Sermon Tone Analysis

We return now to Ezra 1 for part 2 of my sermon entitled, The Turning of the King’s Heart.

If you were not with us last week, we spent our time studying the prophecy of Isaiah 45 that revealed that God would appoint Cyrus as his “messiah” or deliverer of the Jews so that they could return to Jerusalem and build the temple and restore the worship of YHWH.

The theme of last week’s message was the sovereignty of God in all things.

I defined for us TWO THEOLOGICALLY HEAVY truths from Isaiah 45.

They are:

1. God’s Sovereignty is his Holy and Good Reign

2. God’s Decreed Will is his Holy and Good Purposes

Today we will look at the third aspect connected God’s Sovereignty over all things and his decreed will.

In my time today, we will look at Ezra 1 and understand that ….God’s Providence is his Holy and Good Execution for the purpose of God’s Glory

What is God’s providence?

God executing his holy decrees (Eph.

1:11) in this created world through creation, preservation, governance and concurrence.

Let’s spend a few moments on these 4 aspects of Providence

Creation:

It was God’s holy will and a divine act of his sovereignty to create all that was made.

He did so for the distinct display of his glory.

John Calvin calls God’s creation the “theatre of God’s glory.”

We understand that God created everything good which means that it was created with perfection, according to His design and plan, and in God’s good pleasure.

Some theologians distinctly separate creation from God’s providence but I will include it into providence for the sole reason that creation was the first divine act according to God’s perfect and holy will.

If providence is every external act of God’s holy will dispensed from himself, then in my understanding creation would be the first of those acts.

Psalm 104:1–9 (ESV)

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, you are very great!

You are clothed with splendor and majesty, 2 covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent.

3 He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; 4 he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.

5 He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved.

6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

7 At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.

8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them.

9 You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.

Mankind was the apex of God’s creation not because man brought something good to the table, but that God put something good in man, his image.

His image is represented in mankind alone and is absent in the rest of creation.

This image of God in man was sadly marred by the fall of man into sin.

As humanity is called to reflect God’s image in this world, instead sin leads man to denounce God’s name and instead elevate himself above God.

Where mankind is to understand its value and worth that is found in God alone, instead sin has caused man to find value and worth in things of this world and not things in heaven.

Jesus has come to restore the image of God in man by creating him anew and discovering this great significance again through Christ.

It was by providence that God sent his Son into the world so that all of his purposes might be fulfilled in Jesus.

Along with the creation of all things, God does not remove himself from the continual sustaining power of that creation but instead he is the One upholding all that he has made.

Governance: sustains and controls all things under his creation according to his will and for his glory

God in his omnipotence is involved in directing every specific detail of creation from mankind to microorganism.

God is concerned with and active in your genetic makeup and your germ count.

This may seem inconceivable to the human mind, but God is not limited in his sovereignty nor is he lackadaisical in his providence.

He is constantly at work as the God who never sleeps nor slumbers caring for all that he made and directing the affairs of every moment of his time.

This means that is God is responsible for as the primary cause of all things.

Scripture affirms that God is active in directing weather (ps 145), plants and animals (Jonah 1, ps 104), humanity …2

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Look at a larger passage with me again in Ps 104

Psalm 104:10–29 (ESV)

10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; 11 they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches.

13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth 15 and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

17 In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees.

18 The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

19 He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.

20 You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about.

21 The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. 22 When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens.

23 Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.

24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

25 Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.

26 There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

27 These all look to you, to give them their food in due season.

28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

Joel Beeke writes in his book Reformed Systematic Theology,

“Whenever a wild donkey drinks water, a bird perches on a tree branch, cattle graze upon the grass, or men eat bread, God is present and active as the Giver of these good things.”

Jesus stated this truth in his teaching of the Beatitudes in Matthew 6, when he was teaching about anxiousness.

He reminds his listeners that life is more than what physical things that we have or are given.

This is the concentration of our worry in this life is about the temporary things contained within it.

In addition, Jesus adds that the flowers of the field do not work hard for nor make their own covering for God provides it for them, and their garments are more splendid than King Solomon.

Therefore, likewise worry should turned away from because in God’s providence, he cares for that which He creates.

WE MUST BE CAREFUL not to be so scientifically minded that we denounce Providence for scientific reason.

Some deists would acknowledge that God created the properties and laws of science, setting them in motion for the world to operate according to those laws.

But in acknowledging God’s creation of natural laws like gravity, they are denying his daily operation through those laws to carry out his will.

Theologian William Shedd from the 1800’s writes,

Preservation is more than merely imparting to matter certain properties and placing it under certain invariable laws.

This is the deistical view of providence.

God is not immediately present nor does he operate directly, but only at a distance.

This amounts to communicating self-subsistence to the creature.

God so constitutes the creation that it can continue to exist and move by means of its own inherent properties and laws

Instead of this deistic view of God, we acknowledge He is working all things according to the purpose or counsel of his will (Eph 1:11).

As I explained last week, God’s decree is God’s will or purpose in this world and therefore God’s providence is carrying out all events so that his purpose and will is fulfilled.

This is seen in earthquakes and egocentric kings.

Along with nature, God directs the affairs of men to bring about his purposes.

Those are often good and evil affairs but God works in and through them for His glory.

A few examples outside of our story in Ezra:

God used the evil of Jospeh’s brothers to bring salvation to all of Egypt God used the wisdom and faith of a Jewish slave girl to heal a gentle general named Namaan from leprosy God sent animals to bring food to Elijah in the wilderness in order that he might survive.

God used pagan sailors and a large fish in Jonah’s life in order to save him, preserve him for three days, and direct him back to Ninevah to preach an important message of repentance and judgment.

We will look specifically in a moment at our story and specifically see how God’s providence was at work in Ezra chapter 1.

Concurrence

Finally, and briefly, I promised to answer they question last week, how exactly mankind plays a part in God’s providence.

Do our actions matter?

Are the effective in God’s ordained will?

Let me introduce, if you do not know this term, what theological minds have termed Concurrence, which comes from a latin term which means to “run with” or “run alongside.”

The idea is that both God and man play a part in activity ordained by God.

It is best to understand God as the primary cause of all things with human beings being secondary causes of those actions.

If humans are primary causes of anything outside of God, then God ceases to be sovereign.