All Things Together For Good: Chap. 3 Pt. 1

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All Things For Good: Chap. 3 Pt. 2

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All righty, so last week we finally finished off chapter 2,

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I don't mean finally, like oh we couldn't wait to get through it. No, it was excellent, but it was a long kind of meaty chapter for really probably not that many pages.

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But this week we are starting chapter 3 and we're going from chapter 2 where the worst things work for good and now chapter 3 is going to talk about the why, the why all things work for good.

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How is it that they all work for good? So as we go through, you're always welcome to ask questions, make comments,

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I like to interact and help to flesh this stuff out to make sure you're on the same page and fully understanding everything.

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So we'll start here. Number one, the grand reason why all things work for good is the near and dear interests which

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God has in his people. The Lord has made a covenant with them, they shall be my people and I will be their

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God. By virtue of this compact, all things do and must work for good to them.

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I am God, even your God. This word, your God, is the sweetest word in the

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Bible, it implies the best relations and it is impossible that there should be these relations between God and his people and everything not work for their good.

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This expression, I am your God, implies, well we'll actually come to that in one second.

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He's actually going to name a few different relations, relationships that him being our

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God, what that is like and these are, you know, examples that obviously come straight out of scripture.

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But first and foremost, he mentions, he talks about the new covenant.

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We hear the new covenant first in chapter 31 and as he's expounding on it, here he says, they shall be my people and I will be their

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God. And this has always been the promise for God's chosen.

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This was the promise that he had given to Israel that he would be their God and he would dwell with them. And we have all of the

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Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible talking about history and how

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God came to bring out his people and establish a nation and that he would be their

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God and how that they would relate to him. But he has poured out his blessings to them and now in the new covenant, it's no longer by virtue of your ethnicity, you don't have to be a natural born

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Jew and you don't have to go to Israel and engage in the sacrificial system. Now we have this new covenant, this covenant of grace through Christ and the promise is there that they will be my people and I will be their

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God. And there truly is nothing better than the sovereign God of the universe, the creator of heaven and earth saying,

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I will be your God. And so because of that, he does have the best and dearest interests in his people.

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So the first relation is that of a physician. I am your physician.

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God is a skillful physician. He knows what is best. God observes the different temperaments of men and knows what will work most effectually.

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Some are of a more sweet disposition and are drawn by mercy. Others are more rugged and naughty pieces.

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These God deals with in a more forcible way. Some things are kept in sugar, others are kept in brine.

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God does not deal alike with all. He has trials for the strong and cordials for the weak. God is a faithful physician and therefore will turn all to the best.

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If God does not give you that which you like, he will give you that which you need. A physician does not so much study to please the taste of his patient as to cure his disease.

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We complain that every sore trials, that very sore trials lie upon us. Let us remember that God is our physician.

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Therefore, he labors rather to heal us than to humor us. God's dealings with his children, though they are sharp, yet they are safe.

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And in order to cure, that he might do you good in the latter end. And that's from Deuteronomy 8.

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So before we go on to the next one, God is the physician, the great physician we call him, right?

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He knows what's best. He knows what will be most effective. He knows what each one needs according to their temperament in order to draw them to himself, in order to work them their sanctification.

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And so I think that's something that's useful for us because nowadays we look to find that one -size -fits -all approach to evangelism or discipleship.

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We want everyone to be cookie -cutter sometimes. So we think, well, this approach is the right approach and your approach is the wrong approach.

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And that's not to say that there aren't times where there's wrong approaches. We look to Scripture to give us guidance there, but we see that even

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Jesus, when he is dealing with various people, some he's a little bit tougher on, some he is much more gentle with.

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But it's according to the situation and according to the need. God knows what we need.

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We talked about this in chapter two in regarding to afflictions and temptations because not only does

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God know what we need, but it was talked about Satan observes men and knows how to best tempt them because while he's not omnipotent like God is, not even close, he's not omniscient and knowing all things like God is, but he's been around for a long time.

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He sees how we are and he knows how to tempt us. God knows us through and through. He knows us perfectly, more than the devil ever could.

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And he knows exactly what we need for our sanctification. And so his desire is to heal us, not to humor us.

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Yeah, I was going to say most people are not on a truth quest, they're on a happiness quest. They want what makes them happy.

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And God wants to give us what's true because we need what's true. And honestly, all that is the truth hurts.

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It's true. I mean, sometimes hearing the truth hurts, but that's the way God has to deal with some people in order to get their attention.

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You know, I think it's Jesus who says, you know, God screams to us loudest in pain. And when we feel that pain, it's like that's

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God getting our attention. He's giving us truth. So it's the difference between, you know, what's the point of your world?

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Are you pursuing happiness or pursuing truth? God is, he is the truth. Right. Yeah.

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So if you can hear that on the tape, hopefully most of us are on a quest for happiness and not for truth.

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But God is trying. God is bringing us truth. Joe and then Jerry. Yes, the idea of happiness.

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I learned a long time ago to refrain from that, but rather would be joy.

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Yeah. I mean, there is a difference, right? Happiness and joy. Yeah. The happiness of the

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Lord is the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord, not the happiness, right? Yeah, happiness depends on what's happening.

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Okay, it's based on your circumstances. Joyfulness is inside and is not, it doesn't take circumstances into account.

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So it's an inner joy versus an outer circumstantial happiness.

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It depends on what's happening. Happiness comes and go. But as we've been talking about in 1

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Peter, right? Talking about rejoicing, even though you're dealing with various trials that might have you grieved, that might be distressing you, but you can still have that joy that comes from the

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Lord. Jerry? The thought that comes to my mind is how, not only from a secular standpoint, but even people who are well -churched a lot of times will say, well, that's unfair.

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Right, that's unfair. This person is going through this, I'm going through this, and that's unfair.

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I think Olin makes it very - Watson, one of those Puritans. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Thomas Watson makes it very, I've been reading Olin. That's not fair. Forgive me. Makes it very clear here that it's not a question of fair at all.

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Right. It's a question of need. Right, right. Yeah, we have no basis going to the

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Lord and saying that's not fair. None at all. And indeed,

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God who knows us perfectly knows exactly what we need and gives it to us accordingly. And so, so he says,

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God's dealing with his children, though they are sharp, yet they are safe. I was thinking about Aslan.

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Like, well, he's not safe, but he's good. And right, Aslan the lion. Is he safe?

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He's a lion. Of course he's not safe, but he's good. And so, but on this hand of thinking of safe, if you're thinking, when we think of medicine today, experimental medicine, malpractice, what have you, is the physician always safe?

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No, maybe not. For the most part, you would hope so. But the Lord, as the great physician, he's always safe.

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His treatment will never, never destroy, never harm. It has its purpose and it will accomplish its purpose.

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And so we can trust him. The next relation.

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This word, your God, implies the relation of a father. A father loves his child.

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Therefore, whether it be a smile or a stroke, it is for the good of the child. I am your

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God, your father. Therefore, all I do is for your good. As a man chastens his son, so the

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Lord, your God, chastens you. I didn't check that verse. You know what?

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I mean, it might be, I'm thinking of Hebrews 12 when I think of the Lord chastening his children.

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But God's chastening is not to destroy but to reform. God cannot hurt his children for he is a tenderhearted father.

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Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. Will the father seek the ruin of his child, the child that came from himself that bears his image?

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All his care and skill is for the child. Whom does he settle the inheritance upon but his child?

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God is a tenderhearted father of mercies. He begets all the mercies and kindnesses in the creatures.

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Chris, can I make one? You can. When I read that originally,

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I had to think about hurt. What is hurt? What is hurt? Yeah. You know, what is hurt?

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God does not hurt the children, his children. Well, that's because we look at hurt as pain.

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We look at hurt as negative. Mm -hmm. Where the hurt that God is inflicting that we would see as hurt is for our good, again.

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So it's, I'm just pointing that out because initially my thinking was, well, hurt?

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That's not, how is that good? Right, mm -hmm, mm -hmm. Yeah, it says

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God cannot hurt his children. And some people say, well, I beg to differ because I am hurt, right?

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And it's interesting as we need to consider the biblical definition of some of these words and the biblical understanding of what's being said.

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And you'll also see later on, I'm not sure if we'll get to it this week or next week, he talks about the condition, the condition, the happy condition of the godly and the miserable condition of the wicked.

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And he's not talking about their emotional state. He's talking about what is their reality?

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What are their circumstances? Is it a happy situation or not? Is it a miserable one?

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And that doesn't, and when he's talking about it, it has nothing to do with their emotional state. And so here when he's talking about hurt, yeah, when it says he will not hurt his child, what does that mean?

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It doesn't mean that there aren't consequences. He starts off saying, will there be a smile or a stroke?

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A child might feel like a stroke hurts, right? But it's for their good, it's for their benefit, it's for the building up to properly disciple your child.

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What hurts them more is scripture tells us, you spare the rod, you hate the child. If they grow up rebellious and selfish and miserable and spoiled, they're gonna be miserable their whole life through because they have a certain perspective on things and they have not learned self -control because it wasn't even taught to them as they were younger.

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And so trying to refrain from hurting your child as humans would speak of it, actually does far more harm and damage.

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It does harm and damage where what God does, does not. So he is not hurting us, he's not harming us, though it might smart, right?

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It might feel unpleasant in the moment, it bears peaceable fruit later on.

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So it's a good point to talk about what is hurt and how should we consider that terminology.

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Continuing on, he says, God is an everlasting father. He was our father from eternity before we were children.

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God was our father and he will be our father to all eternity. A father provides for his child while he lives, but the father dies and then the child may be exposed to injury, but God never ceases to be a father.

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You who are a believer have a father who never dies and if God is your father, you can never be undone.

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All things must needs work for your good. You know, it's interesting talking about this and you wonder, how was it back in those days?

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You know, were fathers all good? He's speaking glowingly of fathers and they would never hurt their child. They're always trying to pour in.

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Maybe watch a movie, a period piece and like, well, no, they were just as abusive or evil. You know, I think back then under a certain context, culturally, people had more appreciation for children, maybe prior to the industrial age where, you know, they needed them to survive.

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So even if you didn't have like this just affinity and affection for children, like, well, we all need to work together.

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So everyone needs to pull their part. I would hope that fathers were better back then, but I think fathers were still sinners back then.

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They still failed back then. You know, when we think about judges and that first generation coming into the promised land, and they all passed away and the children grew up and they didn't know the

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Lord. Well, obviously there was a failure on the part of the parents to teach the children what they ought to know about the

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Lord. But nowadays we think of, you know, he talks about a father dying.

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We have fathers who are abusive, fathers who leave, you know, there's divorce, there's all these different things.

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We have, we talked about long youth mentoring and how much fatherlessness is an issue today. But God is the perfect father.

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And so even if you've not had a good experience with your earthly father, you have a heavenly father who is perfect, who will give us what we need.

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And he's working all things for our good. He's constantly seeking our betterment and building us up.

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And so we can be comforted in that. You know, and as we consider, scripture talks about the fatherless and the widow, you know, these who don't have a man to protect and provide, to be a husband, to be a father.

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And so he has special concern for them and tells the people of God to look out for them and to care for them.

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You know, you can have all these protections until your protection is removed and your earthly father is that protection, right?

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But our heavenly father, he never dies. He's never gone away. And so he's always there to plead the cause of his children.

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And so we can take great comfort in that, that he is our perfect father. Any questions or comments about that?

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No? Steve. Well, just that God is a perfect father.

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So a good father protects their children, teaches their children, watches their children, listens to their children, spends time with their children.

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So our fathers, some of us have better fathers than others, but none of them are perfect.

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Correct. Our heavenly father is a perfect father. Amen. Indeed. Okay, number three.

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This word, your God, implies the relation of a husband. This is a near and sweet relation.

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The husband seeks the good of his spouse, not to destroy his wife. No man ever yet hated his own flesh.

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There is a marriage relation between God and his people. Your maker is your husband. God entirely loves his people.

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He engraves them upon the palms of his hands. He sets them as a seal upon his breast. He will give kingdoms for their ransom.

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This shows how near they lie to his heart. If he is a husband whose heart is full of love, then he will seek the good of his spouse.

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Either he will shield off an injury or will turn it to the best. And so, again, another relational example that we're given throughout scripture, more so in the

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New Testament, where we think of Christ and the church as his bride, but even in the old, it was referred to, we have that they broke the covenant, even though I was a husband to them, right?

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God had shown them love, and that's, a husband should be showing love to his spouse, protecting her and doing everything for her good, for her benefit.

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And so, that's another example. Any questions about that?

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I mean, if we already talked about the failure on the part of some fathers, we understand the failure on the part of husbands, but as we remember,

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God is perfect. And so those failings, those deficiencies, I never can be ascribed to him.

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Number four, this word, your God, implies the relation of a friend.

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This is my friend. A friend is, as Augustine says, half oneself. He is studious and desirous how he may do his friend good.

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He promotes his welfare as his own. Jonathan ventured the king's displeasure for his friend

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David. God is our friend, therefore he will turn all things to our good. There are false friends.

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Christ was betrayed by a friend, but God is the best friend. He is a faithful friend.

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Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God. He is faithful in his love.

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He gave his very heart to us when he gave the sun out of his bosom. Here was a pattern of love without a parallel.

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He is faithful in his promises. God who cannot lie has promised. He may change his promise, but cannot break it.

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He is faithful in his dealings. When he is afflicting, he is faithful. In faithfulness, you have afflicted me.

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He is sifting and refining us as silver. And so, God is our friend.

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Questions, comments about that? It's very quiet. Go ahead, Sarah. Oh, what does it mean, he may change his promise?

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He may change his promise. I got that in my phone.

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Sorry to leave you unhooked there. I went right past him. So, he may change his promise, and he gives us no scripture reference to do that.

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He's got something else in here about leeches being for our good. From a human perspective, right?

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You know this day of the covenant, right? Right. Covenant with God's people. What could be appeared as a change or a relent, would be punishment, would be judgment.

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Yet, for his people, he has that covenant promise. That's the way I took that when

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I read that. Look, he promises Israel the land, right? But then he says, the meat shall inherit the earth.

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So, God promises you a hamburger, and then gives you a filet mignon. So, he changed it in the sense that it's better.

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It's not worse. Right. So, there's consequences that bring about things.

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There's also added benefits and blessings. I think of what, you know, right there in the garden, he promised if you eat of it, the tree, the knowledge of good and evil, you will die.

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Well, that was a promise. And he didn't break the promise. They still, they died in that very moment, spiritually separated from God.

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They started the process of now going towards physical death. And yet, he came and he offered another promise.

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And so, while they still died, and he still dealt with the consequences of that, and he remained true, he did change it and expand it.

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While there was death that now entered the world, he promised a savior. Go ahead,

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Erica. Well, that was just, he's not reactive.

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So, how is he changing his promise based upon, like, is it not?

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When, yeah, God does not change, and he's not reactionary, right? So, like, he's not like, oh, they did this now.

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Well, anthropomorphically, you know, when we talk about, we ascribe to God, you know, arms and eyes and stuff, and we ascribe even emotions at times, but God is perfect.

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He's impassable. He has perfections and not passions, right? But the way he interacts with us at time, you know, it dates right before the flood that he repented of making man.

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But did he, or is that like his way of manifesting to us his displeasure with what we were doing?

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It didn't take him by surprise. He had decreed it. When we talk about changing the promise, and he's not changing, he doesn't change.

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He doesn't change, but we have progressive revelation, you know, he sets certain things before us, and he doesn't give us the full picture, and then he increases more.

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But we see consistently throughout scripture that his character remains the same.

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He doesn't change. He says, you know, I change not, therefore you're not consumed.

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I mean, if God said, listen, I'm gonna do all this, and if he was really capable of emotion, you know, and just like a knee -jerk reaction like we would be,

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I mean, when we read the story of Israel in the wilderness and all the rebellion going on during the exodus, how many of us would be like,

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Moses, maybe you should take up that deal? Maybe it's time to like wipe these guys out and start fresh with your family, don't you think?

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I think some of us would be like, yeah, maybe, you know? But God doesn't change, and that's why he did not simply just wipe them out at the first blow.

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I just wanna clarify. Okay. So are you basically saying, so like for us humans to understand, like he's not actually changing, but he'll put it in a certain way.

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Yeah. So that we can kind of relate to it as best as possible to understand.

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Yeah, I mean, it talks about, you know, God condescends to speak to us, to communicate to us.

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Like he lisps to us, you know, because our understanding is so much down here, and so he speaks to us in ways that we can understand.

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It's hard to wrap our minds around perfection, you know, and, you know, he can't love you anymore.

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He can't love you any less. His love is perfect. That's hard for us to wrap our, we glory in that, we are comforted by that, and because we know the heartache that goes along with emotions going one way and then the other.

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So we take comfort that he's not like that. But he does speak to us in those ways so we can understand how he interfaces with our behavior and do that.

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You know, I wish he'd given us an example of what he's thinking about regarding, like, changing his promise. I mean, he had promised, okay, he had promised the kingdom to Saul, right?

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And then took it away, you know, and gave it to someone else. I mean, so there's things where he's promising certain things, but they are conditional in that.

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There's an expectation of, you know, how far that's going to go.

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So David has promised, like, he'll always have a man on the throne. And then David sinned, and, you know, well, there's gonna be problems here.

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So it appears as a change to us, but...

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Oh, yes, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, this wasn't like God, like, switched gears halfway through, like, oh,

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I'm, you know, I'm changing that, you know? I mean, he talks about doing a new thing, but that's not a change in God.

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That was all part of his ordained plan. Does that make sense? She's like, yeah, maybe.

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She's like, we got a lot further clarification next week, but I'll give you a week to figure it out. Sarah. That's kind of what I was gonna say, because I feel like wording it is changing with regard to the covenant.

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Like, all the covenants were conditions, like, obey me, and you'll be blessed. Right. And you'll be cursed, and then that's what led to the divorce of God and Israel, because they were unfaithful.

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So, like, him changing, it's always like, like, with the new, from the old covenant to the new covenant, but probably wording it with him, like, breaking covenant is because they broke covenant.

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Right. So him changing his promise, like, I wouldn't feel comfortable quite wording it that way with regard to -

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Thomas Watson, he's been so good up to this point. Okay. No, that's a fair way to explain it.

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Maria? She's like, I thought we were talking about something else. No? You don't wanna?

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All right, Jerry. Well, Sarah's line of thought, my thinking, I was thinking about how he divorced

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Israel, like she said. Right. But he's taking a new bride. Right. Right. And there's always a remnant, right?

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Right. Like, he breaks covenant because they broke covenant. And it was conditional.

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I mean, when they're at, you know, Mount Sinai, and they say, we'll do whatever he says, and everything he said, everything, you know, not just whatever, like everything, we agree.

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And he takes the blood, he goes, you're a witness against yourselves. Okay, God bless you. So we've established, this is the requirement.

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He's our God, and we're his people, but this is what he's told us to do. And that's also, we can understand, you know, like you were saying before, it is a certain amount of, what kind of sense of who we are as humans, even the whole idea of divorce.

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God hates divorce. Right. Yeah, divorce, you know. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, can we, to help maybe clarify, just to reframe it so that we're not too tossed off, we're puzzling our minds, saying, all right, well, how did he mean change, and how can we explain that without, you know, getting into heresy, right?

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Because God doesn't change, and he doesn't, but has God ever, you know, he puts it first.

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He never breaks his promise. You know, he is faithful. He cannot lie. When we look throughout scripture, has

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God ever lied? Has he ever broken a promise? Has someone done exactly what they are supposed to do, and God said, nah,

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I don't wanna deal with you. I'm just gonna toss you off. No, whenever there are consequences, is whenever judgment comes on his people, it's because he is being faithful to what he promised.

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The change that ever comes, if you wanna call that, is a redirection, a new covenant, right?

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That's a change in the promise of, you know, for life and dwelling with God. Go ahead.

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Sorry, okay. Yeah, and like, whenever we see those scenes in the

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Bible, it's always like there's been a provision of prophecy, like also for that specific example of Moses having to intercede on behalf of the

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Israelites. Like in Genesis, though, we have Jacob prophesying to his sons and talking about Judah being his sister.

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So even if the house of Levi was the only one that stood, we know that's not actually something that's going to come to fruition because there's already been the prophecy from God of Judah surviving as a tribe.

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And significantly too, like when it comes to the Gentiles being grafted into Israel, Matthew Henry brings out like a whole curse of Ham with Japheth and Shem, like Shem is the household that Israel becomes a descendant from.

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But Japheth is the descendants who are prophesied to dwell in the tent of Shem. Even with like the idea of him changing the covenant, it's always been there.

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Right, yeah, so I mean, change is a, you wanna be careful with the word as far as the way you understand it.

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But I think you guys have all answered admirably. So congratulations, kudos to all of you.

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It's a trap, see, it was just making sure that you guys, I gotta cross my

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T's and close my eyes here. I promise. Oh, no, before we leave the faithful friend, the talking about God who cannot lie has promised, he does not break his promises.

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He's faithful in his dealings. He's faithful when afflicting. In faithfulness, you have afflicted me. And just thinking also of the scripture where it says faithful are the wounds of a friend.

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And then how do we see that even transpire in our earthly relations? There's times where we, to be a true friend, we actually have to hurt someone we love because we have to confront them with truth.

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We have to tell them something or do something. And in the moment, we talk like that hurts, right?

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But the idea is it's faithful. It's meant for their good. It's meant for their betterment.

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You know, they give the example of Jonathan who risked his own, you know, his father was kind of off his rocker at that point, you know, throwing spears at people to make him happy.

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And did so even with Jonathan. But that's how much of a friend he was to David. And that's how much he understood

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David was God's man. And he knew where he had to, you know, have his priorities.

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And so a friend is someone who's looking out for the well -being of his friend.

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Taking on his cause, he says he promotes his welfare as his own. You know, if you've had a friend and you're trying to get a favor, you're trying to get a job, you're doing something, like, it's like as if it was your situation.

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You care so much about your friend that you're trying to do everything to put them in the best possible position.

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That's what a friend does. And God is the perfect faithful friend.

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So that's what he does. One more and then we'll wrap up.

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Oh, I got to finish the last part. God is an immutable friend. I will never leave you nor forsake you.

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Friends often fail at a pinch. Many deal with their friends as women do with flowers. While they are fresh, they put them in their bosoms.

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But when they begin to wither, they throw them away. Or as the traveler does with the sundial, if the sun shines upon the dial, the traveler will step out of the road and look upon the dial.

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But if the sun does not shine upon it, he will ride by and never take any notice of it. So if prosperity shines on men, then friends will look upon them.

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But if there is a cloud of adversity on them, they will not come near them. But God is a friend forever.

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He says, he has said, I will never leave you. Though David walked in the shadow of death, he knew he had a friend by him.

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I will fear no evil for you are with me. God never takes off his love wholly from his people.

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He loves them, he loved them until the end. Referencing Christ there. God being such a friend will make all things work for our good.

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There is no friend but will seek the good of his friend. And so again, we're all familiar with fair weather friends.

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You probably have all had that experience at times where, oh, everything was great, and then they're just off.

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And again, the examples he uses when everything's fresh and lovely, oh, bosom buddy, they're close. And then, eh, it's a little wilting, we throw them away.

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They're of no use to us anymore. With the idea of prosperity, you know. And scripture tells us about that.

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You know, the rich have many friends. The poor, like even his relatives, the only thing they do with them. That's human nature, right?

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Very unfortunate. But God is not like that. He is never a fair weather friend.

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He is always there for us. Any questions or comments before we finish that part? Yeah, one more section, one more relation.

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Okay, this word, your God, implies yet a nearer relation, the relation between the head and the members.

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There is a mystical union between Christ and the saints. He is called the head of the church.

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Does not the head consult for the good of the body? The head guides the body, it sympathizes with it.

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The head is the fountain of spirits. It sends forth influence and comfort into the body. All the parts of the head are placed for the good of the body.

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The eye is set, as it were, in the watchtower. It stands sentinel to spy any danger that may come to the body and prevent it.

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The tongue is both a taster and an orator. If the body be a microcosm or a little world, the head is the sun in this world from which proceeds the light of reason.

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The head is placed for the good of the body. Christ and the saints make one physical body, I'm sorry, make one body mystical.

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Our head is in heaven, and surely he will not allow his body to be hurt, but will work for the safety of it and make all things work for the good of the body, mystical.

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And again, there we have that wording, hurt. He will not allow his body to be hurt, and yet we think of persecution, we think of all sorts of things that we might have to endure as the body of Christ.

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That humanly speaking, we might say, hurt, it grieves us, it distresses us. And yet God in his wisdom,

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Christ in his wisdom, allows us to undergo those things for our sanctification, for our good.

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But he's always seeking the good. I mean, obviously the head is related to the body, right?

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That's about as clear as you can make. The head's not like, ah, the body, come or go.

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No, the head is always looking out for the body. And so it's this mystical union, this relation that we have with Christ, and yet it shows how near and dear

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God is to us, that again, Christ would take on flesh, Christ would take the church to be his bride, to be his body, we are united.

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And so it's clear, these are why, these are the reasons why all things work for good.

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The grand reason behind all of it is because of the near and dear interest which God has in his people. Any questions or comments about that?

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That's gonna, gotta have the official slide up, right? Any questions? Everyone's like,

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I don't have, I gotta wait. I can't wait for permission from the slide to ask questions. Now, next week we'll start talking about the inferences from the proposition that all things work for the good of the saints.

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But just for now, the why. We've talked about the best things working for good, we've talked about the worst things working for good, and now we consider why do these things happen?

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And so, again, he's just expounding on Romans 8 .28 and just giving all the, you know, you might think that good things work for good, maybe you would take them for granted and not appreciate that God is using them for good.

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And then we certainly would think it's countercultural to think that worse things are working for our good, and that he gave ample reason for us to understand that's the case.

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And now he's expounding on the why. He just wants it ingrained in our head that all things work for good, that we might be encouraged as we look through that.

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And as you go through this chapter, if you've read it, it almost, it almost read to me like a sermon, like a

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Puritan sermon. Like, he's really getting amped up. He's like, this is, like, it's so obvious. He just, you know, he'd have blown out the mic if he was preaching it, if they had microphones back then.

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But so again, any questions or comments before we go to prayer? Are we're all basically clear?