Let's turn our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 8, titled the message this morning, Comfort
in All Things. Comfort in all things. Our text begins in verse 26 of
Romans 8 with the word likewise. In the previous verses, Apostle
Paul has showed us that hope in Christ Let's the believer
patiently wait for Christ's return. Even though we groan within ourselves
because of our indwelling sin, hope in Christ, expecting that
Christ give us everything He promised His people in His grace.
That hope enables us to continue waiting patiently for His return. Now Paul says likewise, in the
very same manner, The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities as we groan
in prayer. Verse 26. Likewise, the spirit
also help with our infirmities, but we know not what we should
pray for as we are, but the spirit himself make it the intercession
for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered for he that
search at the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit,
because he may get the intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. I think every believer here will
admit that many times, if not most times, we find prayer to
be very difficult. And God's word tells us why we
find prayer to be so difficult. It's because of our infirmities.
And that word infirmities, it's not as much talking about our
physical infirmities, things that, you know, we can't do.
It's the infirmity of our nature. The word infirmities there means
feebleness or inability. We find prayer to be so difficult
because of the deadness of our human nature, the deadness of
our fleshly nature. And this means more the likewise
the spirit help with our infirmities for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought. That means more than we don't
always know how to pray in a certain situation. You know how that
is. We get news. A dear brother or
dear sisters is very ill. And we don't know, should we
pray, Lord, heal him? Or should we pray, Lord, take
him home? You know, we don't know. And this verse certainly
applies to that situation. But it means much, much more
than that. Our infirmity is the nature of
our flesh. Our flesh is dead. Our flesh
doesn't know God. Our flesh hates God. so that
it is impossible for that nature to do anything spiritual. It's
our infirmity, it's our inability. So because we have that nature,
by nature, we don't know, first of all, how to pray. We don't
know that we should pray, and if we have some idea that we
should pray, by nature, we don't know how to pray. We don't know
how to come to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. If we
don't come to the Father through the Son, we will not be heard.
We don't know how to pray. But the Holy Spirit helps our
infirmity. That word helps, I looked that
up, it means to heave with. It's just like men move and you're
trying to move a refrigerator or something, they heave together.
The Spirit helps our infirmity, heaves with us. by showing us
our infirmity, by directing us to Christ so that we will pray,
so that we can pray. Now, like I said, the flesh,
it can't pray. Only the new man can pray. But
we're always tied to that old man of the flesh. We cannot get
away from him, can we? That's why we find prayer to
be so difficult. How often when you're alone do
you pray? Even in public, when these men are praying, how often
do you find it hard to concentrate? How often do you find your mind
wandering as you pray? And we find prayer so difficult,
we finally just say amen and quit. We think, well, I'm not
praying. But in those times, the spirit
helps our infirmity. It helps our inability. And you
know how? by showing us our inability.
We will never pray until the Lord shows us our inability. Obie, just pray. Don't let us
be proud. As long as we think we can handle the problem, we'll
never pray. But when we see my inability,
that I can't do anything about this situation, Then and only
then will we truly earnestly pray. Because what I see, I can't
do anything about the situation. Then I'm forced to see my inability
and to depend upon the Lord. And only when I am depending
on Christ, that's the only time I'll really ever pray. But we
don't know how to pray. We don't know how to depend completely
on Him unless the Spirit shows us our inability. So we don't
know how to pray. And certainly by nature we don't
know what to pray for, do we? Matthew Henry made this statement.
I really like it. We are not competent judges of
our own condition. Because we don't know our condition
by nature, do we? And since we don't know we're
not competent, we're not good judges of our own condition of
what we need, we pray for all the wrong things we pray for.
material things and fleshly things. We pray we win the lottery. We
pray we get a raise. We pray we, you know, all these
things, you know. And unless the spirit helps our infirmity,
shows us our inability, we'll never pray for spiritual blessing,
ever. But the spirit helps our infirmity
by showing us our inability. The spirit comes and convinces
us of sin. And when he convinces us of sin,
we see our inability to atone for our sin. Then we'll pray
for forgiveness. See, we pray right when the spirit
shows us our condition. The spirit shows us that by nature
we're unrighteous and we can't do anything righteous. So then
and only then will we pray, Lord, would you make me righteous?
Would you give me Christ to be my righteousness? The spirit
shows us our dead nature. It shows us our inability. We're
dead. We can't do anything. Only then will we pray that Lord
give us spiritual life. We're not good judges of our
own condition. We don't know what we need. So
we're like children. We're like children who want
candy. We want candy and pop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
That's what we want. And we ask our mothers, give me, give me
candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Well, our mothers are
too wise to do that. They won't give us those things
and they won't give us those things that aren't good for us.
So they teach us what's good for us. They teach us that meat
and potatoes and vegetables and milk and water, these are good
things for these are what you need. And if eventually, if we
mature, we'll start to ask for those good things, meat and potatoes
and vegetables and milk. That's what the spirit does for
the children of God. He knows what the will of God
is. He knows the will of God is the redemption of God's elect.
Now that's the primary subject that Paul's talking about here,
the salvation of God's elect. And so he puts that will, he
puts that desire in the hearts of God's people. So we pray,
Lord, save me. Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm unrighteous. I'm dead. I can't do anything. I have never done anything to
deserve your mercy and grace. The only thing I've ever done
is to deserve your wrath. So Lord, would you save me? I
need you, would you save me? That's the Spirit putting the
will of God in our hearts. Now Paul here talks about the
Spirit making intercession. But you know, it's not the Holy
Spirit that makes intercession with the Father, is it? No, the
Son makes intercession with the Father. The Spirit makes intercession
in the hearts of God's elect. He moves the hearts of God's
people to pray for the Lord's will. Now, I can't exactly explain
this, but I just know it's true. The Lord, before He created anything,
He purposed every event in human history. Before God ever created
anything, long before He ever said, let there be light, He
ordained every event in human history to happen just exactly
like it would. And then He created the world
to carry out that purpose. That's what the Lord's doing
right now. He's carrying out His purpose and nothing will
ever alter it. His purpose will not be changed
one iota. Yet, prayer is very important. Someone will say, well, if all
He's ever gonna do is do His will, why should I pray? It doesn't
matter if I pray, He's gonna do His will anyway. First of
all, I'll tell you why we pray. The Lord told us to. You fathers, you tell your children
to do something. They don't have to know why you
told them. They do it because you said it. Our Heavenly Father
told us to pray. That ought to be all we ever
need to know. We ought to pray. But this is also true. Before
the Lord ever does something, He puts it in the hearts of His
people to pray for them. And then he does it. I can't
explain that. That's just the way it is. So
it's only the spirit that could enable us to pray that way. We
never figured that out. The spirit puts it in our heart
to pray. When the spirit starts to put
it in the hearts of people to begin to pray, maybe the Lord
lays someone on your heart to pray for them or they don't know.
And you begin to pray for them. B, the Lord's getting ready to
do something. When the Lord starts to put it in the hearts of people
to pray for our Bible school, or to pray for this different,
and it's on the heart of so many people at once. Wouldn't surprise
me, the Lord's getting ready to do something. He puts it in
the hearts of His people to pray, and then He does it. And even
when we can't put that desire into words, all we can do We don't even know. We just groan. You ever been
there? That's when we're really praying. The Lord hears. He understands
those groans. You know, we're not heard in
prayer for how long we pray. We're not heard in prayer for
how well we use our words. You know, the best prayers in
scripture are pretty short prayers, aren't they? You read them in
just a minute or two at the most, you know. Fervent prayers, not
all the right words and jargon and catchphrases. It's just that
groaning that cannot be uttered, just the desire that can't be
put into words. That's how Hannah prayed, wasn't
it? Hannah prayed without ever saying a word. What a prayer. The Lord answered that prayer
and gave Samuel. What a prayer. So even when we can't put our
desire into words, the Lord knows. And when we don't know how to
pray in a certain situation, we're faced with a situation,
I don't know how to pray. I don't know what the Lord's
will is in this. Do you know what we ought to
pray? Lord, thy will be done. I don't know, but you do. Lord,
thy will be done. And give me the grace to bow
to it. Our Savior Himself prayed that
way. Father, not as I will, but Thy
will be done. Oh, what a prayer. What happened
after that? God's people were eternally redeemed. So here's our comfort in prayer. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray. And here's more comfort. As we
pray, No matter how the situation plays out, this is our utter
confidence. This thing's happening according
to God's eternal will. He's making it work out just
exactly the way He purposed for it to happen. And that end, that
purpose, will never, ever, ever, ever, ever be bad for God's people. It will always in all things
be good for God's people. 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. Now there's a
lot of verses in the Bible that are misquoted and misapplied. And this one may very well be
number one on the list. It's misquoted and misapplied.
almost every time you hear anybody talk about it. You watch the
news and you see some horrible tragedy. A tornado comes through
and just wipes out every home as far as you can see. Some poor
person is standing there, just lost everything, and they're
just looking at their home as a rubble, or even the rubble
is gone. And they say, well, God has a
plan. And they say that like, well,
this is going to turn out for the best for me. Well, I don't
know. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.
It depends. Is this promise to you or not?
It's not to everybody. Is this promise to you or not?
I mean, I don't know. And I never, it always catches my
ear. I never, ever, ever like it.
When somebody says God has a plan. When somebody says that, they're
minimizing God. They're minimizing the Almighty.
God does not have a plan like we use the word plan. I got some
plans this afternoon, plans to do some things around the house.
Maybe I will and maybe I won't. I just don't know. Pretty good
likelihood I won't. I have accused Janet of putting
sedatives in Sunday afternoon dinner. I can't stay awake Sunday
afternoon when I get home from service. God doesn't have a plan
like that. No, sir. God has a purpose. and He will do it. Look in Isaiah
chapter 46. If in the storms of this life
you ever need an anchor to hang on to, underline this, mark it
so you can turn to it frequently. God has a purpose and He's going
to do it. Isaiah 46 verse 9. Remember the
former things of old, for I'm God. and there is none else.
I am God and there's none like me. Declaring the end from the
beginning. You know why God knows the end
from the beginning? Because He declared it before time began.
He declares the end from the beginning. And from ancient times,
the things that are not yet done. He knows what's going to happen
out in the future. You know why? My counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far country.
Yea, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. God has a purpose. It's not a
plan. It's not an idea. It's God's
purpose. And he will accomplish that purpose. You bank on it. He said so. I'm God and there is none else. Well, all right, I see that God
has a purpose. He's going to accomplish it.
What's God's purpose? What is God's purpose that He's
going to do everything He's going to accomplish? Well, I can tell
you in two things, and they're really the same thing. First,
this is God's purpose. God's purpose is to glorify His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in all things. That's why God created
this world. So he would glorify his son.
And second, this is closely, this really is the same thing.
God's purpose is to save his people through the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's going to save everyone
that he can glorify his son by saving them. Are you such a sinner? You can't
be saved any other way other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
he your only hope? Will he get all the glory in
saving you? Then he'll save you. He will save everyone that he
can get all the glory in saving. That's God's purpose. So, now
Paul says we know that, we know that so. So everything that happens
in our time, everything that happens to me and to you, every
event in our lives, we know why it's happening, don't we? It's
happening to bring glory to God's son and the salvation of his
people. That's exactly why it's happening. Now, I may not understand
why this detail works with this detail to make it happen, but
I know that's why it's happening. Every detail that happens in
this creation, from the most minor thing you can think of
to the biggest thing you can think of, they are all under
the direct control of Almighty God. He is making them happen. He's the one. I create, I make
the light and I create dark. I do it. I make war and I make
peace. God does it all. So there's no
such thing as luck, is there? There's no such thing as chance.
There's no such thing as happenstance. Everything that happens is God's
purpose. Everything happens exactly the way it happens to accomplish
the purpose, the salvation of God's elect. Everything that
happens is happening to make God's purpose come to pass. Now,
that applies to all the big things we can think of. We think of
all the election of a new president. This is God's will for our country. Well, the election of the dog
catcher is the exact same thing, from big things to small things. It's all working together to
accomplish the salvation of God's people. I'll give you the best
illustration I could think of for this. I cannot imagine why
this happened, but it happened. Years ago, I helped Savannah
make a red velvet cake for a Girl Scout contest. Why her mother
was not in charge of that, and I can't remember, but poor Savannah,
I was. And we made the cake. And she
didn't come close to winning that contest. I mean, like, nothing. She didn't even get a participation
trophy. Nothing. And we brought the cake home
and tasted it, and like, Oh, I know why. Something's wrong. You know, like the cake's supposed
to be light and fluffy, you know, and it was real short and it
was very dense. It tasted good, but man, it was dense. Like,
you really chewed on that cake. You know, you've got to work
out whatever sugar was in it, whatever calories, you worked
it out, you know, chewing that cake up. And Jana, she came home,
I said, honey, taste this cake. And she tasted it. Immediately,
she said, you left out the baking soda. Or there was a step, apparently,
in the recipe that in a teaspoon you mix some baking soda and
some vinegar. Well, what I probably did is
saw that and I threw the baking soda in and threw the vinegar
in, and Jane said, no, no, no, you can't do that. That seems
insignificant, but you can't do that. You've got to mix it
in a little teaspoon to get whatever reaction is going on there, and
then dump it in. Well, I mean, they just called
for just that much baking soda. I mean, it seems so insignificant.
Maybe I've missed it altogether. Who knows? But the whole thing
got messed up for something I thought would have been insignificant.
But all of the ingredients had to be in there and mixed together,
worked together properly, or else the whole cake is going
to be messed up. Almighty God has a purpose. And He's putting
all these things together to make them work together to accomplish
His eternal purpose. He's perfect. He's not going
to mess this thing up. Not one minor detail is going
to be left to chance, is going to be left undone. He's going
to do it all, make it all work together. He never messes up
the recipe so that none of His children will ever be hungry.
This thing ends up in verse 30. We'll get to this in a couple
of weeks. Demi also glorified. This thing is going to end up
where every one of his children is glorified and not one little
detail is going to happen to make, come to pass to make that
not happen. All of his children are going
to be glorified. Now that applies to all things. All things. Things that we say
are good, things that we say that are bad. Things we think
are significant, things we think are insignificant. So even when
we don't understand, how can this that happened to me possibly
be for good? And our hearts are utterly broken. A child of God can find comfort
in this. My heavenly father is doing this
to accomplish his purpose. So it must be good. As painful
as it is, this thing has not gone off the rails. This is not
an accident. God is using it to accomplish
his eternal purpose. Now we know that. We know it. Do we? We know it in theory,
don't we? In theory, I know it. Everything
that happens is God's eternal purpose. It's going to bring
about good. Now that's all things. All things. Everything that happens
to me. All things. Many of those things
I can promise you. from the authority of the Word
of God, I can promise you, they will not be for my physical or
my emotional good. They'll be for my spiritual good.
I know that. I know that. Now, that's true
even when I don't understand how God's using this to accomplish
His purpose. That's not for me to know. I
am not called on and you're not called on. None of us are called
on to understand God. His ways are past finding out. What are we commanded to do?
Believe. I talked to our children this
week in a few minutes I have with them before they go back
to their class about faith. Faith. Resting in Christ. I don't have
to understand. I just rest in Him. He's doing right. He's doing
well. I can give you a personal example
of that. I was very blessed to see the
first breath my daughters, both of them, ever took in this world.
I saw them both. And I saw the last breath my
dad ever took on this earth. Two very, very different experiences. Both of them were good. Both
of them were good. I was blessed to see the last
breath a child of God took on this earth before he awoke in
glory. That was good. Was it painful
to this flesh, my emotional flesh? Yes. Was it good? Oh, yes. Oh, it was good. And by God's
grace, I saw the first breath Not that my children took, but
the first breath two of his children ever took on the face of this
planet. I got to see that. It's good. It's good. See, everything
that happens that we call bad, and we call it bad because it's
painful to my flesh, it's painful to my psyche, all these things,
you know, but it's always good for the child of God. Sometimes
we see it. Sometimes we don't. A trial comes
and just, utterly knocks me off my feet. Just seems like it took
all the underpinning out from under me. But it makes me see
my weakness. It makes me see my inability.
So that I seek Christ. Anything that makes me seek Christ
and His strength and His glory to make me rest on Him, that's
good. Now that's good. Suffering comes. Pain and heartache. Physical,
emotional, whatever suffering it is. that forces me to lean
upon God's grace because nothing else will hold me up. My suffering
is good. I don't want to go through it
again, but it's good. Because it took all other hope,
all other help away from me and made me really learn this. This
is something else that I know. At least in theory, I know God's
grace is sufficient. Everything else is taken away.
and I find out His grace is sufficient. See, the suffering isn't good. Paul is not saying the suffering
is good. It's not. The pain, that's not
good. But the result sure is. It's an example we use a lot,
but I thought of it when I was a boy. I'm convinced of this. If I could
go back and look you know, an accurate picture of my childhood.
I got spanked six days a week. Probably got spanked seven or
eight times in a week. It's probably confined, you know,
sometimes. What does that tell you about a kid that's a rebel
and can't learn to get spanked twice in one day? I did. I didn't like it one time. Every time it made me angry.
It made me mad. I didn't know what my father
was doing. It was good. It was good. Let me give you a couple of examples
of this from scripture. The fall of Adam. You imagine
what that day was. There was a day, there was a
moment, there was a time. Adam was righteous. Adam walked
with God. In the cool of the day, he walked
with God. God came and talked to Adam.
God was Adam's friend. He said, it's not good that man
dwell alone. I'm going to make a helpmate for him. I mean, he
gave him Eve, his wife. I mean, what a relationship that
they must have had. And in an instant, Adam fell. Was that the darkest day in human
history? All of mankind fell from life
to death. We fell from light to darkness.
We fell from loving God to hating God. We fell from knowing God
to not having any idea who God is. All that happened in a moment.
How can that day be good? Well, here's a time the Lord
let us see how that day was good. Because there could be no salvation
without the fall of Adam. There could be no salvation through
the obedience of Christ. None of us could be made righteous
through the obedience of Christ, our representative. unless we
are first made unrighteous by Adam's disobedience. By man came
sin. By man came righteousness. By
man came death. By another man came life. Well,
that day was good, wasn't it? Then there was another day. I
know this is the day of days. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
own Son, appeared in human flesh, and he was a good man, a kind
man. More than that, he was the only
perfect man to ever live. He never did anything to harm
anybody. The sick came to him, he healed
them. All that came to him that needed healing, he healed. He
gave sight to the blind. He made the deaf hear. He made
the lame not just walk, but leap for joy. He's walking through
the streets one day. He came to a funeral possession,
this poor, widow woman following the casket, her only son, her
only child. She's left without any visible
means of support on this earth. Our Lord stopped them. Raised
that boy from the casket, came back to his mother. What a kind
man. I mean, you think he had something
on his mind? He had a job to do. It must be
about my father's business. Didn't stop him from being kind.
That poor woman did it. He fed the hungry. because he
was moved with compassion for them. He told his disciples,
look at them. They're sheep without a shepherd. Got anything to eat? Let's feed them. He never sinned
one time. Wasn't even acquainted with sin.
Yet the religious leaders of that day got to Romans to put
him to death because they hated that perfect, kind, compassionate
man. And he suffered worse than any
criminals ever suffered before or since. To me, that sure looks
like the darkest day of human history, doesn't it? Man putting
the Creator to death. Man putting the Son of God to
death. But oh no, that was the brightest
day of human history. In those hours of darkness, the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the eternal purpose of His Father.
He saved His people from their sins. He put their sin away with
the blood of His sacrifice. and blotted it out. Man didn't
put an innocent man to death that day. The father made his
son to be guilty of all of the sin, of all of his elect, all
of that horrible, massive sin met in one place in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the father put a guilty man to
death. He put a guilty man to death so that justice would be
satisfied for his people and they'd never die. They are made
righteous in him. Oh, that's a good day, isn't
it? That's a good day. That's the best day. I'll give
you another example that's the direct result of the first two.
True story. Young girl grew up under the
sound of the gospel. And from the day she heard it,
she hated it. Just utterly hated it. Couldn't wait to get out
of her parents' house. And the moment she could, she
moved as far away from home as she could get. She just went
as far away from the gospel as you could get. And while she's
away, just a whole lot, I'm sure, just like the prodigal son, while
she's away, her father died. Her mother grew very, very, very
ill. She had to quit her job and move all the way back home
to take care of her mother. In part of taking care of her
mother, was driving her mother to the worship service. And she
hated it. Oh, she hated that gospel. And
I wondered, why didn't she just sit out in the parking lot if
she hated it so much? Talked about pervenient grace the other
day. She came in, trying to be a good daughter, take care of
her mother, bring her mother to the service, and there she sat,
ate nearly a minute of it. The Lord saved that old rebel. He
revealed himself to her in mercy and grace. Now, is that good? Yes, it was. Is it painful her father died? Yeah, it was. Is it painful her
mother grew so seriously ill, never recovered? Yeah, that's
painful. Did the Lord work all that together
for good? Yes, He did. Yes, He did. Because He always
does. Now, I said all that to get to
this. This is the sure, certain promise
of God. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. If you and I are going to get any real comfort
from this verse of scripture, we're going to have to know,
does this promise apply to us or not? Does it apply to you?
Does it apply to me? Everybody can't say this is all
going to turn out okay because all things work together for
good. You can only say that if this promise is to you. that
you can know, before you walk out these doors, you can know
if this promise is to you or not. Who is it made to? First of all, it's made to people
who love God. Isn't that what it says? All
things work together for good to them that love God. Now this
isn't talking about people that love the God of their imagination.
Everybody loves the God they made up. They make Him up the
way they like Him. So that's not who this is talking
about. It's people who love the God of the Bible. If you love
the God of the Bible, This promise is to you. If you love the God
who elected a people just because He would. They weren't better
than anybody else. He didn't see they'd do anything good or
He didn't see they'd choose Him, so He chose them. No, they're
all lost in sin. They're all dead. They're just
a dead lump of clay. Just a dead lump of Adam's flesh. But just
because He would, God chose them. He chose to save them. He gave
them to His Son. If you love that God, this promise
is to you. If you love the God that sent His Son to die for
those people that He chose. He didn't die to make salvation
possible for everybody. He died for everybody. He died
for His people. And in His death, He made them
righteous. He saved them. He put their sin
away. If you love that God, if you need that God to be your
God, your Savior, His promise is to you. If you love the God
that sends His Spirit to give life to His people, He's not
begging them to walk in the aisle. He's not begging them to make
a decision. The Spirit comes and He gives faith to His people
and you can't run them off. His promise is to you. If you
love the God that keeps His people, He keeps them. They don't keep
themselves. They're not kept by how well they fight the Christian
warfare and live the Christian life. They're kept by the power
of God. They're kept by His grace. He keeps them all the way to
glory. If you love that God, you need that God to be your
Savior. You don't need any hope but Him. This promise is to you. Now listen to me, listen. None
of that is to say that there will ever be a soul on this earth
live who wants to be saved and is going to go to hell anyway.
There won't be one. There will not be one person
in hell that wants to be saved on God's terms and goes to hell
anyway. God will never say, well, I know you want to be saved,
but I didn't choose you, so, you know, sorry. No, that will never, ever,
ever happen. You come to Christ. Right now,
where you sit, you come to Christ. Are you a sinner? Huh? Come to
Him. He saves sinners. Anybody, anybody
who wants to be saved on God's terms will be saved. And I can
tell you why they want to be saved on God's terms. He did
a work of grace in their heart. He put his will in their heart.
So they pray, Lord, save me. I'm a sinner. You see, God saves
his people by mercy, not merit, mercy. If you love that God,
this promise is to you. Second, this promise is made
to people who are the called according to God's purpose. If
this promise is to you, you're not going to be surprised by
it. God's going to let you know. He's going to call you to His
Son. God elected a people to save. He gave them to His Son. His Son said, I'll stand assured
for those people. I'll save them. The Son came. He obeyed the law for those people. He gave them that obedience so
that they're righteous. And He went to suffer and to
die to pay for their sins, to put it away. But if those people
would be saved, they must believe Christ. There's no salvation
without faith in Christ. You must believe. You must come
to Christ in faith. But here's the problem. God chose
them. Christ died for them. But they
can't produce that faith. They can't conjure it up in themselves.
So the Holy Spirit comes and he gives them a free gift. He
gives them faith in Christ. And you know how he does it?
You know how he gives his people faith in Christ? Through what
we're doing right now. The preaching of the gospel.
Through the preaching of Christ, the Spirit gives faith. Faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you don't
know the Lord, you know it. You want to know him? Do you? If I was you, one day I was,
I say this with such compassion because I know, I know how it
is to sit there and not know the Lord and wish I did. Here's
my advice to you. Every time these doors are open,
if you live in some other place, you live in Crossville, every
time those doors are open, I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd make
it my business to be there. I wouldn't let anyone stop me.
Faith cometh by hearing. God calls his people out of darkness.
into the glorious light of his son through the preaching of
the gospel. When you hear and you think,
he's saying that to me. I need him. I need that. That's
the Lord calling you to his gospel. If the Lord's given you a heart
for this so that you love to hear Christ preach, you need
to hear him preach, you need That Wednesday, sir, you need
that Wednesday, sir, that reset button so you can make it from
Sunday to Sunday. If your heart is thrilled, if you find yourself
refreshed by hearing Christ preached, this promise is to you. God's
called you to his son and he did it on purpose. He did it
on purpose. So this promise is to you. So
you take this with you so that you know it. all things that
happen in your life. Whatever it is that happens in
your life, whether it's pain, whether it's joy, whether it's
suffering or whether it's happiness, all things in your life are working
together for your eternal good. Many of those things are going
to be painful. We're going to have sorrow and
tears on us. But those things must be necessary.
They must be necessary for me, and my father wouldn't have done
it. All things work together for good, to them that love God,
to them who are the called, according to his purpose. We'll get to
these verses next time, but look at the ultimate end of God's
purpose for his people, 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. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, Him He also called. And whom He called,
Him He also justified. And whom He justified, Him He
also glorified. Now what should we then say to
these things? Huh? That's the gospel. What are you
going to say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God be for me, how can any
of these things be against me? They're not. May the Lord bless His Word.
Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we humbly bow before
You. We thank You for this blessed
portion of Your Word. Father, we know these things.
We've been taught these things from Your Word. We know them.
We know them in the head. Father, give us a heart of faith
that believes, that believes You, that rests in Your Son. Father, how we thank you that
you're sovereign over all, that nothing ever happens outside
of your eternal purpose and will. We thank you that you take all
these events to work together to accomplish your eternal purpose
for the glory of your son and the salvation of your people.
Father, I pray that you would glorify your son this morning.
Cause us to take this word home in our hearts. Father, glorify
Your Son in our hearts, in our sight of faith. Cause Him to
be all and in all to us. Reveal Yourself to us through
the preaching of Your Word. Give us faith in Christ. We might
see Him, rest in Him, hang on to Him, find in Him our all and
in all. So that in the storms of this
life, we have an anchor, we have a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, we pray these things for His glory and for the comfort
and edification of your people. In the precious name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we pray.