God's Providence For Mankind
God's Plan Of Redemption • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Last week we began a study looking at God’s Plan Of Redemption.
We began by looking at God’s Promise For Mankind.
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.
Today, we are going to continue this mini-series by looking at “God’s Providence For Mankind.”
As God prepared for the “fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4-5) when he would send his “only begotten Son” we find history and prophecy give us insight into many of the amazing things God did providentially.
Now before we dive right in let me take a moment to explain the difference between “miracles and providence.”
Miracles are acts by God that are supranatural.
In other words, they break the natural order of things.
When a person is actually dead and raise from the dead or a person is healed instantly, these acts by God are supranatural or acts that break the laws of nature.
Providence are acts by God that are supernatural.
This means they do not break the laws of nature but rather God manipulates the laws of nature to fit his purpose.
Today, all miracles have stop, and God no longer does miracles as was prophesied in 1 Corinthians 13:9-10).
God only works today through providential means not miraculous means.
Now, concerning our lesson for today, there are many things God did providentially throughout history before Christ was born that would create the “perfect moment” or the “fullness of time” for Jesus to empty himself and become born of woman.
God achieve the majority of these things through the various empires he raised up that Daniel prophesied about in Daniel 2.
The Medo-Persian Empire
The Medo-Persian Empire
It Overthrew The Babylonian Empire
It Overthrew The Babylonian Empire
This was prophesied about by three main prophets.
17 Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. 18 Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children.
11 Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields! The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it, for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance for his temple.
24 Then from his presence the hand was sent, and this writing was inscribed. 25 And this is the writing that was inscribed: Mene, Mene, Tekel, and Parsin. 26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;
27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
How did God use the Medo-Persian Empire providentially?
Its Role In God’s Plan
Its Role In God’s Plan
The greatest impact this empire had on the “fulness of time” was its actions towards those it conquered.
Before the Medo-Persian empire the two major empires before “came, destroyed, and dispersed everyone” with the hopes of making those conquered into Assyrians or Babylonians.
Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Elder (king of the Medo-Persian empire) was different because he “respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered.” Cyrus II was different, not out of chance, but because God was with him, he knew it, and was listening to God.
22 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 23 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ”
We don’t know when Cyrus knew about the God of heaven or that he was leading him, but at some point this became clear, just like it did with king Nebuchadnezzar.
28 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. 29 Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”
Summary
Summary
The greatest impact wasn’t allowing the Hebrew remnant to go home (though this was obviously significant), it was the new development of allowing the conquered to keep practicing their religion and customs.
Both the Greek and Roman empires adopted versions of this plan after the Medes.
This would eventually allow for the gospel to be “preached to every creature under heaven” (Colossians 1:23) without the fear of governmental i.e., empire persecution in the beginning.
While the Medo-Persian Empire was thriving God was making ready providentially for…
The Greek Empire
The Greek Empire
It Overthrew The Medo-Persian Empire
It Overthrew The Medo-Persian Empire
Alexander the Great began where his father Philip had left off, in putting an end to the Persian empire and expanding the empire.
As mentioned before, this too was foretold by God to Daniel.
3 Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. 4 And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these.
There is no biblical or secular information that suggests any Greek king had God directly or indirectly speaking to them and telling them what He desired of them.
This doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but it seems unlikely that it did happen.
So then what about…
Its Role In God’s Plan
Its Role In God’s Plan
By far the most significant impact the Greek empire had on the “fulness of time” was language.
Cicero, a first century BC Roman stated…
“Greek is read in almost all nations; Latin is confined by its own narrow boundaries.”
The Greek language was so dominant that even the Jews asked for the LXX to be made because they were much more familiar with Greek than Hebrew.
Of the 300 plus O.T. quotes in the N.T. about 85% are from the LXX and not the original Hebrew or Aramaic.
Summary
Summary
God used the Greek empire to create a universal language that could allow for the gospel to be preached without the need for miracles.
Remember just because miracles, like tongues, existed doesn’t mean that “everyone” had this spiritual gift, nor was it “widely needed.”
In almost all of the book of Acts we don’t see the need for tongue speaking in Paul’s travels.
After the Greek Empire came…
The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire
It Overthrew The Greek Empire
It Overthrew The Greek Empire
The Roman empire was the largest empire to ever exist or will exist.
The only “kingdom” to grow larger than the Roman empire is the Lord’s church (Daniel 2:35, 44).
This empire was prophesied about roughly 500 plus years before it came into existence.
The Roman empire is the legs of iron and feet of iron and clay in king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.
32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
So then how did God use the Roman Empire, what was…
Its Role In God’s Plan
Its Role In God’s Plan
There are two specific things that God used the Roman empire to do to help create the “fulness of time.”
First is security or “Pax Romana.”
As one brother wrote, “The Romans were so successful militarily that they soon had no one left to fight. With Rome replacing Greece as the world super power, and having the power to subdue all nations and tribes of the known world, peace reigned.”
What a beautiful emblem of preparation for the “Prince of Peace” to come.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Second is the great roads.
To keep the empire under control they built such great roads that even today many still exist and can be walked upon.
These roads allowed missionaries to travel much quicker than had ever happened in history.
6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,
23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
18 But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
Summary
Summary
God providentially used Rome to secure the land and build great roads so that the “fulness of time” would come.
Conclusion
Conclusion
God made a promise to bring forth the Seed of woman that would crush the head of Satan.
God kept that promise by providentially providing the way for that perfect moment to come when he could send his son for this very purpose.
This morning we just scratched the surface of what all God was doing in the background, to prepare the way for our salvation.
The God whom we are here to serve today loves us more deeply and more fully than we can comprehend this side of heaven.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
