Why It's All Good For The Father's Children - [Romans 8:28-39]

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I'd invite you to take your Bibles and open them to Romans chapter 8, to paraphrase Pastor Mike, we'll be back in the
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Gospel of John soon enough. So Romans chapter 8.
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You know, as you're turning there, I think I speak for all of us because I'm the only one speaking.
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When I say that we like categories, right?
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We like to compartmentalize things. We like to think of things as either being good or bad.
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To the extent that when we see things like people being slaughtered,
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Christians being slaughtered in Africa, or Christians being spied on and arrested and imprisoned in China, or other calamities befalling the people of God throughout the world, we think of those as category bad.
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When we look at things, big disasters, you know, whether it's 9 -11, whether it's a major shooting or whatever, we look at those things and we go category bad.
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What do we think of as good? Publishers clearing house, showing up at the front door.
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That's good, right? Good and bad, we like those categories.
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When we see pastors fall, we think category bad. We think of people with difficult marriages, we think category bad.
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We have all kinds of things that we just put, they're black or white, they're good or bad. Rarely do we hear something said to be kind of, eh,
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I can take it or leave it. Although if I'm talking to Andrew, he might say that. There are a lot of difficult things though.
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Fewer good things. But I cringe when I'm like watching
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TV or listening to the radio or something and I hear a Christian leader say something like, well, you know what?
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God permitted something to happen. God allowed something to happen.
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Why don't I like that? Well, first of all, because God's sovereign. And the important part of that is, and what
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I'm going to talk to you about this morning, what we're going to discuss is God's sovereignty ensures one thing.
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That everything that happens in the life of a child of God is good.
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Everything that happens in the life of a Christian is good.
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Sometimes we think we act like Armenians, which is to say the old saw, he loves me.
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He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. And the truth of scripture is that God loves us all the time.
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And in fact, he loved us before time. Let's turn to Romans chapter eight.
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And I'm going to start reading in verse 28. And we know that for those who love
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God, all things work together for good.
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For those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.
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And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?
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If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
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How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
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Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
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More than that, who was raised. Who is at the right hand of God. Who indeed is interceding for us.
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
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As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. Now, Romans has a pretty easy breakdown after the first little introduction, including talking about the power of the gospel.
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Paul introduces the concept of guilt, the universal guilt of mankind. Romans 1, 18 to about verse 20 of chapter 3.
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And then from 321 to the end of chapter 11, talks about grace, the grace of God toward his people.
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And then finally, in verses 12 and 16, how do God's people respond to that grace?
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With gratitude. So, guilt, grace, gratitude, right? I bet you could preach the gospel from that, and that's the theme of the whole book.
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Gospel. And in chapter 7, Paul talks about his own personal struggles, how he doesn't do what he wants to do, and then does what he doesn't want to do.
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In verses 24 and 25 of Romans 7, he says, Wretched man that I am. This is somebody who understands what it's like to be a
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Christian and to live with temptation and to struggle with sin. And he says,
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Who will deliver me from this body of death? In other words, I long to be out of this sinful body.
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Thanks be to God that through Christ Jesus, through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then
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I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. Listen, this struggle that we are in is not going to end until death.
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But because Paul's mind is set on the things of God, the following statement is gloriously true that he says in Romans 8, verse 1, which is,
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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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That's the key, right? Being in Jesus Christ, being found in Him, having faith in Him.
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Why is that so important? Because the promises of God are true for all who are in Christ Jesus, for all who are born again.
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Paul proclaims the work of the Holy Spirit in chapter 8, that He is in us, that He is at work in us, sanctifying us, changing us.
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And ultimately, he testifies that our spirit is testified to by the Holy Spirit that we are born again, that we belong to Jesus Christ.
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The Holy Spirit gave us, sovereignly gave us spiritual life, and He wants us to know that we are
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Christ's sheep. Romans 8, verse 16 says, We tend to focus on the here and now, on our circumstances, the things that are happening at the moment.
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But our eyes should be focused on heaven, as he says in verse 18, Paul talking about life, right?
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For I consider that the sufferings of this present time, our current life, are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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We focus on things that are temporal, that are passing, that are going to fade away, instead of focusing on what is reserved in heaven for us.
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Things that cannot be taken away, that will never fade. We can be really foolish.
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A few weeks ago, Scott Clark was here, and he said that there, I don't remember if this was during one of his messages, or while we were driving around with him, but he said that there are two kinds of preaching.
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Good preaching and bad preaching. No, wrong categories. He said that there's law preaching, and there's gospel preaching.
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Law preaching is, I get up here and give you a bunch of rules. Gospel preaching is,
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I give you the good news. I tell you about who God is, what He's done, and what He is doing.
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This morning, I hope this is going to be some gospel preaching. I come to you this morning with nothing for you to do.
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I simply want to proclaim the goodness of God to you. I want you to be encouraged by the act of grace of God.
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He set it upon you. Now, think about this. He set it upon you before you were born. And He continues to pour it upon you, even when you don't feel like it.
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Even when you don't have the sense of God's grace, He is lavishing it upon you. And He will do so every day, every moment of every day, until that day you enter
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His presence forever. Truth is not what we feel. Truth is what
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God says. Let me say that again. Truth is what is in the
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Bible, not what is in our hearts.
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So our outline is pretty simple this morning. We have three Ps. The premise, the proofs, and the promises.
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The premise is in Romans 8 .28. Before I go there, I want to just say we are fallible.
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We are human. Sometimes we don't even know what we should be praying for. I'm trying to set this whole thing up, put it in context.
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I'll give you a brief background of where we are in Romans. And I'm giving you a little more context here. Sometimes we don't even know what we should be praying for.
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But if we look back at verse 26, we'd see that the Holy Spirit knows what we should be praying for.
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And He's interceding for us perfectly. Verse 26, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
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For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, as we should. But the
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Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He who searches hearts,
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God, knows what is in the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
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The Holy Spirit prays for us in ways that we should, but we don't because we don't know. He knows what the will of God is.
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And in light of Him perfectly interceding for us, we come to our text, verse 28.
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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.
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Now, after what I've said about categories, good, bad, and how we think about things, and our feelings, and the truth, that's a pretty bold statement.
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All things. Try that on an unbeliever.
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I think it was Dave Copper some time ago was talking about going into work. You know, after people find out he has cancer, and they say, how are you doing?
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And he goes, great. Right? Go to the hospital wearing his funky Hawaiian Christmas shirts.
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I don't even think they celebrate Christmas in Hawaii, but that's neither here nor there. Tell them,
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I'm not worried about my circumstances. I'm not worried about cancer. I'm not worried about my job loss.
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I'm not worried about the situation with my spouse. I'm not worried about a death in the family. Why? Because God is working.
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Just walk down the hallway and say, God is working all things together for good, for my good, and His glory, and I'm happy.
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What kind of response does that give you? I'll tell you what it gets you. You're walking down this side, they go, they move as far as they can over on the other side, right?
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Stay away from me. Again, it's easy to trust the
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Lord in good times. It's not so easy when things are more difficult. There are times, you know, when things don't feel good.
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And that's when you ask, how can this possibly be good? How can this circumstance, which anyone would tell me is not good, this is bad, how can it possibly be good?
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Well, let's look at the first word in verse 28. And it connects it to that prayer of the
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Holy Spirit, that He is praying for us according to the will of the
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Father, so that God's will is being carried out. I mean, do we think that the
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Holy Spirit is pleading with the Father to carry out His will, and then the Father says, no, I won't do that?
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Of course not. They work in perfect harmony. And Ephesians 1 .11 tells us that God is working all things according to the counsel of His will.
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He has a will, and He's carrying it out throughout history. And by the way, 8 .28 tells us that that will is or includes us.
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He's working it out for our good. It tells us that. What God does not promise is your best life now.
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And everybody should be thinking, thank God. Thank God this is not my best life.
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Thank God this is not as good as it gets. Heaven is infinitely better.
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I mean, I'm not going to give you a sermon on heaven this morning, but no tears, no illness, no sorrow.
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All that stuff gone. Nothing but joy in the presence of the
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Lord forever. In this life, what do we have? Trials, persecution, illness, difficulty.
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Peter, James, and even the Lord Jesus Christ tell us these things. So how is it that God is causing even category bad things to work for our good?
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After all, who wants to be in the midst of a trial? Who wants an illness? Who wants to be betrayed?
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Who wants to go to prison or even be executed for their faith? I was thinking about that this morning.
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If I was an atheist, you know what I would think? If some Islamic terrorist or something else says, you know,
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I want you to deny Jesus Christ or be put to death, I'd go, okay, right?
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How is it that Christians don't do that? How is that? It's because they're not clinging to this world.
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They understand that the best this life has to offer is nothing in comparison to what lies in front of them.
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They will not deny that truth. But I looked up in Romans 8 .28.
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I spent a lot of time studying. I looked at the word all things there. It's Panta in the
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Greek. And amazingly, it means all things. Each, every, all, all things.
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It's all inclusive. No exceptions. Good things are for your good. Bad things are for your good.
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Things that you're not sure whether they're good or bad are for your good. Everything is for your good.
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That's the premise. That's our first point in case you were missing. Premise, now proofs.
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We have at least five. And they're what's commonly called the golden chain of salvation.
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Now, as soon as you hear that, you should be going, well, of course, that's next verses. Romans 8 .29
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.30. Everybody knows these. Most of us know them. Golden chain of salvation.
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But it's connected to Romans 8 .28, right? He's going to demonstrate the truth of what he just said.
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All things are working together for your good. All things are working together for your good.
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Now let me show you why. And how do I know that's what he's saying? Look at the first word of Romans 8 .29.
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For. That word there can also be translated because.
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It's an explanation. He's going to explain what he just said in Romans 8 .28 and why it's true.
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And what does he start with? You know, if we just put because there, it doesn't matter. But for those whom he foreknew.
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He immediately starts talking about foreknowledge. All things work together for good. Why? Because the people that he foreknew in.
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I want to say infinity past. What is that? Before the world began. Before there was time.
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Before there was anything. He foreknew his people.
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Those that he set his affections upon. Those that he made this commitment to. That all things would work together for their good.
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Before anything existed, he foreknew them. And by the way, people want to say, well, you know, he foreknows that you're going to believe or he foreknows.
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Well, in this context, he foreknows people. And that's what it means is that intimate knowledge of people.
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Before you even existed, before you were a thing, he knew you. What does that mean? That he set his affection upon you.
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Our second proof. I mean, that's pretty good, right? Before I'd done anything, before I even existed, he set his affection upon me.
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Second proof. Predestination. People say, well,
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I don't know if I like predestination. I don't know if I believe it. Well, I think you do believe it because it's in the
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Word of God. Let's read verse 29, the second part of it here. It says, he also predestined, right?
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He foreknew them. He also predestined, listen, to be conformed to the image of his
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Son. Now, let me just stop right there. He predestined. He decided in eternity past, before you'd done anything, that you would be conformed into the image of Christ.
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I don't know why you wouldn't like that. I don't know why you'd have a problem with that. I'm amazed by that.
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I am amazed that I am going to be conformed into the image of his Son. He goes on, in order, for the purpose of, that he,
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Jesus, might be the firstborn, the most preeminent among many brothers.
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There are going to be many, many. And just think about this again. We're going to be conformed into the image of Christ.
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We are going to be his, as it were, siblings. We are and we will be.
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He is the preeminent one. The first resurrected and we will be.
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And then we are going to be his siblings, his family forever.
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Third proof. Calling. Calling. Verse 30, And those whom he predestined, those whom he chose, he also called.
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He loved, he chose, he calls. Chosen before time, called in time.
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What does it mean to be called? It means there's a time in your life you were foreknown by the Father, you were predestined by the
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Father, and then there's a time in life where the Spirit draws you, the
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Father draws you, the Spirit gives you a new heart, new affections, and you are indwelt by the
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Holy Spirit. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. All these things, notice, are done to you, right?
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You are foreknown. You are predestined. You are called. You don't call yourself, you are called.
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And then, verse 30, our fourth proof, And those whom he called, he brings you to himself, he also justified.
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What does it mean to be justified? We say sometimes, you know, just as if I'd never sinned.
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Well, we know that's wrong. How do we know that's wrong? Because it wouldn't be enough.
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For God to just say, you're innocent, would mean what? If it was as if I had never done any sins, then that would be fine.
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At least I would be neutral in God's sight. But what do I need to get to heaven? This is the heart of the
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Gospel, folks. I need perfection. I need righteousness.
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I need holiness that I don't have and I can't attain. And I can't attain it because I'm a sinner by nature and by desire.
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I do things that constantly fall short of the glory of God. I need
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Christ's righteousness. In fact, Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5 .21, that God made him, made
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Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, meaning he never sinned and he had no sin nature.
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He made him to be Christ or to be sin on our behalf.
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What does that mean? It means that the sins of all who would ever believe are placed on Christ on the cross.
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Why? So that in Christ, those who are in Christ might become the righteousness of God in him.
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In Christ, we have that perfect righteousness. We have that active obedience imputed to us, accounted to us, so that on judgment day we stand before the
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Lord not condemned, but justified, declared righteous.
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Not innocent, but righteous. Fifth proof.
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Again, verse 30. Glorification. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
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Past tense. Why? Because it's so sure that it's going to take place.
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It's as if it already has taken place. When we think about this golden chain of salvation, we think
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God is working all things together for our good. Well, how do we know that? Because before the world began, he foreknew us.
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He predestined us. And then in time he called us. And at that moment he called us, he justified us, and he's going to glorify us.
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All these things are going to happen. Every single person God foreknows is going to be in heaven.
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They are heaven -bound from dust to glory. How can all things work together for your good?
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Because God's intent from before you existed was to bring you to himself in Christ, and that never changes.
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This chain is unbreakable. We don't see any if. This is done in if -then -else statements for computer programs here.
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It's not even if -then. There are no conditions here. Why? Because this is the sovereignty of God in action.
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And again, if you don't like that, I don't know what to say, except say, well, let's turn to John 10 for a moment.
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I told you we'd get to John eventually. John 10, verses 27 to 30.
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Think about it this way. Why is the chain unbreakable? Because God foreknows them, and then every step along the way,
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God is in charge, right? He never foreknows someone and then loses them along the way.
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We could put it this way. They're in the Father's hands. They're in the Son's hands. And Jesus puts it that way.
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John 10, verses 27 to 30. My sheep hear my voice, believers, and I know them, and they follow me.
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I mean, these words, I know them, intimately know, they follow me.
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I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
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Listen, my Father who has given them to me, these are words of God's sovereign hand, is greater than all, and no one is able, no one has the power to snatch them out of the
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Father's hands. I and the Father are one. He also says that nobody can take them out of His hand.
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They're one in purpose, they're one in essence, they're one in power. We cannot be separated from the love of God and Christ Jesus.
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Go ahead and go back to Romans chapter 8. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it this way in question 28.
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Listen, what advantage is it to us to know that God has created and by His providence does still uphold all things?
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In other words, what good does it do us to know that God's in charge of everything? The answer, listen, that we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and that in all things which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.
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We move, we exist, we have our being in whom? God. Our firm trust is in our faithful God.
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So the premise, the proofs, and now the promises. First promise, the irrevocable and great gift of Jesus.
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Look at verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
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He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will
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He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Well, if you notice, there are two rhetorical questions right there at the beginning.
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And here's the point. God has given us the greatest gift possible.
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Right? This is the stuff of John 3 .16. God so loved the world that He gave.
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And He gave the greatest gift, which was His Son. And here's the point of His rhetorical questions.
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If God did that, if He gave the greatest gift possible in sending
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His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to this world, then what will He withhold?
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Why would we think that He would send Jesus and then not give us everything that we need? Why would
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He not give us every good gift? And that's exactly what
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He does. So we have this gift of Jesus, and we have
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Jesus' perfection. Look at verse 33. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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It is God who justifies. Again, talking about justification.
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If God has declared you righteous, and He has, if you belong to Christ, if you are in Christ, if your faith is in Christ, then what allegation, what charge, what accusation can have any significance whatsoever?
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And the answer is, it can't. Every single sin of believers paid for by Jesus Christ, what is left?
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Who's going to point a finger at you? Judgment Day, you're going to stand before the
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Lord, and nobody's going to be able to say, but Steve did this, and he did that. Why?
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Because it's paid for on the cross. We also have
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Jesus' mediation. Look at verse 34. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
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There is no condemnation. Why? Because Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father, saying,
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I paid for that. I paid for that. I paid for that. He died for us. He was raised from the dead, and He constantly pleads for us at the right hand of the
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Father. We also have the permanent and abiding perfect love of Jesus.
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Look at verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
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Listen, you're going to have all kinds of situations in your life that are going to make you feel like you're separated from the love of Christ.
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You're not. Verse 36 says, As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.
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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. The psalmist, he quotes there. And even in martyrdom, even in death, excuse me,
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Christ's death, or Christ's people, are not separated from His love.
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In fact, what happens? Again, just think about it. Even as we think about whether it's people being martyred around the world, or whether we think about,
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I mean, I was thinking this morning about people that I've watched near the end of their lives dying. Whether it was
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Sarah DiPietro, or Tom Shepard, or Mark Westcott, or any number of people.
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And as we watch them, you know, in their last few hours, right before they die, what do you think?
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They're suffering. And they go from that right into the presence of Christ.
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There is no condition known to us, or even imagined by us, in which
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Jesus has lost us. He is the Good Shepherd. And if the worst this life can offer, whether it's whatever the condition is, whatever the condition is, the very worst conditions that life can offer,
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Paul writes this in verse 37, knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
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Sinclair Ferguson wrote this. He says, when we allow discouragement to dictate the conversation, we look inward, downward, and backward.
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In other words, our thoughts are all about us, about our situation, about our past.
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When God's Word dictates it, we look upward, outward, and yes, forward.
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In all these things, we are more than conquerors, not because of what we've done, but because we're in Christ, who has conquered death, hell, and sin on our behalf.
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We also have the truth that no person or thing can separate us from our Savior. Verse 38,
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For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. No condition, not even death, no spiritual force, no physical condition, nothing created, and nothing that will ever come into being.
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Nothing that we know, nothing unknown. Nothing has the power to separate us from the love of God.
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Why? Because we are in Christ Jesus. The Father cannot stop loving the
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Son, right? Is it possible that the Father could stop loving Jesus?
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This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. We are in Jesus Christ.
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Is it possible for Him to stop loving the Son? No. And He cannot stop loving those who are in Him, for whom
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He died. So we have the premise, the proofs, the promises, these things we cling to.
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Listen again to the Heidelberg Catechism. Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
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Answer. That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood has fully satisfied all my sins and delivered me from all the power of the devil, and so preserves me that without the will of my
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Heavenly Father, listen, not a hair can fall from my head. Yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me sincerely willing and ready henceforth to live unto
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Him. This truth is the most useful truth
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I could possibly tell you. All things work together for your good and for His glory.
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Right? If this isn't true, then everything He set up, all of His will, all of His plan, from before the world began, falls apart.
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But our God is working out His will every single moment of every single day perfectly in our lives.
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Can I get an amen? Let's pray. Our Father and our
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God, Lord, we just rejoice in the fullness of Your plan, in the security of Your plan.
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What a great God You are. Before we can even imagine,
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You set Your affection upon us, You predestined us for glory, and then in time
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You sent Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to redeem us. You called us, You justified us, and You will glorify us.
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All for Your glory. Lord, we see things all the time, and we just think, how can this possibly be good?
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I've got bills I can't pay. How can this be for my good? I'm sick.
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I've got troubles. I've got all manner of difficulty in my life.
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How can this possibly be good? And the answer is because You are molding us. You are shaping us.
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You are transforming us, step by step by step. What a great
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God You are. Let us learn to trust You in each and every circumstance, to never doubt
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Your goodness for us. If You have granted us the greatest gift of all, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and salvation full and free in Him, what will You withhold from us?