WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:00.400 Next week. 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:02.959 So again, thank you for your encouragement, your prayer, and your support. 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:05.919 It means uh much to us. 00:00:06.879 --> 00:00:11.439 Would you take your Bible with me this morning to the book of Matthew? 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:16.160 Matthew's Gospel and chapter two. 00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:18.800 It's where we left off last week. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:23.839 Ian, the remote is not working if you are up there. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:26.879 I can't get this to go forward up there. 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:28.160 Thank you very much. 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:29.679 Matthew chapter 2. 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:32.799 Last time I was with you in this book. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:47.119 We covered chapter 2, verse 13 through verse 23, but we kind of skipped over very, very briefly the middle section, verses 16 through 18, because I wanted to spend a little more time in it, a little more detailed time in it. 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:49.600 I'd like to do that with you this morning. 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:56.320 So if you have a Bible, I encourage you to follow along as I read Matthew chapter 2, beginning in verse 16. 00:00:57.359 --> 00:01:05.120 God's word says, Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, became furious. 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:16.079 And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:21.200 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:28.799 A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation. 00:01:29.439 --> 00:01:31.840 Rachel weeping for her children. 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:36.319 She refused to be comforted because they are no more. 00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:43.040 Lord Jesus, we come to you asking for your help. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:50.159 This is a heart-wrenching, a gut-wrenching passage of Scripture. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:53.439 Incomprehensible in many ways. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:01:56.239 Why? 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:58.079 Where were you? 00:01:58.159 --> 00:01:59.120 What were you doing? 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:06.640 So many questions and unanswered questions, it seems. 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:13.680 We all have our own pains, our own sorrows, our own anxieties, our own troubles. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:15.520 And we ask similar questions. 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:16.000 Why? 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:17.280 Where are you? 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:20.400 Lord, by your spirit, reveal yourself to us. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:26.159 Help us to grasp what's going on here and what you are doing in our lives as well. 00:02:26.639 --> 00:02:31.599 We ask this so that we might praise you in all that we do and say. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:32.479 Amen. 00:02:35.039 --> 00:02:45.680 Providence is the gracious outworking of God's purpose in Christ within his creation, within his created order. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:50.400 That means that chance does not exist. 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:55.280 Fate does not rule our lives. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:03:02.000 Instead, God directs every step and every event. 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:06.719 This very moment, then, you and I are fulfilling God's purpose. 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:11.120 You are here because God has ordained your presence. 00:03:11.919 --> 00:03:13.759 He has guided your steps. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:19.680 He has moved you to make decisions so that you might be here, and I'm glad for that. 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:22.960 That is his good purpose for you. 00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:37.520 Now, most Christians are willing, and we might say, even eager, to relish and affirm God's providence up to and until it involves something personally painful. 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:49.280 Or when it is applied to a circumstance or event that challenges our sense of right and wrong, our sense of justice or fairness? 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:59.680 When those lines are crossed, our views of God and of his providence in his world and in our lives can be challenged. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:01.280 So what do you think? 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:03.599 What is your conviction? 00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:11.199 Does God's providence extend even to the bad things of life? 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:16.319 Think of your own relationship to God's providential working. 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:25.360 It's a simple thing to relish in God's providence when it leads to the fulfillment of a desire, isn't it? 00:04:26.319 --> 00:04:31.680 Perhaps you've been praying for a new job or a raise, being able to pay off a debt. 00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:38.160 Maybe you've been beseeching the Lord for healing in some way, and he has provided an answer to that prayer. 00:04:38.319 --> 00:04:45.439 We relish in God's providence when it results in the positive answer to prayer in a way that we desire. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:50.399 But what about prayers answered in ways that we do not expect? 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:53.360 Or in ways we do not desire? 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:01.199 What if those symptoms that you are experiencing lead to an extended hospital stay? 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:07.519 To surgery, to lengthy treatment, to death. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:11.279 How do you feel about God's providence then? 00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:19.839 God's providence leads to suffering, to grief, or to pain in our lives. 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:26.079 And in those situations, do we praise his providential working or do we get frustrated with God? 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:28.560 Do we blame the devil? 00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:39.279 A couple of months ago, Allison and I found what we believed to be the ideal home for us to purchase and move into. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.879 So we we made an offer on this home. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:44.959 It was perfect. 00:05:45.120 --> 00:05:47.279 You know, we we we have our lists, right? 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:49.600 We have our lists of needs. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:53.120 Everything that we feel like this this is a must. 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:54.000 We have to have this. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:56.800 And then we have the second list of things that we want, right? 00:05:57.680 --> 00:06:01.600 Let me tell you, this house checked off every box but one. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:08.160 And that one was one I could I could maybe live with, but ideal for us. 00:06:08.240 --> 00:06:12.000 So we put in an offer on it, and then we made a counter offer. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:16.319 And then the house was sold to somebody known by the seller. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:34.079 It can be it can be hard, difficult to see God's good, providential hand keeping something from us, something that we perceive or feel to be positive and good and beneficial to us. 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.079 How do we handle those situations? 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:41.759 Think of the moms and the dads in in this account. 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:48.399 Do you think they would have found God's providence praiseworthy? 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:51.680 Now we may never know that answer. 00:06:52.560 --> 00:07:07.279 But because we all grieve, because suffering and and loss impact all of us, because we we understand that sense of injustice and travesty in life, we can empathize with these parents to some extent. 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:16.639 Weeping and loud lamentation because children are no more. 00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:19.759 What do you think? 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:25.839 Was God providentially involved in this horrendous situation? 00:07:27.439 --> 00:07:40.079 Maybe the better question and the harder question is this Do you trust a God who providentially uses things we might even call evil? 00:07:42.800 --> 00:07:46.079 I've entitled this message Providence and Pain. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:55.519 The focus of this entire chapter in Matthew's gospel is on the detailed providential working of God in the coming of his son. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:06.399 That includes the murder of innocent children, an account dripping with so much pain like an unceasing rain on a dreary day. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:12.319 Your pain may be the loss of a child like those in Bethlehem. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:19.839 Perhaps it's the loss of another deeply loved one, or a series of such sorrows. 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:28.959 Your pain might be found in relationships, or in sickness, or disease, in finances, or in physical pain. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:40.639 You may have pain and sorrow brought on by your own sinful poor choices in life, or your sorrow and pain in life might be the result of something that is entirely outside of your control. 00:08:40.879 --> 00:08:51.200 You may live in a depressive cloud of stress and anxiety and worry because of past or current pains and the uncertain future that lays before you. 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:53.679 Have I covered everybody yet? 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:57.279 Hope you get that point. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:02.799 We can all find ourselves in some kind of painful situation. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:07.039 So, what does this account teach us about our pain and the providence of God? 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:08.879 Well, here it is in one sentence. 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:16.320 I heard another pastor use this particular wording, and I'm stealing it and giving it to you because it fits our passage perfectly. 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:22.639 God's providence is the only foundation for life's pain. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:28.240 God's providence is the only foundation for life's pain. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:36.080 Let that echo again and again down the canyon of your soul through every twist and turn of life. 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:40.799 John Flavell was a pastor in the 1600s. 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:44.399 He wrote a little book entitled The Mystery of Providence. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:46.240 I highly recommend it to you. 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:53.440 In fact, I have about seven copies of it available at the welcome desk for the first seven people that get there after the service. 00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:58.320 And if you can't find it, I believe it's about 99 cents on Kindle, and there's a free PDF online too. 00:09:58.399 --> 00:10:00.240 So, anyway, you can get it. 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:01.440 Read it. 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:05.840 Flavil noted the style of writing in the Old Testament. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:11.759 Many languages, as you write them out, are written out left to right, but Hebrew is different. 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:13.519 It's written out right to left. 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:19.120 So from our vantage point, from an English speaker, English reader, it's backwards. 00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.799 Flavil compared that to God's providence. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:28.159 Some providences, he wrote, are like Hebrew letters. 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:30.559 They must be read backwards. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:46.320 That is, while God is working and guiding all things to his determined end, we may not be able to trace his work or understand his purpose until time enables us to look back on it. 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:52.960 To put Flavil's statement in 21st century terms, hindsight is 2020. 00:10:55.279 --> 00:11:05.120 Walking through pain, sorrow, grief, suffering, whatever term you want to place in there can cloud our view of God's hand in the moment. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:06.480 It's still there. 00:11:06.799 --> 00:11:08.399 He is still there. 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:16.720 But we may have to trust him until we can turn around and look back to see exactly how he has worked. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:20.559 Now to our text. 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:26.879 A horrendous murder of innocent boys. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:34.399 Scholars tell us that it probably wasn't as terrible as we imagine it to be. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:40.080 Maybe twenty or forty boys at the most. 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:04.480 Calling it a travesty is insufficient. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:13.279 No, this is a continuation of the pattern of those in positions of power sinfully exerting their authority. 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:16.480 And here it is to kill and oppress. 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:20.720 Herod's actions continued that pattern. 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:22.480 And it continues even today. 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:25.519 We could give story after story after story. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:39.440 I read two weeks ago that the Roman Catholic Church is admitting to priests not only being child molesters, but using nuns as sexual slaves. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:47.200 About a month ago, the state of New York approved abortions up to the time of birth for any reason. 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:50.000 All to the sounds of clapping and cheering. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:54.000 Sinful abuse of power. 00:12:54.559 --> 00:13:00.799 We find these evil abuses of authority and power in all places at all times. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:08.320 And with great pain, that kind of evil surrounded our Lord's coming. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:17.279 In this short, powerful account, God gives us four noteworthy characteristics of his providence that help guide us in our lives. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:21.840 So let's look at those briefly and then see how God would have us respond. 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:26.720 First, note please with me that providence is perfectly timed. 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:29.360 Providence is perfectly timed. 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:38.799 In verse 16, we read, then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, when he saw there's a time element there. 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:44.559 Bethlehem is only five or six miles from the city of Jerusalem. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:57.200 It would not have taken the Magi very long to travel that short distance to find the Lord Jesus, worship him, give him their gifts, and then return to Jerusalem to inform Herod. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:02.000 At minimum, we're safe to conclude three days, maybe. 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:06.639 One day to travel, one day to find him and worship, one day to go back to Jerusalem. 00:14:07.360 --> 00:14:19.679 Perhaps due to Herod's busyness, when they did not return, we might be able to say that he didn't come to the conclusion of their absence until days four, five, six. 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:29.840 But at any rate, there was a decisive moment, a moment that concluded with an order issued to search out and destroy. 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.559 But I love how God works in this situation. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:40.159 Herod thinks he's some mighty God who can wipe out a rival with a mere order. 00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:43.840 But God sits in the heavens and laughs. 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:47.759 Sorry, Herod, I already sent them away. 00:14:48.159 --> 00:14:49.759 You can't reach them. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:56.639 See, immediately after the Magi left, God sent Joseph and Mary and Jesus away. 00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:02.320 It was only then that Herod realized the Magi's actions. 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:06.159 Because God's providence is perfectly timed. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:21.519 If we see and believe that, then we must also note the perfectly timed arrival of Herod's soldiers in the village of Bethlehem. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:25.679 And the presence of those precious baby boys. 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:34.159 God's providential timing to bring those boys home to him was perfect. 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:38.559 That's hard, beloved. 00:15:39.120 --> 00:15:41.600 It's hard, but it's true. 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:47.279 The timing of pain is always perfect. 00:15:49.360 --> 00:15:50.159 Consider. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:58.559 Consider the timing of the Ishmaelite caravan to whom the sons of Jacob sold their brother Joseph. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.840 The timing of that caravan was perfect. 00:16:04.240 --> 00:16:11.039 Consider the timing of Joseph spending years in prison before God finally gave Pharaoh some dreams that needed interpreted. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:14.159 God's timing was perfect. 00:16:14.240 --> 00:16:16.960 Consider the timing of Israel's slavery in Egypt. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:22.080 Or the timing of Israel's entry into Canaan to destroy the sinful peoples there. 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:25.039 Consider the timing of Job's suffering. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:31.519 I love the providence in the account of Jonah. 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:37.600 You know Jonah ran away from God, got on a boat out into the Mediterranean Sea. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:46.639 Jonah wrote that God prepared a storm. 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:50.080 The timing of that storm was perfect, beloved. 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:54.320 Jonah also wrote that God prepared a great fish. 00:16:54.879 --> 00:16:56.159 Perfectly timed. 00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:05.440 The homemoing of my mother and my two sisters by a car accident. 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:06.880 It was perfectly timed. 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:12.640 The homegoing of my wife's baby sister, it was perfectly timed. 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:19.839 And we could go on and on and on and on. 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:33.680 Pastor Charles Spurgeon said the night of affliction is just as much under the arrangement and control of the Lord of love as the bright summer days when all is bliss. 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:41.839 We can say that because Christ is the Lord of time and your times are in his hand. 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.799 He experiences no surprises. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:18:04.240 And if we truly rested in that truth, that he experiences no surprises and that all of our times are in his hands, we would not be so overtaken by the unexpected events in our own lives. 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:14.400 But because our ways are not his ways and his ways are not our ways, we become stretched, we become wearied, and we become pained. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:21.039 I've been planning to preach on this text and this message for almost three months now. 00:18:23.680 --> 00:18:28.880 For the last year, Allison and I have been pursuing adopting another child. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:42.079 So a month ago today, a month ago today, between that Sunday and the next day, Monday, seven of you asked us if there was any news on our adoption. 00:18:42.559 --> 00:18:44.640 Within two days, seven of you asked us that. 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:46.000 Our answer was no. 00:18:46.799 --> 00:18:53.839 We were just waiting for a phone call that we fully expected to be a couple of months out, after which we would have to wait a couple months more. 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:57.759 That was Sunday and Monday. 00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:04.559 On Tuesday of that week, we received a call informing us that we had been matched with a birth mom. 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:05.279 Great. 00:19:05.359 --> 00:19:08.160 We were excited that God's timing was not ours. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:09.599 That was wonderful. 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:18.480 So we planned to go and to meet the birth mom, but then the next Sunday we were surprised when we got notified that the birth mom gave birth early. 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:24.720 And our trip was not just to meet her, but to receive placement of a baby girl. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:28.079 No planning, no preparation. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:35.359 Suddenly our schedules and our lives were entirely in the hands of people we'd never met before. 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:38.960 There was so much that was out of our control. 00:19:41.039 --> 00:19:44.480 We want to determine our own times, don't we? 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:49.920 We want to have things to be worked out in the ways that we desire. 00:19:50.079 --> 00:19:56.400 But don't you think it would be better for us if we could just rest in God's providential timing? 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:11.039 Flavil wrote, Providence is wiser than you, and you may be confident that it has suited all things better to an eternal good than you could do had you been left to your own option. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:16.480 Providence is perfectly timed. 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:24.720 God's providence also may be opposed, but never thwarted. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:33.359 The divine design of everything around the Lord's birth is heavily emphasized in this first part of Matthew's gospel. 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:38.640 Over and over again we see this theme of Christ fulfilling God's word. 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:45.599 Chapter 1, verse 22, chapter 2, verses 5, 15, 17, 23, chapter 3, and verse 3. 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:48.880 The plan of God is fulfilled in Christ. 00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:52.319 That plan was first stated in the early pages of Genesis. 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:56.880 And every Jewish person would have known the general flow of God's promise. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:01.359 They expected it, they anticipated it, they desired its fulfillment except Herod. 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:05.519 Herod didn't want its fulfillment. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:09.359 He was arrogantly half-Jewish. 00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:11.599 He knew that there would be a Messiah. 00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:14.720 He even asked the religious leaders where he would be born. 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:19.519 But as we've already seen, Herod did not allow rivals to exist. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:22.880 He sought to control the Magi. 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:30.880 And when that backfired, he exerted his powerful control to murder in an effort to thwart God's purpose and plan. 00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:38.720 Herod would use all of his power at his disposal to thwart God's providence. 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:48.240 It resulted in sin, bloodshed, injustice, grief, and pain. 00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:57.519 It doesn't pay to oppose God's providence or to fight against it. 00:22:01.440 --> 00:22:11.759 You can pursue every means possible to remain young in your order in your effort to oppose aging. 00:22:13.839 --> 00:22:15.680 But it's fruitless. 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:24.400 You know it's ironic that many historians consider the story of Ponce de Leon seeking the fountain of youth to be a myth. 00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:28.319 Because remaining young is a myth. 00:22:28.960 --> 00:22:30.799 Age will take you down. 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:37.519 You may oppose it vigorously and somewhat successfully for a time, but you will not thwart it. 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:45.519 Joseph's brothers thought they could thwart God's providence by selling their brother to traveling slavers. 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:48.880 But what did Joseph tell them decades later? 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:57.519 He said, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be left alive. 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:10.559 Solomon, King Solomon, the wisest man who lived besides the Lord Jesus Christ, Solomon spent a lifetime experimenting, often experimenting with things that God opposed. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:15.200 Listen to his conclusion in Ecclesiastes chapter 6 and verse 13. 00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:17.279 Solomon said, Consider the work of God. 00:23:17.440 --> 00:23:19.039 Think about this, ponder it. 00:23:20.160 --> 00:23:23.839 Who can make straight what God has made crooked? 00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:32.400 God's providence may be opposed, but never thwarted. 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:42.799 Don't you think it would be better for us if we could rest in his providence rather than fight it? 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:50.880 Opposing God's providence is similar to what Octavius Winslow termed practical atheism. 00:23:51.920 --> 00:24:00.000 Opposing God's providence is going about your business in thought, word, and deed as though God is completely separate from your world and from your life. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:12.799 Winslow wrote, God is not only present in his created universe, but he is as much in the personal events of life, shaping, guiding, and overruling each and all. 00:24:13.440 --> 00:24:20.720 Providence may be opposed to your great pain, but never thwarted. 00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:32.640 Now that that truth can be difficult to swallow when we see the third characteristic of God's providence in this passage, and that is that providence may use pain and suffering. 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:44.400 Matthew wants us to see that everything about the coming of the Lord Jesus fulfilled God's intention from ages past. 00:24:45.039 --> 00:24:47.519 Jesus fulfills Scripture. 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:56.559 God then providentially directed events in his world to see and to accomplish the fulfillment of his word. 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:02.720 And we are to believe the same thing as we focus in on the tiny village of Bethlehem. 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:08.559 This event fits perfectly into God's providence. 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:21.680 And if that is true, if that is true, then the weeping and loud lamentation was not outside of God's providence. 00:25:23.119 --> 00:25:29.920 In fact, this pain and suffering was intended by God to fulfill Scripture. 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:35.599 He's referring to an event more than 500 years prior to Matthew. 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:44.319 God, in his goodness and loving kindness, purposed to use pain and suffering in his providential working. 00:25:45.119 --> 00:25:49.599 Now Matthew refers to Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 15. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:55.440 Ramah was where Jacob's wife Rachel was buried. 00:25:56.079 --> 00:26:06.400 And in Jeremiah, Rachel is pictured as speaking on behalf of the people of Israel, as weeping from her tomb because her children had been exiled. 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:09.279 They'd been carried off as captives to another nation. 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:11.519 They were no more in their land. 00:26:13.039 --> 00:26:22.400 The longtime pattern of vicious, sinful despots hurting God's people was true in Israel's history. 00:26:22.640 --> 00:26:30.000 And as God's people were carted off into exile in Babylon, Rachel wept because they were no more. 00:26:31.440 --> 00:26:35.839 And now in Bethlehem we see that same pattern continuing. 00:26:38.160 --> 00:26:39.839 It would have been hard. 00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:02.799 But that providence, like Hebrew letters, is better read backwards. 00:27:03.839 --> 00:27:15.359 We can now see that what ancient Israel experienced pictured the oppressive rule of sin over God's people and of their desperate need for a redeemer. 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:22.799 Sin's reign through evil despots continued, and sin sometimes overflows with pain and suffering. 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:30.640 And God included his own son in that pattern because his son came to break sin's curse. 00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:43.440 There is a new king now, once promised, now reigning and ruling, who rules with grace and truth, not murderous rage. 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:49.759 Satan too uses pain and suffering. 00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:52.319 You can talk to Job about that. 00:27:53.839 --> 00:27:58.480 But God rules over all in his sovereign providence. 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:02.160 He will use it to fulfill his purpose. 00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:07.440 What Israel endured in ancient times, the Lord Jesus experienced in his birth. 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:17.039 Because of the sinful oppression of an evil king, Jesus was exiled to Egypt, leaving behind weeping and grief in Israel. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:27.119 Who better to speak of pain and suffering in our times than Johnny Erickson Tata, paralyzed for most of her life? 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:35.920 She wrote in her book Pain and Providence, quote, evil is not uncontrolled. 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:42.079 Because God reigns over all, nothing happens outside of God's control and plan. 00:28:42.319 --> 00:28:48.400 Even if we can't grasp it this side of eternity, our sufferings have a place in God's plans. 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:50.079 We don't suffer in vain. 00:28:50.240 --> 00:28:54.720 Our sufferings have meaning because God uses them in his purposes. 00:28:55.519 --> 00:29:00.240 Someone else has well said, sometimes providence guards us from pain. 00:29:01.279 --> 00:29:04.799 Other times the providence is in the pain. 00:29:15.920 --> 00:29:24.559 We must, though, understand this fourth characteristic of God's providence, and that is that it is planned with purpose. 00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:30.960 To see this, we need to go back to the passage that Matthew had in mind. 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:33.599 Jeremiah chapter 31. 00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:42.559 Jeremiah records God's word again about Rachel weeping and refusing to be comforted because her children were no more. 00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:45.680 That's what Jeremiah 31, 15 said. 00:29:46.160 --> 00:30:00.880 But then if we keep reading in verse 16, it says, Thus says Yahweh, keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, because there is reward for your effort, declares Yahweh. 00:30:01.039 --> 00:30:03.680 They shall come back from the land of the enemy. 00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:09.119 There is hope for your future, declares Yahweh. 00:30:09.839 --> 00:30:13.119 Now that hope is not merely a return from exile. 00:30:13.200 --> 00:30:13.599 That happened. 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:14.880 They did return from exile. 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:16.559 That hope was fulfilled. 00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:18.720 There was hope to be found in that. 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:29.680 But the ultimate hope, Jeremiah goes on to say near the end of this chapter, is there is a new covenant between God and his people, and the pinnacle of that new covenant is the forgiveness of sin. 00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:39.279 God says in the same chapter, Jeremiah 31, verse 34, I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. 00:30:42.720 --> 00:30:47.119 Six hundred years later, Rachel would weep again. 00:30:48.160 --> 00:30:51.119 Again, because her children were no more. 00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:57.759 Sin in its viciousness had taken away her children. 00:30:58.880 --> 00:31:01.839 But this time it was the fulfillment of God's plan. 00:31:02.480 --> 00:31:05.039 He had purposed to deal with sin. 00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:07.440 He had promised to forgive sin. 00:31:08.079 --> 00:31:11.519 And now he had come to do just that. 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:14.319 The rescuer had come. 00:31:15.839 --> 00:31:20.160 Providence is planned with purpose. 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:24.559 Even when it involves pain and suffering. 00:31:24.799 --> 00:31:27.519 Consider some truths from the book of Isaiah. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:30.559 Isaiah is one of my favorite books of the Bible. 00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:33.440 And there's some fascinating statements in Isaiah. 00:31:33.599 --> 00:31:36.400 Consider Isaiah chapter 14, verse 26. 00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:42.240 This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth. 00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:46.559 And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. 00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:51.759 For Yahweh of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? 00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:55.599 His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? 00:31:55.759 --> 00:31:57.680 That's a hypothetical question. 00:31:58.559 --> 00:31:59.519 No one. 00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:08.640 When God purposes, no one will change it, and God purposes and his providence carries it out. 00:32:08.799 --> 00:32:15.599 Later on in Isaiah in chapter 37, we read in verse 26 these words. 00:32:32.160 --> 00:32:34.480 Well, what about bad things? 00:32:35.200 --> 00:32:39.599 What about things that to us seem terrible? 00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:43.119 How do we make sense of that in terms of God's providence? 00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:49.759 Well, in chapter 45 of Isaiah, God is speaking to Cyrus, a Persian king. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:53.519 He says in verse 5, I am Yahweh, there is no other. 00:32:53.759 --> 00:32:55.680 Besides me, there is no God. 00:32:56.160 --> 00:32:58.880 I equip you, Cyrus, though you do not know me. 00:32:58.960 --> 00:33:00.160 He's a pagan king. 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:06.880 I do it for a purpose, so that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides me. 00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:08.799 I am Yahweh, there is no other. 00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:09.759 Then listen to this. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:13.200 I form light and create darkness. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:18.480 I make well-being and create calamity. 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:23.839 I am Yahweh who does all these things. 00:33:26.319 --> 00:33:27.279 One more. 00:33:28.160 --> 00:33:35.119 Isaiah 46, beginning in verse 8, remember this and stand firm. 00:33:35.680 --> 00:33:37.839 Recall it to mind, you transgressors. 00:33:37.920 --> 00:33:41.680 Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. 00:33:41.839 --> 00:33:43.839 I am God and there is none like me. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:52.160 I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand. 00:33:53.359 --> 00:34:00.160 I will accomplish all my purpose, even calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. 00:34:00.400 --> 00:34:05.599 I have spoken and I will bring it to pass, I have purposed and I will do it. 00:34:05.839 --> 00:34:18.159 So when we read in Matthew that Scripture was fulfilled over and over and over again, it shows us that God providentially planned these events with purpose, with intent. 00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:22.880 Even Rachel's weeping. 00:34:25.199 --> 00:34:33.360 The weeping of Rachel stands for all of our weeping and anguish at the effects of sin in our world. 00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:41.440 We cry to God to do something about sin, pain, suffering, grief, injustice. 00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:44.239 And he did. 00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:50.320 He sent his son to break sin's curse. 00:34:53.039 --> 00:35:08.960 In December of 2014, Christian music artist Aaron McCain stopped his tour bus in the middle of the night before an overturned truck with two nearly unconscious men inside. 00:35:10.320 --> 00:35:24.079 He and his manager got out of their bus and tried to help, but then realized that fuel was rapidly leaking from the truck, and Aaron ran away from the truck thinking that the leaking fuel would explode. 00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:31.440 In the darkness and in the unfamiliar area, he jumped over what he thought was a median. 00:35:32.800 --> 00:35:44.320 He jumped instead into a deep ravine, breaking an ankle, a leg, and his jaw, bringing a lifetime of depression and PTSD. 00:35:44.480 --> 00:35:46.239 Oh, by the way, he was also newly married. 00:35:48.719 --> 00:35:58.559 Aaron said that God crushed his pride and moved he and his wife to a place of utter dependency on God's sovereignty. 00:35:58.800 --> 00:36:01.679 Here's what Aaron said in his own words. 00:36:03.119 --> 00:36:11.679 God has preordained trials of hardship in order that we would gain a gift greater than the trial itself. 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:18.800 If we would last, making it to the end, we would be glorified in Christ with Christ forever. 00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:22.320 These minor setbacks, imagine that. 00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:31.599 These minor setbacks, he's calling them, are nothing less than the hair of a distraction in light of the greater gain eternally. 00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:39.599 It is because of God's sovereignty I am allowed to taste the goodness of his grace when all seems lost. 00:36:40.639 --> 00:36:42.960 My jaw is only temporary. 00:36:43.360 --> 00:36:46.480 My feet and legs will one day be replaced. 00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:52.719 My pain and suffering will be traded for an everlasting joy that only God can supply. 00:36:54.960 --> 00:36:58.719 Aaron came to rest in God's providential work. 00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:07.440 That's what the church and God's word has called us to, time and time again throughout church history. 00:37:07.599 --> 00:37:08.079 I think St. 00:37:08.239 --> 00:37:09.599 Augustine said it best. 00:37:09.760 --> 00:37:12.960 He wrote, trust the past to God's mercy. 00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:16.159 Trust the present to God's love. 00:37:16.719 --> 00:37:18.880 And the future to God's providence. 00:37:22.639 --> 00:37:25.199 How would God have us respond to this? 00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:27.760 One word. 00:37:28.960 --> 00:37:29.599 Trust. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:37.519 Trust God's providence in your life and in your world. 00:37:38.880 --> 00:37:40.000 Why would we do that? 00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:48.000 What would motivate us to trust that kind of God who is that powerful, who is that awesome? 00:37:48.880 --> 00:37:56.320 Well, very simply, it's because trusted providence leads to a hope-filled rest in the sovereign God. 00:37:57.119 --> 00:38:02.800 God's providence is the only foundation for life's pain. 00:38:05.760 --> 00:38:08.159 Pastor Spurgeon wrote it best. 00:38:08.320 --> 00:38:11.280 He said, Providence is wonderfully intricate. 00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:16.320 Ah, he says, you want always to see through Providence, do you not? 00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:19.039 You never will, I assure you. 00:38:19.280 --> 00:38:21.679 You have not eyes good enough. 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:26.239 You want to see what good that affliction was to you. 00:38:27.679 --> 00:38:29.360 You must believe it. 00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:34.079 You want to see how it can bring good to your soul. 00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:39.199 You may be enabled to in a little time, but you cannot see it now. 00:38:40.239 --> 00:38:41.440 You must believe him. 00:38:42.960 --> 00:38:45.599 Honor God by trusting him. 00:38:47.119 --> 00:38:48.480 Lord Jesus. 00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.880 Our brother, our Messiah, our King. 00:38:58.159 --> 00:39:06.159 We pray not for a guarantee of happiness, but instead for the strength to endure. 00:39:07.679 --> 00:39:15.519 Give us the strength to go on, to keep putting one foot in front of the other when we feel like we can't take even another step. 00:39:17.679 --> 00:39:27.440 By your spirit, grant to us the strength to trust you when we are filled so much with doubt and fear. 00:39:29.840 --> 00:39:36.320 Give us the strength to stand firm when everything in us is crying out to give in. 00:39:38.480 --> 00:39:43.760 Grant us grace to bear that to which you have called us. 00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:52.480 Not with bitterness and grumbling, but with cheerfulness and joy and trust. 00:39:53.360 --> 00:39:55.840 Fill us with strength to persevere to the end. 00:39:58.159 --> 00:40:02.239 By your spirit, give us strength to rejoice even as we mourn. 00:40:03.280 --> 00:40:07.920 And the strength to seek your face and to find our security in you. 00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:22.159