Sermon Tone Analysis

I Am Not Ashamed: All Things ...

Text: Romans 8:28; Genesis 45:1-8; 50:2

Theme: God had this purpose in mind when He saved us.

No one and no thing can keep Him from His goal—or us from our destiny in Jesus.

Date: 09/18/2016 File name: Romans_2016_24.wpd

ID Number: 218

This morning we’re going to focus like a laser beam on one verse in Romans chapter 8. Ask a Christian to quote any verse from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and this would be the one most likely quoted.

Because God has imputed the righteousness of Christ to us, justifying us in His sight ... because God has sent the Spirit of life to indwell us ... because we no longer are controlled by the sinful nature ... because we’ve been adopted into the family of God ... because of all these things are true in our lives we know.

What do we know?

We know that God has called us and has a purpose for our lives.

And it’s His purpose.

The Apostle asserts that, as believers in Jesus Christ, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that every aspect of our lives is in God’s hands, and we will be divinely used by the Lord not only to manifest His own glory, but also to work out our own ultimate blessing.

I also want to us to look at the life of the Old Testament character Joseph this morning.

His life is the most perfect example of this verse at work.

He was the eleventh son of Jacob, the firstborn of Rachel, and the immediate ancestor of the Hebrew tribes of Manasses and Ephraim.

His life is narrated in Genesis 37-50.

When first introduced to us, Joseph is portrayed as a spoiled brat, constantly capitalizing on his most-favored-son status with daddy.

While his 10 older brothers work, he parades about in an elegant “coat-of-many-colors” given to him by his father Jacob.

When he does spend time with the siblings, he "tattles" to their father about their various misdeeds.

Joseph also is a dreamer.

In his most famous dream, the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bow down to him, a singularly unsubtle hint of the authority that he will one day exert over his family.

Small wonder, therefore, that his brothers come to resent and despise him.

The greatest life-changing event in the Joseph story is, of course, the vengeance his brothers wreck on him.

Determined at first to kill him, they resolve instead to sell him to some Arab traders who just happen to come into view.

The brothers then return to their father, Jacob and tell him that a wild animal has attacked and killed Joseph.

They show him the coat-of-many-colors torn and bloodied.

They then go on with their lives as if nothing has happened.

In time, the Arabs sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt.

Away from his family and among the Gentiles, Joseph grows into greatness.

The spoiled child becomes a disciplined, highly moral man.

Most of you know the story.

Sold to Potiphar, a high-ranking Egyptian military commander, Joseph's talents lead him to become the steward over his master's estate.

In time, Potiphar’s wife repeatedly attempts to seduce him, but Joseph refuses.

She exacts a cruel revenge for his rebuff: She tells her husband that Joseph tried to rape her, and Joseph is incarcerated.

In prison Joseph again emerges as an interpreter of dreams, first those of his fellow prisoners, then of Pharaoh.

Eventually his organizational talents lead to his becoming Viceroy of Egypt — second in authority only after the Pharaoh.

After a lot of bad, life is now good for Joseph.

Three decades after selling their bother into slavery, a terrible famine in Canaan forces Joseph's brothers to come to Egypt to buy food.

They end up at a royal storehouse, where Joseph recognizes them, although they do not recognize him.

He tests them to learn whether they have changed.

Joseph plants his silver goblet among Benjamin's bags.

Benjamin is the youngest of Jacob’s sons.

Reporting that his cup is missing, Joseph has soldiers arrest all 11 brothers, then tells them they can return to Palestine as freemen, and with food, but that they must leave behind the "thief" Benjamin as a prisoner and slave.

The brothers refuse to abandon Benjamin, and Judah asks that he be taken as a slave in his place.

That is when Joseph breaks down, and cries: "I am Joseph your brother."

There is utter shock, but by the end of the story there is also complete reconciliation.

With an extraordinary insight, Joseph tells his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

(Genesis 50:20, ESV).

From Joseph’s experience we lean about the meaning of Romans 8:28.

I. JOSEPH’S LIFE IS AN EXAMPLE THAT “All Things Work ... “

1. when I read the writings of Christians from earlier centuries I am struck by the multitude of references to God’s providence

a. providence simply means that God is active in, and in control of His Creation and orchestrates all things to accomplish His will to His own glory

b.

God providentially works in every single event in our life the “all things” — for our good, and His purpose

2. the Bible teaches us that we can know with certainty that God is in control

a. we don’t hope, or hypothesize

b. we don’t postulate or speculate

c. we don’t toss or turn with anxiety

d. we know that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord

1) believers can walk in confidence and hope, taking God at His word

2) we do not believe in luck or fate or chance

3) there are no blind, impersonal forces at work in human history or human lives

4) all things are brought to pass by the invisible hand of God’s providential workings

3. according to Romans 8:28 All things work, and all things work because God is active in His universe

a. what God creates, He also sustains

"For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."

(Colossians 1:16-17, NASB95)

b. the universe is not only dependent upon God for its origin, it depends upon God for its continuity of existence

ILLUS.

Ever since scientists have split the atom, they’ve wondered, “What hold everything together?”

They really don’t know what holds atomic particles together, but they have a name for it: “The Strong Force.”

The strong nuclear force is one of the four fundamental forces in nature; the other three are gravity, electromagnetism and the weak force.

As its name implies, the strong force is the strongest force of the four.

It is the attractive force that keeps the protons together in a nucleus since by nature of their same electrical charge, they want to repel each other.

If the strong force didn't exist, there would be nothing but hydrogen and neutrons floating in space.

c. the bible tells us what that “strong force is” — it’s God

1) the universe can neither exist nor operate by its own power

2) God upholds all things and holds all things together by His power

A. GOD IS AT WORK THROUGH GENERAL PROVIDENCE

1. all of humanity shares in physical blessings irrespective of their individual relationship with the God of the Bible

" ... your Father who is in heaven; ... causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."

(Matthew 5:45, NASB95)

2. the central point of the Doctrine of Providence is the stress on God’s government of the universe

a.

He rules His creation with absolute sovereignty and authority

1) Sovereign, means sovereign — unrestricted, uncompromised rule, and absolute control

a) God is either sovereign over everything, or he is sovereign over nothing

2) His sovereignty means that not a single molecule anywhere in the universe moves without God’s knowledge or permission

b.

He governs everything that comes to pass, from the greatest to the least

3. nothing ever happens beyond the scope of His sovereign providential rule

a.

His sovereignty extends over nature

1) He makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine

"He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth, And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man’s heart.

The trees of the Lord are full of sap, The cedars of Lebanon which He planted, Where the birds make their nests; The stork has her home in the fir trees."

(Psalm 104:14-17, NKJV)

b.

His sovereignty extends over earthly kingdoms