Romans 8:28

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So we are still in chapter 8 of Romans. We're not going very far today.
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We'll be focusing on verse 28. But as I normally do,
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I'll start here in verse 1. Paul starts in verse 1 and says,
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There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the
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Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own
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Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the
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Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.
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But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
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Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
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Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please
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God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the
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Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
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Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the
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Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the
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Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
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So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
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For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the
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Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the
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Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the
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Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
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For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
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For we, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
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And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
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For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?
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But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise, the
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Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought.
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But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the
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Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
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And we know that for those who love God, and all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
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For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be firstborn among many brothers.
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And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called,
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He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified.
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Over the past couple of weeks, we have talked about the groanings of creation, the groanings of the saints, looking forward to the consummation of Christ and His church, and the glorification thereof.
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How we, in all creation, wake with patient anxiety for this to occur.
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How the Holy Spirit aids us in our lives and in our sufferings. How He helps to shoulder the burden of life as a saint.
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And how He helps us through our sanctification and our prayers, that we have hope.
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We have hope in the promises of God, in our inheritance with Christ, His children.
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Here in verse 28, Paul continues his encouragement with an absolutely wonderful passage, full of truth and doctrine.
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Verse 28 says, 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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When Paul says, all things, he means all things. The word here, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, is pause, meaning all, or every part unto a whole.
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I tried to come up with several analogies to help explain this, every part unto a whole.
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But when you try to explain an aspect of God, every analogy that you come up with seems to just fall short.
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I have a much longer explanation than an analogy.
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Make no mistake, this is a very difficult thing to wrestle with.
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We've all wrestled with this. That God works all things for good.
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Many people wrestle with this. Many people give lip service to it.
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Many people consider it, but don't really address it. Others take it as a half -truth.
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Not all things, some things, rather. This is one of the reasons
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God's sovereignty over all things. One of the reasons that we, the major reason that we differ with our
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Arminian brothers and sisters. God's sovereignty. They have a different view of it.
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Many people, all of us, everyone who was a saint, whether it took two seconds or whether it took years, have struggled with God's sovereignty.
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Don't let it surprise you when a fellow believer is struggling with it as well.
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One of the most common things that you'll run into, especially in evangelism, is the issue of God's sovereignty over all things.
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That he works all things for good. People tend to have an issue with this, even as saints, because of hubris.
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They want some semblance of nugget of control left to them. But if you've ever done any sort of evangelism or watched any evangelism videos or anything like that, inevitably you come across someone who raises an oppositional question of how can
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God, how can a God that is all good allow so much evil in the world?
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This is a very good question. Very good question. How do you answer the unbeliever when they ask that?
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I'm not giving you the answer in short form.
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Moreover, how do you console a saint in the church when they're struggling with something?
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Like the loss of a loved one. When they're grieving.
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What do you say to them? Paul begins this phrase by saying, we know this.
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We know this. Not we wonder about it.
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Or it's a good possibility. We know. So he's writing this epistle to the
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Romans. So obviously we know it from somewhere other than Romans. There are times in our lives when we may be shaken to our core as saints.
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We may be broken down to nothing. Certainly there are saints that have come before us who were. The only thing that we have left is our hope.
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The hope that Paul is talking about in chapter 8. Paul is truly saying all things.
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The good, the bad, every loss, every victory, every birth of a child, every loss of a parent, loss of a job, finding of another one.
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Everything that happens in the world. Period. Works for the good of those who have been called.
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It wasn't that long ago we were in Romans chapter 5, or perhaps it was. I just perceived time quite shorter than it actually has been.
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But in Romans chapter 5, verses 3 through 5, Paul says this,
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Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
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And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out, poured into our hearts through the
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Holy Spirit who has been given to us. To consider that our sufferings should be a rejoiceful occasion is a hard thing to swallow.
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It is. One of the best illustrations of what we're talking about today.
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God's sovereignty over all things, who works all things, is found much further back in the book that you have in your hand.
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Genesis chapter 37, where it starts. It goes all the way to chapter 50.
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It's the story of Joseph. Joseph's history begins, as I said, in chapter 37 with two dreams that absolutely infuriate his brothers.
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If you want to know what they are, read your Bible. They cook up this plan to murder
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Joseph, but Reuben convinces them to put him in a pit for now.
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Reuben plans to come back later and set him free and take him back to his father. But Judah comes up with a better plan rather than murder.
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Judah would like to make some money. So he plans, when they see
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Ishmaelites coming, he says, why don't we sell them to the Ishmaelites and we can make some money.
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We get rid of him, we make some money. We're doing good. So that's what they do.
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They sell him to the Ishmaelites who take him to Egypt and sell him to Potiphar in Egypt.
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Potiphar is the captain of the guard of the Pharaoh. Now this is horrible.
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It's a horrible thing. He's been betrayed by his brothers. He's been sold twice.
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Now he's a slave in Egypt, far from the land of his father.
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Rather than be resigned to despair, Joseph works to glorify
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God and God blesses him. And Potiphar makes him a slave over all of his house.
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And Joseph does quite well until Potiphar's wife, who wants to commit adultery against her husband,
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Joseph refuses and she falsely accuses him of doing it anyway, which infuriates
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Potiphar. So Potiphar throws him in prison. Now he's in prison.
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While he's in prison, God again blesses him. And the jailer likes
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Joseph, so he appoints Joseph over all of the prisoners. While Joseph is in prison, he meets the royal cup bearer and the royal baker who have been thrown into prison, presumably because of some sort of assassination attempt on the
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Pharaoh. But either way, those two are in there, and they both have dreams.
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God gives Joseph the correct interpretation of these dreams. Well, the baker is executed and the cup bearer is set free.
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When the cup bearer is set free, Joseph asks him to remember him. Remember me.
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Get me out of here. Well, the cup bearer doesn't. So Joseph spends another two years in prison.
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But at some point, the Pharaoh begins to have a dream that no one can interpret.
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And the cup bearer says, Oh, there was this Hebrew that I was imprisoned with. He can interpret dreams.
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So Pharaoh calls Joseph. And God gives again Joseph the interpretation of the dream.
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Joseph says, well, there'll be seven years of plenty in Egypt and seven years of famine. You must store up grain for the seven years of plenty, and you'll have enough for the seven years of famine.
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So Pharaoh, understanding that Joseph truly has
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God, appoints him as second only to himself.
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He's basically prime minister of Egypt. Pharaoh says something akin to, basically the only thing that will separate our authority is my throne.
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And he sends him out over the land of Egypt to oversee the seven years of plenty and the gathering of the grain.
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And Joseph does this. And the seven years of plenty come and go, and the seven years of famine come, and people come crying to the
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Pharaoh. We're starving. Pharaoh says, go see Joseph. He's got all the grain.
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So Joseph spends the next seven years selling out this grain. And at some point in the land of Canaan, his father sends his brothers to Egypt, where he's heard that there's plenty of food.
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Sends his brothers to Egypt to buy grain. So his brothers go to Egypt and ask for grain, and Joseph helps them, albeit not at first, but he does inevitably help them.
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And in chapter 50, verses 20 and 21, he says this.
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When he falls to his knees, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.
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So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke to them kindly.
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You see the foreshadowing there? Just want to point that out.
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The story is much more than just his coat of many colors. But eventually,
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Pharaoh hears that these are his brothers and whatnot, and he introduces his brothers to the Pharaoh and his father to the
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Pharaoh. Pharaoh gives them the land of Goshen, where they spend quite some time there prospering, until a
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Pharaoh comes along who did not know Joseph. But that's the Exodus, and we're not covering that today.
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But you can see how all of those things that occurred to Joseph occurred because God was fulfilling his purpose.
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Joseph understood that. What his brothers meant for evil, God ultimately meant for good.
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Just as when the Jews and the Romans went and captured
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Christ and drug him before Pilate, drug him before everyone else, when they whipped him, when they crucified him, they meant that thing for evil.
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It was an evil act that God meant for good. God can work,
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He does work, not can, He does work through the willful evil actions of men to bring about His eternally ordained purpose.
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God can use, God does use sin sinlessly.
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It is a very important thing to remember. While we may not understand in the moment the purpose behind a blessing or the purpose behind a tragedy, because we're human, we can only experience time in one direction.
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One way. You cannot ignore the sovereignty of God that is throughout
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Scripture. Just the Bible itself has the first three chapters.
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The whole rest of the book is how He worked it out. Thousands of years of human history to get to Christ.
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I spoke of Exodus earlier and God's sovereignty.
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This is always a good one to have. Chapter 4, verse 10 and 11.
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It says, But Moses said to the Lord, this is at the burning bush. But Moses said to the
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Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since You have spoken to Your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.
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And the Lord said to him, Who made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind?
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Is it not I, the Lord? The blind man that Christ heals.
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And His disciples ask Him, Why? What sin did
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He commit? And Christ basically tells them that He didn't sin.
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His sin or His parents' sin caused Him to be blind. He was blind for Christ's purpose.
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We'll take a side note here. With just those two, really just the two verses, prosperity gospel out the window.
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Done. Gone. Now, how does
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God work in the world? Part of the issue that we have as human beings with understanding the sovereignty of God is that we really have nothing to compare it to.
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Because there is nothing to compare it to. We can understand sovereignty from the point of view of a ruler or king, president or congress giving orders, telling people to do things, setting borders and whatnot.
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But the amount of power and majesty that Scripture says that God has, we have nothing to compare it to.
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As I was talking about before, God uses sin sinlessly.
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All things. All things. God's sovereignty really reaches beyond our ability to understand it.
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Proverbs 16 .33 says, The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the
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Lord. This is a practice that the Jews used to do where rather than squabble or argue or debate a decision, they would cast a lot with the understanding that because God is sovereign over all things, the casting of the lot, the decision that came from the lot would be from God.
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Not a matter of luck. It's not a concept that they have. But God would decide without human squabbling or debate.
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This is something that occurs quite often in the Old Testament. If you read into the
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New Testament, the last time that a lot was cast was for the apostles.
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Rather than debate, rather than go back and forth on who would replace
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Judas, they cast a lot. And the lot landed with Matthias.
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And Christ appears to Paul. You've got to point that one out.
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But that is the last time that a lot was cast. Perhaps not period, but this is the last time that you see it in Scripture.
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Then they received the Holy Spirit. This idea of human means, normal means of operation.
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This is how God works in the world. This is how we describe how God works. In Philippians 2, 12 -13, it says,
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Who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
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I will continually reference the question that I heard from John MacArthur several years ago.
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The question is this. Who lives your Christian life? Who wrote
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Scripture? The many authors with hands on pens? The Holy Spirit who inspired it?
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When you make a decision that is glorifying to God, who did it?
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The answer to those questions is yes. Is it you or is it the
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Holy Spirit? Yes. We don't fully understand how it works.
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And we can't fully understand how it works. We can't fully explain how
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God working through human means works because we do have an intact will.
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We do. And yet, another good example of how
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God operates through normal human means is the
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Great Commission itself. God operates in the world through us.
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And especially as a Calvinist, you will run into someone who will say,
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Well, if everyone is predestined, then why share the gospel? I can give you an answer to this question right now.
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Number one, we're commanded to. Period. There's no arguing with it.
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You're commanded to do it. Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20.
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It says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. It is prescriptive.
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Number two, we are the means by which
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God spreads His good news. There is no other way
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He has ordained for it to be done. Romans 10, which we will get to in the far -flung future.
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Romans 10, verse 17. It says, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of God, or Christ, in some translations.
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Faith comes through the hearing of the word. The means by which one learns of salvation is this.
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You are a liar. It can be a lot more subtle, obviously. You and I are thieves.
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We are liars. We are adulterers. We are haters of God.
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We have committed egregious crimes against an eternal just being.
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Therefore the crime must be eternal. But God has done something to save us from the sentence that we deserve.
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There must be punishment for a crime. Otherwise, there's no justice. So how did
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God accomplish this task? How can He satisfy His justice and set the guilty free?
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He sent His Son to take the punishment in our place. Christ bore our sins on the cross 2 ,000 years ago and made a way for the guilty to be righteous.
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Now, what I just said can take various forms through conversation in a moment or over years.
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It can be done on a street corner. It can be done from a pulpit. The truth is still the same.
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The truth is still the same even if that's not what's coming out of your mouth. Because if something different is coming out of your mouth, one, it's not the truth, and two, repent.
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The gospel is the same. Period. We have been told that we are the means by which is spread, the church.
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We are His means. Now, also, along with that gospel, short gospel presentation, please understand that while all things work for the good of God's people, the opposite is true for those who are not.
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The easiest way for me to go through this without 17 different references is to look to our confession.
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In chapter 5, paragraph 6, it says this, As for those wicked and ungodly men whom
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God, as the righteous judge for former sins, does not blind and harden, from them
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He not only withholds His grace, whereby they might have been enlightened in their understanding and wrought upon their hearts, but sometimes also withdraws the gifts which they had and exposes them to such objects as their corruption makes occasion to sin, and withal gives them over to their own lusts and temptation of the world and the power of Satan, whereby it comes to pass that they harden themselves under those means which
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God uses for the softening of others. We've discussed before the things, the sufferings, the things that we go through as saints that soften our hearts and conform us to the image of Christ.
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Those very same things harden the heart of the unbeliever.
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Have you ever wondered why Pharaoh kept saying no? If you don't remember, read it again.
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Pharaoh says, yes, please, stop. Go away. The plague would stop.
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God would harden his heart. And Pharaoh would go... I changed my mind. You can't go.
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Over and over and over and over again. Sidebar here for just a moment.
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When you read older texts, not specifically the
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Scripture itself, but older men, church fathers, Puritans, what we're talking about in sovereignty is very often referred to as Providence.
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When you look at our Confession, it says, Of Providence. This is the same word.
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It's a synonym. That's what they're talking about. But as a person, if you have the smallest inclination, you don't believe in God, you don't think that you need salvation, at some point in coming here, you have the smallest inclination that what we talk about, that what
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I talk about might be true. Please, please pray to God that He open your eyes.
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That He would show you the truth. That He would show you that if you ask to be saved from what you deserve,
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He will do it. He will do it. Considering the means by which
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God normally operates in the world, the events of tragedy and blessing and men and the events that occur in nature and through nations, that God works all things.
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There are many people who tend to have the idea that the greatest workings of our
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God is miracles. I want you to understand something.
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If your view of God's sovereignty pertains only to the times in which
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He steps in and changes the means by which He normally operates, so it is a sign.
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And they are big signs. I'm not saying they're not. When God, when
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Christ heals the lepers, the flood, all of the miracles that we see in Scripture, if that is your assumption of God's sovereignty, then you have a very small view of who
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God is. That isn't what
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Paul is talking about. Paul doesn't say all miracles, all the times that crazy stuff happens in Scripture that can't be explained.
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No, all the things. All the things that cannot be explained, all the things that we can explain, and all the things that we don't even know happens.
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That is the level of sovereignty that we are talking about. Everything.
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Here is another example. There are many churches, there are many people throughout the country who meet every
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Lord's Day together, and they talk a lot about what the devil does.
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The devil is a real being. He really exists. You can argue over whether or not he's here or already in hell.
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I'm not talking about eschatology. I'm talking about the level of power that people ascribe to him.
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Understand that though the devil is a much more powerful being than a human ever could be, even to the point of the angel not deigning to rebuke him on his own, but saying, in the name of the
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Lord, I rebuke you. A very powerful being.
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He is created. He's created.
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All things aside from God Himself are created. What painter does not have complete and utter power over his painting and what it becomes?
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What house builder doesn't have complete and utter authority over how the house turns out?
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The hope that we have, that Paul has been talking about throughout chapter 8, as he is encouraging us as believers, this is where that hope is rooted.
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In the fact that we serve a God, that we are children of God, the
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God that created all things with His words. Not some crazy story about a slaying of a serpent or whatever else.
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That all the other mythologies and false religions and everything cooked up.
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He did it with His words. He spoke everything. We serve
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Him. We are His children.
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I could go on and on and on and on about the sovereignty of God in verse 28.
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I won't. I'll save some of it for next week. I'll just leave you with this from Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10.
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We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which
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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
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Friends, as you walk through life this week, remove the perception, the idea of going along to get along or doing to get to the next day.
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Everything that you do is part of your sanctification. Every decision that you make, every time that you stumble, every time you step over a stone, everything that happens in the world is for your good.
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Be encouraged. Have hope. And ever endeavor to be a better servant.