Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from Romans chapter
8. And I'm going to be dealing with some verses that I quote
quite often on this program, but I've just had these on my
mind in the context of where they're found. Two verses that
I quote really often. It's found in Romans 8 and verse
1, which says, there is therefore now no condemnation. to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit." And of course, walking after the Spirit means
to walk by faith in Christ. looking unto him as the author
and finisher of our faith. So that's the evidence of a person
who is not condemned. And the opposite of condemnation
is justification. And I quote this verse all the
time in Romans chapter eight and verse 33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect, it's God that justifies. Well,
I'm gonna look back at the context of saying, beginning at Romans
eight and verse 28, and the title of the message is the golden
chain of grace. the golden chain of grace. And
what this message is intended to do is to communicate from
the Word of God how the whole of salvation from its very beginning,
as we can say, which is literally before the foundation of the
world in the mind and the purpose of God, all the way to final
glorification, which is the end of all things when Christ comes
back the second time. and he gathers his people unto
himself. This earth will be destroyed
and the new heavens and the new earth will be created. And his
people will inhabit the new earth with him forever in the joy and
the bliss of perfection. And I often say, tell people,
there's not a whole lot we know about that state other than what
we're told a few things in the Bible. But this is the golden
chain of grace. I don't know if I can do this
in one message, so we'll just see how it goes as I go through
these verses. But I want to begin with a verse
that a lot of people quote, but few people really understand
it. And it's in Romans 8, 28. Listen
to this. It 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." Now you've heard
that verse and you may have quoted it, especially in times of trouble,
trial, When we look around the world and we see the evil of
the unbelieving world, and to give us courage and to give us
a positive outlook on things in spite of our circumstances
or what we might be going through personally, we'll quote this
verse. And a lot of people just simply
quote it this way. They say, all things work together for
good. But if you stop there, you're
not getting what the verse means. It says, and we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. And then it goes on to say, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. Now that sets
up the golden chain of grace, which really comes in the next
few verses. But let me talk about Romans
8, 28. First of all, he says, and we know. Now, who is the
we there? We is a plural pronoun, and it's
referring to some specific people. Every pronoun has an antecedent.
In other words, a specific group of people to which it refers. And the we there refers to believers. It doesn't refer to everybody
without exception. A person who goes through this
life in unbelief and dies in their sins, I certainly and the
Bible certainly doesn't tell us that all things are working
together for their good. They'll perish. They'll be eternally
separated from God. And that's certainly not good.
And so when we read these verses, we need to understand to whom
this applies. And this is not a general statement
that applies to everybody without exception. It says, and we know
that all things work together for good to them that love God. Now, let me say something about
that. To them that love God. Now, who are those who love God?
Well, they're the called, that's what the scripture says here,
to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now, who are
the called? You see, it all comes together.
This is a brilliant, great, comforting, joyous verse of scripture, a
truth. But you need to understand what
it means. And what the Apostle Paul has
been led by the Holy Spirit to write of here is the ultimate
end of good to everyone whom God has saved by His grace through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. This speaks
of sinners saved by grace. And that's the we there, we know.
Now how do we know that? Because God says it. We don't
know it because we feel it. There have been times in my life
even as a believer that I felt like the world was crashing down
on me and every evil was coming after me and was going to win.
And of course that was my problem, that was my sin of doubt and
unbelief. But this has nothing to do with
feeling. Feelings come, feelings go, feelings can be deceiving. And I think that poem goes on
to say, all I know is the word of God is the only thing worth
believing. We know these things, we're assured
of these things because God says it. And when God says it, it's
always based upon a proper right and just ground. And that ground
is the glorious person and the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, That is, in Christ dwells the fullness
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit bodily as God in
human flesh, and you are complete in Him. That's Colossians 2,
9 and 10. You are complete in Him. And
so, this has to do with believers. And he says that. Now, he identifies
them in several ways here, of which I've already talked about.
We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God. Now that tells you right there,
if you know anything about the Bible, and what the Bible says
about us by nature, And I use that term all the time, but what
I mean by that, what the Bible says about all men and women
who fell in Adam and who are, as we are naturally born, spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. Now my friend, the Bible does
not teach that all people have a spark of goodness in them.
And listen to me now, listen to this very carefully. The Bible
does not teach that all people have a spark of goodness in them,
or any goodness in them, according to God's measure of goodness. Now we can talk about goodness
as we measure it on this plane here, looking at one another,
comparing each other with one another. But when we're talking
about salvation and a right relationship with God, we need to forget how
we look at and judge and measure each other. We need to look at
God. Over in the book of Matthew,
there was a young man who came to Christ, who did not believe
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, was the Messiah, who
is none other than God manifest in the flesh. This young man
did not believe that. I believe it's in Matthew 19.
Sometimes we call him the rich young ruler. And he asked the
Lord this question. He said, good master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? and Christ confronted him with
his error. He called Christ good master,
not believing that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. And Christ said,
well now, why are you calling me good? There's none good but
God. And what Christ was showing the
young man, look, if you don't believe that Christ is God, Then
don't call him good, because the Bible tells us there's none
righteous, no not one, that's over in Romans 3.10. And then
verses 11 and 12, it goes on to describe there's none that
seeketh after God, there's none that doeth good, no not one.
Now it's measuring goodness there as God measures it, and God measures
goodness with perfection, you see. So you understand that what
the Bible says about all of us by nature, Romans 3.23, you probably
quoted it a thousand times. We have all sinned and we all
sin and come short of the glory of God. And the glory of God
is found in Christ, in his goodness, his perfection and his righteousness. So when it talks about those
that love God here, in Romans 828. It's not talking about any
man or woman by nature because none of us, now listen to me,
none of us by nature love the true and living God. Not the
God of this book. The God of this book reveals
things about Himself that men and women by nature do not like,
even hate. John chapter three, verse 19
and 20, talks about the light that comes into the world. And
this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world.
And men love darkness and hate the light because the light exposes
their best deeds. What they say is good, the light,
the light of Christ, the light of the gospel, the light of righteousness,
exposes what we are so proud of and think is good as being
evil, evil deeds. Not evil because they're acts
of immorality as man measures it. Not evil because they're
acts of insincerity as man measures it. Evil because it denies the
glory of God. Think about this. When a sinner
seeks salvation, and acceptance with God based upon his best
efforts, his or her best efforts to obey God. That's evil in God's
sight because it denies his glory. We come short of the glory of
God. The glory of God can only be found in the perfection of
righteousness that's only found in Jesus Christ. That's why that
without Christ, we're doomed. because even our best efforts
to obey God are rejected as evil. They deny the glory of God. They
deny the work of Christ. Paul wrote in Galatians 221,
if righteousness come by the law, that is our works of the
law, then Christ is dead in vain. Do you realize? God has engaged
his whole glory His whole honor, His reputation in salvation by
His grace through the glorious person and the finished work
of righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And whenever a
sinner seeks salvation by works, he denies all that. He denies
Christ. It's an act of unbelief. It's
an act of religious pride. You understand? That's why it's
evil. And so we can only be accepted before God in Christ. Now, that
being said, by nature, as we are naturally born into this
life, fallen in Adam, ruined by the fall, spiritually dead
in trespasses and sins, none of us love the true and living
God. Now, that doesn't mean we can't
be religious. That doesn't mean that we cannot
love our ideas of God. You know, there's the passage
in the Old Testament where God says, you thought I was altogether
one such as yourself. You know what, you know the God
that man loves by nature is in reality himself. Did you know
that? because he thinks God is like
himself and he just projects a greater than himself in his
attributes and what he would do. And that's the God he loves.
But nobody loves God by nature. The scripture says over in 1
John chapter 4 and verse 10, listen to this. It says, herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now what does that
tell us? The love of God towards His people
can only be found in the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ. And here's what I want you to know. You want to know
if you really love the God of the Bible? Well, do you believe
and know and love the fact that God can and does hate people? Now think about that. What does
the Bible say? Over in Romans 9, God said, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. And modern day theologians trip
over that verse all over the place. They try to dumb it down. They try to water it down and
make it palatable to men and women. And they say, well, that
just means God loved Esau less than he loved Jacob. It does
not mean that. Over in the book of Psalms, Psalm
5, it says, God hateth all workers of iniquity. But you know what
the problem is there? The reason that we reject, by
nature, reject the God who hates is because we project the kind
of hatred that we have onto God. And that's not right. God's hatred
is a just and righteous rejection of all who are not found in Christ. All to whom sin is imputed, charged,
accounted. Down here in Romans chapter eight
in our text. I told you I quote this verse
all the time. When it says in verse 33, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. God loves his elect. They are
a people whom God chose before the foundation of the world and
gave to Christ. We don't know who they are until
the Lord brings them to believe in Christ and to love him. And
that's why he says here in Romans 8, 28, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God. And those who
love God are those who have been given the gift of faith in Christ,
repentance of dead works. They've been called by the power
of the Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. Them that love
God to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now,
what is God's purpose? God's purpose is not to try to
save everybody without exception. I'm sorry, that's not the God
of the Bible. God's purpose is to glorify himself
in the salvation of a people whom he chose and gave to Christ
and bring them to glory to the praise of the glory of his grace.
That's his purpose. So we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, And if you love God,
that means you've been born again of the Spirit, you've been given
life, a new heart, new mind, you believe in Christ. You say,
well, a lot of people, they'll argue with that. They'll say,
well, if I'm not one of the elect or if I'm one whom God hates,
it doesn't matter what I do. You don't know that. You're not
God. That's God's business. All you
know is you're a sinner in need of salvation by the grace of
God. All you know is what the Bible teaches you. Ephesians
two and verse eight, for by grace are you saved through faith and
that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Your mandate from God. Your responsibility
is to seek the Lord. 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. And 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.
So all things work together for good to them that love God, who
are the called according to his purpose. And I want you to notice
one thing before I go further. And that's this, it doesn't say
all things are good. It doesn't say, and we know that
all things are good, because all things are not good. There
are things in my life that were far from good. And I'm still
a sinner, only a sinner saved by grace. My works, my best efforts
to obey God still in this life do not measure up to the perfection
of righteousness that I can only find in Christ. That's why by
the grace of God, I live my life looking unto Jesus, the author
and the completer, the finisher of my faith. And that's what
brings me to love God in an imperfect way even. I do love God. I don't love Him perfectly, but
I will when I leave this body of death and go to be with Him.
And that's grace, that's salvation. No unbeliever loves God. Mark it down. And those who go
through this life in unbelief and die in their sins, those
are those who will experience the hatred of God, which is a
just and righteous rejection because their sins are imputed,
charged to them. They don't have a mediator. The
love of God can only be found in Christ. Now that's true. Now it rains on the just and
the unjust. See, the believer and the unbeliever
gets the benefit of the rain, but to the unbeliever who dies
in unbelief, that'll be a curse to him in the long run. So it
doesn't say all things are good. It says all things work together
for good. Now, why is that? That's the
ultimate good of God's people according to the glory and power
of His grace in Christ. And how can all things work together
for good, even the evil things, even the bad things? It's because
God is in control. God is sovereign. God is working
all things, as Ephesians 1 11 says, after the counsel of his
own will. He told Israel that back in the
Old Testament. He said, everything that's happened
to you in your history, even the good things, the bad things,
He said, I purposed it, I declared the end from the beginning. That's
the way it is. Now with that in mind, he launches
out on the golden chain of grace. And it's found in these next
two verses. Now we're gonna go beyond that,
but listen, let me just read these next two verses to you.
In verse 29, he says, and 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. And then in verse
30, he says, moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also
called. And remember back there in Romans
8, 28, he said, who are the called according to his purpose? Well,
verse 30 says, if you're called according to his purpose, that
means you've been predestinated unto eternal life. And a lot
of people don't like that word predestinate, do they? I told
a fella, a fella called me up years ago. He heard me talking
about, I don't know if it was this verse, but it might've been
another verse, where I was talking about predestination. The Bible
teaches it. And he told me, he said, well,
I don't believe in that predestination. And I said, oh, you don't believe
the Bible? And he said, oh, I believe every word of it. And I said,
well, you don't believe that word, cause here it is. Now understand
folks, I did not write this book, God did. And here's what God
says, for 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 every bit of those verses
in the golden chain of grace is past tense. But you know something? Some of it hasn't even happened
yet. Especially the glorification there, when he says them he also
glorified. I've not yet been glorified.
If you're a believer, you've not yet been glorified. Some
people, they'd speak of that glorification as being when we
die and go to be with Christ, our spirits go to be with him.
But I think it mainly has in mind the final act. of God upon
this earth, when Christ comes the second time with those who
have gone on before, and he calls up his people unto himself, and
we are all glorified together, given spiritual bodies, united
with each other in the church, the true church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, that hasn't happened yet. But you know why it's in
past tense here? Because it is sure and certain
to happen. It's not going to fail. God cannot
fail. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians
1 and verse 20 that all the promises of God in Christ are yea and
in him, amen. He is the surety of his people. David prayed on his deathbed.
He said, although my house be not so with God, he has made
a covenant with me that is ordered in all things and sure. Who ordered it? Not me. It wasn't
man by his cooperation. God ordered it. And it's sure
because it's based upon the surety ship of Christ. Even back in
David's time, Christ had not yet come and died on the cross.
But it was sure to happen. He did come. He died on that
cross as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of his people. He
shed his blood unto death. And he died, and in his death
he established a perfect righteousness whereby God has justified his
people, forgiven their sins and declared them righteous. Christ
was buried, he arose again the third day, he ascended unto the
Father, and he's now seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us, for his people, believers. You might ask the question, well,
how can I know that he did all that for me? Do you believe in
the Christ of this book? Do you believe the gospel? That
good news, which is the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believeth, the Jew and the Gentile, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
justified shall live by faith. that righteousness of God, which
is the merit, the value, the worthiness, the quality, the
power of the obedience unto death of Christ to put away the sins
of his people by shedding his blood and paying their debt in
full and establishing an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
whereby God can be just and justify the ungodly, a righteous judge
as well as a loving father. That's the ground of salvation.
That's what we're called to if we're called to believe in Christ,
who is God manifest in the flesh, who worked out a perfect righteousness
for me on that cross so that I might live forever. The Bible
says in Romans 5 and 21, that as sin reigned unto death, even
so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. And that's what holds together
this golden chain of grace. And I'll talk about that more
in the next message as we go through each link. in this golden
chain of grace concerning how God saves sinners, the people
of His love, for whom Christ has been made a propitiation,
a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings satisfaction to God's
justice. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2-1. Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia
31707. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.