Tonight I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Job, Job chapter one. We're looking at the book of Job here tonight as we continue to consider what we confess. God's word teaches us as summarized in the Belgic Confession coming to article 13 and what it says or what we confess there about God's glorious providence. So in connection with Article 13, the Belgic Confession, we'll be reading from Job 1. Job is found on page 528 in your Bibles, and then Article 13 of the Belgic Confession is found on page 165 in your Forms and Prayers book. So we'll read first from Job, and then from the Belgic Confession afterward. So Job 1, beginning with verse 1. There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, it may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, From where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it. And the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil? Then Satan answered the Lord and said to him, Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face. And the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And there came a messenger to Job and said, The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them. And the Sabaeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword. And I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was yet speaking, there came another group and said, The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. And I'll send our reading from God's Word. Again, we're reading this in connection with Article 13 of the Belgic Confession, page 165 in our Forms and Prayers book. In Article 13, we confess that we believe that this good God, after He created all things, did not abandon them to chance or fortune, but leads and governs them according to His holy will in such a way that nothing happens in this world without His orderly arrangement. Yet God is not the author of, nor can He be charged with, the sin that occurs. For His power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that He arranges and does His work very well and justly, even when the devils and wicked men act unjustly. We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what He does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend. But in all humility and reverence, we adore the just judgments of God which are hidden from us, being content to be Christ's disciples so as to learn only what He shows us in His Word without going beyond those limits. This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort, since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance, but only by the arrangement of our gracious Heavenly Father. He watches over us with fatherly care, keeping all creatures under His control, so that not one of the hairs on our heads, for they are all numbered, nor even a little bird can fall to the ground without the will of our Father. In this thought we rest, knowing that He holds in check the devils and all our enemies, who cannot hurt us without His permission and will. For that reason we reject the damnable error of the Epicureans, who say that God involves Himself in nothing and leaves everything to chance. And thus ends our reading from the Confession here tonight. Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes my son and I like to watch videos of one kind or another on YouTube. And many of our past favorites, there's a while at least where it seemed like many of the videos we watched were all about dominoes. Now, that may not sound very exciting. Why would you want to watch a bunch of videos on dominoes? It is pretty amazing to see what people are able to do with these dominoes. They stack hundreds of thousands of dominoes on top of each other, building towers five, six feet tall. Or they string together all these dominoes, and as they fall, they create this picture, recreate the Mona Lisa, or recreate these words and phrases to spell these things out. You know, they set off one track, and it quickly branches off, and there's this track over here, and that one over there, and that one over there, all doing their own thing, making some neat design, and so forth. And sometimes even go further than that and they use the dominoes and they incorporate other pieces of, you know, a Rube Goldberg machine, you know, those machines that do nothing and just hit this and hit that and then eventually starts another domino going off in the other direction. It's amazing really what some of these people do, what they create with dominoes. And I can't even begin personally to imagine the time and the effort that they devoted to planning out their creation. Or even something of the satisfaction they must feel as they stand watching these dominoes fall and seeing it all come to pass as they had planned. But that's exactly what they do, isn't it? They spend all this time setting things up, making it just so. But then once it gets going, they simply stand back and watch it all unfold before their eyes and they do nothing. And you know what, that's a pretty good picture, a pretty good picture of the way many people think about God. They imagine that when God created the world, he was like this person making their stack of dominoes, that God simply orchestrated and set things up and put them just here and just there and set it all up just so, and then when the creation came, he just sort of Think, knocked over the first domino, and ever since, creation has gone on and God has simply just sort of sat back and watched it all unfold before His eyes. That God is the disinterested, the uninvolved Creator, just like someone making this trail of dominoes. They'll say, maybe God could get involved, but He chooses not to. Instead, He just sits back and watches it all take place. But as we turn to the Bible, we quickly find out that that is not the kind of God we worship, not the God who is, who exists. That's not the kind of creator our God is. No, as the opening words of Article 13 put it, we believe that this good God, after he created all things, did not abandon them to chance or fortune, but leads and governs them according to his holy will in such a way that nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangements. One of the places in scripture where we see that very clearly is right here in the book of Job. We're shown that God leads and governs all things according to His holy will. But as we look at God's providential care and control of all things, we want to take note of the fact that God's control over all things is a guiltless control. Secondly, that on our part we are not to pry into, curiously pry into God's providential control. And then third, that God's control is to give us, bring us gracious comfort. So we want to look at those three things together here tonight, God's guiltless control, The restraining of our own curiosity when it comes to God's control. And then finally, the gracious comfort God's control brings to us. Now, the picture we find at the beginning of Job is of a God who is very clearly involved in all the activity of our world. Now, we may not be surprised by that, perhaps, but the Bible still stresses it all the same. We don't find a God who's very aloof, who's separated and disinterested in his world, but a God very interested in his world. In the opening verses, we meet this man who's very prosperous. And we shortly discover that he's prosperous by the blessing of God. In fact, when you get to verse 10, for instance, Satan acknowledges that God is the one who's put a hedge around Job, protected his life, his home, his material possessions. God has protected him, and so these possessions have multiplied. And Satan also acknowledges that God blessed the work of his hands. God gave the increase to Job. So Satan even acknowledges himself that God is in control of all things, down to the smallest details, prospering our work, protecting us perhaps from harm and danger and so forth. But another way we see God's active engagement with our world is there in verse 6, where we're told that there came a day when the sons of God came to present themselves to the Lord. Now what's this all about? Well, when we were last together in the evening and looked at the creation of the angels, one thing that I indicated is that God is a heavenly king, and as a heavenly king, there's kind of an analogy with earthly kings. God has heavenly attendance, just like earthly kings had earthly attendance. There would be a king on a throne, you might say, in an earthly nation, and around this king you'd have bodyguards, and you'd have messengers, and you'd have scribes, and you'd have governors, and the earthly king would receive reports and give orders, and the trumpeters would announce his coming and his going. There's this earthly court around the earthly king. And what Job is picturing here, or what the book of Job pictures for us, is something of the same thing. God is holding heavenly court, perhaps you might say. So God is there, the heavenly king, and his servants and others are coming and presenting themselves before the Lord, and God is receiving a report of all that's going on in his world. An earthly king will receive reports as to what's happening in his kingdom, and God is again pictured the same way. God is hearing and receiving reports from his creation. God knows everything, but God is still actively involved in the world to learn and discover what's going on and to exercise his will, to tell his messengers to go out and accomplish his purposes. So God is like this earthly king, he's a heavenly king, but like earthly kings, very actively involved in his kingdom to make sure it's all going as he wants it to. Now Satan, we're told, also appears before God at this time. And we watch God kind of engage Satan here, asking where he's been. On his part, Satan seems to be very noncommittal, bordering on Out of disrespect, Satan appears to say something like, well, I've just been roaming about, God. Where have you been? Just roaming about. Well, God specifically then asks if he's considered Job. And notice that there's nobody like him in all the earth. Someone who's blameless and upright, fearing God, turning away from all evil. And you know what happens next, right? Satan argues Job only serves God and loves God because God treats him so well. Satan argues that the reason Job loves you, God, the reason why he's so faithful to you, is because you've blessed him so much. Take away his possessions, says Satan. In fact, Satan uses the imperative telling God to do this. Take away his possessions, God, and he'll curse you. His love is simply the product of your kindness. Take it all away, and he'll curse you. But what really troubles us about this chapter, you might say, is what comes next. We watch God allow Satan to simply devastate Job's life, to allow him to take away all his prosperity as long as he does not harm Job personally. Now, in reading that, I wonder how many people today will embrace God as the Scriptures present Him to us here. It shows us a God who is actively involved in his creation, actively involved in learning and understanding and knowing what's happening in his world, and sending out his servants to accomplish his will and his purpose. We see a God very actively involved, and not just in, you might say, ways that are positive for his creatures, but we see a God actively involved, expressing and taking control also over the evil, the pain, and the suffering that comes to pass in this world. We see a God who's in control over everything, not just the good, not just the blessings, but we see Him exercise control over Satan and all disaster and evil. It isn't as if God simply controls what is good and then says, okay, now, you know, I'm just gonna sit here and watch while Satan does as he likes. No, God is in control of good and evil. But our minds struggle with that, don't they? And why is it? Because our puny human minds can't understand or can't fathom God. And it seems to us, from our human perspective, it seems to us that if God is really in control of what's evil, then He is responsible for the evil. That's where our human minds often run, isn't it? We instinctively have this reaction of, well, when bad things happen, God's not in control of it, and God's really not bringing His will to pass, and so Christians will say things like, God is as surprised as this by you are. Or, God didn't really want this to happen. No, the Bible doesn't allow us to say that. We see here a God who is in control over evil. And our human minds again think, doesn't that make God to blame? But you see, here's what the Bible teaches us. God is in control of sin and evil and the devil. but he's in control of it in such a way that he cannot be charged with wrongdoing. He cannot be charged as being the author of sin. God is in control over everything, but he's in control over it in such a way that he is never responsible or guilty for the sin and evil that takes place. Why can we say that? To our minds, again, it doesn't make sense, but why do we say that? Because the Bible teaches two things very clearly. God is absolutely holy, righteous, and good. At the same time, it teaches us that God is in total, sovereign control of all things. See, the Bible says God cannot sin. God cannot do evil. God is not tempted by evil. And at the same time, it tells us God is in control of evil. It tells us those two things, and it doesn't, try to dig deep and sort of reconcile those things for us, it just teaches them and invites us to embrace that in faith. To embrace the fact that God is, yes, in control of all that is good, all that is evil, God is in control of all these things, but yet in such a way that his hands are never dirtied or sullied by the evil that takes place. One of the ways where you practically see this, as well, is in Acts 4, where Peter is speaking to the chief priests, and Peter says, In other words, what Peter's doing here is he's making very clear, you killed Jesus. You put them on the cross. It's your sin. You are culpable for that. You are guilty. You have sinned against the Lord. You are fully responsible for what you did to Jesus. And yet he also says it was God's plan all along. It was all God's plan, says Peter. God had planned and determined that Christ would die on the cross to bring forgiveness of sins, to bring life everlasting, to save guilty sinners. And yet, where does Peter lay all the blame for that? He places all the blame at the feet of the scribes and Pharisees, Herod and Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel. See, the Bible makes very clear God is in control of everything. but his control is absolutely guiltless. He is not responsible for evil. His hands are never dirtied by sin, even though he's in control of it. And so even as we look at our lives and consider all that takes place, we must be very clear that everything that has happened has been in the control of God, good and bad, but yet that never makes God the author of sin or evil. It's what you call a paradox. Two things that maybe on the surface seem like they contradict but are true, both true, and we simply can't fathom how they come together or fit together. So it's a paradox that we embrace in faith knowing the goodness, the goodness of our God, that our good God is in control of all things. So we're taught that God's control is a guiltless control. But the second thing we see here tonight is that we must be very careful about prying into God's control, curiously proceeding beyond our own, beyond the scriptures. And our confession reminds us of that when it says that we do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what God does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend. But in all humility and reverence, We adore the just judgments of God which are hidden from us, being content to be Christ's disciples so as to learn only what he shows us in his word without going beyond those limits." Now, what does this mean, or what's being said or confessed here? Well, let's back up for a moment and realize that when we read the book of Job, We often miss one of the most significant, significant points that really serves to bring the book home to us. We often miss a very, very central point to understanding the whole book, which is this, really. Job never knows why he went through what he did. See, as readers, we're given sort of the behind-the-scenes look. For the readers, the curtain is pulled back. We see into heaven. We see what's going on. We understand here Satan and what the Lord has planned and the Lord has determined and so forth. We know, but you see, when you read the book of Job, you discover Job never finds out. Job never gets an answer, or at least Job never gets the answer we get from this behind-the-scenes look. See, even when you get to the end of the book and God speaks, effectively, God only reminds Job of how puny and insignificant he is. God doesn't say, okay, Job, here, let me tell you, this is what's going on, and this is what Satan was doing, and this is what I said. No, God doesn't do any of that. God simply reveals his glory to Job to humble him and to close his mouth. Job is never given an answer. And you see, the reason why Job's friends get into some trouble and why God rebukes his friends in the end is because in their own way, Job's friends are acting as if they know why God has done this. And in their speeches, they're seeking to explain to Job what God intended, what God was doing in the sufferings that he's brought upon him. In fact, they are convinced that Job suffers what he does because of some hidden sin that he's just keeping secret. And so these friends don't end up comforting him, they eventually just condemn him and add grief to his misery. His friends act as if they are able to pierce into God's secret counsel and discern for themselves why God has done this to Job, and so in their speeches, that's what they're doing. This is why, Job. This is what's going on. This is what God is doing. And they're prying, you might say, curiously prying into God's providential control. And you find something entirely different with Job, don't you? Something very remarkable. Of course, Job does struggle with the question why, just like we all do when we face hardship and face trials. We all struggle with the question why. Why has this happened? What is God doing? Job suffers with that as well. And Job, on his part, does want an answer. Job wants an answer. He wishes that he could go to court with God and defend himself and get some answer as to why this was going on. And Job does get into a little bit of trouble because he justifies himself rather than the Lord. But yet, when you look at Job's first and last responses, you see something very remarkable. If you look at verse 20 of chapter one here, we read about how Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's a very beautiful, very beautiful confession and a very powerful confession. Because can you even imagine the sorrow that must have just been overwhelming his soul? In one day, he loses the entirety of his possessions. All his servants are killed except for four, and every last one of his children killed. And not just that, but the way in which these things happen, you know, fire from God, wind from the east, and there seems to be some kind of divine, of course we know it's Satan doing this, but the appearance, at least to Job, is that there's some kind of divine activity, that God's doing something here. And not just the appearance that it's really God doing this to him, but you also have this succession of servants who come to him, right, one after another, like a one, two, three, four punch to the gut. He's not even able to absorb the first news when he gets the second report, and then the third report, and then the fourth report, which is the worst of all, the death of all his children. I mean, do you even see in that the diabolical wickedness of Satan? You really get a sense of just how much Satan is out to destroy Job. And yet by God's grace, Job humbles himself in the dust and he worships. He struggles with understanding why, but he still throws himself on the ground and he says, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. In other words, I don't know why, I don't know how or why this has happened, but the Lord is good, the Lord is great, the Lord is in control, and I humble myself before the Lord and I confess the glory of his name. There's a humility to Job's response, you see. A humility that says, I may struggle with why, but a humility that says, but I trust in the Lord and I will not seek to curiously pry into what is going through God's head, what He's planning with this. I simply humble myself before Him and confess that He is good. And at the end of the book, you see the same thing. He puts His hand over His mouth. He says, I'll be quiet. Who am I? I'm no one. God is great, I will be quiet before Him." You see, that's the kind of attitude our confession has in mind here in Article 13. An attitude that is very much against a lot of the way Christians speak today. I'm sure some of you have seen on television any number of televangelists who say, you know, you know why this earthly disaster took place? Well, it's because God was this, that, or the other thing. You know why that hurricane tore through that city? Because that city did this. You know why that happened in your life? Because this is what you did. And these individuals talk as if they're able to peer into the hidden counsel of God's providence and able to authoritatively say, this happened because of that. There's no humility before the sovereign control of God. No humility that says, I am man. I'm not God. I don't know the mind of the Lord. I know His Scriptures. And this humility that says, I will simply cling to the Scriptures and not try to curiously go beyond it and be able to speak as to why this, that, or the other thing happens. You know, there are many Christians who act that way. God did this because of that. And God's intention in doing this is that thing over there. And the confession is saying, that's not, that's not how we act. That's how Job's friends were acting. That's not how we act. We humble ourselves, we say we don't know the mind or the will or the purpose or the plan of God for all that comes to pass. We simply cling to His Word and what He says in His Word and we will cling to that Word and we will not go beyond it. We're not gonna act as if we have special access to God's secret plan to be able to explain all that He is doing or all that He intends. And see, that's what the Bible calls us to. great humility before the providence of God. That even though we ask, why? Why has this happened? Why is God doing this? Why is this happening to me? We at the end of the day say, but Lord, you are God and I am not. I don't have to know. And I don't have to try to figure it all out. I need to humble myself before you and believe in you, trusting that you are working the counsel of your sovereign will for my good and for your glory." And so even though we speak of God's providential control over all things, we have to be very careful to not let our curiosity run away with itself and try to go beyond the Scriptures. to figure out what God's secret plan and intentions are for each and every one of us. We are to humbly acknowledge Him as Lord and God, confessing His goodness and His greatness. But even as we have that, we should also recognize that God's control doesn't just humble us, it's a great comfort for us. And that's where this article turns in its final part, declaring that the doctrine of God's providence teaches us nothing happens by chance, but only by the arrangement of our gracious Heavenly Father. He watches over us with fatherly care, keeping all creatures under His control, so that not one of the hairs of our heads, nor even a little bird, can fall to the ground without the will of our Father. As we saw last week or two weeks ago and see very clearly here in Job, that applies just as much to Satan and his demons. Peter tells us that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he can devour. We see Job shows us that Satan is a lion on a leash. Those of you familiar with the book Pilgrim's Progress may remember how John Bunyan sort of pictured that. You have Christian on the road, and up ahead there are these lions beside the road. And Christian is terrified, terrified, because there's lions on the road. How am I going to get past them? And a man called Watchful eventually speaks to him and tells him, yeah, but those lions are on a leash. You see the lion, and it's terrifying. It's fearful. But there are lions on a leash. You see, that's exactly what we see in Job, and what a relief that is. What a relief to hear God say to Satan, this far you may go and no further. This is what you may do, Satan, and you may not go beyond these bounds. And you know what's even more relieving? It's even more relieving to see in the next verses how Satan obeys God. You see that? God says this far, Satan. And you see, we often get caught up with the terrible things that happened to Job, and understandably so, because we can't fathom just how terrible that was for him to experience. But you see, even as that happens, what you're finding is the obedience of Satan. that even as Satan is out to oppose and to destroy and undermine the life and the faith of Job, his very rebellion is yet kept in check by the hand of the Lord so that Satan does not go beyond the word of the Lord. And that is so beautiful, so absolutely beautiful, because it again shows us that Satan is a lion on a leash. God says, this far you may go, Satan, no further. No further. Now don't get me wrong, Satan does live in rebellion and hatred of God. He seeks to undermine and destroy all that God has made. He's out to destroy and undermine yours and my faith. But you see, the point is that Satan, in all his rebellion, is still fully subject to our God. And so there's great comfort for us in that. Satan is not on the same level as God. Satan and God are not like yin and yang that are always at war with one another, vying for dominance as if they're equals. No. Blasphemous to even think that. God and Satan are not equals. Satan is fully, absolutely subject to the authority and the power of God. And that's what we see here in this chapter. But there's another comfort we can find in God's providence. And it's the comfort of being free from what if. Have you ever played what if? I think if you asked my mother, she would tell you that I was really good when I was younger as a child at playing the game what if. But it's not really a game. What I mean by the game of what if is this practice that we can sometimes fall into where something has happened to us often it's something bad and our mind immediately Thinks about all the infinite number seemingly infinite number of ways things could have gone differently right you you get in a car accident, and you think if only I I took the time to make my cup of coffee this morning or if only I didn't you know race through that yellow light or or if only I stopped for gas like I was thinking I should for a moment, or if only I did this, or if only I did that, and your mind just goes crazy thinking about all the ways things could have gone differently so that you could have avoided getting in that car accident. Or your loss of a loved one. And you think, if only we had done this. If only we went to the doctor at this time. If only we had that test done sooner. If only we had done this. If only we had done that. And our mind is consumed, just absolutely consumed by just the infinite, seemingly infinite number of possibility or possible ways it could have gone differently. We wouldn't have to be in this situation. This didn't have to happen. If only we had done this thing or that thing. It all would have been different. What if I'd done this? What if, what if, what if? You see, the author of this confession also knew something about that. Guido de Bray wrote this confession and he was a martyr for Christ. And after he was in prison, he wrote a letter to his wife, and in this letter, he talked about the pain and the trouble that he was enduring, and how on his feet and on his hands, he had these big irons, heavy, that were a continual torture, he says, to my limbs, hollowing my limbs up to my poor bones. And his pain was so great, and as he was living in this situation, he goes on to confess to his wife that he would say to himself, So many of us should not have traveled together. We were betrayed by this one or that one. We ought not to have been arrested. And he's talking there about how his mind went crazy thinking about all the ways it could have gone differently, should have gone differently, and that he shouldn't have been arrested, but it was because I did this, or because I did that, or because of this person, or because of that one. And if only we had done something different, I wouldn't be in prison. I wouldn't be here in chains. I wouldn't be suffering like I am. And he wrote to his wife, with such thoughts I became overwhelmed until my spirits were raised by the providence of God. With such thoughts I became overwhelmed until my spirits were raised by the providence of God. Because the point is, as we confess God's providence, It enables us to find peace, to find comfort in understanding that although our lives maybe could have gone a billion different ways and taken a billion different turns, God has providentially been in control of every single moment so that it's by God's plan and by God's leading that we are exactly where we are today. There's a great relief in that. I don't need to torment myself with the countless ways I can or should have done things differently because I can say where I am today, I am because of the providential guidance and control of God. God has brought me to where I am today. God has led me so far. And furthermore, as I look to this God and His providential control, I know that it's not simply the control of a creator, but it's the control of a Father, which means that everything that has happened in my life and everything that will happen in my life is being controlled, not simply by a creator, but by a loving Father who will see to it that I obtain the salvation of my soul. Look at Job. Look at the enormity of what he had to suffer. Yet God was in control every single moment and God held him and God ensured that Satan ultimately failed and Job ultimately triumphed. You look at his life and you see the glorious control of God and his security because of it. and you look at the life of Jesus and you see someone who was attacked so much more severely by Satan, and you see as well as you look at Christ and you see Him on the cross and you see the torment of hell coming upon Him, you see how God yet, even through that torment of hell, brought life and victory and triumph to His Son. You see, that's what we have the confidence of too when it comes to God's providence. The comfort we have in God's providence. Because God is so in control that even the bad things are turned to our blessing. Even the bad things become the way to prosperity in life. We see in Jesus Christ the glorious beauty of God's providence. a glorious control over the tiniest details of our lives, so that we come to receive His marvelous salvation, go forth in His strength, and at the end of our days be transformed after His glorious image. We may have many questions about the sovereign control of God, but there is this one certainty. God is working all things to our good. and His glory through Jesus Christ. And so we're to find great comfort in the glorious, guiltless providence of our God, humbling ourselves before this Word and finding refuge in this God. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, our Heavenly Father, as we come before you tonight, we marvel again at your providential control of all things. And thank you, Father, for the peace and the comfort that gives to each and every one of us. Lord, we all struggle at different times with the question, why? Why did this happen? Why did this take place? Why, Lord, you are doing this or that, bringing me this or that? And we struggle with that, Lord, and we desire at times to pierce into Your secret counsel, to learn for ourselves what You are doing. But Father, may we learn from Job. Job, as well, who was never given an answer to his question, why? But who yet humbled himself before You, confessing that You are good and great. and who blessed you, blessed you, regardless of the good or the ill that he experienced. Father, may we learn of him. And may we follow Him, even as we see more clearly Jesus Christ, in whom we have your love and your salvation, and in whom we have the assurance that you are working all things to our good, and how you will see to it that we are remade in His glorious image to stand before you in everlasting life and in total victory over sin and evil. O Lord our God, may that be our comfort then as we go into this new week, knowing indeed that your sovereign control is with us, watching over us, and seeing to it that we are preserved to the end of our days as your son and your daughter through and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grant us then your blessing, Father. Send us forth in the strength of your word and the power of your Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen.