he was forced to flee from his father's home he was humiliated his un he was deceived into marry and Leah he was grieved by the death of Rachel he was troubled by the rape of his daughter her Dina he was disturbed by the murderous ways of his sons Simeon and Levi he was perplexed by the Lous ways of his son Judah and he was robed of his beloved Son Joseph now Jacob's attitude in the midst of these circumstances is summed up in his cry it's found in Genesis 4236 all this has come against me now
Joseph had a very difficult life he was hated by his brothers he was sold into slavery he was separated from his loved ones he was transported against his will into a foreign land he was hounded by a lenti woman and he was imprisoned on false charges now Joseph's attitude in the midst of these circumstances is summed up in his cry is found in Genesis 50 verse 20 God meant it for good um and so we have Jacob over here and Jacob's assessment of his circumstances summed up in this crime all this has come against me
and now we have Joseph over here and his cry his assessment summed up as follows God meant it for good now those are two very different outlooks two radically different perspectives and I'm going to Hazard that most I guess that most of us here tonight empathize with Jacob when things don't go way when we enter The Valleys when we pass through Affliction and tribulation our tendency is to cry all this has come against me now here's the question we want to answer how is it possible to Echo Joseph's cry God meant it for good the
answer to that question is found in our text in Romans chapter 8 and we're going to read verses 28 through 30 fortif glor let's pray together our heavenly father we pray that you would visit us from on high we remember the power and authority of your son the Lord Jesus his authority in healing the leper with a word his authority in raising the paralytic with a word his authority in casting out the demon with but a word his authority in raising from the dead with a word and we pray that by that word we might
know your Authority this night we ask that your SP Spirit might accompany the preaching of your word with power and this we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus amen amen and so the title for this sermon is Sanctified afflictions and based on the three verses which you've just read uh verse 28 contains one of the greatest promises in all of scripture most of us have probably known memorize this verse for years decades perhaps now to appreciate the real full significance of this promise we need to be clear on three things and so that's
how we're going to approach the text we want Clarity and we want Clarity because we want to make sense of the promise and we want to make sense of the promise so that we can cry as Joseph cries that whatever we go through in life God means it for good and so the very first thing we need to be clear on is the object of this promise we can state it by way of a question to whom is This Promise given now that might seem like an obvious question but in my experience I've discovered there's
a lot of confusion when comes to answering that question I have heard this promise applied to all sorts of people in all sorts of conditions but are we really supposed to be so liberal in our application of it a very simple reading of the verse indicates that Paul has a very specific group of people in view according to verse 28 they bear two distinguishing marks all things work together for good one for those who love God two for those who are called according to his purpose and so there's the first truth we must come to
grips with the object the recipients let's say of This Promise bear these two characteristics so what does it mean to love God we love whatever we deem to be pleasurable so I love chocolate ice cream because it tastes good I love hiking because it feels good I love listening to Yo because it sounds good I love lilac because it smells good and so so my physical senses find pleasure in these things deem them to be good and I love them now on a far greater level I love my wife I deem her to be good
emotionally physically relationally therefore I'm drawn to her I love her now on an even greater level I love God as the body has physical senses so the soul has spiritual senses the soul is drawn to what it perceives to be pleasurable and for the Christian this is God and it is God because he is the Fountain of all that is good all that is right and all that is true I see his goodness in his deeds we call that his faithfulness I see his goodness in his words we call that his truthfulness I see his
goodness in the condemnation of Sinners we call that his righteousness I see his goodness in his justification of Sinners we call that his loving kindness and by the work of the Holy Spirit his goodness is impressed impressed upon our souls spir my spiritual senses are heightened whereby I love him and this is the fruit of the new birth now secondly what does it mean to be called according to his purpose here we need to make and most of us are familiar with this a very clear distinction between the general call and the effectual call the
General call is Christ's voice in the proclamation of the word of God by the preacher and it is heard with the human ear the effectual call is Christ's voice in the application of God's word by the Holy Spirit and it's heard with the human soul and so here Paul speaks of those who are called according to God's purpose and what is God's purpose for these people he tells us in verse 29 For Those whom he forew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that is God's plan for Those whom
he calls to himself he has this glor glorious purpose their Conformity perfect Conformity to the likeness of his beloved Son glor okay so we're clear on the object of this promise now we need to be clear secondly on the scope of this promise it's simple it's stated right there in verse 28 all things work together for good and so there's the scope the breadth but it raises two obvious questions first is this what does Paul mean by all things to begin with yes he means prosperity health strength friends reputation home security peace wealth honor but
that's not what he primarily has in view remember the context he established it himself back in verse 17 if children then hirs HS of God and fellow heirs with Christ provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified the entire context for this passage is summed up in that word suffering all things work for good Prosperity yes undoubtedly but Paul is primarily speaking of adversity sickness weakness poverty loss bement persecution slander dishonor Dishon Paul's point is is that all things Prosperity adversity work together for our good now that is tough for
us to understand when I was a young boy uh we used to visit Scotland my father is Scottish and we still have lots of relatives over there and I can remember as a young boy going back to scalton to visit my great grandmother and she lived in a little Co coal mining town in the south of Scotland and I have very Vivid memories of sitting in her little living room and there was an enormous clock probably seven8 ft tall standing against the wall and when you open the door the casing to that clock and peered
inside there were all of these wheels and some of these wheels were big some were small some were moving clockwise some were moving counterclockwise it was a maaz maaz to me even today I can't make any sense of all those Wheels it looks like they're running against each other and yet all of those Wheels work perfectly to keep perfect time that is the truth Paul is seeking to convey to us in this verse that there are things in life which run clockwise our dreams come true smooth sailing ahead prosperity and there are wheels in our
lives which are moving counterclockwise adversity and we look at it it looks like a mess and we have absolutely no idea how these things work together and yet Paul gives us this certainty that God works all things together for when I flew down here last uh Wednesday I was sitting in the airplane parked at uh Dallas Airport and from my vantage point sitting in that seat my vision my perspective is very limited I could see a couple of stewardesses I could see my daughter sitting right beside me several other passengers movie screen in front of
me tell I could look out the window and see a couple of planes taxing out to the runway limited perspective but there was a man sitting up in that air traffic control tower and he can see every plane in the airport and he looks on those screens and he sees the flight path of every airplane in the air you see our view in perspective of things in life is very limited God's perspective is Limitless we can only see so far in front of our faces and yet God knows All Things by One infinite Act of
understanding can any teach God knowledge no brothers and sisters that is reason enough to trust him it is reason enough to believe that our God works all things together for our faith does not rest in being able to answer the question why our faith rests in answering the question and understanding who that our God he works together adversity prosperity for our good but there's a second question when it comes to the scope of God's promise and this is where many Believers sincere Believers trip up what does Paul mean by good this is where so many
people go wrong we Define good according to what we want instead of what we need we Define good according to what makes us happy instead of what makes us holy we Define good according to what's visible instead of what's invisible I we Define good according to what's temporal instead of what's Eternal in a word we Define good according to the interest of the flesh rather than the welfare of the soul and so what good does Paul have in view in this verse again the context tells us again look at verse 29 Those whom he fornew
he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that is the good God promises us God works all things together for that good and John fille stated the following our redeemer's intent was not to purchase riches for his people our redeemer's intent was not to purchase ease for his people our redeemer's intent was not to purchase Pleasures on Earth for his people our redeemer's intent is to mortify our lusts our redeemer's intent is to heal our natures our redeemer's intent is to spiritualize our affections our redeemer's intent is to make us ready
for the Eternal enjoyment of God Christian make no mistake of about it God works all things together for that good and so again in the context Paul is primarily thinking of adversity suffering tribulation he wants us to understand that God uses these things to achieve what is good for us namely our holiness and again this is where the Puritans have taught me so much there are a couple of books in particular I wonder if they're translated Thomas Watson all things for good Thomas Watson has that been translated into Portuguese you got to you've got to
put that one on the list John Flav the mystery of Providence no okay there you have your priority for translating into the Portuguese language is it a little small these are Mar marvelous books great insights into this verse Romans 8:28 let me give you three examples from the pen of Thomas Watson Thom Watson again we're thinking in terms of how God uses Affliction for our good that is Holiness to begin with God uses Affliction to show us our sin now Watson writes the following water in the glass looks clear but set it on fire and
the scum boils up what does he mean when things are going our way we begin assume we have it all together but Affliction quickly cures us of our self-deception it brings our sin to the surface second God uses Affliction to loosen our hearts from the world and so Thomas Watson writes the following when you dig away the Earth from the root of the tree it is to loosen the tree from the earth so God digs away our Earthly Comforts to loosen our hearts from the Earth see as Christians we struggle to live in the world
and not yet not be of the world uninterrupted Earthly Delights are not good for us in the long run they can breed carelessness and casualness but God uses Affliction to loosen our grip on the world number three final example God uses Affliction to enlarge our faith make it bigger and Watson explains that Affliction actually brings us nearer to God and so think in terms of the parent child relationship and so when my little girl at home Falls and scrapes her knee what's the first word out of her mouth it's either mommy or daddy and so
Affliction causes that same reaction in us that in the midst of adversity we turn to and we cry out for whom our heavenly father and it forces us to turn to him it forces us to rest in him and in the end this brings great joy and Delight because rather than being self-reliant it causes us to seek closer communion to God and so these are but examples Paul's point is that God uses his chief point is that God uses the strain of Affliction to cultivate Christ likeness in US Dr Bei gives a wonderful example of
this we're going to try to translate it but it might be a little tricky and so Dr Bei says consider the example of a man who found a cocoon Dr and the man stood there watching the cocon uh waiting for the moth that was trying to emerge this small opening appeared and for several hours The Moth struggled to get out of that tiny opening the man decided that something must be wrong and so he thought he would help so he grabbed some scissors and he cut the Cocoon and the moth emerged but the wings were
small and shriveled the man expected that in a few moments the the wings would unfur and the moth would fly away in all its Glory but it didn't it just sort of dragged around its shriveled wings and swollen body and then died why why because the strain necessary to emerge from that hole is needed to force fluid into the wings and so the merciful snip of the scissors was actually most cruel do you see the parallel although we may not always understand God's ways with us we're confident that he does know what is best for
us and we know that he is working through the strain of Affliction for our good and we're confident that his sanctification of our Affliction is a Greater Mercy than his deliv Deliverance of us out of Affliction we arrive now with the third truth in these verses the certainty of God promise and I want you to go right back to the start of verse 28 and notice what Paul says there and we know how do we know this how are we certain and Paul gives us the answer in verses 29 and 30 and here we F
find five link links in a chain here Paul delineates the order of Salvation and he tells us firstly in verse 29 that God fornew us and now it's important to notice something here God predestined us God called us God Justified us God glorified us these are things he does to us we're passive the same is true when it comes to his for knowing us we are the object of his forn knowledge not something we do not something we say not something we choose the object of God's forn knowledge is us personally it's a synonym for
election I find it extremely helpful to think of for knowledge in terms of Christ's words in John 10:14 there the Lord Jesus declares I know my own well doesn't he know everyone no not in the sense he means here here he is declaring that he is intimately a acquainted with his own Paul has the same idea in mind here in verse 29 God forew us and then Paul adds secondly that God predestined us yes predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son he States something similar in Ephesians chapter 1 verse four he
tells us that in love God predestined us to adoption as Sons according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious and so his his predestination of us yes to adoption as sons and yes to be conformed to the image of his son Paul makes clear there in Ephesians chapter 1 is a tremendous expression of his love for us when we think of God's love we need to be careful we need to make a couple of distinctions distinction one distinction in particular we always need to keep in view is that Divine love
is very different from Human love yeah there are similarities but but basic differences uh we as humans need love uh just like we need food every day we need water every day without food and water we die in a similar fashion we need love that means that when we love others what do we expect in return we expect love we need love we give love we expected in return to a certain degree degree that means that our love is always self-serving to a certain degree but you see God's love is not like that God is
love a love requires multiplicity God is love because God is Triune we affirm it in our baptismal confession we affirm it in the Apostles Creed the father is God the son is God the spirit is God but the father is not the Son and the son is not the spirit and the father is not the spirit three persons in one Essence multiplicity God is love the father loves the son the son loves the father son loves the spirit the spirit loves the son father loves the spirit and the spirit loves the father God dwells in
a relationship with himself of mutual Delight God is completely satisfied in himself God does not need us to love him and God does not need to love us now here's the wonderful thing that's the kind of love we actually need we need someone to love us who doesn't need us because you know what that is that's Mercy In Love he predestined us for adoption as Sons not based on our performance but according to the purpose of his will he predestined us to take us as his children predestined when before the foundation of the world do
you grasp what that means that means adoption is plan a not plan B adoption wasn't a reaction to the fall adoption is in accordance with God's Eternal plans and purposes to glorify himself by redeeming a people unto himself and he predestined us for this to conform us as Sons to the likeness of his beloved Son there's a third link in this chain verse 30 those who may predestined he also called we've already referred to this in the context of verse 28 effectual call great example of this in second Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 13 and 14
and so these Thessalonian Believers through Paul's preaching they initially heard the gospel undoubtedly they heard something of Christ's crucifixion and Resurrection certainly they heard something of their sin and they heard Christ's command to repent and believe that's the general call but something happened as they listen to Paul's preaching the Holy Spirit worked power he convicted he awakened he enlightened he impressed upon them the truth of what they were hearing and they responded in faith Paul says elsewhere that they received the word for what it really was not the word of man but the word of
God that is the effectual call now for the fourth Link in the chain still in verse 30 Those whom he called he also Justified this is the Act of God whereby he declares us to be just in his sight and how does a righteous God do that the answer rests on one of my favorite phrases double imputation dup and so our sin is imputed to Christ and our sin is charged to Christ as he hangs upon calvary's cross and there he becomes sin for us and he Bears the wrath of God in our place and
now Christ's righteousness is imputed to me whereby I stand justified in God's sight at the cross God treated Christ as if he had lived my life now God treats me as if I had lived Christ's life that's double imputation now be very careful here justification does not change us justification Alters our legal standing in preaching to his congregants Martin Luther would remind his his his congregants of of the dung Hills in their fields they were farmers and so they would collect the Refuge from their farm animals and they would have these piles all over their
farms and they would use it as fertilizer as necessary and Luther would remind them of the stench come July all these dung Hills all over the place but then November would come and they'd wake up early one morning and they would emerge from their homes and blanketing the entire scene would be this four inches of pure white pristine snow clean pure beautiful but what was still lurking beneath the snow the dung Hills were still there that's justification justification does not change us justification Alters our legal standing in God's sight we stand before God in Christ's
righteousness I hope this is clear to everyone here this is the fundamental difference between Bad Religion and good religion uh the word religion is morally neutral it can be good it can be bad bad religion is this God accepts me because I believe good religion is this God accepts me because Christ obeyed did you get the difference Bad Religion God accepts me because I believe I obey sorry I obey good religion God accepts me because Christ obeyed this brings us to the wonderful truth of Christ passive and active obedience his passive obedience refers to his
death upon calvary's cross again he died there as a substitute he bore the penalty that Sinners deserve and God's judgment fell upon him his active obedience is the perfect life he lived and when we believe in the Lord Jesus we become one with him and his righteousness is credited to us it is imputed to us and we are accepted before God because we are now one with the Beloved is that true of everyone here tonight I'll Hazard a guess that in a room this size it's quite possible it's not true of everyone here this maybe
you've been thinking to yourself for sometime I thought it did depend on me I thought God was keeping some sort of scorecard or maybe this is just completely new completely out there for you let me repeat it again Bad Religion God accepts me because I obey good religion God accepts me because Christ obeyed that is justification rooted on double imputation and Christ's command to each one this night is repent and believe we don't bring anything to the equation we don't have anything to offer we come spiritually Barren and we rest alone in the Lord Jesus
Christ for salvation Paul adds a fifth link God glorified us what's he referring to here he's referring to the completion of God's work of sanctification in us because sanctification is is distinct from justification but it is not separated from it that God does work in us God has given us the Holy Spirit God is working in us God is producing the likeness of his son in us and Paul has every certainty that God will complete this work he is so certain that he speaks of our glorification in the past tense these are five unbreakable links
in a chain Those whom God forew he predestined and Those whom he predestined he called and Those whom he called he justified and those who me Justified he glorified it's an absolute certainty and in the context this unbreakable chain is why we know God works all things together for our good these five links are God's unalterable plan for his adopted children this unbreakable chain grounds our Salvation in his Sovereign plan sorry grounds our Salvation in his Sovereign plan for us and everything this is Paul's main point everything including Affliction is subservient to that plan John
Calvin summed it up beautifully says in times of adversity Believers Comfort themselves with the soulless that they suffer nothing except by God's command the believer's comfort is to know that his heavenly father so holds all things in his power that he so Rules by his authority and will that he so governs by his wisdom that nothing can befall the Christian except God determin it and so as God's adopted children we rest in the certainty that he sanctifies our affliction
