Prayer Meeting 22/8/2023
All Things For Good - Part 3
Romans 8:28
Well tonight we come to the final part of this three part sermon on the wonderful work by
the puritan Thomas Watson, called ‘All Things For Good’. It’s not a massive work, but like we all have come to know, the length of the work matters not from the puritans, but you are certain they will be profoundly deep and utterly compelling. To read the puritans is to love them.
Since our own reformation over five years ago, the puritans have shaped so much of my own thinking and sanctifying process - and I know that’s also true for most of us. When I started reading the puritans, at first it took time to grasp. This was down to two things really:
- Was their depth of vocabulary (some more so than others).
- Was that they don’t feed your flesh - so no fast reading that appeals only to your emotions.
They need time. They need laboured over for a bit. Then as you’re drawn in by your spirit, they take you to the very depth of your soul. Watson does exactly this with this work.
Watson’s greatest work is arguably ‘A Body Of Divinity’, which is grounded on the Westminster shorter catechism of the confession of faith. If you want to understand that, and delve into the doctrines of the Westminster confession of faith then this is the book for you.
Let me give a tiny bit of background of Watson. Thomas Watson was born 1620, died 1689. Born we think in Yorkshire and studied at Emmanuel college Cambridge - my favourite college, because of guys like Watson studied here, Thomas Brooks, as did one of my favourite puritans, if not my favourite, Jeremiah Burroughs.
Watson, like most of the puritans, was a smart guy. He had a deep understanding of the English language, a huge vocabulary (makes these wee books great, as they’re abridged). He was also was no slouch with Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
Watson’s knowledge didn’t stop at languages. He had a great grasp of history, medicine, botany, physics, and practical hands-on trades. Watson used all of those skills in his sermons.
Over the last few meetings we have chosen three parts, or three chapters of the nine in total of Watson’s book. Firstly we spoke on chapter one ‘The Best Things Work For Good For The Godly’. Then we spoke from chapter two ‘The Worst Things Work For The Good For The Godly’. Tonight we will conclude with chapter three of the book: ‘Why All Things Work For The Good Of The Godly’. Of course all these notes are available to us to look over.
Watson is of course sharing these nine chapters of this work from one verse:
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.
Before I share the final part let me read as we always do a puritan prayer, this one from the ‘Valley Of Vision’, page 6, entitled ‘God The Source Of All Good’. If you have the paperback version it’s on page 5, and as always it’s fitting for tonight’s message:
O Lord God, who inhabitest eternity, The heavens declare thy glory, The earth thy riches, The universe is thy temple; Thy presence fills immensity, Yet thou hast of thy pleasure created life, and communicated happiness; Thou hast made me what I am, and given me what I have; In thee I live and move and have my being; Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation, and wisely administers all my affairs. I thank thee for thy riches to me in Jesus, for the unclouded revelation of him in thy Word, where I behold his Person, character, grace, glory, humiliation, sufferings, death, and resurrection; Give me to feel a need of his continual saviourhood, and cry with Job, 'I am vile', with Peter, 'I perish', with the publican, 'Be merciful to me, a sinner'. Subdue in me the love of sin, Let me know the need of renovation as well as of forgiveness, in order to serve and enjoy thee for ever. I come to thee in the all-prevailing name of Jesus, with nothing of my own to plead, no works, no worthiness, no promises. I am often straying, often knowingly opposing thy authority, often abusing thy goodness; Much of my guilt arises from my religious privileges, my low estimation of them, my failure to use them to my advantage, But I am not careless of thy favour or regardless of thy glory; Impress me deeply with a sense of thine omnipresence, that thou art about my path, my ways, my lying down, my end.
Okay; Why all things work for the good for the Godly.
Watson writes:
God is an everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6). He was our Father from eternity; before we were children, he was our Father, and he will be our Father to eternity. A Father provides for his child while he lives (some do). But the Father dies and the child may be exposed to injury. But God never ceases to be a Father. You who are believers have a Father who never dies. And if God be your Father you can never be undone. All things then must work for your good.
Amazing. We all have different experiences of our fathers. Yet we as believers now know, or ought to know, the prefect model of fathering.
Even our earthly fathers die. Yet we have a perfect Father, a heavenly Father and eternal Father that will never die, nor will He ever leave us or forsake us.
He even loves us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His only begotten Son, so that we could be reconciled to Him as sons and daughters. That is all the assurance we ought to need that all things indeed work together for our good.
As you continue to read on from verse 28 of Romans 8 we hear this from apostle Paul:
Romans 8:31-39
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “for your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we cannot be separated from Christ then we can categorically say that God won’t punish His Son who lives in us. He will neither then punish us. Therefore we can say indeed that all things must be working for good. For I am in Christ and He is in me. For God to not work things for good would be for Him to punish and neglect and abuse Himself.
The next time you think where is God, what is going on?- Think who you are in and who is in you. This is why we can have confidence in all things.
God will, as Watson writes:
Either he will shield us from injury, or will turn it for the best.
God of course is not just our Father, but in Christ He is a faithful friend. I’m sure we all at one point in our lives, or more than one, have had friends who let us down or betrayed us.
However, we have a friend who will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
Watson writes:
Even when he is afflicting he is faithful.
When friends hurt us we doubt them. We lose trust in them. However, God, even in chastisement, in affliction, is faithful to us for the purpose of bringing us closer to Him, which is for our good.
I’m sure also we have all had ‘fair weather’ friends. Friends who are with us when things go okay and the sun is shining. Yet when things are not going well, or as Watson puts it:
But if there is a cloud of adversity on them, they won’t come near them.
We have witnessed that as a church, I have witnessed and been on the receiving end of that on quite a few occasions. So called brothers and fellow pilgrims, running from you in case it causes them heat.
Yes we have Proverbs 17:17 friends:
A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
God is always that friend. And more than that; He uses it for our good.
I can honestly say that I would not be able to serve the Lord as I do, and stand on truth as we do in this church, if those that left me ,or shunned me stayed. It worked for the good of serving the Lord. It has helped me serve others in adversity better, and be a better friend and companion to them in their affliction and trials.
Often that help is just to be with them, or often it’s to be able to then say this: ‘don’t do xyz, it doesn’t work and will make things worse’.
As Watson works through chapter 3 he moves onto God’s providence. God’s kingdom rules over all.
Psalm 103:19
The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.
Nothing in heaven or earth is not governed by anything but God. All things are by His providence. His guiding hand, His Holy power orchestrating everything.
Watson writes:
Whatever things do work in the world. God sets them a working.
Watson adds:
Even the most dark, cloudy providences of God have some sunshine in them…. …What hurt does the fire to the gold? It only purifies it.
Watson shares more examples of dark, cloudy things working for good.
He writes:
What hurt does the wind to corn? It only separates the chaff. What hurt do leeches to the body, they only suck out the bad blood. God never uses his staff, but to beat out the dust.
Watson then writes this. Which truly grabbed me:
Affliction does that which the word many times will not. It opens the ear to discipline. When God lays men on their backs, they look to heaven.
Oh my, how true? It often takes affliction to force us to trust God, to cry out to Him. To draw close to Him. Affliction is working for our good because we need Him even more.
Too often we are the crutch to people; parents over protect, they even over protect their adult kids. Husbands over protect their unsaved wives, or their emotional wives. Pastors over protect their congregations, or over control.
I think some need to trust this statement from Watson more:
Affliction is a bitter root but it bears a sweet fruit.
Think about it, the greatest day for a believer is the day they die, yet it’s so feared at times, even by believers. The greatest testimony we have to the world is not prosperity. It’s not some flaky prayers and silly bravado-declarations. It’s that we never lose our joy, or our faith, or our love, or our grace and mercy, even when afflicted.
What makes us truly love Christ so much? Is it that He says rise and walk? Or that your sins are forgiven? Is it not that He cried out on the cross ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’.
That the disciples were perplexed in the upper room because they knew not that Judas would betray them. Yet Christ knew all along and served him and washed his feet. Is it not the case that we truly become like Christ, and are no more like him than when we are also being led like lambs to the slaughter when we are abused, used, defamed etc. And we open not our own mouth like He did? All these happened in affliction not in the sunshine.
Watson draws us then to how the opposite works for the wicked. It’s amazing that to the wicked, that good things work for bad and bad things work for good.
They have no happiness in the good. They cannot celebrate the good. Yet they revel in the bad.
Watson writes:
For the Godly evil things work for the good, and for the wicked good things work for hurt.
Isn’t that the case? That the wicked are hurt by what we as believers celebrate as good. Over the years I’ve seen so much of that. Where those that are wicked are pained by the blessing a believer receives.
I’ve seen it in church. When a believer, so called believer, resents a brother or sister being blessed, or being praised, or being given a gift even. How far away is that from Christ?
When good things are hurting you. The wicked are hurt when God blesses His people.
Watson writes:
Wicked men are worse when they hear preaching.
Isn’t that insane? That some people hate more when they hear God’s Word. It turns them into fiends.
Watson adds:
The word preached is not healing, but hardening, how dreadful is this that men be sunk to hell by sermons.
Let me just go off-piste a little here as we bring this in, but not completely; on a different track.
As we heard from Sunday’s sermon in First Corinthians – the church has changed how it preaches, in order to flatter the wicked. And be as inoffensive as possible.
The devil uses their distain to intimidate weak leaders into compromise. Then they find their way into church and the Word is stolen.
Before Josiah’s reformation that we read of in 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings, the church was running scared from a woman called Athaliah, who was Jezebel’s and king Ahab’s daughter. She was a total psycho queen, who was the wife of Jehoram the king of Judah, who died, as did her son. So she ruled for seven years. And she was so wicked that God’s people hid all the things Holy including the Word. Because she hated it, and would punish those who dared use it.
However, when Josiah came to the throne after the Word had been hidden from Athaliah, they started to build the temple (God’s house) again.
Let me read this passage:
2 Chronicles 34:14-21
Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to shaphan. So shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “all that was committed to your servants they are doing. And they have gathered the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.” Then shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And shaphan read it before the king. Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the law, that he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and asaiah a servant of the king, saying, “go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.”
Today the world and the world’s culture is our Athaliah. And due to that, the church has hidden the Word. Some of us have people around us like that. And we do likewise. We hide the Word because of how they react to it. And the church is suffering, because the sheep who are His are not hearing the Word. And neither are those who He has elected, but not yet saved.
Preaching the Word may cause affliction but it’s for our good. To be persecuted for righteousness sake is to truly partake with the saints; to truly die to self for the kingdom’s sake.
Watson concludes the chapter by writing this, and I will conclude by sharing it:
This let us endeavour to make the name of God glorious and renowned. If God seek our good, let us seek our glory. If he makes all things tend to our edification, let us make all things tend to his exaltation.
Amen.
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