In the sermon titled 'All Things for Good,' Scott Brown reflects on Romans 8:28, emphasizing that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. The speaker underscores the importance of viewing life through a Christian lens, adjusting our thoughts and emotions to align with God's sovereignty and providence. He outlines that while not all experiences are good, God uses even the negative ones for the ultimate benefit of believers. Brown references numerous biblical figures, such as Joseph, to illustrate how God orchestrates events over time for good outcomes. He explains the difference between God's sovereignty (His active governance and sustenance of the world) and providence (the outworking of His plan in daily events). The sermon encourages believers to remain steadfast and faithful, trusting in God's grand design even during hardships. Brown concludes by urging the congregation to appreciate what they have and to remain strong in their faith, knowing that God is in control.

Open your Bibles to Romans 8 and find verse 28. Romans 8, 28. We'll just be reading one verse this morning. Romans 8, 28. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this remarkable, thrilling testimony of what you're doing in the world and through our lives, in our lives, for our lives. Lord, we rejoice, we praise you, oh Lord.

I pray that you would take these words and shape us by them. Amen. Please be seated. I'm self-conscious today that I'm only dealing with one verse today. It was Martin Lloyd-Jones who preached through the book of Romans for 14 years.

And we won't be doing that. He preached from 1955 to 1968, and he actually died before he finished preaching through Romans in his commentary set. I have his 14 volume set about a decade and a half, a little over a decade and a half ago, I preached through Romans, and I was very upset with Martin Lloyd-Jones because he died in chapter 14 and couldn't finish the commentary. So if you get his commentary set, you can get chapters one through 14, and then it's over. So this passage though is so thrilling.

We've talked much about how the apostle is full of encouragement for the believer. But this passage has so much to say about how you think about your life, what's happening in your life. And of course We know that the discipleship function of the preaching of the word of God is to help us think Christianly about our lives, to adjust, to alter the way that we think about what's going on in our hearts, in the external aspects of our lives, and in the world at large as well. And this passage here is a wonderful tool to help you understand what's going on. And at the same time, even the most mature Christian can find themselves falling off the wagon of the sound doctrine that's in this passage and falling into despair, discouragement about what has happened in their life, what is happening in their life, what might happening in your life, dissatisfaction with the professional life that God Almighty has given to you, the money that God has given you, the house that God has given you, the church that God has given you, and even worse, what might happen to you in the future, as if there is a Damocles sword hanging over your head all the time as a believer.

And these verses speak to that, but they also, I think, are so helpful because they teach us how to adjust our thinking and therefore our emotional life about all of these things. And the way that we think is the way that we begin to feel. And so the apostle begins with words like we know. It has to do with the way that you think about your life. You might have noticed the title of this sermon.

I titled the sermon after the title of the book that Thomas Watson wrote called All Things for Good. Oh, I highly recommend it, it's just remarkable. It's not really very long. And there is a simple outline that I have, you have it in front of you, they're really just five contours of this outline, things God wants you to know. And of course, first is the connection with the previous verses, the word and, and then the certainty of these things we know, and then the reality of what's really going on, all things working together for good, and the recipients, those who love God and those who are called, and then the grand design.

Everything is according to God's purpose. So that's the basic flow of this. This is perhaps the flagship verse on the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the providence of God. The doctrine here really flows to both of these. Now, the doctrine of divine sovereignty and divine providence, they're overlapping but they have different inflection points to them.

The sovereignty of God is that God is governing actively the world and he is sustaining it and God is causing all things to unfold according to the counsel of his will and of course you know sovereignty implies God's omnipotence, God's omnipresence, divine care and governance and upholding all things by his sovereign power. Providence, though like sovereignty, really implies more the outworking of God's plan in daily events, his purpose and his plan and his government of secondary causes and primary causes and that type of thing. And they all say what we should always be recognizing, especially when we fall off the wagon of sound doctrine, when we think about our lives. We should think of what John the Baptist said. A man can receive nothing unless it's given him from heaven.

Let that sink in. It's such an important thing to know. And I want you to this morning even, you're probably already doing this, think of the things that you would like to change in your life, the things that are bothering you, the things that bother you about your world, about your nation, about your own intellect, your own family, your own looks, dissatisfaction with what you have achieved to this moment in your life, the money you don't have, the money you wish you had, the house you don't have, the house you wish you had, the friends you don't have, the friends you wish you had, the heartbreaks you wish you didn't have, the joys you wish you did have, the betrayals you wish you didn't have, the opportunities that you don't have. But it could hit some of the most painful things in life, the sorrows from miscarriages and death of loved ones and these losses. The family feud that you wish you didn't have, the cancer that your family member had, or maybe you have the surgery that you need or you think you need or you're trying to figure out whether you need.

And so all of these things are implied in this one verse. Well, let's begin, let's start working through the verse. We begin with the word and, and. And I think that the apostle uses the word and for two reasons. In other words, he's saying, now here's another, here's another point.

Here's something else to consider because he has just said the spirit helps us in our weakness and the spirit prays the will of God. And So now there is another thought that's additional to that thought and it actually supports that thought. The other way, and I think the apostle is probably using it this way as well, he's making a connection to the previous things that have been said in Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse one. So he says, and now think about everything that I have said up to this point. And of course, he's been talking about the person, the work of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer, and how encouraging it is what he's doing in our sufferings, in our sins, in all kinds of things that are going on in our lives.

And then, in the most recent verses, verses 26 and 27, he's making it clear that we don't know what we need and we often don't know what to pray for. But God, God prays. The Spirit of God, God the Spirit, prays what we don't know how to pray. Our prayers are often driven by pride, self-exaltation, desire for riches, desire for whatever, but the Spirit prays things that are absolutely perfect for us and God kindly doesn't answer all of our prayers. He does answer all the prayers of the Spirit and all of them are for the will of God.

So you have this context previous to verse 28 that the whole creation is groaning, we are groaning, and the Spirit is also groaning. But then he turns to the certainty, And he uses this phrase, we know. Two words, we know. He's talking about the church in Rome. And we know.

Now, there are two different Greek words for know, and they mean different things. One word for know is the word for experience. It's the word gnosko, but it means something you know by experience. Like you've seen, you already know this, you've been alive long enough to see that this is how it is. It's the knowledge from experience.

The great thing about adding years to your life is you get more experience. You see more and you know more, hopefully. Hopefully that's true. But then there's another word and it's the word oida. And it is the word for intuitive knowledge.

And it's interesting that he doesn't say, we feel. He doesn't say, we see. In other words, you won't always feel it. You won't always see it, but you can know it. He's saying, I do not know up front by my experience that all things work together for good.

However, I would say the longer you live, you do see things more clearly. But there are still bad things that happen. There are bad people, and they will affect your life. And of course, the reason all things work together for good is that the Spirit God the Spirit is praying these good things these he's praying Good things to come of the bad things that take place And so the apostle is saying we know. We have this holy confidence.

And how would they know? They had Moses, they had David, they had Job, they had Joseph, they had Daniel. And the providence of God and the sovereignty of God were clearly communicated in all of those books of the Bible. In the law and in the prophets is proclaimed the sovereignty of God. So the Romans could say, we know.

Yeah, we know, yeah, we know. We, yes, we fell off the wagon of sound doctrine of God's providence, but we know. We know. David knew this in Psalm 27, He said, I would have lost my heart if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. And then he said, wait on the Lord, be of good courage.

He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. You have Old Testament saints who knew this and the Romans would know about Sarah and Ruth and Abigail and Esther and Rahab. They would know. They would know about these personalities, the great men and women, who were not frightened because they knew that God was in control.

So he says we know. Next he says that all things work together for good. This is the reality. This is the reality shift that every believer needs to shift back into when they forget it. When they're despondent about what's happening in their body, in their friendships, in their life, in their economy.

You have to come back to reality. God brings his people back to reality. And frankly, I would just say that the entire counseling industry could be obliterated for the believer if we just believed this. You know, often we have concerns that should have been shot down by sound doctrine but we fell off the wagon. But this is the reality that all things are for our good.

Now, he's not saying that all things are good, not all things are good. I mean, John, he said the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. So all things that are happening in the world are not good. Isaiah said, woe to them who call evil good and good evil. So we're not denying at all the reality of this world that there's evil and evil things will come upon you.

But what the apostle is saying is that God turns all things that are evil into good for the believer. Thomas Watson in his book All Things for Good, he makes these long lists, I love these lists, I'll share some of them with you. God's attributes work for good. God's power works for good. God's wisdom works for good.

God's promises work for good. God's mercies work for good. God's prayers, the Lord's Supper, the graces of the Spirit, God's angels, the communion of the saints, Christ's intercession, temptation works together for good. He says, quote, temptation is overruled for good. The evil of desertion works for good.

The sin of others works for our good overruled by God. I know that particularly for the younger generation, you have before you, I'm just gonna call it a hard economy, difficulty in, I mean, it's harder to buy houses now than it was for my generation. Food prices, you have big family, you have a little family. Food prices are way off. Deborah's been sending me to the store and I'm actually, absolutely flummoxed by the bill that I see at the cashier.

But you have to remember that all things work together for good. In our first few years of marriage, it was hard to find some opportunities for the house we wanted and things like that. Early on we actually moved into our parents' house for a period of time to help us make ends meet. And then we moved to Wake Forest, and Deborah and I moved into this dilapidated house that hardly had, I don't know if you could say it had a kitchen or not, it had running water, And Deborah sort of made it, she made it into a kitchen. She makes everything beautiful in its time.

And there, and I was, I was 34 years old when that happened, when we moved into that house. And we had two children. And it could easily have been said, well, it's over for you, look at where you're living. I'm sure some people thought that. You know some of you you're in your 20s and you're all worried about your future and I absolutely sympathize with the challenge that you know people in their 20s and 30s have now for buying a house and things like that.

But when I was your age, inflation was at about 12% per year for several years. And home mortgages were like 19%. And car mortgages when I was in my 20s were 24%. So Don't look at a moment and think this is forever. And don't think for a minute that God doesn't favor his people.

And don't panic. Don't do something stupid because you're in a certain moment. Don't fall off the wagon of God's providence. Well, my only hope is to move 100 miles out in the country where I can buy a house. Well, now that you don't have a church and there's no economy out there either.

So don't, you know, wait on the Lord. And God will take care of you. And whatever you have been given by God, do it with all your might. Take what God put in your hands and make the very best of it. That's the only thing that you can really do.

I never had a long-term dream or massive goals for my life. I just did what was next. And then God provided the next thing, and then there was a next thing. And enjoy life, Enjoy what God has given you. I can see you are well-clothed.

It appears that you have not been deprived of food. You have food and clothing, and God who's made many promises to you. Yeah, I woke up this morning and I opened up Ecclesiastes chapter six, just reading through the Bible. And Solomon says, if a man gets 100 children and lives many years, and if he lives a thousand years twice, but if he can't see the goodness of God, it would be better for him if he was stillborn. And the whole point of Ecclesiastes is look, you're living in a rough world, enjoy life that God's given you.

Enjoy everything that God gave you. God is in control. Thomas Watson says, affliction is the highway to heaven, though it be flinty and thorny. Yet it is the best way. Poverty shall starve your sins.

In other words, hardship makes you turn to God and repent. Sickness shall make grace more helpful. Reproach shall cause the Spirit of God and glory to rest upon us. Death shall stop the bottle of tears and open the gate of paradise. And the good thing about hard times, economic times, whatever, is that they cause us to be creative, they cause us to cry out to God, they actually humble us, they make us more disciplined.

You know, if you're a young person and you're worried about your financial future, be more disciplined than everybody else with your money and your time. And pray to God. And the worst things work out for our good. Thomas Watson, suffering works for our good, evil designs, evil angels, Satan and his hosts, evil nations, evil rules, rulers. And the apostle, notice the language, he works together.

This is a really fascinating word that the apostle uses, and it has to do with the coordination of things. You have all of these things, they are working together in concert. And it's in the present tense, meaning everything, always, every single minute of every day of your life, all things work together for good. And it's in the indicative, meaning that it is a reality. This is not a command, it's just a, it's not an imperative.

Indicatives indicate realities, they indicate what is real. They're not dependent upon what you think about it, they're just dependent on God's ordination. And everything that happens in our lives as believers happens so that we would be conformed to the image of his son And then he then he speaks of the recipients And you see in your outline there, it's to those who love God, and to those who are called according to his purpose. So, those who love God, this is for those who love God. This does not include those who do not love God.

All things are not working together for good for the unbeliever who hates God. Even the good things in life are turned around. And so he's speaking of those who love God. You know, what do you love God? What does it mean to love God?

To love God begins with a heart that was changed toward God. The theological term is regeneration. The regenerated heart has the capacity to love God, which that heart never had before. And it's a sort of a double identification. It's those who love God and those who are called.

It's a double identification of who this is for. And what does it mean to love God? Well, it means to believe that God is who he said he was. It means to believe that Jesus Christ was sent as a substitute for your sins, it means to love God's word, it means to love God's children, it means, As Thomas Watson says, it means to love God's day and God's laws and to love obedience. That's what it means to love God.

There are various places you can go to prove the things that I just said. The book of Romans is a great place to go, the book of First John. The Gospels, especially the Gospel of John, tells us that this is what it means to love God. And so do you love God? Because it is possible if you don't love God that even the blessings of this life, because our will turn out for bad for you, God does cause his reign to fall on the evil and the good.

Then those things become idols to you. Those become your comfort in this life, which is no comfort at all. They become a reason for your condemnation because you love those silly things and we're an idolater even though you had good things in this world because many bad people have many good things but they don't work together for good. Often the good things that the unbeliever has just makes him love the world so much that he cannot see God. And so his good things are a curse to him.

They are a bondage. Those who are called, those who love God and are called, you know, a term has been created for this effectual calling. God, when God calls, it's effectual. God makes the sinner willing to come. He calls and God changes the heart, he regenerates the heart and causes that person to come.

And to answer God's call, there is an inward call where God overpowers your heart and you quit running from God and you wanna run toward God. You wanna do his will. You are so sick and tired of your own will and what it has done to you that you want the will of God. And then God gives you a new heart. God gives you a new mind.

God gives you new convictions. God gives you new likes. God gives you new dislikes. You love different things. You hate things that you didn't hate before.

You have new life. This is what it means to love God and to be called. And then he speaks of the design according to his purpose. This is the last phrase in the verse, according to his purpose. And this means that God is working out his plan for you for over many years and God has designed every step of the way every year of your life.

He's brought you to where you are today. Even your sins, God takes even your sins and he causes them to work for good. God is so kind. You think of the kindness of God. All of your errors and mistakes and immoralities and thefts and lies and all of these things that are so despicable, God, He causes them to work together for your good.

I don't know how to explain that. I don't want to explain it. I just want to receive it as a gift of God. And you, of course, are sorrowful for your sins and the things that were so bad that were harmful. But God does not want you to languish there.

He doesn't want you to be saturated in this pool of despondency of the things. He wants to take you out of it. And I don't know if that's why in the Bible it says that God forgets your sins. I don't really think it means that He doesn't have knowledge. I think it's that as if He forgets.

He says that He takes your sins and He puts them as far as the east is from the west. He puts them at the bottom of the sea. There's another place, I think it's in Isaiah, he throws your sins behind his back. And there's another place where he takes your sins and he stomps them on the ground. This is what God says about your sins.

But all things, including your sins, are working out for his purpose, according to his purpose. And that means that he, he not only knows the steps that you take before you take them, he establishes them. You know, many years ago I was preaching on Abraham and we were living in California at the time and there's this statement that Abraham did not know where he was going. And I thought of what it's like to run along the beach in Southern California in the morning because it's often foggy and then the fog burns off. But you're there often, if you want to go for a run on the beach, you often can't see very far, you're running in the fog.

And you have to turn and go toward the land to know where you are, because you can't see where you are, but you're running along in the fog. The Christian life is a little bit like that. You don't really know exactly where you're going, but you know, we know, that God causes all things to work together for good. I'm gonna give you another illustration. Joseph, Joseph, Joseph was the favored son of his father, Israel, or Jacob, and he was given a coat of many colors and his brothers hated him for it.

And he was 17 years old and he had a dream that he would be in control and he made the mistake of telling everybody about it and they hated him for it. His father told him to go find his brothers who were tending flocks and he went out and he found them in a place called Dothan. By the way, this story runs from Genesis 37 all the way to Genesis 50. And when they saw him, they wanted to kill him. They conspired to kill him, and they said, look, here's this dreamer coming.

You know, they're in God's providence, you know, Joseph had brothers who despised him. And do you think Joseph was saying, oh it's so good to be hated by my brothers. Isn't God doing something amazing here? And then they threw him into a pit. And do you think Joseph was saying, oh, I'm just so thankful to be thrown into this pit.

God must be doing something good. And then he was sold as a slave to some Ishmaelite traders who were going headed to Egypt to go make money. And so they, Joseph was sold. Now he is a slave with these strangers, Ishmaelites. We won't go into that.

But this was not a safe place to go. And was Joseph thinking, oh, I'm so amazed that I've been sold to Ishmaelites. Isn't that fantastic? And then Joseph's brothers had to explain this to their father, so they faked his death, and they killed an animal and covered his coat of many culvers with blood and took it back to their father. And their father was so was grieved he put sackcloth on his waist and he mourned for his son for many days because he was told that his son was torn to pieces by wild animals.

And do you think, do you think Jacob was saying, oh Lord you're caught, you must be doing something good here. And then he was taken down to Egypt, and then he was sold again as a slave. He was sold to a wealthy Egyptian, a captain of the king's guard, Potiphar, and now he's been sold to this stranger. But Joseph's spirit is so powerful and good and faithful, Potiphar puts him in charge of his whole house. And then Potiphar's wife notices that he's handsome, and so she had longing eyes for Joseph and she went to him and said lie with me and Joseph refused and she grabbed him and he ran and she had his clothing in her hand.

And so she screams out and accuses Joseph of assaulting her. And so Potiphar is very angry and so he throw... And Joseph I'm sure at the moment was saying, praise the Lord, Potiphar is angry with me. And then he was thrown into prison again, and then Joseph prospered in prison again and I won't go into so much detail but there was a butler who was also in prison and Joseph interpreted one of his dreams, he was released. Joseph said, don't forget about me when you see Pharaoh.

He forgot about him. For two years, Joseph languished in prison because that butler didn't say anything to Pharaoh, who was also having troubling dreams. And I'm sure every day during those 24 months, Joseph was saying, God must be doing something good here. It wasn't good what was happening. It was bad.

It was bad that Potiphar's wife lied. It was bad that the butler only cared about his own head. And then Joseph, he does finally appear before Pharaoh because the butler finally says, I've sinned. The butler actually sinned against Joseph. It's very clear in the text.

He sinned against him and was the cause of him being in prison for two years. And then remember Joseph was elevated to the top of the land and then there was a famine in the land and Joseph stockpiled food. And Joseph's brothers were starving. And Jacob in his household was starving and they needed food and so They were at their wits end I don't think they were saying God is doing something good here something good is going to happen to you that's not what they were thinking and so Jacob sent the brothers to Egypt to get food because there was food in Egypt because Joseph had stockpiled food and so they came looking for food there was a famine that was causing them to go and then when they came Joseph knew who they were and Joseph accused them of being spies and I'm sure the brothers are saying we've just been accused of being spies Something good is going to happen to you. No.

No, it was a hard thing. And Joseph continues to test his brothers. And then Joseph demands that the little brother Benjamin be taken back to Egypt to verify that they're not spies. And this absolutely broke the heart of their father. He absolutely was broken to the idea of sending Benjamin back to Egypt with the brothers.

And then finally Joseph meets with his brothers. It's all recorded in Genesis 50 verse 20. Some of the most famous, most heart-helping words in the Bible. And Joseph says, but as for you, you meant evil against me, But God meant it for good, in order to bring it about, as it is this day, to save many people alive. God designed every step of the way.

This whole family drama, how long do you think that took? The story of this jealousy, favoritism, personal attack, hatred, betrayal, imprisonment, it took 21 years. 21 years out of your life of hardship. 13 years of slavery in prison. Joseph was 17.

He spent his youth in prison, or as a slave. From 13, and then, from 17, and then seven years of plenty in Egypt and then two years of famine and Jacob's sons, you know, go get grain. And after 21 years, it ended in forgiveness, reconciliation, and recognition that God causes all things to work together for good. It took 21 years. How long would you, how long do you have to wait?

How long will you wait? Joseph was 40 years old when it was all finally resolved And then Joseph lived to age 110. He would spend 70 years after being reconciled with his family and then he died. You have to decide what kind of outlook you're going to have. You have to decide what kind of person you want to be walking through this world of trials.

You have to decide if you want to be a bitter, hand-wringing person. And do you want to spend your life unsettled about your life, about your money, about your looks, about your house, your relationships. Do you want to spend your life like that? You know, David said, my times are in your hands. He said, it was good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.

The kind of church that we have here is really important. The kind of people that we become because of the word of God. And I pray that God would give us a mighty people who are not frightened by any imprisonments or anything, or betrayals or anything that happens to us. Evil things will happen. The kind of church that this doctrine creates is the kind of church that says, Lord, I thank you for what you gave me.

Lord, I thank you for what you took from me. Lord, I thank you for what you have withheld from me. Thank you, Lord, for teaching me to know. Thank you, Lord, for teaching this church to say, we know. We know what's happening in our lives and in this world.

And we know all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. This week, I think it was yesterday, I was reading Ecclesiastes 3. I'll close with this. This is it. This is it.

This is the end. To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose unto heaven. A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up.

A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to gain, and a time to lose.

A time to keep, and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to keep silence and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, A time of war and a time of peace. What profit has the worker in all that he labors? I have seen the God given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in his time. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord that you love God and that you are the called according to his purpose. Be strong, brothers and sisters. God is in control. Would you pray with me? Lord, your ways are pleasant ways, all your paths are peace.

Help us, oh Lord, when we fall off the wagon of sound doctrine that we get right back on and move through with joy all the things you have placed in our hands, trusting you with all of our hearts. Amen.