Revelation 19:6. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
2. Some of the essential properties of God’s providence towards mankind in general and towards His own renewed, adopted children in particular.^2
The word providence suggests two closely-connected ideas: preservation and government.
First, by the providence of God we mean His preservation of men in life and continuing their power of acting, so long as He sees it expedient to make them instrumental in fulfilling His plans on earth; then removing them in His appointed time and raising up others in their place. The Lord raises up and puts down; He wounds and heals; He kills or keeps alive. He has appointed a time for man on earth and has determined the number of his months. Sometimes indeed men are said to die before their time; this only means that they died before the period to which, in human probability, they might have lived, but not before the period known to God and permitted by Him. Sometimes their days are shortened by intemperance or vice, by fury or violence, by famine or war, so that we bewail them as dying untimely deaths. But this is ordained by God for judgement or correction, for punishment of sin or warning to others, or for other important purposes to be revealed in the day of the manifestation of all things.
Second, the term providence refers to His moral government as an almighty King and righteous Judge. He gives laws to mankind, a revelation of His will, requiring their unreserved obedience, threatening to punish the disobedient and promising to reward the dutiful – either externally or mentally, either in this world or the next. Therefore when we speak of God’s providence, we include both ideas: the preservation and the government of mankind.
The dispensations of God’s providence involve every attribute essential to the omnipotent Lord who rules the nations. Like Him, all these attributes are wise, holy, just and good. Without entering this extensive field, I shall at present only direct your attention to their sovereignty, perfect rightness and uniform tendency to promote the interests of the Redeemer.
(1.) In His dispensations, God acts as an independent sovereign, carrying
into certain accomplishment the purposes He has formed, and fulfilling them in His own way and at His own time. We are the clay, and He is the independent former of all things; we have nothing but what we have received from Him. We are therefore not our own but His, and to Him belongs the sovereign right of dealing with us according to His pleasure. This He claims as His glorious prerogative; so He tells the children of men that His counsel shall stand; and He requires them to be still and know that He is God.
Yet it is not the sovereignty of an unrighteous ruler which He exercises, but of an unerring and gracious Lord who, though He does not give any account of His matters to men, yet assures them that the time is hastening on when assembled worlds will, from full conviction, universally acknowledge, “Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints”. This sovereignty of God, in His administration of providence, appears chiefly in three things: in choosing whom He will to places of usefulness, in working with or without means, in ordering all things for His own glory.
[1] Much of the sovereignty of God’s providence appears in the selection of people to particular places and duties.
Why were Aaron and his family placed in the priesthood of Israel when Moses and his family seemed far more deserving of that highest honour? Why was the stripling David anointed to rule in Judah rather than his brethren who had become used to the labours of the camp? Why was Paul preferred before his instructor Gamaliel in the divine commission to testify of Jesus? And why were poor fisherman called from their nets to the dignity of apostleship, rather than Nicodemus or Lazarus or the ruler Jairus or the humble centurion or many others who followed Jesus in the days of His humiliation? All this must be resolved into the good pleasure of Him who chooses and qualifies whom He will for the sufferings and duties to which they are called. Alleluia; the Lord reigneth, and the hearts of all are in His hand, and He turns them as the rivers of water according to His pleasure.
[2] Again God often manifests the sovereignty of His Providence by the unlikely means through which He accomplishes important events.
The daughter of Pharaoh was filled with compassionate attachment to Moses and was constrained to bring him up, though he was a Hebrew, and though condemned by her father. The slender rod in the hand of Moses divided the Red Sea at God’s appointment, brought streams of water from the flinty rock, and sent the terrible plagues on Egypt. The sling and stone of David proved more effective than the sword and spear and strength of Goliath. The strong walls of Jericho were demolished by the mere sounding of trumpets at God’s command. Thus, by the insufficiency of the means, God showed that the effectiveness is from Himself alone, that with Him all things are easy, and that no difficulty should stagger the faith of His people.
But sometimes God displays His sovereignty by disdaining the use of means and by giving deliverance when all human help has proved unavailing. Lazarus became sick, died and was buried before the Saviour spoke the reviving word: “Lazarus, come forth”. Scarcely had the Israelites escaped from Egypt when inevitable destruction seemed to threaten them: there was the Red Sea before them, Pharaoh and his hosts behind, the rocks and beasts of prey on every hand; yet it was then that Israel’s God brought about their deliverance, made even the waters a wall of defence for His chosen, and the deep a path for them.
[3] The sovereignty of God appears in restraining the purposes of the wicked or changing their counsels.
Laban pursued Jacob with malignant intent; yet God so touched his heart that no sooner did he meet Jacob than his wrath calmed and all his violence turned into mildness. The furious Philistines never once attacked Judah in these defenceless times when all the males were worshipping at Jerusalem and when the borders of that country might easily have been pillaged. When the banished tribes of Israel were to be delivered from their long captivity, the mind of Cyrus was unexpectedly turned to befriend and restore them. When Paul’s services were deemed expedient for promoting the spread of the gospel, his heart was changed from a persecutor to a disciple, so that he longed to preach the faith which once he sought to destroy.
(2.) Another property of God’s administration is its perfect rightness and purity;
“the Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works”. Nothing seems more opposite to this than the general aspect of events, especially as it is evident that iniquity abounds and the wicked triumph, while sincere piety often lies neglected in obscurity. The godly in Christ Jesus are often oppressed by persecution and permitted to struggle with need, pain, reproach and the miseries of adversity, while sinners prosper and ungodly men are crowned with honours, wealth, influence and applause.
This produces discouragement and doubt in the minds of those who are serious and tempts them to murmur against providence in their times of despondency: Has God forsaken the earth? Does He not care what happens to His children? How can He be just in all His ways and yet the righteous suffer such bad things? Even David spoke thus in his haste, when he saw the ungodly spreading as the green bay tree. And when Asaph meditated on the many sorrows of the saints, he was envious at the foolish and his heart was disquieted. Jeremiah likewise fretfully asks of God: “Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?” And Malachi lamented that Israel hardened their hearts by saying one to another: “Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord . . . Where is the God of judgement?”
How unbecoming this language is! What though the great Lord of all has given this earth to the sons of men, even to ungodly men? What though they have more than heart can wish and are not plagued as other men and have no bands in their death? Yet all their portion is in this world, and their life is a vapour, and this poor portion soon vanishes away. Their prosperity itself often proves a snare and brings nearer their future, everlasting misery.
The sorrows of the saints, on the other hand, shall soon be exchanged for unutterable, everlasting joy. Even in the present life, their tribulations are sweetened by the promises of the well-ordered covenant, by the prospects of future glory, and by the comforting communications of God’s presence. Their God afflicts them for their profit, to restore their souls and revive their longings for heaven. Though it may seem a strong assertion, yet it is confirmed daily by facts, for the continuance of sin in the world is finally followed by the manifestation of God’s glory – the glory of His power in setting restraining bounds to iniquity, the glory of His holiness in making sin its own punishment, and the glory of His grace in providing an all-sufficient salvation. Thus justice and holiness, no less than power and sovereignty, are essential properties of God’s administration and government.
(3.) All that takes place in God’s providence is subservient to the enlargement of Christ’s kingdom in the world.
This opens up a bright scene to the observant Christian, for the prospects of the future are for him strengthened by the records of the past.
Look back to what has passed away, so that you may learn what shall be hereafter. The confusion of tongues at the building of the tower of Babel resulted in regions being peopled which have since been brought to the fellowship of the gospel. The calling of Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees was the origin of that nation among whom the Saviour was to be revealed. Bringing Israel from Egypt to Canaan, delivering them from many dangers, raising them into a powerful nation, keeping them a distinct people amid all their dispersions, and at last causing the sceptre of Judah to depart and erecting the Roman standard in Zion – all this series of events was calculated, with unerring wisdom, to make Messiah the expectation and desire of many nations. The rise, progress and decline of Daniel’s four mighty monarchies prepared the way of the Lord and promoted the reception of His gospel. The blood of martyrs in early ages proved the seed of the Church, and the persecutions of heathen tyrants strengthened and extended the kingdom of the Prince of Peace.
From these past operations of providence, take encouragement for the future and behold all events working together for good to the Church of Christ. The almighty Redeemer has founded a kingdom on earth – a spiritual, enduring and peaceful kingdom – essentially different from all human governments, not regulated by worldly maxims but by the righteous laws of God, not supported by worldly power but by the special care of the Lord God omnipotent, not extending its triumphs by violence and war but by the resistless energy of the truth and by the power of the gospel. This spiritual kingdom of Christ shall before long spread among all nations and shall prevail against the stratagems used to impede its progress. The time is hastening on when the light of gospel truth shall break forth with meridian brightness, when the glory of the gospel Church shall shine from the rising sun to where it sets, when all ends of the earth shall call Jesus the blessed One and all nations shall see the salvation of our God.
The awful commotions among the kingdoms of this world, which now astonish and alarm the profoundest politicians, are hastening forward this most glorious of all revolutions, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in and when all Israel shall be saved. Already the pride of Antichrist is laid low, his delusions detected, his policy reviled, his interests opposed, his throne tottering, and his wide dominion diminishing daily.^3 Already the King of Zion arises to plead His own cause; He girds His sword upon His thigh; He goes forth from conquering to conquer; He leads captivity captive and takes to Himself His great power and shall reign.
As the general operations of God’s providence in the world promote the progress of the gospel through the nations, so the particular events of providence involving individual believers are overruled by unerring wisdom and infinite love to advance the kingdom of grace in their souls, to humble them under the mighty hand of God, to reconcile them to His salutary discipline, to teach them daily watchfulness and self-denial, and to make His righteousness, grace, salvation and promises more precious to their souls.
Those very events in the Church of Christ which seem most likely to mar the interests of His kingdom are conducive to its welfare. The temporary declensions and mournful backslidings of real Christians stimulate their fellow-travellers towards Zion – and themselves also in future days – to greater earnestness, humility and watchfulness. The final apostasy of nominal Christians separates the chaff from the wheat and demonstrates the necessity for a better religion than an unavailing name or an outward form. Even the death of eminently-faithful men awakes from their slumbers the sluggish in Zion and rouses them to far more boldness, activity and zeal than they were ever supposed to possess.
Alleluia, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and the children of men are the instruments in His hands of accomplishing His unerring purposes. Alleluia, the almighty Redeemer is King of kings and King of saints; every nation and every heart is under His sovereign control; He has all power in heaven and in earth. Therefore His kingdom shall come, His name shall be hallowed, and His will shall be done on earth. Alleluia, say among the heathen, Emanuel reigns. He is a great God and a great King; the strength of hills is His; the deep places of the earth are in His hands. Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice; let the sea roar and the fields be joyful; for the Lord comes to judge the earth with righteousness, and the people with His truth.
Application
(1.) Does the Lord God omnipotent reign? And are you the subjects of His providential kingdom? Then let it be your care to think and speak and act as becomes His creatures,
as those who are dependent on His bounty and as the dutiful subjects of His administration. Acknowledge His sovereign dominion over you and His unalienable right to guide, direct and govern you and yours; be satisfied with the positions He assigns to you and fulfil the duties of these positions according to the unerring commandments of His blessed Word; abound more and more in the various important duties which fall to dependent creatures who are much indebted to Him – in thanksgiving, gratitude, trust, obedience, submission, worship and devotion. Be determined to do the will of God in all things; let it be your desire to walk before Him unto all well pleasing.
Believers, it well becomes you to love, with all the ardour of supreme affection, the God of universal providence, who till now has dealt so graciously with you; and to adore Him with reverential awe. Though He inherits the praises of eternity and the adoration of the countless myriads in heaven, though His greatness is unsearchable and His glory past finding out, though He is infinitely, independently and for ever blessed in Himself; yet He has deigned to care for you ever since you had a being, to nourish you as His children, to guard you from numberless dangers, and to crown you daily with numberless mercies. Ascribe to Him therefore praise for the mercies, deliverances and comfort which you have received; trace your enjoyments to Himself, the Giver of all good; and say to Him, What have we which we have not received? In Thee we live, and from Thee every blessing descends.
(2.) While praising the Lord God omnipotent for all the comfort you have hitherto enjoyed in this life, entrust also to Him all your future interests,
for He justly claims the right to impart mercies in His own time and manner, to turn the shadows of the evening into a joyful morning, and to make the valley of Achor, or grief, a door of hope and joy. Cast therefore all your cares on that God of providence who has cared for you, and daily commit your way to Him through the supplications of faith and through humble confidence in His power and promises. Trust in the Lord at all times, for with Him is everlasting strength.
Yet let not this trust lead you to neglect the diligent use of lawful means for prospering in the world; do not expect success in your schemes when doing evil that good may come, or when walking contrary to the will of God. Delight yourselves in Him and wait on Him in the path of duty, for with infinite ease He can accomplish the desires of your heart.
(3.) Is there a kingdom of grace on earth, as well as a kingdom of providence? Then let it be your highest concern to know if you really are subjects of this spiritual kingdom.
Are you reconciled to God through Christ? Have you submitted to the Redeemer’s righteousness and government and disposal? Are you going up through the wilderness leaning on Him whose name is King of kings and Lord of lords? Unless He reigns in your heart by His love, grace and Spirit, you cannot sincerely adopt the triumph of our text; nor can you say on solid grounds that the God of providence is your shield; that all the events which befall you will, in their final outcome, work for your good; that the afflictions of the present life will lead to an eternal weight of glory; and that present joys are pledges of far nobler blessings in a future state of being.
If I was assured from heaven that this would be the last time that I would address you from this place; if I knew with certainty that, within the next hours, my powers of speech would cease for ever, and that I am now uttering my last words, this would be the solemn, parting, dying exhortation which I would leave upon your conscience: Make sure of God’s favour; give all diligence to be found of Him in peace; and do not rest satisfied until you can say with heavenly triumph: Alleluia; Jehovah reigns supreme in my affection and I shall reign with Him for ever and ever.
If there are any people against whom the woes which our Lord pronounced upon Capernaum and Bethsaida will fall with a sevenfold vengeance, it will be those people who have been plainly told their sins in words that never minced the matter, and have been earnestly pointed to Christ, and commanded over again in the name of God to repent and turn unto the Saviour that they might have salvation.
When the morrow brings sorrow, it will bring strength for that sorrow. Today will require all the vigour we have to deal with its immediate evils; there can be no need to import cares from the future. To load today with trials not yet arrived would be to overload it. Anxiety is evil, but anxiety about things which have not yet happened is altogether without excuse.
C H Spurgeon