All right, brethren, Romans chapter
8. I was thinking as we were singing that song, the old, old
story, I'm going to just tell you that
old story again. Before we started with God's
work in Abel, and we worked back to eternity, this time we're
going to start in eternity and work forward. You know, this is the difference,
and I want you to Pay attention to this. You've heard the gospel
this morning. Now, when you go out and you
hear other messages the world preaches, I want you to see the
difference. Mark this difference. The religion
of Cain is preaching man's works. They're focusing on man. They're
telling good moral stories. moral lessons, good lessons.
They take them out of the word of God, usually. And they're
good works in themselves. I mean, they're things that are
good to be done amongst men. But they leave sinners thinking
that's how they're saved. But the gospel, the way of Abel,
is preaching God's works and how God saves and what God says. And that's the message through
which God creates a new heart and gives you the right motive
for good works, makes you want to do the good works that the
Lord gives in the scripture, but you're doing them from a
motive now of gratitude and praise, giving God the glory. And that's
the difference, that's the difference. We're not here preaching our
works, we're preaching God's works, what God's done. Salvation
is of the Lord. That's a simple statement, but
that's true. And here's the really, The thing
about it, until God gives us faith, you know, a preacher has
an advantage in this regard. A faithful preacher has this
advantage. I've been an unbeliever and I have been, I still have
enough unbelief in me that I know what it is to not believe the
gospel. And I know what I thought. I thought, you know, Well, how
do you know you're right and others are wrong? And I would
say, you know, your old fail-safe is this argument right here.
Well, how do you even know that's the word of God? Well, Hebrews
tells us this. Faith is the evidence of things
not seen. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. And what it comes down to is
this. It's gonna take God giving us faith And when he does that, the Spirit
enters, and you become one with Christ, and Christ's one with
you. That's how faith's given. It's a union with Christ, and
we believe. And it don't have to be proved
to us now. I have the evidence. I believe
God. I believe God. I believe every word he says.
History I can see it in the God's Word. I see it in in man's history
books, and I see God working I see God did all this and I
see why he did it. I know the secret to life now
Secret to life is God is glorifying his son And he's saving a people
That's how he's glorifying his son by saving a people to himself
and he's gonna create a this world's not it He's gonna create
a new world And that world's going to be created in Christ's
righteousness and holiness. And everybody there is going
to be created in his righteousness and give him all the glory. And
a sinful man doesn't even want that. I heard John, what's that
fellow's, John Mayo, what's his, that comedian talk show dude,
it's atheist or whatever. I heard him this week say, Who
wants to be in a place where everybody's righteous? What's
the fun about being in a place where everybody's perfect? We're
so accustomed to sin, we don't even know what that would be
like. We're like a fish in water. A fish don't know what it is
not to be in water. We don't know what it's like
not to be sin. And we're contradictory to ourselves. On one hand, we blame God for
letting sin be in the world, and on the other hand, We say,
well, I don't want to be a place where there's not any fun. That's
fun. Sin's fun. I don't want to be
where there's not any sin. We're just a mess in a mess,
as Brother Donny Bell said, just a contradiction upon contradiction. It takes God setting us upright,
making us see things as they are, and know God as he is, and
give us faith to believe him. That's what it takes. We use
every argument under the sun. I've heard them all, I've used
them all. And they're just the same old tired, useless, dumb
arguments to try not to believe God, justify ourselves for not
trusting Him. God's got to give us faith. He
just has to give us faith. You want to know what God's doing
in this world? You see the things going on and
the craziness happening right now? Here's what God's doing,
verse 28. Romans 8.28, we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. That's what he's
doing right there. God's doing it all. You'll hear
people say, well, all things happen for a reason. Now, they're
somewhere along the way, they've heard this verse or something,
somebody tried to quote it. And they say, well, all things
happen for a reason. That's not what the verse says.
That don't give God the glory. That's caesarasara. Whatever
it be, it will be. Everything's happening for a
reason. I don't have a clue who does it, why it's being done,
or to what end it's being done, but it's happening for a reason.
That's just fatalism. All things work together for
good. That's not what this verse says. Let's get what this verse
says. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. There's a people that God has
called and everything God's working, he's working it all together
for their good And he's doing it all exactly according to God's
purpose that he determined before he made the first click of the
clock. Everything he's doing is according
to that purpose. And nothing's out of order at
all. You see, this is the God who
is God. This is the God who really and
truly, you just batted your eye because this God let you bat
your eye and gave you the ability to do it. You just took a breath
because this God gave you the ability to do it. He said a hair
don't fall off your head without him. He's numbered the hairs
of your head. He said a sparrow does not fall
to the ground without him. This is the God who says, as
I have purposed, so it shall stand. This is the God who said,
The Lord of hosts has purposed and nobody's gonna disannul his
purpose. His hand is stretched out and
nobody's gonna turn back his hand. This is the God who declares
the end from the beginning. This is the God who says, I have
purposed it, I will also do it. This is the true God. Now what's
God's purpose? He declares it in the next few
verses and we're gonna see it now. Here's his purpose. He's
working everything together, and this is the good that he's
working, and this is the purpose, this is what he determined before,
this is why he's doing what he's doing in this world. Now this
is so, and when he's finished, when he accomplishes, this world
is done. This world is done. God is gonna
fold it up like an old, worn out, cloth that you're done with
and you just fold it up and discard it. He's going to do that. Scripture
says all the elements, the gold, the silver, the things that's
been made, it's all going to melt with a fervent heat. God's
going to burn it up. He's going to burn it up. But
only after he's fulfilled this purpose right here. Here it is. First of all, verse 29. 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. Above everything else, above
everything else, if you don't get anything else to say, get
this right here. The preeminent purpose of God
is he's bringing glory to his son. That's the preeminent purpose.
His son bringing glory to God, This is the preeminent purpose.
That Christ might be the firstborn among many brethren. That we
might be brought to bow to him and praise him and glorify him
and know God as he really is. That's the purpose. That's the
preeminent purpose above all. Now you and me, there's gonna
be some people in this world God's gonna save in the process.
That's how he's gonna bring this glory to himself and we're gonna
get in on that if we're his. But the preeminent purpose is
not even our salvation. The preeminent purpose is Christ
get the glory. Christ get the glory. All right,
look here. God foreknew a people. He said
for whom he did foreknow. Now, this word foreknow means
God loved before. He loved somebody beforehand.
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. And when we read on the rest
of this chapter in Romans 8, it says, nothing shall ever separate
us from the love of God in Christ. Nothing. The people God loved
before, that he loved before, that he knew before, I said to
you earlier when we saw Adam knew Eve, That's the word. He knew. He loved her. And God
knew his people. He knew us and he loved us. He loved us beforehand. And the
people God loved, he loved in Christ, and the people God loved,
nothing shall separate us from the love of God. God does not
love today and hate tomorrow. God does not love you today and
want to do something for you today, but if you don't let him,
then he turns and he hates you and he casts you into hell. No.
God loves. his people and those he foreloved,
he ordained us to salvation and he shall save those he loves. If that's not so, if God doesn't
save those he loves, why mention the love of God? What's the love
of God got to do with anything? Why even mention it? If God loves
but he can't save those he loves, why mention the love of God?
It'd be meaningless. God saves those he loves. He
loved the people. And that word foreknew means
that he ordained us. He ordained us before. Paul preached
the gospel to a people one time, and scripture says as many as
were ordained to eternal life believed. Why did they believe? God before ordained them to eternal
life, and so they believed. John the Apostle, he said, it's
not that we love God. It's not that we love God, but
that he loved us and sent his son to propitiation for our sin. God loved the people. He loved
the people. This was the choosing of God. This was God choosing his people.
Now, I know that you and me, we can choose somebody and just
not passed by somebody else, you know, or passed by somebody
else, and that's fine. We do it every day. But when
God does it, we get offended. Well, that's not fair for God
to choose whom he will. But God's gonna do as he will. He's God. And why does he do
it? Look at Romans 9, just turn one
page over. Romans 9, look there at verse
11. Here was two children born of the same father, conceived
in the same womb, twins, and here's what God said. He said,
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might
stand, not of works, salvation's not of works, it's of God that
calleth. We're at the mercy of God, we're
at the mercy, why? What's the purpose of that? It's
to make you and me see We have to come down off our proud soapbox
of thinking we know it all and we're all in and all and come
down and bow to God and ask him, will you please have mercy on
me? God hates pride, but he dwells
with them that are of a contrite heart. If you have a broken and
a contrite heart, he gave it to you, and he will receive those
with a broken heart. Don't you dislike being around
somebody that's proud and arrogant and haughty? Nobody likes that. Well, God hates it. He hates
it because pride is just man trying to steal the glory that
belongs to God, and God's not going to share his glory. So
this, God chooses whom he will. And here's another thing. If
he hadn't afforded all the people, we wouldn't be saved. Nobody
would be saved. We would all die. We would all
perish. When God makes you know what
a sinner you are, then you will just rejoice that God chose a
people. You'll rejoice in it. Look here
now. And this people he knew, He's
gonna save, because look what the scripture says. This people
that he foreknew, he foreloved, he foreordained, verse 29 says,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son, that his son might get all the glory, that his son might
be the firstborn among many brethren. God predestinated this people. Here's what he did. God predetermined
the time, the exact time, when he would send the gospel and
bring that foreknown sinner under the gospel and give you the spirit
of his son and cause you to hear this good news and believe him
and know that you're a child of God. God predestinated that
time. You know what that means? That
means you're not here today hearing this by accident. None of us
are here by accident. God brought you here. And you're
hearing the gospel today. You're hearing it today. This
is the word. I'm just saying to you what God
said. I'm not telling you what I think.
I'm telling you what God said. You are hearing it today. And I pray this is the hour that
God predestinated from eternity, that he's gonna give you a heart
and you're gonna believe it. And if you do believe Him, you're
not here by accident. He brought you here to once again
quicken you and renew you and show you He's your salvation.
I know we're in troubled times right now. And you know what? When I came here in 2007, you
know what it was? Troubled times. 2008, the bottom dropped out,
just like it is right now. Troubled times. You turn on the
news from the year I was born, 1970, and you know what you hear?
The same troubled times. You know what you're going to
hear another 10 years from now? Troubled time. If God leaves
it, it's going to be troubled time. I want to know God's ruling
it, don't you? I want to know that it's running
right on track according to God's purpose, and I want to know that
nothing is stopping any, nothing's stopping God from bringing that
child he's foreknown under the sound of this gospel to hear
this good news at the time God appointed. I'd like to know that. I wouldn't even want to preach
if that wasn't the case. Because I can't make anybody
believe. I wouldn't want to preach if that wasn't the case. But
that's the case, brother. And scripture, we just looked
this other day. I'm not going to labor this point,
but it said, In Ephesians 1, those that God chose in Christ,
it said, he predestinated us to the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will,
according to his purpose, to the glory of his grace, wherein
he made us accepted in Christ the beloved. There's a time upon
it, and God's gonna bring his child, and it's gonna be by Christ. He said he foreordained Christ
before the foundation of the world, but he made him manifest
in these last days, and he said, and it's by him that we believe
in God. This is adoption. God's gonna
adopt us to himself at the predestinated time, and he's gonna do it by
Christ, and he's gonna do it so that we see Christ is the
firstborn son who God gave the affair of the whole house to.
He trusted all the children to the firstborn son, and he's the
heir. And if we're gonna be heirs with
God, Christ is gonna share his spoils with us because he accomplished
all the work for God. He's the one who does it, and
God's gonna get all the glory. He's working all things together
for good to them that he called from eternity, that he foreknew
from eternity and predestinated to be conformed to the image
of his son. Next thing, look here. Here's God's purpose now. Here's God's purpose. He's working
it all on purpose, and here it is. Verse 30, moreover whom he
did predestinate, them he also called. Now all of this is in
the past tense, I've told you this before. Every bit of this
is in the past tense, and every bit of this, God did it. Now
in eternity, we can't get our heads around this, because God
is, he's infinite, he's not of time. And so when God thought
it, it's done. He purposed it. He said, I will
do it. Nobody's going to turn it back. Nobody's going to stop
it. So when God said it, it's done. It's good as done. He just
had a great time and come and do it. But it's done from eternity. When He chose His people in Christ,
He said He blessed us with all spiritual blessings, not one
left off. So He called us in time. He called
us His sons. He gave us the name of Christ,
called us by His name, wrote the names of His people in the
Lamb's Book of Life, the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. Why was Christ considered slain
in the purpose of God from eternity? There's no possibility he's not
gonna come and lay down his life for his people and accomplish
this work. It was done. It was done. Listen, God has
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. Before the world
began. And then at his time that he
predestinated, because he had already called us his sons, He
sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts and made you to know
He's your Father. Look over to Galatians 4.4. Again,
we saw this just the other night, so I'm gonna just be brief. But
look, Galatians 4.4. When the fullness of the time
was come, Galatians 4.4, God sent forth his son, made of a
woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the
law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, cribing Abba Father. You see that? You were already
sons. You that he sent his son into
your heart and gave you faith, you were already his children.
He'd already called you from eternity. This grace and this
was given to you in Christ according to God's purpose from eternity.
And then because you're our son, he sent forth the spirit of his
son into your heart and worked it in time. That's the time he
appointed and made you to cry out, see, he's your father. See,
that's the only time we're gonna believe God, right there. That's
what it's gonna take. for us to believe God. It's God
that worked that right there. You think now, this is what I
love to think about. You see all this madness going
on in the world, it just looks like, you know, looks like these
rulers, you know, you got Putin, you got ZG, or whatever his name
is, you got Trump, you know, you think, well, they're ruling
everything, you know, all this craziness going on. Listen, everything
that's going on had to be worked together, and it was all worked
together by God put you right where you're sitting right now.
And you go back as far as you want to go, every event that's
happened in this world, God, Romans 8, 28 means God worked
it all together to fulfill this purpose that he purposed from
eternity. Every bit of it. So thank you. He had to put your great, great
grandparents together and cause them to have you grandparents.
And he had to put them with their, with your great your great-grandparents,
or make them out of your grandparents, on down to your mom and your
daddy. So you'd be born, and he protected you all through
you not knowing him. And he brought you to the point
then, at the point in time, where he set you under the gospel,
and he sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart, and
you realize, God's my father. That's him working all things
together. That's a whole lot different than, well, everything
happens for a reason. That's a whole lot different.
Next, here's God's purpose. Verse 30, and whom He called,
them He also justified. He said, I've purposed it, I'll
do it. When He chose Christ to be the Savior, His Son, to give
Him the glory, when Christ entered into covenant with the Father
and said, I'll go forth and I'll redeem this people you've trusted
to me, Right then, he was slain in the purpose of God. Right
then, his people were justified in the purpose of God. I know
men that hate that. I know men that just hate for
you to say, we were eternally justified before time. Listen,
if God said, I purposed it, I will do it. It was done. There wasn't any possibility
it wouldn't be done. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world, the work for finished from the foundation
of the world. Look back there at Galatians
4.4, he said, when the fullness of thee time was come, God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that he might send forth the
adoption of children and make you know it. So, see, if God's
gonna have mercy on you and save you, God's holy, as we saw this
morning, you've sinned, you're going to die. You're going to
either die under the judgment of God yourself, when you meet
God in judgment, and he casts you into eternity in outer darkness,
or you're going to die in Christ, one of the two. If you die in
Christ, it's because God purposed it, and God put you in Christ
before the world was made, and when Christ laid down his life,
he laid down his life for you. That's so. That's who he came
to redeem. There's two thoughts. Here's the two thoughts right
here. One's works, one's grace. Here they are when it comes to
this thing of redemption. Free will works religion says
Christ died for everybody, and he justified everybody, redeemed
everybody. Now, it's up to you. If you believe
him, then It's effectual for you. If you don't believe him,
then you're going to die because you didn't believe him. You're
going to perish because you didn't believe him. That puts it all into your
hands. Christ did everything he could
do. It's up to you. As I said this morning, even
in our courts, we don't punish a man twice for the same crime. If he's innocent, proven innocent,
he can't be tried for it again. If Christ justified everybody,
God is so holy, that's the whole purpose of the cross, was to
declare God's righteousness. And if God is so holy that he
sent his own son, and when sin was laid on his son, he didn't
spare his own son or pour out wrath on him, do you think God
is going to pour out wrath a second time on anybody he already justified? No way. He's holy. He won't do
that. We know that. We don't do that
in our courts. Surely God's not going to do
that. So that first system of saying he died for everybody
can't be so. And not only that, he plainly
said it's so. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And that's who he died for, because
he accomplished it. It's his glory we're talking
about. He accomplished it, brethren. He justified his people. He redeemed
his people. Listen, when men nail Him to
the cross, if you suffer something that's terrible and men do something
mean and ugly to you, Just remember this, the worst, ugliest, meanest
thing that ever happened in this world from a sinner was God came
in human flesh and we nailed him to a tree. We said, get him
out of here. I'll not have him, this man reign
over me. We want nothing to do with him.
Get him out of here so we can get back to practicing our little
phony, fake, self-righteous religion. That's what we did. And you know
what we were doing? whatsoever God's hand and counsel
determined before to be done. Now, if that was so, know this. Whatever's happening to you in
this world, it's only coming to pass because it's God's purpose. He purposed it. And for his people,
he said this. He said, he's gonna chase his
people. We're gonna go through some suffering
because God's doing it to teach us more of him. who he is, and
that we're saved by him, and that we can't save ourselves.
It's good for me that I've been afflicted. I've suffered a few
little things that have broken my heart to the innermost depths. And it's been good, it has been
good to teach me all this wonderful, these wonderful statutes of our
God and what he's declaring here. that He is my Savior, not me. And that's, I'm just saying,
everything that comes to pass is according to His purpose,
to glorify His Son, and it's for the good of His people. By
Him, when He calls you, He makes you know. You're justified by
Him from all things from which you could not be justified by
your works. You, He justified His people. Do you want to know, do you want
to leave here today knowing I have peace with God. God receives
me. God counts me to be perfectly
righteous. God looks at me in my record
and sees my beginning from the womb all the way to my last breath
throughout this whole life. And God looks at me and says,
I see nothing but absolute perfection. Nothing but one that pleased
me and did everything and only that which pleases me. Do you
want to hear God say that about you? That's what God says about
his son, and that's what God says about all his people in
his son. That's what it is to be complete
with God. God says, I don't remember your
sin anymore. I put it away. What about my
unrighteousness? What about I fail every day trying
to serve him, and I see my sin, and I see what I am, and I just,
what about that? God said, I'll be merciful to
your unrighteousness. and your sins and iniquities,
I will remember no more. You can't get better news than
that. But you've got to be a sinner for that to be good news. When's
the last time you just randomly went to the doctor or just randomly went
to the drugstore and just decided, I'm going to read what's in medicine?
You wouldn't do that unless you needed the medicine. And we need
to find out we're sinners. God's got to make us know we're
sinners for this to be good news. And God's going to do that. It's
justification making you know about it has to do with God first.
He's going to make you know you're the sinner. And it's going to
be painful when he does it. It's going to be so painful when
he does it. You're going to see there's nothing
you ever did was good before God. And He's going to have to
make you know that, but then He'll, if He's doing this for
you, He'll make you know. But I've justified you. I've
justified you. And here's His purpose now, back
there in Romans 8, 30. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Them He also glorified. Now surely,
surely, surely you're not going to say that He glorified us before
eternity. I'll say this, this is what Christ
said in John 17, 5. He said, Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. You mean God glorified his son
before the world was made? When he chose him to be the savior
and chose him to do all this work and trusted all his people
to him, God glorified him as the prophet, priest, king, righteousness,
holiness, wisdom, redemption, salvation, comforter, everything
of his people. He did that, he glorified him
to the highest by choosing him to be the Savior. And he glorified
his people in him. He blessed us with what? All
spiritual blessings in him. And then, in time, God's gonna,
those that he has foreknown, those that he's predestinated
to this adoption, those that he's called, those that he's
justified, he's gonna glorify. He's already raised us with Christ
and we're seated there with Him. And one of these days, brethren,
our Lord's gonna raise us up and we're gonna sit there with
Christ. He said in Romans 8, 16, right there, He said, the
Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're sons of God.
And if we're children, then we're heirs, heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together with Him. And he's gonna
make you see, he'll take your suffering, and next time you're
suffering, you use that suffering. I said this to you Thursday,
you use that suffering to realize God says the suffering of this
present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory that
should be revealed in us. So next time you suffer, just
remember this, as bad as this is, and as painful this is, and
as hard as this is to me, God's told me this is not even worthy
to be compared with how great His glory is going to be. It
will magnify the glory that's to come. So that tells you, He's not going
to lose anybody. He's not going to lose anybody
that He called, that He ordained and did all this work, this purpose
toward. He's not going to lose you because
He's going to glorify us together with Christ. Those are all the things he works
together for our good, for the good of them that love God, for
the good of them that are called. This is his eternal purpose.
All these things we're looking at. Now here's what he says.
Look at verse 31. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? If God's for you, you got it made in the shade.
That's what it says. Nobody can be against you. It
says on there, nobody's going to condemn you, but He justifies
you. It says Christ made down His
life for you. He's risen. He's interceding
for you. It says nobody's going to separate you from His love
in Christ. You see that? You see why we preach what we
preach? You see why we believe what we believe, who we believe? Because would you be comforted if you
came here today and say, now God loves you today, but now
if you don't do everything just right, he might hate you tomorrow
and cast you into hell. I wouldn't leave here with any
comfort in that. Knowing me like I know me, that
would not comfort me, because I know tomorrow he'll cast me
in hell. He'd stop loving me before the
end of the day. Because I know what I am. But
this message right here that tells me it's all of God and
those he's loved he's going to save and nothing's going to separate
us, I can just plant it all right there and say, Lord, I'm persuaded
you're able to keep that which I've committed unto you against
that day. I pray God bless you. Why I preach this? Because this
is the message through which he's going to work this and make
you know that he's done all this for you and make you believe
him. This is the message you're going to do it for. Well, what
am I going to hear if I come back next week and listen to
this? Same thing. Same thing. We just got one story
to tell. Salvation is of the Lord. Amen. Brother Adam.