Christianity 101:
Standing on the Promises
Romans 8:28-39
Englewood Baptist Church
Sunday morning, May 18, 2008
I begin today with a confession: there is something wrong with my brain. It does not allow me to multi-task. I can only do one thing at a time. This is often a curse, but let me say that there are moments when this is a blessing. For example, I can read a book on the couch, with children screaming, baby crying, wife pleading, and TV blaring, and still have a rich dialogue with a man that’s been dead for 200 years. I can ignore sights and sounds except that voice that I want to hear. Women call this selective hearing. Men call it “focus.” You can call it whatever you want, but it’s the ability to ignore.
Sometimes I wish I had the ability to be even more selective in the things I ignore. For example: pain. I wish that I could ignore all the pain in the world. I wish I could turn it off like I do an annoying alarm clock. But this I cannot do. Pain is all around me. I look this way and what do I see? An Austrian man that creates a dungeon in his basement and locks his own daughter there. For decades he treats her like a slave and fathers multiple children who are brought into the same dark world. I don’t want to see that. I want to ignore that. So I look this way? And what do I see?
I see 18,000 people buried under rubble in China following an earthquake. Rescue workers are sleep-deprived and haven’t eaten for days as they pull people from the stones that hold them down. I don’t want to see that. Everywhere I look, evil is found. And not all of it is so obvious. Some of the pain is more covert.
I read this week about a 17-year old girl in Houston who was denied entrance to the prom because her dress was so skimpy that the sponsors were embarrassed. So they wouldn’t let her through the door. The police were called to the scene and had to break up a mean-spirited skirmish, and this was supposed to be a night for students to remember, a night that is amusing. Why did this happen? I can tell you why. Because this girl never had a daddy or granddaddy or any other man tell her she’s beautiful. She has never been taught that there is a God who thinks she’s special. Most likely, she has never felt cherished in the sight of any man. And so what is she doing? She’s doing whatever it takes to be loved. And if that means wearing ridiculous clothing, then it’s worth the price. She wants love more than she wants respect. She is dealing with pain and there are a million others like her.
The world that we live in is a dark and frightening place. As children, we worry about what lurks beneath the mattress of our bed. As adults, we worry about what lurks around the corner of tomorrow.
But then we come to God’s word. In Romans 8, the apostle Paul says that your future is safe in the arms of a loving God—that he has planned good for you. The verse I am about to read is perhaps the most comforting verse in the entire Bible, even more consoling that the 23rd Psalm. Evangelist R.A. Torrey once called Romans 8:28, “The soft pillow for a heavy heart.” And I am convinced that God has given us these verses so that we might rest. Even when the world tosses and turns around us, there is a soft pillow for our heavy hearts.
It is Romans 8:28 and following.
Read Romans 8:28-39.
To set the context for this passage, let me draw your attention to the groaning verses above it. Paul has been talking about the groaning of creation, the groaning of believers, the groaning of the Holy Spirit—all things groan for the arrival of heaven, when all pain will be gone.
Have you ever notice, when you ask a young boy how old he is, he responds with fractions. “Six and a half,” he will say. Why does he do that? Because he can’t wait to be 7. The same is true on earth. Though we certainly count our blessings, we can’t wait to be free from pain, suffering, and evil. We long for what is next.
But what are we to do in the meantime? How do we deal with this evil that is all around us? Paul makes it clear that we should claim the promises of God in the face of evil. We should claim the promises of God and in these verses, he mentions at least 4 precious promises that are there for the taking.
The lyrics we just heard are timely:
Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.
Here are 4 great promises that we can stand on in times of turmoil.
Standing on the Promises
1. The promise of His prayers. (vv.26-27, 34)
Look back up at verse 26…
We have already studied this, but the Bible says that the Holy Spirit of God prays for you. He helps you in your weakness. That means that the Spirit takes upon himself your burden. He helps you carry it. God promises that He will not leave you alone.
You remember in Luke 23, Jesus is forced to carry his heavy tool of death, the cross. He must put his shoulders under it and hold it up, but what happens? He can’t do it. He cannot muster the strength to walk that awful road to Calvary, but he must. He must finish. Love beckoned him, but the Bible says this, “As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. Luke 23:26
When Moses couldn’t carry out the will of God, the Lord sent a helper, Aaron. When Jesus couldn’t carry the cross to Calvary, the Lord sent a helper, Simon of Cyrene. And when you feel like you cannot carry the burdens of this world, God will send a helper. And this Helper has more strength than Sampson. This helper is the Holy Spirit who prays in your heart.
But skip now to v.34. It is not only the Holy Spirit that is holding you up. The Son of God prays for you as well. V.34…
Hebrews 7:25 says that the Son always lives to make intercession for us.
Growing up, I used to watch pro wrestling. I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that. I loved the Macho Man Randy Savage. I was a Hulk-a-maniac and had a fond affection for the Junk Yard Dawg. And one of my favorite matches in wrestling was the Tag Team match. Two against two. And it always happened the same way. Hulk Hogan was down for the count. He was pressed into the shape of a pretzel. He grimaced in pain and there was no hope for escape….but, if he could just reach out for a helper. He could tag the Macho Man, and suddenly he would have reinforcements. And he clawed and he clawed to the side of the ring, and when their hands finally touched, it was like Romeo touching Juliet, everything changed. Now, help could come from the corner. He didn’t have to face his opponent alone.
And the Bible says that God the Father has placed in your corner, two strapping helpers. The Holy Spirit and the Son are interceding for you and they will hold you up in times of trouble. When you think you can’t get up, you will get up. You will not be conquered. You are more than a conqueror through him who loved us.
Now, there is a second promise. Here we reach the soft pillow for the heavy heart.
2. The promise of providence. (v.28)
Look at v. 28…
This is one of the greatest promises in Scripture but…
let me first tell you what it does not say.
• It does not say all things are good. As I mentioned earlier, there is a lot of bad in the world. Paul is not some “pie in the sky” theologian who says that all things are good. This is the man that was flogged, and stoned, and left in the open sea as shark bait. He didn’t think that was good. No, he says all things work together for good. It carries the idea that God is taking all these bad ingredients and mixing them up to produce a good recipe. In Chemistry class, I was taught that Sodium is a toxic element. It can kill you if you swallow it. I was also told that Chlorine is a poisonous substance. It can kill you also. But when these two bad things come together, they form a good substance called Sodium Chloride. You and I call it salt and we like it on our popcorn. It is good. In the same way, only God can take the bad ingredients of this earth and bring them together for good, to make something that is pleasing, but this verse does not imply that all things are good on earth. They are not.
• It does not say all things work together for good for all people. No, this is a Christian promise. It is only for the children of God—those who are loved by God. If you are here today and you are not a surrendered follower of Jesus Christ, I can offer you no assurance that the grass is greener in the days ahead. No, quite the opposite. I can promise you that all things will work together for the bad in your life if you choose to walk in your ways. The Holy Spirit does not pray for you. The Son of God does not intercede for you. You have someone on your side. He is called the Evil One and he cannot wait for the day when you die and your eternity is sealed with him. It’s not in the Bible, but it’s true: Misery loves company. And he’s looking for company. All things work together for the bad for those who do not love him, but on the other side is the glorious truth, that the children of God stand ready to receive an inheritance prepared for them before the foundation of the world.
And YOU, child of God, can know with certainty that there is a pot of gold at the end of your rainbow. You can know that you are saved. Look what Paul says in v.28, “And we know…” That word know means “an unshakable confidence.” And we know… It doesn’t say, “And we think,” or “And we hope.” It doesn’t say, “And we see…” We do not see everything now as it truly is. But that’s OK, we don’t have to see it to believe it. Sometimes, you and I must stand where we may not understand. Let me say that again: we must stand where we may not understand.
I don’t have to understand salvation in order to have it. A skeptic says to me, “You Christians contradict yourselves. You say that God chose you before the foundation of the world.”
“That’s right. That’s what Ephesians 1 says… He chose us in Him before the creation of the world…”
“But you also say that you chose to make Christ your savior.”
“That’s right. I freely chose. I was not forced into the kingdom of heaven”
“So which is it? Did God choose you or did you choose God?”
And we say… Yes.
I don’t understand it all, but taith requires that I stand where I do not understand. I don’t understand how electricity works, but I’m not going to sit in a dark room until I figure it out. I don’t understand how air conditioning works in my car, but I’m not going to roll down the windows until I can explain it. Paul says, “You don’t have to understand it to KNOW it.” You can know that you are saved from the force of evil that surrounds you on all sides. You can rest on the promise of His providence. All things work together for the good for those who love him.
Now, building on that idea, let’s move to the next promise. Promise #3: we have…
3. The promise of perfection. (v.29)
Let’s read v.29…
God promised you perfection. Now we have just been introduced to a new word in the book of Romans. It has not been mentioned thus far. It is the word, “predestination.”
There are some people who believe that God actively chooses some to go to Heaven and actively chooses some to go to hell—that He creates people for the sole purpose of damning them. I don’t not believe that. No where in the Bible do you see predestination linked to unbelievers. This word is only used for believers. If it is God’s desire to send people to hell, then we wouldn’t hand out gospel tracts in our Discover Englewood class and challenge people to share the gospel with their friends. There was a missionary once, named William Carey, who felt called evangelize lost peoples of the world. At a ministers’ meeting in 1786, Carey raised the question of whether it was the duty of all Christians to spread the Gospel throughout the world. An older Baptist gentleman stood up and said to him: "Young man, sit down; when God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid and mine." This man had unbalanced view of theology.
When Paul talks about predestination here, He is not thinking of Heaven and Hell. Those words aren’t even mentioned. He is speaking about the promise of perfection. He has predestined that you would become like Jesus Christ. God is so honored and impressed by His beloved Son that he determined in advance to make millions like him.
God made a decision about you ahead of time—that you would be made perfect. John Stott says that the purpose of predestination wasn’t favoritism but holiness, Christ likeness. And there is a process that all believers go through in order to become like Jesus. And so, on those days when you feel like you are so sin-saturated, a total disappointment to God, cling to the promise that He is not through with you yet. As Paul said to the Philippians, “be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Though you cannot see it, God is building you into the image of his Son.
C.S. Lewis, in his masterpiece, Mere Christianity, says it best…
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks on the roof and so on. You knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently, he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building a quite different house from the one you thought of. Oh, he’s throwing on a new wing here. He’s putting on an extra floor there. He’s running up towers; he’s making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage, but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.
Child of God, He will carry on to completion the work he began in you. It’s a process.
Now notice in v. 30, there are 5 dynamic terms to describe this process of salvation that is at work in you. Theologians have called this “the golden chain” of salvation. This is the process of perfection. Notice it begins with God.
Foreknowledge:
That word is prognosko in the Greek. It means “to know beforehand.” We get our word, “prognosis” from this word. Sometimes a doctor will give a prognosis. He is telling you beforehand what will happen, but there is a difference here. A doctor offers an educated guess because he cannot see the future, but God is not guessing. He speaks with certainty because he knows the future.
But God doesn’t just know what you are going to do, he knows you. That word “know” is related to the Old Testament word “YADA” in Hebrew. That word means “to know personally.” Before eternity, God knew you personally.
I cannot explain how that works together with man’s free responsibility and will, but I know that it does. The Bible says that God knew me before the foundation of the world, but I also believe that 24 years ago, I sat in a 1500 sq.ft house right off main street, and as a 7-year old boy, I chose to put Christ on the throne of my life. And because I made that choice, I am destined to become like Jesus Christ. My salvation began with God but it I involved me.
On the other side of predestined is the word, “called.” It means that God took the initiative. His choice made my choice possible and loved me long before I chose to love him. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love him because he first loved us.” In the same way that God called me to be a preacher, God called me to be his child.
And to those he called, he justified. He made me right with God. We’ve spent weeks on this concept, but justification means that God sees me “just as if I’d” never sinned. He sees me as perfect, like his Son.
And the final step in salvation—what we all groan and long for—is glorification.
Rick Warren says,
This is the final state, the ultimate triumph. There’s a progression from conversion to consummation--an unbroken chain reaching from eternity to eternity. God foreknew way back before we were born and He’s going to glorify way out in the future. From eternity to eternity. He’s got the past, the present, the future. In the past He foreknew and predestined us. In the present He called and justified us. In the future we’re going to be glorified. –Rick Warren,
“God’s Purpose For My Life”
It’s a done deal. You can rest on the promise of perfection. You are safe under the wing of God.
But there is still one more promise to stand on:
4. The promise of provision. (vv.31-39)
I don’t know how you can read that I am about to read, and not believe that God provides eternal security for his children. This is not a Baptist doctrine. This is a biblical doctrine. Paul is about to say, as clearly as he can say it, “there is no person, no power, no persecution that can remove you from the love of Christ.” Just as our salvation was obtained by our Lord, it is maintained by our Lord. Look at these verses…
God will provide everything for you to finish the race. To Him be the glory. Look back and let me show you what I’m talking about. Look at v.32, “He who did not spare his own Son…
What is Paul saying there? This is an argument from greater to less. If God gave us his very own Son, if he gave us His all, why would we believe that He will withhold the other things we need in order to reach the gates of heaven. If he gave His best, will he not give us the rest.
And so if you are one of those people who constantly wonder if you’ve fallen from grace: one day you’re in, the next day you’re out. God did not intend for you to live that way. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. There is no grave deep enough. No demon conniving enough. No power strong enough. If I could quote the great theologian Marvin Gaye,
“There ain’t no mountain high enough,” to keep God from getting to you, baby. It might sound corny, but it’s true. He will provide the wind for your sails and the strength for your back. And you will stand up under that cross, no matter how heavy it might be. Just like his Son, He will see that you get there.
Now look one more time in your Bible. Look at v. 38. It says that death can’t separate you from your Savior. Demons cannot do that. The present nor the future—in other words, there is that can happen today nor any time in the future that can take you away. That includes every moment from this point on. There is no height nor depth…but I want you to notice what it says, “nor anything else.” I love that.
Leave it to human beings to find one loophole in salvation. Surely, there is something in my past that will force God to take his protective wings away from me. Surely there is something. A bloody divorce, a bad decision to abort a child, a betrayal of trust in adultery, a financial debt that brings me shame, a moment of rage that puts me behind bars. Surely, there is some mistake that will remove me. I believe that God put that “anything else you can possibly think of” in the Bible for you. There is nothing that can separate you from Christ. You will make mistakes, but praise be to God, he maketh no mistakes.
He Maketh No Mistake
My Father’s way may twist and turn,
My heart may throb and ache,
But in my soul I’m glad to know,
He maketh no mistake.
My cherished plans may go astray,
My hopes may fade away,
But I’ll trust my Lord to lead
For He doth know the way.
Tho’ night be dark, and it may seem
That day will never break,
I’ll pin my faith, my all in Him,
He maketh no mistake.
There’s so much now I cannot see,
My eyesight’s far too dim;
But come what may, I’ll simply trust
And leave it all to Him.
For by and by the mist will lift
And plain it all He’ll make,
Through all the way, tho’ dark to me
He made not one mistake.
--A.M. Overton
