Works of Providence - Chapter 3

All right, so we're continuing through John Flavel's work on Providence known as divine conduct or the mystery of Providence and you can see in the outline where we are the

Edition that you're using is breaking things up into neatly sized chunks, but they aren't necessarily

According to the order of his outline so what we're looking at today is actually just one Subpoint of a sub point here

Conversion and I imagine next time although I haven't looked at will group several of these together Beyond just employment and calling a relations center conversion gets its own particular item so Several things about Conversion and God's work of Providence in conversion

It should be apparent that this is a particular work of Providence it's all if all his work of so Providence are

Particularly geared for the good of the church So that you are to especially interpret what he is doing in the work for the church

Naturally there is a very special work that happens in particular moments of conversion that we would expect

More reason to interpret God's actions more reason to see special things All right, so we should delight in Thinking upon how

God has saved us now For those who are saved during their early years you may not know

Exactly when how you were saved. I know for myself. I was saved at an early age and In college for some particular thing

I forget what it was but I was asked to give my testimony at some upcoming event, and I realized

I didn't have like a a narrative around it and so I like racked my brain for Like what when was this and I I do have a story

I tell and I believe it to be a true story, but I do not know if it is the precise moment When I was saved that being that my brother, and I would always fight and we would

We would sit on our beds when we were in trouble and like yell at each other and blame each other like this is all Your fault that we're in trouble etc.

And then I remember one time my dad sitting me down and explaining like sometimes these things are your fault and It's not always the other person's fault

So you need to be able to accept that and this was the first time it registered with me that I could be at peace with God By embracing the truth about my own guilt

Not by blaming it on someone else, but by trusting in Christ I don't even think he talked to me about Christ at that particular time, but I Knew about Christ prior to this anyway, so I Believe that was the moment it all came together for me because I remember being at peace

Knowing that the way to deal with my guilt was not by blaming someone else but instead by accepting the truth and finding comfort and the forgiveness that I had so I believe that to be the

That was a significant moment for me. I Believe that was the moment that I was converted, but maybe not and maybe it's even more fuzzy or the word he uses is obscure Maybe it's even more obscure for you.

But of course, that's a reason to be thankful to that. You were saved at an early age Even if you don't have something special to point to You can be thankful for all the years.

He has kept you and grown you But for those saved during riper years

Then you are blessed to be able to reflect upon the particular details of Providence and you ought Okay, so in this next section which is the main section he goes over the different occasions of conversion and particularly

Those occasions in awakening our souls He has a smaller section about how he how God completes the work

But he starts off by talking about the works of Providence in awakening our souls He gives some examples here

The eunuch happened by Peter at the exact right moment right when he needed an interpreter

He happened to come across Peter who was an interpreter does seem very providential.

It's also providential. He didn't mention us It's providential that they lived at a time where people read aloud.

I don't know if you recognize that about the passage but Today I guess literacy is so common that the ordinary way that we read it is just To ourselves silently the ordinary the way that people read in the past was out loud

They would sound out the words and in hearing the words in their ears They would know what was being said even the educated would would do the this this way

There's another instance in church history that I'm forgetting the details of I think it involves either athanasius or Augustine or maybe it's

Ambrose I forget where there's a particular story about Walking past a theologian and hearing them reading aloud to themselves.

I Can't remember the details, but this is not just something that you see in Acts This is something you see elsewhere in history, too

But if this had happened at a later time, he wouldn't have been reading aloud to himself It'd be very unlikely.

They'd be reading aloud to himself The next example was that Naaman's wife Had obtained an

Israelite girl who knew God could heal So Even though Naaman was a

Syrian he had his wife had a servant who knew of the

God of Israel because she herself was an Israelite who had been captured from Israel and Then on top of that she spoke of God's ability to heal even though This had never been done before this kind of healing

Jesus describes is not There were many lepers at the time of Elisha, but it was only

Naaman the Syrian that was healed Next we have

Jesus passing through Samaria Coming upon the woman at the well

Why was it that he would come across her? He was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but he had to travel through Samaria This other mention of Junius, of course the famous Junius I don't really

I didn't really know who Junius was Although I'd heard the name before is a guy who comes much later than Flaval.

So it's not the Junius He's talking about this Junius is Franciscus Junius the elder Who renounced his atheism after nearly dying in a riot and it just so happened that soon after his father told him to read the scriptures

And so he when he renounced atheism, he wasn't becoming a Christian, but his father Providentially instructed him to read the scriptures soon after he had left behind that foolish is full of HTA atheism

Then he mentions many Spanish soldiers being converted so they went into the wars of Germany and met godly ministers that's

That is a interesting you have a thought on that, right?

Yeah, you go over to Germany being like the first Protestant, you know country

Yeah from Roman Catholics going over there, etc One Piece of church history that I'm fond of because I did a lot of research into this topic was the introduction of Protestantism to the

Philippines primarily came through the United States Occupying the Philippines, but before that Few decades before that there was a particular

Spanish friar Who had never read the Bible before because she didn't read the Bible back then you would just you know go through the little

Latin rights and everything and Anyway a Spanish Spanish captain gave him a copy of the

New Testament in Spanish And it was the first time he ever read the Bible and he came to believe the true gospel

Started teaching this got in trouble was sent to Spain in order to be executed

But halfway on that journey Spain had become a Republic and Roman Catholicism was no longer in rule

So he got to live and he translated the Bible into one of the negative languages of the Philippines and then went back in and that became the foundation of one of the

Bibles that is used there still today So yeah a lot of Providence in that story

All right, and then Robert Bolton was a

Puritan who had planned on leaving the well He wasn't a Puritan at the time became a Puritan Was planning on leaving the

Church of England becoming a Roman Catholic the man he had made a pact with to become a Roman Catholic was going to take him to the

Roman Catholic seminary where he was going to be trained, but he didn't show up And so he returned to his college and ended up being influenced by Thomas Peacock became a and became a more devout follower of Christ I have heard of situations like this next one before so now he starts going into categories and he talks about a scrap of paper

And the example being a minister in Wales who was converted when he ripped off a leaf of Perkins catechism to wrap

Perkins catechism to wrap some purchase in it and And then he just read it right there and was was converted as he read the truth

I have heard similar stories. None of them are coming to mind, but this does seem to be a

Repeated Example just as Flavel himself claims. It's something that has happened numerous times before Did any does anybody remember this part of the story?

So you're as you were reading, okay One of the things he said was that this man had this minister had multiple livings though.

He did not make use of them Or I think that's the way he phrased it Look took a little care of either anybody know what that means

So this is something I only know from all the Simon he studies I'm doing for the Dorian con that's upcoming because Details about livings come up often in Anglican works on Simon II but living is basically like a parsonage attached to a church or somehow attached to Some ministerial work that ought to be done and If you own a living

Like a parse this parsonage you also get the taxes for that area come to you that you're supposed to spend on Gospel activities, but Depending on when you could even be a layman and own one of these livings and you get the tax money coming in and you

Could kind of abuse it because you're supposed to be using it on church things, but no one's really watching all this.

I Don't know the details there, but So Anyway, that's yeah, that's what this is talking about is he has

Multiple parsonages that have tax dollars flowing into them and those taxes Those were called ties in England So when you'll even see

John Milton wrote a whole book against ties what he's writing against is not giving 10 % of your money He's writing against the taxes going to the

Church of England so Yeah, that's what this is talking about Okay The marriage of a godly man into a carnal family so he talks about John Bruin who stayed with his second wife's family for one year seven souls converted

He was a widower And then the reading of a good book gives a couple of examples many

German theologians converted by reading Luther one Peter Paul Jirius I don't know how to pronounce his his last name there

Even his first names are usually Latin names But then converted by reading Protestant works with the intention of computing them.

That's a pretty common story, too The one that comes to my mind is Lee Strobel, right?

He's someone who in trying to essentially refute Christianity converted

So you might know any other stories like that because those are common people attempting to refute Christianity and then coming to the faith

C .s. Lewis, okay Nabil Qureshi. Yeah. Yeah, that's good one

Okay and mistakes mistakes of ministers so Augustine forgot his point and preached against the and instead of preaching what he was going to preach end up preaching against Manichaeanism, which is something that he had been he himself had been a part of but one of the people in his congregation what had also been a part of that recognized some more of his errors and Ended up being converted an anonymous minister who lost his text and notes preaching instead on 2nd

Peter 3 9 Which converted at least one? there was There were a lot more details in that story in there

But I know that for myself and you talked to almost any preacher They are usually surprised that some of the points that they think are gonna land really well and really leave an impact on people

No one Notices or cares and then something they just set off the cuff that they didn't think much of ends up leaving a huge impact on people

It's very frequent Very frequent way for God the humble pastors They don't know what they're doing

All right, and then visits or accompanying others who

To some place so those going with Mary into Bethany were converted and Then you also have the story of the 67 year old man

Who was visiting a sick friend at the same time as a Christian was visiting the sick friend? Ended up getting involved in the conversation and was converted even though he was very old

Which that's unusual for one who's been not in the faith for so long.

It is rare That's uh, I guess that's one of a good example. I think of using

Providence in your prayers. I Think it is good to recognize

Things like God frequently saves people in their earlier years in order that they might spend most of their time serving him and it is fairly

Rare for him to save people in their later years. I think that should That should shape the way we pray for things and how much we should pray for things not that I'm saying don't pray for an elderly person because this gives us reason to but Read the

Providence has this person, you know is Your opportunity especially unique then pray for that situation.

Maybe God would use that All right Godly men being imprisoned.

So Paul converted his keeper Barnes, I couldn't figure out who that was convert

By his message that his keeper his jailkeeper was also converted. This was in the time of Queen Mary so a lot of Protestants jailed at that time, you know,

Mary That's the bloody Mary Scattering of Christians and persecution.

So in Acts 8, that's the obvious one the scattering that happened from Jerusalem But there have been a number of times that Christians have been persecuted and scattered and God used that to spread the gospel

So you would think that persecution would harm the church, but almost always it ends up blessing the spread of the gospel.

Yes Oh, it's 76

Okay, you're right 76, okay, I printed it wrong here or typed it wrong

All right Godly No, we just covered that one scattering of Christians persecution.

Just cover that one to serve it running from his master You have the example of Anesimus Hearing a sermon in jest.

He gave a story about a drunkard who went to scoff at a sermon and then was converted and then

An accidental weighty word in the presence of carnal men. Yeah, so don't

Don't play down too much what God could do with just one fit word for someone who needs to hear it and then death and sickness

That's a pretty common one, right when people experience death when someone else dies that leads to them

Contemplating eternal matters or their own sickness leads them to contemplate the state of their soul

Talks about the un he talked about the unplanned moves of ministers. It's like like one that he didn't talk about was

Calvin Calvin ended up in Geneva by Persuasion that was not what he was originally going to do

I forget what the details were he was going to go study elsewhere, but he was persuaded by William Farrell to stay in to stay in Geneva And then you have the example

Paul and Timothy going to Macedonia, even though that's not what they had anticipated you have the example he gave of a minister who preached to Another congregation a message that he had intended for his own and it produced many conversions similar story about Jonathan Edwards which

If I remember correctly the centers in the hands of an angry God ended up essentially

Starting the Great Awakening. I forget which one I'm so bad with some history. Is it first or the second first Great Awakening?

Yeah, and That was not in his own congregation.

He preached at his own congregation. They you know they can get much of a response and then he preached at another congregation and They were interrupting in the middle of the sermon and the sermon to say like what must we do to be saved

You know and then that ended up starting everything The first one.

Yeah. Oh What was it Basically just a time of religious fervor.

I don't want to say revival because that's interpreting it too much. But Yeah, just like religious excitement my understanding which is limited is that the

That one was legitimate the ones that came after are a lot more questionable a lot of charismaticism or weird stuff

Yeah Yeah, of course. Yeah, if you look at older writings those kinds of movements are usually called enthusiastic movements or enthusiasm

Not charismaticism. It's kind of a term we use now, but yeah Enthusiasm is the term they used to use.

Yes. What about it?

What's the what's the correction you're offering here? I'm missing it like Sure.

Yeah, I mean he's he's part of it But I don't I don't know if we necessarily need to take all his words as or all his assessment of the matter the way that you judge a revival is by its fruit that comes after I It's harder to judge it or to just take people's experience of it as the judgment like I said,

I don't know enough history to To answer that. All right, and then

The same minister spoke to a wrestler He happened across about arrest about wrestling not with flesh and blood and this ended up leading to the wrestlers conversion then

Wickedness Examples of wickedness. This was a long story. This is actually the the story.

I've read this book before This was the story that stuck with me when I read it the first time the man who attempted suicide slicing his neck and then stabbing himself in the gut and Flavel comes that Flavel himself comes and Teaches this man about the gospel that he has no reason to hope that he will be saved which he thought he was

He thought he had a good hope that heaven was on the other side He said murderers will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

You're a murderer trying to kill yourself That's another thing a lot of people don't realize suicide is it says a lot about the state of someone's soul

If the final act that they're committing is murder and So he realized that he didn't have a reason to hope that he was going to be saved

Instead through and Flavel's instruction repented of his sins did turn to hope You know over the next day

And so the way the story works is it's kind of surprising he's alive at all to for the next day but then surprisingly he ends up healing from all these wounds that they were certain were going to kill him and the the doctor's care was only to Preserve his life a little longer.

It wasn't even to fix the damage You know, they were just putting plaster in the wounds just to slow everything down and he ends up living so that's a

It was it was very surprising, but God used that Wickedness of the man to convert his soul and even give him a longer life by which he would serve

God Yes It's disordered

Right like your your greatest love in a way I don't know if you've ever heard about the order of loves but like Yeah, the further away you go from yourself

The less reason you have to go out of your way to love someone right like a random person in China Don't you know

I? It's not that I hate them. I just don't have like a reason to go out of my way to help them Right and and you should love your own family, especially and you have a special duty for yourself

You know you take care of yourself in a very special way that you don't take care of other people Even your own children, etc.

Even if you would lay down your life for them there's still you're you're concerned with your own soul in ways that you're not concerned for others and Yeah, when you commit suicide it's the most perverse way of of Committing murder because it is directed towards That what's yours have the most responsible care over which is yourself?

Yeah, you could think about how Another way to think about Natural about is natural and unnatural.

What would you expect a pagan to do? Oh, you'd expect pagans to go kill each other, but not themselves.

You know like God Even sinful men understand you don't kill yourself similar with Sexual immorality you see the

Bible described homosexuality as being especially wicked because it is something that is especially

Unnatural you expect even most pagans not to act that way Right.

Yeah, I do believe we live in especially perverse time. I believe Affluence and perversion go hand -in -hand affluence gives you the the luxury of engaging in perversion

If you think about the kind of laziness that exists You know people just sitting around doing drugs all day or whatever the case may be right you can only do that if you have the luxury of doing that or The Bible says be fruitful multiply and society

Hinges and your own family hinges and your own life hinges on like having a fruitful family where you have children to help with the farm, etc

You know, there's no you can't mess around with things like homosexuality. Whatever you like You've got to be fruitful multiply you have to subdue and take

Dominion but once you Build something up and then you're living on the shoulders of the previous generations that have built something up You've got the luxury of living in perverse ways without Without entirely upsetting your ability to live somewhat fulfilling and fulfilling might not be the right word, but Yeah living your life with a

With kind of some measure of contentment, I'm trying hard not to pick it like a religious term, but you know general happiness

Bible says that the days when Christ comes will be like the days of Noah and Lot those were both times of wickedness, but they were also both times of affluence

Sodom was the richest of cities Noah If you imagine all these people, you know building up everything

And then afterwards they're able to build the Tower of Babel These are these are productive people who are able to engage in all kinds of wickedness because they had built up so much

Yeah, you can just look at you don't have to look at this just a time. You can look at other countries, right?

How much homosexuality exists in third world countries, it's not because they are Necessarily more morally grounded than we are

It's that we have the luxury of engaging in that kind of perversion and they don't At a societal level

Okay, and then he also talks about God's providence in completing the work not just Converting the soul but then completing that work as there might be fits and starts

Falling into despair, etc So he talks about that in two categories one is awakening trouble over our estate the second is cheering the hopeless soul, so Making you aware of your need for Jesus and then giving you

Jesus Just like the hymn says it was grace that taught my heart to fear then grace my fears relieved

So those are the two halves that he's talking about there So he spoke about a converted man who fell into a great sin and then realized

His need for Jesus More because of that sin that he had fallen into and the stirred up a greater zeal into him

He talked about this lady known as mrs Honeywood who in illustrating just how hopeless she thought it was that she would be saved threw a glass to the ground

It was just I will be destroyed just like this glass Throws it to the ground and then it doesn't break and this is before Gorilla glass and all the things that make our glassware so, you know corning didn't exist back then and So for the glass to not break is is really something and this her whole her whole tone changed after she saw that the glass

Didn't break Okay, now there's an obligation to Providence because of that and then he talks about the

Mercy of conversion that we should reflect on both that it's surprising and that it is seasonable in our own lives

He gave the example of Saul looking for his father's donkey If you know the rest of that story the way it goes is that's what ends up leading him to ask

Samuel he's going to ask Samuel where the donkeys are Samuel takes him in and tells him that he's going to be anointed to be king, etc

And then Jesus inviting himself to Zacchaeus his house Surprising to Zacchaeus who was just hoping to get to see him and Then mercy of conversion being seasonable

The angel troubling the water at just the right time, of course That is in the famous first John 5 for which you will not find in most

Bibles because it was a marginal note that got copied into older Bibles and then

He also mentioned sermons that have been timely for you that have not been forever others if if you think of any message that left an impact on you and You imagine and you ask yourself.

Well, how many others were impacted by that message? The answer might be very few maybe some of you are thinking of ones that impacted a lot of people like Paul Washer's shocking youth message or something, but Most of the messages that left a big impact on you if you think back to them

I can think of some and I don't think anyone else thought much of it actually one One when

I first came to this church Josh preached a message on Isaiah 6 that was just I I was just so impressed with the things that I was hearing.

They were really like enlivening my soul to the point where like I called home and told my parents about the stuff that I was learning here, you know, and but there was a friend who had who was visiting from Virginia who had joined with me who's not a believer and He said yeah, this was all the stuff

I heard growing up and like I grew up in a church, too Listen more seriously than you did and I don't remember hearing any of this stuff about about you know

Christ and Isaiah and all this other stuff. It was really so he was not impressed by it, you know, both of us having grown up in churches, but and then

Josh preached the same message the next year and it it was

It was like totally different. It was not it was not that it wasn't like a good message still But it just like did not it.

I was expecting the exact same experience and it was not the exact same experience So really was