Expositional preaching requires a living context to be understood. While the Holy Spirit is powerful enough to make the right applications to a completely blinded heart, he usually uses the natural means of family, church, and human culture to give a context to truth. Barring common grace, much in modern culture is useless for teaching the right application of Scripture. That leaves redeemed families and gospel churches to put flesh on the bones of expository sermons.

I enjoy conferences for pastors and training workshops, and recommend them heartily. But I often return from them a little disturbed by the way expository preaching is viewed by some Christian leaders. According to them, expository preaching is the main ingredient for healthy Christianity, and the lack thereof is the reason for its sickness. If only, they say, all pastors were committed to expository preaching, the church would be reformed and revived.
I am committed to expository preaching. I have attempted it (however unsuccessfully) for over twenty years. We teach students in our seminary how to do expository preaching. I prefer to make the mainstay of my preaching expository series of books of the Bible. I believe expository preaching grows out of a conservative view of Scripture. If you believe that God has verbally inspired Scripture, making it the rule for all Christian life and practice, it follows that you submit to its meaning. Therefore, you desire to understand what has already been revealed, submit to it yourself, and make it plain to others. Expository preaching usually goes hand-in-glove with inerrancy, for when you believe the Bible has been given without error, you are fastidious in your approach to understand the very words of Scripture, not just the themes. Expository preaching also reveals a desire to preach the whole counsel of God, not our pet themes or popular topics.
But having said all that, I think many Christian leaders have a faith in expository preaching which is overblown and looks to expository preaching to do what it cannot accomplish by itself.
It is a tempting position to hold. After all, the Bible teaches us about worship. Surely if we preach expositionally, biblical worship will take place, right? The Bible speaks about what affections we should have for God. If we preach the whole counsel of God, won’t it automatically lead to ordinate affection?
Look around for the answer. You have any number of Reformed or conservative evangelicals who are committed to expository preaching, but who come out on almost opposite ends of the worship and affection spectrum.
This elephant-in-the-room fact leads many to relativize our applications of Scripture. If such good preachers who are so committed to biblical authority come out at completely different answers as to what it means to worship, it must be because we’re just talking about ‘styles’ and various ways of “contextualizing” the gospel. So as not to shake anyone’s faith in expository preaching as the be-all and end-all, the quite obvious disparity in worship and affections by those committed to expository preaching is played down in favor of a shared commitment to Reformed doctrine.
I think ignoring this disparity is part of the problem. It’s my contention that expository preaching is not a magic bullet, but it must be accompanied by something to have its desired effect.
The fact is, preaching occurs in a context.
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Providence is mysterious in such a way that we shortsighted souls are not able to catch the spectacle of God’s distant ends. God does not focus on the present advantage for himself and his creatures, but his eye is to his own glory in all, even to the very last ages of the world. God discloses grand designs in small things, and noble mysteries are hidden in the least of his acts.

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.1 Corinthians 1:21
Because the ways of God are beyond human comprehension, much of what he does seems counterintuitive to us—yet it is always right. His grand designs are disclosed in small things, and noble mysteries are hidden in the least of his acts. We rarely understand the process, but God never fails to bring the results that are required for his glory and for our good.
As providence is universal, so it is mysterious. God’s throne is in the dark. Who can trace the motions of his eyes as they race? In moving about the earth, “he makes the clouds his chariot” (Ps. 104:3), and as he rides on the wings of the wind, his providential speed makes it too quick for us to understand. His ways are beyond all human reason and wisdom. His most diligent servants cannot decipher the full extent of his works because the swift motion of God’s eyes is too quick for ours.
John the Baptist is so astonished at the strange condescension of his Savior to be baptized by him that he forbids it at first: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matt. 3:14). Men and women are weak creatures and cannot trace or comprehend the wisdom of God.
The mystery and darkness of providence cast a luster on it, just as precious jewels are set in ebony so that the stark contrast of the dark background heightens their brilliance and beauty.
God’s Ways Are above Our Ways
Providence is mysterious because God’s ways are above our human methods. Dark providences are often a smoldering groundwork laid for some excellent design that God is about to reveal.
God keeps Sarah childless and then brings forth the root of countless descendants from her womb. He makes Jacob a cripple and then a prince to prevail with God, first wounding him and then giving a blessing. God sends Christ and the gospel at a time of high intellectual achievements to confound the reason and the wisdom of the world, which is not able to discern the knowledge of God: “Since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21).
God’s Ends Are Higher Than Our Aims
God’s ends have a higher objective than human aims. Who would have thought that the military forces of Cyrus, which he ignited against Babylon to satisfy his own ambition, would be a means to deliver the Israelites and restore the worship of God in the temple? This was God’s end, which Isaiah prophesied and Cyrus never imagined: “I am the Lord . . . who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid’” (Isa. 44:24, 28). This was spoken long before Cyrus was born.
Pharaoh sent Israel away at the end of four hundred and thirty years, the time appointed beforehand by God. He could not keep them any longer because of God’s promise, and he would not keep them because of God’s plagues. God’s aim was to glorify his truth by fulfilling his word. Pharaoh had no desire to accomplish God’s will but only to be delivered from God’s judgments.
We can easily observe how God’s ends are far different from human ways by looking at Augustus and his plan to tax the world (Luke 2:1–4). Acting out of pride, Augustus was eager to count those under his reign. In Tarragona, Spain, in 26 BC, he proclaimed that a census would be taken of the whole empire. Soon after his announcement, resistance arose from various groups, and Augustus deferred his resolution to a more suitable time—the very time of the birth of Christ. Now we see God’s wise disposal of things in changing Augustus’s resolution and deferring it until Christ was ready to come into the world!
Christ, the seed of David, was to be born at Bethlehem, the town where Jesse had lived and David had been born. The census decreed by Augustus made it necessary for Joseph and Mary to come from Nazareth, where they lived and where Jesus had been conceived, and to journey to Bethlehem. Mary, being great with child, likely would not have made this journey for any reason short of the emperor’s edict. How wisely does God order human ambition and pride to fulfill his own prophecies and to publish the truth of Christ’s birth, for the names of Joseph and Mary were found in the records of Rome in Tertullian’s time.
God’s Actions Have Multiple Ends
God accomplishes multiple outcomes through a single action. Jacob is oppressed by famine, while Pharaoh is enriched with plenty. Joseph’s imprisonment is intended for his father’s relief and Pharaoh’s wealth. Joseph is wrongly accused, and his chastity is rewarded with incarceration. This later serves to further his advancement: he moves from being imprisoned to being highly favored and honored by Pharaoh.
What is God’s end in all this? To preserve the Egyptian nation, yes, and also Jacob and his family. But this was not his only purpose. By these means, God lays the foundation for his future designs to be carried out in an age to come. Jacob is brought into Egypt and leaves his posterity there, making a way for God to be glorified as he works future miracles for the deliverance of Jacob’s descendants. This is such an act that it should continuously ring throughout the world as a type of spiritual deliverance by Christ for all to remember.
God’s Ends Are for His Glory
Providence is mysterious in such a way that we shortsighted souls are not able to catch the spectacle of God’s distant ends. God does not focus on the present advantage for himself and his creatures, but his eye is to his own glory in all, even to the very last ages of the world. God discloses grand designs in small things, and noble mysteries are hidden in the least of his acts.
Though intended to die, Isaac was delivered from his father’s sword and thus set forth to the world a type of Christ’s resurrection. Meanwhile, God caused a ram to be entangled in the thickets, appointing it for the sacrifice, and thus it set forth a type of Christ’s death.
God uses the captivities of the people to increase the boundaries for the spread of the gospel. The wise men were guided by a star to find Christ, King of the Jews, and pay homage to the infant. Where was the foundation of this remarkable event laid? Probably in Balaam’s prophecy: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” (Num. 24:17). This was likely handed down through tradition to the wise men, perhaps renewed by Sibilla Chaldea, and further confirmed in their minds by the Jews as they spoke with the Babylonians while in captivity. Thus the mystery of providence stands.
Many ages before, God purposed to prepare his people for the coming of Christ and determined when he should be born. Scripture does not tell us what the wise men were seeking, but their gifts were a means to preserve our Savior, Joseph, and Mary from the rage of a tyrant by allowing them to support themselves in Egypt, where God ordered them to flee for security.
When an officer of the king scoffed at God’s promise of miraculous provision, the prophet Elisha assured him that he would indeed see the provision come to pass but would not taste it (2 Kings 7:1–2). The next day, the king put his captain in charge of the gate, and when food prices dropped as dramatically as promised, the people, hungry and crowding through the gate for provisions, trampled the officer to death, thus carrying out the prophecy without any intentions of doing so. See how God orders second causes naturally to bring about his own decree!
Study Questions

Why can’t human beings fully understand God’s providence?
Read 1  Corinthians 1:18–30. What distinction is there between God’s providence and the “wisdom” of the world?
Charnock uses Joseph as an illustration of how God can accomplish multiple ends with a single event. Can you think of other examples from Scripture that illustrate this point?

Excerpt taken from Chapter 4: The Mystery of Providence, Divine Providence: A Classic Work for Modern Readers by Stephen Charnock and edited by Carolyn B. Whiting. A new edition will be released on September 21, 2022 by P&R Publishing. Used with permission.
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As it is often the case with medieval saints (and others in our varied Christian past), we might not agree with everything Aelred wrote. He has been accused of being vague on some issues and unduly soft on others. But his teachings on love and friendship are pastoral and thought-provoking, and his prayers are moving examples of humility and dependance on God.

In 1134, a reputable young man with a promising career at the court of David I, king of Scots, saddled his horse and started his journey to a remote abbey in a North Yorkshire valley. His name is Aelred. He never returned from his journey, and his decision to abandon everything to attain Christ is the reason why he is still known today.
Aelred the Nobleman
Aelred was born at Hexham, Northumberland, in 1110. His father was a priest (priests could still marry at that time). After his studies, in which he excelled, sometimes after 1124 he obtained a place at the court of David I, king of Scots, and his wife Matilda as a companion to Matilda’s sons: Simon and Waldef, born from a previous marriage, and Henry, her only son with David. Aelred and Henry became especially close. Due to his diplomatic abilities, Aelred rose to the title of Master of the Household and was employed in several diplomatic missions.
Sometimes between 1128 and 1131, Waldef left the court to become an Augustinian canon. He stayed in touch with Aelred, possibly highlighting some discontents already brewing in Aelred’s mind. Waldef mentioned the Cistercian Abbey at Rievaulx as an example of a community devoted to the love of God and others, and Aelred decided to travel there with a friend.
Aelred was impressed with what he saw. Still, he left to return home, only to ask his companion to take him back to the abbey one more time. This time he never left, feeling he had found his true home.
He later wrote, addressing God: “At last I began to surmise, as much as my inexperience allowed, or rather as much as you permitted, how much joy there is in your love, how much tranquility with that joy, and how much security with that tranquility. Someone who loves you makes no mistake in his choice, for nothing is better than you.”[1]
If we detect a resemblance with Augustine’s Confessions, it is because that was one of Aelred’s favorite texts, and much of his first major work, The Mirror of Charity, is fashioned after that. Aelred was also greatly influenced by Cicero’s De Amicitia, which he viewed through the lens of Augustine’s writings.
Aelred the Monk
Recognizing Aelred’s talents and experience, William, abbot of Rievaulx, sent him on several diplomatic missions as well, including one to Pope Innocent II in Rome. Later, Aelred was appointed novice master at Rievaulx (a pastor for prospective monks). His warm and compassionate spirit made him the perfect candidate for the task. In 1143, he was appointed first abbot of Revesby in Lincolnshire, where he stayed until 1147, when Maurice, the abbot who had succeeded William at Rievaulx, resigned, and Aelred was elected as his successor. Aelred kept this office for the next twenty years.
News of Aelred’s loving and caring leadership spread throughout Europe, bringing many novices to the abbey, which doubled in size. He also became famous as a preacher and writer. The fact that we still have a large quantity of his writings, gathered from different abbeys, is a proof of how much they had spread and how carefully they had been preserved.
The last ten years of Aelred’s life were difficult, as he suffered from arthritis, gout, kidney stones, and a chronic respiratory disease. He was so ill that in 1157 he had to be admitted to the infirmary at Rievaulx. From there, he moved to a nearby hut where, despite his continued sufferings, he kept receiving the numerous visitors who continued to flock by his side.
By January 1167, knowing he was about to die, he asked for three books: his psalter, Augustine’s Confessions, and the gospel of John. He died on 12 January 1167.
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