Turn to Romans chapter 8 again
with me, would you? How many times have you heard
this? All things work together for good. You know what the Bible
says, all things work together for good. The Bible doesn't say
that. Look at that verse again in 28.
Now, all things work together for good. That's taken six words
out of a verse of scripture. There's not a capital letter
to begin it nor a period to end it. If you did that, you could
say the Bible says there is no God. Because if you turn over
there in the book of Psalms, there is that statement. There
is no God. Lift it out just like you lift
that out. See how simple it is? Well, you know, the Bible says
all things work together for good. The Bible says there is
no God, too. But left in its context, it doesn't
say that. It's just not right for us to
do things like that to God's Word. It's just so aggravating. Let's look at this verse as it's
written, and we know That's the way it begins. 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, even the most liberal student
in this congregation, even the most liberal student in this
group of people will have to admit that you cannot claim a
promise if you do not meet the condition of that promise. Now
that's just so you cannot claim, Jay may come to me and say, Brother
Henry, if you bring your car over here to the church, I'll
take you down and fill it full of gas. The promise, I'll fill
it full of gas. The condition, bring your car.
He didn't say bring a truck. He didn't say, bring the tank
up here from Ashland Oil Station. He's not going to fill that full
of gas. He'll fill my car. Listen to these verses. Our Lord
says, coming to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll
give you rest. Rest is promise. Rest is promise. What's the condition?
Coming to me. You have no right to claim God's
rest if you don't come to Christ. It's not promise. Rest is not
promise to any person who does not come to Christ. Listen to
this. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Nobody has everlasting life who
does not believe on the Son. It's not promised to anyone who
doesn't believe on the Son. I quoted this in my prayer a
while ago. We lean on these promises. God said, ye shall receive if
you ask. If you ask. You receive not because
you ask not. Ask and you shall receive, seek
and you shall find. He that believeth on the Son
hath life. Every promise in this book is
made to those who meet the condition of the promise. You read all
the way through. And this verse right here has
a promise, all things work together for good. That's the promise. But it has some conditions. And
I want us to look this morning, I want to handle this as carefully
as prayerfully, as scripturally as I can, because this right
here is the believer's confidence and comfort right here. I don't
care how dark the clouds or how rough the road or how stormy
the way. I care not how heavy the burden.
I care not how lonely the years. This is the believer's confidence
and comfort right here. This is my confidence and comfort.
I know that all things work together for good to them who love God,
who are the called according to his purpose. Now that's the
two parts. There's a promise. But I want us to look first of
all at the condition. It says two things. To them who
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Now I don't want to be harsh. I want to be as tender as possible.
I don't want to be just doctrinal. I want to preach experience in
heart as well as head and mind. I don't want to be coldly theological. But my friends, we have here
a description of those for whom everything is working together
for their good, and that is those who love God. Now, I'm going
to make a statement here, and I'm going to back it up with
a scripture. The natural man does not love God. The natural
man hates God. Now let's don't leave that like
that. We preachers, and I address myself to the preachers right
now, I've heard preachers say, men hate God. Men hate God. Let me tell you something. It'd
be a rare, rare thing for you to find anybody in Ashland this
morning who does not claim to love God. If you sat out right
now and went through this entire city and took a poll of every
single home, you may find one, I doubt it, who does not claim
to love God. Everybody claims to love God.
And when you make this statement, men hate God, nobody pays any
attention to you. And people feel like you're a
fanatic or a radical. But now listen, this is so. Let
me tell you this is true. No unconverted, unregenerate
man loves God. Not in the scriptural sense of
that term. Now you see what difference,
Jim? Not in the scriptural sense of that term. He does not love
the God of Revelation. Everybody in Ashton loves a God. See what I'm saying, Jim? He
loves a God. He loves God as he has considered Him. He loves the God of his imagination. What I'm saying and what the
Bible says, the natural man does not love the God of revelation.
He does not love the true and living God as he reveals himself
in his work. The natural man loves his God.
He loves a God. He loves the God of his imagination.
He loves the God that he has formed in his own mind, his idea
of God. You say, can you make good on
that in the Bible? Listen to these verses. The natural mind,
that's the carnal mind, the natural mind, is enmity against God. Enmity. It is not subject to
the law of God, the word of God, neither indeed can it be. The
natural mind is not only enmity against God, it's against God's
word. Listen to this. The friendship
of this world is enmity with God. Listen to this, Christ said,
he that is not for me, totally completely for me, is against
me, is against me. I was reading a sermon by a preacher
many years ago, and he said he was presenting God in his in
his sovereignty, in his glory, as he's revealed in the word.
God on the throne. God on the throne in creation,
providence, and salvation. He was giving all the glory to
God for all things. And when he finished his message,
another preacher who was in the congregation walked up to him
and said, your God is my devil. Your God is my devil. In other words, you can have
all the religion you want. Over there now in England, there
I watched on the news last night, here's the Pope. You know it's
hard for a man to be humble in a clown suit. It amused me, him
kneeling down there with all that paraphernalia on, trying
to be humble. There were these two great heads
of two organizations, the Pope And let's call a spade a spade.
Now those people, they believe Mary is a mediator. They believe
in a purgatory that's not taught in the scripture. They believe
in a celibacy of the priesthood, which is not taught in the scripture.
They believe in idol worship, kissing that old man's ring,
bowing before him, calling him his holiness and all of these
things, idolatry. And here kneeling beside him
is the head of the Church of England, the Anglican Church.
which produced men like John Wesley, I mean, yeah, Wesley,
and Charles Wesley, and John Newton, and Isaac Watts, and
Bishop Ryle, and Knox, and Whitfield, and just keep on naming these
men that died for the truth, believed something. And they're
gonna get together, and they will get together. And they'll
have love for each other, and love for the same God. But it's
not the God of the Bible. Now they keep talking about,
if we love God, we ought to love each other. Yeah, that's true. You can do that if you love the
same God. All religions can get together
who are religions of error. One error will love another error.
But error cannot love truth. And truth cannot love error.
And they can't walk together. And this is what this preacher
did. He presented just like if the man in the Church of England
Now, they're going to have to compromise everything they believe
to get together. If the man from the Church of
England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, turned to the Pope and pulled
out the 39 articles of the Church of England and says, this is
the God we preach, the Pope said, no way we can get together. No
way we can get together. They do not love the God. I was
preaching right here in Ashland. Now, listen to me. I'm saying
this is when enmity comes out. You can talk about God, and you
can talk about the Bible, you can talk about heaven, talk about
mother, you can talk about love, you can talk about all these
things that appeal to the flesh, let's get this, don't have any
disagreement, let's get all the denominations together, let's
have one great church, let's do all, that all sounds good,
but stand up, like I did over here in a certain church in Iceland,
and I said, Jesus Christ is the surety of an everlasting covenant.
God gave him a people. from the foundation of the world,
the almighty God, the God who passed by angels has passed by
some men. And his son was made in the flesh,
came to this earth, and when he went to the cross, he died
for all who believe, and nobody else. He died for all the elect,
and nobody else. He died to redeem his sheep,
and nobody else. His death is effectual and sufficient. That's the Christ of the Bible.
The pastor got up and said this, right here in this town, He said,
if Jesus Christ died only for the elect, he's no savior of
mine. You see what I'm saying? That's
the enmity. That's what I'm saying. You can
go out here and you can talk about God. You can talk about
the man upstairs. You can talk about the good Lord.
You can talk about somebody up there who likes me. You can talk
about anything in reference to God. Foxhole religion, all the
rest of that, and you can get unity and and You can get agreement
and get but now stand up if you will and declare who God is in
his true character The God of creation and I'm saying this
God can only be loved for who he is Who he is Almighty God can only
be loved for himself and You can't lie on God and get a true
barometer of a man's feelings. You can't do it. You got to tell
the truth. God has got to be revealed in
his word. And that's when you find out
whether or not you love him, when the truth is told. Now,
that's the reason preachers are doing an injustice by holding
back truth from people. And taking the edge off the gospel,
we stand up and use general terms. And we use terms that we know
will not offend. And we use terms that will get
along with everybody. We form a big umbrella that everybody
can get up under, you know, and feel comfortable. And that's
not right. Because a man may feel that he
loves God, but he doesn't even know God. He may feel that he
believes in God when the true God hasn't even been preached
to him. And the thing we've got to do is declare God as He's
revealed in the Word, and it starts in Genesis, in the beginning,
God. It doesn't leave any room for
debate or argument. It doesn't leave any room for the evolutionists.
There's no room for Him under the umbrella. In the beginning,
God created the heaven and the earth. There's no room for Him.
He can't come under here. He's got to love a God who is
sovereign in creation. He's got the Lord of God who
is not only sovereign in creation, but who's king of providence.
I do all things according to my good pleasure, he said. There's
no room for any other God. And that's what I'm saying. I'm
saying that the natural man hates God as he revealed in his Word.
That's the God he hates. The God who crosses his will.
The God who says, my will shall be done. The God who says, I'll
be king, I'll be lord, I'll be master, I'll be sovereign. Now
the true believer loves that God. Let me give you four or
five things here. Now listen to this. We know that all things work
together for good to them who love God. We love God as sovereign. Samuel said to Eli, he says,
God will destroy your sons. He had two boys. And he hadn't
rebuked them. He had let them offer, do some
things they shouldn't have been doing. And he didn't discipline
them. He didn't correct them. He didn't
straighten out this thing. And those boys just went, they
got in idolatry. And God said, I'm going to kill
them. Now what's the old man going to reply? Well, if you
do that, you're no savior of mine. No, he said, well, it's
the Lord. Let him do what he will. Now
he loved, the believer loved God on the throne. Listen to
Job. It kept coming to him. All your
cattle are dead. All your sheep are dead. All
your oxen are dead. All your children are dead. Now
you're broke. You're wiped out. Well, now the
thing for him to do is say, my God wouldn't do that. After all
I've done. He bowed his head and worshiped
God and he said, well, the Lord gave and the Lord had taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now the world doesn't love that
God. He loves the good Lord. And the good Lord is good by
their measurements. But I tell you, the God of the
Bible's severe. He's severe. He's good by His
judgments. He's good by His measurements.
What we call bad may be good in God's eyes. And what we call
good may be bad. We worship God as sovereign.
We love God as creator. We leave it like that. We love
God as the king of providence. Turn to 2 Samuel, just a moment,
if you will, chapter 2. 2 Samuel, chapter 2. I believe it's 2 Samuel. Let me check that record. 2 Samuel,
it's 1 Samuel, chapter 2. 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Now listen
to Hannah's prayer. 1 Samuel, chapter 2. Beginning,
she says in verse 1, and Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices
in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged
over my enemies, I rejoice in thy salvation. There's none as
holy as the Lord, there's none beside the Lord, neither is there
any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
and by Him actions are weighed. Now look at verse 6. The Lord
killeth and maketh alive. The Lord bringeth down to the
grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh
rich. The Lord maketh low, and lifteth
up. Lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to
set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne
of glory. For the pillar of the earth are the Lord's, and he
hath set the world upon it." That's the believer loves God
as God. He loves God as righteous. Shall
not the judge of the earth do right? He's too wise to make
a mistake and too good to do wrong. He loves God incarnate
in Christ. Christ Jesus our Lord from the
foundation of the world has been the surety, the redeemer, the
representative, the federal head of his people. In the fullness
of time, in the person of Christ, God came into this world and
fulfilled the law and died on the cross for his elect was buried
and rose again and right now he's the only mediator. between
God and me, and the believer loves it that way. Of him are
you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. God is the God of providence,
the God of creation, the God of election, the God of salvation,
the God of purpose, and the believer loves him. And then turn, if
you will, to 1 John 4. And those who love God, listen
to me now, those who love God, love him for himself as he is,
and they love all that is of God. They love God, and they
love all that is of God. In 1 John 4, beginning with verse
7, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God, and he that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. In other words, if I
love God, I love His Word. If I love God, I love His judgments. Holy and righteous are His judgments.
If I love God, I love His providence. If I love God, I love His people.
If I love God, I love His ordinances. If I love God, I love His Son.
Everything, he that loveth Him that begot, loveth all that are
begotten of Him. Now let's go to the second condition.
Turn back to Romans 8. All things work together for
good to them who love God. Who love God. God as he's revealed. God as he is. Not as I think
he is, but as he's revealed. God as he acts, being God. I love God. All right, secondly,
he said, them that are called according to his purpose. And
my friends, however much what we call the free willer, or the
Arminian, or the Pelagian, or whatever word you want to use,
tries to do away with the 8th and 9th chapter of Romans. We cannot deny that they're those
who are called according to God's purpose. Now I want to show you
this. Let's read verse 28 again, Romans 8. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are thee
called according to his purpose. Far, now here's the purpose.
Whom he did foreordain, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that Christ might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he called. And whom he called, then he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
Now, what shall we say to these things? Well, if God be for us,
who can be against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Christ
also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Now,
any man who reads that has got to say, this is what the Scripture
says. that God, on purpose, to accomplish a purpose, has given
His Son a people, and Christ has redeemed them, and He's calling
them. Turn to Romans 9. There's just no way that this
can be blotted out. We know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, who love God. God for Himself, God for who
He is, God as He's revealed, not the God of my imagination,
not the God of my denomination, not the God of my preacher, but
the God of the Bible, the living, the true God. And those are called
according to His purpose. Now look at Romans 9, verse 11.
For the children, being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, called according to His
purpose, The purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said to
Rebekah, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob hath a love, Esau hath a hated. Now what shall we say
then? What is our reply to this? Is
there unrighteousness with God? This preacher said he's no savior
of mine. The other preacher said that God's my devil. Now this
is the attitude of the natural... What does the believer say to
these things? What does the believer say? Does he say there's unrighteousness
with God? Verse 415, he said to Moses,
when Moses asked him to show him his glory, he said, I'll
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I'll have compassion
on whom I'll have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture sayeth unto Pharaoh, even for the same purpose
have I raised you up, that I might show my power in thee, that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, whom he will, he hardeneth.
You will say then to me, well, why does he yet find fault? Who
can resist his will? Nay, but, O man, who are you
to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why have you made me this way? Does not
the potter have power over the clay of the same lot to make
one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour? What if God,
being God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction? and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy which he hath afforded, prepared
unto glory, even us whom he hath called, not the Jews only, but
also the Gentiles." My friends, here's what he's saying. The
God of creation, the God of providence, the God of salvation, is the
God of election. And that's the God of the Bible,
that's the God who's revealed in the Word of God. He has a
people, whom he calls according to his purpose. Now, do I love
that God? That's the question. All things
work together for good to them who love God, who are the call.
Now, I know there's two calls taught in the Word of God. There's
a general call. That's what the old timers used to call it, a
general call. Turn to Proverbs 1. It's given
here in Proverbs 1. There's several ways. God does
not leave himself without a witness. There's a sense in which every
person hears from God. There's conscience. There's conscience. God writes his law in every man's
heart. Every man has a conscience. There is creation. The heavens
declare the glory of God. God is understood by the things
that are made. You can't get an idea of God's
character by the things that are made except his Godhead and
power. You can't know that God has decreed
to save sinners or that God has a purpose to redeem sinners or
that Christ died for sinners. That has to come through the
word. But you know there is a God by creation. You can know he's
a God of holiness by your conscience. There's judgment. There's other
ways. But what's this here in Proverbs 124? Because I have
called and you refused. I stretched out my hand, and
no man regarded. You said it not, my counsel,
and you will have none of my reproof. Therefore I will laugh
when your calamity cometh. I will mock when your fear cometh.
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as
a whirlwind, when distress and anguish cometh upon you, then
you'll call on me, but I'll not answer. You'll seek me, but you'll
not find me." So there is a general call. But this call he's talking
about here, all things work together for good to them who love God,
who are the call according to his purpose, is an effectual,
invincible, result-getting, efficient call of God's Spirit. My sheep
hear my voice. and they follow me and I give
them eternal life. One old hymn writer said, grace
taught my soul to pray, grace made my eyes overflow, t'was
grace that kept me to this day and grace will not leave me go. So here's the condition. All
things, we're gonna get to this in just a moment, work together
for good to them who love God. And I'm saying, my friends, they
love God for who he is. They love God without question.
They love God who is sovereign. They love God who is omnipotent.
They love God who is righteous. They love God who is just. They
love God who is severe. They love God who is strict.
They love God who is holy. They love the God of election.
They do not subject God's will to their will. They say, it's
God, let him do what he will. If God does it, it's right. It's
right. That's what I'm saying. They
bow. We have a haughtiness and an arrogance in this day. If
it doesn't fit our thoughts, then we won't have it, Jay. A
man stand up here, and like that Romans chapter 9 I just read.
Now, he said, what do you say to these things? Whether you
love God will reveal what you say to these things. And what
you say to these things will reveal whether you love God.
He said, well, there it is. Bless God, I like it. There it is. Praise the Lord.
God wiped out a whole town. Well, he did what was right.
Or he wouldn't have done it. That's God. He's God. I don't
question him. I bow to him. And anybody who
can't say that then doesn't love God. That's the way it is, Daniel. See, this is the thing. When
we go out and say that natural men hate God, Well, they say,
I don't hate God. No, they don't hate God. They
don't hate their God. They don't hate a God. They don't
hate the God of their imagination. They don't hate the God that
they've heard preached. They don't hate the namby-pamby,
pussy-footin', wicked sin, easy-believism God that's sittin' up there wonderin'
if he's gonna get his, what he's done, what he wants done. I hear
these preachers always sayin', well, God wants this and God
wants that. what God wills shall be done.
And you present the God of the Bible to men and women, and you'll
find out whether or not they love God. But if you can find
somebody who does, somebody who says, let God be God. Let God
be true in every man or liar. Let God reign. Let God be right. I bow. What will you have me
do? Now you've got a man that loves
God, and I'll tell him everything will work together for his good.
And a man's been called according to God's divine purpose. All
right, let's look at this back to Romans 8 a minute. It says,
let's just take it word at a time for a moment. I'll try to be
brief. It says, and we know, and we know. And we know the
title of this message, listen to me a moment, the title of
this message is The Believer's Confidence and Comfort. Which
is most important? His confidence. It doesn't really
matter whether I'm comfortable or not. My confidence, and this
is the way Paul's preaching here. He says, I know, I know. How
do you know? I know because of what he said.
I know my Redeemer liveth. I know whom I have believed.
I know I've passed from death into life. I know that. Whether
I'm comfortable doesn't make any difference. I know. I know. I want to share a poem with you. Strange and mysterious is my
life. What opposites I feel within. a stable peace, a constant strife,
the peace of grace, the power of sin. Too often I'm captive
led, yet I daily triumph in my head, Christ. I prize the privilege
of prayer, but oh, what backwardness to pray. Though on the Lord I
cast my care, I still carry my burdens every day. I seek his
will in all I do, yet I find my own will working too. I call his promises my own. I
prize them more than mines of gold, and yet though their sweetness
I have known, sometimes they leave me unimpressed and cold.
One hour upon the truth of God I feed, the next hour I don't
even know what I read. Though different powers within
me strive, And grace and sin by turn prevails, I grieve, I
rejoice, I decline, I revive, And victory hangs in doubtful
scale. But all things for my good stand
fast, His word will overcome at last. Now, brother, that's
what I'm saying. I'm saying I know. Confidence.
Confidence. Not in myself. I have no—we have
no confidence in the flesh. But I have confidence in His
Word, and I know. And I know. And I know. And I know. The comfort is not
the vital part. The vital part is to be sure
that I know. whom I have believed. And I know
his words shall not fail." Abraham believed God. He didn't have
any signs at all, physical signs, except
the Word. That's what I'm calling on us
to do, believe God. Now here's the thing, like I
said a moment ago, you come before a congregation like this, and
the question on their mind is, who is God? Well, where am I
gonna get my information? Who is God? Shall I talk about my thoughts
of God? Well, they're no better than
yours. Why not talk about Reverend Moon's ideas of God? They're
good as mine. He's no dummy. He's smart. He's
smart somewhere. He's got about $100 million.
I don't know how he got it, but he got it. I've got to go here, Bob. Who
is God right here? All right, and what are you going
to do with it when I read this? Let God be God. Let God be God. What about the fall of man? Where
am I going to get my information? Only here. His Word. Who is Jesus Christ? What did
He do? For whom did He die? What does it say? We just bow to that. And when
I, what about my part in it? Got to find it here. And we know,
and this is what he said, and we know what? That all things,
now what are all things here? All things, well some people
have said this is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Father elected,
the Son redeemed, the Spirit calls. That's true, that's true.
Some people say that all things here are the things in verse
30, 29 through 31. You see verse 31 there, it says,
what shall we say to these things? That is, those five golden links
in the chain of redemption whom he foreknew, he predestinated,
he called, he justified, he glorified. All right, those are these things
too. Others say that all things means all things in birth, life,
and death. All things good and bad, every
minute detail. Every minute detail of life.
Every minute detail. There's some things already happened
this morning. when you got up and came to church.
There's some things happened this week. There's some things
happened in your life. And it may be good and it may
be bad. They may be pleasant or unpleasant.
They may be very painful or very pleasurable. But I'm saying all
things, minus nothing, all things. Whether it rains or doesn't rain,
all things. That's what I'm saying. And I
choose to include all things, Jack. All things, a headache
even. A simple ingrown toenail, even. That's right, all things. All
things. An appetite or a lack of appetite. A pain or no pain. Whatever,
all, I'm saying that for those who love God, as he is, God,
as he's revealed, the living God. Let God be good. Those who
love God, those who've been called, those who've been singled out,
those who've been approached by His Spirit, those who've been
gathered with His elect, all things, leaving nothing out,
work together. They work together. Now, somebody
said this, too much sorrow would lead me to despair. You see,
none of these things in my life work separately. We are so We're
so time oriented. We're so event and selfishly
oriented that if we had our way we'd be happy all the time. But
now that wouldn't be good for me. I'd become intoxicated if
I was happy all the time. I'd become, I'd be worthless.
There's no way I could enter into anybody else's sorrows if
I was happy myself all the time. But too much trouble would, that'd
ruin me. I've got to have all things,
you see, or too much success would exalt me. That's right. It would exalt me above measure.
That's the reason God had to give Paul a thorn in the flesh,
lest he become exalted above measure. Too much success. If
we had our way, we'd be successful, happy, joyful, healthy, and if
these two-bit preachers that are selling their ministry had
their way, they'd make you that way. But that wouldn't be good
for me. Too much failure would discourage
me. But God takes all things, from the foundation of the world
to eternity future. God takes all things. His decrees,
His son's death, and His spirit called. God takes all things.
My being born. I inherited a hearing problem. I inherited weakness of eyes. But I inherited from my parents
some strength, and all these things. We've had high days,
and we've had some low days. We've had joy, and we've had
sorrow. We've had temptation. We've had adversity. We've had
good news and bad news. But all things, you see what
I'm saying, Bob? Is that clear? Everything works. Now, work, if you use
that word in opposition to idleness, in opposition to play, play doesn't
have a purpose. In opposition to rest, even when
I'm sleeping, God's working all things. For what? For good. What does that mean,
for good? Well, he doesn't mean material
good, because a lot of God's people have been materially poor.
John Bunyan, for one. He's not talking about physical
good. A lot of God's people have been sick. and they've suffered. He's not speaking of temporal
good. Joseph, look at his life. His life's a perfect picture
of this. He was in the pit, he was on the top of the heap, he
was in prison, back on the throne. And what we're saying here, we're
speaking of a two-fold good. God says, Paul says here, and
we know, we have his word for it, that all things, all things,
That's the good and the bad. That's the high and the low.
That's the joyful and the sorrowful. That's all things work together.
They're working. Right now, whether I'm asleep
or awake, they're working. God's working them. The sovereign
God is working them together for my eternal good, for my spiritual
good. He's going to work them together.
For whom? For those who love God. God as
He's revealed. I hope I've dealt with that and
made that clear to you about loving God. It's the God of the
Bible. It's the God as He's revealed
in His Word. Those who love God. Those who bowed to Him. Those
who submitted and surrendered. Those who find God lovable for
Himself. Not just for the things that
He's given us. I've known so many people in
life to to be so enamored with what they call God, while everything
was going good. And then when things started
going bad, they turned on God. Well, the believer, those who
love God, like Job, they love God when he's blessing, and they
love God when he's dealing with us in other ways. Because they
love him for himself. And they're called according
to his purpose. May God honor that to our good
and his glory.