In our lives, we have to discern in people and in things the point to which we can trust them, don't we?

I was flying home from the Hawke's Bay just this past week on Tuesday, and a friend of mine was on the same flight. In fact, two sets of friends were with me, one sitting behind me and one sitting in front. So, as he walked past with his one-year-old he plonked him down on my lap, just to hold their child for a moment. The child immediately started crying! He didn't trust me; he didn't know who I was.

As a teenager, I went to Movie World in Australia on a rugby trip, and I had to trust that the welds on the roller coasters that I was going on were done by certified engineers, people who knew what they were doing. But I put my life in their hands.

When we get into our cars after they've been at the mechanics, we have to trust that the lug nuts on our wheels have been tightened properly so our wheels don't fly off at one hundred kilometres an hour on the road. We always have to exercise trust.

What will it take for you to trust God? What would it take for us, like Jesus, to be sound asleep on that ship which tosses about on the waters? What would it take for 1 Peter 5:7 to be more than just nice words, but of great expectation? "Casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

What would it take?

It would take, dear friends, knowing for sure that the God in whom we trust is all-knowing, all-wise, all-powerful, and he has every capacity and desire to perform that which he has promised with no returns.

That's what it would take.

And the false gods and idols of man cannot be trusted. Psalm 135:15 speaks of these idols that are but "silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath at all in their mouths."

You cannot trust these, can you? Like the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel who cried out to their idol, but they heard no response. Our trust instead must be in the God of Elijah, as he called upon Yahweh and whose fire consumed the altar from heaven.

The great work of the Holy Spirit in our lives is to teach us to depend on God. We cannot fare well in the storms and trials of life if we do not have this trust. Because many a "fiery ordeal", as Peter puts it in his epistle, will come. And Jesus has already told us in the context of Matthew that persecutions are coming. He says you'll be hated for my name's sake.

And so through great pains, the kingdom of God will advance through hardships, through heartaches. So bumper stickers and clichés are not going to do us any good. God gives us more than one-liners about why we can trust him above all else. Because in the Bible, God reveals himself as governing his world by divine providence. And it is in this providence that the people of God are to take refuge. So we have an "anchor that keeps the soul, steadfast and sure while the billows roll."

And it is to this subject of providence that we turn now in Matthew 10, and specifically we want to learn how Jesus comforts fearful Christians with the doctrine of providence by assuring them that our Father knows us and holds our times in his hand.

The Illustration Offered

Let's look at our first heading now, the illustration offered. Verse 29 says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father?"

Now in this context we know that Jesus has already charged the apostles and us by extension on their mission. Last time Jesus reminded us in verse 28 that it is God who is the ultimate authority over body and soul. So what can man really do, even when he takes our life? And so we saw that God is the great judge of men and women's destiny who ought to be feared above all else. But here in these following verses the Lord reminds us that God is not only a judge but he is actually a father who intimately knows and keeps his people.

So look at some of the details here with me. First, in Jesus' illustration we notice that he wants us to consider the value of these objects. He says two sparrows and a cent. The point is here that he mentions a common, poor, and insignificant bird and he mentions a small and insignificant amount of money. A sparrow was commonly thought of as one of God's smallest creatures and a coin mentioned here refers to the least valuable of a Roman coin. In other words, we're made initially to think very little of these birds because the lowest form of money available could buy two of these sparrows. They're not worth anything really.

Now look at what the text says next. Even these insignificant birds purchased for an insignificant amount of money do not fall to the ground, in other words, do not die, apart from God. Pay attention to the words here. The language is deliberate. Jesus does not simply say that these birds do not die without God's knowledge. Rather, the wording in sense here is "apart from your father". They will not fall from the sky to the earth apart from God. In other words, that insignificant sparrow purchased for that insignificant amount of money, even these are governed by God. They do not fall from the sky to the earth by chance or blind fate but as God ordains for them. That's what the language is conveying. This is Jesus' point.

So now we have to answer the question of what is the underlying doctrine here to what Christ is saying. What Jesus makes clear is that God sovereignly orders and governs even the most insignificant events in this created world. We call this the doctrine of God's providence, or as one theologian labelled it, "God's efficacious administration of the things decreed". Charles Spurgeon said this: "I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes." This doctrine teaches that God exercises an all-encompassing sovereignty over his creation. He has not simply wound up the clock like a watchmaker and let it fly. He is not like that grandfather asleep in his rocking chair, not really paying much attention. Rather, God is bringing to pass his own decree in the world.

Jesus chooses a sparrow here deliberately, therefore. He makes us realise that even an event that we would usually give no thought to, the death of an insignificant bird, is not outside the sovereign exercise of God's will.

Now who among us can wrap our heads around this great mystery? We cannot. In fact, John Flavel, the Puritan, chose the right title for his book when he called it "The Mystery of Providence." For who can comprehend living in a world where the trillions upon trillions of micro-events that are occurring every second that time passes do not occur by luck or by chance but by an outworking of divine providence?

The English Puritan Stephen Charnock said this: "A continued creation belongs as much to omnipotency as the first creation." In other words, the creative power of God is the necessary sustaining power of God for that same creation. It is all upheld and governed by his energising spirit.

The Westminster Confession on the Providence of God says this: "God, the great creator of all things, doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things from the greatest even to the least by his most wise and holy providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of his own will to the praise of the glory of his wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy."

Friends, this is God's world, and God governs his world even to the death of the sparrow. Oh yes. The sparrows have a nature. The sparrows have a will by which they choose where to make their nest. The lion too has a nature where it will choose to make its den. And man chooses where he will build his own home too. For God has established second causes in his decree. He does not abolish will. He does not abolish choice or action in the creature. Because we know deep down in our own hearts, don't we, that we are responsible for the choices that we make? These are not illusions. Yet mysteriously, the free and even sinful acts of man occur within this greater circle of God's providence that he is working all things according to the counsel of his own will.

Now the objector to this doctrine says that such a doctrine makes God the author of evil; it makes out man to be a robot. Yet on the contrary, as again the Confession's words say better than I ever could: "God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass. Yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established."

Second causes are simply your and my ordinary activity as we make choices and move throughout the world. God has established these, and mysteriously they will fulfil his own decree. As another has said, "Man proposes but God disposes". "The lot is cast into the lap but its every decision is from the Lord" Proverbs 16:33. Paul says, "God works all things after the counsel of his own will" Ephesians 1:11. He says elsewhere, "we have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance" Ephesians 2:10. The author of Hebrews speaks to the "unchangeableness of his purpose" and that "Christ upholds all things by the word of his power" Hebrews 1:3. The psalmist agrees: "Whatever the Lord pleases he does in heaven and in earth in the seas and in all the deeps" Psalm 135:6. Again, the psalmist says, "The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart from generation to generation" Psalm 33:11. Job says, "God thunders with his voice wondrously, doing great things which we cannot comprehend" Job 37:5. God has counselled; God has decreed for his world, friends, and when all is done, his decree will be shown to be carefully and thoroughly fulfilled.

Isaiah 46:10-11 says: "Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done saying, My purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken, truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it."

He's sovereign!

Charles Spurgeon illustrates providence by using a wheel. And I want to follow him with this illustration; it is powerful to help us understand the providence of God. He tells the story of a kidnapped king. This king was taken prisoner and he was dragged along behind this chariot, and the king as he's being dragged along by the chariot kept looking at the wheel of the moving chariot, crying out in pain and then looking at the wheel again and then smiling to himself. Now his captor was a wee bit put off by this and as he's watching him sort of in this balance of both pain and then smiling just by watching the wheel of the chariot go round as he's being dragged along, he said, "Why are you looking at that wheel?" And the king said, "I was thinking such is the lot of man. Just now I was here. Now I am there, but soon I may be here again at the top of the wheel and you might be grinding in the dust."

So like a wheel, time and history continue relentlessly on and we cannot tell what each revolution of that wheel will bring us. Life changes faster than we could ever keep up with. The point is dear friends that like on any wheel, there is a fixed and unmoved axle upon which it revolves. And the axle is God's providence and it is the axle to which the Christian must look. As life like a wheel revolves around, we must see that fixed and firm axle as the resting place that we might understand and comprehend God's providence.

The Truth Issued

Now let's move on. Second heading: the truth issued. Verse 30. "But the very hairs on your head are all numbered," he says.

Now the illustration of Jesus is now taken to its necessary deduction. He moves from the lesser to the greater, from sparrows to image bearers, from God's smallest creatures to his crowning jewel in creation, mankind, you and I.

Now consider the details here. If even the sparrows are under divine providence, so is man. Man whose very hairs are numbered, known, and ordained is the point here. The "your" in verse 30 is directed to Jesus' immediate hearers, those disciples commissioned to evangelise the lost. And as they go, Jesus wants them to know, and us by extension to remember, that God is not careless or thoughtless concerning the danger that he sends them into. Because it is their father who governs the sparrows, and it is their father, our father, who even numbers the very hairs on our head, and he cares. That is the point.

The reality is friends that God's sovereign providence extends to the ways and affairs of mankind. This is the whole basis of Jesus' point: we do not need to fear man because men and women's lives, like the sparrows, are not outside the circle of sovereign providence. Jesus wants us to recognise this and keep our eyes fixed on that axle of the wheel, on himself. As disciples we are not to think that there are any "maverick molecules" in this world, as R.C. Sproul coined it. Jesus means here that we would know that our heavenly Father has ordained for us the things which we shall experience, and should we know him as our father, we know that it is he who decrees and it is he who can be trusted even with our lives unto death.

David expressed this in Psalm 139:16. He said, "Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were written all the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them." God is sovereign. So his providence is to be thought of as always present upon us.

Now think of a painting such as the Mona Lisa. I'm not sure if you've seen even a digital print of the Mona Lisa, but it always seems that no matter what angle that you're standing at and looking at the painting, it always seems as if she's looking at you. You could be standing on this side of the room looking this way and it looks like she's looking at you, and you could stand directly in front and it still looks like she's looking at you; such is the careful artistry of the Mona Lisa. So it is with God's providence. It cannot be escaped from or run from, for God sees all. His eye is always upon his people.

2 Chronicles 16:9: "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." In other words, he has an all-seeing eye that sees all, knows all. And when his eye falls upon his people, there is great care, there is great consideration and his providence for them. So I know, Christian, that his eyes do search and they do fall upon you, and if you could see every possible outcome of your life, you would always choose that which he has given for you to walk in. For it is chosen just for you.

The Application Made

Let's make some applications and conclude here with this final heading: the application made. Look again at verse 31. It says, "So do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows."

First, notice that Jesus gives the instruction: "therefore, do not fear". Now Jesus does not say this because there is nothing in the world to fear. He is not making light of what you and I will naturally face. What he gives us instead is a great pillar of truth to stand up under, a strong tower to shelter under, even if the world is falling against you. Here is some truth that can be depended upon. The reality is that nothing can overtake the Christian that is of any surprise to God. He is sovereign through whatever may befall the believer, and he will keep you through it.

Jesus says, 'Those sparrows that you see, not one falls to the ground apart from your father.' And it's going to be the same for his people. Even the martyrs who have gone to death for Christ, not one has fallen apart from God. So he's saying, If my governing extends even to them, how much more will it serve you, my disciples, who are of infinite value compared to sparrows?

So fear and fear of man may well enter our hearts at times, Christian, but Jesus gives us sufficient cause here to silence those fears forever, to prove them irrational, and to say to God, What you have ordained for me, that I shall be grateful for; that shall I worship you in. I must say that knowing Jesus is best, even when the world presents to me its worst. I surrender to the giver, I surrender to the sustainer of life, who ordains and governs those days appointed for me. Even as with Job in Job 13:15. Listen to these words: "Though he slay me, I will hope in him."

Now I want to close with three exhortations for us for the application of these words. How do these things apply for us?

#1 First of all, knowledge of God's providence is rightly sought as refuge and hope for the believer. This is especially true in the context of Matthew 10 because Christians are told that they're going to be hated and hunted for the name of Jesus. And that's playing out all around us in the world. But it is also true more broadly in principle and is applicable to all areas of your life.

So think of what Jesus said earlier in Matthew 6:25: "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you'll eat or what you'll drink or your body as to what you'll put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?"

The broad principle is that all things in our lives that we are finding disrupting, terrifying or scary, all these things, these trials, maybe it's that you've lost a child or you've lost a family member unexpectedly, all of these things we are to find rest and comfort in the providence of God.

John Calvin makes a remark here: "As God is the guardian of our life we may safely rely on his providence. May we do him injustice if we do not entrust to him our life which he is pleased to take under his charge." And he is pleased. So it's our first duty then to know and rest in providence.

#2 A second application is this: the doctrine of divine providence ought to instil obedience in the hearts of God's children above all else. This is again true in the context of Matthew 10. Persecuted Christians now have ultimate cause to trust and obey God, knowing that nothing that can happen to them is outside of God's sovereign plan and care. So it promotes obedience. And again, this is generally true.

Samuel Rutherford said this: "Duties are ours and events are God's." So it's our duty to seek to be obedient and to conform to God's revealed will in scripture. And this doctrine of divine providence ought to set our hearts aflame that we can confidently go forward in obedience to Christ in all we do.

#3 A third application and finally: divine providence is revealed by God to be something to delight in personally and not to be shunned as cold and mechanical. This is why Jesus refers here in verse 29 specifically to "your father." "Your father" makes it personal. Even as he governs and upholds the insignificant creatures like sparrows and he does feed them and ordain their days, how much more carefully has God been in personally tailoring your path and my path to walk in? "Your father."

We are not robots. We are image bearers. We are fallen sons and daughters of God who have been redeemed. And in the church, God's redeemed, he means to bring us to walk with him into the glories of eternity which he has planned for those who are in Christ.

Jesus said in John 20:17, "Jesus said to her, Stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the father but go to my brethren and say to them I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God."

What will it take for you to trust in God?

How about the wonderful providence of God?