In the sermon 'Providence of God - Part 3' by Jamey Stout, the speaker explores the profound doctrine of God's providence. The sermon emphasizes the miraculous privilege of entering God's presence through Jesus Christ and acknowledges the speaker's personal transformation through divine grace. The sermon weaves biblical narratives, notably from 2 Kings, Acts, and Genesis, illustrating God's sovereign orchestration of events for His glory and the good of His people. The sermon highlights the dual truths of God's decree and human responsibility, as seen in the crucifixion of Christ. The speaker discusses how biblical characters, like Joseph, foreshadow Christ, demonstrating God's providential plan. The sermon also challenges listeners to reflect on their own lives, recognizing God's hand in past events and urging them to embrace repentance and faith. Through theological insights from the London Baptist Confession and other theological works, the speaker underscores the complexity of God's providence, encouraging awe and worship of God, who turns even evil intents into good outcomes for His elect. The sermon concludes with a call to gratitude and adoration for God's sovereign grace and providential care.

Let's bow in prayer together. Father, what an awesome privilege it is to be in your presence through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a miracle that you as holy as you are would allow us this privilege and we thank you that the only way it could ever happen is through your dear son the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord I thank you so much that you would save such a wretch as myself and that you would give me the privilege to even say your name, much less have the privilege to now proclaim truth about you. And I know I can't do it.

So I call upon your precious name and ask you that you would do what only you can do. You would help your bride. You would help these precious chosen ones that are chosen to be holy. Oh that's so awesome God. That you will see to it that every one of us who are bought by your precious blood are going to look like you Jesus and our moral characters and our human bodies, your glorified body, we will have a glorified body one day.

We are gonna be like the Sun and all the means that you're using to accomplish your great ends Lord. God we give you glory, we give you praise, we don't deserve to say your name, we don't deserve anything but hell, but you are so good and so awesome. So Lord have your way with us we pray. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.

As you think about the doctrine of Providence in our family devotion time that we were in 2 Kings 3 18 here recently and there were the three kings Jehoshaphat and Zahab son, I can't remember his name, and then we had the king of Edom and they're out making a circle and they're kind of basically doing this circle and they don't have any water and so they feel like they're gonna die of thirst and the Lord's brought them out there to kill them all by the hand of Moab, the king of Moab. And God says, listen, I'm not going to use rain or any of these things. You're not going to see anything bring this, but I'm going to bring water and fill up this ravine and you're going to have plenty of water to drink. And he says this through Elisha. And then he says, through Elisha, this is a simple matter for the Lord and I want us to one of my goals in preaching this doctrine of providence that the Bible lays out is to instill in you, I pray, and in myself such an awe of God that when we talk about these great truths and this great work of God and how he orchestrates all things far and wide for his own glory and the good of his people.

This is a simple matter for the Lord. I mean this is nothing to him because he's omnipotent. There's no limit to the Almighty. So this is really just a veiling of his power because there's no way you and I could ever grip or get a handle on the limitless God that has saved us through his Son. There's just no way.

So this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord and I would just also say as I begin here, number one, I am so thankful for the providence of God in our conversion. It was Thanksgiving week of 97 that Christ opened my eyes to my sinful condition before him and the glory of his son and saved me and he used many things. He used a cube van. My dad had started a business called Faith Builders and I went to work for dad, working construction, went to the lumber yard, had this big faith builder sign on the construction truck and the guy asked me, hey you must be a Christian. Well I knew I wasn't a Christian but I said oh yeah I'm Christian.

I was at another job and a guy comes up to me and says, what does faith stand for? Well, I knew faith had everything to do with being a Christian, but I said, oh, it's just some name my dad made up. And I was so lost. I mean, I was saying things like this. The only reason I feel guilty about my sin is my mom tried to brainwash me when I was a kid, but that mom was prayers or effective and God Almighty inclined his ear to her and saved my wretched soul.

And he used those means of providence in my life just as he does in your life and I know you can recount those particular moments where God takes a question or God takes a thought, God takes what somebody said and the spirit of the living God drives that home and you can't get a break from it, you can't shake it until you bow the knee to the Almighty and acknowledge that he is God and you are not. So what a God we serve. He is awesome in all his ways and that's just a simple matter for him. So we're looking at chapter four of this confession of faith, the London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1689. And we've been delving into the first part of that paragraph, the almighty power, unsearchable wisdom, and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in his providence that his determinate counsel extendeth itself even to the first fall and all other sinful actions both of angels and men.

Turn with me to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two. While you're turning there, I would also just add to this that in God's providence he brought me here and I am so glad to be here. I am so glad to be under the teaching of these precious brothers and I'm so glad for their commitment to the sufficiency of Scripture that has been brought into my home and my life. I praise God for being here and I'm so thankful that he would be so kind to such a knucklehead.

I mean because I am guys that's all there is to it and I hope if you're honest you know you are too right what a God all right so acts 2 23 him being delivered by the pre by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. So Peter in his first sermon preached in the book of Acts after the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit highlights this great truth. Peter declares that this phenomenon of them hearing the Word, hearing them speak in their own tongues, the wonderful works of God was what was spoken by the prophet Joel. He quotes Joel 2, 28-32. Then the widespread pouring out of the Holy Spirit, salvation for all who call upon the name of the Lord, his name is Jesus Christ.

And so in verse 22, after this quotation, he immediately begins to preach Christ to them and they could not deny the way in which God has so attested to the fact that Jesus Christ is his Son come down from heaven that he is the Christ the Messiah it was so clearly put before them by God. And then we come to verse 23. This, Jesus, and this may be a really wooden translation, we would do it by the determined counsel. We could say the fixed unalterable decree and the foreknowledge, the predetermination or of God's omniscient wisdom and intention of God was that his son was delivered up through the hands of lawless men fastening to a cross. You killed and there is the main thought of the verse.

You killed, you put to death. So how were the Jews able to kill which is the main action of this sentence how were they able to kill Jesus Christ? There's two answers given in this holy text. The first being by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God Jesus was delivered. The second is through the hands of lawless men fastening him to a cross.

Those are the two ways in which they were able to accomplish the main action of the sentence, you put to death. So from God's side, Jesus' death was his predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God, or we could simply say his decree. From man's side, it was through lawless hands, Gentiles, the Jews fastened Jesus to the cross and killed him. So both facts are true. Both facts came from the Holy Spirit of God.

Jesus happened because it was decreed by God. Jesus' death happened because using the Roman judicial system the Jews killed him. Which one came first? What kind of being is God? This is where Reformed theology is so beautiful.

It takes the doctrine, theology proper and it doesn't forget it as it goes into all of the rest of the doctrines of the Bible. Who God is must come to bear upon all things. And that's why I embrace it. Of course God's decree was first and the actions of those who crucified Christ are the working out of the decree of God's providence many details I mean raising up of a Roman Empire and all the things that brought to this moment in time of where God would provide the Lamb. Now because it was decreed does that mean that it lets these people off the hook?

Are they still guilty of the sin that they committed even though they were carrying out the decree of God? And the answer of course is yes. Just drop down in our chapter in verse 36 through 38. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren what shall we do?

Then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." So they're convicted of the real guilt that they incurred by murdering their Messiah, verse 36. They are commanded to repent and identify themselves as followers of the Christ they crucified. So here is this great truth in one verse. The death of Christ decreed by God, man simply murdering the Christ. Right here, God is absolutely sovereign and man is absolutely responsible for his sin.

You cannot use the sovereignty of God in one iota to excuse any sinful behavior whatsoever in yourself or in others. So who killed Jesus Christ? Well, answer, God and man. It was His will to crush Him. And their reasons could not be more opposed to one another.

Think about the polar opposite reasons. Judas and his love for money, the religious leaders and their envy, God and his love for wretched sinners like you and me. What a miracle of grace. What an awesome God our God is. So I found it very helpful.

I have really come to just really love Chapel Library. I mean they put little books together. I like little books. I can't help it but I do like little books that you can just read really fast. But this is Mountains of Brass, the decrees of God.

Fantastic! And this is what Hercules Collins, a man who signed the confession that we adhere to here is that and this is what he says about this text and just this great doctrine. So please give me liberty to read this to you. It's worth it. Please listen.

Another has observed, he's talking about Stephen Charnot, another has observed that God's determination for Christ to die in order to save man laid none under the necessity of sinning. God foreknew what the malice of the devil, Jews, and Gentiles would be against his person to put him to death. And God determined not to prevent it but allow it because he knew how to bring glory to himself out of it. It was necessary that Christ should suffer because God could not be mistaken in his foreknowledge or come short of his determinate decree. But this did not take away the liberty of Christ's suffering.

Neither did it take away the liberty of the Jews and their voluntariness in putting Christ to death. Christ voluntarily suffered in our place. They willingly put him to death. God decreed it. Okay, we're willing to say it.

Will you follow with me? God's decree that Christ should suffer did infallibly secure the invent, but did not annihilate and destroy the liberty of the act, neither in Christ as aforesaid who freely volunteered himself, neither did God's decree remove the guilt of the Jews who has freely and voluntarily put him to death as if there had been no decree of God at all about his death. Did you hear that? That's good. Now, listen to the illustration that he gives the gardeners for knowledge that certain seeds and roots will in the spring produce specific kinds of leaves and flowers is no cause of their rise and appearance in the spring.

But knowing the nature of such roots he nevertheless so concludes that it is so. God's foreknowledge of what wicked works or what wicked works would proceed from the roots of wicked hearts concerning Christ's death is no more the cause of those evil acts than the gardener's knowledge of the cause of the rise of such flowers and spring from such roots. God's foreknowledge that Adam would fall put him under no necessity of it, but it was done voluntarily and freely, yet God foresaw infallibly that Adam would fall and God determined not to prevent it, Knowing how to glorify himself by it So god's foreknowledge of the jews putting christ to death did not necessitate them to it But it was done as freely as if it had not been foreknown or any determination of god about it Thus we have and he goes on but it's just gold I encourage you read Chapel Library they got a great one on temptation right now that is very good as well. Similar text to what we're looking at here would be you could look on like Acts 4 27 through 28 and the other ones that we've looked at together.

So brothers and sisters having proved that the almighty power and searchable wisdom and infinite goodness of God so far manifest themselves in His providence that His determinate counsel extends itself even to the first fall and all other sinful actions both of angels and men. Let us look at the second part which says this, And that not by a bare permission, which Collins has already explained as we read that quote, and not by a bare permission which he also most wisely and powerfully boundeth and otherwise ordereth and governeth in a manifold dispensation of his most holy ends." I mean if these truths don't cause you to say God you are God you are so awesome I don't know what will and so let's look at it as it's revealed in Holy Scripture. Let's go to 2nd Kings 19 28. Because your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips and I will turn you back by the way which you came." So here is the king of Assyria and here in this text in verse 21 we see God's confidence the daughter of Zion is going to take up a taunt and taunt this king because of who her god is And the true and living God has been blasphemed, verse 22 and 23.

We have the king of Assyria's arrogance laid before us in 23 through 24. We have the fact that his military success in verses 25 through 26 was decreed by God. How is he able to do this? It was decreed by God. God knows Assyria perfectly well, even what's in his heart, what's going on in his rage in him.

This getting worked up, this getting enraged and guess what? God takes it personally. God decreed the man's actions and takes his arrogance personally. So he says, my hook, God's hook, God's bridle, this thorn or hook through the nose or the cheek of an animal are captives to lead them away. Second Chronicles 33, 11 using the same language, therefore the Lord brought upon the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, he took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters and carried him off to Babylon so the captive is debased to the status of a controlled animal that's some humble pie Is there any escape from God's hook and bridle?

Church, answer. Don't you love rhetorical questions? The Bible is full of them. Well, you know, this isn't just true of the king of Assyria. This is what God does all over the globe.

He's doing it right now. In fact Job 40 11 says as he tells Job to gird himself like a man and come into my ballpark, so to speak, if you will. Let's talk about things. Disperse the rage of your wrath. Look on everyone who is proud and humble him.

This is what our God does. This Syrian king who thinks he's got his hook and bridle and everybody else has got a hook and bridle in his nose directing him everywhere he goes. The unseen hand of God's holy providence. And so it is today in the rulers of our land. Aren't you glad?

I love as you just step back you look at this through the lens of what happened earlier and Isaiah is very much involved what we just looked at was that during the time of Hezekiah well also during the time of Ahaz we see this said about the king of Assyria Isaiah 10 15 shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it or shall the shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it as if a rod could weld itself against those who lift it up or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not would. Assyria was the rod of God's anger to punish his disobedient, the rod for God, he was just a rod, didn't he? Isn't that easy to do? And God puts him in his place. We learn further and to our point that we are making one of the things that comes out very clearly in the confession, this Assyrian king is very much held guilty for what is going on in his heart.

God says this, Assyria did not mean so as they are being used as a scourge against God's disobedient people. It was in his heart to destroy, Assyria had evil intent and carried out evil which God decreed as righteous punishment against Israel. The king of Assyria is arrogantly sinning against God who is righteously using him for redemptive ends. It's all over the Bible brothers and sisters, these truths. It is all over the Bible and we cannot deny it.

It is staring us in the face. But who can understand such truth that comes to us from the Bible but God. So if we go back to the days of Hezekiah, just one angel takes out 185, 000 of his serious troops. God sovereignly does exactly what he said through Isaiah and slays this man by the hand of his own sons. So, yes, our God is absolutely sovereign and doing all his pleasure.

He was a tool in the hand of God and he was held accountable for his sin. Why? As the confession will state a little bit later because the sin belonged to him the creature and not to the creator though God decreed him to be the rod of his anger. Our God is enthroned in the heavens and does all of his pleasure. Genesis 50 verse 20, love I love this holy text and Genesis 50 20 If you'll turn there with me again we'll see this played out as God overrules, is using the very sinful actions of men to bring about His plan, the good that He had planned.

Genesis 50 verse 20, but as for you, Joseph's brothers, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive. You'll notice Joseph's talk as he's come to know the true and living God. In verse 19 he brings up God's sovereignty. For in the place of God I am I in God's place no I'm not God God is God and Then as you think about our text verse 20 a wooden very wooden translation you yourselves devised against me evil God devised it the very evil referring back to it for good This word plan plot purpose devise think about a course of action in some detail the very evil that the brothers devised to destroy Joseph is the very thing that God devised to use Joseph as a means to preserve life and the life of the very men in front of him that hated him and threw him in a pit and sold him as a slave that wanted him dead. Wow.

And all of this, brothers and sisters, it's like one big finger of the sovereign God as he plays out his providence and all these orchestrations and you have men like Joseph rise up. What does it all bring us to? It's like the sovereign finger of God saying, listen, when my son shows up, born of the Virgin, conceived in the Virgin's womb, I don't want anybody to mistake this is him. Because you can't look at the story of Joseph and this historical account and say That's not a type of christ I mean how much clearer does god need to be? And he orchestrated everything foreign wide so that he would come to a pinpoint time and he would say, hey, you can't deny the evidence.

Here he is. Bow and confess him as Lord. So, When you look at this text and you think about what our confession says, to his most holy ends, ultimately those ends were to preserve the line of the Messiah Jesus Christ. Brother Scott the dragon was foiled again in his pursuit to devour the child. Right?

Revelation 12. John Calvin makes a very astute comment that is just great. This is what he says. So that whatever poison Satan produces, God turns it into medicine for his elect. Isn't that beautiful?

If human minds cannot reach these depths, let them rather humbly adore the mysteries that they do not comprehend than as vessels of clay proudly exalt themselves against their maker. I'm going to read that first part again. So that whatever poison Satan produces, God turns it into medicine for his elect. I'm going to tell you some of those peels are hard to swallow aren't they? I need every bit of them.

I need every bit of them. What a good heavenly Father who does everything perfect. What a Savior. Now let's delve in to the last part of the confession here And I think I have enough time. Let's do it.

So, yet so as the simpleness of their acts proceed proceedeth only from the creatures and not from God who being most holy and righteous neither is nor can be the author and approver of sin. We're just going to go to one text and stay there. So James chapter one, James chapter one verses 12 through 17. James one, 12 through 17. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Let no one say when he has tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning of his own will.

He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of its creatures. Our paragraph begins in verse 12 with quite a table turner. The one who's blessed, the one who has God's favor resting on them is the one who is enduring, who's maintaining a belief or course of action in the face of opposition. They're standing, they're ground, they're holding out, they're not letting all the things that oppose the Christian, the flesh, the devil, the world. They're not letting all that stop them from believing and behaving Christianly in this world.

True God-centered happiness is the person enduring trial by God's grace. So be encouraged. If that's you, you're blessed. Blessed. Blessed is that man who endures temptation.

And really in this particular verse before we move into the seducing to evil we could say trial and there's a play on words in this in this text but before we get there notice the promise the promise of God Eternal life is a gift and it is also a reward. This is the truth of Holy Scripture. So the gift is the fact that God's endowed you with everything in Jesus Christ and his elect will finish the course You know, it's all of grace But he says The crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. I don't take this as just, you know, I take it as life itself, eternal life, eternal life. And here's why.

Just go flip over with me to chapter two, verse five. Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? The kingdom. Notice what our Lord says in Matthew 24, 12 through 13, and because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold but he who endorsed to the end will be saved. Listen the man the woman the boy and girl who realizes who Jesus Christ is and what he's done for their soul will not let go of him but will hold him dear until the end.

Now this is going to be like a man with a yo-yo going upstairs. There's lots of ups and downs but I'm going up because Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and the salvation that he provided is absolutely flawless. He could provide none other than that kind of salvation. So yes, the Christian is going to endure. Is he going to fail?

Sometimes yes. Is he going to confess it? But that's all a part of it brethren. It's that the walk and the light, as you get closer to that light, as you continue to see just how far that rabbit hole of sin goes in you, you realize just the magnitude of what the cross is all about. And as that happens and you realize it's not that God's growing in any more greatness, no, He's perfect in every way but I'm growing in my awareness of that and I'm growing in awareness of my sinfulness as I get closer to him.

And as those two things happen, what looms larger in my mind, in my heart, in my affections? Jesus Christ in him crucified, risen, ascended, praying for me and coming again. I love him more dearly because of God's great work of these sanctifying truths. Now, I didn't mean to go there, but that's where we went. So, James 2.5, we looked at that, and now the wordplay on temptation and trial.

You'll notice that in verse 2, God says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials and then we have it translated in the New King James temptation in verse 12 and you could in other translations would translate it trial. And so what's going on here? Well, I think John Owen puts it very simply. He says thus temptation is like a knife It may be useful to cut the meat or to cut the throat of a man It may be a man's food or his poison, his exercise or his destruction. God's going to use it to show me what's in my heart and grant me repentance and more Christ conformity.

Satan wants to destroy me. My flesh wants to destroy me. There's no good thing in my flesh. So God commands us through James when we are tempted, now we're moving into verse 13 and 14 and now we're looking at a seduction to evil which God has no part in and he says let no one say when he is tempted I am tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil. Brothers this is why the confession says it the way it does.

No man can look at the sovereignty of God declared in scripture and say it's your fault. And so what does James do? James takes us to theology proper, doesn't he? And he talks to us about who God is. Who is God?

The first reason why we can't say this is because it is impossible for anything evil to have any enticement to God's nature whatsoever. He is absolutely repulsed to all that is sinful and evil. Think about that. He is unassailable. He cannot be tempted by evil.

The word is actually untemptable. God is untemptable by evils. No way, no how will that have any appeal to the one who sits on the throne of the universe whatsoever. That's who rules. Now flowing from that awesome holiness comes the next statement.

Well if evil has no appeal to him whatsoever, because God is lighted in him with no darkness at all, then what else do we know? He tempts no one by evil. The one who is repulsed by evil and it has no hold on him whatsoever is not going to be the one seducing you. Okay. So, who's the corporate?

Well, the text doesn't go to the devil. Where does the text go? The text goes straight to our hearts, doesn't it? That each man is tempted, verse 14, when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. So, who is to blame?

Who is to blame? Each one is tempted. And he's specifically talking about inward temptations and I was going to share more but I'm out of time about just the difference between that. I mean We're dealing with our inward desires. God does not put lusts in a man.

A man is full of lusts by the fall. Okay? So the root cause of our temptations are our own desires. We need to look no further than our own heart. That's why these things outside of us have any appeal to us.

Now brethren and sisters, listen. Think about the holiness of God here. Think about who you and I are and think about who God is. And it's this one that by the work of Jesus Christ I can stand before and have relationship with that's a miracle one who has no evil desires whatsoever and can't even be tempted by it whatsoever and here I am who's Chuck full of them Wow what a sufficient savior to bring these two together. So think about what our Lord says, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart and defile a man, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries and so forth." And we could go on there.

There's nothing in God that would cause him to desire evil, but man's heart is an idle factory. So Brothers and sisters, I would just want to close with this. When it comes to evil, man's the author of it, not God. Satan's the author, not God. This world system, the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is of the world and not of the Father.

And so as you see the progression here in this text in James, you get the responsibility of evil and temptation when every man is tempted by his own desires and it's fishing imagery going on here that James is using lures, lured away, it's what's in him and then you see the progression of sin and then James says listen don't be deceived and he says to the church dearly loved beloved what is God the author of and he's not going to change Every good and every good gift and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights and then the immutability of God is highlighted. And then verse 18 brothers, where does all good come from in you and in me? Here it is, New birth. The only reason you and I do any good in the sight of Almighty God that's pleasing to him is he took out that heart of stone that was hard to him and insensitive and put in a heart of flesh. And he did it by his word, says the text, and of course by his spirit.

He took the great redemptive work of Christ and applies it in time by various means in which that gospel came to you and he brought life. And that's the only reason any good. So who's the author of all good? God. And that's why there can't be pride in a local church.

There can't be. Any good that comes out of me is God's doing. He's the author. I'll tell you what Jamie can produce on his best day. Rottenness.

How about that? What a God. So let's thank him. Father, I praise your name for who you are. I praise you that You can take an unclean thing and make a clean thing.

Lord, you can do all things. There's nothing too difficult for you, and that's what you did. You took that rotten humanity because of the fall, and you raised us up to new life in Christ and you placed your own dear spirit in us to do battle royal against that remaining corruption. God, your life is so awesome Lord Jesus. Thank you for doing this.

Thank you for giving it to us as a free gift and thank you that it includes everything all the way to heaven and then a heaven itself to adore you for eternity for what you have done so thank you and give we give you praise and honor and pray O Lord that our hearts would be filled with awe of the great God who is good in Jesus name. Amen.