If you have those two passages,
turn there. First of all, let's look in Romans
chapter 8 and begin there in verse 28, and then we'll turn
and read where we've been studying in Ephesians 1. Now, the reason
I want to read this text here this morning, because I'm not
so much going to Look at these verses and expound on the verses
as I want to this morning try to relay this thought, just give
you this thought concerning what these verses teach in general.
And that is this, this thought, if we could leave you with this
thought this morning, the purpose of God is fixed. The eternal purpose of God is
fixed. That's what I want to stress
from these verses this morning. And that's why I want to read
to you Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. Let's read it together. 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 in verse 29 and 30, he's
going to tell us what God's purpose is. 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."
Now look over in Ephesians chapter 1. This is where we've come to
in our study. This is our third lesson on this
book of Ephesians. And let's begin reading here
in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure
which He hath purposed in Himself. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ which are in heaven and which are in earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who works all things after the
counsel of his own will. that we should be to the praise
of His glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance,
unto the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of
His glory. Now, this is an amazing thing
that you and I see in these two passages of Scripture that I
read to you, because it's concerning God's eternal purpose. Some would
call it God's eternal decree. We call it God's purpose. And
I call it that because here in Ephesians 3, in verse 11, the
Apostle Paul calls it that. Look at this, in Ephesians chapter
3 and verse 11. According to the eternal purpose
which God hath purposed in Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal purpose. Has no beginning. Has no beginning. It's back in eternity. And it
has no ending. And that's the amazing thing
about this. And what's so amazing about this,
we see that. in this passage. In the passage
that I read to you in Romans 8, we see that eternal purpose.
And here in these few verses, beginning in verse 4, all the
way down through verse 10, God reveals to us in these few verses,
and here's what's the amazing thing about this, He takes these
few verses and reveals to us what God's eternal purpose is.
We read there in verse 4 that He's chosen us. He's chosen us
in Christ from the very beginning. And then in verse 5 that He's
predestinated those that He's chosen to be conformed to the
image of His Son, to be like Christ. And then there in verse
7 that He has purposed to redeem us by Christ, to forgive all
our sins. And then there in verse 10 Paul
talks about the fullest of times when God has dispensed all things
that He's purposed, when He's finished His purpose, and He
gathers us together with Christ. Those who are in heaven, the
saints that are there, and the saints that are upon this earth,
when Christ comes, They all will be gathered together in Him. And then is finished the mystery
of God. Now, isn't this a wonderful thing?
That He begins in the beginning, whenever that was, when He chose
His elect. And then in verse 10, just a
few verses later, He ends with their glorification. And there
you have God's purpose from the beginning to the end. And he
says in chapter 2 in verse 7, that in the ages to come, he
might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. Ages in the past and ages to
come, and God has purposed it all. God has decreed it all according
to his eternal purpose. But the Scriptures that I read
to you there in Romans chapter 8 verse 29 and 30, those two
verses reduces the purpose of God down even more now. There He begins with God foreloving
us, and choosing us because He loved us, and then predestinated
us, and calling us and justifying us, and finally glorifying us. But did you notice one thing
that's missing in those two verses? And I want you to notice this.
I want to call your attention to this. There in Romans chapter
8 verse 29 and 30, there's something vital that's missing there. And
it's left out on purpose. And you know what it is? It's
the means by which God calls us and justifies us and glorifies
us. How is He going to conform us
to the image of Christ? He does it by new birth. He does
it by us letting this mind be in us. He does it by us growing
in grace and in knowledge. He regenerates us and puts the
very nature of Christ within us that we look like Christ within. And then we grow and we're confirmed
to Christ's image. But Paul doesn't say a thing
about that there, does he? And he talks about us being called.
This is God's purpose to call us. By what means does God call
us? Well, He calls us by the gospel.
He calls us to repentance. But nothing is said about that.
And then he says he justified those he called he justified.
How does he justify a man? By faith. We conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, but he
says nothing about these means. Why does he do that? Why does
he pass over the means? And all he says is, this is God's
purpose. And he tells us what God's purpose
is. No man is involved in it, and no means are involved in
it. And He does that, that you and I may look at that and stand
back and say, my, my, this is God's purpose. This is God's
doing. Apart from any means, we see
that this is God's eternal purpose. And what He's purposed from the
beginning will be accomplished at last. But what about the means? Well, we know that's critical.
We know the means are critical. It's necessary. But when God
says that this is what our purpose is, He wants us first and foremost
to know that it's Him that did it. It's Him that has done this
thing. And it's sure. It's fixed. That's the first point that I
want to look at this morning. When you and I look here at this
passage, In these very few verses, the first thing we see that this
apostle with one mighty swipe of his pen reveals to us the
eternal purpose of God. Even though means are essential,
he passes right over them and says, I don't want you to think
about the means. I want you first and foremost to see what God
is purposed and how fixed His purpose is. Now why does he do
this? He first and foremost does it
for this reason. He teaches us by this, that the
salvation of any man or any woman is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. If any man is ever saved, if
any woman is ever truly saved, their salvation is of the Lord. It's according to God's eternal
purpose. That's what we and I must realize,
first of all. Whatever our will has to do in
it, right now that's not what we want to look at. Right now
we must look, first and foremost, if I'm saved this morning, it's
God's will that has saved me. If I am truly in Jesus Christ,
it's because God purposed to put me there. I had an opportunity
to talk with my neighbor this week, and she had read that passage
of Scripture, many are called, but few are chosen. And she said
that made her afraid, and she professes the Lord. I said, that
concerns me too. when we begin to think that God
is the one that did the choosing. Don't that bring a solemnness
about your salvation? If you know that you must be
saved by God's will first and foremost, that stops us. Is it His will to save me? And
I had the opportunity to talk to that woman, and I asked her
this question. We were talking about this, and
that Spurgeon asked that lady that he had talked to about these
things, and I said, has the Lord saved you? Yes, I believe He
has. Did He save you by accident?
Or did He save you on purpose? Well, that's a good question,
ain't it? To ponder. Has the Lord saved me is a good
question to ponder. Did He save me by accident or
was it on purpose? Well, we come to these Scriptures
and we see it's not only God's purpose, but His eternal purpose. When did He purpose to save us? That's a good question for us
to ponder. And we come here and we see one of the reasons that
God in these few verses has told us His purpose, that you and
I may look at this and say, if any man or any woman is saved,
it has to be according to God's purpose, His eternal purpose. And you know He does that, to
make us stop and think. according to His will and for
His glory. Isn't that what all this is about?
It's not just about for my good that the Lord saves me. It's
not just about your salvation that He saves you. It's for His
glory. Father, the hour has come. Glorify
Your Son that Your Son may also glorify You. That's what this salvation is
about. So God comes here and He says, Paul, I want you to
start with your pen and with a sudden swipe, in two verses,
in just a few verses, tell them what my purpose is. So they may
know. They may know. The most important
thing in all the world is being saved. But if any man is saved,
he is saved because I purposed it. If any woman knows the Lord,
I have predestinated him to that end. This is the Lord's doings. You know, when you and I go to
build a house, all of us are aware of this. If you've ever
built a house, you don't just start building a house. Carl
knows about this. Terrence knows about this. You
don't just go out one day and say, well, I'm going out to get
me some lumber, and I'm going to build me a house. What do
you do if you're going to build a house? you draw up a blueprint. That's the first thing you do.
You wouldn't dare start a house without that. Not if you're a
wise builder, you wouldn't. Well, the Lord God doesn't do
that either. When He determined to have a
kingdom, when He determined to build His house back in eternity,
He sat down and drew up the blueprint. what he was going to do, how
he was going to do it, and to make certain that he had sufficient
to finish this house. And we know that he has, because
we've done seen him lay the last shingle down. Here it is. Those he foreknew, he glorified. He's finished it in his own mind,
in his own purpose. You know, if we look at Romans
8, 29 and 30, if we just look at it in the sense that God foreknows
everything, that He foreknew what the elect would do and therefore
chose them because He foreknew what they would do and what would
happen. If we just look at foreknowledge
from that sense, foreknowledge is infallible, ain't it? It's
infallible. Those He foreknew, He glorified.
So that's infallible foreknowledge is, if we look at it that way. So that's the first thing. That's
the first thing I want us to see. It makes us realize when
God tells us of His eternal purpose, that that purpose, the salvation
of man and woman, is of the Lord. It's God's doing. And secondly
is this, since God has purposed And since His purpose is fixed
and cannot be altered, it cannot be made void, cannot be changed,
I have purposed it, I'll also do it. Therefore, this teaches
us that whatever means that God is pleased to use to bring His
purpose to pass, those means must be effectual. You say, well,
God has means. Yes, but first of all, he's got
a purpose. And that purpose is fixed. Because we've done God
a year, haven't we? We've done not only the beginning,
but the ending. I've read it to you. The purpose
is fixed. Okay then, whatever means that
God is pleased to use to fulfill that purpose, those means must
be effectual. God will see to it that they're
effectual. So how does God conform us to the image of Christ by
giving us a new birth? Okay then. He must give us a
new birth because His purpose is fixed. How does God call us? He calls us by the Gospel. He
woos us by His Spirit. He teaches us our need of Christ. Okay then. That teaching must
be effectual because the purpose is fixed. Therefore those that
he has chosen, when he calls them, they shall come." Why? That's God's purpose. How does
he justify us? His purpose to do it? By faith
in Christ. All right then. All the elect
are going to believe. It must be effectual. See what
I'm saying? See what I'm saying? Now that's
encouraging. That may not be encouraging to
you this morning, but that's encouraging to me a preacher.
I don't have to get up here and use anything but God's Word to
teach to you. I don't have to use human gimmicks
or natural reasoning. All I've got to do is set forth
the truth of God's Word and sooner or later those sheep are going
to be found. All the chosen are going to hear
and they're going to be brought to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, Bruce, how can you know
that? Because we see this purpose is fixed. He called them and
He justified them. So by whatever means God uses,
those means must be effectual. And that's so encouraging. What
are you doing here this morning listening? What is it that first
got your ear? Why did you start hearing? You
never heard before then, did you? Well, maybe it's because
He's included you in this purpose. And now He's making the means
effectual to you. You're not here by accident.
None of us here by accident this morning. God has an eternal purpose. And somewhere or another, you're
involved in it. You're involved in it. Something else. Don't this make us, when you
think about the means must be made effectual, don't this make
you, in your heart of hearts, be careful to take heed to the
means? Aren't you scared to death not
to listen? Don't you often pray, Lord, speak
to my heart? Don't leave me to myself. Lord,
draw me, Lord, teach me, Lord, break my heart, bend my will
toward you. Why do you pray that? Because
you know that He's going to save you by means, and those means
are effectual for all the elect of God, and you want to know
you're one of them. And the way that you discern
that you're one of them is by these means that God uses. If He gives you a hearing ear
this morning, if He gives you a believing heart, if He raises
you to spiritual life in Christ, then you can say, oh, thank God
I'm one of them. How did you discern that? You
didn't go back yonder and open the Lamb's Book of Life, or you
didn't go up to heaven and open it up and see your name there.
How do you know that your name is there? Because God's made
these means effectual to you. He's called you and He's given
you faith in Christ and justified you. And you can say with that
songwriter, He included me from eternity. He included me. But if the means are not being
made effectual to us, If we do not have a hearing ear, if we
do not have a believing heart, if our wills are not being bent
to follow God as a dear child, then we have a reason to doubt.
I was talking with a man one time, and he said he never attended
worship. He had no interest in the Lord
as far as I know at all. But he was talking about being
one of the Lord's sheep. And I confronted him with that.
And he said, you're telling me I'm not one of his sheep? I said,
no, I don't know that. But I said, I can tell you this
much, the way you're living and the way you're acting and your
attitude towards God and your attitude towards yourself tells
me that you don't have any reason to believe you're one of them. If I'm not following the Lord
Jesus Christ, I have no reason to believe it, because His sheep
hear His voice, and they know Him, and they follow Him. The
means are effectual to them. Oh, they do it through much infirmities,
I know that. Their obedience is not perfect.
Nothing they do is perfect. But I tell you, they have a bend
in that direction. They surely do. Thirdly is this,
when you and I as believers, as children of God, those who
have been born again, when we stand back and consider God's
eternal purpose, I mean, when you listen and you hear me read
it to you this morning, and we see that this purpose is sure,
that it's fixed, it cannot be altered, those before you, He
glorified them. And when you and I as believers
stand back and consider this, this purpose of God becomes the
foundation of our assurance. Assurance of what? That things are going to be well
at last. It may not seem well now, but
if you can look at this purpose, and see that it's fixed. It cannot
be altered. It cannot be made void. And if
you can find yourself in Jesus Christ this morning, and your
faith is in His blood, and you know Him, and you can say, I
am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine, then that's the foundation
of your Christian assurance. Things are going to be well at
last with me. God has fixed it. God has fixed
it. You may be in a dark valley,
it may be so deep. Or you may be on a hill difficulty,
and it's steep. You may be in severe trials,
and your understanding may be so darkened, and your faith so
weak. But if you can know that you're
in Christ this morning, and you're a believer in Him, and you rest
in Him, and your faith is in His blood, then you can look
at God's purpose. And you say, no matter how it
is, we'll be now. I know how it's going to end. God has already
fixed my eternal happiness. It's settled. It's fixed. And
you and I can come here and look at God's eternal purpose concerning
us, and in that light, we can read our title clear to mansions
in the sky. Because it's settled. It's settled. Your final destiny, that is your
eternal happiness, has already been unchangeably settled. It's been fixed by this sovereign
majesty in the heavens who cannot change, He cannot lie, and He
cannot fail. Now what does that do for your
poor soul this morning? I don't care where you are in your Christian
life. I don't care what you're going through this morning in
your heart. When you hear that your eternal happiness has not
been decided, it's fixed. And no angels, no devils, and
no men can make it void, cannot change it. God Himself has fixed
it. What does that do for your poor
soul? Oh, you say, Bruce, That would
be presumption for a person to believe such a thing. Presumption? To believe God? To believe that He's done this?
Why, it would be presumptuous not to believe Him. It would
be sin not to believe Him when we read it so plainly, especially
– listen to me now – especially not to believe Him concerning
where his chief glory is involved. His unspeakable goodness. Is
that not his chief glory? What is God's chief glory? His
unspeakable goodness. Moses said, Lord, show me your
glory. I want to see your glory. What
did the Lord show him? I'll make all my goodness pass
before you." What is His glory? His goodness. His goodness. His goodness. His unspeakable
goodness by which He purposed to do us poor sinners such good
and make us eternally holy and happy at last. Now, brothers
and sisters, that's goodness. That's goodness. To look upon
people such as you and I are, and purpose to make us eternally
holy and eternally happy at last. What did Moses say when the Lord
showed him this goodness? I'll make my goodness pass before
you. Did Moses say, I ain't going to believe that. I ain't going
to believe that. Wasn't what he said. Oh, he said,
oh, such sovereign goodness. And he bowed his head and worshipped.
He got down at the Lord's feet and worshipped in the light of
such goodness. This great truth, if we believe
it in our hearts, will keep us from growing discouraged and
fainting when we face the severe trials of this life. This life's
a veil of tears, ain't it? Some of you have found that out
experimentally. You know, when we're young, we hear old people
talking about the life, this world being a veil of tears,
and we just go haphazardly on. It ain't to me. It ain't to me. I'm having fun. I'm young and
full of energy. I want to live and experience
things, but it ain't long till life throws you a loop and it
stands you on your head. And it shakes you. What can you find in a time like
that, dear child of God, that will give you some joy and some
assurance and peace? Well, it's the very thing right
here we're talking about. God's sovereign goodness. His
sovereign goodness. David said, I had fainted unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. And what greater goodness could
a poor, fallen, and miserable son of Adam see in the Lord but
this very thing, that the sovereign majesty in heaven, who works
all things after the counsel of his own will, has out of this
great goodness infallibly decreed that a poor sinner be delivered
from the pit of corruption and finally be brought to mansions
beyond the starry heavens. Is that not goodness beyond what
you and I can comprehend? Thou, O Lord, David said, hast
prepared thy goodness for the poor. O how great is thy goodness
which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee! He filleth the
hungry soul with his goodness. The goodness of the Lord endeareth
forever. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life." Listen to such goodness.
It's a goodness that He's prepared, a goodness that He's laid up,
a goodness that He fills souls with, a goodness that can't stop. It continues forever. A goodness
that just follows you all the days of your life. Goodness. The goodness of the Lord. And
to doubt His goodness? To say, here's what this good
God has done for me, and then to doubt it? Oh, but I just can't
get a hold of it. I believe not for joy. Well,
you may not get a hold of it very much, but don't doubt His
goodness. God's goodness is as great as He is. And when He does
something like this, it's almost incomprehensible. It's His goodness. It's His goodness. All that men
would praise the Lord for His goodness towards the children
of man. The Lord appeared to Abraham
and He said, Abraham, I'm going to bless you. And then He begins
to enumerate these blessings. He'd tell him a few blessings
and he'd wait a few months and he'd come back and He'd tell
him some more blessings. And he just kept on saying, I'm going
to bless you. I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to do this
for you. I'm going to make you a blessing. I'm going to make
your name great. You're going to be a father of nations. I'm going to make you the heir
of the world. In you, the heathens are going
to be justified. Oh, he just kept on, kept on
telling him these blessings. And finally the Lord come to
realize that poor Abraham's heart could not bear up under the weight
of these heavy blessings. They're too good. They're too
good. So the Lord, as it were, He came
to Abraham, and He gave his heart support to bear up under these
good tidings, and here's the way He did it. He said, I'm not
only going to bless you, but I swear by myself that I'll bless
you. Now why did he do that? Why did
he do that to Abraham? Why does he have to do it to
you and me? Because these blessings are too great. You can't get
your little arms of faith around them. That God has sealed my
eternal destiny My everlasting happiness is secured by this
sovereign majesty that he would be so careful to do that for
me, a worm." Oh, Abraham said, I'm dust and ashes. That's all
I am. And to have you, the eternal
Lord, bless me. Oh, he said, I almost faint to think
about it. I can't get a hold of it. So the Lord said, here's
a prop to put under your heart. I swear by myself, I'll bless
you." And He does the same thing for you and me. He does the same
thing for us. The Lord, you see, is like this.
He not only wants us to know that He's blessed us, that He's
purposed to bless us, He wants us to know something about what
these blessings are, and to live in the assurance and the joy
of it all. So what does he do to us? The
same thing he did to Abraham. And here's what he says in Hebrews
chapter 6. Paul said, We desire that every one of you show the
same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end. And then
he goes on and says this, God willing, more abundantly, to
show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath." Now, where have we seen that counsel
before? His counsel. We saw it in our text, didn't
we? Chapter 1, verse 11, God's predestinated us unto this inheritance
according to the counsel of Him. who works all things after the
counsel of his own will, the purpose of him who works all
things after the counsel. I have counseled it. I'll do
it. I'll do it. And Paul says here
that you and I may live in the full assurance of hope. God has
sworn unto us by an oath that His counsel cannot change. I
swear. What I've purposed, I swear to
you, I'll bring it to pass. Two immutable things. One is
God's counsel. It can't change. It can't change. And he says, I swear. I swear. Would God have to swear? He wouldn't
have to do that. Why in the world would He do
that? He tells us not to do it and He turns around and do it.
He does it because we're weak. And these blessings are exceeding
heavy and we can't bear up under them. We've got to have some
support for our faith. So he comes to Glenn, and he
says, Glenn, I've purposed your salvation, and it's fixed. And
to show you how fixed it is, I swear, I swear by myself. If I could find anybody greater
to swear by, I'd do it. You know, we used to swear on
a stack of Bibles, remember that? I swear by the Rock of Gibraltar."
You know, all this swearing that we used to do. But when God says,
I swear by myself, mark it down, it's going to come to pass. My
counsel shall stand, I swear by myself. I have purpose to
save you and I'll do it, I swear by myself. And God cannot lie. He cannot lie. And He tells us
this, that we may get a hold of this purpose when we read
it here, not to feign underneath it, but to say, there it is,
there it is, the goodness of God, the goodness of God. We might have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before
them. I've come to Christ. I've come to Christ. I've come
to Christ, haven't you? I'm coming now. And I've come
to Him. I fled to Him. I didn't decide
for Christ. I fled to Christ. I fled from
the wrath of God to Christ. I fled from the devil and sin
and self to Christ. Can I be sure then that I'm going
to be saved at last? Can I have a strong consolation?
Here I am in this wretched, sinful body. Suffering these temptations
and trials and sicknesses and weaknesses. Can I be sure that
I'll make it at last? Yes. Yes. Because God in His
great goodness has already fixed it. Lastly and quickly is this.
And I'm just talking about how fixed this is and some consequences
of it. And to help you and I see that
God's eternal purpose is fixed, it's immutable. You can't even
tweak it. It's fixed. If God was going to change his
purpose, if he was ever going to alter it, when do you suppose
it would have been? I'll tell you when it would have
been. It would have been during the Garden of Gethsemane. That's
where he said, you know, I don't know about this. He began to think about our sins
that he was going to take and make his own. On the wrath of
God that was going to fall on him, Bob tells us often about
the jaws of justice. He got himself in the jaws of
justice. And he squeezed the blood out
of his body, as it were. And he began to think about this.
And he became in such an agony about this that his blood rushed
to the pores of his skin and began to mix with his sweat and
fall down to the ground. He was in an agony. He said,
I'm sorrowful even unto death. And remember what he said? I
think I'm going to have to change this. He didn't say that, did
he? I didn't realize the consequences
of this. I know God, my Father's purpose
of this. I've come here because He determined
me to be here, but I think we've got to alter this. This is too
dreadful. I can't bury up under the slope."
No, He didn't say that. He got up off of that wet ground,
wet with His blood and His sweat, and went out there to meet those
officers, and He said, whom seek you? We seek Jesus. He said, I'm He. I'm He. Take
me and hang me on the cross. I'll bury the awful wrath of
God in the place of My people. And you know why he said that?
He said, I could call for twelve legions of angels. But remember
what he said? If I do that, how then shall
the Scriptures be fulfilled? Which it must be. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel. And he says this counsel cannot
change. It's impossible to change it. Therefore, he gets up off the
ground, he goes to the judgment hall, they pluck out his beard,
they smite him in the face, they lay deep ferals upon his back,
they falsely accuse him, they shame him, and finally they crucify
him and he gives his life a ransom according to God's eternal purpose.
Nothing changed. And nothing never shall change.
It never shall change. It's fixed. Dear soul, if you're here this
morning, and you've been brought to believe,
you've been brought to trust in, you've been brought to fully
rely upon the Son of God, if you're doing this today, you're
being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And though you may think the
work's going along slow, The work will be finished. It'll
be finished. It'll be sure. And the end will
be this, a perfect happiness and perfect holiness, because
God has purposed that for you. That's wonderful, isn't it? That's
wonderful. Well, I hope God has given you
some grace to get a hold of some of this, if not today, maybe
in the days ahead. Let us pray.