God Working For Our Good Series

God Working For Our Good Rom. 8:28

Intro.: We usually apply this passage to our personal lives, especially when there is calamity. Of course, that’s valid, but there is much more in view. It involves cosmic events. God’s eternal plan to redeem mankind is in view as the apostle writes.

God says "all things." He doesn’t mean just all the things that happen to you and your family, although those are certainly included.

I. God began to work for us when men began to sin:

A. Recall the things done in the Garden of Eden:

1. The story of the first sin. Gen. 3:1-21

2. God began to show the sinful life to be unpleasant: Gen. 3:16, 17

3. God made the first sacrifice of an innocent victim to demonstrate the innocent suffering for sins of guilty. 21

4. The story includes the first prophecy of Christ 15

B. Patriarch Abraham is the next pivotal character:

1. Through him God will establish the Jewish nation. His own people.

2. Began with a miraculous birth: First hint of more to come. God does what He wants

3. Sacrifice of Isaac. Gen, 22:13. Ram is a substitutionary sacrifice. Another hint of how God is working. I Jn. 4:10

C. Joseph: another pivotal character

1. Sold into slavery in Egypt, saved God’s people from certain extinction.

2. First endured many hardships.

3. Taken from father, brothers, he was restored to them as their savior.

II. God worked through Moses and the Jewish nation:

A. Brought His people out of Egypt: A picture of our deliverance from sin.

1. Gave the Law so they could know exctly what sin is and what God expects.

2. Gave priesthood to intercede between Himself and His people.

3. Required sacrifices to demonstrate that the price of sin is death.

B. His goals in dealing with Israel:

1. Preserve monotheism, reverence, obedience.

2. Teach right from wrong.

3. Raise expectations of a Messiah

C. The advent of Jesus: Gal. 4:4

1. When everything is ready, not a moment before. In all things God is working.

2. His purpose: to provide the sacrifice that would finally and completely free us from guilt, threat of death..

III. Now, He wants to work through us:

A. Wants to set us free from sin and death: Rom. 8:3, 4

1. To reclaim (redeem) us from the bondage to sin.

2. Became like us. Born a helpless child, He made Himself subject to all the temptations and limitations of the flesh.

3. He took on a body in order to fulfill the Law’s requirements because, by law, the penalty of sin is death. Rm. 6:23

4. We can share in His righteousness, though we have none of our own.

B. Put His Spirit in you: 9-11

1. He is there to control us if we will surrender to Him. 9

2. He is there to raise us to eternal life: 11

3. Also intercedes for us in prayer: 26, 27

C. He will give you every spiritual blessing: 29, 30

1. God wants to make us like His Son.

2. For this reason, He called, justified, glorified us.

3. The complete fulfillment of God’s plan is seen in I Jn. 3:2, 3

CONC.: The entire creation waits for the completion of God’s plan like a woman in labor. 19-22

We also wait. 23

Meantime, we have promise of Rom. 8:31, 32 to sustain us in this life.