Prayer Meeting 8/8/2023
All Things For Good - Part 2
Romans 8:28
Well tonight we come to part two of our three part teaching on Thomas Watson’s
‘All Things For Good’. A relatively short work/book but one that I truly love. It was, as I said, the first puritan book I read.
Even though it’s not a huge work, we will still but only touch on it; such is the depth of the book. If you have this, or just got it, it will bless you.
There really is nothing like the puritans work, and to read them will for sure draw you closer to the vastness of God and the depth of His Word, but more than that even, it will help you draw closer to God, by wringing out all that the flesh clings to.
Let me read our puritan prayer this evening from ‘Piercing Heaven – Prayers of the Puritans’. Tonight we will read two prayers, the first is entitled ‘Trusting God in Difficult Times’ by Phillip Doddridge:
O Lord, cast us into whatever dangers You please, and we will cheerfully await the happy event which will at length prove the wisdom and kindness, even Your most mysterious plans. In the meantime, even as we travel in the bonds of affliction, may we see Your hand in the expressions and encouragement of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Like Paul, let us thank You and take courage in the humble assurance that You will stand by us in every future unknown extreme. You will either display Your power and goodness by raising up those around us in support, or You will display Your all-sufficiency in a yet more glorious way, bearing us up even when everything else fails us.
Our second Puritan prayer is entitled ‘Strength to Stand Under Temptation’ by William Bridge. In this prayer he is saying that temptation is indeed the great enemy:
O Lord I have no strength to stand against this great enemy. I confess it is my duty to resist this temptation, but it is Your promise to support my under this temptation. Therefore, I put myself upon You.
Of course, the heading of the book and topic is taken from a verse in Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.
There are 9 chapters in Watson’s work. But as I said last time we will be only covering three; the first three. Last time we spoke on chapter one, entitled ‘The Best Things Work For Good To The Godly’. Tonight we will go through some of chapter 2: ‘The Worst Things Work For Good For The Godly’.
It’s not ‘the worst things work for good’, its ‘the worst things work for good for the Godly’. The key is the word ‘Godly’. Meaning His chosen people. Those who love God. And again we will be but touching on it. It’s not so much that the book is a large work, it’s that it is deep and full of wisdom. Then we will conclude with chapter 3 next time, on ‘Why All Things Work For Good To The Godly’.
Okay, let me share some thoughts on this chapter. In chapter two ‘The Worst Things Work For Good To The Godly’, Watson has four points. Of course within them there are a list of points. I won’t get bogged down in them, as not to confuse either you or me. I will simply be picking out parts from each main point.
Firstly:
- The Evil Of Affliction Works For The Good Of The Godly.
Yes, you heard it right - the evil of affliction works for our good. Therefore God’s hand is in that.
Watsons writes:
Whoever brings affliction to us, it is God that sends it.
He commissions it, is also another way in which Watsons tells us.
Watson writes:
Affliction to the Godly is medicinal.
To the ungodly, to those who know not God, it is like poison but to the Godly it is medicine. Of course not all medicine tastes nice, not all goes down well, and almost all take time to do its job. But nonetheless it is good for us who love God.
Was there anything more poisonous than our sin? Yet the Lord used it to bring conviction and heartache that led to our salvation. Martin Luther said he never truly understood the Psalms until he was in affliction. How true is that?
Watson writes something that truly I could think on for days at a time. This is what I mean with the depth and wisdom contained in this work.
Watson writes:
In the word preached we hear all that a dreadful thing sin is, but we fear it no more than a painted lion; therefore God let’s loose affliction, then we feel so bitter in the fruit of it. A sick bed (he adds) often teaches more than a sermon.
No more fear than a painted lion. What a statement. Yet when another’s sin is let loose on us, oh how we see its evil. Then we start to see in ourselves as we wrestle with it. How utterly worldly, and faithless, and impatient we are.
Oh how loving and how much peace we have when we are not afflicted; it can make us feel truly Christlike and sanctified. But what when affliction comes? When we are pressed, when we are challenged, when we are pushed into a corner, when we are prodded. Oh its then we see that maybe we are not as serene and Godly as we thought.
We have spoken of this in 1st Corinthians: they were so loving to others’ sin, but when they felt affliction due to their loss, you seen sin in all its ugliness.
Watson writes:
Oh says the Christian, I never thought I had such a bad heart, as now I see I have, I never thought my corruptions were so strong, and my graces so weak.
There is nothing like affliction to give you a true reflection of your heart and your faith. Oh how the Christian can give gracious advice on how to be a saint to those in affliction, and how to ‘let go and let God’ (for in those moments to us, it is but ‘a picture of a lion’).
But then when it comes to them, they have little to cling to. They have lost all grace. Often with way, way lesser affliction.
I think when I got saved, and I’m sure we all experience this in some way, the pain/affliction of my sin drew me to my knees, and in that acknowledgment of utterly denying God and Christ His Son, His mercy comes and cradles us. ‘My sins they are many, His mercy is more’.
However, I love what Watson points out:
The magnet of mercy does not draw us so near to God as the chords of affliction.
I was thinking the other day as I was praying, that very thought. My own pain draws me closer to God than His mercy and goodness does. And I was praying asking God for that not to be so. That His goodness alone, and my faith and love of Him alone would draw me to Him as passionately and diligently, and utterly as my pain does.
Of course, many never truly draw close to God even in affliction, because they have no truth that it was their disobedience that caused the affliction in first place. And they cry out to God to rescue them from their enemies when in fact they were the enemy themselves. This is where there is little solace; only more affliction.
Those who truly love God will soon look at what their lack of faith looks like, rather than what they are facing. It is no longer about what you need God to protect you from. But woe is me, who places so much above the Lord.
The last sentence Watson writes on this first point is astounding:
The worst that God does to his children is whip them to heaven.
Okay,
- The Evil Of Temptation Is Overruled For Good To The Godly.
Satan is not yet bound, he roams about like a lion to seek whom he can devour (1 Peter 5:8). And his no. 1 tactic is temptation.
Have you noticed how those under Satan’s hand always try to tempt you away from God, or tempt you to react? They might not even know they are tempting you to react, but under Satan’s hand, and by their actions they very much tempt us into action - and by that I mean un-Christlike reactions.
Satan knows what riles you. He knows how to press your buttons. He knows your weaknesses.
Watson writes:
Satan will not tempt contrary to your natural disposition and temperament.
He adds:
This is his policy, he makes the wind and tide go together, that way the natural tide of the heart runs, that way the wind of temptation blows. Though the devil can’t know men’s thoughts, yet he knows their temperament and accordingly he lays his trap.
What a statement.
When I look at all of those who have been tempted and took the bait, I can see for sure how Satan used what they struggled to overcome, to hook them.
As Watson writes:
Like a gunning angler casts in his angle when the fish will bite best.
Where are you least observant? Where are you least strict? What area of life do you seek God least in? Where to you omit prayers? What area do you take your armour off in?
Be certain that’s where the lure will be cast into?
And also, how often can we be so lured by the lie that we are doing the Godly thing, the moral thing? The man who neglects God and prayer; yet has justification for it.
Watson pens:
He tempts many a man with covetousness and extortion under the pretence of providing for his family.
How can it be wrong, I’m doing a good thing? Oh how Satan subtlety tempts away from God - to the point that they don’t think they are sinning.
Watson scarily writes:
Satan can excite and irritate the corruption within, and work some kind of inclination into the heart to embrace temptation.
Meaning that he, due to knowing your weakness and temperament, can sell you temptations in a way in which he knows you will embrace and delude yourself into making it a righteous thing (if he can’t get you believing it’s right with a woman, he may send her with other temptations, that will make you think you’re Godly i.e. kids to ‘provide’ for).
Yet God uses it to show us where we are weak and need to be diligent, and makes us aware and be even more vigilant in those areas.
This is also why we need truth, and those that watch over our souls, who will point out these weaknesses. Because you, left to Satan and your own ways, will maybe not spot it. Also, that truth that we learn, or ought to learn from affliction, ought to make us more diligent and switched on. i.e. I have a weakness; I need to draw close to God. But more, I need to overcome this weakness, period. As not to be tempted.
For example – someone who has overcome alcohol cannot be tempted with it – therefore we need to overcome more, so that we cannot be tempted in as many areas.
Yet even if we are tempted, we must look to Christ. Who was in all ways tempted but did not sin.
We can’t beat temptation on our own. Therefore, temptation works for good when we run to Christ in our weaknesses.
Martin Luther said three things make a Christian: ‘prayer, meditation and temptation’.
Okay,
- The Evil Of Desertion Works For The Good Of The Godly.
Meaning when we desert God.
Now, let me make a distinction here. We are talking about believers. Not a single believer will be at peace when they desert God. No matter what they do. Of course, God allows it. He deserts them as they desert Him.
Not that God has deserted, but that we shut Him out of our communion with him. If God steps away, it’s because we are doing the stepping into another arena.
Watson writes:
None but the Godly are capable of desertion. Wicked men know not what God’s love means, or what it means to want it.
Those that are not His don’t miss God and are not empty without Him. Of course they are void of any true life - but to them there is not the void of ‘I am not at peace without God’.
Those who are His all know the deep pain of not being close to God. They may have been tempted in the mind to believe they are still walking with Him, but the lack of deep peace will haunt them.
Johnathan Edwards says:
It is the nature of love to be adverse to absence.
To love God and God to love us is to be adverse to His absence. We miss those whom we love. Many who wander don’t miss God at all. It was just a period that they were around believers, but they don’t miss God.
However, those who are His, can soon barely function. They find the world wasn’t quite as green as they thought. And this is why God uses it for the good of those who are His. It tells them the world has nothing for them.
As Watson writes:
It cures the inordinate affection they have of the world.
He adds:
This eclipse has good effects, it darkens all the glory of the world, and causes it to disappear.
For the Godly, the world destroys itself for us, as it can’t compete with intimacy with God.
Okay, last point.
- The Evil Of Sin Works For The Good For The Godly.
Watson pens:
The sin of the wicked does much to disfigure them. Pride is a disfiguring sin; now the beholding of another’s pride makes us the more in love with humility.
Let me continue with what Watson writes, and then I will pause:
Malice is a disfiguring sin, it is the devil’s picture, the more of this we see in others the more we love meekness and charity.
Oh how true, doesn’t the evil of the sin we see in others, and how it manifests, just make us so grateful for those with a more Christlike heart - with those who truly bear fruit?
We are never more grateful for our brothers and sisters in the faith than when we compare them to those who do the work of iniquity. We see how good it truly is to bear fruit, and not have that ungodliness in our lives.
Often we are not near grateful enough, until we see sin in all its ugliness and evil run riot, and untamed in some people’s lives. I honestly believe to not truly love our brothers and sisters in a deep affectionate way, is to have very limited experience of being on the receiving end of the truly wicked.
Most often I never even think of my gratitude for being sober, until I’m around a drunkard. Then I’m truly grateful. Not that I want others to suffer for my good. But the evil of sin does work for our good.
As Watson writes:
The sins of others work for the good, as they are the means of making the people of God more thankful.
Watson says more on this final point, in fact on all 4 points I’ve spoken on tonight. However, I will just close with this one.
Watson writes:
The sins of others work for good, as they are glasses in which we may see our own hearts… …such should we be if God did leave us. What is in other men’s practice is in our own nature.
Watson adds:
You have the root of bitterness in you, and would bear as hellish a fruit as any, if God did not either curb you by his power, or change you by his grace.
Instead of judging them as if we are superior, their evil sin should leave us with nothing but a humble heart that cries ‘but for the grace of God go I’. And hence it works for our good, because He is good and only He is good.
How do we live with forgiveness? - But for the grace of God, I am at least as bad if not worse.
All things indeed work for the good, for the Godly.
Amen.
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