Well, let us turn to God's Word
in that portion of Scripture we read, Romans chapter 8, and
drawing your attention this morning to the words that we have here
at verse 28. Verse 28, a remarkable promise,
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God to them who are the caught according to his purpose. It's a great statement, this
wonderful sentence that we have here in a chapter that I'm sure
we're not unfamiliar with, a great chapter also, Romans chapter
8. We know that God's Word contains many exceeding great and precious
promises and all those promises are and our men in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And amongst them, as I said,
we have this particular promise. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. And then he continues, for whom
he did foreknow. We know it says, and God is the
one who foreknows. And I want to say something this
morning with regards then to this divine knowledge that is
being spoken of in this passage, or the knowledge of the divine
we might say, the knowledge of God himself. But first of all,
as we look at the context, to say something with regards to
God's foreknowledge, the words that follow immediately after
our text, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." These verses
that we often refer to as the Golden Chain, and these various
links in that chain. It all begins with this knowledge
of God, this that he's spoken of as his foreknowledge. And what of this knowledge? Well, God is the one who is infinite,
of course, in his knowledge. He is the one who knows all things. He is that God who we refer to
as being omniscient. Simply the Latin expressing the
fact that God is all-knowing, just as we speak of God as being
omnipotent. He's all-powerful. So he is also
the one who knows all things, declaring the ends from the beginning,
saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. And remember how this truth,
this attribute of God, this remarkable knowledge of all things is spoken
of very much in the 139th Psalm, Now there, David confesses that
there can be no escaping the presence of God, His omnipresence,
or the knowledge of God, He is all-knowing. There in the psalm,
O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me, Thou knowest my
down-sitting and my up-rising, Thou understandest my thought
afar off, Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art
acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word in my
tongue. But, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it. Altogether Thou hast
beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is I. I cannot attain
unto it." The infinite knowledge of God. There is nothing that
is hid from Him. Nothing can be concealed. From
his eye, it's an all-seeing eye. And how, as David comes to the
end of that 139th Psalm, he bows before this all-knowing God,
and wants God to search him so thoroughly, and to know him completely. Search me, O God, and know my
heart. Try me and know my thoughts,
and see if there be any wicked way in me. and lead me in the
way of everlasting, or that we might know something of that
spirit of the psalmisty, that we would that God knew everything
about us, that we would not have anything concealed from Him.
And when we think of God manifest in the flesh, when we think of
the coming of Christ, the person of the Lord Jesus, remember what
we are told in That second chapter of John concerning Christ, he
knew all men. It says, And he did not that
any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Isn't that in some ways a proof
of his deity? He did not that any should testify
of man. He knows everything because he
is God manifest in the flesh and yet strangely In those words
that we have in that second chapter of John, we also are reminded
of the wonder of his human nature. It was said of Martin Luther,
of course, that he could preach as if he had been in the heart
of a man. The great reformer could preach as if he had been
in the heart of a man. Such was his experience. Well
if that was true of a man like Luther how much more was that
the case with the man Christ Jesus who in the days of his
flesh when he had offered up prayer and supplication with
strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him
from death and we're told he was heard in that he feared though
he were a son yet learned he obedience what a life it was
and he Even in his human nature, you see, he seems to understand
humanity, he understands the hearts of men. And he did not,
that any should testify of man. He knew, he knew what was in
man. All the knowledge then of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And while, of course, he's touched
with the feeling of all our infirmities, he knows what our human nature
is. Though his was a sinless human nature. He was tempted. He was tempted in all points
like as we are yet without sin. So our comfort is that we not
only look to a God who is infinite in his knowledge but we look
to that God who has come and partaken of our human nature
and understands us as no other can possibly understand us. But then when we think of this
knowledge of God it's also an intimate knowledge and that's
really what is being emphasized by the prefix for, whom he did
for know. Now, when the Arminian comes
to the words of verse 29 he sees that foreknowledge simply in
terms of foreseeing. The Arminian says, well, God
foreknows, foresees who will come to saving faith, and on
the basis of that foresight, He predestinates them to be conformed
to the image of His Son. To understand the verse in that
fashion makes salvation depend not upon God and the sovereignty
of God, but upon man. man is able of himself to exercise
saving faith, and God sees that, and on the basis of what the
man does, he predestinates him. But the whole passage, of course,
is one that really emphasizes very much the sovereignty of
God. And so such an interpretation is a false interpretation. This
word that we have in verse 29 is foreknowing. It's not just
foresight. but suggest the intimacy of a
knowledge knowing someone and knowing them so very well and
knowing them because one loves them the foundation of God says Paul
to Timothy the foundation of God standeth sure the Lord knoweth
them that are his and the Lord knows his people And how does
he know them? He knows them because he has
loved them. And because he has loved them,
set his eternal love upon them, he has predestinated them to
salvation. That's why the foreknowledge
stands first of all the links here in the Golden Chain. Whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. We think of the
words of Paul in another of his epistles when he writes to the
Thessalonians there in that first epistle, verse 4, knowing brethren
beloved your election of God. Knowing brethren beloved. They
are beloved. Knowing brethren beloved your
election. They are elect. There's a connection
between them being loved and them being elected. Now, if you
turn to that passage, and you have a Bible with margins, you
may see that 1 Thessalonians 1.4 gives an alternative reading
in the margin. There it reads, knowing brethren
beloved of God your election, and in fact the margin follows
more exactly the syntax as we have it in the original there.
It follows the word order that we have in the original. What
is being said in the marginal reading? They are beloved of
God. Knowing, brethren, beloved of
God, your election. It's because God loves them that
he has chosen them, that he has predestinated them. Oh, this
is the wonder of God, isn't it? Here in chapter 9, We read of
those twins that were born to Rebekah, Isaac's wife. There at verse 10 in chapter
9, when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac,
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. He saw the firstborn
child, the firstborn twin, and then Jacob. It was said unto
her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but he saw have I hated. Oh, we see clearly then,
the reason why one is predestinated one is chosen, it's because God
has set His love upon that particular individual. And when God speaks
to the children of Israel, a typical people, Israel, a type of the
people of God, the church of God, and remember the language
there in Deuteronomy 7, 7, the Lord did not set His love upon
you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any
people, for you were the fewest of all people, but because the
Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he
had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out
with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen,
from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." Here is the causing,
because the Lord loved you, and the Lord who loves is that one
who is faithful and so we see why it is that
God knows his people he knows them
because he has loved them and loved them from an eternity and
as he has predestinated them so in the appointed time he also
calls them whom he did predestinate them
he also called and then again we have it here
in the text they were called according to the purpose of God
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God to them who are the called according to his purpose
All these links in the chain are so clearly connected one
to the other. Where there is the love of God,
where there is the predestinating purpose of God, there is also
to be that blessed call of God. And again we see it in those
verses in chapter 9 that we've already referred to, that little
parenthesis in verse 11. It ends with calling, doesn't
it? The children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth. Oh, there's
the call, the effectual call, the efficacious grace of God
also. As He loves His people, He doesn't
just predestinate His people, but He will also call His people.
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, he says. Therefore
with loving kindness have I drawn thee. He draws them to himself.
He brings them to himself. And we know that we can only test
our own relationship with God in terms of the call of grace.
Election is God's secret purpose. the Lord knoweth them that are
His that is secret to God and the secret things belong unto
the Lord our God the things that are revealed belong unto us and
to our children we are told what are the things that are revealed?
well the calling of God it's interesting when Peter there
in the opening chapter of that second epistle gives exhortation
to the people, he says, give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. There are some who are troubled
by this whole doctrine of God's predestination. In a sense, I
suppose, that's why the Arminian wants to interpret God's foreknowledge
simply in terms of God's foreseeing something. If you believe, they say, well,
God is pleased to make choice of those who believe. So they,
as it were, seek to dock the offense of this truth of God's
absolute sovereignty. There are many who stumble at
the doctrine of God's electing purposes. But it's interesting
when we come to those words that we just referred to in that opening
chapter of 2 Peter, verse 10, he says, give diligence to make
your calling and election sure. He doesn't speak of election
first, which we might well expect because election comes before
calling in the purpose of God. God has predestinated the people
whom he has chosen. That's in eternity and in time
God will call them to himself and bring them to himself. But
the order is reversed by Peter in that verse. You are to give
diligence first of all to your calling. What is our response
to the call of God in the Gospel? Are we those who desire to embrace
that call of God? As we respond to that call, as
we are brought to that saving faith, that we can then draw
some comfort of assurance and know that we're those who have
been predestinated to that great salvation. Oh, to know, you see, to know
this God, to know the ways of this God. What do we read here in verse 29? Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed, it says, to the image of his
Son. They're not only those whom He has loved from eternity and
predestinated in eternity and will call in time, but they are
also such as are to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. How are they conformed
to the image of God's Son? Well, principally, isn't that
the great truth, the great doctrine of their justification? and he
goes on to speak of that in verse 13 he calls them he justifies them moreover whom he did predestinate
them he also called and whom he called them he also justified
and the apostle goes on here to to speak of that right truth
of justification in verse 33, "...who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect. It is God that justifieth, who
is he that condemneth. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that he is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us." God is the one who justifies
His people. And what is that doctrine? It
means literally that God accounts them to be righteous. All the righteousness of Christ
is imputed or counted over to them. That Christ who has come and
being made of a woman was also made under the Lord, who was
honoured and magnified the Lord by His obedience, His obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross, all that work of Christ. Who can condemn those who are
in Christ? Christ has died, yea rather He's
risen again. God sees them then as clothed
in that robe of righteousness, those garments of salvation,
or they are conformed to the image of his Son. But they are
not only justified, there are people who are also sanctified. They are new creatures in Christ
Jesus. All things have passed away,
all things have become they have a new nature and they know it
and they feel it and Paul remember speaks of that at the end of
chapter 7 how he feels the warfare as it were between the old man
and the new man but he says there in chapter 7 verse 22 I delight
in the Lord of God after the inward man But I see another
Lord in my members, warring against the Lord of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the Lord of sin, which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ and Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the Lord of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Oh, there's this conflict, but
there's also in this conflict the putting to death, the all
nature. As he says in this 8th chapter,
verse 13, if she live after the flesh she shall die, but if she
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall
live as part and parcel of that sanctification, that dying to
sin, that living to the Lord Jesus Christ. All His sanctification, as His
justification, is and comes from Christ. Of Him I have been God,
who of God is made to us, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, that
either glories must glory and glory only in the Lord, or they
are conformed, conformed to the image of His Son. Justification,
sanctification, and sufferings also, or they are one with Christ,
a suffering Saviour, Paul's desire there in Philippians 3 that I
may know him he says the power of his resurrection
the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death conformable even as we have it here in this 29th verse
to be conformed to the image of his son dying with the Lord
Jesus Christ or knowing what it is to suffer for his sake. There can be no real fellowship
between a broken-hearted Saviour and a whole-hearted disciple,
surely not. He cries, my Lord, suffer and
shall I repine? asks John Newton in the hymn. or if we know him we know something
of sufferings unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ
Paul says not only to believe on him but also to suffer for
his sake he is part and parcel of what it means to be engaged
in that good fight of faith to suffer with the Lord Jesus Christ
where there is faith there will always go with that faith the
the sufferings, the conflict? Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trials which is to try you as though some
strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are
partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when he shall appear, or
when he shall be revealed, ye may also be glad with exceeding
joy. Oh, there is such a union there
with Christ, the crucified Saviour. Oh, doesn't Paul speak of it
to the Galatians, to be crucified with Christ? The life which I
now live in the flesh, he says, I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. All things It says here in the
text, All things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. Always they know
Him and understand something of what that foreknowledge is,
that love of God, that's been demonstrated in the person and
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can rest assured that all
things all that ever comes into their lives, the bitters, as
well as the sweets, without any exception, everything, is to
work together for their good. It is God who justifies them,
it's God who sanctifies them, it's God who is with them in
all their conflicts, with sin and with Satan and with the world,
They are those who are partakers of the sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And now, at the end of the chapter,
of course, the apostle brings it out in some detail. Verse
35, "...who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness,
or peril, or sore, As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all
the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's so Pauline,
the whole passage. There can be no exception, everything. Whatever proves to be the lot
of the people of God. Nothing comes by mere chance. Nor the fictitious powers of
chance and fortune I defy. My life's minutest circumstance
is subject to His eye. and not only subject to His eye
but all these things are in the hands of a God who is a loving
God who has foreknown His people eternally set His love upon them
all God knows and we know isn't that what the text is saying
we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God to them who are the cord according
to his purpose. Thinking then of this knowledge
that is spoken of in the text, just two things as we come to
a conclusion this morning. What is this knowledge? It is
saving knowledge. Who knows this? It's them that
love God, it says. All things work together for
good to them that love God. Now, by nature we are not those
who are the lovers of God. We are not. We are born dead
in trespasses and sins. In our birth we are in a state
of alienation from God. And as we grow we are separated
from God by our wicked thoughts and words and deeds? Or did we not read those solemn
words at the beginning of the chapter? Verse 6 to be carnally minded
or the margin says the minding of the flesh the fleshy mind,
the carnal mind, the natural mind to be carnally minded is
death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the
carnal mind, the fleshly, the natural mind, is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the Lord of God, neither indeed
can be." Now that's our natural condition. We're in a state then
of enmity from God, we're in ignorance, we're in darkness,
The Lord Jesus Christ is that one who has come to bring reconciliation
between the sinner and God. So those who were once far off
are brought nigh by that precious blood of Christ. Remember how
Paul speaks of it in the opening chapter of his epistle to the
Colossians. There in Colossians 1 he speaks of Christ having made
peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all
things unto himself by him I say whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in
the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight of the work of Christ,
and all that was accomplished by His obedience, and His obedience
even to that death of the cross, where He made the great sin-atoning
sacrifice. It's through Him that we receive
the atonement, that we receive the reconciliation. This epistle is an amazing epistle,
isn't it? We read it And we see the wonder
of the Gospel time and again. Going back to chapter 5 you see
again we have the same truth of reconciliation. Verse 10,
If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life.
And not only so, but we also join in our God through our Lord
Jesus Christ by whom we have now received. the atonement of
course atonement there at the end of verse 11 is the same word
that we have in verse 10 rendered reconciled but I like that word atonement
it's that word that was coined by William Tyndale when he translated
the New Testament into English at one meant at one with God
These are at one with God. Him in our text. They love God. And they are at one with Him.
And they are at one with all His great predestinating purpose. They bow before His divine sovereignty. They love Him. Because Christ
has come and reconcile them to God, though once they were enemies
of God. And why is it that they love
him now? Well, we love him, says John, because he first loved
us. No, he first loved us, whom he
did foreknow. He did predestinate. Those whom
he had set his sovereign love and those whom he had that intimacy
of knowledge of. He knew them so well because
he delighted in them. and He delighted in them because
He would delight in them. All this is a saving knowledge
that is being spoken of at the beginning of this 28th verse. We know. We know because He knows us.
We love because He has first loved us. As we read in chapter
5 5. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. And remember
how Paul prays for those Ephesians with regards to this love of
God. At the end of the third chapter
of the Ephesian epistle we have one of those prayers of the Apostle. And what does he desire, what
does he ask, what does he plead with God for? That Christ may
dwell in your heart by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Oh, he's praying for the impossible,
really. that they might know the love of Christ. And yet,
who can comprehend it? The breadth, length, depth, and
height? Why, it passes knowledge. It
passes knowledge. And yet, here we have it, we
know. It's not just a saving knowledge,
is it? It's an experimental knowledge. It's not just speculation. It's not just something in our
minds. We know this by experience. We know this, God, because he
has made himself known to us. He has made himself real in our
experience. We were dead in sins and yet
now we have spiritual life. And this is life eternal, says
Christ, to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent, or to know my Jesus, crucified, by fire excels
all things beside, all earthly good I count but loss, and triumph
in my Saviour's cross, says Richard Burnham, or to know that experience,
to know Christ. This is what he is speaking of,
we know. How do we come to know these
things? We know it by the Lord's dealings with us, again. In chapter 5, we have another chain,
as it were. Not only so, he says, there at
verse 3, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, or endurance, and patience, experience, and
experience hope, and hope make us not ashamed because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
is given unto us. These things are known, you see.
All we glory in tribulations. Why? Knowing. Knowing something
of this chain of events, tribulation. endurance, patience, experience,
hope, the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. It's experience
that he is speaking of. It is truly an experimental knowledge. And what are we to do? We're
to remember. Oh, we're to remember these things. How the Lord, in
his dealings with us, Day by day, moment by moment, is He
not teaching us? Is He not revealing ever something
more of Himself? The wonder of His gracious ways
with us? When He says to the children
of Israel there in Deuteronomy 8 verse 2, They shall remember
all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years
in the wilderness to humble thee and to prove to know what was
in thine heart. whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments or no, and he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger,
and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not. Neither did
thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. O how God deals with
them! And how God makes every gracious
provision for them. And as it was with them, so it
is with us. These things written for our learning, that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Now there's an emphasis there
upon their coming to know these things. They're to remember,
and as they remember, they will know. and know something about
themselves, and know what was in thy heart. And God wise, passed our understanding,
passed our knowledge. He humbled them, and suffered
them to hunger, fed them with manna, which thou knewest not,
that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bed
only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
the Lord doth man live. All we have to be wise were to
observe these things and then we will understand something
of the loving kindness of the Lord. Were we not yesterday reminded that the Lord God is that one
who never forsakes his people that he is
the one who never forgets his people we are directed to those
words in Isaiah 49 verse 14 Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken
them, my LORD hath forgotten them. Can a woman forget her
sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son
of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget them. He has a gracious purpose to
fulfill in them. I know the thoughts, he says,
that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you an expected end. And what is that expected end?
It's the good purpose of a gracious God. And so we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. to them
who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did
foreknow. And all follows from that, or
that we might know then that goodwill of the God who was there
in the bush, who met with Moses, who meets with all his people,
who fulfills in their lives all his goodwill and pleasure. May the Lord bless his word to
us. Let us conclude this morning
as we sing that hymn I made reference to, 771, the tune Rimmington,
395. To know my Jesus, crucified by
fire, excels all things beside. All earthly good I count but
loss, and triumph in my Saviour's cross. Knowledge of all terrestrial
things, Ne'er to my soul true pleasure brings, No peace but
in the Son of God, No joy but through His pardoning blood.
771, 395.