Join us on a journey to understand how faith operates amidst life’s most challenging circumstances. Through the lens of Scripture, we unravel how God’s grace weaves through the complexity of human history, showing that even the deepest sorrows or perceived defeats carry within them the seeds of eternal victory. This episode invites listeners to reinterpret their life’s narrative, seeing God’s hand at work even in their darkest moments, and embracing the joy and peace found in His everlasting triumph.
00:14:20 Closing Remarks and Broadcast Information
SPEAKER 01 :
So we’re faced with this wonderful passage that says, all things work together for good. The near context, as I pointed out last time, is that this is referring to prayer, that as we pray, God is working things out for our good. But the question that we need to ask that helps us to believe is, how does God do that? How does God make things work together for good? Well, you know, it seems absurd, but we should go right back to the beginning of the world. Because in the book of Romans, rather in the book of Revelation, chapter 12, we are told something astonishing, aren’t we? And it is that war broke out in heaven. And war broke out in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world, he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a voice, a loud voice, saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Now, look, I know that you and I will possibly have different opinions about when this took place. What time in the annals of human history or the universe is this happening? But I personally want to suggest to you that this is the victory of Christ over Satan before the world began, and that Satan was cast down to the earth as a defeated foe, and that the whole history of the world is a demonstration of Christ’s victory over that we, by faith in Jesus, are called upon to believe, and we are watching as we have faith in him, God establishing or asserting his victory through the opposition of Satan. Now, you don’t have to believe that to believe anyway that God has gained victory in this world. Jesus himself said, all power has been given to me in heaven and on earth. His victory, what you might consider, was gained at the resurrection, and that may well be the truth. I’m not disputing that possibility at all. The point is that the victory is already won. That is what Christians need to believe. We are not in a position where the victory is uncertain and the war is still going on, and nobody knows yet which side is going to win. We are not believing that there is an equal force in Satan that is equal to the force of Christ. No, Christ has gained that victory, whether at the cross or before the creation of the world, and you and I are in the middle of the battle, And we are not fighting the battle as if the battle were not won and we have to win it. We are rather believing in Jesus Christ that he has already won the battle for us, and therefore we are going to victory on his coattails. It’s like David before Goliath. David won the battle over Goliath. But what did that mean? It meant that the Philistines were vanquished and Israel was the victor. Now, this is what we do then with this message about all things working together for good. If bad news has come to you, if trouble is around every corner, if you feel locked in to your stresses and disasters, the time has come for you to affirm before God that Jesus Christ’s victory is yours. Victory over all circumstances. Now, of course, this is completely, as I say so often, contrary to the way the mind thinks. It is not the logic of the mind. The mind sees disaster. The mind sees defeat. The mind sees the annihilation of all that we had hoped for. The mind is in a state of dread. But faith is from God, and faith is about Christ’s victory on our behalf. Think back right to the book of Genesis. You know how much I have said I love the story of Joseph. It’s my favorite story in the Bible. But just read it for yourself. Read the whole thing. It’s a third of the book of Genesis. It’s an amazing story. This young 17-year-old kid was kidnapped by his brothers. He was sold into Egypt. He was thrown into the dungeon on a trumped-up rape charge. And yet, all of these things that seemed to be such a disaster were, in fact, working together for good. He was appointed head of the prison. The warden saw his brilliance and his technique and appointed him warden of the prison. He was then—there were dreams that a couple of the prisoners had, the baker and the butler of Pharaoh’s household, and he interpreted those dreams. And once the butler got back into his service, he forgot all about Joseph for a couple of years. But then Pharaoh had dreams. And then the butler remembered. And he told Pharaoh about Joseph. And Pharaoh called for him. And the story is immediately that he was appointed, after interpreting the dreams, appointed prime minister of Egypt because he would be able to garner this wheat for seven years. There would be a famine for the first seven years. And during that time, they would garner the wheat. That is, there would be plenty, I should say, for the first seven years. He would garner a lot of the wheat together, and then after the seven years, there’d be famine, and Joseph would be appointed to take care of it all. It’s an amazing, an amazing story. But what is more amazing is is the interpretation of the story after the event. For in Genesis 45, verses 5, 7, and 8, and chapter 50, verse 20, Joseph told his brothers, Do not… Be upset with what you did in deceiving my father and in kidnapping me and so on, for it was not you who sent me here, but God for the saving of many lives. And Joseph says this four times. It was not you that sent me here, but God. Now that is a bit of a mystery, isn’t it? because it was clear from the story that the brothers, vicious against Joseph, kidnapped him and arranged for his sale to the Midianites as they passed by, and thus he was sent to Egypt. So how can it be that it was not them that sent Joseph there? Well, we need to face the reality of two wills. the will of God full of grace and mercy, and the will of Satan operating through human beings full of viciousness and cruelty. That reality exists throughout the whole history of the world. And what we need to understand is that when evil strikes us, or bad circumstances, misfortune, sickness, poverty, whatever it may be, God is also at work in those same things to bring grace. Even if you die in the process, You are a victor. You will live for eternity because you have been rescued through the will of God, through his grace, operating and entangling itself in Satan’s evil to bring good. That is one of the greatest truths in the Scriptures. In fact, it is the greatest because you know where the… event in history that most illustrates this is, don’t you? Well, of course, it’s in the New Testament, and it is about Jesus Christ. Who killed Christ? Who murdered him? Evil men. leaders, Jewish and pagan, and ultimately all of us, put to death the Son of God. Wicked men, says Jesus in the book of Luke 24, killed him. But wait a minute. It says in the Scriptures God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And so what we’re looking at is two wills in the greatest, most monumental event of all time, the salvation of human beings. How does it work? God’s grace operates through human evil to bring about good, and God is demonstrating to Satan that even in your evil I will bring about goodness. And God is also demonstrating to us that he has already won the battle. So if the greatest evil in the world is the greatest good, then how is it in your life? The greatest evils, the tragedies, the sorrows, the griefs, they have been intercepted by God’s grace and have become and will become the greatest good in your life. This means then that you and I are to change our interpretation of our history. Perhaps you write a journal. Even if you don’t write a journal, you might recount on a paper the worst events in the history of your life, which you feel have brought disappointment, ruin, or abortion to your plans throughout your history. But now, because of knowing that all things work together for good, you go before God and you say, Father, I repent. I repent of my unbelief. I believed that evil was triumphant, but I am now repenting of that belief. I believe that Christ’s victory is triumphant in all my defeats, in all the major sorrows of my life, in all the disappointments and the aborted plans. Lord God, I thank you that your grace was operating through those tragedies to intervene in them and bring about good. And therefore, Father, I praise you for what has gone on in my life. Now, if you do that, And do that consistently. You will find your brain, your mind, changing in attitude towards a positive view of your life thus far, even in all your failures and in all your defeats. Don’t think that tragedies just come from the outside. Mostly they come from the inside, our inside, don’t they? Because we’re sinners and we are failed human beings. But God is showing us how His grace operates. through failed human beings. How about that kind of faith in the victory of Jesus? Well, thanks for joining me today. Colin Cook here and how it happens. You can listen to this program on the radio at 10 o’clock in the evening in the Denver and surrounding states areas or repeat it at 4 in the morning on KLTT AM 670. But you can also hear the program any time of the day or night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens with Colin Cook when you get there. And if you would consider a donation, please, the radio broadcast needs it. It’s listener-supported radio. Send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado 80160, or make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. I appreciate all your support over the weeks and the months, the years even for some of you. This broadcast is in its 27th year, thanks to God and you. See you next time then. Cheerio and God bless.
