the context, I'm trying to get
my little earbud thing going here. We're not going to unpack
them as people are historically accustomed to hearing them. And
I explained that a little bit last week, but for the sake of
reminder and for those who weren't here, I'll explain it again. When we see Romans chapter 8,
28, 29 and so on, Historically, that has been called
the golden chain. And we're not going to say that
it's not the golden chain. We're just not going to call
it that in the same way that others call that. We're not going
to look at this 28, 29 and 30 as a list of how God in order does salvation. We're not going
to do that. We're going to look at it in context. And over the
next few weeks, I hope that'll make good sense to you all. And
if you have questions, maybe after we get through it, Romans
eight, we'll take just a midweek and we'll open the floor for
questions like we did a couple of weeks ago. just so that we
don't move too fast into Romans 9 because this is where the tires
come off for most people when we get to Romans 9. Romans 9
without the context of the first eight chapters really doesn't
make any sense. It's a real good way of making
pretext. We can decide what it means.
We can decide what it means based on what we want to assume in
regard to who the elect are and what God's intention was. Well,
this chapter here as it closes out gives us clarity on those
things. What is the intention of God?
Let's look at the word of God tonight. Romans chapter 8, look
at verse 26, and I'm going to read through verse 31. Likewise, the Spirit helps us
in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep
for words. And He who searches hearts knows
what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes
for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that
for those who love God, all things work together for good for those
who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew,
He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order
that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those
whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called,
He also justified. And those whom He justified,
He also glorified. What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be
against us? So we'll stop there. And what
I want to talk about tonight is to unpack the reality of what
the scripture means when we see the word for no, for no. For those of you who have been
with us the 87 weeks we've been in God's gospel, you understand
that I have taught according to the scripture that for knowledge
is indeed synonymous with love. So those whom God loves, And
those whom God foreknows are equally defined. A lot of times when we think
of foreknowledge, I'll give you some rebuttal to what I'm about
to teach tonight first, so I don't hang myself on it later. But
a lot of people come and they'll say, well, foreknowledge is really
easy to understand. God knows all things, therefore
He knows beforehand all things that will take place. Well, when
we talk about that in the context of redemption, people like to
argue this, and I will say this as a preface so that if anybody
ever takes this soundbite, they'll have to manipulate it negatively. But people will say, God knows
who will freely accept Him, which I don't understand that language
whatsoever in the context of Scripture. I cannot find it,
don't see it taught anywhere, and I welcome anyone to show
me otherwise in context. But they'll say that God knows
who will accept Him, or who will accept salvation, or who will
believe in Him, or who will have faith. Therefore, He then foreknows
the whole of human history. And in knowing these things,
He actually then puts His plan in place that Christ would satisfy
His wrath for them in His death. Now, let me ask you a question.
If that is true, which it is not, if that is true, the onus
or the action that's effectual rests in the heart and in the
mind and the attitude and the will of a human being so that
God in His sovereignty acts according to what He knows man in His sovereignty
will do. Who is the sovereign in that
equation if man and all of his freedom and sovereignty causes
God to act? Man. Man. Man is. So in that, then, all
of a sudden we have to recognize that people would argue with
that. They'll argue philosophically, but they cannot whatsoever in
any way, they cannot in any way argue contextually or expositionally
or exegetically to the contrary. They cannot argue what I just
said as true. But if it were just for the fun
of it all, God then knows, get this, this is a kick in the teeth,
God knows who will freely come to faith and somehow that faith
makes them right. So Jesus, I mean, we talked about
the atonement of what Christ did, but then God also in like
manner knows who will not come to faith. So then God is sovereignly
acting to put Christ on the cross only for those who He knows will
come to faith. And in doing so, He willfully
and sovereignly reprobates an entirety of the world who will
not come to faith. To which they would say, Oh no,
that's evil. That's wrong. So let's not put God on trial. Let's just see what God has said
according to His word and then let's rest in it. The Spirit
here is in context. This is the end of Paul's argument
about all the truth of the gospel and that God has effectually
done all that He needs to do for the sake of His people through
the finished work of Jesus Christ, where He says so emphatically
in the outline of His argument in verse 16 of chapter 1, for
I am not ashamed. of the good news of God, for
it is the power of God unto salvation." First to the Jew, then the Greek. So here Paul says, I'm not ashamed
of this message. I'm not ashamed to say that my
good deeds did nothing for me. I'm not ashamed to say that in
my brokenness, in my sinfulness, I had created a false god of
Judaism and I walked in a manner that I felt was worthy of God's
notice. I'm not ashamed to say that that
was all evil and all sinful and all wicked and all hopeless.
I'm not ashamed to say that the good news that God satisfied
the wrath that I deserve through the finished work of Jesus Christ
by crushing Him on the cross, who knew no sin, who became sin
for me. I'm not ashamed to say that this
is how I stand before you today. Church, elect, justified, sanctified,
redeemed, all of those things. I'm not ashamed to tell you that
it is all of God, that it is all of grace, it is all nothing
of mine or any other man can boast before the Father, but
it is all of God. I'm not ashamed to say these
things. For the fullness of God is seen
in the perfection of Jesus' righteousness in His death. For it is the righteousness
of God displayed, and all men are guilty. Jew and Gentile alike,
all humanity are guilty before God and all are without excuse. And everything they do, even
in the most spiritual sense, is wickedness before the Lord,
Paul says. But the righteousness of God
is displayed apart from the law. in the finished work of Jesus
Christ, who God put forward to satisfy His wrath. Jesus is the
satisfaction of God's wrath. That's what propitiation means
in that. Jesus is the propitiation. He didn't create propitiation. He didn't make propitiation.
He is propitiation. So the death of Jesus Christ
satisfied the wrath of God as propitiation. Jesus is the one
who took away the penalty of sin for all whom God has foreknown
before the foundations of the world. And then the argument
continues that someone would argue, we would be in Romans
4 now, well, what about Abraham? What about Moses? What about
all these saints of old who obeyed God? And what does the Scripture
say? No one is righteous according
to the works of the law, but God in His mercy counted Faith
as righteousness. What was Abraham's faith in?
The Lord will provide a lamb for himself. That's what his
hope was in. That's what his hope was in. This continues and looks forward
to this day that we will see the Lamb of God standing with
us and we with Him glorified as He is glorified, that we will
be made fully perfect in all of our being. Our ontology will
be perfect. Our essence will be perfect.
We will no longer be in these meat suits of depravity. falling
away and struggling ourselves and fighting the good fight of
faith. But lo and behold, do we want to be away from this
sinful temptation and this mind that is hostile? How in the world
do we deal with it? Well, that's where Paul goes
in Romans 5-7. He says, Oh, what wretched man am I! The grace of God is sufficient,
but it doesn't give me the right to say, I'll just go ahead and
sin. That's absurd, for God has set me in the grave with Christ,
so I have died to sin, and then He's made me alive with Christ,
so I'm alive to Christ. I'm no longer a slave. But look
at my flesh as it fights against the Spirit. See, the Spirit is
still at work in here. It's still the context. As it
fights against the Spirit of God within me that God has given
me as a guarantee. And so there is the war within
me. Oh, what wretched man am I! Who
will save me from this body of death? It is Christ. It is God. It is the work of God and His
good news that Christ has satisfied the judgment of the Father for
me." That's what Paul argues. It is not the law. It is not
obedience. It is not transformation. It
is not any of these things. Any person that stands before
any man and says they know that they have eternal life because
of the transformative power of their personal righteousness
is a liar and a thief and a robber. And they're standing before God
if they were to die this very breath and be condemned for all
of eternity because God says Christ is our righteousness and
only Christ. It is not the gospel to be confused
about who is our righteousness. It is a false gospel of depravity,
of demonic and of disaster. And then. People say, well, what
in the world? How am I supposed to deal with
this indwelling sin? How am I going to escape it?
What about this persecution that's coming? Where am I going to find
the escape for it all? And that's what Romans 8 is dealing
with. The life that we have is not
in the flesh, it's in the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is
moving and working and acting, sealing, holding, keeping, causing
us to come. to the Bible, to the Scripture,
to the Word, to the Gospel, to the grace of God every moment
when we find ourselves wondering if we're even in the faith. God
the Holy Spirit praying for us brings us back to the joy of
the cross of Christ. So then we come and we're reminded
that we are heirs with Christ. We cannot lose that inheritance.
We will stand before Him by the Spirit who will keep us from
death and has made us alive. But these present sufferings
that we see here, how are we to overcome them? Even creation
is groaning to see the end of all this frustration and this
damnation and all of this disease and heartbreak and turmoil. What
shall we do? We shall wait and groan and wait
for the adoption as sons. We shall wait for glory. That's
what we shall do, where the Spirit of God will make us alive. I'll
go ahead and tell you this. May the 18th and 19th, we will
have and host a spirit. We will host a spirit by the
Lord's grace. We will host a conference about the Holy Spirit. We will
deal with these types of teachings. Who is God the Holy Spirit? How
does the Holy Spirit work in the life of the Old Testament,
the New Testament, the present church? etc. What is the Spirit's
role in redemption? And so forth and so on. And we
will host that all day on Saturday and then have lunch on Sunday
after John's Gospel. And then we will have a Q&A panel
for you all to ask your questions after we eat here on that Sunday.
But the point is now, back to the text, is that we are not
lost. We are kept by God. And this
is all the work of God, the Holy Spirit that keeps us in this
middle ground that we call life. And He is interceding for us.
And we know something, we're certain of something, and that
is that those who love God, how do we love God? Because God first
loved us. That's a direct teaching of John,
1 John. God loved us first, and He made
us alive, and now we love Him. How could God made us alive?
He did so by the Spirit. Why could He do that and still
be just? Because our sins have been paid
for in Christ. See, that's why faith is a gift. It's not an
act of man's volition. So redemption is a finished work
whereby faith, we're made aware and through regeneration of what
God has accomplished for His people. This is saving faith,
if we could dare put that phrase in a proper setting. We know
that for those who love God, all things work together. All
things. The White House is a mess, it's
good for the saints. There's famine in the land, it's
good for the saints. There's disease and plague, it's
good for the saints. Warfare on our front door, it's
good for the saints of God. Death, cancer, divorce, disaster,
whatever it might be. Any D that I could start with
that sounds scary and frustrating. We could come and say, by the
grace and the mercy of God, that it is for our good, and God causes
it all to work together for our good and to the glory of His
name. This is a promise of God. It's
not just that God will take all the wicked and bad things that
take place. He is the agent and always the
author. And He sends through whatever
agency He desires. I got those mixed up a second
ago. to bring about anything and everything that He has decreed.
And it is always for the good of the church of Jesus Christ.
It is always for the good. And here's how we understand
this goodness. And we know that for those who
love God, all things work together for good for those who are called
according to His purpose. And we talked about that weeks
ago. What is the purpose of God for
His elect? It is that they will be made
perfect in the image of Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn
among many brothers. That's why He says it in the
very next breath. He's talking about the power
of God the Holy Spirit to bring us to the end of our salvation
that is a promise of God that cannot be changed. No matter
how hard, difficult, or sinful our lives might become, no matter
how frustrating or impossible they may seem, all these things
work together for good. For God loves us, and we love
Him, and He has called us according to His purpose. And that call
is to righteousness, who is Jesus Christ. He's brought us. And
we'll talk about that next week. What does that call look like?
What does it look like throughout the whole of Scripture? Some
people argue that there is a call to every human. That's not true.
Only those who are the elect are called, and all who are called
come. We know that from John 6. But where do we look at today?
Verse 29. That was a review of the last
47 weeks. For those whom he foreknew, And
when you see for like this at the beginning of a sentence,
it's supposed to explain a little bit more of what we just heard. So what we just heard was that
we know that for those who love God, all things work together
for good. That is, for those who are called according to His
purpose. We know that the purpose of God is that He will redeem
His elect. He has redeemed His elect. He will bring them to salvation.
He will bring them to life. He will bring them to regeneration.
He will bring them to all of these things for those whom He
foreknew. He also predestined. And what
is this outcome? What is this destination? What
is this decree that God has established before the foundations of the
world? It is that His elect, those whom He foreknew, were
to be conformed to the image of His Son. What's in play here? Glory. The resurrection of the
body and the glorification of the body, the final culmination
of salvation. That's what's in play here. That's
what's in play here. That's what we're talking about.
We've already talked, we've already seen over in verse 15 and in
other places around that we have the ability to say we're heirs,
daddy to God by the spirit of what? Adoption. The Spirit of God is the Spirit
of adoption who has adopted us as sons. We can call God Daddy.
He is our Father. We do not fear Him. We love Him
because He adopted us out of death. He adopted us out of darkness
and dragged us and transferred us to the light of His Son and
to that kingdom. And so that we are heirs with
Christ and that suffering will come. Oh, but beloved, that suffering
is so to steal away from Paul to the Corinthians, light and
momentary. It is not heavy like we think
it is, even in the moment. And it seems impossible, but
God the Father has worked it out for our good and the Spirit
of God will keep us in the faith. We will stay focused. Even if
we think we haven't, we will come back to the knowledge of
the truth. And we then must remember that God has predestined us to
be conformed to the image of His Son. Imagine that. But what
does that all look like? And I'm getting ahead two weeks,
by the way. That all looks like, number one, we are going to be
perfect, resurrected, glorified. That's the end. But also that
we are with Him intimately. We've seen this in John 10, haven't
we? My voice, and I know My sheep, and I love My sheep, and My sheep
love Me, and the Father loves Me, and I love the Father. We
see this little back and forth. But God has predestined us to
be conformed to the image of His Son, and that Jesus Christ,
who died a death, which is the wage of sin, escaped death, so
shall we escape death. Isn't that the context here?
How are we going to escape all of the suffering of this life?
When is this salvation going to be seen, God? I know it up
here, but when am I going to feel it? When am I going to experience
it? When am I going to see it? And Paul is reminding us. God
is reminding us through the apostle here. Remember, I raised my son
from the dead. I gave him his glorified body.
And I brought him to me. And you'll be like him. Don't
worry about this world. Don't worry about all this. I've
promised this. And what is your assurance, O
son of God? O daughter of God, O child of
God, what is your assurance, heir to Christ, in Christ? What is your assurance, children?
It is that God has foreknown you. He foreknew you. This word is not found in the
Old Testament. It's not found there. The idea
of foreknowledge, it's not found. But the word know is there very
clearly. Some people, as I talked about
in the beginning, would say, well, that means God knows something
about it, a cognitive issue. It has nothing to do with it
whatsoever. I mean, why would Paul have to deal with that?
Do we not know that God is omniscient? Does Jesus not prove that He's
omniscient? I saw you under the tree. Do not marvel that I say
I saw you under the tree. You'll see greater things than
these. You'll see heaven open to the son of man ascending and descending
on angels. Open heaven for you, Nathan.
I'm going to open heaven for you. I'm going to show you the
Father. You're going to walk in the presence
of God. This is great. Don't think just
because I know everything, I'm God. I don't learn. I don't look
forward. I don't look back. I don't seek
out knowledge. I am knowledge. I know all things. I've decreed
it all, said, let there be, and there it was. And this is how
I work. Paul doesn't have to prove that. That's not even in the context
here. What's in the context here is the intimacy of the heirs
of Christ. That's what's being taught. Not
the ordo salutis, Lord help us. Get off that, theologians. Get
into the text. The text teaches what the context
means and is, and the intimacy of God with His people, with
His Son, and His Son with the elect. This is what's in play
here. This is what's at stake here. People like to use this
theologically to squelch arguments related to God's sovereignty.
Great! Use it for that. But what is it supposed to be
used pastorally by Paul? To take these suffering saints
who think that there's no way they're ever going to escape
the hell of this life, and they were promised eternity, and now
they're looking at it thinking, I'm not going to make it past
the week. And then Paul tells this Roman church, listen, beloved,
God has foreknown you. He foreknows you. Don't you ever
think you're lost. God has known you forever. Before
there was time to even be called eternity, God has foreknown you. Exodus 33, I know you by name. It's an intimacy. Before I formed you in your mother's
womb, I knew you, says God through the prophet Jeremiah. Before
I was, you've heard me say this, before James Tippens was, God
knew me. Not knew of me, He knew me. How
did He know me? Because He is timeless. It's not about what He knew,
who I would be, it's that He loved me. I'll prove it to you in a minute.
They have made princes that I did not know, says the prophet, says
God through Hosea. In Amos, you only have I known all the
families of the earth. I have loved every... And I've
got 16 or 17, I'm not going to read them all, but Old Testament
references to God knowing a people and every one of them have to
do with His love for them. Every one of them. I've known
you. I do know you. I love you. It's a favor of God. It's an affection. The object
of God's affection is revealed in the idea that God knows. The Father knows me, Jesus would
say. The word know, even in the New
Testament, not even foreknowledge. If you're looking out here, I'll
look at several of the texts, but the word know in the New Testament,
it's the same sense as the old. Matthew 7, 23, what do we see
Jesus saying there? He will say to them, depart from
me. I never, what? Knew you. Let's put that in actual meaning. I never loved you. I never loved you. Get away from
me. Because had Jesus loved them,
Jesus would be preparing to die for them. That's what no means. Objects
of affection. As we've looked at in John 10
in the last three or four weeks, I am the good shepherd. I know
my sheep and my sheep know me. And I lay
down my life for the sheep." There is no greater love than
this that a man would lay down his life for a brother. For God
loved the world in this way that He gave the Son, the only one
that He had. For whom? For His sheep. For those He loves. The love
of God is only seen in the effectual work of Jesus Christ. Jesus died
for those He knew. He's appointed and loved them
forever. 1 Corinthians 8, if any man loves
God, the same is known of Him. The Lord knows them that are
His, Paul says to Timothy. He loves them. He knows them. I'm going to give you a real
illustration of how this word is not only proven in the context
I've just shown you, but when you see it in relationship to
husband and wife, It deals with sexuality and intercourse. He knew his wife and there came
Cain. So when we look at no, it always
means love and affection. The same thing is true with foreknowledge
as it's used in the New Testament. And it's not clouded either,
like this text. It's not clouded. We're not having
to guess. We've just got to get our heads
out of the pretext. We've got to get into the context. God
has known us from the beginning, and He's loved us with an everlasting
love that He would cause us and purpose us to be made into the
image of His Son, raised to the newness of life, glorified as
Christ is glorified, so that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. So this foreknowledge of God
is not ambiguous whatsoever. It is just easy, seen as a state
of affection, an object of affection. It's not about God knowing what
will happen or what will take place. It's about God loving
those who are the object of His affection. Acts 23, Acts 2, 23. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and the foreknowledge of God that you have taken and
by wicked hands have crucified and slain." God, here, the knowledge,
the foreknowledge of God is not on the event of the crucifixion
of Christ. It's not on the event that He
would be crucified by these people. It's on Christ. Jesus is the crucified one. Him,
Christ, the foreknowledge of Him, who was taken and crucified
by wicked men. My love for my Son, whom I have
loved with an everlasting love. I have foreknown Him. This is
what the Bible teaches there. Why is it so rare to hear it? Why? I can't speak for every
man who teaches Scripture, but I can only speak for myself.
and those that I know, not know of. And the reason that
we don't teach it is because we've not been taught it. And
because in our culture, when 90% plus on the last census said
they were Christians in this area, And there's more congregations
and steeples. I mean, you could just, like,
spray a water hose and hit a church building almost in every city
in the South. But you can't find the truth
of the gospel because the truth of the gospel has not been taught.
And it's not been taught to the man teaching. It wasn't taught
to me this way. It wasn't taught to me this way
in seminary. As a matter of fact, this will
get you kicked out as a professor of seminary. What do you mean?
You're not going to go against the order to salute us. Calm
down. You're studying to be a pastor?
Then understand the pastoral heart of Paul. We put too much
stock into historical theology, and I know a lot about it. And
it gets in my way, but it doesn't get in God's way.
So I don't abuse it. I can just teach it. God foreknows
us, beloved. He will not cast away His people.
Romans 11, if we go over there real quick and look, I think
it's verse 2. What does it say there? Has God rejected His people? By no means. For I myself am
an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
God has not rejected His people who He has foreknown. He does not reject those He loves.
He didn't reject Paul. He rejected Caiaphas. In fact,
He used the mouth of Caiaphas to bring about the very act that
He determined and decreed before the foundation of the world to
crucify His Son for the sake of those whom He foreknew. And in this text, look at the
object. For those whom He foreknew. You see that? Just in general
English grammar, the syntax here, the pronoun is whom. Here we have those whom he did
foreknow. The object is not on the knowledge
of them. The object is not on the knowledge
of predestination. Of course, God knows what he's
going to do. The object is that he loved these. That he predestined. And only the ones he predestined
were the ones he loved. This is a person, not a plan. First Peter 1, 2, we won't talk
about it much tonight, but Peter calls us the elect according
to the foreknowledge of God. How are we the elect? Because
of the love of God for us before the foundations of the world. So this knowledge, this knowing,
this foreknowledge, from now on when you see it, you need
to say the word love or to regard or to delight or to have affection
for. Genesis 18, 19, For I have chosen
him that he may command his children and his household after him to
keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so
that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he promised. Here we see
the love of God in the promise of Christ. God sovereignly loving
a people and causing them to walk in a certain way. Exodus 2, when the scripture
talks about the suffering of the people in Egypt, what does
it say there? God saw the people of Israel
and He knew them. He loved them. He loved them. God knows the righteous, says
the psalmist, by the way. I mean, excuse me. God knows
the way of the righteous. But the way of the wicked. Will
perish. Now, put that in perspective
there. God loves the way of the righteous. He does not love the
way of the wicked. And then I will declare to them,
as I've already said in Matthew seven, I never knew you. Paul
declares to the Corinthians Church in one of first Corinthians,
eight, three, if anyone loves God, He is known by God. But I think one of my favorite
places to go for this particular thing is 1 John chapter 3. And if you turn over to 1 John
3, you'll see an amazing, amazing thing taking place. And what does he say there? See what kind of love the Father
has given to us that we should be called the children of God.
And so we are. It's not just a name. We are
the children of God. How are we the children of God?
By the love of the Father. Beloved, we are God's children
now. And what we will be has not yet
appeared. Do you think that's got something
to do with what Paul's teaching in Romans 8? You should. We're
looking forward to that day as the loved, beloved of God, that
He beloved forever. We look forward to that day when
we'll be like Him. but we will be as not yet appeared. But we
know that when He appears, we shall be like Him because we
shall see Him as He is, and everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies
himself as he is pure. So look at... What was I looking
at there? Hmm. Oh, I skipped it. The reason
why, verse 1, The world does not know us. Now was John saying
people didn't know who he was? Is John saying people don't,
don't know my name? They don't know who I'm an apostle.
Get it right. He'd be the rap album apostle. The world doesn't love us that
it doesn't love him. The love that God has for us
makes us His children. The world does not love us because
it doesn't love Him. But we love Him and we shall
see Him as He is. The love of God is the foreknowledge
of God. Now, when we come to this and we get
people who want to argue this, and I'll close with this little
polemic. It's real easy for us to get
into this mode of going, oh, you should listen to what my
pastor talked about on the 27th of February. This sermon will
set you straight. You know what it's going to do?
It's going to make a man. Because if they are not loved
by God, they won't see it. The reason that you cannot believe
is because you have not been given to me by the Father. It is not possible that you believe,
Jesus will tell him, because you are not of the Father. You
cannot see because you say that you can't see, and I'm the only
one who can give you eyes to see, Jesus says. And later we'll see in John 12, Isaiah six is fulfilled in your
hearing this day. Where God says, I will not let
them see. I will not let them hear. I will
not let them believe. Now, that doesn't mean that people
have the ability to do so. Because as we'll see in the weeks
to come, there is a depravity at the heart of man when it comes
to righteousness. And this is not up for debate. It is clearly laid out already
by Paul. So why so much effort to land
the plane on this so that you could be encouraged, beloved?
The reason this was written is so that you can know that God
has known you and that God now knows you. And then when He put
Christ on the cross to be His propitiation, He knew you then. And He will know you in the day
when the Spirit keeps you and regenerates your body into something
new by the Word of His power. The question that I ended with
in verse 31 should be in view throughout the rest of the next
few weeks of Romans 8. What shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us? Who can be against
us? Is it the false believer? Is it the unbeliever? Is it the
atheist? Is it the world's cults? Is it world's religion? Is it
the evangelicals? Is it the reformed Baptists?
Who's going to be against us? Nobody. Why? Because God is for us. Nothing. What does he say? And see, I'm
actually giving away the end, but I have to, because I know
that when you leave, you go, I just don't really see it. Nothing
shall separate us from the full knowledge of God. Nothing. Nothing shall separate us from
the full knowledge of God. But Paul didn't say that, he
did say that, but he actually used the word love this time.
Nothing shall separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. What fits into the category
of nothing? Everything. Why? Because God has loved us before
we were. Friends, I don't know about you,
but that carries me a long way in the midst of pain. It carries
me a long way when I'm at the end of my emotional rope, end
of my hourly rope, end of my financial rope, end of my frustration
rope, and all I got, I don't even have to tie off a knot and
hang on. It's not up to me at all. God will not stop. And Christ is at the side of
God interceding for us. God the Holy Spirit is praying
for us. God the Father, according to
Peter, is keeping us by His divine power. We are not ever going
to be lost because God has foreknown us. And that's the end of it. Period. Period. So let's go to
the Lord in prayer. We thank you, Father, for such
an amazing truth. Lord, I thank you so much for
the simplicity of this text and God helping me just read through
it instead of bogging down and so much historicity and so many
presuppositions and trying to make technical that which is
theological. that which is doxological, that
which is for worship and for glory and for honor and for praise. To Your glorious grace, O God,
we praise You, Lord, that You have known us before there was
ever time and that in Your desire and Your plan and in Your will
and Your decree to say, let there be light, we were in the heart
of You, that You would put forth Christ to satisfy Your judgment. that should be ours forever.
We praise You for this glorious gospel, the good news of Your
mercy and love toward us and all the saints. Help us to be
patient with one another as we learn these things. Help us to
be patient with those who seem not to grasp them. Lord, that
you might shed light and give eyes to the blind, that you would
call all the sheep who belong to Christ to yourself. And it's
in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Let's sing a song
now. We've got a few minutes.