Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. 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 might be the firstborn among many brethren. 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. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? 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? Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading to us. It should come as no surprise
to any listening today that our God is God who works. God is busy. God is active. Indeed, our saviour
himself said, my father worketh hitherto and I work. Activity and purpose are part
of the essential nature of God. And we cannot but notice as we
read the scriptures how the Lord is always active. Now, we can take some key examples
about that. He created the heavens and the
earth and all that exists in them and he was active in doing
so. But it did not stop there. He
orders his universe and he upholds all things by the word of his
power. He manages the affairs of this
world by his works of providence. He suppresses evil, he promotes
good works, and he defends his people. He sends his message
to the ends of the earth, and he goes with his people always
at all times. Our Lord, Jehovah, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit is always busy. I've got one example that I want
to draw to your attention that proves this point. Shortly before
his death, Moses said to the Lord, it's in Deuteronomy chapter
three and verse 24, O Lord God, thou hast begun to show thy servant
thy greatness and thy mighty hand. For what God is there,
in heaven or in earth, that can do according to thy works and
according to thy might? Now, Moses knew about the works
of the Lord. But there was something else
here too, which I think is interesting. Moses was now an old man and
he was an old man who had seen the burning bush. He had been
present during the plagues of Egypt. He had seen the death
of Pharaoh and his host, his armies in the Red Sea. he had
witnessed copious supplies of God's goodness, whether it was
in the provision of food and water and help in the wilderness,
the miraculous victories that the children of Israel enjoyed
in battle during those wilderness years, He had seen his enemies
destroyed and he had talked face to face with God upon Mount Sinai
when he received the Ten Commandments. And yet, Moses' comment was,
thou hast begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty
hand. What? only just begun. You see, Moses realised that there
was so much more yet to see, yet to understand, comprehend
about the works of God, about the greatness and the glory of
the Lord. Nevertheless, he testified this
much, There is none in heaven or in earth that can do according
to thy works and according to thy might. That was true then
and it remains true today. This is the same God. This is
the same Lord. This is the same Holy Spirit. God is working his purposes.
and his will in the events and the circumstances of the world
today. He is still in control and he
still does all things well. No matter how chaotic, this world
and this life sometimes appears. However, In the context of our
working God, we must not imagine that the Lord's works began at
creation or are limited to the outworking of his purposes in
time. God's active mind has always
been at work. Scripture calls this the thoughts
of his heart. The thoughts of his heart are
God's mind at work, planning, purposing all that is pleasing
to him, that will glorify his name and will do his will. All the things he purposed in
himself to do have always engaged his mind. For example, the fulfilment
of his perfect will, the manifestation of his glory, the love that he
has towards his people, and all the dimensions of the covenant
of peace and the plan of salvation. These have filled the mind of
God. Now, of course, knowing the mind
of God is too deep for finite human reason. We cannot fathom
these matters except to the extent that the Lord reveals his ways
to us in his word. And then we have the duty and
the privilege with humility to read and to believe and to marvel
at what he tells us about what he has done, is doing, and yet
intends to do. It is God's work and will, before
the world began, that will hold our attention today. as well as foreknowing his people
in eternity. We spent some time thinking about
that last week. Whom he did foreknow as well
as foreknowing his people in eternity. He also did predestinate
us to be conformed to the image of his son, Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul is telling
us here in our verse today. That is, in conforming us to the image
of his Son, the Lord God, God the Father, predestinated us
to justification, predestinated us to righteousness. and he predestinated
us to ensure the accomplishment of all his love and wise goodwill
towards us that he had thought about and conceived in his purposes,
in his foreknowledge. Let us never forget We are, from
the beginning, his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, according
to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our
Lord. These are both verses from Ephesians. So today, we are going to look
at what this matter of predestination is about. What predestination
is, what it means, what it accomplishes, and what reaction it elicits
from men and women. So these are four points I want
to take. First one's the longest, as is
often the case. The next ones are relatively
short, so don't worry if you hear me saying this is number
two and you find yourself looking at your clock. I know what my
timing is and we're going to get there. But here are the points
that I want to make. What predestination is, what
it means, what it accomplishes, and what reaction it elicits. So first of all then, what predestination
is? Predestination is the work of
God the Father in which he placed his elect people into Christ
for their eternal security and well-being. Now, as I mentioned
last week, we spoke about those whom God foreknew and loved everlastingly. God's foreknowledge is much more
than just his knowledge. It's a loving wisdom for the
wellbeing of his people. Allied to that love, is a will
in God to do good to those upon whom his affection rests. Paul says, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. Remember what we read a few weeks
ago? All things work together for good to them that love God,
to them that are called according to his purpose. So being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will is the all things that work together
for our good. And here is the foreordination
and the purposing of God to do good to his people. As a God
of action and the God who works, God devised a plan for the salvation
of his people, his elect, and he formed a covenant of peace,
a divine council, a meeting, if you like, a coming together
in which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost covenanted
together to ensure the perfect outcome. of God's purpose of
grace, his plan of grace. And Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
was set up in that covenant purpose as the accomplisher and the fulfiller
of the terms of the covenant. And the Father committed his
elect, the elect people, into the care of the Lord Jesus Christ. I use the words there, Christ
was the accomplisher and the fulfiller. Those are awkward
terms, awkward descriptions. They perhaps do describe what
I mean, but the scriptural name given to Christ in this context
is much more beautiful, much more delightful. He is called
the angel or the messenger of the covenant and that's just
what we mean. He's the bringer, he's the accomplisher,
he's the fulfiller, he is the success of the covenant of peace. He is the angel or messenger
of that covenant. And when the Lord Jesus, during
his ministry, told the Jews All that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. He was speaking about God's chosen
people, God's elect, who had been placed into his care to
save from their sins and to bring them to glory. And he continued, for I came
down from heaven, that is, to fulfil and accomplish, to be
the messenger of the covenant, I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me, there's that people again, I should lose nothing. but should raise it up again
at the last day. That's John chapter six, verses
37 to 39. In this, the Lord Jesus Christ
was speaking about election and predestination. There is a chosen
people who have been predestinated, or let me put it this way, a
people who have been placed into Christ, placed into Christ's
hands for the performance of every needful thing required
for their salvation. Sometimes we kind of constrain
and limit the idea of this word predestination. At least I do
in my own mind and I've been guilty of doing this so maybe
it's not something that you're guilty of but let me just say
anyway. Sometimes because we think of
heaven as our final or ultimate destination. We think that predestination
means to be marked out as one of those who will go to heaven.
Well, there's certainly truth to that, but it's a very narrow
understanding of what predestination is. Predestination's much broader,
much richer and fuller than that. Our destination isn't primarily
heaven, but Christ himself. Being placed in Christ, not being
placed in heaven, being placed in Christ and being considered
positionally in Christ is the best possible place to be. Predestination is the product
of God's wise counsel. It's God's means of fulfilling
every covenant obligation, representatively by the Lord Jesus Christ, and
securing every covenant blessing vicariously by the Lord Jesus
Christ, so that Christ represents us, Christ stands for us, Christ
goes before us, Christ steps into our place. When we are in
Christ, God's wise counsel in the formation of this covenant
shows him to be the one who stands for us. And this is predestination. In Christ, it's what we mean
when we talk about being in Christ. In Christ, all the benefits and
blessings of grace accrue to God's people. In Christ, all
the blessings and benefits are obtained for us through the perfect
obedience and sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus. As the Lord said, all who were
given to him shall come to him. All who are predestinated according
to God's eternal purpose will in time come to him and know
the effect of grace in their lives. They will experience the
converting power of the Holy Spirit. They will learn what
it is to follow their Lord and Saviour. And that may be up and
down all the experiences of life, but it will be a lesson well
learnt. And ultimately, they will enjoy
the glory of eternal life in heaven. There's no doubt about
it because God's elect are predestinated to be conformed to Christ. They are placed positionally
and immovably in Christ, never to be plucked from his hand. and all the success and all the
achievements of their mighty representative has become their
own personal inheritance. So this is what predestination
is. Let us think, if we can move
on our thoughts a little bit, to what predestination means. This is my second point. Predestination
is sometimes described as a decree of God. The decrees of God are
his revealed eternal purposes. We use that phrase, a decree,
just to show that it carries with it a sovereignty, it carries
with it an authority, it carries with it a power. So predestination
is one of those examples of God's purpose that comes with authority,
that comes with power, that comes according to his sovereign purpose.
And as such, it reveals his eternal purpose in setting up and disposing
of all things according to his will and for his own glory. So that in its broadest sense,
predestination involves everything that exists and all that happens. Because everything that exists
and all that happens is gathered up in God's predestinating purpose
to do his people good. All things work together for
good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose.
God has willed the end and conclusion of all things temporal. and he
has willed the means by which those ends will be achieved. There are no surprises in this
world insofar as God is concerned. He raises up nations, he employs
them for a time, and he brings them down again. We saw that
repeatedly when we were going through our studies in the book
of Isaiah. And there's a lovely little verse
that summarises it perfectly in Proverbs chapter 21. The opening
verse there says, And for King, you can read Queen or Prime Minister
or President or Governor or Prince or whatever it is. Ways of this world are ordered
and arranged by the Lord. And sure it is, he uses means. He uses a king to make a commandment. He uses a government to make
a law. He sends forth a presidential
instruction. Or however it is, these things
work from the highest levels of our society to the minutest
details. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord, as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever
he will. Now because we are bound by time
and space, we find it really hard to conceive of the magnitude,
the immensity of such power. But as we saw last week, on the subject of foreknowledge.
That's just because our minds are so small and our views of
God are so limited and constrained. The omniscient, the omnipotent,
the omnipresent God, and I hope you remember what those terms
mean, The omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God is sovereign
over his creation and has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Now undoubtedly, this raises
questions such as the origin of evil, man's culpability for
sin, reprobation, the nature of free will and free
agency? And such questions are broader
than we have time to consider today. But the Apostle Paul,
in writing to the Romans, is aware that such issues will be
raised. And he addresses some of them
in chapter nine, the chapter that follows chapter eight that
we are thinking about at the moment. He addresses some of
these questions in chapter nine in his lesson about the potter
and the clay. Some vessels, he says, are made
to honour and some to dishonour. And in this matter, he presents
us with two important and memorable principles. And I want us to
just hear these and note them. And if there are things which
are said today which we find so large as to cause us to wonder,
let these two principles sit highly in our estimation. And let us remember whenever
we come to question these matters, these two principles are incumbent
upon us. The first one is this. There
is no unrighteousness with God. Whatever God ordains is right. Whatever he decrees is holy,
just, and good. And that includes the decree
of predestination. The second principle is this,
it is not our place to sit in judgment upon God. And that is true in the matter
of predestination also, and in other areas as well. It is not
our place to sit in judgment upon God. God reminds us that,
Paul, I'm sorry, reminds us that we are mere men and women. And he says, who art thou that
repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? So difficult questions notwithstanding,
we believe the decrees of predestination and providence which flows from
that encompasses not only the future end and eternal purpose
of God, that which will happen in the future, but the day-by-day,
moment-by-moment provisions that bring God's eternal purposes
to pass. The principles and the details. And this is what we mean when
we say God is sovereign. This is what we mean when we
speak of him being in control of all things and that all things
work together for the good of his elect. So that's what predestination
is and that's what predestination means. Thirdly, what does predestination
accomplish? Well, predestination assures
the achievement of God's intended purpose. Conformity to Christ
and adoption into the family of God are explicitly referred
to here in Romans by Paul. And here in Romans and later
in Ephesians, the Apostle speaks about predestination explicitly. Conformity to Christ assures
God's elect That is, assures those who trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ as Saviour, assures those who have looked to the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse them from their sin, looked to
the Lord Jesus Christ as alone the source and means of all their
righteousness, their justification, their holiness before God. If
you are believer, if you have faith in the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and in the Lord Jesus Christ himself, then you
are one of his elect and conformity to Christ, which we are predestinated
to, assures God's elect of their righteousness and their justification
and their sanctification and their reconciliation because
the elect are united to Christ, because we are his body, he being
the head. We are represented by him and
God looks to him to be both surety and substitute for us. in God's everlasting love and
wise counsel. You know what that is, that's
his foreknowledge. In God's everlasting love and wise counsel, the elect
are positionally placed in Christ, located in him. from before the
world began, and being thus found, the elect are forever viewed
in Christ, from eternity to eternity, such that there never was a time
when God did not love us because he loves us in Christ. There never was a time when he
condemned us because he always viewed us as being under the
blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
There never was a time when we were bereft of his pleasure,
for we being in Christ are well-pleasing to the Father who is well-pleased
with his Son. There never was a time when we
were not heirs and joint heirs with him of every good and perfect
gift. All Christ has done in the covenant
of peace is done for the accomplishment of God's eternal purpose of grace
and glory for his elect. And our predestination ensures
the certainty of every promise and every blessing. Lastly, what is the reaction that predestination
elicits? Well, let me mention this in
two parts. The reaction that predestination elicits in the
world and the reaction it elicits in the believer. In the world,
predestination and election are ridiculed. They are despised
because they contradict, they repudiate man's high opinion
of himself and his cherished freedom and self-determination. Predestination is called unfair. And Paul's admonition against
man judging God is ignored when the unbeliever insists that he
can assert his own will and go his own way, do his own thing
and have nothing to do with such a God. And even in the professing church,
where many who are of the world pass their time, there are many
who do all in their power to alter the meaning of predestination,
to mitigate its force, and to undermine God's electing
purpose. So we find that man's free will
is the predominant theme of today's religion. And even where free
grace is professed, its force and its power is often diluted
to allow for the autonomy of man in matters of spiritual life
and eternal destiny. Unregenerate men and women are
happy to tolerate a God who is smaller than they are, but they
despise the God of the Bible who asserts his sovereignty in
every sphere of life. But what of a believer? What
reaction does predestination draw from those who have been
brought to a knowledge of the truth? What does predestination
mean to you and me? What is our election? What does
that mean to us who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our
saviour, who have faith in him? Well, we find predestination
to be a doctrine of grace and goodness. we find it to be a
doctrine of mercy and comfort. Knowing something of the nature
of our own heart, we realise, had God not chosen us to salvation,
we never would have chosen him. Knowing something of the holiness
of God, we realise had God not found an able and willing sacrifice
in his Son, we would never have been able to meet his righteous
demands. Knowing something of the weakness
of our own flesh and the deceitfulness of our own hearts, we realise
that except God take the reins of our lives and assert His Lordship
and take His place as King, we could not long remain in His
Kingdom. Therefore we thank the Lord for
His electing grace, for His sovereign mercy, and the comfort that these
truths afford, that these truths bring to weak, helpless sinners,
called to salvation and effectually redeemed by the blood of Jesus
Christ. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.