The Greatest Promise in the Bible

Romans 8:28 has been called the greatest verse in the greatest chapter in the greatest book in all of Scripture. Dr. David Jeremiah explores five transformational truths contained in this verse.
“To persevere in an increasingly socialist culture, you’re going to have to decide whether to be a Christ-follower or merely a Christ-admirer. Søren Kierkegaard wrote something similar: “The admirer never makes any sacrifices. He always plays it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, he is inexhaustible about how he praises Christ, he renounces nothing, will not reconstruct his life, and will not let his life express what he supposedly admires. Not so for the follower. No, no. The follower aspires with all his strength to be what he admires.”
― Dr. David Jeremiah, Where Do We Go from Here?: How Tomorrow’s Prophecies Foreshadow Today’s Problems

What If one Chapter could change your life?
What if there was one passage of scripture that allowed you to leave the past behind you to look beyond your present challenges and provided the hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Turning the page to these powerful words can turn a page in your life, giving you the confidence you need.
For every step you take words that contain God’s desire to breathe renewed life into you through a divine promise just waiting to be claimed, a promise that you will never be abandoned, never be alone and always be cared for a promise that you are chosen and called by God.
How would your life change if you knew you could endure every trial that nothing could stand in your way knowing there’s nothing God wouldn’t do for you?
Is it too hard to believe that such an arrangement of simple words composed, beautifully authored divinely nearly 2000 years ago could be so great.
What is this chapter? Romans eight, the greatest chapter in the Bible.
Hello, I’m David Jeremiah. Over the course of this series.
We’ve looked deeply at Romans chapter eight, a chapter that can change your life but today I’m gonna talk about one verse that can change your life.
If Romans eight is the greatest chapter in the Bible, then verse 28 may be the greatest verse in the Bible at the very least.
It’s the greatest promise. That’s why today’s message is titled The Greatest Promise in the Bible.
How can this verse change your life simply because it promises that God uses everything in life for a good purpose.
If you belong to him, good things, bad things, everything I can’t think of a better promise than that.
So I hope you’ll join me for an entire message on Romans 8 28.
On today’s edition of turning point.
The Act of writing out scripture by hand is a powerful practice.
In fact, it is a command directly from God.
God understood how writing with your hand imprints the words on your mind.
And that’s why Doctor Jeremiah has created the written word journal, use the written word journal to write Paul’s wonderful rich letter to the Romans word for word.
As you do record your thoughts, reflections, notes and prayers on the adjacent page.
Charting your personal journey with God through the book of Romans.
The Written Word journal is yours when you give a gift of any amount in support of this program, and if you give $60 or more, Jeremiah will also send you his current teaching series, Romans eight on CD or DVD, along with a correlating study guide or if you give generously to the ministry, you will receive the written word journal and a genuine letter Jeremiah study Bible in the new King James version.
Contact turning point today. Thank you for watching. Turning point.
Now here is Doctor Jeremiah with his message, the greatest promise in the Bible.
It was January 18, Amateur Bowler Bill Fong was just three rolls away from perfection, three consecutive perfect games, A 900 in the history of bowling, there have only been 21 perfect series After rolling 33 consecutive strikes, Bill gathered his ball, walked up and rolled another strike and then he rolled another on frame 35 and the crowd went wild but something was wrong.
Two frames back, Bill had begun sweating profusely and feeling dizzy but he was just one roll away from history.
Bill pulled the ball to his chest, took his usual five steps and released the ball perfectly.
People actually started clapping before the ball reached the pins.
That’s how perfect the role was it curved exactly where it was supposed to made exact contact with the pins at precisely the right spot.
Pins flew. The crowd cheered and the number 10 pin wobbled but settled back onto its base.
899 1 Pin short of perfection, heartbroken.
Bill headed home. The dizziness that began on frame 34 had not improved.
Bill staggered into his bathroom and threw up the walls continued to spin and then bill fell asleep.
And when he awoke the next morning, he realized that he had suffered a stroke.
Later in 2010, he had open heart surgery at just the age of 46.
He survived despite a 70% chance that he wouldn’t.
The doctors told him that the only thing that saved his life on the night of 899 was that the tin pins stayed up.
Had that last pin fallen.
Bill’s doctor said his body already in the midst of a stroke would have pushed his blood pressure even higher.
That most likely would have killed him immediately.
What he thought was the worst thing that could ever happen.
The most awful thing after rolling 899 pins, right? The last one didn’t fall, right?
He thought it was the worst thing that could ever happen.
But the worst thing that could ever happen was what saved his life.
Sometimes the things we think are bad are only bad to us.
God has a different perspective. I mean, all of us know that bad things happen to people.
Some bad things are the result of national or international crises like Pandemics.
Some bad things are the result of bad decisions and bad conduct, bad things happen. We know that.
But if you will listen today, you will discover that because of Romans 828 Christians have a unique way of processing life when bad things happen to them.
One student of Romans 8 28.
Put it this way, the truth of Romans 828 can change the way you think.
It can provide a corresponding shift in your moods, emotions and outlook in time.
It can actually transform your personality, alter your circumstances in life.
It can turn troubled souls into people of confidence and good cheer.
It’s the secret of resilience and irrepressible joy. And this promise has your name on it.
It meets the challenges you’re facing right now. It’s God’s guarantee.
Now let us all stand to our feet and read this promise aloud from the screen. Everybody stand.
This is Romans 8 28. I want to hear your voices, read this out loud with me and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
You may be seated. The interesting thing about life for, for me, as I look back on it is most of the important things in life are pretty simple, aren’t they?
We make them complicated. We make them profound but they’re simple. And that’s true with this verse.
This verse is one of the simplest verses in the Bible. I mean, it’s made up of one syllable words.
There are 25 words in Romans 8 28 only three of them are more than one syllable.
These one syllable words are put together in such a way and compressed in such a way that they’re the greatest truths to be found anywhere within the scripture.
So here are five great truths from this verse five things I want you to remember from Romans 8 28.
1st of all, this is a definite promise. This isn’t a suggestion or a possibility.
It’s a definite promise. Listen to what it says and we know how incredibly important it is to know.
I mean, we live in an age where people say you can’t know anything for sure.
And where truth and knowledge seem to have taken a back seat to errors and opinions.
And sometimes you wonder if truth even exists in the minds of some folks.
But I’m here to tell you that what you know is important.
That is why we’re committed to teaching the word of God. We want to know what we know.
And here we are told something that we can know the word no is used 1,098 times in the Bible.
And the little phrase we know is used five times in the book of Romans.
And Paul says that we can know beyond all doubt that every aspect of our lives is in God’s hands and will be divinely used by the Lord, not only to manifest his glory, but also to work out our own ultimate blessing.
We know that it’s definite, we don’t have to guess about it.
We don’t have to get a counselor to tell us it’s in the Bible.
And we know it’s also a divine promise here.
Paul says that we know that God works and He’s at work in our lives.
God is ceaselessly energetically, purposefully working on our behalf.
It is God who is bringing this good about on behalf of those who love Him.
Here’s what Isaiah says. I love this verse.
He said, since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you who works for those who wait for Him.
God is working for us. This is a definite promise and we know this is a divine promise that God works.
God is working in all of this. And then thirdly, this is a definitive promise. He works all things.
The all things of this verse is totally comprehensible.
You may think, oh yeah, this may work for a lot of people pastor Jeremiah, but you don’t know what I’ve been going through.
My. All things are not good and God isn’t, there’s God isn’t involved in this. I’m outside of it.
Well, you can’t be outside of it because here you have this all encompassing statement.
What is involved in this promise? What does this include?
It includes all things, all means all or as one preacher put it all means all and that’s all that all means.
Take it in context. The promise allows for no restrictions or no conditions.
All things is inclusive in the fullest possible sense. It includes the suffering of verse 17.
It includes the groaning of verse 23.
In other words, all that is negative in this life is seen to have a positive purpose in the execution of God’s eternal plan.
Nothing is beyond the overruling overriding scope of his providence.
I want to say that again, this promise that we’re investigating is not a partial promise.
It’s not a conditional promise. It’s not a problem.
It’s an absolute all things, everything that goes on in your life or mine comes under the umbrella of this passage.
That’s what Paul is saying. Let me tell you what he is not saying.
What he’s not saying is that sickness, suffering, persecution, grief or any other such thing is good.
He’s not saying that on the contrary, these things are evil, hatred is not love, death is not life, grief is not joy, the world is filled with evil.
But what the text says is that God uses these things to affect his own good ends for his people.
God brings good out of evil.
Paul is not saying that God prevents his Children from experiencing things that can harm them.
He’s rather telling us that the Lord takes all that he allows to happen to his beloved Children, even the worst things.
And he turns those things ultimately into blessing no matter what our situation, our suffering, our persecution, our sinful failure, our pain, our lack of faith in those things as well as in other things our heavenly Father will work to produce ultimate victory and blessing in our life.
In other words, Paul is not expressing faith in the goodness of all things.
Paul is expressing faith in the goodness of God in the goodness of God’s purpose for us.
What a tremendous promise that is, it’s a definite promise and we know it’s a divine promise that God works.
It’s a definitive promise. He works all things.
Now, here’s the one that I think is the best of all and most important that we understand.
It’s a dynamic promise. All things together for good, say this to together for good.
Say that with me together for good.
Few things can frustrate us more than when we can’t see or understand how the pieces of our lives fit together.
Some of you here today are trying to figure out what is God doing right now in my life.
How is what’s happening to me? How does that fit in to God’s plan for my life?
And sometimes if the problems are serious and you’re trying to sort them out, it can really keep you up at night.
But Paul uses an interesting expression to describe how God is working in our behalf.
He says that all things work together and he uses a Greek word and I don’t use a lot of Greek words, but this is an important one.
The Greek word is soon, soon and the word comes from the word from which we get our word, synergism sooner got, oh synergism.
Now, let me just remind you since you probably have forgotten this from your school days, that synergism is the working together of various elements to produce an effect that’s greater than and often completely different from the sum of each element if they were acting separately.
Now, I know that’s a long statement. But let me say it again.
Synergism is the working together of various elements to produce an effect that’s greater than and often completely different from the sum of each element acting separately in the physical world.
The right combination of otherwise harmful chemicals can produce substances that are extremely beneficial. I’ll give you a simple illustration.
Ordinary table salt is composed of two poisons, sodium and chlorine.
But when you put it together, it’s salt and you gotta have it for your French fries.
Now, once again, it’s important to point out that Romans 8 28 is not saying that things will just work together.
It is saying that God causes this synergism to happen so that everything will ultimately and somehow work out for our good.
For your good God is the one who is stirring the mix.
God is the one who is making this happen until you have seen this work in your life or experienced it.
It’s hard to believe it’s true, but it’s true.
And if you live long enough and walk with the Lord, you’ll be able to even in this life, look back over your shoulder and see.
Oh, so that’s what that was all about.
This is a definite promise and we know it’s a divine promise that God works.
It’s a definitive promise. He works all things. It’s a dynamic promises together for good. And it’s a divine promise.
Watch this to those who love God to those who are the called according to his purpose.
Now, this is one of the most absolute verses in all of the Bible.
We are absolutely to know that absolutely all things work absolutely together for absolute good. It’s absolutely wonderful.
But now comes the part that’s not absolute. Listen carefully. This promise does not apply to absolutely everyone.
This is a precondition that must be met before this promise does its work.
The Bible says this promise that I have just explained and we have just outlined belongs to a certain group of people who are those people, those who love God, those who love God.
It’s the fraternity pin of the believer. How do you describe a believer? He’s a person who loves God.
I have been totally blessed at how many times we as believers are described in the Bible, simply as those who love God.
What a great name for believers. We’re God lovers. Are you a God lover?
Deuteronomy 79 says, therefore know that the Lord, your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for 1000 generations with those who love Him.
Psalm. 100 and 45 verse 20 says, the Lord preserves all who love him.
First Corinthians 29 says, I have not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of a man.
The things which God has prepared for those who love him First Corinthians 8 3.
But if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. Let me ask you a question this morning.
Do you love God? I see you shaking your heads. Most of you.
Somebody might be here and say, well, I know God, I know about God, I’m here because I know about God.
But do I love him? Uh Come on, pastor. Does anybody really love God?
I mean, how can you love somebody?
You can’t even see the Bible teaches us how to love God and it describes what we do when we love God.
The Bible says, if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. Are you walking in fellowship with God?
You know, uh if you’re married, your partner has every reason to be able to look at your life and see if there are any elements that would make your partner believe that you love her or Him.
There should be evidence every day.
I told you before that one of the great secrets to, to marriage is to develop a servant spirit and try to figure out what your mate wants you to do and do it before they ask you.
And then a great thought. I mean, some of you thinking, oh my goodness.
I never thought of that. What would it be like if you look at God that way?
Do you love God? Are you trying to do what you believe? God wants you to do before?
You’re apparently aware that he’s watching? Are you loving God in your life? Do you love God?
What I’m asking you today is, are you a Christian because a Christian loves God?
That’s the view from our perspective. Christians love God. Here’s the view from God’s perspective.
God says we are the called according to his purpose, we love him because he called us because God has called us and we are his Children.
The incidents in our lives are not incidental. Did you know that we are God’s Children?
The trials of our lives are not trivial when you look at what’s going on in your life.
God is up to something he has called you. You love him.
You’re in this relationship and God is working in your life. He’s working all things together.
He’s stirring the mix so that what happens in your life is for His glory and for your good.
He is using even setbacks to advance your spiritual maturity.
Some of the things that you think are the most negative may be the most productive.
Romans 828 reminds us that God has a plan that is better than ours. Sometimes it’s uncomfortable.
Sometimes it doesn’t make sense to us, but it is always for our good.
If we love God and are the called according to his purpose. That’s Romans 8 28.
Let me give you three things to take home with you.
From this verse that I feel very strongly about.
First of all, I am determined to trust God because of Romans 8 28 for I am God and there is no other.
I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from the ancient times, things that are not yet done saying my co shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.
Indeed. I have spoken it. I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it.
I will do it in theory, it is easy to understand this promise that all things work together for good.
It’s easy to understand it. But to get this into our bloodstream is another matter.
It’s one of the most difficult tasks for the practicing Christian. Here’s what it is.
It’s not only believing in God, but it’s believing God. Do you believe in God?
Yes, I believe in God? No, no, that’s not the question. Do you believe God?
God said, what we have been talking about today?
Do you believe that there will not be anything that you and I will face in the years ahead?
That will surprise God. He has already told me that all things are under his control.
So I choose not to live my life out of fear of what bad thing might happen to me, but out of faith and what great thing could happen to me.
And this is not reckless, fearless living, this is radical faithful living.
And I’ve made my choice if Romans 8 28 is true.
I am determined to trust God and not live in fear.
Number two, I’m determined to thank God.
First Thessalonians five says in everything give thanks for. This is the will of God.
Recently in my reading, I’ve come across a lot of guys who are suggesting keeping a blessing journal.
That’s not a bad thing to do. Count your blessings, name them one by one and it will surprise you.
What the Lord has done says the writer of hymns.
I’m determined to trust God to thank God and to test God.
Here’s a word from John Piper.
He said, if you live inside this massive promise, your life is more solid and stable than mount Everest.
Nothing can blow you over when you are inside the walls of Romans eight, Outside of Romans 8 28.
All is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty outside of this promise, future grace.
You see straw houses of drugs and alcohol and numbing TV. And dozens of feudal diversions.
There are slat walls and tin roofs of fragile investment strategies and fleeting insurance coverage and trivial retirement plans outside of Romans.
8 28 are 1000 substitutes for this promise.
But once you walk through the door of love into the massive unshakeable structure of Romans 8 28 everything changes that comes into your life, stability and depth and freedom.
You simply can’t be blown over anymore.
Something happens in your life that you didn’t expect and that you don’t know what to do with.
You just say all things work together to those who love God.
I don’t understand it but I believe it. Everything that happens to you is for your own good.
If the waves roll against you, it only speeds your ship toward the port.
If lightning and thunder comes, it clears the atmosphere and promises your soul’s health you gain by loss, you grow healthy in sickness, you live by dying and are made rich and loss.
Could you ask for a better promise?
It is better that all things should work for my good than all things should be as I wish them to have been.
All things might work for my pleasure and yet might not be for my good.
If all things do not always please me, they always benefit me.
This is the best promise in the Bible. This is the best promise in life.
And as we close this message seated, once again, let’s read this verse out loud, shall we?
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are the call according to his purpose.
Doctor Jeremiah will return in a moment to close today’s program right after this.
Thank you for watching.
Turning point, Dr Jeremiah would like to offer you the written word journal Romans sent to you in appreciation of your gift of any amount in support of this program.
And for a gift of $60 or more, Doctor Jeremiah will include his current teaching series, Romans eight, the greatest chapter in the Bible on your choice of CD DVD and a correlating study guide.
Or if you give a generous gift of $100 or more in support of the ministry of Turning Point, you’ll receive the written word journal and a genuine leather Jeremiah study Bible in Doctor Jeremiah’s preferred new King James version.
Thank you for your support of Turning Point. Contact us today.
And now with one last word for today’s program, here is Dr Jeremiah.
Romans Chapter eight was written to believers in Christ.
All the blessings of Romans eight, including the promise we talked about today are for those who love God.
Does that include you? I pray you will not leave this series on the greatest chapter in the Bible without knowing for sure that you belong to him.
And you can know that by placing your faith in Jesus Christ and receiving him as your savior.
And Lord, I would love to send you a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point.
That can help, you know what it means to become a Christian.
And our monthly devotional magazine called Turning Points will encourage you daily with articles and devotionals and we will gladly send both of these resources to you completely free of charge.
If you will contact us here at turning point today.
Next time on turning point, the preacher doesn’t cause people to come to Christ.
The preacher announces the gospel invites people to come to Christ, but it is God working in them.
That is the one who brings them to salvation. Thank you for being with us today.
Join Doctor Jeremiah. Next time for his message, salvation’s Golden Chain.
Here on Turning point experience a night of powerful worship, uplifting, fellowship and enriching study.
When you join me on my new tour, this fall together, we’ll discover how we can infuse the hope we have in Christ into the world around us and live as powerful Christians in today’s culture.
I hope you join me. Request your free tickets at David Jeremiah dot org slash tour or call 1 809 47 1993.