Sermon Tone Analysis

The providence of God is His almighty and everywhere present power, whereby as it were by hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.

—Heidelberg Catechism

Broadly speaking what are the two categories of God’s providence?

Governing and preserving providence.

What do we mean by preserving providence?

Preserving Providence- God continually preserves and maintains the existence of every part of His creation, from the smallest to the greatest, according to His sovereign pleasure.

This morning we are going to think about God’s preserving providence over nature.

We understand that God is intimately concerned and part of every moment of humanity’s existence- right down to the breath we draw and the hairs on our head.

What about the rest of creation?

Plants and animals?

Weather?

The universe?

Has God set up the world with a kind of self-perpetuation natural law that keeps everything ticking?

What do we call that belief system?

Deism.

How interested and active is God in the ongoing affairs of the natural world?

What Does the Bible Say?

The sustaining of every angelic being is the direct effect of the preserving providence of God

The continuance of the cosmos, the planets and stars in their appointed courses, is the direct effect of the preserving providence of God

The conservation of all natural processes within the physical world is the direct effect of the preserving providence of God

The maintenance of all animal and plant life is the direct effect of the preserving providence of God

The preservation of the life and health of every person is the direct effect of the preserving providence of God

Ghastly wonder of all the ages; man, a creature, whose very name is need, need, need; who must be “kept” from outside himself, like a newborn babe supplied with breath, with food, with air; kept in balance by a power wholly without himself; who must be warmed by a created sun; the temperature of his body kept by a marvellous adjustment; his blood kept circulating; his heart kept beating—yet the constant effort of human “science” and “philosophy” [and, indeed, of our own depraved mind and flesh] is to get as far away as possible from the consciousness of this creating, providing, maintaing Lord God! — William Newell

In summary, how much of creation continually exists solely because of the ongoing, active, preserving providence of God?

All creation!

God of our fathers, whose almighty hand

Leads forth in beauty all the starry band

Of shinning worlds is splendor thro’ the skies,

Our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.

There’s not a plant or flower below

But makes thy glories known

And clouds arise and tempests blow

By order from they throne;

While all that borrows life from thee

Is ever in Thy care,

And everywhere that man can be

Thou, Gd, are present there.

Mighty God, while angels bless Thee may a mortal sing Thy Praise?

Hymn penned by Robert Roberson.

Listen to what he wishes us to praise the Lord for in one of the hymn’s verses:

For the grandeur of Thy nature,

Grand beyond a seraph’s thought;

For the wonders of creation,

Works with skill and kindness wrought;

For They providence that governs

Through Thy empire’s wide domain,

Wings an angel, guides a sparrow,

Blessed by Thy gentle reign.

Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?

It breathes in the air, it shines in the night,

It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,

And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

A Psalm on God’s Preserving Providence Over Creation (Ps 104)

God is the Cosmic Architect of Creation (vv.

1-9)

God sends springs into the valleys to refresh His creatures (10-12)

God waters the hills from His chambers to make the earth fruitful (13)

God causes grass to grow for grazing animals and vegetation for man’s sustenance and pleasure (14-15)

God plants trees for birds to nest in (16-17)

God appointed the times and seasons of the moon and sun (19)

God makes the darkness (20)

God feeds the animals (21, 27 -28)

God gives and takes away the breath of all His creatures (29-30)

J. Gresham Machen:

Have we outgrown that wonderful passage?

Have we outgrown the conviction that God feeds the lions that roar after their prey in the night, that He provides a habitation for the birds of the heaven, that all His creatures, small and great, wait upon Him that He may give them their meat in due season?

Have we outgrown the words of the Lord Jesus when He said that God has so clothed the lilies of the field as that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these?

Have we outgrown His conviction that not a sparrow falls to the ground with God, and that God feedeth them from day to day? Has scientific agriculture or the scientific study of botany or biology made these things to be out of date?

Have we with our overmuch knowledge outgrown the simple conviction of Jesus and of the Psalmist that every living creature receives its meat form God? Well, my friends, if that is so, if these thing have really come to be out of date, then we have lost far more that we have gained.

New Testament Passages on God’s Preserving Providence

Hold together- “to stand together, hold together, cohere.”

Greek historian Herodotus used this word to designate a “standing army”- an army held together on rank solely by the order of a commanding officer.

What is it that makes this world a cosmos instead of chaos?

In Christ all things hold together!

All things were created by Christ, and all thing continue to exist because of Christ.

Every pulsation of our heart depends on His sovereign beneficence who feeds us and clothes us.

Everything that Christ created owes their continued being, their subsistence to Him!

How exactly does Christ hold all things together?

By what means doe He do this?

“Uphold” from the Greek phero, usually means to bear or to carry.

Illustration of Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders.

Is this like how Christ upholds the universe?

NO!

This Greek word does not suggest one who is static and can barely hold up something or merely supports something.

This word is full of dynamic activity and movement.

Imagine Atlas picking up the world and carrying it along with him to a destination of his own choosing.

Closer idea!

What exactly does Christ uphold?

By what means does He sustain and carry it along?

The same word of power that spoke the universe into being!

Upheld by the word of His power

Illustration: Graduation ceremony at West Point.

The class stands at perfect attention.

They are under the command of the presiding officer.

But once the word of dismissal is given what happens?

Chaos- hats everywhere!

As soon as the class is no longer under the command of the officer they become “unglued.”

That is precisely what would happen were Christ to “dismiss” all of creation from the cohesive power of His commanding word.

A Look in the Mirror

Everyone and everything owes their ongoing existence to the preserving providence of God.

What practical effects should that have on your outlook on life and death?