Well, I'm excited to look into
God's Word yet again with you tonight, and I want to invite
you to take your Bible and turn with me to the book of Romans,
to Romans chapter 8. As we continue to build upon
what we looked at this morning, I'm so encouraged by the feedback
that I've received from many of you regarding how Romans 8.28
was used in your life in a very positive and edifying way, and
with others even bringing about conviction of sin to bring them
to Christ. And what we want to look at tonight
now stands on the shoulders of Romans 8.28 and reaches yet higher. And we'll be looking at verses
29 and 30, but I want to begin by reading the passage, Romans
8. I'm going to start reading in
verse 28, but our focus tonight is on verse 29 and 30. God's
Word says, and we know that God causes all
things to work together for good to those who love God. to those
who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew,
He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His
Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.
And these whom He predestined, He also called. And these whom
He called, He also justified. and these whom He justified,
He also glorified." What we find here is the most comprehensive
statement of the sovereign saving grace of God to be found anywhere
in the entire Bible. What we have here in verses 29
and 30 is what is known as the golden chain of salvation. We find in this chain five links,
five inseparable links that stretch from eternity past to eternity
future. This chain begins in eternity
past with those whom He foreknew and those whom He predestined.
This chain then extends and sweeps through time to the next two,
which those whom He called and those whom He justified. But
the chain does not stop there. It continues on into eternity
future, and we see those whom He glorified. What is so amazing
about this passage is that the group He begins with in eternity
past is the group that will stand before His throne of grace in
eternity future, that no one is added along the way. And no
one drops out along the way from the group that he foreknew and
predestined in eternity past. And it is this very group that
God calls out of the world into saving relationship with Jesus
Christ that God justifies and declares them to be righteous. This very group that God begins
to shape and mold and conform them into the image of God's
Son progressively throughout the whole of their Christian
life, and it is this very same group that He will glorify one
day in heaven. In fact, it is so certain that
this group will be glorified in heaven, you will note, it
is put in the past tense. Though the church and the believers
in Rome are still on the earth and are still being sanctified,
their future glorification is so certain that the Apostle Paul
puts it in the past tense. Actually, it's an aorist tense
that's translated as a past tense. And that is the eternal security
of all believers. What a broad brushstroke we find
here in this one passage. And it is as close to what theologians
refer to as the order salutis, the order of salvation. This one passage includes more
of the order of salvation than any other text in the entire
Bible. The group that God begins with
in eternity past, those whom He foreknew and predestined,
is the very group that He calls and justifies, is the same group
that God will glorify in heaven. Let me say it again, no one drops
out along the way, and no one is added along the way either. This begins with God, it is executed
by God, it is consummated by God, it is all of God. And the longer that we are Christians,
and the more that we read and study our Bible, the more we
come to the realization that our conversion was all of God. When we are converted, when we
first come to faith in Jesus Christ, From our limited perspective,
before we begin to study the Bible, we think that it is part
God and part us, that God provides the atonement in Christ and we
provide the repentance and faith and that a conversion occurs
when God's part and our part come together. Well, the fact
is that even the repentance and even the saving faith with which
we believe in Jesus Christ are gifts of God, and in reality,
it is all of God. And the more we study our Bible,
the more we realize it is less of us, it is more of God until
we come to the place of greater spiritual insight and understanding
that we see, it is all of God and none of us. So, I want us
to look at this passage, and I want us to look at it very
carefully, because if you're a believer in Jesus Christ tonight,
you find yourself very easily in this passage of Scripture. This morning, we looked at the
sovereignty of God in Providence in verse 28. Tonight, we will
look at the sovereignty of God in salvation in verses 29 and
30. So, let's now begin our walk
through this passage and these five links in the golden chain
of salvation. It all begins, number one, with
the first golden link, and it is the link of foreknowledge. Paul begins in eternity past
with God and His foreknowledge. You'll note at the beginning
of verse 29, it says, "...for those whom He foreknew." The
very first word is important in verse 29. It is the word,
fore, which introduces an explanation. This lets us know that verse
29 and 30 is actually an enlarged explanation of verse 28, as Paul
has addressed the eternal purpose of God. Paul now opens the lens
and gives us a much larger perspective of the last word of verse 28,
the eternal purpose of God. So the eternal purpose of God
begins with foreknowledge, that God initiated our salvation when
He foreknew us. Now I need to begin, first of
all, to tell you what this does not mean and then to tell you
what it does mean. First of all, this does not refer
to God's intellectual cognitive knowledge. This does not mean
that God has looked down the proverbial tunnel of time from
eternity past, looked into time to see what you would do with
the gospel and to see what you would do with Jesus Christ. And
when God sees someone believe in Jesus Christ, God then foreknows
that they're going to believe in Christ, and God makes them
His chosen one. that is a blatantly false understanding
of what this text says. And for many years in my Christian
life, I actually thought that that's what these verses taught.
But it was not because I knew too much of the Bible, it was
because I knew too little of the Bible that I would have such
an erroneous understanding of this passage. Let me give you
three reasons why that is not the teaching of the Word of God.
The first two are theological reasons. The last is an exegetical
reason. Reason number one why that is
false, that this is saying that God just simply looks down the
tunnel of time to see what people will do, that is wrong, number
one, because God has never learned anything. God has never looked
into the future and learned anything. That would be a pagan view of
God, that there is some knowledge that is outside of God that God
did not possess, that God who is immutable and unchanging would
actually be gaining knowledge that he did not previously possess. No, that is a gross misunderstanding
of who God is. I want to say it again. God has never looked into the
future and learned anything that He did not already know. And
the fact of the matter is, What God foresees in the future is
only that which God has foreordained previously. So, that's number
one. Number two, if this means that
God looks into the future to see what people will do, all
God would see is that no one would believe in Jesus Christ. Sinners who are dead in trespasses
and sins cannot believe in Jesus Christ. Sinners have moral inability
and have no capacity whatsoever to exercise their will to believe
in Jesus Christ. What can a dead man do? The only
thing a dead man can do is stink. A dead man cannot make a choice
to believe in anything or anyone because he has no spiritual life
whatsoever. So, if this did mean that God
looked down the tunnel of time, I want to say this again, all
God would see is that no one would believe in Jesus Christ. And that is abundantly clear
from earlier in Romans chapter 3, which is the most definitive
text in the Bible. on the total depravity of the
human nature, it says in verse 11, there is none who understands,
there is none who seeks for God, all have turned aside, verse
12. Verse 18, there is no fear of
God before their eyes. You think that group's going
to believe in Jesus Christ? You think that group is going
to come running to the cross and throw themselves upon the
mercy of God? That is not going to happen.
But a third reason which is exegetical in this passage, why this does
not refer to foresight, look again at verse 29, this does
not say what God foresaw, it says whom God foreknew. God is...this is not dealing
with events and circumstances, this is dealing with people.
This is not saying what God foresaw, it says whom God foreknew. This has nothing to do with circumstances
or events that God would foresee. So, what does it mean that God
foreknows Well, it's a compound word, two words brought together
in the Greek language, proginosko. Ginosko means to know in the
sense of knowing someone in a loving relationship. It means to choose
to love someone. It means to choose someone to
set your heart of affection upon them, and I'm going to show you
that in multiple passages. The prefix pro, progenosko, means
beforehand. And what the word for knowledge
actually means is those whom God previously chose to love. It means those who before the
foundation of the world, God chose to set His heart of distinguishing
love and redeeming love upon them. That's what the word for
knowledge means. It has nothing to do with foresight. It has everything to do with
those whom God previously chose to love. Now, I want to walk
us through a number of passages, and I want you to see how the
word know, K-N-O-W, is used. So, go back to Genesis, and I'm
going to do a quick fly-through the Bible, Genesis chapter 4
and verse 1, and it'll be worth your effort to go on this journey
with me. So, let me hear some more pages in Bibles turning.
Okay, that's what I need to hear. Genesis chapter 4 and verse 1,
and I hope you've got a pen and I hope you'll underline each
one of these that I'm going to designate to you. Genesis 4 verse
1, now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived
and gave birth to Cain. Do you see the verb, had relations? We understand what that means,
that Adam entered into the most intimate, physical, sexual relationship
that he could possibly have with another person. He literally
set his heart of love upon Eve, and she conceived. Now, what
you need to know, in the Hebrew language, those two words had
relations. It is a Hebrew word, yadah, which
means to know. Most literally translated, and
I know you want it literally translated, this would read,
now the man knew his wife Eve and she conceived. That doesn't
mean that he knew what her hair color was. It doesn't mean she
knew...he knew what the color of her eyes were. It doesn't
mean he knew where she lived. It has nothing to do with intellectual
cognitive data. It has everything to do with
making love. It has everything to do with
a loving, intimate, personal relationship with another person. In the same chapter, look at
verse 17, Genesis 4 verse 17, we see it again, Cain had relations
with his wife and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Again,
literally, Cain knew his wife and she conceived and gave birth. So, from the very beginning of
the Bible, The biblical authors, in this case Moses, used the
word know, K-N-O-W, not in an intellectual, cognitive way,
but in an intimate, relational way, if you would now come to
Psalm 1. And I'm passing over so many
verses, it's killing me to pass over a lot of these verses, but
I've got a lot to cover in Romans. But I want you to see this, and
here's why I want you to see this. There's a domino effect
going on here from foreknowledge to predestination to calling
to justification to glorification. If you understand foreknowledge,
It's a domino effect. All of the others just fall in
place. And if you think that it means
foresight, you're not even going to understand the doctrine of
predestination. You're not going to understand
the doctrine of God's calling. You will miss the boat completely.
So, it is absolutely critical that we understand how the Bible
uses the word, to know. So, in Psalm 1 and verse 6, We
read, the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way
of the wicked will perish. God does not know the way of
the wicked. He has no relationship with the
wicked. He has no association in a love
relationship kind of way with the wicked or the way that they
are on. The only way that God knows is
the way of the righteous. And we read, the Lord knows the
way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked He does not
know. He has no loving relationship
with those who are on the way of the wicked. They are perishing.
If you would, come to Jeremiah chapter 1 and verse 5. And I'm
just cherry-picking some of a vast number of verses to which I could
turn us tonight. In Jeremiah chapter 1 and in verse 5, God is speaking to
the prophet and God says to the prophet Jeremiah, you're familiar
with this text, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. That does not mean I knew about
you in an intellectual way. No, it means I knew you. I had
already chosen you to be my prophet, and I had set my heart of distinguishing
love upon you. That's what the word know means. Before I formed you in the womb,
I knew you. That's foreknowledge. And before
you were born, I consecrated you, I have appointed you a prophet
to the nations. There is foreknowledge. Before I formed you in the womb,
I knew you." All right? Come to Amos chapter 3, in Amos
chapter 3 and verse 2. I'm going to start in verse 1,
"'Hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you, sons
of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from
the land of Egypt.'" Now, verse 2 is what I want you to see,
Amos chapter 3, "'You only have I chosen among all the families
of the earth." It's the very same verb, yadah, which means
chosen to love. That's what foreknowledge is,
that God previously chooses to love. In this case, it is the
nation Israel. Out of all of the nations of
the world, God chose to set His affection upon this little nation
there in the Middle East. God passed over the nations in
Africa. He passed over Europe. He passed
over Asia. He passed over the Americas.
God set His heart upon the nation Israel. He chose to love Israel
in ways He did not love the Egyptians, in ways He did not love the other
nations of the world. That's what the word for knowledge
means. And in fact, in some of your
translations, it will even read, you only I have loved among all
the families of the earth. But come to the New Testament,
come to Matthew chapter 1 and verse 25. Matthew chapter 1 and
verse 25, after the angel came to Joseph
and brought the announcement that Mary will bear a child,
though a virgin?" In verse 24 we read, "'Joseph awoke from
his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and
took Mary as his wife,' verse 25, "'but kept her a virgin.'"
Literally, in the Greek, it reads, "'He did not know her.'" He did
not enter into the physical expression of carrying out the love desires
that were in His heart because, as translated here, to know means
to love. Come to Matthew chapter 7 and
verse 23, and this is all necessary for us to lay this firm foundation
with foreknowledge. In Matthew chapter 7, Beginning
in verse 21, not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father who is in heaven. Verse 22, many will say to Me
on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name,
and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many
miracles? And then I will declare to them,
I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work
iniquity. for Jesus to say, I never knew
you. He knew everything about the
unbeliever intellectually. In fact, the books contain every
sinful thought and every sinful deed, sins of omission, sins
of commission. God knows everything about the
sinner man, but He does not know the sinner man in a personal,
intimate, loving relationship. For God to know you means that
God loves you. And for God to foreknow you means
that He chose to love you from long ago. Come, if you would,
to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. And I just want
to drive a few more nails into this board and just nail this
down in our understanding tonight. John chapter 10 and verse 14. Jesus said in the Good Shepherd
discourse, I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own
know me. What that means is I have a personal
relationship with my own, I love my own, and my own have a relationship
with me and they love me. Look at verse 27, my sheep hear
my voice, and I know them." That is in contrast to the previous
verse in which Jesus said to the religious leaders, you are
not of My sheep. Jesus does not know everybody
in a loving, saving relationship. He only knows His sheep. If you would please come to 1
Peter. Let me just give us one more
verse. and it's hurting me to pass over so many verses in my
notes. I can come to your house later
tonight and just kind of fill you in on these. This is good
stuff I've got right here. But let me just give you a slam-dunk
verse, okay? 1 Peter 1, verse 1, Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens scattered
throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia
who are chosen." Stop right there. Do you think that was encouragement
to those early believers who were run out of town by persecution
and scattered from city to city, having to live on the run? Do
you think that was an encouragement to them to hear the doctrine
of sovereign election? You bet it was because while
the world is rejecting you, you need to know God has chosen you.
You are a lottery pick with God. You are a first-round lottery
pick with God. And though this world is running
you out of town and this world is causing you great tribulation,
you need to know in heaven that before the foundation of the
world, God chose you and He set His heart of love upon you. Now
look at verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. And someone may say, oh, you see, election or being
chosen at the end of verse 1 is only according to foreknowledge,
therefore foreknowledge is the tail that wags the dog, therefore
He chooses only those whom He foresees. Not so fast with that
thought. Look, if you would, at verse
20 in the same chapter. It's a package deal. And in verse
20, I can begin reading in verse 18, knowing you were not redeemed
with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way
of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with precious
blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ,
verse 20, for He was foreknown before the foundation of the
world. What does that mean? was foreknown. Let me tell you what it does
not mean. It does not mean that in eternity past, God looked
down the tunnel of time to see the entrance of His Son into
this world, and He continues to look, and He cannot believe
what He is seeing. He is seeing this world rising
up in opposition against His Son. He did not anticipate this. He sees Jesus being taken to
the cross. There He is crucified. There
He sheds His blood. The father then would say, I
guess I will just have to adopt that as my plan. Of course it
doesn't mean that. That's blasphemous. What it means
is that God the Father, in eternity past, set His heart of love upon
His own Son, Jesus Christ, and commissioned Him to come into
this world to go to the cross and to lay down His life a ransom
for many. that God the Father sovereignly
chose the Son to be the Savior of sinners, that the Father passed
over the Spirit and the Father set His heart in a distinguishing
way upon the Son and commissioned Him to come into this world on
a mission of redemption and salvation. That was all marked out long
ago, long before Adam ever sinned God already had the solution.
Long before this world fell into sin, God had already appointed
His Son by foreknowledge to come into this world. So, come back
if you would now to Romans chapter 8 because this is where our salvation
began. Verse 29 of Romans chapter 8,
for those whom He foreknew. It began with God in eternity
past, choosing a people to be His own possession and choosing
to love them with a distinguishing love according to His sovereign
will for reasons known only to God not based upon anything that
was foreseen in the future, God choosing to love them, not because
of them, but in spite of them, choosing to love them because
God is love and this love originating within God Himself. So what this
says is, you love God because God first loved you. He first loved you in eternity
past when He chose to love you. And you know God because He first
foreknew you in eternity past. Now, I want you to look at this
verb, foreknew, for whom He foreknew. Foreknew here is what we call a second heiress,
which means he chose his elect all at one time. It's not like
the NFL draft, where there's a first round draft picks, and
then those who are less talented go in the second round, and then
there's a third round, and then there's a fourth round. That's
not how this happened. God chose all of us who are in
Christ tonight. God chose us all at once. There was no upper tier, lower
tier, medium level. He chose us all at once. This
is in the indicative mood, which means this is a statement of
fact. It's in the active voice, which
means God acted to do this. It is third-person singular,
meaning He didn't choose groups He chose individuals. This isn't
referring to nations. It's referring to individual
people within nations. So this is where your salvation
began. It began with God the Father
in eternity past choosing to love you and choosing to set
His heart of affection upon you." How could we ever doubt the love
of God that God in ages past, before He even created the world,
had already set His love upon us? How great is the love of
God. So, those whom He foreknew Here's
the second link, is predestination. The next three words, he also
predestined. From foreknowledge, God now moves
to predestination. And each of these words are very
important. The word also is very important. It doesn't say or,
it says also. It's not that He foreknew some
or He predestined others. No, all whom He foreknew He also
predestined. What does the word predestination
mean? It's a Greek word. I'm going
to pronounce it because you're going to hear an English word
in it. It's a compound word, proorizo. Pro is the prefix,
which means before, and in this case, long ago before, in eternity
past. Horizo, you can hear horizon. And when someone would begin
a journey, the destination was way out there on the horizon. That's the destination. And what
this is saying is that God marked out your destination before the
journey ever began, before time even began, before this world
even began. God had already marked out on
the horizon your eternal destiny. That's exactly what this means. And what predestination does
is it guarantees the outcome of those who are foreknown. If
something is predestined, it will come to pass. It is irrevocable. It is unalterable. And let me
say at this point, predestination is just a good old Bible word. It was not coined in Geneva in
the 16th century. It was not invented in Wittenberg. The word predestination was not
birthed in Hippo of North Africa in the 5th century. It was not
coined in Northampton during the Great Awakening. Predestination
is one of God's words. And those who love God love His
Word. This is one of God's words and
how we should love the Word, predestination. We can't say
the Word enough. You know what you call a preacher
who preaches on predestination? You call him a Bible preacher.
Bible preachers preach on predestination because it's one of God's words. And Paul was a faithful Bible
preacher who wrote the book of Romans under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, and this is exactly the truth that God
led him to write. Now, he goes on to say in verse
29 that this predestination has What is that destination that's
marked out on the horizon? He continues in verse 29 to say,
to become conformed to the image of His Son. The word conformed
here means to be shaped and molded. It comes in an English word as
for something to morph into a certain form or shape. And God has predestined
that all of His elect will become conformed into the image of God's
Son. This is how you can know if you're
one of the elect. There are other reasons that
I could give, but one compelling reason to make your calling and
election sure is that you see the evidence of Christ's likeness
being supernaturally produced in you. You can't fake that.
You can't just put on an act and give the appearance of being
like Christ. It is something real that God does down in your
soul, and God does it in every single one of His chosen ones,
and it is so certain to come about that God has predestined
that you will be conformed into the image of His Son. And predestination is not just
to a place, it is to purity. It's not just that you're predestined
to heaven, you are predestined to holiness in this life, and
it will be brought about by our sovereign God in heaven. And so, this answers the lame
argument that someone says that, well, if we tell people they're
predestined for heaven, They'll just live in open sin. Please
note, they are predestined by God to be conformed to the image
of God's Son. They're not going to live in
open sin if you tell them they're predestined. The very opposite
will be true. So, predestination is a very
important word. And then he goes on in verse
29 and adds, so that, and he gives, so that introduces a purpose
why we are predestined to become like Christ, so that He, referring
to Jesus Christ, the one to whom we are being conformed to His
image, so that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Just quickly to address this,
this does not mean that there was a time when Jesus came into
being. This does not mean that there
was a beginning point for the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing could
be further from the truth. What this means is that Jesus
has all of the rights and the authority and the prerogative
of a firstborn son. And when we read in Psalm 89
and verse 27, it becomes very clear that the meaning of this
is that the firstborn son is the one who receives from the
father the rights and the privileges of his estate. And for Jesus
to be the firstborn is drawing off of that Old Testament image
In fact, it says that David was the firstborn son. Well, if you
know your Bible, you'll know that David was not the first
son born of Jesse, he was the eighth son born of Jesse. But
he's called the firstborn son because it was to David that
God gave the throne rights of His kingdom. And that is exactly
the meaning here. And so, we are being conformed
into the image of Christ as a part of God's master plan so that
Jesus Christ would be in the place of preeminence. Now, all
of this is an eternity past, foreknown, predestined. That's all an eternity past.
We now move into time. And you'll note the third link
in God's golden chain of salvation, it is God's effectual sovereign
call. You will note in verse 30, and
these, and we could add really the emphasis, and these only,
these and no one else, and these whom He predestined, He also
called. Now, to be called by God We need
to understand that there are two calls used in the Bible,
and I can hear R.C. Sproul in my ear right now saying,
a theologian makes careful distinctions. And there's a careful distinction
we need to make here or you're going to lose your ball in the
weeds. There is an external call and there is an internal call. The external call is the call
that goes out from God through the voice of the preacher when
the gospel is preached to invite sinners to come to faith in Jesus
Christ. It is the call of the parent
to their children to be saved. It's the call of the Sunday school
teacher to his or her students to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The external call can only go to the ear. it can go
no deeper. There must be the internal call,
which is the sovereign call of God that goes from the ear to
the heart, and only God can step into the heart. I can only preach
the Word to your ear tonight. I cannot go any further. Your
heart is off grounds to me. God must be at work in your heart. God must be working and willing
for His good pleasure in your heart. That's God's territory. That's God's place to work. And
the eternal call of God is a call that is so powerful that God
overcomes any and all resistance that the person would mount,
and God guarantees that they will be brought to faith in Jesus
Christ. This call is so powerful. It
is a call that apprehends the heart It captures the soul. It draws the sinner to faith
in Christ. It is a call that is so powerful
that it literally subpoenas the sinner, lays hold of the sinner,
and draws them and even drags them into the kingdom of heaven. That's how strong this call is. And if God did not call, no one
would ever believe the external call. Now God will never call
anyone internally until the external call has been given. This is
why we must witness. This is why we must preach the
gospel. This is why we must sow the good
seed far and wide, and for the external call to go out far and
wide. But every time I preach the gospel,
there are people who push back and push away. My external call
cannot draw anyone. There must be the operation of
God Himself. into the heart and into the soul
that draws and brings the sinner into faith with Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said in John 6
and in verse 44, Jesus said, "'No one can come to Me.'" The
word can is a word of ability. The word may is a word of permission. Jesus did not say, no one may
come to Me. He said, no one can come to Me. It is the doctrine of total depravity. It is the doctrine of moral inability.
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws
him. And this word draw is used later
in the New Testament for drag. It's the word that is used in
the book of Acts when Paul was in Philippi, and he preached
the gospel, and God opened the heart of Lydia, and she received
Christ, and a church was birthed, but a riot broke out in town. And they came and literally laid
hold of Paul, and they drug him through the streets of Philippi
and stuffed him into a jail. It's the very same word. It is
a powerful drawing. It's the very same word that
is used in John chapter 21 when Peter was on the Sea of Galilee
on the shore, and he saw Jesus in a boat, and he laid hold of
the net. and he drew the net with 153
fish in it. It's the very same Greek word
that overpowered that net and drug it onto shore. This is inherent
in the call of God. So, this call is an individual
call. God never calls a group. God
calls us by name. Zacchaeus, come down. Matthew,
follow me. Lazarus, come forth. If He had just said, come forth,
the entire graveyard would have emptied. The call of God is individual. And if He foreknew you, And if
He predestined you, He will call you and He will not take no for
an answer, and He will secure the result that He desires. It
is a call that is so penetrating, it plunges into the very soul
of the one who is called and reverberates within the very
depths of their heart. It is a call that is so powerful
that it captures the soul and apprehends them and draws them. It is a call that is irresistible,
as Psalm 115 says, or 110, He makes us willing in the day of
His power. It is a call that is inaudible. We do not hear an audible voice. It's much louder than that, as
God calls us into relationship with Jesus Christ. And this third
link stands in the very center of these five links, and it is
the touch point, the connecting point from eternity past into
time. This is when salvation becomes
real in your life. It is not real before He calls. It immediately and suddenly becomes
real in your own soul in the day that He calls you. which
now leads to number four, justification. And we see in verse 30, and these
whom He predestined, He also called, and these whom He called,
He also justified. By the way, who is the He? Well, it's not God the Son because
God the Son is distinguished in verse 29 as His Son, and it's
not the Holy Spirit. He's distinguished in verse 26
and 27. This He is God the Father. God the Father is the architect
of the eternal purpose and the eternal decree. God the Father
is the one who commissioned His Son to come into this world.
God the Father is the one who commissioned the Holy Spirit
to come into this world. God the Father is the author
of the gospel. Everything is flowing from God
the Father. The Father is the architect and
the author. The Son provides the atonement. The Spirit is the one who applies
the atonement under the direction of God the Father. So, justification. In these whom He called, He also
justified. I know if there is a doctrine
that I do not need to elaborate here, it is the doctrine of justification,
especially as we just celebrated the 500-year anniversary of Martin
Luther's great stand. But just to remind you in justification,
God declares the guilty sinner to possess, to be clothed with
the righteousness of Jesus Christ based upon their faith in Jesus
Christ. This justification occurs immediately. Sanctification, being conformed
in the image of Christ, is a lifelong reality in our lives. But justification
takes place in a moment. It takes place in the twinkling
of an eye. Everyone is fully justified.
There's no one here tonight who's more justified than anyone else. It takes place freely. It is
irrevocable. Once we are justified by God,
we are forever justified by God. God will never reverse His justification. And no matter how sinful your
past, no matter how guilty your soul, no matter how defiled your
heart, God fully, freely, and forever justifies those who believe
in His Son, Jesus Christ. So this leads us now to the fifth
and final link, and it is glorification. And we see that now at the end
of verse 30. And these whom He justified,
He also glorified. Now here's a question for you.
Why doesn't He say, and these He also sanctified? Why does
He skip over sanctification and go to glorification? Here is the answer. Everything
that is mentioned in this golden chain is what we call monergistic. There is only one active agent
and it is God and God alone. God alone foreknew us, God alone
predestined us, God alone called us, God alone justified us, and
God alone will glorify us, but sanctification is what we call
synergistic. There are two active agents in
sanctification. Philippians 2, 12 and 13 makes
this abundantly clear. Verse 12, it tells us, to work
out your salvation with fear and trembling. We are an active
participant in our sanctification. But the next verse, verse 13
of Philippians 2 says, for it is God who is at work within
you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. So in
sanctification, there are two active agents in your sanctification. One is primary, that's a capital
A, that is God. The other is secondary with a
small a, that is you and me. And we bear great responsibility
in our sanctification to apply ourselves to the means of grace,
to the Word of God, to prayer, to worship, to fellowship, etc.
So Paul does not include sanctification here because Paul is an outstanding
theologian. And Paul also knows he has already
instructed us in sanctification in verse 29 when he speaks of
us being predestined to become conformed to the image of his
Son. But because Paul must be consistent
in his teaching sound doctrine, he goes from justification all
the way now to glorification because he is dealing with only
those doctrines in which God is monergistic, where there is
only one active agent. So what does it mean for us to
be glorified? Well, for us to be glorified
means? that in our soul and in our body,
we will be made as fully like Jesus Christ as a creature can
be made like the eternal Son of God. It means that God will
finish what He starts, that God never begins a work of grace.
and then abandons it because of some unforeseen difficulty,
God always sees it through to the end. God never saves someone
initially, but not save them eternally and ultimately. It's
the truth of the eternal security of the believer. A believer can
never lose his or her salvation, and a true believer will never
become an unbeliever. And so all those whom He foreknew
and predestined, whom He called and justified, these He will
also glorify." You'll notice in the past tense in your English
version. You are as certain for heaven
this moment and your future glorification as though you have already been
there ten thousand years. It is that certain that God speaks
of it as already an accomplished fact. So, this is the sovereignty
of God in salvation. And this is what God has done
towards you if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. How should this
affect your life? Well, number one, this is the
greatest pride crusher there is. that your salvation is rooted
and grounded in God and God alone and it had nothing to do with
you. The only thing you contributed to your salvation was the sin
that was laid upon Jesus Christ at the cross. And every one of
us here tonight who are true believers in Jesus Christ should
really look up to heaven tonight and say, why me, God? Why have you chosen to love Me? Why have you chosen Me for salvation?"
And every time I come back to this truth, it strikes me a hard
blow and crushes my pride and reminds me of exactly how it
is that I came into the kingdom of heaven. Second, it should
be worship-inspiring, should it not, that this high theology
would produce high doxology because it causes us to look up to heavens,
to God, and give all the glory for our salvation to God and
to God alone. It is also holiness-producing
when we realize that the whole purpose of our predestination
Alright, God's predestination is to make us like His Son, Jesus
Christ. And that makes me want to line
up with God's eternal purpose and plan that He has predestined
that I would be conformed to the image of His Son. This truth
is evangelism igniting because we know that there are people
out there who God has already marked out, God has already chosen
to be His, and when we bring the gospel to them, God will
issue the call at His perfect time and God will overcome their
resistance and bring them into the kingdom. God guarantees the
success of evangelism. God guarantees the success of
world missions. God will bring a chosen bride
to His Son, Jesus Christ. There are not enough demons in
hell or out of hell to circumvent the eternal purpose of God to
build the church. So as we go out to witness, this
does not demotivate us, this actually motivates us that there
are those out there that God has already chosen to save. And when we come with the gospel,
if that is their appointed time, God will have already prepared
their heart and God will sovereignly birth them into the kingdom of
heaven. There is so much more. that could
be said by way of application. I'm coming to your house to give
you all the rest of the application. Time does not permit. I can tell
when your tank is full. But understand this, God is sovereign. And God is sovereign in salvation. And He is the potter. and we are the clay. And God
has taken the lump, the marred, foul, dirty lump of humanity,
and He has chosen that there will be vessels of mercy which
He prepared beforehand, and there will be vessels of wrath And
if you are a vessel of mercy, as I am a vessel of mercy, there should be zero reason for
any pride and every reason for humility before Almighty God. And Paul's testimony is our testimony,
I am what I am. by the grace of God. And so tonight,
let us give glory to God. And that is why when we arrive
in heaven one day and God gives the crown, that
crown will be on our head for about half of a millisecond. And you're going to remember
this sermon. Yes, you are. you're going to remember, He
foreknew me. He chose to love me from eternity
past. He predestined me. He called
me. He justified me. He glorified
me. What is this crown doing on my
head? And you will take this crown
in an act of worship. and you will cast it at His feet,
and you will fall on your face, and you will say, worthy is this
God who was and who is and who is forever, who has brought me
into this place of heaven. It has all come from the sovereign
grace of our God. If you're here tonight without
Christ and this is over your head, in a sense, this is family
business. Here's all you need to know.
You're a great sinner, and Jesus is a great Savior. That's all
you need to know. You're a great sinner, and if
that hurts your feelings tonight, you can come up to me after the
service and apologize to me. because we have all sinned and
fallen short of the glory of God. You desperately need the
saving grace of God to wash away your sins. You're a great sinner,
but we have an even greater Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ who
died upon a cross for sinners, bearing our sins, suffering under
the wrath of God, shedding His blood and providing the only
way of salvation and means to the Father. And whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And if you will
call upon the name of the Lord tonight, He will save you. And
if you will call upon the name of the Lord tonight, I will tell
you He foreknew you and predestined you. and now He has called you
to Himself. May God give you ears to hear
the truth of His Word. Let us pray. Father in heaven, how we praise
You for the profundity, for the magnitude, for the immensity
of this salvation that spans from eternity past to eternity
future. Lord, surely salvation is of
the Lord. And so, Father, we just humbly
bow our head tonight and we look upward to You and say that eternity
will not be long enough for us to ascribe to You the honor and
the praise that belongs to You alone. So, Father, we give You
all the glory I pray that these words tonight will sink deeply
into our souls, and even as we get into bed tonight, that You
will bring them to our remembrance and these truths will become
a precious treasure to us. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.