Not all good things.
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction:
Last week Pastor Dan stood in this space and gave a very important message on the daily choice we make to Follow the Lord, and the blessings that come with that decision.
Today we are continuing our verse by verse study in the Book of Romans, chapter 8, if you have a Bible please turn to there. It is my desire this morning for us to understand better the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
This chapter starts with the words there is therefore now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
And those words are followed by one incredible truth after another. Romans is written by Paul to a church he was never able to visit. It was written to a people he never ministered to personally. So he didn’t know what they knew. This church was off on their own - and he would have reasonably thought they were doing whatever they wanted. So he writes to share with them a complete description of salvation and the Christian life. So we keep seeing these layers of truth stacked one on top of the other as his description builds.
Message:
My intention today is to finish chapter 8. I believe that we really need to process this passage all at once - even though we could spend a week on each verse, and there are verses in this passage that are at that level of awesome that I would say maybe even that we should break it down further than this, but if we force ourselves into the nuances of the text, we might miss how all of it fits together. This is a very easy “can’t see the forest for the trees” situation. My hope is that we can see some of the things closely enough, but maybe for the first time for some of us, tie all of this together so that we might start to understand what Paul was writing. We can take a couple of these verses and be energized by them in the moment, but if we want to have a deep, rich foundation of truth, we need to see the whole picture.
In this passage we are going to see a few things - that aren’t really a part of my message but are really cool to look at and understand. One of the things that I am just going to skim over this morning but that you might study out further in your own time is the process God has for salvation. verses 29-30 give us a 5 step program for salvation...
Foreknew, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified.
I have titled my message this morning Not - all good things.
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?
Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The first verse in this passage helps us to put the rest into context. This isn’t the natural break in the passages that the translators added, we are jumping up a couple of verses from that break. I want to look closely at verse 28, and then go through the end of the chapter.
We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
We know.
Paul writes to the people in Rome all of these things, building layer upon layer of truth and foundation for us to understand, and then he gets to this verse and says: We know.
How do we know?
We know this in the same way we can know anything.
The first way that we know is that we have been told. This is one of the reasons that I preach the way that I do, one verse after another, precept upon precept, so that we can hear the word of God, in the context that it was written, so that we can have a hearing knowlege of the things.
This i Know - for the Bible tells me so.
Another way that we know this is through our experiences. The things that happen to us in life teach us and train us to eventually understand some fundamental truths.
There are things that you have never been told that you know because you have experienced those things.
To really know and understand something, most of the time you have to have a combination of those two different ways. You have to be told, and you have to experience.
When you meet a new person, your knowlege of them is limited to the introduction that you were given, and anything you have heard about that person in the past. And that leaves you with some deficiencies.
When you spend time with someone with out any formal introduction - no proof text, you only have your own experiences to rely on, and those experiences may or may not be reliable.
The know that is expressed here indicates that we are full of factual understanding and knowledge. We have not only heard, but we have experienced. We know. We have not only experienced, but it has been explained to us - we know.
What do we know?
God works.
God is doing an incredible thing with the stuff that is happening to you in this life.
You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.
No matter where you are in your life, God is active in it. If you are a new believer, God is working in your life. If you aren’t a Christian at all, God is working in your life. God is doing things you don’t see, he’s doing things you dont understand. He sees things, hears things he knows things you do not know. And he is in it.
For the Christian.
Verse 28 is book-ended with two phrases that make this promise not a universal one. The promises of this passage are limited to a people who:
Love God.
Are Called according to his purpose. People who are foreknown, predestined, and called.
If you don’t find yourself in this category of people, even though God may be involved in your life, God may be working in your life, this promise truly is for those who are IN Christ.
Paul has been describing this identity for 8 chapters.
We are in the spirit not in the flesh. We are heirs with Christ, we are released from the law. Those are the people he is writing to. It isn’t just everyone.
So that begs the question.
Do you love God?
For the Good.
This doesn’t say that only good things are going to happen - but that God is doing things with the things that happen. He is involved.
And that changes everything.
That is the preface to the rest of the chapter.
Things are happening, but God is in it - and working it - and we need not be afraid.
Bad things are going to happen to Christians.
And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance,
endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
We groan because we don’t know what to say.
Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.
There are going to be people who attempt to accuse.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.
There are going to be those who attempt to condemn.
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
There are going to be those who attempt to separate us from Christ.
We sill suffer tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, the sword. We will be killed for His namesake.
God works those things together for our good.
We are going to look like Jesus.
We are going to share with Jesus.
We are going to be made right with God, justified because of Jesus.
We are going to be Glorified, with Jesus.
All things:
This is the pivot point of this passage.
All things work together for the good - What shall we say to these things - graciously give us all things - In all these things we are more than conquerors.
The problem is the things!
There are good things and bad things. But its the things.
The lifetime that we live here on earth. Full of things.
Birth. childhood. School. Graduation. More school sometimes. Work. Work. work. Relationships. Familys. Fights. Marriages. Divorces. Sickness. Health. for richer and for poorer. We go through the things!
All of those things. And they aren’t all good. But God is good in them. And he is working them together for my good.
Conclusion:
Do you love the Lord?
IF you do. There are great. Great. promises here.
We know.
God works together all things for YOUR GOOD.
What are the things?
ALL of them. Good things, and bad things.
When we endure bad things, this is the process - right here.
For each of the the things that are listed here that you might see as bad - Paul has listed a response.
What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?
Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That is our boast.
We laugh in the face of tribulation.
We are more than conquorers.
I’m not worried about the things.
I love the Lord. He has that handled.
If you don’t know Jesus today - those promises aren’t for you.
IF you do… He is making things work. Good will come. You’re going to look like Jesus.