Preaching Conference Part 6 By David Cook

At the end of the annual men's convention this year at Katoomba, some friends of ours gathered other speakers with me, Rico Tice was another of our speakers from overseas and some other mutual friends for dinner after the last men's convention.
As we sat around the table and talked about the three weekends of men's convention, various people shared a vivid blessing through the ministry of the men's convention this year.
There was one man sitting opposite me who was in his late 20s, he started out in life not really doing what he had wanted to do but finally he'd got receipt into the University of Sydney School of Medicine and he was going to start the following week his training to be a doctor.
He was so interested in this as an outflow of his Christian ministry he had been visiting
along with the Anglican chaplain at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney and as we sat
there and he talked and shared about the blessing from a men's convention starting out in his
new education experience and then finally hopefully becoming a doctor.
Little did we know that within 24 hours he would lie dead, stabbed to death in a park
in inner city.
This past week we've heard various people being bludgeoned or murdered in Sydney.
When I here wake up in the morning and hear of someone else who's been killed I simply
add them all together and divide by 37, 37 people were killed that one day at the Port
Arthur massacre.
Divide all the deaths we have in Sydney, all the murders we have in Sydney by 37 and you'll
come up with a figure that every year in the city of Sydney there are three or four Port
Arthurs every year.
There was an enormous outcry about dreadful tragedy in Port Arthur but in Sydney it's
one and two here and another one here and another one here and we don't notice but it
all accumulates and that weekend it really brought it home to me because one of them
was not just a number but it was a person with a name, Simon.
A birth that's normal, healthy, a birth that's abnormal, a marriage that goes on and on happily,
a marriage that for some reason has cut short, a ministry that seems to go from triumph to
triumph without any trouble, a ministry that seems to lurch from crisis to crisis, a life
that's fortunate, trial free and a life that's full of trials.
Simon wrote this, the world rolls round forever like a mill.
It grinds out life and death and good and ill.
It has no purpose, heart or mind or will.
Is that so?
Is there any meaning to this mess?
Is it just chaos around?
Is it where the lotto ball in life falls upon us?
Is that the way it is?
Well open your Bibles there if you would please to Romans chapter 8 because Paul answers this
question, is there meaning to this mess?
Is there any meaning here?
I notice that as he comes to the end of Romans chapter 7 we are left with two questions.
He says, I often find myself not doing the very things I want to be doing and he has
two questions as he comes to the end of chapter 7.
Number one, is our poor performance as Christians going to in the end condemn us?
And two, in this rather unequal struggle between the flesh and the spirit, does God leave us
without final resources?
And Paul's answer to both those questions is first, are we going to be condemned by
our own performance?
Look at verse 1 of chapter 8.
There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
And the answer to the question, well is there any resource for us as we struggle against
the flesh in our Christian walk?
And the answer the Apostle Paul gives in Romans chapter 8 by making more references in this
one chapter that there's a person of the Holy Spirit than in all the rest of the book, is
that God has not left us without resources, rather he has given us his Holy Spirit.
Look at verse 9 for example, you however he says are controlled not by the sinful nature
but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you and if anyone does not have the Spirit
of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
Now this is greatly encouraging for us because you'll see in verse 11 that part of the Holy
Spirit's ministry within us is to breathe life into these alien bodies of ours and if
the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ
from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you.
And another part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is that he reminds us that we are
the children of God.
Look at verse 15, you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear but you
received the Spirit of sonship and by him we cry, Abba Father.
This Spirit who lives in me, the Spirit who lives in you, the Spirit who raised Jesus
from the dead is the one who reminds us that we are the sons and daughters, that we are
the children of God and if we are children of God then that means that we have an inheritance.
If you are someone's child today, you have an inheritance and so Paul goes on in verse
17 and he says, if we are children then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with
Christ if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may share in his glory.
Not are we going to have a share of things, we are going to have the whole inheritance
along with Jesus.
I have two older sisters, I'm going to enter into an inheritance one day.
I'm going to share it one third for each of the siblings but notice here to be a co-heir
with Christ means that he inherits 100% and every one of us share with him 100% as well.
That is our inheritance, that is our great hope as we look to the future day.
Notice that the Apostle Paul is very realistic here because he asks the question, what is
our present experience as we wait for our hope to be fulfilled?
And he comes up with this answer by the inspiration of God from verse 18, our present experience
is one of suffering.
In fact like all of creation, verse 21, creation itself will be liberated from its bondage
to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know verse 22 that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth
right up to the present time.
Creation is sick and tired of it, it's being generated, getting old, dying, being generated
again, getting old, dying, being generated again, getting old, dying.
Creation is groaning, waiting for the day that Christ will return.
But the Apostle Paul not only says creation is groaning, verse 23, our experience, we
ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we inwardly groan inwardly as we wait
eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
We're living outside the garden of Eden.
We get sick and tired don't we of seeing our middle-aged ones eaten by disease, our young
ones cut down by accident, our old ones dying of old age and through the tears of grief
we groan, verse 23, come Lord Jesus and bring us into our inheritance.
And sometimes things become so complex, verse 26, that we do not even know how to pray.
But the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
We don't know what we ought to pray, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that
words cannot express.
What's our present experience?
Creation groans, we believe as groan, the Spirit groans and breathes out prayers to
God the Father that are acceptable to Him.
And then the Apostle Paul comes to these few verses that we're going to look at tonight
in verse 28 and notice how he introduces it, and we know.
When Paul comes in the letter to the Romans to a crowning certainty, that's how he starts
the certainty, and we know.
What do we know?
That chaos rules, that there is no meaning to this mess, that we groan as things happen
to us and happen to our loved ones?
We know, he says, and we know that in all things, God works for the good.
In what things?
Well he talks about them, doesn't he?
In suffering, in decay.
Look at verse 35.
God is at work in trouble, in hardship, in persecution, in famine, in nakedness, in danger
and sword.
God is at work.
In all of those things.
It's incredible truth, isn't it, that the Apostle Paul is talking about here.
Notice what he says, in all things, God works.
He doesn't say that all things have a way of working out.
That's not what he's saying.
He's saying that in everything that happens, God is personally working things out for our
good.
Now, he qualifies, notice this, in two ways, and the first qualification is this, those
for whom God thus works.
See, the principle is that in everything that happens, God is working out his purpose.
We had my maternal grandmother with me at one stage and she was a Christian scientist
and when anything went wrong, she would run around and say, everything will be alright,
God is good, God is good, everything will work out.
That's this incredible thinking of the world, isn't it, that somehow everything will just
work out.
When my son was in year 10, the year 10 history teacher sent home a note from school.
She decided that all of her class would go and see Russell Crowe in the gladiator.
I think she just wanted half a day off school and the note came home, we gave permission
and went back.
That weekend, the headmaster of the school went to see gladiator and on Monday a contrary
note came home.
No boy would be going to see gladiator in the uniform of the school and in the name
of the school because the headmaster said he'd been to see it on the weekend and it
was far too realistic for a year 10 audience.
So I thought, boy, I'd better go and see this.
So I went and saw it and I think it was one of the most unreal nervous I've ever seen.
Do you remember the scenes when Russell Crowe, at every point in which he thinks he's about
to die, he has a vision, he has a vision of a beautiful garden and a lovely garden gate
and just as he thinks he's about to die he's going to be ushered through that garden gate
to be reunited with his loved ones.
That's what death's going to be like and yet we know as believers that death is paradise
because of the death and resurrection of Jesus and yet the world, like the producers of gladiator
think, that they can have the paradise of death and ignore the death and resurrection
of Jesus.
As though I can have my prayers answered, everything works out for good, death is fine
but I can totally ignore the Lord Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.
That's unreal and the Apostle Paul knows how unreal that is so that what he does is he
actually surrounds the principle that in all things God works for good by a description
of those for whom God thus works.
It's in the original language in which Paul wrote, the order is like this.
He describes those for whom God thus works from a human point of view, then he tells
us the principle that for them God works in all things for good, then he describes us
from God's point of view so it's like a hamburger or a sandwich.
It's such a precious principle that in everything God is working for our good that Paul wants
us to know that it is a limited principle, it just doesn't apply to everyone.
Now notice he describes them from the human point of view.
Look at verse 28, those who love him, for those who love God, for those who recognise
his love for them and reciprocate that love back, for those ones the Apostle Paul says
God works for their good in all things but then he follows this notice in verse 28 with
a description of us from God's point of view, that is those who have been called according
to his purpose and that's how we know we're believers because God's taken the initiative.
God has called us out to make us his own and so the Apostle Paul under the inspiration
of God is showing us what a precious great truth this is.
He will not have it watered down as though this is a truth that applies to everyone.
No, he shows us this truth sandwiched as it were between the description of those for
whom it is true.
Now notice here that the ultimate ground of our salvation is there in verse 28.
I know that I am his because he has called me out.
He has spoken to me.
I have heard the Gospel and I have heard his voice addressing me and saying come to repentance,
come to faith and it's because I've been called by God he has taken the initiative
and made me his own that I know now that in all things in my life God is at work for good.
It is the greatest privilege.
Now there may well be some here tonight who think but I wish I had that privilege.
I don't know whether God has called me.
You come to him and you'll know that he's called you because you cannot come to him
unless he has called you.
If you love him tonight, if you've come to put your confidence in Jesus tonight then
you know that God has called you because you couldn't do that unless he had called you
out and he's calling you out because nothing happens by accident and your being here tonight
is no accident.
God is saying come, leave the chaos behind, leave the misery behind and know my care in
all situations.
Those who love me and are called according to his purpose, for them God works in all
things for good.
Now the second qualifier comes in verse 29 because you can respond to that and say well
I can't see the good.
I mean if God promises me health, I know Christians who've died young, if God promises me wealth
well look around how many of us here are wealthy.
If the good is health and wealth I may well doubt God's purpose.
But look at what he says in verse 29.
So he qualifies now and tells us what the good is.
He takes us to eternity past for those God foreknew.
That is even before your great great grandparents lived on this planet, God knew you and it's
because he knew you down through the generations and he knew that he would call you that you
could come to know him.
So to eternity past, those whom God foreknew, he then takes us into eternity future.
He predestined, he gave them a destiny and what is the destiny that he set upon those
who had yet even to be born?
That they should be, look at the verse 29, conformed to the likeness of his Son.
That is the good, that we should be part of a family of God and God is building a family
to be just like his Lord Jesus and in everything God is working for my good to make me more
and more like Jesus.
Not necessarily healthy, not necessarily wealthy, but always to make me more like Christ.
So we sing that chorus don't we, Lord make me like you, please make me like you, you
are a servant, make me one too, Lord I am willing do what you must do, just make me
like you Lord, please make me like you.
And it's entirely consistent with God's purpose with saying God do what you say you'll do.
You said that you've called me out, you said that you've foreknown me, you said that you've
predestined me, now everything in my life I can look back on and see how you've ordered
all things to bring me to Christ and now since I've come to Christ you are ordering all things
to make me like Christ.
And right now in the midst of pain I mightn't be able to see that, but I can look back on
my life before I became a Christian in 1967 and see how God ordered all the circumstances
to bring me to know his son Jesus and I can look back through painful issues in my life
over these past 30 years as a Christian, things I couldn't understand then but I can understand
and see his hand now, making me more like Jesus and I can look to the future and trust
him that everything that is going to happen to me ultimately is designed by him to make
me more like Jesus. And look at what he says about Jesus there in verse 29, to be conformed
to the likeness of his son so that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers, so that
Jesus might be the distinct, the unique son and yet he is our brother. He is the firstborn
in the family and we are all growing to be like him. He identifies with us as our older
brother. God is working in all things to make us like him. Now let me just read verse 28
and 29 and you follow and I'm just going to read it in the order in which Paul writes
it in the original Greek language. This is what he says. And we know that for those who
love God, God works in all things for their good. That is to those who have been called
according to God's purpose. They're the ones. For those whom God foreknew, he gave a destiny
that they should be conformed to the image of his son. So that absolutely everything
that comes to me is designed to bring me to Christ, then to make me like Christ. When
I went out to our first parish in the northwest of the state to Weowool, we used to end our
meetings on a Sunday morning by singing a magnificent chorus. So as people left the
church building, we left with these words sharply on our mind, to be like Jesus. This
is my aim, my creed, to be like Jesus, his spirit helping me like him I'll be. And that's
God's great agenda item for us. The agenda item for the rest of your life, here it is.
Point one, to be like Jesus. Point two, to be like Jesus. That is what God is working
towards. You know in the Bible we see Jesus as a prophet, priest and a king. It's called
the threefold office of Jesus by theologians. It simply means this, that Jesus is a prophet,
he speaks forth the word of God and tells us about God. He's a priest, that is he prays
for us to God and he's a king. He rules over all things. And what the important thing about
that is, apart from telling us about Jesus, it tells us a lot about us. Because it means
that if you are a believer, you are a prophet, you are a priest and you are a king. You see
if Jesus was a prophet telling forth the word of God, we all of us have a prophetic ministry
too, to speak forth God's word. We have a priestly ministry, we can pray and know that
as we come to God through Jesus, God hears us. But we don't emphasise so much do we,
that we have a kingly ministry, that we rule. Jesus rules over all things and because of
his rule, you rule over all things. You are spiritual kings. There is nothing that is
going to come into your experience over which you do not rule. There is nothing that can
come your way which is bad for your soul's health. There is nothing that can come to
you which is able to separate you from God's love. Because Jesus rules, you rule. Because
he's a prophet, you're a prophet. Because he's a priest, you're a priest. Because he's
the king. Then you reign over all the events of life and they are there for your good.
I said earlier today that we have neighbours around our college who are working against
us because we're trying to put a new building up on our campus. And the last time we tried
to do that, one of those neighbours rang me up late at night and through gritted feet
he said, I want you to know I will fight you with my dying breath. I thought to myself,
you will do precisely what God intends you to do for my good. I didn't say that to him.
It would have been very frustrating to him. Very comforting for me that he does his worst
and it is exactly what God intends to come to me for my good. There is benefit for our
soul's health in all things. How can you be sure? How do you know? See how Paul anticipates
our questions. How do you know? How do you know that something can't come along that
can separate you from God? Look at what he says there in verse 30. And those he predestined
he called and those he called he justified and those he justified he glorified. It is
as sure as the purposes of God that this purpose will be fulfilled. Just, he says, look at
what he says here. Just as God predestined you, just as God called you out when you heard
the Gospel, just as God set you right with him and declared you righteous in justification
and glorification which is yet to happen when the Lord Jesus returns or when you die, glorification
is yet future. Paul puts it in the past tense. It is as sure as if it had already happened
he says. In other words, you can be sure that this will happen, that nothing can separate
us from God's love, that God is at work in all things for our good. You can be sure as
the purposes of God being fulfilled. When we drove into our first parish we noticed
a house being renovated on our left. In place of a front door it had a thick blue plastic
sheet. Six years later we drove out of town for the last time, we look now to the right
and saw this house still being renovated but in place of the blue plastic front door it
now had a thick yellow plastic sheet where the front door should be. Can you imagine
what it was like every Saturday morning? The wife waking up and saying to her husband,
are you going to fix the door today? I don't know if he's done it even yet. You can probably
identify things around your place. Oh, I started that but I haven't finished it yet. What the
Apostle Paul says in verse 30 is that what God starts in you by calling you out to himself,
you can be sure he's going to finish it. What God starts he finishes and you will stand
before him perfect because what he begins he will bring to a conclusion. You say, wait
on, this sounds awfully fatalistic to me. Certainly if I go out of here tonight, perish
the thought and I go to my car and my car's been stolen. Are you telling me now that God
approves of car theft, that it's all right? I'm not telling you that. I'm saying that
any form of theft is against the revealed will of God but what I am saying is this,
that God is so in charge he superintends all things that even an evil act like stealing
a car will not frustrate his purpose. If God could use the evil Assyrians and the evil
Babylonians and if he could use the evil means of the cross to save the world then
he can superintend the theft of your car in order to bring great good if he can use the
cross in the way he did. It may well be against the revealed will of God but God will establish
it for his sovereign purpose. When I was in parish I used to teach scripture at a girl's
school, primary school. In those days there were three terms in a year. In the middle
term we used to read a book together and one of the favourite books that I'd distribute
to the class and then we'd read through was that book about that 16 year old young girl
who in the United States dives into that lake, hits her head and floats to the surface now
aware that she is totally unable to move her limbs. Her name was Jonny Erickson and
she writes her story under the title Jonny but there is a moment when she is writing
her story where she says this, I now realise that God allows what he hates to achieve what
he loves. God hates quadriplegia but in the case of Jonny it was that very quadriplegia,
that accident that God used as the means of bringing her to eternal health to know
the Lord Jesus himself. God uses what he hates in order to establish, to achieve what he
loves. Now see what the Apostle Paul goes on to answer here. He asks four questions
and he asks are any of these things likely to hinder God's purpose? Is God really in
charge? Look at verse 31. Is there a strong enough enemy that can frustrate the purpose
of God? What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us who can be against
us? No enemy can effectively oppose God. Look at verse 33. Is there a cleverer enough accuser
to stand before God's court and argue against us? Who will bring any charge against God,
those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. He is the judge. No one can bring an argument
that's going to persuade him against us. Look at verse 34. Is there anybody authoritative
enough to accuse us? Who is he that condemns Christ Jesus who died more than that, who
was raised to life? He's at the right hand of God and he's interceding for us. If Jesus
is there speaking for you, who do you think is going to have authority enough to condemn
you if Christ is speaking for you? And finally he says in verse 35. Is there any catastrophe
that can come along? Trouble, hardship, famine, nakedness, sword? No 37 he says. In all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able
to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Brothers and sisters
this is great truth. This is our birthright. This is our truth. If you love God and you
know you've been called according to his purpose. I'll tell you why this is so important
for you to know because here is the source of true contentment. How is it in life with
you? When things go well we tend to become proud at what we have achieved. When things
go badly we tend to doubt God's goodness and sovereignty and sometimes we oscillate between
pride on the one hand and doubt on the other. But it's only firmly grasping this truth that
God is sovereign, that God is working all things out according to his purpose which
keeps my life on an even keel. It delivers me from self-righteous pride and it delivers
me from self-focused doubt. God is sovereign. And what about when suffering comes my way?
Why me? There's great lessons here for us aren't there? I can remember when I turned
50 I decided I'd go and join the gym. I chose my gym well. I got down to the gym and there
was a man who ran our local gym called Vios Alexios. He was as wide as he was tall. He
was Greek. He had muscles like I have never seen before. He said to me, David we will
have a test to test your fitness. He tested my fitness. He said, what is your goal in
coming to the gym? I said, I want to have biceps like yours Vios. And he rated me from
good down to very poor and I came out at very poor and so he started to work lifting weights
etc. So much so that if I undid my shirt now you would be amazed at the rippling six
pack that's here on me now. But Vios basically said this to me, you want to build muscle?
This is how you build muscle. You get weights and you build muscle. You tear muscle. And
then two days later you build more. You tear more muscle. Two days later you tear more.
You tear more muscle. It means you take it easy. You gradually tear muscle a bit here,
a bit there and you keep on tearing it and then you have these enormous biceps. And the
same applies spiritually. You come upon relatively minor disappointments in life. I wanted more
marks for that essay than I got but you didn't get them. I was hoping that relationship might
lead to something but it didn't. In the small disappointments of life learn to build
spiritual muscle so that when you're sitting on the other side of the doctor's desk and he said
I'm afraid I've got bad news then you've built muscle up. You're ready for the really big
confronting events of life but learn to give thanks now for those small disappointments so
that when the big ones come you've built spiritual muscle. And isn't this, aren't these verses
from 28 to 30 the basis of our praying? That God is the sovereign God who calls people out
to know him. I've got members of my wider family who don't know the Lord Jesus. If I believed
that it was simply their stubbornness or their ability to understand I would pray to them.
But I don't pray to them that they'll come to know God. I pray to God because I know that if
they are to come to know him he is the great evangelist. He is the one who must call them
out to know him. If you don't think that God is sovereign in salvation then pray to people
because they must be sovereign in salvation. But God is sovereign and so we address all our
prayer to him. And the other thing I notice here is that this is terribly humbling because I could
not know God unless God called me out to know him. I was reading a book recently and it was
a book on grace, can you believe it? And the author was saying this, if there's a thousand steps
between us and God, God takes every one of those steps but the last one. You must take the last
step. And that quote has been quoted everywhere. This is a brilliant author and this is what he
says all about grace. Isn't that incredible? That God almost bridged the gap between us
and him. That when I get to heaven the spotlight will be on Jesus for the 999 steps and upon
me for the last one. Good on you. That I actually do have something to contribute. I do have
something to boast about. It is nonsense. The incredible truth according to these verses
is that God has bridged the gap totally. He has done it all on our behalf and without his call
and without him for knowing me and without him giving me a predestiny I could never have known
him. But what's the great comfort in that? Because my salvation is all of him and therefore
I can be sure that I'll be sustained because he is the one who finishes what he has begun.
It's not a matter of forever I'll love you so forever I'll stand. Forever he'll love me so
forever I'll stand. What a great privilege it is to know this truth. What a misery it is not to
know this truth. A friend of mine was for many years in Presbyterian ministry. He drove
all those years a second hand Holden and then he and his wife actually got together enough
money to buy a new Holden Kingswood. It was to be their pride and joy, their new car.
He finally got enough, he went down, he brought the car home, a brand new Holden Kingswood.
Never ridden before, his own not second hand. He had a number of daughters, had one son,
his son was Waywood. His son said to him that night, Dad can I have the keys of the car
and put it out on the country roads? He gave the key to his son and out he went in the
brand new Kingswood. Two hours later the phone rang, Dad I've put the car around the tree,
I think I've written it off. What does the father say to his son at that moment? The
Waywood son of his prayers at that moment. You didn't know what that come. He said son
are you alright? I'll come and get you. Today that son is in full time Christian ministry.
He was so overwhelmed he knew what that car meant to his father but he was so overwhelmed
that he meant more to his father in all his waywoodness than that car meant to him. God
is at work in all things to bring us to Christ and then to make us more like Christ. It is
impossible for you to claim the truth of verse 28 tonight if you do not love God. It's not
your truth. You are still subject to chance, to chaos but if you do love God what misery
it is not to notice that this truth is your truth. It is your birthright that everything
that meets you, everything that is said to you, everything that the future holds is for
my soul's ultimate health that God will bring me to glory. In our first parish we had a
mother there who had four children along with her husband and every day she'd walk her
children out of the house to the school bus and they'd travel 10 kilometres into town
and every day she'd relieve all her children with the same departure message. She'd give
them all a kiss and she'd say remember who you are. Kiss, remember who you are. Tim,
remember who you are. Sarah, remember who you are. Jim, remember who you are. Lucy,
remember who you are and they'd go to school thinking who am I? You are children of the
King. You go out today as rulers over all things. This is your birthright. What misery
not to know it. What privilege by grace it is to know it. Let's pray.
How we worship you our sovereign Heavenly Father, the Good Shepherd of his sheep. How privileged
we are not because we deserve it but contrary to our deserving to be sheep in your flock.
Even before we had established any track record you knew us, you predestined us, you called
us, you therefore in time justified us and one day you will bring us to glory. How we
thank you our Heavenly Father that in Christ's name we rule over all things so that nothing
can separate us from your love. Please fill us with that assurance, with contentment and
joy as we leave here tonight that this is our birthright by grace through faith. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.