Reaching Forward With Sovereignty

God’s power to work the good

Text: Romans 8:26-39

Introduction

Q — Just within your own humanity, how many of you wish there was a past hard maybe even almost unbearable experience you never had to go through? Since we are all human, the honest answer would be yes.

What I want us all to realize today, is that if you are for some reason thinking that that past moment can only be described as terrible, horrific, or without purpose, I have a word from God that says, THINK AGAIN!

I have been overwhelmed and strained in ways that I will unpack in a few moments. However, by the powerful grace of Jesus Christ I was overcome by the goodness of God’s sovereign power.

I am not hear to tell you that God always uses His sovereignty to make you comfortable, but I can tell you this, He will always exercise His sovereignty to conform you into a better vessel that can be used to shine more brightly the gospel of Jesus Christ wherever you go.

1) God’s Promise Of Sovereign Goodness

Verse 26-28

A. The goodness of the Spirit’s prayers for us

Verses 26-27

Q — Have you ever found yourself not able to pray as you ought too?

The Spirit helps you in your weakness (incapacity; lack of understanding prayer).

I have often seen prayer as something rather simple, yet very mysterious.

We are promised the “ear” of God when we petition Him with praise, thanks, or problems.

Q — Have you ever felt inadequate when it comes knowing how to pray or what should be prayed for?

Our lack of faith will always undermine our prayers!

The Spirit will severely groan on our behalf according to God’s will in those moments of weak faith.

“groans” speaks of an utterance of expressing pain.

Quote: (Robert H. Mounce) “God is the one who has complete access to the heart. His knowledge is direct, not dependent upon one’s ability to articulate concerns. God is a searcher of hearts and knows the desires of the Spirit as the Spirit intercedes for us. He knows that the Spirit is interceding for saints in harmony with his will.”

Is God dependent on our ability to articulate our prayers with perfection in order to know our concerns?

B. The goodness of the Spirit’s labor with us

Verse 28

The focus shifts from creation to comforting those in suffering by pointing them to the past at how God had worked in the lives of people throughout history.

a) “We know” Paul is referring back the those who loved God throughout history.

Everyone who has trusted in Christ belongs in relationship with the One True Living God who has a perfect track record of faithful and depending goodness!

“The called” = the Jewish nation who brought about the purpose of God in being the vessel to bring our Savior into the world.

Hebrews 12:1 “1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

This was reassuring to Jew and Gentile alike.

This verse also along with the remaining verses comforts those of the nation of Israel in their current situation with God!

Any Jew or Gentile who continued with a love for God could live with this assurance of God’s power over evil in their life.

This would be true to every genuine born-again believer!

What a reassuring truth that God is at work redeeming the evil done for a greater good!

It is not only “evil” that God redeems for good, but every pain and struggle that has been birthed by the sinful fall of man!

b) However, for whom is He doing this for?

Those who love Him!

to love (care) v. — to have a great affection or care for or loyalty towards.

Q — Does persecution have the potential to turn the heart away from God?

Not always working circumstances in a way we think is best, but in the best way of conforming you to His image.

God doesn’t work out your plan, He is working out His plan!

He will work a work to shape you into what He intended for you to be from the very beginning.

Quote — (John MacArthur) “But God’s role with regard to evil is never as its author. He simply permits evil for His own wise and holy ends. Ultimately He is able to make all things—including all the fruits of all the evil of all time—work together for a greater good.”

If I may use my families current experiences and be very transparent with you…there were times when it would come to my mind, “How could take:

Passed miscarriages and infertility

Late night ER visits

Excessive bleeding

Lat night crying sessions

Extremely low amniotic fluid with high risk of hearing that we would possibly be bearing our unborn third child.

The enlarged brain ventricle that could lead to some severe future issues for our child

The clubbed feet

Nearly a month in the NICU

My wife going through the most pain she has went through delivering our children.

I am not telling you that every story in the physical sense turns out the same way. But I will tell you this, for every one who is a born-again believer and continually loves God daily, the purpose for those outcomes are never wasted and always worked out for the greatest good.

2) God’s Record Of Sovereign Goodness

Verses 29-34

A. God has never failed to bring about perfect goodness

“For whom he did foreknow”

Q — What was the point of the Apostle Paul leading up to this point?

ANS — Paul spoke about the suffering that entered the entire world due to humanity’s fall into sin.

Paul is continuing with helping these believers to live with assurance about God’s faithfulness to help them in their suffering. God is trustworthy!

Paul is reassuring them of God’s faithfulness to redeem the evil impacting their lives, because God faithfully did that to those He knew in the past (i.e. O.T. period; Israelites who loved God in the past).

“he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son”

Q — Who was predestined? To what ends where they predestined?

You must remember Paul’s continual train of thought.

Just like God carried out a predestined end for those who loved Him in the past, God would do the same for them through their current suffering and trials.

Predestine = suggests marking out a boundary beforehand.

Illustration — It is like a contractor staking out the perimeter of a new home for a family.

Romans 12:2 “2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Philippians 3:10 “10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;”

God would accomplish a full salvation for them!

“that He might be the first born among many brethren”

Colossians 1:18 “18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

Revelation 1:5 “5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,”

“firstborn” also speaks to Jesus’ preexistence as the eternal Creator.

John 1:1–3 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Hebrews 1:2–4 “2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”

Paul is speaking of How God used men like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and David to bring about the birth of Jesus Christ and therefore carry out God’s redemptive plan.

God knew former men of history intimately, predestined their conformity to become like that of the Son of God.

Quote — (Tim Warner) “Paul was not referring to some prior knowledge in the mind of God before creation. Nor was He speaking about redetermining their fate. He was referring to those whom God knew personally and intimately, men like Abraham and David…The individual saints of old, with whom God had personal relationship, were predestined by Him to be conformed to the image of Christ. That is, God predetermined to bring their salvation to completion by the sacrifice of Christ on their behalf.”

B. God’s good work is a complete work

Verses 30-34

Verse 30

Paul is using “past tense verbs” to describe what He has done for a people of the past.

John 17:22 “22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:”

Sense = to glorify v. — to positively acknowledge, recognize, or esteem one’s character, nature, or attributes.

“glorified” = attributed high rank; be of exceptional value

Verse 31

Following a thorough teaching of God’s faithfulness to everyone who loves Him, “What does it matter who may be against us!”

Verse 32

If God would give up His own Son, why would He not lavish us with everything He has?

Jesus being the greatest gift, all other gifts would be more trivial in nature.

The argument Paul is making is from the greater to the lesser.

God is truly a giving God by nature.

Verse 33

In other words, “Go ahead a let the ignorant and arrogant accuser come and make they case. It won’t do any good!”

Verse 34

Q — Who truly has the authority to condemn anyone?

Matthew 10:28 “28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

“It is Christ that died…risen again....right hand of God…maketh intercession for us”

What Christ does for the sinner can never fail to defeat any accusation against the believer.

John 12:47 “47 And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”

3) God’s Superior Sovereign Goodness

Verses 35-39

A. God’s conquering goodness

Verse 35-36

Whatever the world or the devil may throw as an accusation against God’s children, just magnifies God strength even more!

Quote — (Robert Mounce) “Persecution drives the true believer to the arms of the one who knows from experience the full range of suffering. Famine and nakedness (perhaps a metaphor for destitution) are powerless to affect the love of Christ. Danger and the sword (possibly that of the executioner) lose their terror in view of the presence of the one in whom we find ultimate safety.”

Verse 37

Paul quotes from the Psalmist — Psalm 44:22 “22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”

You and I face death every day. Just like a sheep facing the slaughter.

In spite of that frightening reality, the believer is the winner and stands in continual victory is Jesus Christ.

Q — What is the greatest thing we have out of all that is left? LOVE!

Our love for Christ enables us to face and be victorious in all difficult circumstances.

“more than conquerors” — Not winning by a hair…crushing all powers trying to defeat us.

1 Corinthians 15:57 “57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Verse 38-39

These last two verses are Paul’s way of helping them to have a moment of reflection on the ramifications of what he just unpacked about God’s relationship to them.

This list covers: physical danger, superhuman powers, all surrounding powers, etc...

Quote — (Robert Mounce) “There is absolutely nothing that can ever drive a wedge between the children of God and their Heavenly Father. It is true that life contains its full share of hardships. But God is at work in all the circumstances of life to conform those whom he has chosen into the likeness of his dear Son.”

Conclusion

Believer — Come and bring all those oppressive realities, trials, hurts, and pain and give them to the Sovereign hands Who can take them and work out perfect goodness. Come and pray, “Father, help me to trust your sovereign purposes and plan for the trials I face on earth.”

Unbeliever — God took the evil of this world and used it to bring Jesus to a wooden cross to bleed, suffering, and agonize receiving the payment for your sin! While sinful hands nailed Him to the cross, those same hands where not able to keep Him in the grave!!!