July 6, 2015 ISI Radio Show with Mike Gaydosh on “The Providence of God” Part 2

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Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,

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Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, We are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with, and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

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Now, here's our host, Chris Arntzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth, listening via live streaming.

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This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron, wishing you all a happy Monday on this 6th day of July 2015, after probably one of the most depressing and solemn

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Independence Day weekends that I've ever experienced in my life due to the recent horrific decision of the

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Supreme Court of the United States on same -sex marriage, which caused many to doubt whether or not we should be celebrating

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Independence Day. And in fact, many Christians did more than just doubt.

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They in protest refused to celebrate. But that's not what we're talking about today. We are talking about the providence of God with our guest,

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Michael Gaydosh, who is the founder of Solid Ground Christian Books, and he is also my very first pastor of some thirty years ago.

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He immersed me in the waters of baptism and was my very first pastor as a born -again

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Christian. And today, providentially, is also the 600th anniversary of the execution of John Hus, also known as Jan Hus, his execution by the

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Roman Catholic Church. John Hus was burned at the stake with pages from Wycliffe's Bible translation used as kindling for the fire.

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And Hus's last words before entering glory for eternity with Christ were,

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In one hundred years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.

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And providentially, approximately one hundred years after Hus uttered those last words of his, the great reformer

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Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, sparking the flames of the

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Protestant Reformation. But it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to further discuss our conversation on the providence of God, Mike Gaydosh.

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Good to be with you once again, Chris. I really appreciated the first time we were able to be together, and I'm very thankful that we are able to also celebrate

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John Hus and his life and his martyrdom. What a blessing it is to be able to see the hand of God even again and the providence of God to fulfill that almost prophetic word that Hus spoke at his death.

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And I understand that Solid Ground Christian Books actually has a biography of Hus that you make available.

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Yes. Just a couple of years ago, we did a trilogy of reformers, some of the lesser known reformers,

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William Farrell, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Hus. And John Hus, we entitled his book

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The John the Baptist of the Reformation. And then Elijah of the Alps is the story of William Farrell.

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And then Ulrich Zwingli, The Patriotic Reformer. And so we have all three of those available at this time, a trilogy actually, for a very discounted price.

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John the Baptist of the Reformation, a memoir of John Hus, the bohemian reformer and martyr. Well, I'm sure that Laurie Jean Farrell is very honored that you've published a book in honor of her husband,

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William. That's actually an insult. Well, I married them. I married Laurie Jean, so I suppose that was appropriate for me to do that.

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But they don't spell the name exactly the same, though. Okay. One R, one L. And that was just an inside joke for those of you who are listening.

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Bill Farrell was a beloved deacon of Calvary Baptist Church and then

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Grace Reformed Baptist Church following that, and may still be. I don't know for certain if he's a deacon there, but here's a shout out to both

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Bill and Laurie Jean. But we started the conversation on God's providence, and it would probably be helpful if you, for those of our listeners who missed that interview, if you could define, once again, providence in a theological sense.

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And I will also let our listeners know our email address if you have any questions for our guest,

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Mike Gaydosh of Solid Grand Christian Books. If you have any questions on God's providence or about his publishing ministry, our email address is

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ChrisArnzen at gmail .com. That's C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

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So if you could go ahead with a definition of providence. The Baptist catechism, which is based upon the

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Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Shorter Catechism states, what are God's works of providence?

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God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.

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I'd like to add a few more things that I was able to dig up since we spoke last time by J .I.

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Packer. He has an outstanding little article in the New Bible Dictionary, which is not new at all.

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I actually have a copy probably from the 70s. In that article, he begins by saying, providence is normally defined in Christian theology as the unceasing activity of the creator, whereby in overflowing bounty and goodwill, he upholds his creatures in ordered existence, guides and governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angels and men, and directs everything to its appointed goal for his own glory.

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He goes on and says many other things. Maybe we can look at those as we go along here.

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But that's basically what we're talking about. We're saying that God is in charge,

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God is sovereign, and the divine sovereignty of God is displayed in the hand of God ordering all the events that take place.

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And I think it's important, Chris, since you brought up the... I don't refer to them any longer as the

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Supreme Court. I just call them the highest court, our highest court. Truly, the

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Supreme Court obviously is in heaven. And so we rest in truly the

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Supreme Court. And our highest earthly court is the one that made the decision.

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But we need to remember in chapter 21, verse 1 of Proverbs, and this is a perfect passage for this time, the king's heart is like the channels of water in the hand of the

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Lord. He turns it wherever he wishes. Now, in that passage, he turns it wherever he wishes.

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The he, in both cases, is not the king, of course, but is the Lord, who is the king of kings and the

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Lord of lords. And so even though we are disappointed, even though we, in some cases, can be brokenhearted about decisions that are being made on an earthly level, we also recognize that the hand of God has not been removed.

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His blessing, his hand of blessing appears to be being removed from our country for sure. He appears to be giving us over or turning us over as a nation to those things which man desires, every man doing what is right in his own eyes, which, of course, is what happened in Israel when they had no king.

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That is, when there was no king that represented God, when every man did what was right in his own eyes, and that is precisely what we see happening in our country today.

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We actually have a listener all the way from Dublin, Ireland, Joe, who writes a question.

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In fact, I don't think Joe will mind if I give his last name. Joe Riley, who, as it turns out, is one of our most loyal listeners from back in the original years of Iron Sharpens Iron, between 2006 and 2011, who faithfully listened and even called in during the broadcast a couple of times.

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And I'm thankful to God that Joe is once again listening to our program and spreading the word about it in Ireland.

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And Joe asks, can you please ask your guests to explain how

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Satan's schemes are used by God in his providence for his own glory?

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And, of course, the his is capitalized H, so obviously he's referring to God's own glory.

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And that's an excellent question, which really dovetails off what you were just saying.

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Yeah, I think that one of the passages that has helped me in this matter is the case that is described in Romans 9, and it is the issue of God raising up Pharaoh.

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And I believe that the raising up of Pharaoh is truly a picture of the raising up of Satan himself.

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And when you look at the language that is used, for instance, in verse 14, we read,

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What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? Of course, Paul responds, May it never be, or God forbid,

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Meganoito. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy. I will have compassion on whom

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I have compassion. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

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For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

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So then he has mercy on whom he desires, he hardens whom he desires. Well those very words, when you go back and look at the original speaking of those words by Moses, it was through Moses, but it is here called the scripture, says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose

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I raised you up. Well, I don't see how we could possibly not be able to apply that passage and those very words to the one who was behind Pharaoh, which is

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Satan himself. And so we have, For this very purpose I raised you up, in order to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.

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I think when you look at the book of Revelation, and you see how God's victory over the serpent, and God's final culmination of casting the serpent into the fiery furnace forever and ever, all of those images let us know that God is in charge of everything that happens, even what

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Satan does, everything that he seeks to do to thwart the purpose of God, in the end will ultimately bring glory to God.

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The greatest injustice that's ever been done in human history was the crucifixion of the

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Son of God. The only sinless person who ever walked the face of the earth was put to death on trumped -up charges.

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And if there ever seemed to be a time when God was not in control, when it seemed as if Satan was the one gaining the victory, if there was ever a time when it appeared as if the evil one was the one who was going to get the last word, this is what we are told.

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And men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which

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God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know this man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.

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You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death, but God raised him up again.

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And then in Acts chapter 4, when they go, they've been warned that they're going to be beaten and even put to death, that they continue to preach and they come back to the people of God and they share with them what they've been told.

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And what did they do? They cried out to God and they said, O Lord, it is thou that makest the heaven and the earth to see and all that is in them, who by the

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Holy Spirit through the mouth of our father David thy servant did say, Why did the nations rage and the peoples devise futile things?

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The kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For truly in this city they were gathered together against thy holy servant

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Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever thy hand and thy purpose predestined to occur.

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And now, Lord, take note of their threats. Grant that thy bondservants may speak thy word with all confidence, while thou dost extend thy hand to heal and signs and wonders take place through the name of thy holy servant

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Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were filled with the

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Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. Here in these two passages in Acts 2 and Acts 4 we see that the supreme act of Satan in seeking to destroy the work of God was actually the supreme work of God in destroying the plans of Satan.

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So we argue from the greater to the lesser. Just as our Lord says, not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the will of your

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Father in heaven, the very hairs of your head are all numbered, therefore do not fear, men, what they can do to you.

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And so you have there the argument from the lesser to the greater and from the greater to the lesser. You have the greatest event in human history that God was fully in charge of and he is also fully in charge of all the smaller things as well.

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So how God brings glory to his name through the work of Satan is in an almost infinite variety of ways because we have a

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God of infinite wisdom who is able to take all of these things and put them all together in a way that will bring him glory and will bring good to his people.

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You know, I don't know if you're aware of any biblical evidence that Satan knew that his plans to bring all of humanity to hell with him were going to be thwarted by the cross of Christ.

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I don't know if he was aware that he was actually aiding in destroying his own plans by possessing

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Judas and having everything fall into place for Christ to be executed. But it's interesting that in Matthew 8, the demons seem to know something about their future when they cried out to Christ, What do you want with us,

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Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?

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They obviously knew that hell awaited them. So do you know if Satan was aware that his very aiding in the orchestration of Christ's death was going to destroy his plan to bring all of humanity to hell?

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Yeah, I really don't know. I don't know that there may be somebody that has an answer to that.

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I don't know myself for sure. I would think that the answer would be no, that he didn't know, that he did not realize that what he was doing was actually ultimately going to fulfill the purpose of God.

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He knew something, but how much he knew and understood, of course, the

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Scriptures were readily available. They would have been available to Satan as well. Isaiah 53 would have been available for Satan to read, whether or not he would understand the spiritual fulfillment of that in Christ.

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Psalm 22 and many other passages as well. I don't know.

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I just don't know that the Scriptures really make that clear to us, but one thing is certain that all that God does, he does for a purpose.

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Now, at the same time, I think it's important not to go to a position of fatalism where we would basically say, whatever will be, will be, which of course ultimately can bring one to hyper -Calvinism where a person doesn't have to witness because obviously whoever

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God has chosen to be saved will be saved whether I witness to them or not. Once we begin to fall into that kind of logic, which truly is evil logic, we are putting ourselves in a very dangerous position.

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I think it's important for us to remember, for instance, what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2.

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You recall in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians, he urged the people to put an immoral man out from their midst, a so -called brother who was committing an immoral act with,

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I believe it was his stepmother, and he was to be put out of the church, and apparently they did listen to Paul.

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But then came 2 Corinthians, and in 2 Corinthians Paul urges them to welcome him back into the fellowship because he apparently had come to repentance, but now they had apparently made it difficult or had actually kept their stiff arm in the man's face and had not allowed him to come back even though he had repented.

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And Paul urges them to welcome him back, and then he adds the words,

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But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also for indeed what I have forgiven. If I have forgiven anything,

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I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

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Now, here's the apostle Paul putting into practice this whole situation and saying we are not ignorant of Satan's devices, his schemes, and as a result of knowing his schemes, on the one hand, he'll push us to the place where we'll tolerate immorality.

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That's one extreme. But then, on the other extreme, we're not willing to forgive the repentant who have repented of their immorality, and that's going to the other extreme.

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And Satan, as many have described, Satan doesn't care which side of the horse we fall off as long as we fall off the horse.

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And so we have to be mindful of Satan's schemes. We have to be responsible for understanding how he operates.

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But in the end, we recognize that, in fact, now might be a good time to insert a couple of things that Packard said that I think are really, really helpful.

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Can I take a moment to just read those? Absolutely not. Okay. Go definitely.

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Go ahead. Okay. What I had read by Packard earlier where he says he directs everything to its appointed goal for its own glory, he then adds this.

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This view of God's relation to the world must be distinguished from seven errors.

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The first, pantheism, which absorbs the world into God. Second, theism, which cuts it off from him.

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That's the doctrine that God basically created the world, wound it up like a clock, and then stepped away, and the world is just running by his natural order, as it were.

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The third is dualism, which divides control of it between God and another power, usually, of course,

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Satan. And then fourth, indeterminism, which holds that it is under no control at all.

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Fifth, determinism, which posits a control of a kind that destroys man's moral responsibility.

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Sixth, the doctrine of chance, that denies the controlling power to be a rational being.

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And then finally, fate, the doctrine which denies the controlling power to be benevolent.

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We believe that God's providence is not chance, it's not fate. We don't speak about a person having good luck.

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As Christians, we are very mindful of the way that people speak nowadays about luck, and about chance, and about fate.

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We hear people talking all the time about Mother Nature, or the golf gods.

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If you're watching, it's very rare to watch a PGA event where the announcer doesn't at some point say the golfing gods smiled upon him, or the golfing gods didn't smile upon him here or there.

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And again, these are all ways that people are now talking about the providence of God, which are in very ungodly ways.

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And I'm sure that at least one of those categories would fit perfectly for Rabbi Kushner.

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A lot of people today, especially younger people, have no idea who that is, but back in the 80s,

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I believe, or early 90s, he was a much more well -known figure. He wrote a book,

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Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. And the doctrines of grace would be on the polar opposite of that view, that God is actually ordaining and orchestrating things, even that we view as horrific, in fact, things that are horrific.

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This is a difficult thing to explain, the theodicy, as it's called, how we reconcile the existence of unspeakable, brutal, torturous evil with a loving and merciful

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God being in control and sitting on his throne. These are not easy things to discuss.

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And of course, in conversation with our friends, neighbors, and loved ones, the issues of the

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Holocaust come up, and of course, since 9 -11, when we had the horrific events at the

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World Trade Center and the Pentagon building occur, the hands of terrorists, we who believe in the sovereignty of God have to begin to address these things.

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Now, if you could explain, first of all, how does

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God even hold these men, these evil men like the Nazis and like the Islamic terrorists, how does he hold them responsible if he is the one who indeed has preordained such horrific events, and why on earth would he do those?

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Why on earth would he preordain such events? Well, why and how

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God is going to ultimately bring glory to his own name through this ultimately depends on our faith, entrusting in what

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God has said. In other words, we can't understand. We simply do not have the ability to comprehend.

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But I have no problem with that because the Bible tells us that God's ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, infinitely higher than our thoughts, and therefore, the fact that we can't comprehend how

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God can bring good out of these evil events, again,

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I think the only thing that's helped me through the years is always going back, once again, as I said earlier, to the most horrific event in human history, the most unjust event in human history.

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Now, because people have become so accustomed to the cross, because people have become so accustomed to that, and people would tend to say, well, the killing of 500 martyrs at this point or 3 ,000 or 200 here or whatever, well, that's worse than what happened on the cross.

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Well, no, it's not. What's the value of a sinless God -man in comparison with any number of human beings?

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There is no comparison. And so whether it be the Holocaust, whether it be 9 -11, any of these things, was

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God in charge of those things? Absolutely he was. Does that mean God was approved of those things?

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Absolutely not. These are horrific things, horrific sinful things that God doesn't approve of, and how that can work out in the purpose and plan of God, frankly, we cannot explain it.

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But I, again, have no problem because when we look at the language of Paul in Romans 11, 33 -36, we read,

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O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and unfathomable his ways!

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For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became his counselor? Who has first given to him that it might be paid back to him again?

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For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever.

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Amen. I think that as we try to understand these things, we need to realize that unbelievers will not be able to grasp this, because they can't.

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It's impossible. We as believers struggle with it. We struggle with trying to understand how can a good

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God, how can a great God, a God who is both good and great, how can he permit, how can he allow, whatever the language you want to use, how can he allow these things to take place that are so evil, that are so horrific.

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Now, Packer, again, in this material that I've reproduced here for myself, he says this about providence and human freedom, and I think this is very important.

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He says a lot in few words. God rules the hearts and actions of all men.

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And he quotes Proverbs 21 .1, which I just quoted earlier, the heart of the king. Often for purposes of his own, which they do not suspect.

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And he cross -references the words of Joseph to his brothers. You meant it for evil.

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God meant it for good. And God's control is absolute in the sense that men do only that which he has ordained that they should do.

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Yet, they are truly free agents in the sense that their decisions are their own, and they are morally responsible for them.

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Compare Deuteronomy 30, verses 15 and following. A distinction must be drawn between God's allowing, and then he puts in parenthesis, or giving up sinners to practice the evil that they have preferred.

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And then he quotes Psalm 81 .12 and following. Acts 14 .16, where he allowed nations to go their own way.

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And Romans 1 .24 -28, where it says God gave them up, or gave them over, to practice things that are unbecoming, and that included homosexuality.

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And his gracious work of prompting his people to willing to do what he commands, Philippians 2 .13.

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In the former case, according to the biblical rule of judgment, the blame for the evil belongs entirely to the sinner.

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Luke 22 .22, that's with Judas. Whereas in the latter case, the praise for the good done must be given to God.

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1 Corinthians 15 .10, that's where Paul says, I labored harder than all the rest, and yet not

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I, but the grace of God that was in me. And so, we come to...

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We are only able to go so far, Chris. We can only go so far as revelation will give us.

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God has revealed these things to us, that he has ordained all of these things. He will bring it all to pass in the end.

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And I believe that John Calvin hit the nail on the head when he said that all of these horrific things, the

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Holocaust and 9 -11 and Adolf Hitler, and all of his men during that period, and Stalin, and all of these men who have been responsible for the murder of so many, in some cases, millions of people.

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He says that this demands, the human breast demands a day of judgment, a day of reckoning, when men will be held fully accountable for all of their actions.

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And I believe that just as the scriptures teach that there are varying degrees of glory in heaven, there will be varying degrees of punishment in hell.

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And the idea of annihilation is so abominable because it gives the idea that a person can live the way a

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Hitler lived and destroy the lives of millions of people, and he'll just go out of existence at the end, and that's the end.

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And he's treated exactly like the grandmother who was a nice woman, but who never trusted

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Christ, and she's going to also die, and she's going to also go out of existence. Exactly the same way.

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There is no justice in that. That isn't a just, we believe in a just God who is going to deal in justice with men.

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And evil men will be punished according to, as their evil deserves. We have to go to a break right now.

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If you'd like to join us on the air with a question for Mike Gaydosh of Solid Ground Christian Books, either on our subject involving

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Providence or on Solid Ground Christian Books, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

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That's chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We'll be right back after these messages.

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This is Chris Arnzen. And before I continue my conversation with Mike Gajdosz of Solid Ground Christian Books, I just want to welcome as a new sponsor of Iron Sharpens Iron, Thrivant Financial, the

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania branch, which is led by Mike Gallagher.

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That's michael .gallagher G -A -L -L -A -G -H -E -R at Thrivant, which is

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T -H -R -I -V as in victory, E -N -T, dot com. And once again, a big shout out and a big word of thanks to Mike Gallagher and the folks at Thrivant Financial in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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And our email address here is, if you'd like to join us on the air with a question for Mike Gajdosz on the providence of God or on Solid Ground Christian Books, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com

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chrisarnzen at gmail .com It's interesting, Mike, that you were talking about before how the

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Bible doesn't really give us a detailed explanation in regard to specific horrific events that have occurred and will occur in regard to their purpose, other than we know that it will ultimately bring glory to God.

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We have the Apostle Paul in Romans 9 after explaining that he loved

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Jacob and hated Esau before they were even born or had the opportunity to do anything good or bad.

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He, Paul, foresaw that people would say, you will say to me then, what does he still, why does he still find fault?

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For who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God?

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The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this? Will it?

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Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

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What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

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So, Paul had the opportunity, obviously, to give us a more detailed explanation or answer, but he doesn't.

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You're right, and I think that's a very good point. I think that the way that Paul answers, because when you go back to the previous portion of chapter 9, he did answer the previous question.

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But when he finally pressed that question, it was at that point that he juxtaposes the word

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God with the word man. That is, who are you, O man, God, you would question.

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You have no right to question God. But men do question God, and they question him continually today, because men have a very low view of God.

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Men have lost sight of the majesty of God and the glory of God. I've just been teaching in our church through Isaiah, the book of Isaiah, and yesterday

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I came to Isaiah 40, and I covered verses 1 to 11 yesterday morning in Sunday school.

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This coming Sunday I'm going to deal with 12 to 31. And Packer has a great chapter on the majesty of God, in which he talks about the fact that we have problems today because we have lost sight of the majesty and the greatness and the glory of God.

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And we feel, as you may recall, C .S. Lewis had a book entitled

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God in the Dark. And that book is merely one of the articles in the book.

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The title of the book, God in the Dark, is an article in which

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C .S. Lewis basically says that ancient man approached

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God as himself a condemned criminal looking up to the judge.

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Modern man, everything has been reversed. God is now in the dark, and God is the one that has to give an account of his dealings.

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And if God can give an explanation for why he has allowed certain things to happen, he might actually get acquitted.

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But he says the whole point is the whole perspective has changed in the modern world. God is now in the dark.

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That is, God is the one on trial. God is the one who has to explain how he could allow the things to happen that he has allowed to happen.

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You know, the last time we were on together, somebody asked a question we weren't able to get to. It had to do with Luke 13 and my use of Luke 13 to address the issue of God's judgment taking place upon people.

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And I just quoted from the passage where Jesus was approached about...

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It was reported that some of the Galileans' Pilate had mingled their blood with the sacrifices. Do you remember that question?

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Yes. And he answered and said, Do you suppose these Galileans were greater sinners than all other

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Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

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Or do you suppose those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?

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I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Now, I do not believe what

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Jesus was saying there is that there aren't times when God does bring judgment upon certain people because certainly he does.

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But what Jesus was... Jesus, knowing the hearts of the people who are coming to him, he was exposing their hearts and letting them know,

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Hey, look, if you think that you are righteous and they are less righteous and that's the reason why these things happen to them, you need to understand that you also need to repent or you will also perish.

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And so I don't want to be misunderstood about that. In fact, a couple of things that I wrote down here, one of them was the incident that took place in 1

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Kings 22. You remember that King Ahab had been warned by Micaiah not to go into battle because if he did, he was going to die.

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So what does Ahab do? He decides he's going to disguise himself as a common soldier, thinking to outwit the enemy.

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But then we are told, Now a certain man drew his bow at random and struck the king of Israel in the joint of the armor.

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So he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn around and take me out of the fight for I am severely wounded. Now there's a case of the hand of God.

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There's a case of the providence of God directed at an evil, wicked king.

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And it says that the man drew his bow at a venture, at a random. That is, nobody was aiming at him.

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And this man who just basically pulled back the arrow and let it fly, it found its way into the very chink in the armor, in the joint of the armor.

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That was a one in a million hit. And yet God directed it because of his judgment that had been given on King Ahab.

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And because of what Micaiah had said, God's word must come true. You know, there's an example, quite a remarkable example that happened during the

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Civil War. Union General John Sedgwick was at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse during the

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Civil War when he was warned about southern confederate snipers who were hiding in trees on the other side of a large cornfield that was almost a mile away.

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His last words were, they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance.

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I stood in the very spot, and you know, to this day now, there's a large plaque on that spot with those words.

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They couldn't hit an elephant at that distance. And the truth is, from the distance that they were shooting from, he was absolutely right.

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But in the providence of God, he was struck by a bullet that was almost a mile away by a sniper.

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And to this day, 150 years later, there's a plaque on that spot that marks the place where those words came out of his mouth.

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The hand of God is involved in all of these things. And while we may not be able to understand them, we may not be able to grasp them and explain them to people, why did

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God allow this to happen? Why did God allow my child to become sick? Why did God take my child from me?

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All we can say is, God has not made a mistake. He has never made a mistake.

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God has never done anything that was unjust, that was unrighteous.

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And God will bring good. Romans 8 .28 is still in the Bible. God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love

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God and are called according to His purpose. And all we can say to people is, your illness, the death of your child, the death of your spouse,

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I mean, you hear of terrible things that happen, people having accidents on their honeymoon and a husband losing his beloved wife that he just married.

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I mean, things like this happen every day, it seems. And we need to be compassionate.

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We need to be tender. We must not be cold. We must not be heartless as we explain these things to people.

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But we need to be able to draw near to people and say, look, God hasn't lost control. There's a purpose in this.

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And when you know that God has a purpose, it will help you greatly to be able to handle situations that at this point in your life, you say,

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I just don't understand it. I don't see it. I don't get it. There's a reason why the

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Psalms are filled with questions. How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?

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Well, in Psalm 13, where that question is asked, I mean, the psalmist had to know that God doesn't forget

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His people. And yet, you know, there are times we feel as if He has forgotten us. And the psalmist expresses those words in the way that he does.

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In fact, this would be a great time to just pause for our last break. And this is your last opportunity to email a question for Mike Gadosh to be read on air, that is, at chrisarnson at gmail .com.

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chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away. We'll be right back with Mike Gadosh of Solid Ground Christian Books and our discussion on the providence of God.

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46:47

Welcome back. This is Chris Orrins and if you just tuned us in, we have been interviewing

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Mike Gaydosh, the founder of Solid Ground Christian Books. Their website is

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Solid -Ground -Books .com. That's Solid -Ground -Books .com.

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And we have been discussing the providence of God. Before we return to our interview, just wanted to remind you to keep your calendars marked for Monday, August 31st.

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We are so delighted to have Dr. Albert Moeller of Southern Seminary as our guest.

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He is going to be discussing his brand -new book, which actually is not even on the shelves yet. His book,

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We Cannot Be Silent, Speaking Truth to a Culture, Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the

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Very Meaning of Right and Wrong. So mark your calendars for that. And tomorrow, we have my friend

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John Sampson of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, continuing his discussion on his book, 12

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Whatabouts, Answering Objections to the Sovereignty of God and Election. Mike, there is something that sometimes

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I feel uncomfortable saying, being a sinner. In fact, it's something that is obviously maybe taken or mistaken as trying to put sinners at ease and trying to make sinners take sin less seriously.

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But isn't it true, as you quoted Augustine, I believe, last time we were on, that God even providentially uses our sin for his glory.

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And although we should never take comfort in our sinful acts while we are in the state of unrepentance, when we are in a repentant state and mourning and grieving over our past sins, can we not even find comfort in that ourselves?

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Or is that something too shameful to say? No, I believe that that's the case.

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I think that we never want to, as you said, we don't want to ever minimize the significance and the seriousness of our sin.

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But I think Spurgeon said, for every look that we take inside of ourselves, we need to take two or three looks at Jesus, that we do need to be self -examining, we need to be examining ourselves.

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But I think there is sometimes a mistaken notion of, I've heard people, I've actually had to counsel people who would say to me things like,

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I can't forgive myself. And that's a very common expression that people use.

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And there's really no biblical basis for that. It's, if God, if we have repented of our sins and God has forgiven us and he has promised to forgive us, then what right would we have to not embrace that forgiveness, to not accept the forgiveness of God, to say that I won't forgive myself or I can't forgive myself.

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I think I know what people mean by that many times. What they mean is, I don't think

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I can ever get over what I did and the pain that I caused.

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And yes, there are times when, because of decisions that have been made in the past,

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I've been preaching for the last ten years on Friday nights at Brother Brian Mission in downtown

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Birmingham. And I minister to hundreds of men whose lives have been ruined, whose families have been destroyed by their drinking, by their alcohol, by their drugs.

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And it's a terrible thing. It really is. And yet it's important and it's wonderful to see how

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God has been putting lives back together again as they embrace the gospel and embrace the forgiveness that is found in Christ and in Christ alone.

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And so even though there are things we've done in the past, we might say, I wish I could go back and do that again and I would have done it differently.

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But we can't. It's behind us. And what we have to do is we have to move forward.

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Because what the devil wants to do is he wants us to so focus on our past failures that we continue to fail in the present and not do the things that he would have us to do today.

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And that's when he gains the victory. When we are so focused on the things we did in the past and failed to do in the past that we don't act and do the things that we need to do today.

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Excellent, excellent. We can't curl up in a fetal position or commit suicide and think that we're somehow going to be honoring

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God or making up for our past sins. Exactly. Rather than embracing what Christ has done, embracing the forgiveness, getting up and going forward.

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I wanted to share with you one more incident that struck me many years ago.

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And I published a book called Anecdotes, Religious, Moral and Entertaining by Charles Buck. And he tells a story in there, quite a remarkable story about an innkeeper who was quite a drunken man.

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He had been an innkeeper for many years and sold liquor and actually imbibed in liquor a lot.

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And apparently about six miles from his home there was a revival meeting taking place that was going on for a few weeks.

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And he had heard about the music. The music was different than the standard music of the day. And he had a desire to go hear the music but he finally said, you know,

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I'm going to go listen to the music but I won't listen to the preaching. In fact, he said, I'm going to put my fingers in my ears so that I don't hear the preaching.

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Well, he went to the special meeting. He determined to close his ears.

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He was a heavy man with a large nose that was made even larger by his drinking for many years.

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And as soon as the preacher prayed before the sermon, the man leaned forward, secured both his ears against the sermon with his forefingers.

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And just before the prayer was completed, a fly fastened himself on his nose and stung him sharply.

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And the moment he withdrew one of his fingers from his ear to deal with the fly, he heard the booming voice of the preacher call out,

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He that has ears to hear, let him hear. The words were pronounced with such great solemnity that they entered the innkeeper's opened ear like a clap of thunder.

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It struck him with such an irresistible force that he not only kept that finger from returning to his ear, but he removed the other one, feeling an impression he had never known before.

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He listened attentively to the entire sermon. And soon after, his life was utterly changed and he became a rejoicing and sober -minded

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Christian for the remainder of his 16 years of life. And so we see again how a fly can be used by God to bring a man to salvation.

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The hand of God is involved in all of the affairs of our lives. I could literally write a book about how

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God has worked in my life in answers to prayer, in directing my steps, in keeping me from marrying the wrong person.

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And just the way that he did these things, the way that he worked in answer to prayer, is absolutely remarkable.

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I've actually been told, urged by many people through the years that I should write these things down. And I have written them down, but I don't know that I'll ever put them into a book.

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I think all of us, when we look back over our lives, we can see at times, especially our eyes are able to see when we look back and say, you know what?

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I was disappointed when this thing happened or when I lost that particular thing. But as I look back, I realize, you know, that was the most important thing that ever happened in my life.

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Amen. And it's interesting, speaking of Augustine, how God used the providential playing of children nearby, where we're chanting, pick up and read.

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Correct. He used that insignificant little occurrence to bring what has been said is the greatest mind who ever were to be among Christ's proclaimers and disciples, one of the greatest minds in Christendom, Augustine.

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Whether that's an exaggeration or not, he was certainly used in many powerful ways. And just a little thing like that, that God used the children.

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You know what it was that he read? It was

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Romans 13. And this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep, for now salvation is nearer to us than we believe.

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The night is almost gone. The day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

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Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the

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Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

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Augustine had been a man who had been consumed by promiscuity and by sensuality and by drunkenness and by carousing.

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And you recall that he had a godly mother who prayed every day with tears for him.

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And St. Ambrose was the man, the bishop, who God used to introduce him to grace and to bring him out of darkness into light.

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But you're right. Tola lege were the words that they were speaking in Latin in their little game.

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And God used those words to cause him to take up and read. And those words in Romans 13 are the words that were read and that set him free.

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And then centuries later, you have a young teenage boy wandering through a blizzard who seeks shelter in a primitive

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Methodist church and gets saved by the repetition of simple verses of Scripture, and that young man was

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Charles Haddon Spurgeon. That's right. In fact, Spurgeon said that the man looked right at him and said,

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You look miserable, young man, and you'll continue to be miserable until you heed the words of my text.

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Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. And it was just look and live.

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Those words were what God used to bring this man out of darkness to light. He actually went back and visited that chapel and found that he could never have worshipped there.

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It was not a place where his soul could be fed, but it was the place that in the providence of God, as you said, because of a snowstorm, he sought shelter in that place.

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And because the pastor wasn't able to make it through the snow, this lay person just stood up and fumbled around and basically just, as you say, quoted

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Scripture in a particular passage. But he said the man looked right at him and said, You look miserable, young man.

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And so it was the boldness of that man not only to preach the Word but to speak directly to the heart of this young man whom he didn't know.

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And no one could have known what he would become later on. In 30 seconds, Mike, what do you most want our listeners to place in order for its

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Solid Ground Christian books right now in 30 seconds? In 30 seconds, the book that I think would be the most helpful would be the book

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The Divine Purpose Displayed in the Works of Providence and Grace by John Matthews. We spoke about it last time.

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We didn't speak about it this time. But it's a book that I think is the finest book that explains the decree of God, the purpose of God.

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And he does so, it was a series of letters that he wrote to a man who was questioning. And it's beautifully, beautifully written.

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And the website for Solid Ground Christian books is solid -ground -books .com

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solid -ground -books .com And once again, Mike Gaydosh, we thank you so much for being a guest and we're definitely...

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My pleasure. And tomorrow, John Samson's book Twelve Whatabouts, that's published by Solid Ground.

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Amen. Another providential occurrence. Amen. And we want you to frequently return to Iron Sharpens Iron.

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You always have a needed word for our hearts and minds.

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I want to thank everybody for listening today, especially Joe Riley in Dublin, Ireland for sending in a question.

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I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far, far greater Savior than you are a sinner.