If you will, open your Bibles,
you already have them, to Romans chapter 8. You and I live in a world that
is constantly changing. We live in a world of much uncertainty. I know I'm not saying anything
that you're not aware of. But think about this fact. A
week ago yesterday, I believe it was, All of those people gathered
together there in Orlando, and I have heard some of the interviews,
and their plan was to party all night. And so they entered into
that place, and 49 of them went out into eternity before the
sun came up again the next day. We live in a life of uncertainty
every day. The scripture says, boast not
thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring
forth. And in the letter of James, he
warns us about making plans and saying we'll go here and we'll
do this and that and the other. When our life is like a vapor that appears for a little time
and then it vanishes away. And I've said all of that to
say this, isn't it wonderful to be able to say, we know. There are verities, there are
truths in the word of God that we know. And that's the way our
text begins tonight, and we know. We know. There's no uncertainty,
there's no doubt, there's no maybes, there's no ifs. And we
know. I want to bring seven things
out to us from this passage that gave bread of things that we
know, truths that we know. First of all, we know that God
is absolutely sovereign in all things. I know that. You know that, don't you? He
is absolutely sovereign in all things. Because the scripture
here 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. Now, if God were not absolutely
sovereign in all things, there's no way, no way under heaven that
He could say that ALL things, not most things, not the majority
of things, but that ALL things work together for good. to them
that love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose,
the fact that He is absolutely sovereign. We know this. We know this. And there is no
way, again, as I said, that we could know this unless God is
absolutely sovereign. Now, you know there are many
verses of Scripture which declare this. I think of the Psalm, Psalm
115, when David is asked, Where now is thy God? And I can just
picture in my mind that maybe some calamity, maybe some tragedy
had occurred in his life, and someone said to him, Where's
your God now? Now that you're in trouble, now
that you're suffering, where's your God? And David was able
to write Our God is in the heavens and he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased. Whatsoever he hath pleased. Then we love that passage in
Isaiah chapter 46 where God said, my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. And then in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 11, Paul said, according to the purpose of him, the purpose
of him, God who worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. You know, there was a man in
scripture we read about, and he was born, like all of us are,
oblivious to the fact that God is sovereign. All of us are born
believing that somehow we are sovereign and God is limited
or God is somehow under our will and under our control. He was
born believing that, I'm sure, grew up believing that. But in
God's purpose, God's purpose included raising this man up
and setting him upon a throne. And at this time, the throne
of the most powerful nation in this world, the nation of Babylon. And his name was Nebuchadnezzar.
And you know that day he walked in his palaces and he said, isn't
this the great Babylon that I have built? That I have built. Not recognizing that God had
raised him up And God had raised him up and put him on the throne
to chastise his people, God's people, the nation of Israel.
But once he said that, God sent him out into the fields, the
scripture says, and seven seasons passed over him. And then his
mind returned to him. He was like a beast out there
in the field eating grass. His mind returned unto him, and
this is what he said. He said, I bless the Most High,
and I praise and honor him that lives forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation
to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he that is God, he doeth his will
in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand." No one, no one, not all the men
together. We believe our country, and we're
told this, the most powerful country in the world, the most
powerful military in the world. But God reigns and is sovereign
over all things. one of the kings of Israel. I forget where it's at in first
or second kings, but he said, this other king was boasting
like he was going to conquer him. He said, don't boast until
you've taken off the harness. When you're putting it on, don't
be boasting about your power and what you're going to do.
Wait till the battle's fought. and you're on your way home and
you've won the victory, then you can boast about what you've
done. Well, God, he has all power. And so that's the first thing
that we know, and this is comforting to God's children. that our God
is in the heavens and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. He is absolutely sovereign for
we know, we know that he may make everything and does make
everything work together for his people, for good for his
people because he is sovereign. Here's the second thing we know.
We know that God created man in His image, which He soon lost. Now we know that, and you see
that in verse 29. The scripture says, For whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. But wait a minute. Wasn't man
created in God's image? Isn't that what the scripture
says, that God created man in his own image? Then why would
it be necessary now to predestinate some to be conformed to that
image? Well, you know the reason why.
Because man quickly, even though he was created in God's image,
he quickly lost that image. His disobedience unto God and
And that image in which he was created, which was a moral image,
I understand that. He was upright. He was holy and
righteous, even as God is, but he disobeyed God. When God created
man, the scripture says that he saw everything that he had
made and behold, it was very good. And yet in just a short
time, no one knows. Most of the writers believe the
very same day, but in a very short time, we read that God
drove them out of the garden. Every time I read that, I'm reminded
of a story I read years ago of a Sunday school class of young
children. And the class that day was on
Genesis chapter three. And after the teacher finished
her lesson, she asked the children to draw a picture and color it
of something that they saw from that chapter. So this little
girl handed her paper and it looked crudely, of course, but
it looked like a car and someone in the front seat of the car
and two people in the back. And the teachers asked the little
girl, said, well, how did you get this from the chapter? She
said, well, it says God drove them out of the garden. In her mind, you know, that's
the way you drive people. Put them in the car and drive
them. No, that's not what it means,
is it? He drove them out. He put them out of the garden
because of their sin and he put that chair of him with the flaming
swords there to show all generations that the way the covenant of
works was broken And man could never approach God, could never
come back again based on his own works. So that now God's
testimony concerning man is there is none righteous. No, not one. And we know from the word of
God that Adam was a common representative, the head of all men. So that in Adam, the Apostle
Paul said, all die. He represented you, he represented
me. Now I know, we all know this,
that we have enough sin of our own, but we don't sin to become
sinners. When we come into this world,
we are born sinners. Because Adam, by one man, sin
entered into the world, the scripture says. And that one man was Adam.
So that's the second thing we know, We know that man was created
in the image of God, but he soon lost it. And that's the reason
we read here that God has predestinated some to be conformed to the image
of His Son. Here's the third thing that we
know. We know that God purposed to bring many of Adam's fallen
race to glory. If you notice in verse 30, It
says, moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom
he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Now it's important, both in verse
29 and verse 30, to look at that word whom, for whom he did foreknow,
moreover whom he did predestinate. Paul doesn't say, moreover what
he did foreknow, but whom he did foreknow." We know that God
is omniscient, that He knows all things, all persons, all
actions, and that nothing, He doesn't learn anything, never
has learned anything. But what does this mean when
we read here that God foreknew? Well, it means that He chose
the people and He set His love. upon those people in Christ from
before the foundation of the world. You know the Apostle Peter
in his first letter he said elect according to the foreknowledge
of God through the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ those to whom he was
writing, God's people. Well because he used that word
foreknowledge and because men whether to deceive or not. How
many times have people said to me, probably you as well, well
election, election, that's God foreknowing what man would do.
And because he foreknew what man would do, then he chose that
person. I've heard a number of things
about election, haven't you, that are so contrary to the word
of God. I think one of the silliest things
I ever heard, and it's very commonly believed, is, well, you know,
election is this. God votes for you, and the devil
votes against you, and you cast the deciding vote. As the old
preacher said, there's several things wrong with that, but one
thing is, when this election took place, you didn't have a
vote. You were underage. No, the scripture
is very clear. We know that God has purposed
to bring many of Adam's fallen race to glory. He foreknew them. He set His love upon them in
Christ. This is what Paul tells us in
Ephesians 1, verses 3 through 6. Here's a fourth thing that we
know. We know that God's love and justice are magnified in
bringing those many sons to glory. The scripture reveals that God
cannot deny himself. Anytime you hear a preacher say
God cannot do something, you better check him out. But that's
what the word of God says. God cannot lie. God cannot change. And God cannot deny Himself. And all of them really mean the
same thing. They just mean that God is immutable,
that God never changes. To bring the many sons to glory
that He has chosen, that He set His love upon, He magnifies both
His love and His justice. And you see that here in verse
32 where He said, He that spared not his own son,
we know. He that spared not his own son
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? His love is magnified because
he delivered up his son. Isn't that what the scripture
says? He spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all. delivered up his own son. When I read in the Old Testament
of nations of people who delivered their children to that false
god, it amazes me that men and women would place their babies,
their children, in a heated image, iron image, or however it was,
and hear their children cry out and and just be burned to death. It's easy to think, well, those
people, they didn't love their children. They loved their children
as much as you love your children. But you see, they knew. Or they
believed that God Almighty has to be propitiated, has to be
satisfied. There has to be a sacrifice given
for their sins. And the best they had were their
children. And God delivered up His own
son. The Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the eternal Son of God who came into this world as a
man. He spared not His Son, but delivered
Him up. His love is magnified when you
think about He delivered up His Son. The scripture that is the
best known, I guess, in all the world is, for God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The emphasis
there is on the word so. God so loved the world. He so loved his people, those
he chose and those he has determined to bring home to glory. He so
loved his people that he gave his only begotten Son. And His justice is magnified
in that He spared not, but delivered him up." Both of these words,
spared and delivered, tell us of Christ's work of substitution. There are two things that we
should hear when we listen to a man preach the gospel. That
is substitution and satisfaction. That's what I want to hear. Substitution
and satisfaction. That someone died as my substitute. Someone died as a substitute
for sinners. And that someone is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he satisfied God's justice. God delivered him into the hands
of wicked men, the scripture says, and he delivered his darling
son into the hands of wicked men to do whatsoever God's hand
and God's counsel determined before to be done. You know,
the Lord, before his crucifixion, he was taken before the Sanhedrin,
the Jewish Religious court I guess it could be called and then he
was taken to pilot and then he was taken to Herod then he was
taken back to pilot of all of those scenes there we would say
that pilot Was the human judge that Christ stood before? And
do you know what his judge said his judge said? He's innocent
I find no fault in this man a pilot is just an picture really of
the judge of all the earth, of God. He found no fault in Christ
and yet he delivered him up for us all. With the sins of God's people,
and the scripture says in Isaiah 53, he hath made to meet upon
him the iniquity of us all. The sins of Every one of God's
chosen loved people were laid upon Christ, were made to meet
upon Christ, were imputed to Christ, so that he was made to
be sin for us. Though he knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God. And when sin was laid
upon him, then God Almighty, he said, awake, O sword. Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd. And against the man that is my
fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, might the shepherd. And we know,
we know that God's love and justice are magnified in bringing those
many sons to glory. And here's a fifth thing that
we know. We know that God accepted his son's work of redemption.
Notice that in verse 34. who is he that condemneth, it
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us." We know that God accepted
His Son's work of redemption. We know this because He is risen
again. And Peter declares that this
Holy Son of God bear our sins in His own body on the tree. And his resurrection declares
to all that God's justice is satisfied. One of the gospels,
I believe it's Mark, one of the four gospels, but tells us on
the day of his resurrection that his disciples came there and
they looked in that tomb. And of course, have you ever
thought about what they might have seen in that tomb? I'll
tell you what they didn't see. They didn't see the body of Christ.
He walked out of there. He's risen, declaring to all
the world that his sacrifice satisfied the justice of God. What they might have seen in
there besides the garments and the napkin, they might have seen
our sins in there. because that's where they were
taken. They were taken away. They might have seen our first
husband in there. You say, who is that? The law.
They may have seen it in there. But I tell you what, he arose
from the dead, declaring to all that God's justice is satisfied. There's a sixth thing we know.
We know that No charge can be brought against God's people.
Verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. You know, the work of justification,
such an important teaching. Teaching in the scriptures, isn't
it? Justification. What does that mean to you? What
does it mean? It means to be declared righteous
in the sight of God. Declared in the sight of God. You know, it's easy to justify
ourselves before men. That Pharisee in the temple that
day in our Lord's parable who was praying, And he said, I thank
thee that I'm not as other men are, and I do this, I do that,
and I do the other. He was justified in his own sight,
obviously. And I would imagine a lot of
people who knew this guy, they thought, boy, if there's anybody
in town who's justified, that's a man. It's relatively easy to
be justified in the sight of men. But we're talking about
being declared righteous in the sight of God Almighty. That's what justification is.
Notice back in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and verse 24,
it says, being justified freely by His grace through and never
apart never apart from the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be not a propitiation, the propitiation. Remember what
John wrote in his first epistle, here in his love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent forth His Son to be
the propitiation for our sins. That word propitiation means
to turn aside or placate the wrath of God. Our sins deserve
merit, the judgment of God Almighty. And yet by His one sacrifice,
He has propitiated, appeased, satisfied God. Satisfied God so much that God
declares us justified just in the sight of God. On that great
day of atonement that happened once a year in the nation of
Israel, We love to think about that because
that was the only day the high priest went into the most holy
place. And the writer of Hebrews is quick to point out, not without
blood. Not without blood. But it was
the blood of an animal, wasn't it? That blood of the animal
was just a shadow. The law was a shadow of good
things to come. Christ is the reality of that
shadow. By his blood, he has propitiated
God. He has appeased God. He has satisfied God on behalf
of his people. And I always liked that story.
It's not a story, it's a truth. There in Leviticus 16, when it
speaks about on that day of atonement, the high priest would come out. Remember, there were two goats
that were brought to the door of the tabernacle. And lots were
cast, and one lot fell upon this goat, and that goat was slain.
And its blood was carried in there to the most holy place.
But when all of that was over, then the high priest came back
out and laid his hands upon the head of that other goat. And
he confessed all the sins and all the iniquities and all the
transgressions of the nation of Israel. And that goat was
then led into a land, into a place where he was never to be seen
again. Now that just pictured what Christ did. He carried our
sins away. Far remove them as the east is
from the west. And we know this. Now here's
the last thing, the seventh thing. We know that we can never be
separated from the love of God. You see that in those last two
verses. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Many times we
hear politicians making speeches and they include that, the love
of God, but I tell you they always leave out the last part of that
verse, the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. They always
leave that out. Why? Because in their mind, God's
love is just over everyone, that he loves everyone the same. But
the scriptures tell us God's love is in Christ Jesus. He loves
his people in Christ. Loves us from before the foundation
of the world. And we can never be separated
from his love. Now, I don't know you, and you
probably don't know me that well either, but I want to say this. Does this apply to me? You know,
we can preach some good messages, but if there's no application,
there's something wrong. And every one of us tonight,
as we think of these seven things we've briefly gone through, we
know, we know, we know. Does this apply to me? Does this
apply to you? We'll look back to Romans 8 and
verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but the spirit. Are you in Christ? Are you? The old writers remind us that
God's people are in Christ from eternity, but in time there is
a union with Christ, a vital union with Christ, that He is
in us by His Spirit and we are in Him by faith. Do you trust
in Christ as your Lord and Savior? Then you know these things. They
are true of you. And what a blessing to live in
a world full of uncertainty with confidence and assurance because
of who God is and what he's done and what he's purposed. I pray
the Lord would bless this word to each of us here tonight.