Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to Romans chapter 8, and reading through our text, verse 28. 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. Romans 8 verse 28.

With my being here this afternoon required two people to be unwell. Your dear pastor with his broken ribs, unable to preach here, so he is not here. I was due at this time to be preaching 142 miles away in Southery, but my wife wasn't well. So Paul Hayden kindly agreed, instead of coming to Cranbrook, he has gone up to Southery. If he had come to Cranbrook, he didn't feel able to come down here. So with my remaining at Cranbrook, I am now found here.

It's arrangements that were made nine months ago, been turned completely upside down, changed around. This is God working. This is His will. This is Him doing things according to His will. Sometimes people might think if they say, if the Lord will, they mean this thing is set in stone. It must come to pass. It must happen, and I've seen in my life again and again, the Lord overturning things, changing things, causing things to be done that we never expected to be done. And you see that man proposes, but God disposes. God ordering all things after the counsel of His own will. The Apostle begins in this text with the word, and we know. A path that we know, it should be a cause of thanksgiving for God and to God. If we indeed know anything of the things of God.

I think sometimes we can easily pass over that which we have been taught. We are told that the covenant promise is that all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. They shall all know me from the least even unto the greatest. And sometimes it's good for us to look back, perhaps to years ago or days of our unregeneracy, or those of you who may be not clear yet whether you are called or not, whether the Lord has begun with you or not.

But to think back and to think in these terms, what do I now know that I once did not know? What has the Lord taught me about myself, about himself, about the things of God? Remember the Lord teaches line upon line and here a little and there a little And because it is perceptible sometimes and gradual, we may not really recognize it and know it.

If we think of things growing in the garden, if we were to sit and watch, we wouldn't perceive any change. And we'd think it a hard thing to sit and watch and watch and wait for a change. But if you were to come back after a week, especially this time of year when everything is breaking out into new growth, you'd immediately see a change. It's the same with knowledge as well.

You need to, instead of looking maybe day by day, or looking at today, go back a month or two, go back a year or two, and think, what has the Lord taught me? What can I add after these words and we know the apostle in writing and you can think of John as well but he covers several things of those things that we know we know that all things whatsoever the law saith is saith to them that are under the law that all the world might become guilty before God in Romans Three, he sends that forth. And then in Romans 7, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal and sold under sin. These are things that the apostle is identifying that we know or he knew.

We have in this chapter here in verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. The whole creation feels sin. Sin is marked in all the animal kingdom, in all of nature. Groans under death, decay. Hymn writer says, change and decay. In all around I see, O thou that changest not, abide with me.

We think of what Paul says when he writes to the Corinthians, and he says concerning idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world. There were some that were being troubled and upset, thinking idols have power or things offered to them are defiled, but he says an idol is nothing. It's just a piece of wood. It's just something that man has made into a so-called god himself.

On the other side, beautifully put, the Apostle says, we know that if this our earthly house be dissolved, we have a building made of God eternal in the heavens. These are some of the things that he identifies that we actually know. When we come to the epistles of John, we have a beautiful word, we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. And these are things taught us, things to know that are comforting and a real help to us. Above all, of course, is to know Christ, whom to know is life eternal.

When the disciples, they said to our Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us Then our Lord said, has I been so long with you, Philip, and thou hast not known me? If thou hast seen me, thou hast seen the Father also. And the blessing was with those disciples as they were with him, they walked with him, that they knew him, and he knew them.

The woman at the well of Samaria, she came to him first just as a Jew. The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. But before that meeting was finished, she was persuaded that he knew her, but also she knew him. She says, come see a man that told me all things that ever I did is not this, the Christ.

The Lord had told her that he was, but what was impressed on her was that he knew her, and it was through that that she was brought to be persuaded and to know who He is. May that be with each of us, to be able to say that we know the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been brought to know Him. Beforehand we were strangers, we were far off, we didn't know Him, we didn't know His voice, but by the grace of God He has brought us to know Him. a favor, a blessing that this world does not know. It is a distinguishing blessing to the people of God.

On to look this afternoon at three points on this word, thinking of the knowing. Firstly, our knowledge of the meaning of these two things, the meaning of all things, what is comprised with that, and also of the good in our text. We know that all things work together for good. What are those all things? What is the good? And then secondly, our knowledge of things working together for good. So it's bringing those all things and joining them together and the result be for that good.

And then lastly, I want to look at seven uses of this knowledge. If we know things, it's not much good if we cannot use it. Those of you that are in work, you have a knowledge of your job and you use that knowledge day by day. And in the things of God, if the Lord has taught us things it is to be used and a blessing to us. But firstly the all things and you might say well surely that word doesn't need explanation because it says all things.

But sometimes we do need to be reminded of what those things actually are. We think of the apostle writing to the Philippians, and he says that, that which happened unto me, it fell out to the furtherance of the gospel, so in providence the things that happen to us are amongst thee all things. You come here this afternoon, because of affliction changing things and we read in Psalm 119, it is good for me that I was afflicted, before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word. So afflictions are some of those all things. The preaching of the word is one of those all things. We had the afflictions, and now I'm here preaching, and you're here hearing the Word of God. It'd be a sad thing if amongst those all things was not listed the preaching of the Gospel, the reading of the Word of God, the prayers that you had this morning, that those are amongst the all things as well. those things that we would not think God was using.

The things that came upon Job, the way his brethren treated him, miserable comforters, i.e. all, those are numbered in the all things. With our Lord, the brethren forsaking Him, the Jews he came unto his own, his own received him not and how they sold him through envy and the Romans but before even that when our Lord came into the world we have a decree taxing or a censorship ordained we have where the Lord was to be born appointed so that he was actually there to fulfill the scriptures. We have those, all things that happen, even mistakes that we make, mistakes that others make, decisions that are made. How many of the Lord's people look back and say, I wish I hadn't made that decision. Why did I do that? Why did I say that? And yet God overrules those. and even our sins, those sins that we commit, sinful, accountable as we are, responsible as we are, yet the Lord is able and does use those things. Solomon came out of David's adultery.

We have those things that are all things that we could easily overlook, and it's important to think of them in their things, the providences, the good things, the bad things, but especially those things that point us to the Word, the preaching of the Gospel, the Word of God, and even what people say. They might say it in bitterness, they might say it accusing, they might say it with advice. Moses' father-in-law gave him advice, the Lord used him. It may be that it is a word spoken in season. Don't overlook things that the Lord joins in with this. all things.

But then what about the good? The good that is spoken of here? Are we to think that if it works for good we're going to have health and strength, a good job and everything goes smoothly and well in this life? There are those times that the Lord does make things work for good and those that are happily married here or those who are blessed with children or you may have a good job and view it and see the Lord's hand in it the Lord does improve those things but primarily it is the context here it is speaking of spiritual good the good of the soul.

Our Lord says, what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? It is vital for us to think in terms of spiritual good and spiritual profitableness and a blessing in a spiritual way. that which does our souls good, that which does us good for eternity, not just for time. The world itself that knows not God may have much better things to this world than we do. This is what stumbled Asaph in Psalm 73, because he says that his foot almost slipped when he viewed the prosperity of the wicked.

They had everything heart could wish. Even in death, there was no bands in their death. They were not in trouble as other men were. And he stumbled him until he went into the sanctuary of God. Then understood I their end, how that God has put them in slippery places, how soon they go down into hell.

As it were, their death is like a veil. On one side in this life, they're full of pleasures and everything that they have. As soon as they pass that veil, then they know the truth, then they know the reality, then they're in the face of Almighty God. Then they are, as the psalmist says, immediately in great terrors.

Because people death like a narrow sea divides that heavenly land from ours. But for those that are not, death, it divides between the only good and blessing they'll ever know in this life. Remember that. With the wicked, this life is the best that they will ever know. And hell awaits. For God's children, this life is the worst they will ever know. The greatest tribulation that they will ever know. Beyond the grave, there's no more tears and no more sighing. and no more tribulation. What a difference that veil makes. What a difference it is to have a hope beyond the grave.

Paul says, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. And so the good is spiritual good. If you and I are taught even one lesson through something that happens, If we are brought to be in need of our soul, if we are brought to pray, if we are brought to seek the Lord, if we are brought to love the people of God, if we have a ma put upon the things of this life that we once made an idol of or loved, that is a good thing. If we are brought to love the Lord, that is a good thing. If we are brought to distrust our own wisdom and to rely upon the Lord, that is a good thing. If we are brought to not looking to our own righteousness, but looking to Christ's righteousness, that is a good thing. those things that men would despise.

But God says, no, these things are good things. Good things make the creature in the dust and low, and exalt God. I must decrease, he must increase. That is the language of those who have been taught good things. The value, what truly has value, the pearl of great price, the treasure hid in the field, rather than the things of this poor world. Not to love riches, but the riches that are above, to love them. If things work for good, it is spiritual good in that way. Measure the good by the word of God. Measure the good as that which is something taught by God to us, so that even like the man that was born blind, we can say one thing, I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. One thing, and yet he could identify that.

We might be able to say that in a spiritual way as well. Once I was blind spiritually, But now I can see. Once I did not see my need for the Saviour, but now I do. Once I did not think upon the Word of God in the house of God, but now I do. Those things have worked for a good spiritually.

Let us be clear. When we read a text like this, we know that all things work together for good. to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose, as to what that good is really encompassing and ordering. It is a good thing when we see that the end result has been under the providence of God bringing out His purposes and His decrees. Thou shalt remember all the way the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to try thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou hadst served me or no." Good. Well, I want to look then secondly at our knowledge of things working together. are working together.

Something on its own doesn't do good. We mention affliction. Affliction on its own will not work for good. You can see many in the world and all it makes is they're more bitter and hatred against God and against His words. But when the Lord makes it work for good, brings together the Word of God, brings under the teaching of the Word of God. And then it works for good, when affliction has been a means of opening the ear so that we are ready to learn, ready to listen. Or where affliction, like this afternoon, has changed the message, no doubt, that was to be brought, has changed the messenger, but let's lose sight of the messenger, and think of the message.

I remember a time that as we were blessed, my wife and I, going to a special service and we expected Robert Field to preach. But when we got there, we were slightly late, it was a special service, and it was Seth Mercer. But the Lord blessed the word through him. And it was a double blessing because we thought if Robert Field wasn't well, or had been well, and he was there, he wouldn't have taken the same text. Seth Mercer was asked at short notice, and the Lord dropped in, here am I, send me. So he went. And that was a great blessing to us. In fact, we sent word back to where the children were being looked after, and said we're going to stay with both services. We're not just staying with one, we're going back for the other.

And it was because of that change, that arrangement. Sometimes we can see a working together for good when we look back even in days of unregeneracy. I may have mentioned this before and often because it plays such an important part in my life, but when I was seven, yes, you children, the younger, things happening in your lives may affect you right through your life. Remember the case with Joshua, the son stood still, the Lord adjusted, as it were, things there. We did that with my life.

We changed school, and the Lord caused in that changed me to skip a year because of a mistake that the teachers made. My brother and I were only 11 months apart, so in the school we went to, we should have both been in the same class, He in year one and me in year two, the teachers said, well these are brothers, they can't be in the same class. They put me in year three. Halfway through the year, they said we made a mistake.

He's doing all right, leave him. But that adjustment, I can see getting my apprenticeship. I can see the time the Lord called me by grace. Nothing would have worked. Nothing would have fitted. All those providences would never have fitted in if there hadn't have been that one year adjustment.

And that's so encouraging when you see that it fitted in with the call by Christ. It fitted in so that it was at a point, when my parents moved to Tasmania, I could stay in the church. I wanted to stay. I'd earned enough. to be able to have my own house at 20. And it wouldn't have been so if I'd have been a year behind.

And it's things like that. You look at the Lord's timing, the Lord's adjusting things. Someone's mistake was not a mistake. One thing in looking at the things working together is judge nothing before the time. Our Lord says, your time is already ready, my time is not yet. We can judge very quickly and we say, let's not work together for good. No, not yet. But let the Lord have His time. Sometimes we might wonder, why does this affliction and trial go on and on and on? Why doesn't the Lord stop it? Because what He wants to do has not been done yet. It's not been achieved yet. You still need to be in the fire. You still need to be in that position until you are humbled, until you are brought low, until the Lord has brought us to be where he'd have us to be.

You think of a blacksmith putting the metal into the furnace, he's wanting to get it hot enough so he can put it on the anvil and make it malleable and form it and shape it. But if he puts it in just for a few minutes and he takes it out and it still looks black, it's no good, it's not soft enough yet, it's not red enough, it's not pliable. So in it goes again, and it stays there until he can use it. Many things are like that. Many things need time to work. You put in yeast into bread, It needs to be proved. It needs to have time to rise and to form the bread. It can't be done instantly.

And so it is with those things that working together for good. It's good if we have a knowledge of that. and say, yes, we have seen it. He may be able to say, in our knowledge of the Word of God, yes, we know, we can see how it was in the life of Joseph. He said very clearly, doesn't he, before his brothers, ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, to save many lives by a great deliverance. He was able to look back, that 22 years have gone by since he left his father, We read in Psalm 105 that until his time came, the word of the Lord tried him as a needing to wait for the Lord's time. And then he could see it had worked together for good.

We think of the other end of that time in Egypt, Pharaoh. would not let the people go, but we know God said that he had hardened his heart, he'd left him to the hardness of his heart. And so though to the children of Israel, especially at first, it was so grievous, their burdens got harder, got worse, not better, and yet the time had to go on, not just one trial, not just one happening that was bringing Egypt down, but nine of them, nine to prove that none of those things would deliver the people of God. It must be the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission, no amount of wonders, no amount of signs.

Sometimes we can have that in our lives too. Remember a time I felt so hard, so far off from God, and things went wrong. When I was living alone, doing the ironing, I burnt holes straight through the trousers. Then the pressure cooker went boiled dry and I bowed the bottom like that. Then a piece of wood I was planing flew across the room and smashed a photograph the other end of the room. And each time I felt more and more angry, and more and more hard, and they didn't work together for good, it showed me what my own evil heart was.

And then I had my Dutch friend with me, and he said, I can't work out why I can't go over to, over to New Zealand. And he'd been living with me for a year and a half or so. And I suddenly remembered something. Mother in Israel over here had sent me a letter and said, may the Lord raise you up a young friend over there in Australia. And I laughed. I thought, it's impossible. You don't know the situation here. There's no people my age here. You know, within two weeks, I'd met this Dutch friend. He struck up friendship. He was attending the chapel at Melbourne. He came. He lived with me.

And I'd forgotten what I said. I'd forgotten that letter. It was just as if I'd never thanked the Lord for what He'd done, which I thought He could never do. And as He said that, I said to Him, I know why you can't go to New Zealand. And I went and got the letter. And you know, I opened that letter, and it just softened me right down. It just melted me, all what those other things could not do.

But the goodness of the Lord just suddenly relapsed. The Lord had given me a friend. And it was such a blessing, but it had to have the backdrop first of proving all those things going wrong. You might have all things going wrong in your life, and you think, why aren't they working for good? Not yet. But when the Lord brings His mercies, judgments, those things, But when the Lord brings His mercy, He knows how to soften a heart, knows how to bring us down.

The amazing thing with that, within a week or two, my Dutch friend, he got his exams with electricals, he could go over to New Zealand. But the effect on me was what Job said, the Lord gave. I couldn't dispute that, I knew it. The Lord gave and the Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But we were still friends over in New Zealand, and then when he came back to Holland, and we came here, we'd been nine times over to Holland. He's passed away now, we went to his funeral. But the Lord was in it all.

And you see those things that happen in other people's lives, meshing, work together, you compare. Those of you that are married, you think of what brought you together, what happened in your lives beforehand, making you suitable to each other, bringing you together. Those things, and bringing to the house of God. Some of the Lord's people say, it was through my wife or through my husband that I was brought under the sound of the truth and to hear the word of God. And they see it as used in God's hands. for their spiritual good. We think of the book of Ruth, where they went from Bethlehem, they go down to Moab, and then they have three bereavements, she loses, Naomi loses her husband, and she loses her two sons, she's left with two daughters-in-law, but Ruth, she pleads to her, she goes back to Bethlehem and there is Ruth in the line to Christ. You look at all what God used together to bring into the line to Christ.

You think of the book of Esther. You think of the things that happened there. How Vashti behaved. The advice given by King Ahasuerus that she be put out. how Esther came to be the Queen, how it was that the two who devised to take away the King's life were found out and Esther certified the King in Mordecai's name. and the timing so perfectly in that book if it had been wrong in just a few minutes in some particulars you would have found instead of Mordecai raised up to honour he would have been killed he would have been hung but you see the end of that matter God is not mentioned in that book but all his providences and his timings are all there and the Jews they had joy and great gladness.

You think of what the Lord has said when he sent forth his servants and when he says that when they persecute you from one city then flee to another. He is using persecution to order where his people are going and sometimes the Lord moves many things to order that. We think of In the book of Philemon, Inesimus, a slave, was unhappy being a slave, so he ran away. And where did he run to? He ran to Rome.

And he comes to Paul, and Paul is bound with a chain. But is Paul unhappy? Is Paul angry with God? No, he's submissive to God's hand. And here is Onesimus, he has run away because he's not submissive to his master. The Lord uses it for good. He converts Onesimus. He makes him willing to return, and Paul sends him back. How many of us know when a child has left home, left a university or a job, and they've made it quite clear, we're getting away from chapel, we're getting away from the Word of God, but they haven't. The Lord's followed them.

Don't ever do that, by the way, you young people. Don't ever tempt God in thinking, well, if I go away, the Lord will bring me back. Don't do that. You might just not. But for the parents, it's always a comfort to know that God is able and he does bring those back who once said, your God is not my God. I don't believe what you believe.

And then they end up being elders or ministers of the gospel. and we see it as the ordering of God. Of course, our Lord Jesus Christ, we mentioned about some things in His life, but you could look right through our Lord's birth and especially the crucifixion. Ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Who? The one that was delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God.

God is using men using wickedness, like he used Philem to come instead of cursing to bless the children of God. So do notice those working together for good, always like John chapter 6 that begins with the miracle of the loaves and fishes, then goes over the sea, the miracle of walking on the water, but the other side The Lord says, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were fulfilled. Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but that which endureth to eternal life. And the rest of John is speaking of the manna from heaven, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you. What had happened before with the miracle, with the loaves and the fishes, led our Lord to a spiritual discourse. Often in John it's like that. John 3, natural birth, spiritual birth. John 4, natural water, living water. John 6, natural bread, spiritual bread. The good here is spiritual good.

What we want to do is have the Lord bring us from natural things to spiritual things, to a spiritual blessing. I must come to our last point. I want to think of seven uses to use this knowledge, if we know this knowledge. The first thing is to enable us to see our calling, because it is the working together for good that is joined to calling. Let us read our text again.

And we know that all things work together for good, not to everybody, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. God has a purpose for those that He is making things work together for good for. They are those that have been called and the Lord is working these things as part of their calling. may be those of you here that are unsure of your calling. The Lord used the knowledge of what he has worked for good in your life so that you are able to see your calling more clearly. You're able to see the Lord's purpose for you. This people have I formed for myself they shall show forth my praise. So don't pass over this, especially if you're concerned to know your own calling and own position before God.

Also, to see our calling and the links that are in the chain. If we went on from verse 28, We have a chain, a beautiful chain in which the middle link is calling. 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. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. There you have the calling. When you have calling, you can look back and know that the person called was foreknown and predestinated. and also know what goes on forward as well. Whom He called, them He also justified, that is, counted without condemnation, and whom He justified, them He also glorified, leading right to heaven.

And so, one use of this knowledge that is worked together for good for us and we amongst the called is looking back to what the Lord has done for us in the past eternity and looking forward to what the Lord has planned and purposed for us. The Lord doesn't make all these things work together for good and say, well, this person has no interest in me, I have no interest in them. No, he says I have had an interest in them from eternity past and I have a planned place for them in heaven. And that is why. on working these things in their lives. Another use is comfort in affliction and tribulation. The Lord says that in the world ye shall have tribulation and many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. And this is to be a comfort in that. We might think what good can this do? What good can my affliction do? What good can this ill providence do? Do you think I could be much better if I didn't have it? I'd be much more useful if I didn't have that? How many times have the Lord's people said that? How many times perhaps have the wives of the people of the Lord's servants said that? If I was healthy, if I was strong, then you could do so much better. You could do this or that. Your arrangements would not have to be rearranged and changed. But the Lord knows what He's doing. He knows why there's needing of these afflictions. And so may it be as a comfort to us in that way.

Another use is to call us to be looking for that good. Remember at the end of Psalm 107, Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. The implication is, if you're not wise and you do not observe these things, you will not understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. Sometimes it's easy to bypass things that are standing in open view if we're actually looking for it. Dear friends, look for things working together for good. Look for two things joined together, especially things that you hear in the House of God, the Sermon, the Word of God, to what has gone on in the week before and what may happen in the week to come. Watch for it.

Another thing, of course, is to be praying for it. Now, fifth point, praying for spiritual blessings. for ourselves and to make intercession for others. I hope it's so with you. You're not just praying for your pastor that he be healed, help with the pain, restored again, but pray that he might be spiritually blessed through this time. and that when he comes back, you might get the benefit of the blessing through the preaching that he brings that otherwise he would not bring.

Make intercession, not just thinking of the one in hospital that needs healing, health and strength again, not just thinking of their financial needs, but thinking of their spiritual needs. Are they in need of even being quicken into life? Are they in need of humble? What is their need? Grant this good, a spiritual good, and that be part of our prayers for one another and for ourselves.

Not just to get out of trouble, not just to have ease, We even pray, Lord, don't let me come out of this affliction without a good blessing, without a view of Thyself, without some fellowship with Thee in Thy sufferings, without some other lesson in the school of Christ.

And this be our prayer for ourselves and for others. A sixth use is to see and to know that God is not against us, but for us. We had that in verse 31. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? God is for a soul that he is taking things and making them work together for good. That's what this word is saying.

And then lastly, to enable us to live to God's glory. If we know this, may the Lord give us to live patiently, enduring those trials, those difficult times, trusting in Him and believing the truth of this, that all things work together for good to them that love God, especially if we already know that we are the called that He has blessed us with a knowledge of Him and a love to Him. May we also be able to profess that faith towards others, to tell to others round what the Lord has done. I've related a couple of things in my life, but maybe there are things in yours you have not told your children, you have not told your grandchildren. not to give glory to you, very often there's things in it that we're ashamed of, but to give glory to God, and so that they are able to see those examples. And the things with our children, that they have been part of it. They've been part of it, they walk with us, they've seen, they've heard our family prayers, and then they've seen providence, the Lord dealing in that way, and they've heard our thanksgivings. They walk with us, and it may be in this way that they also are called to know that working together for good also should lead in the Lord's time away to an open profession, shouldn't it?

If we see that we're called We see the Lord has worked these things for good. Come and hear all ye that fear God, or tell what he hath done for my soul, and to honour the Lord in baptism, and in observing the Lord's supper. The Lord leading for that good for the Church of God, to strengthen and encourage it, and to be openly on the Lord's side. May this verse then be one of those things that we can say that we know, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.