God’s Providence Pt 2

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Looking at our world from a theological
perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast,

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making Theology Central. Your phone ring
at four a m. The person

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on the other line, the person
on the other side of the phone,

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is in a complete and total panic, and they're like, you have got

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to get up. You've got to
get ready. You've got to get to

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the airport. You've got to get
here as fast as you can. You

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have to. This is an emergency. A tragedy has happened. Your father,

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your mother, your daughter was in
a severe accident, and they're barely

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hanging on. They're in the hospital
that we don't know if they're going to

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make it. You've got to get
here. And you jump up. You're

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like, oh no, what am
I going to do? What am I

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going to do? You run,
you get together, you throw some things

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in a suitcase, and you get
to the airport as fast as you possibly

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can. And as you run to
the airport, you look around, you're

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like, what is happening? Thousands
of people everywhere, lines wrapping almost all

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the way around inside the airport,
outside the airport, and you're like,

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okay, someone move, I've got
to get to the ticket line. I

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gotta get to the front. I
gotta get to the desk. I've got

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to get somewhere. My loved one
is in the hospital dying. I have

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to get there. And you are
informed because of an overhead announcement, Ladies

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and gentlemen, we are sorry to
inform you, due to a global IT

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outage, thousands of flights are being
canceled. In fact, as you sit

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there and you're trying to look and
see what's going on, you find out

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that over seventeen thousand flights have been
canceled. And you're like, well,

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I'm not going. There's no way
I cannot make it. You can,

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and you sit there. An hour
turns into two hours, and two hours

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turns into four hours. Flight canceled, canceled, canceled, canceled, nothing

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you can do. You think,
okay, maybe i'll go. I'll go

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rent a car and you try to
get to the rental agency and they're like,

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all of our systems are down.
There's a global IT outage. There's

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nothing we can do. And you
start getting phone calls from your family members

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are like, oh, the hospital
computer systems are down. The whole situation

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is horrible, and you're like,
what am I going to do. What

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am I going to do? And
you get a call an hour later and

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you were told, we're sorry you
didn't make it in time. Your loved

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one, your daughter, your mother, your father, they're gone. So

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you sit down in the midst of
all the chaos. What do you do?

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What do you say? Do you
say? Well, praise God for

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his providence, Praise God for his
eternal decrees. He decreed this to be

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this way, He guided it,
he directed it. This is all what

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God wanted. I simply accept God's
will. How do you see the entire

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situation? Well, what I'm describing
is not too far fetched because I don't

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know if you've been paying attention to
the news this morning, but there's been

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a global IT outage, and over
the last report I have, over seventeen

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thousand flights have been canceled. I'm
getting pretty minute by minute updates because my

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daughter is currently in the midst of
all of this because she works for an

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airline and she's trying to get home. She had a flight last night,

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she got in and then she was
supposed to be flying at some point headed

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back home, and she can't get
home. She's stranded. She's stranded and

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She's like, it's complete chaos in
the airport lines everywhere, people yelling,

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griping, frustrated. As one news
article that I have here is global chaos

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is the way they're describing it.
You could argue that that's hyperbole, but

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my daughter basically describes it as chaos, and she doesn't know what She doesn't

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have any ideas right ideas right now
of what's going to happen or how she's

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even going to get home. This
has impacted banks, this has impacted hospitals,

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airlines, It's a major situation.
So how if you were in the

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midst of even if it didn't lead
to some kind of tragic like someone dying,

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if it just led to you being
massively inconvenienced. Right, Hey,

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you're trying to get home. It's
it's you know, your summer vacation has

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ended. You and the kids.
You're ready to get back home. They're

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getting frustrated, they're getting irritated,
you're getting in all argument with your spouse.

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Does everyone sit down and go hey, guys, guys, guys,

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or do you say hey everyone ever, honey, calm down, kids,

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come down. Look, this is
great, This is God's providence. This

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is God's eternal decrease. We should
just accept it and celebrate it. This

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is what God has eternally decreed for
us to be stranded and we cannot get

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back home. Is that? Is
that how you handle your normal daily inconveniences,

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your normal daily frustrations. Is that
how you handle tragedy? Well,

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I say all of that to introduce
what we have been talking about, what

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you suppose, what you have supposedly
have been focusing on all week, and

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what hopefully we're going to continue to
focus on this for at least maybe another

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week to come, because we have
been focusing on God's eternal decrees and God's

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providence. Now let me give you
a proper introduction. Good morning everyone.

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It is Friday, July the nineteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently

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ten nineteen am Central time, and
yes, my daughter is currently in the

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midst of all of this chaos.
Because of this it global outage that has

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occurred so far, at least here
in the Theology Central Studio. I think

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most of the outages of not impacting
like things I would be utilizing for broadcasting

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or for anything along those lines.
It seems to have been impacting specific systems.

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So I don't know how that's all
going to play out. I've been

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reading news articles about it and mainly
just you know, listening to my daughter

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talk about what she is witnessing.
It's chaos right now. And as I've

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been watching all of it, I've
been thinking about it, because that's what

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we've been talking about and thinking about, how do I understand this from God's

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eternal decrees and God's providence, And
as you know, that's what we've been

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focusing. And this all started because
of well, what happened on Saturday when

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Donald Trump was shot. The assassination
attempt of Donald Trump. We've been watching.

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We watched all of that, and
then I started watching how Christians were

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responding to it, and over and
over and no where I'd hear the word

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providence, providence, providence, providence, providence, providence, providence, providence,

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providence. So I'm like, okay, let's dig in. So I

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have told everyone that you need to
supposed to be reading the London Baptist Confession

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of Faith, the chapter on God's
Decrees and on God's Providence. I think

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it's chapter three and chapter five.
You're supposed to be reading it over and

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over and over and over and over
and over. This week. You're also

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supposed to be reading the book The
Mystery of Providence by John Flavel. Hopefully

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you've been reading that. I know
it's the Puritans. I know it's not

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easy to read. I know it's
a little tedious. You may want to

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get the modernizer version. I mean
it probably is a good idea, but

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at least looking at that. And
remember I told you with the book,

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take it slow. Don't be trying
to just rush through it. Read a

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paragraph and stop for the day,
right, Just think about it, meditate

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on it. I gave you some
specific questions about God's decrees and providence to

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try to answer. There's a lot
of things. I told you to start

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listening to random sermons on the sermon's
two point oh app on God's decrees in

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God's providence, and I have told
you about a series of sermons that I

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wanted you to find and follow.
I almost just dropped my iPad. Did

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you hear that in my voice?
Did you hear it? Did you hear

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that in my voice? Could I
have played it off? I don't know

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if I would have dropped it with
it. I mean, God's providence,

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God's decree. Okay, see see
now, I'm I'm just thinking about the

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situation and regards to everything. But
I'm opening up the sermon's two point zero

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app here really quick. I'm going
to go to my library and see if

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I can find the sermons series.
Hang on, I don't think I have

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it saved here, so let me
go find it. Hang on, let

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me go find it. I thought
I had it saved. To have it,

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I'm using too many different See David's
God and Ours. That's the name

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of the first sermon I see here. I hate one of the things.

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Okay, here it is. No, here it is. There's interesting.

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There's a couple of sermons with that
exact same title. All right, So

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here it is. It took me
a minute to find it, all right.

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It's the name of the series is
the Mystery of Providence. The speaker

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is Dave Advance from Redeemer Church AARP. All right, Remember I told you

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to find that series currently. Make
sure they haven't added any new to the

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series. There's only three sermons in
the series so far. David's God,

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David's God in Ours is Providence real? My life in his hands? And

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I want you to listen to all
three of those. Now, what I

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was going to do this morning,
or just what I have been doing,

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is I've been well, I've been
arguing with artificial intelligence about God's providence in

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God's eternal decrees. We've gone round
and round and round and circles. AI

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can't necessarily reconcile how we understand God's
eternal decrees and God's providence and our actions

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are our actions free not free.
AI has done a very good job giving

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me a history lesson on how people
have tried to reconcile these things. But

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when I look at the way people
have tried to reconcile these things, I

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just get mad and want to throw
my iPad across the room and tell AI

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you're fired. Go find a new
job. You're not helping me here,

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because all they do is like,
well, this is how people in church

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history tried to understand them, but
look at the way they try to explain

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it. That doesn't mean anything,
like either God is controlling, guiding,

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directing, decreeing everything that happens,
or he's not. And the minutes you

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start limiting God's involvement in this or
this or this or this, you can

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try to say, well, God's
still sovereign, but he's allowing this.

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Either God's in charge or he's not
in charge, And the minutes you start

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limiting God's sovereignty will yet me you
ultimately in a slippery slope down to open

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theism. Or God's just not involved. And I don't know what you do

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there. But it was getting frustrating
just trying to see how it's trying to

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reconcile. It's like, Okay,
everyone's using great, big philological terms to

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sound so smart and to make everyone
sitting in the pew think, oh,

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look, we've got this figured out. No, nobody has it figured out.

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Nobody. But I've been just working
on trying to compile a lot of

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things about God's providence and God's decree
to kind of see how I want to

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approach it, because I think what
I may do is I may deal with

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some of this on Sunday at Victory
Baptist Church, and I may try to

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use it somewhat in light of Psalm
eighty three. Now I know in Psaw

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eighty three we have a specific thing
we're working on. So I don't know.

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I don't want to, I don't
wanna. I got to figure out

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the best way to advance it.
So I will have to make that determination,

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because I mean, there's so much
here exactly how do we approach this?

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How do we understand this? And
I think I'm hoping by this point,

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if you've been listening to sermons on
God's eternal decrees and God's Providence,

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if you've been reading the book The
Mystery of Providence, if you've been reading

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the London Baptist Confession of Faith on
God's Eternal Decrease and God's Providence, hopefully

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at this point on this Friday morning, maybe you're starting to feel yourself like

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you're like, I can't I'm losing
it. This is just like I don't

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know what to do with this,
and you feel like your mind is starting

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to unravel a little bit, and
you're just becoming more confused and a little

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bit bothered and a little bit disturbed. I'm hoping by this point you're starting

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to feel that. If you're not, I don't know what you've been doing

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this week, obviously you've not been
meditating on God's eternal decrees and God's providence.

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Because I think the more you meditate
on it, the more confusing it

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becomes. So I was like,
so how do I I got it started

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in this? So what do I
do? And I'm like, well,

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I could talk about this, I
could talk about this. I'm like,

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you know what, let's just go
back to that series of sermons, the

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Mystery of Providence we were reviewing,
you know, the sermon David's God and

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Ours. Let's just kind of go
back to that and just just kind of

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pick it up in the middle,
just just see where he goes. Let's

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just just kind of run this.
We kind of started down this path,

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Let's continue down this path and just
kind of see where it takes us,

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and then we'll just I don't know, I don't know how to navigate this

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at this point because it's like literally
it's like walking up to an ocean and

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like, okay, where to begin? You know, Like where am I

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even going to go? I obviously
can't swim across it? Okay, what

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do I do? Do I just
kind of walk in a little bit and

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then run back out? Do I
do I try to swim? What do

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I do? I remember? This
is just kind of illustrate this point.

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I was I think I was in
either not galves, I think was an

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corpus Christie wherever. But we went
out to go swimming right there on the

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coast of Texas, and everyone kept
telling us there was a sandbar, like

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if you swim way out there's there's
a sandbar, but it's it's and it's

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really crazy because you're like, you
know, way out here in the Gulf,

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you know of Mexico. You're right, we're way out here in the

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ocean, and you are all of
a sudden, you can just stand up

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and like, you know, you
just like the water will only be like

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to your knees or maybe even to
your waist because it's there's this huge sand

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bar out there. And so we're
like okay, okay, or hey,

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now we were relatively little and so
we're like okay. Now. Of course,

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we didn't check with any adults,
We didn't check with any grown ups.

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We didn't do any of that.
We just decided, well, let's

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go find it. Let's go.
So we started swimming, and we started

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swimming, and we started swimming,
and we started swimming, and we were

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going against the waves and it was, you know, it was tough going.

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We kept going and then we kind
of stopped and looked back and it's

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like where's the beach? Like we
like, we could barely even see the

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beach at this point, so then
we start thinking, wait, where are

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we now? We finally did find
the sandbar. We did. I thought

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we were going to drown temporarily,
but we did finally find the sand bar.

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Almost drowned, but we we found
it. Then we were thinking how

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are we going to make it back? Like we are so far out,

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I mean, and of course nobody
I don't know if anyone knew that we

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were even gone at this time,
but I'm thinking we're gonna die, Like

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we're gonna die. And then I
started thinking we're gonna get eaten by a

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shark. And then I started thinking
this, Well, in some ways,

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when you start kind of studying God's
providence of God's eternal decrease, it's kind

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of like, Okay, this is
this study, and we're gonna begin it.

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We're gonna have a middle, we're
gonna have this powerful ending, and

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when it's all said and done,
everyone's gonna be like, I understand God's

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providence and God's eternal decrees better than
I ever because of the Theology Central podcast,

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and everyone's going to be grateful.
They're gonna be like, that's an

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amazing series. It's gonna be wonderful. And so that's how you start out,

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and then you just keep swimming and
swimming and swimming. You're like,

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wait a minute, where's the beach, where's the beginning, where's the middle,

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where's the end? Where? So? Okay, now I found a

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sandbar. Okay, I can stand
here for a minute. Okay, all

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right, I'll just do a I'll
do a little bit more sermon reviews.

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That's easy. But like, so, now, how do we get back?

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And is there a way back?
And am I going to get eaten

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by a shark trying to get back? And are we going to drown?

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I don't know. So in some
ways it's kind of illustrative of this how

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I feel right now. It's just
kind of like, maybe if I just

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don't say another word about it and
just leave it alone, nobody's even gonna

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notice and everyone will just move on
because there is a little bit of truth

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to that, right. I mean, come on, as many people who

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may listen to this podcast, they've
got a million other things to listen to.

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So you can do a couple of
you can tell people you're gonna do

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a thirty part series. You can
do five of them and just stop,

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and for the most part, nobody
cares. Nobody cares. I mean,

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you won't get a few people go, are you not going to finish that?

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Everyone else like, I don't really
care if he's done five fifteen twenty,

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I don't even know. I don't
care. And I can understand why.

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They've got a million other things to
listen to. They can't keep up

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with who's doing what. I understand
that. But then that can make you

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just feel like, then what's the
point, or it can make you feel

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like I've got a good I can
get out of this. I can escape,

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I can escape God's providence and God's
eternal degres well. I know that

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sounds foolish right from a theological perspective, but from a practical perspective, I

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can escape the study because nobody's even
going to pay attention, but I will

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be paying attention. So I feel
like I've got to find a way to

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get us somewhere. So we're gonna
utilize this sermon that we were already reviewing.

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Just jump back into the middle of
it, literally back into the middle

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of it, and just see where
he goes and see if we get anywhere.

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Sounds good, But what I really
want to take. I guess the

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practical point I want to give you
in that seventeen minute long introduction is this,

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Today, there is a global IT
outage. There are thousands upon thousands

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of people who are completely stranded.
They're trying to get home, They're trying

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to get to maybe an important job
or whatever. They've got responsibilities, they've

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got things they're trying to do.
There may be families sitting in the airport,

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stuck trying to get home from their
summer vacation, or they're trying to

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go on a summer vacation. There's
people right now mad, There's people angry.

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There's people frustrated, their husbands and
wives fighting. There's parents gripping at

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their kids, the kids gripping at
their parents. Everyone yelling at the airline

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employees. People are probably at hospitals
right now, frustrated, yelling at doctors

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and nurses and front desk personnel because
their surgery had to be canceled whatever.

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It's just probably not good. And
so many locations right now. And I

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can understand that frustration. But if
we are really going to take this concept

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of God's providence and eternal decree and
say, okay, this has some kind

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of practical implication, not just this
great theoretical thing that we only talk about

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in certain circumstances. But if we
bring it down to the most smallest details

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of your life, what do you
do with that? Shouldn't we in some

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ways if you just think about it, like from a very practical standpoint.

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Shouldn't Christians if we truly believe in
God's sovereignty, his decrees, his providence,

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if we truly believe that in any
meaningful way, shouldn't we be the

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most patient people on the face of
the earth when negative things happen. We're

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just kind of like whatever. We
don't gripe it anybody, we don't yell

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at anybody, we don't fight with
each other. We're like, just just

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as the way life works. It's
just this is how God decreed it.

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Dapen. Now, I know we'd
be like, but people have personal responsibility.

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I know, I know we can
scream that, but I know the

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one thing nobody's yet being able to
come up even with them even a look.

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I know all the different ways people
have tried to reconcile Man's responsibility with

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God's sovereignty throughout church history. I'm
telling you all their attempts are just to

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joke. You ultimately either destroy God's
sovereignty or you, I guess you in

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some ways you do. You ultimately
destroy man's responsibility. He said, Well,

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and people say, look, look, they don't have to be reconciled.

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There are two sides of the same
coin. I know all the little

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things you can say, and people
in the pew are like, oh,

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amen, that makes so much sense
until someone says, what in the world

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does that even mean? Well,
I don't really know. What does that

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mean? Practically? Well I don't
really know. Well, then why were

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you saying amen? Okay started saying
amen. Well, you don't even know

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what you're saying amen to. But
let's see where this sermon goes. Because

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right now we've left the beach.
We're somewhere in the middle of the ocean.

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We desperately need to find a sand
bars where we can stand up and

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try to figure out where we're gonna
go. Here we go. The word

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providence was once very commonly used in
English. If you're familiar with Providence,

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Rhode Island, you might know this
word. If you might see it on

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a number of streets or churches throughout
the country Providence Street, Providence Church.

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People today talk about luck in the
same way that previous generations talked about Providence.

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You might be struck if you read
or watch Anne of Green Gables book

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from about one hundred years ago,
how many times when there's a happy turn

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of events that people say Providence.
Christian people used to have more of an

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awareness that God was intimately involved in
our daily lives, and that was reflected

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in their vocabulary. Now, to
be clear, God intimately involved in your

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daily life, your daily activities.
God intimately involved. Now, how how

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far do I take that? If
I do a podcast and I stumble over

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my words, which I did in
my introduction, If I stumbled over my

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words with a couple of times,
right, if I stumble over my words,

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if I say something, well,
you know God has got intimately involved,

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decreeing it, guiding it, directing
it. Or do I just like,

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well, do I slap myself in
the face and go come on,

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do better, work harder, focus
on how to say these words correctly.

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Look, I was looking at Judges. I think chapter four. I think

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chapter four. I'd have to look
at the referencey I don't remember the reference.

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But because i'm we're you know,
we're in Saw eighty three three Baptist

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Church and we have we have to
go to the Book of Judges to look

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at some of these situations, which
is being referenced in Psalm eighty three.

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Well, when you look in some
of those sections and Judges, there's lots

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of names there. You're like,
Jerabel, there's uh, oh, I

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can't remember. I don't have them
in front of me, but there's many

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and some of the names that are
like, Okay, I think I have

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that figured out. I think I
know how to say that, And then

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you'll go listen to other being're like, wait a minute, they're saying it

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that way, this way. Who's
saying it the correct way? And then

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you'll think, okay, I think
I got it down. And then you'll

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get at least for me, you'll
stand behind the pulpit and then you'll get

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ready to read it and you're like, wait a minute, I don't even

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remember how to say this right.
And then you say it, and then

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you get done and you go back
and listen to your recording and you're like,

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oh, I did not say that
correctly or wait, I read that

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way too fast, and then you
can find everything that you did wrong.

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Now, on one hand, again, how intimately has got involved in all

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of that? And how much is
just because you didn't study enough, you

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didn't focus enough, you didn't think
about that, you didn't read this slowly?

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You why did you learned? You
need to get better at fanatics?

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Over like, how do you understand
that? In many cases we almost just

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disenge, We just kind of dismiss
God, like God is not involved in

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those smaller details? Is it?
Providence? Providence? Providence providence? Meaning

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God is involved in those intimate,
small details of your life. Sometimes people

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only call happy coincidences God's providence,
but that's actually not correct. Again,

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it says God works all things according
to the counsel of his will. That

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is to say, he's his providence
rules over all things. That's true of

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great matters and history and small details
of everyday life. Jesus says it beautifully.

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Now, I appreciate that he says, it's not just a good things.

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Right when it's good things providence,
When it's good things, God,

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God is involved. God did this, God did that. Now he said,

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it's not just the good things.
Now he did not then articulate some

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of the bad things. See,
this is where sometimes I get frustrated in

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church, right, Church is always
the disneyfied version of theology. And I

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can't stand that, right because I'm
sick of the disneyfied version of theology.

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If we're gonna deal with this,
let's face the horrors of this. Hey,

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when it's good, God's providence,
God's intervention, God's decrees, God's

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power, God's provision. But I
want to just I cannot stress this enough.

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If we're going to see, God
is decrees everything, and he guides

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and upholds and directs everything. Ladies
and gentlemen, that includes the bad.

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And when we say the bad,
I mean the bad. In the case

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of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, well, Corey was shot and killed.

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As the name of the man who
was shot and killed, the firefighter,

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his death was just as much a
part of God's eternal degrees in God's

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provision as Donald Trump's being spared and
not killed on that very same day when

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that occurred. Or let's go to
October the seventh, when over a thousand

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Israelis were killed and many and hundreds
taken hostage God, with God's providence,

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God's decree. Let's talk about just
look at the from just you can look

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up some crime statistics today. Just
look them up. Look up today crime

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statistics. How many women have been
sexually assaulted in raped since January one,

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twenty twenty four, children have been
sexually molested or assaulted or abused. How

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many murders have taken place? How
many kidnappings have taken place? How many

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women and young girls right now at
this moment are suffering because of human trafficking.

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I mean, we can go on
and on and on and on and

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on and on. How many people
have starved to death since January one,

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twenty twenty four. The numbers will
probably be staggering. How many people have

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died of cancer? How many just
name the diseases you start wrap, you

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just make a chart of all of
that, and you're like, oh,

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happy, Providence, God's sovereignty,
God's decree, God's provision. No,

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you won't be saying any of that. You won't be singing praise songs for

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all of that, will you.
No, it's always you don't be hearing.

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You don't hear. Hey, I
got a praise report this morning,

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my child just died of cancer.
Praise God, he's sovereign. His providence

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and decree was at work. No, you only do that and something good

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happens. It's amazing. We take
these theological concepts and what we simply do

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is we utilize them to when things
go well, and then we kind of

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forget them when everything falls completely and
utterly apart. I am glad he admits

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it. Now. Maybe later on
he will then articulate some of these negatives,

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but right there he felt like he
moved on relatively quick. But remember,

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he may add them later on.
That's one of the things when I

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review sermons. I don't listen to
him in advance, so I may cut

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him off a little too early.
But that's the first thing that comes to

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my mind whenever I hear and even
he admits it, though typically we say

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this in regards to the good.
This way, as he sends his disciples

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out to preach as sheep among wolves, that is to say, in the

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midst of a dangerous and hostile audience
that will not receive them well, he

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strengthens them with these words. He
says, are not two sparrows sold for

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one copper coin? And not one
of them falls to the ground apart from

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your father's will. But the very
hairs of your head are all numbered.

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Do not fear. Therefore you are
of more value than many sparrows. Paul

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reminds us that this is the God
who works in us, both to will

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and to do. He says,
for his good pleasure. Not only the

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doing, but the very willing are
those things that God is working in us

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according to his purpose. Now do
you do you understand the applications of that?

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If God is the one in a
sense creating the willing, the willing,

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and the doing, like God is
working in you for the willing and

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the doing of his good will,
then when when you do when you will

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00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:26.279
to do something or don't will to
do something, when you do something,

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when you fail to do something,
is that God? Do you do?

404
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Now? What we do is like
no, no, no no no.

405
00:30:30.880 --> 00:30:34.480
You see, if you do good, God was working in you. How

406
00:30:34.559 --> 00:30:40.640
you today? You were so loving
and and and and you did so good

407
00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:45.119
with your children and and as as
as a godly wife. You were submissive

408
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.519
to your husband, and you did
and you were so great with everything you

409
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:52.119
did. Wow, God is working
in you. But what if you were

410
00:30:52.559 --> 00:30:56.599
completely the opposite of good. Well, no, that's not God. No,

411
00:30:56.599 --> 00:30:57.599
no, no, no, no
no. God is not involved in

412
00:30:57.640 --> 00:31:03.000
not in any way shape or Get
God out of your mouth. You can't

413
00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:04.119
even say his name. Well wait
a man, wait a man, wait

414
00:31:04.119 --> 00:31:07.240
a minute. If they if God
is the one who gets, who is

415
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:11.839
the guiding, directing, empowering and
guiding all of my good in my Christian

416
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:23.240
life? Then is God not involved
in the bad. See, all I'm

417
00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:29.759
saying is when you argue for one
you by by implication, you're at least

418
00:31:30.119 --> 00:31:32.880
can't ignore the other. You can't. You can't just say, well,

419
00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:37.119
all the good God, all the
bad not God. Okay, Well,

420
00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:41.839
then if it's not God, then
you have to ask yourself some questions.

421
00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:48.559
Did God allow it? If God
allowed it, it's still God because that

422
00:31:48.599 --> 00:31:52.440
means God did nothing to stop it. So then you have to argue that

423
00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:56.160
it somehow a part of his will. Right, Well, God wanted to

424
00:31:56.200 --> 00:32:00.359
stop it, but he can't stop
it. Okay, he can't because why

425
00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:05.440
oh, he's not sovereign over it. Well, because he has to allow

426
00:32:05.480 --> 00:32:07.599
you to do it, but he
knows what you're going to do when you

427
00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:13.559
do it, and you're saying God
never intervenes at any point over man's will,

428
00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:16.480
because I think I can find plenty
of scriptures where God steps in and

429
00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:29.720
does what he wants right your God
rules over apparently random events, just the

430
00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:35.200
fluttering of a sparrow to the ground. But Proverbs chapter sixteen, the lot

431
00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:39.680
is cast into the lap, but
it's every decision is from the Lord.

432
00:32:42.559 --> 00:32:46.880
If God is controlling even the most
random events, the smallest events, He's

433
00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:53.480
controlling everything, even the results of
casting a lot. If He's in charge

434
00:32:53.519 --> 00:33:05.279
of every little detail, Ladies and
gentlemen, that has profound implications. That

435
00:33:05.359 --> 00:33:09.359
is not something to misunderstand or to
use in the wrong way. But it

436
00:33:09.440 --> 00:33:13.839
is something, as we will see, that makes a very strong statement of

437
00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:20.319
God's control, the invisible hand by
which he directs the things in his world.

438
00:33:21.359 --> 00:33:24.079
God rules over nature Sam one hundred
and four. He causes the grass

439
00:33:24.079 --> 00:33:30.240
to grow for cattle and vegetation for
the service of man. God rules over

440
00:33:30.279 --> 00:33:36.519
the nations. The Lord says to
the Babylonian emperor nebukan Azer, the most

441
00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:38.960
high rules in the Kingdom of Men, and he gives it to whomever he

442
00:33:39.079 --> 00:33:43.640
chooses. This evening, we'll be
reading from Romans chapter thirteen, which says

443
00:33:43.720 --> 00:33:47.079
there is no authority except for God, and the powers that be, or

444
00:33:47.079 --> 00:33:54.279
the authorities that exist, are appointed
by God. Now this is where things

445
00:33:54.640 --> 00:33:59.480
again, this gets way complicated.
He's going through these things relatively fast,

446
00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:02.039
but each one of these you could
spend a couple of years trying to process.

447
00:34:02.279 --> 00:34:07.440
God is in charge of nature.
Do you understand the implications of that?

448
00:34:07.159 --> 00:34:10.760
Oh? See, see it in
a positive God causes it to rain

449
00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:15.440
so that the crops can grow,
so that we can eat. That's how

450
00:34:15.440 --> 00:34:19.079
you'll do it in vacation Bible school
or in Sunday school. You'll teach it

451
00:34:19.079 --> 00:34:22.199
in the most positive way. But
hey, you know what this also means.

452
00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.559
Kids, See this, there's certain
places on this earth right now and

453
00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:30.599
there's no rain. There's drought,
and there's famine. And five thousand children

454
00:34:30.719 --> 00:34:37.119
died today because God didn't do anything
to provide anything for them. Because the

455
00:34:37.159 --> 00:34:39.159
God controls nature, he could have
sent rain, he could have caused the

456
00:34:39.159 --> 00:34:46.000
crops to grow. Oh oh,
there were fifty people killed yesterday because of

457
00:34:46.039 --> 00:34:50.079
a flood, or because of a
hurricane, or because of a tornado,

458
00:34:50.400 --> 00:34:54.880
or because of lightning strikes. God's
in control of nature. No, See,

459
00:34:54.880 --> 00:35:00.239
we're not gonna do that. We're
not gonna say that in church to

460
00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:06.079
talk about God's in control of nature
in a positive way. But the positive

461
00:35:07.239 --> 00:35:19.599
necessitates that God's also in control of
the negative. Right. See, it's

462
00:35:19.639 --> 00:35:22.199
all great to be sitting in church
on Sunday saying praise God for his providence,

463
00:35:22.239 --> 00:35:25.880
Praise God for his sovereignty, Praise
God. And you're just like,

464
00:35:27.079 --> 00:35:30.280
oh, you got your hands raised
in the air, you're singing the praise

465
00:35:30.320 --> 00:35:35.159
song. His power rules over everything. He is mighty, he is the

466
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:38.679
God of armies, He's he's the
most powerful God. Oh wow, what

467
00:35:38.760 --> 00:35:43.039
a great praise service, Thank you, pastor. And then you go to

468
00:35:43.119 --> 00:35:45.639
your house and you're like, wait, what just happened. Well, storm

469
00:35:45.679 --> 00:35:47.760
came through the area while you were
in church and your house is now destroyed.

470
00:35:49.039 --> 00:35:52.360
Now do you sit there and sing
those same songs? Oh, and

471
00:35:52.480 --> 00:35:57.440
you the childhood decided didn't go to
church. Your child died in the storm.

472
00:35:57.760 --> 00:36:00.239
Hey, hey, but praise God. He's all powerful. See now

473
00:36:00.320 --> 00:36:04.000
it's going to be a little bit
more difficult, right See, if we

474
00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:07.079
always want to spend this in the
positive. And what I'm trying to challenge

475
00:36:07.159 --> 00:36:16.480
us is that we can't just do
it that way. He's arguing, God

476
00:36:16.559 --> 00:36:21.440
is in control of even the smallest
details. All right, praise God.

477
00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:27.239
That makes sense since he's all knowing, present everywhere at all times, all

478
00:36:27.320 --> 00:36:31.320
powerful, sovereign ruler. Okay,
all right, that all makes sense.

479
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:36.679
Now, how do we understand it? Not just by preaching this as the

480
00:36:36.719 --> 00:36:43.239
positive? The positive, the positive. God rules over the nations, He

481
00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:46.440
rules over nature, he rules over
random events. God rules over the hearts

482
00:36:46.440 --> 00:36:53.079
of Also, one of the things
that really frustrated me is we preach this

483
00:36:53.239 --> 00:36:59.159
so much. God knows. God's
even in control of the government. He

484
00:37:00.079 --> 00:37:04.840
all government is put there by God. Well, Christians say that until we

485
00:37:04.920 --> 00:37:07.920
then start getting upset with the government. Then we start saying all kinds of

486
00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:10.679
negative things about it. Then we
don't want to listen to it. And

487
00:37:10.719 --> 00:37:15.280
now we're not gonna follow their dumb
rules. And then, I mean,

488
00:37:15.320 --> 00:37:20.559
we saw this with COVID. We're
not gonna do that. And then of

489
00:37:20.559 --> 00:37:24.280
course everyone runs to acts where the
apostles are like, hey, they were

490
00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:30.599
prohibited from speaking preaching in the name
of Christ anymore, or preaching Jesus anymore.

491
00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:31.760
And they said, well, who
do we obey? Do we obey

492
00:37:31.800 --> 00:37:36.679
God or man. Well, guess
what the people they were disobeying, and

493
00:37:36.719 --> 00:37:40.519
that were the religious rulers. The
religious rulers were prohibiting them from preaching in

494
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:51.519
the name of Jesus. But if
the government then puts forth But we're told

495
00:37:51.519 --> 00:37:55.760
that all governmental power is put there
by God. But all of a sudden,

496
00:37:55.760 --> 00:38:01.079
everybody wanted to quote Romans challenge Roman
thirteen during the pandemic, like,

497
00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:06.239
well, this is only speaking of
a good government. See, you only

498
00:38:06.280 --> 00:38:08.679
submit to good government. But if
the government is ungodly, then we just

499
00:38:08.679 --> 00:38:12.039
don't have to submit, Like wait
a minute, wait a minute, And

500
00:38:12.079 --> 00:38:15.719
so then, once again, how
do we understand sovereignty? At what point

501
00:38:15.800 --> 00:38:17.639
can we just say, you know
what, God may have put the power

502
00:38:17.679 --> 00:38:22.480
there, but I don't have to
listen to it. Where do we find

503
00:38:22.599 --> 00:38:24.960
where do we find that? Now? Of course scripture, we just make

504
00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.559
it very very limited, right,
I mean, basically is that they prevent

505
00:38:29.639 --> 00:38:31.559
you to preach in the name of
Jesus, to preach about Jesus. Okay,

506
00:38:31.599 --> 00:38:36.239
then okay, but then like but
wait a minute, like so then

507
00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:40.079
you can get into all like if
they give mandatory evacuation because of a wildfire,

508
00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:43.239
do you say, well, no, we're staying right here because we

509
00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.480
don't listen to you. You're preventing
us from preaching in Jesus. Or are

510
00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:49.719
they saying, well, look,
we're saying you can preach it in the

511
00:38:49.800 --> 00:38:52.480
name of Jesus, but we can't. You can't do it in this building

512
00:38:52.519 --> 00:38:54.840
at this time because there's a possible
fire, or you can't do it in

513
00:38:54.840 --> 00:39:00.239
this building at this time unless you
follow these restrictions because of COVID. I'm

514
00:39:00.239 --> 00:39:04.440
not gonna listen. Like, at
what point do we really say, God

515
00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:07.079
put that power there and we have
to submit to it. These became issues

516
00:39:07.119 --> 00:39:12.480
that I don't think anyone really wanted
to have deep conversations about, and during

517
00:39:12.519 --> 00:39:15.039
COVID, everybody just wanted to argue
and fight and protest and do their own

518
00:39:15.079 --> 00:39:21.360
thing. Well wait a minute,
did God was God? If God's intimately

519
00:39:21.360 --> 00:39:28.119
involved in every detail and he intimately
involved in the very thing of COVID,

520
00:39:30.920 --> 00:39:34.840
Like how see on one end,
sometimes we act like God is so in

521
00:39:34.960 --> 00:39:37.840
charge, and then five seconds later
we act like we're the ones making the

522
00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:44.800
rules. It's we're very inconsistent.
Proverbs Verse chapter twenty one. The king's

523
00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:49.000
heart is in the hand of the
Lord with the rivers of water, He

524
00:39:49.119 --> 00:39:55.079
turns it wherever he wishes. God
rules it, over rules over the deeds

525
00:39:55.119 --> 00:39:59.840
of men Proverbs sixteen. A man's
heart plans his way, but the Lord

526
00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:09.559
directs his steps. If God rules
or or can overrule man's will man's desires,

527
00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:15.000
well, then any when then why? God can override your will and

528
00:40:15.039 --> 00:40:19.159
your desire at any time? You
have wrong will, wrong desire, boom.

529
00:40:19.239 --> 00:40:22.400
God can fix it at any time. What does it imply if God

530
00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:27.639
doesn't change your will, if God
doesn't change your desire, what does that

531
00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:36.679
imply? By no means am I
excusing anything. I'm trying to deal with

532
00:40:36.840 --> 00:40:45.840
the both sides of this, both
sides of this. I won't be able

533
00:40:45.880 --> 00:40:52.119
to prove everything to you. Perhaps
some of you are skeptical about the limits

534
00:40:52.119 --> 00:40:57.239
of God's power. I will take
that up next time. I will simply

535
00:40:57.280 --> 00:41:02.840
say that this is the doctrine,
and in God's providence, he is able

536
00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:08.840
to use and direct even the sinful
deeds of people like Saul, which they

537
00:41:08.960 --> 00:41:15.000
freely and willingly choose to do,
in order to bring about His good and

538
00:41:15.039 --> 00:41:22.440
holy purposes. He does according to
his will in the army of Heaven.

539
00:41:22.480 --> 00:41:30.679
And we read among the inhabitants of
the earth as well. Now, and

540
00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:34.320
I know that I just have a
hard time even read my mind. Right,

541
00:41:34.320 --> 00:41:38.559
Okay, God uses in a sense, controls and guides Sauls decisions.

542
00:41:38.559 --> 00:41:44.119
But Saul's decisions are free, They're
free. They're completely free. Well there

543
00:41:44.119 --> 00:41:47.440
are they completely free? It solves
decisions completely free. One. If God

544
00:41:47.519 --> 00:41:52.920
knew them before Saul exists, then
Saul has to do exactly what God knew

545
00:41:53.800 --> 00:42:00.280
because his knowledge comes before Saul's actions. If God knows the action, then

546
00:42:00.400 --> 00:42:04.559
Saul has no choice but to do
the action because God knew it before it

547
00:42:04.679 --> 00:42:07.199
happened. And God's knowledge is perfect, so it perfectly has to go the

548
00:42:07.280 --> 00:42:10.360
way God knew it. And if
since God knew it, God could do

549
00:42:10.400 --> 00:42:15.119
it anything at any point to change
his will, change his desire, or

550
00:42:15.199 --> 00:42:20.119
even prevent an action from occurring.
So if God doesn't change it and God

551
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:23.719
doesn't prevent it, you can't say
well, then well then then obviously it's

552
00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:27.039
working out the way God want was. And if you say well, Saul

553
00:42:27.159 --> 00:42:29.800
is completely free, well wait a
minute, and what do you mean by

554
00:42:29.840 --> 00:42:32.639
completely free? Because if you believe
in human depravity, it does human depravity

555
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:37.400
impact man's will. If human depravity
impacts man's will, then the will is

556
00:42:37.440 --> 00:42:42.280
not completely free unless you say,
man's depravity doesn't impact man's will. And

557
00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:46.239
if depravity doesn't impact man's will,
then men and even apart from salvation,

558
00:42:46.599 --> 00:42:52.199
can choose to be absolutely perfect because
their will is not impacted by sin.

559
00:42:52.760 --> 00:42:58.039
But that's pelagianism or semi pelagianism.
Well, we don't even believe if you're

560
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:01.719
if you're smart, you don't even
believe that Christians can just freely choose to

561
00:43:01.800 --> 00:43:07.599
be perfect because nobody can be perfect, Meaning then our will is still impacted

562
00:43:07.599 --> 00:43:12.440
by sin even after conversion, So
then your will is not completely free.

563
00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:19.519
So but it's it's this weird thing. God is involved in the He controls

564
00:43:19.599 --> 00:43:23.519
even the most smallest details, the
most random details. God's guiding it,

565
00:43:23.719 --> 00:43:28.639
controlling it, decreing it. But
wait, wait, wait, man's free

566
00:43:28.679 --> 00:43:32.440
man, Man's decisions are free because
we can't have God responsible for man's sinful

567
00:43:32.480 --> 00:43:43.239
decisions. Okay, but how do
you reconcile that? Now? I know

568
00:43:43.280 --> 00:43:47.440
what people say. I don't have
to reconcile it. I just will accept

569
00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:51.840
both. Well, I guess you
can do that, and I guess it

570
00:43:51.840 --> 00:43:57.519
will make you feel better, But
that's the implications are insane when you start

571
00:43:57.559 --> 00:44:04.000
thinking about it and none can restrain
his hand or say to him, what

572
00:44:04.039 --> 00:44:08.159
have you done? That means that
history itself is not a tale told by

573
00:44:08.239 --> 00:44:15.119
an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. It is his story,

574
00:44:16.480 --> 00:44:22.239
a story that he is writing throughout
the history of the world to glorify

575
00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:27.920
him and to save you. And
when Jesus says that not a sparrow falls

576
00:44:27.920 --> 00:44:31.519
to the ground apart from his will, he is assuring you that nothing,

577
00:44:31.639 --> 00:44:36.239
know, nothing, know nothing is
outside of his control. Do not fear.

578
00:44:38.360 --> 00:44:44.760
Nothing is outside of his control.
Do not fear unless you're one of

579
00:44:44.800 --> 00:44:50.360
the six million Jews he gets exterminated
by Hitler. Hey, do not fear

580
00:44:50.679 --> 00:44:57.519
well unless you're the person kidnapped by
someone and abused and then murdered. Hey,

581
00:44:57.840 --> 00:45:00.679
do not fear well unless you're the
one diagnose with the terminal disease and

582
00:45:00.719 --> 00:45:06.400
you suffer for fifteen years. Do
not fear, because nothing is outside of

583
00:45:06.440 --> 00:45:10.199
God's control. Do not fear well. You were the one paralyzed because you

584
00:45:10.280 --> 00:45:14.119
were hit by a drunk driver,
But do not fear. God is in

585
00:45:14.159 --> 00:45:17.480
control of everything, do not fear
unless you're one of the thousands of people

586
00:45:17.480 --> 00:45:28.519
who'll starve to death today. See
it's always it's always spun and the positive.

587
00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:38.320
Everyone wants to ignore the negative.
Now, you could make an argument,

588
00:45:38.360 --> 00:45:45.559
well, is anything truly negative if
God's guiding controlling every aspect. Now,

589
00:45:45.800 --> 00:45:49.719
the more you try to pull God
back from being in control of every

590
00:45:49.760 --> 00:45:53.239
aspect, you will feel a little
better. Well, God's not controlling that.

591
00:45:53.440 --> 00:45:57.920
God's not involved in that. God, God's not involved in Because what

592
00:45:57.960 --> 00:46:00.880
some Christians will try to do to
reconcile this their own brain, they remove

593
00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:04.599
God from any of the negative and
they say, oh, that's Satan,

594
00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:08.079
that's sin, that's man, all
right, So yeah, but who created

595
00:46:08.119 --> 00:46:15.440
satan? God? Who can destroy
Satan? God who can intervene and override

596
00:46:15.480 --> 00:46:17.880
man's will? God? Because the
Bible is filled with that. So even

597
00:46:17.920 --> 00:46:21.159
if you say, well, God's
not gonna do anything here and you want

598
00:46:21.159 --> 00:46:24.599
to remove God, God is still
the one who control created the entire situation

599
00:46:24.679 --> 00:46:29.960
in the first place and is controlling
or allowing it to happen. So even

600
00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:32.920
if you say God's not doing it, God's allowing it. Still under the

601
00:46:32.920 --> 00:46:39.400
control of God. But Christians do
everything. We almost like, if it's

602
00:46:39.480 --> 00:46:44.039
bad, we get hey, God, go get out of town, get

603
00:46:44.280 --> 00:46:45.320
go. Come on, God,
you gotta move, you gotta go.

604
00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:49.840
People gotta blame you, they're gonna
blame you. Go God. And then

605
00:46:49.840 --> 00:46:52.920
we say and when people walk up
and go what happened, You're like,

606
00:46:52.960 --> 00:46:55.199
oh, look, I know this
situation looks horrible. I know there's a

607
00:46:55.199 --> 00:46:58.960
lot of death. I know there's
a lot of destruction. I know there's

608
00:46:58.960 --> 00:47:00.960
a lot of pain. But let
me rest assured. Let me just tell

609
00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:06.280
you you can be rest assured that
God was not involved in any way,

610
00:47:06.400 --> 00:47:09.440
shape or form. Here are the
people. We're going to blame Satan or

611
00:47:09.480 --> 00:47:14.599
we're gonna blame the victims that that's
their fault, there's somehow their fault.

612
00:47:14.639 --> 00:47:17.320
We're gonna blame We're gonna blame ourselves, We're gonna we're gonna blame everything.

613
00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:21.840
But God is not involved in this
in any way, shape or form.

614
00:47:21.880 --> 00:47:24.599
Well, how many times do you
say God is not involved before then you

615
00:47:24.679 --> 00:47:30.480
begin to ultimately destroy God's sovereignty,
or at best, or at least you'd

616
00:47:30.559 --> 00:47:37.800
begin to question his involvement in anything. He's got the whole world in his

617
00:47:37.880 --> 00:47:40.800
hands, he's got the wind and
the rain. He's got you and me,

618
00:47:40.920 --> 00:47:45.920
sister, the bit bitty biddy babies. He's got it all. Everything

619
00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:50.280
comes to pass according to his eternal
purpose, not merely by his permission,

620
00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:54.320
but by his holy, wise and
powerful government of all his creatures in all

621
00:47:54.360 --> 00:47:59.079
their actions. And I'll give you
many specific examples next time, which I

622
00:47:59.079 --> 00:48:05.440
think, And let me just say
I was. I don't know. I

623
00:48:05.559 --> 00:48:08.559
ended up in I don't know,
with some kind of vacation Bible school.

624
00:48:08.960 --> 00:48:14.880
I don't know. Maybe I don't
remember how old I was. And they

625
00:48:14.960 --> 00:48:17.400
taught us that song He's got the
whole world in his hands, like you

626
00:48:17.440 --> 00:48:21.239
know, He's got the whole world, and I don't you know, and

627
00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:25.079
everybody was singing it, and I
remember sitting there going, God's got the

628
00:48:25.119 --> 00:48:34.719
whole world in his hands. And
this morning I was beaten, burned with

629
00:48:34.760 --> 00:48:39.360
a curling iron and whipped with an
electric cord. God's got the whole world

630
00:48:39.360 --> 00:48:52.559
in his hands. He's got you
and me. See, the song is

631
00:48:52.599 --> 00:48:59.760
not so comforting when you're the little
kid sitting there with the actual physical marks

632
00:48:59.840 --> 00:49:12.239
on your body from abuse. When
you're young and you're standing at your mother's

633
00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:20.760
bedside, and you're like, she's
dead for all practical purposes. When you're

634
00:49:20.800 --> 00:49:28.079
standing at her grave and you're like, I'm I haven't even graduated high school

635
00:49:28.159 --> 00:49:36.679
and my mom's gone. When you're
watching your father die of cancer and you're

636
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:46.360
like, he's not that old.
When you're sitting in church watching two young

637
00:49:46.480 --> 00:49:52.639
kids sitting next to their father and
they're all weeping because their mother, who

638
00:49:52.719 --> 00:50:00.239
is very young, I don't,
maybe barely into her thirties. He was

639
00:50:00.280 --> 00:50:04.760
diagnosed and was dead because of a
cancer, and I think it took a

640
00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:14.519
total of about four months. Hey, hey, little kids, don't worry.

641
00:50:15.400 --> 00:50:17.440
God's got the whole world in his
hands. He's got you and your

642
00:50:17.480 --> 00:50:22.599
brother. It's all gonna be okay. Because God's all powerful, he'll take

643
00:50:22.639 --> 00:50:25.039
care of you. I mean,
your mom's dead, but hey, hey,

644
00:50:25.480 --> 00:50:30.000
on the good side, is sing
this little song and you'll feel so

645
00:50:30.199 --> 00:50:42.159
much better. I think we'll settle
the matter in your mind. But before

646
00:50:42.159 --> 00:50:49.280
we go on, I would like
to give you three great cautions lest you

647
00:50:49.360 --> 00:50:54.039
misunderstand what I'm saying. In fact, I would like to tell you just

648
00:50:54.039 --> 00:50:57.639
a little bit more about the story. Like Paul Harvey, Let's get the

649
00:50:57.679 --> 00:51:04.280
rest of the story, so that
I could best illustrate to you the matter

650
00:51:04.360 --> 00:51:08.760
of God's providence and what we should
and should not conclude. This event of

651
00:51:09.000 --> 00:51:15.119
David being trapped in the cave and
what happens as a result of this is

652
00:51:15.159 --> 00:51:20.199
found in First Samuel, chapter twenty
four. I'm turning there right now,

653
00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:23.320
if you'd like to go and for
Samuel twenty four, I'd like to read

654
00:51:23.360 --> 00:51:29.239
to you the rest of the story
and then make some cautions to you lest

655
00:51:29.280 --> 00:51:32.960
you jump to the wrong conclusion about
God's providence. Here now, for Samuel

656
00:51:32.960 --> 00:51:37.559
twenty four, the rest of the
story we read now. It happened when

657
00:51:37.599 --> 00:51:40.679
Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him saying,

658
00:51:40.719 --> 00:51:45.679
take note, David is in the
wilderness of Ngetti. And Saul took three

659
00:51:45.719 --> 00:51:50.800
thousand chosen men from all Israel and
went to seek David and his men on

660
00:51:50.880 --> 00:51:54.880
the rocks of the wild goats.
So he came to the sheep folds by

661
00:51:54.920 --> 00:52:00.719
the road, where there was a
cave, and Saul went in and went

662
00:52:00.800 --> 00:52:07.519
in to attend to his needs,
and David and his men were staying in

663
00:52:07.559 --> 00:52:15.159
the recesses of the cave. Then
the men of David said to him,

664
00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:16.840
this is the day which the Lord
has said to you. Behold, I

665
00:52:16.840 --> 00:52:21.559
will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as

666
00:52:21.559 --> 00:52:28.079
it seems good to you. And
David arose and secretly cut off a corner

667
00:52:28.360 --> 00:52:34.079
of Saul's robe. Now it happened
afterward that David's heart troubled him because he

668
00:52:34.079 --> 00:52:37.519
had cut Saul's robe. And he
said to his men, the Lord forbid

669
00:52:38.159 --> 00:52:42.480
that I should do this thing to
my master, the Lord's anointed, to

670
00:52:42.519 --> 00:52:45.320
stretch out my hand against him,
seeing that he is the aint anointed of

671
00:52:45.360 --> 00:52:50.480
the Lord. So David restrained his
servants with these words and did not allow

672
00:52:50.559 --> 00:52:54.039
them to rise against Saul. And
Saul got up from the cave and went

673
00:52:54.079 --> 00:52:59.760
on his way. David also arose
afterward and went out of the cave and

674
00:53:00.280 --> 00:53:02.639
out to Saul, saying, my
Lord the King. And when Saul looked

675
00:53:02.639 --> 00:53:07.280
behind him, David stooped with his
face to the earth and bow down.

676
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:12.960
And David said to Saul, why
do you listen to the words of men

677
00:53:12.960 --> 00:53:16.800
who say, indeed, David seeks
your harm. Look this day your eyes

678
00:53:16.880 --> 00:53:21.840
have seen that the Lord has delivered
you today into my hand. In the

679
00:53:21.880 --> 00:53:24.880
cave, and someone urged me to
kill you. But my eye has spared

680
00:53:24.920 --> 00:53:29.280
you, and I said, I
will not stretch out my hand against my

681
00:53:29.400 --> 00:53:35.880
Lord, for he is the Lord's
anointed. Moreover, my father, see

682
00:53:36.079 --> 00:53:39.159
the corner of your robe in my
hand, for in that I cut off

683
00:53:39.199 --> 00:53:45.079
the corner of your robe and did
not kill you. Know and see that

684
00:53:45.119 --> 00:53:49.760
there is neither evil nor rebellion in
my hand. And I have not sinned

685
00:53:49.760 --> 00:53:54.559
against you. Yet you hunt my
life to take it. Let the Lord

686
00:53:54.840 --> 00:54:00.320
judge between you and me, and
let the Lord avenge me on you.

687
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:05.639
But my hand shall not be against
you, As the proverbs of the Ancient

688
00:54:05.760 --> 00:54:09.920
says, wickedness proceeds from the wicked, But my hand shall not be against

689
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.639
you. After whom is the King
of Israel? Come out whom we pursue

690
00:54:14.639 --> 00:54:20.400
a dead dog a flee. Therefore, let the Lord be judge, and

691
00:54:20.480 --> 00:54:23.760
judge between you and me, and
see and plead my case, and deliver

692
00:54:23.880 --> 00:54:29.239
me out of your hand. So
it was when David had finished speaking these

693
00:54:29.239 --> 00:54:32.360
words to Saul, that Saul said, is that your voice, my son,

694
00:54:32.719 --> 00:54:39.199
David? And Saul lifted up his
voice and wept. That he said

695
00:54:39.239 --> 00:54:45.400
to David, you are more righteous
than I, for you have rewarded me

696
00:54:45.519 --> 00:54:52.320
with good, whereas I have rewarded
you with evil. And you have shown

697
00:54:52.280 --> 00:54:58.159
this day how you have dealt well
with me, For when the Lord delivered

698
00:54:58.320 --> 00:55:00.840
me into your hand, you did
not kill me me. For if a

699
00:55:00.840 --> 00:55:04.639
man finds his enemy, will he
let him get away safely? Therefore,

700
00:55:04.679 --> 00:55:07.280
may the Lord reward you with good
for what you have done to me this

701
00:55:07.440 --> 00:55:16.039
day. And now I know indeed
that youth shall surely be king, and

702
00:55:16.079 --> 00:55:22.239
that the Kingdom of Israel shall be
established in your hand. Therefore, swear

703
00:55:22.320 --> 00:55:24.519
now to me by the Lord that
you will not cut off my descendants after

704
00:55:24.559 --> 00:55:28.719
me, and that you will not
destroy my name from my father's house.

705
00:55:28.960 --> 00:55:34.039
So David swore to Saul, and
Saul went home, but David and his

706
00:55:34.119 --> 00:55:42.159
men went up to the stronghold.
What I love about that story is it's

707
00:55:42.239 --> 00:55:47.679
so contrary to the way even Christians
acted in COVID. Here's David's like,

708
00:55:47.719 --> 00:55:51.519
I'm going to submit to the king, even if he's trying to kill me.

709
00:55:51.920 --> 00:55:54.280
I'm going to show submission, and
I'm going to honor his authority,

710
00:55:54.360 --> 00:55:59.440
and I'm not going to rebel against
him, even in this very even with

711
00:55:59.599 --> 00:56:05.440
my life is at risk. And
yet when Christians in America don't like certain

712
00:56:05.480 --> 00:56:07.880
things the government does, we want
to overthrow it. We want to get

713
00:56:07.960 --> 00:56:12.480
rid of it, we want them
removed. We'll start praying in precatory psalms

714
00:56:12.480 --> 00:56:16.239
that they'll be killed. All kinds
of craziness. We don't have to follow

715
00:56:16.280 --> 00:56:19.239
this rule. We don't have to
obey this, and we don't have to

716
00:56:19.280 --> 00:56:22.119
obey this. Who do these people
think they are liberals and start calling them

717
00:56:22.239 --> 00:56:28.199
names. That's not how David acted. And I think the Bible overall tells

718
00:56:28.280 --> 00:56:30.800
us how that all authority was put
there by God and we are to submit

719
00:56:30.880 --> 00:56:37.320
to it. And now everybody wants
to say and start looking for all the

720
00:56:37.360 --> 00:56:39.840
ways when they don't have to.
You should be focusing all the ways in

721
00:56:39.880 --> 00:56:45.719
which you should and doing everything in
your power too. So in this case,

722
00:56:45.840 --> 00:56:50.719
it shows David understands who put Saul
there and at his submission to it,

723
00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:52.880
that is, in a sense,
taking the idea of God's involvement even

724
00:56:52.880 --> 00:57:00.599
in the smaller details, and trusting
God. Right, so all right now

725
00:57:00.639 --> 00:57:01.599
he says he's going to give the
rest of the story. Let's see where

726
00:57:01.639 --> 00:57:15.599
he's going to take this here are
three important cautions so that we should not

727
00:57:15.679 --> 00:57:22.079
misunderstand the meaning and significance to us
of God's providence. Three incorrect conclusions we

728
00:57:22.159 --> 00:57:30.800
must not draw. First, God
is not the author or approver of sin.

729
00:57:31.599 --> 00:57:37.960
God is not the author nor the
approver of sin. David rightly quotes

730
00:57:37.000 --> 00:57:42.639
this proverb Tosaul in verse thirteen,
Wickedness proceeds from the wicked. That proverb

731
00:57:42.679 --> 00:57:45.360
is true. Although the Bible says
that the Lord does govern and uphold,

732
00:57:45.440 --> 00:57:50.199
and appoint and constrain all things,
and uses a variety of words to describe

733
00:57:50.280 --> 00:57:57.840
providence, it also is very clear
and emphatic that the sins in this world

734
00:57:57.880 --> 00:58:01.559
come entirely from us, us from
our desires, and not from him.

735
00:58:02.639 --> 00:58:07.639
Wickedness does proceed from the wicked.
Saul is at this moment in a wicked

736
00:58:07.800 --> 00:58:15.559
pursuit of David, as he himself
confesses, the sins involved in such a

737
00:58:15.559 --> 00:58:22.440
pursuit are entirely souls, ladies and
gentlemen. I struggle with this. I'm

738
00:58:22.480 --> 00:58:25.480
just gonna be honest with you.
I understand we're not to say God is

739
00:58:25.519 --> 00:58:32.239
the author of sin, But man, this I get so frustrated with this

740
00:58:32.360 --> 00:58:37.199
point. It drives me insane,
because even if you say God is not

741
00:58:37.280 --> 00:58:43.519
the author of sin, ladies and
gentlemen, he's the architect and he's in

742
00:58:43.519 --> 00:58:45.719
a sense the engineer. What do
I mean by that? Well, God

743
00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:50.639
is the one who created an angelic
being by the name of Satan, knowing

744
00:58:50.679 --> 00:58:52.880
Satan was going to fall and be
the one to bring sin into the world.

745
00:58:53.320 --> 00:58:58.760
He knew that before he created him, He creates him, lets him

746
00:58:58.840 --> 00:59:02.519
fall. Now at this point,
God could immediately destroy him, immediately destroy

747
00:59:02.599 --> 00:59:07.639
him and stop sin from going anywhere
else. He could have just taken out

748
00:59:07.639 --> 00:59:10.000
the entire rebellion, the end,
no more. But no, no,

749
00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:14.079
no, no. Not only does
he not destroy him, he gives him

750
00:59:14.119 --> 00:59:17.360
access to Earth, not only access
to Earth, to a specific garden where

751
00:59:17.400 --> 00:59:22.719
there is Adam and Eve, whom
he created knowing that they too are going

752
00:59:22.800 --> 00:59:24.639
to fall. But see, since
God is not the author of sin,

753
00:59:24.880 --> 00:59:30.079
this is what we call he's using
secondary causes. See God, God's hands

754
00:59:30.079 --> 00:59:32.280
are clean on this. Okay,
all right, so you can't blame God.

755
00:59:32.519 --> 00:59:36.280
Well you know, yeah, you
can say that, but you can't.

756
00:59:36.559 --> 00:59:38.280
You can't tell me God is not
the architect here. You can't say

757
00:59:38.320 --> 00:59:42.519
he's not engineering this because at any
point. He could stop it, he

758
00:59:42.559 --> 00:59:45.400
could prevent it, but he lets
Satan go right into the garden. Does

759
00:59:45.440 --> 00:59:46.039
he stop him? No, no, no, no, no, Then

760
00:59:46.079 --> 00:59:51.360
Adam and Eve sins. Now at
this point he's got, in a sense,

761
00:59:51.360 --> 00:59:52.960
you could say, a choice to
make, but it's not really a

762
00:59:52.039 --> 00:59:55.760
choice because he already preordained this before
the foundations of the world. But okay,

763
00:59:55.760 --> 00:59:58.880
so what could he do? Well, he could get rid of Satan

764
00:59:59.039 --> 01:00:01.559
boom, He doesn't. He doesn't
get rid of Satan. In fact,

765
01:00:01.559 --> 01:00:05.719
he let Satan rome about the earth, seeking whom he may devour. He

766
01:00:05.719 --> 01:00:07.880
doesn't even get rid of him.
Okay, or that's problematic. Why not

767
01:00:08.039 --> 01:00:13.280
just destroy him right there? He's
already rebelled against you. Now he's attacking

768
01:00:13.320 --> 01:00:15.480
your creation, the end and him. But no, no, he doesn't.

769
01:00:15.559 --> 01:00:19.159
And then Adam and Eve, Hey, if you eat of this,

770
01:00:19.239 --> 01:00:22.599
you're going to die. He could
have killed them immediately, stops it.

771
01:00:22.920 --> 01:00:27.440
Sin would have never left the garden. It would have been contained within the

772
01:00:27.440 --> 01:00:30.000
garden. And then he could have
destroyed the garden, and then then the

773
01:00:30.039 --> 01:00:37.000
earth would be free of sin,
a creation free of sin. But no,

774
01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:42.360
not only does he doesn't contain it
in the garden. He lets them.

775
01:00:42.840 --> 01:00:45.599
In fact, he himself puts them
out of the garden. Now he

776
01:00:45.679 --> 01:00:50.880
knows Mommy sinner and daddy sinner is
going to produce baby sinner. And guess

777
01:00:50.880 --> 01:00:53.639
what happened Outam and Eve produced sinners, and you got a brother killing a

778
01:00:53.719 --> 01:00:59.440
brother, and then it just spreads
and spreads and gets so bad that God's

779
01:00:59.480 --> 01:01:02.039
like, Okay, I'm going to
wipe out everything on the earth, but

780
01:01:02.119 --> 01:01:06.559
I'm gonna put eight people in an
arc. Oh, but those eight people

781
01:01:06.880 --> 01:01:10.639
have the very disease that caused all
the problems prior to the flood, and

782
01:01:10.679 --> 01:01:14.880
that's sin. And then they get
out of the arc, and then what

783
01:01:14.880 --> 01:01:17.840
do they do? They sin sins
and then it just continues and it continues,

784
01:01:17.920 --> 01:01:21.719
and it continues and it continues.
He said, well, God's not

785
01:01:21.800 --> 01:01:24.440
the author of it. Well,
God created people knowing that they were gonna

786
01:01:24.480 --> 01:01:29.239
end up sinning, and then knowing
that they were infected with a sinful desire,

787
01:01:29.480 --> 01:01:32.400
a sinful nature. He doesn't eradicate
the nature. He could get rid

788
01:01:32.440 --> 01:01:37.440
of the nature today, All sinful
nature could be eradicated right now, boom

789
01:01:37.480 --> 01:01:40.639
gone. Nobody has a sinful nature, nobody. But no, he doesn't

790
01:01:40.639 --> 01:01:43.920
do that. You could say,
well, he's not the author of it.

791
01:01:44.639 --> 01:01:46.920
Lady, you can't. I don't
care what you try to do.

792
01:01:47.239 --> 01:01:51.679
You go far enough back, you're
gonna get to Genesis one in the beginning.

793
01:01:51.719 --> 01:01:55.519
God, God's there before anything else. He creates, knowing every single

794
01:01:55.679 --> 01:02:00.360
thing that's going to happen. Not
only does he allow it, he doesn't

795
01:02:00.400 --> 01:02:04.559
prevented. And you can't say that
he's not the architect of it. And

796
01:02:04.599 --> 01:02:07.119
you can't say that he's not guiding
it and directing it unless you destroy your

797
01:02:07.199 --> 01:02:24.599
sovereignty sins, which is increasingly putting
him under judgment. You see now you

798
01:02:24.599 --> 01:02:29.920
say God is allowing it for a
time, Yes, and he is constraining

799
01:02:30.280 --> 01:02:37.440
the whole matter in every way to
serve God's purposes. See, God's not

800
01:02:37.519 --> 01:02:43.800
the author, but he's allowing it, and he's constraining it. Well,

801
01:02:43.800 --> 01:02:47.079
if he constrains it just a little
bit, then he can constrain it completely.

802
01:02:47.480 --> 01:02:51.320
If he doesn't constrain it completely,
and if he's the one who can

803
01:02:51.360 --> 01:02:55.559
control your will and your heart and
guide it and directed, he could literally

804
01:02:55.880 --> 01:03:00.960
constrain it by removing the sinful nature, or so constraining it that you and

805
01:03:01.000 --> 01:03:13.360
I stop sinning, thus to overcome
evil with good. You notice that solves

806
01:03:13.400 --> 01:03:15.840
evil pursuit not only is failing at
every turn if you know the story,

807
01:03:16.280 --> 01:03:23.880
but here it even publicly humiliates him
and demonstrates David's godliness and integrity as Israel's

808
01:03:23.920 --> 01:03:30.360
future king. David describes it this
way in the Psalm verse six. They

809
01:03:30.360 --> 01:03:35.880
have dug a pit before me,
and into the midst of it they themselves

810
01:03:35.920 --> 01:03:42.199
have fallen. This is how it
works out, however darkly and difficult it

811
01:03:42.239 --> 01:03:47.360
is for us to see. The
sins proceed from the creature, the answer

812
01:03:49.039 --> 01:03:57.400
of their desires from the creator.
The sins proceed from the creature because the

813
01:03:57.480 --> 01:04:01.119
creature was born with a sinful name. Sure that they did not ask for

814
01:04:01.360 --> 01:04:08.159
and did not do anything to obtain. That sinful nature was obtained by the

815
01:04:08.199 --> 01:04:13.199
original Adam and Eve, whom God
created. But when they sinned, God

816
01:04:13.199 --> 01:04:16.400
could have gotten rid of them so
that future creatures were not born with the

817
01:04:16.480 --> 01:04:21.599
sinful nature. But Adam and Eve
ultimately ended up sinning because of a satanic

818
01:04:21.719 --> 01:04:27.599
because of a spiritual angelic being whom
God created, who rebelled, whom God

819
01:04:27.599 --> 01:04:30.960
allowed to tipt Adam and Eve.
So even if you say God is not

820
01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:34.639
the the author of it. Come
on, He's guided, He's he's the

821
01:04:34.840 --> 01:04:40.639
architect of it. There's no way
to get around this. There's just no

822
01:04:40.719 --> 01:04:43.559
You can. You can, you
can, you can do everything in your

823
01:04:43.599 --> 01:04:47.360
power to separate God from it.
You come on in the beginning, God,

824
01:04:47.679 --> 01:04:54.559
He's already there, He already knows. Yet the very next word in

825
01:04:54.639 --> 01:05:00.119
the beginning, God, even though
he knows, he creates. And not

826
01:05:00.199 --> 01:05:09.360
only does he create, there's clear
specific points where all God needed to do

827
01:05:09.880 --> 01:05:15.000
was to destroy, to remove,
or to prevent, and he does none

828
01:05:15.079 --> 01:05:26.599
of it and lets it all run
its course. And he only does good

829
01:05:27.320 --> 01:05:33.599
even when men only mean evil.
God may, for a time, He

830
01:05:33.639 --> 01:05:38.320
does, for a time, allow
evil men to have their day, to

831
01:05:38.360 --> 01:05:43.519
make progress in their evil plans,
to inflict even a great deal of pain.

832
01:05:46.280 --> 01:05:54.920
And yet, and let's not state
God allows evil men like God allows

833
01:05:54.920 --> 01:06:00.599
those evil people to do evil things
and to inflict pain. Let's make it

834
01:06:00.639 --> 01:06:04.719
personal. God allows evil people to
do horrible things to you and your family.

835
01:06:05.159 --> 01:06:12.400
And not only this, God allows
you to do evil things, meaning

836
01:06:12.920 --> 01:06:27.119
your daily continual sin, which is
evil only so far as God's wisdom sees

837
01:06:27.159 --> 01:06:34.440
it to serve his glory and our
good because by him all things work together

838
01:06:34.480 --> 01:06:38.079
for good to those who love him, to those who are the called according

839
01:06:38.119 --> 01:06:42.039
to his purpose. I'll give you
several illustrations of that in our series.

840
01:06:43.519 --> 01:06:47.159
But to be clear, God does
not so much as tempt anyone to sin,

841
01:06:47.599 --> 01:06:53.880
and he brings sinners to a just
judgment for the sins they choose to

842
01:06:53.920 --> 01:07:00.559
do. But in all this God
is not the author nor the approver of

843
01:07:00.679 --> 01:07:06.480
sin. Second, God often uses
means. God often uses means. It's

844
01:07:06.519 --> 01:07:11.119
not that the Lord is doing something
or Saul is doing something. I mean

845
01:07:11.400 --> 01:07:14.039
we we look at the rest of
the story here and we say, okay,

846
01:07:14.119 --> 01:07:18.400
uh uh, Saul's our army here, three thousand chosen men. Uh

847
01:07:18.440 --> 01:07:28.639
stops right in front of David's cave. Why did he stop there where David

848
01:07:28.880 --> 01:07:30.800
was? And why did Saul enter
that particular cave? I mean, David

849
01:07:30.800 --> 01:07:39.320
didn't know at the beginning either,
Right, Well, it's actually a rather

850
01:07:39.400 --> 01:07:43.480
humorous uh story here. Saul went
in to attend to his needs. I

851
01:07:43.480 --> 01:07:45.119
mean, you gotta go, you
gotta go. You know your parents are

852
01:07:45.159 --> 01:07:49.440
like here, yeah, here,
gotta go. Okay, But of course

853
01:07:49.480 --> 01:07:53.079
there was another reason that's also given
in the passage, which is in no

854
01:07:53.159 --> 01:07:58.000
way contradictory, there was a higher
reason verse ten. This day your eyes

855
01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:04.559
have seen that the Lord delivered you
today into my hand in the cave.

856
01:08:06.960 --> 01:08:13.199
Yeah one. In the same event, are freely done by Saul for necessity

857
01:08:15.119 --> 01:08:20.199
and a purpose brought to pass by
God in a certain way for another reason.

858
01:08:21.279 --> 01:08:29.760
And the Bible frequently maintains this double
perspective on even these humbly events of

859
01:08:29.800 --> 01:08:36.319
life. And some people say have
misunderstood, Like they say, oh,

860
01:08:36.399 --> 01:08:42.640
yeah, you know, we used
to think that rain came from God,

861
01:08:43.159 --> 01:08:45.720
but now we know that it comes
from clouds. What I mean, you

862
01:08:45.720 --> 01:08:48.960
know, science hasn't gotten rid of
God. People got the ancients understood that

863
01:08:49.039 --> 01:08:53.520
rain comes from clouds. Plenty of
verses talk about that. But what it

864
01:08:53.520 --> 01:08:58.199
says, what the Lord sends the
rain. It's maintaining this double perspective that

865
01:08:58.319 --> 01:09:02.199
yeah, okay, yeah, in
in physical terms, clouds bring the rain,

866
01:09:02.680 --> 01:09:09.800
but there's a higher reason, another
purpose. And when it rains.

867
01:09:09.840 --> 01:09:12.439
The Bible does say in one place
that the heavens give rain, and it

868
01:09:12.479 --> 01:09:15.039
says in another place that God gives
rain. But these are the same action

869
01:09:15.560 --> 01:09:20.960
from two different perspectives, and God's
people understand that everything that happens, everything

870
01:09:21.119 --> 01:09:25.600
that takes place, therefore, is
with his double perspective in mind, that

871
01:09:25.680 --> 01:09:29.720
there is a will and a purpose
behind the events in this world, and

872
01:09:29.760 --> 01:09:34.720
that this rule of God over the
things of the world doesn't eliminate what the

873
01:09:34.760 --> 01:09:44.039
philosophers call secondary causes. I don't
know. God actually establishes those secondary causes,

874
01:09:44.079 --> 01:09:49.279
and he often uses means. Yeah, God establishes those secondary causes.

875
01:09:49.720 --> 01:09:54.880
He's the architect, He's the one
driving. He's not the author of it.

876
01:09:54.960 --> 01:09:58.119
He doesn't approve of it, but
he's yet the one guiding it and

877
01:09:58.159 --> 01:10:00.760
directing it. Like, I don't
know how you can like I understand this

878
01:10:00.800 --> 01:10:08.079
is somehow tries to make people feel
better now, I but it I to

879
01:10:08.159 --> 01:10:16.640
me just drives me crazy, including
our free choices. And this is the

880
01:10:16.680 --> 01:10:26.840
third caution unless we misunderstand. So
to review again, God is not the

881
01:10:26.880 --> 01:10:32.840
author or approver of sin. God
often uses means, and third, God

882
01:10:32.920 --> 01:10:40.800
does not take away our human freedom
or accountability for our choices. God does

883
01:10:40.800 --> 01:10:44.479
not take away our human freedom or
the accountability that we have to Him for

884
01:10:44.560 --> 01:10:49.319
our choices. Saul has freely chosen
this wicked course and seeking to murder his

885
01:10:49.600 --> 01:10:59.279
rival. He okay, when when
you say Saul freely chose this, let's

886
01:10:59.319 --> 01:11:04.800
make sure we remember, though,
the choices that Saw is making rive arise

887
01:11:05.279 --> 01:11:12.279
from a sinful nature from which he
did not freely choose to possess. None

888
01:11:12.359 --> 01:11:16.640
of us freely chose to possess a
sinful nature from which all of our sinful

889
01:11:16.720 --> 01:11:23.239
actions arise. Our sinful actions arise
from a sinful nature which you were given

890
01:11:23.279 --> 01:11:26.800
at conception. And you didn't ask
for it. Your parents didn't ask for

891
01:11:26.840 --> 01:11:30.119
it, nobody asked for it.
It came from Adam and Eve, and

892
01:11:30.159 --> 01:11:32.359
God knew the minute that they said
that everyone else was going to be born

893
01:11:32.359 --> 01:11:36.399
with a sinful nature. And God
did nothing to prevent it, to stop

894
01:11:36.439 --> 01:11:42.880
it, And as of twenty twenty
four July the nineteenth he's yet to remove

895
01:11:43.239 --> 01:11:47.600
anyone sinful nature. Even though Christians
want to pretend that our sinful nature is

896
01:11:47.640 --> 01:11:51.159
gone, it's very much present.
That's why none of us can never be

897
01:11:51.840 --> 01:11:57.520
well holy as God is holy,
and we can never keep God's law perfectly

898
01:11:57.680 --> 01:12:02.800
because we have a nature that is
still and rebellion and does nothing but promote

899
01:12:02.840 --> 01:12:08.960
self and self worship and self desire
and self fulfillment. And that's why you

900
01:12:09.079 --> 01:12:14.319
constantly find yourself in conflict with what
God says and what you think, what

901
01:12:14.399 --> 01:12:17.399
you desire, what you want,
what you feel, how you act.

902
01:12:18.039 --> 01:12:23.680
It all arises from a nature which
you don't freely choose to have. So

903
01:12:23.720 --> 01:12:28.199
then if your nature impacts every aspect
of your life, your emotions, your

904
01:12:28.199 --> 01:12:31.199
feelings, your desire, and your
thinking, then how free can you?

905
01:12:31.279 --> 01:12:36.159
True to say? Free means then
that your choices do not arise from a

906
01:12:36.199 --> 01:12:41.319
sinful nature, Because if your sinful
nature is where your choices arise from,

907
01:12:41.520 --> 01:12:45.880
then you're not truly free. You're
only free to act according to your nature,

908
01:12:45.079 --> 01:12:49.840
which is sinful, meaning you're not
free to simply then be perfectly holy,

909
01:12:49.960 --> 01:12:55.840
because you can't be. You're literally
in bondage to your nature. To

910
01:12:55.920 --> 01:13:05.960
some extent. Chose every faithful step
of that journey. But here as it's

911
01:13:06.079 --> 01:13:12.560
clear where those steps have let him, Saul rightly confesses that all of those

912
01:13:12.680 --> 01:13:19.960
choices have now only served God's holy
purposes, that the whole thing is of

913
01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:25.760
the Lord. Even Saul must confess
verse seventeen. You are more righteous than

914
01:13:25.800 --> 01:13:28.840
I, for you have rewarded me
with good, whereas I have rewarded you

915
01:13:28.880 --> 01:13:33.800
with evil. And you have shown
this day how you have dealt well with

916
01:13:33.840 --> 01:13:39.399
me, For when the Lord delivered
me into your hand, you didn't kill

917
01:13:39.439 --> 01:13:45.840
me. May the Lord therefore reward
you with good the same action that was

918
01:13:45.159 --> 01:13:50.920
freely done well. Many choices multiplied
by Saul, intending evil at every step

919
01:13:51.039 --> 01:13:57.760
in his murderous rage, have all
likewise been providentially appointed by God for good,

920
01:13:57.800 --> 01:14:00.880
only to go this far and no
farther. And beloved friends, this

921
01:14:00.960 --> 01:14:04.840
is the great confidence that God's people
have in all ages, that we cannot

922
01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:09.800
be robbed of God's power in providence, no matter how dark the horizon.

923
01:14:10.399 --> 01:14:15.039
Well, the wicked may have their
day. And he picked a story here.

924
01:14:15.199 --> 01:14:24.239
Obviously that's all positive. Saul is
broken and seems somewhat sorry. David's

925
01:14:24.279 --> 01:14:28.920
life is spared. Oh what a
beautiful story. But let's remind ourselves.

926
01:14:28.960 --> 01:14:31.560
If we're going to talk about God's
providence and God's power and the great comfort

927
01:14:31.560 --> 01:14:35.720
that comes with it, let me
remind you of three important stories. Story

928
01:14:35.800 --> 01:14:44.800
number one, David sin with Bathsheba
and he killed her husband. No providence,

929
01:14:45.279 --> 01:14:49.720
no sparing it. Hey, the
husband dies, David. Not only

930
01:14:50.960 --> 01:14:56.199
David is spared, he gets the
woman anyway. Oh, and a baby

931
01:14:56.279 --> 01:15:00.560
dies. David doesn't die. So
a baby dies and husband dies. David

932
01:15:00.600 --> 01:15:06.479
is good to go, and he
gets the woman anyway. Oh, let's

933
01:15:06.479 --> 01:15:12.720
talk about David lying straight up,
lying to some priests who then eighty of

934
01:15:12.760 --> 01:15:16.640
them are slaughtered. And then not
only are the eighties priests slaughtered, the

935
01:15:16.680 --> 01:15:23.800
city is put to the sword and
men, women, and children and livestock

936
01:15:23.880 --> 01:15:27.199
are slaughtered. Remember I told you
about looking up that story where David lies

937
01:15:27.279 --> 01:15:31.359
to the priest and everyone gets killed. Hey, hey, all these people

938
01:15:31.399 --> 01:15:34.880
die. Hey, it's all good. Oh. And then David numbering of

939
01:15:34.920 --> 01:15:39.720
the people, and what seventy thousand
of them die in the plague. Remember

940
01:15:39.760 --> 01:15:43.479
I told you to look at those
three stories and consider God's providence. Three

941
01:15:43.640 --> 01:15:48.039
stories. Look at all the people
who die. David is spared in all

942
01:15:48.079 --> 01:15:56.960
three stories. Oh, God's providence. This should give you great comfort,

943
01:15:57.039 --> 01:16:02.279
great comfort unless you're I don't know
the man who who God's anointed kills for

944
01:16:02.560 --> 01:16:08.039
because he wants your wife and wants
to cover up his sin. Hey,

945
01:16:08.239 --> 01:16:12.640
hey, God's anointed who God provides
for. It's great unless you're one of

946
01:16:12.640 --> 01:16:15.359
the priests he lies to, and
you get slaughtered, or you happen to

947
01:16:15.399 --> 01:16:18.439
live in the nearby city and your
child gets killed. Hey, it's all

948
01:16:18.479 --> 01:16:24.239
great. The anointed is God's chosen
and looked at. Oh, unless you're

949
01:16:24.239 --> 01:16:28.880
one of the seventy thousand to died
because of a plague, Because you're chosen

950
01:16:29.000 --> 01:16:32.840
one that God's providence is working through
happens to just number the people when he

951
01:16:32.880 --> 01:16:43.439
wasn't supposed to rage. Think of
the terrible witness witn that wickedness done to

952
01:16:43.600 --> 01:16:48.119
Joseph. His brothers hated him,
betrayed him, sold into slaves, slave

953
01:16:48.159 --> 01:16:53.600
traders who sold him into the House
of Egypt, where he was falsely accused

954
01:16:53.640 --> 01:17:01.640
and thrown into prison. At every
step they were only serving God's and Joseph

955
01:17:01.720 --> 01:17:06.279
later explains to his brothers, you
meant evil against me, will evil came.

956
01:17:06.960 --> 01:17:11.720
You meant evil against me, But
God meant it for good in order

957
01:17:11.760 --> 01:17:14.800
to bring it about as it is
this day, to save many people alive.

958
01:17:15.319 --> 01:17:21.600
The very same actions by wicked sins
of the brothers were used as a

959
01:17:21.680 --> 01:17:30.680
glorious deliverance by God. So understand
God does not take away human freedom or

960
01:17:30.600 --> 01:17:34.640
leave us at the accountability of our
choices. No, no, no,

961
01:17:34.680 --> 01:17:41.359
these are misunderstandings of providence that greatly
confuse the saints from time to time.

962
01:17:41.720 --> 01:17:46.800
To review point one of the things, you should not conclude. God works

963
01:17:47.079 --> 01:17:53.119
all things according to sorry point one. God works all things according to the

964
01:17:53.159 --> 01:17:57.760
counsel of his holy andjust will,
all things, but in such a way

965
01:17:58.760 --> 01:18:02.920
that he is not the author or
approver of sin, that he often makes

966
01:18:03.000 --> 01:18:08.680
use of means, and that he
establishes our human freedom and the accountability that

967
01:18:08.720 --> 01:18:16.720
we have for our choices. And
you say that's not clear, well,

968
01:18:16.840 --> 01:18:20.600
especially in this age of despair,
I will say to you, at least

969
01:18:20.640 --> 01:18:24.239
now, how great it is to
remember that we have a great king who

970
01:18:24.359 --> 01:18:27.960
rules this world, who fulfills all
of his great purposes with us in mind,

971
01:18:28.119 --> 01:18:30.479
and who gives us a future and
a hope. That is what the

972
01:18:30.520 --> 01:18:36.199
Bible explains. It does not explain
how God brings it to pass. Fact,

973
01:18:36.399 --> 01:18:43.359
it says it's past you're finding out. My first long point to view

974
01:18:43.520 --> 01:18:54.399
with these three caveats is that God
performs all his purposes, all things serve

975
01:18:54.520 --> 01:19:00.680
his will. But now secondly,
I'm going to make a personal and say

976
01:19:00.720 --> 01:19:04.800
that God performs all things for us. As the verse says, God performs

977
01:19:04.840 --> 01:19:13.279
all things. For us, God's
providence is as powerful as it is personal

978
01:19:13.800 --> 01:19:18.439
and practical. And maybe this is
just what you need to hear, not

979
01:19:18.520 --> 01:19:27.800
a lecture of philosophy, for you
understand. Perhaps something of David's tears,

980
01:19:28.760 --> 01:19:35.960
something of his anxious, difficult struggles. Maybe the circumstances of your life have

981
01:19:36.079 --> 01:19:45.640
come to pass because of the wicked
sins of other people doing evil against you.

982
01:19:49.279 --> 01:19:57.399
How do we deal with that?
Should you conclude that God isn't with

983
01:19:57.439 --> 01:20:06.039
you? Should you blame God?
Should you be bitter? Oh? No?

984
01:20:09.960 --> 01:20:25.680
What should you do? This passage
gives us three practical directions, and

985
01:20:25.720 --> 01:20:29.159
I will stop there. You can
go listen to the rest of that David's

986
01:20:29.199 --> 01:20:32.239
God and ours, Dave advance.
I would like to listen to those three

987
01:20:32.399 --> 01:20:41.079
things, but we're already at eighty
minutes. I don't know how you reconcile

988
01:20:41.159 --> 01:20:45.560
some of the Look. The bottom
line is, look, there is no

989
01:20:45.359 --> 01:20:51.000
true Look. I can give you
all the different school philological schools of thought,

990
01:20:51.359 --> 01:20:55.279
and all their ways of trying to
reconcile these things, and maybe we'll

991
01:20:55.279 --> 01:20:58.279
cover it maybe Sunday at Victory Baptist
Church we'll talk about some of these,

992
01:20:58.560 --> 01:21:01.319
but all of the ways to to
try to reconcile it. Literally, it

993
01:21:01.399 --> 01:21:05.279
makes I'm just gonna I know.
Look, people may argue with me all

994
01:21:05.359 --> 01:21:10.439
day. Any reasonable person looking at
all the explanations will say, none of

995
01:21:10.479 --> 01:21:16.199
this makes any sense. It's circular
reasoning, it's contradictory. It's ridiculous because

996
01:21:16.359 --> 01:21:18.880
no matter what you do, you
can argue this, and argue this,

997
01:21:18.920 --> 01:21:24.720
and argue this. When it's all
said and done, you keep going back,

998
01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:28.520
keep going back, keep going back, keep going back, and you're

999
01:21:28.520 --> 01:21:30.920
gonna end up with in the beginning
God, He's already there. That God

1000
01:21:31.039 --> 01:21:35.680
is all powerful and all knowing,
knowing everything's going to happen, and yet

1001
01:21:35.760 --> 01:21:40.600
he does the next thing, creates
the heavens and the earth. Then we

1002
01:21:40.720 --> 01:21:47.840
see the all powerful God directing and
controlling and as the architect designing everything that's

1003
01:21:47.880 --> 01:21:51.159
going to take place. And we
see when he intervenes, when he doesn't

1004
01:21:51.199 --> 01:21:55.880
intervene, when he could have intervened, when he could stop something, doesn't

1005
01:21:55.920 --> 01:22:00.439
stop something, and then how that
all plays out from that point on luck

1006
01:22:00.520 --> 01:22:08.640
trying to reconcile it all you can
come up with there, and you can

1007
01:22:08.680 --> 01:22:11.680
just pat yourself on the back thinking
you're smarter than everyone else, and you've

1008
01:22:11.680 --> 01:22:14.840
got it all figured out, and
you may only want to see this from

1009
01:22:14.880 --> 01:22:18.359
a positive and be like, oh, I'm so grateful for his providence and

1010
01:22:18.399 --> 01:22:26.920
for his sovereignty and for his eternal
decrees. Okay, just don't put your

1011
01:22:26.960 --> 01:22:31.239
head in the sin and deny all
the horrific, horrible, suffering, death,

1012
01:22:31.359 --> 01:22:38.159
tragedy, even right there in the
Bible God's guiding and controlling and directing.

1013
01:22:38.600 --> 01:22:44.039
Just take David. The stories about
David could expand it. Look at

1014
01:22:44.079 --> 01:22:47.000
what David did in regards to his
sin and having a woman's husband killed and

1015
01:22:47.039 --> 01:22:50.159
then the baby dying. Look at
that whole story. Look at David lying

1016
01:22:50.159 --> 01:22:53.640
to the priest and eighty of them
are killed. And in the city,

1017
01:22:53.960 --> 01:22:57.720
how many people in the city died, including children, and then David's numbering

1018
01:22:57.720 --> 01:23:00.720
of the people, And I think
I can think the numbers like seventy thousand,

1019
01:23:00.760 --> 01:23:03.119
some crazy amount of people die.
There's there are numbers. I always

1020
01:23:03.119 --> 01:23:06.880
never remember them. But you look
at those three stories and just consider them,

1021
01:23:06.960 --> 01:23:11.880
because I want those three stories to
be and then just consider it in

1022
01:23:12.039 --> 01:23:16.800
light of you know, all the
tragedy and death and suffering that happens every

1023
01:23:16.960 --> 01:23:24.159
day on this planet, and again
you can. You can blame this,

1024
01:23:24.239 --> 01:23:26.760
you can blame this, you can
blame this and blame this. But I'm

1025
01:23:26.840 --> 01:23:30.640
just gonna take you all the way
back in the beginning God, before everyone

1026
01:23:30.680 --> 01:23:34.319
else existed, God did, and
God knew everything that was going to transpire.

1027
01:23:34.439 --> 01:23:38.079
Unless you say God is not all
knowing. And if you call into

1028
01:23:38.119 --> 01:23:42.319
question God's all being, all knowing, call into question God being omnipresent,

1029
01:23:42.399 --> 01:23:45.640
and call into question God being omnipotent, then you're not left with a God

1030
01:23:48.000 --> 01:23:54.159
news. If Yahoo dot com that's
news, I f a Yahoo dot com.

1031
01:23:54.439 --> 01:23:58.479
All right, everyone, have a
great day. Please continue to meditate

1032
01:23:58.479 --> 01:24:01.119
on these things. I wish I
could give you better answers. I don't

1033
01:24:01.119 --> 01:24:05.199
have any. God bless