The Steadfast Love of the Lord

The Steadfast Love of the Lord
Romans 8:28-29

Guest Preacher Dave McDowell

1. God uses all things   Genesis 50:20
2. The Good Produced  Romans 8:29

"We can have an unshakable conviction that everything in our lives will be used by a Sovereign God to complete in us the work which He began when He called us to Himself; that is, to conform us to the image of Christ"

Transcript

spk_1:   0:00
Pastor Geoff: It is my great privilege to introduce Dave McDowell, who was the second pastor of Bethlehem Community Church was graciously joined us here this morning. Will be here for a number of Sundays in this transition time before Andrew, Veronica and the family come. But by way of introduction, I'd like to just kind of read this out for those of you who do not know Dave. So Dave and Gloria McDowell came to BCC two weeks after they got married in 1971 to serve alongside Art and Joanne Gay as Art's associate. Art was the first pastor of Bethlehem Community Church when the Gays left, Dave and Gloria stayed on a B CC, where Dave served for two and 1/2 more years as pastor. These were formative years, and without the incredible positive experience at Bethlehem, the faithful mentoring of Art and Joanne, and the love and acceptance by many of you here this morning, Dave doubts that they would have continued in pastoral ministry. In 1975 they moved to West Point, where Dave was chaplain for five years. They then served for 25 years and senior pastor at College Church in North Hampton, Massachusetts. 10 years at Community Fellowship Church in West Chicago. In the last five years as chaplain at Wheaton College and Graduate School, they have recently started Just A Thought ministry where Dave can use his gifts in  retirement through speaking, writing and mentoring. And Gloria can use hers in Teaching ESL and tutoring. Dave writes a weekly blog at davemcdowell.org and his most recent book and expanded outline, Commentary on the Book of Romans, will be published within the next month. David and Gloria have five children, the oldest having been born at St. Peter's and 10 and 1/2 grandchildren. They just moved from Chicago to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to be close to most of the family. And with that, let's welcome, Dave McDowell!

spk_0:   2:16
Dave McDowell: Thank you, brother. Thanks. Well, good morning. I can hardly see you out there with the lights. What a privilege to be here to bring God's Word to a  congregation - most of you weren't here at that time, but was so influential  you've heard in our lives as young, young, green-horn type people in ministry as I was saying I was 23 years old when I came here, and was the pastor and I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned quickly, and you know, a lot of people who graduated with me from seminary, their first church experiences - it's  extremely important. A lot of them did not remain in ministry because of that first experience. And there's potential there. There's a lot of traps that one can fall into. And if it really weren't for gracious care of you folks here at BCC, I really believe that that we probably would not have stayed in the ministry. I would have gone into teaching. But you were so important. To us in terms of helping us in our new married life as well as, loving us, even though we tripped and fell on a few occasions not morally or anything like this, but just making those greenhorn mistakes that can irritate a church and annoy them. And God was gracious. And so the product, if you will, in many respects of our ministry over the last 48 years in marriage, is because a lot of you here.  So should thank you very much. I will be back next week and Gloria will be with me. This is a quick trip. I have to leave right away. Get back.  Next week, I'll be teaching on  Psalm 73.  And that title is going to be "My Feet had Almost Slipped." So I hope you come and, and say "hi" to my wife, and we'll be back at three or four other occasions from here until Pastor Andrew and his family come in in May.  And I have the privilege of being able to set that up for you, which is going to be great. In fact, the message I'm going to be preaching, God willing, before he comes, the Sunday before he starts, is called "The Danger of Being a Pastor." And I want you to hear that. And that was born out of my own experience. So looking to being able to share that with you.    

spk_0:   5:14
If I were on a desert island -  sometimes I wish I could be, especially when the grandchildren come to visit -  and somehow my Bible was floating in the ocean and everything else was soaking wet and I couldn't read the Scriptures except for one chapter or one book, I would hope it would be the book of Romans. And if in fact that book were so defaced that there was only one chapter readable, I would hope it would be Roman's Chapter 8. And if, in fact, everything else about Romans 8 was destroyed, I would hope that the section from verse, especially 28 through 39 was still intact. And as I would read that particular section and if, in fact, a fish jumped out of the ocean and grabbed that thing out of my hand, I would hope that there would be a little sliver left of Romans Chapter 8 and it would be Romans 8: 28 and 29. Because that's really what I want to talk to you about today. And Romans Chapter 8 is a phenomenal book. I call it a beautiful book. It's a beautiful book, and it is so well laid-out. It begins with Paul talking about the whole concept of the fact that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then he introduces us to the Ministry of the Holy Spirit. And the spirit of God has been given to us -  the spirit of Sonship, the spirit of prayer, the spirit of resurrection. And then, in the latter part of Romans, Chapter 8 verses 18  through the end of the chapter, Paul talks about the steadfast love of the Lord and the security that the believer has in Christ and that nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.   In fact someone, I don't think it was me, but someone summarized the book of Romans Chapter 8 by saying: the chapter begins with no condemnation, it ends with no separation, and in the middle is the Holy Spirit kind of giving reality to both ends of Romans Chapter 8. Now, as I mentioned, I wanted zero in, telescope down, into that little fragment that the fish left me - Romans 8:28 and 29. And this is probably one of the most familiar parts of the entire chapter. And yet I want to look at that very carefully because I think that these two verses are like a diamond set in a setting, a beautiful setting in the rest of Romans Chapter 8 - a setting of emeralds. And there's this diamond set right in there - Romans 8:28 and 29. The Scripture goes like this, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." Two verses, two points. But I'd like you to pray with me first. Father, your Holy Spirit has been given to us to enlighten us, to give us a sensitivity to your word. And I know that the familiarity of Romans 8:28 and 29 might set us up for not listening carefully. And so I pray that your spirit will give us years to hear what you desire us to know and take away so that our discipleship can be more full and complete, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. So the first point of my two points is that God uses all things, not some things, but all things to work together for our good. Now, in the original text, "all things" is the subject of the sentence. All things, the implication is not just a few things work out amidst all the bad stuff that happens to us. Nor does it mean that somehow, all things kind of work together for good, knock on wood or plastic for those who love God. No, no, no. It says all things that a sovereign God, our Father, is unceasingly at work in all things, in order to accomplish His purposes on behalf of His people. Now the Heidelberg Catechism, which is a catechism of the Reformed Church, written in 1563 by two 20-somethings who wanted to create a document to help young people learn more about their faith and is divided into different sections given different topics. And Section 27 is on God's providence, and it says this: that God's providence is His almighty and ever present power, whereby, as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that all things come to us, not by chance, but by his Fatherly hand. You must believe this in order to develop a mature faith.  You must believe that God's purposes are never thwarted by the circumstances of your life or by the evil actions of humanity in this world. You must believe that your loving and caring and sovereign heavenly Father has a purpose even in the midst of the difficulties that you're facing now in your life. What looks senseless to the world is purposeful with God, even though it doesn't seem that way sometimes. And that's one of the reasons, and I know this is gonna sound strange, but it's one of the reasons why you have to be careful how you use Romans 8:28. You should not use it in certain situations. Now, let me explain that for you before you hang me for heresy! When I was 19 years old, my father died. I was a student at Wheaton College at the time and at the viewing, which is in Schenectady, by the way. I grew up in Schenectady and went to Niskayuna High School. We used to play Bethlehem Central in football. But the viewing was in Schenectady, and a gentleman from our church, I went to East Glenville Community Church, it's where I grew up, came up to me, shook my hand and quoted this verse to me, "All things work together for good to those who love God, to those were called according to His purpose." I bristled.  Not because it was wrong, but because it was applied at the wrong time in my life. I could have used something else. I could have even been gently challenged to pursue, to continue to trust God in the midst of the darkness. Like what the old Puritan pastor Thomas Watson once said, "God is to be trusted even when His providences seemed to run contrary to His promises." That would have helped me. But after a while and certainly today, I was and am able to apply Romans 8:28 to my life and even to my dad's death. Again, not because it wasn't true at that time, but because now I have a perspective on how God used that "all things" -  even my father's death - to actually be a way by which he called me into the ministry. Perspective. We can see this perspective thing, but probably most clearly demonstrated in the life of Joseph. You know the story, so I won't go into the detail. But all the abuse and all the suffering, all the rejection and the abandonment and the unjust imprisonment that he suffered, and about 15 years later he stood before his brothers who were a cause of all this, and he forgave them. And he said in Genesis 45, "Don't be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me here before you to preserve life. God sent me here to preserve a remnant. It was not you who sent me here, but God." Now that's quite a perspective!  And then, an even more mature Joseph, even years later, after his father, Jacob, had died in Genesis 50 said this to his brothers, verse 20, "As for you, you meant evil against me. but God meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive." This is the Old Testament parallel to Romans 8: 28: Genesis 50 verse 20. What a perspective that Joseph developed over the years!  At first,  Joseph simply trusted God for what He did not understand. That's important. There are things that happen in our lives that we do not understand. We must trust God at that particular moment for what we do not understand. Hold on to what you do know to be true about God and wait for him to reveal the things that you do not understand about what's happening in your life. And then, just like Joseph, we will begin to gain a perspective and be able to say, even about those darkest moments in our lives, "God works all things together for good." In fact, all of this brings us back to our text and helps us to understand the next point that Paul makes when he used the word "good." And this is my second point. The "good" which is produced by the "all things" does not always mean the most pleasurable things in our lives that make us happy. But it will always be the essential thing to make us more like Jesus. Verse 29: "For those whom He foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that He might be the firstborn - Jesus might be the firstborn - among many brothers." So very simply, the good which God works in all things, is the very reason why He called us and set His love upon us in the first place - to become like His Son, His beloved Son. Now certainly He has a future for us in heaven. We sang about that wonderful future has given us the hope of eternal life. I'm not diminishing any of those things, but we often minimize that the ultimate goal of our salvation is to be conformed to the image of Christ. And that's not just a future thing; that starts right now.  Someday, and boy, I can tell you, in my case this is gonna be hard to believe. But someday, even a guy like me will display the very radiant glory of Jesus Christ, a man who the image of God has been severely defaced because of sin will one day radiate glory of the image of Christ. Just like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, "Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, Adam, so we shall bear the image of the Man of Heaven, Jesus." I love that. And this transformation into the image of Jesus is actually taking place right now, right as you're sitting there. I can't see it because I can't see you because of the lights. But it's taking place right now and maybe even in relationship to your reaction to what I'm saying. It's taking place right now, "For we are all being," Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, "We are all being [present tense] transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." We are being transformed. Now, how is this taking place? Well, let me give you an example. I was gonna bring a slide with me that I totally forgot. So I'm gonna kind of change the illustration. But, the story is told about this city guy from New York City who went up to New Hampshire for a business meeting, and he stopped at one of the country stores in New Hampshire and, he looked behind the counter and he saw this shelf filled with carved dogs. Big dogs, little dogs, fat dogs, skinny dogs, every kind of dog. And he was amazed. He asked the lady behind counter, "Where do you get these from? My little girl just loves dogs, and I'd like to buy a bunch. Where do you get them?" "Oh, we make them right here."  "Do you have a factory?" "No, we have our own woodcarver who sits in the back room and carves these things." And the man's eyes just brightened. And he said, "Do you do you think he would mind if I just went back there and watched him?" "No, he would love that! He likes an audience." And so, the man went back, introduced himself and said, "Go ahead, sir, just do what you're doing and I just want to watch you."  So the man, just carving away,  pieces of wood flying and lo and behold, there's the dog! And the city guy goes, "Listen, I used to do a bit of carving myself when I was a kid, and I'd kind of like to get back to it as a hobby. Do you think you could just kind of give me a hint as to your secret to get me started?" And the man says, "Sure, I'll tell you how to do it completely. You take a good block of wood," and he  showed him. "And you take a very sharp knife," and he showed him. And he said, "Then you cut away everything in the block of wood that doesn't look like a dog." You see, that's exactly what Jesus is doing with us. This is exactly what Romans 8:28 and 29 is all about. That God has taken a good block of wood. That's you. I call you good because He's redeemed you by His blood. You're valuable to him. He's taken a good block of wood and He's taken the circumstances of life which don't always feel real good. And He, even at this moment, is cutting away everything in you that does not look like Jesus. And that hurts sometimes. Remember that illustration. We can have the unshakable conviction that everything in our lives will be used by a Sovereign God to complete in us the work which He began when He called us to Himself, and that is to conform us to the image of Christ. We cannot manage God. You've tried, so have I.  We can only trust Him, and He's the Father who loves us. And yet He's also the sovereign God of the universe who's working out His redemptive purposes for the world - not just us. And it is only the faith born of experience whereby we will learn to glory in the process and not to judge God by certain circumstances. I love that verse in Psalm 119 verse 71 that says, "It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes." So if you're struggling under the knife like I am - many of you know, I've been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. My diagnosis was three years ago. Gone through more than 25 chemo treatments, 21 radiation treatments, surgery. You name it, I've been through it. Still there. It's being maintained. Have blood tests this Friday, to determine. So next Sunday, I'll let you know where it's happening. Determine what's going on.  But I know my life is limited. That's the knife that God's using in my life and has used the last three years. But it's been a wonderful knife. You still got a lot of work yet to do, and yet I don't question His love. I don't question His grace. Instead, I bask in His goodness and in His mercy and in all the richness of life that He has bestowed upon me. Like even the privilege of coming in and preaching here today. You know that passage in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 - another familiar passage - that says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart," that's right. "Do not lean on your understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Wonderful verse. But interesting that a few verses down from that it talks about the fact that we should never despise the discipline of the Lord or refuse his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those whom He loves. Now, the discipline of the Lord is not about punishing us, and that's something when we go through difficult times, that's an important thing that we need to recognize. My cancer is not a result of God's punishment of me, but it is a part of the discipline of the teaching that God wants to use in my life, so that I will trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not unto my own understanding, but in all my ways acknowledge Him and trust that he will direct my paths. And as we trust Him, as we love Him - even through gritted teeth- He forms us to be more and more like Jesus. And what we're going through is often painful process, we can be assured that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases and that nothing will ever separate us from His love. I hope you believe that. Maybe some of you here do not know Jesus as your Savior and Lord. And I just beg of you to consider Christ so that you will be able to see that your life has purpose and meaning that even your suffering is accomplishing something for God's glory that He, by His Holy Spirit, would draw you mysteriously to Himself. I close with a hymn -  I'm not going to sing it- but just a wonderful hymn written in 1774 by William Cowper. And it's called God Moves in a Mysterious Way and has a whole bunch of verses, but there are three in particular:" God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. In the last verse: "Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan His work in vain. But God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain." Let's pray. Gracious Father, we do not deserve the benefits that you have given to us, the benefits that are derived simply through faith in Jesus Christ. We bask in them. We thank You for them. We want to tell You how much we love You. We want to be a church and to be people who are in the process of looking more like Jesus so that others will be drawn to His beauty and that You will do a work in them that You've begun in us. Continue to be with this church, I pray. May it be filled with people who are in the process of looking more and more like Jesus, regardless of what happens in their lives. And we'll give You the praise and the glory for what You're going to accomplish in and through us. In Jesus' name, we pray.  Amen.

spk_1:   30:37
Hi. I'm Geoff Eckstein, one of the pastor's here at Bethlehem Community Church. Welcome to our Sunday podcast, coming to you from the town of Bethlehem in upstate New York in the U. S. A.  Bethlehem Community Church is an independent, non-denominational, Bible based evangelical church that includes people with backgrounds for many denominations. We believe that it is only through the love of the Father, the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on the Cross and the power of the Holy Spirit that we can come into a personal relationship with God. We are people truly seeking a deeper intimacy with God and with one another. If you'd like to know more about our church, please visit our website at www.bccdelmar.org. There, you'll be able to find our statement of faith as well as more about the ministry of Bethlehem Community Church. You'll also be able to submit prayer requests as we're called to pray with and for you. We also would love to hear your story and how you found our podcast and where you're listening from. So please visit our website and send us an email. Again, it's bccdelmar.org. Thank you for joining us as we continue our pursuit of knowing God and making Him known.