Volume 44, No. 25
Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 8:28-39
Sermon prepared by Rev. Carel Geleynse, Flamborough, Ont.
Proposed Order of Service
Call to Worship
Silent Prayer
Prayer of Invocation: We confess that our help
is in the name of the Lord who made the heavens and the earth.
Lord,
we pray that grace, mercy and peace may be granted to us from God
the Father and Jesus Christ the Son through the working of the
Holy
Spirit. Amen.
Opening Hymn: #253, "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"
Confession of Sin
Assurance of Pardon
Hymn: #384, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"
Guide for Grateful Living (Exodus 20 or some other passage from
the New Testament such as Colossians 3)
Hymn: #291, "May the Mind of Christ, My Savior"
Congregational Prayer
Scripture Reading: Genesis 50:15-21; Romans 8:28-39
Text: Romans 8:28
Sermon: "All Things Work for Good"
Prayer
Hymn: #221, "We Know That God Works Things for Good"
Offerings
Doxology: #593:5 "My Song Forever Shall Record"
Benediction: We pray that the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit my be and remain with us all, both now and forever. Amen.
Sermon
Congregation
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
"And we know that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him, who have been called according
to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28) Think for a moment about who wrote
these words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, of course. These are words
that came from the pen of the apostle Paul. This is the same man
who wrote that "Five times I received from the Jews the 40
lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was
stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day
in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been
in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my
own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city,
in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false
brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without
sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without
food; I have been cold and naked (II Corinthians 11:24-27)."
"In all things God works for the good of those who love him."
How can Paul say this?
Does he really believe it? Some who hear this may be inclined to
say, "come off it,
this is merely some religious talk, one of those typical pious statements
which may make us feel good but really does not mean very much." Let's
face it, this is one of those texts of the Bible that we can find
so irritating at times, particularly when people quote it to
us in the face of some sort of disaster.
As we are struggling
with cancer, or some other illness; as we are constantly having
to live with the effects of
depression or some other chronic ailment which affects us every
minute of our lives; as we are struggling with abuse in our lives
which we cannot seem to shake; as we live with poverty or are facing
terrible drought conditions; or as we stand at the grave side of
someone we deeply loved, some people will remind us of that text, "in
all things God works for the good of those who love him."
Others will speak about
tragedies as "blessings
in disguise," and yet others will simply say, when something
happens, that "it is God's will." These sorts of lines,
while they may be easy to say, are sometimes very difficult to
believe.
At times they can be irritating and perhaps even for some infuriating.
And often, if said at a funeral or in the face of some tragedy,
they are of very little comfort to us at that moment.
In 1979 a tornado hit
the town of Woodstock, Ontario. Included in the terrible destruction
was the Maranatha
CRC and the Woodstock Christian School. The church and the school
were left in ruins. Thankfully no one was in the school or the
church
at the time. Little consolation could be given at that time with
the lines, "It is God's will; "all things work for good
for those who love the Lord," or "this is perhaps a blessing
in disguise." At that time the people could only see destruction
and years of work and energy destroyed in one fell swoop.
Think of Joseph, whom
we read about earlier from the book of Genesis. The Bible tells
us that "Israel (or Jacob)
loved Joseph more than any of his other sons (he had 12 in all),
because he had been born to him in his old age." (Genesis 37:3)
This love led to Jacob adorning his son with the coat of many colors,
as it has become known. It is recorded that "when his brothers
saw that their father loved him (Joseph) more than any of them,
they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him." (Genesis
37:4) Later on their hatred led them to want to kill their 17-year-old
brother. But instead of being killed he was thrown into a pit and
then sold as a slave to the Midianites. Jacob was told that his
son had been killed by a wild animal.
Meanwhile Joseph was
sold to the Egyptians where he spent a great deal of time in prison
on false charges. While
Joseph stayed true to the God of his fathers, I suspect it would
have been of little comfort to the teenager if we would have told
him at the time that he was being sold into slavery, "this
is a blessing in disguise. This is God's will. Don't worry, Joseph,
remember that all things work for the good of those who love the
Lord." As he was being tied up and dragged away from his family
and everything he knew, he could probably not see much good in
it.
As a matter of fact, he was probably terrified, as any person would
be. He was being torn from his family, against his will, and led
to an unknown future; as a matter of fact he probably figured he
would end up dead somewhere and never see his father or family
again.
That is usually the way it is when someone we
love dies, or when a tornado strikes, or when an illness we dread
hits someone: we tend to wonder about God's will. We tend to wonder
about the good in it. And certainly the idea of it being a blessing
in disguise is really not much comfort to us at that time.
And yet, it is often
the case that when something happens people will, almost naturally,
begin to search for the good
in it. That search can sometimes become a frantic one in which
a strenuous effort is made to at least find something "good"
in a horrible situation. The need to find something "good"
in a horrible situation is necessary; it seems to somehow make the
situation more palatable. "There must be something good that
comes out of everything that happens," we tell ourselves, "because
if there is nothing good then things are, indeed, meaningless."
And sometimes there are
some things that we point to and say, "If it would not have
been for the illness, the person may have never come to know the
Lord. If it were not for
the death of a parent, the brothers and sisters may have never
been reunited. If it were not for some natural disaster, people
may never
know what it means to share or to give of themselves."
Thinking back to Woodstock and the aftermath of
the tornado, some would probably suggest that it was a blessing
in disguise. Both of the buildings were restored. An old school
was modernized and expanded. An old church was modernized and expanded.
The Christian Reformed community was able to worship for quite some
time in a Presbyterian Church in town and through it all became
more a part of the community than ever before. There were probably
other positive things that came out of the disaster of 1979.
Look at Joseph. The litany of woes he experienced
in his life led him to Pharaoh's court to interpret a dream. That
interpretation of the dream, given to Joseph by the Lord, led to
Joseph being made second in command in Egypt, which led in turn
to Jacob's family coming to Egypt in search of food during the 7-year
famine. When Joseph's brothers came to Egypt to look for food little
did they know that they stood in the presence of their own brother
Joseph. But such was the case.
God had worked it so
that the result was that Joseph ended up saving his father and
his brothers and providing
them a place in Egypt where they were watered and fed during thefamine.
When the brothers finally discovered what had happened and that
Joseph was now a powerful ruler, they fell on their knees and begged
for mercy. But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I
in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many
lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your
children." (Genesis 50:19-21) I'm sure you can add your own
story of something good coming out of a bad situation.
Sometimes that "good" we are searching
for is hard to find. We wonder if any "good" can be found
among the murder victims of our land, or if any good can come out
of the carnage on many a highway, as people's lives are suddenly
brought to a screeching halt because of an accident. We wonder about
the "good" in places where the atrocities seem to continue
in spite of all sorts of peace initiatives.
Closer to home, we wonder
what good can come out of the loss of a child, or the illness of
a child. What good
can come out of a lack of rain? What good can come out of an ongoing
life of abuse? What good can come from broken relationships? And
so on. The list is long and each of us can think of situations
in
which we wonder. In such situations, upon hearing the words of
our text, we may be inclined to clench our teeth and say, "yeah,
right, sure. God is working for my good in all of this misery?"
And yet, the Bible records the words of our text
not merely as a theory of some sort that is usually or quite often
correct, but it records the words of the text as a fact. It is simply
a fact, whether we like it, or understand it, or experience it or
not, that all things, note the words, all things, including
those things we would consider as "bad", work
for the good of those who love the Lord. The reason the Bible can
make such a pronouncement is because it recognizes that the Lord
God is the ruler or the governor of all things.
Romans 8:28 is a text that is found in a chapter
dealing with the process of salvation, which, of course, will be
climaxed with the return of the Lord Jesus upon the clouds of heaven.
It is a process that will culminate in the presence of the new heaven
and the new earth. It is on that new earth where those who love
the Lord will dwell for all eternity.
This is, of course, ultimately what this text
is talking about. God is working out his plan of salvation in the
world and nothing can stop him, and everything that happens somehow
finds its place in that plan. While we may not understand it from
our perspective, yet it all fits together. It is like the example
of the embroidery. On the underside of the embroidery there are
strings going every which way, but on the top a beautiful picture
is emerging. God sees the top, we see the bottom. But everything
that happens flows through the hands of the Almighty and is woven
into the tapestry of history. We don't always understand it.
Consider Joseph and his trials. The saving of
Joseph ensured the continuation of the people of Israel, from whom
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus was to come, and did come. We can be
sure that Joseph did not understand what was happening to him when
his brothers sold him into slavery, and he probably protested and
sobbed endlessly as he was dragged away by the Midianites. It was
only in retrospect that Joseph was able to explain what happened.
But that is not always the case.
We don't always have
an answer as to why bad things happen as they do. "And it is foolish to pretend to
know when we don't," writes Dr. Neal Plantinga in his book A Sure Thing. "We
sometimes think we can tell what good reason God might have for
allowing evil, but often we can only
guess.
"Maybe God allows people great freedom to
do both evil and good because else they wouldn't be humans at all,
but only robots. Maybe God doesn't turn all guns into salami and
all bullets into bubbles because then the world wouldn't be real
and couldn't be counted on. Maybe God allows diseases and tornadoes
to make us depend on Him or to make us more courageous. Maybe
God sometimes sends punishments on a whole nation. Or maybe there
are times when a person's suffering — and the way he handles
it — draws others closer to God.
"It is hard to say
in a particular case. Often we do not know why God permits a certain
evil. But we do know
this: just as a doctor must sometimes hurt you in order to help
you, so God is always working with us for good. Even when we can't
see it or tell it. That is sometimes harder to accept. But no God,
and no good, would be even harder to accept.
"We know one more
thing. Our Lord Jesus himself, as he died inch by inch from his
fatal wounds, shouted
'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'
"Two days later he was alive again and speaking
peace to his disciples. God does act against evil and for good.
It is part of his providence." (Plantinga, A Sure Thing,
pg. 45)
"In all things God works for the good of
those who love Him." The reason why the Bible can make this
statement is because it takes a very wide view of life and history.
Our view is always very limited, and therefore we struggle.
Consider the bee. In its first stage of life
or of development it is in a hexagonal cell wherein enough honey
is stored for it to eat from until it reaches maturity. The honey
and the bee are sealed with a capsule of wax. Once all the honey
is gone, it is time for the bee to come out of the cell. The wrestling,
the struggle, the strain the bee has to do to get out is apparently
quite something. It has to remove the wax cap which is no easy task
and then it has to climb out of the cell, which by now is a tight
prison. We may be inclined to have pity on the struggling bee, and
we may wonder why it has to have such a rough time. Yet in the agony
of the exit the bee rubs off the membrane that hid its wings. Once
out of the cell and rid of the membrane, the bee is able to fly!
What good is there in the struggle? The bee will not see that until
afterward. He may even question the necessity for the struggle and
the agony. But ultimately it is for his good.
So it is also in human
life. All sorts of painful things may happen to us. "Our hearts may be broken a thousand
times in this world, and our bodies wracked with pain. But these
things are part of the Refiner's fire, the crucible of the kingdom
of God." (R.C. Sproul, The Invisible Hand, pg. 175)
That which we experience here on earth is part
of that struggle of life in a sin-filled world. What good
is there in the struggle? Now we may not see, but James does tell
us that the testing of our faith produces perseverance and spiritual
maturity. Ultimately, says the Bible, it is worked for our good
by the One who has all of history in His hands.
The story is told that when St. Augustine was
advanced in years, he saw the storm clouds rising of the imminent
invasion of the Roman empire by the barbarians. He feared the marauding
host would destroy the work he had labored to establish. He went
to God in prayer and uttered a petition in three parts. He first
asked that his people would be spared the devastation that could
result from the barbarian invasion. Second, he asked that if that
were not the will of God that he be given the grace to accept it.
Finally, he prayed that in either case God would take him home soon.
(Sproul, The Invisible Hand, pg. 175)
Augustine could say along
with Martin Luther the words of Luther's well known hymn: "Let goods and kindred
go, this mortal life also." And they could say this because
they believed and understood deep in their hearts that all of history,
and all that happened to them found its place in the governing
hands
of the Lord of the universe, a Lord who continues to work out the
plan of salvation.
One final note. The text
talks about all of this in the context of "those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28) God's people are being
discussed here. Those who do not know the Lord and who remain unrepentant
will ultimately not have everything work for the good. Rather such
posture invokes the wrath of God. But those who love the Lord can
live with the utter security and assurance that they belong to
their
faithful Savior Jesus Christ, in life and in death, and nothing
is able to separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
While we may not in the midst of misery like
to hear such statements as found in our text, yet it is true that
in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. Surely
this is where our comfort lies.
Amen.
