God’s Providence over the Nations

Introduction
This morning we come to another discussion about the nature of God and His purposes in the world. Here we will discuss very briefly the topic of God’s Sovereignty as it is manifested in His Providence over the nations of the earth. Here we aim to make three points about this topic.

1. God is Providential over the Nations
2. His Providence over the nations is a part of the outworking of His greater plan of Redemption
3. The Church and its mission and message are a critical part of this plan

PROVIDENCE – The continuous activity of God in His creation by which He preserves and governs. The doctrine of providence affirms God’s absolute lordship over His creation and confirms the dependence of all creation on the Creator. It is the denial of the idea that the universe is governed by chance or fate. Through His providence God controls the universe (Ps 103:19); the physical world (Matt 5:45); the affairs of nations (Ps 66:7); man’s birth and destiny (Gal 1:15); man’s successes and failures (Luke 1:52); and the protection of His people (Ps 4:8). God preserves all things through His providence (1 Sam 2:9; Acts 17:28). Without His continual care and activity the world would not exist. Divine government is the continued activity of God by which He directs all things to the ends He has chosen in His eternal plan. (from Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

Turn to Job 12:7-24…

Job 12:7-10 – 7 "But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you. 8 "Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare to you. 9 "Who among all these does not know That the hand of the LORD has done this, 10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind? NASB

Here is plain declaration of the fact that the life of every living thing is in the hand of God. No one lives unless God decrees it and no one dies unless God decrees it. Of this important truth the scripture says, even the birds of the air and the beasts of the field are aware.

Job 12:11-15 – 11 "Does not the ear test words, As the palate tastes its food? 12 "Wisdom is with aged men, With long life is understanding. 13 "With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding. 14 "Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release. 15 "Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up; And He sends them out, and they inundate the earth. NASB

Here is seen the fact that by His great wisdom and power, God is Providential over His creation even to the point of controlling the weather with its great floods. Of course this truth is seen many places in the scripture of which this is just one. Other references might include Mark 4:38-41, Job 37:1-13, Ex 9:22-24 which says….

Exodus 9:22-25 – 22 Now the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every plant of the field, throughout the land of Egypt." 23 And Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning ran down to the earth. And the LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt. 24 So there was hail, and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very severe, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. NASB

Job continues…….

Job 12:16-22 – 16 "With Him are strength and sound wisdom, The misled and the misleader belong to Him. 17 "He makes counselors walk barefoot, And makes fools of judges. 18 "He loosens the bond of kings, And binds their loins with a girdle. 19 "He makes priests walk barefoot, And overthrows the secure ones. 20 "He deprives the trusted ones of speech, And takes away the discernment of the elders. 21 "He pours contempt on nobles, And loosens the belt of the strong. 22 "He reveals mysteries from the darkness, And brings the deep darkness into light. NASB

Here is seen God’s Providence over the economic and religious systems of the world…..kings and priests….God is seen to be Sovereign over the wise and the foolish, the strong and the weak….

Job continues with a specific discussion of God’s Providence over the nations…

Job 12:23-25 – 23 "He makes the nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges the nations, then leads them away. 24 "He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people, And makes them wander in a pathless waste. 25 "They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man. NASB

Even the very spiritual darkness of the nations is said here to be God’s doing, as is also the case in Romans 11:32. Here we see also that when a nation becomes great and powerful, it is God’s doing. And when a nation is destroyed, it is God’s doing. This is an irrefutable reality…. God is Sovereign over the nations of the earth. They belong to Him and exist for His purposes and for the good pleasure of His will. This fact is clear from man places in the bible like Psalm 22:28, 82:8 or 47:78 which says….

Psalms 47:7-8 – 7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with a skillful psalm. 8 God reigns over the nations, God sits on His holy throne. NASB

This doctrine is also no stranger to the New Testament. Consider Paul’s words to the Romans……

Romans 13:1 – 13:1 Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. NASB

So then, to summarize our first point,
1. God is Providential over the nations….in these things we can see very clearly that God exercises His Sovereignty by a mighty Providence over the nations.

But what about our second point……
2. His Providence over the nations is a part of the outworking of His greater plan of Redemption

Turn to Acts 17:24-31…..

Acts 17:24-26 – 24 "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, NASB

Here we see another great New Testament passage describes God’s specific Providence over the nations. In fact, it is clearly stated that…..

• God made everything
• He is Lord of Heaven and Earth
• He gives to all life and breath and all things
• That He made every nation of mankind
• And He determined the exact places where they should live

Paul goes on from here…now look to see here our second point, His Providence over the nations is a part of the outworking of His greater plan of Redemption

Acts 17:27-28 – 27 that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said,’ For we also are His offspring.’ NASB

Paul tells us the reason God made mankind to dwell on all the earth and determined the exact places where they should live…….that they should seek God and grope for Him and find Him…..because in Him we live and move and exist….You see family God has a greater plan than to simply create mankind and provide for Him to live a few brief years on this planet earth. God has a plan, an eternal plan, a Sovereign plan, a plan to redeem for Himself a people for His very own. A company of redeemed sinners from every tribe and language and nation and people, that we might be a people to the praise of the glory of His grace in saving us from our sins. This is seen clearly from several passages in the New Testament like Titus 2:14, or

Ephesians 1:9-14 – 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation —  having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. NASB

You see God has an expected end to which He is bringing all these things to fulfillment. He will ultimately sum up all things under One King, that is Christ Jesus the Lord, who will reign forever and ever as King over the nations. We family, having trusted in Christ, have become partakers and subjects of God’s wonderful plan and blessing and received an eternal inheritance in Christ, even the blessings of God’s favor in His eternal Kingdom forever and ever, world without end……God’s Providence over the nations then is the outworking of this plan, that is the redemption of sinners from every nation, redeemed and purchased by the blood of the Lamb, as Revelation tells us….

Revelations 5:9-10 – 9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." NASB

Paul continues in Acts 17….

Acts 17:29-31 – 29 "Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. "   NASB

Here we see the expected end of God’s plan….God is commanding men everywhere to repent of sin, to stop eating the fruit in the garden and breaking the law of God, and to receive His provision, God’s covering for sins, because He has fixed a Day when judge the world in righteousness through the man whom He has appointed….this of course is the Lord Jesus Himself, the judge of the living and the dead…..You see the end of this Providence over the nations will culminate in the great Day of God’s judgment over the nations when Christ will be exalted as King ……

Here then see our second point….2. His Providence over the nations is a part of the outworking of His greater plan of Redemption
By all of this then our third point comes into focus……
3. The Church and its mission and message are a critical part of this plan

You see the church bears this message, we call the gospel, by which mankind is called out of His groping in darkness and is delivered from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light, as Paul tells us in Colossians…

Colossians 1:13-14 – 13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. NASB

Here then family we have got to see the role we play in the plan of the Providence of God in calling out a redeemed people…..we must call them out….we must preach, we must make disciples, this is the responsibility of every Christian. And in this we must get the gospel right….there is only one true message of salvation, it is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone…..there is no other way for mankind to be saved……therefore it is vital, it is critical, that we fulfill this role of ours as ministers, yes even ambassadors of Christ. Consider few texts with me…….

Mark 16:15-17 – 15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. NASB

Here we must see our mandate from the Lord we are to go and call out the elect from every nation. The nations are groping in the darkness of sin and rebellion against God and we must bring the light of the Gospel to them….We are to preach, whoever hears shall be saved….. consider 2 Cor chapter 5:17-21…

2 Corinthians 5:17-21 – 17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. NASB

consider also Romans chapter 10:8-18…

Romans 10:8-18 – 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" —  that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; 10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed." 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; 13 for "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." 14 How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!" 16 However, they did not all heed the glad tidings; for Isaiah says, " Lord, who has believed our report? "  17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. NASB

Family they cannot hear unless we preach, therefore we are either…

• going as a preacher, or
• sending a preacher or
• failing at the mandate we have been given.

We have got to see ourselves as the critical part of this plan that we are. This means that we Christians have got to be evangelical, we must be seeking to evangelize people and bring them to faith in Christ and then disciple them to maturity. This is our mandate from the Lord.

Matthew 28:18-20 – 18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and  make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. "   NASB

Are not our Lords words here plain for all of us to see and hear?

Well then, through all of this we should have been able to clearly see these three truths.

1. God is Providential over the Nations
2. His Providence over the nations is a part of the outworking of His greater plan of Redemption
3. The Church and its mission and message are a critical part of this plan

Through this then may we have a renewed vision and purpose for our Christian lives. We are not here just amassing treasures and seeking to live our lives in comfort until we ultimately grow old and die. No, instead we are to be about the Masters business of being the ministers and ambassadors of reconciliation that we are!

Dear family I urge you then on the basis of these things to find your gifts and use them. To reach out to the lost world with the sweet message of Jesus and His healing power. I urge to give your all for Christ and His kingdom, for you will shortly give an account to Him for what you have done with what He has given you.

Lets pray!