Clinging to Sovereignty In the Storm

Introduction

On the morning of November 12, 1660, a young pastor travelled to a small gathering in a house in Lower Samsell, England. He had prepared to preach a sermon at that house for that was what he was invited to do. But was also prepared to be arrested.

During the middle of the meeting, the local constable barged in the door and began searching for the man he came to arrest, a tall man, with a reddish mustache and plain clothes, John Bunyan.

Bunyan later wrote, “Had I been minded to play the coward, I could have escaped.” Instead, he spoke what closing exhortation he could as the constable dragged him out of the house, a man with no weapon but his Bible and his voice who refused to join the church of England. He was taken from his church, his family, and his job, charged with dissension and condemned to to serve “one of the longest jail terms . . . by a dissenter in England” (On Reading Well, 182). For twelve years, he slept on a straw mat in a cold cell. For twelve years, he would wake up each morning away from his wife and four young children. For twelve years, he would wait for release or exile or execution.

And in those twelve years, he began a book about a pilgrim named Christian — a book that would become, for over two centuries, the best-selling book written in the English language.

This week we elders were encouraged by a dear brother in Christ with this Piper quote where he is commenting on the imprisonment of Bunyan, “Christians always succeed, sometimes painfully, sometimes pleasantly, but we always succeed" The encouragement was to not lose hope, to not lose heart but to cling to the promises our God has given us during this time - that He is working all things for our good, that we are more than conquerers through Him who has loved us. I needed that message of hope. It was a sweet balm to my broken and bruised heart. And I wanted to share this encouragement with you all and I hope that its message, from this mountain top of a section of scripture, Romans 8, would be that same healing balm to your souls too.

We will begin by looking at the Promise found in Romans 8:28, and then we will study the Proof of that Promise found in Romans 8:29-30. The Promise - Romans 8:28. The Proof - Romans 8:29-30

And my main point in this sermon today, the main take away and application of this text is that we all must cling to God’s sovereign providence in the midst of the sunshine and in the midst of the storm.

Look with me at Romans 8, verse 28, for it is there we find a sweet Promise.

The Promise - Romans 8:28

28 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.

We Know

“And we know” - Those first two words are words of certainty. Before this promise is even penned by Paul he writes that we can know, without a doubt, without a question, irrefutably and indisputably that this promise is true for us. Strengthen your faith on these two words dear saints. You can know with 100% certainty that what is promised here is 100% true.

God Causes

And the fundamental reason we can know that this is true is because of the One who is working in this promise. We can have full confidence because it is God who is at work. He is the one who has infinite power. He is the supreme One. He is the omniscient one. He is the set apart One. He is the sovereign God who is in control of all that He created. Not one molecule, not one gust of wind, not one cell in our bodies is outside of His power and His governance.

All Things for Good - Easy and Hard

He is the one who is at work here, and what He is doing is sovereignly causing all things to work together for our good. He works all things. It is easy for us to look back on the sweet things, the gifts in our life, our children, our spouses, our friends, our salvation and look back on how God sovereignly worked through all these little moments, these little encounters, these big life changing moves to bring about these sweet gifts. And this is what is included in the “all things.”

But all things aren’t just limited to the sunshine in our lives all things also includes the storms. In fact, the context of this promise points indicates that Paul had God working bad things for our good in mind here. Verse 17 and 18 mention suffering for Christ, verse 20 says that all creation is subject to futility and in bondage to decay and that creation joins with the saints in groaning like a mother does in childbirth for our redemption. In verse 35 we see that we are subject to trial and persecution and distress, and nakedness, and famine, and danger and even slaughter . These too are the things, the suffering, the brokenness, the sin done to us, even our own failings, that God works for our good.

No matter what happens in our lives, God in His providence will use it for our benefit. The sorrows, the disappointments, the sin, the hurt, the loss He turns for our good. The adversaries, the persecutors, the obstacles, the setbacks, the misery, the seemingly pointless delays and waiting - God causes them to work for our good.

Now this does not mean that everything that happens to us is good in and of itself. I am not saying, “lift up your head and stop crying, that tragedy you are going through is good. Be happy, this is a wonderful benefit that you are experiencing” No, what Paul is saying, is that God uses these terrible, tragic, trying things and He triumphs over them. He turns losing into victory. He redeems evil into good. He sovereignly stands over our suffering and turns it around for our good. Puritan Thomas Watson writes of this sovereign working, “God takes care of every saint in particular, as if he had none else to care for. ‘He careth for you,’

Who’s Good?

Now this promise is not for everyone. There are two qualifiers that Paul lists here, two prerequisites on this promise. God works all things for good “to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Paul is not talking about two classes of people here, but one. This promise is only for those who subjectively love God and objectively have been called by God.

So, what does it look like to love God? What is God’s definition of love for Him? Remember our lesson from Deuteronomy, love for God is an internal heart disposition and affection that leads to choosing Him, desiring Him, treasuring Him, delighting in Him, being satisfied in Him, cherishing Him, savoring Him, and worshiping Him above anyone or anything else. It is an all encompassing love, involving all of your heart, soul, mind, strength. And this is not a love possible to achieve on our own. We naturally have hearts of stone. This love is a product of divine heart surgery, of regeneration, of being born again. This is a love that only God’s people have for Him. Therefore this is a promise that is only for God’s people.

Moreover, this love is the natural reflex of those who have been called by Christ. Our subjective love is based in His objective act of calling us from the darkness and the spiritual deadness of our slavery to sin into His marvelous light. This calling is His effectual omnipotent creative word that made us alive in Christ. Like Jesus called Lazarus from His tomb, He has called us to Himself and raised our dead souls to eternal life. This promise is for the lovers of God, for the called out ones, for us saints.

Now let us turn our attention to the proof that this promise can be trusted.

The Proof - Romans 8:29-30

Before we move on to verse 29, look and see how sure of a foundation this promise has in the last phrase of verse 28, “to those who are called according to His purpose.” This promise rests on God’s calling. This is God’s Work, His call, this is divine, it is powerful, it is sure and it is true. The reason we can know that this promise is unshakable and sure is that it is God who is working for those whom God has called. He is unchanging, so this promise is true. He is ever faithful, so this promise will never fail. Our love is sometimes fragile, sometimes hot and sometimes not, but God’s calling for His purpose is resolute, it is solid, it is constant and steadfast. And so we can know this promise is true.

Look now to verse 29 and 30 where Paul continues his argument, “29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” See here that the grounds, the foundation, the support for this promise is further built up by the fact that God’s effectual calling of us finds its place in His work in saving us. And this work, this order of salvation began before time existed and will be consummated at the end of time. God will sovereignly work all things for your good because He sovereignly set you apart to be known intimately by Him before the foundations of this world and then He sovereignly set the course of all of history, the course of all of your life so that you might you might meet the destiny of hearing His inward call of the gospel that was first preached to you. And then upon hearing and being given the gift of faith, you were justified - declared righteous in His sight by the sacrifice of His Son whom He sovereignly sent to be crucified and condemned in your stead. This same sovereign God who worked all of these things in your past is now presently working in you to accomplish His purpose - to transform you from one degree of glory to another until you are glorified - perfectly conformed into the image of your Son.

This is the ultimate good for which He is causing all things to work together. And maybe to some of us, this may not seem that good, or that valuable, or that comforting. But listen, with our transformation into Christlikeness, in our conformity to His image we are growing in our joy, in our satisfaction, in our tasting, in our seeing and in our savoring of Christ. God uses all things to work together for this good, for our sanctification and ultimate glorification which causes us to love Him more, desire Him more, and to treasure Him more. There is no greater good that can be worked in us than this.

Therefore dear saints, we can know this promise. It is God who worked before creation was conceived. It is God who worked to orchestrate all of history to accomplish His redemptive plan through His Son on the Cross. It is God who worked through all of your family history, through your ancestors lives, through your grandparents, through your parents, through your every moment to bring you to place to hear the effectual call of His gospel so that you might be saved. And it is God who is now working all things, sunshine and shadows, joys and sufferings, gain and loss, for your good. Take hope, have confidence, be strengthened, God is at work.

Allow me to give you one more proof of the surety of this promise by looking to the Old Testament.

He is with us

When we open our Bibles for examples of this promise being true we should immediately think of the story of Joseph. Joseph was hated by his brothers who sold him into slavery to Egypt. He was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of rape. He was imprisoned and forgotten by Pharaoh’s butler, left to rot there for years. But Joseph was not forgotten by God/ God granted him the ability to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams of a coming famine. Pharoah elevated Joseph to a vice president like position where he ruled over Egypt’s produce and carried out a plan to service the coming famine. When the famine came, so did Joseph’s brothers looking for food. Ultimately Joseph reconciled with them and saved their lives by bringing them and their father to Egypt where they prospered and became a vast nation. It is at the end of this story, when Joseph’s brothers come to him, afraid that when their father dies, he would exact vengeance upon them. But instead Joseph answers them saying, “20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Genesis 50:20. You see Joseph clung to God’s providence. He saw all the evil, all the wrong, all the suffering that he experienced through the lens of God’s sovereign grace. He said to them, God meant it for good.

But how did Joseph get there? How did he come to know this truth? Romans 8 wasn’t written when Joseph was around. You see four times in Genesis 39, in the chapter dealing with Joseph’s lowest moments, there is one phrase that is repeated four times. When Joseph was sold by the slave traders it says, Genesis 39:2, YHWH was with Joseph. When Joseph was succeeding in Potiphar’s house it says, Genesis 39:3, YHWH was with him. When Joseph was falsely accused and thrown into prison it says, YHWH was with Joseph. And when Joseph was succeeding in the eyes of the jailor, it says that YHWH was with him. God was with Him. These phrases bookend the account of the worst moments of Joseph’s life. God was with Him. This is how he came to cling to God’s providence. God was with Him.

It is this truth that I want you to hope in, you can know that God is working all things for your good - that God is working the worst things in your life, in our lives, for our good - because He is with us. As the Psalmist says, “4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Dear suffering saints, Christ is with us as our Good Shepherd. His very name, Immanuel, means “God with us.” And Immanuel has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 , Immanuel has declared, “lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20.

Conclusion

Look back with me to Romans 8 and see Paul’s triumphant conclusions. Verse 31, “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” If God is with us, if God is working for us, than who can be against us. Even those who may seek to kill us, and may succeed, they will never be truly successful. God is for us. God is with so we “Christians”, as Piper says, “ always succeed, sometimes painfully, sometimes pleasantly, but we always succeed."We are, verse 37, “more than conquerers through Him loved us.”

Application

So then, suffering saints, take hope, God is with you, which means He is for you working all the events of this week, all the events of this month, all the events of this year for our good. God’s sovereignty in our suffering is our unfailing hope. There is nothing outside of His hands. Surely a God who is good, the one true God will always be true to His nature. He can only do good.  He abounds in mercy and grace. He showers us with His lovingkindness. He has saved us from His wrath. His love is not like the worlds but rather a love unique to Him.  Whatever He does is good, even when allows loss and evil and pain and trials, the outcome will be good as He redeems it, as He works.  When Jesus touched the leper, the Leper became clean.  So too is it with our God who redeems us in our brokenness. Moreover, when Jesus healed the lepers, the blind, the deaf, He did so out of His heart of mercy and compassion. Is His heart not the same for us know? He is filled with compassion and pity and longing as He looks upon us in our afflictions.   Run to Him knowing He is good, embrace Him, draw to Him in your pain and need.  

Lastly, as a corporate body, as this local church, I want to call us to cling to the hope of God’s sovereignty. This promise from Romans is made to individuals but that does not mean that Christ is not working all things for the good of His church. Paul teaches in Ephesians 5 that, Christ nourishes and cherishes His church. He cleanses His bride with His word, so that we might be clothed with splendor, that we might be without spot or wrinkle, so that we might be holy and without blemish. Moreover, He has promised these very words, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Matthew 16:18b. Dear saints, if God decrees it, this little c-church may fold. But we, each one of us here today, each one of us here last week, each one of us here last year, we are members of a Church that will never fold and never fail. Dear suffering church, take hope in Christ’s sovereign protection over you.

Closing Illustration

Let me give you just one closing story, that I am quoting once more from Piper.

Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield was a world-renowned theologian who taught at Princeton Seminary for almost 34 years until his death in 1921. Many people are aware of him and his most famous book The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible. But what most people don’t know is that in 1876, at the age of 25, he married Annie Pearce Kinkead, took a honeymoon to Germany, and during a storm, Annie was struck by lightning and permanently paralyzed. On their honeymoon. After caring for her patiently for 39 years, Warfield laid her to rest in 1915. Because of Annie’s extraordinary needs, Warfield almost never left his home for more than two hours at a time for 39 years.

But when Warfield came to write his thoughts on Romans 8:28, this is what he wrote: “The fundamental thought is the universal government of God, (His) providence. All that comes to you is under his controlling hand. The secondary thought is the favor of God to those that love him. If he governs all, then nothing but good can befall those to whom he would do good. . . . He will so govern all things that we shall reap only good from all that befalls us. (Faith and Life, 204)”

Dear beloved church, cling to God’s sovereign providence in the midst of the sunshine and in the midst of the storm.

Let’s pray

Prayer

Holy God we worship you for you are sovereign. The winds and the waves obey you for you made them. You tell the sun when to rise. You command the wind where to blow. You open the shutters of the sky and snow falls down on us. In our world this week we saw that the inventions of man that we count on to be sure and steady and certain, that when we flip a switch in our house a light comes on, these inventions on which we so regularly rely on are reduced to nothingness if you will it. Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases. And what you please to do is shower us, your blood bought people, your eternally adopted sons and daughters, with your lovingkindness which never ends. In your infinite supremacy, you sovereignly orchestrate all the things in our life, the sweetness and the suffering, for our good. You are the Author and Finisher of our Faith, you are the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings and the one true God and you rule over us with mercy, with love and with tender compassion. You are, “always on time, always in control...you are Lord of all.” Oh God we ask that you would hollow your name in each of us and in this church during this difficult time that you have ordained for us. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Benediction

Know that He is with you. Know that He is for you. Know that He is working all things together for your good and might I add, His ultimately glory which are really one in the same.

“24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,” Jude 24