L.D. 10 is an expansion of the treatment our Heidelberg Catechism gives the first article of the Apostles Creed. We considered many of the implications involved in confessing "I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth." And one of those implications is that our Father God is a great God. His greatness is seen by all from the handiwork of His creation. Psalm 19 expresses it: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork." That truth is affirmed in Romans 1 where we are told that all men, bar none, know that God is and know His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are left without excuse. They know those things concerning God, and that He must be worshipped and glorified as God alone, because "the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." But L.D. 9 also pointed to God's greatness as being evident from the fact that He upholds and governs the heaven and earth and all that is in them by His eternal counsel and providence. It is that truth that we consider this morning in L.D. 10.
The Creator of all things, the Almighty God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Father, is and must be the Lord of the universe. Not only are all things of Him, but by Him all things have life and continue to exist. And not only that, but by Him all things work together toward the end that He has determined. From moment to moment God is the Lord, the Sovereign of the universe. He is so in the absolute sense of the word. You can look at all the creation in every respect, and all is in God's hands. All the heavenly bodies, the entire solar system, the sea and the continents and everything that happens in every country of the world, seedtime and harvest, rain and sunshine, the food that we eat and that which we drink, the air we breathe, our power of mind and will, the strength to work—all these things exist and work each in its own sphere and each serving the whole purpose of God only by the will and power of the Almighty. In Him we live and move and have our being. God is the Lord of all.
But, as I said, everything God does in upholding and governing this vast universe He does for a purpose. Everything that takes place does so according to the will of our heavenly Father. And it is that connection between God's will and His providence that I want to focus on today. That connection was mentioned, as you heard, in L.D. 9. All things happen by God's eternal counsel and providence. That truth is also set forth here in L.D. 10. It is set forth as the basis for our advantage in knowing God as our Father for Jesus' sake. All things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand. And nothing shall separate us from His love. Because, according to the last expression of Q & A 28, "all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move." So we focus on that inseparable connection between God's counsel and His providence, as I call your attention to:
THE LORD OF ALL
I. HIS UNIVERSAL LORDSHIP
II. HIS PURPOSEFUL LORDSHIP
III. HIS ADVANTAGEOUS LORDSHIP
THE TRUTH OF GOD'S PROVIDENCE IS A TRUTH THAT GIVES EXPRESSION TO HIS UNIVERSAL LORDSHIP.
GOD IS LORD OF ALL CREATION.
That means, in the first place, that God is the absolute owner of the entire universe. All things are His, whether things in heaven or things on earth or things under the earth. So Scripture says, "The earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein." They are His by virtue of the fact that He created them. He did so for Himself. We read that in Psalm 33. "For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" (Ps. 33:4-6). Psalm 50 emphasizes this glorious truth to incite within the hearts of the people of God a fervent desire to praise Him and to seek His face. "The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof" (Ps. 50:1). "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God....For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof" (Ps. 50:7,10-12). He alone is Lord, Who called the things that are not, as if they were. And all things still continue by the Word of His power alone. God is the Lord of all.
If you and I will confess this great God as our Father, and know the advantage of our relationship to Him, we have to remember this truth. It is the very nature of sin to deny this. And our own sinful flesh brings us constantly into conflict with this very truth. The sinner, by the deceitfulness of his own heart, wickedly imagines that he is lord, lord of himself and lord over all that surrounds him. That is also our sin, beloved. That is our sin when we put ourselves first and we seek first the things of this life, over against the calling to seek first the kingdom of God. That is our sin when we make decisions without even consulting our heavenly Father, or when we make decisions which directly contradict the calling He gives us in His Word. We wickedly imagine that we are lord when we refuse to glorify God and be thankful, when we complain and call God to give account of His ways with us. And we do those things sometimes, don't we. It is possible to deny the lordship of God even in the exercise of our religion. The abominable expressions of self-righteousness are nothing less than a denial of God as Lord of all. Perhaps we attend worship faithfully or bring our offerings, and piously feel that the Lord is, by that fact, obligated to us. Or perhaps we speak of doing something for God, and feel thereby that we can claim our reward.
But if we recognize this truth that God is Lord of all, then we shall understand that He is never obligated to us, but that always we are obligated to Him. And He alone has the divine prerogative to tell us how we should live and what we must believe. That is His right. Because He is Lord of all, His is also the right to use us for His purpose in whatever way He sees fit. And no one has the right to open his mouth against Him, and to say to Him, "What doest thou?" And even when, by His grace, we understand these things spiritually, and glorify and worship Him as God the Lord, we may thank Him for the blessing that we may do so in whatever capacity He gives us as a worshipper of Him.
Still more, when we say that God upholds and governs all things, that means that the Being of God touches the being of every creature. We do not mean to say that God is all things. That is not true. Pantheism says God is all and all is God. That is the thought that permeates all New Age philosophy. That is the heresy that worships the animal world and worships self-esteem and self-glorification. That is not Scripture. But when Scripture says that in Him we live and move and have our being, and that God upholds all things by the Word of His power, it means that the Being of God touches the being of every creature. I can say it even more strongly. The Being of God touches every single atom of creation. One cannot study science properly without recognizing that truth. There is nothing in all the world in which the Being of God does not touch that particular part of creation. If God withdrew His hand, even for a moment, there would be nothing left.
That is true of everything! Everything in the creation is made up of living organisms that find their existence from God. Not only men are living creatures. And not only animals join the ranks of the living creatures. But the whole creation is living! That plants and trees live is quite evident. But even the soil teems with life. Pick up a handful of dirt, and your hand will be full of living organisms, organisms that perhaps can be seen only under a microscope. But everything lives and moves. Every single atom moves, and moves in such a way that every single thing in this creation must redound to a certain definite end, and must glorify God. That is true even of the things that we recognize as harmful. Germs, bad germs, are living too. And those bacteria that cause infections, serious infections, that sometimes even kill—those also are living creatures that move according to God's will.
You may have heard in this past week, the latest phenomenon that has biologists and scientists very concerned, and perhaps rightfully so, is the discovery that in wetlands throughout the northern tier of states and extending east all the way to the Canadian province of Quebec thousands of frogs are being born with multiple deformities. The biologists don't know why. They don't know if it is being caused by something in the water supply, or if it could be something that could also affect humans, or what. A major concern. But, you know, beloved, that also is happening under the governing hand of God. We ought, in the light of the Scriptures, to receive it as a sign of Christ's coming, one of the many signs seen in the creation and perhaps eventually affecting even our lives. But don't forget, nothing escapes the providential government of God, nothing.
BUT THIS SOVEREIGN DOMINION OF THE ALMIGHTY LORD GOD IS NOT LIMITED TO THE CREATION AND TO IRRATIONAL CREATURES.
It embraces all the actions of men and angels, including the thoughts and intents and desires of the hearts of all men. If there are many who deny God's handiwork in creation, there are more who deny His sovereignty when it comes to the thoughts and actions of men. At least here, they would say, in the heart of man is a sphere which is outside God's governing power. Man's heart and will is free. He thinks what he wills, and wills what he thinks, and the path that he follows is his own. But I say again, that is not Scripture. Listen to how the inspired Jeremiah puts it in Jeremiah 10:23: "O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." In Proverbs 20:24 we read that "Man's goings are of the LORD." So true is that, that as Solomon explains it in Proverbs 16, "The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD....The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil....A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (Prov. 16:1,4,9). Do you want to talk about a free will in man? All right. Man's will is free. But it is free to do only what is in harmony with his nature. And because man is totally depraved, he is free only to sin. Some freedom! That is what Luther rightly called "the bondage of the will." Man is in bondage to sin. That is every man apart from Christ. The only change comes by the work of God's grace and Spirit, when He makes new creatures of those who were in bondage. You are become new creatures in Christ. And when new creatures, you are not enslaved to sin any longer. You now mortify the deeds of the body, says the Apostle, putting off your sins, fighting against them. But be very clear, every step that we take and every thought we manufacture, is from the Lord.
Oh, I know, this brings up a question, the answer to which we do not have. Maybe God will make it clear in heaven. Or it might be that we shall never see the answer because of God being so exalted above us. I speak of the question concerning the relationship between God's sovereign government and sin. We cannot solve this question. But we must nevertheless maintain the truth of Scripture concerning this matter.
Sin, corruption and death are all in God's providence. Sin too. Scripture makes that perfectly clear. Even the most heinous sin ever committed, the persecution and crucifixion of the innocent Son of God, took place, as we read in Acts 2 and again in Acts 4, "according to the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." God determined it, even to every last detail. Peter says, "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done" (Acts 4:27,28). When Adam sinned and caused the whole human race to fall into sin, that was according to the sovereign decree and counsel of God. Scripture reveals that God did not purpose Adam to continue in his righteousness, but that He wanted Christ to come. God would make Himself known in all His glory as our Father for Jesus' sake. God therefore governs the sinner even with respect to the sinner's evil deeds! There can be no question about that truth.
But when you ask the question, How can that be, since God is righteous
and holy and since He Himself cannot commit evil, then I say, "I don't know." I
don't know. But I don't have to know either! God leaves man responsible in regard to man's
sinful thoughts and deeds. Man's sin is no reflection at all upon the holy character of
God's Being. That also Scripture makes very clear. So I don't have to know how those
thoughts fit together. What God tells me is sufficient. For the rest I am content to say,
God is God and I am a mere creature. There are things of God that are beyond my
comprehension. This matter is not a matter of contradiction, which would rob me of all
possibility of knowledge. This is a matter of God only revealing so much and no more. But
I don't have to trouble my soul over this question because I know one thing: All things
are so in God's hand, that even sin and evil and the devil himself, must move and work
toward my salvation and the salvation of God's Church. God so governs all things, that not
a single creature can move except by the will of my heavenly Father. His is a universal
Lordship.
BUT NOT ONLY IS GOD'S LORDSHIP UNIVERSAL; IT IS ALSO A PURPOSEFUL LORDSHIP.
EVERYTHING MOVES TOWARD THE END WHICH GOD HAS ORDAINED.
Emphasized in Psalm 33 is the fact that everything that takes place in this world, from the act of creation on, is the execution of God's sovereign counsel. "The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations." When we speak about the providence of God, therefore, we must understand that His providence is the sovereign execution of His eternal and unchangeable counsel. That is emphasized in Lord's Day 10 this way: Providence is explained as the works of God's hand. It is the almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs all things. This truth is pointed to as a truth of tremendous comfort for us. Why? Because all creatures are in His hand. There is nothing that escapes that powerful grip of Almighty God our Father. Nothing is "out of control." But all creatures are in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move. His work of providence, in other words, is the execution of His own will.
God's will is the same as His counsel. Those two words are interchangeable. God's counsel is His own will. And it is very important, if we are to see the proper relationship between His counsel and providence, that we remember what Scripture teaches concerning that counsel of God.
In the first place, we ought to remember that God's counsel is not merely a blueprint for history. We also talk about our wills. We make plans for the future. That is illustrated in a man's last will and testament. We speak about a legally binding will. When you have a will, you have a plan for the future as it concerns the dispersement of your earthly goods after your death, and so on. That will is filed away for safe-keeping. You may consult it from time to time. You may make changes to it as your circumstances change. But ultimately the execution of that will is not even in your hands. God's counsel, God's will, is not like that. It is not a dead set of plans filed away in some filing cabinet in heaven and consulted by God as the need arises. His counsel is His own living will. It is His own sovereign determination with all things. From before the foundation of the world, God has determined everything that shall ever take place. His counsel is His sovereign determination with regard to all things. And that counsel is sovereignly effective. It is not subject to change depending on circumstances. God Himself determines all circumstances. His counsel is not a good guess as to what shall take place in history. It is not even a good prediction which always turns out right. The power of the execution of God's counsel lies in the counsel itself. And therefore all the determinations of God's counsel come to pass infallibly.
But in the second place, we must remember that God's counsel is not merely a collection of decrees thrown together haphazardly or arbitrarily. God is not a God of disorder. We should never think of events in history or in our lives as being arbitrary happenings, accidents. We may speak of accidents with respect to our own purpose. We may speak of accidents, if by that we refer to actions that we did not purpose to happen. If you stumbled and fell, you did not purposely do that. It was, on your part, an accident. That terrible crash a few weeks ago, in which that entire family was killed, was certainly not purpose by them or by those others involved in that wreck. It was accidental from that point of view. But don't forget, with God there are no such things as accidents. Everything that takes place does so according to His will. And that will or counsel is a unified decree with every single event in that decree being perfectly related to the whole of God's counsel and to the focus or goal of what He has determined. And that goal is this: God has determined to glorify Himself in the highest and best possible way. That way is by revealing Himself as the Savior of His elect Church through Jesus Christ, His Son, the Mediator of the covenant. And everything that happens is determined by God perfectly to serve that end.
EVERY SINGLE THING IN YOUR LIFE AND MINE SERVES AS A TINY PIECE OF THAT WHICH GOD HAS DETERMINED FOR THE HIGHEST END.
That is not merely speculation. God has made known to us that mystery of His will. He has revealed that which He has purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth. So we read in Ephesians 1. God is working. That is true of things in heaven and things on earth. All things that happen in heaven and among angels serve the great purpose of God to glorify Himself in His Son and in the salvation of His people. That becomes very clear in a study of Daniel, chapter 10. We are bold to insist that Satan and all Satan's devils are under the sovereign control of God to the end that He may be glorified. Providence is the execution of His counsel. Providence is not some vague and impersonal force. Providence is not "it." Providence is not just a rather general way of saying that God uphold and governs all things. But providence is God's sovereign execution of His own eternal counsel, so that His purpose in Christ is accomplished, and is accomplished perfectly.
In a straight line and with unwavering progress the Almighty Lord of
all advances, leading all things to His own fulfillment. Through the course of history,
and through every moment of your day, God is guiding everything toward His own purpose. We
talked last time about this valley of tears which is our life here. But don't forget, God
has provided some better thing for us. That has been promised by Him Whose promises are
sure. John was given to see it by vision. He wrote about it in Revelation 21. "Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his
people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God." He is the Lord,
beloved, our faithful God and Father. Do you believe this?
THAT OUR GOD IS LORD OF ALL IS CERTAINLY ADVANTAGEOUS TO US.
BUT WE SPEAK HERE A CONFESSION OF FAITH.
"What advantage is it to us to know that God has created, and by His providence doth still uphold all things? Answer: That we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love; since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move."
Patience in adversity. Sooner or later we all need that. Because this life is nothing but a continual death. Perhaps you think that that expression, taken from the Baptism Form, is too pessimistic. It isn't, beloved. It is very real. And if you have not yet experienced that, you will soon enough. And therefore we need that wonder work of grace which is patience. And that is exactly what it is—grace. Patience is that spiritual virtue which God by His grace gives to us who are in Christ Jesus, so that we can bear suffering and adversity while fixing our eyes upon Him. And what this says is that when you live in the faith consciousness of this almighty and everywhere present power of God by which He reveals to us His Lordship over all, then you may be patient in adversity. And you will be.
Secondly, you may be thankful in prosperity. Sometimes prosperity seems far from us. But we are prosperous, beloved. God doesn't only send evil. If from birth on all that we ever had was suffering and death, we could not live. Your way may be very dark. Maybe it's darker than what you think it ought to be. But there is also life and prosperity. Think on these things. And in prosperity we may be thankful. That is our calling too. And when you recognize that also those things are from God alone, then you say to Him, "Lord, I thank thee. I thank thee for thy fatherly hand, by which thou dost guide me by thy counsel. Lord, I thank thee, that though my days are filled with evil, thou hast been good. Thou hast taken me into the fellowship of thy life through Jesus Christ thy Son. Thou hast given me the forgiveness of my sins. O Lord, how good thou art!" Are you a thankful Christian?
TO SUBMIT IN LOVE TO THAT SOVEREIGN RULE OF THE LORD OF ALL IS SOMETHING THAT WE DO ONLY THROUGH THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
In Him alone do we desire to live according to this confession. And according as we live in the conscious faith that God is Lord of all, we shall be without terror, knowing that all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. He Who gave us to Christ, He Who manifested His love toward us in the death of His Son, is the One Who holds the reins of history. He shall surely save His Church. The storm clouds of this life may billow over us and the waves well nigh consume us. In the world we may have to suffer tribulation. But be of good cheer, said Jesus, I have overcome the world. He is the Lord over tribulation. And know this: The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Martin Luther certainly experienced in his soul the fellowship of God's
covenant and the recognition that God is the Lord of all. He confessed that when he penned
the versification of Psalm 46 which we sing presently:
"God is our refuge and our strength,
A helper ever near us;
We will not fear tho' earth be moved,
For God is nigh to cheer us.
Although the mountains quake
And earth's foundations shake,
Tho' angry billows roar
And break against the shore,
Our mighty God will hear us.
God's city is forever blest
With living waters welling;
Since God is there she stands unmoved
'Mid tumults round her swelling;
God speaks and all is peace.
From war the nations cease;
The Lord of Hosts is nigh,
Our fathers' God Most High
Is our eternal dwelling.
Behold what God has done on earth;
His wrath brings desolation,
His grace, commanding wars to cease,
Brings peace to ev'ry nation;
Be still, for He is Lord,
By all the earth adored;
The Lord of Hosts is nigh,
Our fathers' God Most High
Is our strong habitation.
Amen.
Preached:1) Randolph PRC 10/13/96 (am)
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