bible teaches. God, who's holy, holy, holy, pure, good, undefiled, determined to allow sin, not to hinder the sinful choices of His creatures, for His own purpose or purposes. And let me say this again to qualify it. Again, God doesn't cause sin. He is not the author of sin. He doesn't tempt us to sin. We studied that extensively in James 1. But our sin becomes part of the eternal plan of God. As one author put it, and I quote, "Men's sinful acts do not frustrate the eternal plan of God, but neither is God the author of them. All acts, including sinful acts, conform to the eternal plan of God, but He is not directly the author of all such acts."
You see, God takes no responsibility for our sinful choices, absolutely none. We get the responsibility, all of it, because we make those choices. But in the miracle of divine providence, God, the sovereign God, God directs and controls the results of our sinful choices, often to ends that we could not have foreseen and that were unintended. The most powerful Old Testament illustration of this is in the life of Joseph as well. Turn back to Genesis 45. Genesis 45—you of course remember the story. Joseph finally does make it to become the second most powerful man in Egypt, a prime minister of Egypt. And in chapter 45, he first encounters his brothers who sold him into slavery.
Notice verse four, Genesis 45, verse four. I often wondered what went through the hearts of these brothers when this happened. Verse four: “Then Joseph said to his brothers, "'Please come near me.'" And they came near, and he said, "'I am Joseph, your brother, whom you, you, you sold into Egypt.'" What a moment that must have been.
Then he says, I want to tell you something. I have a theology lesson that I want you to learn. Here's some deep doctrine, heavy-duty doctrine. Listen carefully, he says to them. "So now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here”. You, you did it. You're responsible, you did it. You committed this sin. You're responsible, he says. "'So now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. So God sent me before you to establish for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive for a great remnant of survivors.”
Here's the point. Verse eight: "'So now it was not you who sent me here, but God, and He has sent me as a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.'" Joseph says, listen, I want you to get it. I want you to understand—you were acting, you were sinfully choosing to sell me into slavery. You're responsible, you sinned against me, you sinned first and foremost against God, but you need to understand also that God was sovereignly working through it as well to send me here to accomplish His purpose.
This is amazing about divine providence. Even sinful acts are under His divine control. That ought to give us comfort. They occur only by divine permission and according to God's ultimate purpose. So as you can see, everything in our lives from beginning to end is under the sovereign control of an utterly sovereign God. And when you examine the Scripture, what the Scripture teaches, you can understand why Charles Hodge wrote, and I quote, "'The circumstances of every man's birth, life, and death are ordered by God, whether we are born in a pagan or Christian land, whether weak or strong, with many or few talents, whether we are prosperous or afflicted, whether we live longer or shorter time, are not matters determined by chance or by the unintelligent sequence of events, but by the will of God.'"
How? How does God do this? How, how, how does this—my mind can't—well, He does it by what we call in theology the doctrine of concurrence, concurrence. And let me explain concurrence very simply. It's simply this: God is the first and greatest cause, but He uses secondary causes. That's it. God is the first and greatest cause, but He uses secondary causes.
You see, this providence and sovereignty doesn't deny that men really do act. We really do make decisions, nor does it deny that God has established natural laws in the universe. But these secondary causes—the acts and decisions of men, the working of natural laws—are superintended by God to absolutely guarantee that they fulfill His great plan for His creation. He does; He works all things, all things, according to the counsel of His will (Ephesians 1).
And of course, the best illustration of this in all of Scripture is none other than the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Acts 2. This is a signature text on this. You only need this text to see it all come together. Remember in Acts 2, Peter says to them, in verse 23, preaching the Word of God, he says, "this Man," – referring to Jesus Christ, a Man attested by God, miracles and wonders, “this Man delivered over by"—who?—"the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death."
You see the balance. They were making a terrible, sinful choice to kill Christ, and yet they were only fulfilling the predetermined plan of God. And God was using and directing their sinful choices to ends they could have never foreseen and never anticipated. That's the amazing reality of our God. He is sovereign.
Beloved, this is a great dividing point. You see, Christians love and find help and comfort in the truth of God's sovereign providence, and we should find that comfort as well. We, as believers today—loss of a loved one, loss of employment, loss of business, serious illness—Christians find their confidence in the goodness and the kindness of their God in the midst of dark providence.
You speak to believers going through these difficult and heart-wrenching circumstances—where do you think they have found their greatest comfort and help? It's in the knowledge of God's sovereign control over every detail of life.
Let me conclude by quoting Spurgeon on this matter. Listen to him. He says, "There is no attribute more comforting to His children,” – God's children, – “than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances and the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There's nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of His own hands, the throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne."
But on the other hand, unbelievers find this truth absolutely offensive. Spurgeon continues, "On the other hand, there's no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His dispensary of alms to bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof or light the lamps of heaven or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean. But when God ascends His throne, then His creatures gnash their teeth."
And he concludes, "We proclaim an enthroned God and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well without consulting them in the matter. Then it is that we are hissed and vilified, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach.
It is God upon His throne whom we trust,”
Like it or not, God is on His throne, and there's not even a single stray molecule anywhere in the vast reaches of His universe. As R. C. Sproul often used to say, “there's not a maverick molecule in this universe. It's all under His control.” That is without question what both Old and New Testaments teach, and this is the underlying truth that lies behind James 4:13-17, which we will examine together next Lord's Day, Lord willing.
May this encourage your heart as you face tomorrow, as you face the week ahead, and whatever it is that is on your plate right now. Child of God, may the truth of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, and the doctrine of concurrence warm your heart, settle your heart, and fill your heart and mind with the peace that surpasses all understanding. God is on the throne; He rules and He reigns, and nothing is outside of His reach or outside of His control. And God is for me in Christ Jesus, not against me.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for the truth of Your Word. We thank You for the wonderful confidence that we can have that You, God, are in absolute total control. You are the Sovereign of Heaven and Earth. You rule and You reign. You are God, and we are not. Help us to live like those who have a renewed mind, not like pagans. Help us, O Lord, to embrace and live in the light of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, and the concurrence that works it all together.
Lord, we thank You. We bless Your holy name. Settle our hearts, we pray. Minister to Your people, Lord. May the truth of this doctrine of the sovereignty of God, the sovereign rule and reign of God, settle the hearts of Your troubled saints in this place, especially those who are going through difficulties, challenges, and uncertainties. Lord, may they rest in this magnanimous truth that we can be certain that our God is a sovereign God. He rules and He reigns, and it's all under His control. Even the hearts of kings and monarchs and presidents and prime ministers—they're like rivers of water. You sway them in whatever direction You want.
Lord, help us to live every single day, moment by moment, in light of this magnanimous truth. May our eyes be fixed on You. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
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