The Providence of God

Pastor and author John Piper believes there's a direct link between God's glory and your happiness. We were created by God to glorify God. That's the biggest all-consuming passion in the universe. And then around these tables, and in every one of our listeners, is the passion to be happy.

And I grew up feeling like God's desire to be glorified and my desire to be happy were somehow at odds. This is Family Life Today. Our hosts are Dave and Anne Wilson.

I'm Bob Lapine. You can find us online at familylifetoday.com. Your happiness in marriage, your happiness in your family and life, all of that is connected to your understanding of God being glorified. We'll talk more about that today with Pastor John Piper. Stay with us. And welcome to Family Life Today.

Thanks for joining us. There are days I wish that our program was a call-in program. This is one of those days. Because I would love to open the phone lines and say, if God has used John Piper in your life in some way, call and share the story with us. And then we could just sit here and hear the testimonies. I want to hear what you would say, Bob. I could come up with a whole bunch of them. We were sharing about things I've heard you say.

And Dr. Piper, welcome to Family Life Today. Thank you. Thank you. We were talking about things I've heard you say, things I've read. I remember being at the very first Together for the Gospel event where you spoke. And there was five minutes near the end of your message where you said, this is what the Gospel is. And there were five things. Does this ring a bell to you? Do you remember any of this? It was many years ago. You'd just written the book. You know, asking a 74-year-old what he remembers is not a good thing to do on the radio. I get mad at Mark Dever when he does that to me. He says, tell me the last five books you read.

I can't even remember the names of my grandchildren. Come on. This was about the time the book, God is the Gospel, had come out. Oh, yeah.

I remember that. You walked through and you said we first need to understand that the Gospel is, it's a historical event. And then we need to understand that there were eternal implications of that. And then those implications apply to us.

Here's the thing that slayed me at the end. You said, I'm afraid today there are people who if you went to them and said, would you like to go to heaven where there's streets of gold and you're reunited with your family and there's no more sorrow and there's no more night. Oh, by the way, Jesus won't be there. Right. There are a lot of people who would say, okay, that's okay.

Yeah, they'd at least feel it if they wouldn't have the courage to say it. So the point of that was once you've said that the Gospel is an event in history, the Gospel is an achievement of atoning for sin and the Gospel is an offer, you can have it by faith alone. And once you have said it gets you heaven and it gets you out of hell and it gets you a clear conscience, are you done sharing the Gospel? And you've pointed out we're not done because for carnal, unbelieving, even satanic reasons, you could like a clear conscience, you would want out of hell. I mean, what unbeliever does not want to go to hell but not want to love and be with and enjoy Jesus forever?

That would be a foreign language to a lot of people. I would be more happy in the presence of Jesus than, and then fill in the blank, because the blank is supposed to be everything. Yeah. I'm supposed to, so yes, exactly, the Gospel is not finished, the good news is not finished until Christ himself as our friend and our treasure is our satisfaction. Bob, that message marked you, though. It was a paradigm shift in my life. First, I came under conviction as I heard it, because I thought I've thought that way.

And then secondly, I thought, I've got to be an ambassador for this truth to others. I've shared a clip from that with people in church and various settings and have repeated that over and over again, so thank you for that. And I didn't even know we were going to do the John Piper quote. The tributes?

Yeah, it's like sitting here with one of the Beatles and we're going to go to a lyric and say, what did you mean by this? But one of my favorite, and I don't know when you said it, how many years ago. Don't ask him.

I won't ask you. I know it's a core part of your identity and your teaching is, and I think I'll get this right, God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in him. That's right. Talk about that, because that struck me years ago. Well, that is the essence, the foundational statement of what I call Christian hedonism. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. And what it shows is that the two great passions of the universe are not in competition.

And they are this. God's passion is to be glorified. We were created by God to glorify God.

Isaiah 43 seven, bring my sons and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone whom I created for my glory. That's the biggest, all consuming, all pervasive passion in the universe. And then around these tables and in every one of our listeners is the passion to be happy. You cannot not want to be happy.

It's like hunger in the soul. Nobody wants to be unhappy. Whenever they define happiness, they just want to be happy and not hurting. And I grew up feeling like God's desire to be glorified and my desire to be happy were somehow at odds. They just, I had to pick either he gets glorified and I deny myself ultimately and have a life of relative unhappiness or I pick my happiness and God gets second place. And that sentence that you just quoted is the biblical answer to how that's not true.

That the Bible really is good news that when we are born again, God becomes our treasure and our pleasure. And in becoming our supreme treasure and our highest pleasure, he gets glorified. I mean, all we have to do is ask, how do you glorify something by calling it unsavory, calling it unpleasant, calling it unsatisfying?

No, that gets no glory for anything. And a lot of people try to embrace God and don't feel like he's a pleasure. They don't feel like he's a treasure or satisfying. And they don't therefore bring him the glory that he should have. God gets the most glory that he should have from souls that are most satisfied in him. So I get fully satisfied. God gets fully glorified. And that's the best of all possible worlds. And you're happy.

That's right. Boom. I know someone once asked me, you know, I was the Detroit Lions chaplain for 30 plus years. A lot of losses, not like the Vikings. They win over here.

We just lost the first two games. I know that well. I've been in that locker room many times. But no, somebody once said to me, so what is your like mission as a chaplain of a team? And I responded not with that great quote, but it was that thought. I said, I think I feel like I walk in the locker room and I want to show them that God is not who they think. They're like, what do you mean? I was like, I have a joy in Christ.

That's amazing. And they think if you're they look at literally a chaplain, sad rules based. They don't expect joy that I'm satisfied in Christ. And when you can see him, you see somebody drawn to you like, where do you get that joy? Oh, that's in God, especially in the midst of adversity.

Yeah, that's what Bob pointed out. Everybody expects you to be happy if the sun is shining. Very few people expect you to be deeply, joyfully content if the clouds are gathering in your life. You have just completed, and we're going to spend some time this week talking about a book that it's not just a book, it's a tome. This is something you've taken years to write on the subject of providence. Why this subject for a long-term investment and a book that is hundreds of pages?

Yes, 700 to be precise. Probably because over the last 50 years, 52 years since God did a great work in my heart in the fall of 68 and subsequent years, the power of God, the authority of God, the bigness of God, the freedom of God, the purposes of God, the overarching glory and beauty of God with his all-controlling sovereignty at the center revolutionized my life. I want to be a God-besotted, God-entranced person.

I don't think, and I want you to be that, and Dave, I want you all to be that. I want thousands of other people to be God-entranced and saturated, besotted with God so that everywhere they look, they see God. Everything they deal with is dealt with in the light of God. There isn't any other doctrine that brings you to that point better than the providence of God.

There isn't any. The providence of God implying his control, supervision, guidance, authority over all things from the dropping of a bird out of the tree. That's what Jesus said, not a bird, not a bird in unseen forests of Brazil drops out of a tree without your Father's design and presence and purpose. And when you think about, whoa, that was his way of talking about molecules.

I mean, atoms, subatomic particles, he wasn't going to drop that on the people. They didn't know what they're talking about, but they knew birds, billions of birds all over the world dropping out of trees when their time is up and God is ruling that. If he's ruling that and the hairs of my head are all numbered, the implications of that are absolutely staggering. So, it's both getting a God-entranced vision of life and then all the implications, which I'm sure we'll talk about over these days, of that kind of God being my God ruling my life, overseeing my happiness and sorrow. It's just all transforming.

So, it had been at the root of my life and I said, now, here I am, if I wait much longer, I'm going to be in the grave, I won't get this done, so I turned, you know, 72 and said, it's got to be done now or never, and so I've got to put it all together. And it feels like a book to me, which is the gathering together of pretty much all I've ever thought into one place. Is there a difference between providence and sovereignty? Are they subsets?

How do they work together? In my vocabulary, there's a difference and I think in most thoughtful Bible readers, there's a difference and the difference is this, sovereignty signifies God's power and authority to do whatever he wills. Providence says yes and adds and he does it purposefully, wisely, as a good and caring, providing, providing, providence, God, and so I define providence as purposeful sovereignty.

That's good. And at the same time, you know, the average listener will go, well, then do I have any free will? Is everything controlled? And how do you answer that? Yeah, I love to answer it.

I love to try to answer it. I begin by looking at the person and saying, you're going to have to define what you mean by free will before I can answer, which really stumps most people because they haven't thought about. They'll say something like, well, you know, I choose. I mean, I choose. I really choose and my choosing counts and so let me give you two definitions of free will, one of which I say fits perfectly and exists and the other doesn't fit because it doesn't exist.

Okay. The first one is, and I think most lay people would say, well, that's sort of what I mean. If you mean by free choice that I do what I choose to do without being coerced against my will. So what I do, I choose to do and my choice is me choosing and me being responsible and me being accountable before man and God. And so it's real in the sense that I do the choosing and I'm really accountable. I'm blameworthy or praiseworthy because of it and I will bear consequences because of it and those will be just or unjust according to whether I did right or wrong. So the free will understood is just I choose and I'm responsible and I would say absolutely that exists and God's providence does not contradict it because God doesn't cause you to act in a way that is coercive, that is contrary to your will and hold you accountable. What you did with your arm twisted behind your back, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do this and God is making you do it and he holds you accountable for it.

It just doesn't work that way. God's way of governing the will includes your doing the act and yet he's governing the doing of the act. And in there is a mystery that all the way back to the beginning of the first sin, I don't have a final answer for. So that exists, but it's really important to give this second definition because lots of people think this exists when it doesn't. Namely philosophers or people who disagree with my theology with a lot of understanding would say human beings have the power of ultimate self-determination.

So here's what I mean. You come to the point of your conversion say, you've been convicted and you're going for days, weeks, months, whatever it is and you get to a crisis point. On this side is unbelief, on that side of the moment is belief. At that very moment, do you have the power of ultimate self-determination?

You do not. God does. God is the only one who at that decisive act calls the shots. That divides theology, that divides people and so I would say, and this book is devoted to showing it's all over the Bible, that at that moment God is the only one with such free will, such free will. That is ultimate self-determination.

Human beings never have ultimate self-determination. So if that's what somebody means by free will, we don't have it. If somebody means by the former, my choices are real, I'm really accountable and therefore I do have it and it doesn't contradict providence. So providence and fatalism are not the same.

They're not at all the same. At least the way I would use the word fatalism and I think the way most people think about fatalism is that it is an impersonal, unpurposeful force and that is not providence. Providence is personal, it's God and he's person. That's one of the most stunning things in the universe to realize that ultimate reality is person. Oh, amazing and he is purposeful in his personal engagement with this world.

That's not fatalism, not the way most people talk about it. You wrote a book years ago, a series of books, spiritual biographies, the swans are not silent series, which I have benefited from. One of the series was on the subject of providence and I remember reading about William Cooper who wrote the hymn, God works in mysterious ways. Yeah, God moves in a mysterious way. And in that hymn, there is this line about the frowning providence of God and behind his frowning providence, he hides a smile. Bob, you want to sing it for us? I think you know it.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. Oh, that's good. Cooper knew that firsthand in his life.

Yes. Because he was a man who struggled with depression throughout his life. Depression and the providence of God put those two together for somebody. Depression is one of a thousand sorrows that human beings have to deal with. It's one aspect of the brokenness and the fallenness of this world.

There are many, many others. I think the mental ones are probably harder to deal with than merely physical ones. I mean, a broken arm and an anxious heart are not the same.

I would rather have a broken arm. You know what's wrong, you fix it, it's over. An anxious heart or an anxious temperament. And William Cooper did have, I believe, a constitutional family-rooted disposition towards what they called in those days melancholy, in which we would call depression today. He tried twice to kill himself. He was rescued from probably self-destruction by John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace. And we owe to William Cooper's brokenness, not only God moves in a mysterious way, but there is a fountain filled with blood and other hymns we just love. And they wouldn't exist without this brokenness, so maybe there lies the answer that God, through brokenness, brings good. You meant it for evil, Satan.

You meant it for evil, whoever's causing the evil immediately. God meant it for good. And in Cooper's case, that was depression, and the depression happened to bear fruit in a handful of hymns that have, this one in my life anyway, at numerous points, has been life-giving.

Life rescuing from depression written by a man plagued with suicidal depression. Bob, were you getting at the frowning face of God? The whole idea that God might have this frowning providence seems to be contrary to how we're supposed to understand the goodness of God. Yeah, well, let's linger there for a minute then, because the frowning face of God, which exists towards believers, can be owing to his fatherly discipline, Hebrews 12. You have not yet resisted under the shedding of blood. Remember, God disciplines those whom he loves and spanks every son in whom he delights. So, you get a frowning delight, a delighting frown. So, there's the discipline of God toward our righteousness. All discipline feels uncomfortable for the moment and bears the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

That's one. Or it might be that we have sinned. Believers sin. How does God look at a believer's sin? Two ways. Covered by the blood of Jesus and displeasing.

And a lot of people choose. They say, well, if I'm justified by faith, if I'm totally accepted, if all my sins are forgiven, if he's 100% for me, how could there ever be a frown? And the answer is because he's displeased with how out of step you are with that kind of reality. In order to deal with God's discipline and frowns, people have to have a rock solid understanding of justification by faith that in the moment that I genuinely am united to Jesus by faith, all my sins are forgiven, past, present, future. I am his child.

I'm adopted forever. And there's no condemnation for those who are... No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus forever. Those whom he justified, he glorified, no dropouts.

Now that kind of confidence is like the rock that you're standing on. Then you spend the rest of your life seeking to bring your life into conformity to that reality so that real sins get killed, put to death what is evil in you. And when you stumble into sin, your father, who is 100% for you, frowns.

And you should feel that frown with dismay and sadness. I don't want my father to frown at me. And thus, it brings you to repentance.

If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And you realize, yes, it was a frown, but behind it was a father who never felt contempt for me. I was dealing with a person the other day who has a hard time feeling the affections of their Heavenly Father. I said, yes, there can be frowns. Yes, there can be displeasure, like don't grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. But if that person had a father who had no capacity to show any affection to them, all they're able to feel naturally is God's displeasure is like that, like my father.

And behind that was no smile. And they must be taught to retool their brain by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God that God doesn't feel contemptuous. A wicked carnal father who is always negative and angry toward his children communicates contemptuous. I feel contempt for you. God never feels contempt for his children. He feels displeased, but the displeasure rises out of a fundamental, you are mine forever.

I have an eternal happiness for you that cannot be taken away. So I'm going to get you in sync with this if I have to spank you with cancer. I mean, it says in 1 Corinthians 11 that if some people ate the Lord's Supper, illegitimately, and they got sick, and some of them died, and then Paul gives the explanation for the death of the saints so that they would not be condemned with the world.

Like, what? I mean, not many believers have a conception of the sweet favor of God that is so caring of them that it would take their life. I think it takes believers to a point of just being scared when they don't see the great love of the Father.

If you don't combine that, there is fear. Dave used to refer to God as a whack-a-mole God before he knew Christ, because he was fearful of what God would do to him. Well, that's the theology I thought I heard as a little boy in church. You know, he's up there with the mallet.

You ever been to Dave and Buster's? And the little moles come up and, you know, the whole game is— I know the game. Yeah, it's fun, you know, and that was my image. Do something bad and God just smacks you.

Yeah, it's just sort of looking down there, oh, you're enjoying life, poomp, you know, quit that, don't do this. And when I went to the text and, you know, Jesus says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, you get a sense of the character of God is revealed in Christ. I was like, that's not the God of the Bible.

I had a wrong understanding of who God was. Yeah, the solution to the whack-a-mole vision of God could be to say he never smacks. Or he only smacks with deep, lasting, eternal affection for his children. And that's a harder theology to teach than he never smacks, because the he never smacks is a prosperity gospel that says, all the bad things that happen to me are happening from Satan, all the good things that happen to me are happening from God, and you've got a dualistic universe, and this book is written to say there is no such universe. That he providentially smacks from time to time. And his providence is wise, purposeful, good, caring, loving. It's bringing us to an eternal weight of glory. And his biggest smack was to his son.

Him and his son, right. He took it. We've got a lot more to unpack on this, and no time to do it today. We'll pick this up tomorrow. Let me encourage those of you who have not yet done so. Get a copy of John Piper's book, Providence, which is a masterful work that will help you not only understand Providence theologically, but help you understand it practically. What do we do when life throws us circumstances, events that we look at and go, how can God be in this?

How do we understand that? This is what you have mapped out for us, Dr. Piper, in your book, and we've got copies of the book, Providence, in our Family Life Today Resource Center. You can go online at familylifetoday.com to order your copy, or you can call 800-FL-TODAY to get a copy. So again, the book is called Providence by John Piper. Order online at familylifetoday.com, or call to order 800-358-6329. That's 800 F as in family, L as in life, and then the word today, 800-358-6329. I think all of us look at the events of the last 12 months with the global pandemic and everything that has been wrapped in the midst of that.

And if there's a time to understand the providence of God, this is that kind of a time. Even in the midst of the challenges we face, we still have to be purposeful and intentional when it comes to building a strong marriage and a strong family. And here at Family Life, over the last 12 months, we have been working diligently to develop resources that can help you in your quest to continue to strengthen your marriage and to keep from drifting toward isolation in your relationship. And you've probably heard us talk about the date box, the dates to remember date box that our team has put together. This is a great resource designed to help every couple have some purposeful, intentional interaction, time together that will be both fun and marriage strengthening.

That's the goal. It's an opportunity for you to have three dates that will be purposeful and to have a great time along the way. You can find out more about the Family Life dates to remember date box, how you can order it, how you can get it in time for Valentine's Day.

Go to familylifetoday.com and find out more about dates to remember. You can order it from us online or call 800-FL-TODAY to order your copy of this resource. Again, our website is familylifetoday.com, or you can call to order 800-358-6329.

That's 800-F as in family, L as in life, and then the word TODAY. Now tomorrow we want to talk about how we understand and embrace and respond rightly to God's providence in the midst of worldwide events and circumstances in our own personal lives. John Piper will be with us again tomorrow. Hope you can be here as well. I want to thank our engineer today, Keith Lynch, along with our entire broadcast production team. On behalf of our hosts, Dave and Anne Wilson, I'm Bob Lapine. We'll see you back next time for another edition of Family Life Today. Family Life Today is a production of Family Life of Little Rock, Arkansas, a crew ministry. Help for today. Hope for tomorrow.