Father, I pray that the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts would be acceptable in your sight. Amen. Amen. Are we thinking today about a great promise, a wonderful promise that is probably familiar to many of us? It’s a memory verse, isn’t it? Romans 828. We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. A wonderful verse precious to many of us. Many of us will cherish this promise that, come what may, God is for us, knowing that he loves us and he works for our good. But there will be others of us who hear this promise and maybe think, where is it? How does it work? How can it be that all things work for good? How can this be said? If. If Paul knew the things that I was going through, how could they all work for good? What does this mean? Different responses to this promise? And let’s just think, first of all, really what this promise means. Many of us, I suspect in this building, will be familiar with the King James version of it. All things work for our good. And this is a good translation of it because our translation has added, God works for good. God works all things for good. That’s a good translation, but it does allow the possibility that it means that things happen to us and that God sort of does the best out of the situation as it arises. But that’s not what it means. That’s not what Paul is saying. Paul is saying that all things are in God’s hands. All things come to us from God, and therefore they work together for our good, which is more comforting and more difficult at the same time. Isn’t it more comforting and more difficult at the same time? We need to remember that this promise comes in the flow of an argument. Theres no major break between this verse and what we heard last week. Last week we were hearing, if you were here, all about the groanings of creation, the groanings that we have as people subject to sin, how we long in hope for things to be renewed. And it’s in that context of groaning and longing and desiring for renewal that Paul says this. The whole creation groans. But we know that all things work for good. We also should just think about what good means there, because it’s quite an open word, isn’t it? There may be all sorts of goods that we want. We might want a Rolls Royce. That isn’t the good. I’m sorry that Paul is talking about. This is not a promise that says that he doesn’t work all things for our roles, but he does work all things for our good, our salvation, that we will achieve, seeing that hope that we long for. And so this is a promise. This is the promise we hold onto in Romans 828, and it raises some questions. We know all about promises, don’t we? An election season, we’ve heard loads of promises. I’m not making a political statement here, but it is true that one thing we know for sure is that not all those promises will come to pass, not because people are trying to dupe us, but because things change, circumstances happen. It is not always possible to do what we say we promised. So when we have this promise from God, can we know it is true? Will circumstances change so that even though God wanted to work all things for good, it would just be too difficult in the end? Well, the answer, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, is no, of course not. And Paul wants to give us evidence in the following verses that that’s the case. In verses 28 to 30 he says, do you know what this promise is true because it was the father’s plan from the beginning. Then in verses 31 to 35, we will see that God’s promise is true for us, because God himself has given his own son. So how could we doubt that he’s for us? Finally, verses 35 to 39 we’ll return to seeing how we live in the groaning with that promise. Let’s turn first to think about verses 28 to 30, how we know this promise is true because it was God’s plan from the beginning. Look with me in verse 30, and those God predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. This is proof, says Paul, that all things will work together for your good. And it’s proof, because before the foundation of the world, before you were born, before you were a twinkle in your mother or father’s eye, before all of that, God had planned for you to be his. Before all the things that change in life, before all our circumstances, he’d planned for you to be his. So how could we not be sorry? That will work for my good. Before the foundation of the world, God had planned you to be his. This is what Paul is saying now. I know that word predestined will probably raise all sorts of questions for us, all sorts of things that we might worry about and be concerned about. I would just ask you this morning to hold those questions. We’re going to return to them in Romans chapter nine, when they’re dealt with much more detail, and we will come back to that in months to come for now, what I want us to see is that Paul is speaking to encourage us, that it’s out of our hands, that God has planned to save us. All our good depends on him. And there’s this great big chain. He goes all the way from the foundation of the world, all the way to our future. Did you notice that in verse 30, those he predestined, he also called, and the very ones he called, he also justified. The very ones he justified, he also glorified. You know, that hasn’t even happened yet. But he’s speaking about it in the past because it’s so sure. Every single one, those very ones he predestined, he will bring to glory. Not one will be lost, not one sheep goes missing, does it? With Christ. 99% is not success for God. Only 100% will do. He glorifies all those whom he has called. And so, of course, all things will work for your good. He says, I don’t know if anybody in this room has been skydiving. You look like a skydiving bunch. I don’t know. We’ve got one. Yeah, we’ve got one. Of course you have. Maybe you’ve done a charity skydive. I have it on authority from a friend. I’ve never done it because I value life. I’ve got authority from a friend that when you go skydiving for charity, the instructor sort of puts their harness on and you. You get strapped to their harness. Very sensible, isn’t it? Because, let’s be honest, if you jump out of a plane, there’s a lot to think about in quite a scary sort of a moment, isn’t it? Never done this before. Better remember is my thing at the ready. Was that too early? Was that too late? How do you land? You know, where should my feet be? A lot to remember, especially when your first response, probably to jumping out of a plane, is, what have I just done? As you fought, it’s good news to be strapped to your instructor, isn’t it? Because he will remember to pull the cord. He will remember how it is that you come into land. Even if you pass out halfway down, even if you scream all the way down, no matter what happens, you know you’re going to come into land because you’re strapped to the instructors. Well, this is what Paul is saying. You will come to land in glory. Why? Because you’re strapped to Christ’s chest. He remembers to pull the cord. He knows exactly how to land. So, brothers and sisters, whether you scream all the way down in life or whether you faint halfway through. It’s in his hands, not yours. So we all things will work together for good. Well, he then moves on to his second point. Starting at verse 31, he says, who can be against us now? If that says that God is able to save us, this is really a question about does he want to? We need God to be willing and able, don’t we? Paul moves on to that now, verse 31. What then should we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Of course, no one. But is God for us? Can I know God is for me today? Verse 32 could be paraphrased a thousand times. Yes, of course you can know. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? If God gave his son for you, there could be no doubt that he will work all other things which are much less important, much less valuable to him. This is not a close run thing. He gave his son for you. We can no longer doubt his will to save us, can we, if he gave his son for you. Are we a house of football supporters here? Any football supporters today? Anybody watch the football yesterday? We got some vigorous nods and we’ve got some very much not nods. It was good news if you didn’t watch it and you’re saving it. This is a spoiler alert. England did win, by the way. But in typical England fashion, those who have watched it down here in the choir will tell you. It was a real nail biter, wasn’t it? It was a real nail biter. We certainly got our value for money in terms of the length. Goodness. We waited all the game for someone to score and then Switzerland scored. And then England thought, oh, well, if you’ve scored, we’ll score. Where was that for the rest of the 90 minutes? They built the tension up, didn’t they? We got through extra time and we arrived at penalties, penalties. Gareth Southgate’s favourite moment. And here we were. It’s tight stuff, isn’t it, in penalties? It’s tight stuff. And we ended up winning by one. One penalty. And that’s close, isn’t it? That’s very close. Penalties are always tight. England won by the skin of their teeth. Genuinely could have been either way. Genuinely could have gone either way the whole time, palms sweating nervously, worrying. And as I was watching that yesterday, I thought about these verses because is there a sense for you that, you know, maybe when christ returns, you, maybe just will get there by the skin of your teeth. You know, maybe you’ll sort of sit there sweating and God will be tossing it up on one side, totting it up on the other, and you’ll be thinking, will I get in? Won’t I? I don’t know. It’s not like that at all. It’s not like that at all because he gave his own son. If God, the judge, gave his own son for you, this is about as close as a game that scored 100 goals in the first minute. It’s absolutely impossible it could go any other way because he gave his son for you. It’s a point worth stressing. This is what paul is stressing here. And so maybe, do you doubt God’s will for you this morning? Because Paul would say, look, you turn away from yourself. It’s not about looking to yourself. It’s about looking to Jesus. And the God who is for you in Christ gave his own son for you. So, of course, as a will, God is able and willing. Well, finally we move to verses 35 to 39. And if Paul has taken, he has asked us to take our eyes off ourselves, to look to God in Christ. And he brings us back down to earth in these verses and says, okay, so how does that work out in the groaning? How does this work out in the day to day? Yes, I can know the character of God in Christ, but how does that work out in my living? And he says, verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword I all these things that can happen in our life, none of these things, he says, can separate us from the love of God in Christ. And to prove it, he says, verse 36, I’m going to quote psalm 44 as it is written. Now let’s just pause for a moment and see if this immediately strikes you as a very clear argument. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ as it is written. I’m going to prove it for your sake. God, we face death all day long. We’re considered as sheep to be slaughtered. There you go. It’s not immediately obvious, is it, how that proves what he’s just said, what he’s doing is this. When Paul talks about a verse from the Old Testament, we really need to look up the whole passage because he’s asking us to bring to mind the whole of that passage. And when we look up psalm 44, we find that it’s a lament, it’s a complaint to God, of God’s people saying to him, God, we have followed you. We are your people. You did wonderful things in the past. Where are you now? We’ve done nothing wrong, and yet we’re suffering. So the psalm ends by saying, rise up, God, and do something about it. It’s quite a striking psalm in that. So what’s the connection here? Well, Paul is saying that as in the days of old, when the psalmist could cry out, God, why am I suffering these things at your hands? Why are these groanings in my life? Where are you? Just as God was with them then, so now we have that same question. We have that same psalm on our lips, don’t we, God, I followed you all my days. Why is such and such happening to me? But, says Paul, we feel like that. But we know God is for us in Christ. We don’t necessarily know all of the connections. We don’t understand what every single thing is working towards. We don’t know how everything is working for our good. But because of God’s character revealed in Christ, we know it is. I’ll tell you the parable of the resistance fighter. You may have heard it. There was once a resistance fighter in a war, and this guy met the leader of the resistance one day, quite by accident. He spent an evening with him, and they chatted into the night. And the resistance fighter really felt like the resistance was in good hands, really trusted this guy, felt like he was really trustworthy. But the leader of the resistance said, under these circumstances, we won’t meet again. We mustn’t meet again, and you must trust me in what happens. Well, over the coming months, the resistance fighter saw lots of reasons to trust the leader. Lots of good things happened. The leader was involved in getting lots of plots uncovered and all these sorts of things. But some further time went on and some things happened he couldn’t explain. It seemed the resistance leader Washington, involved in handing over some of the resistance to the authorities. He couldn’t understand what this was for. Of course, his friends said to him, why are you trusting this guy? Why are you trusting this guy? He said, look, I trust his character. And although I don’t know how all of this will work out in the end, I don’t know during the war how everything will be working for our freedom. But I know he’s trustworthy. And so I know afterwards we will see. Life is like that with God. We know. We know in Christ that he’s willing and able. We can’t doubt that. But appearances aren’t always like that, and we won’t always be able to explain them all. Why do these illnesses come. Why do we lose people? We can’t answer every instance. But we do know that God in Christ is trustworthy, and he is for us and he is able. And all these things work for our good. I’m so pleased we sung psalm 23 earlier, because that psalm really is this verse that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Not because everything’s fine, because what does the last verse say? You have prepared a table for me in the presence of my enemies, isn’t it? At the end, some here will be walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We all will at some point, if not now. But God has prepared for us a table in the presence of our enemies. Not just human enemies. All those things that we groan for, all those things that make us long and wait. But God in Christ has revealed to us that he is for us. So we take this promise and we say, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your love for us in Christ. We pray that we would know this promise is true. Know that you are working all things. And I pray, sustain us through our difficulties, through our groanings, give us hope of glory. Amen.