Nothing Frustrates God

when I read a book like Ezekiel with its 60 to 80 that they might know that I Yahweh I am the one who is I am the one who is absolute I had no beginning I had no ending I am not in process nobody made me the way I am I am absolutely over all things and I take and I give and I dry and I moisten and I do all things because I am God God wants to be known that way in the world world when it comes to God's Providence what does it mean for God to be absolutely over all things in this episode of light and Truth John Piper turns to the Book of Ezekiel to stress the sheer godness of God this seminar was originally given at Bethlehem Baptist Church on November 15th 1995 what we're going to do is begin with General statements about God's Providence over the Nations General statements about God's Providence then we'll move to specific statements about God's Providence over particular Nations and then I want to look at some uh larger portions of scripture rather than just isolated texts so what we'll do first is look at some individual texts they're pretty straightforward and let them have their effect upon your world viw now because you won't read this in the newspaper these These are more important truths than are ever reported in the newspaper or on television and yet you will never hear these it shows how tremendously skewed reality is in the way it's presented for most Americans and since most Americans don't absorb the Bible from any Source they are constantly inundated by a skewed source of reality in uh education and media and entertainment job 12:23 God makes the Nations great then destroys them he enlarges the Nations and then leads them away this is a theme we're going to see over and over again of God being the one who who brings Nations into being makes them great or large and then removes them takes them away God does that Psalm 22:28 the kingdom is the Lord's and he rules over the Nations so the nations are not running willy-nilly outside the control of God he's managing affairs Psalm 33:10 the Lord nullifies the Council of the Nations he frustrates the plans of the peoples so if you see a big Council taking place and Council coming from that Council and it looks bleak and forboding for the advance of the Gospel like in Kazakhstan a a major law being passed that 40% of foreigners foreign income will be paid to kazakhstan's government and you say oh dear well God God can nullify that when it ceases to have its appointed effect he can just nullify that anytime he wants or if you see the Supreme Court send down a decision that seems to be unjustly restrictive upon certain speaking or AC don't oh dear poor God he took a setback God can nullify anything he chooses to nullify in the Council of the Nations and when their plans are formed he can frustrate the plans how many times have we seen actions performed by Nations which looked awful to us I mean for example real obvious and easy examples is the the communization the secularization of China for what 40 plus years thinking oh the missionaries are gone we can't spread the gospel and not only is the gospel growing spectacularly with two and a half Pentecost a day during those 40 50 years but the old resistant religion is wiped out by communism so that when the doors begin to reopen it's a new enemy and it's an enemy very very susceptible to meaning and hope among young people so what what's God doing for 40 years of shutting things down and oh it looks like a setback it it was no more a setback than three days in the grave were a setback for Jesus and the same thing could be said of other kinds of developments Psalm 47 eight god reigns over the Nations he sits on his holy Throne so he reigns over the Nations Psalm 667 he Rules by his might forever his eyes keep watch on the Nations let not the rebellious exalt themselves so he's keeping watch on the Nations nothing is happening in a in a corner to God he's not tending to an election in Canada or a decision about whether Canada becomes two Nations he's not tending to that and then oh I let something slip in South Africa he's watching over all of them God is Omni presentent and omniscient Psalm 67 four let the Nations be glad and sing for Joy for thou wil judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the Nations on the earth that's a remarkable statement especially when you realize how Godless many of the nations are and how many choices they make which are anti-god choices and anti-gospel choices he guides the Nations on the earth and this is said in a context back then where only one nation was anything approximating a Godly nation and this is plural here it's not just Israel that he guides it's the nations of the earth Edom and Moab and Assyria and Egypt and Ethiopia the nations of the north the horse is prepared for the day of battle but Victory Belongs to the Lord now now I put that in here as a kind of summary of goodness how many of you are reading Ezekiel in your devotions these days raise your hand if you're reading in Ezekiel right now or really anywhere in the prophets just circle in your mind if not with a pencil all the I Wills when God is the eye I I looked up the I I will brings on my computer bible program today I will bring we're about 60 or maybe there were 90 in the Bible I think and I just jumped from one to the other I will bring a nation here I will bring my people I will bring Devastation I will bring Triumph I will bring I I I don't you know sometimes you read you read a a difficult book like Ezekiel with its strange visions and and you scratch your head and you say I can't get this book half of this book is a closed book to me I don't understand now that's okay it is to most people you got to study hard and poke around in commentaries and look up words and dictionaries and try to get some background which you mainly don't have time to do but you know you you shouldn't miss the forest for the trees when you read a book like Ezekiel the forest is God is amazingly at work in judgment and salvation and let the the supremacy and the dominance of the Providence of God have an effect on you I'll show you before we're done some typical biblical ways of telling history talking history that are so different but I put this verse in here as a kind of summary of all those dozens and dozens I'm tempted to say hundreds and hundreds of battles in Old test history where God plainly says I did it I did it I gave them into your hand and the reason is because Proverbs which is a book speaking about General wisdom says in all battles the H is made ready for the day of battle but the victory Belongs to the Lord so if we go to war here or we go to war there or if there's a battle here or a battle there it is fitting that there be precautions and preparations made but in the end God decides who wins God decides who wins Isaiah 40 do you not know have you not heard has it not been declared to you from the beginning have you not understood from the foundations of the earth it is he who sits above the Vault of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in it is he who reduces rulers to nothing who makes the judges of the earth meaningless scarcely have they been planted scarcely have they been sown scarcely has their stock taken root in the Earth but he merely blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like stubble he's talking about Judges and rulers Isaiah is one of those books that attempts to give you a feel for the Transcendent Majesty of God over this earth now I I want you to feel right now that you're not going to get this message from the place where you get most of your input in this world and it is the most important message you never hear this on television never does the news say God blew the prime minister of Israel away they won't say it they won't say it ever that God would and he's gone and I don't say that out of any particular political standpoint because this week kale po his son 35 5-year-old son died in his sleep and God went and blew him away and I'll say that about every death in this church and every political ruler who dies and the fact that God establishes Yak rabim for a season for his purposes and then removes him we need to know because that is a massive truth and nobody else is going to tell you that but the Bible Ezekiel all the trees of the field this is now coming right out of a parable or an allegory in Ezekiel where a high tree is pictured as a proud Ruler all the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord I bring down the high tree and I exalt the low tree I dry up the green tree and I make dry the dry tree flourish I am the Lord I have spoken I will perform it those are amazing and glorious statements that the high he makes low and the low he makes high and the dry he can make moist and green and the green he can make dry and the dry he can cause to flourish so God can look on a situation America or England or Germany he can look at Europe right now which is a dry tree I was talking to a missionary in Lincoln on Sunday after I preached on suffering as a means of world evangelization and a 36-year veteran missionary who spent most of those years in Ecuador and then he said when he retired he and his wife said send us to Spain in our retirement for a few years we'd like to see what God is doing there and where a lot of these Spanish-speaking people originated and he spent two years there and he said that is a dry tree 2,000 years of Roman Catholicism maybe 50,000 people who would think of themselves as Born Again half of those is are gypsies because there's amazing people movement among gypsies in Europe so in a land like Spain the whole of Spain maybe 25,000 even angelical Believers that's a dry tree now the way to think about that is not well I guess I guess that's the way it'll be till Jesus comes or I guess that God's done with Spain or something like that the way to think about things like that is God can make a dry tree flourish now I know he's talking about rulers here he can raise up rulers and make them prosper and he can take down rulers but the same principle the the biblical principle that God is in the business of reversing things to get people to know I am the Lord now there's another one you know how many times this occurs in Ezekiel I looked that up it's 70 some I can't remember 60 to 90 it's it's a lot you read it and over and over again they'll know that I'm the Lord they'll know that I'm the Lord and I wonder what in the world does that mean cuz that's clear God's motivation all through Ezekiel he does everything he does both in judgment and in Salvation that people would know that he's the Lord see whenever you see all caps in your Bible it's the word Yahweh it's the tetragramaton in Hebrew Yahweh translated Jehovah in some places we don't know just how to say it the Jews never did say it they said Adonai instead because they didn't want to take the name of Yahweh or whatever this pronunciation should be in vain but this is the name of God in the Old Testament occurs about 2600 times in the in the Hebrew Old Testament and it's the name that God said to Moses tell them I am sent you who should we say sent us and he says tell them I am sent you and that's the verb be and this is this is built on the verb be the verb be in Hebrew is ha and this this name is built on that so here's my interpretation of that they might know that I am Yahweh I think he means there's no verb in those sentences either by the way it's just that they might know I Yahweh I think he means that they might know that I am the one who is the absolute one who does all these things the sheer isness of God is not known in the world this made me feel very very glad that we have a mission statement now that says we exist as a church to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of All Peoples now that's a very Broad and big uh mission statement it's it doesn't get down to the specifics of the go gospel yet that's on page two but our mission statement is that that we could spread a passion for the supremacy of God and when I read a book like Ezekiel with its 60 to 80 that they might know that I Yahweh I am the one who is I am the one who is absolute I have no beginning I had no ending I am not in process nobody made me the way I am I am absolutely over all things and I take and I give and I dry and I moisten and I do all things because I am God God wants wants to be known that way in the world and he isn't known that way in America certainly not outside the church and in large measure not inside the church and so we should be thankful when we read the book of Ezekiel that God has given the master planning team a statement like that Daniel Daniel answered and said let the name of God be blessed forever and ever for wisdom and power belong to God and it is he who changes the time and the epics he removes Kings and establishes Kings he gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to Men of understanding Daniel is at a time in history when Mega changes are in the offering for the people of Israel and nations are rising Babylon Assyria Persia other nations are on the way and as he is given to see the big picture he says God god reigns over all of this he removes Kings he's going to take Nebuchadnezzar out of the way he's going to take ardz Xerxes out of the way he's going to take Cyrus out of the way he's going to take dasas out of the way he's going to put up the salusins he's going to put some Caesar that will do a thing and set up things for the Messiah to come God is totally reigning here he establishes Kings and this phrase here changes times and epics h is you know if you live long enough and those of you who are getting old now are the ones who have the authoritative word to say about this if you go back and try to remember what it was like in the 40s and then the 50s and then the 60s and then the 70s and then the 80s and now the 90s you know times change there's ethos changes moods change openness changes just there's just a different kind of thing in the world that governs so much that you can't quite get your hand on what it is in our day and Daniel says God God's doing that God's Got That under control God Knows Why country western music is the most popular music in America there's a purpose for that I read a I read a a essay by a guy in Nashville who had done a lot of thinking about why Nashville exists uh as the capital of a lot of things and uh he he had some amazing ideas I can't tell you what they all are of why God has ordained country western music to take America just take it it's over for every other music just about you know the president himself says that's his music so you you you you decide you think that through act 17:26 he made from one every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the Earth having determined their appointed times and boundaries he determined their appointed times how long did he give the USSR 701 or two years and the boundaries of their habitation the space and the time limitations of Nations God is reigning how long will he give America no guarantees whatsoever this is light and Truth god- centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure him truly I'm your host Dan kru thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper continues our 15-part series on God's Providence with a talk titled The God Who commands Calamity I hope you'll join us for more resources visit desiringgod.org

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 6,101

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Ezekiel 17:22–24, Nothing Frustrates God, Light and Truth, Light + Truth, L+T, Sermon, Preaching, Podcast, Providence, God's Providence, Sovereignty

Id: OQTHM0t5LJM

Length: 22min 18sec (1338 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2024