SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Two things I make want to make you aware of.
SPEAKER_01: The first is uh my wife wouldn't want me to tell you this, but it is her 24th birthday today.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the other thing is uh men, uh we will not have a men's breakfast next uh Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: Um not even three weeks later, you will have the men's conference.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna take a little break from men's breakfast in light of men's conference, the act like men's conference coming up.
SPEAKER_01: So those are two things I want you to be aware of.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I also want you to be aware of that I've got a new hobby.
SPEAKER_01: I'm studying how ships sink.
SPEAKER_01: It's a bit of a morbid interest, but you I won't be going on a cruise liner anytime soon, even if you pay me, because ships do sink.
SPEAKER_01: In January of 2004, the headline newspapers of Norway read, Who is to blame for the sinking of the Norwegian ship MV Rockness?
SPEAKER_01: In one of Norway's most deadliest disasters, the merchant vessel Rockness hit shallow water and suddenly capsized near Bergen, resulting in the death of 18 crew members.
SPEAKER_01: The pilot, what happens in Norway's fjords, these fjords are so treacherous and tricky to navigate, the captain hands over to a pilot.
SPEAKER_01: And the pilot responsible for piloting the ship through the treacherous fjords was Vermund Hullheim.
SPEAKER_01: He was piloting the ship when he hit a jagged outcrop, ripping the hull open.
SPEAKER_01: The already top-heavy iron ore carrier drifted into deeper waters and then capsized within minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Initially, investigators thought that the pilot veered off course, but they soon uncovered a series of unfortunate events that led up to this disaster.
SPEAKER_01: The courts nevertheless had to decide who was to be held responsible for this accident.
SPEAKER_01: Some thought the loadmaster should be responsible for the uh the disaster for not loading the ship correctly.
SPEAKER_01: The others said no, the pilot should be held responsible.
SPEAKER_01: Others said no, the Norwegian charter authority should be held responsible because after all, they didn't tell anybody that there was this newly discovered 30-foot shawl that ripped open the hull of the ship.
SPEAKER_01: Who was ultimately responsible for this disaster proved difficult, but one cannot deny God's involvement in this disaster.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at the details, and I'll tell you later how things turned out, but we cannot leave all the intricate details up to chance or coincidence unless we are Gnostics, unless we are deists.
SPEAKER_01: Gnostic deism is not a dead theology, it is alive and well, even though it's ancient.
SPEAKER_01: If you ever heard of the philosopher-theologian Soren Kierkegaard, that might ring a bell if you grew up in Scandinavian Lutheran circles.
SPEAKER_01: He had a great influence in Scandinavian Lutheranism, and his statement: God is like a hidden experimenter who does not intervene in his experiment.
SPEAKER_01: Might ring true for you.
SPEAKER_01: God is like a hidden experimenter who does not intervene in his experiment.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Kierkegaard embraced this idea of a creator God who somehow created the universe.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't get overly involved in the details, but he then stepped away from creation.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul is dealing with in his letter to the Church of the Colossians was that they believed in a Gnostic cosmology where God used these intermediaries, forces, energies, demi-gods, as part of the act of creation.
SPEAKER_01: But himself as a creator stood aloof at a distance.
SPEAKER_01: And he did not intervene in this great experiment called creation.
SPEAKER_01: Does that ring a bell?
SPEAKER_01: Nature's God.
SPEAKER_01: You see, they had this idea of a cosmic watchmaker who supplied all the raw materials of the universe and he put some things in place like the laws of nature and then stepped back and lift everything up to the laws of nature and physics.
SPEAKER_01: And there too, our founding fathers, many of them, believed that the creator does not intervene in his experiment.
SPEAKER_01: But as we read the book of Colossians, Paul has a complete different view of the creator God and creation.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's creator God is indeed in the details of creation, and he remains intimately involved in the details.
SPEAKER_01: And therefore the title of my message today is Jesus in the details.
SPEAKER_01: Let's open our Bibles and read Colossians 1.15 to 18.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 115 to 18.
SPEAKER_01: It says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
SPEAKER_01: For, notice this, by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_01: And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
SPEAKER_01: And he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
SPEAKER_01: That is a very clear statement that Jesus is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: There are four prepositions.
SPEAKER_01: Four prepositions that we need to look at.
SPEAKER_01: And now Paul combines these prepositions with the personal pronoun him.
SPEAKER_01: And him obviously refers to the second person of the Trinity, which is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Look in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: It says, by him all things, through him all things.
SPEAKER_01: For him, all things.
SPEAKER_01: In him all things.
SPEAKER_01: As we explore these prepositions and how they are combined with the person, Jesus Christ, we can come to one great conclusion that Jesus is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: He is the creator.
SPEAKER_01: He is the purpose giver.
SPEAKER_01: He is the sustainer of all things.
SPEAKER_01: You see, if we realize these truths and we can embrace these truths, it will be a tremendous comfort to us, knowing that every detail of your life, Jesus has it.
SPEAKER_01: Not only that, I think we will learn something about a benevolent God here, and we will notice that he is a caring God, even to those who are ungrateful and unwilling to acknowledge him.
SPEAKER_01: And so we will learn that we are getting more than we deserve or better than we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the third thing we will learn here today is that nothing in life escapes Christ's notice.
SPEAKER_01: Even those things that seem unjust, unfair, and just plain wicked.
SPEAKER_01: And all these things, because Jesus is sovereign and he created everything for a purpose, is taking this and glorify himself through that.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we explore these three points, that Jesus is the creator of all things, the purpose giver of all things, and the sustainer of all things, I might challenge you from Scripture to rethink some of your views in terms of creation and how God interacts with his creation.
SPEAKER_01: Firstly, we cannot but notice the supremacy and sovereignty of Christ in all of creation.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul is saying here is that God Himself, the second person of the Trinity, is intimately involved in creation.
SPEAKER_01: It is not like the Gnostics, where the big God kind of subcontracted and outsourced this work of creation.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, is intimately involved in creation.
SPEAKER_01: And it also says there in verse 18, so that he himself will become to have first place in everything.
SPEAKER_01: And it speaks there of his death on the cross for the payment of our sins, his burial, and obviously his resurrection from the dead, too.
SPEAKER_01: And that is why he is called the firstborn from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this don't get derailed by this word firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: It is not to show that he was born first, like our Mormon friends would say, but that he has the title of firstborn.
SPEAKER_01: It is a title.
SPEAKER_01: If you go to Italy, they would say he is numero uno, he is number one, he's the boss, he is supreme, he is sovereign.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Dutch theologian Abram Kuyper puts it this way: He says when Jesus looks at his universe from his exalted throne at the right hand of the Father, and he sees great galaxies whirling in space, the planets and the people upon this planet, and all the minute details of life here, including the details of our individual lives, there is nothing that he sees anywhere of which he cannot say, mine.
SPEAKER_01: It's his creation, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: He is the owner of this creation.
SPEAKER_01: And notice that Paul connects Jesus with the act of creation.
SPEAKER_01: He is the creator.
SPEAKER_01: Creation and the creator is a person, not a thing, not a force, not an event.
SPEAKER_01: For it says in verse 16, by him all things were created.
SPEAKER_01: And if we look there it later on in verse 16 at the end, there it says, through him.
SPEAKER_01: So there's two things that we got to think about here.
SPEAKER_01: Those two prepositions, by him and through him.
SPEAKER_01: By him speaks of agency or causation.
SPEAKER_01: Through him speaks of instrumentality.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna quickly unpack that for you.
SPEAKER_01: For by him all things were created.
SPEAKER_01: It means that Jesus is the originating agent, he is the primary cause of all things.
SPEAKER_01: Not a thing, not a force, but he as a person is intimately involved in the act of creation.
SPEAKER_01: And notice Paul's repetition of the phrase all things.
SPEAKER_01: All things, all things.
SPEAKER_01: That means all things.
SPEAKER_01: All things physical and all things spiritual.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing is excluded from the direct and intimate involvement of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: John 1, verse 2 says something similar.
SPEAKER_01: He was in the beginning with God, so Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: He is not a little God, as the Gnostics would believe.
SPEAKER_01: He is not the first of a series of God.
SPEAKER_01: He is not the big God or the most important God.
SPEAKER_01: He is God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: He's the second person of the triune God who existed for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: But it says there in John 1, 3, that all things came into being through him.
SPEAKER_01: All things.
SPEAKER_01: And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being.
SPEAKER_01: So what is John and Paul saying here?
SPEAKER_01: It says that outside the Trinity, nothing existed eternally, for eternity.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, anything outside the Trinity had to be made and created and manufactured.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the direct agent of creation.
SPEAKER_01: But here are some clues about his instrumentality and how we did that.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 1 2 says, through whom also he made the world.
SPEAKER_01: Through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 1 16 simply says, all things have been created through him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the instrumental cause of all things.
SPEAKER_01: I mean all things.
SPEAKER_01: God created all things through him, indicating that Jesus was the instrument by which the triune God created the creation.
SPEAKER_01: Every detail was created through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 13, 11 3.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11 3 gives us a little more detail about this instrument that is a person, not a force or a thing or an event.
SPEAKER_01: But the instrumentality of Christ's word is what we need to understand.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11 3.
SPEAKER_01: By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
SPEAKER_01: So instrumental here is the word of God, namely Jesus Christ speaking the universe into existence.
SPEAKER_01: Now scientists have been trying for centuries to be helpful with all their theories, but they cannot really explain that the word of Jesus was not the instrumental cause.
SPEAKER_01: There is no proof or test that says Jesus' word was definitely not the cause of everything.
SPEAKER_01: They cannot prove that.
SPEAKER_01: Because there was no machine or webcam out there.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, yeah, I got it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus did not speak it into existence.
SPEAKER_01: But Psalm 33.9, my dear friends, will comfort us here.
SPEAKER_01: For he spoke, and it came to be.
SPEAKER_01: He commanded and it stood affirmed.
SPEAKER_01: You see the reason why many scientists do not want to point to the words of Jesus as the instrumental cause of everything is because then they would have to submit to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And they are really unwilling to do that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is instrumental in this whole act of creation.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke it into existence.
SPEAKER_01: And once he spoke it into existence, it's finished.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 2 verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: And on the seventh day, God has finished his work that he has done.
SPEAKER_01: And he rested on the seventh day.
SPEAKER_01: So it is finished.
SPEAKER_01: It is done.
SPEAKER_01: And now we rest it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I have very limited understanding of science, but I do watch Discovery Channel once in a while.
SPEAKER_01: And I learned something about this fact that nothing can be made.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can be made.
SPEAKER_01: Things can only be changed, nothing can be destroyed.
SPEAKER_01: But if we say we make something, all we're doing is we're putting things together that's already there.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing new.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Ecclesiastes, probably what's written by a good scientist.
SPEAKER_01: Ecclesiastes 1-9.
SPEAKER_01: It says, that which has been is that which will be.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot go, well, you know, there's this new thing.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's always been there.
SPEAKER_01: We've only discovered it now.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's let's destroy it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can't.
SPEAKER_01: You can change it, but you cannot destroy it.
SPEAKER_01: However, human beings, even Christians, they look at this thing of the instrumentality of Jesus in the act of creation as the instrumental cause of creation.
SPEAKER_01: They want to put something between Jesus and creation.
SPEAKER_01: And this Nobel Prize winner, Jacques Monod, claims that life is only the result of natural processes by pure chance.
SPEAKER_01: Pure chance, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: Pure chance.
SPEAKER_01: By pure chance, in fact, Jesuit priest Georges Lemont says that the universe began from a primordial atom.
SPEAKER_01: From a primordial atom.
SPEAKER_01: A primordial atom is impersonal.
SPEAKER_01: There is no person in chance.
SPEAKER_01: There's no person in a primordial atom.
SPEAKER_01: I love art.
SPEAKER_01: And I've seen great artworks in Europe.
SPEAKER_01: I've looked at the Mona Nisa.
SPEAKER_01: I've looked at Picasso's paintings.
SPEAKER_01: I've looked at Antoni Galdi's Cathedral, Sagraria Familia.
SPEAKER_01: And I can say for sure it was a person that created that.
SPEAKER_01: Mixing all those colors, the shades and the details, that takes a person.
SPEAKER_01: But evangelical scholars like Norman Geisler paved this way for a theistic Big Bang.
SPEAKER_01: A theistic big bang?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that separates Jesus from the details.
SPEAKER_01: A big bang, we got problems.
SPEAKER_01: We take the person and we exchange the person for something impersonal.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Harvard astronomer, Stephen Weinberg, I mean, this guy is not a Christian, but he notes something important here.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the more the universe seems comprehensible via the Big Bang, the more it seems pointless.
SPEAKER_01: Pointless.
SPEAKER_01: And let me take you back to Colossians to show you what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 1.16, for by him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, with its thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus created the universe for him.
SPEAKER_01: It's his universe.
SPEAKER_01: He has a plan with it.
SPEAKER_01: You think of uh Thomas Edison.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Edison created the light bulb.
SPEAKER_01: And why did he create a light bulb?
SPEAKER_01: Because he was like, yeah, let's uh I'm kind of bored.
SPEAKER_01: Let's make a light bulb.
SPEAKER_01: No, he's like, let's make something that can give light.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That light bulb was created for a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the more we we dabble with this idea of Big Bang chance, primordial atoms, evolution, the more closer we become Gnostic.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that we become more scientific, we become more Gnostic.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Gnostic cosmology is the thing that Paul is addressing here.
SPEAKER_01: And basically the whole act of creation was outsourced to eons and archons, these demi-gods.
SPEAKER_01: And in the end, there's no real purpose to creation.
SPEAKER_01: There's no purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And so people often say, well, we got to look for the fingerprints of God and creation, and no doubt the fingerprints of God is all over creation.
SPEAKER_01: But I think we need to pay attention to this concept of teleology.
SPEAKER_01: Teleology, it's a nice word to throw around people that you want to impress.
SPEAKER_01: Try that at lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Teleology, not theology, teleology is about purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It explains the purpose something serves.
SPEAKER_01: And that, I think, is what excites me.
SPEAKER_01: Paul already explained that Jesus is the instrumental cause of everything.
SPEAKER_01: But he goes on to say, but everything has a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: It was created for a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, all things have been created through him, but it was created for a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Just like Edison's light bulb was created for the purpose of giving life.
SPEAKER_01: Not life, light.
SPEAKER_01: And so one.
SPEAKER_01: We got to remember that creation serves a divine purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the stage for redemption.
SPEAKER_01: God had to create a stage by which He can save people.
SPEAKER_01: And that's called planet Earth.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 45, 18 says, For this says the Lord, who created the heavens and the earth?
SPEAKER_01: He is God.
SPEAKER_01: He formed the earth and made it.
SPEAKER_01: He established it.
SPEAKER_01: He did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited.
SPEAKER_01: And to be inhabited by people that He can save through His Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It was created for the purpose of saving people.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, I am the Lord and there is no one other.
SPEAKER_01: But creation serves another purpose: to glorify God through salvation and judgment.
SPEAKER_01: To glorify himself through salvation and judgment.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 11, 36 is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: As we look at it, the whole universe has its source in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It was made through Christ, but it also serves Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It says, for from him and through him and to him are all things.
SPEAKER_01: To him be the glory forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: God created this planet, not because he was like sitting around eternity past, he's like, man, eternity is getting boring.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's do something.
SPEAKER_01: Let's build something.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's like the winter months.
SPEAKER_01: By March, I want to build stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife goes, okay, what's he gonna build?
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus created this universe for his purpose, and the sole purpose is to glorify himself.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, John Owen, the Oxford scholar, said, God's purpose in Christ shines out from his heart, a purpose that was hidden there from eternity.
SPEAKER_01: This purpose was to restore all things to a state infinitely above that which was first created to the purpose of his glorious wisdom and goodness.
SPEAKER_01: And so what uh Owen is saying is God made this.
SPEAKER_01: But God is gonna do much more with it.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna take human beings and he's gonna save them, and he's gonna give them new bodies, and he's gonna put them in heaven for eternity, and they're gonna be sinless.
SPEAKER_01: But he had to begin somewhere, and that's called creation.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah supports Owen.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 43, 7 says, everyone who is called by my name, who I created for my glory.
SPEAKER_01: Now here comes the purpose of why you are here.
SPEAKER_01: The very fact that you are consuming oxygen and producing greenhouse gases that's ultimately going to destroy us.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: So they say, you were created for a purpose, and that purpose is that Jesus can save you, and that purpose is so that he can glorify himself through that.
SPEAKER_01: And my dear friend, I was contemplating this morning whether I would say it or not, and I am gonna say it.
SPEAKER_01: If you are not called by his name and you have not responded to the gospel and repented and responded in faith, you will not glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: And a nightmare is awaiting you.
SPEAKER_01: You will breathe your last breath, you will say your goodbyes, but then the real nightmare begins.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to scare you, I'm just saying you were created for this purpose of glorifying God.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, if we are made to glorify God, this whole universe is designed to glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: This this one Bible translation, the message.
SPEAKER_01: One of my guys in my 412 class said, Well, the message is good for nothing translation.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, no, there's got to be good for something translation.
SPEAKER_01: And Eugene Peterson says it as follows: For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels, everything got started in him and finds its purposes in him.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus, you will find purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Not in chance and necessity, not in coincidence, not in the laws of nature and the laws of physics, but of the fact that he created you to save you and thus glorify himself.
SPEAKER_01: And that here we go to the third aspect of Paul's cosmology is that Jesus didn't just create it all.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't just create it for a purpose, but he keeps the whole shebang from not falling apart.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: He is before all things.
SPEAKER_01: Means he's been there forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: And in him, in him, all things hold together.
SPEAKER_01: That verse wrecked my brain.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's so amazing to hear what people say and think.
SPEAKER_01: Even our founding fathers, many of them were deists, and you asked them, how does this all stay together?
SPEAKER_01: And the explanation is the laws of nature.
SPEAKER_01: It's like God created this somehow, and it's like a big old fish bowl, and he's looking in, but he's not mixing missing with a fish.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't even feed the fish.
SPEAKER_01: The fish die and eat the carcasses of other fish.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But it's like the words of Kierkegaard: God is the divine experimenter who does not meddle with his experiment.
SPEAKER_01: No! Jesus guides and he sustains the universe, not the laws of physics, not the laws of nature.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the laws of nature and the laws of physics operate the way they do because Jesus makes them operate the way they do.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus can mess with that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus can mess with that.
SPEAKER_01: Go try it.
SPEAKER_01: Go walk in water.
SPEAKER_01: He can mess with the physical properties of things in a way that we can't, because he made it.
SPEAKER_01: And he makes it work for his purposes.
SPEAKER_01: Look at that phrase.
SPEAKER_01: In him, preposition, in him, that's Jesus, combines with the verb hold together.
SPEAKER_01: It means that it is sustained and preserved.
SPEAKER_01: But also what the Puritans called divine providence.
SPEAKER_01: And if you allow me a minute or two, I want to talk about divine preservation and divine providence, because really this idea of holding things together, that's what I think it's about.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus not only created this universe, but he preserves this universe.
SPEAKER_01: He not only preserves this universe, he guides it, he directs it, and he sustains it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, Philip Hughes, this one commentary writer, said, the permanence and preservation of the universe rests upon Christ far more than on gravity.
SPEAKER_01: I like it.
SPEAKER_01: Gravity is there because Jesus says gravity is there.
SPEAKER_01: And boy oh boy, when Jesus says gravity is no longer there, we will see the cement falling apart and the breaks start falling in our heads, and we'll go, whoa, what's happening here?
SPEAKER_01: But Hebrews 1:3 clues us into this.
SPEAKER_01: It speaks of Jesus as the principle of cohesion.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that the laws of nature and physics remain ordered and constant and not becoming erratic and chaotic is because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And because of his word.
SPEAKER_01: His word created it, his word upholds it.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 1:3.
SPEAKER_01: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the power of his word.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: By the power of his word.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is busy.
SPEAKER_01: He is busy.
SPEAKER_01: He is involved.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus having from eternity decreed everything out of nothing by his word now continuously, subsequently, and constantly sustains every atom and molecule of his creation, keeping them in the properties that they were designed for.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know who said that.
SPEAKER_01: But I'll give him credit when I meet him in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But Christ sustains the laws of nature, not impersonal forces.
SPEAKER_01: This is a deeply personal thing for God.
SPEAKER_01: Christ himself is responsible for the smallest atom to the largest planet.
SPEAKER_01: They keep revolving around the sun constantly, and they don't spin off course because of the word of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But here's another thing that I want to bring into the equation that all things are held together by him.
SPEAKER_01: There's the word providence.
SPEAKER_01: Providence.
SPEAKER_01: Divine providence.
SPEAKER_01: What does divine providence mean?
SPEAKER_01: It's the concept that God not only created the universe, but he is also sustaining the universe so that he can direct it and steer it to fulfill his purposes.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he created the universe for a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: There's a purpose, but he guides everything, all the details, so that it can fulfill his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: His purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Divine providence means that God cares for creation, all things in creation, but he also makes sure that they will end up fulfilling his purposes of glorifying himself.
SPEAKER_01: And you go, wow, that is tricky.
SPEAKER_01: How does he do that?
SPEAKER_01: We don't have time for that today.
SPEAKER_01: You can come to scooters tomorrow morning, and I'll tell you a little more how he does that.
SPEAKER_01: But divine providence means that Jesus keeps ordering all the details of this life by his word and for his purpose and pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 1, 5 and 6 says, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.
SPEAKER_01: There is a plan unfolding here.
SPEAKER_01: 2024 has been scripted in eternity past, and God is working this plan.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the amazing thing with Providence.
SPEAKER_01: Providence is there.
SPEAKER_01: And yet there is no evidence of Providence.
SPEAKER_01: Jason made that very clear.
SPEAKER_01: Evidence of God's involvement.
SPEAKER_01: It's Ruth, right?
SPEAKER_01: All the things in Ruth just roll out, and you're like, how does this ever happen?
SPEAKER_01: God.
SPEAKER_01: You read the book of Esther and you go, all these things are happening, and you're like, God's not even mentioned, but you cannot but say, God is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: But this one author says that by providence, by God's providence, by the providence of Jesus, angels keep their holiness, and the planets remain in their orbits.
SPEAKER_01: The tides roll in at just the right time, and the seasons are maintained.
SPEAKER_01: Kings reign and judges decree justice.
SPEAKER_01: The church of God is held together even in the rudest storms.
SPEAKER_01: And this guilty world is kept from sinking on a growing load of sin.
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
SPEAKER_01: Even the guilty world is kept from sinking under a growing load of sins.
SPEAKER_01: There has to be said something that God doesn't go enough.
SPEAKER_01: Poof.
SPEAKER_01: He just needs to go like I'm done.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to talk to this planet, this creation anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And it's poof.
SPEAKER_01: But divine providence means that Jesus is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: Every good gift comes from him.
SPEAKER_01: As the Father of lights, in whom there is no shadow of turning.
SPEAKER_01: Good things come from him.
SPEAKER_01: James 1.17.
SPEAKER_01: But what about the bad things?
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8.28.
SPEAKER_01: He works all things, even the bad things, for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
SPEAKER_01: God uses the bad things.
SPEAKER_01: Ultimately the cause of all things.
SPEAKER_01: And he keeps all things from things working in a way that it can fulfill his purposes.
SPEAKER_01: This one Puritan Obadiah Sedgwick said this.
SPEAKER_01: He says even the unpleasantries of life in the church might find itself like a ship at sea, endangered by waves and winds, but divine providence stands at the helm, powerfully guiding it and preserving it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh dear brother and sisters, if you've ever been in a church for more than three Sundays, you will often find that that is like a ship in the typhoon season.
SPEAKER_01: There's powerful winds and waves, but who is at the helm other than Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_01: Did Jesus not say, and even the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it, and he will build his church?
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 16, 18.
SPEAKER_01: But this also means that God is infallibly the cause of all actions and events, singular and universal, to occur according to the eternal and immutable plan decreed before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: God infallibly causes all actions and events.
SPEAKER_01: Even when a ship gets ripped open, topples over, and people die, he is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: And that might sound horrid.
SPEAKER_01: God, how can you allow all this bad stuff in the world?
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Jesus says are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
SPEAKER_01: And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
SPEAKER_01: It's not going to happen unless He allows it.
SPEAKER_01: And He says, even the hairs of your head are numbered.
SPEAKER_01: That hair that you found in the sink this morning, in the basin, in the bathroom, you're like, oh, not another hair.
SPEAKER_01: I've only got eleven left.
SPEAKER_01: God's in the details there, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the details.
SPEAKER_01: And this is very encouraging that he is in the details of even hair loss.
SPEAKER_01: How encouraging to know that the eternal God, who sustains the entire universe, is also watching over you.
SPEAKER_01: No details of your life is too small for his concern.
SPEAKER_01: No circumstance is too big for his sovereign control.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in the messy details of your life, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what you see on the internet, no matter what you watch on the news, Jesus is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: When Hamas is at war with Israel, Jesus is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: When we have someone in the presidential race that makes our heart race, Jesus is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: When we have children and family members straying from the faith, remember Jesus is in the details.
SPEAKER_01: And going back to creation, Jesus did not make something that he cannot maintain.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus didn't create something that he goes, oh, this is too big for me to handle.
SPEAKER_01: I can't now handle all the details.
SPEAKER_01: The one year I made this foolish decision of buying a car made by German engineers.
SPEAKER_01: It was called the Opal.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody who's been in Europe will know people drive opals, right?
SPEAKER_01: You know opals, George.
SPEAKER_01: But this car was more in the shop than on the road.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually I kind of went up the ladder and I spoke to the highest person in charge of making opals.
SPEAKER_01: And it turns out that the German cars were put together by an American company called General Motors.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't work.
SPEAKER_01: You see what this is.
SPEAKER_01: I said to this guy, you guys make the cars and you sell the cars, but you can't maintain the cars.
SPEAKER_01: And this was the guy's answer to me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, sir, we only assemble the cars.
SPEAKER_01: The Germans design them and make them.
SPEAKER_01: We just put them together and they make them very complicated.
SPEAKER_01: So complicated what we have a hard time maintaining them.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, stop blaming the Germans.
SPEAKER_01: I know they invaded Poland, but you can't keep blaming the Germans for everything.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus created a universe.
SPEAKER_01: He designed it, he assembled it, he fabricated it.
SPEAKER_01: It is complicated and complex, but he knows how to maintain it.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how to keep it running.
SPEAKER_01: And it does what he wants it to do.
SPEAKER_01: That is good news.
SPEAKER_01: No matter what happens, it's doing what it's designed to do.
SPEAKER_01: Now you want to know probably when I'm going to be done.
SPEAKER_01: So let me tell you what happened with the courts of Norway.
SPEAKER_01: They got together and multiple parties were eventually held responsible for the merchant vessel rockness, the sinking of it.
SPEAKER_01: And in part, they divvied out the responsibility in like percentage forms.
SPEAKER_01: The loadmaster, he he he improperly loaded the ship.
SPEAKER_01: And so there was more weight on the port side.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it listed over when it left the harbor.
SPEAKER_01: But the Norwegian chart authority, the government, was actually held responsible too, because you see, they found this this rocky shawl was about 30 feet long and was sharp and jagged.
SPEAKER_01: They found it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But they never updated the mariners on that.
SPEAKER_01: They never updated the maps.
SPEAKER_01: They never bothered to say to people, you know, stay clear.
SPEAKER_01: So they were held responsible.
SPEAKER_01: That's refreshing.
SPEAKER_01: You know, government is actually held responsible for its mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
SPEAKER_01: The pilot, oh, even the manufacturers of the ship was held responsible.
SPEAKER_01: They like you put this big crane right in front of the guy's windshield.
SPEAKER_01: How's he supposed to see where he's going?
SPEAKER_01: So even they were blamed.
SPEAKER_01: But two things.
SPEAKER_01: God was never held responsible.
SPEAKER_01: Neither was the captain.
SPEAKER_01: Or the pilot, rather.
SPEAKER_01: You see the pilot, this Vermont dude, he escaped death by a very narrow margin.
SPEAKER_01: This is absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_01: So everybody's on the bridge.
SPEAKER_01: The ship is listing over, it's tilting to the port side.
SPEAKER_01: And this guy goes, I gotta get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: Instinctively, he goes in the opposite direction, fling the door open, climbs over the railing.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now this thing is tilting like 45-50 degrees.
SPEAKER_01: He's like Spider Man on the side of the ship.
SPEAKER_01: And as this thing is rolling over, he eventually starts walking, standing up and walking, and he stands at the bottom of this capsized ship.
SPEAKER_01: He's the only one on the bridge that made it out alive.
SPEAKER_01: You would think that is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta keep that in mind when you go on a cruise, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But what this pilot failed to do was acknowledge Jesus in the details of his survival.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he attributed it to one thing.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Good luck.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Henry Morris says the atoms of our bodies are sustained by him, yet multitudes ignore him, ridicule him, and even take his name in vain.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that you know we often ignore him.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we ridicule him, and sometimes we take his name in vain.
SPEAKER_01: And at times we just give him a good old slap in the face.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you why.
SPEAKER_01: A seminary professor said this to me once.
SPEAKER_01: He says if we look at Jesus as the sovereign creator and the sustainer of all things, but we beg, borrow, and steal from all these philosophies of scientists like Big Bang and evolutionary forces and primordial atoms and chance and necessity.
SPEAKER_01: He says it's like a kid that is walking on a sandy beach.
SPEAKER_01: And the father notices that this kid's feet is being scorched by the hot sand.
SPEAKER_01: And he runs over and he picks up the kid, takes him off the hot sand, and the kid turns around and slaps the dad in the face.
SPEAKER_01: That is what we do when we do not fully acknowledge him as the one who sustains the very atoms of our bodies and the very details of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Norwegian courts did.
SPEAKER_01: They gave God a slap in the face, and this Pilate, remarkably surviving, he turned around and slapped Jesus in the face.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, Jesus shows himself generous, benevolent, and gracious, even to those who ridicule him and ignore him.
SPEAKER_01: And all we can say is we receive and get better than what we deserve.
SPEAKER_01: Keep that in mind, dear brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Every day we fail to acknowledge Jesus for what he is in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And he is gracious, he is benevolent, he is forgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_01: Dear Heavenly Father, we we thank you for your love and just your benevolent care of our very lives.
SPEAKER_01: The very details of our lives are in your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can separate us from the love of God, nor height or depth, nor angel or authority, no principality can rip us from the love of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing can undo what you have done.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing will derail what you plan to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, help us to be a people of God who surrender ourselves into the mighty hand of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you will have mercy on us when we doubt and when we overcome with fears, when the waves and the storms are all around our lives and things are spiraling out of control.
SPEAKER_01: Give us the grace to remind ourselves that Jesus made it all and he sustains it all.
SPEAKER_01: Help us not to forget that you are a gracious, benevolent God that is long suffering, and that your providential cure is in every aspect of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Remind us of that by your grace.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.