Mystery of Providence Chapter 12a

The Twofold Will of God and Dark Providence

We're in chapter 12 now, final section of the book. I thought this would be two parts initially. The more I've looked at it, it's gonna be three parts. So I'm gonna need one of your books because I've forgotten the page number separation for the next thing.

Well, I'll get one of those later. For now, this chapter is composed of five cases. We're gonna go over the first two now, next two next week, and then last week, maybe a bit shorter, but we'll cover the last case.

And maybe we can do like a summary of the whole of the book and things we should be taking away from it. So looking at the first case, this whole chapter is about practical problems we're going to encounter in connection with providence.

These are not problems as in things that are problematic with God, but really problematic with our own sin nature in reference to God's providence and how our sin nature is going to interact with it, and especially how it's going to cause us to distrust what the Lord is doing.

And when we are distrusting him, what do we do? So with the first case, John Flavel points out to us how, poses this question actually, how may a Christian discover the will of God in his own duty under dark and doubtful providences?

This is dark and doubtful providences. These are understood as like, not only when we don't know what the Lord is doing, but when those things which he has even promised to us don't seem like they are coming.

How do we interact with that? How do we rectify it in our minds and in our souls? How do we have peace with him? And so a good thing to start with is to remember that God's will and his truth are twofold.

They are composed of secret and revealed will, secret and revealed truth. We can look to Deuteronomy 29, 29 for this. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law.

So let's talk first about the secret will of God. These are the rule of God's own actions. These are the rules of the acts that he does upon the earth. These are the first causes rather than the second causes.

And God's commanding will, those are the things which are wholly concerned with good. Like when we talk about God not being the author of evil, he's only the provider of the good, we also say that he has orchestrated evil, right?

He has orchestrated these things to occur. That has to do with first, second causes, secret, revealed, God's own actions, man's actions in response. So onto the revealed, we can see how this plays out a bit better.

This is the rule of man's own actions. Like it says in Deuteronomy, the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children that we may do the words of this law. So those are things that are belonging to man.

It does not mean God is not sovereign over those things. It simply means that those things are gifted to us to know for sure in this time. They are not things specific to the Lord's will and doing. These are manifested to us though in God's word and his works.

Word being in the word he's revealed to us and also in the word of nature, as we'll go on to later to talk a little bit more. And so as I mentioned before, regarding God's affecting and permitting will, those are the things that are concerned with evil.

So the revealed will of God also consists specifically of the things that God has permitted man to do. He's permitted the evil that occurs in the world. And so in the recap, God's will and truth are twofold.

This is gonna be important in understanding when things are doubtful and dark, how do we recognize the Lord's work in us? So there are also differences in how God will reveal his will to man. And so that secret will is not necessarily something that's gonna be provided to us in this earthly life.

It's something we will know eventually. We will know the reasons for all the works the Lord has given us. But in regards to revealed will, we should even consider that God does not reveal will equally to all men.

So there is clarity between what he has revealed in word versus work. So there is the word that God has provided us which is clear to us. There is a perspicuity, I think that's the word, which is that it's made clear to man.

It's something we can understand. Does that mean that we're going to wholly understand it? Or even perfectly understand it? Absolutely not. That is part of why we deliberate. That's part of why we are permitted even in the word to have divisions among believers so that we may understand.

Permitted in the sense that, it's a Hebrews passage about the differences between believers being necessary so that we may divide and understand the truth. Well, it does not mean it is a thing we should seek after.

We are not seeking after division, but division is something that the Lord even uses to divine and clarify truth for us. So that in his word and his work, he reveals to us in different amounts of clarity because the Lord's works are not as clear as his word.

They are sometimes much more difficult for us to interpret why a thing is occurring and what he is trying to do through that. It often is clarified over time, which we're gonna see later too. There is even a difference in clarity regarding who he has revealed his will to.

So let's look at 1 Corinthians 3 .1 for this. But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. Paul is pointing out to the people that he's speaking to that there is truth he has that he cannot give them, that is not gonna be helpful or understood by them because they are infants in Christ.

And so that even demonstrates immediately that there is difference between individuals in which they're not going to be able to understand God's will clearly. This is part of why it's good to be in a covenant community of Christians and differing levels of maturity so that we may be able to, those who are more mature, can help to guide others into greater maturity and greater understanding of the will that God's revealing to us.

Two quotes from the book to help clarify it too. Everything is received according to the ability and measure of the person receiving it. And also, one man's way is very plain before him. The other is ever and anon at a loss, dubious and uncertain what to do.

This is not strictly a distinction between the elect and the reprobate, those who know the Lord and those who do not, but this is true of all men in all camps. There is differing amounts of clarity that God gives to men.

God does not actually make all men equal in understanding and equal in ability to learn as one another. That's why he sets some above others as teachers. He sets others to follow. This is important for us to recognize.

There's also differences in the manner in which God will reveal his will to men. There's a lot of passages in 1 Samuel that he referenced here, so we're gonna go through each of them though. 1 Samuel 9 .15, now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel.

In 1 Samuel 23 .2, 4, and 9 through 12. Let's start with two. Therefore David inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, go and attack the Philistines and save Calah.

Verse four.

Then David inquired of the Lord again, and the Lord answered him, arise, go down to Calah, for I will give the Philistines into your hands. And then 1 Samuel 23 .9 through 12. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, bring the ephod here.

Then David said, oh Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Calah to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Calah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard?

Oh Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant. And the Lord said, he will come down. Then David said, will the men of Calah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, they will surrender to you.

They will surrender you. Now, he pointed this out to really help us recognize there is a clarity that they are given in the Old Testament, that certain men, especially, were given in the Old Testament that we do not have now, but there is also a level of clarity we have with the written word that they also did not have.

So there's clarity in the Lord's word coming directly to them as prophets, but then we have the clarity given by God's written word being gifted to us. So as he said, we are all standing on the rule of the written word, however, God can specifically make the way plain to individuals.

Let's look at Psalm 5 .8 for that. Lead me, oh Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies and make your way straight before me. So we should be able to expect that God will make the way plain, not at all times, but can do so.

It is not that God's will is always obscure. We should not only be looking for the obscure things, but rather, as we've been speaking, this is God's revealed will to man. We should actually expect within his mercies to get some kind of clarity on what he is doing, but to not expect that in all cases.

And providences may give secret hints and intimations of his will, but they are never going to be against the rule of scripture. Look at these passages in Job, they were very helpful. Job 23, eight through nine, and then also verse 12.

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him. On the left hand, when he was working, I do not behold him. He turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips.

I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food. So, as he points out, I go forward, the Lord is not there, backward, I do not perceive him. On the left hand, when he is working, I do not behold him.

He's pointing out that the Lord is present in the work, but it's not something he can see clearly. It's not something that's being presented to Job with obviousness, but rather, Job repeats to us that he is keeping the commandment of the Lord on his lips.

He's keeping that in his memory so that he will not go against God's own rule when trying to discern how the Lord is leading him. Now, with all that, there are some rules that John gave us to help us understand how to discover God's will then.

So, first and foremost, we must truly be fearful of God, as in we should be afraid to offend God. That's Psalm 25, 14. The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

Yes, Braden?

Absolutely.

He was before Abraham as well. So, the commandment of his lips, we at least have, right? So, we would understand, maybe from our confession, that the moral law is eternal, and even if one wants to argue that point, there is still even the law given to Noah in his covenant of, okay, if a man is killed, we have to have blood for blood.

In that case, don't eat blood. There's some things given to them as well. However, there's also even implicit law that you can see in man at that given point, like why was it wrong for Cain to kill Abel, right?

We would say, again, eternal moral law is why they would know that. That was actually given to Adam already. It's not something that comes up in the Mosaic law later. And so, we would assume that Job knows these things.

There's also the law of nature. There'd just be some things that they understand implicitly. Just, again, just connected to the moral law itself. Separately, you also have sacrifices already being given and understood how to be given by the point of Noah.

I mean, that was first given to Adam. So, Adam was presented some kind of understanding on how to give sacrifices. Obviously, Abraham understood this as well because he was giving sacrifices already. He understood what to do with his son Isaac, right?

Does that help?

Okay, okay.

Psalm 25, 14, did I read it?

Yes, I did.

He makes known to them his covenant. So, how can we apply this to the covenant that we know if we're not under the Mosaic law, right? We're not under the Mosaic covenant. We are, rather, under the covenant of grace.

And this is just true of all covenants that the Lord makes with us. These are known to us by also our fear of him. No man who is fearful of the Lord is not gonna be one who is held by the Lord. A proper fear of the Lord is also gonna be paired with a submission to him, a submission to our covenant with him.

And that would be a proper understanding of our covenant with him. So, as to being afraid of offending the Lord, we have to first be fearful of him. And now, another rule, be a student of the word, not a student of the world's interest and concern.

Psalm 119, 11, and Psalm 119, 105. Verse 11 first. I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. In 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. So, I really liked how he put it, like not being a student of the world's interest and concern.

There is much that the world tells us to be afraid of, as much as the world tells us is completely reasonable to not engage in, not to accept as true or not to accept as right. There's actually a lot that the Lord calls us, and especially in covenant communities, to do that make us uncomfortable.

But if it's what the word commands of us, then it's something that we must recognize as true. We were just talking at the table about people in counseling pointing out that, you know, I don't wanna, like I'm sparing the rod because I think it's better, and it's a question of the Lord himself says not to spare the rod, so do you believe that you know better than the Lord?

It applies to this as well. Do not be concerned with what the world says to be concerned with, but instead look to scripture and see how it actually tells you to behave. That's why he's telling you to store up the word in your heart, because if you do not understand the law, you do not understand the things that God is asking of you, you can still sin against him in that ignorance.

And so you should make yourself as aware as possible so you can be guided properly. Rule number three, turn your knowledge into practice. So let's look at John 7, 17 and Psalm 111, 10. John 7, 17 first, if anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.

So first start with that. Christ is trying to point out to them that they will understand the truth of his teaching, the truth of the words that he's giving them if they actually are seeking the Lord's will.

You can see this especially in his interactions with the Sadducees, his interactions with the Pharisees about these questions of the law that they bring him to confuse him. And instead he speaks authoritatively, he speaks in mysterious ways and ways to show him he has a greater understanding of the word than they do.

So Christ is asking them to recognize that the knowledge they have from the word, the knowledge they have should turn into doctrine and practice, it should turn into true understanding of what God has revealed to us.

In Psalm 111, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and all those who practice it have a good understanding, his praise endures forever. Notice that the fear of the Lord is the beginning, it's not the end result of your wisdom, it's not that you become wise enough in order to fear the Lord, it's that to even begin to be wise, you must first fear the Lord and that in and of itself calls you to practice and to gain an understanding.

So we should not be placing our trust and our fear in the Lord based on what we know about him, we have to do it in the other order, we have to trust and fear him first in order to even grow in the wisdom he wants to gift us.

Pray for God to illuminate the right path and to keep you from sin, that's Ezra 8 .21. Then I proclaim to fast there at the river Ahava that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children and all our goods.

Now they're asking for safe passage, we should be considering safe passage for our whole lives as we stay from sin. Staying from sin is not something we're gonna do out of our own will, it's not something we're gonna do out of our own goodness for we have none.

All we have is the spirit, which is to say we have everything. And so it's that practice in the spirit, the wisdom we're gonna gain from it, and the degree to which we actually are submitting to the Lord that's gonna keep us from sin.

And this is why it is a constant growth in our lives, it's something that's never going to end, this growth of wisdom which will keep us from sin. So we should expect the depravity of our flesh to stick around to some degree as Paul points out to us, but it's something that we can desire and succeed in running away from if we properly submit to the Lord.

This next one, there is no better way to phrase it than exactly how he wrote it, so we're just gonna quote from him. Follow providence so far as it agrees with the word and no further. So providence being the specific acts of God in our life, whether in affliction or in mercies, providence that comes after prayer and promises from the word are indeed evidences of God's faithfulness.

Looking to the Psalms for this, we're just gonna go ahead and skip on past those just because of time. And acts of providence work to provide clarity on the right and wrong of our current pathways. We have another quote from him.

When sad providences befall the church or ourselves, they call us to humiliation and let us know that then the command to humble ourselves at the feet of God is in force upon us. But let's look at these passages.

Micah 6, 9 in Ecclesiastes 7, 14. So Micah 6, 9 first. The voice of the Lord cries to the city and it is sound wisdom to fear your name. Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it. In Ecclesiastes 7, 14.

In the day of prosperity, be joyful. In the day of adversity, consider. God has made the one as well as the other so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. So remember, day of prosperity, day of adversity.

God has created both. God has created both for reasons, created both for the building up of man. And these are something that we should be seeking out his wisdom for. So again, we should be applying our own understanding of what God is doing for us upon what scripture tells us about it.

We are not to take the actions, the days of our lives and try to reinterpret what God is giving us in truth based on those things. We cannot learn more from the day than the word itself is providing us.

Waiting for Mercies and Trusting God's Timing

Moving on to the second case from this whole chapter. So the first case was how may a Christian discover the will of God in his own duty under dark and doubtful providences? Essential thing from there is to stay steeped in the word and to look at what is happening and sort of map it onto the word and see how it works.

But then now, how do we stay faithful and encouraged while we are awaiting the mercies that have been long prayed for? So say we understand that we should fear him, we understand that things are going to come to us in either which way and we should understand them, but how do we stay attached to the race?

How do we stay well fruitful when we are waiting for the things that we are praying for, when we are waiting for the things he has already promised to us as well? Which for some of us maybe is waiting for death itself.

How do we stay faithful while we are waiting for the promise of the covenant? So it is God's providence as well to delay providing us mercies long prayed for and again, a twofold understanding is helpful here.

The time and season is fixed by the Lord and the time and season is desired by man. To explain this a little bit more clearly, the time and season of the providence is absolutely fixed and determined by the Lord, but the time and season we desire, that is strictly for man.

So when I pray for something to occur for me, I have my own season and timing, I wish for that to occur in, but the Lord has his own timing. They may be aligned, but they may not as well. That is something he asks for us to discern and recognize about the things we ask.

So Acts 1 .7, he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. It's about as clear as day there. So God's season is perfectly precise and absolutely certain.

We can look at more examples of this in Exodus and also back in Acts again. So Exodus 12 .41, at the end of 430 years on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. So as God has prophesied, 430 years are going to pass before the Exodus itself.

This was promised a very, very long time beforehand. This is part of the covenant promise given to them. And Acts 7 .17, but as the time of the promised are near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, just supporting and uplifting this idea that they could look at the Exodus as a fulfillment of God's perfect time and perfect season.

And now on the desired timeframes of man, our disappointments that we endure are only because of our own timelines and only because of our own desires. There's so many passages for this. Let's see how many we can get through.

Jeremiah 7 .15, I will cast you out of my sight as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. Isaiah 55 .8, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

In 2 Peter 3 .9, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Habakkuk 2 .3, for still the vision awaits its appointed time.

It hastens to the end, it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it. It will surely come. It will not delay. If we focus on it will not delay, we have to consider what's the frame that this is being written from.

The frame is written from what God has appointed. God has appointed a time so it will absolutely not delay from that time as it will delay from your desire. So instead, we are called to constant patience.

We are called to constant reigning in of our own disappointments, of our own desires for how God will do things. This is necessary for any of us as we pray for good things and as we pray for the deliverance from bad things.

We need to understand that the timing is of the Lord. There's some specific reason for all of it, but it is also our job to discern and be patient while we wait for that. Now, while providence is delayed, it is true that we as Christians may be very, very disappointed.

That's Isaiah, there's many passages for this again. Isaiah 49, 13 through 14. Sing for joy, oh heavens and exult, oh earth break forth, oh mountains into singing for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me. I think this is clear enough to just use this passage. We are being told to sing and thank the Lord for how he comforts us, even in our affliction.

However, what is the response from Zion, God's people in this passage? Instead, their response is saying that the Lord has forsaken me and forgotten me. This is something we must reign in in ourselves.

But what is the nature of this thing? John points out that the nature of this is simply our unbelief being made manifest. So our unbelief is made manifest by our discouragement and only faith itself can actually relieve us from this.

This is also because, and as a lot of us in here are very much prone to do, we are measuring everything ourselves by our own rules of logic and our own senses. What we think is sensible, what we think is right, what we think is speedy, proper, we are thinking about this from our own standards.

And so if we look at, let's look at 2 Corinthians 4, 16 through 18 for that. So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal way of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. So this is more of a directing us towards how we should be perceiving the Lord. We're not to gauge him, measure him, measure his works by that which we ourselves alone can perceive.

There is the revealed will of God, as we've been speaking about, the revealed truth of God. But then there is also what actually undergirds that revealed truth of God, which is the secret will of God.

So we are to seek this thing, knowing we will not fully understand it, knowing that we should be instead following the commands of scripture as much as possible. This is how it's all circling together, which is that we submit ourselves to the rule of scripture as we discern God's providence and God's will for us, knowing it's undergirded by something we cannot properly understand.

Lastly in this part, Satan is oriented against us, working to orient our minds against God. This is what he did with Eve, this is what he did with Adam. He works to orient us against him as much as possible.

He asks the, he has questions of us that make us ourselves question the work and providence of God, make us wonder if God is truly good or not. This is a main way in which we are often discouraged. We should be working to know that he is the father of lies, not someone who should be trusted.

So again, overlay what you are thinking, feeling in your heart with how God is actually described in scripture. And within this section, he had 10 considerations that he gave us, which these are very quick and easy to run through.

First consideration, waiting on mercies does not validate your hard thoughts of God. Hard thoughts being harsh, incorrect, thoughts of him as a hateful and unloving father, right? So the good things that God gives are to those who walk uprightly.

This is not to say that prosperity gospel, God works only on those who follow him. And if you do well, he will always do perfectly well to you. But there is a kind of promise given to us that those who walk uprightly, those who seek the will of the Lord as much as they possibly can, those who submit to his work in them are going to be gifted even just greater, gifted greater faith, given greater comfort.

You see this in Psalm 84, 11. For the Lord God is a son and shield. The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Now, whenever you're starting to wonder and have hard thoughts of God, you need to consider for yourself whether or not the lack of good providences has to do with your own sin.

So if you're waiting for good things to come to you, you're praying for these good things that are not coming, and you're also actively engaged in sin, actively engaged in things that God hates, you should start to question if it's not provided for you because you are not ready.

You are not preparing yourself for the good thing that God is trying to give you. Instead, you should always be introspective about why this is not happening, not thinking it's transactional. Again, just because you get rid of the sin doesn't mean that God is now gonna immediately grant you what you've been asking for, but there is relation between it.

He wants to prepare you for the things that he wants to gift you, so you need to submit to that preparation. We are also told, yet again, unconditionally, that we will be experiencing troubles, and we should simply expect them.

Let's look at a few of these passages real quick, and then we'll go through the rest of the stuff. So John 16, 33, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

We think of the fruit of the spirit, and one of those is peace. He tells us that the way in which we will have peace is to accept the truth of tribulation, to accept the truth that on top of that, God in Christ has overtaken the world.

He has already dealt with the world. Yes, we live in sin still. We live in a broken creation, but we should be able to have peace. We should be able to have peace in what he has instituted, and peace in what is coming.

Acts 14, 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And in Psalm 91, 15, when he calls to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honor him. So God's promising his church tribulation, but he also promises to be present for us. He promises to rescue us. It's not that we're now in tribulations, therefore our salvation is questionable, our salvation that he has already won for us is questionable and loose in our hands, but rather it is something he has promised, but he has promised the tribulations to come with it as well.

Let's look at Romans 8, 28 before we go here. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. So for the elect, all things work towards God's good.

This goes again back to secret and revealed will in regards to being concerned with the good and evil, God's permitting evil. He permits evil for our own good and for our growths in some way. And it is part of our process of sanctification, part of the process of understanding the Lord better that we need to be discerning what he means for these things.

Now, second consideration. We are not promised all mercies. Jeremiah 32, 40. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me.

So this is what the Lord's promising. The Lord promises us what's in the covenant. He promises to give us fear. That fear does not mean that he is going to give us everything that he gives to all people.

And so with this, it just reminds me of something I hear. I've heard my whole life with prayer is that the way in which people speak about God answering prayer, I think is incredibly misguided or they mean something different than what they say.

They'll often say that the Lord is not answering my prayer because the Lord has said no to their prayer. The Lord always answers a prayer. It's in a different timing than you expect and maybe in a way you don't desire.

But yes, as growing up, I've mostly only heard the Lord answering prayer as the Lord responding with mercies to a prayer. When the Lord does respond with either affliction or simply a no if it was wrongfully asked for.

So God has not promised us every mercy that stirs up in our hearts. God has only promised the mercies that are, again, promised to us absolutely in his covenant. And also those things the spirit has rested upon our hearts because of our right fear before him.

A third consideration is really a question for ourselves. Are we desiring mercies for the right reason? James 4 .3, you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. Even if you're asking for deliverance from a sin for a sense of peace, is that sense of peace just so your mind can be stable and calm or is it a sense of peace because you actually wish to serve the Lord and make him happy?

Are you trying to just become, like are you trying to escape your sin only for your good and not also for the joy of the Father? Like that's a way in which we can ask wrongly.

Of a right thing.

Fourth consideration, are we submitted to God's will? Psalm 131 too. But I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. If we're submitted to the Lord's will, we would be as a child, we are calm and quiet.

But if we're not submitted to his will, we're tossed about frequently, we don't have a natural sense of peace about us. Fifth consideration, as God's people have waited, you also will wait. He points us to many examples through scripture where the Lord's people have always been told to wait.