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." God has a purpose for you. Say, well, I don't know what
it is. Well, He's called you. You're here on purpose for a
purpose. Here's where our spiritual biography
begins. For whom he did for, no. This is five golden links in
your biography. Everybody's not converted the
same. I was converted in the basement of the Parsonage at
7208 Jackson in Warren, Michigan. That's where I trusted Christ. I was converted there. Our experiences
are different, but it's the same God, it's the same grace that
saves us, because He's working everything out, even those intricate
parts of our salvation. So here we begin. The first golden
link is for no. The word no means to know intimately,
for whom He did before no, before love, before the foundation of
the world, He loved. God foreknew you. When you were
converted, God didn't go like this. Wow, that's the last person
in the world I thought would have ever come to Christ. I'm
shocked. Oh no. See, you're coming to
Christ. God was behind that. God forloved you. His eye is on the sparrow and
he watches over you. Predestination is not a curse
word. It's a good word. In fact, I
think we ought to use it, not fatalistically, But God has predestinated
me, and not in pride. You think about God loving you
and then predestinating you, because you wouldn't have made
it had it not been for his predestination. You wouldn't have come to Christ. You wouldn't come over to downtown
Pontiac to church. You know, the only reason most
of us are here today is because we love this gospel of grace.
He foreknew us. He predestinated us. The second
thing is He called us. Have you got to call? I can say
assuredly, He called me. Oh, He called me. Made me sense
and know that I was a sinner. He regenerated me where I knew
my centership. And for actually days and days
and days, at night on my bed, I would toss and turn. At seven
or eight years old, I knew I was a sinner. By the way, your children
are not little angels. The only reason you say they're
little angels is because they came out of you, but look at
you. How can an angel come out of
me, us? No, they have our nature. And
so they're born with a sinful nature. And God has to change
them. And thank God He does intervene
in the lives He calls. He foreknew me. He predestinated
me. He called me. And then it says
He justified me. Every one of my sins have been
paid for. That's the only way you can go
to heaven. You've got to have your sins
paid for. He's satisfied the just demands of His own law.
See, you and I are lawbreakers by nature. Little liars or big
liars. We're sinners. And so every sin
and every disobedience has to receive a just recompense of
reward. So in order for you to go to
heaven, all your sins has to be paid for. And by the way,
you're bankrupt. We're bankrupt. We have nothing
to pay. What are you going to give God
for your transgressions against God? He justified us. I'm not
guilty. And here's the fifth one, and
I like this one. He glorifies us. You know, at
75, you begin to think about funeral homes, You begin to think about death.
You begin to think about, well, maybe even before 75, you begin
to, I'm headed that way. But you know, I'm headed in a
good way. I mean, the truth is it only
gets better for me. It only gets better. Because whom he foreknew, and
he predestinated, and he called, and he justified, them he also
glorified. No wonder the apostle said, I
am what I am by the grace of God. I labored more abundantly
than they all, yet not I. This was his constant message.
This Saul of Tarsus, this sheep killer. God met up with him on
the Damascus road. But it was the God who loved
him before he was formed in his mother's belly and had a purpose
for him.