What I wanted to focus on is the famous passage in verse 28 where the Bible reads,
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,
that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
What I want to preach about today is that subject of all things working together for good to them that love God.
But I want to point out the key to this verse that's often overlooked is the part that says to them that love God.
Now a lot of people just quote that says, hey, all things work together for good.
All things work together, everything happens for a reason.
You know, everything's going to work out in the end.
But here's the truth of the matter.
It's when you love God that everything's going to work out in the end for you.
It's those that love God for whom all things work together for good.
But you see, a lot of people's lives don't work together for good.
A lot of the events that happen to people in this world end in tragedy.
They end in suffering, they end in heartache.
There's not always going to be a happy ending.
But to those who love God and to those who are the called according to his purpose,
the Bible says we know that all things work together for good.
Look at verse 35, the Bible reads,
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
And look, those are not anything that we want to go through.
Nobody wants to go through tribulation.
Nobody wants to go through, you know, hey, if you want to be here for the tribulation,
you hear that nonsense that people say.
But nobody wants to go through tribulation.
Nobody wants to go through persecution.
Nobody says, yes, give me famine.
Let me go without food because there's no food available.
Nobody wants to go through nakedness or be in peril or killed with a sword.
But the Bible says that if you're saved and if you love God and if you're serving God
and you go through these type of things,
you can have the assurance of knowing that all things work together for good to them that love God.
You can know, as it says in verse 37,
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
We can go through these hard things and say we're more than conquerors.
This is all going to work out for good.
There's a reason why this is happening.
There's a reason why I'm going through tribulation or persecution or famine.
And I know that God's going to use it for his glory and it's going to work out for good.
And God's going to bless me and I'm going to end up a conqueror and a victor through it all.
And God always gives us the victory through Christ Jesus, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
But look if you would at 1 Peter chapter number 5.
1 Peter chapter 5 toward the end of the New Testament.
You see, the Bible says that all things work together for good to them that love God.
To them who are the called according to his purpose.
Not to every human being on this planet, but to them that love God.
And then of course he goes on to say, for whom he did foreknow,
for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.
Then he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
While you're turning to 1 Peter 5, let me say this.
A lot of people will twist that doctrine to say, oh God predestinates who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
No.
What God predestined was that those whom he foreknew, what does that mean to foreknow?
God knows the future.
God knows the end from the beginning.
God already knows in his mind every person who ever will be saved.
He already knows.
He already knows who's going to get saved and who's going to be in heaven for all eternity.
And he already knows who's going to be in hell for all eternity.
But that doesn't mean God chose to just damn people to hell against their will.
Just because God knows the future doesn't mean that God controls the future.
Because he doesn't.
We have free will.
We have a choice.
And God said that he predestined that those who would be saved, those who foreknew,
that they would be conformed to the image of his son.
That someday we will be glorified with Christ.
That all things will work together for good.
That we will see that there was a reason for it all to those who love God.
Now the difference between the Calvinist and the one who twists this doctrine of predestination
is the one who says, all things work together for good, period.
That's what the Calvinist thinks.
Well look around the world.
Don't you see a lot of things that are not good in this world?
People go to hell. Is that good? No?
People are dying and starving and being persecuted for no reason at all.
People are going through all kinds of pain and suffering that has no purpose,
that has no meaning, that is not for their good.
It's not for anybody's good.
It just ends in tragedy and misery.
That's not good.
But to those who love God and to those who are on the call according to his purpose,
all things work together for good.
Look at 1 Peter 5 and 6, the Bible reads,
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
But the God of all grace, who hath called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after that you have suffered a while,
make you perfect, established, strengthen, settle you.
So God is telling them that the same afflictions that they're going through
are the same afflictions that their brethren in the world are going through.
And he says the purpose of those afflictions is that after you've suffered a while,
to make you perfect, to establish you, to strengthen you.
Look, everybody wants to be strengthened, everybody wants to be strong.
Nobody says, I want to be weak.
Everybody wants to be established.
Everybody wants to be settled.
Everybody wants to be strong and the power of the Lord and the power of his might.
But you have to suffer for a while to get there.
And some of the bad things that happen in your life are to help get you there,
because if you love God and if you're serving God,
all things work together for good to them that love God.
Go to Proverbs chapter 3.
Proverbs chapter 3 in the Old Testament, right in the middle of the Bible is the book of Proverbs.
Psalms and then Proverbs, that is.
Go to Proverbs chapter 3, the famous verses.
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, the Bible reads,
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.
Here's where people get it wrong.
They just think, well, even if you don't trust in the Lord with all your heart,
even if you do lean on your own understanding,
and even if you don't acknowledge him at all, he's still going to direct your paths.
Is that really true?
No.
And this is where Calvinism is wrong,
and this is where the world's philosophies are wrong.
All things don't work together for good for everybody.
They work together for good to those that love God.
And God doesn't direct everybody's paths.
God directs the paths of those who trust in the Lord with all their heart.
God directs the paths of those who acknowledge him in all their ways.
God directs the paths of those who do not lean unto their own understanding.
But you can't not do any of those things
and just think, oh, God's going to direct my paths anyway.
That's not what the scripture says.
Go to Proverbs 4, verse 18, the next chapter.
He says in verse 18,
But the path of the just,
the path of the just is as the shining light
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is as darkness.
They know not at what they stumble.
So the person who is wicked in this world,
they go through life just stumbling around, bumping into things,
and they don't really know why.
They don't know where they're going.
The Bible says the path of the just is like a shining light.
It shines more and more into the perfect day.
You see, when you're a just person or a righteous person
and you're living your life,
the further you go through life,
you start to understand why things are the way they are.
Like, for example, there have been a lot of bad things
that have happened to me in my life.
And sometimes at the time, I looked up and said,
God, why is this happening?
And I looked at bad circumstances, and I thought to myself,
I cannot think of any reason why this is happening.
This is just a horrible thing that's happening.
But yet, a few years later, I could always,
every time, look back and say, now I see why that happened.
Now I understand what God was doing.
Man, I'm so glad that that happened.
Boy, if that hadn't happened, then X, Y, and Z would have happened.
And so the Bible teaches that as we go through life,
if we're living a righteous and godly life,
it's going to be illuminated more and more.
It's going to be brightened and shining more and more,
and we can understand, okay, I see where I'm going.
I see the direction of the path of my life.
But the wicked person just stumbles through life.
There is no direction.
There is no meaning.
There is no pathway.
They are off the path.
They're in a hedge of thorns.
Look at the book of Psalms.
Just go back one book in the Bible to your left.
Go to Psalm 37, 23.
And I think if you'll understand this sermon,
it'll clear up a lot of confusion that people have
where they think that God just directs everybody's path,
that all things work together for good for everybody,
and that everybody's way is like the shining light.
And that's where a lot of people get confused and say,
I don't understand why this is happening.
Look at Psalm 37, verse 23.
The Bible says,
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
and he delighted his way.
Does that say the steps of every man are ordered by the Lord?
No.
Every man on this earth, his steps are ordered by the Lord.
It's all part of God's plan.
It's all part of God's will.
It's all God directing and guiding.
No, he says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
All ordered by the Lord.
So if you want God to direct your steps,
you better be a good man.
You want God to direct your paths.
You better lean on him and not on your own understanding.
You better trust in the Lord with all your heart.
If you want him to make everything in your life
work together for good,
then you better love God and be the call according to his purpose.
He says in verse 24,
Though he fall, talk about the good man.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down,
for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
So we're not saying that if you're a good person
or a righteous person or a godly person who loves God,
that nothing bad is going to happen to you.
There are going to be times when you fall.
We saw it in Romans 8.
You're going to go through tribulation, peril,
sword, famine, whatever.
But the difference is that it's all going to work together for good.
The difference is that God's going to use it
to establish, strengthen, and settle you.
The difference is that God's going to guide you through it
and direct you through it and lead you through it.
And at the end of it, you'll look back and say,
wow, Jesus led me all the way.
This is exactly what had to happen.
But he didn't say that he would do it for everybody.
He says in verse 23,
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
and his delight is in his way.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down,
for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
Jump down to verse 37.
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright,
for the end of that man is peace.
He didn't say the end of everybody's peace.
He said the end of that man is peace.
But the transgressors shall be destroyed together.
The end of the wicked shall be cut off.
Jump back to Job 23.
Job chapter 23.
Write the four songs of the book of Job.
Job chapter 23, the Bible reads in verse 10.
This is Job speaking.
He knoweth the way that I take.
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Now here's a guy where everything's going bad.
His 10 children all died.
All of his servants have been killed or run off.
All of his wealth has been lost.
All of his money's gone.
And in fact, Job was even covered in boils from head to toe.
And he sat there miserably just scratching at these sores all over his body.
Now you can look at that and say, what reason, what purpose is there
that God would allow someone to go through such pain, such suffering,
such loss, such hardship?
But Job had the faith to say, he knoweth the way that I take.
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held his steps.
His way have I kept and not declined.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
That's how he knew that he was going to come forth as gold.
That's how he knew that God knew the way that he took.
That's how he knew that God was directing his steps, guiding his past.
He knew that the sufferings that he was going through
were part of God's plan and God's will for his life
because he knew he'd been righteous.
He knew he had studied the Word of God.
He knew that he esteemed the words of God's mouth more than his necessary food.
And he knew that there must be a reason for it all
and that it would all work together for good.
And of course it did.
I mean the book of Job has brought comfort to millions and millions of people
who've read the book of Job and thought to themselves,
you know what, I've not gone through anything that bad.
And God had to make it extreme.
He had to send Job through things that were extreme.
Because otherwise people would say,
well yeah, Job had boils all over him, but did he lose a child?
Oh man, yeah he lost a child, yeah he lost money, but did he have boils all over his body?
You know, people would point out and say,
you know, well he didn't go through as bad as I'm going through.
But when you look at the book of Job, he pretty much went through everything.
His wife turned, he had marital problems,
children dying, losing all his money,
his friends turning on him, people accusing him of sin and wrongdoing.
I mean can you think of something that he didn't go through?
I mean he pretty much went through everything.
And he didn't know why, but he said, you know what,
I don't know the way that I take, but God knows the way that I take.
And when I'm tried, I'm going to come forth like gold.
And he, to this day, he is looked at as like gold.
I mean people look at him and they use him as a proverb and say,
you've heard of the patience of Job.
He is held up as an example of a godly man with patience and righteousness
who stood the test of having everything against him.
And yet God got him through it.
And in the end, he even physically recovered.
Oh, I mean he basically had 10 more children.
Obviously that doesn't replace the 10 that he had, but he'll see them in heaven.
He had twice as much wealth.
He had all the friends and all the esteem and everything back.
Why? Because all things work together for good.
That's why, to them that love God.
And that's the key to them that love, not to everybody,
but to them that love God.
Think of Isaac and Rebekah.
You know, it's a story that everybody loves from the Bible
where Isaac is going to get married.
And his father Abraham did not want Isaac to choose from one of the ladies
that were in the land there because they were heathens,
because they were ungodly people.
And so he wanted Isaac to take a wife from his home country
and from their family so that it would be a godly wife for his son Isaac.
He didn't want him to take a heathen wife.
By the way, that's good advice for you young people,
not to marry a heathen, whether you're a male or female.
Do not marry an unbeliever.
You say, oh, well I'll get him saved later.
No, you won't.
You need to make sure that they're saved.
And not only that they're saved, you better make sure that they love God.
And you better make sure that they're serving God.
Or God's not directing their path
and you're hitching your wagon.
Listen, young lady.
You're hitching your wagon onto a vehicle that's not on God's path.
That's where it's going to take you, off-road,
away from where God's plan is for your life.
And so Isaac wanted to have a godly wife
and his father wanted Isaac to have a godly wife.
And so there's this great story where God miraculously guides him
to this exact wonderful wife, Rebekah.
And you remember there are all these signs that take place
and everything like that,
to where God just perfectly matches up Isaac with Rebekah
and it's this love story and they live happily ever after.
And a lot of people, that's what they think.
You know, God's going to do that for me too.
But here's the question, are you Isaac?
Are you Rebekah?
You see, when you go out and live a sinful life,
when you don't love God, when you don't care about church,
when you don't care about reading the Bible,
when you don't care about leaning upon his understanding,
you want to lean upon your own understanding,
and then you say,
oh, God's going to lead me to the right wife,
God's going to lead me to the right husband.
But wait a minute,
are you living a life like Isaac was living?
Are you living a life like Rebekah was living?
Are you acknowledging God in every area of life?
Are you loving God and walking according to his purpose?
Because he may not guide you if you're not.
Because he only promised to guide those that love God.
He only promised to guide those who are living a right to God.
Now look, any time you get married,
you're taking a gamble as it were.
In a sense.
Because, you know, you marry somebody, right?
And you don't necessarily know
what's this person going to be like 10 years from now?
And what's this person going to be like 20 years from now?
What's this person going to be like 30 years from now?
I mean, you don't really know that when you get married, right?
Things can change.
And so you don't know which way things are going to go.
Now, you can also have an influence on that, obviously,
by being a good influence on your spouse,
whether you're the wife or the husband.
The Bible clearly teaches that
lives can be a positive influence on their husband,
and that husbands can be a godly influence on their wife.
But the bottom line is, though,
you don't necessarily know which way things are going to go.
You don't know the future.
You don't know how that person is going to be.
And sometimes there are people who appear to be one thing,
and they're actually something different.
Think about Judas Iscariot.
I mean, Judas Iscariot was a guy who walked the walk,
he talked the talk,
he went out soul winning two by two with the other disciples,
he preached the word,
he was even so trusted that they put Judas Iscariot in charge of the money.
He had the bag, and he held what was put there.
He was the treasurer.
And even at the Last Supper,
when Jesus said,
One of you shall betray me,
they didn't say, Is it Judas?
They said, Is it I?
They suspected themselves before they suspected Judas.
And even when John said, Lord, who is it?
And he said back to John,
Hey, it's the one that I hand the sop to after I've dipped it.
He dips the sop, hands it to Judas,
and says, That's how doest do quickly.
Judas takes the sop, gets up, walks out of the room,
and they still didn't get it.
Because they thought, surely it couldn't be Judas.
So sometimes people are not what they appear to be.
Sometimes people look the part,
but they're not.
That's why you better make sure that God's directing your path.
You better make sure that God's guiding you and leading you.
Or you're going to make a lot of mistakes in life.
You're going to make mistakes in life anyway.
But honestly, I would not,
and this is really where the whole crux of the sermon is,
I would not want to go through life
like the Bible says,
stumbling and not knowing where I'm going.
I mean, just blind,
okay, let me see if I can, you know.
I don't want to go through life like that.
I don't want to go through life just hoping, you know.
I mean, think about all the choices.
You know, marriage is just one choice.
Think about all the other choices about jobs.
You know, you're faced with a few different jobs.
You don't know which one to take.
You're faced with a few different places to live.
You're faced with a few different churches
and you're not sure which church you should go to.
You're faced with this.
You're faced with that.
You know, constantly I'm praying
and just hoping that God will guide me
when I do these things.
You know, I remember one time I changed jobs.
And immediately I realized this was a mistake.
You know, I changed jobs and I loved my old job.
But it just, there wasn't, you know,
I wasn't really going anywhere.
I just couldn't see a future in it.
I felt like I needed to go somewhere
where I was learning more and growing more.
So I switched jobs
and this job was kind of made out to me to be one thing.
Once I got into that job,
it wasn't what it was made out to be.
And so I immediately was thinking,
this is a horrible mistake that I've made.
I have blown it.
And I'd already, you know, I got the new job
and then I moved to that part of town.
So I was kind of locked into that job.
Now I'm far away from the old job, okay?
So I'm thinking, oh man, what have I done?
And I just, I hated that.
And I worked there for a few years
and I hated it the whole time.
I did not like that job.
But you know what?
At that time, I was faithfully outsole winning.
I was faithfully reading the Bible.
I was faithfully going to church.
And it turned out that even though I hated that job
and even though I didn't get paid well at that job,
the things that I learned at that job
ended up being very necessary
to get me a better job in the future.
And so it actually ended up being a huge blessing
because I never would have got the really good job that I liked
if I hadn't gone through that bad job for a few years.
And so I looked at that bad job as, oh man, this is horrible.
This is a big mistake and this is terrible.
But I learned a ton at that job.
And so even though I hated it the whole time
and even though I wasn't making money
and I was struggling financially,
it gave me the tools that I needed.
And so God knew that I was going to need those tools.
God knew I was going to need that.
And so he allowed me to do that
and to go through that job that I didn't like
so that something could work out for good
and that all things could eventually work out for good.
But the difference was that I was serving God.
But see, here's the thing.
When you're not serving God though,
it's just random.
You say, well, I don't believe in randomness.
Everything happens for a reason.
No, there's randomness.
When you don't love God, when you're not serving God,
when you're not trusting in the Lord,
when you're living a worldly and sinful lifestyle,
you're on your own, buddy.
And if not, then God wouldn't have said over and over again,
I'll lead you if.
I'll guide you if.
I'll direct you if.
If you love God.
If you honor me.
If you follow my commandments.
If you do what you're supposed to.
Now look, none of us is perfect.
We all do wrong.
None of us loves God as much as we should.
None of us are leaning upon him fully.
None of us is perfect.
We're all sinful.
But what I'm saying is the more you live for God,
the more you serve God.
I'm not saying bad things aren't going to happen.
I'm not saying that you're not going to fail at things in life.
But you have the assurance of at least knowing
that when you love God, it's all going to work together for good in your life.
It's all going to make sense in the end.
It's all going to be used for God's glory.
But when you're not serving God, when you don't love God,
you just don't have that assurance.
You know, let's say you go out and marry an unbeliever, right?
Well, God's going to take care of it.
It's all going to work out in the end.
God's going to make it work together for good.
No, it might just end in tragedy
because you're not obeying God.
And it's like you're on your own.
Now, if you're doing everything the way God wants you to do it
and you're trying your best to serve God,
then things are going to go well.
But as soon as you just start doing things your way
and you start blowing off church and blowing off God's word
and blowing off His commandments,
you're going out into just an unknown, uncharted territory
of just stumbling through life not knowing where you're going.
And honestly, I would hate to live life that way.
I thank God that we have the Bible to guide us
and that we know that God's going to guide us and direct us
because He's promised over and over again,
just love me, just serve me, and I'll guide and direct you.
And you know, the economy is not good.
And so people are uncertain about their job.
They're uncertain about their financial future.
They don't know which way things are going to go at work.
They don't know which way things are going to go.
I don't know which way things are going to go.
Nobody knows it.
There's a lot of uncertainty right now.
I think that's a word that people hear all the time
when anybody talks about the economy or jobs.
It's always uncertainty.
People are uncertain.
But you know what?
One thing I'm certain of?
My God shall supply all your need
according to His rich name, Lord, by Christ Jesus.
One thing I'm certain of is that
seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
and all these things will be added unto you.
What things? Food and raiment.
What if you don't seek God first?
Is all that stuff going to be added to you?
Maybe not.
Because it's not a guarantee unless you seek first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And so in uncertain times like we're living in,
you ought to be seeking first the kingdom of God,
putting God as number one,
putting the things of God as number one,
serving God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind,
reading your Bible daily,
and studying God's Word.
That way you can put your head on the pillow at night
and say, God's going to lead me.
God's going to direct me.
God's going to add these things unto me.
God's going to guide my path.
But if you're not serving God
and putting Him first and loving Him,
is He going to?
Maybe not.
Now sometimes God's merciful
and He helps us out of our mistakes anyway,
but honestly, He's not obligated to do so.
And a lot of people's lives do end in tragedy.
I've seen a lot of endings.
You know, you go to the movies
and everything's a happy ending, right?
Pretty much almost every Hollywood movie,
every TV show, every little 30-minute sitcom,
at the end, it's a happy resolution.
Everybody's happy.
But that's not the way life is.
In life, there's a lot of people whose life ends
in misery and suffering.
And their marriage ends in catastrophe
and their children grow up and hate them
and say, Mom and Dad, I hate you.
And people grow up and they hate their parents
and they go out and commit wicked sins
that make their parents ashamed.
And in real life, not everything ends in a happy ending
where everybody gets on.
There are people who hate each other
and kill each other in this world.
But if you're saved, it's always going to be a happy ending.
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow,
maybe not a year from now.
And you say, well, but I screwed up some stuff in the past
and so now I'm off path or whatever.
But you know what?
If you'll right now decide to love God
and serve God and acknowledge God,
He'll guide you from here on out.
And He can make things work together for good
in your life from here on out.
It's not too late.
It's never too late to get on the right path.
There are still scars and still damage from the past.
But it's never too late to get on that right path
and have God bless you and use your life in a great way.
You say, prove that in the Bible.
Well, think about a guy like Samson.
You know, Samson's a guy who definitely got off the right path
in his life, big time.
I mean, he's into drinking.
He's into fornication.
He's with the heathen women.
He's not with God's people.
He would not pick a wife from God's people.
He's got to go to the heathen.
And he did all this bad stuff
and he gets to the point where his life is totally messed up
to the point where he's blind and he's grinding
and he's insufferant.
But you know what, though?
God still used him to do what he really wanted to do all along,
get revenge on the Philistines
and to free his people from an oppressive ruler.
And so he brought freedom to the children of Israel
by killing the Philistines,
by bringing down the house and everything.
Now what? He had to suffer.
But it ended up working out for good
because, you know, God was working.
Now, here's what I want to make clear, though.
Go to Genesis chapter 50.
Here's what I want to make clear, though,
because a lot of people, they misunderstand this doctrine.
And they think that when we sin and do wrong,
that somehow God wanted us to sin and do wrong
because it was part of his plan.
Well, I don't believe that.
I don't believe that God is the author of sin.
The Bible says God is not the author of confusion.
So God is not the author and origin of everything in this world.
For example, when you look at Romans 1,
the Bible talks in Romans 1
about people who do a lot of really sick and perverted things.
And in Romans 1 he clearly says
that they do it according to the lusts of their own heart.
God's not the one who dreamed up all this weird stuff
that they do.
And if you look at the Old Testament,
when people would do these human sacrifices,
he said, I never commanded that.
This is what God said.
I never commanded that,
neither entered it into my mind at any time.
So that didn't even enter God's mind.
So God did not author false religion.
God did not author confusion.
God did not author the kind of perversion
that we see in Romans chapter 1.
God is not the author of these abominable things.
But God has created human beings
and even He created angels, Lucifer,
with a free will that causes them to be able to do good or to do evil.
Mankind is the one who has dreamed up the sinful
and abominable things we see in our world.
God is not the author of those things.
So a lot of times we'll commit sin
and then we'll say, oh well,
that was God's will for me to do that
because it worked out.
Good, so and so.
No, that's not the truth.
And I'm going to show you this in Genesis
because for example, there was a lady
who had committed a lot of really wicked sins
in her past life and committed adultery
and done a bunch of other bad stuff.
And she said, well, you know what?
It turned out it was all God's will
so that I could reach out to other people
who had a sinful past
and be a good witness unto them
and get them saved.
See, it was all God's will.
No, it was not God's will for you to commit adultery.
Now I can look at the same thing.
I spent five years as a teenager
going to these ultra liberal NIV preaching
rock and roll type churches
and there was some good that came of that
because at least I learned where they're coming from
and now I know to stay away from it
and I know what's wrong with it
and I know what's wrong with the NIV
and I know what's wrong with the new evangelical movement
because I experienced it firsthand.
But was it God's will for me to be in these bad churches as a teenager?
No.
But look what it says in Genesis 50 verse 20.
But as for you,
this is Joseph talking to his brethren
who threw them into a pit and sold them into slavery.
But as for you, you thought evil against me
but God meant it unto good
to bring the past as it is this day
to save much people alive.
So they meant it for evil
but God meant it for good.
So basically God can take people's sins.
Obviously it's a sin
to throw somebody into a pit and sell them into slavery.
Your own brother.
That's a sin.
Obviously it was wrong
when they nailed Jesus to the cross.
That was wrong.
When they beat him and spat on him and made fun of him,
that was wrong.
They shouldn't have done that.
That was a sinful thing to do.
But did God use it for good?
Did God use the story of Joseph for good?
Absolutely.
He used it to save his brethren's life.
Did God use Jesus dying on the cross for good?
That's how we go to heaven.
That's our salvation.
But that doesn't condone the actions of the people doing it
or saying, well, God made them do that
or it was God's will that they did that.
Wrong.
False doctrine.
You say, well, you're splitting hairs.
Yes, I am splitting hairs because it matters.
It does matter.
You see, when people do sinful and wrong things,
God can use that as part of his plan
and use that for his glory.
But he's also able to use it when we do right.
Like, for example, the false teacher, the false prophet,
maybe you've heard of John Hagee.
Who's ever heard of John Hagee?
He's this famous preacher, TV evangelist guy,
and he's a really famous guy on TV.
And he's this televangelist guy.
This is what he said.
He said, well, the Jews, when they killed Jesus,
he said they were doing the right thing.
Because he said, he said, actually,
Jesus didn't even come to be the Messiah, he said.
Jesus was coming to just die on the cross.
He didn't come to be the Messiah.
So he was the Lamb of God, so they killed him.
Of course they're supposed to kill the Lamb.
They're sacrificing the Lamb.
They were good when they killed Jesus.
That was good when they yelled, crucify him,
because that was all part of God's plan.
Now, that is the most garbage doctrine I've ever heard in my life.
Amen.
John Hagee is an antichrist, because the Bible says,
anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ is antichrist.
Christ means Messiah.
And when you're saying Jesus didn't come to be the Messiah,
Jesus didn't come to be the Christ, you're antichrist.
That's a false doctrine.
No, it was not right when the Jews yelled, crucify him, crucify him.
No, it was not right when they cried out,
his blood be on us and on our children.
That wasn't right.
It wasn't what they were supposed to do.
That was a wicked thing that they did.
Now, God knows the future.
God knows the end from the beginning.
When God created man, he knew he was going to sin.
That doesn't mean he wants him to sin.
It doesn't mean that he forced him to sin.
It just means that he knew he was going to sin.
He knew that man would be wicked.
He knew that Jesus Christ would be rejected.
He knew that he'd be killed.
He prophesied it in advance.
But he is not controlling the actions of wicked people.
That's their own heart.
That's their own sin that has led them that way.
So there's a difference between God's foreknowledge and God controlling events.
These guys throwing their brother in a pit, beating him up.
I mean, imagine doing this to your own brother.
Beating him up, throwing him into a pit, contemplating killing him.
But then they decided instead of killing him,
we're going to sell him into bondage and make some money off the deal.
Now, look down at your Bible in Genesis 50-20.
But as for you, you thought evil against me,
but God meant it unto good to bring the past as it is to stay to save much people alive.
Should his brothers have looked at that and said,
oh, and here I feel bad about that all these years.
I feel bad about that this whole time.
It turns out this was all part of God's plan.
Great. No, wrong.
You're still guilty. You've still done wrong.
Now, obviously, they hear they were sorry.
And there's a turning here in their heart where they say,
hey, we shouldn't have done that. We're sorry.
And then Joseph forgives them.
So obviously, it's time to move forward.
But that doesn't mean that they should have an attitude.
Well, what we did was right because it actually helped them.
See, that's nonsense.
So we don't want to get this doctrine backwards,
but go to one last place and I'll be done.
Hebrews 11.
You see, all things work together for good and then the love God.
Now, who was it that loved God in the story in Genesis?
Was it Joseph's brethren or was it Joseph?
Joseph's brethren didn't love God.
Joseph's brethren are beating up their own brother
and throwing him into a pit and selling him into slavery.
But you know who did love God was Joseph.
So God took the evil intentions of his brothers
and he turned it into good for Joseph.
And he caused Joseph to be blessed by it
and for things to work out well for Joseph.
And then by Joseph being blessed,
other people were blessed.
He saved much people alive, the Bible says.
He was able to save all of his family, all of his friends.
They had to literally bow down on their knees to him
to get the help and come crawling to him.
But it was a blessing to him and to a lot of other people.
So God can use the bad things in our life,
even when people sin against us is what I'm trying to say.
Because you say, well, how is this good?
This guy did this horrible thing to me.
Or this person harmed me in this way.
God can even take other people's sins
and other people's wickedness
and bad things that happen to you at work
and bad things in your family
and bad things in your health.
Hell, God is able to make those things
work together for good in your life.
Even sins that other people commit,
he can make work together for good in your life.
Because the Bible says we know that
all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose.
Look at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32.
The Bible reads,
And what shall I more say for the time
which fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak?
And yes, that's how it's pronounced, Barak, not Barak.
And who's got a self-pronouncing Bible?
Everybody has a little punctuation?
See the little accent on the first syllable?
Everybody see that?
It's Barak.
So, I don't care what the president
pronounces his name, it's not.
It's Barak.
I'm not going to change.
And of Samson and of Jephthah,
of David, or Barry or whatever, Barry Satoro,
of Samson and of Jephthah, of David also,
and of Samuel and of the prophets,
who through faith subdued kingdoms,
wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weakness were made strong,
waxed valiant to fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens,
women received their dead, raised to life again.
So this is talking about a lot of the glory days of the Old Testament,
all people who performed miracles, fought battles,
did great things for God.
But then he says others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance,
that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Now stop with me for one second.
Are there people in this world who've been tortured,
who were not saved?
Are there people in this world who've been tortured to death,
and they were not saved?
Now if you think about the USSR,
the Soviet Union,
I mean they literally tortured to death millions of people.
Do you think they were all saved?
Probably most of them were not saved.
And think about this.
What if you're not saved and you're tortured,
and you're tortured to death in some prison camp somewhere in Russia?
Is that going to work together for good for you?
No, they're tortured to death, and then they went to hell.
And that's where the torture began.
Think about it, my friend.
People in this world have been tortured,
who did not even have Christ as their Savior.
And it meant it did not accomplish anything.
It was vanity.
Look at the next thing he said.
He said others had trial of cruel mockings and scourges.
Had there been people who've been on trial unjustly
and beaten unjustly, who were not saved,
who did not love God, and were not following God?
Yea, moreover, a bond's an imprisonment.
Do you think everybody who's serving an unjust prison term?
Now some people are punished for their crimes
because they actually committed horrible crimes.
But what about innocent people who went to prison?
What about innocent people who were beaten?
What about innocent people who had trial of cruel mockings?
What about innocent people who were tortured?
What about innocent people, verse 37, that were stoned,
that were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword,
that went about in sheepskins and goatskins,
being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
But if they weren't saved, it was meaningless.
And even if they were saved, and they weren't living for God and not serving God,
it might not have worked out for good in their life.
You say, wow, that's really depressing.
It is depressing if you think about it.
You know, not being saved and not serving God is a hopeless condition.
Of course, the two are separate.
You could be saved just by believing on Jesus Christ.
The Bible's clear. The only thing you have to do to be saved,
you know, the question is in the Bible, what must I do to be saved?
They said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Salvation is not of works lest any man should boast.
It's only by faith alone.
But after you're saved, you're supposed to serve God.
You know, you can't lose your salvation, but, you know, you can lose the joy,
and you can lose rewards, and you can lose God directing your path.
You can get off course. You can get off path.
And you see here that there are people here that were tortured and beaten,
and they were saved, and God said it got them a better resurrection.
That means when they're resurrected, they'll get more rewards, more glory.
They'll get more authority to rule and reign with Christ,
and they can look at it and say, man, it was horrible to be tortured.
It was horrible to wander around in sheepskins and goatskins.
It was horrible to be sawn asunder.
It was horrible to be imprisoned.
It was horrible to be mocked and made fun of.
But it all worked together for good.
Because I loved God.
Because I was serving God.
But you know what, if you're not loving God and serving God,
you still might go through the same bad stuff,
except that it just doesn't have any purpose.
It doesn't have any meaning.
You see, there's nobody in this world who just doesn't go through bad things.
Everybody in this world, and let me just wrap it up with this.
Every single person in this world is going to go through hard times.
Every single person in this world is going to go through trials and tribulations.
Every single person in this world is going to experience pain and suffering.
The difference is that when you love God,
and when you're called according to His purpose,
every time you suffer,
and every bad thing that happens on the job,
and every bad thing that happens in your health,
and every bad thing that happens in your family,
and every bad thing that happens to you all along the way,
you know, hey, it's going to work together for good.
But when you're not serving God, when you're backslidden,
when you're worldly, when you're living a sinful life,
and bad things happen, sometimes it's just bad.
It's just bad, period.
And so don't get this idea that, oh, everything works together for good.
No, everything works together for good to them that love God
and to them who are called according to His purpose.
Well, everything happens for a reason.
No, everything happens for a reason when you're serving God.
And I honestly believe, and obviously nobody's perfect,
but I honestly believe that if you truly, in your heart, love God,
and you know whether you love Him or not,
you know whether you love His Word or not,
you know whether you love the truth or not,
if you honestly, in your heart, love God,
and you honestly, in your heart, desire to do what's right,
and you honestly, in your heart, are striving to serve God,
and you are striving to serve Him with your life,
and you honestly are trying to be the person that He wants you to be,
then I believe that God will guide you and direct you
and work circumstances in your life
to where all things will work together for good,
because you love Him, because you're serving Him,
because you're acknowledging Him,
because you are trusting in Him with all your heart
and not leaning on your own understanding.
And so when you go to work and some horrible thing happens at work,
you know what, you don't have to get that upset about it,
because you can say, you know what, there's a reason for this.
God allows that.
Like, you know, the other day, you know, I showed up,
and this is just kind of a dumb example,
but it's just the one that popped into my mind,
but I went to a job the other day,
and, you know, these parts were supposed to be in,
turned out the parts didn't come in,
and it was kind of a bad day.
I'm like, oh great, what am I going to do now?
Well, it turned out that I'd ordered the wrong parts.
So here's the thing,
if the parts wouldn't come in like they were supposed to,
and it was totally someone else's mistake,
it was clearly someone else's mistake,
and I actually ordered one of the parts wrong,
so if the order would have gone through,
I would have been in trouble,
because I made the mistake ordering the parts.
Well, because the person totally dropped the ball
and didn't order the parts,
and they knew it was their fault, it wasn't my fault,
then I was able to say, oh, hey, hold on a second,
here's that order again,
and I was able to put in the order for the right parts,
and everything worked out good,
and I ended up, ended up the right parts
were in stock anyway.
They didn't even have to be ordered.
We were able to drive just a few minutes,
pick up the right parts, get the job done,
and everything was perfect.
But at the beginning of the day, I was like, oh man,
I even said, this is going to be a bad day,
like this is not starting out good.
The parts didn't come in.
How are we going to do the job?
You know, we drive all the way out here,
we're trying to do this work,
we don't have the right parts.
Well, I didn't even order the right parts.
I've gotten one thing wrong,
and you see how it worked out.
Now, it's not always going to work out that fast.
That's why I said that's a poor example.
Sometimes it's going to be years later
when you figure out why those parts didn't come in.
Seriously.
Sometimes it'll be years and years later,
and you'll figure out why things happened the way they did.
Now, sometimes it's cool when it happens like 45 minutes later,
and you see it, but you don't always see it that easily.
But that's just an example.
When bad things happen to you,
and a lot of times my wife even sometimes
will make fun of me for this,
because I'll mess something up,
and then I'll say, oh, well, here's what God was doing.
She's like, no, you messed up.
God's not doing anything.
You messed up.
She's like, you try to blame your mistakes on God.
But sometimes I've messed stuff up,
and it's like God had a purpose in it.
You know, like ordering the wrong thing or whatever.
Because God will help you out for your mistakes
when you love Him.
He'll step in and make it work together for good
when you goof up.
Because we all goof up in our lives.
But you see, when you don't love God,
when you're not serving God,
the word I like to use is you're just going through life freestyle.
You're just freestyle.
And you don't know what's going to happen.
And sometimes things will work out, and sometimes they won't.
So I'd rather go to work,
and when you go to work,
there's a lot of things that can go wrong at work.
You say, why do you use so many work examples?
Because men spend their time at work.
So that's what they think about and talk about.
So basically, there's a lot of things that can go wrong at work.
But I like to at least think to myself,
you know what, it's going to work together.
God's going to work this down for me.
But only if you love Him.
So get that right.
So you want things to work out in your life?
Primarily more important than anything is
love God, trust in the Lord,
seek ye first the kingdom of God,
and if you'll do that,
you can put your head on the pillow.
Even when your whole finances are falling apart,
and everything in your world is falling apart,
you can put your head on the pillow and sleep like a baby.
And say, you know what,
all things are going to work together for good.
Because I love God.
Let's pray our heads in that word of prayer.
Father, please just help us to be able to trust in these promises
and to have the faith to know
that if we love you,
and if we serve you,
and if we trust in you,
and if we seek you first,
and the things of your kingdom,
that we know that all things will work together for good for us.
Help us to believe that promise
and to therefore serve you first and foremost in our lives.
We know you're not guiding everybody.
If you were guiding everybody,
the world would be a much better place
if you were guiding and directing everybody.
We wouldn't live in the madness that we live in.
But at least thank you that you will guide us if we love you.
And so please guide your people this morning.
I believe that most of the people who are here today,
they love you or else they wouldn't even be here.
That's why they've come to church
and that's why they've decided to listen to your word this morning
when there are other things they could be doing.
And so Father, I just pray that you would please just
guide them and direct them.
Every person in our church,
and when bad things happen
and when people do bad things to them,
I pray that you would turn it into good in their life.
Whether it's on the job or in their family
or in their health or any other area,
please just guide and direct all of us because we love you.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.