I'd like for you to open your
Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 8. Romans, chapter 8. I want to
read our text, Romans 8, 28, beginning there. One of the most commonly quoted
verses of Scripture, I believe, today. Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration
of the Spirit, he says, 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. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
He, that is His Son, might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And 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, the past several weeks in
my preaching, I've been dealing with just the general subject
of salvation. And I want to continue that because
there's nothing obviously more important in the life of a true
believer than salvation itself. A true believer is one who claims
to be saved or to have been saved. And there's certainly nothing
more important in the life of an unsaved person. You need salvation. Remember years ago during the
conference that we used to have here back in June in the early
80s, one of the preachers, I can't remember who preached on that
subject, and his message arose from some questions that a man
asked him about this issue of salvation. And one of the questions
was, well, what do I need to be saved from? We could talk about a lot of
different things but the main thing and the thing that really
says it all is we need to be saved from sin. Because sin is
our problem. Everything that's wrong with
this world is due to sin. Adam fell and brought the whole
human race under sin. That's what the scripture teaches.
Somebody said, well, that's not what I believe. Well, OK, you
don't believe what the scripture teaches. But that's what it says.
Not in just one verse, but in many verses. Somebody said, well,
how many verses does it say that? I said, well, it only takes one,
I believe. But there are many verses. But
we need to be saved from sin. And a couple of weeks ago I preached
from this passage in Hebrews chapter 2. Listen to this. How
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? So great
salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by His grace. It's a great
salvation. And that verse says how shall
we escape? Escape what? The wrath of God.
if we even neglect it, let alone never be confronted with it,
but just neglect it. How great is this salvation?
How are we to understand salvation? Think about it. How are we to
live by it? You know, somebody said, well,
what about holy living? What about good works? Well,
that's salvation. That's part of salvation. It's
not by good works. Salvation is not by your works. Scripture says it, for by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's
not by works of righteousness, which we have done, are trying
to do, or will do in the future. But they're part of salvation,
aren't they? They're the fruit of salvation. How are we to live
in it? The reality of it. I mentioned this verse in Ephesians
chapter 6 and verse 15 talking about the whole armor of God.
He said put on the helmet of salvation. That helmet was worn
by the Roman soldier to protect his head, his brain. And the
analogy there is it's this salvation That is, of the Lord, in Jesus
Christ, by the grace of God, not of our works, but of His,
is our protection. And it protects our mind, which
is our heart. And it's how we're to think.
We're to think about it. Live by it. It's to pervade our
minds. I believe the tragedy of today,
so much of today's modern so-called Christianity, is that there's
so many people who claim to be saved, but they don't understand
the reality of salvation as described and revealed in this book here,
in God's Word. Which means it's like in Isaiah's
day. In Isaiah's day, he said they
prayed unto a God that cannot save. And what a tragedy that
is, how sad that is. Well, I want to know something
for myself. I want to know that I'm not preaching and praying
and depending upon a God who cannot save. How about you? Remember that's in Isaiah 45.
That's when God revealed Himself there as a just God and a Savior.
Look unto Me and be ye saved. It's all about salvation. The deliverance of a sinner,
the new birth, We always put the redemption, the new birth,
the life of a sinner saved by Christ. It's all about this salvation.
So I want to study this subject. I want to preach this subject. I want you to hear about it.
I want our thoughts to be brought under subjection to what God
reveals, not what we think. You talk to most people today
and say, are you saved? What do most of them do? Many
of them go back to an experience they had when they were a child
or something they did. There's nothing in the scripture
even like that. Listen, I know there's an initial
conversion. I know there's a time, a point
in time in a person's life, if they're ever saved, that God
brings them to a saving knowledge of Christ. But the life of salvation,
the reality of salvation is not living your life any way you
want to and continually looking back to that. Forget about it. That's what the Bible, that's
what Paul said. You know the only time I believe that Paul
ever related his conversion experience, and I believe I'm right on this.
You can check me out. If I'm wrong, tell me. I'll accept
it. But you know me. But the only time I believe that
Paul even related his conversion experience is when he stood before
some men and they just didn't believe he was the same guy that
used to be Saul of Tarsus. And he had to prove to them that
he was. You're not that guy. We know that guy. Man, when he
came, we all ran. He was out to kill us. No, Paul
said, that's me. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. So that just wasn't important to him as anything about validating
his salvation. What was important to him about
validating salvation is this. Am I looking to living by resting
upon Christ today? Right now? Because He's my hope. If He's my hope now, He's my
hope forever. Isn't that right? That's what
salvation is all about. Well, this book presents, I believe,
salvation in four realms. And I call them realms because
salvation, in essence, is a kingdom, isn't it? The kingdom of God,
the kingdom of heaven. Those who are saved are citizens
of a heavenly kingdom. We're not of this world. We're
in the world, but we're not of the world. Paul wrote about it
in Philippians. He said our citizenship. He said
our conversation. That's the way it's translated
in the King James. But the word means citizenship. Our citizenship
is in heaven. It's a heavenly kingdom. That's
a spiritual kingdom. And then we who are saved are
subjects of the King of Kings. He's our Lord and our Savior.
You know, it used to be common when preachers would talk, I
don't know, I say used to be, it probably still is, I don't
know, but when preachers would talk about salvation or they
would give what they call invitations. Incidentally, the preaching of
the gospel is the invitation, folks. But when they give the
invitation, they'd say, now you've made Christ your Savior, now
won't you make him your Lord? That's not scriptural. Let me
tell you something, if he's your Savior, he's your Lord. If he's
your Lord, he's your Savior. And you didn't make him either
one. God made him so. That's what Peter said when he
stood there in Acts chapter 2. He said, God hath made him both
Lord and Christ. That's Lord and Savior. God set
him up to be that way. God sent him to accomplish that,
and he accomplished it. And God, God the Father, sent
God the Son incarnate upon his right hand. And he's Lord and
Savior. But I call four realms. And I'm
going to do four messages on this. Not today, not all today.
But I want you to understand this. The first realm is the
eternal realm. In fact, the title of this message
today is the eternal realm of salvation. The eternal realm
of salvation. Now when we talk about the eternal
realm, we're talking about because God, who is the God of salvation,
is eternal. And what we're talking about
in the eternal realm is the origin and the cause of salvation. You
might say it this way, salvation purposed and planned. That's
the eternal realm. Now, the second realm of salvation
is the legal realm. The legal realm. Now, a lot of
people don't like that. I don't understand why. The Bible
says Christ, the Savior, the Redeemer, was made under the
what? What was he made under? Anybody
know? The law. To do what? To redeem them that
were under the law. There's a courtroom here. There's
some justice. God is a just God and a Savior.
He's holy and He's righteous and He's just. Yes, He's merciful. Yes, He's compassionate. God is love. God is mercy. God is all grace, but not without
justice. That's the legal realm of salvation.
And I'll be talking about that today, but I'll talk more about
it specifically next week. And when you talk about the legal
realm of salvation, you're talking about the ground of salvation.
Upon what ground will God justify a sinner? Upon what ground will
He save me? I'll put it to you in a very
practical way. When you die and go to appear
before God, what are you going to plead before the judge as
the reason or the right or the ground of entering heaven? There's
the legal realm of salvation. And you might call that salvation
accomplished and secured. I love that. Salvation accomplished
and secured. And we know that's by Christ.
The third realm of salvation is what I call the spiritual
realm. Now, I hesitate calling it the spiritual realm for this
reason. All of salvation is spiritual because God is spirit. But what
I mean by that in this context is this, salvation, the spiritual
realm, I'm talking about the fruit of salvation. I'm talking
about how salvation is applied and experienced, applied to us
and experienced by us. That's the spiritual realm. And
of course you know that begins in the new birth. We must be
born again. And then the fourth realm of
salvation is what I call the glorified realm. The glorified
realm. That too is a fruit of salvation.
And what I mean by that is the final glorification of God's
people in the end. That's salvation completed and
perfected. Now that's the four realms of
salvation. That's how we're to think of salvation. Now I know,
I know, now listen to me, I know that there's in every one of
these things there's a point where we just have to stop and
just stand amazed. Especially the eternal realm.
I'll be the first one to tell you. Let me tell you something.
We, now listen, we cannot grasp eternity. You may think you can,
but you can't. It wouldn't take me five seconds
to prove that to you, talking to you. We just can't do it.
Because everything we know is time and change, time and change.
Think about this. We can't grasp holiness because
we're sinful. And even as believers, our best
thoughts are marred by sin. We know something about holiness
when we look to Christ, don't we? Isn't that right? When we
see the incarnate Son of God, God in human flesh, the second
person of the Trinity, especially on the cross, dying for the sins
of His sheep, and the very ones who nailed Him to that cross,
saying, God forgive them, Father forgive them, they don't know
what they do. Holy love. But think about this, God is
eternal. That means God has no beginning
and no end. We can't grasp that. Everything
with us has a beginning and an end, doesn't it? Look at the graveyards. There's
two dates on those stones. Beginning and end. We're always
trying to reach a period of time or avoid a period of time. It's
like when we're young. The first half, we're trying
to reach that period of time, and then in the last half, we're
trying to avoid that period of time. Wish we could just meet
in the middle, couldn't we? But we can't. Eternity is something
that just blows our minds. And that means God doesn't change. Now, if you think God changes,
And I know you can pull up verses here and there that sort of indicate
that he does, but those are not verses that talk about the nature
of God. That's man's perception of God.
But if you've got a God who changes, let me tell you what you're worshipping.
You're worshipping a God like yourself. Because let me tell
you something about change. Change is either going to be
for the better or for the worse. Isn't it? God can't get any better. He's perfect. And he's certainly
not going to get any worse. Immutability, that's a mind-blowing
concept, isn't it? We can't grasp that. So somebody
asked me one time, said, well, why are you even preaching on
this then if we can't grasp it? I'll tell you exactly why. Because
it's in the Bible. And that ought to settle the
issue. How about that? God revealed it. Somebody said,
well, I don't want to believe anything I don't understand.
Well, you don't believe anything then in the Bible. The eternal realm of salvation,
the origin and cause of salvation. Listen to our text in Romans
chapter 8, verse 28. We know that all things, how
many things? All things. Just all the good
things? No, all things. Even the bad
things? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Do you know that's not a New
Testament doctrine? That's an eternal doctrine. Joseph
said it, didn't he? Here he stands before his brothers
who wickedly sold him into slavery. Remember what he said in Genesis
chapter 50? I believe it's verse 20. He said,
now, fellas, you meant it for evil. The only thing that was
on your heart when you did that was wickedness and evil, murder,
sin, But he said God meant it for good. Huh? To save much people alive. All things. And he says it works
together for good. Now is it for good to everybody? No. It's to them that love God.
Well, who's that? That's sinners saved by the grace
of God in Christ. No man or woman by nature loves
God. Scripture says that. No man or
woman by nature believes God, serves God, trusts God. We're
sinners. We fell in Adam and that's where
we are by nature. You say, I don't believe that.
Well, you don't believe the Bible. Who is it that loves God? Those
whom God loves. And who are they? To them who
are the called. That's the summoned. They're
summoned by the king. You don't refuse the summoning
of the King. And they're called according
to His purpose. What is His purpose? That's an eternal purpose. What
is God's purpose in all things? It's to glorify Himself. Where
is God's highest glory? In the salvation of sinners by
His grace through Jesus Christ. The eternal realm includes the
believer's election and the salvation. Turn over to Ephesians chapter
1 that Brother Aaron read. You know, these first 14 verses
of Ephesians 1 present all four realms of salvation. And I can just see Paul, well
I better not write that part, they might not understand that
or that might offend them. No, he didn't do that. Listen
to what he says, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of
God. That's the sovereign will and
salvation right there. Even Paul's apostleship, he said
to the saints, that's the sanctified ones, that's sinners saved by
the grace of God. You know what a saint is? He's
washed in the blood of Christ, he's clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. He's regenerated by the Spirit of God. which are
to Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now listen, verse 3. And listen as we read down through
here. How many times the reference is to in Christ, of Christ, in
Him, in Him, in Him. He says, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now that's
past tense. Now anytime you read something
like that in the Bible that's past tense, let me let you in
on a little secret. When this was written, you weren't
born. So is that just talking about
every believer before this was written? No. It's talking about
all believers in all times. Blessed. What's the opposite
of being blessed? Cursed. How is a sinner blessed
of God? In the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we're talking about the eternal realm here. This is before the
foundation of the world. Look in verse 4. According as
He hath chosen us in Him, in Christ, before the foundation
of the world, before God created the world. This is in eternity,
isn't it? That's election in eternity, election in Christ. And he says, here's the purpose
of it, that we should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. Verse 5, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children,
God adopted us into His family by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. His will. And what was it all
to? Verse 6, to the praise of the
glory of His grace. That's the purpose. wherein He
hath made us accepted in the Beloved." That's the way His
purpose is fulfilled. Accepted in Christ. Saved by
the grace of God in Christ. He's talking about an eternal
salvation here. That's older than the creation
of the world. Has its origins in eternity past. Now that's a prime example of
how we can't even really express eternity because eternity has
no past. Eternity is the eternal now.
God said to Moses, I am that I am. Isn't that amazing? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today and forever. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed, Malachi 3.6. God is not a man that he should
repent. He doesn't have to. And let me tell you something. Turn back to 2 Samuel 23. 2 Samuel 23. This is David on his
deathbed. You all have seen this. Here
is David. King David on his deathbed. This is the eternal realm of
salvation. Now everything that David says
here is said about a thousand years before the Lord Jesus Christ
actually came in time. That's about what it was from
David to Christ, about a thousand years before Christ actually
came in time. But now let me tell you something.
Everything that David says here is based upon the certainty that
Jesus Christ would come in time. What do we learn from that? Well,
everything God in eternity, purpose before time, has its accomplishment
in time, in Christ, for the salvation of His people. Look at verse
5, 2 Samuel 23. Somebody said, well, preacher,
you're above my head. Well, I'm above my own up here
now. You say, well, why preach on it? Because it's here. I'm
going to give you some reason just as I conclude this message.
I want to show you what I'm talking about. But look at verse 5, 2
Samuel 23, 5. Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. All right, an agreement. And
look at it, ordered in all things. Now the terms and the conditions
and the requirements of this covenant are ordered out, already
ordered. In other words, there's no plan
B here. There's no contingency plan here. You see, God is not
some cosmic chess player up there making His move, and then you
make your move, and then He makes His counter move. No, David said
this is ordered in all things, and look at the next word, and
what? Sure. Now, for anything to be
sure, There's got to be a surety. Isn't that right? Got to be a
surety. Now David says, now listen to
what David says. Now this is how he's thinking.
Do you think David had a mental, intellectual hold on this thing
of eternity? No. Nobody does. Read his Psalms,
he'll tell you he doesn't. But he knows it's true. And boy,
doesn't that humble us. That's one of the reasons for
it. But He says, ordered in all things. Who ordered it? Well,
we read that in Ephesians 1. It's God. In verse 11, we didn't
read that, but Brother Andy, who works all things after the
counsel of His own will. God ordered it. And God made
it sure. How did He make it sure? He placed
all the conditions and requirements upon Christ as our surety. Hebrews 7.22 talks about Christ
who's made surety of the covenant. He's the surety. Hebrews chapter
8 says He's made the surety of a better covenant. What's the
better covenant? Why is there a better covenant?
Because that old covenant couldn't save anybody. That was conditioned
on the sinners. That was conditioned on the people.
They failed. Any covenant that's conditioned
on sinful men and women is a failure. Read the Bible. But that covenant
which is conditioned on Christ is sure to be successful. 2 Corinthians 1.20, all the promises
of God are in Him, yea, and in Him, amen. Sure and certain. Now David says, this is ordered
in all things ensured. Now look how he said, now he
said, this is how he's thinking of salvation. He says, for this
is all my salvation. That's my whole salvation. Right
there. You say, I don't want to talk
about eternity. Boy, David, he said, that's all my salvation.
He was looking forward to the promise of God made sure by the
coming of Christ. That's why David was justified
here. He was justified by promise.
The promise of a surety who would fulfill all the conditions of
his salvation, put away his sins, and bring forth a righteousness
whereby David could stand before God and be accepted. David was accepted in the beloved.
If you're in Christ, that's the way you're accepted. Same ground. And he says, this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. Although
David's house was a shambles, David's kingdom, his kingdom
was a shambles. That's the everlasting covenant
of grace. This is an eternal salvation. All the promises of
God. are in Christ and made sure. Now what's the significance of
even preaching this and knowing this? Let me give you these four
things and I'm going to read you some scripture. I don't think
you have time to turn to all these. But first of all, we preach
it, number one, because it's in the Bible. But let me give
you these four things. Here's the significance of knowing
this. Number one, it shows us the glorious
majesty and wisdom and power of God to save us from our sins. We don't pray unto a God that
cannot save, we pray unto a sovereign God, the only God who can and
does save. He's been saving his people from
the very beginning. This salvation was established
in eternity. Christ, as the wisdom of God,
is portrayed in Proverbs chapter 8 as the one who was set up from
everlasting before the world began. In Micah chapter 5 and
verse 2, the one who would come out of Bethlehem, Ephratah, that's
Christ. He was He who was from old, from
everlasting. All this salvation was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Oh, what a glorious,
majestic, great God we serve. And doesn't that humble us? His
thoughts, His ways are so much higher than our thoughts and
ways. Isn't that the way it ought to be? David wrote in Psalm 8, What
is man that thou art mindful of him? God, soul of the world,
mankind. That's what that means. That's
the cosmos. His created universe. That He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. How many people does God
have to save to save mankind? Only one. But He saves more than
one, doesn't He? sent His Son into this world
to save sons of Jacob like sinners. Why would God even think towards
us with thoughts of mercy? Let alone send His Son to secure
that mercy. He's our charity. That's the
God we worship, the eternal God. He's not at our whim. He's not
at our beck and call. He's not a genie in a bottle. He's a sovereign God of this
universe. That's the way this Bible speaks.
He's the Lord of this universe. And then secondly, it shows us
the preeminence of Christ in our salvation. Over there in Romans 8, our text,
listen to it again. Talking about God's purpose.
Look at verse 29. It says, "...for whom He did
foreknow." And that foreknowledge there is not just precognition. If you don't know what that means,
that means that it's not saying that God looked down through
a telescope of time and foresaw events before they happened.
You know, that's really the craziest thing I've ever heard to begin
with. I mean, who determines if these
things are going to happen? There's some, you know, whoever
it is, he's God. But no, that foreknow, has to
do with what he said. He also did predestinate. It's
the predetermining God. You say, well, I can't understand
all that. You don't need to. That's not the issue. Salvation
is not by the will of men. It's by the will of God. And
you're commanded to come to Christ and to believe God and submit
to Him. And you will be held accountable if you don't. All
of us will. You say, well, I can't get all
that fit together in my jigsaw puzzle. Well, that's too bad.
That's not your job. But He says what? To be conformed
to the image of His Son. That's the goal. That He might
be the firstborn among many. That Christ might have the preeminence.
And He does. Every knee is going to bow, every
tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Look over,
I want you to see this one. Look at Acts chapter 2. Now you listen to these scriptures.
And I know men raise their arguments, but listen to the scriptures.
Acts chapter 2. The crux of eternity and time
Is Christ and Him crucified and risen again? How did God justify
Abel? How did He justify based upon
Christ and Him crucified and risen again? That's how Abel
was justified. That's how every Old Testament
saint was justified. That's how every saint is justified
before God. That's an eternal That's the
eternal mind of God. And listen to this in verse 22
of Acts chapter 2. He says, You men of Israel, hear
these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you
by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst
of you, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by
wicked hands have crucified and slain. Now the hands that were
actually the instruments of putting him on that cross, which is representative
of us all in our sins, were wicked hands. But he says it was all
done by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Just
like Joseph said, you meant it for evil, we meant it for evil,
God meant it for good to save much people alive. What does that tell us? It tells
us this, the cross did not change God's mind towards anybody. The
cross revealed God's mind towards His people. His salvation. His salvation. And then thirdly,
it shows us the necessity of salvation totally by God's free
and sovereign grace. Look over at 2 Timothy, chapter
1. It's all of grace. Not conditioned
on you, not conditioned on me, but it's all of grace in Christ
Jesus. Paul says to Timothy in verse
8, don't be ashamed of the gospel. That gospel is according to the
power of God. Look at verse 9 of 2 Timothy
1. It's the power of God who has saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose, what's his purpose? To glorify himself, and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That's when it was given us in
Christ Jesus. It wasn't applied to us then.
See, that's the spiritual realm. That comes later. But it was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You know what
that means? That means all our sins were laid upon Christ. He
became accountable for them as our surety before this world
began. That's something, isn't it? And then, fourthly, it shows
us the absolute certainty of the complete salvation of every
and any sinner who comes to this God pleading Christ. pleading
His blood and righteousness. That's right. One more verse,
Romans 4. I want you to look at this. Verse 13. He's talking about
Abraham here. And he starts off in verse 13
of Romans 4. He says, the promise. It's the
promise that Abraham should be the heir of the world. That is
that the blessing of Abraham would go out to all people. Now
that's not all without exception because all people without exception
are not going to be blessed. Let me show you what he's talking
about. What is the blessing of Abraham going out to all people?
That's salvation. And he says it wasn't, was not
to Abraham or to his seed through the law. That is by works of
the law. but through the righteousness of faith. What is that? That's
the righteousness of Christ imputed to us which we receive by faith. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, faith is made void. In other words, if those who
are trying to keep the law earn this promise, this blessing by
their works, then the promise is made of none effect. What
good is that promise? God promised it based upon Christ.
by grace. He says in verse 15, because
the law worketh wrath, the law, listen, you try to be justified
before God, righteous before God by the law, what's the result?
Wrath, because you'll fall short. For where no law is, there is
no transgression. Verse 16, therefore it is a faith
that it might be by grace it's in Christ that's what he means
by that that it might be by grace to the end the promise might
be sure in other words it's in Christ the surety so that it
might be sure to all the seed not to that which is only of
the law but that also which is of the faith of Abraham who is
the fathers of us all now who are those who are of the faith
of Abraham those who believe the promise The same promise
that God made to Abraham, salvation by his grace through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now that's why Christ said, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. That's why he said, this
is the will of him that sent me that of all which he hath
given me I should lose nothing but raise it up again at the
last day. All right. Let's sing as our
closing hymn, Day by Day.