Well, I want to thank Austin
Duncan for this wonderful privilege to be able to stand here today
and to be able to minister the Word of God. So this is a wonderful
joy for me. It's good to see some of our
Doctor of Ministry students in here and here on the Amen pew
up at the front. So, men, thank you for being
here. Your presence is a great encouragement
to me. If you have your Bible, turn
with me, if you would, to the book of Romans. to Romans chapter
8, and I'm reminded that James Montgomery Boyce once said, if
the Bible is a ring, the book of Romans is the diamond on that
ring. And then he went on to say, Romans
chapter 8 is the apex cut on that diamond on God's ring. So I want you to turn to that
apex cut, Romans chapter 8. This is as lofty of a passage
as we could possibly look at today. And I want to look at
two verses in particular with you, verses 29 and 30. This is
often called God's golden chain of salvation. It's a chain comprised
of five links, five links that are just welded together that
began in eternity past and will be attached to eternity future. Let me begin by just reading
this passage. I'm going to begin in verse 28
because verse 28 is such a favorite passage of ours. And we know,
and when he says that, and we know, in other words, this is
Christianity 101 stuff. If you're a believer, you know
this. This is entry-level type of truth. And we know that God
causes. So please note, God doesn't just
observe, God's not just a spectator, but that God actively is involved
in causing all things, this is both good and bad, both things
that are holy as well as things that are unholy, God causes all
things to work together for good. This doesn't say that God is
the author of all things, but that God causes all things to
work together for good, but only to a specific people, to those
who love God. to those who are called according
to His purpose. And as soon as He says purpose,
He needs to go into an explanation because this purpose is God's
eternal purpose. And we could call it God's eternal
plan from before the foundation of the world. God only has plan
A. There is no plan B. And so, in
verses 29 and 30, he is really opening up that last word of
God's eternal purpose. And so, in verse 29, he begins,
"...for," which introduces an explanation of what he just said,
"...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." When I was a young boy, I grew up in Memphis,
Tennessee. My father was a professor in
medical school, and we moved there when I was...had just finished
my seventh grade. And there in Memphis, it's located
on the banks of the Mississippi River, which is just a mighty,
enormous river. And I remember when we moved
to Memphis and we drove across the bridge over the Mississippi
River. We had been living in Fort Worth,
Texas, which is a very dry and arid region of the country. When I saw that Mississippi River,
and it was at flood stage, and the Mississippi River was spilling
over the banks onto the cotton fields that were lining the other
side of the Mississippi River, and downtown Memphis was here
with all the tall buildings. As we drove across the Mississippi
River bridge, I looked out the window and I could see the water
that was just pouring under the bridge. And I looked up to the
north and could see the river coming around the curve But I
couldn't really see beyond the curve, and in my mind I was trying
to trace out where this river was coming from. And I knew upstream
was St. Louis, and I knew further upstream
that this river would have to start someplace up in Minnesota. And then I looked to the other
side as we're going across the river, and I was really just
kind of in shock and awe to see a river this big. Looking downstream,
the river just went and went until it vanished on the horizon. And I would learn later that
it would go all the way down to Mississippi and Vicksburg
and eventually down to New Orleans and then past New Orleans and
it would empty into the Gulf of Mexico, that vast body of
water. And as we would be going...as
we were going across the bridge, I was really overwhelmed because
I could only see a very small part of the river. The only part
of the river I could see was this which was immediately in
front of me, but very obviously there was far more of this river
and it started at a place that I couldn't even see and it would
empty in a place that I could not even see. In a very real
way, our salvation is like that. All we can see is our conversion
and this river of grace that begins to flow into our lives
and to flood our heart with the peace and the joy of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we're swept up in the current of God's working
in our life. But what is so valuable about
this passage that we're going to look at today? is that it
allows us to trace the stream of grace upstream to the very
source and beginning of the flow of this river of salvation that
came bursting forth from the throne of grace in eternity past. And long before I was ever born
and long before God even ever created the world, long before
the Mississippi River even began to flow. And we'll trace this
river of redemption, this river of saving grace. and it will
flow all the way downstream into the vast ocean of eternity future,
far beyond what any of us could even see today. And it gives
us this big picture of salvation. It gives us this comprehensive
understanding of God's salvation in our lives. And we want to
see more than just the moment. We want to see more than just
the hour in which we live. We want to see the vastness of
what God has planned and purposed for our lives from long ago. And we want to see where this
river is going to take us on into eternity future. So that is the value and the
beauty of looking at these verses. And this is what theologians
call the ordo salutis. which in Latin means the order
of salvation. This is the one place in the
Bible where we really have the most detailed order salutas. It's not comprehensive, it's
not complete, but this is the best that we have. And what we
see here are five links in this golden chain of salvation. And if you're a believer today,
this is very personal for you. because this really explains
how it is that you have come to be a Christian. Because it's
not that you were smarter than anyone else in your family or
your friends. It's not that you were better.
It's something that God has done, God has initiated, God has set
in motion in your life long before you were ever born. So in verses
29 and 30, let me just show you the five links and then we'll
walk our way through it. But in verse 29, we see the first
two links in this golden chain of salvation, and it is the words
for new and predestined. Those are verbs. And to put it
in a noun form, it's for knowledge and predestination. Those two
took place in eternity past. Those took place before time
began, God's foreknowledge and God's predestination. And then
as we come to verse 30, we see the last three links, and you
can see them in your own Bible, called, justified, and glorified. Those first two in verse 30 take
place within time. There was a point in time, within
time, when you were called and when you were justified. And
then at the end of verse 30, the last one, glorified, that's
eternity future. And so this vast chain is really
attached to eternity past on one side, and it's attached to
eternity future on the other side, and it spans the entirety
of time, and there's really something of the eternality of God in this.
From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. So, what I want
us to do is to look at this and to walk through this, and I hope
that as we look at this, this will have this effect upon your
life, that there will be such an overwhelming sense within
your heart for you to worship God. for you to love God, for
you to give all the glory to God for your salvation. And I hope it will also have
the effect of bringing about a healthy humility in your life,
to see that really this was all of God to bring you to Himself. and that all credit goes to God
and what humility and lowliness of mind should be bred in our
own hearts and in our own souls. So, let's look at this now, these
five links in God's golden chain of salvation. So, Roman numeral
number one, here's the first heading. It is, for knowledge. Please note how verse 29 begins,
for those whom He foreknew. Let's just begin with the word
He, H-E. In my Bible, I've taken a ballpoint
pen and I've drawn a circle around He. Those whom He foreknew, He
also predestined, at verse 30. And those whom He predestined,
He also called. And these whom He called, He
also justified. And these whom He justified,
He also glorified. Here's the million-dollar question,
who is the He? Well, I'll tell you first of
all who it's not. It's not God the Son, because God the Son
is mentioned in verse 29, and He is distinguished as different
from God the Son. And I'll also tell you who it's
not. It's not the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit was mentioned
in verse 26 and 27. That only leaves one other person
of the Godhead. That would be God the Father. God the Father is the initial
source of your salvation. Everything is flowing from God
the Father. And I have said before that I
think that God the Father is the forgotten member of the Trinity.
rightly so, we so focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the Savior of the world. And rightly so, we are consciously
aware of our dependence upon the Holy Spirit to live the Christian
life. But so many times what is lost in the discussion is
really the initiator of our salvation, the author of our salvation,
the architect of the gospel, that is God the Father. It is God the Father who is represented
here as the one who is setting everything in motion and bringing
it about in our lives. It is God the Father who sent
the Son into the world. It is God the Father who has
sent the Holy Spirit into the world. It is God the Father,
according to His inscrutable wisdom, is the one who designed
the gospel of substitutionary atonement. This is all coming
from God the Father. And let us not forget that God
the Father is a Savior just like God the Son is a Savior, and
like God the Holy Spirit is a Savior, all three persons of the Trinity
are a Savior. That is why when we baptize,
We baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. We do not baptize just in the
name of Jesus. We recognize that all three persons
of the Trinity were actively involved in our salvation and
we would not be saved except all three members of the Trinity
fulfilled their roles in our salvation. And it was even God
the Father who designed it all, God the Father who set it all
in motion. Turn with me over to the book
of Colossians very quickly, Colossians 1, and the reason I'm having
you turn to it is it struck me this morning in the early service
at 830, the Scripture passage that was read was Colossians
chapter 1 and it was verses 3 through verse 15, and what leaped off
the page is what I read in verse 13 as the Scripture was being
read this morning. In Colossians 1 and verse 13
we read, for He rescued us from the domain of darkness. Million-dollar
question, who is the He who rescued you from the domain of darkness? And the answer is, He is distinguished
from the Son at the end of verse 13. The antecedent to He in verse
13 is in the previous verse, it is the Father, giving thanks
to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance
of the saints of light, for He rescued us. It was God the Father
who...who delivered us. and rescued us in our salvation. So let us give glory not only
to the Son and not only to the Spirit, but let us give glory
also to the One who set it all in motion and who is the ultimate
primary cause, God the Father. All right, come back to Romans
8. And so we read in verse 29, for those whom He foreknew, those
and those only. Those represent a very select
group. The word those in verse 29 is
those, in verse 28, those who love God and those who are called
according to His purpose. It is those and those only whom
the Father foreknew." Now, what does foreknowledge mean? If we
were just to go into the average church today and just ask someone
in the pew, if we were just to go to the average pastor, the
average elder, and just the average church in America, what does
the word foreknowledge mean? Here would be the answer. God
looks down the tunnel of time to see who would choose His Son. And when God sees who would choose
His Son, it's kind of like tag team wrestling, then God chooses
them back because God foresees that these chose the Son. Let me tell you why That is wrong. Number one, God has never looked
into the future and learned anything. To say that God is looking into
the future and gaining knowledge that He did not previously have
is rank and file blasphemy. God has never looked down the
proverbial tunnel of time to see what anyone would do, and
God then adopt that as His plan. In fact, it's idolatry. It's just a vain imagination
that someone has in their mind, a caricature of who they think
God is. Second reason that's wrong. If
foreknowledge is just simply looking down the tunnel of time
to see what men will do with Christ, all God would see is
that no one would choose Christ. Come back to chapter 3 just for
a moment. This point is worthy of just
a nail to nail this down. In Romans chapter 3 beginning
in verse 10, Paul gives the most comprehensive summary of what
we call the doctrine of total depravity. And beginning in verse
10, this is Paul's consummation of his entire argument, and he
says, there is none righteous, not even one, there is none who
understands, there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together
they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one. Without reading the rest of these
verses, what I simply want you to see from your own Bible is
that there is none who seeks after God. No, not one. There's none who understands.
There's none who gets it. So if all God is doing is looking
down the tunnel of time to see who would receive Christ, all
God would see is everyone running away from Christ, not running
to Christ. The third reason, and come back
to Romans 8 if you would, please. And the reason I want to nail
this down with us this morning is because when I was in college
and when I sat right where you sit, I actually thought it was
God looking down the tunnel of time, and I remember the day
that someone explained this to me. It was an extraordinary eye-opening
experience for me. I thought the Mississippi River
was flowing south to north. I found out it's flowing north
to south. to see this. But the third reason is, as you
look at verse 29, would you please note, this has nothing to do
with events. This has nothing to do with circumstances.
This has everything to do with individuals. This doesn't say
what God foresaw. This says whom God foreknew. This has nothing to do with events,
acts, circumstances, it deals with individuals. So what does
it mean that God foreknew someone? The word foreknowledge in the
Bible means whom God previously chose to love with a distinguishing,
saving love. There are those in eternity past
whom God chose to be His own, and God chose them by a sovereign
will but with a heart of love, deep saving love. And not everyone has God chosen
to love in this way. You'll note in the next chapter
in Romans 9 and verse 13, it says, Jacob I loved and Esau
I hated. You know what that means? Jacob
I loved and Esau I hated. It means what it says. God doesn't
love everyone the same. God has a special, selective,
saving love for those whom He has chosen to save." That's what
the word for knowledge means. And you may say to me, well,
you're going to have to do more than just say that, you're going
to have to show me that in my Bible. So I'm glad for you to
be thinking that. So we're going to do a little
Bible study. We're going to have to do it quickly, okay? So go back
to the book of Genesis, that's right after the table of contents.
The book of Genesis And I want to show you what the word not
to know means, K-N-O-W, to know someone, is synonymous with to
love someone. It means to choose to love someone. And in Genesis 4 and verse 1,
we read, now the man, referring to Adam, had relations with his
wife. I'm reading out of the New American
Standard. Of course, Moses did not write this in English, as
you know. He wrote this in Hebrew, and
in Hebrew this is what it literally says, the man knew his wife. For Adam to know Eve meant that
he entered into the most intimate personal expression of a love
relationship. He had a physical union with
her, and the result of that was that she conceived and she gave
birth to a son. But to know, Adam knew his wife. It just reads in our New American
Standard, had relations with, but the word know means to love. If you would come to Psalm 1,
Psalm 1 and verse 6, I just want you to see that the word know
refers to believers only. God knows believers in a saving
relationship. And so, in Psalm 1 and verse
6 we read, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but
the way of the wicked will perish. What this means is God is intimately
involved with the righteous in a way that He is not intimately
involved with the wicked. And the word for knowledge, when
you put for in front of knowledge, it means whom God previously
loved before they were ever born. If you would, come with me to
the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, one of the major prophets,
and in Jeremiah chapter 1 and in verse 5, it's the call of
the prophet Jeremiah. And what I want you to see is
the use of the word, know, because it's so critically important
to understand what foreknowledge means. And in Jeremiah chapter
1, starting in verse 4, this is what Jeremiah heard from God.
Now, the Word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed
you in the womb, I knew you." This has nothing to do with cognitive,
intellectual knowledge of facts. It has everything to do with
an intimate, personal relationship with another person. And what
he is saying in verse 5 there is that before I formed you in
the womb, I already knew you, I already had entered into a
relationship with you, I had set my heart of distinguishing
love upon you. And the next line, and before
you were born, I consecrated you, I have appointed you a prophet
to the nations. The reason that we're looking
at this is just simply to see that the word to know, K-N-O-W,
means to love or to choose or to choose to love someone in
a way that you do not choose to love another. Let me give you another verse.
Come to the book of Amos. Amos would be over here, I think
the third of the minor prophets. And Amos chapter 3 and verse
2, Amos 3 and verse 2, God is speaking to the prophet Amos
and He...God is addressing through the prophet the nation of Israel. And He says, have I chosen among all the families
of the earth." In other words, all the families of the earth
which God has set their boundaries and set their times, there's
only one nation that God has chosen to be His people, and
that is the nation Israel. They are His chosen people. But
the word chosen in verse 2 is this same word, to know. What does it mean for God to
foreknow? It means those whom God previously
loved from before the foundation of the world and eternity past,
God chose them by Himself and for Himself to be His own. If you're a Christian today,
if you're a believer today, it's because from eternity past, God
drew a circle around your name and God set the fullness of His
passionate choosing love upon you in a way that He has not
done so with others whom He has passed over. In Matthew 1 verse
23 it says, Joseph kept Mary a virgin. The literal translation
is Joseph did not know Mary. Oh, he knew her name, he knew
where her house was, he knew her address, he knew who her
parents were, he knew what color her hair was, what color her
eyes were, but it says he didn't know her. because he had never
entered into that expression of a love relationship. And Jesus in Matthew 7 and verse
Verse 23 says, "'Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father who is in heaven. Many will say unto Me in that
day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons
in Your name and perform many wondrous works? And I will say
unto them in that day, I never knew you.'" You see, there to
know is synonymous with having a personal saving relationship. And in John chapter 10 and verse
27, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them. So, to know means to love, means
to choose to love. Someone passing over others to
choose to love, but you choose to love this one. What a humbling
thing this is. that God chose to love those
who are unlovely. God chose for no reason for anything
in me. God chose me not because of me,
God chose me in spite of me. And the same is true for you
if you're a Christian and can look back upstream and see where
this river of love began to flow towards you. So come back to
Romans 8, I would love to trace out more verses, but I have to
preach tonight in big church, so I need to wrap this up. Romans
8 and verse 29, see I can be funny like Austin too, but looks
aren't everything, so... I don't think he heard that. He hasn't looked up yet. For those whom he foreknew, that's
foreknowledge, please note now the second, he also predestined. Same group, those whom he foreknew,
he also predestined. What does the word predestination
mean? It means the destination is determined
before the journey begins. Long before the journey ever
begins, God has already marked out the destination and it is
settled, it is certain, it is sure. And everyone whom God has
foreknown, He has predestined and it is now irrevocable, it
is now immutable, it is now certain to come to pass. Now please note
what these are predestined for. In verse 29 he says, he also
predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son. So we're predestined not just
for heaven, we are predestined for holiness. We're not just
predestined for a place, we are predestined to become like a
person. the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
might ask, so how would I know if I'm one of God's elect? How
would I know if God has predestined me for salvation? The answer
is, you are the one who is becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is irrevocable. You will
become like Christ. Because God will work by His
grace in your life. He will take out your heart of
stone. He'll put in a heart of flesh. He'll put your spirit
within you. He'll give you the mind of Christ.
He will cause you to walk in your statutes. You will be becoming
like His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is predestined. None who are foreknown will ever
fail. to become like God's Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. God is the one who is driving
this car. We're in the back seat. God is
the one who is driving this entire enterprise of salvation. So at the end of verse 29, he
says, for an even greater purpose, this is kind of a twofold purpose,
so that he would be the first...that he refers to the Son, that he
would be the firstborn among many brethren. Let me just quickly
tell you, this does not mean that there was a time when Jesus
did not exist and there was a time when God the Father created the
Son. That is what you call heresy and that would put you in a cult.
To be the firstborn...I wish I had time. You can read Psalm
89 on your own, especially verse 27. The firstborn had all the
rights and the privileges that pass from the Father down to
the Son, and for Jesus to be the firstborn among many brethren
means that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who has received
from the Father All exousia, all authority in heaven and earth. That's what it means to be the
firstborn son. And this was spoken originally
of David, King David in the Davidic covenant in Psalm 89. What's
important for us to know, David was the firstborn son. He was
the eighthborn son. He wasn't born first. He was
born last. He was the least of the litter.
But the Bible says David is the firstborn son, not because he
was chronologically in a birth order born at a certain time,
but because the authority of the kingship of the nation Israel
was placed upon David. I would encourage you to read
Psalm 89 on your own to understand what it means to be the prototokos,
to be the firstborn among many brethren. So, what we're seeing
is those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed
to the image of His Son. Now, as we come to verse 30,
here's the third link. And now we leave eternity past
and now we enter into time. Now we step out of timelessness,
and now we enter into time. And in verse 30, and these whom
He predestined, He also called. One of the most important words
here in this verse is the word also, because everyone whom He
foreknew and everyone whom He predestined before time began,
He calls within time. What we need to see here is no
one is added along the way. And there are no dropouts along
the way. When I was in college, as many
of you are in college, I used to sign up for like 24 hours
in a semester knowing I'm gonna drop three of the classes. Because I was on a football scholarship,
I didn't have to pay anything for my tuition. I could sign
up for as many classes as I wanted to sign up and it's all free.
And they let us in the day early to sign up for classes first,
so I just had the pick of the litter. It didn't matter what
was available, they were all available to me. So I would sign
up for like twenty-four hours in a semester, take the first
exam in every one of the, you know, eight three-hour classes,
and then the three I made the worst grade, I dropped those
three. Yeah, it didn't cost me a cent. My father never knew what was
going on. So I was living large and in charge on that. Well,
in God's work of salvation, There are no dropouts. Once you're
enrolled, you're there for life. You're there for eternity. You
are a lifer. Those whom He foreknew, these
He also predestined, and these whom He predestined, these He
also called. Now, what does it mean to be
called? Well in the Bible, as it relates
to salvation, there are two kinds of call. And I remember Dr. R.C. Sproul telling me, Steve,
theologians have to make careful distinctions. You have to draw,
slice things very thinly. So here's a time we need to make
a careful distinction between the two calls. There is an external
call and there is an internal call, okay? The external call
is when the preacher gives the gospel and calls people to faith
in Christ. The external call is the audible
voice of the parent saying to the child, you need to commit
your life to Christ. The external call is the call
of the written Word of God to those who read it to repent of
their sins and to come to faith in Christ. But the external call
can only go to the ear. It's got to get to the heart.
And how's it going to get to the heart? For there to be a
louder call, a stronger call. that penetrates and pierces down
into the depths of a soul that is a call that is so strong that
it summons. It is a call so strong that it
actually apprehends the one who is called. It is a call so powerful
that it overcomes all human resistance. It is a call that is so powerful
that it actually arrests the one who is called and subpoenas
the one who is called and draws them powerfully into fellowship
with God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the internal
call. It is referred to by theologians
as the effectual call, meaning it's always effective. It's never
ineffective. There's a cause and effect, and
this cause always produces this effect. And when God issues the
internal call, it is an effectual call. It will always produce
this effect. And just like when Jesus stood
before the tomb of Lazarus and He said, Lazarus, come forth,
that call was so powerful that it raised the dead. Lazarus didn't
raise himself. Lazarus didn't make a choice
to come. The call subpoenaed Lazarus from
the other world and brought him back into this world. And if
Jesus had only said, come forth, the entire graveyard would have
come forth. The entire graveyard would have
emptied, but He called him by name. And that's what God did
through His Son at a time in your life. You may have been
on a camp retreat. You may have been sitting in
church. You may have been in your bedroom. You may have been with
a friend. You may have been listening to
a podcast. I don't know where you were, what were the circumstances
that were going on, but when you came to faith in Christ,
it was only because God called you to Himself. And it was a call that was so
powerful that He made you willing in the day of His power and it
went all the way down to the depth of your heart. That's the third link in this
chain. And this is not referring to
the external call. This is referring to the internal
call. which then leads to the fourth
link in the chain. And these whom He called, He
also justified." And please note again, this is all God. It's
not God and us. You don't see you in any of these
verses as far as the one who is the actor, the one who is
the initiator. No, we are the one being acted
upon. And to be justified, as you probably
no doubt well know, means to be clothed with the perfect righteousness
of Jesus Christ. It means for the perfect righteousness
of Christ through His sinless life and through His substitutionary
death to be charged to your account, to be reckoned to your account. The perfect righteousness of
Christ imputed to you. And God the Father brings the
gavel down, and God declares you to be in right standing before
Him. And this is what God the Father
does. Jesus does not justify us, and the Holy Spirit does
not justify us. It is God the Father who justifies
us with the righteousness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will, look at verse 33,
Who will bring a charge against God's elect? In verses 31 to
37, there are seven questions that are asked. The last six
are unanswerable questions. There is no answer. Who will
bring a charge against God's elect? Note the answer. God is the one who justifies. It really doesn't even matter
what anyone else has to say. All that matters is when God
the Father declares us to be righteous before God. So God
is the one who justified you. Who in the world could ever bring
an indicting charge against you? And when God justifies someone,
it is an irrevocable justification. Once justified, always justified. It can never be reversed. So then this leads finally to
the last link, those whom He justified, He also glorified. And before I talk about glorified,
if you're thinking You may be asking this question, what happened
to sanctification? If we just jump from justification
to glorification, where did sanctification go? Well, I'll give you a couple
of really good answers. Sanctification is in verse 29. to be conformed to the image
of His Son and that begins when you are called and justified,
actually at the moment of regeneration which is in between called and
justified. Further, in verse 28, the word
good, and we know that God causes all things to work together for
our good. What is that good? What is the
greatest good that God is causing all things to work together in
your life for good? And the answer to that is what
we see in verse 29, that you would become conformed to the
image of His Son. There is no greater good for
your life than for you to become like Jesus Christ. That's what God is doing in sanctification
and we're all a work under process. God is progressively making us
more and more like His Son. But there's even another reason
why sanctification is not mentioned specifically by name and it is
this. Everything in verse 29 and 30
is what we call a monergistic work of grace, which means there's
only one, mono, there's only one active agent in foreknowledge,
in predestination, in calling, in justification and in glorification. We had nothing to do with any
of those. That was all God. But in sanctification, it is
what we call synergistic, there are two active agents, one with
a capital A, the other with a small a, and that active agent, capital
A, is God and the second active agent, small a, is the believer
in Jesus Christ. We are responsible for our pursuit
of holiness. We are responsible for our obedience
to the Word of God. We are responsible to discipline
ourselves for the purpose of godliness. We are responsible
to resist temptation, to resist the devil, to flee fornication. We are responsible to do all
of these things. And so, it is a joint work in
sanctification. But these five golden links are
all monergistic. It's God and God alone. It wasn't God and you or me that
chose us, it was only God. It wasn't God and us that predestined
us, it was only God. And so, for that reason, sanctification
is not mentioned. But this leads us now to the
end of verse 30, and I'll wrap this up. And these whom He justified,
He also glorified. First thing, please note the
verb tense. It's already a done deal. It's
in the past tense. It's actually an aorist tense
verb that's translated as a past tense, but it's as if you're
already there. in the mind of God and in the
sovereign will of God, it is so certain and it is so sure
that it is already spoken of as though you are in heaven glorified
this very moment. You're not there yet, but in
the eternal plan and purpose of God, you are. So to be glorified simply means
that you become like Jesus Christ as much as a saved, redeemed
creature can be like their Creator. We'll never be on par with Jesus,
but we will have a glorified body. We're going to have to
have a glorified body. How are we going to worship and
praise God forever and ever and ever? This body of mine gets
tired, gets worn out. How are we going to look on the
Lord Jesus Christ except to give me glorified eyes that can look
upon Him and not burn up like a cinder? I need glorified tongue
that I can sing His praises forever. I need glorified knees that I
can bow before Him forever. I need a glorified shoulder that
I can serve Him forever. So you and I will have a body
that will be perfectly adapted for our new environment in heaven,
just like those in hell will have a body perfectly adapted
for the flames of hell, ever perishing but never perishing. How can someone stay in the flames
of hell forever and not be consumed? Because they will have a body
that will be perfectly adapted for the furnace below. And you
and I will have a glorified body that will be perfectly adapted
to be in the immediate presence of God. And then we'll have a glorified
soul and spirit. our sin nature, that part of
our sinful flesh that remains will be eradicated and all that
will be left behind will be the new man, the new person we became
in Christ without any pollution of sin and yet injected with
glorification that will intensify our love for God, our knowledge
of God, we will love Him more than we can even imagine this
moment, our heart will delight in Him, the joy unspeakable and
full of glory will flood our heart and soul in this glorified
state. So what we see in this golden
chain of salvation is that from eternity past to eternity future,
it's all God. God started it, God completes
it and God does everything in between. It's really uniquely
summarized, and I'll close with this, in Romans 11-36 which is
my favorite verse in the Bible. Whenever some of you have asked
me to sign a book that I've written, I'll sign my name and I put Romans
11-36 under it. And Romans 11 and 36 is really
the condensed version of verses 29 and 30 in Romans 8. And it
says, for from Him, who's the Him, God the Father, from Him
means He's the source, He's the origin, He's the initiator, He
is the architect. for from Him and through Him
He is the one who brings it all to pass within time and to Him,"
meaning He is the final destination, He is the final...the end of
all things, for, "...from Him in eternity past and through
Him within time and to Him into eternity future." are all things
as it pertains to salvation, your salvation, my salvation,
and the only response to this can be to Him be the glory forever
and ever. Amen. Not to us be the glory,
not to God and us be the glory, but to God alone be the glory.
And when you stand before God on the last day, and you are
given a crown, you're gonna hold that crown for a millisecond,
and you're gonna remember this message, and you're gonna remember
these verses. And you're gonna remember, oh,
he foreknew me, he predestined me, he called me, he justified
me, he glorified me. What is this crown doing in my
little old hand? And you're gonna cast that crown
back at his feet. And you're going to sing His
praises forever and ever and ever, knowing that the only thing
that you brought to the table was the sin that was laid upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is the one who singled
you out for His mercy and His grace. And He is the one who
sent His Son to live in your place and die in your place.
And He is the one who called you to Himself. And He's the
one who brought the gavel down and declared you to be righteous
before Him. And He's the one who has glorified
you completely into the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll close with this. James Montgomery
Boyce was a great preacher who went to be with the Lord the
year 2000. Some of you recognize his name, but he talked about
the teeter-totter effect. You can see children playing
on the playground. And he said, when one end of
the teeter-totter is up, the seesaw, the other end is down.
And when the other end goes up, the other end goes down. You
can never have both ends up at the same time. And he said, that's
the way it is in our salvation. When God is up, man is down. But with those who think man
is up, God is down. And what we just looked at couldn't
put God any higher. He's up. He has exalted Himself. And what we have just looked
at couldn't put us any lower, and it's good to be low when
God is high. And so, these verses with this
teeter-totter effect puts God in a high place and it pulls
our heart up high to worship God. And it feels so good for
God to be high and lifted up and to give Him the glory for
our salvation. What I've just walked you through
puts God in His proper place. And it puts you and me in our
rightful place. If you've never believed in Jesus
Christ and you may be thinking, wow, this is all over my head,
I don't know if I'm in or out, here's the only thing you need
to know. You are a great sinner. And Christ is a great Savior.
In this very moment, there is being offered to you the only
salvation by which you may have right standing before God. That's
all you need to know. And if you will repent of your
sin and if you will trust Jesus Christ alone for your salvation, you may know that you are one
of those who was foreknown and predestined and now justified. If you will call upon His name
and if you will believe in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
That is God's open invitation to your heart. May God draw you
to the Son and may God give you the faith to believe in Him. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we are overwhelmed. at what You have done towards
us. This can hardly be taken in by
us today. We are stunned, we are silent,
we are overawed and overwhelmed. And it causes our heart to burst
forth in praise for You. So thank You for making all this
known because we would not have known otherwise except You reveal
it, what You have done for us to bring us to Your Son, Jesus
Christ. Would You give understanding
to everyone under my voice, cause light to shine into their minds
and hearts? and activate wills to pursue
Christ. In Jesus' name, amen.