Which turn back to Romans chapter
8. Tonight we're going to have a baptism. Sarah Farrell is going
to confess Christ in believers baptism. And if anyone wants
to be baptized, let me know. Romans chapter 8. I'd like to
read verse 28 again. Paul says, and we know. that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. I would like to introduce this
message by asking five questions. Number one, is this statement
a statement of vague optimism given by a man or is this a promise
from God? I don't know how many times I've
heard people say, I think there's a reason for everything. I think
there's a reason that Things work out. It'll all work out.
And they might not have any idea that Romans 8.28 is in the Bible. Or I've heard people quote half
of this verse. All things work together for
good. Is this a vague statement of optimism with no ground? Or
is this a promise of God Almighty? Him who cannot lie. Well, it's a promise from God. A divine promise. Aren't you thankful? Here's the
second question I'd like to ask. Is this promise for everybody? Can every son of Adam take this
promise to himself and find encouragement from it? Can everyone say, well,
everything is working together for my good? Now, according to this text,
no. This promise is not for everybody. It's only to those who love God. to those who are thee called
according to his purpose. This promise is not for everyone. As a matter of fact, if you go
on reading in the context, he speaks in verse 29, for whom
he did foreknow. Now that word foreknow means
a whole lot more than he just knew who they were. The word
know speaks of an intimate relationship Adam knew his wife, Eve. When our Lord said to that crowd,
I never knew you, depart from me, he knew exactly who they
were. But he says, I never loved you. I never knew you to be mine. those He foreknew. 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. Whom He called,
them He also justified. Whom He justified, them He also
glorified. That's who this promise is to. It's not for every son of Adam.
It's only for those who love God. It's only for those who
are the called according to his purpose. Now, here's my third
question. Do I have a problem with this? Do I have a tendency to think,
how can that be? How could it be fair for him
to take one group of people and work everything together for
their good and the other people he leaves alone as an act of
his justice? How could that be fair? Do I
have a problem with this, of the particularity of God's grace,
of the distinguishing nature of God's grace? Do I have a problem
with this? Now, if I do, There's only one
reason, because I really don't understand sin. That's the only
reason. If I understood anything about
my own sinfulness, I could completely see why God would pass me by. Can you see that? I think of
that scripture in Romans chapter 9 verse 13 where God said, Jacob
have I loved and Esau have I hated. So many people have such a hard
time with Esau have I hated. What we ought to have a hard
time with understanding and grasping is Jacob have I loved. Here's my fourth question. If this is true, that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. If this is true, what does it
say about our God? It says he is in absolute control
of everything. It says he is the first cause
of everything. Everything that happens is His
will being done. He's in control of all events.
Amos chapter 3 verse 6 says, Shall there be evil in the city,
and hath not the Lord done it? Whatever happens, it's what the
Lord has done. He is in control of all nature.
I love what the disciples said, what manner of man is this that
even the winds and the sea obey him? He controls the animal world. Not a sparrow falls to the ground
without your heavenly father. Not just without him knowing
it, but without him doing it. He controls the demonic world. I love the way the demons had
to ask Christ for permission to move. Suffer us to go into
the herd of swine. And Jesus gave them leave. Do
you know no demon, the devil himself, cannot make a move without
the permission of God. And God controls everything. He's in control of nations and
governments. Daniel chapter 4 says he doeth
according to his will in the armies of heaven and Among the
inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or saying
to him. What doest thou? He's in control
of all individuals the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord
as the rivers of water he Turneth it whithersoever he will every
individual, you know, he's in complete control of I love this. He controls all of the free,
uncoerced actions of men. Everybody does what they want
to do, you know. But listen to this scripture. A man's heart
deviseth his way. He makes his plans to do what
he thinks he's going to do. But the Lord directeth his steps. Now, this is just how glorious
God is. He controls the free, uncoerced
actions of men. And that's something more to
be believed and understood. I believe it. He controls the sinful acts of
men. Him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. Even the sinful acts of
rebellion are under his complete sovereign control. You see, God
has an end and a design in all that he does. And we know that
all things work together for good, whatever they may be, to
them who love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose. Now, my last question in introducing
this message is how should we respond to this? Number one, worship. You know, you'll only worship
a sovereign God, one who is in absolute control of everything. That's the only God you really
worship. But the next response is confidence
and courage. I love that song, mortals are
immortal here until their work is done. This is the fuel for
fanatical followers of Christ. I want to be one of those, don't
you? I want to be a fanatical follower of Christ, not worried
to take risks because of fear of failure. Not as long as Romans
8 28 is true. And we know. that all things
work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are
called according to his purpose. Thanks be to God, who always
calls us, causes us to triumph in Christ. Now, Paul begins this
verse with these words, and we know. We considered that last week. And
we No. Who is the we? Every believer.
He's speaking for every believer. Every believer knows this. They
don't have to be convinced because they know who God is. It just
lines up with who He is. And we know. We know this is so because He
has revealed it. And we know this so because it
fits the character of God. He's almighty. He's all wise. He's sovereign. How could it
be any other way? There's not even another option.
It's either God or atheism. And what a promise. All things work together for
good. To them, and we're given this
two-fold description of those people for whom all things are
working together for good. There's a two-fold description,
very important description. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to His purpose. Them that love God. Now what I would like to ask
you to do is not think about your love for God. I want you
to think about God himself. I want you to think about who
he has revealed himself to be in his word. God is holy. He hates sin. God is absolutely
just. All sin must be punished. God is love. God is gracious. God is merciful. God is absolutely sovereign. God is independent. He has no
needs. God is immutable. He cannot change. Do you love God? Do you love
God as He reveals Himself in His Word? Do you love the God
of the Bible? I know when you think about your
love, you think I don't love Him enough, and you're right.
You don't, and I don't either. But we do love Him as He is revealed
in His Word. We stand in awe of Him. Don't
you love the way He is? Don't you love His mighty power?
How whatever He wills, He has the power to make it come to
pass. We love God. We love Him as He's revealed
in His Son. When I see Jesus Christ, I see
God Almighty. And I love Him as He's revealed
in the person of His Son. You know, I reckon the thing
that I like to say more than anything else, there's a lot
of things I love to say, but I love to say this, Jesus is
God. Jesus is the creator of the universe. Jesus is the sovereign of the
universe. Jesus is the only savior of sinners.
Do you love God? Do you love Jesus? He's God.
And I know this, all who love God, it's not merely a love that's
in word, but it's a love that's in deed and in truth. It's not just saying the words. They really do love God. Now, is this promise, all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose? Is this promise a reward to them
for loving God? No, not by any means. The reason they love God is they
are the called according to His purpose. The love they have to God is
the result of them being the called according to His purpose. And that's spelled out so clearly
in verses 29 and 30, what we'll consider next week. 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, and whom He called, them He also justified. and whom He justified, them He
also glorified." And let me remind you, these are all spoken of
as things that have already been done, not things that will be
done. This is not speaking prophetically, but historically. These things
have been done. God is a God of purpose. He said, I have spoken it, I
will also do it. I have purposed it, I will bring
it to pass. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter
1. Verse 9. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure. which he hath purposed in himself,
that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. We read in Ephesians 3, 11 of
the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. Now, what is his purpose? Let
me quote two scriptures to you. Romans 9, 11. It says for the
children, being not yet born. neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand." You know what that purpose is? Not of works, but of Him
that calleth. That's God's purpose. That salvation
might not be of works, but of Him that calleth. Listen to this scripture, 2 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 9, he saved us and he called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. I'm so thankful that salvation
is not according to our works because if it was, none of us
would be saved. We'd all be in hell right now. But thank God
He has purpose to save. Now what is His purpose? His
purpose is to glorify His Son and have a bunch of children
perfectly conformed to His image. What a blessing it is to be involved
in this glorious thing of the purpose of God where His purpose
for me is to make me just like His Son. So we see this promise is for
those who love God, to those who are the called according
to His purpose. Now I want us to consider the
promise. All things. Now what is under the umbrella
of all things? All things. Not most things, but all things,
big things, little things, exhilarating things, mundane things, failure,
tragedy, sickness, sorrow, suffering, heartache, heartbreak, all things, along with the many good and
joyous things of this life. All things. Work together. God at work bringing
his purpose to pass. There are no accidents. God never responds. There is no bad luck. There is
no good luck. All things. All things. He's the author of all things. Whatever has happened to you
happened because He willed it to happen. Amen. All things work together, not
separately. God is orchestrating it all. We just heard in that song, ye
fearful saints, Fresh courage take. The clouds you so much
dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your
head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. Trust Him when you're in the
dark and you have no idea what He's
doing and your heart is breaking. Trust Him. Trust Him. Turn with me to Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. We're going to spend the remainder
of our time in this exposition of Romans chapter 8, verse 28. Ecclesiastes is right after the
book of Proverbs. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Are you there? Ecclesiastes chapter
3, verse 1. everything, there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Everything that happens
is an it came to pass. Everything that happens is His
will, His purpose, taking place according to His will and His
timing. Whatever happens today, He purposed
in eternity. Whatever happened yesterday,
He purposed in eternity. Everything that happens tomorrow,
He purposed in eternity. Everything is under His sovereign
control, He purposes everything. You know, the Lord's not a time
traveler. I think that's the way most people look at his omniscience. They think, well, he can see
into the future, and he can see what we're going to do, and he
sees what we're going to do, and he reacts according to what
we're going to do. No, no, no. God is not a time traveler. Everything
was purposed before time. And there is a reason and a time
for everything under the sun. Verse 2, there's a time to be
born. Do you know that the exact second
of your birth was ordained before time began? And when you're going
to die, you can't do one thing to put off the time that God
has ordained. You're going to die at the exact
time God willed you to die. There's nothing you can do to
extend your life. Now, I suggest as much healthy living as we
can. It can make your life more pleasant. But nothing you do
is going to extend the time of your life. You're going to die
when God determines it. You know, there's also a time
to die spiritually. And what a blessing that is.
Paul said, when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. I died to all hopes of self-salvation. There was a time for the Lord
to die, wasn't there? How many times do you
say, my time has not yet come? But finally his time was come. There was a time for the Lord
to die. There's a time to be born, the
new birth, and a time to die. He says there's a time to plant
and a time to pluck up that which is planted. Now the idea is reaping
and sowing. There's a time to plant your
crops. There's a time to reap what you planted. Both physically and spiritually. He says in verse 3, there's a
time to kill and a time to heal. You know, there, look at it just
in a worldly sense, there is a time to kill, and it's the
thing we ought to do, kill somebody. Somebody says, how could you
say that? Well, I don't know, but there's wars, there's just
causes, there's a time to kill. And there's a time, like I said,
for Christ to be killed, and there's a time to heal. You think
of the healing that came from Christ's death. By his stripes,
you were healed. There's a time to heal. There's
a time to heal everybody. There's a time, verse three,
to break down, and there's a time to build up. There's a time to
break down walls. Walls of prejudice and wrong
thoughts break down the walls of false notions. The walls of
salvation by works. There's a time to break down
walls. Walls we build up against one another. Break them down.
And there's a time to build walls. Build walls against salvation
by works. Build walls Break walls down. There's a time to break down.
There's a time to break people down. There's a time to build
people up and not break them down. There's a time to break
down. There's a time to build. Look in verse four. There's a
time to weep. And these all are times God has
ordained. There's a time to weep. There's
a time to cry your eyes out. And there's a time to laugh. There's a time to mourn, and
there's a time to dance. There's a time to mourn over
your sin. You know, the Lord said, blessed
are they that mourn. And there's a time to dance for
joy at the glory of the gospel that makes somebody as sinful
as me perfect in God's sight by what Christ did for me. That's something to rejoice in,
isn't it? There's a time to dance for joy. He says in verse five,
there's a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together.
There's a time to remove obstacles, cast away the stones that would
keep people from coming to Christ. And there is a time where stones
should be gathered together to build something for the glory
of God. He says there's a time to embrace.
Verse 5, and a time to refrain from embracing. There's a time
when we should embrace in sweet fellowship, and there's a time
to refrain from embracing. There's a time when he says,
with such a one, no not to eat. Now, there's a time for every
purpose under the sun. He says in verse 6, there's a
time to get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to
cast away. I love this. There's a time to seek and there's
a time to lose, to forget about it. There are memories to cherish. There are times to forget past
injustices, hurt feelings, things that have happened. Treat them
as though they never happened. Just forget it. There's a time
to forget. There's a time to remember Christ's
work. There's one I want to remember,
the work of Christ. You want to forget about everything
else. Paul said, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching
forth into those things that are before, I press toward the
mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Remember Christ's work. Forget
your own. Forget the good stuff. Forget
the bad stuff. Look to Christ only. Verse 7, there's a time to rend
and a time to sow. You know, there was a time for
that veil to be rent in two from the top to the bottom, wasn't
it? I love to think about that. When Christ died, the veil of
separation that kept us out of the presence of God was rent
in two. and the opening is made, I can
come into God's presence now and be accepted because Christ
removed the veil. And it was written to from the
top to the bottom. There's a time to rend and a
time to sew, a time to mend. Mend relationships. Don't let
friendships go sour and nurture new ones. There's a time to keep
silence. I love what Jack Shank said,
one of my favorite things I've ever heard. Never miss an opportunity
to shut up. That's a good saying, isn't it?
There's a time for silence. Keep silent when God speaks.
Let every man be swift to hear. slow to speak, slow to wrath,
slow to pop off in objections to what you've heard. But there's
also a time to speak. Speak to those who need to hear
the gospel. Speak a word of a word in season
to him that's weary. Speak up when the gospel is being
denied. There's a time to speak. Verse 8, there's a time to love. A lot of time for that, isn't there?
And there's a time to hate. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. There's a time of war. And there
is such a thing as a just war. It's because of sinfulness. I
mean, there are reasons countries have gone to war, and there have
been good reasons. There's a time for war, and there's a time for
peace. But even in our own experience, There's a time for war. The flesh
lusts against the spirit and the spirit lusts against the
flesh. And these are contrary one to
the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.
That's a war that's going on on the inside. And there's a
time for that. Now, one of these days it's all going to be dropped
when we drop these sinful bodies and we're given glorified bodies.
But until then, there's a time for war. But not only is there
a time for war, there's a time of peace. Oh, the joy and peace
of believing. The peace of knowing that all
that God requires of you, every bit of it, He looks to His Son
for, and you have everything in Him. You are complete in Him,
He is our peace. Having been justified by what
He did for me, by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Verses 9 and 10, the wise man
asked this question, What profit hath he that worketh in that
wherein he laboreth? I've seen the travail which God
hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in. And now all
of these things are set beside each other, aren't they? Who
set them beside each other? God did. He made it this way. And you know He's made it so
we're not going to get any rest or joy or peace in anything in
this world. Wherever you have this good thing,
you have this bad thing right beside it. It's always that way,
always has been that way, always will be that way. He's caused
us to see that all is vanity, beginning with self. Verse 11,
he hath made everything beautiful in his time. One of these days,
we're going to see that he's made everything beautiful in
his time. Everything that takes place,
all things that are working together, He has made beautiful in His
time. Now, we don't see it now. We
don't see it now. I mean, there are things going
on that I can't see where it's beautiful. But I do believe it
is. Because He makes everything beautiful
in His time. In His time, great. His time. Also, He has set the world in
their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh
from the beginning to the end. You know what that means? That
means we just don't get it. That's all that means. We just
don't get it. We don't know what God's doing.
I hate it when people come and say, what's God doing in your
life? I think, I don't know. I really don't. I don't. And
I'll tell you what, I know this, I know what he's done for me.
And I rest in that. He's made it, he said, we just
don't get it. I don't under, the Lord, the
Lord does so. Let's go on reading. I know that there's no good in
them. all these things, but for a man to rejoice and do good
in his life. He's made it to where we just
don't get it, but I want to trust him and enjoy everything in life. I know there's no good in him,
but for a man to rejoice and do good in this life, I want
to enjoy life as much as I can, don't you? You know, the scripture
says, he giveth us all things richly to enjoy. I don't want
to run around being miserable all the time and depressed and
down. I don't want to be, I want to
just enjoy life. Everybody wants to. And also,
verse 13, that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good
of all his labor. It's the gift of God. Enjoy life. Enjoy it. It's the gift of God. This is not some morose, negative
view of things. It's not taking away from the
pain of everything that we suffer, but it's still true. God rules. He's the first cause behind everything.
Now look what he says in verse 14. I know that whatsoever God
doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nothing
can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. And God doeth
it that men should fear before him. Now what can you add to
it is finished? What can you take away from it
is finished? It's finished. My salvation is
accomplished. Because He said it is finished.
It don't have anything to do with me. Has wholly to do with Him. I
really believe that. Verse 15. That which hath been
is now. And that which is to come or
to be hath already been. And God requireth that which
is past. You know that verse used to always
scare me. Because I think of some things of the past, and
I think of God requiring them for me. Well, he does require
what is past. He's just. Nothing's going to
go unnoticed. But here is the glory of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Every believer is given a new
past. A new past. You want to know
my past history? It's all good. All I've ever
done is please God. That's it. Do you really believe
that? Yes, I do. Because I believe
that what Jesus Christ did is enough to make my past all good. And God is a holy, righteous
God and he does require that which is past. And he requires,
take this perfect one and bring him into my presence. All because
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of these days, I'm not
even going to remember what it's like to be a sinner. I won't have any memory of my
sin. Because God will require that
which is past. And it's all good. But even when
I don't have any memory of my sin, I'm going to know that the
only reason I'm there is because of those scars in his hand and
in his feet. God requires that which is past. Now we know, we know, that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are thee called according to His purpose. Let's pray.