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"All Things Work Together For Good To Them That Love God"
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at Life BPC, Chinese service, 9 Apr 2000 )
Text: Romans 8:28
What a comforting thought this promise brings to every Christian who loves the Lord. The Almighty Hand of God is for Him to direct all events, whether good or bad, to work out good for him.
But this is not the case for them who are outside Christ. And if they are outside Christ, they are without hope and without God (Eph 2:12 ). Being without hope and without God, life is a miserable struggle. Without the light by which Christians are led, they are left to grope in their dark superstitions. They are left to a blind fate. What they decide to do at each crossroad of life is to try to avoid every bad luck.
One of our inmates in Beulah House who comes from China has found the Lord and is happily baptised. Before she was saved she lived a life of doubts and fears. Indeed she was without God and without hope. What she told me of her former life fits exactly what I have described here of those outside Christ.
Thus they will consult the Chinese temple, the medium, the bomoh (Malay) and the dukun (Indonesian) — choosing an auspicious day for marriage, a good day for travel or to start a business. Others believe in fengshui which is geomancy, whether a house lies in a good or bad location so as to bring them good or bad luck. If they go on a journey, they will buy insurance (not that they will have a foolproof flight but rather if they should die, they would be compensated, what irony!) They will consult the horoscope to avoid an evil fate. From these observations, whether they meet with good or bad luck, all things can only work for bad. To the rich fool Jesus says, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (Mk 8:36).
Let us come back to the Christian, not the nominal one who knows not his God, but to the born-again, one who not only believes with all his heart but also loves Him. Paul says it again, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Rom 8:31 ).
This does not mean that a Christian will not go through trials in his life. He also grows old like others, he is liable to sickness, he can meet with an accident, he may meet even with untimely death. All these vicissitudes of life are part and parcel of earthly life. What makes the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that, for the Christian is the promise, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (I Cor 10:13).
What Paul says here, he speaks from his own experience. After his conversion he waxed bold to testify Christ, so he was persecuted. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (II Cor 4:8,9). For an example how God worked good out of evil, Paul tells the story of the governor of Damascus who tried to arrest him with a garrison of soldiers. But Paul was helped by friends to escape by being let down in a basket through a window over the city wall. A Christian is hated by the world. Many times danger surrounds him even without his knowing. But God by His Almighty hand has kept him.
During the Japanese occupation the whole of Singapore went through the concentration camp. Many young men were taken who never came back. They were mass-killed by the Japanese in revenge for stiff resistance by Chinese volunteers. As for the Tow families, we were staying in some country hideout and so escaped this concentration camp. When we emerged from our country hideout and innocently went into the city, the ghastly business was over. God had saved us without our knowing through Romans 8:28.
In Paul's Second Missionary Journey, he was trying to go to the province of Asia , but the Holy Spirit forbade him. He turned to go to Bithynia , and again he was hindered by the Spirit. This channelled him to proceed to Troas . There he saw in a vision of the night a man on Macedonia beckoning him to come over to help them. Assuredly gathering that God was calling him to preach the gospel in Europe , he made a straight course in the power of the Spirit.
Many times we have such an experience. "Man's goings are of the Lord: how can a man then understand his own way?" In the Old Testament we have the story of Saul's father who lost his asses. He sent Saul to search for them. In order to find them Saul went to consult the prophet. The prophet told Saul his father's asses were found. But not the asses, Samuel had a higher appointment for him. God told Samuel before Saul came that he should anoint him captain of Israel . We see how Romans 8:28 is fulfilled in Saul's life.
Not to talk of lost asses, I have the experience of losing my mother and baby daughter within five weeks. I was bent on going to study law in London against the vow I had made to serve the Lord full-time. God had to use the two deaths at the time I was about to set out, to thwart my wayward purpose. This turned me around 180 degrees. Since that day I gave myself to study theology, and have served him without wavering for the last 50 years. The bad that I went through brought me good.
Are there disappointments in your life? Do you suffer any setback? Did you fail your exam so you cannot join the University? Are you engaged to be married but now it is broken? Married, and now separated? Are you suffering from a bad disease when once you were robustly healthy? Have you lost heavily in any business undertaking? These messengers of disappointment are used by God to bring you to repentance. They are good for you if you love God. They will bring you joy and success if you yield to the Lord's hand. But if you are outside Christ, even the good will end in the bad. It will bring you good if it finally leads you back to God, to the salvation He has prepared for them that love Him. It will lead you to bad, if you, though rich and powerful, end up separated from God, in the everlasting darkness. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov 14:12 ).
Are you a Christian? Are you a born-again Christian? If not, there is only one way for you, and that is to come and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (Jn 3:36 ).
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