In the book of Romans chapter
8 and verse 28, as I said, this is a verse that is commonly quoted
in a way that some people don't understand. I think a lot of
people use this verse in the realm of the human power of positive
thinking. And of course, if we're believers,
if we're sinners saved by the grace of God, if we know Christ,
it sure is a powerful verse. that would cause us to think
positively. I was just joking. Patricia asked
me, she said, is everything OK? And I thought, everything? I
said, well, no, everything's not OK. And then I thought about
what I'm going to teach this morning. I said, yes, everything is OK.
And that's the way we look at it from a godly perspective,
isn't it, from the word of God. And I know as we go through trials
and tribulations and problems, as we're attacked or as we're
rejected, It's all to be put in perspective of this verse.
Let's read it, verse 28, and we know, this is not something
we're doubtful about, we know that all things, not just some
things, but all things work together for good. That's why everything's
okay, because it works together for good to them that love God,
Now this is a situation and a blessing that only belongs to those who
love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose.
They're one in the same. In other words, if you're called
according to his purpose, then it means you love God. And so
let's unpack this verse here this morning. First of all, as
we are brought to Christ, By God-given faith, this is how
we're to view things from God's perspective. That all things
work together, everything in our life. This is, I put in your
lesson, this is the grand conclusion. And that doesn't mean that things
aren't gonna hurt and we're not gonna sorrow and grieve and all
of that. It doesn't mean that we're gonna
be happy all the time, that we're gonna feel good all the time.
But it just means that all things work together. Somebody said
one time, all things are working together. Oh no, all things are
not working together. All things do work together.
Now what do I mean by that? All right, hold on, I'll show
you what I mean by that. All things work together. And
this is the grand conclusion that's been revealed to us of
the Godhead. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because it is God who's working
all things together. It's not just that all things
are working together like some fatalistic thing. Or it's not
just some kind of power positive thinking that says, well, it's
all gonna work out in the end. No, God is actively working these
things together. And only God can do that. All
right, that's the key. And so, what many of the founding
fathers of the United States of America believed is not true.
I said, what do you mean? Well, many of them were deist. Have you ever heard the term
deist? They had a belief in God, but it wasn't a God who was providentially,
sovereignly in control and working in this world. When I was in
school, we learned about what they called the watchmaker God
theory. And it's basically the idea that
God took him, created the world, and then he wound it up like
a clock and then walked away. And then he comes back when the
clock winds down, something like that. No, no, God is, he's the
God of creation, he's the God of judgment, he's the God of
salvation, and he is the God of providence. What is providence?
That's God's government of this world. He's in control. This world's not in chaos, it's
not out of control. It appears to us to be that way,
but everything's working according to God's plan. Now, it's because
of his sovereign power and his purpose. Ultimately, the basic
reason that underlies this whole thing is that it's God's purpose
and it's God's power and God's purpose to glorify himself in
the salvation of his people through the merits of his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now that's the ultimate purpose.
When he talks about the call of God according to his purpose,
what is God's purpose? It's to glorify himself. Now
I'll get to that more in a minute, but because of that, we who believe,
we who are, again, sinners saved by grace, who are justified,
We are the people that he's gonna be talking about here in the
next verses later on, when he says, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justify. We're
justified, we're not guilty, we're forgiven. We're righteous
in God's sight. And because of all this, we who
believe in Christ, who rest in Christ, we're assured that all
things, good and bad, nothing excluded, work together for good. And we know this, he says. And
why do we know it? Because God's word says it. And
that's the only way we know it. We don't know it by feeling,
because there are times we just don't feel like it's all working
according to any plan. We don't know it by sight. We don't know it by circumstance.
We know it because God has settled the matter in his word. God says
this and it's true. And that's how we know it. That's
how we're assured of it. And God's word is his promise.
You can put it all under this umbrella. God's word is his promise
to save us by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. And ultimately,
that's what all things are working together for them that love God,
who are called according to his purpose. His promise is accomplished
by his oath in which his glory is engaged to keep that promise
to all whom he gave to Christ before the foundation of the
world, all whom Christ redeemed on the cross. So in other words,
if all things don't work for good, then God's reputation is
shot. But they do. Now I've got five
things I want to give you about this verse. Number one, first,
understand this. This verse does not say all things
are good. You understand that? Because
all things are not good. There's a lot of evil, a lot
of sin in this world and within us. The flesh versus the spirit. Sometimes we do a lot of bad
things, don't we? Others do a lot of bad things.
And we still suffer consequences of sin. Think about floods. We can think about that easily
this morning. Think about natural disasters. Think about this,
think about sickness and death. Now sickness and death are the
consequence of sin. The wages of sin is death, even
physical death. We can't really say that sickness
and death are good in themselves. But here's what we can say. That
sickness and death are good for us. How? How are they good for us? Because
God's working even that. He's overruling even sickness
and death. Good and bad together for our
eternal and spiritual good. That's why. Think about death,
for example. Death for a believer. What does
the Bible say about death? for a believer. It's our entrance
into paradise. It's precious in the sight of
the Lord, precious in the sight of the Lord of the death of His
saints. What is that, Psalm 116 or something? I can't remember,
but I didn't write it down. But all things, good and bad,
all things are not good now, but all things good and bad are
under God's sovereign direction and control to fulfill His purpose. to glorify himself in the salvation
of his people through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, is that clear?
Now, secondly, here's the second thing. We need to realize that
God is the only one who can work all things for good. You know,
unbelievers, they'll sometimes, they'll use sinful human reasoning. And they'll say things like this,
they'll say things like, well, if all things work together for
good, even my sins, I'll just go out and sin all I want to,
because it's going to work together for good. No. You see, that's
a person who doesn't believe God, and it's actually a person
who's trying to play God. Because you and I, we cannot
work all things together for good, but God can. Only God has
the right the wisdom, the power, and the goodness to work all
things for good, even sinful things. It's kind of like sinful
reasoning in the realm of grace. Somebody might say, well, if
I can't sin enough, to overcome God's grace to where God can't
save me, then it doesn't matter what I do, you know, if salvation
is by grace, not based on my works, not conditioned on me,
then it doesn't matter what I do. No. See, you're trying to play
God. And you can't do that. It's like
the old guy said, I know there is a God and I ain't him. And
we're not. We don't have that kind of wisdom.
We don't have that kind of power. You see, that's God alone. But
now to prove that, that only God can do it, that's a concept
that goes all the way back to the fall of man, isn't it? What
did God do? Somebody said, well, did God
predetermine the fall of man? Yes. Does that mean God created
sin? No. Sin is not created by anyone,
no more than good is. Good is not created. Good is
God. God is good. God has no creator. Sin is the opposite of good.
Don't go around trying to argue, well, who created sin? No, it's
always been there. But now God, in his sovereign
power, used it as an instrumentality to bring about the fall of man.
And people go, they go, oh, crazy. Oh, no, no, no. Well, what do
you believe? I had a fundamentalist pastor here in town. wrote me an email one time, he'd
heard me say something about the fall on our TV program. And he said this, he said, I
cannot believe, or he said, I cannot understand how you can believe
that God brought about the, sovereignly brought about the fall of man.
And I wrote him back and I said, well, I cannot understand why
you would believe that Satan sneaked up on God and took him
by surprise. Because that's anti-biblical.
God's in control, folks. And he's gonna work it together
for good. What comes out of the fall of man? The redemption of
man through Christ, which was set up even before the fall.
In the everlasting covenant of grace. And then you can go through
the scriptures, you know, look at the evil, the sinfulness,
and the selfishness that motivated Joseph's brethren to sell him
into slavery. And yet, later on, when they
met Joseph again, and Joseph was second in command of Pharaoh,
what did Joseph say? He said, you meant it for evil.
You're no excuse. but God meant it for good to
save much people alive. So this is no new concept that
I'm giving you that God's in control and works all the things
together for good. And of course, what's the greatest
example of that that you can find in the Bible? Acts 2, Acts
4. The human race coming together
in rebellion against God's Christ, crucifying him, And what did
Peter say? We did it with wicked hands,
but we did no more than what God determined beforehand that
we do. You ever read that verse, Acts
chapter two? I'm gonna tell you, a lot of
these so-called Christians around here act like they never heard
that verse. God determined, that what it says? I've got those
verses cited in here. But understand this, only God
can do that. This is the realm of deity. Humanity cannot enter into this
except as God works all things together for us. And then now
here's the third thing. This eternal good, this spiritual
good, applies only to them that love God. That's what it says. We know that all things work
together, not for everybody without exception. for good to them that
love God. Now, all things aren't working
together for the good of every individual without exception.
Some die in their sins, lost under the damnation, the just
damnation of God. That's not their good, is it?
But he's talking about his people here, them that love God. Now,
who are those that love God? Only those who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ as he is identified in the word. Man by nature has
no love for the God of this book. He loves a God of his own imagination. We were talking about this last
week, you know, how false gospels make salvation conditioned on
the sinner. Well, whatever condition a sinner
has to meet that he or she believes that God will accept and is assured
of that, you know what that God is? He's an idol. Because the
God of this book will accept nothing less than the perfect
righteousness of his dear son. And the only way we can have
that righteousness is to be in Christ, to be found in him, his
righteousness imputed to us. And the first evidence of that
is that we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, admit that we have
no righteousness but Christ. and he's all my righteousness
before God. And when a sinner is brought
to Christ by God-given faith, then and only then does he begin
to love God. Now, even then we don't love
God perfectly without any contamination of our own self-love. We're still
sinners saved by the grace of God. But we do love God. And the reason we love God is
we see what we are. We see that we're sinners. You
know, Colossians 121 talks about how by nature we're enemies in
our minds of God. We hate the light, the light
of truth that exposes us for what we are and exposes our false
refuges. You know, somebody said, well,
I don't hate God. Well, preach the God of the Bible to them.
Who's in control? who, that pastor who wrote me,
he hated the God that I was preaching. I can't believe he said, I can't
understand why you'd say God would do, my God wouldn't do
that. That's what he was saying. Well, I expect his God wouldn't.
But his God's an idol. The God of the Bible, he says
it. He says it. You mean God did
all this to Joseph? Well, how can God not be the
author of sin? He's not. But sin is here, and
he overrules it. Somebody said, well, Satan created
evil. No, who created Satan? God did. But he didn't create
him evil. That's true. Satan failed. But let me tell
you something. God has determined this for his purpose. And his
purpose is to glorify himself. in the salvation of his people.
God meant it for good, we mean it for evil. And when God shows
us that and brings us and sheds abroad in our hearts the love
of God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, that's when
we begin to love this God. And we can honestly say that.
We don't brag about our love to God. Herein is love, not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. But don't you love the fact that
you have a good solid hope based upon the righteousness of Christ
because you know you have no righteousness to recommend you
unto God. I know that if God were to judge me right now based
upon my love for him, I'd be damned forever. But I love the
fact that his love towards me is unconditional towards me because
Christ met all the conditions. And one day I'll love him perfectly. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Think about it. Now, here's the
fourth thing. The only ones who can make this claim rightfully,
that all things are working together for our good, eternal good, and
that we love God, the only ones who can make that claim rightfully,
biblically, are those who are the called according to his purpose. Now, what is that called? Well,
that's the calling of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the
gospel. It's what we call the effectual
and invincible calling of the Holy Spirit. How do you know
that you have participated or that you were an object of that
effectual, that invincible calling? Because it brought you to faith
in Christ. Submission to his righteousness
is the only ground of salvation, and it brought you to repentance
of dead works and idolatry. That's how you know. That's unbelievers
may quote this verse and they may take comfort in it, but it's
a false sense of security. It's a euphoria. You know what
euphoria is? It's a false happiness. It's
like being on a drug. You know, Karl Marx said that
religion is the opiate of the people. I agree with him that
99 and 44, 100% of it is, but the gospel is not an opiate.
It's God's word. And the wrath of God abides upon
those who do not rest in Christ. But called here are those whom
God has powerfully and invincibly called in the power of the Spirit
through the preaching of the gospel. And they've been convinced
by the Holy Spirit of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
And that's the irresistible calling of the Spirit. And then fifthly,
about Romans 8.28. We have to understand that the
purpose of God in working all things for good is his own glory
and our salvation by his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that's God's purpose. That's his ultimate purpose.
You know, a lot of people who claim to be the called, they're
not really called by the Holy Spirit, by God. because their
calling is not according to his purpose. What's his purpose now? To glorify himself in our salvation. Based on what? The blood and
the righteousness of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if
my calling is not according to that purpose, it's not the calling
of God here. And we need to understand that.
Many people say, well, I was called, you know, when I was
listening to a preacher tell me how much God loves me and
that Christ died for me and I made the difference. Well, that calling
doesn't glorify God according to his purpose. You see what
I'm saying? That kind of calling glorifies
the sinner. If I made the difference between
saved and lost, then who am I glorifying? If Christ did all that he could
do, even for those who end up perishing in damnation, and the
rest is up to us, who gets the glory there? Not God, not Christ,
but the sinner. Well, that calling is not according
to his purpose. And we need to understand that.
The purpose of God is to glorify himself as both a just God and
a Savior. And the only grounds upon which
he can do that is the blood and righteousness of Christ which
ensures the eternal salvation and final glory of every sinner
for whom he died, whom he redeemed on the cross. That's the only
way. The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter
1 and verse 10 that we who are saved are to make our calling
And our what? Our election, sure. Well, how
you gonna make your calling sure? Well, the only way we can do
that is this, is our calling according to the gospel in God's
word, and is it according to God's purpose to glorify himself
in our salvation through Christ. Well, let me give you this. Now,
look at verse 29. I'm gonna go through verses 29 and 30 next
week, Lord willing. But let me just start with this
one. He says in verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now that word
foreknow is one that is twisted and rested by a lot of people.
But what he's talking about, this foreknow, is not just God's
prior knowledge to something that was going to happen in the
future. That would really be anti-God, did you know that?
That would make God no more than a crystal ball gazer. You know how people say, well,
he looked down through the telescope of time and he foresaw who would
believe or who would meet certain conditions, and therefore he
made his choice based upon what he foresaw. Now here's my question. Now if anybody argues that with
you, let me tell you how to answer, okay? Where is that in the Bible? What verse in scripture do you
get that from? And if they go here, the word
foreknow is explained. He also did predestinate. The word foreknow means foreordain. That's what it means. It means
foreordain. As I said, this foreknown means
foreordained from eternity. And I've got a list of scriptures
here, and there's more. I could have put more in here,
but time wouldn't allow, and space wouldn't allow. But because
God is omniscient, there is a sense in which he knows all men, he
knows their hearts. God knows everything. But God
knows all, he knows all about them. He knows their birth, their
life, their death, their destiny, but in eternal love and grace,
he knows only his elect. He has a special knowledge for
his chosen people. Do you remember Matthew 7, 1,
those false preachers and false believers who stood before him
pleading their own works as the ground of their righteousness?
And he said, depart from me, I never knew you. What does that
mean? Did he know who they were? Did
he know their names? Yes. Did he know their thoughts,
their hearts? You remember those that Christ
would not commit him some because he knew what was in their heart?
He's omniscient. There's no doubt about that.
But he doesn't know all things because he's looking down through
time to see what would happen. Now, let me tell you something.
If that's what people believe, they don't believe the God of
the Bible. That's fate. That's kismet, that's what the
Muslims call it, kismet. You ever heard that? In other
words, whatever will be, will be. No, God is the predeterminer
in his all-wise, powerful wisdom and counsel. He's determined
all things. He's the God who works all things,
Ephesians 111, after the counsel of his own will. That's the God
of the Bible. You say, well, I really can't
understand a lot of that. Well, join the club. Nobody can. You know why we can't really
grasp that and wrap our heads around it? Because we're not
God. He's on His throne. He's high
above anything that we could ever imagine in ourselves. But that's OK, isn't it? That's
the one, if Jim Casey came to me and said, I'm gonna work all
things for your good, that wouldn't give me any comfort whatsoever. Because you don't have that kind
of power and wisdom, do you? You know that. But when God says
it, And I can take some comfort there. I can have assurance there
because He's the God of this unit. He's sovereign. He's in
control. And it's all for His glory and
our eternal good in Christ.