Romans chapter 8. We'll begin our reading there
in verse 31. The apostle asked this question,
what shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? And the title of the message
this morning is, The Comfort of These Things. The Comfort
of These Things. What shall we say to these things? Now though every believer in
Christ has this promise, there is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and
death." Though this is true, even though that we are Spirit-filled,
Spirit-led sons of God, heirs of all things, we know this,
in this world we find great trouble. We as believers in Christ find
great difficulties and desire assurance. We desire great assurance
of our interest in Christ. Above all things, I desire to
know, do I have an interest in Christ? Am I His, as Newton said,
or am I not? This is the great question that
plagues my soul, that I must know. I must know, am I His or
am I not? And this is caused by the indwelling
sin that remains, the old man. As we are believers in Christ,
we have the new nature of the Spirit. We are new creatures
in Christ. But yet the old flesh, the old
man, as vile and corrupt as he was, he still is. And as Paul
says, he is like a corpse, a rotting corpse about our neck, dragging
us to the ground constantly. We're struggling constantly against
him. And I'll tell you, I need comfort. We need comfort. We need assurance. And I'll tell
you this, I know my salvation is not dependent on my assurance.
It's dependent on Christ. But I sure like to have assurance.
I sure love to have it. It comforts my soul. And so this
whole chapter here, Paul is comforting. He is giving us reasons for comfort
and assurance. And he says, what shall we say
to these things? And these things refer to what
he had said before. What he had said before. Now,
I want us to take comfort, first of all, in this. Take comfort
in this thing called election. Believer in Christ, you should
take great comfort in the election of God. Now then, look at this
in verse 28. Scripture says, 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. 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."
All who are called to life and faith in Christ are called because
of God's election. Election. Regardless of what
men think of this sovereign election of God, it is plainly revealed
that God the Father, before the world was, before the foundation
of the world, chose for Himself a people by His own sovereign
free grace, determined to save a people. These people are called
in Scripture the elect. The elect. The Father, according to His
own grace, chose some of Adam's race and set His love upon them
to save them for no reason in them, but only for His own glory. And I'll tell you what, this
throws men into a tizzy. This throws men for a loop. Oh, this is so horrible. How
can you say that? They don't like this. They don't
like this because God does things for Hisself. They don't like
it that God doesn't do things because of you or because of
how special you are. God does things because of His
own glory. The Scripture plainly tells us
that in Ephesians chapter 1 says, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, listen, according
as He had chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should behold Him without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us. unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself." Listen, why? According to the
good pleasure of His will. According to the praise of the
glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. Listen, false religion would
have God's election dependent upon what man does. that God looked down in the future
of time and saw what man would do, and then made His decision
based on what men would do. That is false religion. Nothing else. It's false religion. The Scriptures are very clear.
In our text here, it says, For whom He did foreknow. This foreknowledge. is his God's
electing grace. The scriptures are clear concerning
the foreknowledge of God as it relates to the salvation of man. Now this we know. We know that God knows all things. I don't think there's many religions
that wouldn't say that. God knows all things. Surely God does know all the
actions of men beforehand, because He has decreed them. He has decreed
them. Acts 15 and verse 18 says, Known
unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.
even because He decreed all things. But everywhere in Scripture,
listen, everywhere in Scripture where this word foreknowledge
of God is spoken of in regards to salvation, it always is speaking
of persons, not actions. Always the foreknowledge of God
as it relates to salvation of man speaks to persons. to people, not actions, for whom
he foreknew. Not what he foreknew, but whom
he foreknew he did predestinate. Go over and see this in Romans
in another place, in Romans 11. Romans 11 and verse 2. Paul says, God hath not cast
away His people which He foreknew." Foreknew. The question raised
here is, did God cast away Israel, the seed of Abraham, because
they crucified Christ? This was the common thought,
is that, hey, well, the Jews rejected Christ, the Gentiles
are brought in, so God must have rejected all Jews. Well, that's
not true, Paul said. He said, I'm a Jew. God's not
cast me away. I'm a Jew. I'm one of the elect. And God never cast away His elect. And He gives the example of Elijah.
He said, Elijah, speaking against Israel, said, Lord, they've killed
Your prophets, they've dug down Your altars, and I'm the only
one left. And what did God answer? He said,
no, you're not it. Look around you, believer. Look
around you. You're not it. This is not all. This is not all. God says to
Elijah, I have reserved for myself 7,000. Now consider, out of millions
of people in Israel at that time, God only reserved 7,000. Consider Noah. How many did God
save in the days of Noah? Eight souls. Friends, there has always been
a remnant according to the election of grace. God has always chosen
for Himself a remnant. A remnant. That's what Paul says.
Even so, at this present time, in verse 5 of chapter 11. Even
so, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the
election of grace. And this election is by grace
and not by works. This is very clear in Romans
11. I mean, Romans 9. If you go to
Romans 9, you can see it very clearly. Romans 9, again, we're
dealing with people. The election and foreknowledge
of God has to deal with people, not actions. Scripture says,
For the children not yet being 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. For it is
said to her, The elder shall serve the younger as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, But Esau have I hated. Did you get that? Before the
children were born having done good or evil, God set his love
on Jacob and his hatred on Esau. I'll ask you, does this make
God a monster as men think? That's what one man said to a
preacher of the gospel. He said, your God is nothing
more than a monster. And He is to natural man. Is God unrighteous to do this?
Is God unfair to do this? Paul asks that question. He says,
is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid you should say
anything like that at all. You see, both Jacob and Esau
were sinners. Both men deserved the full justice
of God, yet God, for His own glory, His own purpose, and His
own love, chose and loved Jacob, and hated Esau. He loved Jacob who did not deserve
or merit His love, even so did He love us. You who believe take comfort
in election because election was not according to your works. You were not chosen because you
were the best. You were chosen. You were chosen
by free and sovereign grace. Consider that if God had not
set His love on some, had God not foreknown and foreloved some, then all men would have been
lost. The scripture says, had he not
had a remnant, we all would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. We would have been like the fallen
angels. who were bound in chains of darkness
with no hope had God not chosen and loved His elect. I tell you, the lost religious
world today would rather divide the glory
of salvation and spiritual life between themselves and Christ
and make the cross of none effect rather than bow and submit to
the election of God. Man by nature despises and denies
the sovereign election of God because he desires some glory
for himself. If you hate the election of God,
it's because you desire to have some work in this. That's why.
You desire to have some merit in this. You desire to have some
part. You say, God, I hate election because I want to have some of
the glory. That's why you hate it. That's
why men hate it. But denying the election of God,
you oppose your own soul. Men that deny the election of
God oppose themselves. Because without election, there
is no salvation. The scriptures are plain. For
the election of God is unto salvation. And if there were no election,
there would be no salvation. Therefore, you who are his, take
comfort in this, that he knew you. He chose you. before the world began. Second of all, consider this
thing of predestination. The Scripture in our text says,
For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. This word predestinate, what
does that mean? Well, that means to determine
beforehand or to ordain, to decree something. It means to decree that those
God foreknew in sovereign eternal love, He has also ordained them
to be made in the holy image of His Son. That's what God's
predestination election's about. His election of His people He
also did predestinate. He not only set His love on them,
but He also decreed that those elect should be made holy. Should be made holy after the
image of His Son. The Father who loved us also
predestinated us to be without blame. To be without blemish
of sin. which is the same as His righteous
and holy Son, the nature of His holy Son. Therefore, we elect,
were given to the Son of God from eternity, and He was made,
predestinated to be our surety. Our surety. Jesus was purposed
of God, elected of God to be the mediator of a better covenant. In other words, the covenant
of law. The covenant of law is not the
means by which God had purposed to save His people. Not by the
righteousness of the law. No one shall be justified in
His sight. God made a covenant of grace. A covenant of grace. It was made by the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit for us before the world began. In 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, it
says, God who 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. You remember David when he was
on his deathbed in 2 Samuel 23. He said, these be the last words
of David. Although my house be not so with
God. Although I'm a sinner. Although
I've defiled myself. Although I am not just. Although
I have disobeyed the law of God. Yet. Here's my hope. Here's my confidence. As I go to face the grave, this
is my confidence. That God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things and sure For He, for this, is all my salvation."
This eternal covenant was made with us as it was made with Christ,
the one who was responsible for the covenant. When God predestinated
our salvation, He predestinated also the means by which we should
be saved. And it was by a covenant of grace,
a covenant of mercy, over in Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 6. It says, But now hath he obtained
a more excellent ministry, by how much more he is also the
mediator of a better covenant which was established on better
promises. And in verse 10 it said, for
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
in those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind. I will write them in their hearts.
I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, every man his
brother, saying, know the Lord. For they all shall know me from
the least to the greatest, for I will be merciful unto their
unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more." This is the covenant God made. And Jesus, the chosen
high priest, He is the mediator of this covenant. He is the surety,
the guarantee of this covenant. For the same God who chose us
and predestinated us also predestinated that Christ should be our only
Savior. Let me ask you then, who could
have stopped the Son of God from coming into this world? Who could have stopped Him from
coming into the virgin's womb? The Scripture has said, A woman
shall compass a man. The Scripture has said, The seed
of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent. Now then,
who should stop God from sending His Son to be made in the likeness
of sinful flesh? Who? No one. Because God predestinated
it. God ordained it. Who could have prevented Christ
from His mission as the servant of God? Who could have caused
Him to fail in His righteous obedience to the law of God?
For the Scripture has said, He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The Scripture said, He shall
magnify the law and make it honorable. Who could have stopped Prevented the death of Christ
on the cross You remember those Jews they they said hey, you
know what? We can't we can't kill this guy
on Passover and God says I beg your pardon. I've Predestinated
him to die on Passover. You'll do exactly what I told
you to do who could have prevented it No one Matter of fact, in
Acts 2 and verse 23, it says, You have taken and crucified
the Lord of glory. It was determined before. And if you go back to Psalm 22,
David writes this in prophecy. He said, they have pierced my
hands and my feet. Who could have stopped the crucifixion
of Christ? No one could have stopped it.
God ordained it. God decreed it. Who could have
stopped the resurrection of Christ? Is that not what they tried to
do when they sealed the tomb? They sealed the tomb, put the
soldiers outside of the tomb. Why? To stop the resurrection. And you know what? Did they succeed
in that? No! Nothing could have prevented
Christ from breaking the bars of death because He had put away
sin. There was no sin remaining and
death could not hold Him. What could prevent Christ from
ascending to the throne of glory? Nothing. What could have prevented
Him from taking the book from the hand of God? Nothing! Why? Because this is the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. This is the predestinated
will of God that Christ should come and save us, deliver us. There was none that could stay
His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou? None could stop Him because He
predestinated that Jesus should redeem His people. In Psalm 130
and verse 8, the Scripture is very clear. He shall redeem Israel from all His iniquities. Romans 11, 26, And so all Israel
shall be saved. This is the reason the angel
testified to Joseph and said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus. Why was His name called Jesus? It means Jehovah saved. You shall call His name Jehovah
Saves because Jehovah will save His people from their sins. This
was the determinate counsel of God. This was the predestinated
will of God that Jesus Christ should receive the preeminence,
that He should obtain redemption by His blood. And now that Jesus has accomplished
this, he said, Father, I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do. Now that he has finished the
work, believer, who then shall stop him from calling his elect? Who? If God had predestinated
to call His people, who should stop Him from doing it? Who? Who should stop Him from calling
and regenerating His elect to spiritual life and true faith
in Christ, seeing He has predestinated us to be made in the image of
His Son? Who can stop Him? Praise God that not even me and
all my sin could have stopped him. I'll tell you, there's nobody
that opposes our salvation more than our own self. But there's nothing that will
stop him from saving us, nothing. Behold, God who purposed to save
us, Christ who has accomplished our redemption and righteousness,
has also predestinated all things to go before us. Go before us. Consider this. Before you were saved, before God called you, consider
that His grace went before us to prepare the way for our salvation. Everything, everything, everything
moved according to the will, the predetermined will of God
to bring you and me to salvation. This is what people would call
prevenient grace. Pervenient grace. I was reading
some things on this and people say this is an Arminian view
of things. I beg your pardon. It's a scriptural
view of things and not like the Arminians believe it to be. This
thing of pervenient grace is a grace that goes before, go
over to Psalm 21. Over to Psalm 21. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ in this passage of Scripture, but I want you
to notice this in verse 3. It says, For thou preventest
him with the blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure
gold on his head. This word preventest, what it
means, it means proceed. or go before. In other words, the Lord says,
Thou hast gone before Him. The psalmist is saying, God has
gone before and prepared the way with all goodness for Christ. He has went before Christ and
even so, He goes before His elect. He prevent us. He goes before
us. to prepare the way of grace. All the divine providence of
God is like in the vision of Ezekiel. It is the wheel within
the wheel full of eyes. And this wheel turns neither
to the right hand nor to the left, but moves with divine precision
so that everything of the counsel of God that He has determined
to be will be done. Consider that even when we were
lost and in rebellion, you can see the pervenient grace of God
in that we did not die. Isn't that so? Was it possible for any of the
elect to die before they were ever called? No, it's not possible
that the elect should die before they're called. Why? Because God preserves us. That's what Jude tells us. In
Jude verse 1, it says, Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and
brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father
that set apart Preserved. Preserved in Christ. Preserved. Believer, there was nothing that
was going to ever interfere with God's predestination of us. He moved all things. And this
is not fatalism. When I say that God has predetermined
all things, this is not fatalism, because fatalism relies on a
force or chance. But divine providence is moved
by the loving and benevolent will of God with infinite wisdom,
power, and love for His people. Everything moves for God's elect. Do you not understand that, that
everything is for you? Everything that God does in this
world, the way this world spins and all the things that happen
in it are for the purpose of God to call His elect. Therefore, we are sure that all
the Father gave to Christ, whom He predestinated to be conformed
to the image of Christ, all who Christ redeemed, they are sure
to come to Christ, and He will not lose or cast out one of them. Take comfort in this truth, in
the truth of God's foreknowledge, in God's election. Take comfort
in God's predestination of our salvation, that we should be
conformed to the image of His Son. And moreover, Paul says
in our text, whom he called, them he also justified, and whom
he justified, them he also glorified. Notice, all of these are past
tense. Why? Why are they past tense? Called, justified, glorified. Do I look glorified to you? I tell you what, you watch me
long enough and you'll see my sin and you can see that I don't
act justified. But I tell you this, I am called
justified and glorified in the eyes of my God who calleth those
things that be not as though they were. Even so, without fail, God the
Holy Spirit is sent into the world to call His elect. Now
then, I'll ask you this, have you been called? You see, you
have no right to justification or election or any of these blessed
truths unless you've been called. Friends, listen, there'll be
multitudes in hell who believe in election. But have you been called by the
Holy Spirit? Have you been called to life
and faith in Christ alone? Election is not salvation. Election
is unto salvation through the means which God predestinated,
which is sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Have you been sanctified by the
Spirit of God to believe the truth? Salvation is not sanctification
of man or obedience to law. It is the election. It is the
power of the Holy Spirit that gives life. I tell you this,
I was not looking for God when he found me. I was not looking for God. And you who have been found of
God, you were not looking for God either. There's none that seeketh after
God, the scripture says. But when God in the Holy Spirit
came to us, He gave us life. This is the new birth. And it
doesn't come apart from faith. It comes with faith. Matter of
fact, faith is the result of the new birth. If you believe
on Christ, know this, your faith did not save you, but your faith
is a result of your salvation. It's a result of the Spirit coming
and quickening you to life. This new birth. Faith and repentance
always, always come with this new birth. And when He comes, this is an
irresistible call. In John 3 and 36, it says, He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not on the
Son of God, listen, shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. Only the elect are called and
they all will believe. And they have everlasting life
even because God has justified them. You who are called, I want
you to take great comfort in this. You have been justified. Justification is more than forgiveness. It's more than pardon. In order
to be forgiven and pardoned, you actually have to be guilty.
Isn't that right? Now, surely our experience, we
daily cry for pardon, don't we? We daily cry for forgiveness
because we have sinned. John says, if any man say he
hath not sinned, he's a liar. He's a liar. The truth's not
in you if you say you've not sinned. John says to us who are
children, he says, you should forsake sin. You should confess
your sin. And we do, don't we? If you're
a believer in Christ, you confess your sin. And God's faithful
and just to forgive you your sin. Herein is God able to forgive
us our sins, even because Christ has removed your sins. Believer, take comfort in this,
that God has taken all of your sin, all of your sin, even the sin that you will commit
today that has not been committed yet. God has taken all of your
sin and put it on His Son, imputed it to His Son's charge, and He
died in your stead. Where then is our sin? It is
gone! It is gone before the eyes of
God, in that Christ has died for us and all His righteousness
is now ours. That's what He predestinated,
isn't it? Didn't He predestinate you to be conformed to the image
of His Son? And now that He's called you,
He's revealed to you how He justified you. How is it that God can be
just and justify the ungodly? Only through the death and merit
of His Son. Now, have you been called to life
and faith in Christ alone? then you are justified. You're not justified before.
You're not justified by me. You're not even justified by
yourself. You're justified by God. And if God has called you, justified
you, He will most surely glorify you. Was there anything to stop God
from calling you? Was there anything that stopped
God from justifying you? What then do you think would
stop God from glorifying you? Is there any way that you don't
make it to glory? Is there any scheme that you
can possibly see in your mind that would prevent God, who gave
us His Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? And yet we run around, oh Lord,
how is this? I don't know how. How am I going
to get out of this? Oh no, I'm in trouble now. There's no trouble. There's no
trouble. God will glorify you. How do
I know that? Because He purposed to glorify
you. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who or what could be against us? What do you think will be able
to stand against God? If God chose me, if Christ redeemed
me, if the Spirit called me, if God justified me, if Christ's
blood satisfied God's justice for me, and He's risen again
and rules over all things, who can condemn me? Who can charge
me with sin? And who shall separate me from
the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Nobody and nothing. Nobody and nothing. So I'll ask
you, believer in Christ, what are you worried about? What concerns you? If God has done this for us,
how shall He not with Christ freely give us all things? May
God the Holy Spirit apply that and give us comfort. I pray in
His name.