I'll never forget a sermon illustration that my
late mentor, Dr. Stephen F.
Olford, applied to Romans 8.28. Romans 8
.28 declares, 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.
Stephen Olford said the following.
He said he had a relative in London.
It was either a brother-in-law or
an uncle.
I don't remember exactly, but he said this
relative was a London druggist.
And one day, Dr. Olford went to visit
him in his drugstore, and he found him
in the back room standing over a table
with jars of white powders and vials containing
colorful liquids.
And this chemist would take a little of
this jar's powder and sprinkle it into a
mixing bowl and then pour green liquid in
and stir it all together, and out would
come a powerful medicine that would cure the
sick.
And Dr. Olford made the following observation as
it relates to our text in Romans 8
.28. He would say, Now, this is what
God does in our lives as we pass
through the trials of life.
He takes a little of this adversity and
a little of that trial, mixes them all
together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to
his purpose.
And God is like a divine alchemist, mixing
a little of this and a little of
that to make us more like Jesus Christ
according to his divine purpose.
I like that illustration, friends.
And that's the title of my message today,
The Divine Alchemist.
And my text is Romans 8.28. You
may turn in your Bibles there now.
I have looked up the definition of alchemy,
and when I read it, I was floored.
It floored me because it sums up the
divine operations of God in a person's life
better than I could put into words.
Here now is that definition of alchemy.
Alchemy is defined as the process of taking
something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary,
sometimes in a way that cannot be explained.
Did you hear that, friend?
Is this not what God does in our
lives?
Does he not take something ordinary, which is
us, and turn it into something extraordinary for
his use, usually in a way that cannot
be humanly explained?
I like to think of D.O. Moody
in regard to this.
Here was an ordinary man whom God used
in an extraordinary way.
Moody could hold the attention of 10,000
people at a time for a month at
a time in major cities like London, Edinburgh,
and Glasgow.
One day, Moody was walking down the street
with a minister, and the minister asked him
what he thought about all the attention he
was getting.
Moody did not reply, but simply bent over
and started to dig in the ground with
his fingers until he had a handful of
dirt in his palm.
Then Moody rose and held his handful of
dirt before the minister's face and exclaimed, D
.O. Moody is nothing more than this dirt.
Listen, friend.
Think of your own life.
Think of where you once were as an
unsaved person.
Think of your former behavior and the former
life.
Before you found Christ, God performed a supernatural
work in you by taking a heart of
stone and making it a heart of flesh
through the act of regeneration.
That in itself is a miracle by the
hand of God.
Now think of all the troubles you have
encountered along the way.
Think of all the trials you've been put
through, the storms that blew suddenly into your
life, the many adversities, the griefs, the sorrows,
the losses.
Now picture God with a mixing bowl, which
represents your life, friend.
Here is God taking a little bit of
this and a little bit of that, and
he mixes it all together for our good.
The divine alchemist is continually working in our
lives with our best interests at heart.
Let's look at a biblical example of this
found in our Bibles.
Keep your thumb in Romans and turn in
your Bibles over to Genesis in chapter 50.
I'll be reading in verse 15.
Let me read it to us now.
And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father
was dead, they said, Joseph will, peradventure, hate
us and will certainly requite us all the
evil which we did unto him.
And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying,
Thy father did command before he died, saying,
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I
pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren
and their sin, for they did unto thee
evil.
And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass
of the servants of the God of thy
father.
And Joseph wept when they spake unto him,
and his brethren also went and fell down
before his face.
And they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for
am I in the place of God.
But as for you, ye thought evil against
me.
But God meted unto good to bring to
pass, as it is this day to save
much people alive.
God had a divine purpose that he was
bringing forth, friends, through his servant Joseph, and
that was to feed a nation and to
save much people alive.
But Joseph had to endure great hardship and
suffering for this to come to pass.
He was betrayed by his brothers, sold into
slavery.
He knew what it was like to be
in a pit and to be locked in
a prison and forgotten by men.
But God did not forget Joseph.
The divine alchemist was at work through Joseph,
carrying out his plan and purposes, which was
much larger than Joseph himself.
And you, friend, in your current trial, your
current suffering, God has not forgotten you.
God is with you in your dire circumstance.
He is there with you in your grief.
He's there in your trial, and he's mixing
in a little of this and a little
of that into that mixing bowl of your
life, and out will come something fantastic.
Remember our definition?
Let me read it to you again.
Alchemy is defined as the process of taking
something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary,
sometimes in a way that cannot be explained.
Listen, friend.
God will take you through the current process
that he has you in.
He will carry you through to the other
side.
Daylight is around the corner, but right now
it's like you're sitting on a train and
you're going through a tunnel, and it is
dark, and you cannot see clearly.
But remember this.
God is the conductor of the train, and
he will bring you through the tunnel of
darkness.
Your job is to stay on the train.
Stay on the train.
Keep your eyes on him.
When the disciples were rowing on the Sea
of Galilee, and a storm arose, and they
were in great danger, struggling in the night
without making any progress, Jesus was on the
hillside all the while watching them in their
struggle.
He waited until the fourth watch of the
night, between 3 a.m. and 6 a
.m., to come to their rescue.
And God is the God of the fourth
watch.
He will place us at the very end
of our extremity until we are emptied of
all human resources, and all hope is gone.
That's when God steps off the mountain and
steps onto the Sea of Supernatural Deliverance.
And what emerges from the fire will be
a more pure commodity than what went in.
All the dross from the silver will be
removed.
You may be in the midst of a
severe trial, friend, a personal fire right now,
but remember this, God is the silversmith, and
when a silversmith places silver into the fire,
he never takes his eyes off the silver.
God's purpose will be realized in your life,
friend, even through the present pain.
I know of which I speak.
It seems for the last decade or so,
I've gone from one trial to another, and
I've been to the place where all human
resources are gone, and hope is a tattered
thread blowing in the wind.
I have a plaque I keep on the
mantle above my fireplace that reads, Faith is
not knowing what the future holds, but knowing
who holds the future.
God holds the future, and His ways are
always the best way for us, no matter
how painful it seems at the time.
And remember this, friend, the divine alchemist is
at work in your life.
Think of the apostle Peter, boastful, prideful Peter,
who was always sticking his foot into his
mouth.
When Jesus looked at Peter, he did not
see the Peter in the courtyard denying him
as much as he saw the Peter of
Pentecost preaching him.
When Jesus looks at you, He doesn't see
you as you are now in your troubles,
in your failings, but He sees what you
will become in Him.
Every failure, every stumble, every pain, every grief
has a place in that mixing bowl.
God mixes in a little of that and
a little of this, and out comes something
quite extraordinary.
And there's no explanation other than God did
it.
He must get the glory.
So our text today from Romans, and we
know that all things, did you hear that,
friend?
All things work together.
Did you hear that?
Work together in that mixing bowl for good
to them that love God, to them who
are called according to His purpose.
Did you hear that?
According to what?
His purpose.
I want to read you Matthew Henry's Bible
commentary on Romans 8-28 before I close,
and as I read it to you, think
of that mixing bowl in the hands of
the divine alchemist at work in your life.
Here now are Matthew Henry's comments.
We see believers compassed about with manifold afflictions,
but in this the Spirit's intercession is always
effectual, that all this is working together for
their good, merciful providences, as well as afflicting
providences.
They are all for good, either directly or
indirectly.
They work together as several ingredients in a
medicine concur to answer the intention.
There it is again, friends.
This mixing of a little of this and
a little of that into the mixing bowl
of our lives as God the divine alchemist
performs what is necessary to produce the spiritual
fruit of our lives to bring Him glory.
All things working together, no matter how painful,
how trying, how disappointing, He will bring something
extraordinary out of it for our good and
His glory.