The Lutheran Hour
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"In Spite of Everything"
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Text: Romans 8:28
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Listen to the sermon by Dr. Hoffmann, originally aired October 14, 1979
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).
Grace, and mercy, and peace to you in Jesus’ Name. Amen!
St. Paul said, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him.” Paul had learned this himself from God. It is just as good today as it was the day it was first written. In spite of everything, God works for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
Indeed, in everything God works for good to those who love Him. As J.B. Phillips translated this passage, he said it this way, “Everything fits into a pattern for good to those who love God.” They do not make it this way. God makes it that way. It is a promise from Him. It is a guarantee from Him. It is God doing His work in the world.
But you might indeed be asking; do you mean, “Everything, really everything?” Does everything fit into a pattern for good to those who love God? That’s hard to believe. Everything includes earthquakes, heart attacks, losses of jobs, ruined lives, and even death. Can those things work for good?
That sounds, I know, as if someone is saying that in every cloud there is a silver lining. It reminds us of other pious statements that suffering builds character. It doesn’t always work that way. Suffering can break people down as well as build them up. Clouds sometimes rain nothing but destruction. It isn’t the suffering and it isn’t the clouds that do it. It is God Who does it, every step of the way, making all things good.
St. Paul said it because he knew God. Anybody who knows God can say it too. It works because God is God. St. Paul said, “I consider that what we suffer in this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed in us.” That’s someone who knows God! He knows God as God wants to be known-in His Son, Jesus Christ. He knows God as God comes to be known through the power of His Spirit.
“Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons and daughters,” said St. Paul. They are no longer slaves and they don’t have to be afraid anymore. They have the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of Christ gives life. It’s absolutely true: “If the Spirit of God, Who raised up Jesus from the dead, lives in you, then He Who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of His Spirit in you.”
Knowing God is knowing Jesus Christ and knowing Jesus Christ is knowing God. It is as simple as that and just as profound. It is knowing that Jesus Christ died by the design of His Father for the sins of the world. It is knowing that Jesus Christ is your personal Savior and also accepting God’s forgiveness for yourself all for the sake of Christ. It is having confidence that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and living by that confidence that Jesus Christ is alive and He is Lord. Don’t say that faith doesn’t make any difference. This is the difference that it makes. Paul says, “We know that in everything God works for good to those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.”
It is not true that there is a beautiful, beneficial side to everything that happens, including the most heinous crimes or the most devastating disasters. That’s not the real world in which we live. Evil is evil, wherever you see it. Suffering is suffering, wherever you have it. Death is death, wherever you experience it. We are not dealing here with illusions, this is the real world.
We are also dealing with faith in God in this real world. When you come to know Jesus Christ, when you walk by faith in Jesus Christ, when you love God as God loves you, and love your neighbor as God loves you, you begin to see things you would never see otherwise. God has a purpose in this world. God has a purpose for you. God has a purpose for all who love Him, who are called according to His good and gracious purpose.
Jesus did not get around evil, He met it head on.
The suffering of Jesus Christ was not play-acting and the death of Jesus was not a sham. When the good we talk about only gets around evil, we are not where Christ was. He took on everything, including suffering and death, with complete confidence in His Father that He cared, and that He always was there in love.
Jesus knew the purpose of God the Father. It was the purpose of His Father that this Son, this wonderful and unique Son of His, should give His life for the life of the world. He should die to pay the price for the sins of the world. He should suffer everything people have had to suffer, all for the sins that He never Himself committed at all. That’s where Jesus was. He did not come just to show us a better world. He did not just dramatize the evil. He took it all into His own heart, as only He could do.
Out of that suffering and death of Jesus Christ has come new life. It is life by faith in Jesus Christ. It is acceptance of forgiveness from God and recognition that life comes only from God. It is following Jesus Christ and walking in His way. Faith and love and courage are all mixed up together. Going with Christ does not get around evil; it goes with Christ right through it all. It is faith in Christ that says, “We know that in everything God works for good to, and for, and with those who love Him, who are called according to that great purpose of His.”
This is not just telling people to look on the brighter side of things. It does not urge them to repress their guilt and deny the reality of life. It doesn’t even tell them to quit grieving over the loss of a loved one. It doesn’t say simply, “Cheer up! It can’t be all that bad!” Really?
Of course, it can be that bad. It can be even worse than you thought. Now there is this to think about, only because of God: “In spite of everything, we know that in everything-God works for good-God works for good to those and with those who love Him.” He does have a purpose, and that purpose is altogether clear: His purpose is life and nothing short of real life. In spite of everything, there is life because God works and continues to work.
Does He do this in spite of everything? Everything? Does everything fit into a pattern for good to those who love God?
The law of sin and death which truly dogs us all is not good. It does more than nip at our heels, it trips us up, it weighs us down, it overwhelms. It does not promise anything good.
Accusation and oppression are evils. Keeping your mind on the things of the flesh does not work out as a good. Worship of self and of things-of anyone or anything above God-is an evil that destroys the human spirit. Because of that people kill and are killed all the time.
As St. Paul said, “The whole creation is subjected to futility, not by its own will but by the will of God Who is going to disclose something glorious in His own good time.” The old order is not good, it is bad. Nothing works out right, because everything is doomed. There is no intrinsic good in tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, or death. Height and depth, along with the principalities and powers of this world can be a potential threat all the time. Because of them people have separated themselves from the love of God.
St. Paul does not tell us to find good in evil. It is evil enough, without trying to find good in it.
But there is God. There is God Who loves and continues to love. There is His Son Jesus Christ the very embodiment of His love. There is the death of Christ, and the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is the striking fact in all of human history. There is nothing like it, and there never will be anything like it: God working in this world.
God works for good to those who love Him. This must be a way of describing people who have come to know Jesus Christ, to trust in Jesus Christ, and to walk in love even as Christ walked and walks in love. People who love God believe in God’s love and they express love themselves, both for God and for their fellow man. Faith works-faith works by love. I did not make that up. Christ’s men said that and they meant every word of it.
It takes faith-real faith in Someone great like Jesus Christ-to accept this: “We know in everything God works for good to those who love Him.” Even that faith comes from God. It is a gift from Him. His Holy Spirit gives faith to people like you and me. When we pray for the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, He gives faith. What could be greater than to believe that there is no evil-nothing at all anywhere, anytime, or in any place-that can cancel out the love of God that He has for you? No matter what happens to anyone who loves God, whether we call it good or bad, God is working His good and gracious purpose nevertheless.
God takes the evil and He works His good purpose in the world. He does it in the lives of people like you and me. The basic ingredients of evil He takes and turns around to a good purpose. His purpose!
Do you know what salt it? It is a blend of sodium and chlorine. Sodium, I’m told, is a metal so unstable that it bursts into flame when exposed to water. Many of us know that chlorine is a deadly gas. When these two substances are combined, they become a part of the essence of life. Your body contains eight ounces of salt. Do you realize what would happen if you lost those eight ounces of salt? The result would be convulsions, paralysis, and death.
You can see God’s salt in the lives of His children, those who love Him. Have faith in Jesus Christ and live by that faith in love. In fact, that is life. God takes the headaches and the heartaches, the sin and the sickness and the suffering, and He goes to work. In spite of everything, everything turns out to fit into a pattern because God in His love wants it to be so.
Even people who know this to be true have their moments when they wonder. Everything is turning out bad. Everything is going wrong. There are times when we are baffled by what is happening to us.
You need not be surprised that there are times when you are baffled. Every waking second of every day three billion impulses are generated in your nervous system. How can you possibly grasp something so complex as that? How can such a thing happen? Why-it is just little old you, without even considering all the billions of people in the world. It doesn’t even take into account the gigantic forces of nature, and the courses of the immense stars out there in the universe. In all of this, God has His purpose. In spite of everything, even when we are baffled by things that happen, God has His great purpose; everything is going to fit into a pattern for good to those who love God.
That is what happened to Jesus Christ when He died on His cross. He rose from the dead. That is what happens to you every day. It will happen to you one day in exactly the same way as it happened to His Son Who died on the cross. In spite of everything it all fits into a pattern for good to those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.
Martin Luther once said that from the vantage point of his later years, he felt that God had led him through life like a blind horse. When you look back at something that did not look very good at the moment, you’ll say, “It certainly turned out well. It turned out just right, in fact. Good for me. I learned a lot.” It reminds us of the words of Jesus, “What I am doing you do not now know, but afterwards you will understand.” It also reminds us of the words of St. Paul, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know even as also I am known.”
One day, the mystery will disappear. Now we live by faith. There is no faith at all, unless it is faith in God that He loves and cares. We know God for sure in His Son, Jesus Christ. He cares enough to forgive and to give life to His people, the ones who love Him.
God’s people love Him. They love because they believe in Him, they trust Him, they follow Him. There is no doubt that His will is good and gracious. God’s people pray, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and they trust Him to do His will as only He can. They trust Him because they trust His Son, Jesus Christ, Who died and rose again. They believe in spite of everything, that everything fits into a pattern for good because God is doing His work in this world, all for those who love Him, for you and me who are called according to His great and wonderful purpose upon which you can depend, as you depend upon the Son of God, even Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer: Lord God, in Your good and gracious purpose for the world, please don’t forget us. In all the things we have to endure, keep us mindful that everything fits into a pattern for good to those who love You. Out of Your great goodness, remove our anxieties and give us faith in Your Son Jesus; forgive our sins for the sake of Your Son Jesus, and give us life with faith in Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Then help us to live in all confidence that in spite of everything-everything will serve Your purpose for those who love You. In the Name of our Savior Jesus we pray. Amen.
Action in Ministry for DATE
Guest: Kurt BuchholzANNOUNCER: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour and this is Action In Ministry. St. Paul wrote “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
SELTZ: Boy, that’s a powerful passage especially, Mark, because it gives such hope and encouragement in all seasons of people’s lives.
ANNOUNCER: Throughout all the seasons of its history the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the LCMS, has been about the work of proclaiming the gospel to people around the world. Lutheran Hour Ministries has produced a new video resource that details some of our church body’s history and development as well as some of its challenges. It’s called We The Church: The Priesthood of All Believers.
SELTZ: One of the featured speakers is the CEO here at Lutheran Hour Ministries, Kurt Buchholz. Kurt, thanks for joining us here.
BUCHHOLZ: Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
SELTZ: Kurt, give us a brief account; some of the highs, great opportunities the LCMS has had in its beginnings and a few highlights of its history.
BUCHHOLZ: Back in 1847 a group of Saxon and German immigrants came to the United States. They were looking for something they did not have from where they came from in the homeland. As I understand it, what they were looking for is a freedom; a freedom to practice what it means to be a Christian in the Lutheran tradition; not just for themselves but also for their mission and ministry; without the undue influence of politics, of social structures trying to manipulate them or use them to some earthly gain.
ANNOUNCER: Nowadays we’ve got around 2 ½ million members…
BUCHHOLZ: Thereabouts, yeah.
ANNOUNCER:…but in recent years it’s been experiencing a decline in membership. Why might that be?
BUCHHOLZ: We need to be looking in two general areas in terms of what might be causing this. I would look to both changes that are happening in society outside the church but we also need to be careful because we don’t like looking inside the church. I think we always have to be looking at inside the church to the way we’re structured, the way we do ministry, the way we engage our communities, so that, ultimately, the Word and the message of salvation comes through loud and clear speaking to the hearts of people where they’re at; not where people used to be; but where they are at today.
SELTZ: Mark, you were talking about decline and sometimes people use statistics to talk about these things in general terms. We even have to be a little bit careful about that as well, right? I mean, when we’re talking about actual averages and things like that because you’ve got to dig down deeper, don’t you?
BUCHHOLZ: Absolutely. We have to be careful because when you go just one layer under there, you realize there’s a lot of really great information there. Because not only do we see the church down the street that may be closing its doors, that may not be successful in reaching its community and serving its community in the day and thus causing that average to decline. On the other side, on the above average side of that decline, we can see examples of churches out there and ministries out there that are being creative, that are taking their solid Lutheran doctrine and engaging a culture in a way that is being blessed by the Holy Spirit, is successful, and people are coming to faith and those churches are growing in dynamic ways.
SELTZ: The study is subtitled The Priesthood of All Believers and I think this is a crucial reality from the Scripture; the church is not only for pastors, the public servants of the Gospel, and also for those who work full time at the church; but also for the laity. All of us need to understand our role in the church; men and women and young people who together we all make up the church. What you’ve been talking about is the church exists to serve. It exists to create those relationships with others to share the Gospel.
BUCHHOLZ: When we talk about the church today, we often fall into the trap of…we assume when I say church, you’re talking about a building, a structure, a budget, a board. You’re talking about maybe Sunday morning worship services and some of the other ministries that our churches have been historically known to do. But I think that we would be well placed as a church to encourage people to first see the Body of Christ around the world; all of those believers, the priesthood of all believers. When they think of the church, it’s the priesthood of all believers spread out in a network around the globe sharing their faith in their daily lives with those that God puts in front of them, those that need to hear a word of salvation.
ANNOUNCER: Kurt, when we think about the challenges, though, that the church faces today; you have the rise of non-Christian religions, you have people falling away from Christianity, you have outright persecution taking place; you might start to think has God stopped working. Is He forgetting about us?
BUCHHOLZ: It is what it’s always been. Maybe it’s a little harder in some scenarios; maybe it’s a little easier. But one thing to remember is looking outside of our own context. We need to remember that today there are more Christians in this world today than at any other time in human history.
SELTZ: So you’re telling me that the story is not over.
BUCHHOLZ: Never over.
SELTZ: Is that right? Well, the story is not over. We’re very thankful to hear about that. Our congregations are still vital and as always they have been the key to the church. Like you’ve been saying, Kurt, God is working through the Spirit and through His Word, and now we have this wonderful resource to help people really engage that, right? So thank you for being here with us and sharing that resource with us and being a part of this ministry together.
BUCHHOLZ: Thank you so much. It’s been fun.
SELTZ: And that today is our Action In Ministry segment to bless, to empower, and to strengthen your life in Christ for others.
ANNOUNCER: Once again, the title of this resource is We the Church: The Priesthood of All Believers. To view or download this content for free, go to lutheranhour.org and click on Action in Ministry. Or call, 1-855-john316. That’s 1-855-564-6316. Our email address is info@lhm.org.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for August 14, 2016
Topic: The Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the SpiritANNOUNCER: Now, we’re back once again with Pastor Gregory Seltz responding to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Today we continue with a question brought up by one of our listeners concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Last week, we talked about the gifts of the Spirit, but this week it’s the fruit of the Spirit. Right off the bat, first question; what’s the difference?
SELTZ: Mark, great question. Last week we talked about how the gifts of the Spirit are special gifts given to different people for unique service to others in the church. Today’s topic is about the fruit of the Holy Spirit that He wants to build into every believer’s life for their own spiritual strength and well being as well as for their empowerment to serve others in the stations of life where they find themselves.
ANNOUNCER: It sounds like this fruit is meant to help everyone be who God has created them to be.
SELTZ: Well said, I would only add that it is God helping you to be the best that you can be so that others will see Him through your life and hopefully, believe.
ANNOUNCER: What is some of this fruit of the Spirit then?
SELTZ: You can find that list in Galatians 5:22 where Paul says the fruit of the Spirit is: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
ANNOUNCER: I would think every Christian would desire and aspire to have these sorts of things.
SELTZ: I agree. This is the fruit that the Spirit wants us to have in our lives in Him for others. But, again, we need to be careful here. We should aspire to these things too but they are gifted to us by the Spirit as well through the Scripture and through the means of grace. They are even to be exercised by our life of prayer and service. But, even here they are not to be sought after as some kind of special level of Christianity. In fact, pride is exactly the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit.
ANNOUNCER: Jesus even talks about this attitude of service in Matthew 6 where he says that “when you give to the needy,” for example, “don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing.”
SELTZ: Good point. He talks about serving in secret. So, when it comes to aspiring to this fruit; that’s the humble spirit that desires that such fruit be used to serve others better. So, in serving, even with the fruit of the Spirit, the goal is that another is blessed because of our work in their lives. The fruit is something to be enjoyed as something graciously gifted to us even as the people we love and serve are to be enjoyed in their own right too.
ANNOUNCER: How might we grow in these benefits of the Spirit?
SELTZ: Again, the place to go is where the Holy Spirit can be received and that’s the Word of God. When we read the Bible, we don’t just grow in knowledge; we receive and grow in the things of Christ by the power of the Spirit. With His Word in our hearts and minds fruit grows in our life, just like a plant or a tree that is properly watered and fed and rooted. Fruit grows when healthy plants are fed.
ANNOUNCER: That touches upon the unique nature of the Bible too, doesn’t it?
SELTZ: It does. The Bible is not a rule book, per se. It is not a book of principles, per se. It is above all, a book about what God has done to create and offer forgiveness, life, and salvation to people who are in bondage to their sin. It is a Spirit-filled book proclaiming real freedom in Jesus. It actually reconciles us to God and empowering us to be people in and by the Holy Spirit who really can begin to serve others the way God has loved and served us!
ANNOUNCER: Even as God is patient and kind, faithful, good, full of joy and love for us, we receive all of that from Him and then begin to share what we’ve been given with those around us.
SELTZ: And we need to remember, that this side of heaven, even as forgiven sinners, there are going to be days when we keep in step with the Spirit and there are going to be days when our sin and pride still get the best of us. When serving others, each day should begin in repentance and faith, and end in repentance and faith.
ANNOUNCER: And each day we should also pray for the Spirit’s fruit and be fed by the Spirit-filled Word of God so that we can get up again the next day and continue to serve others the best that we can by the Spirit’s power.
SELTZ: Exactly. I love the talk about the fruit of the Spirit, because, boy oh boy, would our world be a better place if there were people who were full of this fruit; full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. Like Paul says, “Against such things, there is no Law.”
ANNOUNCER: What a great blessing, this fruit of the Spirit; these gifts that the Holy Spirit wants to build into your life today. Thank you, Pastor Seltz. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Lord, Keep Us Steadfast in Your Word” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Holy Spirit, Light Divine” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)