Psalms

[0:00] I should first of all like to respond very briefly to the very gracious word of introduction and welcome and say that it is, in my estimation, a privilege as well as a pleasure to come to this Midlands meeting of the Sovereign Grace Union and to come to this chapel of which I have had in recent times so much.

[0:44] I appreciate the honour of this, albeit I can, in a sense, sympathise with you that Mr. Alexander is not before you tonight because I myself have learned to value our brother's ministry and I feel myself to be a poor substitute indeed.

[1:14] But the Lord has appointed him to go across the seas and may we seek to uphold him in our prayers for his labours there in the United States and in Canada.

[1:28] And may the Lord make it up to you in some measure that I should be here in his place this evening. Perhaps I could just say a word concerning the Sovereign Grace Union.

[1:43] I was just over a year ago appointed to the General Secretaryship because it was clear that the Lord had been dealing with the Union.

[1:55] There were many things hard to understand from a human standpoint, not least the illness and the resignation of our past secretary, Mr. Ellis.

[2:09] And this made it a most urgent matter last summer to consider what the Lord had in this for his people and for those who love these great doctrines of free grace.

[2:21] And the events of the last year have not been easy in many ways, but I'm very glad to be able to say tonight that we approve that he has not left us.

[2:38] And we believe that the same God who raised up the Union all these years ago is still with us. And as has been mentioned even tonight in this place in prayer, surely we must agree that the need is just as great.

[2:55] And would we not say that the day in which we live is an evil day, and a day of great darkness, even upon the church scene, and a day when we long that God will give great boldness to those who testify to the doctrines, as we call them, of his grace.

[3:16] We are encouraged by the way that he has helped us in difficult times and has led us out. And in the last few months, we have seen much to gladden the heart, and we have seen those again beginning to inquire as to these things.

[3:37] And I think even from the beginning of July, we must have enrolled nearly three dozen members to the Sovereign Race Union, and the bulk of the men and women that have been arrested by some publication, or have learned of the Sovereign Race Union in such auxiliary work as this, and have been led to inquire for them, and to support us in interest and prayer, and in finance also.

[4:13] We are heartened by this, and we look to God that he will be pleased still to come in for us, and that this work might be of the Lord's building, and for his glory.

[4:31] I would ask you, as Mr. Denman said tonight, to continue, please, to support the work in this area. And I'm happy indeed by the knowledge of these meetings, and the different places in which they are held, and may these continue in the Lord's will, and be mightily blessed, and owned by God himself.

[4:59] We thank you for the financial support, which is so necessary too, and we're conscious that the Lord has led many who love the truth to give liberally for the propagation of these great doctrines.

[5:18] We stand as we always have stood. There is no lessening, I believe, or any weakening of our position.

[5:29] We believe in the great covenant doctrines. We believe in the eternal election of the people of God. We believe in that particular redemption, in that Christ died.

[5:43] We believe for the elect, and for no other, and for none less. We believe in that invincible, irresistible grace of God, whereby, through his Spirit, he brings men and women unto himself.

[5:59] and we rejoice in the perseverance of God with his people, that final perseverance of the people of God, so that in that great day when the ransomed host come before the throne, there will be none missing, but all shall be there redeemed by precious blood, and the Savior's work in all its perfection, and the Savior's work in all its perfection, displayed for the ages to come.

[6:27] These are the things we believe there can be no compromise and no weakening, these truths. They are truths of Scripture, truths that God has been pleased to reveal from his own blessed work, and as he will enable us, we will seek to maintain these doctrines, and to stand for them in a day of compromise, and a day of declension.

[6:51] The word of the Lord is sure and fixed, and the heaven and the earth will pass away before that word of the Lord is changed in any detail. So then, that by way of introduction, and I don't want to take up more time on this, but I want to speak on the subject which I have not been asked to speak on.

[7:15] I was left freedom in this matter, but I sought of the Lord what I should speak, and I'm not preaching. I'm proposing to give an address tonight, an address on the sovereignty of God in his providential or governmental rule.

[7:37] And I feel that the Lord has brought me to this, and this is the message that I should bring, and may he be pleased now to give us help, both in delivering this address, and also in the reception of it.

[7:55] If anything I feel does us good, it is to remember that God is upon the throne, that God is a mighty God, and that the Lord is not absent from this world which he has made.

[8:13] There is a sense perhaps in which we might feel that the Lord is withdrawn from his church, I mean in the sense of his manifold blessing upon us. But yet we know that God is not distant, and God has certainly not abandoned this world as some people would give out.

[8:32] We believe rather that God is ruling and guiding in every detail and every circumstance of life. We believe our times are in the hands of the Lord, and so it will be good, I trust, for us to remind ourselves of this sovereign rule rule of God, that the Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and that his kingdom ruleth over all.

[9:02] God has made this world, and having made this world, God has not abandoned it. we know from the book of God that he made the world, God made all things in the space of six days, and from his hand they proceeded, and they were all good.

[9:26] And having made the world, and the world having been set into being and motion as it were, God did not retreat, God did not leave off that work, nor cease to take interest in it.

[9:45] And wherever that view has been prevalent, there has always been darkness and error. This is most erroneous, this is most dangerous.

[9:56] God is not remote, and God is not distant. Neither is God somehow or other bound up in his world, as many have taught, this would be more or less the import of much modern theology, so-called, that God is in the world just as man is in the world, and somehow God and man are bound up, and man is just as in control of affairs as God is in control.

[10:32] And then some would almost hold. It certainly would be one of the principles of humanism, so rampant in certain quarters today, that would make man as God himself, man controlling his own affairs, master of his own destiny.

[10:53] Now, to this we counter with the word of God and with the doctrines revealed therein, that this is God's world and God is concerned with it, and nothing happens in this world without the knowledge of God, and without the foresight of God, and without the appointment of God.

[11:15] God is in the place of government. God is the one who is working out the counsel of his own will, and there is none that can stay his hand, and there is none like him, and he needs not any man to be his counsel.

[11:33] He is a sovereign God and this is the world which he has framed. Now then, this doctrine of God's administration of the world or God's government of the world is that which we sometimes term the doctrine of the providence of God.

[11:54] And I want to, first of all, make some definition of this. to attempt to remind you of the providence of God and what it means.

[12:06] And then, after having said just a word about the reasonability of this, how reasonable it is, and how true to experience it is, to go on to the scriptures and to try there to bring some of the evidence again before our eyes that God indeed is the sovereign ruler, of this world that he has made, and then to draw some conclusions in closing from it.

[12:37] What definition, then, can we frame for this doctrine of providence? there is a definition in one of the writings of John Calvin in his treatise concerning the secret providence of God, and in this he says, by providence we mean not an unconcerned sitting of God in heaven from which he merely observes the things which are done in the world, but we mean that all active and all concerned seatedness on his throne above by which he governs the world which he himself hath made.

[13:27] Providence Calvin is saying there is not just that God knows the things that lie ahead, not just that he foresees the end from the beginning, but that he exacts a rule upon all those things, he determines all those things, and nothing happens which is not within his will and his appointment.

[13:52] Another definition is a more recent one of Louis Berkhoff in his systematic theology, and Berkhoff says providence means, and this is what the word means, the word has come to signify the provision which God makes for the ends of his government and the preservation and government of all his creatures.

[14:20] Providence, he says, is the provision which God means, that which God does, that which God in time provides, and that which he arranges and disposes and administers, that is providence.

[14:39] It is not just that God sees us from heaven, it is that God not only observes us, but also he operates for us, and he molds all things according to his plan and his purpose in the world.

[15:00] God is not remote, but God is maintaining his creation, and God is holding it, and ruling it, and controlling it. And this we most definitely accept on the authority of the word of God.

[15:15] Calvin says, unless the omnipotent power of God were ever present, sustaining the world, it could not continue in its designed order and form one of.

[15:32] Think of that. If God were to remove for one hour, one minute, we might say, one second of time, what chaos would reign.

[15:44] The chaos does not come, that there is still order and plan and form. It is God's appointment, and it is God's sovereign power that makes it so.

[15:57] Thomas Watson, in the body of divinity, he says, Providence, therefore, is the queen and the governess of the world. It is the eye that sees, and the hand that turns all the wheels in the universe.

[16:15] God is not like a artificer that builds a house and then leaves it, but like a pilot, he steers the ship of the whole creation.

[16:27] What a vivid picture. God as the pilot upon the bridge of the ship of creation, and God there and in control. Whatever storms and tempests may blow, whatever lies ahead, he is not distant, he will never absent himself.

[16:48] His is the eye that looks upon us, and his is the hand that turns all the wheels in the universe. And another of these great Puritan divines, Richard Sibbes, he says, for what is providence but a continuation of creation, a preservation of those things in being that God has given to have a being.

[17:17] God brought the world into being and God continues the world in being, and such is his providence, such is his administration.

[17:30] Now there are some definitions. There is what it is, this doctrine of providence, God's rule. Now this is eminently reasonable.

[17:42] A Christian is not someone that surrenders his mind. Now I don't mean by that that it's by mind alone that we come to know God.

[17:56] The natural man understands not the things of the spirit until they are spiritually revealed. And unless there comes that beam of divine light, the wisest of men, is but in darkness to the things of God.

[18:13] But when God gives that light, there is given knowledge. And we see that ours is a reasonable faith. There is a consistency in all these doctrines of grace.

[18:27] And therefore we can understand from the very being of God as he reveals himself to us that it must be no other concerning providence. For example, if God is sovereign, if God in his being is without limit to his power, how then can this world be too much for him?

[18:54] Again, if God is just, we know that the God with whom we have to do is supremely just. In his divine perfections, he is holy and just in all his ways.

[19:09] Well, it cannot be any other that there is a justice in the ordering of the world that he has made. There must be a rule, there must be the God who has made the world upon the throne, else there would be an impairment to his justice.

[19:25] There would be a question mark to be raised against his kingship. And we might trace through all the attributes of God and from these we would have to say that God, because he is God and because he has made the world, then he must be administering the world in accordance with his own will.

[19:50] And then from experience we can trace providence and you know this who believe and I know this that when we look back upon the pathway that God has drawn us along we cannot help but see many many instances of God's leading and small things that at the time seemed insignificant.

[20:13] How we look back and see that so much hinged upon these things and there has been a sequence and unordering and we would go so far as to say with that hymn writer that our lives minutest circumstance is subject to his eye.

[20:32] Our God has been shaping our ways and blessed be his holy name that it has been so. And we can in confidence not in the arm of flesh that will fail us but confidence in God we can look ahead and we can journey on believing that still he will provide and still he will guide until ultimately we come to that place appointed for the people of God.

[21:04] Now that's what I say by reason and experience we can see the validity and the reality of the doctrine of providence.

[21:14] it must be no other than this. God is controlling his own world. But now we turn to the main source of proof and evidence we turn to the word of God itself.

[21:32] And I have sought to find in a number of scriptures evidence concerning this doctrine of providence this rule of God and I have sought to make some order and system out of this for our help and for clarification tonight.

[21:55] And because it would take far too long to go exhaustively into these scripture places I may but mention some and very briefly and inadequately quote them.

[22:07] but if you can remember the place and consider it at your leisure in greater detail so much the better.

[22:19] But what first of all from scripture do we find concerning this doctrine of providence? First of all we find that God exerts a general rule a general rule over all things.

[22:36] now all things there must literally be understood a general rule a rule over all things without exception and there is abundance of scriptural evidence that God rules even the elements that God is the sovereign ruler and administrator of the physical world.

[23:02] Now some examples of this you have several in the 104th psalm which was read how God sends the springs down and how God is able to control in the very giving of weather and this is something that we often forget that God is sovereign even over the weather.

[23:27] The Lord and this is in Nahum 1.3 the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and when these great gusts of wind come with tremendous velocity and do great damage by the force let us not forget that God is sovereign even over the winds his way is in the whirlwind and in the storm the sun and the moon and the stars are according to his appointment in Matthew 5 and 45 we are given that word of the saviour that he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good and it goes on and he sendeth rain on the just and the unjust makes a sun to rise on good men and on bad men he sends the sun he sends the rain his way is in the cloud the clouds are as the dust of his feet it says in one place

[24:41] God is sovereign even in the physical realm now do you remember in the book of Exodus the sovereignty of God exhibited in the plagues that were brought upon Egypt and think how God there was able to do great wonders he could send darkness upon the face of the land but remember that when there was darkness upon the face of the land it tells us that all the children of Israel had light in the dwelling here's the wonder of it it wasn't just the darkness in Egypt it was also the darkness in Egypt across this that the children of Israel had light and when there came that terrible plague of hail such as was never experienced before it had never been known in such a novel way that plague of hail that God brought upon

[25:42] Egypt does it not tell us only in the land of Goshen where the children of Israel were there was no hail now sometimes we've experienced perhaps this sort of thing that it's been raining on this part of the city and it's not been raining on the other sometimes almost on the other side of the street and on the other drive well here is God's appointment and his control these things don't just happen by chance or likely when God wants it to happen he can make it to happen there is hail all over Egypt such as has never before been known in such severity and yet in the land of Goshen where God's people are there is no hail what a God is our God one who can control even the natural forces fire and brimstone and a word from the Lord came down on Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain and all that those presumptuous men and women of our time that make so little of God and continue in sin and do most abominable things oh that they might remember that if it pleased God in a moment they could be struck down by natural forces it's a solemnizing thing it's a most sober subject the control of God even upon the physical creation and what also of

[27:18] God's general rule in terms of the animal world he's sovereign there also the animal world is under the hand of God you see this in Genesis in the record of Noah and was there ever such a happening as that when the animals the living things God caused them to come to Noah and peaceably they entered into that great vessel that God had directed should be built God was exerting his administrative authority over the animal kingdom then wasn't a a light thing you know these animals going into that ark tremendously and the Lord could say in Matthew chapter 10 verse 29 are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father what a

[28:21] God is our God who sees the sparrow of no consequence in the eyes of so many but God sees the sparrow and it couldn't fall to the ground without the father's knowledge and there are so many other instances in the scriptures think of the examples in the book of kings the two books of kings are full of God's sovereignty over the animal kingdom when Elijah was fed remember by the ravens when Jezebel that evil woman was done to death the dogs came didn't they in fulfillment of the word of the Lord to lick up her blood the same with Ahab too and in the days of Elisha it was the same when the Lord brought these two she bears out of the wood to tear the forty and two scoffers

[29:24] God working even in the animal realm that his purposes might be advanced what of the book of Jonah God's control of this great fish that was prepared to swallow Jonah at precisely the right moment when Jonah was cast overboard and then again at precisely the right moment that fish had to vomit up God's prophet all these things are not by chance these are not just accidents these are demonstrations of God's control and God's sovereign administration then in general providence in the general rule of God there are those things that people sometimes lightly term chance happenings the accidents and some Christian people still talk like this and it grieves me to hear Christian people speaking of chance and luck and fortune we do not believe in these things do we believe in

[30:32] God in all these things and nothing happens therefore by chance small things that seem so amazing afterwards when they're considered they're still not chance happenings they are order of the Lord I think there is an example in the book of Kings 1st Kings chapter 22 and 34 which is an illustration of this it's at that battle of Ramoth Gilead when King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat came together to go up against the Syrians and the king of Israel was disguised and it says a certain man not told who a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness that man as he fired his arrow as he notched his bow and stretched it and shot it he didn't know where the arrow was going to go but it went where

[31:41] God designed it to go and that wicked king of Israel was the target he was smitten between the joints of the harness that wasn't chance they may have gone back to Syria afterwards and said what luck we had in that battle that such and such a man's arrow should ever have struck the king but it wasn't luck and even more precisely as it put in terms of the lot the casting of the lot the urim and thumim of the old testament in proverbs 16 and 33 we read that the lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord now the nearest up to date parallel I can think of that if you pardon any irreverence in it would be to speak of a dice that is thrown and if the gamblers of our society could do this if they knew when the dice was thrown what way it would turn up well in their sordid way of doing things it would be heaven for them but this is they would say just luck but it isn't luck with

[32:58] God this thing God knows God provides God could appoint the lot the whole disposing of it is the Lord when we marvel at this and when we bow before these intermissions in the scriptures what a God is our God what rule is the rule of our God how we should be moved in wonder as we contemplate these things and then from general rule I want to turn to the special rule which God displays God has special rule and this now brings us into the realm of the human God has a special rule over individuals in another of the proverbs in chapter 16 and verse 9 we read there a man's heart deviseth his way but the

[34:03] Lord directeth his steps and how many there are that feel that they make their mind up and that's all there is about it but whatever our heart devises we've got to remember this the Lord directs the man's steps and this just doesn't apply only to the believer and to the elect of God God is sovereign over those who are not his God is not limited in his sovereignty over them and they can say we'll do this and that and they can rear up all manner of works against God they can think that we'll do what we'll do away with God forever but oh no they can't do that the Lord is the one who directs the Lord has the last word and oh that we should remember as James reminds us in his epistle for that you ought to say if the

[35:03] Lord will we shall do this or that I still like to receive letters which say God willing or GW or DV or something of that nature because God willing is the criterion for all the things we do it was thought when this meeting was arranged that another would be here but God had another plan God had a difference to make and how we should therefore be a humble people those who are not going to say what I'm devised that will stand but rather the Lord's will be done God is able to direct in the affairs of men individuals there's nothing in his hand when it comes to the working out of his purpose the king's heart Solomon says is in the hand of the

[36:04] Lord as the rivers of water he termed it whithersoever he will and the mighty men and princes and rulers this is something that we know concerning them that they don't know it perhaps but it's nonetheless the case the Lord will turn them his way in his time and their bounds are appointed there are no limits upon God he is limited only by his own good pleasure by his own free and sovereign will and he is the God who controls men and women now this cuts across the the teaching in many quarters in the church today I can think of one realm in which it cuts across the teaching of the church concerning evangelism and we're living in a day when evangelism is construed in terms largely of man's will and if there is so much done by God they say the rest of it lies entirely with man and we have got to go back to the word of God and say is that what the scripture teaches and it does not teach this we believe rather in that irresistible grace of

[37:32] God I mentioned at the very beginning tonight we believe that there is a period known to God when every sheep redeemed by blood shall leave the hateful ways of sin turn to the fold and enter in and God does this thing and the people of God are made willing in the day of his power and this is the blessed difference in biblical evangelism that it proceeds from this mighty position of strength that God is well able to bring in his own elect people and that if all the societies engaged in evangelism had to be closed up overnight it would not impede the saving of the elect people of God and I find that you can say that in many circles and get dire opposition for saying it and I trust tonight that there's no opposition because it would seem that if there is it is an opposition to the word of God rather than to the messenger of God we've got to get back to these things my dear friend we've got to come to realize this control of God is complete else we will have a reduced view of

[38:49] God and we will be despairing we will be despondent in the days in which we live oh that we might see as Jeremiah put said our Lord God behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out and there is nothing too hard for thee nothing at all God's special rule is over individuals and individuals when they come together form nations and it doesn't make them any more resolute against the Lord it doesn't mean that because they're bandied together that they defy the Lord and turn his will aside what about Babel when they there was that confederacy of evil when men thought that they could build their gate of heaven and God scattered them God confused the speech and they were they were blown away they were moved when God came down to move them it was the same with proud Egypt proud nation as it was who were these Israelites they were but slaves they were as nothing in the land they were just good for the work one could get out of them

[40:12] Israel was the proud nation but God brought Israel down and God humbled Pharaoh and there is a word in Job chapter 12 verse 23 God increaseth the nations and he destroyeth them he enlargeth the nations and he leadeth them kept God is sovereign in his rule over men and nations God is sovereign over men's free acts and over men's sinful acts moreover what do I mean by this let me try to develop it a little we might say that clearly God would be sovereign over the righteous things that men and women do we have in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 27 that God will put his spirit within his people

[41:14] I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep mine ordinances and do them and we might well expect this to be the case that God will cause us to do those things which are righteous because after all God is righteous and then it could be said and is said by very many that because God is righteous and there are many wicked things done in the world that God is sovereign in the righteous things but God has no part with the sinful things now I'm not saying that God is the author of sin because that would be grievous error that would be wrong but I'm saying this that God is sovereignly in control not just of men's free acts the good things that they may do under the enabling of God but God is also able to administer even their sinful acts now there are many examples of this and there is one famous example in the case of Joseph and his brethren and remember how when

[42:30] Joseph was raised up to prominence in the land of Egypt and his brethren came down and they were afraid of him at first when he disclosed himself remember what he said to them he said this now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither for God did send me before you to preserve life and it goes on so now it was not you that sent me hither but God now it was a wrong thing that they had done an unkind thing a cruel action they had lied about it all manner of sin was attendant upon that which the brethren of Joseph did to him but God was in them God was working his purpose out and he made it for life and he made it for good in his purpose and this is the administration of God over even the so cold sinful acts of men now while we read of the ruler of Egypt how Pharaoh hardened his heart we are also told that the Lord said I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go and there is a mystery here and we have not to go into this lightly or irreverently or make this any excuse for us to sin

[44:04] God forbid that that should be the result of this that I bring to you tonight shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid says Paul no but rather let us know this that God is not bound by the sin of men he is able to work his purposes out not withstanding these sinful acts sins of and then before we leave these scriptural references I have been looking at the general rule of God his administration of the physical world the animal world we have been looking at God's special rule over men and nations also this before we leave these scriptures remember God's rule over the angelic world God is ruler there also God exerts a benign and kindly and yet a strong and authoritative rule even over these spirit beings these unseen creatures which we discover in the word of

[45:16] God God rules over the good angels and you know that when the angels are mentioned in various places it's usually that God sent an angel the angel of the Lord was sent to do a certain thing God hosting them here and there speeding them to every place that they might be those regarding the well being perhaps of his own people that they might be ministering spirits over those who are the heirs of salvation but God also ruling and we must not forget this God also commanding and authoritative even over the evil spirit and again while we make that proviso that God is not the author of sin or evil in any sins yet we've got to remember that he sovereignly controls even the evil spirits and we read in places where

[46:17] God sent an evil spirit into the camp and we read of that in the book of Judges chapter 9 God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem we would have expected the Lord to send a good angel but he says it says God sent an evil spirit and there was control and design and in 1st Samuel 16 verse 14 the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him and before we come up and try to explain these things away let us remember that these assert whatever we make of they assert that sovereignty of God over these things and even Satan I'm persuaded of this that Satan is under the control of God even though God in the mystery that is not revealed to us permits him certain scope and sway

[47:23] Satan is in the case of Job restrained from touching the life of God's servant even though in certain ways he tries him and afflicts him in another place in 2nd Samuel 24 and verse 1 when David in sin numbered the people when he took a census of the nation this anger God well in 2 Samuel 24 1 the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to number Israel and Judah God was using this in his chastisement upon king and upon the nation on the same incident in 1st Chronicles 21 verse 1 tells us this and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel and in the two we see this strange thing this most remarkable thing that

[48:34] God is even in his sovereignty able to control and administer evil spirits and their great leader and their prince but thanks be to God that we know that the power of that one is so limited and he's crushed there came a time when one could say now is the judgment of this hour now shall the prince of this world be cast out and I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me God sovereign over him well there is the there are certain of the scriptural places where this great doctrine is asserted time is but gone I fear and much more could be said and we might deal with some of these objections that some may there are those who say if all this is true then we're under such a sovereignty that it's just takes away all free will altogether just blind force ah no it's not blind force it's not fatalism that is our doctrine of the sovereignty of God and God's administration and God's decree not fatalism that's what the Mohammedan believes that what will be will be nothing can stop it and such God as there is he would say rides rough short over men to accomplish his purpose that is not our doctrine we find that God's power is not set against or over above his other attributes his mercy his love his goodness his truth all of these come together and this leads to that very wonderful answer in the

[50:33] Westminster confession where in asserting the sovereignty of God and the sufficiency of God it also says that while God governs there is no violence offered to the will of the creature and there is something that might be another study in itself how God does this there is no violence offered to the will of his creatures and yet his purposes obtain and his purposes are advanced and nothing hinders them and nothing constrains or limits the working out of his will others say this makes far too much of God's government you don't surely believe they say that God is concerned with details I can understand he governs the great things but not the details of life ah but he governs the details of life he governs the small things it's nothing to him to do it nothing to the

[51:38] God who is our God one moment he might be restraining a king or government from some foolish pathway from some wanton crime and the next moment coming in for a dear believer tried and tested in some obscure situation known to God loved of God and God's sovereignty engaged for that one no less than in that mighty event well does not this make us stagger and does not this make us real not because we are confused but rather because it's bewildering to think of such a God engaged in love for his people and I think that this is preeminently the need of the hour amongst the family of God that we might know a great

[52:42] God there's a lot spoken today of the sovereignty of God and it's almost becoming a watchword you can go into the most there are many enough places and they'll still speak of the sovereignty of God but what do they know of the sovereign God himself and all these mighty works that he disposes and administers on behalf of his church his elect in the world it's when we've come almost as Isaiah did in the sixth chapter come into the house of God into the temple and seeing the Lord high and lifted up it's when we come into that that we find that these are not doctrines just in the mind and we're not just contending for this and that principle because we enjoy these things to read of them and to hear of them we've received them from our fathers but when we see God high and lifted up and his train filling the temple when we see his absolute sovereignty in creation and in the sustenance of that creation in providence then life is a different thing we are living and God is a mighty

[54:01] God and because God is a mighty God there is nothing that isn't too much for us there is nothing that is beyond us nothing that would prevent us if what we do is in the will of God when we walk like that and when we have such a God as our God and when we are resting in these confidences I believe that the petty things and the compromising things and the worldly things and all these the things of little consequence they fall away and we are caught up with the things that matter and with the God who rules over all and whose kingdom is most sovereign and most blessed and who rules forever and forever I just want to close with a quotation from the same work of

[55:07] John Calvin I quoted at the beginning rather lengthy quotation and I do it because he says in it that which I believe this doctrine works out in our hearts when we receive it when God helps us to rest in it what practical value is a doctrine at this well it holds us fast in the fear of God and it brings us to rest upon God as I've said we know we can go forward because he is in control well this is how Calvin puts it and this is my last word with this I finish listen to it carefully he says those who are legend that there is any such thing as fortune and chance are carried hither and hither after every expedient and driven in all directions they turn every stone devise every new means and gallop about like a horse in an open field but with all this to do there is no prayer no fear of God he however who knows and feels that men and their counsels and issues of all things are ruled and overruled by the providence of God will confess with trembling as did

[56:43] Jeremiah I know O Lord that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps he will commit himself wholly unto God and depend entirely upon him prayers will ever follow that God will begin and God perfect every work while we rest on him in all quietness and on him alone having the all ruling hand of God ever before them the faithful will never hesitate to cast all their cares and concerns upon him and they will all the while rest assured that the devil and all wicked men whatever tumults they may cause are not only held of God by their feet in chains but are compelled to do his pleasure under which assurance they will pass their lives below in security and in peace may God give us that experience and to know the God who rules over all

[58:22] Amen Amen in K