TEXT: Romans 8:28

SUBJECT: Divine Cordial #10

Tonight, with God’s blessing, we’ll get back to the Puritan study we began a couple of months ago. The author is Thomas Watson, the book is A Divine Cordial, the goal is Encouragement. If there’s anything more encouraging than the promise of our verse, I don’t know what it is.

Underline the word, "all". Reformed Christians are famous for saying, "all doesn’t always mean all". And, of course, it doesn’t. But here it does! Everything—without exception—is good for believers. And nothing can do us any harm in the long run.

That’s the promise of God and the subject of our study.

The book is divided into two parts. Thomas Watson says The Best Things Work Good to the Godly and so do the Worst Things.
At the moment, we’re on Part II—the worst things work for our good. Thus far, we’ve seen that affliction, temptation, and desertion are good for us. Now we come to the worst thing of all—sin.

Here also Watson divides the topic into two parts: The sins of other people do you good. And so do your own sins! Before he addresses the issue, though, the Puritan offers a word of clarification,

Do you know what he means? He means sin itself is never good. But God’s power, wisdom, and love are so great, that they can turn even this—the worst thing in the world—into something good for the believer.

Tonight, we’ll see how the sins of other people work together for our good.

Before we do that, however, let’s prove the proposition. If anything in the world seems unlikely, it’s that being sinned against will somehow make me better. Most of the time, it seems to me, the sins of other people make me worse. They stir up resentment or self-righteousness. Or, maybe, they entice or encourage me to commit the same sin.

Yet there are examples in the Bible where the sin of others was good for God’s servants. Think of…

• Joseph. Sold by his own brothers, their treachery was God’s way of putting him on the throne of Egypt and saving his people from starvation. "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good".

• Job. Torn to pieces by the malice of Satan (and his three friends too), Job became far happier and holier afterwards than he had been before. Though he always knew the mercies of God, "…in the end, he learned that the Lord is very pitiful and full of tender mercy".

• Our Lord Jesus Christ. What was the best thing to ever happen to Him? The crucifixion, for because of the cross He "was given a Name above every name" and saved His people from their sins. Yet the crucifixion was monstrous, wasn’t it? It came about through Judas’ love of money, the rulers’ envy, and Pilate’s cowardice.

The sins of other people, therefore, do us good. In the long run.

But how does it work? Watson says in several ways. Here are some of them.

THE SINS OF OTHER PEOPLE SHOW YOU WHAT YOU ARE TOO.

It’s a cliché to say that sin always look worse in other people than it does in yourself. But it’s also true. Your rudeness or selfishness or pride looks far worse to me than my own! Yet it isn’t. My sins are every bit as ugly as yours. Thus, in seeing your sins, I can also see mine. By seeing how wrong pride is in you, I can see how wrong it is in me. By feeling how much your unkindness hurts me, I can feel how much my unkindness hurts you. Here’s an example…

Ten years ago, I went to what was billed as a Pastor’s Conference. By the second day, though, I knew it was something else. It was Club. And I wasn’t a member. The pastors ignored me, excluded me, and one or two downright snubbed me. To top it all off, we had a group picture taken. When it came to me in the mail a few weeks later, I saw that every name was on it—except mine!

I was really mad and disgusted by the whole thing. Until it occurred to me that I often treat visitors to the church in the same way. I say I’m shy or uncomfortable around people I don’t know well. And that’s true. But that’s not what I thought of the pastors who had treated me like dirt. I said they were proud and thoughtless and selfish. And they were. But so am I.

When others mistreat you, remember you’re no better than they are. Their sins are your sins. Here’s the quote,

What Nathan said to David, every sin says to me: "You are the Man!" If the sins of other people show you yours--and humble you, they must "work together for your good". That’s Number One.

A few years ago, I went to another pastor’s conference. As I was getting out of the car, my friend Gary drove up. I expected to see another friend with him, but he was alone. I greeted him, "Hi, Gary, where’s so-and-so?" I’ll never forget the look he gave me. It was something like nausea mixed with sarcasm and fury. He said, "You didn’t hear?" No, I didn’t. He went on, "So-and-so ran off with his secretary".

Until that week, the man had been a fine pastor, husband, and father. But, in a moment of weakness, he had thrown it all away, and destroyed his ministry, his wife, and his kids. Poof! Just like that they had gone up in smoke.

After taking it all in, the first thing I thought wasn’t: "Hypocrite!" No, it was more like this: "I’d better be more careful!" I’d better pray more, fear God more, love my wife more, and keep a closer eye on myself. Because the man was well-known and liked by everyone, his sin—though terrible—woke up a lot of us. And made us more serious about holiness than we had been in the past. Watson says,

The Bible teaches than the human race is Totally Depraved. Not a few people, many, or even most, but everyone without exception. In Romans 3, Paul strings together a long list of Old Testament Scriptures to prove it.

Now, if you’re no better than others, then why are they addicted to drugs—and you’re not? Or why do they cheat on their wives—but you’re faithful? Or why do they abuse or neglect their kids—but you take care of yours? It’s not something in you that keeps you from gross sin, but, rather it’s something in God—I Corinthians 4:7

That something in God is just another way of saying Grace. The Lord has shown you some favor that He hasn’t shown to others. And remember, it’s not because you deserve it more than theydo, but simply because He wants to give it to you.

You might think this would make a believer proud of himself or to look down on others. But if you do, you’d be wrong. It has the opposite effect. It makes you thankful. When the believer sees a horror story in the newspaper, he thinks,

Watson says

The sin of others is good for us in that it makes us thankful for what we have. Not proud (like the Pharisee, Luke 18:11), but thankful (like the Apostle, I Corinthians 15:10). That’s Number Three.

Muscles are made strong by resistance. The man who goes to the gym every day and spends four hours lifting feathers won’t be any stronger at the end of the "workout" than he was at the beginning. But, if he spends the same time lifting weights, he’ll become a lot stronger.

Now, apply this to character. If everyone I know is cooperative, how will I develop patience? If no one ever does me wrong, how can I learn forgiveness? Character is like iron. It’s forged in the fire. The fire of other people’s sin. Here’s the quote,

The best thing you can ever do for another person is win him to faith in Christ. But if he weren’t a sinner, you couldn’t do that. His sin, therefore, allows you to do good to him.

What Watson says here is true, but he doesn’t go far enough to suit me. For sin not only permits us to win souls, but to do other good things too. For example,

We can help women who have been beaten by their husbands. Or, take an interest in children whose parents have neglected them. Or, befriend someone whom others have excluded. And so on. Sin makes a mess of everything! We have the chance to clean up some of it!

The sins of other people hurt you. They hurt you badly. They hurt you often. But that’s not all they do. They also do you good. Not because they’re good, but because the Lord is. What good can the sins of other people do us? They can humble us; they can make us make us more serious in God’s work; they can make us more thankful; they can build character; and they can open doors for ministry. If they can do all these things for us, then they too, must