A few days ago I turned on the
news and there were some very troubling things on there about
things going on in the world. And it's even more troubling
when they speculate about what might happen tomorrow. Sometimes we get troubling news
and we just have our day-to-day our cares, our families, our
things, our loved ones, and we just can get troubled. Our Lord reminded us that your
Heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things. He
knows what you need. And he said, you seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness. You seek the Lord Jesus Christ,
his righteousness first. That means preeminently all the
time. And the other things you need,
he said, he'll add them to you. And he said, don't even take
thought for tomorrow. Don't be anxious about tomorrow.
No point speculating and worrying about things that nine times
out of ten don't even happen. This is where every child of
God finds really a lot of comfort, Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Sometimes we look at We zoom
in and we see our Lord's dealing individually with his people.
We've seen it with David. We've seen it with the apostles
and with Peter and how he came to them specifically and dealt
with them very tenderly one-on-one. But sometimes it helps to stand
back and see just how big our God is by seeing how he's working
all things together. and has been doing it since he
created time. And he says, we know this. We know this. Believers, we know
this. All things, that means everything,
all things work together for good to them that love God. God's working all things together. He was doing this before we were
In our experience of it, them that love God. That's how come
he brought us to love God, is he's working all things together
for our good. That's how we came to be the
called in time in our experience of it, because he was working
all things together for our good. And how did he do this? According
to his purpose. According to his purpose. Our
God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Whatever his purpose was from
eternity, that's exactly what he's been working in this earth.
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he
doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, What doest thou? Our God is sovereign. The true
and living God that made all things is sovereign, and he's
working all things together for the good of his people, and he's
doing it according to his purpose. This is his eternal purpose.
This is God's purpose. He does everything on purpose. What is God's eternal purpose
that God brings to pass? All things that are coming to
pass are being all worked together to accomplish his purpose. Nothing
is left out. He's working all things together
to accomplish his purpose. Now, I want you to see God's
eternal purpose, and I want us to see why He's been working
everything together, all things together, for our good. It's
according to this purpose. Everything we're going to look
at here is in the past tense. Everything we're going to look
at here took place in eternity before God made anything. This
is his purpose. This is God's purpose. This is
what he's been working from the moment he said, let there be
light. This is what he's been working from the moment he created
the first grain of sand. Now, here it is. First of all,
verse 29, because whom he did foreknow. Now, let's stop right
there. It doesn't say for what he did
foreknow, it says for whom he did foreknow. God's foreknowing
is not merely God knowing beforehand, it's God foreordaining. It's
God, the word is prognosis. It's God's prognosis from eternity. It's him electing, it's him making
the ordination of what he would do. The same word is translated
foreordained when speaking of the Lord Jesus. It says in 1
Peter 1 20, Christ verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world. God put it all in his hand to
accomplish this work and then he was manifested in his last
times for you. That's the same word as whom
he foreknew. The word in our text is not God
for knowing something about us. It's not God seeing who would
believe him and that's why he chose him. If that was the case,
the rest of this wouldn't even need to be there. But he's going
to talk about how he predestinated his people, how he justified
and called and glorified. None of that would have to be
there if he just knew you was going to believe him. But he
has to predestinate you to the new birth and give you faith
and give you life and draw you to Christ. This is not what he
knew. This is who he knew. Who he knew. Go to William Romans 9. Here
it is right here. This is his purpose. his foreordaining
purpose of an elect people that he everlastingly loved, a sovereign
choice of his people. Verse 11, the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand. Here's
the purpose. This is the purpose. This is
his foreknowing, his foreordaining, his electing purpose. Not of
works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. He said to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Go to Romans 11. Here's God's
foreknowing right here. God's foreknowing of people is
him reserving a people who he would save. Reserving a people
for himself. Romans 11 2. Paul said, God has
not cast away his people which he foreknew. Same word. Would you not what the scripture
says of Elias, how he made intercession of God against Israel, saying,
Lord, they've killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and
I'm left all alone, and they seek my life. But what was the
answer of God to him? I have reserved to myself. That's foreordination right there.
That's foreknowledge. God reserving a people for himself. 7,000 men who have not bowed
the knee to the image of Baal, even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace it is no more
of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of
works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work."
Those that God foreknew. Same as saying He foreordained
them to eternal life. By His sovereign electing grace,
they are His people. They are God's Israel. Paul was
a natural Israelite, but he was far more than that. He was somebody
God foreknew, somebody God foreordained to save. And God has not cast
away His people. He will not and He shall never
cast away His people whom He foreknew. Whom He foreknew. This is His grace. Now that's
the purpose God's been working from the beginning. This is why
he's working all things together. It's according to this purpose
to save a people he foreordained to save. That's what God is doing
right now in everything that's going on in this world. With
wars and nations and troubles and all the mundane thing, everything
is coming to pass. It's coming to pass because God
is saving a people he loved from everlasting. That's the purpose. That's God's purpose. All right,
secondly, back in our text, God's working all things together to
accomplish His eternal purpose because, verse 29 says, for whom
He foreknew, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son. Everything that comes to pass
in this world is brought to pass by God according to His eternal
purpose. Everything. Everything. When you stump your toe, come
in the past because God's eternal purpose. A sparrow does not fall
to the ground without the Father. The hairs of your head are numbered.
That's how big God is. That's how certain He's working
all things together for good for His people. Isaiah 14, 24
said, The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass. You think about that. As I have
thought, so shall it come to pass. As I have purposed, so
shall it stand. The Lord of hosts has purposed.
Who shall disannul it? His hand is stretched out. Who
shall turn it back? The purpose of God's predestination
is to make his people like his son. To make his people like
his son. We lost the image of God in the
fall. We fell and we became corrupt. And that was all according to
God's purpose to send forth his son to make, for his son to make
us like his son. That Christ might be the firstborn
among many brethren. The whole thing about God's purpose
is not even about you being saved. It's about God's son getting
all the glory. He's gonna get all the glory.
He's the head of the body of the church, who's the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have
the preeminence. That's what it's all about, is
His Son. God predestinated His people
to be born again. He predestinated His people to
bring them under the gospel, to send forth the Spirit, to
cause them to experience a new birth, so that when He does that,
He creates us anew in the image of His Son. He sends forth the
spirit of his son into your heart, and that new man is created in
his image. And then at the end, when he's
made you to put off this body of death, and that new spirit
goes to be with him, he's going to create a new body. and then
we're going to be perfectly conformed to his image. You and I didn't
have a thing to do with being conformed to his image. This
was God's eternal purpose, and it's to the praise and glory
of his son. Listen up. Well, let's go to Ephesians 1
5. This is exactly what Paul's talking about there. Ephesians
1 5. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. God
predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, to conform us to the image of his Son." Now there's
three things involved in this, three things. This is going to
show you how surely God is working all things together for his people
right here from eternity according to his purpose. This was an eternal
act of God the Father right here. He made a multitude of children
in Christ before the foundation of the world. He did this, choosing
us in His purpose. He created us in Christ before
the world was made when He ordained us and predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of His Son. And so He works all things
together in time for our good so that we will be born anew. Or well, so that we'd be born
a first time. He worked everything so you'd be born a first time.
but he also predestinated us to experience this adoption so
that he can cause that new birth. And so he worked all things together
to bring you out of the gospel to cause you to experience that
new birth. Nothing was left to chance. Nothing. God said how he would do it was
through the preaching of the gospel. I'll send men that will
preach the truth to you. And he's going to save his people
through the truth of the gospel. He has the power to bring you
unto the truth of the gospel. He predestinates to the adoption
of children and he creates this new birth. And then lastly this
adoption and this conformity has to do with when we're delivered
into that glorious liberty of the sons of God. That's in Romans
8 as well. We're going to be awaiting the
redemption of our body, the adoption, the redemption of our body. That's
when we'll be perfectly conformed to his son through and through. And all of this was that he might
be the firstborn among many brethren. so that Christ gets all the glory. This is how you can know, brethren,
this was all purposeful. We knew anything about it. God
created this world. He worked everything in this
world to bring you to experience this adoption, and this is how
you can be certain that whatever's coming to pass in this world,
if tomorrow the lights go out, you can make certain You know
this, God's gonna work for your good, and he's not gonna let
you be separated from Christ. Don't mean you might not suffer,
don't mean you might not be hungry, don't mean that things might
not go like you want it to go, but you're not gonna be harmed,
and you're not gonna be separated from Christ. This thing is a
spiritual union that'll never be severed. He shall not fail
till he has finished this work, our Lord Jesus. That's why Paul
rejoiced in Ephesians 111. He said, in Christ, Also, we
have obtained an inheritance. He's speaking past tense. We
have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel
of his own will. No possibility we won't come
into that inheritance. Now that's a God you can trust. That's a God you can rest in
when it looks like when everybody's running around thinking the sky
is falling. You know he's working all things together and has been
from the beginning and it's for the good of his people. Now thirdly,
back in our text, God works all things together
for the good of His people according to His purpose because in eternity,
and please get this, He already called us. In eternity, He already
called us. We're not yet talking about what
He did for you in time. We're talking about what He did
according to His purpose. To His purpose. It says, moreover
whom He did predestinate, them He also called. The word means
named. It means made to bear a name. And in eternity, before He made
anything at all, God called His people and made us bear His name,
bearing the name of His Son from eternity. Listen to this. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, God hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That's the holy calling. He called
us before this world was ever made. Jude said, He wrote to
them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus
Christ and called. And when God foreknew His people,
when He predestinated His people, He called His people. There was eternal call of God
prior to our effectual call in time. Now everybody He called,
His own children in eternity, He will call them in time. But
now see how secure we are, and why Paul is saying here, if God's
for you, and He's been working all things together for your
good, this is how you know things are going to be fine, right here.
All right? God created the world. Think
about this now. God created the world. Everything
in it, heaven, earth, everything, permitted to fall. according
to his purpose, to work all of this that he purposed. God, through a long chain of
providence, he made your great, great, great, great, great, great
grandparents be born. Those great grandparents you
don't even know. He made them be born. If there
was nobody else in your family that he called You that are elected,
he foreknew, they're sitting here, he made them to be born
so you would be born. That's working all things together
for your good. Is it that real? It's that real.
It came all the way down the line to you and He ordered everything
to bring you into this world, bring you under the word of this
gospel. And He made you experience that
effectual call where He called you by the power of His grace
and created life in you that was not there and gave you faith
that you could not produce and drew you to Him and made you
see Christ as all. So I'm trying to show you how
sure we are in our Lord Jesus. God is working all things, has
been working all things together since the beginning for his children
whom he foreknew, whom he predestinated, whom he called from eternity.
The council of peace was formed, the covenant of grace was made,
the promise of life was given us. God called us his children
in Christ back there in eternity. Our Savior was appointed and
every blessing of grace was put into His hands to give to His
people. Our Lord chose His Son and He
gave all the blessings He blessed His people with, He gave them
to His Son to bless us with them through His blood and His righteousness.
And that's why when the fullness of time was come, the reason
God sent the Spirit of God into your heart was not to make you
His child, It was because you already were. And when did you
become his child? When he called you from eternity.
Galatians 4, 6 says, And because you are sons, God sent forth
the Spirit of his Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father.
We didn't do anything to become a child of God. He made us his
children. Just like your children didn't
do anything to become your children. This is when John, this gives
more meaning to what John said when he said, behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. Now fourthly, be assured God's
working all things for our good according to his purpose because
this is also his eternal purpose. Verse 30, and whom he called,
them he also justified. Oh, Clay's going to talk about
eternal justification. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. When it says that God our Father
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ according as He chose us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that includes justification. That includes justification.
Christ, when He became our surety, We were justified. We were righteous
without sin in His Son. And that's the only reason God
hadn't ever destroyed this world, is because He had a people who
were holy and righteous in His Son by God's sovereign grace,
justified in Christ from eternity. That's what Scripture means when
God said, I declare the end from the beginning. From ancient times,
things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand,
I will do all my pleasure. I call a man that executes my
counsel from a far country. I spoke it. I'll bring it to
pass. I purposed it. I'll do it. And in eternity,
when he chose his son to be that man to come from that far country
and execute his counsel, Christ Jesus, as the surety for his
people, became the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Everybody I've ever heard speak against that had one reason they
did it. They were trying to say that their faith justified them.
Everyone had ever said it. My faith justified me. Your faith
didn't justify you. If you're justified, God justified
you. You're going to read that in
the next verses in our text. If you're justified, God justified
you, and he gives the glory. He gave you faith to receive
what he did for you. And that's faith, faith receives
it, but it's God that did the justifying. The works were finished
from the foundation of the world. So from the time that he commanded
the light and Christ came into this world, every war that's
taken place, every great thing that's happened in the world,
every small thing that's happened in the world, it all was being
worked together. until when the fullness of thee
time had come." And then Christ came into this world to do this,
to made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law that we might receive the adoption of children.
And God even overruled wicked men to nail the Son of God to
the cross, to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. When did he determine it before?
In eternity. in eternity, from the beginning,
according to His purpose. And so Christ Jesus accomplished
our warfare, brethren. He accomplished our warfare.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world and laid down His life
and accomplished our warfare. By Him, all that believe are
justified from all things which could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Now lastly, and try to get a
hold of this, God's been working all things
together for our good because God glorified us from eternity
when he chose us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 30, in whom
he justified, them he also glorified. This is all talking about what
God did. This is all talking about what
God did in the past tense. And this is his purpose. This
is his purpose. Did God really glorify us past
tense before the world was made when He chose us in Christ and
Christ entered covenant with the Father to save us? This is what our Lord was talking
about when He prayed to the Father in John 17 5. And He said, O
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. when he chose
his son to be the preeminence and to be the firstborn among
many brethren. And he chose a people and gave them to his son, predestinated
them to the adoption. When he called them, when he
justified them, he glorified his son. He gave him all this
glory and eternity to be the one to do all this work. And
by giving his people to him, he glorified us in his son. I
know we can't hardly get this because all we think about is
time. But God's eternal. God's eternal. One day there is not going to
be time anymore. And when you die and you open your eyes in
glory, everybody's going to be there. Everybody's going to be
there. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor
anything taken from it, and God doeth it that men should fear
before him. That which hath been is now,
and that which is to be hath already been, and God requires
that which is past. God's eternal. God's eternal. What I'm trying to say to you
is, Since all these spiritual blessings are in the past tense,
done by the Father in Christ before time was created, since
this was His eternal purpose, and you can rest easy knowing
this, God has been, from the first tick of the clock, And
He shall continue to work all things together for good to you
that love God, to you that are called according to His purpose.
He will do it according to this eternal purpose. It's why Christ
justified us in time by His blood. It's why the Spirit called us
in time. It's why we experienced the adoption in time. It's why
we shall be kept and glorified at the end of time together with
Christ in His perfect likeness. We have no reason to doubt, and
we have no reason to worry. This is his promise. To everybody
justified by Christ, he says, there shall no evil happen to
the just. Not any. Cheryl, not any. I mean,
that includes no matter what. No matter what. The Spirit of God guarantees
us, verse 28, that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.
Read verse 31. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? So next time you get trouble,
camp right there. Camp right there. Get those words
dead in your heart and camp right there. All right. Brother Adam.