Preached Thanksgiving Sunday; November 22, 2009
from
Romans 8:28-30

Theme: God’s loving providence gives His people the basis for thanksgiving in ‘all things’.

To prepare our hearts for our Thanksgiving celebration later this week, I ask you to turn to one of my favorite passages of Scripture. I suspect it’s also a favorite of many of us here today.

Please open your Bible to the eighth chapter of Romans, where this passage is found. But as you keep your Bible open to that chapter, let me prepare our thinking for it by first drawing our attention back to the Old Testament story of two great patriarchs of our faith—Jacob and Joseph. I believe the importance of this morning’s passage can best be illustrated by pointing out an interesting difference between these two men in the way that they responded to difficult circumstances in their lives.

First, think with me about Jacob. He had a lot of troubles in life; and at a certain point, it seemed as if all the troubles were coming together at once. Several years earlier, he believed that he had lost his beloved son Joseph. He had twelve sons; but he had held a special place in his heart for Joseph. And after many years of grieving, a dreadful famine fell upon the land; so he sent his other sons out to Egypt to see if they could get food. And in the process of their seeking help in Egypt, another of his sons, Simeon, became suspected of being a spy; and he was held as a prisoner by the Egyptians. The other brothers were not be permitted to come back unless they brought Jacob’s last son Benjamin with them—thus also putting this youngest of Jacob’s boys in danger. Everything, it seemed, was going as wrong as it could go for Jacob. And in despair, he cried out and said to his other sons, “You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me” (Genesis 42:36).

Now; I don’t think we should be too condemning to ol’ Jacob. After all, we have the advantage of knowing the full story. He wasn’t seeing things as they really were. Joseph, in fact, was not dead. Simeon wasn’t really taken from him. Benjamin wasn’t really in danger. But I wonder—have you ever felt like Joseph? Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you cried out, in frustration and despair, as if all the circumstances of life were hostile to you? Have you ever said those words, “All these things are against me”?

Now; let’s switch our focus to his son Joseph. You remember him, don’t you? Do you remember how God had revealed to him, in a dream, that all his brothers—and even his father and mother—would one day bow down to him? Do you remember how his brothers hated him for the dreams God had given him; and, in jealously, had sold him into slavery and told his father that he’d been killed by a wild animal? Do you remember how he served as a house-hold slave for some years—only to later be cast into prison for a crime he didn’t commit? And do you remember how, after years in prison, he was suddenly released, was exalted by Pharaoh to the chief position over Egypt, and was eventually able to provide for his father and his brothers during the time of famine?

I believe that Joseph always took to heart the dream that God had given him at the beginning. I believe he always trusted—throughout all his trials—that God was going to bring things about as He had promised. And so; when it was all over, and his brothers feared that he would now punish them for selling him away into slavery, Joseph comforted them and said, “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” (Genesis 50:20).

What a difference there was between how Jacob and Joseph saw the circumstances of life! Jacob—if I may speak respectfully of the great old patriarch—forgot about God’s sovereign care for him. He only looked at the difficult circumstances; and concluded, “All these things are against me!” But his son Joseph always kept his heart fixed on the power of God to bring about what He had promised. He knew what God was in absolute control of all those circumstances. He was able—at the end of it all—to say that, when it came to the circumstances that others meant for evil, God used them all to bring about good.

And so, with all this in mind, let’s now read this morning’s passage. It’s found in Romans 8:28-30; and in it, the apostle Paul writes words that—if we truly took to heart—would give us Joseph’s perspective of the circumstances of life. If we truly embraced it, it would give us a cause for genuine, prevailing thanksgiving for all things at all times.

Paul writes;

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. 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. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (Romans 8:28-30).

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Now; there’s a name for what this passage is telling us about. It’s often called “providence”—one of the most precious doctrines about God that we can ever learn from the Bible. The doctrine of providence stands in opposition to the idea that things happen by chance or accident; or that we are all, somehow, ultimately subject to blind, impersonal fate. Rather, “providence”—a word that comes from the concept of deliberate, intelligent “provision”—is God’s exercise of His own sovereign rule over every aspect of His creation, for the purpose of bringing about His own glory and His people’s good.

And what a life-changing, viewpoint-transforming doctrine this is! One of my favorite passages about “providence”—other than our passage this morning, of course—is Colossians 1:15-18. There, Paul attributed divine providence to Jesus Christ—the Son of God; and wrote;

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He 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 (Colossians 1:15-18).

And as those two, dramatically different viewpoints of Jacob and Joseph illustrate to us, the doctrine of God’s divine providence is meant to be very practical and life-changing. A true grasp of the doctrine of God’s providential care for us gives us a new, victorious, joyful perspective on the trials and circumstances of life.

Another person who illustrates this for us is Paul himself. His New Testament letter to the Philippians is one of them most encouraging of all his writings; and yet, he wrote it while he was in prison for preaching the gospel! The circumstances he we suffering would have been the kind that would have broken even the strongest meant who relied on the power of the flesh. But listen to how victoriously joyful Paul was under the providential hand of the sovereign God when he wrote these words:

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice (Philippians 1:12-18).

And the reason I have felt led to share from this passage with you this weekend—at the beginning of the week that we celebrate Thanksgiving—is because the act of thanksgiving is how we grab hold of the doctrine of God’s providence. Giving Him thanks in all circumstance is how we put the doctrine of His providence into practice in actual experience! Jacob—again, with all due respect to him—was not thankful in his circumstances. Instead, he complained; “All these things are against me!” But Joseph affirmed that the things that were meant for evil against him were turned to good by God; and you don’t have to be told that he was truly thankful in the midst of his circumstances!

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Now; I have to tell you that my wife asked me an interesting question the other day. She knew that I was going to be preaching on the subject of thanksgiving. And, as many of you know, she and I have been going through a very difficult trial over the past year with her illness. It’s been one of the most difficult set of circumstances she and I have ever had to face together. And as I was getting ready to prepare my sermon one morning, she asked me—with, you need to know, an obvious twinkle in her eye—”After all we’ve been through, what in the world do you have to be thankful for?”

And her asking me that question makes me think of some of us here this morning who are also in the midst of difficult—in fact, almost overwhelming—circumstances. For some of us here today, the idea of being “thankful”—on a strictly human level—seems ridiculous! How in the world could anyone be “thankful” under such circumstances.

What you don’t need is a set of pat answers. What you don’t need is to be told to “buck up!” What you need—more than anything else—is to have your view lifted up to see who God is in your circumstances! What you need to know is what this passage tells us about the providential care of an almighty God!

My answer to Marilyn’s question is—I hope—the answer all of us will become encouraged to embrace from this passage this morning: What do I have to be thankful for? I don’t know what God is doing in this trial in our lives; but I know that He is in control, and He is good, and He is bringing about our good and His own glory in it. That’s not a pipe-dream! That’s not just sappy ‘positive thinking’! It’s a product of faith in a solid doctrine—a truth that God reveals about Himself in this morning’s passage that you and I can take to the bank!

And so, I give thanks to Him—not perhaps for the circumstances, but most certainly in them; and for what He is accomplishing through them.

Let’s look at this passage in greater detail; and see why all His people should thank Him always—even in the most trying of circumstances.

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The first thing I want to call to your attention that this passage teaches us is that . . .

1. GOD’S PROVIDENCE IS UNIVERSAL IN OUR LIVES.

For this, I point to the phrase “all things”. Paul says, “And we know that all things work together . . .”

The phrase itself comes from just one word—the word for the adjective “all”, but put in the plural form. It’s more specific than simply saying “all”. It breaks the matter down into the details when it says “all things”. Paul is telling us, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that when it comes to His people, God is sovereignly providential with respect to “all things”.

Did you know that there is not one, single molecule in all of God’s created universe that is not under His absolute control? If there was anything that was not under His absolute control, then He would not truly be God. He Himself would be under a circumstance that He couldn’t control. But as the Bible already tells us, “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist”. Everything about His created universe is under His sovereign rule; and so, His absolute providential care for us involves “all things” that could ever—in any way—impact us. In fact, nothing could ever impact us except by His divine permission!

This means that there isn’t anything that can happen to any of God’s precious people in Christ that isn’t under His complete control! Not one single detail! Just remember that next time you’re driving along in a hurry, and the light turns yellow! You can even thank Him for that!

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A second thing to notice is that . . .

2. GOD’S PROVIDENCE IS COMPREHENSIVE TOWARD OUR CIRCUMSTANCES.

This takes the fact of His providence over all things one step further. He not only rules over all things, but as Paul says, “all things work together . . .” Think of that! He so rules over all things that they, as it were, are made to conspire together for a common cause!

Sometimes we have a tendency to thank God only for the good things of life; and of course, we should thank Him for good things. But we aren’t so quick to thank Him for the difficult times. And if we had it our way, we’d have only good things happen—and never any of the bad things. But did you know that, in the total picture of the providence of God toward us, the bad things are as necessary as the good things? He doesn’t simply give us good things as a way to counteract the bad things. Rather, He causes the good things and the bad things to work together to serve His purposes for us!

Think of Joseph. What his brothers did to him was meant for evil. You can be sure that they weren’t thinking, “Let’s sell the young lad into slavery. It’ll do him some good.” They were thinking, “Let’s sell Mr. Fancy-Jacket into oblivion—and good riddance to him and his lousy dreams!” But if he hadn’t been sold into slavery, he wouldn’t have learned the necessary skills of administration and leadership that he gained as the manager of Potiphar’s household. And if he hadn’t been cast into prison, he wouldn’t have met up with the Pharaoh’s baker and butler. And if he hadn’t sat in prison for two years—waiting for the butler to tell Pharaoh about him—he wouldn’t have been released at just the right time to tell Pharaoh his dream, and thus become appointed to the manager of Pharaoh’s empire, and thus be able to be the protector and provider for God’s chosen people during a time of famine! When it was all over, Joseph was able to say to his brothers that “you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good”.

Chart your life, dear brothers and sisters; and you’ll see that it isn’t just the good things of life that God has worked through. It’s been through His divine providence over the integration of the good things with the bad; for He causes all things to “work together”. We ought to be thankful to Him for both the good and the bad things of life; and because of His divine providence through them both, we can!

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And a third things we learn from this passage is that . . .

3. GOD’S PROVIDENCE IS PURPOSEFUL FOR OUR GOOD.

It’s all heading in a direction—and the direction is for our good. “All things work together,” Paul writes, “for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Now; one of the things we need to come to terms with is the fact that our idea of “good” for ourselves isn’t necessarily God’s idea of what’s good for us. Let’s be honest about it. When we think of “good”, we’re usually thinking of an absence of anything unpleasant—an absence of anything that challenges us or that takes away our comfort.

But God’s idea of what is good for us is much higher than ours. He will not be satisfied until we are fully conformed to the image of His beloved Son Jesus! Look at how Paul goes on to say so;

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. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (vv. 29-30).

There’s a wonderful “chain” of acts on God’s part toward us that are being described by Paul. Someone called them “the chain by which God pulls a sinner up to heaven”; and each link in the chain is important.

First is God’s foreknowledge. This isn’t speaking of God simply looking ahead, as it were, into the telescope of time; and seeing—in advance—that what we will do. Rather, this is a term of intentional relationship—saying that God takes the initiative to “know” us in advance. God “foreknows” us because He first, in terms of His eternal decree, placed His love on us before we ever were. It’s another way of saying what the apostle John says in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

The second link in the chain is God’s predestination. Whom God foreknew, He also predestined. It’s an easy word to understand. It simply means that God “destined” us to something in advance. And what was it that He “predestined” those He “foreknew” to? It was “to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren”. When Paul wrote about this to the Ephesians, he put it this way; that God is working in us “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). God has such higher plans for us than we could ever realize! Think of the glory that our resurrected Savior now enjoys before His Father in heaven; and know that God is working in us to bring us all the way up to the very likeness of His own beloved Son!

Those first two links occur in God’s eternal purpose. But the last three links of the chain are what we experience in time. The third is His “calling”—”Moreover,” Paul says, “whom He predestined, these He also called . . .” The “calling” that Paul is speaking of here is what theologians often refer to as God’s “effectual call”. It’s the call of God to the sinner by which He divinely works in the sinner to make him or her come to Christ and place their faith in Him. And if you’ll look over the course of your life, dear brother or sister, you’ll see the providential hand of God in the circumstances of your life—awakening you to your sense of need as a sinner, and drawing you to come to Jesus as the Savior!

Then comes the fourth link, “justification”—”whom He called, these He also justified . . .” To be “justified” simply means that God declares us absolutely righteous in His sight by imputing the righteousness of Jesus to our account. You see; God is taking us poor, needy sinners and joining us to His precious Son. So; if He’s going to do that, He’s going to have to make us as righteous in His sight as His own Son is. What a great act of His providence! How we ought to thank Him every day that He has declared us righteous in His sight by faith in His Son!

And finally comes the fifth link in the chain; “glorification”—”and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Do you notice that all of the links of the chain are in the past tense? But most of all, do you notice that this last one—glorification—is also in the past tense? You may not feel “glorified” right now; but just as you are declared “righteous” in God’s sight by virtue of a relationship with His Son, so your glorification in Him is as certain as if it is already done! You’ll have a hard time finding a more bold statement of faith in the providence of God toward His people than this! God does nothing in half-measures! As Philippians 1:6 says, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ . . .”

All of that, dear brothers and sisters in Christ—His foreknowledge of us and predestination of us to full conformity to the image of His Son; and then, His bringing that predetermined destiny about by calling us, justifying us, and glorifying us in Christ—that’s what Paul means when He says that our sovereign God providentially sees to it that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose”!

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Now; what do you and I need to do about all this? The first thing that I believe we need to do is to be sure that this is all settled in our minds. Do you notice the assumption Paul makes at the beginning of this passage? “And we know . . .”?

It’s often been said that this is a very bad passage to lay on people when they’re going through a time of trial. And in a sense, I agree. When a brother or sister in Christ is going through a difficult circumstance, few things sting more painfully than to have some well-meaning, insensitive saint come along and say, “Well; you know that all things work together for good . . .” Usually, people in those kinds of situations need a sympathetic ear—not a sermon.

But at the same time, this passage should be—and truly is meant to be—a comfort to God people in a time of trial. But the best time to establish the comfort that we need from it is by knowing it in advance—before the trial comes! And so, dear brothers and sisters; do you truly “know” the things that this passage is telling us? Do you know them, not just intellectually, but deep in your being through experience? Now—before the trials come—is the time to make sure you “know” the providential care of God; so that it’s already a part of your thinking before the trials come. That, I believe, was Jacob’s secret to abiding joy and thanksgiving during the trials that he experienced. It explains why he was able to be confident during those trials, and say—when it was all over—that God meant it for good!

And there’s another thing that we need to do about what this passage tells us. We need to make absolutely sure we have met the fundamental condition that it lays out for us. That we are among those who truly “love God” and are “called according to His purpose”.

You see; this isn’t a promise that just anyone can claim to themselves. It applies to those who truly “love God” in the manner that the Bible teaches. You must enter into a relationship with God the Father through faith in His Son Jesus. A group of people once asked Jesus, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” And Jesus answered and said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 5:28-29). God has no promise of providential “good” for those who do not love Him. For those who are outside of a relationship of love with Him, there is no promise of good. God’s providential promise of good is only for those who love Him; and no one can love Him unless they have placed their faith in God’s only begotten Son.

I hope that you will not leave from this place today until you have made absolutely sure that you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ—God’s Son; and have truly entered into a relationship with Him. Then—and only then—can you claim the promise that “all things work together for good” for yourself; because then—and only then—will you be among those who “love God”, who are “the called according to His purpose”.

Oh; and there’s one more thing we should do about all this. We should put it into practice by giving Him our thanks in “all things”. Because, in Jesus Christ, we truly have solid, substantive reason to do so!