All Things to Good

Romans 8:26-28 ESV

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Today as we continue in our series of messages from Romans, chapter 8, verses 18-30, we arrive at verses 26 through 28. And what is found within these three verses is the beautiful, most precious reality that when it comes to those who are saved by God, God ensures that He does for them, what they cannot do for themselves.

It is the most precious reminder to those of us who are true believers that when our backs are against the wall and we feel as though all is lost, God is still in control and God is ensuring that we WILL eventually make it to Him in the end.

It kind of reminds me of my wife and I, and my wardrobe. Almost every Sunday morning the same scenario plays out. I will pick out an outfit to wear and Jordan will look at me with kind of a funny look and ask, “Are you going to wear that?”

At that point, she will lead me back to the closet and pick out a different outfit for me to wear and say, “Wear this instead.” A lot of times I will look at the outfit she picked out for me, and I’ll say, “Wear this? Are you sure?” And she will respond to that by saying, “Just trust me, you’ll look great.”

And let me tell you that the only times I am ever complimented on the way that I dress are on the days where she picks out my clothes… She must really know what’s best for me and my wardrobe, even when I don’t.

Thus far, in the series that we are currently working through we have been discussing the great hope that the Christian possesses.

And that great hope is that what we see and experience here in this world will not be all that we see and experience. Rather, our hope, our assurance is that one day Jesus will return, the dead will be raised, and everything will be created anew as the Lord establishes the new heavens and earth.

Now, the reason why this is our hope is because God Himself has promised it. And because God has promised it, we can confidently look forward to it with anticipation, believing that God will keep His word.

That is most certainly something that every believer should be looking forward to, but as we said last week, because it is something that we are looking forward to, because it hasn’t happened yet, we have to wait for it with patience.

Now, like I also said last week, we almost never practice patience very well. And honestly, sometimes we are so impatient that as we are waiting, we end up settling for something less than what we could have had had we just waited with a little bit more patience.

I think that all of us have to admit that in any given situation, if what we want doesn’t show up fast enough, we will often settle for something other than what we have been waiting for.

Because that is the case, because this is how we all naturally are, unless God intervenes and makes us wait to receive our reward in Heaven, we will forfeit our salvation. But praise God that He works within the legitimate believer to patiently maintain his or her salvation until the very end.

Concerning this, the Westminster Confession of Faith, the confession that we in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church hold to states the following: “They whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.”

The glorious truth that this proclaims is that those who are truly saved, will remain saved because God Himself will make sure that they remain saved.

And our reading for today sets this glorious truth before us so that we may receive comfort through it, and that ultimately, God may be glorified in it.

So, the first thing that we see in our reading is how God ensures that what we ask of Him is what we truly need. Go ahead and look at verses 26 and 27 of our reading, where we see:

Romans 8:26-27 ESV

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Here we see one of the aspects involved in God keeping us saved. Paul says, “Likewise the Spirit” now notice, Spirit here is spelled with a capital S which means that the spirit being referred to here is the Holy Spirit, God Himself.

So, Paul says, “The Holy Spirit helps us” now the “us” referred to here does not mean every person living, rather, it refers to Christians, those who are truly saved, the true children of God.

So, Paul says, “The Holy Spirit helps us who are Christians in our weakness” … So, like I said, this promise is meant solely for the Christian, but he speaks here of the Christian’s “weakness”. What that weakness refers to is what I was speaking of earlier when I said that unless God intervenes, we will forfeit our salvation. That is what that weakness is, but praise God! for Paul tells us here that God helps us in our weakness!

So, while we as Christians are weak, God, Who is strong, works within us, even against our own will at times, to be strong through us by helping us in our weakness.

Then Paul proceeds to tell us how God helps us in our weakness when he says: “we do not know what to pray for as we ought”.

Now, when we pray, we should certainly go to God and lay before Him what is on our hearts, and we should ask for those things that we believe are best for us, for those around us, and most of all, those things that we believe are most glorifying to God.

But even when we share our heart’s deepest desires and longings to God, we don’t always ask for what is truly good for us and glorifying to God because of that weakness that Paul speaks of.

But even though we as believers don’t always know what to pray for, the Spirit of God does, and He makes sure that what we ask God is exactly what we need to be asking Him. We see this when Paul says in our reading: “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

The Spirit Himself, God Himself intercedes… That word intercede means to intervene on behalf of another. So, in our weakness, we don’t always know what to pray for, but God Himself overrides the prayers of the believer so that what is asked for is always in accordance with the will of God.

Paul says that He does this with groanings too deep for words. So, this means that what the Spirit asks on our behalf is so deep that we in our weakness could never truly express it, and what He expresses for us are those things which are too holy for us to even understand or comprehend.

So, we see that when it comes to the believer, God graciously intercedes on our behalf and causes what we request of Him to be according to His perfect will. In this way, God is literally doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.

And what the Spirit asks on our behalf is for God to cause every situation that we endure in this life to be that which is glorifying to Him and that will result in securing our salvation.

We see this in verse 28 of our reading where we see:

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

This is it right here. This is what tells us as believers how and why we will maintain our salvation until the very end. We will securely remain believers until the very end not because of anything that we do, but because of what God does through us.

And you know, there are scores of Christian denominations out there that teach the opposite of this plain, straightforward declaration from the Bible. There are denominations that say that maintaining our own salvation is contingent upon whether or not we are obedient to God.

But if that was the case, then all of us would have lost our salvation right after receiving it. As Paul says in our reading, we are naturally weak, unable to do those things which please and glorify God.

We had to be saved by nothing but grace because there was no other way that we could possibly be saved. And our salvation must be maintained by nothing but grace, because once again, there is no other way that we could possibly maintain our salvation.

And we see here how God maintains our salvation when Paul says that God is so sovereign that He causes all things to work together for our good, that is, for our salvation.

Now, when the Bible says that all things work together for the good of the believer, what does that entail? Does it mean that God works somethings together for our good? Does it mean that God works most things together for our good? No! It literally means that God works ALL things, everything that occurs in our lives, to work together for our good, for our salvation.

So, the next time that you feel beset on every side, the next time that you feel as though there is no way that things will ever be good for you again, you remember these words. God works ALL things, even these hard things together for your own good, and it will eventually, one glorious day, consummate in your reception into glory.

But you may look at yourself and ask why this promise from God to someone like me? Once again, Paul answers that for us. We see this at the very end of this 28th verse when Paul says that God does these things: “for those who are called according to his purpose.”

God works everything together for the good of those who are called according to His purpose. I actually prefer the King James translation of this verse where it says, “to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

The reason I like that translation better is because the word “the” makes a lot of difference.

Over in Matthew 22:14, Jesus says:

Matthew 22:14 KJV

14 Many are called, but few are chosen.

The “many” here is everyone. Everyone is called by God to salvation in one way or another. But He follows that by saying that there are few who are chosen.

Chosen? By whom? By God Himself. That is why the word “the” in this last part of Romans 8:28 is so important. Everyone is called by God, but the only ones who will come to Him and be saved by Him are those whom He has already chosen.

And those whom God has chosen; God will ensure their salvation until the very end. Why? Because it His will and His purpose to save all those whom He brings to Him.

Jesus tells us in John, chapter 6, verse 44:

John 6:44 KJV

44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

And once again, Paul tells us, this time in Philippians, chapter 1, verse 6:

Philippians 1:6 KJV

6 …he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Beloved, we as believers ask, “Why would God save me? Why would God keep me saved until the very end?” and we see from the Scriptures that God will keep you because it is His will to keep you. He will keep you because He is most glorified in keeping you. He will keep you so that Christ may have a spotless Bride without blemish.

Let us glorify, worship, honor, and praise God that it is His will to keep us as His beloved… forever!

Amen?