************ Sermon on Belgic Confession Article 13 ************
Doctrine: God's Providence
By: Rev. Adrian Dieleman
This sermon was preached on July 12, 1998
B.C. 13
Acts 17:22-31
"Providence"
Introduction
The composer of Psalm 42 faces trials and tribulation. "Where is your God?" asks his neighbors. He faces death and mourning, crying and pain. "Where is your God?" taunts his enemies.
This question has been repeated many times since then. "Where is your God?" If there is a God why does He allow a civil war in Sierra Leone that has killed and maimed so many? Why is the church being persecuted in so many countries around the world? Why is there so much random violence in our society? Why does our prison population keep growing and growing? "Where is your God?" Many people have concluded that there is no personal God Who rules and governs, preserves and upholds, heaven and earth.
Janet Zorick lost her husband in a terrible fire in a crowded building. She too had been in the fire, but her husband had lifted her over his head and thrown her forward toward the exit. Though badly burned, she escaped. Her husband did not.
For months afterward she could not sleep well. She remembered in ghastly detail the sight of people on fire, of husbands who "just kept going when their wives were knocked down," of her own husband's look of horror as he picked her up. She remembers him gasping, "One of us has to get out for the kids." She recalls how she felt when his blackened watch was returned to her, and what a numbing indignity it seemed to her that he was found with only one shoe on.
Later, Mrs. Zorick tried to sort through some of the agony of her thoughts. Though she and her husband were both strong, church-going Lutherans, she had, for a time, great difficulty believing in God. How could he have allowed such a tragedy?
Finally, though scarred and shaken, her faith came back. Again and again she concluded that she had to believe in God. Else, she concluded, nothing means anything.
The Confession of Faith comes to a similar conclusion. "Where is your God?" In the face of this world's trials and agonies can we really say that there is a God? "Yes," says the Confession, "there is a God, a personal God, a God Who is involved in the world through and by His providence."
I Providence Defined
A The Confession of Faith starts off by giving us a definition of providence:
We believe that this good God,
after he created all things,
did not abandon them to chance or fortune
but leads and governs them
according to his holy will,
in such a way that nothing happens in this world
without his orderly arrangement.
Notice, this doctrine of providence denies the tyranny of chance or fortune. Says the Confession of Faith:
... we reject
the damnable error of the Epicureans,
who say that God involves himself in nothing
and leaves everything to chance.
The Epicureans believe that the gods have nothing to do with this world. Instead, their existence is quite separate from and unrelated to that of man. Man, in other words, lives on his own – self-reliant, self-assured, self-saved – and is not interfered with by anything from beyond. A fairly modern form of Epicurean belief is Deism. At heart Deism claims that the Creator is not the present provider. He built His machine, and now watches it go. But He does not interfere in its affairs.
The doctrine of providence tells us that regardless of what the Psychic Center may say, the stars do not control our destiny. Genetic engineers can talk about genes and chromosomes but they also do not determine our future. Anthropologists and sociologists can talk about culture and environment, but they too do not determine a person's fate.
B Who or what is in control? The doctrine of providence teaches us that God is in control, God is in charge. It is God Who determines the destinies of men and nations. Says the Confession, "Nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement." I just love how Answer 27 of the Heidelberg Catechism explains providence:
Providence is
the almighty and ever present power of God
by which he upholds, as with his hand,
heaven
and earth
and all creatures,
and so rules them that
leaf and blade,
rain and drought,
fruitful and lean years,
food and drink,
health and sickness,
prosperity and poverty--
all things, in fact, come to us
not by chance
but from his fatherly hand.
What does this doctrine mean for the Christian? When a house catches fire the blame can be placed on a cigarette in bed, on an overheated chimney, on a propane heater. When wars sweep through a land we can speak of the selfishness and greed of men and the shortsightedness and willfulness of statesmen and rulers. When a car has crashed we can point to a flat tire or a drunk driver. When there has been a good harvest we may attribute this to good seed, hard labor, and a happy combination of water and sunshine. Yet, the child of God goes a step further. He states and believes that all events are governed by the secret counsel of God. The God Who watches over the sparrow and numbers the hairs on my head, this God is in control. This does not mean that God does not employ fire, sickness, rain, and sin for even these are used by Him to further His goals and advance His purposes.
C By His providence we say that God governs and preserves His universe. First, we say that God governs His universe. In his speech before the Areopagus Paul states that for the different peoples God "determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live" (Acts 17:26). In his letter to Ephesus Paul writes that God "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will" (Eph 1:11). In other words, God is in control. He is the ruler and king. God so rules all things that they serve His glorious purpose. Says the Confession:
He watches over us with fatherly care,
keeping all creatures under his control,
so that not one of the hairs on our heads
(for they are all numbered)
nor even a little bird
can fall to the ground
without the will of our Father.
Second, we say that God preserves His universe. In our Scripture passage Paul says that God "himself gives all men life and breath and everything else" and, "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:25,28). The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is "sustaining all things by his powerful word" (Heb 1:3). In Colossians Paul tells us that "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Col 1:17). Life is completely dependent upon God. If God were to withdraw His hand from the universe for even a moment, His natural laws governing the universe would disappear, life would come to an end, and all the universe would be dissolved.
II Providence, Human Freedom, and Sin
A Once we confess that "nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement," we run into the same problem that Guido de Brés faced. What happens to human freedom?
When we speak of providence we must not make the mistake of thinking that man is but a puppet or a robot. We must not think of God as pulling man's strings or setting man's program so that man is a creature without freedom. It is a great mystery beyond our understanding that the Bible can teach both the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man at one and the same time.
Topic: Mysteries
Subtopic:
Index: 2486-2493
Date: 12/1997.2476
Title: Grasping Election and Free Will
During his days as a guest lecturer at Calvin Seminary, R.B. Kuiper once used the following illustration of God's sovereignty and human responsibility:
"I liken them to two ropes going through two holes in the ceiling and over a pulley above. If I wish to support myself by them, I must cling to them both. If I cling to one and not the other, I go down.
"I read the many teachings of the Bible regarding God's election, predestination, his chosen, and so on. I read also the many teachings urging people to repent and believe and to exercise their responsibility as human beings. These seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human mind. With childlike faith, I cling to both ropes, fully confident that in eternity I will see that both strands of truth are, after all, of one piece."
Because Scripture affirms both divine providence and human responsibility we must believe both.
B As Guido de Brés dealt with divine providence he also grappled with the problem of sin. If providence means that nothing happens in this world without God's appointment how, then, can we avoid the charge that God must be responsible for all the sin and evil in our world?
This question or problem takes on an even sharper focus when we consider certain kinds of Scripture passages. For instance, God commands an angel to entice Ahab to believe lying prophets (1 K 12:22); He seeks to kill Moses (Ex 4:24); He commands Abraham to burn his son Isaac (Gen 23:12); He hardens Pharaoh's heart (Ex 7:3); and even Jesus is delivered up according to the definite plan of God (Acts 2:23). What do we do with these passages? Do they teach us that God is responsible for sin, suffering and evil in our world?
In handling this problem the Belgic Confession of Faith simply affirms two Biblical principles. First of all, nothing happens without God's will. Even the works of the wicked come under God's will:
... he arranges and does his work very well and justly even when the devils and wicked men act unjustly.
... he holds in check
the devils and all our enemies,
who cannot hurt us
without his permission and will.
Second, the Confession denies that God is in any way responsible for sin and evil:
Yet God is not the author of,
nor can he be charged with,
the sin that occurs ...
In making this second point, the Confession stands on solid Biblical ground. As you all know, the Bible begins with a strong assertion that nothing evil is authored by God: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Gen 1:31). The Apostle James can add to this,
(James 1:13-14) When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; (14) but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.
Sin and evil never originate from God. All the evils of human life originate in human sin and not in God.
Nothing happens without God's appointment, but we must not think or say that God authors, originates, or causes sin. That is, in fact, a blasphemous idea. When teenagers start shooting at and killing classmates on a playground, we must never say that God caused the murder. When someone is kidnaped and killed, God does not do this wicked deed. God never causes, authors, or originates evil. God causes, authors, and originates only good. Evil things are permitted by God, or else they would not occur, but He is not their author.
C Now a word of caution. We can't pretend to fully understand the relation between divine providence on the one side and human responsibility and the problem of evil on the other side. So some good advice from the Belgic Confession:
We do not wish to inquire
with undue curiosity
into what he does that surpasses human understanding
and is beyond our ability to comprehend.
But in all humility and reverence
we adore the just judgments of God,
which are hidden from us ...
The Confession warns us against inquiring too curiously, exceeding human capacity, and transgressing biblical limits. There comes a point in time when all we can do is keep silent before God and accept His will for our lives.
III Providence and Comfort
A God is in control. He is in charge. Guido de Brés draws for us the implication of this.
This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort
since it teaches us
that nothing can happen by chance
but only by the arrangement of our gracious
heavenly Father.
God is in control. He is in charge. Even when bad things happen God is at the reins. And this is comforting.
Later on in his life Guido de Brés offers himself as a living example of this. He was in prison. He had been placed in a dark pit into which were emptied the chamber pots twice each day. From this pit he writes these words to his wife:
I have not fallen into the hands of my enemies by chance, but by the providence of God, which guides and governs all things ... I pray you, then, to be comforted in the Lord, to commit yourself and your affairs to Him, for He is the Husband of the widow and the Father of the fatherless ...
Living in human waste what possible comfort can Guido de Brés derive from the fact that God is still in control? As we face life's tragedies and sorrows what comfort is there for us in the fact that God is in charge? Scripture pinpoints three different things.
B First of all, divine providence turns evil into good for those who believe. You know what Paul says:
(Rom 8:28) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
God averts all evil – or else turns it to our profit. God's will is to turn, direct, and deflect evil so that good is the final result. Time after time in Scripture we see incidents in which this is the case. Think of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph's brothers intended evil by selling Joseph as a slave, but God intended good to come out of this. Joseph said to his brothers,
(Gen 50:20) You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Or, consider the cross. Jesus' enemies meant harm against Him. But the result is the salvation of many souls.
This does not mean that we always know or understand the good that is to come from a certain evil. Where is the good when a loved one is afflicted with cancer, a precious child has a tragic death, an accident leaves someone we know paralyzed or handicapped? We may not always see the good, or we may not see the good for many years, yet divine providence means there is some good that God will bring out of this.
C The second comfort of divine providence has to do with God's presence. No matter what happens, providence means that God is with us, that we are never alone. Again, you know what Paul says:
(Rom 8:37-39) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (38) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, (39) neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Throughout the centuries countless Christians have been shaken by tragedies, sorrows, and afflictions. And all of them have been able to talk of the comforting presence of God. As they have walked through dark valleys they have discovered that they were not walking alone. In the grip of stubborn pain or sorrow they have felt the grip of God's loving hand.
D The third comfort of divine providence has to do with limits and boundaries. God is in control, not Satan. God is in control, not evil. God is in control, so there is only so much that sin and evil can do. We see this in the life of Job. Satan hurts Job and his family. But Satan does not have unlimited reign over Job. He is allowed to go only so far. He is on a tether. He is never out of control. God's providence reins him in, cuts him off, and "holds in check the devils and all our enemies, (so that they) cannot hurt us without his permission and will." Sin and evil and Satan can try to the utmost of their power, but they can never go beyond the boundaries established by God. So we know, evil will never be so unrestrained, so out of control, that there will be no good left.