Turn with me if you would now
to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I would like
for us, if the Lord will enable us to, I would like for us to
enjoy our God tonight. That's what I'd like for us to
do. I have something that I pray will be very enjoyable. Let's read Romans 8 verse 28. It says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. to them
who are the called according to his purpose. We know, God's
people know. I say that emphatically. God's
people know. Now, we don't always remember. I find myself constantly having
to be reminded. This is the most light bulb moment
verse of scripture in all of the Bible to me. Every time I
read this, I think, oh yes, I forgot. Deep in the soul though, God's
spirit has caused his people to know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Now that can only be said about
God's people. That can only be said about God's
people. What is going on in the world is in every soul in the
world's mind, the world over. And this can only be said about
God's people in the world. Those who are in Christ in the
world. Those who are in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Outside of Christ, there is nothing
good. Nothing. Outside of Christ, life
on this earth is as good as a sinner is ever going to have it. Life
right here. And if the time spent here is
spent in sickness, Outside of Christ, this is as
good as it gets. And if the time here is spent
in sickness, or if death catapults a sinner to the judgment throne
of Christ, that's not good. That end is not good. That's
not a good end. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you think about what it is to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the eternity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything that we're dealing
with right now is but a blip in time. Think about eternity. Eternity. In the eternal security
of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the eternal redemption through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the eternal joy of the inheritance
of the saints with the Lord Jesus Christ. In the safety, in the
protection of salvation that comes from being placed by God
the Father in Christ. In Him we know. in the Lord Jesus
Christ, in the fact that we're in Him and He's in the Father. We're in His hand and He's in
the Father's hand. And no man can pluck us out of
the Father's hand. In Christ, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. If God has redeemed us and washed
us and paid that debt for us, If He has given us a faith and
a love for Christ, then do you know what is going on around
us? Good. I do not understand it. I do not understand it. I just don't understand it. But according to the Word of
God, that's what is happening. Good. Good is happening. This is all good. This is all
good. We were singing some of these
songs. Lord, I need strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow. As you've been, you forever will
be. Cause me to remember, cause me
to know, cause me to believe that it's good. Verse 28 says,
this is specifically who All of these things are working together
for good, for everything that's going on. This is how you can
know who God is bringing good to and who He's purposed good
for. Verse 28 says, they love God. They love God. All things work
together for good to them that love God. That's what characterizes
God's people. That's what characterizes the
call. That's how you can spot them.
They love God. They love God. Now, I believe
we can say with reverence and with humility and with fear,
by His grace, by His call, by His work that He's performed
in us, I believe we can say that we love God. Not perfectly. Not as we desire
to, not as we one day will. But we love our God. We love
the fact that He is God. We love what we see in Him. We love what we see in Him. We
love what He has revealed of Himself in His Word. We love
the fact that we're not God and He is. We love the fact that He's caused
us to bow to Him willingly. Don't you love the fact that
He has made you bow to Him, knowing what you are? We love the fact that we don't
worship a little G-God that's made up of the figment of my
imagination. Here's what my imagination says.
Yeah, God is God, kind of. That's what this imagination
says. I'm not talking about other people's. That's what this flesh
says. God is sovereign-ish. That's what this mind says. But
aren't you so glad that we worship God? in spite of anything and
everything. We love God being God, the God
of us. God has put a love in us for
Him and He's caused us and He's allowed all of His people to
love Him above everything else that is. When you get to the
heart of the matter, still being flesh, We know this and we understand
this, but the flesh naturally loves the flesh. Those who have
been called by the Spirit love God. This flesh naturally loves the
world. Those who have been called by
the Spirit love God. This flesh loves prosperity. It does. It loves ease of life. It loves health, wealth, and happiness. You know what the sinner who
has been called and quickened by the Spirit of God loves? He
loves God. He really does. He loves God
by his grace. And because of that love that
we've been given for him, we've been caused to believe and to
say, and to cling to his word. And this is what his word says.
Look at verse 17, Romans eight, verse 17. It says, if children,
then heirs. heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may
be also glorified together, for I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us." What the Apostle Paul
is saying is, all of these sufferings are worth suffering. That's what
he's saying. They're all worth suffering if
it means in the end we get to be with Him and see Him. And
that's so true. That is so true. Turn with me
over to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 15, it says,
all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might
through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not,
but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal way of glory, while we look not at the things which
are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen, they are eternal." That's what will get us through this,
looking unto Him. looking unto Him, looking unto
the Lord Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. Heavy
afflictions become light afflictions while we're looking to Him in
that moment. And then as soon as we take our
eyes off of Him, they become heavy afflictions again. But
it's true. Heavy afflictions become light
afflictions as long as we're looking to Him. Turn with me
over to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1 verse 1 says, Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ, Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or a living
hope, a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptations. that the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it
be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and
glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Now watch verse 8. Whom,
having not seen, you love. In whom, though now you see him
not, yet believing. You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls. He said, if you're a believer
on him, you love him. If you're one of his elect, you
love him. If you are under the blood, you
love Him. If you're one of the ones who
are being kept by the power of God, you love Him. You love Him. We love God, don't
we? We love God. By His grace, even
though we have not physically seen Him, we love Him, we believe
Him, We rejoice in Him. We rejoice in Him. Now, having
established that fact, having established the fact that
we love our God, here's what I want us to look at, this is
what I want us to think on, and this is what I want us to enjoy
for the rest of this time. What do we love about our God?
That's the title of the message. What do we love about our God?
We love our God. We do. What specifically do we
love about Him? Let's just enjoy for a moment
thinking on some of the things that we love about Him. Some
of the things that make us love Him so much. I was looking through
different attributes of His and character traits of His and the
reality is if you started making a list Eternity is not long enough
to go through that list of the things about God that makes us
love Him. It's just not long enough. Eternity
is not long enough. Never could we exhaust the character
and the glory and the wonder of God. Never. But using the
text, that's what will limit us to our time frame here. Just
using our text, which is Romans 8, 28. From that one verse, I
want us to enjoy what God has to say concerning His character,
who He is. And in seeing that, this is what
I believe we're gonna say. I believe we're gonna say, I
love that about Him. I love that about Him. Go with
me back to Romans 8. I wanna begin at the end of the
verse and we'll work our way backward. Romans 8 verse 28, it says, and
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. Do we not love the fact that
God has a purpose in everything that He does? Does that not make
you love Him? What if? What if? You know why
the world is in such a frenzy? What if? What if? What if? There's no what ifs
with God. None. Don't you love the fact that
everything he does is not only on purpose, but for a purpose? Everything that is going on is
going perfectly according to His purpose. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1 says,
To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under
heaven. Oh, the wisdom of His purpose. Enter into that for one second,
the wisdom of His purpose. His wisdom is what brought His
purpose. Look at Romans 11 verse 33. It
says, Oh the depth of the riches. Both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out. That means we sinners can ask
this question over and over and over again. Why? Why is He doing
that? Why is He doing that? We will
never find the answer out here. His ways are past finding out. We cannot understand His judgments.
His wisdom is so deep. The wisdom. The wisdom in what
He's doing. The absolute wisdom in everything
that He's doing. What we're witnessing right now is God's purpose and His wisdom.
That's what we're witnessing. God's purpose and His wisdom.
If we want to see the wisdom of God, all we have to do is
look around and see what He's doing. That's all we have to
do. Our flesh says, and when I say
our, I include myself in it. Our flesh says, I just can't
see that. I just cannot see that. I can't
see how world sickness and world fear in a crashing
global economy could be the purpose and the
wisdom of God. Men and women losing everything,
men and women losing everything, having all of their foundation
and all of their stability knocked out from under them. I just don't see how that could
be the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God. If we saw masses of people
falling to their knees, crying, God, be merciful to me, a helpless
sinner. I don't know what to do. I don't
know where to go. I have nothing left but you. If we saw that,
we would see the wisdom in it. We would see the purpose in it.
Now, only God knows what His wisdom and purpose is. Whether
we see something like that or not, though, we know that what's
happening right now is the wisest thing that could possibly be
happening right now. The reason this is happening
right now is because there is no wiser thing that could take
place right now. No wiser purpose right now. This is why we love Him. This
is what makes us love Him. It's because of the wisdom of
His purpose. All of His purpose. We don't
understand it, but we trust it. We trust Him. Back in Romans
8, verse 28 says, And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called." To them who are the called. What do we love about
our God? We love His mercy. We love His mercy. We love the
fact that He is willing to call sinners to Himself. The fact that He is willing to
wash us and cleanse us in His own blood. The fact that He would
willingly make us acceptable to God in Himself. Acceptable
to come. Acceptable to be called. That's
His mercy. Verse 30 right here says, Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
then He also justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified." Don't we love Him because He has loved us and
He called us to Himself? If we are among the ones that
God the Father gave to Christ, we love the fact that His desire
is for us. Why is all that going on? Here's
why. It's because His desire is for
us. He wants the best for us. He
pities us. He knows our frame. He remembers
we are dust. We don't. We think we're something
when we're nothing. But He remembers we're dust.
And in mercy, He deals with us accordingly. He calls us to Himself. He comforts us with His Word. His Word of mercy. We love that
about Him. Verse 28 says, We know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, specifically
to His people. His people. I'll tell you something
that we love about our God, we love His faithfulness to His
people. He just draws us to Him. Go with
me over to Psalm 37. I don't know what is going to
happen in the world. I don't know what's going to
happen to the economy and all that. I don't know. But I can
tell you with absolute certainty that if we have been given faith
to believe on Christ, if we have been given faith that believes
that He is our only hope of salvation, If we are one of the ones that
the Father chose in Christ, and if that truth and that choosing
is evidenced by us trusting Christ and believing on Christ and casting
it all on Christ, then we can quote David right here with absolute
certainty. This was inspired by God. He wrote this according to the
Spirit of God. This is absolute truth. Psalm
37 verse 25 says, I have been young and now am old, yet have
I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful and lendeth,
and his seed is blessed. I don't know what's going to
happen out there. But if Christ has been made to be our all,
and if we're looking to Him, if we're trusting Him, we will
not be forsaken. We will not be destitute. We
will not be begging for food, physical or spiritual. We will
not. God's people will not be left
without physical bread. They will not be left without
spiritual bread. Heavenly bread. The Word. They're going to be provided
bread, yes, but He knows. He knows our frame. He knows
that we cannot live by bread alone. We have to have every
word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And we know it
so in a moment that we need it the most. We know it so in a
moment that we're hungry the most. The Word comes and our
souls say, I needed that more than physical food. He said, you're never gonna be
forsaken of it. Don't we love His faithfulness
to us? He is faithful to His people. He is faithful to His
people. Great is thy faithfulness, O
God our Father. There is no shadow of turning
with thee. Thou changest not. Thy compassions,
they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever
wilt be. I love that about Him. All of
His people do. Go with me back to Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 28, it says, And
we know that all things work together for good. Don't we love
His goodness? It's His grace. His grace. Don't we love the fact that everything
He's purposed, He's purposed it for good. All of them go to
good. All of them. There is none good
but God. God is good. He is goodness. He is justice
and holiness and righteousness and purity. And because that's
what He is, that's what He does. Because that's what He is, that's
what He does. Psalm 100 says, The Lord is good,
His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations. That new heaven that He has created,
He said the only thing that's going to dwell there is righteousness. Good. That's all that's going
to be there. Good. That's what He is, and
that's all He does for His people. So from this one verse, we can
see just a few of these things that we love so much about him.
We love his wisdom, the wisdom of his purpose. We love his mercy. We love his faithfulness. We
love his goodness and everything he does for his people. There's
one more. Verse 28 says, and we know that all things work
together. We love His sovereignty. That's
what we love. We love His sovereignty over
all of it. All of it, everything, all things. We're gonna close with this.
Go with me to Isaiah 52. Isaiah 52 verse 7, it says, How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth
good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings
of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God
reigneth. How beautiful is that? That that's
the message God has sent to His people. It's a message of good
tidings of good. It's a message that cries to
God's people, Thy God reigneth. Don't we love that our God absolutely
reigns over everything? He's controlling everything.
Most importantly, our salvation, our eternal state. Verse 8 says,
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together
they shall sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord
shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together,
ye waste places of Jerusalem, you places that have been utterly
wasted. Break forth into joy, sing together. For the Lord hath comforted his
people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations. That's what has happened. Man thinks he's something when
he's nothing. God sends one little germ and shows his holy arm in
the eyes of all the nations. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. Amen. Amen. I pray that after all the
nations see this holy arm that he's now made bare. I pray that
all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God out
of every nation, tribe, kindred, tongue, people, generation. Thank God we have been given
a love for God. Thank God we've been given a
love for God. Everything that He is, everything
that He's done, we thank Him for that and here's the reason
why. It's because we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. All right, let's all stand together.