Derek Thomas: The Providence of God

[Applause] thank you chris and whoever assigned the sex talk to dr godfrey m very grateful but as a satirical show back in the 60s or 70s would say and now for something completely different so i was assigned the book of job all of it in 40 minutes under the title of the providence of god i was a young minister barely months into ordination late 70s a young couple in the church called and said would i come and visit i went to see them they're in their early twenties their first pregnancy and she says to me i i've learned the baby is on a cathalic which basically means it had little to no brain and would survive maybe for two minutes and would die a lot of pressure from the hospital to abort the fetus which they refused to do they asked me to be present at the birth i was behind the screen and when the baby was born i stepped forward i'm i'm in my mid-20s i've been a minister for a few months and [Music] i watched this young girl die and weeks later when i went to visit them in their home she she said to me i know you can't answer this question but i'm going to ask it anyway why and she says it's okay i don't i know you haven't got an answer because i didn't i had i had no answer and it's it's job amazing isn't it possibly the first book of the old testament to be written job is in the same era as abraham long before moses and this is the book god gives us a book about a man who is described in verse 1 of chapter 1 and and urge you to have your bibles open to job chapter 1. we've got 42 chapters to get through there was a man in the land of us whose name was job and that man was blameless and upright one who feared god and turned away from evil and although in this instance and this is going to be repeated three times in the first two chapters of job here it's put in a manner where the author is telling you of job's godly character but later it'll be god himself who will say these same words that he is blameless and upright and feared god and turned away from evil this is a godly man this is not why do the wicked suffer that's easy but why do the godly suffer why do why do those who are in a right relationship with god and walk in his ways and fear his name why do they suffer it's the perennial issue of the problem of pain and a part of the answer to that issue is here before us in verse 6 there was a day when the sons of god came to present themselves before the lord and satan also came among them the lord said to satan from where have you come satan answered and the lord and said from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it he's a vagabond he has nowhere to call home so the question arises why did satan sin long before adam and eve sinned there was sin in the universe satan had sinned the fall of the angels what could possibly have lured a sinless creature like satan to eat the forbidden fruit well that's a tough question part of the issue here of the problem of pain for sure is satan we live in a world and we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world john the apostle tells us that the reason the son of god appeared was to destroy the works of the devil verse 8 the lord said to satan have you considered my servant job you know i always think if why did god do this perhaps satan was completely oblivious to job have you considered my servant job there's none like him on the earth a blameless and upright man who fears god and turns away from evil and satan answered the lord and said does job fear god for no reason and so the drama unfolds a test the only reason job is godly and fears god and and walks in his ways and his upright in his character is because god has sheltered him surrounded him with all the help necessary for him to walk that way but take all of that away and you will see what job is made of and so this devastating day arrives an evil day and job even though there are barriers have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face and the lord said to satan behold all that he has is in your hand only against him do not stretch out your hand so satan went out from the presence of the lord you see there's a fundamental issue here that the one in charge of this test and it is a test is not satan but god it's about the sovereignty of god it's about the omnipotence of god it's about the will of god it's about the holiness of god it's about who he is this book of job is not really a book about job it's a book about god john calvin in 1554 in february i began a series of 159 sermons on the book of job they would last until april of 1555. were preached during the week he went systematically from job 1 1 to the last verse of job 42. it was a difficult time it was the time of cevitus and so on and there's a reference in one of the sermons and oblique reference in one of the sermons to the death of cevitus in geneva and in the very opening sermon in that cold february day of 1554 calvin said it is a great thing to be subject to the majesty of god he set the agenda for what would be 159 studies in the book of job and it's about the majesty omnipotence and being of almighty god yes there's there's satan and we can rightly blame satan satan did this but there's an even greater issue here god did this he allowed this to happen he set the agenda he he issued all of the the parameters in which job will now lose all 10 of his children in in one fell swoop to [Music] lose all 10 of your children to lose your your 401 k there's a second test in chapter 2 and this time god permits satan to touch job and he loses his health and by midway through the book of job he is described as skin and bones people say if you have your health you have everything some of you struggle with ill health some of you struggle with it in your own personal lives and you struggle with it in the lives of your children or your your your wife or husband or parents and here is job and what does he say at the end of chapter one naked i came from my mother's womb and naked shall i return the lord gave and the lord has taken away blessed be the name of the lord you want to be able to say that don't you when when the floor the ground opens up beneath you and and you lose everything all your hopes all your dreams all your aspirations and and they are gone a day that you never could have imagined and and and here you are and you want you want to be able to say what job is saying here naked i came from my mother's womb and naked shall i return the lord gave and the lord has taken away blessed be the name of the lord in the second uh account in chapter two when he loses all of his health his wife says to her in verse nine do you still hold fast your integrity curse god and die calvin called her diabolus matrix you don't need to know any latin and you don't have to study latin like dr ferguson to know that that's not a compliment you know maybe we can give her the benefit of the doubt she doesn't want to see her husband suffering and maybe maybe she's saying curse god and it'll be over quickly and he says to her you speak as one of the foolish women would speak the fool in psalm 14 says there is no god you speak as one of the foolish women would speak shall we receive good from the hand of god and shall we not receive evil that's a bold bold statement isn't it how can god dispense evil how can he decree it that's our belief isn't it but nothing happens without god willing it to happen and without god willing it to happen before it happens and without god willing it to happen in the way that it happens all things work together for the good of those that love him all things the good the bad and the ugly and yet reformed theologians have wanted to introduce at least some barriers to to protect god from being the author of evil and so things happen and occur by second causes yes god did it in the sense that he decreed it but satan did it in the sense that he is the one morally responsible for it and the minds are now beginning to come apart three friends come elephants and bildad and zofah and the best thing they ever did in chapter three was to say absolutely nothing for a week it was the best thing that they did chapter three of job is it's like a lifeline it curses the day that he was born he sinks down and and down and down and down and down you ever you ever experienced that when you're in despair you can't sense god's presence there's no sense of his love his the arms that once you knew were wrapped around you seem not to be there your prayers are filled with despair and anger frustration where is god in all of this as he sits on the ash sheep as he scrapes this ash all over him a sign of his imminent death you know these words are quoted almost verbatim in jeremiah 1920 um by jeremiah after he had been put in the stocks and ridiculed and all kinds of things had been thrown at him and then the next day he goes back i think to his home and he quotes from memory the words of job i'm glad these words are here i i've been close to this at one point in my life but not not quite to the despairing level of job chapter three but it's like it's like when you're flying you know and flying and this season is weird it's just weird and i i don't question any of it i just comply and the the announcement will be made that somewhere under your seat and it depends where you're sitting if you're sitting in the back it's here if you're sitting in the middle it's somewhere else and if you're sitting in first class it's somewhere else and you think i need to know i need to know exactly where this thing is this this this life vest and the and the whistle is going to be vitally important this this plane is going down at 500 miles an hour into the ocean i i need to know where that whistle is and and the little light that's going to light up in contact with water that's going to be absolutely vital i've never once got down on my knees and searched exactly where it was i mean am i am i sitting in the one chair that they forgot to put it in job chapter 3 is like a life vest i may need it one day and what a god we have that he would put this in the bible for a day when despair overtakes you and to be able to say you know you're not alone job was here jeremiah was here jesus was here my god not not my father but my god my god why have you forsaken me as though the consciousness of his native sonship had abandoned him all together so then we come to chapter 4 and they begin to speak and in chapter four we have eliphaz he's probably the oldest of the three and uh in verses five and six and seven you have the gist of what they say but now it has come to you and you are impatient it touches you and you are dismayed is not your fear of god your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope remember who that was innocent ever perished oh where were the upright cut off that's counseling 101 right there the reason why you're suffering is because it's your fault now let's think about that for a minute instant retribution i believe it if you're sleeping around and behaving like a dog and you get an std the sex talk you can't come up to me any and say life isn't fair why should i suffer this way dude it's your fault there is such a thing as instant retribution yes paul says so in galatians chapter 6 but that's not the case here it's not the case here because god says so because he was an upright man he was a godly man he was the godless man on the face of the planet the reason for job suffering does not lie in his own sinfulness calvin says in his opening sermon in 1554 in february that these friends they only have one song and they sing it to death so chapter after chapter lots of what they say is perfectly orthodox they have an orthodox doctrine of god joseph carroll the puritan in london in a congregation that john owen would later minister in preached on the book of job for 23 years you know you're 18 19 you're going along to church and he announces a series of sermons on job you get married have children you go away somewhere and then 20 years later you come back and and he's still in the book of job you have to admire that they're published you can purchase 12 volumes of all of these sermons on the book of job much of what they say about god is perfectly orthodox but they are dead wrong in their analysis of why it is that job suffered now every now and then in the book of job uh job cries out in chapter 9 and chapter 16 and then and then famously in in chapter 19 the passage that says i know that my redeemer lives and he has this longing you know in the passage i know that my redeemer lives and you probably think now of handel's messiah and the wonderful oratorio uh that he wrote in a moment of of semi inspiration for sure but you need to understand that when job says i know that my redeemer lives he's not saying i know that jesus exists and he's he died for my sins and i'm justified by faith and i need not fear the wrath of god no that's not what he's saying at all job is protesting his innocence he wants an answer to the question why there was a young woman in the congregation that i was in in belfast wonderful wonderful woman she gave birth to a daughter who had some serious medical issues tumors on her brain doctors said she wouldn't last very long they were aware of it before the baby was born the moment she was born the husband walked out and never returned never paid a dime in alimony it was the sweetness of this mother who was completely devoted 24 7 to raising this child and she lived until she was over over 40. i would visit her and her mother my mother lived with her daughter and her granddaughter and i would visit once every couple of months i would i would go along she'd knock on the door she would say oh come in come in and she typical sort of irish hospitality and there'd be cups of tea and and biscuits what cookies and every time she would ask this question she'd say i know you don't know the answer to this but i i just have to ask and when i've asked it i'm i'm i'm going to be fine but she will say to me why and i would smile and i would say to her you know what i'm gonna say don't you yes she said you're gonna say you don't know and i said yeah i still don't know the troubles and the difficulties that people face christians face the best of christians face a partner that cheats children that rebel tensions that arise between parents and children you lose your job you know things were going so well you had dreams you you're gonna buy a new house you're gonna retire and then all of a sudden you're called by hr and you've got 20 minutes to leave the building and you're fired you're gone you're laid off and all your dreams have gone out the window and you say why and why me in particular there's a contribution in job begins in chapter 32. we're moving along elihu six chapters commentators differ on elihu calvin was a liehu his entire interpretation of the book of job is through the eyes of elijah well i say elihu you may say elihu but so long as we're talking about the same person here what does he contribute that the other three do not and and here's here's my here's my take on it he begins well and ends badly he begins well he he has a point and his point is that that and it's a it's a new testament point it's a biblical point it's a pauline point it's a patreon point that trials are educative they can teach you something we'll look at it tomorrow in romans five it can produce character but i think he ends badly and he eventually reverts to the ever tolling bell of the reason we suffer is because we are sinners and god is judging us for our sins it's the doctrine of instant retribution so let's pass over and you may differ with me and that's fine but let's move to chapter 38. where has god been from chapters end of chapter 2 to the beginning of chapter 38 where has god been he's not he's been silent isn't isn't that part of the problem of pain we lift up our prayers and we want god to speak to us with assurance we want verses of scripture to come bounding out as it were with with lasers and and confirming who we are and what we are and that all will be well the silence of god then the lord answered job out of the whirlwind out of the whirlwind don't you think you'd be expecting god to come as he came to elijah with a still small voice a whisper there there there like like my mother would do you know when i grazed my knee or or some some issue had happened then i'm emotionally wrought and she would she would pat me on the back and she'd say there there there everything's going to be all right but he's coming in a storm he's coming in a whirlwind and it's saying to you this this god of ours is bigger than you think he is he's holier than you think he is maybe part of the problem here and maybe part of the lesson here is that your god is too small when the lord answered job out of the whirlwind and said who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge answer job you know people say did job sin in what he said well of course he did did job sin when he talked about god of course he did his sin prior to his catastrophe was not the cause of his sin but he most definitely sinned when he spoke about the trial and the sense of unfairness and the sense of injustice and and and cries against god and his and his righteousness of course he sinned so what does he say dress for action like a man the verb in hebrew is a verb from wrestling job's been asking for a fight oh it's not a fisticuffs fight it's a an epistemological fight it's a fight about ideas it's a fight about what is true it's a fight about what is right and wrong and job is saying this is wrong and god is wrong and god says to him let's fight you me make the square it's pistols at dawn dress for action like a man i will question you and you make it known to me and and you want to throw up your hands and say that's not fair no no no no job is the one asking the questions god is the one giving the answers and god sets the rules for this pistols at dawn and he says i will do the questioning and you will do the answering question number one chapter 38 verse 4 where were you when i laid the foundation of the earth what sort of question is that you know that's just not fair that's just not right and what in the world has that got to do with job's pain and job's suffering and job's sense of injustice tell me if you have understanding who determined its measurements surely you know who stretched the line upon it on what were its bases sunk who laid its cornerstone when the morning starts and on and on it goes 50 60 questions about places underground where man has never been caves and so on about creatures that job was probably never seen about the stars in the night sky and and lots and lots of questions and job hasn't got an answer [Music] to a single one of these questions so in chapter 40 in verse 2 shall a fault finder job is the fault finder shall a fault finder contend with the almighty he who argues with god let him answer it and job says behold i am of small account what shall i answer you i lay my hand on my mouth i have spoken once i will not answer twice i will proceed no further but there's more and in verse 6 of chapter 40 the lord answered job out of the whirlwind and said dress for action like a man i will question you and you make it known to me job needs to be brought down just a little further so look at verse 15 of chapter 40. behold behemoth and then there's a description of behemoth and then in verse 1 of chapter 41 leviathan and then there's a description of leviathan behemoth and leviathan now commentators are all over the map as to the identity of behemoth and leviathan some and as much to commend it suggests that behemoth and leviathan are allegorical representations of satan after all satan doesn't appear in the conclusion of the book and you'd expect since he was so dominant in the opening chapters that he would appear in the closing chapters and here they are behemoth and leviathan and if that's your interpretation that's fine and others suggest that behemoth and leviathan are prehistoric creatures dinosaurs and and and so on and and uh destroyed by the flood and if that's your opinion that's fine um i'm going to go with david climes the foremost commentator on job three massive volumes in the word biblical commentary and he goes with the old fashioned interpretation that behemoth is a hippopotamus and leviathan that's obviously a water creature is a crocodile so just for this afternoon whatever your interpretation don't email me don't text me i'm fine with it i'm good don't send me pages and pages i probably read them just for this afternoon let's go with that interpretation just for the sake of argument that behemoth is a hippopotamus and leviathan is a crocodile why did god make a crocodile you've watched those youtube movies in africa on the serengeti plains and and there's an ibex or some antelope creature and and by the pool and it's hot and the and the air is shimmering and and you can see the the throat of this antelope creature and it's it's drinking the water and then there are two eyes in the water looking straight at this creature and none of you are saying go for it you're you're all on the side of this little antelope and and if you i've had to stop these movies because i can't i just can't face it i ca i can't i can't look at it why did god make a crocodile shoes [Applause] handbags no no that's not the reason i don't know you know i have given some money not a lot of money twenty dollars to save the polar bear it'd be very sad i would be sad i would genuinely be sad and sorrowful if there were no polar bears in the world i'd be very sad i was reading a story yesterday about some bird that's now down to 300 or so it's a rare bird there's only 300 of them and the males the young males learn to sing mimicking older males but the older males have died they're extinct so the young males can't attract a mate anymore they need to talk to bob godfrey i would genuinely be sad if there were no polar bears but i wouldn't shed a tear if there were no crocodiles why did god make a crocodile and you know the answer because because rc taught you for his own glory for his own glory and that my dear friends is what the book of job is saying about pain why does pain happen to me why am i wrenched out of my place of comfort into a place of of of horrible abandonment where i feel as though god has completely left me why i deserve to know no you don't it's not important that you understand it's only important that he understands and that you trust him even in the dark even in silence the book of job is about the genuineness of our faith when the ground is taken away from us do we trust him even even in the most horrible of pain and the most horrible situation imaginable do we trust him that he has this that he has the whole world in his hands and that he has you in his hands there may be reasons for your suffering and mine [Music] that we may never understand but it's not important that we don't understand what's important is that we believe him that we trust him that he is my heavenly father and he may bring me through a season of trial and difficulty to grow me in my faith to grow me in my dependence upon him without all of the support of stuff and things that corroborate evidence of his goodness to me how do i know that he loves me because jesus died for me is the answer because he too went through the experience of abandonment when our sins were laid to his account when the anathema the the the unmitigated anathema of god came down upon him and as luther says at that moment he was the greatest sinner the world had ever seen because our sins had been imputed to his account jesus loves me this i know for the bible tells me so he hasn't promised to any of us a ride on a bed of roses to the pearly gates it was paul's first lesson that he learned after his first missionary journey it is through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of god i love the book of job i'm a celt the glass is half empty i'm an eor by temperament but i love the book of job because it's a book about god what did calvin say in that first sermon in february of 1554 it is a great thing to be subject to the majesty of god father we thank you thank you for the book of job thank you for this man we look forward to meeting him one day and talking to him we thank you that you put this book in the middle of the bible because it is the experience of many are christian that there are days days when darkness comes days when the sun refuses to shine but you in jesus christ are the same yesterday today and forever help us in our trials to trust you to place our faith completely in you and we ask it all in jesus name amen [Applause] you

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

Views: 32,831

Keywords: actions have consequences, awe, christian, christianity, creator of heaven and earth, derek thomas, dr. derek thomas, glory, god, god can do all things, god is in control of all things, god's work in our lives, gods providence, holy reverence, job 42 2, ligcon, ligonier ministries, ligonier national conference 2021, now and forever, providence, reformed, reformed theology, right now counts forever, splendor, the providence of god, the sovereign god, theology

Id: eqgnxXASwvo

Length: 43min 3sec (2583 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 19 2021