There are two words that can,
I think, define the Christian. Number one, and what a great
word it is, that everything is working for your good. The first
word is good. And the other thing is that God
has saved you for his glory. Just remember, G and G, glory,
good. the glory of God and the good
of men. I think it is most interesting, and of course Romans 8, 28 is
one of our favorite, even that fly has been ordained of God. And some good will come of that,
although it may not be for the fly. The providence of God is so awesome. You know, Greg Cole's talking
about Greg Cole's passing away. The last email that I got from
Greg was in the month of March, just a few months ago. And he was thanking me for preaching
the doctrines of grace to him. This morning, I got up to an
email from Stephanie Gross, whose parents are here, thanking me
for preaching predestination and election to her. What a sweet truth those doctrines
are. Not something to be fought about.
But you know, you could really have a great life if you could
get into this, that everything is working for my good. Everything. when I'm a Christian. And the
passages that Greg has read for us today maybe seem a bit unusual
and don't tie into Romans 8, but they really do. And I just
want to bring to your attention those verses once again. If you
go to John chapter 11, You'll notice that that chapter
opens by saying there was a certain man. You will find that phrase
found throughout the New Testament. There was a certain man, not
just any person, but a certain man, as if there was something
behind what was happening to that person. Or there was a certain
woman, like in the book of Acts, named Lydia, who was converted
down by the riverside. A certain man, verse 1, was sick
and his name was Lazarus. And I'm sure that most of you
who've read scripture know the story of Lazarus and him being
raised from the dead. But notice the fourth verse. The third verse says that the
sisters of Lazarus sent word that he whom thou lovest is sick. Lazarus is sick. He's really
sick. In verse 4, when Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness
is not unto death, but this sickness is for the glory of God. So this
is a good sickness. This is going to work out twofold. The good of Lazarus and the glory
of God. Primarily the glory of God. Did
you know that you have been converted, if you have, and if you're going
to be converted, and God has his eye on you and has had his
eye on you from eternity, he's going to bring you to the place
of salvation, and then he's going to use you to his glory. He has
a definite plan and a definite purpose for your life. And he's
going to get glory unto himself out of you. The scripture says,
my glory I will not give to another. That's what God says. I'm not
going to give my glory to another. But notice this, for the glory
of God that the son of man might be glorified thereby. Now look at verse six. Here's Lazarus, sick unto death. And verse six says that Jesus
abode two days still in the same place where he was. In other
words, Jesus heard, about Lazarus' sickness, and he didn't rush
off to Bethany. He stayed where he was two days. Look at verse 11. These things
said he, and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then
said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. They didn't get it. How be it
Jesus spoke of his death, verse 13, but they thought that he
had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then Jesus said unto
them plainly, Lazarus is dead and I am glad. Well, now that
doesn't seem right. That's not nice, unless you're
Jesus. Unless your purpose is right,
Lazarus is going to die and be resurrected for the glory of
God. God has things in your life for a purpose. And he's going
to get glory out of that. Well, Thomas, you know, was bipolar. He was manic depressive. And look at verse 16, Thomas
said this, let us also go that we may die with him Let's just
go die too. I know that there are some Christians
just like that. Oh, it's bad. It's really bad.
Things are really bad. I don't see how God could get
any good out of this. Bipolar. Look at verse 40. Jesus said unto Martha, said
I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest
see the glory of God? Things happen in our life that
really look bad. They really seem bad. And we
even wonder, how could God get any glory out of this? But he
does. You know, there is a dark side
of Romans 8, 28. a dark side. He didn't say all
the good things work for our good in God's glory. He said
all things work together for good. Together for good. You've heard me tell about making
chocolate chip cookies. I read this a long time ago.
If you miss one of the ingredients in chocolate chip cookies, they
don't taste so good. But if all the ingredients are
in the chocolate chip cookies, they're pretty good. And let
me assure you, Christian, all the ingredients are going to
be in your life, and it's going to end up for your good and for
God's glory. Seeing the glory of God. Now
go to John nine, and I hope that you see this and you're able
to go home today rejoicing in this. John chapter nine, verse
one, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which had been blind from
his birth. And the Baptist asked, no, that's not Baptist. And his
disciples asked him saying, master, who did sin? That sounds just
like church people. Something bad happens in a fellow
church member's life, and the first thing they ask, okay, who
sinned? God doesn't beat the hell out of his people. God is
not an abuser. Things that are happening in
your life may seem awful, but I guarantee you that your God
is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think. Who did sin, this man or his
parents, that he was born blind? Now, I know some of you think
that your present condition is the punishment of God, because
some preachers told you that. Some church has told you that
you're being punished, that you're sick now because of what you
did 30 years ago. I want to remind you that the
scripture says that God doesn't remember our sins anymore. God
has forgotten them. I also would remind you that
your mom and dad might, and your relatives, and your second cousin
who's a busybody, she may remember them, but God does not remember
your or my sins anymore. They've been covered by the blood
they've been paid for. And God is busy about working
things for your good to get glory to himself out of you. That's the teaching of Scripture.
God is saving a people. to his praise and glory and honor. And that's why everyone who goes
to heaven between here and there are going to lose their strut. Between here and there, you're
not going to be a boastful, proud person. When you get there, you're
going to just say, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive
glory and honor and praise both now and forever. Amen. So Lazarus is sick. And verse
three says, Jesus answered, neither hath this man sinned nor his
parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in
him. You know, there are people right
here, right now in this building. Five years ago, maybe two years
ago, maybe six weeks ago, you didn't know God in Christ. You
were a street walker. You were a crack addict. You
were a heroin user. You were totally caught up. And
then in the providence of God, you came under the gospel of
Jesus Christ. and God has done a mighty work
in you, even to the point that people are going, and this is
happening in this city with regard to this building, and what's
going on, and Little Grace Village, and people becoming homeowners,
and people getting their life back. People are going like this,
what is happening? And then many people are going
like this, to God be the glory. Some of your parents are saying
things like, what happened to you? You've never been the same
since you got in the Clark cult. This is not a cult, my friend.
This is God Almighty at work in the hearts of men and women,
boys and girls. Now the religious folks with
regard to this man who was born blind, Jesus heals him. And the churchy religious people
got real upset because Jesus healed him on the Sabbath. And
if you read the gospels, you'll find out that Jesus was always
healing people on the Sabbath. I think he was doing it in the
face of religion. He said, Notice, this is how
religious people are. They didn't say, praise God,
John is seeing after 30 years of being blind. They go, hey,
what are you doing? He healed you on the Sabbath.
That's not allowed. You know, I bet this man who
got his sight back didn't care whether he was healed on Sunday
or Saturday. He didn't care. He just said,
this I know. Once I was blind, now I see. Can't you say that? So I wanna talk to you about
good and glory. I experience this every day.
I want you to start experiencing where things aren't really that
bad. They're for my good. This is
happening for my good. I may not understand it, but
I know it's for my good and God's gonna get glory out of it. It's
happening to me and I'm a Christian. I belong to Jesus Christ. So
I know good's gonna come out of it. And I know the end result
is going to be glory to God. Remember those two things. I
was in Big Boy having breakfast Friday morning and I tried to
get over by myself and kind of hide in there and read the paper
and kind of relax to begin the day. And Helen is my waitress
there. And Helen came over and she said,
oh, I brought the check for you today. And she gave a check for
$150, this little waitress at Big Boy. And she's constantly
doing that. She's constantly giving. And
she said, I want it to go toward the children's summer camp. I
said, thank you. And she goes, you see those four
men over there? They're all pastors. I said,
well, that's so good. That's great. So she left my
table and she went over and she goes, do you know who that guy
is sitting over there? That's Pastor Clark. So this
guy spoke up and he goes, oh, Pastor, are you Pastor Kent Clark
over at Grace? I said, yes, I am. So I went
over and was speaking to them and met all four of them. And
through our newsletter, we have told and let the word out that
I'm going to be going to Washington. And they said, so you're going
to Washington? Yes. And when I got home, I got
this email. Pastor Clark, I met you this
morning at Big Boy in Rochester. We'll be praying for your Washington
DC trip at our watch night service time this Saturday night from
12 o'clock midnight to 6 a.m. I serve as chaplain to the Board
of the Refuge, a ministry to the homeless in Lapeer County. Imagine that. Hope to stay connected
with you after our divine appointment. Godspeed on your trip Tuesday. You know what that was? That
was a divine appointment. I was in Big Boy at the right
time, they were there at the right time, and Helen was there
at the right time. Last night, this same pastor
emailed me and he said this. He said, Our Watch Night prayer
time tonight from 12 to 6 a.m. will include extended intentional
prayer for your Washington trip. I sense a strong divine appointment
or appointments for you there. Be aware of even seemingly insignificant
conversations and interaction. They may well be the real reason
you are there. I will take heed to that dear
pastor's words to me." I wrote him back and said, I will take
heed. And I told Ms. Pam, we may be
there for the porter at the hotel. We may be there for the little
maid that cleans the room. It doesn't have to be the House
of Representatives. because God is at work. It may
be that on C-SPAN, someone, one of God's elect somewhere in California
is watching that prayer and hears the name of Jesus Christ and
comes to know Him. That's how our God works. I thought about this. Several
people advised me not to go, said, if you can't mention the
name of Jesus, don't go. I thought about that a little
bit. I thought, well, I can mention the name of Jesus, and I will.
It just won't be Jesus. I will say Joshua. And they'll
all go, that's all right, because they don't know who Joshua is.
It's Jesus saves. There was a time. Say, well,
pastor, that's kind of conniving. I know. But politicians, they understand
conniving. Hasn't there been a time in your
life when you had no idea that an event in your life was working
for your good? Right now, can't you think about
some time in your life? I know you can. It may have been
some evil that you were involved in as a participant. You meant
it for evil, but God meant it for good. Do you know that God
can take your evil and turn it to good? Joseph was thrown in
a pit, got out of the pit, and sold into Egyptian bondage, and
he became such a tremendous blessing. And that's what he said to his
brothers. When you threw me in the pit and then sold me into
bondage, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And
then he fed his brothers and his father, and he saved a whole
land of Egypt from the famine. Things in your life happened
that way too, and in mine. Even things that we meant for
evil. I know this is going to rattle your cage just a bit,
but all of you heroin users, you meant it for evil, but God
took that heroin habit and you ended up at Grace Gospel Fellowship,
hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. See, it's not really about you,
it's about God and His glory and Him saving the people that
He's purposed to save from the foundation of the world. You
think about Philemon. Philemon and Onesimus. That slave
stole from his boss and he took whatever he stole and he ran
off to Rome and he got arrested. And he was put in prison with
guess who? The Apostle Paul! Hallelujah,
who preached the gospel and the slave got saved and Paul sent
him back and said to the owner, whatever he owes you, mark that
to my account. You see, he meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. You take even the crucifixion
of Jesus Christ, the greatest evil that has ever happened on
this earth when God invaded history and men nailed him to the cross.
And yet from that cross flows the blood of Jesus Christ that
cleanses us from all of our sins. The Apostle Peter in the book
of Acts said, it was the determinate counsel of God that put him on
that cross. And you with your evil hands
have crucified him, but God has raised him from the dead. So
many instances of predestination and the plan and purpose of God
for the good of his kids and his own glory found in scripture.
I thought about this last night. Stephen was preaching and they
took up stones and stoned him to death. And then there's this
very small sentence there. And a young man named Saul held
their coats. Do you know who Saul later became?
The great Apostle Paul. And he heard Stephen preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ as he held the coat. And while his
breath went out of him, Stephen's breath went out of him, he preached
Christ. And Saul of Tarsus was later
converted. You may be here and you may leave,
but hear me today. You will never get away from
my words that God is after his people and that he's on the trail,
the hound of heaven. You may relapse. Many of you
got saved the third time you were here. Some of you the 15th
time you came back. God saved you, but he didn't
let you get away. Isn't that awesome? Isn't that
marvelous? And here's what the devil tells
you. It's so important you believe what I'm preaching today. Some
of you have truly gone out and you have left Grace Centers and
Grace Gospel many times, but you come back. You come back
and the devil tells you when you're out there, you know, they're
so ashamed of you then nobody wants you back over there But
in spite of that you come back and then sometimes the devil
tells you nobody has any respect for you How many times you've
been in and out of here, but the truth is you're still here
There's a power holding you here So get over yourself and think
about this. I'm back because of God. I'm
here because of God, and God has a purpose for me, and God
loves me and will never leave me nor forsake me. All things
work together for good to them that love the Lord, who are called
according to his purpose. I love that verse in the book
of Jeremiah, where God says this, talking to himself. Maybe, so
you can hear. I know the plans I have for you. Plans? Plans? For you? The likes of you and
me? God has plans? Yes. And whatever
God determines, He brings to pass. Isn't that glorious? Isn't
that awesome? God is determined to bring you
all the way to heaven. He's not going to take you out
of the will. You're in there for good. I know the plans I
have for you. How about this one? Some of you
sitting back there so ashamed you can't even come up close
to the front, because you're ashamed of yourself. But here's
what God says to you. Before I formed you in your mother's
belly, I loved you, you little rattlesnake. No, he didn't say
rattlesnake. That was me that said that. Have you been a rattlesnake? And maybe you're sitting back
there like this, how could God love me? Surely God doesn't love
me. Stop arguing with God. If deep down inside of you, there
is some strong compulsion, some strong feeling, some urge, some,
this is the truth. God loves me. Receive it. Receive it and be blessed. before
I formed you in your mother's belly." Purpose, purpose. Say, but pastor, I've been using
drugs for 15 years. I've been using drugs for 20
years. I've been doing this. Pastor, I've wallowed in the
stables of sin. I'm as black as all hell. You
don't understand, pastor. I've been in and out of prison.
I've done this, I've done that. I don't know. Maybe there's a
pedophile here. God wouldn't save a pedophile,
would he? Of course he would. I know, I
can name in 28 years three pedophiles that I know have been saved under
the gospel of Jesus Christ while here. I know some of you self-righteous
folks are going, no way on earth. Well, if you're not a sinner,
then you don't need the gospel. But the truth is Christ came
to save sinners, bad folks. Are you glad? I'm glad God saves
glad folks. You know, I looked up the word
purpose last night. It means something set up as
an end to be attained. There's something for you to
be attained, God's purpose. Attained. God's bringing you
to the place where you find out that purpose in life. Some of
you are so confused about that. Rest assured of this. If God
has brought you here and saved you, he has a purpose and he
will cause you to see it and you'll know it. And let me give
you another clue. You good at something? Are you
really good at something? I mean, something good. You really
good at something? If you're good at singing and you have
a voice and the only place you've sung is in the shower, it's time
for you to be in the praise team. Amen. If you're good at cooking,
it's time for you to be over at the mission kitchen. Amen. What are you good at? Are you
good at retail stuff? It's time for you to be in the
thrift store, using your gift and talent to the glory of God.
You see, God doesn't save people simply for Sunday morning church
service. I am so glad. I can't wait to get to Big Boy
in the morning, or wherever I go, or to meet the little porter.
at the hotel or the little lady that cleans our room while we're
in Washington. I'm on the watch always for somebody.
I'm looking for somebody, somebody I can touch, somebody I can be
good to, somebody I can reach out to and just be kind. Somebody that will want what
I have and say something's happened to that guy, something different
about that guy. To the glory of God. his praise,
his honor. What is his glory? It's who he
is. You know, I've often told you
as a church that the great fall of Sunday morning religion is
there's no wonder, there's no marvel. You know, some of you,
every time you come to this building, you praise God because you remember
getting drunk right there. You remember the darkness of
place. You remember when that window was covered with plywood
and it was dark in here. You remember when your life was
in total turmoil. You remember when they had the
ring wrestling in here, both men and women in here wrestling.
I don't know, maybe some of you remember that room up there where
my study's going to be. That's where the beds were. Nobody's
raising their hand, I see. See, this wasn't a nice place.
This wasn't a place where Christians praising God came to. This was
a place where people got high and jumped off the roof, and
the ambulances came, and the police came. But now look at you, sitting
here in the house of God. And even your mama and daddy
say things like, They say it to other people.
They may not say it in front of you, but they say things like
this sometimes at the door. Pastor, he has so changed. She has so changed. Oh, they've been changed by the
changer. They've been changed by almighty
God who has a purpose for them. You're not here by accident.
You're here on purpose. You're hearing the gospel. I
remember Philip, the great deacon in the first church. He was in
a great revival meeting, all kinds of things. People were
getting healed and getting saved and all kinds of wonderful things
were happening. And the angel of the Lord came
to him and said, go down into a deserted place. And here comes
a black man, a eunuch, riding in a chariot. Here comes the
preacher. Now, the preacher ordinarily
would not have left a revival. I mean, if people are getting
saved here every Sunday, I'm not going to go to the desert.
But that's exactly what God told him to do. And Philip left Samaria
in the great revival, and here comes the Ethiopian eunuch. You
see, they had a destiny together. And of all things, that eunuch
is reading Isaiah 53, the report of the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me tell you, the glory is just this. It's all
that the gospel is, it's all that Christ is, it's all that
surrounds it. Don't live without the glory.
Moses said, show me your glory. And God said to him, the Lord
said to him, I can't show you full glory because if I do, you'll
die. You'll have a heart attack. I
mean, God is so glorious and so wonderful and so awesome. Have you ever laughed till you
were out of breath? I've been trying to think all night, even
in my waking hours during the night, I was trying to figure
out how to describe glory because boasting has been excluded. The
chief in the man is to glorify God. What is glory? Well, glory
is this, that God has come to earth. Glory. That God reaches
down into the dunghill of sin and picks you up in all of your
mess. Oh, glory! That you didn't seek
the Lord, but He sought you and found you. Oh, that's glory. He went down into your loady
bar and brought you out. He's gonna take you all the way. Oh, that's glorious. That's what
it is. In the old church, when the preachers
were preaching, people would scream that out. Glory! It's
better than an amen. It's like, oh, this is glorious! This is wonderful! For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined into our hearts. to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. This people have I formed, they
shall bring forth my glory. You don't have it yet unless
you're living in a state of wonder. Here it is. Here's what the songwriter
said, oh, what a wonder that Jesus found me. What he meant
was, I was hiding pretty good. Adam and Eve tried to hide too.
Got those fig leaf aprons, hid in the bushes. And God came walking
in the cool of the evening. And you know, God wasn't running.
God wasn't fearful. He came walking in the cool of
the evening and said, Adam, what have you done? How glorious this
is, that when you didn't seek Him, He sought you. Some of you
back there, He's seeking you today. You know He's seeking
you today. He's calling you, calling you. I can hear my Savior calling.
Can you hear Him calling today? Sometime it's like getting saved
again with me. I know you can only be saved
one time, but sometime, Do you ever get so happy you don't know
what to do? If you were to sneak up to my study sometime at home
and catch me just right, you'd think I was Pentecostal. I mean, it's glorious. It's awesome. It's wonderful. the glory of God, God's purpose. So here's what I want you to
think about all this week. Everything's for my good. It's
all for my good. I don't know what life's going
to bring tomorrow, but I know who holds tomorrow. And I know
his purpose for me is good. He'll never leave me. He'll never
forsake me. It's good. And what happens to
me? He is building me, molding me,
making me to be a vessel to give him glory and honor and praise. And you know, one day that will
surely happen. Our lives, when we've been there
10,000 years, we've no less days to sing His praise than when
we first begun. I would urge on you today to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You
want all the past, you want all that past burden of sin, all
of that guilt, all of that conflict about all of the things that
you've ever done, know this, that Jesus was the sin bearer,
he was the Lamb of God, and he died in the stead, room, and
place of poor sinners, and he paid somebody's sin debt. And
I ask you today, was it for you? If it was for you, believe him,
trust him, and thou shalt be saved. Let's stand together and
sing.