The Spirit's Work in Creation, Preservation and Providence

All right, tonight we have a lesson on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and it's also known as pneumatology. And this is lesson number eight, and it's on the Spirit's work in creating, preserving, and guiding. And so if you have a handout, fantastic. If you still need one, just raise your hand and somebody will bring you a fill-in-the-blank. And also a word to those who watch online: you can click below on "more" and download the PDF and print it out yourself and follow along and fill in the blanks as well for all of our Wednesday night theological teachings. No matter who's teaching, we have a fill-in-the-blank. And so I welcome you to study with me tonight, and we are so thankful that we focus upon doctrines that matter, upon theology, the study of God.

Tonight we're going to be talking about the fact that God created you. That's well known in Genesis 1:26. That God sustained you — Psalms 37:17 testifies to that. And that God guides you — John 14:26 testifies to that. But it's not all about you. In this we'll understand that God creates, He has created and sustains and guides all things — all things such as plant life, animal life, star life, human life, the life angels have, and especially we'll see tonight, eternal life. And so we know that we are less than a grain of sand, but it is so wonderful to know that God cares about each and every one of us and He guides us.

And so after studying this lesson, the feeling that I felt was just, in one word, overwhelming. It was absolutely amazing and overwhelming to see that God does all of these things through the power of His Holy Spirit. It's the same resurrecting power that God raised Jesus from the grave with that He now sustains us with. And so Job chapter 37 and verse 14 says this: "Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God." And if you would stand still and consider these works and take them home and relive them, I guarantee you as well would have the overwhelming feeling of knowing that God is so in control.

R.C. Sproul said it this way, that there are no maverick molecules. And what he meant by that is the word "maverick" means supposedly unguided or out of control. So there's nothing that's out of control, even down to the smallest molecules. And so the particles, even the smallest atoms grouped together or separated or whatever — there's nothing that's out of God's control. There are no maverick molecules. And you'll see that in today's lesson.

So let's start with the Spirit's work in creation. And on your handout, Bible point number one, you'll see at the top of your page, Bible point number one is — I'm going to talk about the Spirit's work in creation. And so read along with me: "Creation is the free act of the triune God by which in the beginning He made all things out of nothing. For His own glory, He spoke the world into existence regarding creation." Scripture presents the Father as the originating cause, the Son as the mediating cause, and the Spirit as the realizing cause. That's your first fill in the blank: realizing. And while all things were made through Christ, the Holy Spirit is the author of life, order, and adornment. And so the last three blanks are life, order, and adornment.

And so if you would notice in this paragraph, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit — the Father is the original cause, the Son is the mediating cause, and the Spirit is the realizing cause. The Spirit's work in creation is by the breath of God. Psalm chapter 33 and verse 6 and verse 9 is the first reference underneath this paragraph. And I would like to first of all mention to you that if you'd like to take notes, you might want to circle the word "breath" here in Psalm 33:6 on your handout, and perhaps draw a line to some of the white space and write down this Hebrew word. You're going to see this Hebrew word come up several times in the lesson. It's ruah. And to spell that for you, it's R-U-A-H. And that letter U has a line above it — R-U-A-H. Ruah. And so Psalm 33:6 and verse 9 says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. For He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast."

The second reference is Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust out of the ground, and He breathed" — this whole idea of breath, the Spirit of God, ruah — "He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being." And so the Spirit gives life.

In Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, it says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering — or fluttering, or brooding — over the face of the waters." There's an example here in Deuteronomy 32 of a picture of the Holy Spirit working in the area of caring and ordering, and then in Job, by adorning. And so the Holy Spirit of God is at work as an agent, as God, in accomplishing these things. It's wonderful.

And so the application of this particular point is to praise God for His glory seen in creation. Turn if you would to Psalm 19. I'd like for you to see it in your Bible and notice how we are simply put in awe of creation. In Psalm chapter 19, the heavens are telling the glory of God and it's very clear in this point that it is ascribing unto what you see as having the ability to speak. And so it merits the question as all of our children are looking around, well, do trees speak? Do clouds talk? Do mountains scream? Yes. The answer is yes. What do they say? What do they scream? So let's look at the passage in Psalm 19. "The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge."

This is very fascinating because in the book of Romans in chapter 1 and verse 20, those who do not receive or believe in Jesus Christ will be held accountable for rebelling against Christ and not believing in Christ, and part of their indictment will be this idea that even the heavens declare the glory of God, even creation screams or proclaims or tells of His glory. And so the Spirit's work in creation — as an agent of helping us to realize and understand that He cares, He hovers, He adorns, He is breathing these things — this is how God is truly revealing Himself to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so the Spirit aids us in realizing, and He also makes things real.

And so the Spirit is breath, this word ruah. You see that in Psalm 33:6. So if you would like to turn in your Bible to Psalm 33 since we are here in Psalms, you can circle the word "breath" there and write ruah. I like to take these notes in so that what we study builds up over time. And as you read Psalm 33 again in the future, you will see in verse 6, "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath," the ruah of His mouth, "all of their hosts." So this is a very important concept because this is happening in the beginning in Genesis chapter 1. It is happening through the life of Abraham and Moses and the prophets. It's happening through the inspiration of Scripture. It happens so that we have our Bible. And you'll see that tonight. It is fantastic.

And so now as we see that the Spirit is breath, the ruah helps us to understand. I like to fabricate sentences that are creative to help me remember, because I need help remembering. Do you need to create creative little sayings to help you remember things? Well, how about this? God's ruah makes us go "Aha."

That make sense to you? You ever had an "Aha" moment where you realize something? With a breath of God, the work of the Holy Spirit helps you to understand, and that is pretty neat.

All right, Bible point number two is talking about preservation. So now we're moving from creation and the work of the Holy Spirit to preservation, which is the Spirit's work in preserving. And so this is where you will see that God is causative and that Christ is constructive and the Holy Spirit is perfective as we read this paragraph.

Bible point number two: preservation is the continuous operation of God by which He maintains all the things which He created, along with all the properties and powers which He gave to them regarding preservation. We see a causative force proceeding from the Father — circle "Father," and in that sentence you can underline "causative." So the Father is the cause. And then as we continue in the sentence, you can underline "constructive" because that's going to speak of the Son — and you can circle "the Son" — a constructive force proceeding from the Son, and then a perfective force proceeding from the Holy Spirit. And so "perfective" is underlined, and that's the blank, the fill in the blank, and then the Holy Spirit is at work in perfecting. And so if you circled the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and underlined "causative" and "perfective," then you can at a glance see what this paragraph is saying by way of a brief outline.

In Job chapter 33 verse 4, turn there if you would, and we'll see another excellent reference to this idea. In Job chapter 33 and verse 4, the Spirit and the breath is at work once again in giving life. And Job chapter 33 and verse 4 says, "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath" — that's the Spirit here — "of the Almighty gives me life." This word "life," which will come up in our lesson again and again and again as we continue through it, means a continued, sustained, preserved life. So the Holy Spirit is what preserves you. The Spirit gives you life and He preserves your life. He keeps you from being dead. Without the breath of life, you'd die. And it's a wonderful thing to know that the Spirit of God has made you and, given you life, and now He sustains you. This is glorious.

On your handout, the first reference in Psalm 104, verses 27 to 30, says this: "These all know that you may give them their food in due season. So that is food for preservation. What you give them, they gather in. You open Your hand and they are filled with good. And so the preservation here is being filled with good. You hide Your face and they are troubled. You take away their breath. They die and return to dust. You send forth Your Spirit and they are created and you renew the face of the earth." You see how the Spirit goes wherever it wishes and it does whatever it wants, because it's fulfilling the will of God. And you see that the triune being — God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — working in complete unity as one to fulfill all things. So this is not only creation but preservation.

The application then in Job 33:4 is that the Spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almighty, and the Almighty gives me life.

Back up to Bible point number one — if I missed the application, the fill in the blank is "creation," if you didn't already guess that. So praise God for the glory that we see in creation.

And the application here in Bible point number two is that we trust in the Holy Spirit to always uphold us. And you really got to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 41 to see this idea completely lived out. I love how these Old Testament references help us to understand the same Spirit of God that we've been studying on Sunday mornings in Ephesians is the same Holy Spirit that does the same things in the Old Testament. He's the same being, the same person, doing the same things.

And so in Isaiah chapter 41 and verse 10, you're going to see just exactly how this works. Isaiah 41:10 says, "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely. I will help you, surely. I will uphold you with My righteous hand." And so we know that God sustains us by the power of His Holy Spirit, and therefore we do not have to fear because He is with us by His Spirit. We don't have to be anxious because He's with us. And we know that He strengthens us by the power of His Holy Spirit and He surely is going to help us and He surely will uphold us and He surely will utilize His anthropomorphic right hand, the strength of His being, to uphold us.

Now I want to give you a driving-home implication here. Do you live as if God said "I won't" instead of "I will"?

Sometimes we do that. Sometimes we live as if God has said in this passage, "I won't do that. I will keep you in fear because I'm not going to remove the fear. I'm not going to be with you, so be anxious. I'm not your God. My strength is not for you. I won't help you. You're going to sink and I'm not lifting a finger to help you." Sometimes we live as if Isaiah 41:10 says it that way, and we don't even mean to. We need to remind ourselves what the Bible has to say about the power of God and how much God loves us and how much He sustains us, and it's the Spirit's role to do these things. And so don't live as if you're reading this verse in reverse. Live as if God is God. He's your God.

And so thus far we've seen that the Spirit is involved in creating and in keeping and now guiding. To further drive home this point of how He is keeping us, I wanted you to know as well in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 20, there's this little phrase that you can hang on to. If you're a Great Commission Christian, then you can hang on to this phrase: "Lo, I will be with you always." This is a promise that Jesus gave to His disciples. Are you a disciple? Yep. Are you a Christian? Yes. Okay. He gave this promise to His disciples after the crucifixion and death and burial and resurrection. Right before His ascension, this promise is given to disciples. It's a very pertinent time in His ministry. All ears, all eyes were on Christ and He says, "Lo, I will be with you." But how can He be with them if He's fixing to ascend? Well, He had already said in John chapter 16 and verse 7 that I'm going to leave and the Holy Spirit's going to come. And so the promise of the Holy Spirit will be with them always.

And this is important for us to realize and to actually make ourselves not only believe it but live it out, because true belief determines behavior. And if your behavior does not line up with what the truths of this text have been espousing, then we've got to get back to the belief side of things and really iron out sound doctrine. We really got to make ourselves understand what the Scripture is saying, understand what the role of the Holy Spirit is in creation, preservation, and in Providence.

So Bible point number three — we're moving to Providence. Well, the application to point number two is "uphold you." Trust in the Holy Spirit to always uphold you. We saw that in Isaiah 41:10.

And so now in Bible point number three, we're going to talk about Providence, and Providence is directing. And I say it a lot and I hope that I have not left anybody behind by saying God in His providential hand at work is working. That means that God is directing and guiding all things. He's working all things for His glory and your good. And so that is His Providence.

And so the Spirit's work in directing all things is Bible point number three. Let's read it together. "Providence is the continuous operation of God by which He makes all the events of the physical and moral universe fulfill His purpose." That's the fill in the blank. So all of the purposes of God will be fulfilled. If you want to circle that fill in the blank and draw a line to the white space, you can make a reference here to Job 42:2. No purposes of God can be overthrown. No purposes of God can be thwarted. All of what God wills will happen. And so your confidence in the providential hand of God working all things for His glory and our good will sustain you in the deepest of trials, because God works through all circumstances.

We don't like the painful circumstances. We don't like the strainful circumstances. But how much of a painful strain was the cross? And then as Christians we're commanded to take up our what?

Our cross. So take it, accept it, embrace it, walk confidently through painful circumstances with the confidence that God is providentially working and guiding all things for His glory and your good. And this is true through the Bible through and through. If you do character studies — which I highly recommend, word studies but also recommend character studies — study the characters of the Bible and you will see that none of them had a fluffy life that was always comfortable. And the most important things that happened in their life was a result of some pain and suffering and persecution. And we are also in alignment with the Bible characters. We are a continuation of Christianity. And so when you see Christians in the Bible and you do a Christian genealogy, you're in that lineup if you are saved. And that is also clear in Jesus' first sermon when He says in Matthew chapter 5 — it's like around verses 11, 12 or something like that — "Blessed are you when you are persecuted for My name's sake."

And then He says, "And so were the prophets." And so when you are persecuted for Christianity, you are in the lineup of true Christianity and God puts you in the lineup there with the prophets. So if you are never persecuted, never have any problems, if you never have any strains, I would say, "Hey, let's circle back around and make sure you've got the true gospel," because the true gospel came through a lot of pain. And so God's purposes, His plan, His unfolding plan is going to continue.

Let's start back up at the top in Bible point number three. Providence is the continuous operation of God by which He makes all the events of the physical and moral universe fulfill His plan. Creation explains the existence of all things. Preservation explains the continuance of all things. Providence now explains the development and progress of all things, both small and great. Hence the reason why I gave you that quote from R.C. Sproul: "There are no maverick molecules." God is purposely directing every little thing.

To continue in the paragraph, God's providence directs — that's the fill in the blank, "directs" — all events of history to reach their divinely appointed purpose. The Holy Spirit is depicted in Scripture as extending God's presence into creation to order and complete — fill in the blank, "order and complete" — what has been decreed by God from the very beginning for His glory.

Everything that has happened, everything that is happening, and everything that will happen has been decreed from before the creation of the world. Even the good works, the service that you will do for God, for the church, for one another, according to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, was preplanned.

God gave you a gift, and He has preplanned for you how to use that gift in the local church and for His glory and for your good. God is providentially guiding and directing all big things. He puts rulers over entire countries. He does big things — which is not big at all to God. He does small things. The only way that I could comprehend anything in biology in the class I had to take that nearly cost me my life was comprehending all these microbiological things. How in the world does an inanimate object have like these tails and make decisions and do things? It doesn't make any sense. There's no brain. There's no decisions, but they do things. The only thing I can comprehend in biology is that God providentially moves even the smallest of things. And so this is bringing glory to Him because He sustains all things. He sustains our planet — what is it, 93 million miles away from the sun?

He sustains that.

The flagellum.

I would not have made it through biology if it had not been for my son and my wonderful wife.

The application for Bible point number three is this. Are you sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise? Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 13 and 14, and you'll see how this rich, wonderful Providence of God is working in salvation. And so it is the Spirit of God that goes and regenerates. It's the Spirit of God who draws lost mankind under conviction. It's the Spirit of God who gives the ruah, the life, providentially to whom He selects. And it's a holy work of God. And then when people are saved, then they are sealed.

Let's first of all look at verse 4, chapter 1 verses 4 and 5 in Ephesians. "It's just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to His kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed upon us in the beloved." God has bestowed His free grace upon the undeserving ones and saved them. And now in verses 13 and 14, He's going to seal them by His Holy Spirit.

In verse 13, "In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed." Circle that word "sealed." That's one of the operations of the Holy Spirit, and you cannot unseal yourself. Once you are born again, you cannot un-born yourself. This is a seal of the Holy Spirit. And He says, "You were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise." This promise cannot be broken. "Who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view of the redemption of God's own possession," and again it says, "to the praise of His glory." This brings glory to God. Sovereign salvation and being sealed by the Holy Spirit — the whole works of the Holy Spirit bring glory to His wonderful name.

And so are you sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise? You are if you've been saved, if you've been gloriously saved, if you have made a confession in your mouth and you have believed in your heart that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again for your sin, then you have been saved. This is the gospel in short. God demonstrated His own love towards you while you were yet sinners. Christ died for you. This is the gospel. We need to be regularly sharing the gospel.

All right, point number four is talking more about Providence with the Holy Spirit. Bible point number four says, "The Spirit's work in providence includes His work in revelation, inspiration, and illumination." We're going to unpack those a little bit. In revelation, the Spirit reveals divine truth that men could never discover in themselves. In inspiration, the Spirit moves men to accurately record — that's the second blank, "record" — divine truth, and to securely put the truth of God into permanent written form. In illumination, the Spirit quickens men's cognitive powers to understand revealed truth.

And so Providence, by the power of the Holy Spirit, includes revelation, which is divine truth to men. It also includes inspiration, which is men writing down the divine truth. Is anything coming to mind when this happened? The whole writing of the Word of God — God used many men to pen His Word. And then it's also the Holy Spirit is used in illumination to understand. I particularly like the subject of illumination. So God has revealed Himself to men in a way that they wrote it down, and He now helps them to understand it.

Today we have the revealed Word of God and it's a done deal. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1 if you would. I want you to see that we have the revealed Word of God and it's a done deal. Hebrews chapter 1 and verses 1 and 2 talk about this revealed Word of God, and now we have what's called the canon of Scripture. In Hebrews 1, verses 1 and 2, it says, "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world."

That's pretty cool that it says here the Son made the world. But the point we're going here for is to see that the Scriptures have been written. And so let's work through this verse together just a little bit. In Hebrews 1:1 it says, "God, after He spoke" — okay, so God has spoken. He breathed life into the writers from before, and ruah, He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets. So God spoke through the prophets to mankind in many portions and in many ways. So you have prophecies, you have written Scriptures, okay. In verse 2, "In these last days" — which the last days are since Jesus has ascended until however long we have until Christ comes again — "in these last days, He has spoken to us in His Son."

Does anybody know what John 1:1 says?

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God." Yeah, and the Word was God and the Word was with God. Yep. And so the Word being God, now God speaks to us in the Son. It's done. So there's no new revelation.

If it's new, it's not true.

And if it's true, it's not what?

Right. So we believe in an old, historic, sound faith. And so the Word of God that we have from Genesis to Revelation, excluding the Apocrypha, is divine revelation. And we have that now. God has revealed Himself through His Word, through the prophets, and now this divine revelation is done. We have the Word of God. We have all that we need in the Word — for life, to be saved; and godliness, to be sanctified; and to serve.

And so this is a very key text for today, because there are so many churches that would teach that God is still speaking today. And whatever He says to you by way of some mystical experience or idea that just floats into our heads, or I don't know, whatever the case might be — that would actually be more pertinent and more authoritative than the Word of God, because it's a higher authority. That's what they would say to you, and that is not true. The Bible says that He has spoken, it's done, and it's in His Son. We have that. We need to know that. That is a primary area of confusion in today's day.

And so today we have the revealed Word. Today we read what was inspired, what was spoken. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. 2 Timothy 3:16. This is a very important portion of Scripture for us to be able to see that it's the Word of God that's inspired and it's the Word of God that we utilize for correction and reproof and training in righteousness.

All right, 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. "All Scripture is inspired." This is the breath of God. I believe the ESV is going to use the word "breathed." "All Scripture is breathed out by God." I have the NASB tonight. "All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good deed." This is wonderful because we see that it is the Scripture that is inspired.

And so the Holy Spirit is at work in revelation — so we have the revealed Word of God. He's at work in inspiring the Word of God. He has done that through the prophets, through the authors that we have in Scripture, and the Scriptures are inspired. And now, illumination. Today the Spirit illuminates our mind to understand Scripture. This is still active. Whereas the Bible has already been revealed — all right, the revealed Word of God — the Bible has already been inspired, but now illumination is still continuing today.

Turn to John chapter 14 and verse 26 and see the Holy Spirit's work in illumination and helping us to understand what is true. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to teach you truth, to help you understand. He helps illuminate passages of Scripture. He helps you to understand the concepts of God. He helps you to see that you have sinned and you need a Savior. And then from that point, being saved, He also helps you to see the need for sanctification. And that's why we have more truth for you.

In John chapter 14 and verse 26 — this verse is on our 3D Bible study sheet because of the phrase "He will teach you" — in verse 26 it says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." That's the reason why we as a church memorize Scripture together, because when you have hid God's Word in your heart, it's the Holy Spirit's ability to bring those Scriptures back to the forefront of your mind when you need that. And that's to God's glory and for the good of humanity. That is a wonderful thing that the Spirit does. And as well as you are studying Scripture, He also helps to show you the truth of the text. And that is oftentimes some of the best times in Bible study, because the truth — it arrests you. It grabs onto you. It changes you. And it is living and active. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is living and active. The Holy Spirit works through the truth to help ignite passion and alignment in your life.

Ken, you had a thought or a question?

I have a question. So, I've probably read that first — I don't know — hundreds of times. But it says that the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all that I said, not all that I say, all that I said. So it doesn't have to rule out all these guys that are saying, "Well, he just told me, you know, to go to the public and buy a turkey or whatever else they say, all the nonsense." It just — I mean, that pretty much says it.

That's exactly right. This verse rules out new revelation because He will bring to your remembrance what has been written. That's a very good point in that text. We'll read it again. "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." Past tense. What has already been said, what has already been established — that is what the Holy Spirit will bring up to you. Justin Peters says it like this: if you want to hear God speak, read the Bible out loud.

Pretty simple.

And in this, we have a lot of references. And in regards to all these references, it's basically testifying to the fact of these points. And so you can go back through and look at these yourself. I would like to continue on with our application. In our application, it says, "Will the Spirit who gave us" — that's the fill in the blank, "gave us" — "the Scripture, help us understand?"

Will the Spirit help you understand? He will. He sure will. And there's another part of the Holy Spirit that will help you to understand: if you are misrepresenting the Word of God, it simply brings an element of conviction, of off-ness, of weirdness, that that just isn't right. And that is the Holy Spirit's ability to do that in and through a good, healthy conscience.

All right. So that's Bible point number four — Providence in revelation, inspiration, and illumination.

Bible point number five, on how the Spirit convicts and limits evil. This is very interesting. And so this is continuing underneath the subject of God's Providence through the Holy Spirit. Bible point number five says, "The Spirit's work in providence includes His work among evil men of the world."

That is actually comforting, folks, to know that God is that much in control, that He even works through evil men. In Isaiah chapter 45, King Cyrus was a pagan, and yet God chose him to work through. God strengthened an evil man to be able to accomplish righteous deeds. And it was for just a little while. Okay.

So the Spirit's work in Providence includes His work among the evil men of the world. The Spirit works to restrain and limit — it's your first fill in the blank, "limit" — the development of evil until God's purposes are fulfilled. The Spirit convicts — that's the next point, "convicts" — the wicked of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Spirit bears witness — that's the next fill in the blank, "witness" — before wicked men of God's salvation through preaching and testimony of the saints.

In Genesis chapter 6 and verse 3, it says that "My Spirit will not always strive with men forever." And then the next emboldened point, in John chapter 16, verses 8 to 11, "He will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment." And then in John chapter 15, verses 26 to 27, the bolded point says, "He will testify of Me." And this is the Spirit of truth bearing witness, doing this work. By way of application: will the Spirit who gave us the Word help us proclaim it?

Basically, if you believe it, then you are proclaiming it. If you really don't believe it, there's nothing inside of you pressing you to proclaim it.

Listen, the only way to reconcile the problem of evil in this world is to know these sound doctrinal points, okay, and to have faith in the Word of God and in God's Providence and in God's sovereignty. And that by His Spirit, He guides all things for His glory, and that includes limiting evil. It does. God is not at the mercy of what evil wants to do.

God is in control of all these things. He can limit these things. He can put a cap on it. So the evil that has the freedom to do evil has a limit. And so the extent of their evilness and their wickedness and what they are able to do has a limit. And God is in control. He restrains these things. Satan is like a dog on a leash with a whole lot of teeth. He has a limit to where he can go. Don't go in Satan's domain. He has a limit.

Now if you believe this, then you believe what Psalm 103:19 says, because it says that His sovereignty rules over all. Psalm 103, verse 19 — His sovereignty rules over all. I'm going to turn there and read that because this is another favorite passage of mine in regards to the sovereignty of God. Psalm 103 — and if you like many have had a hard time reconciling the problem of evil in the world and yet how then can God still be good, listen, it's not our job to solve the problem of evil. That's not our problem. God's purposes will not be thwarted, Job 42:2. And then at the same time, Psalm 103 verse 19 says that the Lord has established His throne in the heavens. So that is far above any earthly throne and is far more authoritative and far more powerful. So the Lord has established His throne of power in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over all.

"Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word. All you His host, you who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the Lord, all you works of His, in all the places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul." The psalmist here is overwhelmed at the sovereignty of God, and so should we. And so this includes limiting evil and I'm thankful for that. I don't understand it all. That's not my job to understand it all. And we're going to be dumbfounded on some subjects this side of heaven, and that's just fine. But our job is to have faith and activate our faith and go in that direction.

Bible point number six is continuing on the subject of God's Providence. Read with me in this paragraph. "The Spirit's work in providence includes His special care for the church." And so the fill in the blanks are "care" and "church."

The Spirit intercedes for us, Romans 8:26 and 27; teaches us, 1 Corinthians 2:4 to 15; leads us, Romans 8:14; crucifies our sinful nature, Romans 8:2 and Galatians 5; sanctifies our daily walk, 2 Thessalonians 2 and 1 Peter 1; and brings us into spiritual maturity, Ephesians 3:16 and following; and He sheds hope in our hearts, Romans 5:5; unifies the church, Ephesians 4:3 to 16; produces fruit in us, Romans 14:17 and 15:13 and following. He guides us into worship, Philippians 3:3. He perfects the image of Christ in us, Romans 8:29. And He will quicken our mortal bodies — He's going to bring us out of the grave if we die beforehand — Romans 8:11.

This is important for us to know that the Spirit is the one who cares for your life. And so what in your life is undone? Or do you feel like you're unraveling at the seams? What is causing you anxiety? What is causing you to fret and worry and bite your fingernails and lose sleep? Listen, it is the role of the Holy Spirit to care, tend, mend you, to intercede and to teach you. To intercede for you means to pray for you, which His prayers are effective. It's His job to mature you, to love you, to unify you with what God's will is, to guide you providentially. And one day He will be resurrecting the dead in Christ. So listen, sometimes we not only fret and worry about our own lives and some of the things that are perhaps not in alignment with what we think they should be — I would just simply say, "Who are we?"

You know, sometimes we think we deserve more than what we have and we get all out of shape. And God's beautiful plan — He will work all things to His glory and our good. You know, it's so humbling to go on four mission trips and to see Christians so happy with $3 a day.

It's so humbling to go and to see Christians so vibrant in worshiping God with no AC.

It's so humbling to go into a large un-air-conditioned room and to see over 100 people sitting without chairs on the floor.

It's so humbling. Do they have the same Spirit of God that we have?

Then what is wrong with us?

Is it our own pride and expectations? Perfectionism? I'm not sure. Perhaps we just need to be refreshed in the Spirit of God to be able to say, "Have Thine own way. Your will be done, not mine."

Is it Jesus' model prayer? "Thine kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." This is a beautiful thing. Contentment in Christ is portraying your confidence in Him.

Discontentment in the things of this world is portraying as if God has not done enough for you.

The big ol' switcheroo in today's false religion is to reduce God and elevate man.

It's perversion. It's evil. It's a switcheroo.

So sometimes we get worried about the things in our life, and sometimes we get worried about Satan. Again, solving the problem of Satan's existence is not our problem.

Some will get caught up and actually walk away from God because of things like — well, I don't even like to mention the terrible things that happened in this world. We all know that there are some atrocities and some gross, awful things that happened. And if you dwell upon those things and build a case against God, then walk away — it's your own fault. God doesn't steer us in that direction, but by faith we believe in the goodness of God in His providential hand. We have all the Scriptures and all the characters in the Bible to help us to see that by faith we stay the course, and in the end God works it out.

And you don't have to know everything up front, but you do have to believe that the Holy Spirit of God will work it to His glory and your good.

And so, listen, God through Christ, by His Spirit, has all things under control. And that includes tonight's lesson in creation, preservation, and Providence. I want to end with you in Romans chapter 8.

Oh, what a wonderful promise this is for those of you who perhaps struggle with the fact that His goodness is providentially working all things for His glory and our good. We're going to end in verse 28, but I want to read verses 14 and 17 first. Romans 8:14 through 17, and I close.

Romans 8:14 says, "For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." And so now you see that those who are led by the Spirit are true children of God. They produce fruit. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22 explains what the fruit of the Holy Spirit is. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 19 is the antithesis of that verse and it explains all of the fruits of evil.

Here we see that if you are being led by the Spirit, you're saved. And in verse 15, "For you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, 'Abba, Father.'"

This is wonderful because now Paul is telling the Roman church that they can call God, the Creator God, Abba. You can have a close and personal relationship with the one who is powerful enough not only to create and sustain and uphold and guide all things, but you and your little measly life can go to God and call Him Father.

Now do you believe these things? Romans 8:28 is the nail in the coffin against doubt.

And we know — do you know? I hope you know. We have a know-so faith, by the way. We don't have a hope-so. "I hope things are going to work out." No, we know.

And we know that God causes all things. Did we not just talk about the big things and the small things, the molecules, the mountains, from one end of the spectrum to the other? God causes not some things, not the things that are important. All things are important to God. All things to work together. This is important to understand, this particular point in this passage, because not all things are good.

You can't look at a terrible car accident and say, "Well, that was good." No, that was terrible. That was bad. Somebody dies, somebody gets hurt — that was bad. That's wrong. But God can cause all things to work for good. And so, has not the salvation of mankind come through the terrible, torturous, murderous action on the cross?

Something terrible produced something terrific. So God can cause all things. And at the same time, there could still be things that are not from His hand to enact evil on someone else. But He can work that to their good. And so for someone who experiences a tragedy in life, you can have true sympathy for them in their pain. And you can truly, truly have empathy. You can truly love on them in those circumstances. And at the same time, in the back of your mind, it may not be the right moment to be able to say, "Cheer up." At the moment, that might not be the right time. But in the back of your mind, you can know that God is going to work this for their good if they love God. God is going to work this out for His glory and their good. Because Romans 8:28 says that "I know that God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, to those who were called according to His purpose." And we could be here for another month. It's a wonderful verse. The important part is: you've been called, that means you've been saved. You've been saved. Now you're being sanctified. One day you'll be glorified. The verse goes on to say those who were called truly love God, and they can know that God causes all things to work together for good. Just look at creation and how He has preserved things and how He providentially guides things. It's absolutely wonderful. I hope that you've enjoyed tonight's message. And let's close in prayer.

Okay, the application for five and six. Application for number five is, "Will the Spirit who gave us the Word help us proclaim it?" — "Proclaim." And then the application for number six is, "Are you among the sons of God?" — "Sons."

Thank you. Any other questions before we close?

All right. Let's pray together. Lord, thank You for this time to where we can feast upon Your Word and learn more about how You, through the power of Your Holy Spirit, have directed us, and to be able to understand creation, preservation, and Providence. Lord, I pray that You would continue to bless this series on theology, the systematic theology series, to help grow our faith, help us to be so grounded that we'd never fall away from You, help our children to understand one little point at a time and to build their faith up so that they have a strong shield of faith to block the fiery arrows of the evil one as they go through their lives. I thank You for Kaylee and how she memorized the armor of God and quoted that to us tonight. I thank You for the armor of God series that we're learning on Sunday mornings. It's helping us to resist the evil. And I pray for us as we continue to comprehend how You work all things for our good and Your glory, that we will glorify You in these. We love You and we thank You. That's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.