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All right, tonight, the attributes of God. Let us look at the attribute of God that begins with D. We're going to look at 26 attributes in the next set of months and maybe years. And we've got A, B, and C done and part of D.
And so we've done all-knowing, our omniscient A, B for beautiful, C for creator, and D, the decree of God. The decree, our purpose, our will of God. And this will be part two from last Sunday night. If you have not been stretched by this idea that God decrees everything, I think tonight is going to stretch your mind to its utmost because we cannot get our arms around this idea when we biblically and honestly think of this idea that God has decreed everything.
And it's helpful for us to do these kind of things, so much so that the Heidelberg Catechism says in a practical way, quote, that we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and for what is future, we would have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that no creature shall separate us from His love since all creatures are so in His hand that without His will they cannot do so much as move.
And we believe at this church, and I think you believe it too if you're visiting, that what you believe determines what you do. What you think about God has effects on your actions and your motives. So tonight we want to look at the decrees of God.
Sunday night's a little different. You can give answers out loud if I ask a question. Who could briefly define for me the decrees of God? What is the decree of God? Bruce. Okay, that's good. My definition is you almost got it word perfect.
The decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will whereby for His own glory He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Everything falls underneath the will of God, the decree of God, the counsel of God, and we see some of these words like predetermined plan and counsel and will all synonymous for that idea that God has decreed the world.
Now I tried to give you a few words that would describe that, and that's where we ended up last week. So let's just have a quick review. Several words, seven total, words that are singular that describe the decree of God.
So if you're taking notes, the outline's going to be several words pretty much taken from Arthur Pink's chapter that will help us understand the decree of God. And we, by the way, when we find someone who plans something, do we think that's foolish or do we think that's wise?
When men plan buildings and cities and they even have, what's the computer game, Sim City or something like that? Okay. Civilization or something. There's planning and we would say planning's good and so we would recognize that God having created all things, He did not create them in some kind of accidental, fortuitous, happenstance type of fashion.
He, as Kurt Daniel said, has the universe pre-programmed. And so tonight let's look at these seven biblical words that will help us understand the decree of God. In review number one, singular. If you don't get anything else, get this one, singular, that when God decrees, when He plans, when He purposes, it is described in scripture more often than not as something that is singular.
The decree of God, not the decrees of God, but the decree. Not the purposes of God, but the purpose. And so everything to God is one single decree. Now I don't know if you can do this or not, so here's what I have to do when I think about people.
I can't get my arms around one billion people in India, so what I have to do is go to the largest group of people that I know at any one time, and that happens to be about 77 ,000 people in Lincoln, Nebraska on a Saturday in the fall, watching a football game.
And when I think about those people there, can you imagine every one of those 77 ,000, whether they're wearing red or wearing Kansas Jayhawk blue or whatever else they're wearing for the losing team on that side.
It's not that way anymore, sadly. That everything in their lives, from who their parents were, to how old they are, to their health, to the decisions they make, every single detail has been foreordained by God.
77 ,000 people, and yet how many billions of people have been made. This refers to God's single, all comprehensive, and as one man said, simultaneous act, the decree of God. No plan B, no contingencies, no change of mind.
As Romans 8 says, and we'll look at later, to those who are called according to His purpose. We do things in steps, in stages, almost Panama Canal-like. This fills up, it drops you down to this one, and then you go to this one.
It's like getting through the canal. There are no flow charts, it is God's infinite plan with the word singular stressed. Number two, wise. If you want more information, you can get the message from last week.
Number two, wise. Not only is God's decree singular, it is wise. God does things because He is wise, and so He has the wisest ends and the wisest means. Psalm 147 verse 5 says, Great is the Lord in abundance and strength.
His understanding, or wisdom, is infinite. Whatever God decides as the best thing to do, God would decree that. The best goals, the best ends, the best pieces. And if you tie this into God's other attributes, it makes it easier to understand.
For instance, if God has all power, then He can prevent any failure, or He can stop someone who might resist Him, and so it ends up being wise. God's character is immutable. He doesn't change His mind.
There's nothing that He would change His mind about. He sees everything, therefore with His omniscience, He would not see something that might happen in the future that might change His plan because He sees it all and decrees the best and most wise ends.
He's wise in creation, providence, redemption. God's decree is wise. Number three, eternal. God's decree is eternal. We saw that in Ephesians 3 last week. The eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Not looking down the corridors of time, but eternally, before the world began, God made His decree. You'll know some of these verses when it comes to salvation that are part of His eternal decree. 2 Thessalonians 2 .13.
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation. Or how about 2 Timothy 1 .9 Who has saved us and called us with the holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from what?
All eternity. That is absolutely mind-boggling. God is eternal, therefore His thoughts, plans, and purposes must be eternal as well. Sadly, we have our friends, many of our friends, who are Arminian and they would believe that somehow God's eternal decree can be changed by sin.
And without getting into Lewis's class on Thursday nights, there is the secret will of God, which is everything that happens. And then there is the revealed will of God, what He tells us to do in the Scriptures.
And even when people disobey the Scriptures, is that underneath the all-encompassing, eternal plan of God? The answer has to be yes. I did a little research today, and I found out the smallest piece of matter in the world.
And I am glad God is sovereign over every little detail and He's eternally sovereign and He has this decree because if, as Spurgeon used to say, one molecule out there is a rogue molecule, then we can't understand anything except anxiousness.
But I found, since Spurgeon's day, the physicists have found smaller things. And who could tell me, besides the people that I talked to in the hall before I preached, who could tell me the smallest thing that's ever been discovered?
What's the smallest particle? It's not a molecule. Well, what would it be? A what? A string? Well, what are strings made up of, I guess, is what I'm after. When Kim and I and the kids are in California, we drive past where Stanford would be and they have this super long kind of a tunnel that will look like an aqueduct almost.
And what do they do in that tunnel? That is the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is what that is. And what do they do in there? They find small pieces of matter called quarks. This is not some Star Trek bit of information or anything like that.
This is what is smaller than protons and electrons and neutrons. I began to think that God is sovereign over every single quark. And you think, that's not quark. That's a quark. Q-U-A-R-K. If there's one quark in the world that's rogue and does what it wants to do on its own without God being sovereign over it, then God's not sovereign at all.
When God looks at the universe, he can just say rightfully so, that is mine. Just to give you an idea of a quark, this is in askascientist .com. So I asked the scientist, how large is a quark? The size of atomic and subatomic particles loses its meaning because these particles behave as though they are waves or wave packets.
So size becomes kind of squishy. However, with that caveat, the classical radius of a free electron is taken to be about 3 to the 10th minus meters. And the classical radius of a free proton is taken to be about 1 to the 10th to the...
I don't even know how to say these math things anymore. I'm basically now in 6th grade math helping my son in an 8th grade math. But 10 to the minus 15, only about 1 third the radius of electron. However, the classical radius of a hydrogen atom consisting of a proton and one electron, the Bohr radius is about 5 to the 10th minus 9 meters, about 1 million times the radius of either component of the particle.
You say, what does that have to do with anything? I don't know, but it'll even get worse. I do not know that anyone really thinks of quarks and other subatomic particles as having a particular size. In fact, their masses are usually given in energy units of C2 from the Einstein relation E equals MC squared.
God is sovereign over quarks. I am so glad. I look at the news, I look at the world, I look at politics and the world is upside down. If I didn't believe God was sovereign in all these things, I'm sure I'd be on Prozac and everything else.
I would be panic stricken. The world may be frightened, the world may be anxious, but God has not bitten off one of His fingernails as it were yet. Jerry Bridges says in a Spurgeon-like way, if there is a single event in all the universe that can occur outside of God's sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him.
God's not worried, God's not fretting. He decided everything with a singular thought, with all wisdom, before time began. Number four, effectual. Singular wise, eternal and effectual. Quite different than many of my plans, by the way, that never come to fruition.
But with God, Isaiah 46 says, His counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. And since God has all power, He can get everything done. Now the way we should think about this I think will be helpful.
When God does something by Himself through His own agency, like creation, like regenerating someone, like inspiring the Scripture, we would call that theologically a decree. He decrees something in an effective way.
Effective decree, EFF. But when God uses someone else, a person or a process or some kind of agent outside of Himself, we call that a permissive decree. So when you're studying theology, you think when God does something by Himself, it's effective, He does it.
When He works through someone else, that He is singularly, wisely, eternally decreed to work through another person, that is called His permissive decree. Because what we're going to get into now is going to be very taxing.
If God has declared everything in His eternal decree, no matter what happens, God has decreed it, then your question to me should be what? What about sin? What about sin? How could sin be in the universe if He's decreed that?
Put that on hold, let's go a little bit farther. Number five, encompassing. God's decree is all comprehensive, all details, small and large, everything, anything, all things, God is not a deist, He is a hands-on, micromanaging kind of God.
Encompassing. E-N-C-O-M-P-A-S-S-I-N-G. With regard to past things, present things, future things, good or evil things, He works all things after the counsel of His will. God did not decree to make the world, to make man, to make women, and then just let it go.
No. Even down to birds and flowers, God is sovereign over those, isn't He? That's what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6. How about little things like this? Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord.
How about the actions of men? Well, same thing, Philippians 2, it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And this morning, Dr. Fuller talked about God's decree being all-encompassing, which would include the sinful actions of Joseph's brothers.
Now my favorite one, number six. Free. Singular, wise, eternal, effectual, encompassing, and free. Who does God report to? Is God accountable to someone? Does He answer to anyone? We sometimes are at liberty or are not at liberty to do things or think things, but God is at liberty to act or not act, think or not think, as it were, even though He's always thinking, according to His good pleasure.
He is under no compulsion, no force outside of Himself, no constraint, nothing makes God do things in an involuntary fashion. True or false? The decrees of God are conditional. Or if I put it in singular, the decree of God is conditional.
Why don't you turn to Psalm 33 just for a minute? I want you to know that God has free will and this universe is not big enough for two or three or more people to have free will besides God. God alone is totally free.
He is the only one that is totally free because His nature would demand that. And I love Psalm 33. Of course, psalms are songs. We don't have the music anymore, but the songs are wonderful. And how about a song that extols God's counsel, His decree, His will, and how He gets whatever He wants.
Psalm 33 verse 1. Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones. Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Sing praises to Him with the harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song.
Play skillfully with the shout of joy. For the word of the Lord is upright and all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves the righteous and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and this psalmist is just laying on the praises of God. And then it says in verse 10. The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations. He nullifies their will, their purposes, their counsel, their plans.
He frustrates the plans of the peoples. But positively opposite to these, verse 11. The counsel, the purpose, the decree, the will of the Lord stands forever. See there's no one externally to make Him do anything He does not want to do.
The plans of His heart are from generation to generation. And if you've got a God like that, then verse 12 is true. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, this particular Lord. The people whom He has chosen by His decree, His plan, His counsel for His own inheritance.
God has free will to select, to not select, to do or to not do, to create or not to create. God is the only one who has free will. I could prove it this way. Answer this question for me congregation. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or has been His counselor that has taught Him?
Maybe you want this question instead. With whom did God take counsel and who instructed Him? Who taught Him in the path of judgment and taught Him knowledge? Who showed to Him the way of understanding?
And I just read to you Isaiah chapter 40 verses 13 and 14. God does what He wants. We were in Job this morning. That was so rich by the way. Job 23 .13. He is unique and who can turn Him and what His soul desires that He does.
The only reason God does anything is because it pleases Him. Now, let's talk about the will just for a minute. Let's look up several passages that will help us see that God's free will reigns. 2 Samuel chapter 16.
Let's just look up several. 2 Samuel chapter 16. One of the best things we could do is to look up God's purpose that is concerned with sin. These aren't contingent. These are all part of His decree. We could look at prophecy and how these people have to decide exactly what God says but let's just look at some of these.
2 Samuel chapter 16. Verse 10. But the king said, What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses and if the Lord has told him, Curse David, then who shall say, Why have you done so? Verse 11 of chapter 16.
Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, Behold, my son who came out from me seeks my life. How much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone and let him curse for the Lord has told him. How does that strike you?
That strikes me as very odd except God is sovereign over that very situation. How about 1 Kings? Let's turn to 1 Kings. If that one doesn't move you to think that God can do whatever He wants freely then this one will.
1 Kings chapter 12. 1 Kings chapter 12. These are amazing to show that God's purpose even is in and through people's sins. We saw that this morning with Joseph but these are just some other ones. 1 Kings 12.
Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed saying, Return to me on the third day. The king answered the people harshly for he forsook the advice of the elders which he had given them and he spoke to them according to the advice of the younger man saying, My father made your yoke heavy but I will add to your yoke.
My father disciplined you with whips but I will discipline you with scorpions. So the king did not listen to the people for it was a turn of events from chance, from fortune. It was accidental. I know it was serendipity.
That's what did it. Serendipitous behavior. By the way, I loved it when J. Vernon McGee kind of dating himself, he said of the game, the gambling game, he said, Don't you dare play craps with God because he plays with loaded dice.
And if you look at 1 Kings 12 .15, it was a turn of events from the Lord. These are righteous events that he might establish his word which the Lord spoke through Ahijah the Shalonite to the Jeroboam the son of Nebit.
Does God move people to sinful action? True or false congregation? It's not found in your text there. It was sinful for David to count the people of God, to take a census. You positive? All right, let me read 2 Samuel 24 verse 1.
Now again, the anger of the Lord burned against Israel and it incited David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah. Or how about 1 Kings 11? If you go back a chapter, you should be in 1 Kings 12 right now.
1 Kings 11 verse 14. I'm just trying to show you that the scriptures are replete. I could give you dozens where God is sovereign over sin. Then the Lord, 1 Kings 11 .14, raised up an adversary to Solomon.
Hey dad, the Edomite, who raised him up? He was of the royal line in Edom. God also raised up another adversary to him, Razon the son of Iliadah who had fled from the Lord Hadadezer king of Zobah. How can all these things be explained?
They only can be explained by this, that God's purpose stands whether that purpose includes sin or it includes righteousness. So your response to me is, well, what about God and sin? Does that make Him not holy?
Which gives us word number 7. The 7th word in our outline tonight is holy. God's decree is not just free, it's not just encompassing, it's not just effectual, eternal, and wise, and singular. It is holy.
When we start saying things like this, you better grab onto what you know and what you know is going to be God is holy. True or false? God ordained sin. True or false? God planned sin. True or false? God decreed sin.
I see no one sleeping now. Everyone is wide awake. Hey, we've already established, I think, not tonight, so in such a total way because of last Sunday night we built on a lot of these, if God has decreed everything has taken place, you can look at the world for not very long and say to yourself, there is sin involved.
I have sinned. How can God's plan include sin? So let's just make sure we remember when we're looking at these kind of deep truths that we never forget that God is holy. It helps us. When Jesus taught the disciples to pray, our Father, art in heaven, what?
Hallowed be thy name. Never run from the stake in the ground that God is holy. John said God is light and in Him there is what? No darkness at all. God is separate from any kind of sin or evil. His eyes are too pure to what?
Even look upon evil. One man said God is allergic to sin. It's what the Scripture teaches. Job 34 .12. It is unthinkable that God would do wrong. That the Almighty would pervert justice. And we would be with the writer of Samuel when he records Hannah in 1 Samuel 2.
There is no one holy like the Lord. We would all agree as a congregation that in heaven the angels never stop saying what? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We would affirm in Isaiah 57 His name is holy.
But friends, if you think sin just accidentally happened, then where was God when it accidentally happened? Oh yeah, He was too busy tending to some other matters. Well, that can't be. Oh yeah, when sin entered, God just said, well, I can't control the whole universe and I'll be like Rabbi Kushner.
I can't have God all-powerful, all-knowing and loving, so let's just throw out the all-powerful and He didn't have enough power to contain sin. Sin was not just foreknown. That doesn't help us. If God looks down the corridors of time and sees sin, and then doesn't do anything about it even though He has the power, that's just as bad as having us to have to deal with God-ordained sin.
So this corridor of time business doesn't help us. Boyce said, that it's being a part of the purpose or plan of God renders its presence no more difficult of explanation than that He have foreknown its appearance and not exerted His unquestioned power to prevent it.
Do you believe sin exists? Do you believe God's sovereign? Or are you like the Christian scientists who are neither Christian nor scientists? Kind of like grape nuts I was taught. It's not grapes and it's not nuts.
Sin exists. It's just not some kind of figment of our imagination. Sin exists. And we know from Scripture at this church, even hearing from Dr. Fuller this morning, God is king. How can sin exist if God is not king?
Well, easily. But if He is king, then what do we do? Is God the author of sin? How can God permit something that's unrighteous, sinful to go on? Well, I would say that God isn't the author of sin in terms of some kind of evilly creating something with some kind of glee.
I would also say that our minds are not capable of understanding this fully, wouldn't you? Sin exists. God's sovereign. What can I do? But I would say with Robert Dabney that God ordains sin, quote, not for the sake of sin, but for the sake of some good and holy results which His infinite wisdom has seen best to connect therewith.
Did you get that? What's the worst sin that's ever been perpetrated upon all of humanity? And did God make good of that? The death of Jesus Christ. God doesn't promote sin. He doesn't have evil motives.
But God can forgive sin. God can condemn sin. But true or false congregation, does God approve sin? He condemns it. He forgives it. But He does not approve it. Alright, let me try to rock your world a little bit more.
It's rocked mine. John Gill. We as creatures are bound to hinder all the evil we can, but God is under no obligation. When we see evil, we should stop it. But does God have to do that? Well then, He must not be powerful enough to stop sin.
Well, I'm just going to ask you some questions and let's see if you can figure them out. Let's do them out loud. And by the way, I'm like that teacher you had at school. No answer is a stupid answer. We're not going to yell at you because those of you that know the right answer, the only reason you know the right answer is what?
You're smarter than everybody else. No, God lets you know the answer. And those that know the answer should be the most humble. Why did God decree sin? We should be able to come up with a few reasons and one specific biblical one.
Why did God decree sin? Hold that thought, Bruce. Let's get somebody else. I want to get some wrong answers first. I'm just kidding. Why did God decree sin? Okay, serve His purpose. Scott? How could it glorify God, I wonder?
Anybody? Pradeep? Okay, a little bit louder. Okay, how does it showcase His grace? And I wonder where we could find that. Where could we find that it showcases His grace? Or maybe I could ask you this way, Pradeep.
Elaborate on that a little bit more. It showcases His grace. Okay, that's a great point. Instead of Ephesians 2, let's go to Romans chapter 9. And I have to be very, very careful because in a couple Sundays, I'm going to preach Romans chapter 9.
But we just want to at least look here while we're dealing with this idea of decree. Basically, simply, succinctly, even though we might not be able to get our minds around it, we can only go on what God has told us.
God has told us He is holy, He is sovereign over all things, and we know sin exists. The scripture teaches about it as well. But God can show forth His glory, as some have said. As He deals with sin, there is a revelation, as it were, a manifestation of grace and wrath that would not exist, would not be seen, rather, unless it's dealt with.
Romans chapter 9. By the way, this is a book in the Bible that some wish were not here. Some would want to cut out of the Bible. And it just so taxes us. But friends, before I even read the verses, all these verses that seem so hard, if I was your pastor, and I am, but since I'm your pastor, I want you to just take these verses, take this idea that God and the evil, and origin of evil, and God could have stopped Satan from sinning, God could have stopped Adam from sinning, God could have stopped Eve from sinning, God could have stopped all sin, but He didn't.
Instead of somehow trying to put God on the spot and ask Him all those questions, I think Dr. Fuller's advice to us this morning in Sunday school about asking questions of God would be very, very important, where we can't get all the answers.
God has only told us this. Could God have given us the reason why He allowed sin? Absolutely. And He gave us one of the reasons here in Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9 talking about the sovereignty of God.
If you look at the end of chapter 8, Paul trumpets the fact that he is convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, etc., will not separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
The elect will make it to the end. Well, what about Israel? They didn't seem to make it, a retractor might say, so how can I be secure in my salvation if Israel's salvation was not secure? And then he says some very troubling things about the sovereignty of God.
If you look at chapter 9, verse 9, this is the word of promise, at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. Not only this, but it was Rebecca also when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac.
For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's, there's that singular word again, purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls.
It was said to her, the older will serve the younger. Is that normal? No. Just as it is written, Jacob I love, but Esau I hated before they were born. What shall we say then? What would you say? What would you say of these things that are happening before the kids were even born?
All this has been determined by God's purpose. What would you say? I'd say, if I wasn't thinking right, I'd say, this doesn't seem too good. I don't like it. That seems unfair. And now we have just tipped our hat and revealed that we collectively have no idea about the grace of God whatsoever because we believe grace is earned or merited or based on some kind of foreseen work.
And we know better because God has taught us in the scripture. Is there injustice with God? May it never be. As one man said, the real question is not, why did God hate Esau, but why would God love a scoundrel named Jacob?
For he says to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, does it depend on the man who wills or the man who runs? No. It depends on God who has mercy.
And so he's working through this argument about the sovereignty of God. And then he says, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, God says to Pharaoh in Exodus, for this very purpose, I raise you up to demonstrate my power in you in that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.
So then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. Well, what's the retractor say? Obviously, well, why does he still find fault? If God decreed that I would never be regenerated and that I'm going to be a sinner, then how can he hold me accountable?
Who resists his will? Are we supposed to talk that way to God? By the way, we're not. Verse 20. If you're theologically answering and asking, fine. But if it's because you've got a bad motive, then Paul says, verse 20, on the contrary, who are you to answer back to God?
Who are you, oh man? Who are you, oh created thing? Who are you, oh frail and feeble, who answers back to God? I don't know about you, but one of the things that I don't like with my kids is my kids give me any what?
What do we call it? Give me lip. I guess in New England it's called lip. In Nebraska, I would call that any sass. No sass and back, right? You guys familiar with that? Okay. No back talk. I just expect yes dad and no dad.
The thing molded will not say to the molder. Just think how stupid this is. Why did you make me like this? Will it? Or does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel, notice, same lump, one vessel for honorable use?
This is the china that you serve your nice fresh salsa to your friends when they come over. And another from the same lump, by the way, for common use. This is the stuff that's put in the garbage, worse.
What if God, this is the kind of language that doesn't mean it's potential, but it is happening. What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, we are coming to the answer for our question, why did God ordain sin?
At least one book part. He has many other reasons, but this is what he's told us. What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
Verse 23 is our answer. He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon the vessels of mercy, whom He prepared beforehand for glory. Why did God ordain sin? We have one reason right here in verse 23, so that we could know, as Pradeep said, the wonder and the kindness of His grace, because we will see the divine manifestation of the wrath of God on those who hated Christ Jesus.
It's amazing. Absolutely amazing. But that is why, if you go back to Romans 8, I said I'd do this this morning, so I better do it. Romans 8, verse 28. Knowing what we know now about God's decree, it makes it so much easier, in my opinion at least.
Romans 8, verse 28. What does it say? And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. I don't know about you, when I go to Springfield and I go to Six Flags there, there's only one ride I care to go on and all the rest is just for the kids.
And that is what ride? Superman. That's the one I want to go on. Whether kids, you know, when people fly out of it and die or not, that's the kind of ride I want to be on. This is, I've been to other water countries and they've had a ride called Geronimo.
Have you been to Geronimo? This is a spiritual Geronimo verse that please beloved, if I could just take off my preaching hat for a second and put on my counseling hat, my hospital etiquette cap, if you know someone's in the hospital and you know they're hurting and they've lost a loved one or they're doing this or that, when you come over to them, just don't quote this verse.
You hug them, you hold them, you cry with them, you tell them God's good, but don't quote this verse, not quite yet. It's true, but instead of just quoting this verse all the time, why don't we just see if we can live it out.
He is causing all things to work together for good. Does that say it's good, what's happening, everything's good? Many people have been through worse things than I have and think about when Kim was pregnant, just yesterday Luke said, now wait a second, there's a 14 year old, a 10 year old, an 8 year old and a 6 year old, what happened to the 12 year old?
I said well, Kim was pregnant and we went in for the heartbeat and there's no heartbeat, there's no nothing and then it's a D &C and then it's possibly can you get cancer and all these other things. Was that in and of itself good?
No, but God caused it to work together for good. He had his purpose and if you look at the passage, I can't get around it, the passage says we know, it's not that we waver or doubt or conjecture, we intuitively know, even though we can't always understand it fully, we intuitively know is the word for know that God causes all things.
Now if I just think about my message on the decree of God, it's all encompassing is his decree. God causes all things to work together for good, this word work is where we get the word synergy. He takes all these things and can even take evil and he can make good out of them.
Steve and Janet Cooley have probably heard this illustration a thousand times, so I might as well make it a thousand and one. Thomas Watson, the great Puritan said regarding this, it has a medical background for his illustration, several poisonous ingredients put together being tempered by the skill of the apothecary make a sovereign medicine and work together for the good of the patient.
You take a little bit of this, the old doctor did, and a little bit of this and by themselves they're bad for you, put together and give to you and it's something good. In God's sovereignty, he orchestrates everything for good, all things, every particular detail.
Just do a quick inventory of your life, think of every horrible thing that has happened to you, everything that you've lost, every sick friend, every dad you've lost, every mom you've lost, whatever it is, I don't know what I would do if God is somehow not sovereign over that and it was just coincidence, fate, bad luck, an accident, because my mind would get stuck in the terminal loop of what if and if I only should have and if I could have and circumstances were different and if the hospital people would have diagnosed it earlier and around and around and around.
Friends, I will tell you that will drive you to the shrink and he will give you something that will make you feel better on the outside but on the inside you will still have the gnawing in your mind yearning for a God who is actually God and who sits on a throne and He is sovereign over that very issue.
God is sovereign over the good, He is sovereign over the bad and what did we learn about Job this morning? The Lord gives and the Lord takes away what? Blessed be the name of the Lord and we as Christians who know the Scriptures and have been taught have to remind ourselves that when it comes to grieving we do not grieve like those who have no what?
Hope and hope stems not eternal but hope stems from the eternal all-encompassing decree of God. You say, what does Paul know? How could he say these things? He is just sitting there high and mighty just throwing off these things.
What did he ever do? I more so in far more labors in more imprisonments. Beaten times without number often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers. Dangers from robbers. Dangers from my countrymen.
Dangers from the Gentiles. Dangers in the city. Dangers in the wilderness. Dangers on the seas. Dangers among false brethren. I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights in hunger and thirst often without food in cold and exposure.
Apart from these external things there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches. Paul wrote that book before he wrote Romans 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Do you see the text in Romans chapter 8?
All things God works good things His word, His promises, His attributes that we are able to pray Jesus Christ, saints, angels and He also works bad things which include Satan, the world sin, affliction, death, evil and did I say sin?
I wrote down here in my notes. So why kill yourself with care? The poem goes. No chance has brought this ill to me. Tis God's sweet will. So let it be. He seeth what I cannot see. There is a need for each pain.
And He will one day make it plain. That earthly loss is heavenly gain. If you're a sufferer and you would like to be reminded through the writings of another in pastoral settings about the goodness and sovereignty of God you need to get the letters of Samuel Rutherford.
This is not written in a style where it's just 18 bullet points of the sovereignty of God. This is Samuel Rutherford in a very pastoral way writing to hurting people in the church and in one of those letters he writes this.
Let not the Lord's dealing seem harsh rough or unfatherly because it is unpleasant. When the Lord's blessed will bloweth across your desires it is best in humility to strike sail to Him and be willing to be led any way our Lord pleaseth.
You know not what the Lord is working out of this but you shall know it hereafter. Romans 8 .28 says. We're called according to His purpose. What is His purpose? He describes that in verses 29 and 30 and I don't have time to go through it.
But here is His purpose. For whom He foreknew foreloved. He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. See God is causing all these things to work together for good and that immediate good is so you're like Christ.
We have a servant who suffers. Isaiah said Speaking of Jesus Christ. True? And the servant who suffers has servants who suffer. The suffering servant will have those who will suffer. That's why I can't stand TBN and Daystar or whatever.
Is that right? Daystar? All these things. You follow God and your life is going to be great. Try telling that to Paul or James or Peter. And whom He predestined these He also called. And whom He called these He also justified.
And whom He justified these He also glorified. What is missing in chapter 8 verses 29 and 30? I'll tell you what's missing. Missing is sanctification because if left up to me I would never make it to glory.
But God in my life can take sin Satan death sickness world events and He causes them to work for good and the whole time you will never ever lose glory. I'm glad for that. Friends, everybody knows if God is a king He's sovereign.
White Cross cites the story of King William III and Bishop Burnett. The prelate affected to wonder how a person of His Majesty's piety and good sense could so rudely believe in the doctrine of absolute predestination.
The king replied Did I not believe in absolute predestination? I could not believe in providence for it would be a most absurd to suppose that a being of infinite wisdom would work without a plan for which plan predestination is only another word.
Forget fate. Forget fatalism. Forget Kezmet. Forget K-sarah-sarah. Forget all those things. God is a sovereign God who personally cares for His people. Let's bow in prayer. Father, thanks for this day.
Thank you that nothing comes to pass by chance or accident. Thank you that when we look back in our lives you have even given us the wisdom to understand some of our hardships. But we don't understand them all.
Lord, we know that you do and that you're a friend that sticks closer than a brother would stick. We know that you care for us. You're concerned for us. We can cast all our anxieties upon you because you are as the scriptures teach very close.
Thank you that Jesus Christ would cloak Himself with human flesh. He would understand what we go through and He would deal with the issue of sin. Father, I praise you that even though I personally can't understand why you would create a universe that would allow sin ordain sin.
I am resting in your goodness and your greatness and your sovereign care and in your word in Romans 9 that you will make the best come out of that and there will be glory to be made for your namesake including the vicious sinful death of Christ Jesus, who we call Savior and Redeemer and Friend.
In Jesus name, Amen.