All Things For our Good and God’s Glory

All Things For our Good and God’s Glory

Romans 8:28–32 (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. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

My desire this morning is to spend some time in this passage to help us recognize and celebrate God's work in each of us and the work of God in our midst as we take on this journey of merging two churches.

When it comes to biblical promises, there are not any bigger than Romans 8:28.

1. “God is working all things together for Good.”

God is the Guarantor. He causes everything in the believer's life to result in blessing.

God guarantees it

Paul emphasizes that God Himself brings about the good that comes to His people.

This magnificent promise does not operate through impersonal statements, but requires divine action to fulfill.

God’s brings about the the good that comes to His people by the direct, personal, and gracious work of His divine Son and His Holy Spirit. [1]

It is absolutely staggering in its size. It is massive.

This promise is being fulfilled in two churches on the same street

in the same town coming together to make an impact with the gospel of Jesus Christ

that will be bigger and better than either one of us could make on their own.

In the providence of God he is bringing the good God honoring desires of His people in Stowe together.

“All things mean All things.”

The infinitely wise, infinitely powerful God pledges to make everything beneficial to his people!

Gut-wrenching, painful, horrible things, like tribulation and distress,

cancer, disease,

and peril and slaughter.

God brings heartache and grieving to work together in “All things” means all things.

In other words, All Things is not qualified.

Everything in the universe sits within his sovereign plan.

“If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”

― R.C. Sproul, Chosen By God: Know God's Perfect Plan for His Glory and His Children

nothing can touch us that hasn’t come through his hands

This brings Stability, depth, and freedom come into your life. You simply can’t be blown over anymore.

“The confidence that a sovereign God is governing us for our good all the pain and all the pleasure that you will ever experience is an absolutely incomparable refuge and security and hope and power in your life. No promise in all the world surpasses the height and breadth and weight of Romans 8:28.”

John Piper

What can come into our lives that can defeat God’s plan?

Many things can defeat human planning.

Our plans are often overturned by our sins and failures,

others’ opposition or jealousy,

circumstances,

or our own indifference.

But not God’s plans.

He is the sovereign God. His will is forever being done.

Therefore, you and I can go on in confidence, even when we are most perplexed or cast down.

What can happen to me that can defeat God’s purpose?

Like Paul can some thorn in the flesh can that defeat God’s purpose? Something to prick or pain me? Paul had his thorn in the flesh,

but God’s grace was sufficient for him and it was in his weakness that God was glorified.

Sickness? Job had boils, but God glorified himself in Job’s sickness and even matured Job.

Death? How can death hurt me? “To be away from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord,” says Paul (2 Cor. 5:8). Therefore, my physical death will only consummate the plan of God for me.

No matter what our situation, our suffering, our persecution, our sinful failure, our pain, our lack of faith

—in those things, as well as in all other things, our heavenly Father will work to produce our ultimate victory and blessing.

The corollary of that truth is that nothing can ultimately work against us. Any temporary harm we suffer will be used by God for our benefit.

(see 2 Cor. 12:7–10).

As will be discussed below, all things includes circumstances and events that are good and beneficial in themselves as well as those that are in themselves evil and harmful. [3]

2. “We Know”

When Paul says that “we know” this, he means that all believers should affirm the point.

Paul asserts with God’s own authority that, as believers in Jesus Christ,

we know beyond all doubt that every aspect of our lives is in God’s hands

and will be divinely used by the Lord

not only to manifest His own glory

but also to work out our own ultimate blessing. [4]

Our authority is Scripture, not experience, and it declares God’s sovereignty.

Proverbs 16:33 informs us, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”

The Lord so guides events that he can bring good out of evil.

As Joseph told his brothers after they sold him into slavery: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). [5]

We may not understand what God is doing, but we know why he acts—for our salvation and maturation.

As the Lord told Jeremiah when he foresaw Israel’s exile, his plans are good, “to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11).[6]

3. Say it Another Way

Romans 8:28–30 left Paul almost speechless.

All things work for your good—God sees to it, because he foreknew you, predestined you to glory with Christ,

called you when you were dead in trespasses and sins, justified you freely by his grace through faith alone,

and is now glorifying you little by little until the day of his coming when it will be consummated with a body like Christ’s glorious resurrection body.

This leaves Paul almost speechless.

“What then shall we say to these things?”

I hear two things in those words for Paul and for us.

I hear, “It is hard to find words for these great things.”

And I hear, “We must find words for these great things.” I think

When Paul says, “What then shall we say to these things?” his answer is:

We must say it again another way.

We must find different words and say it again. That’s what he does with the words,

“If God is for us, who is against us?”

That’s what he has been saying all along. But he must say it another way.[7]

God is entirely for us, and never against us.

None of our sicknesses is a judgment from a condemning judge.

None of our broken cars or failed appliances is a punishment from God.

None of our marital strife is a sign of his wrath.

None of our lost jobs is a penalty for sin.

None of our wayward children is God’s retribution.

If we are in Christ. God is for us, not against, in and through all things—all ease and all pain.

God always does what is good for us.

If you believe that he gave his own Son for you, this is what you believe. And all of the Christian life is simply the fruit of that faith.

Look to Christ. Look to the love God. Live in love. And fear no more. [9]

4. God’s Glory as Well as Our Good

Romans 8:28 is about God’s glory as well as our good, or it might be better to say that

Romans 8:28 is about God’s glory because it is about our good. God’s purpose in creating and redeeming us is to reveal and magnify His glory.

(Isa. 43:1–7; Eph. 1:3–14).

Scripture even tells us that man is the “image and glory of God” and woman “the glory of man,” that is, “the glory of the glory of God” (1 Cor. 11:7–8). We were made to reflect God’s glory, which is the goal of our existence, so we cannot be truly fulfilled unless we are glorifying God. Therefore, as

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

Westminster Shorter Catechism

In working all things together for good, God is simultaneously working all things together for His glory.

And this is the best thing He could ever do for us, for in magnifying Himself, we find our truest and fullest delight.

(1 Chron. 16:28–34; Ps. 27:4; Phil. 3:12–14).

To be sure, we do not always understand how He is doing this, but

We can rest assured that our perfectly wise Creator is working in the best things and through the worst things for our ultimate good and His ultimate glory.

A Merger of Two Like-Minded Churches

There is no “us” and “them.”

In the Knowing and Believing that God is the God who works all things together for our good and His Glory, our two churches will become one church by the Grace of God.

A new church is being formed, a church is being re-birthed for the Glory of God in Stowe, PA, as one Christ-loving, God-honoring, neighbor-serving, gospel-loving church.

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

[1]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1991). Romans (Vol. 1, p. 472). Moody Press. [2]Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1980–1989). Desiring God. [3]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1991). Romans (Vol. 1, p. 473). Moody Press. 1 John Calvin, Romans, trans. John Owen, in Calvin’s Commentaries, vol. 19 (1540; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 315. [4]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1991). Romans (Vol. 1, p. 472). Moody Press. [5]Doriani, D. M. (2021). Romans(R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; p. 289). P&R Publishing. [6]Doriani, D. M. (2021). Romans(R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.; p. 291). P&R Publishing. [7]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God. [8]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God. [9]Piper, J. (2014). Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014). Desiring God.