Well, good morning and welcome to Christian Life Academy. And as the name implies, our goal in this class is to help train and equip you to live the Christian life and to do so wisely and understanding the scriptures. And so we rotate through various topics from week to week. And this morning, being the first Sunday of the month, We are in our Systematic Theology class this morning, and of course the Systematic Theology that we are studying is our Confession of Faith, which as you can see is rather small as far as Systematic Theologies go. It's about 68 pages, which is very concise. I have Systematic Theologies on my shelf that are four volumes and run into thousands of pages, so a 68-page Systematic Theology is quite small. although it is much more robust than many churches' statements of faith. So as we consider the confession of faith, it's broken down into various units. And the first unit that we are considering is unit one, which is chapters one through five. And this is the unit that deals with first principles. So chapter one is the principle of knowing. which addresses the Holy Scriptures, which is how we know anything specific about God. So this is how we gain our knowledge of God for the work of theology is through the study of the Holy Scriptures. Then chapter 2 begins to deal with the principle of being, and that is the being of God himself. And so chapter 2 deals with the nature of God and the Trinity. And so we studied that. And then chapter 3 through 5 begin to address God's works external to himself, God's works in his creation. Chapter 3 deals with God's decree and then chapter 4 with God's creation. This morning we're in chapter 5 dealing with God's divine providence. So chapter five, dealing with divine providence. And again, as we did last month when we looked at chapter four on creation, we're going to begin not in the confession, but actually in the related document, which is the Baptist catechism. And I may just have to read this stuff to you since the screen doesn't appear to want to work this morning. So in the Baptist catechism, beginning in question 11, it asks us this, how doth God execute his decrees? So chapter three was the decree of God, and the catechism is asking us, how does God execute his decrees? How does he bring them to pass? And the answer is that God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence. So this is how God brings his eternal decree to pass in time is through creating all things that exist and then through his providence. And so we want to answer the question then of what is providence. So let's turn and take a look at Hebrews chapter one, which is sort of our key passage for this part of the confession. Hebrews chapter one, addressing the person of Christ. Hebrews chapter one says, God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, which is a reference to the scriptures of the Old Testament, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who, being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. So here it's telling us that Christ upholds all things by the word of His power. That's divine providence. That's the subject that this chapter of the confession is addressing, is how does God uphold all things? He created all things, and now He continues to govern and uphold all things. So, as we look at chapter one, or chapter five, I'm sorry, of the Confession, it's titled, Of Divine Providence. So, we ask ourselves, well, what does the word providence mean? Well, it comes from the Latin, providence, and pro means before, And vidency is where we get our word video, and it means to see. So providence means to foresee or to foreknow. And so we talk about God's foreknowledge, right? And we said in chapter three of God's decree that God's decree and his foreknowledge are essentially the same thing. that which God decrees, he foreknows, and that which he foreknows, he has decreed. And because he decreed it, and because he knows it, it will come to pass the way that he knows it to be, right? So, they are, from our perspective, two different things. But in God, his foreknowledge and his decree are the same thing. And so, this is the subject that we're dealing with in chapter five. Now, the interesting thing is to note how this topic of providence is woven throughout the entire confession. Because back in chapter one, in paragraph one, it tells us that although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men inexcusable. So, this is a reference, of course, to Romans chapter 1, that men are without excuse because what can be known about God is made plain to them in the things that He has made. And so, the works of creation and providence tell us that there is a God. and it leaves us without excuse. Well then in paragraph eight of chapter one, we see a reference to the providence of God as it relates to the preservation of scripture. And so it tells us that the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek being immediately inspired by God and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages. So the providence of God helped to preserve the scriptures for us. Then if we were to skip forward to chapter 20, which is the chapter dealing with the gospel and the extent of the grace of the gospel, in chapter 2 it tells us that the promise of Christ, in paragraph 2, sorry, of chapter 20, the promise of Christ and salvation by him is revealed only by the Word of God. So only in the scriptures do we know who Christ is as the Son of God. Neither do the works of creation or providence with the light of nature make discovery of Christ or of the grace by him, so much as in a general or obscure way, much less that men destitute of the revelation of him by the promise or gospel should be enabled thereby to attain saving faith or repentance." Well, what is this paragraph telling us about providence? It's telling us that though God's work of creation and providence leaves men without excuse, it does not provide them the knowledge necessary for salvation. So we can't say, well, God is sovereign, He's in control, He's working all things out by His providence, so missions aren't necessary. No, missions are necessary, right? Providence leaves men without excuse, but providence does not tell them how to be saved. So providence does not negate the need for evangelism and missions. And then in chapter 26, paragraph 14, we won't turn there, I won't read it, but it talks about the role of God's providence in the planting of churches so that they end up, this church, in this time and in this place by God's providence. Therefore, we can have communion or fellowship with other churches who are near us and in this same time. We can't have fellowship. We have fellowship in a certain way through the Spirit, but we don't have actual physical fellowship and interaction with a church that is overseas somewhere, or with a church that existed 500 years ago. But we can have communion and fellowship with other churches that exist now and nearby to us, right? So the hand of God in Providence planting this church in this time and this place plays a role in which churches we have fellowship and association with. So as we turn to chapter five then, to deal with this work of providence, God's working all things out, working out His decree in the history of the world. So what we're looking at is God's decree before He created anything, His eternal decree worked out in creation by creating all things, and now in his providence, continuing to work out his decree by sustaining his creation. And so what this teaches us, first of all, is that God does not react to the world, right? He didn't create it, set it in motion, and then watch things happen and go, whoop, I better fix that, or, oh, I didn't realize they were gonna do this. No, God knows all. He knows the end from the beginning. Nothing is catching him by surprise. He is working out all things according to his plan. He's not reacting to us. He's proactive in regards to his creation. So let's read chapter five, paragraph one, describing to us the providence of God. It says, God, the good creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy providence to the end for which they were created according unto his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will. All right, I lost my place there. infallible for knowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will, to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy." Now, one of the things that we've done as we've worked our way through the Confession is pointed out the changes that the Baptists made to the confessions that came before, to the Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration. One of the changes they made, which is very interesting in this paragraph, is the Westminster and the Savoy both say, God the great creator, and the Baptists changed it to good. Now, why would they do that? Is this them saying, well, we don't think God is great? Obviously not. But if you'll notice, it begins this paragraph with God the good creator and then ends with reference to his infinite goodness. This is the Baptist just clarifying and seeing that the confession is unified and speaking in the same way. Because back in chapter one, we talked about the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. In chapter two, we talked about the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. And here, even in chapter 5, we're talking about the power, wisdom, and goodness of God. These are the divine appropriations, and so the Baptists were just making the confession consistent in this way. And they're teaching us that when it comes to God's providence, His goodness ought to be in the forefront of our thoughts. As we consider God working out all things in time, He is doing so because He is good. And so, as we think about the events that happen in the world under God's providence, we understand that they happen because God is good and He is working all things for good to those who believe. So, as we continue working our way through it, it says, it talks about His infinite power and wisdom. As we think about God's providence in working all things out, His power, His strength to do that, to work all things out, is infinite. God never gets tired. He doesn't get sleepy. He doesn't get to the point where He goes, I just don't have the energy to deal with this anymore. That doesn't happen to God. His power is infinite. His wisdom is infinite. As He is working all things out, He never gets to the point where He scratches His head going, I don't know what to do about this. I'm confused, right? God never gets there. We do all the time. We're tired. We come home from work. We're exhausted. We're dealing with our kids and we're going, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to parent this kid. God never ends up there. God's power and His wisdom are infinite. They're without end. So as He works things out according to His providence, we can be confident that things are not happening because God got tired and just let things happen, or because God got confused and didn't know what to do. No, His power and His wisdom are infinite. And so it says that in His infinite power and wisdom, He upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures and things. So what do these words mean? Uphold, direct, dispose, and govern? Well, to uphold means that all things continue to exist by His will. God created all things and He continues to uphold all things. The world continues to exist because God wills it to exist. You woke up this morning because God willed you to continue to exist. When it says that He directs all things, it means that all things continue to function, they continue to have energy because God wills them to do so. The earth continues to spin, the sun continues to burn, all things continue because God wills them to have that energy. When it says that he disposes all things, that doesn't mean that he throws them away, right? We think of disposing of something. That's not what it means. Think about it in this way. If we say, well, I'm disposed to like this flavor or whatever, right? That's what it means. It means that God orders all things in a certain way so that they are inclined in a certain direction, right? So he orders all things. Creation is very orderly. When we look around us at creation, we can see the order in creation. And that is God's creative work and His work of providence to keep His creation ordered and functioning in a certain way. The laws of nature and physics work all the time. because God wills them to work. His creation continues to be ordered the way He wanted it to. And then it says that He governs all things. This means that He is in sovereign, He has sovereign authority over all things. And what does a governor do? A governor controls what He governs. And if we think about it in the sense of like a governor on an engine, what does it do? It prevents the engine from over-revving, from the RPMs going too high. It restrains the thing that it's governing. And so God, in His infinite power and wisdom, restrains His creation, His creatures. So, this is what God is doing in His infinite power and wisdom. He is upholding, directing, disposing, and governing all things, all His creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least. So, think about this. could no more continue to sustain itself apart from God or to direct itself, to dispose itself, to govern itself apart from God, then it could create itself ex nihilo. Creation could not create itself from nothing and it cannot sustain itself and continue to function on its own. It requires God's providence for this. So we'll turn and look. There's a lot of passages we're going to look at, and I apologize that I can't just put them up on the screen, but we'll look at Isaiah 46 verses 10 and 11. This is God speaking through the prophet and talking to us about his providence and about his control and upholding and directing and governing all things. He says in verse 10 that he says, I am God, there is none like me. This is the end of verse nine. And then verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning. That means from the beginning in eternity before he created, he declared what was going to happen. at the end, declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from a far country. Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it." So men and even birds of prey go where they are directed by the hand of God. In Matthew chapter 10, a passage that's familiar to us, Jesus speaking to us, talks to us about the providence of God over all things. He says in Matthew chapter 10 verse 29, are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will? A sparrow, one of the least of the birds, does not fall from the sky apart from the will of God. Then he continues and says, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. The hairs of your head don't fall out of your head apart from the providence of God. Do not fear, therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows." So here, Christ is telling us that one of the values of understanding this doctrine of divine providence is that it should give us some assurance. It should put our fears to rest. God is in control of all things. Therefore, we don't have to fear what men can do to us. We don't have to fear what might happen tomorrow or next week. God is in control of all things. So it tells us here in the confession it continues and says that he governs all his creatures from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy providence to the end for which they were created. What is the end for which they were created? Well we saw that in the last chapter in chapter 4. It is that life to God for which we were created. It's the glory of God. That's why all things were created and we see that in the scripture. It tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God. So as God continues to providentially uphold, direct, dispose, and govern his creation, it continues to declare his glory. But then the confession tells us that he does this according to his infallible foreknowledge. His foreknowledge is infallible, it is without error. So what God knows is going to happen, because He has decreed it to happen, will happen without error because God has decreed it and because God knows it. So everything will happen, it must happen, exactly the way God has decreed it to happen. Then the confession says that he does it not only according to his infallible foreknowledge, but also the free and immutable counsel of his own will. This is important that God's will is free. God is not bound to act in certain ways. He doesn't have to continue to sustain the earth. All mankind has sinned. God would be perfectly just to wipe us out of existence this very instant. The fact that he doesn't, that he continues to sustain creation, is a testimony to his goodness. So it is his free will that he continues to do this. He is not bound. But it's also his free and immutable counsel of his own will. Immutable, unchanging. It can't be changed. God's decree will not be changed. It can't be acted against. Men can't thwart the will of God. Creatures can't thwart the will of God. God's will will be done because it is unchanging and immutable. I had a quote that I was going to share with you here from James Renahan in his commentary on the Confession, and I will try and remember it. I might not get it verbatim, but he said something to the effect that God's providence is essentially what we see around us in the world, happening in the world. The acts of God's providence is the outworking of God's decree in history. That's what we're seeing. We're seeing God's eternal decree being worked out in time as we see his providence in creation around us. And the paragraph ends by saying that all of this is to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy. So again, all things continue to exist. The laws of nature and physics continue to function. The sun comes up, plants grow, the rain falls. All of this happens because God has decreed it to be so, and it should cause us to worship. It should cause, the heavens declare His glory, and it should cause us to praise and worship Him as well. The scripture reference that is given for us here is Ephesians 1 verse 11, but I'll actually read 11 and 12 to you. It says, in him, that is in Christ also, we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So God works all things according to the counsel of his will for a purpose. And what is that purpose? Verse 12 says that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. So the purpose of God's providence working all things out is that we would worship him, praise him, and glorify him for his goodness to us. So chapter five, paragraph two then. Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly so that there is not anything befalls any by chance or without his providence, yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently." Now this paragraph is diving into the weeds here of a little bit of philosophical reasoning, but it is scripturally grounded. We're talking about first causes and second causes. We've got a little bit of Christian Platonism going on here. Plato talked about the unmoved mover, right? This is God. God is the unmoved mover. He's the first cause. All things exist because of him. They continue to exist and be energized because of God. He is the first cause. His decree cannot fail. Nothing happens different than he has decreed it. And all things happen exactly the way he has decreed them. They come to pass immutably and infallibly. Now what this means is that as God has decreed all things and works those things out in history, they come to pass immutably exactly the way he has decreed them. No one thwarts His will. Nothing happens and God goes, oh, that's not what I intended. Everything happens exactly the way God intended. And not only that, but they happen infallibly. They come to pass infallibly, which means that nothing goes wrong. There is no error. God doesn't work his decree out in history and then go, oh, that's a consequence I didn't intend. There are no unintended consequences. Everything happens the way God intended for it to happen with no errors. So God is the first cause, and all things happen exactly the way He intended and without error, so that there is not anything befalls any by chance or without His providence. Now the word without here means outside of. Nothing happens outside of His providence. Everything that happens, happens because of God's decree. Nothing happens by chance. And again, I had a brilliant quote from R.C. Sproul that I was going to share with you at this point. And he makes this point in multiple books and teachings where he says that chance is nothing. It's a philosophical construct, a mental construct. And he uses the example of a coin toss. If we toss the coin, it's 50-50 whether it's going to land heads or tails. But if we knew which way the coin started, heads or tails, and exactly how much force was applied and how many revolutions it would make, then we could predict much more accurately whether it was going to land heads or tails. So when we flip the coin and we say it's chance whether it lands heads or tails, what that really means is we're ignorant. We don't have all the data, so we can't predict it accurately. So chance is just a way of us saying we're ignorant. So, when it says nothing happens by chance, it means chance is nothing. Chance can't cause anything to happen. When we look at things and we think, oh, that happened by chance, it's just because we don't understand everything that went into causing that event to happen. But God's providence, God as the first cause causing things to happen, does not negate the need for second causes. It does not negate the validity of second causes. It actually establishes second causes. Second causes are the means that God uses to carry out his providence. So there is not anything that befalls any by chance or without his providence, yet By the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes." So, we have to ask the question, well, what are second causes then? What does this mean? What are second causes? Well, the scripture reference that we're given here provides us some examples. And this is from the Noahic covenant. after the flood as God makes a promise to all of mankind. And he says in Genesis chapter 8 verse 22, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease. These are second causes. Second causes, seed time and harvest. You plant a crop, it grows. Rain falls from the sky. Winter and summer come. The seasons change. The second causes are the natural order of the universe that God put in place. They are the laws of nature and the laws of physics. And so things continue to happen according to the nature of second causes because God has ordered them that way. Okay? So think about this. I don't know if I should ask this question or not. How many of you, when you sit down to a meal, take the time to pray before you eat your meal? Most of us? And you thank God for your meal. Appropriately so. But that meal didn't just appear on the table. Someone planted a crop, and cultivated it, and harvested it, and processed that crop, and shipped it somewhere, and it ended up in a grocery store, and you got in your car and drove to the grocery store, and bought things, and you brought them home, and you prepared the ingredients, prepared a meal, and then served it. And then we sit down and we thank God for it. But there were innumerable factors involved. There were farmers and farm hands, maybe your own hands if you're getting stuff out of your garden. There was rain that fell, plants that grew, tractors that tilled the earth, your car that ran so you could get to the grocery store. All of these things happened in order for you to eat that meal, and yet we thank God for the meal. Very appropriately so because it was God's providence that seeds when they're put in the earth continue to grow and produce fruit, that the rain falls and waters the earth, that the laws of physics continue to operate so that the tractor runs and can till the earth, so that your car functions and you can go to the store, so that your stove works and you can cook the food. All of those things are natural processes that God put in place, the laws of nature, the laws of physics, and they continue to work due to the providence of God. So when we thank God for our meal we are confessing the doctrine of divine providence and we are thanking Him for His goodness to us by continuing to uphold, direct, dispose, and govern His creation. But then the confession tells us that God does this through these secondary means, so that things fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently. Now what does he mean by that? What would it mean for things to fall out, according to the nature of second causes, necessarily? Well, that would mean that events depend on God's decree and the functioning of His universe, the way He has put things into place, the laws of nature and physics. So, if you pick a rock up and you drop it, what happens? It falls every time. You don't drop the rock and sometimes it floats or goes sideways. It falls every time. Of necessity, it falls because God put into place the law of gravity. And gravity functions because the providence of God continues to make it function. So when you drop the rock, it happens according to the nature of second causes. Necessarily, the rock falls. That's an example of second causes working necessarily, depending upon God's decree. What does it mean for them to happen freely? Well, freely is referring to the moral actions of creatures, not coerced, right? Creatures do what God created them to do, and he doesn't have to coerce them to do things against their will. We act according to our nature. Of course, we have a sinful nature, so we sin according to our sin nature. But all God's creatures act according to their nature, the way He has created them to function. So, the example's been used of a mosquito that lands on your arm and bites you. Was that God's providence? Well, yes, it was. according to the nature of second causes freely. You are alive, you have warm blood in you, the mosquito senses that, the mosquito lands on you and bites you because that's what mosquitoes do. That's how God created them and they continue to do that because God in his providence continued to make you exist and have warm blood and he continued to make the mosquito exist and desire that warm blood. So that secondary cause happens freely. The mosquito is not biting you against his will. That's what he does because he's a mosquito. So this is just how things work. God has set these second causes in place. But what about contingently? What does that mean? How does a second cause work contingently? This one's a little more confusing. This means that from our perspective, the second cause might appear to be random. but it works the way it does because of the will of God. Now, a great example of this is in 1 Kings. There is a time here in 1 Kings when King Jehoshaphat is going out to war with King Ahab. They're on the same side, so Judah and Israel fighting together against a common enemy. And so Ahab, he's kind of cunning, and he tells Jehoshaphat, he says, you put on your royal robes so that everybody knows who you are. I'll go in disguise so they won't try and kill me. All right, this is Ahab's plan. He doesn't tell Jehoshaphat that's his plan, but that's his plan. So he goes to war in disguise. He's not dressed as the king. And the enemy is looking for him, and they can't find him. But then it says in 1 Kings chapter 22 and verse 34, now a certain man, Just some random man involved in this battle. A certain man drew a bow at random. He just drew his bow and let an arrow fly onto the battlefield. He didn't aim at anything in specific. He certainly wasn't targeting Ahab. But what happens? He struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So the arrow is loosed randomly. The guy didn't target Ahab, he just fired an arrow randomly into the battlefield. That arrow just happens to find King Ahab, and it just happens to strike him right at a chink in his armor so that he dies. And then it tells us, down in verse 38, that all of this happened according to the word of the Lord, which he had spoken. God had decreed that Ahab was going to die in this battle, and he did. by what appears to us a random event. But that was a random event that happened contingent upon the will of God. So that's what it means for secondary causes to be contingent upon the will of God. So let's look at paragraph three very quickly and see if we can be done on time here. Paragraph three says, God in his ordinary providence maketh use of means, yet is free to work without, above, and against them at his pleasure. So what does it mean by ordinary providence? Now the word ordinary to us means common, normal, expected. But in the 17th century, when we're reading a historical document like this, we need to understand how they meant that word. In the 17th century, They used the word ordinary in an ecclesiastical sense to mean a priest or a clergy member in the Church of England who had been given authority or jurisdiction over a particular parish or territory. He was called the ordinary of that parish. He had jurisdiction over it because, now listen to this, he was the ordinary. He had been ordained to that position. So ordinary for them means ordained by God. So, when it talks about His ordinary providence, it means His ordained providence, the way God has ordained to do things, right? So, when it says here His ordinary providence, it's referring back to the second causes of the previous paragraph. This is how God has ordained to uphold, dispose, direct, and govern His creation is through these secondary causes. But the confession tells us that He is free to work. God is free. Again, He's not bound. He's not tied. He created these laws of physics and nature, but He's not bound by them. He's God. They're His laws. We're bound by them, but He is not. He's free. And so it says that He is free to work. He's free to carry out His decree, free to work in His creation without, above, and against them. Now to work without them or outside of them means that ordinarily He would use secondary means, but He sometimes works outside of them. So, an example of this is given to us in the scripture references that are given here in Hosea chapter 1, verse 7, where God is promising to rescue the house of Judah. And he says, Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, or battle, by horses, or horsemen. The ordinary means that the people would be saved was through battle. But that's not how God is going to save them. He's going to work outside of the ordinary means of second causes. The second causes in a battle would be the moral actions of men, choosing to swing a sword or loose an arrow. But God is going to work outside that to save them. To work above them means that God is free to work extraordinarily through means in a way that to us seems supernatural. The footnote that's given is to Romans 4 and this is referring to Abraham and Sarah conceiving Isaac in their old age. and Abraham believed God was capable of doing that which he had promised, even though Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. The ordinary means of reproduction shouldn't have worked at that point, but God caused it to work. He worked above those ordinary means and caused them to work when they shouldn't have. For God to work against ordinary means is more interesting. This means that what would ordinarily happen, the ordinary laws of nature, God works against them. The example that's given to us in the footnotes here is in Daniel. chapter 3, and this is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, right? And it says that the satraps, administrators, governors, and king's counselors gathered together and they saw these men on whose body the fire had no power. Now normally, if you're thrown into a fiery furnace, what happens? The fire burns you and you die. These men are walking around in the fire. God is working against the ordinary means of providence. In fact, so much so that it says, "...the hair of their head was not singed, nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them." I can't sit next to a campfire while walking away smelling like a smokestack. But these men are walking around in a fiery furnace. They don't even smell like smoke when they come out. This is God working against the ordinary means that He normally uses in His providence. We see this throughout Scripture. In Joshua chapter 10, when God causes the sun to stand still so that the Israelites can finish a battle, He's working against the ordinary means of His providence. In 2 Kings 6, when God causes an iron axe head to float, iron axe heads don't float. The laws of nature means they sink. God worked against his ordinary means. In 2 Kings 20, verse 11, Hezekiah was given a sign that his life would be extended. And what was the sign? He caused the sundial to go back 10 degrees. God worked against his ordinary means. He reversed the trajectory of the sun. So God working against his ordinary means. What is all of this telling us here in paragraph three? What it's telling us is that God in his providence ordinarily works through means of second causes, but he is free to do miracles. That's what this paragraph is telling us. Don't put God in a box. He ordinarily works through the laws of nature and physics and the way he has created and ordered the universe, but he is free to do miracles. Think about Jesus feeding the 5,000. A couple of fish and a couple of loaves don't normally feed 5,000 people. Jesus performed a miracle. He worked against the laws of nature to do so. So that's what this paragraph is telling us. And He does so, it says, at His pleasure, not at ours. God isn't a genie in a bottle. He's not at our beck and call. He does miracles at His pleasure, not at ours. Now, we can pray and ask Him to do a miracle to heal somebody or to work something out, but it is up to Him how He responds to that. He is not obligated. He is free because He is God. But all of this doctrine of divine providence that we have seen so far in this chapter should move us to thanksgiving and to praise for God's infinite goodness. He caused the sun to come up, the sky is blue, we're all still alive. This is God's goodness and his providence to us. He provides for us. He continues to uphold, direct, dispose, and govern His creation because He is a good God. And so this should move us to praise and thanksgiving for our good God. Next month when we come back to this chapter, we will deal with the second half and how God's goodness and providence relates to the doctrine of sin. But let's close this morning in a word of prayer.