Crucial Wisdom for Christian Life
The Book of Romans
Romans 8:28-30
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - July 31, 2016
(Revised January 18, 2021)
MESSAGE:
*Christians: Would you rather be foolish or wise? -- Wise of course. And what about our children? Don't we want them to be wise, too? No doubt about it.
*A lot of people are writing about wisdom these days. If you type the word "wisdom" in a Google search, you will get over 400 million results.
*There are books on Jewish wisdom, Quaker wisdom, Amish wisdom, Irish wisdom, folk wisdom, and more. We can get books on wisdom from taxi drivers, cowboys, football players, bumper stickers, and dogs.
*People are seeking wisdom from every possible source, but the best wisdom of all comes from God's Word. The Bible is filled with wisdom for everyone who will receive it. And in tonight's Scripture, God gives us crucial wisdom for living in this fallen world. (1)
1. FIRST: GOD GIVES US WISDOM ABOUT OUR PROBLEMS.
*We find this wisdom in vs. 28 where Paul said, "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
*Everybody in the world faces problems, setbacks, and disappointments. But God says even the bad things will work together for good to those who love Him.
*Notice that He doesn't say that all things ARE good, but all things WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD to those who trust in Jesus Christ. This truth can be most difficult for us to see when we are in the middle of hard times. But God is at work both day and night in every situation we face. And ALL THINGS, even the bad things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
*Wayne Kraiss told a story that helps us understand. It happened when Wayne was a young pastor in Wheaton, Illinois. He went to visit an elderly lady named Amelia. She had come to our country from Europe years before.
*When Pastor Wayne saw Amelia, she was bedridden and very sick, so of course, he prayed. But after the prayer, Wayne was very disappointed, because there was no instant improvement in her condition. Amelia saw the troubled look on her pastor's face and said, "Well pastor, this must be one of the 'all things.'"
*Wayne asked Amelia what she meant, and she said, "When I was a little girl in Germany, one day I asked my mother what it meant that 'all things work together for good.' My mother was baking a cake, and without directly answering my question, she handed me a spoonful of baking soda.
*It tasted awful! Finally, I asked her what she was doing, and she said she was answering my question. Then she said, 'Amelia, I don't want you to ever forget that things taken by themselves are not always pleasant. But when they are mixed together and fired in the oven, you love the results.'" (2)
*Christians: Some of the things in our lives may taste terrible right now. But in the end, everything will work out together for good. You see, God cares for us so much that He wants to bring blessings out of our burdens. He wants to bring good things out of our grief. He wants to bring hope out of our hardship.
*Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that bad things are good. If I have a wreck tomorrow, that will be bad, and that's that. But God brings good out of bad things every day.
*The best place to see this truth is on the cross of Christ. It was the cruelest death of all, and the darkest day in history. But Jesus rose again from the dead! And God turned the cross into something wonderful for everyone who will believe in Jesus.
*God wants to bring blessings out of your burdens. It's true for the cross. And it can be true for the troubles in your life. That's why in vs. 28, Paul said: "We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." This is God's truth, but it truly is hard for us to see in the hard times.
*I think of my dad. When I was in college, he lost all of his money. Even worse, he was betrayed by some people who were supposed to be his friends. Because of that loss, Dad couldn’t keep paying for me to go to school. I had to find another way. And that was how the Lord led me from Georgia all the way to Louisiana, (about the last place in the world I wanted to be).
*My dad was crushed. I remember him telling me how sad he was, not because he lost his money, but because he couldn’t provide for his family the way he wanted to. He told me that it bothered him so much he couldn’t sleep at night.
*There was no way my godly daddy could see any good coming out of that trouble. But if that crisis never happened, I never would have met my dear wife of 46 years, never would have had our children or grandchildren, never would have gotten to preach. And most important of all, I don’t think I ever would have gotten saved. We couldn't see it then, but I can see it now! And as soon as my dad got to Heaven in 1976, He could see it all.
*You may be going through the hardest time in your life right now. Things are terrible, and you can't possibly see any good coming from it. But don't give up on God! Keep trusting in the Lord because "all things (really do) work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
2. GOD GIVES US CRUCIAL WISDOM ABOUT OUR PROBLEMS, AND WISDOM ABOUT HIS PEOPLE.
*In vs. 28-29, God tells Christians a lot about who we are as His people. Here Paul said:
28. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
[1] WHAT DOES GOD TELLS US HERE ABOUT HIS PEOPLE? ONE THING IS: WE LOVE THE LORD.
*In the beginning of vs. 28, "We know that all things work together for good TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD. . ." The Lord's people love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we will be living in obedience to the greatest commandment of all.
*As Jesus said in Mark 12:29-30, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment."
[2] GOD'S PEOPLE LOVE THE LORD. WE ALSO HAVE LIFE THAT LASTS FOREVER.
*Paul reminds us of this truth at the end of vs. 29, where he says Jesus is "the firstborn among many brethren." We need to know that Jesus is "the firstborn" in a couple of ways.
*The first way is in the sense that Jesus Christ is the one-of-a-kind, only begotten Son of God. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
*The original word there for "only begotten" is "mon-o-gen-es." "Mono" means "one," and "gen-es" is the source of our words like "genetics." The idea is that Jesus and God the Father have the same DNA so to speak. Jesus isn't begotten in the sense that He began. He is begotten in the sense that He and God the Father have the same essence, the same eternal life span, the same infinite wisdom, and the same boundless power.
*Every quality we find in God the Father, we can also find in Jesus Christ. He is God's unique and sinless Son, the only person with a perfectly holy heart. The Lord's humanity is unique.
*But Jesus is also the firstborn, because He is the first man to ever permanently rise again from the dead. That's why Colossians 1:18 says Jesus "is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence."
*Jesus Christ is "the firstborn from the dead," never to die again. But Christians: We are born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We know and believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. We have received Jesus by placing our faith in the true and living God. And though our physical bodies will die unless the Lord comes back first, our bodies will rise again and be transformed into a perfect body like Jesus has right now!
[3] GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE LIFE THAT LASTS FOREVER. AND WE FORM A BIG FAMILY.
*Again, at the end of vs. 29, Jesus is "the firstborn AMONG MANY BRETHREN." Brothers can be a wonderful thing. In my earthly family we were mostly separated by hundreds of miles, but I always felt a special closeness with my brothers and sisters. In our younger days, we played with each other, got in trouble with each other, and helped each other.
*Of course, earthly brothers and sisters don't always get along. Neither do Christian brothers and sisters. But there is something special about our Christian family! Because of our bond with Jesus Christ, we have a special bond with each other.
*For many people, our human families are not there for us, especially if they don't believe in Jesus. But as Christians, we always have a spiritual family that can give us love and support. And it's a big, big family! Christians, we don't just have two or three brothers and sisters. Verse 29 says we have "many brethren." And the wonderful truth is that we literally have millions of brothers and sisters all over the world, and up in Heaven.
[4] WHAT DOES GOD TELLS US ABOUT HIS PEOPLE? WE FORM A BIG FAMILY. AND WE HAVE THE BEST BIG BROTHER OF ALL!
*In vs. 29, since Jesus is "the firstborn among many brethren," then He is OUR brother, if we have trusted in Him as our Lord and Savior. What an amazing truth! Jesus Christ, the Lord God of the Universe is our big brother!
*And Revelation 5:7-13 gives us a glimpse of our family in Heaven. There Jesus was found to be the only person in the universe worthy to open the judgment scroll in God the Father's Hand:
7. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
8. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9. And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
10. and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.''
11. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
12. saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!''
13. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!''
*Hallelujah! Jesus Christ is the biggest, strongest, most righteous, most helpful brother we could ever have. And He is OUR brother, -- if we are saved.
3. GOD GIVES US CRUCIAL WISDOM ABOUT HIS PEOPLE, AND WISDOM ABOUT HIS PURPOSE FOR OUR LIVES.
*God has a great purpose for our lives, and we see it in vs. 29: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."
*Here, God's great purpose for our lives is "to be conformed to the image of his Son." God has "predestined" us for this purpose. The original word is where we get our word "horizon," so this word "predestined" has to do with our destiny and our destination. It's the idea of God deliberately moving us along to a known destination.
*So: Where are we headed in our Christianity? Yes, we are moving up to Heaven. But along the way, God is moving us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. God is molding and shaping us into the image of Jesus Christ.
*For example, God wants us to love one another the same way that He loves us. Jesus commanded this in John 13:34-35. There He told His followers, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.''
*The Lord focused on our love for one another several more times on the night before the cross. Then Jesus blazed the trail of love for us when He died on the cross for our sins. Now our risen Savior wants us to follow His example. How are we going to do that? How are we going to be conformed to the likeness of God's Son, Jesus Christ?
*We surely cannot do it in our own strength. We must abide in Him. As Jesus said in John 15:4-5, "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
*The only way to be conformed to the likeness of Christ is to "abide" in Him. That means to stay, remain, or dwell in Him.
*James McCullen heard a story of a family cleaning their attic. They found a very old book that had not been opened for a very long time. In the front of the book, a picture of the author and a picture of Jesus had been printed on opposite pages. But over the years, the ink of the two pictures had mixed together, so that the face of Jesus blended together with the author's picture. The two pictures had abided with each other, and had just about become one. (3)
*The more we abide in Jesus, the more we will be like Him, and this is God's greatest purpose for our lives.
4. HE GIVES US CRUCIAL WISDOM ABOUT HIS PURPOSE, AND WISDOM ABOUT HIS PROCESS FOR TRANSFORMATION.
*Verse 30 helps us see more about how God gets us to where He wants us to be: "Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."
*Here we see 3 steps that God takes to get us where He wants us to be: God called us. He justified us. And He glorified us.
[1] FIRST, GOD CALLED US.
*Have you heard His call? I was so slow to hear God's call in my life, and I am not talking about God's call to preach. I am talking about God's call to Him, God's call to salvation.
*I remember spring break almost 47 years ago. I went back to Georgia to see my family and friends. And during a Saturday night of partying, the talk turned to religion. I remember telling my friends, "Maybe the Christians are right."
*Their response was instant and overwhelming. They absolutely rejected the message of the cross.
*After that, I went outside by myself. I was on top of a pine-covered hill, with the wind whistling through the trees. And there, for the first time in my life, I was keenly aware of the presence of God. It was most profound. It gives me chills to even think about it. And even though I wasn't ready to receive Jesus Christ, God was already calling me to Him.
[2] CHRISTIANS: GOD CALLED US. AND HE JUSTIFIED US.
*He justified us only by the cross! -- Only by the blood of Jesus Christ! We believe in the Lord's crucifixion and His resurrection. That is the only reason why we are justified.
*Romans 3:19-26 is a great place to see this truth:
19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22. even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25. whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
26. to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
[3] CHRISTIANS: GOD CALLED US. HE JUSTIFIED US. AND HE GLORIFIED US!
*We get to share in the glory of God! -- Fellowshipping for all time with God Himself in a place that is beyond description!
*And we shall be like Jesus! As 1 John 3:1-2 says:
1. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
2. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
*The other amazing thing here in vs. 30 is that our future is so sure that God talks about it as if it's already done! "Whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."
CONCLUSION:
*Praise God for the wisdom here in His Word! I He gives us this wisdom so that at the end of our lives, we can say what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
*May God help us fully apply this wisdom we find in His Word!
(1) Adapted from SermonCentral sermon "God is Wise" by Alan Perkins - Romans 11:33-34
(2) Original Source: "Dynamic Preaching"
(3) Cross & Crown sermon "Christ the Instructing One - Abiding" by James McCullen - John 15:1-11
