If you would open your Bibles again to
that chapter that we read for our Scripture
lesson this morning, Romans chapter 8.
For the past two Sunday evenings we've been
considering the, that great comforting, consoling, hopeful and
encouraging doctrine of the sovereignty of God Almighty.
We've been looking at it at different heads.
We've considered the meaning of the absolute sovereignty
of God.
We considered the message of the absolute sovereignty
of God.
And we began with the mystery.
And this morning I'd like to continue that
theme, the sovereignty of God in providence.
Now I've been preaching these sermons to myself
these weeks, and I have to over my
life in general about God is sovereign.
The sovereignty of God in providence.
He not only created the world, but he
governs the world.
We sing it in Isaac Watts' Christmas hymn.
He rules the world with truth and grace.
He makes the nation prove the glory of
his righteousness.
I wish everyone that sang these Christmas carols
this year, in the next couple weeks, would
absorb some of the tremendous theology in our
Christmas carols.
They are pregnant with Bible truth.
Pregnant with good sound theology.
And that's one of the places where it
sticks out about God's sovereignty.
He rules the world with truth and grace.
The doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God,
truly it is one of those great and
glorious truths.
And yet, there are those who grit their
teeth when they have this doctrine presented to
them.
God's sovereignty is not something to make us
grit our teeth about.
Like as if we can't do anything about
it.
No, no, it's not that at all.
God's sovereignty is a glorious doctrine.
And it should not drive us neither to
fatalism nor to grit our teeth.
I heard a preacher, he told the story,
I don't know if it was true or
not, I kind of doubt it.
But he was a Baptist preacher telling the
story about a Presbyterian preacher who preached on
predestination one Sunday.
And in that church, that pastor had a
farmer who had to go over the mountain
to come to his church.
To get back and forth from church, he
had to go over the mountain.
Well, there was two ways to go.
He could take a short cut that took
about 15 minutes.
But that was rather dangerous and narrow and
rough and it went, no guardrails down over
the cliff.
And then there was a way, a longer
way that took about an hour.
And that was safe and had guardrails and
it was very safe and well kept, not
dangerous at all.
And so after this particular sermon on predestination,
the farmer thought, he said, the farmer reasoned
to himself, he said, well, if I'm predestinated
to get home safely, I'll get home safely
regardless which way I take.
Whether I take the short way or the
long way.
So I might as well save the time
and take the short way.
So he took the short way, the dangerous
way.
The horse slipped off the cliff and was
killed.
The farmer broke two legs.
And the preacher came to visit him and
he said, what in the world happened to
you?
He said, it was that fool's sermon you
preached.
He said, he said, I figured if that
was true, it wouldn't matter which way I
took, so I took the short cut.
The preacher said, did you ever take the
short cut before?
He said, why, of course not.
No fool would go down there.
Well, he said, I guess God predestinated you
to be a fool.
And today you made your calling an election
shooter.
Now I want to tell you that the
truth of the sovereignty of God should not
drive us to that kind of fatalistic, to
be a fatalistic fool, nor should it drive
us to make us grit our teeth.
The attitude it should bring to us is
that attitude that the great apostle had after
he penned Romans 8, 9, 10, and 11,
the four chapters that are probably four of
the most outstanding chapters on the subject of
the sovereignty of God in all the Bibles.
But I say, what kind of a disposition
did St. Paul have after he penned those
great chapters on the sovereignty of God?
This is the disposition of heart it should
be.
Oh, he said in Romans chapter 11, after
he finished, he says, both of the wisdom
and the knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out.
That's the kind of a disposition.
You see, because we never think of God's
sovereignty, or we shouldn't at least, apart from
his graciousness.
We should never think of his sovereignty apart
from his goodness and his kindness and his
love and his mercy.
Because God's grace is sovereign grace.
God's love is sovereign love.
God's wisdom is sovereign wisdom.
God's holiness is sovereign holiness.
And his mercy is sovereign mercy.
Well, you see, the reason it's important to
emphasize that, because that tells us something about
the one who holds the destiny in our
hands, in his hands.
You know, if you could convince me that
Mr. Carnes had my destiny in his hands,
you couldn't convince me of that.
But if you could, if you could, you
know one of the first things I'd want
to know about him, I'd want to know
what kind of a man he is.
What's he like?
Is he a kind man?
Or is he a cruel man?
Well, thus, when we talk about our sovereign
Savior, we must tell sinners not only that
he's sovereign, but he's the most gracious being
that is.
And that he delights in mercy.
And that no sinner, no sinner ever humbled
himself at the sovereign throne of our Maker
that did not find mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
My text this morning is found in the
8th chapter of Romans, verse 28.
Next to John 3.16, I suppose this
text is as well known as any other
text in the Bible.
But though the text is generally known, it
is probably the most misquoted verse in all
the Bible, little understood, and little believed.
And yet, it's one of the most remarkable
statements in all of the Bible.
One of the most comforting statements in the
whole range of Scripture.
Well, how is it misquoted?
Most people, when they quote it, they say,
all things work together for good.
Well, that's neither in the Bible, nor is
it true.
Because they don't call things work together for
good, and it's not what the text says
either.
Then some say, well, all things work together
for good to them that love God.
And they stop there.
Well, that's still not a correct quote.
And you'll never understand the verse if you
stop there.
And still others get a little closer, and
they say, all things work together for good
to them that love God.
To them who are called according to his
purpose.
Now that's where most of you would be
this morning.
That's the way you'd quote it.
That's where you'd quote it.
But let me tell you, you leave off
three very important words.
And that is the first three words of
the text.
And we know that all things work together
for good.
So when you quote it, don't leave off,
leave off the first three words.
Let me quote it from the New American
Standard to you this morning, before we start
to look into the text.
It says, the New American Standard says, 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.
Now with such a passage in the scripture,
it's amazing that there's so little comfort and
hope by the people who claim to believe
the Bible.
And especially when the people are in difficult
times, in times of affliction, in times of
trial.
This is a verse for a weary head
and a sorry heart.
But why do people find, and I include
myself, receive such little comfort from it when
they need it most?
Well I want to give you some reasons,
but I believe why that's true this morning.
Why do they receive such little comfort for
a great promise like this?
This precious promise.
Well first, they do not take the verse
in its entirety or in its context.
As I've already mentioned, many misquote it.
It does not say that all things work
together for good for everyone.
Now that's very clear in the text.
It says for those who love God and
are called according to his purpose.
And let me tell you, that sends the
crowd down a bit, right there.
That cuts out a lot of people right
there.
You know it immediately, that there's a limitation
on this statement.
It's to those who love God and those
who are called according to his promise.
It's promise therefore is only good to a
specified people.
Those who love God and are called according
to his purpose.
Now that immediately emphasizes something that's emphasized throughout
all the Bibles.
That is that ultimately, ultimately there's only one
real division in the human race.
And everyone here this morning, and everyone in
the whole world, is on one side of
that dividing line.
And all other divisions and distinctions are ultimately,
notice I said ultimately, irrelevant.
And that is, that that line is, those
who love God and are called according to
his purpose and the rest of mankind.
For all others.
And the Bible tells us quite plainly, that
all things do not work together for good
to those who are on the other side
of that line.
The Bible tells us they are under the
wrath of God.
The great apostle already had told us in
the first chapter of Romans, the wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and wickedness of men who suppress the truth
in their wickedness.
That doesn't sound like things are working together
for good to them if the wrath of
God abides upon them.
When I think of Sodom, that sex-mad
city, and God pouring out fire and brimstone
on that city, that wasn't working for their
good.
That wasn't working for their good.
I think of Pharaoh who hated God with
his armies, buried in the sea.
Things weren't working for his good that day.
The wrath of God abides on him.
When I think of Noah preaching for 120
years to that godless generation that would not
hear him, when God sent that deluge, that
flood, I assure you that it wasn't working
for their good.
Whatever may be true of the unconverted at
the moment, however prosperous and happy they may
appear, and they do, however much the sun
seems to be shining on their pathway, the
terrible fact remains that those who do not
love God are under the wrath of God.
Appearances sometimes may seem to contradict the facts,
but they will ultimately, ultimately discover that this
is their true position and their true state.
And then you will note this text does
not say, you will note that it does
not say all things are good.
Pain is not good whether you're a Christian
or not a Christian.
Pain in itself is not good.
Affliction is not good in and of itself,
whether you're a Christian or an un-Christian.
The text does not say everything is good.
It doesn't say that.
Sorrow is not good whether you're a Christian
or an un-Christian.
The text does not say that.
If I'm a Christian, nothing evil or painful
will happen to me.
That's both contrary to Scripture and experience.
Sin is always evil.
Christian or non-Christian, young or old, sin
is always evil.
Our original sin, one of the mysteries that
we do not fully understand, but whether we
understand the mystery of original sin or not,
there's one thing we know, and that is
it's here.
You don't have to be a theologian to
know that.
It's here.
The Westminster Divine stated as follows, God was
pleased according to his wise and holy counsel
to permit sin, having proposed to order it
for his own glory.
I think we'll leave it right at that.
The only answer I ever have for my
questioning mind about original sin is this.
That is, it shows God him permitting sin.
It shows him to be more mighty and
to be more almighty, to bring good out
of evil, but never to allow evil to
exist.
But our personal sins, Christian sins, they're always
evil.
They're never good, but they are included in
the promise that I'm directing your attention to
this morning.
They are included in the all things.
How can good come out of sin?
Well, many ways.
First of all, let me just share one.
Sin shows the Christian his weakness.
Sin shows the Christian his frailty and his
fallibility.
Self-confidence is one of the greatest dangers
in the world.
But when a man falls into sin, his
self-confidence is shaken.
John Bunyan put it like this.
He that is down need fear no fall,
and he that is low, no pride.
You see, when things are going well, a
man is in danger of pride.
That's a very dangerous time.
That's why prosperity is so dangerous.
That's a danger of pride and being puffed
up.
But the moment he falls into sin, he's
made to realize again that I'm weak, I'm
frail.
And that doesn't mean that sin is good,
but rather that God can bring good out
of sin.
Let me tell you, my dear, the prodigal
son knew more about his father when he
returned home than he did before he left.
He knew how his father felt more than
when he left.
It was when he was received back and
his father came running and met him and
hugged him with a kiss of love.
He began to know and feel his father's
forgiveness that he never knew before.
Yes, he was wrong in leaving home, and
certainly it was sinful to live in riotous
living in that far country.
All that was wrong, but nevertheless, he was
a much better man at the end than
he was at the beginning.
He knew more about sonship and about his
father and about his father's love than he
knew before.
You see, it brings the Christian to see
his constant need, constant need of grace, his
constant need of watchfulness, his constant need of
care.
Now, this teaching is not to entice sin,
of course not, no, no.
But it's meant to show that God can
even use sin to do us good.
Of course, this only applies to Christians.
The unbeliever has a whole different view of
sin.
The unbeliever has a whole different view of
sin.
And God does not use sin to his
advantage at all.
We wouldn't have those penitential psalms.
I read one this morning.
Almost always before I preach, I read a
penitential psalm.
And this morning was no exception.
We wouldn't have the penitential psalm if David
had not sinned.
And frankly, I would not want a Bible
that did not have Psalm 51 in it.
Why?
Because that psalm is one long cry for
pardon and restoration.
That psalm is blotted with tears, and many
a sin-tormented soul has found a path
from a backslidden life to a fresh view
of Christ and his forgiveness in that psalm.
David's sin was evil, evil, evil!
But God brought good out of it.
So we are able to attest from the
Bible on biblical ground, we are able to
attest on biblical ground that even when a
Christian falls into sin and becomes a backslider
when he's restored and this all ends up,
ultimately, ultimately it will be for his good.
Why?
Because all things work together for good to
them that love God.
Another reason why Christians draw so little comfort
from that tremendous verse is that they do
not realize the extent of this promise.
When God says all, he means all.
Now I've found some commentators who reasoned that
away, but I'm with Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones
on that point.
I think when God says all, he means
all things.
Not just the important things, not the many
things that come in your life, not most
things that come in your life.
God has pledged in this verse to work
all things without exception for his glory and
our good.
All things at all times, young people, boys
and girls, middle age, old age, it applies
to boys and girls as well as adults.
Whether you're a man or a woman, a
father or a mother, a grandfather or a
grandmother, all places, in home, in the shop
and in the church.
Now I can't put that together, and we'll
talk about that in a moment.
But nevertheless, that's a promise.
And the reason people cannot draw all the
comfort and hope from such a verse is
because they do not realize and reckon with
the extent of the promise.
Now I pointed out, first of all, it
doesn't say each thing is good.
That's plural, things.
And it says that God works all things,
not each single thing, for the good of
those who love him.
The King James says, together for good.
Together for good.
And again, let me emphasize, it's not just
that one thing in your life.
Not that.
You know, I don't know how to bake
a cake.
I never baked a cake.
Some men bake and do all those nice
things, but I never did know how to
bake a cake.
But I know a lot of the ingredients
that go in the finished product.
I know there's flour, and there's shortening, and
there's salt, and there's sugar.
There are things, plural, that go together.
Did you ever try eating a handful of
flour?
Or eating a cup of Crisco?
Or a mouthful of salt?
When Mother properly puts them together and puts
them in the oven, that's when it comes
out good.
But you try the individual things.
And we cannot in our life explain the
individual things in our life.
There are many things that we do not
understand.
But we do know, if you believe the
Bible, that all that God is doing with
these things, we don't know what he's doing,
but he knows what he's doing with these
things, plural.
And the Bible teaches that ultimately, when God
puts it all together, it will be for
his glory and the good of those who
love him.
And are called according to his purpose.
And if you demand for each thing or
circumstance in your life, if you demand of
God an answer for each individual thing in
your life, you know how you'll wake up?
You will get, all you will get, by
trying to demand that God answers some specific
thing in your life, all you'll get is
to feel the pain of the jagged edges
of unbelief.
You see, Christian, because you don't know the
all things, we don't have all the pieces
of the puzzle.
How many of you have worked jigsaw puzzles?
Well, if you'd like one, see Arlene Shore.
She has a whole gang up.
I used to work jigsaw puzzles.
I don't have time anymore.
But you know, when I worked those puzzles,
and I'm sure if you worked them it
would happen to you, you'd have that piece.
You'd have that odd piece, and it seemed
a different color than the puzzle, and you'd
pick it up and you'd want to put
it someplace.
It didn't work.
And you picked that piece up 50 times
during the time, and finally you decided some
stupid clerk put that in there.
It doesn't belong in this puzzle at all.
And you never could get that piece.
A lot of times it's the last piece
you put in the puzzle.
Well, let me tell you.
Our life isn't a jigsaw puzzle, but it
has a lot of pieces.
A lot of pieces.
Those odd pieces perplex us about our children,
or our grandchildren, or our neighbors, or those
circumstances that God brings in our lives.
There are many, many, many pieces that I
don't have in my puzzle.
One of the comforts that I can take
is when I can flee to this verse
and ask God to help me to believe
it, and help me to rest on it,
and to know that ultimately, ultimately, the picture
will be complete.
And ultimately I'll understand that all things work
together for good to them that love God
and them who are called according to His
purpose.
This is a great verse to go into
the New Year with it.
That's one of the reasons I'm preaching this.
And that's just why it's so important that
we know something about the sovereignty of God.
Because you see, when you see the picture
of the sovereignty of God from the Bible,
you see a God that not only made
all, but as the Christmas carol says, He
controls all.
He knows all the pieces that go together.
Not only that, but He controls the variables.
He controls the variables in the plan.
And that's why it's important to see that
God is sovereign.
Because He's in control.
Let me give you an example.
Suppose you had a goal or a plan
in mind.
You had something in mind, some project.
And the plan to accomplish that project, whatever
it was that you had in your mind,
there were six specific things that must take
place in order for you to ultimately reach
that ultimate goal or to reach that plan.
In other words, there are six variables that
you must completely control in order for the
plan to work.
But in the course of your operation, you
see that only five of them can be
brought under your control.
And since you can't bring the fifth one
under control, the whole plan is fouled up,
and it doesn't go through.
My dear, God is not like that.
God is not like that.
He not only has a plan, but He
controls all the variables.
When children grow up, parents want to do
the best for them.
Good parents do at least, and I trust
that's all of you.
You want to do the best for your
children.
Now, parents don't always know what's best.
In fact, that's what helps to foul up
the kids.
Parents don't know what's best for them.
But they want to do the best.
Sometimes they can't do what's best because they
don't have the means.
Maybe it's financial reasons or other reasons.
But they can't do what they think is
best.
Other times parents know what's best, but they
don't have the means to provide.
And other times they have the means to
provide, they know what's best, but they can't
get the cooperation of the children.
Know anything about that?
You can't get the cooperation of the children.
Ah, my dear, God is not like that.
God is not like that.
He controls the variables.
And He not only knows what's best and
controls all the variables, but He can get
the cooperation.
Why?
Because the King's heart is in the hand
of the Lord.
The King's heart.
And if the King's heart is in the
hand of the Lord, then all those other
hearts are in the hand of the Lord.
See, He is not like sinful, ignorant parents
who know what's right and best and have
the power to perform, yet they can't get
the cooperation.
God is not like that.
Now, there are many variables.
There are many variables in our life.
Just one thing depends on something else.
The decision you're going to make to move
for it.
The decision you're going to make to change
jobs.
There are many variables in life.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones tells of an old preacher
who uses a good illustration to explain the
matter, I think.
He was trying to explain Romans 8.28
to somebody, and he said this.
He says, here's a statement referring to Romans
8.28. Here's a statement that appears to
be contradictory.
All things work together for good to them
that love God.
How can that be?
The good things I can see are working
in that direction, but those other things, they
seem to be working in an opposite direction.
How can you say things which are working
in the opposite direction are for my good?
Things that are against me.
The old preacher told a fellow to pull
out his watch.
He made him take the back off the
watch.
He took the back off the watch.
What do you see?
Well, you see some wheels going clockwise, and
you see some wheels going anti-clockwise in
a totally different direction.
And you look at the machinery of that
watch, and you say, this is mad.
This is quite ridiculous.
Here are the wheels turning in the wrong
direction.
And the man who made the watch must
be a madman.
But he wasn't.
He so arranged those wheels, put in the
mainspring to all the wheels, wound it up,
and when he wound it up, if you
look at the front, they weren't going two
different ways.
They were all moving the right way to
move the watch in the right way.
They may appear to be contradictions, and they
were real seeming contradictions.
The wheels were going both ways.
Our lives are like that.
We look at life, and you ask first,
what's happening to me?
What's going on?
I see certain things are good for me,
but other things seem so against me.
They're going the wrong direction.
But think again, my dear troubled heart.
Think again of the watchmaker who planned it
all.
Don't jump to conclusions.
Look for the ultimate, and I want to
emphasize that word this morning.
Look for the ultimate purpose.
Look for the ultimate end.
And if you do so with a spiritual
eye, notice I said with a spiritual eye,
if you look at the ultimate end with
a spiritual eye, you will soon begin to
see that God knows what he's doing.
How could the great apostle say with confidence
the first three words of that text?
And we know.
And don't ever leave these three words out,
or you'll come up with the wrong view
of that verse.
And we know.
And we know that all things work together
for good.
Now he just said, if you look carefully
in Romans 8, he just said in verse
26, we know not what we should pray
for as we are.
How can these two statements be reconciled?
He said, we know not what we should
pray for.
Now the apostle says, we know.
Well, to explain that paradoxical statement, we know
not and we know, you see, the Christian
is one who can be certain.
He can be certain about the ultimate future
because he believes the Bible.
And when he's most uncertain about is the
immediate.
That's where he has his problem.
The Christian has their problem with the immediate.
The immediate time.
The real secret of the statement is that
the final comfort and consolation of the Christian.
The Christian doesn't know everything.
You don't know all those variables in your
life right now.
There's a lot of questions.
There's not a person here that doesn't have
questions about things in your life.
But this one thing the Christian does know,
look at him in trouble.
Everything apparently going against him.
He's so perplexed.
He doesn't know what to pray for as
he ought to pray.
And all that he can do is breathe
out those groanings that are produced in him
by the Holy Spirit.
That's all he can do.
He's confused and he doesn't understand.
And yet at that very point, on the
basis of God's word, he can say, I
do not know which way to turn or
go.
I do not understand these things that are
happening in my life.
And I don't know exactly at this moment
what to pray for as I ought to.
But this I know.
In spite of my ignorance, in spite of
everything that's happening to me, this, everything else
is working for my good.
Now, that's the final comfort and consolation of
the Christian.
To know that everything is working for God's
glory and His good.
To use a military analogy, there's a lot
of generals lost little individual battles, but they
won the war.
Victory is assured, even though we might lose
some of the battles.
The ultimate outcome of the campaign is beyond
any question or doubt.
You may lose some little battles.
You may have some pieces you're still trying
to put in the puzzle.
You may fail in many details, dear Christian,
but that makes no ultimate difference.
That makes no ultimate difference.
And it's the ultimate that's guaranteed in the
verse.
That is how we reconcile, I know not
of verse 26, and we know in verse
28.
This is a principle that one has to
be constantly applying to the Christian walk and
warfare in this world.
This is a text that I must be
constantly, constantly applying to our walk and warfare
in this world.
How could Paul be so sure?
How could he say we know, K-N
-O-W?
You know, there are two of Paul's favorite
expressions in this great chapter.
One is found in our text today, verse
28, we know, but the other one is,
I am persuaded, found in verse 38, I
think it is.
He said, I know, and in another case
he said, these are two of his favorite
words.
But how could he know?
Well, my dear, look at your Bible now,
and I want you to examine his argument.
Examine carefully his argument in verses 29 and
30, and then you'll have it.
This is how he could know, listen to
the argument.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of
his Son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also
called, whom he called he justified, and whom
he justified he glorified.
My dear friend, that is God Almighty's unbreakable
chain of theology.
And if you're in the first link, you're
in the last link.
If you're in the first link, you're in
the last link.
The first link, you'll be in the end,
because the last link has to do with
the ultimate end, glorified.
You notice in verse 31, he says, what
shall we say to these things?
After he rehearses this tremendous chain of biblical
theology, he says, what shall we say to
these things in verse 33?
Well, what things is he talking about?
He's talking about those things he just mentioned
in verse 29 and 30.
That's the great purpose of God, to ultimately
perfect us and bring us to glory.
And when we know the ultimate end, you
can sing with the hymn writer, when all
around my soul gives way, then he then
is all my hope and stay, his oath,
his covenant, his blood, support me in the
whelming flood.
When you know the ultimate, you can sing
that hymn with the hymn writer.
Ah, but the promise in verse 28, I
want to remind, I'm talking to Christians, The
promise, my dear friends, you who are here
and are unconverted, you who are on the
other side of that line, you who do
not come under that title of loving God
and being called according to his purpose, if
you're on the other side of that line,
this is not a promise for you.
Which side of that line do you think
you're on this morning?
As you're about to face another unknown year,
unknown waves before you roll, unknown paths, which
side are you on?
Well, let me tell you, whichever side you're
on, God will be glorified, regardless of what
you do or what you say, because you'll
be glorified in the destruction of the wicked,
just like he was all through the Bible.
He was glorified in the destruction of those
sex-mad people of Sodom.
He was glorified in those haters of God
in Egypt.
He was glorified by the haters of God
in the day of the flood, just as
his justice and his righteousness and his holiness
will be glorified then.
So, at his mercy and grace is glorified
in the salvation of poor lost sinners.
This text should cause a sinner to seek
God with all their heart.
And if you miss everything else I said
this morning, I pray that there'll be enough
in it to make you a true seeker
after God.
Plead with him to open your understanding.
Plead with him to open your hard-locked
heart.
Pray, oh God, some of you young people,
you know, some of you young people, you
boys and girls, and I've been talking to
some of you, you know how you operate,
you know how you're really operating?
You're operating like, well, I'm not, I'm in
no man's land.
I want to tell you there's not a
person here in no man's land.
You're either on one side of that line
that I'm talking about this morning or on
the other, whether you're young or old.
You're on one side of that line or
the other.
You know, I witnessed to a lawyer for
about a year and a half, one.
And he used to say to me, Ernie,
you know, I'm not good enough for heaven,
and I'm not bad enough for hell.
Now he thought he was somewhere in between.
And some of you people who think you're
in no man's land, let me tell you,
you're not.
Because there's no third place.
You're on one side, you're on the side
that says, I love God and I've been
called according to his purpose, or you're with
the rest.
And if you're with the rest, this book
teaches me that you are lost and doomed
and damned.
Let me give you a little test this
morning.
You may say, well, I don't know which
side of that line I'm on.
I don't know which side of that line
I'm on.
Well, let me give you a little test
this morning.
There's a verse in Proverbs 25, verse 25,
that says this, As cool waters are to
a thirsty soul, so is good news from
a far country.
Good news from a far country.
I don't know how many of you like
to get letters, but when I was in
the Navy in the South Pacific, we only
had mail ship catch up to us every
once in a while.
Sometimes it was months.
You know, and if I wasn't too tired,
I would go to mail call.
And if I was tired, I didn't bother
when the mail call came.
And I never, I never stand in those
long lines to get my letters.
And sometimes I didn't even open the mail
that I got.
And sometimes I'd open it and only read
halfway through.
You believe that?
And you're right.
If anyone's ever overseas or in a war,
you know that's not true.
I couldn't wait for that mail call.
And I stood in line after everybody left,
thinking maybe there was one more letter.
Maybe there was one for me.
Some days there wasn't any letters for you.
And you stood there and hear the names
call out.
No, I stood in all those lines.
And I read the letters over and over
again.
If you examined some of them, you'd see
brown spots.
There'd be a big tear on some of
those letters if I say them.
The letters were marked.
Why?
Because these letters represented everything I lived for.
They were from home.
They were from my wife and my mother
sometimes.
And I lived for the day when I
could go home.
Oh, I did my job the best I
could.
I worked.
But my real life, my real life was
represented by those letters.
So was real Christians.
Tell me your attitude toward this book and
its truth.
I will tell you whether you have any
reason to believe that you're one who loves
God.
Because in this book there is what it
says in Proverbs.
There is cool water for thirsty souls.
And this book is good news from a
far country.
This good news, this refreshing message to a
soul that's hungry for God.
And boys and girls, you place yourself on
one side of that line this morning.
Which side are you on?
That's the whole point.
That's what I'm trying to emphasize.
Picture been good news about God.
And you say, I thank you for your
forgiveness.
Good news of forgiveness is good news about
Jesus.
That we're thinking so much about these days.
Jesus who came into the world to seek
and to save that which was lost.
He shall bring forth a son and now
shall call his name Jesus.
For he shall save his people from their
sins.
And Christians, let me say to you.
To whatever extent, to whatever extent.
And I know this by experience.
To whatever extent you grasp with your heart.
Romans 8.28 And we know that all
things work together for good to them that
love God.
To them who are the called according to
his purpose.
To what extent you grasp that with your
heart.
To that extent you will be delivered from
depression and doubt and despair.
When all those things that you cannot understand
come in your life.
You'll be able to look to heaven.
You'll be able to say, whatever my God
ordained.
Whatever my God ordained.
I'll pray to you because I know that
ultimately, ultimately, ultimately.
We know that all things work together for
good.
To them that love God.
To them who are the called.