All Things For Good: Chap 2 Pt. 1

The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly

Chapter two, the worst things work for good to the godly. It says, do not mistake me. I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are good, for they are a fruit of the curse. But though they are naturally evil, yet the wise overruling hand of God disposing and sanctifying them, they are morally good.

As the elements, though of contrary qualities, yet God has so tempered them that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe. Whereas in a watch, the wheels seem to move contrary to one another, but all carry on the motions of the watch.

So things that seem to move cross to the godly, yet by the wonderful providence of God work for their good. Among these worst things, there are four sad evils which work for good to those who love God.

So this is his introduction to the chapter, and I think we'll only get through one of those sad evils because he gives about 10 examples as he goes through it. But what we're seeing here is Watson recognizes that of course that there's evil in the world.

We understand that, I find myself saying to people, we understand the circumstances that are humanly speaking very bad, the reality is even divinely speaking, they're very bad. God says these things are bad, they're wicked, they're evil.

Sin, for example, in all its various manifestations, is wicked and judged by God, yet those who belong to him can find benefit in it, being sinned against and even learning from their sin. And so that's more or less the point of this chapter as we go through.

He mentions the elements, though of contrary qualities. And so I'm not sure if he's talking just about like earth, wind and fire and water, or maybe even more expansive view to the elements of our creation.

But these things working together, sometimes in excess or so we see or feel or think, can be destructive. We're dealing with hurricane season and these storms that are just ravaging the coast and the mainland and causing all sorts of damage and harm.

We think of fires and the wildfires going on on the West Coast just destroying property. Yet these things in themselves are a part of nature and God uses for good. I remember hearing years ago when our country started making national parks and trying to protect them so they would do everything they could to prevent forest fires and put out any fire that would occur.

And they thought we're doing this wonderful thing. And yet fire at times is actually a benefit to nature. It clears away disease and infestation of critters and stuff that could harm the trees. It gets rid of the underbrush and those things that are dead and decaying that can spark up and cause wildfires that cause even more damage.

So there's actually a number of different reasons why forest fires are at times healthy and beneficial to the environment. And so this sort of ideas, all of these things that they seem like they could be, oh, this is disaster, and yet God uses it for good, for the good of creation and more importantly for the good of us.

Pastor Anthony mentioned about the gears of a watch and how they turn in different directions and it seems counterintuitive that you would think that you want to go this way because the watch is supposed to go that way.

And yet all of these gears working together help keep time and do what is right. And so there are things that to us might seem counterintuitive. They might seem evil. They might seem all bad and how could God possibly make good out of this?

But of course, scripture tells us and Thomas Watson is gonna expound on it that there are evil that works for good for us as well.

God’s Affliction and Divine Providence

So God's affliction,.

The evil of affliction works for good to the godly. It is one heart quiet in consideration all the afflictions which befall us that God has a special hand in them. The almighty has afflicted me as it says in Ruth 121.

Instruments can no more stir until God gives them a commission than the ax can cut by itself without a hand. Job eyed God and his affliction. Therefore, as Augustine observes, he does not say the Lord gave and the devil took away but the Lord has taken away.

Whoever brings an affliction to us, it is God who sends it. This is something that has to be remembered and seldom is or it's even denied. I mean, I've heard, I'm sure you have as well, believers deny that God has anything to do with what we would say is evil in the world, any sort of devastation or catastrophe.

Oh, God has nothing to do with that. And if you read the Bible, that's simply not the case. God very much in all affliction, in every affliction, God has his hand in it. Instruments can no more stir until God gives them commission than the ax can cut by itself.

Or as we like to say today, guns don't kill people. People kill people. Guns are merely instruments in someone else's hands to do that which is good or bad depending on that person. But we know that God is always good.

So if he's purpose behind it, there is good for us to find. Augustine's observation in Job about the devil who takes away. Even though we recognize, if you read Job, the devil had his part to play, right?

He's the one who incited God. He's the one who accused and blamed. And he's the one who God gave permission. But again, God gave permission. It was all under his sovereign direction. And so whatever the affliction, God is the one who is sending that to us.

Good, we got a question. Go ahead.

So when I read the evil of affliction, I think is affliction necessarily evil coming from God? Because you can't really do evil. But first part, does it mean like the affliction that comes, is he talking about the affliction that comes from Satan?

Specifically in this?

I would say the affliction that comes from anything. There are aspects of living in a fallen world where we see what people would call an evil or a natural evil, a storm breaks out and people die. Well, it's not like someone came across and mugged you, shot you, something like that, where they're doing something evil.

But there is turmoil in the world and we are impacted by it in such a way that we can suffer. So there's that, but pretty much any affliction, we can say that it's evil. I mean, God says, does calamity come to the city and the Lord has not brought it?

So some translations would say evil. Has evil come to the city and the Lord has not brought it? And that evil could be, as we see often in the Old Testament, an enemy nation, marching on them and raiding and pillaging and leveling a city, taking away prisoners and leaving people dead.

That is a calamity. That is evil. And yet God has brought it. He's sovereign over it. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I think I was thinking more along the lines of like, let's say someone, for example, my skin condition that was, I believe God afflicted me with that for a purpose, but is it that it came, like, obviously, like, of course it came from God, but like in some scenarios, it's like God allowed it from another avenue.

So was that from God specifically himself? Like, where's the difference between him allowing it to happen through another avenue and him actually doing the work himself?

Yeah, that's a good question.

When I see the evil of affliction, I know he doesn't do evil because he can't do evil.

God does not sin, right?

Right, so like that's what was kind of confusing me.

Yeah, I think if you go, sorry, I'll get to you in a second, Erica. I think if you consider in the confession when it talks about God's decree and it talks, like God has decreed all things whatsoever comes to pass, God has decreed it.

So he has ordained it to happen. And yet there's first and second causes. God has a first cause, he has decreed that it happens, and yet he's not violating people's, their will in those second causes.

He utilizes people as his instruments, but if someone, we'll go back to the condition of your skin in a second, but if someone came in and did harm to you, like that person is guilty, they did it of their own volition.

God didn't have to put a gun to their head and say, you know, go hurt so-and-so. They did it because they wanted to, and yet God decreed it to be. So they have the guilt because they wanted to sin. God, in the case of those who are his specifically, he's going to use that for your good.

And ultimately, we're talking about Romans 8 .28, your ultimate good is to be conformed to the image of the son, right? To Jesus Christ. And God is going to use that in one way or another. So the skin condition is part of living in a fallen world.

You know, we have people who are born with birth defects. We have people who get, you know, they're sick, there's disease in the world. Sometimes it's the genetic thing. Sometimes it's stuff that's just out there, and you don't want to be catching it and it affects us.

So these are the, these things are the result of living in a fallen world. And so God has decreed it, he's brought it about, and he's using it for his purpose. Does that answer?

Yeah, I'm starting to understand more.

Okay.

Because like, since we're living in a fallen world, like obviously, like, he hasn't, you know, like, when we have our new bodies and we are going to be living as we ought to live in glory, there's not going to be pain, that's how we intend it to be.

It's just that, yeah, he's using the evil from like fallenness, skin disease, or whatever, for my good.

Yes.

Basically, not necessarily that he is distributing evil from himself, but this, you know?

Right, right. We have to kind of fall back, poor Erika. Do you want?

It pertains to what she's saying.

Okay, all right, go ahead.

Okay, so I was thinking about how it mentions a curse and how, you know, I think about how the consequence of sin was death, but then how the curse, it entailed more than just death. It had effects on all different parts of nature.

And so when I look at evil, I'm kind of seeing it as how the earth was cursed, and therefore, you know, maybe sickness, disease, whatever it is, just kind of a result of that curse that was put on us.

But in the same essence, that is actually justice because we deserved it, we deserved the curse. And so then, so that's kind of how I've been processing it.

But yeah, that makes sense.

And then after that, I did have a question that goes along with this.

Sure.

Do you think that, so in a way, all things that we might be identifying as evil, if they're part of this curse, that means it is technically not the volition of man, so like man's choices, like that's of their own selves, but in terms of the curse itself, it's kind of like a carrying out of God's justice and therefore, it's coming from God.

Yeah, I mean.

Do you think there's a separation? Is everything part of the curse, or is there some stuff that is just like a natural evil?

Okay.

I'll get around to answering you eventually, but Cameron and then.

I was just gonna say perspective is important to remember. What's evil, the infliction being evil to us as fallen creatures who are experiencing a fallen world is different than the purposes that God has behind those things.

It's just important to remember that. The evil of infliction, affliction to us does come across as evil, but we know that God uses all things and works them for the good of his people. I would say that every single thing that happens in the world, every event, every moment has two intents behind it.

God has an intent for that moment, and man has an intent for that moment. God's intent for every single moment.

Is for good and for his glory.

Man's intent, unrestrained by God, is for evil.

So if somebody was to murder someone else, the intent of that murderer is evil. God has a good intent in allowing that to happen.

Where do we see that displayed fully?

The cross.

Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Jews, the Romans,.

All put Jesus on the cross.

Arguably the greatest evil.

That could ever have been perpetrated. Was God behind that?

It was predestined, foreordained to happen. Did God intend it for good?

Yes.

Did man intend it for evil?

Yes.

So every single incident that happens in the world, man has an intent in it, and God has an intent in it. Ultimately, God's intent is going to win. He allows, permits, decrees this evil for his glory.

We see that in Romans 9.

God raised Pharaoh up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in him.

So some people say, well, why would God decree evil?

To display all of his attributes.

To the riches of those whom he had mercy. We see what happens to the Pharaoh,.

And how God hardens his heart, and pours out his wrath on him,.

And then we recognize, that could be me.

God is merciful to me.

My goodness, right?

So this is all God's fear. Everything that happens here is somehow, someway, reflecting the glory of God to all of us. If you're not enlightened by the spirit, you're gonna look at this and say, God's a monster.

How could he possibly do something like that? He caused the Holocaust? He decreed it. The Germans were the ones who had an evil intent in that.

God's intent in that was good, for a good purpose.

Right.

As you'll see. So, right. I mean, we're gonna see a couple examples that Thomas Watson shares, and just a couple. They're already on there. And then following, there's some more. But to try to wrap that around, as far as perspective, and how we see these things.

And keep in mind, I think sometimes, when we think of evil, we're thinking like, malice. Like, malicious intent. Evil could be spoken of as like, that which is bad. Like I said, a natural disaster, could be considered an evil.

It could be considered a calamity. It's a bad thing, humanly speaking, right? It's a bad thing if a storm rolls through and people are left homeless, or people are killed in it. On the other hand, as Erica mentioned, we deserve death, right?

We, through our federal head, Adam, we brought sin into the world. And so, the world is cursed because of us. The whole creation groans, right? And is waiting for that final redemption. So, we have all sorts of things that we're dealing with in the fallen world.

I had preached a while back, think out of Amos, and talking about judgment and justice. And something that we should realize, when we see the evils of this day, when we see the bad things happening, whether it's sort of beyond us, like it's not one man doing it to another man, but it could be our sickness, it could be any number of health issues, medical concerns.

When we see that, we should recognize, we deserve death, right? And for those of us who are saved, we should glory that one day this will be no more, that there will be no more pain and suffering, there will be no more tears, no more death.

But we should use it as a warning, like you think this is bad. This is just a foretaste of the judgment to come that never ends. And we recognize how we groan under this, and how we suffer under this, and how our heart breaks under this.

Repent and turn to Christ, or this is only gonna get worse for you. Comments have been made about Joel Osteen and your best life now. I think it was MacArthur who says, if you're living your best life now, you're going to hell, right?

You don't want this to be your best life. You want the best as something that's yet to come. But if you're not saved, whatever happens is actually better than what's coming.

Joel?

Yes, so I think maybe the insurance companies either figured it out or think they figured it out, by calling things an act of God. We used to get angry with that, oh, God doesn't, you know, pour his narc, eight to nocturne chimney down, or whatever, but did it happen, did it happen?

What is it that, you might know, when God is blamed for a disaster, they won't pay. Is that why they say it?

They don't really call it acts of God anymore.

Earthquake is excluded, you know, windstorm.

Once upon a time, it was acts of God. Their theology has gotten worse. They were the holdouts. Another heart-quieting consideration is that afflictions weren't for good. I have sent them into captivity for their own good, Jeremiah 24, six.

Judah's captivity in Babylon was for their good. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, Psalm 119, 71. This text, like Moses' tree, cast into the bitter waters of affliction, may make them sweet and wholesome to drink.

Afflictions to the godly are medicinal. Medicinal, I know. I can always depend on my wife to help me out. Thank you, sweetie. Out of the most poisonous drugs, God extracts our salvation. I'm not gonna add a comment to that.

So, Jeremiah 24, six. He has sent them into captivity, but the Lord has good plans for them, right? And this is something that we see again in the New Testament, Hebrews 12. The Lord disciplines for our good.

He chastens his children, and he'll refer to that later on as well. Psalm 119, 71, it is good that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. How important is it for us to be driven back to his word?

And those afflictions tend to drive us back to the word. If we belong to him, that should be the source that we're running to for relief, for understanding, for some solution to what's going on. And yes, medicine.

The poisonous drugs used by God to extract our salvation. And you think of Christ, think of those who have come to him because they had nowhere else to go. I mean, there's people who, when they hit rock bottom, now they're finally looking to the Lord.

And then there are those who are his, who perhaps have been ignoring him. They've been just living life their own way and not considering that they are under the lordship of Jesus Christ. And afflictions are what brings them to remember they have to lean on him.

It brings them to their knees in prayer. So these are good things. God uses afflictions to help us. Yes, sir.

Just a comment on the poisonous drugs. The analogy there is that many poisonous items when put together in the right mixture is good for us.

Right, a cordial watch and cause, right?

Right, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. These things are in and of themselves. They could kill you, but when the master pharmacist puts them together, they will save you. Afflictions are as needful as ordinances, 1 Peter 1 .6.

No vessel can be made of gold without fire. So it is impossible that we should be made vessels of honor unless we are melted and refined in the furnace of affliction. All paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, Psalm 35 .10.

As the painter intermixes bright colors with dark shadows, so the wise God mixes mercy with judgment. Those afflictive providences, which seem to be harmful, are beneficial. Let us take some instances in scripture.

1 Peter 1 .6, if you haven't gone to check that out yourself, it points out that, Peter's pointing out that it's at times necessary for them to suffer, being grieved by various trials. And yet at the same time, he's calling us to rejoice.

But when he says that, it's necessary for you to suffer, to be grieved. It's necessary, God uses it. It's actually Psalm 25 .10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, just as the painter uses bright colors with dark shadows for contrast and depth and beauty, so the Lord uses affliction to bring about beauty.

So it's not 35 .10?

No, it's 25 .10. Okay, so we have some examples. Any questions, just raise your hand or call out if I'm not looking up. So we have Genesis 50, verse 20. Joseph's brethren threw him into the pit and afterwards they sell him.

Then he is cast into prison, yet all this did work for his good. His abasement made way for advancement. He was the second man in the kingdom. You thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.

Amen, right, that's right.

That's one of the most famous, we think of when things are going bad, but God is using it for good. Yes, sir.

When so many people, especially Armenians,.

They say, well, yeah, Joseph meant it for evil, but God used it for good.

And it's so important to show them.

God didn't just use it for good.

He intended it for good.

He had an intent in that action. He was part and parcel of that.

It wasn't that, oh, he just took something that we did.

And turned it around and broke it out of it.

He intended that to happen, that meant it.

Yeah, that's a good point. There's a lot of people who are thinking that God is somehow trying to play catch up. He's over there trying to clean up all the messes as we do it and just trying to, oh, at the end of the day, it'll work out.

God doesn't play catch up with us, right? He's not over there caught by surprise and then getting all the angels out with the mop and broom to clean stuff up. Yeah, there's no plan Bs in God's world, in his creation.

He's controlling all of it. He's intending all of it.

John?

Yeah, I'm just trying to remember who he said it to, but he said what was gonna happen, that they would be brought into captivity.

He told Abraham.

It was, yeah, exactly, Abraham.

He told Abraham that your descendants would be slaves and for hundreds of years, and then they would be released. I mean, so God was not taken surprised. Even before Joseph and his brothers were even born, he told them what would happen.

And he was like, I don't know how it's gonna happen without seeing it. You know, he has decreed it. So yes, good point. Prophecy is excellent for that. I don't know how people can be open theists, just thinking God's only got sort of a sketchy idea of what the future is.

But prophecies, you can't really know for sure unless it happens. He's just, I guess, a really good guesser.

Bizarre.

But we are hard-hearted. We are in unbelief at times. Genesis 32, 30. Jacob wrestled with the angel, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was put out of joint. This was said, but God turned it to good, for there he saw God's face, and there God blessed him.

Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face. Who would not be willing to have a bone out of joint so that he might have sight of God? Man, oh man. I was preaching about angels, well, preaching about Jesus on Sunday, about he's there, and this is the pre-incarnate Christ, the angel of the Lord, wrestling with Jacob.

He says, why do you ask my name? You know who this is, right? And when we struggle, when we struggle in prayer, when we struggle through our circumstances, and realizing God is, God is with us in that, we're actually closer to him.

I think of when Pastor was going through the Gospel of John, and he talked about the man born blind. I'm like, did this man sin, or his parents? He goes, neither. This was done to bring glory to the Lord.

I'm like, he was blind for 40 years? So Jesus, I was like, I bet he's still telling that story in heaven, right? If you asked him today, what do you think of what God did? He'd probably be beside himself.

The first thing I got to see was Jesus. That's amazing, right? And so in our trials, the fact that we can see God in them, we should rejoice. Job was a spectacle of misery. He lost all that he ever had.

He abounded only in boils and ulcers. This was sad, but it wrought for his good. His grace was proved and improved. God gave a testimony from heaven of his integrity, and did compensate his loss by giving him twice as much as he ever had before.

And that was in Job 42 .10. Yeah, we have, careful with some of these. Some of these, I don't know what happened.

I'm just cutting and pasting, I promise.

I don't know what version he got, the PDF. Because actually, I just happened to pick up the Kindle, because I think I was able to get it for free. It was 99 cents, and they gave it to me for free for Amazon Prime or something.

And I was like, that's not right. But I figured one of them had to be right, so I was flipping, and I found it. But looking on Kindle helped make it easier. So that's where it references that he received back twice as much as he had lost.

And we all know, I hope, the story of Job. He was a godly man who was blessed by God in his life and went through a short time. Short time, but probably felt like eternity to him, to lose everything he had, his wealth, his business, then his children, and then his health.

It probably felt like forever. I mean, he talks about how when it's daytime, he can't wait for the night. When the night comes, he can't wait for the day, and he's just in misery and agony. He was severely afflicted.

And yet the Lord used it to further sanctify him. His grace was proved. I mean, here was, God was actually bragging on him to Satan, to the accuser. Have you seen my servant Job? And though he went through tough times, he still worshiped God.

He still said that it's the Lord who gives and the Lord takes away, and he worshiped him. But as we proceed through the book of Job, you see he has some stuff he has to deal with, that when things are hard, he struggles, he complains, he wants answers, he forgets who he is, and God comes in his mercy and reminds him who he is.

But he was sanctified through that.

I think Job is a good example of some of the things that we were talking about earlier, where, I mean, it's Satan who afflicts Job. Right, like God removes his restraint on Satan and allows the affliction, but we know God decreed that and intended it for Job's good and for his own glory.

But it is an evil affliction.

It's coming from Satan.

Absolutely.

But it's intended for good, and it is part of God's decree.

There you go. Yep, that's a perfect example. And we know that there are times, like in here, Job's case, and Job's friends didn't get it. They thought, you must have done something really bad, and it's time to confess, right?

But James says, maybe that is the case. You always wanna examine yourself. You always want to look into your heart and consider your life and see, have I been in sin and neglected it? Have I been hard-hearted?

Have I not repented of sin? It's always good to consider, because James says, if you're sick and you go to the elders and you confess your sins, you'll be healed. So sometimes God does use it out of your own sin, your own evil, to afflict you, to remind you to go to him.

Affliction can be a form of judgment.

What?

Affliction can be a form of judgment.

Yes, absolutely. So, for Job, his grace was proved and improved, and the Lord doubled his blessings. This is a fascinating one. King Manasseh was bound in chains. This was sad to see. A crown of gold changed into fetters, but it wrought for his good, for so the Lord sent the Assyrian armies, and they took Manasseh prisoner.

They put a ring through his nose, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon. But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the Lord, his God, and cried out humbly to the God of his ancestors.

And when he prayed, the Lord listened to him and was moved by his request for help. That's 2 Chronicles 33, 11 to 13. He was more indebted to his iron chain than to his golden crown. The one made him proud, the other made him humble.

And if you read through 2 Chronicles 33, and if you read through 2 Kings 21, these are two chapters that give detailed account about Manasseh, he was a wicked king. His father was Hezekiah, who, you know, we're going through that in Sunday school with Lawrence going through the book of Micah.

And Hezekiah, when you read, starting in 2 Chronicles 29, says Hezekiah was a good king. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. He was not without his flaws, his faults. He made some bad decisions.

He didn't always listen to the prophets. And at the end, he was kind of prideful, you know, in how he handled things. And yet, the overall scope of his life was that he was a good king. And unfortunately, there was few and far between of those.

But Manasseh, Manasseh was a wicked king. And it talks about how he did more evil and he got the people to sin in more ways than the people had ever sinned before. And it's just, it's a very, it's a tough verdict that's laid down on him.

But of course, we know it's a just verdict. And here, when he goes to captivity, he humbles himself and repents. So much so that the Lord is moved. The Lord had him taken by a ring through his nose. That was one of those little cute ones.

That was a little stud. He had like a fish hook through his nose and marched him back to Assyria, right? He was totally humiliated. And yet God forgave him and allowed him to be sent back to Jerusalem.

And then he starts towering down. And this wasn't just like, oh, God, get me out of this mess and all. No, when he went back, he started tearing down the high places and dealing with the idolatry that was in the land.

He had a genuine repentance.

Joe?

What was that reference, Kings, Manasseh?

Second Kings, chapter 21. Yeah, if you read through, you'll hear about Manasseh. So it's good for us to remember. Is he laughing?

I don't know why. Okay.

It's good for us to remember stories like this because we have a tendency to sometimes write people off. If you saw Manasseh on CNN, and he was like, you know, in a position of high authority, he'd be like, there's no way that dude's ever getting saved, right?

There's just no way. And we tend to write people off. And I'm sure there's people in politics today that we would say, I just don't see it happening. You would take a miracle of God. Well, God's in the business of doing miracles, and he does save.