In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the reality of God's truth in a person's life. He explains that simply memorizing and preaching a sermon does not guarantee the same level of reality as someone who has experienced God's work in their life over time. The speaker highlights the significance of being conformed to the image of Christ and how it benefits believers. He also emphasizes the need for believers to align their ultimate purpose with God's purpose, warning that a lack of focus on God's purpose can lead to darkness and misery.

The Bible to Romans chapter 8, verse 28, Romans 8, 28, one of the greatest passages that gives strength to the heart of a believer. It says, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things, if God is for us, who is against us? This passage on the sovereignty of God is most often preached with regard to salvation, that God is absolutely sovereign in salvation, that he who began a good work in us will perfect it. We hold on to that confidence. This passage is also used during times of trial to say that all things that come against us are within and under the sovereignty of God, and it is according to his predetermined plan. We also understand from this passage that the purpose of everything God does in our life is not earthly comfort, not temporal pleasure, not security or insurance, as it is known by carnal men. But the purpose of all things that God does in our lives is to conform us to the image of his son, Jesus Christ, that he will do whatever necessary to make his children like his son. And that is his primary purpose. Now, there is another way in which this scripture applies, and it is very rarely seen. The direct relationship is very, very rarely expounded upon. I believe that this text is one of the most important texts in the Bible with regard to marriage, with regard to marriage. Brother Jeff, after praying a great deal and seeking the will of God and what's so amazing is I doing the same along with other men come to the conclusion that on Wednesday night we would deal with family, everything from marriage to children, to courtship, to being a young man, a young woman, an old man, an old woman, everything that has to deal with the Christian life in the context of the family. And so we're going to start off this evening with this passage, which I believe is one of the most important passages in the Bible with regard to marriage. Now, there's something very important here in verse 28, and we know most people cannot claim that knowledge. Even most people who identify themselves with the Christian faith and bear fruit. There are few people who have actually come to grips with this, that they know without a shadow of a doubt. They know with a certainty that cannot be conquered by doubt. They know that God causes absolutely everything to work together for their good. Absolutely everything. I have heard one old saint used to he wrote this actually to his children and he said, You are a magnificent being, being created by God. There is nothing temporal or earthly that can truly give your heart joy because you are so much higher than anything on this earth. And at the same time, since you are such a high creature, there is nothing that this earth can bring against you to make you miserable. You're too high for that. You see, and that is a very important thing. I'll run a rabbit here for a moment that if indeed you are a child of God, you are such a magnificent, such a high being that no trifle of this earth will ever bring you happiness. You're just too high for that. Monkeys can be amused with trinkets. Fools can laugh at the most vain things on earth. But you're not a monkey and you're not a fool. You're a child of God and only the highest things can please you. In the same way, because you are a child of God and because your name is written in glory and because of the new character that has been given to you, all the misery in the world can be thrown at you and not make you miserable. But this is only true in its practical application if you know that God causes all things to work together for good. All things. Absolutely everything in your life, if you are a believer, God is sovereignly working in that thing for your good. Now, the sovereignty of God does not begin simply with your conversion. This is a very, very important thing to understand. The sovereignty of God does not begin with your conversion. It doesn't even begin with your birth. It begins before the foundation of the world. There is this fleeting, silly idea that prior to being converted, my life was somehow outside of the sovereignty of God, and that is not true. Before I was born, I was known to Him in an electing sort of way. My first birth, my first breath was under His sovereign rule. Everything that happened in my life, every malady, every suffering, every good thing, every blessing, absolutely everything under His sovereign hand. Even my sin. He was not the author of my sin, but He was sovereign in restraining it and sovereign at times in letting it go further than I now wish. And so you have to see that God is absolutely sovereign over every aspect of your life and He has a purpose. He is working absolutely everything together in your life for good. But now here is the defining moment. The reason why some people look at this and say, well, how can God be working for my good? I have cancer. Or how can God be working for my good? I have lost everything I have built. How can God be working for my good when it seems that my life is so full of toil and suffering? And the reason you cannot see that He is working for your good is that you have the wrong definition of good. You have a cheap, cheap, cheap idea of good. You have a definition of good that is beneath you as a believer. It is beneath you. For the believer, good is not comfort. For the believer, good is not an easy road. For a believer, good is not insurance or security or health or wealth or wisdom or even prosperity. None of that, again, as I said earlier, can satisfy a believer. For the believer, the good, the great sunum bonum is this, to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And see, here could be your problem. The reason for your misery, the reason for the fact that you're not content with your wages, with your life, with your relationships, with everything around you, and the reason is this, you want something God does not want. And what God wants, you despise, you do not esteem, is the greatest goal of your life, to be conformed to the image of Christ. And then do you know, do you know with an absolute certainty, unwavering certainty, that God is sovereign over absolutely everything to bring this great sunum bonum or desire of His to fruition? Because if your desire is correct, I desire to be like Christ, and you know that it will be done because God works all things according to His will, then your life will be as solid as rock. And also, you will see meaning in absolutely everything. Isn't it amazing that when there seems to be blessing in our life, we never ask, where's the meaning in all of this? Isn't that amazing? Whenever our lives are filled with blessing and ease, we never cry out to God in prayer, Oh God, where's the meaning in all these things that are happening to me? We never do that, do we? But when it seems that all the blessing and all the comforts and all the protection is taken away, it is then we fall to our knees in a voice that blames God and says, what is the meaning of all of this? That right there betrays the fact that maybe our desire is not to be made like Christ or that we truly do not have the confidence we claim to have in the sovereignty of God. But he says, we know that God causes there is a powerful word. There are tremendously powerful word God causes the initiator, the author of all things working together for good to those who love God. There's an idea out there that someone can truly be a believer and not love God, it's absolutely absurd. Your belief is proven by your love for God. That's why he says it that way. He doesn't just say everyone who believes, but he says this, those who love God, because a true believer will love him. Albeit that love might be minor, might be played in a minor key, it might waver, might have many holes in it, many dark spots, many places and rooms where we do not want to go. But the fact of the matter is when it does come down to it, the true believer loves God because God has put that love in his heart. And so he says things that work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose, the word his is put in here to his purpose. But I would like to leave it out for a moment and just say to those who are called according to purpose, do you realize everyone who has dreams and visions and plans outside of his purpose, they have no purpose. The only place you find purpose is within the will of God. Do you understand that outside of the will of God, everything is vain? And let me use a hard word. Everything is just stupid. It has no purpose in it whatsoever. The vanities of this life that we are sometimes just so mesmerized by, they have no purpose because they are not his purpose. You will regret, I'll tell you this, as Jonathan Edwards said that men without Christ would regret every sin they ever committed when they are in hell. So the believer will regret everything done outside of God's purpose. Outside of God's purpose. Because there is no purpose outside of his purpose. For those whom he foreknew before the foundations of the earth, he knew you. And it's not because he looked in some crystal ball or down the corridors of time and saw you in the future. The Bible never speaks of a crystal ball and it never speaks of corridors of time or God looking into a book that talks about the future. It never does. It never talks about God looking into the future. God does not know the future because he's looked ahead and seen it. God knows the future because he's lured over it and directs every molecule, every fiber of being, every bit of matter towards the purpose that he has ordained. That is a God, my friend. Not a God who looks into the future and then reacts. Not a God who makes choices based on choices of other men he's seen in the future. No, a God who is the God and Lord and author of the future. Goes back to that passage. One of the most magnificent things ever said in the Bible. In Romans chapter 11, 36. Oh, from him, through him and to him. All things. Yes, even the future is from him and it will come about through him and it will be unto his glory. And you say, what does this have to do with marriage? Absolutely everything. It may take us until next week to get to it, but absolutely everything. So he goes on and he says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined, predetermined. Yes, by his own making, he lifted up his own right hand, swore by his own great name, called no one to stand beside him to fight his own battle. He saw redemption and nothing and no one so stood for himself on that great day, raised up his hand and swore to none other than himself. For there are no greater to swear to. I predetermined that it shall be so. And every plan and word of the Lord will succeed. And there has been no thought or plan or strong arm that have ever even deviated the will of God for a second. So then he says, predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, predestined everything in your life for one great purpose, to conform you to the image of his son. Now, we know in that what we know in that great things, we know that even his son, his son, through suffering. Learned obedience through discipline. We know that he is perfect in everything we do, but we don't fully understand all the full ramifications of that. We know that has a great deal to do with his humanity. We know that he is perfect in deity. But we know this, God was working even in the life of the Son of God and how much more in ours. And the Son of God was not fraught with failure or corrupt flesh, but we are, which means God works all the more, absolutely everything, everything, everything. And that is why you can look at blessing and you can say this has been ordained for me. And that is why you can look at calamity that bites at your heels and howls all night so that you cannot sleep and answer the question to Satan's why and say, why has he done this to me? Why is he purpose this? Why has this happened? It is to conform me to the image of his son and in the end to give me a greater weight of glory for those whom he foreknew he predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. If he had simply saved us from hell and put us in an empty place, it would have been far more than we would have deserved if he had saved us and made us servants like his angels. It would have been far more than we could ever deserve. But he has made us sons and daughters. We have been given things into which angels long to look. Do you understand that? And he's working out absolutely everything to make all the truths of Scripture, all the truths of his will and his decree. He's working absolutely everything, focusing it all in with one great purpose to make it a reality in your life. And recall that Dr. Piper can preach a sermon and there seems to be so much reality in what he is saying. It's a reality to him. And a young man, you know, in his early 20s can memorize the same sermon and with a great deal of passion preach the same thing. But oftentimes there's not the same reality in it. And why is that? It's not because there's a flaw in the young man. The young man might be more spiritual than Dr. Piper. But the fact of the matter is God's been working in the man for decades to make the truth a reality. It's not just an external proposition in which to glory, but it is a living, breathing reality in his life. So he's predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. Why? For the benefit of the creature? Oh, my dear friend, it does benefit the creature. It does benefit us to be conformed to the image of his son. It does benefit us to be in the sovereign plan of God. But we are not the first beneficiary of this. Primarily in the mind of God was not us. But he says that he, the son, that the son would be the first born among many brethren. God is making brothers and sisters for his son. A fellowship of those who stand in awe of their elder brother and worship him and are enough like him to esteem him as all worthy and precious. We have to be made like him or we'll never, never know how worthy he is. A wicked man with an unregenerate heart. Look upon Christ and spit. Look upon Christ and turn away. He hates everything he sees in Christ because Christ is so different than he is. He is wicked and Christ is good. He is hateful and Christ is loving. So in order for a man to truly embrace Christ, to appreciate Christ, to worship Jesus Christ, what must happen? He must be conformed to the image so that that new heart recreated in true righteousness and true holiness and true holiness cast its eyes upon the perfection of all righteousness and all holiness and is irresistibly drawn to faith and to worship and devotion. So why are we being conformed? Why are we being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ so that Christ might be worshipped? Now, in a practical application, I think I'm going to delay to apply this to marriage next week, but I want you to see the full force of this. And I want to ask yourself a question. Ask yourself a question. Is God's ultimate purpose yours? Is God's ultimate purpose your ultimate purpose? If the eye is dark and how dark is the body, if the purpose of your life is not focused or if you have some completely other purpose other than God's purpose, then your life is obviously going to be filled with darkness. Now, if you're an unbeliever, you're accustomed to the darkness and it won't be that big a deal. But if you truly are a child of God, who because either of ignorance or rebellion or a combination of the two, you no longer have in the forefront of your mind God's great purpose, which is to be conformed to the image of Christ, then misery will be yours. And in a sense, it is a blessed misery. And why do I say that? If Christ be not your focus and misery not be the description of your life, you're lost. You're lost, you're lost, you're lost. What is the focus of your life? Maybe right now you could get down on your knees, maybe fall on your face before the Lord and worship him because, you know, the focus of your eye is off. And you also know that your heart is full of misery, absolute misery. That is a blessed misery. It is a misery that tells thee you belong to him. You belong to him. Repent, repent, fall on your face, ask God to give you discernment, to look at worthless as worthless truly is, to look at the precious and esteem it as precious, ask God to give you discernment. Go to those who have discernment, ride their coattail if necessary, get in godly fellowships of godly men and godly women who can see through the lies and the stupidity and the darkness of this age and are pressing in, further in, higher up into the things of God. They set their mind on the things above and not on things of this earth that see our time here is passing and fleeting and small and have therefore given themselves to greater things, greater things, things that cannot be numbered if they could be counted. Things that cannot be described, even the tongues of angels, things that cannot be seen, but you know are there because the spirit bears witness to them leaving behind Egypt, because you know of a city whose builder and maker is God. You say again, Brother Paul, what does this have to do with marriage? My friend, it has to do with everything. It is the basis of everything. And you can't jump over this passage to get to ten things to fix your life. You can't jump over this passage to find five ways to heal your marriage because it may take a lifetime to heal your marriage. It may take until you draw your last breath for your marriage to be everything it ought to be. But that is the journey and that is the purpose and that is the reason why you hold on, because you believe that God is sovereign over everything, your marriage, everything, and that he's sovereign over everything. And then, prior to conversion and after, this is the great rock on which everything else must be built. To close, do you know, do you know that God works everything for your good, which is only your good because it's his good first? Do you know that he is absolutely sovereign and that if even one precious, most precious to us, is taken before the sun rises on tomorrow, we can raise our hands to the sky and say, he reigns. And it is my God who has worked and is working in this thing. Can you fall down in such an order that it would make carnal church people despise you? Because they don't have a God like that and they don't want one like that. Can you say, when every hope you ever had for marriage after several years is still unfulfilled, can you say that this is God's doing? Although not making him the author of sin, although not burdening him as the one caused, the one causing all these things that are against his commands and against his will, and yet recognizing that even this marriage I am in has God's stamp upon it. And the purpose of marriage has never been for me to have a little piece of heaven on earth. But the purpose of marriage is that even in all the failings of it and even more so in the failings of it, I am being conformed to the image of his dear son who loves a spouse, who does not respond to him as she ought. And isn't that, my friend, your great complaint? You have a spouse that does not return to you what you believe is yours, does not give you what you desire, does not fulfill the purpose for which a spouse is given. Well, then know this, there is one who knows more about that than you could ever know. He is Jesus Christ, the Lord, and his bride has treated him at times more harshly than your spouse will ever treat you. So now here's the question. Can you find purpose in your marriage now, recognizing that its purpose is not what all those Christian marriage and wedding books tell you about? The purpose of your marriage is to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ no matter how much it costs. Let's pray.