Romans chapter 8. I know you feel this way about
this chapter, that if there is a chapter in Scripture that is
so full and so rich and full of comforts and doctrine, Romans
chapter 8 is most definitely that chapter. But in this chapter
I'm going to deal with only one particular verse. And that is
a very familiar one to you. Romans 8, 28. I've entitled this message, The Comforting
Knowledge of Every Saint. The Comforting Knowledge of Every
Saint. And we know. What do we know? All things work
together for good. To them that love God. To them
that are called according to His purpose. As I've said, this verse is very
familiar to every one of us. We've often heard this quoted. We've often heard messages. I've
preached messages from this verse many times. But we should never let a Scripture
become so familiar to us that it loses its meaning. We should never take a scripture
that we know so well for granted. But by prayer, by prayer, we
ask the Holy Spirit now to comfort us by this familiar passage. We should even pray that God
should plow up our hearts Isn't that often the case? You
take a familiar Scripture and it rolls off your tongue, and
then it has no value to your heart. It doesn't get to the
very soul. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit. This is what we must depend upon
Him to make this very familiar passage as though we had never
heard it before. That's what I desire. I desire
that every one of us, that this should distill as the dew and
the rain. It should come in as gently and
sweetly upon our souls so as to bring refreshment. That's
what the Word of God is for. Refreshment. Encouragement. Strength. In a very barren wilderness
that we live. So my subject this morning is
this. The knowledge of every believer. And what is that knowledge? We
know that all things work together
for good. To them, to who? To them that
love God. More particularly, those who
are called according to His purpose. So then, it is my heart's desire
to speak to you this morning. I want to speak to you so as
you should be very comfortable. I want you to be comforted. I want you to be, when you leave
here, I want you to feel so at rest and sure about this promise. I want you to be sure about what
you know. Somebody come along and ask you,
what do you know? Man, I don't know much. But this I do know. And you'll be able to tell them,
this is what I know. I know this. Every believer knows this. I
desire to speak comfortably to you because that is God's Promise. That is God's commandment to
me. To speak comfortably to you. You who are chosen. You who are
redeemed. You who are called by the effectual
power of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and faith. I am to speak to you
this morning. And I am not to speak of condemnation
to you. I am to speak of you of comfort. Isn't that what he said in Isaiah? Comfort ye my people, saith the
Lord, Speak comfortably. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her, what? Your warfare is accomplished.
Your iniquity is pardoned. Four, she hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all your sins. What am I to speak to you today?
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. This is our message to you, a
message of comfort. But I know something about you,
because I know something about me. We are often fearful. We are often fearful. Why then do we fear? If that's
true, then why do we fear? If God says there's no condemnation,
if God has received double for all your sins at the hands of
Christ, and justice is completely satisfied, why are you afraid
of anything? Yet you are. You are afraid. You are fearful. We are prone to fear. We have lots of fears. We shouldn't fear, but we do. But I want you to listen to the
Lord. I really want you to hear Him. I want you to hear His Word. I want you to listen to the One
who died for you. I want you to listen to the One
who gave His blood and satisfied the justice of God, the very
One who robed you in His own righteousness and cares for you. He says this, Fear not, I am
with thee. Be not dismayed, for i am by
god i was straight then the the a i will help the gay i will
uphold the with the right hand of my righteousness how much
energy and time do you spend in anxiety anxious all i don't
know what's going to happen all how much how much effort does
it take to be it takes a lot of effort to be anxious It takes
a lot of strength to be anxious. You have to put forth a lot to
be anxious. You're anxious about tomorrow.
Most of our anxiety is about things that have not happened
yet. And most the time they never
do. You found that to be right? You're anxious about something
that never happens. and yet what is your master say
be anxious for what be anxious for nothing what fear
not I am with a with you low I am with you all way even to
the in the world I'm with with you, to help you, sustain you,
be anxious for nothing. What are you to do? Seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you. So then I ask you, are you in
Christ? Are you in Christ? Are you in the ark? I didn't
ask you to know anything about the ark, if you measured the
ark. I'm asking are you in the ark? A lot of people measure
Christ, they look at Christ, they examine Christ, they build
great theological arguments for Christ, and yet they're not in
Christ. Are you in Christ? By faith,
have you come to Christ? Then you should lay hold, grab
tightly on His promises, hold on with all your soul. Hold fast
His Word. My God shall supply all your
need, not according to your merit, not according to your strength,
but according to the riches of His glory through Christ Jesus
He shall supply these needs. Remember old Joseph, he was sent
before of God into Egypt, hated, treated viciously, And yet he
arose and ascended, become prince of Egypt. He stored up all that
grain for one purpose, to save Jacob. Wasn't that his purpose? The whole thing God raised it
up, that he should save Israel. Is that not a picture of your
Master? He came, He was ill-treated, He was crucified, He suffered
and died so that He might store up grain of righteousness and
peace and joy. And now that Joseph, your Joseph,
Christ, pours out the grain to you, without measure He stored
up all His mercy and grace. Without measure, you won't find
an end to His mercy. Do you realize that? You won't
find an end to it. Thy mercy endureth, how long? Forever. Forever. Our Lord Jesus has provided for
us His Word, His grain, so that we might feed. Let us now by
faith eat of His salvation. Drink it in. May God open your
heart and drink it in. Pour it on this cold, dead heart. that it may produce life and
fruit and faith. Therefore, no matter what your
providence that comes, you may receive comfort from His Word. Let us be confident of this truth."
That's what Paul said, being confident of this very thing.
"...that he that hath begun a good work in you shall perform it
unto the day of Jesus Christ." So that not even death should
bother you. Do you realize that? Not even death should bother
you. Paul said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Not even death can stop God from
saving you. In fact, God says precious is
the death of his saints in the sight of the Lord. But how will he do this comforting?
Now all this comforting I've been giving you. How have I been
giving you this comfort? How have you been receiving this
comfort? Have I not just been telling you God's Word? All that
time, that's introduction, I've just been telling you God's Word.
God's Word is how we receive this comfort. By His Word. And now as I go to this, what
is this text? It's so familiar text to us.
What is it but God's Word? It is God's promise. It is God's
comfort to you. And so this morning, I want us
to inspect this verse. I want us to inspect it. Take
it apart and look at it piece by piece so that you might receive comfort. First of all, the knowledge of
every saint. Paul says, We know. God tells every believer in Christ,
you know something. You know something. This knowledge is not speculation.
He's not saying, I think you know. You might know this if
you've been to school or seminary or something. That's not what
he says. He says, and we know, emphatically
know this. Without doubt we know this. This is the knowledge of every
saint of God. Every saint of God. is not something
that you might get later by careful studying and theological school. No, that's not what you... You
know it already. You know this already. What do you know? All things work together for
good to them that love God. Is that not so? Don't you know
that? By the experience of your own
salvation, do you not know that? Every newborn believer understands
this, that God orchestrated every event in time and eternity to
bring him to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Don't you know that? That all
your life was something God was working together to bring good,
which is your salvation? You know that by your own experience. You know that. We have this knowledge
as soon as we're born again in the Spirit. Not because we feel
it or think it. We have this knowledge, but we
have this knowledge by our experience, but more so by this. Because
everybody says, well, I've got a different experience. I've
got experience. We don't judge anything by our experience, do
we? How do you really know this?
Because the Word of God tells me so. Because I have the Word
of God testifying to this knowledge. How many religions are grounded
upon some unholy mixture of God's Word and their feelings or experience?
God's Word says something, yet they have a feeling or an emotion
or an experience that is contradictory to God's Word. And somehow they
try to mix those two things together. Have you ever heard somebody
say that? When you tell them something in God's Word, they
say, yeah, but I feel to hell with your feelings. You should crucify them and kill
them if they go against God's Word. They're no comfort to you. Feelings come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My warrant
is this, the Word of God, not else is worth believing. Though
all my heart should feel condemned for want of some sweet token,
there is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken.
I'll trust in God's unchanging word to soul and body sever for
though all things shall pass away his word shall stand for
ever so then what does God's word
say we know and you know we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God and this is certain even because
God wrote it And we know this about God, that
He does not change. And whatever God wrote doesn't
change. He said, Behold, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. So then, what according to God's
Word do we know to be absolutely true? What do we know? Now, we
know something. Without a doubt, you know something.
So when anybody tells you you don't know anything, you can
tell them that's not true. God says it. I know something. What do we know? The second thing.
We know this. All things work together for
good to them that love God. Now, let us dig deep into the
meaning of this. All things. What do you know?
All things work together. All things. What does that mean? All things. It means all things. I want you to please take that
as far as you possibly can. Run with that as far as your
mind will allow you to carry. All things work together for
good to them that love God. All things in heaven, all things
in earth, All things in the Godhead, all things in the Father, all
things in the Son, all things in the Holy Spirit, all angels
and demons, all men and all beasts, all things that happen in time
and providence according to the eternal counsel and decree of
God. All things means all things. All God's will, all His purpose,
all His covenant are included. There is not one event that takes
place in this world or in heaven that is not included in all things. Our birth, our life, our death. All that has been, all that is
now, and all that will be. We know. According to the immutable
counsel and foreknowledge of God, according to the immutable
counsel of God, we know, according to His Word, that all things,
everything, everything, everything, not might or will, we know that
all things will most surely work together for good. Is this not what God promised
in His eternal covenant? He said, I will not turn away
from them to do them good. I know my thoughts of you. Thoughts
of peace and not of evil, sayeth the Lord. I know my thoughts. Thoughts of good. Now in this
chapter in Jeremiah, You can go over and read it with me if
you want to. Go to Jeremiah chapter 24. Just an illustration here. We'll turn quickly back. Jeremiah
chapter 24 and verses 5 and 6. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Like these good figs, So will I acknowledge them that are carried
away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the
land of the Chaldeans." For what? Why did God send these chosen
elect people, pictured by the good figs, His people, Those
for whom Christ died. Those for whom He chose and called
to faith in Christ. He allowed them to be carried
away captive into Judah. And He says, why did He do this?
For their good. For I will set mine eyes upon
them for good. and I will bring them again to
this land, I will build them and not pull them down, and I
will plant them and not pluck them up." Believer, don't you
see the dark providences of God in your own life? Do you not
feel them? Yes, you do. You feel them. Then trust not
in how you feel. Don't rely upon the opinions
of men, but trust in what you know. You know this, that even
your darkest providence, God intends for your good. For your good. Trust God's promises. I will
set mine eyes on you for good. Believer, we may not understand
the dark trials. God's never asked you to understand.
He's never asked you to understand why He does this or why He does
that. You may never see the repercussions
of what has happened until we are in glory. You don't need to see that. All
you need to do is know and trust God's Word that says all things. Now what is that? All things. Including your dark providence. Work together for your good. Believe it. Believe it. Trust
it. I'm going to ask you a very personal
question. Now pay attention to this. Listen. Do you believe
that? Are you sure? Are you sure you believe that?
If you don't believe that, you might as well just not even start
believing. If you don't trust in God, you
don't believe this, just stop using this verse. We must believe this completely
and wholly, lay everything on it, that all things work together
for the good of them that love God. If you cannot take all things
to its intended extreme, then you must abandon all use of this
text to comfort your soul. If you say, well, all things
but this, this surely doesn't work out. How is this going to
work out for my good? Let's just face it. You've just
denied what God said. Is not our God the sovereign
ruler of all things? Does not He command the rudder
of this ship and steer it where He pleases? When we are in trouble, the heathens
say this, Where is thy God? What is the response of everyone
who believes this verse? Our God is in the heavens and
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. And I know it's for
my good. in times of trouble they will
do this but our god is where he's always been our god is in
the heavens had done whatsoever he please and what is he pleased
to do to work all things together for your good that's what he's
pleased to do he's pleased to do it to you who love god i remember
when nine eleven happen i think the only time the news people
ever called about a hundred preachers to to get on the television show
I mean every time I turn around some preacher was on there and
one one reporter asked a very tough question to this preacher
he says where was God when those thousands of innocent
people were killed First of all, he missed the point. Innocent
people, they weren't. None of us are. But regardless,
he made the case. And that preacher stammered and
stuttered, couldn't answer his question. The very next night,
I heard a message from one of God's preachers, so clear. He
said, uh, our God is where He's always been, on His throne, ruling
all things after the counsel of His will. And he read this
verse, See now that I, even I, am God, and there is no God with
me. I kill and I make alive, I wound
and I heal. Now what is His killing and making
alive and wounding and healing? That's all things, isn't it?
And what is all things? All things we know are working
together for the good of them that love God. That's what we
know. We know that. We believe that. And so the third
thing is this. We know that all things, listen,
here's the next two, work together for good. That's very important. He doesn't say all things work
for good. He said all things work together
for good. Every event in providence sent
to us of God does not work independently or separately. They work together. They work together. So then,
if we were to judge based on one event, if we were to judge
the goodness of God's providence based on one circumstance, one
dark circumstance in our life, we would surely not be able to
understand this text. We wouldn't be able to reconcile
this text with our experience, could we? If you just based it
on one thing. we would surely say how can this
work together for good to me how does work for good to me
i don't understand and you will not be able to understand
it because that one event is only part only a necessary part
of what god will use to bring about good values this illustration
not we don't do this now are farmers just yet they don't drugs
anymore they just get it from somebody give it to you that's
pretty much what a pharmacist does now may have knowledge of
this but used to they should take chemicals compounds and
then they would crush them up and mix them together for an
elixir or or medicine I suppose you are watching a pharmacist
who is supposed to make you medicine and he takes down this one chemical
which alone would kill you He crushes this thing up and
puts it in the bowl, but yet you don't see him grab the other
thing. What are you going to think?
Well, that pharmacist is out to do me bad. He's out to kill me.
But no, he takes this other compound and he mixes it with that one,
and the both of them working together make medicine that would
heal you and not hurt you. And so if you would only look
at one providence and not see that God is using so many other
things, Together, working them together for your good. You would
think God is killing you. We often see only one thing God
is doing. We see His heavy hand of chastisement,
the dark providence of sickness and sorrow and pain. We see that
Satan is permitted to assault our souls. We, like Job, are
made to lose our earthly possessions. And so we cry with Newton, Lord,
will you pursue your worm to death? The answer is no. But this is
how he said, I answer prayer for grace and faith. I work these
things together for good. In Zechariah 13 and verse 9 it
says, I will bring a third part through the fire. I will refine
them as silver is refined. I will try them as gold is tried.
They shall call on my name and I will hear them. I will say
it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God. Would
you say that gold, that fire, is intended to hurt the gold?
Well, no. It's only meant to refine it.
It's only meant to burn off that which is useless, that which
is without value, to make the gold more valuable. That's what
God is doing with us. He is sending us through the
fire so as to refine us, so as to burn off the draws, so that
we may see more clearly Christ, so that we may cry unto Him.
Now, isn't that the natural response of the believer in trouble? What
do you do when you're in trouble? You cry. Now consider if you had not the
trouble. Would you cry? No. The trouble is to make you cry.
And the cry God hears, and He gives such a sweet answer. This
is the answer. You are my people, and I am your
God. Is that not sweet? Can you not
see the end result of our dark providence is always the sweetness
of God? to speak to our souls. So we know that all things are
working together. For what? Good. Now what does
that mean? Good. Oh, here's where a lot
of people get in trouble. Because what you think is good
doesn't mean it's good. What do we think? Most people
think houses, riches, money, health. They think that's good. Well, all things work together
for my health, wealth, and prosperity in this world. No. Wrong. That's not what is intended here.
All things work together for your spiritual good. All things work together for
your spiritual good. Surely if there's any good experience
that we have in the world, it's surely the mercy of God, isn't
it? Goodness of God. If you have things, they're of
God. We don't deny that and we give
thanks to God for the things we have. The food, the clothes,
whatever blessings and luxuries we have in this world, they are
of God. But friends, that doesn't mean they're always good. Prosperity is not always a blessing. Can't you see this nation and
tell that that is more of the judgment of God than it is a
blessing for this nation to be prosperous? In prosperity, people
don't cry to God. So many are like those who saw
Jesus who filled their bellies with bread. They're looking for
spirit, they're looking for temporal good. But God's people, we know,
this is something we know, all things work together for our
spiritual good, our spiritual growth, our spiritual comfort,
our spiritual education. And this is good. Why? Because
our spiritual good is eternal. All these other things are temporal.
I know you think you want a lot of things, but you really don't
want them. And if you ever get them, you'll
realize you didn't want them. They only turn to ashes. They only vanish away. They only
are held for a short time and they disappear. There's no lasting
joy in them. So that's not the good God is
talking about. He's talking about your spiritual good. You and I are here just for a
short time. Not very long. Our God tells us our life is
but a vapor. It appears for a little while
and it vanishes away. Who will know you were here in
fifty to a hundred years? Who? No one. No one. Most likely we'll never
be remembered. We'll get somebody to pull out
a picture and they'll say, oh that's so and so. But other than that,
they won't even know who you are. Audrey pulled out a picture
of all my grandparents and stuff, and she said, who's this? And
I said, well, that's, let me see. Oh, that's, that's all I
remember. That's all they'll remember of
you. And what about all those things
that you've already had that are gone? That you wanted so
much? That's not the good God's talking
about. He wants something much better for us. He has something
much greater for us, our spiritual and eternal good. Therefore,
Paul says, I reckon that the sufferings of this world are
not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. Believer, what good things does
God love and desire for you? Here it is, that you be found
in His Son. that you have his righteousness
as your own and his blood as your satisfaction of God's justice.
That's God's good that he has for you. He said, I give unto
my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. That's the good that God
intends. I know that's a good God intends
for you. I know that's a good God intends for you. And you
know what, all this other stuff, He's just working together for
that. I was working everything together. And you know that was
so when you were saved. That's exactly what happened
when you were saved. God worked all your life to bring you to
hear the gospel. He plowed up your heart, planted
that seed and gave you life. And here you are. Still, God
working everything so that you should keep the faith until the
end. So whatever God brings to pass
in our life, let us then bow down to it in faith, realizing
it is for our eternal good. Let us bless God. Let us bless
God. Let us preach the gospel and
comfort His sheep. And I tell you, I long to be
finished my race trusting Christ, don't you? I do. This next thing
here, all things work together for good to who? to who? Pay attention, not everyone. There are two specific things
here mentioned. Those that love God, first of
all. Those that love God. This is the only people all things
work together for good. Every true believer loves God.
We could never have loved God by nature, but God, because of
His love for us, redeemed us, and called us, quickened us,
and gave us such a heart to love Him. Therefore, John says, He that
loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this, it was
manifest the love of God toward us, because that God sent His
only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him,
here in His love. Not that we love God, but that
He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Do you love God? What is the evidence of your
love for God? It is this. Faith in Christ. Faith worketh by what? Love. These two are inseparable. You cannot love God except you
believe on Christ. You cannot believe on Christ
except you love God. These two are necessary. They're
working together. Do you love God? And I know this
convicts your heart. I know if you're a believer.
I know this strikes at your heart. And you say with Peter, yes,
I love you. In shame you hide your eyes and
face and say, yes, I love thee. Not like I want to. Not like
I should. But I know this. I love you. And I only love you because you
love me. I only love you because you gave
me love to you. And I'll only keep loving you
as long as you love me. I love you. Oh Lord, yes. I love thee. Then you hear this promise. I
want you to grab a hold to this with all your soul. All things
work together for your good. And you know it. You know it. And so how it is that you love
God and other people do not, how is it that you, all things
work together for your good and not everyone else's? Because
we were called according to His purpose. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. Same people to them
who are the called, THE called, according to his purpose. What
does that mean? It tells us in the next verse,
for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son. That's who he's talking to. That's
you who believe on Christ. You were the called. Not you were called, you were
the called. You were the one's purpose to
be called. And so then, Can we not clearly
see this? That we know Jesus Christ to
be all our salvation. We know that all the goodness
of God, the love of God, and the grace of God is found in
Him alone. And by His love and grace, we
are brought to faith in Christ, and God has made us to be safe
in Him. So then Paul goes on. Look at
verse 30, and I'll close with this. "...Moreover, whom He did
predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say to these things? We know all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. What shall we say to these things? Here it
is, if God be for me, who can be against me? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not then with Him
freely give us what? What? What is He going to give
you? All things. All things. What is He giving you? All things.
And what are all things doing? All things are working together
for my good. Well, how do you know? I know that because God
said that. And God cannot lie and He cannot
change. Therefore, who then shall separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus? Shall tribulation, or famine,
or peril, nakedness, or sorrow? No! All these things work together
for my good. They can't separate me. They're
working together for my good. All of them. Nothing can separate
us. Does this comfort you? It should. It should. Why? Because some of you know.
I didn't tell you anything this morning you didn't know, right?
Anything new, anything trivial that I didn't... No, you all
know this. I'm just telling you what you know. I pray God will even reveal more
of it to you. by his grace. Let's stand and
be dismissed in prayer.