Works of Providence - Chapter 4

Good late evening All right, so we're doing chapter four

It's still within the section of particular concerns in which this Providence is discovered from the outline

It looks like there's a quite a bit to go in that section actually so today. It's employment and calling Kind of interesting like writing up these notes

I was using the word calling almost exclusively because it just sort of had a better ring to it Nothing, I sort of realized before this so you'll hear that a lot

And read it a lot So this is mainly two sections the first one being the particular ways that God's calling for a person actually shows great

Providence So one of the big points he pointed out initially is if God has provided you with a calling in your youth

Sort of trying to re -understand like what youth really means I think I've always thought of it as like being a young child

But coming to realize that youth is sort of a longer stage of life It's just before you're elder before you are an older kind of person

So I think the grand majority of us in here could still think of themselves as in their youth

It's a good time to really try to discern from God what his will is for you And to sort of ask like how can

I not be a drain on other people and become a burden as it mentions here the One who does not work is a drain and a burden to others

So this is the time for us to figure it out And if God does give you clarity this point it really is a special Providence that he's afforded you

Now this second point inside of here. I found really interesting. It's something I hadn't heard well articulated before But he did a great job of it just because some aspect of reality is made difficult because of sin or Exists because of sin does not make it wrong to partake

So the example he gives is a sweat exists because of sin the sweat of our brow from work that you find in Genesis 3 19

And in the same way to not sweat to refuse doing so is a way now of increasing our sin

So we wouldn't have to sweat at the brow if there hadn't been sin to bring us into a fallen state But now that it's here.

It's something we should be engaging in Another example is back when I was vegan

One of the things I thought through is that like, you know, there used to not be eating of animals Now there is clearly it's better not to eat to mimic

Adam and Eve in a sense but that was denying the Noahic Covenant, which is only allowing us to it's sort of Commending us to do so you even see later when

Peter is to rise up and eat It's not necessarily about declaring these foods to be like all foods to be great to go after However, it's something that we can comfortably go after and that's only here because of sin

We wouldn't expect there to be eating of meat if there wasn't death either so just remember that just because something comes about as a

As a product of the fall doesn't make it wrong Instead you need to weigh it against the rest of Scripture Another section.

There's a lot of first Thessalonians in here So first Thessalonians 4 11 through 12 teaches us that one cannot live honestly if he lives idly

Actually, let's go look at that passage Because it gets mentioned a lot

So it's good to have it in our heads here And to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with your hands as we instructed

No, let's go back to 10. It looks like we're in the middle of a sentence here All right we urge you brothers to do this more and more and to aspire to live quietly and to mind your own affairs and to work with Your hands as we instructed you so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one

So if I remember this passage as we keep going through here And also as we work and provide for ourselves and our families

We are more prepared to give works of mercy to others another point He gives to us there isn't a way in which we can help other people if we're so focused on us our own survival focused on our own day -to -day necessities instead

It's a blessing and a special providence from God if we can actually have all those needs met For working well to have those needs met in such a way that we have abundance to give to those who do not have the

Needs met you're also an example to other people at that point You can sort of demonstrate to them like what does it take in order to get to this point?

It's both a providence from God and also something he sort of asks us to work towards Not to expect all people to have this providence given to them, but it is something we can instruct one another in doing

Now not only does he provide us with callings in our youth with divine providence but also if he's giving you a lawful calling which

I think the grand majority of us or all of us do have a Lawful calling is itself a special thing

Not all people have lawful callings many of them are directly sinful. I think all of us think of really really

Specific obvious ones like oh, I'm not a prostitute. I'm not a drug dealer. I'm not one of these things, right?

It's funny he mentions though like A he mentions a job from the book of Acts that would have been considered normal and would have been considered right in their time

Demetrius and the Ephesian craftsmen making idols in their culture so in some sense

We should really question for ourselves if our work is something that is just culturally acceptable

And is actually potentially sinful or allowing sin like it's legal to be a divorce lawyer

You should probably work out in yourself whether or not that's okay to engage in There are ways in which that could be lawful as divorce can be lawful

But there are many which ways which that would potentially just be perpetuating issues Especially since you're under the will of people doing pursuing wrongful divorces, right?

And we can think of many different things especially in our age like a lot of the entertainment industry. I've heard that you know at There are a lot of people working in Netflix You'll be working on very particular

Projects and you're sort of told that you must just submit to the one that you're on or find other work or go away

And there's a lot of their stuff that you wouldn't want to engage in for helping produce But if you work as a software developer even there you may actually be

Directly causing these things to happen. So it's not necessarily like anything you do May happen down the line to cause someone to sin makes it wrongful

But if you're directly engaging in something that as he puts in this book gratifies pride and wantonness

Really reconsider the work that you have and like Conley mentioned before now really consider that Just because it may look better on paper from a lot of aspects

There may be one thing even that disqualifies it from being God's providence from being a good calling for you

I Think he mentions. He means there's a lot of double mercies in this path in this chapter having a lawful calling that suits your strengths

There's also a double mercy The way he defines suiting your strengths is sort of interesting to me.

He puts it as like More or less in this first point being engaged in work that does not eat up one's time and strength

So something is suiting your strength is not necessarily I greatly enjoy this thing, but really just something

It's like you do this. Well, you're respected well for it You have open time to actually engage in what he calls your general your particular calling

Or wait, no your general calling. Yeah, we can't get those messed up. So your general calling is

To go after the Lord while your particular calling or maybe I'm getting this messed up already. Hold on Let's see if I put it in here

Right, yes general calling is going after their particular calling is going after your work So not forgetting your general calling for your particular calling

This has a lot to do with it this aspect of having the time and strength to engage in it. I'm gonna read a

Quote from this chapter. I think summed it up Well, some poor creatures are engaged in callings that eat up their time and strength and make their lives very uncomfortable to them

They have not only spending and wasting employments in the world But such as allow little or no time for their general calling and yet all this doth

But keep them and theirs alive and there's a lot of Software developers in here.

I think it's especially something we fail to understand is that we're generally speaking in very privileged positions

As God's putting it here of ones of great providence where we are compensated. Well, we often have very open like Paid time off Policies and all these other things.

We really do have a lot of capability to engage in these general callings But if we are wasting our time with all kinds of other stuff, that's just unnecessary whether it be unnecessary travel unnecessary hobbies

Spending too much time on work that it's not actually due These are things that can take away from what

God really does intend for us to care much about which is spiritual growth Even serving of the church not that your particular calling is itself

Not important, but it is of less importance than this general calling if you were to weigh the two

Specifically in regards to this not only one that's not eating up your time and strength but having more time for what he calls heavenly

Exercises again another quote from him if God hath fitted you with an honest employment Wherein you have less toil than others and more time for heavenly exercises

Ascribe this benefit to the special care of providence for you and he really pushes us to like those who should consider really like pursuing ministry or at least putting that time into Improving their ability to teach for those in the church around them or for those in their family

It's really something you should consider you have the time and effort for and if again you're wasting that on work

And it's not necessary upon in your work really recognize that if at all possible

Next to having a lawful calling There's also if God has provided you with a great calling that you and your parents would have never conceived of I definitely put myself

So few few things you'll notice all his examples are men called into ministry or into the mission field

I found that really interesting. I Personally apply this in my own life. I Grew up in a very modest family used to say poor

I'm gonna use a more accurate term especially thinking in the The way the world how large the world really is and how poor we really weren't

But it's always been really Special for me to think about how

God has really placed me in this point I didn't know anything about the work that I was doing the employment that I was doing until the first day

I entered college didn't know what programming was anything like this and now I'm doing really well out here

And so it's is a special provenance of God that I've been put in this place my parents never would have conceived of it

I never would have conceived of it, but it's something that he does provide to some people But it's our duty that when we recognize that To especially call it out.

I'm gonna read out the examples he has here Some from the Bible some not Amos was a man from a family with no greatness

Yet he was called to be a prophet of God. Let's look at Amos 7 14 to 15 Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah.

I was no prophet nor a prophet's son But I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs

But the Lord took me from following the flock and the Lord said to me go prophesy to my people

Israel Similarly David was also a shepherd He was also the youngest of his family yet God made him into the

Shepherd of Israel and their greatest King unless you want to consider Commonly we say

Solomon was a greater King than David or a different kind of great King Well there we go so David one of the greatest kings of Israel and typical of Christ He was a shepherd and the youngest of his family so he is another person in which he was not expected to be special if you we've been going through first Samuel and our family

Worship and one of the things you realized in there is that his brother Also questions his motives at one point when before he's going to before he kills

Goliath there's an offer given of a hand in marriage of Saul's daughter and David's brother we forget the name of he questions his motives.

He questions why he's asking these questions And he's just sort of looking at him as something someone who's not trustworthy

Not a great person not worthy of this task to begin with and so God does pick whoever he chooses

And even those that we don't really understand why he would choose them to begin with Next we have

Simon Peter and Andrew they were fishermen and Christ called them to be fishers of men instead Especially then fishermen is just like laborious and poor man's job for them

It's not something special But God calls them into the ministry which is in itself the greatest employment one could have is to serve the

Lord directly And it's a point he makes in the chapter especially which is to be called the minister is itself a very great calling and now

He gets into some historical examples Piraeus who I should have looked up, but I did not he was to be an apothecary yet was called to the ministry so James Andreas was to be a carpenter.

It was again later trained into the ministry. We have a typo there and then Johannes We're gonna try here

Echolampadius was to be a merchant yet by listening to his mother's guidance to study Well, he went on to actually become a founding

Protestant reformer, so he's a first -generation reformer And so very important to history as a whole and again if he had not

Recognized the call that God had for him. He would not have gone into the ministry would not have had him We would have not had whatever special Teachings and things we've gotten from him.

I didn't find any in particular worth mentioning Except for one that's not so amazing.

He was one of the few Protestant reformers who is very very protective of Marian doctrine actually so if you look into him later

That would be interesting Okay And not only does

God give us providence and calling us to things we never conceived But he also when he protects our estates from ruin.

We put Job 110 is a Reference for this let's go look at that. I think it comes up a few times, too

This is Satan speaking to God he says have you not put a hedge around him and all his house and all that he has

On every side you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land

So again a lot of times we can actually find quite a bit of truth coming from the mouth of Satan he often is

Saying things that are actually true about reality And this is one of those Is that God is the one at work protecting our estates from ruin just in general.

He's the one protecting us from adversity He's the one that Continues to give you blessing as you have blessing

He's also the one who Can take it away from you as he does to Job and then restore you back

God is in control of all these things and that is a part of his providence This one was sort of interesting.

I felt that if God has made our work sufficient for our needs. I feel like this is much more Generally applicable.

I'm going to read Deuteronomy 33 7 for this and this he said of Judah Hear O Lord the voice of Judah and bring him into his people with your hands contend for him and be a help against his adversaries

The main focus is on with your hands contend for him and He does this not by just setting us in like proper times and places as we've been hearing throughout this book, but also in The capabilities that he's given us in the time that he's given us and so he gives two different Examples in here so some have a calling but not the capability to do it properly or well

Also, some have no calling but they have the capability to do work that they do not yet have So we're going to go through them one after the other we'll start with the first again

Some have a calling but not the capability to do it properly or well Something this is if you like especially overworked

And sometimes there's just periods of time like this where you feel under a lot of pressure He points out to us that it may be that if we had more ease and rest our temptation may be greater the idle hands

Would give us more opportunity of sin as many Proverbs point out to us

Your health may be better because of having work and your enjoyment of rest much greater for having something to rest from Often wish

I had I've had jobs before they were much more physical and lo and behold I was in better shape with those jobs

And it's something that I sort of wish at times that I had even though. I was much more tired after those jobs right

And having something to rest from is especially good It's a good reason to even work hard is so that the rest doesn't become an idol of itself

It doesn't become something that we pursue wrongly instead. It should be something. We're pursuing its right time and If your work provides you with more time and rest than most you then have more time to commune with God It's sort of an admonition to us to actually spend that extra time we have with him and not

Doom scroll and many of the things that we have a lot of access to especially For them there probably wasn't even a lot to do in regards to spending that time now

We have way too much to choose from so try to get really consider the downtime you have is not a curse

It's actually something to use well And now on to some have no calling with capability to do the work do work that they do not have

He goes back to something He said earlier just about The poor in the world is the really just consider that there are many much lower positions than you he's speaking to the

English We're now speaking to Americans. It's the same for us. You could be in much much much more straights than you're in Hebrews 13 5

God will not forsake you in eternity. He has promised you a great inheritance. Let's look at 13 5 real quick Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have for he has said

I will never leave you nor forsake you So no matter how difficult and poor our work is you should recognize there's a lot he's already promised to us

There's a lot he's done improving that to us by giving up his son. This is not something. He's just gonna take away from you

So commit yourself to that and just hold on to in the difficult times with your work And lastly have a blessing in this section having little is often best for one's eternal good.

It's a lot of Passages of people misuse even about how wealth is corrupting or how wealth is very difficult to like a man who is wealthy is unlikely to be saved or and This isn't necessarily what scripture teaches

But it does give us this as a way of warning us about the effects of being wealthy the effects of having much given to us

It is something where God has given us that common grace but how we actually use and recognize that common grace is going to go a long way and the last this is a the second major point of this entire

Chapter of the book there are temptations inherent to even having appalling

He gives a lot of verse references for this stuff so avoid idleness within your work

Because you have work there is a temptation to not do the work well or to Sort of take for granted the graces of those who are above you and even just the lack of quality that they expect

Again, we see this a lot in the software world, but something that actually at my Teachers in undergrad told us

I went to a Christian undergrad University and in our like senior level our senior year

We have this class called software engineering which was more about like How to do project planning and what to expect in the workplace and one of the things that stuck with me quite

Well was there like you know if you just show up and do the thing you're actually asked to do you'll be better than like 90 % of the people you work with you'll be recognized 90 % more often than that It's because people are inherently sinful and people take this for granted a lot

It's something that Christians should recognize and really strive after is that we have a reason to work. Yes, I'm that I heard a statistic, this might be dated at this point, but it was about 80 % of software engineers only wrote a total of,

I don't know, 20 lines of code per week or something like that. And the more I thought about it, the more it just seemed very plausible.

Just very, very plausible. So there's definitely certain kinds of work this stuff can happen more.

I think a lot of physical jobs It's more difficult for you to slack off in a sense. So it's definitely a specific warning to a lot of us in here

One that we mentioned earlier Let's just do it again. Do not forget your general calling for your particular calling

Let's look at the verse reference for this 1st Timothy 6 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires of plunged people, into ruin and destruction

We should both accept the blessing that God's giving us and recognize the value that it has in gaining wealth and preparing for leaving inheritance to our own families

But we should always keep first focused on the Lord, first focused on how we can grow in Him and grow in His Word That is your general calling, that's a calling given to all men and a calling that's only satisfied by the elect

So it's something you should recognize and really accept the blessing that it has

The success you enjoy is not the work of man alone, another typo, but is by divine blessing

And that work of man is largely yourself, it's also your managers, it's the co -workers around you

But in the end it's God Himself who is actually blessing your work,

He's blessing the situation that you're in He's also the one giving you discipline if that's the situation that you're in So recognize both the success and failures have a lot to do with what

God is trying to do Again, Satan recognizes this truth in Job 1 .10 And there is something we get from Psalm 37

Do not do anything for work that you cannot go and ask the Lord for success And this goes back around to the beginning about are you in a lawful calling?

Are you in a calling that you would feel shameful if you came to God asking for success in getting it done?

Really consider that perspective, can you come to Him and ask for success in this thing? Last point of all, be content with the calling

God has placed you within For God is simply just infinitely wiser than any of us There is no sense in which we should assume that we know better than Him But we should actually submit to and ask for His wisdom, for His understanding whenever we're presented with decisions

I myself am working through yet another career decision right now And it's a big question of whether or not it's the right decision

Whether or not it's better to stay where I'm at And it's a time to look for those disqualifying things

A time to look for the opportunity that you may be given And also the test that may be presented to us

Okay, getting a record time Just another thought

You were talking about some things about being contented with even a very difficult job

Because maybe you would use your time poorly otherwise, etc I know,

I've run across a few people in my time Who say a lot of pious things about their really difficult circumstances

But it's almost like it's an excuse to not look for something better It's best this way because I probably wouldn't know what to do with my time, etc

It just seems really irresponsible Because they're not even willing to put their head up and look a little 1

Corinthians 7 says, you're a slave of Jesus Christ So don't become slaves of anyone if you can help it

And Genesis 49, 14 -15 says

This car is a strong donkey crouching between the sheepfolds He saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant

So he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor Anyway, it just kind of reminds me of that mindset

That this is good enough and then you end up really robbing yourself Like you were saying, the opportunity to pursue your general calling more wholly

So yes, we want to be content At the same time that you can have like a faux contentment

That's really a wrongful satisfaction in providence

Where you're not looking for the actual good that God has opened for you

It reminds me of the stronger and weaker brother distinction a little bit Where some take it as we should never give

We should never admonish those who are weaker brothers in their understanding But rather there is a right place for doing so A right place for encouraging each other to greater understanding