We're looking this morning at
the book of Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I hope you'll
look at this with me this morning. We're going to look at an often
quoted verse of scripture, at least partially quoted, and yet
it's really believed and understood by very few. I hope you truly
believe this verse. For if you do, perhaps you are
one of the called of God. Romans chapter 8, verse 28, Romans
8, 28 reads this way. 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, he says, and we know who is the
we here. Who's he speaking of? And we
know everyone doesn't know this. Everyone doesn't believe this,
but he says, we know, well, you have to go back to chapter one
to find out. He says in verse seven, he's
addressing those to whom he is writing. And in chapter 1 verse
7, he writes, to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called
to be saints. Beloved of God, called to be
saints. So it's the beloved or for-loved
of God who are called by His grace, by His gospel, to be saints. God's chosen. God's called. That's who knows this, verse
28 of Romans 8. And we know, 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 things, all
things. Now, to know the true God, to
know the truth of God, is to know that God Almighty purposed
and ordered all things before the foundation of the world. That's what this says. All things
work together. All things according to His all-wise
purpose. All things. All things. And let
me just quote a few verses of Scripture to you. You can jot
these down and look at them for yourself. Acts 15 verse 18 says,
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. God worketh all things, as nothing
outside of the absolute direction and purpose of God Almighty. Nothing. In Daniel 4, verse 35,
says this, All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
and he, that is, God, doeth according to his will. in the army of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? All things, God worketh
all things according to his purpose, which he purposed before the
world began." Now, this is not fatalism. This is what this Bible
said. Isaiah 45, verse 7. Now, well,
let's read verses 5 through 7. I am the Lord, there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee, that is, clothed
thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know from the
rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside
me. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. That's Isaiah 45, 7. Listen to
Proverbs 16, verse 4. It says, God hath created all
things for himself. Yea, the Lord hath made all things
for himself. Yea, even the wicked. for the
day of evil. That's Proverbs 16, verse 4. Listen to Deuteronomy, chapter
32. And again, I urge you to look
at these verses for yourself. Deuteronomy 32, verse 39, God
says, See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with
me. I kill And I make a life. I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. All things. All things. We know that all things work
together. according to God's purpose, the
Scripture said. That's what all of God's people,
whom He has revealed Himself to, that's what they all know. Everyone doesn't know that, but
God's people all know that. Listen to Isaiah 43, verse 10. He says this of His people. You
are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am
he. Before me there was no God-form,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and
beside me there is no Savior. I have declared and have saved,
I have showed, when there was no strange God among you. Therefore you are my witnesses,
saith the Lord." that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it?" That's the God of the Bible,
who worketh all things according to His sovereign, eternal purpose
and will, which He purposed before the world began. Known unto God
are all His works from the beginning. Acts 15, 18. And we know that
all things, all things work together. He said, I kill, I make alive. I wound, I heal. Though there
be means, though there be things which seem to cause this and
that and the other, yet God is the first cause of all things. No one, everyone who dies, God
killed them. That's exactly right. I kill
and I make a life. Whoever gets sick, God Almighty
purposed it to happen that way. I hear preachers all the time
tell people, God didn't want that to happen. Well, then if
he didn't want something to happen and it happened, he's not God
at all. You might as well forget about a God like that who didn't
want something to happen, yet it happens anyway. Who needs
a God like that? Well, that's no God at all. Men
make Satan to be more God than God is. They make men to be more
God than God is. Satan seems to be doing exactly
what he pleases, but yet God can't, according to preachers.
I say, be done with that God. He's no God at all. But now the
God of the Bible, the God of Scripture, the living and true
God, worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
the Scripture says. All right. He says, we know,
Romans 8.28, that all things work together for good. to them that love God. All things
work together. Everything is intricately woven
and connected like threads in a tapestry, all purposed by God
Almighty. We, the human beings, we cannot
see the whole picture, as it were. We look at individual circumstances
and events and happenings and we think, how are these things
Working together for good, how do these things fulfill any purpose? Well, they do. All things work
together. And it says, for good to them
that love God. For good. Now, who loves God?
It says, works together for good to them that love God. Who loves
God? But what did you think about what I just read from God's Word,
what he said about himself, that he is working all things, doing
all things, the God, the absolute sovereign God of Scripture? What
did you think about that God? Do you love that God? Most folks
don't. Most folks despise a God like
that. They absolutely hate the mention
of a sovereign God such as that. But that's the God of the Bible.
Who loves God? It's those who love Him as God.
And they love God because He first loved them, foreloved them. What do you think about that? Most reject that. Most hate it.
But some love God as God. Those whom He foreloved love
God as God. And so it says all things work
together for good to them. For good? What good? With their
eternal spiritual good. How can calamities and disasters
and catastrophes and traumas and sicknesses and death be for
good? Well, it's not necessarily for
the good of all people. All things may work together
for the damnation of some. The condemnation of some, but
it says for the good of them that love God, the eternal spiritual
good, the ultimate salvation of his people, everything. God
has ordered all things according to his all wise purpose. Works
out for their spiritual good. Like Joseph in the Old Testament
scriptures, Joseph, who was wickedly maltreated and mistreated and
sold into slavery and and taken and put in prison in Egypt. But
all of that, in the end, Genesis 50, Joseph said to his brethren,
you meant it for evil, but God meant this for good, to save
much people alive. And that's the story of Christ
crucified. Men with wicked hands took and
crucified the Lord of glory, but they did what God determined
or purposed before to be done. What God determined to be done,
the most evil of all acts of men, the most wicked act man
has ever performed, was the crucifixion of God's Son. Yet God purposed
that. Scripture says it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. God purposed the death of His
own Son, though wicked men were the means of it. Yet God determined
it for the ultimate salvation of His people. Not an offer of
salvation to everyone, no, but the salvation of His people. Well, all things work together
for good to them that love God, who are the called according
to His purpose. The called, who are the called? God called them, Christ called
them, the Holy Spirit calls them. He calls them by our gospel,
Paul said. He said in II Thessalonians 2
verse 13, we're bound to give thanks to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification, that is, being set apart of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you by our
gospel." Read verses 29 and 30 with me. It says, "...for whom
he did foreknow," whom God did foreknow, that means love before
the world began before they were born. God sent His love, His
affection on His people, whom He did foreknow. That doesn't
mean be acquainted with. That means love. For whom He
did foreknow, He also did predestinate, that is predetermine. Everyone
knows what the word means. It means exactly what it said.
They were predetermined to be conformed to the image of His
Son. God loved His Son so much, He
determined to have a whole race of people just like Him. And
that's what they're going to be, just like His Son. That He
might be the firstborn among many brethren for, moreover,
whom God did predestinate, them He also called. In whom he called,
them he also justified. In whom he justified, them he
also glorified." Everyone whom God Almighty determined and purposed
to save before the world began, all those whom he foreknew, foreloved,
he did predetermine or predestinate to be his children, to be like
Christ, and in time he calls them by the gospel. He doesn't
invite them. He doesn't ask them. He calls
them sovereignly, effectually, powerfully, and tells them who
He is and what He has done. And them He justified. He gives
them that saving faith in His Son, which justifies them before
God, pronounces them innocent, holy, unblameable, unprovable,
whom he justified by faith in Christ his person and work, and
them he also glorified." They are glorified by believing, and
someday they will be glorified with Christ, someday in heaven
itself. Well, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God. to them who are
recalled according to His purpose. Do you believe that? I hope you
do.