I was thinking as we were singing
Mr. Wesley's song, Mr. Charles Wesley's song, I'm sure
if he were sitting here this morning, he would not appreciate
much of what I had to say this morning. I love Mr. Wesley, both
of them, Charles and John. I think we like their songs better
than we like their preaching. But I want to look in Romans
chapter 8 and verses 29 and 30. Let's begin Romans 8, verse 28 through verse
30. 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 brothers. 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." My subject this morning is he and them. He and
them. You probably noticed the several
times he mentions them and the several times he mentions he. He and them. What a union this
is between He and them. Here in verse 28, the Apostle
Paul had been speaking of the purpose of God. And then in verse
29 and 30, he tells us what that purpose is. He doesn't go into
detail about everything that God has purposed, but he tells
us what God has purposed concerning who will be redeemed. who will
be saved, who will be glorified at last and blessed with eternal
happiness. Now, there are many religions
in the world today, aren't there? They tell us the four great religions.
I've got a huge book by Time Magazine, Life Magazine or something,
a huge thick book, and it tells about the four great religions. The world is made up mainly of
these four great religions. and Buddhism and Islam and Christianity. And in these religions, boy,
you have every shape and size and color that can be imagined.
In Islam, you have those hardliners that'll cut your head off in
a minute. And they range from everywhere
to those people all the way down to the moderate that say they're
peaceful people. But in Christianity, look what
we have in Christianity. In Christianity, we have everything
from Catholicism to snake handlers and everything in between, don't
we? Anybody can be a Christian now and profess and believe almost
anything and be called Christian. And of course, we've got what
I call the cultish Christians. We've got Mormonism. We've got
Jehovah Witness and some branches of the other denomination. So
the world is filled with a mass confusion. and uncertainty as
we look around us. It is only when we come to the
Bible that things begin to make sense and things begin to be
made plain. For it is here we see what God
is doing in salvation. We look around us in the world
and we see everything that man is doing. But here we come to
this text and we see what God is doing. And we see the certainty
of it. Isn't it a wonderful thought?
When we look around us and see that everything seems to be so
confusing and confused, that God is working His purpose. Right
in our midst, and He's doing it so secretly that it can hardly
be detected. But that's what He's doing. He
has an eternal purpose, and He's working that purpose out. And will continue to do so. As
I was reading this passage yesterday, I thought, most appealing text
this is because it pertains to men's everlasting salvation. The eternal happiness is written
right here in the text that I read to you this morning. And in verse
29 we are told about these people that there are many. Somebody
said a handful. Brother Mahan used to say it
depends on whose hands you are talking about. If it is his That's
a big hand, isn't it? And he says here that he has
many brethren. How many people will be saved?
Many. Many. In another place it was
called tens of thousands. In another place it was called
much people. Much people in heaven. In another
place it was called a number that no man can number. If any
man has any value for his soul and the souls of others, this
should be very appealing to that man, because here we are told
that salvation is not only certain for a great number of people,
but it is a number that no man can number. And who is it for? For them. For them. You notice he kept saying that?
He predestinated them He also called, whom He called them He
also justified, and them He also glorified. I tell you, I want
to be one of them, don't you? I want to be among the them.
He shall say to them on that great day, to them, Come, you
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom. I tell you, I want
to be among them now, and I want to be among them in that day.
He and them. Well, our text tells the history
of them. The history. And what God has
purposed for them. He foreknew them. He predestinated
them. He called them. And He glorified
them. And on the Day of Judgment, He'll
say to them, Come, ye blessed of my Father. So this is very
appealing, isn't it? A very appealing text. Anybody
that cares about their soul and the souls of their fellow man
ought to be interested in God's purpose. It should be an awakening thing
to all that hear of this purpose because it involves a limited
number. Many, but not all. It doesn't
involve all. The many will be saved in a way
and by the means that God has purposed to save them. That should
be awakening for all then. I want to be among them, then
take heed to the means. Take heed to the way in which
He saves them and justifies them and glorifies them. Because we
are told here, those that He foreknew and predestinated, He
called them. He calls them, and He conforms
them to the image of Christ. He justifies them, and someday
He will glorify them. And you know something, brothers
and sisters? There is no salvation apart from this right here. God's eternal purpose holds in
that shell the salvation of all of those who will be saved. And
there's no salvation apart from this. But I'm among this religion. It don't matter, does it? I'm a Catholic or I'm among the
Islam or Buddhists or some of these other religions. I'm of
this denomination or that denomination. That doesn't matter. In the light
of this, nothing else matters but this. These are the people
who will be saved at last. Those whom God has purposed to
save. You and I don't give a squat
for denominations, do we? I'm sorry. I'm sorry we don't. We don't care much for man's
opinions. We don't think too highly of
even people's convictions, especially if they try to force them off
on us. What means anything apart from
this right here? It means everything, doesn't
it? You know what? If we're not one of them, then
we don't have a union with Him. And if we don't have a union
with Him, I tell you, life itself is vain. If I'm not one of them
and I live and die without Him, then I can truly say with a prophet
of old, vanity of vanities. All is vanity. All is vanity. I want to be one of them. Is anybody here this morning
concerned about this question? Are there a few that be saved?
Well, here we've found the answer, haven't we? Thank God, no. There's
a Dutch that's going to be saved. There are many that will be.
And you notice this, what this tells us here, they're going
to be infallibly saved because their eternal salvation and their
eternal destiny and their everlasting happiness is fixed. It's fixed. Did you notice that about that
as I read that? All of this is in past tense.
He foreknew them. He predestinated them. He called
them. He justified them. And He glorified
them. You say, Bruce, all of that hasn't
even come to pass yet. It hasn't, has it? But let me
ask you this. Is it fixed? It is, isn't it? Oh, happy are you this morning.
If you're sitting in here and you're being conformed to the
image of Christ, if you're a justified person, you're a happy man this
morning. You're a happy woman. your happy
boy or girl, because your eternal happiness has been fixed by the
God who cannot lie and who cannot fail. That's wonderful. This
has to be the most amazing, the most astonishing thing the angels
ever heard of. And as soon as they were created,
they began to seek into this very thing. Oh, they're amazed
by this. The Bible says the angels desire
to look into this. Don't you imagine they look upon
the face of their triune God? Oh, and they see in Him right
now that absolute and eternal holiness, and they sing His praises,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, and they're watching
humanity, a poor fallen humanity, And as He calls these out one
by one and saves them, they rejoice. They rejoice. And don't you think
they say to themselves, what a purpose is this? Our God has
fixed. And whatever God is pleased to
do in eternity that is to come, whatever He is pleased to create,
if anything, or whatever He is pleased to reveal in those eternal
ages, nothing will ever diminish or overshadow or take place of
this glorious and blessed union of He and them. He and them. This union reaches
back into eternity past. For it was then that God knew
them. You and I meet people all the
time. We meet them for the first time.
God has never met these people. He has always knew them. If you went back this morning,
if you could go, as Spurgeon said, on the wings of faith,
you went back to the foundation of the earth, and spread your
wings and you dove over the foundations of the earth and soared back
into eternity? You could go back past any other
worlds, any other things that God had created, and if you could
soar all the way back until you could find the triune God dwelling
alone, nobody else was there but Him. And He was full. He was free. He was satisfied. He was self-sufficient. And if you could go on back before
that, just as far back as you could go, you could look into
the heart of God, the very heart of God. And you could see and
you could read everything that He had purposed. It was known
unto Him from the very beginning, back into eternity. And you know
something else you would see in his heart of hearts? You would
see a whole list of names, a scroll of names, unlimited
names. And it's written, as it were,
with blood, written with omnipotent love. And whose names are in
there? Whose names are in his heart? You cannot find a time in eternity
past where He did not know them. He foreknew them. Isn't that amazing? You and I
can't even foreknow anything, can we? We can't foreknow anything. Will I draw my next breath? I
don't know. But God not only knows everything,
of course He knows everything. But here in our text it says,
He knew them. He foreknew them. We find their names again in
Revelation chapter 21. The angel said unto John, Come,
and I will show you the Lamb's wife. And he took me in the Spirit
and he showed me a new Jerusalem, a holy city coming down from
God out of heaven. And here is what he said about
that city. And that city is the church. There shall in no wise
enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book
of life. That's the them. You find them
back in eternity, and the last day of this world, you find those
names of them. In Revelation chapter 20, the
great last day, the judgment day, we're told in chapter 20
of Revelation, I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened,
which is the book of life. the book of life, and the dead
were judged out of those things which were written in the book
according to their works, and the sea gave up the dead which
were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were
in them, and they were judged every man according to their
works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death, and listen to this, and whosoever was not
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire. And whose names are these? Them. Them. Go all the way back in
eternity, and there they are in God's heart. He knew them. And go all the way to the last
day, that great day of judgment, and there they are, the names
written in this wonderful book. Some people say that God looked
down through time and He saw what these people would do. And
then He saw that they would repent, that they would believe, and
so He backed back up in eternity and wrote their names down in
the Lamb's Book of Life. Well, you know God knows who's
going to believe. He knows who's going to repent. He knows who's
coming to Christ. But this has nothing to do with
what anybody's doing. It has nothing to do with anybody's
works. It says here, those whom He foreknew. It's the people that He foreknew.
Not the what they would do, but who they are. And sometimes do
a little word study on this word foreknew and foreknow and foreknowledge. It always deals with the person. God knew the persons. And this word knew is a very
intimate word. It expresses strong feelings
of love, passion, even sexual lust. You remember that passage
in Genesis chapter 4? Adam knew Eve, his wife. What does that mean? Of course
he knew her. Of course he knew her name. Of course he knew her
person. But that there is a very, very intimate word. It expresses
a relationship. He knew Eve, his wife, and she
conceived. See the intimacy of that word?
And when it said that God foreknew these people, it means that He
foreloved them. He had this compassion for them,
knew them in His heart. He knew them. You think of this
this morning, brothers and sisters. The Lord has called you to salvation. If you've been given grace, as
Wayne said this morning, grace to trust the Lord Jesus Christ
truly in your heart of hearts. You've been able to put all your
confidence in Him as your salvation. Think of this. From eternity,
God knew you. Ain't that amazing? You were
in His mind. You were upon His heart. You
were in His everlasting affection. And what did He do for you? What did He provide for you?
Well, our next point is here that He predestinated them to
be conformed to the image of His Son. Now notice this. He
predestinated them. Not to an office. not to a position,
not to a nationality, not to be given a chance to cooperate
with God in anything, but He has predestinated them for the
most wonderful end, conformed to the likeness of His Son, Jesus
Christ the Lord, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. Now, who could blame God for
having the desire and having the purpose and having the will
to predestinate people, to ordain them, to set them aside, the
purpose to make them just like His Son. That's a good purpose,
isn't it? What a glorious aim and glorious
end. And it says here that He might
be the firstborn. Christ is the firstborn among
many brethren. And you and I know among the
Hebrews, this firstborn, that was a special privilege. Boy,
the firstborn was the one that had all the honor, wasn't he?
He's the one that inherited everything. If you got anything, you better
stand the good graces of your elder brother, because he inherited
everything that his father possessed. And the Scriptures call Jesus
Christ the firstborn because he has the preeminence among
his many brothers. He's called the Father's firstborn.
Nobody was begotten like Jesus. Shannon just read it to us, didn't
she? Nobody's ever been begotten, and nobody ever will be begotten
by King. You and I are sons by adoption. But He was God's Son
naturally, even in His humanity, by supernatural conception. Christ
was Mary's firstborn. This was her firstborn son. I
imagine she had many more children, but she never had any before
this one. He was her firstborn. In all
things our elder brother has the preeminence. He is the heir
of his heavenly Father. The Father loves the Son and
has given everything into His hands. And you know what? He
is so generous and He is so gracious and kind that He is willing to
share everything that is His with them. Look over here in some passages
of Scripture with me. Look over in Hebrews chapter
1. Three or four verses of Scripture
turn to me. Hebrews chapter 1 and look in
verse 1. This talks about the preeminence
of Christ and His deity. And how the Father has put everything
into His hands. Look in Hebrews chapter 1. God, who at sundry times, different
times and in different manners, spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he
made the world. who be in the brightness of His
glory and the very expressed image of His person. One man
said he is not like God at all. He is God. The expressed image
of His person. And upholding all things by the
word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, He
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. He is appointed
heir. Why? Because He is indeed. The firstborn. Look over here
now in Hebrews chapter 12. We see something else here that's
amazing in Hebrews chapter 12. Look in verse 22. This is sort
of a mystery, but in Jesus Christ, now we're all described as firstborn. I don't care what he says in
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 22. But ye are coming to Mount
Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, and to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven.
There they are again, aren't they? You just find them every
place. They're written in heaven. Here they are. It's them. Them. And they're called firstborn,
because in Jesus Christ the Lord, they are all firstborn. And they're written in heaven.
There they are, written in heaven. And here's God's aim, and here's
His end in predestination. And it's a glorious thing to
be conformed to the image of His Son. Have you ever wondered about
this trade-off? I call it a trade-off. About
the Lord Jesus being made in our likeness. Because before we could be made
in His image, He had to be made in our likeness. And did you
ever wonder to what extent He was made in our likeness? We
know He was born of a woman. without sin. He didn't have the
sinful, corrupt nature that you and I have. But you know something? He had our weak and frail infirmities. He was tempted in all points
like as we are. That's a lot like us, isn't it?
He hungered and he had to eat. He thirsted and had to drink.
He grew weary and had to rest. He grew tired and had to sleep.
You know something? He feared. Can you imagine the
Son of God fearing? He trembled. His heart was broken. He could
suffer, he could bleed, and he could die just like us. And I
wonder on the cross how much of our likeness, how much of
our image He took to Himself. Because the Bible says on the
cross He was made sin for us. He never ceased to be what He
always was, holy. But in some sense or another
way, He was made sin. He took our sins to Himself,
made them His own, called them His own. How much of our whiteness
was He in on that cross? With our corruptions, our sin,
our guilt in His own body upon the tree. God looked upon Him
just as if He was looking upon us in our wretchedness and in
our sin. Luther used to say that when
God looked upon His Son upon the cross, He said, I see the
greatest sinner that ever lived. Now, I don't know how far you
can take that. One thing we absolutely have to remember is He offered
Himself without spot to God. But brothers and sisters, we
need to remember this too. He took our sins and the guilt
and all the consequences of them. Oh, He truly was a representative. He took us to Himself. And why
did He do that? That we could conform to His
image. I just wonder when God, back
there in the beginning, on the sixth day, had that clay, as
it were, in His hands, and He was putting it together, and
He made this handsome man, and He breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, I wonder if God didn't have His Son in
mind. Here is going to be the image
of my Son. Here is going to be the likeness
of my Son in His humanity. Adam sinned and he defaced God's
image. He defaced God's image in our
humanity. But the Lord Jesus Christ came
and He made our humanity holy again. He restored God's image
in our humanity. He is there in heaven in a glorified
humanity. And the Bible says that God's
purpose is to make us just like His Son. Let me show you a couple of verses
concerning that. Look over in a couple of places. Look over in Ephesians. Ephesians
chapter 4 and Colossians chapter 3. Look at these two places. This is where this image of Christ
begins. It begins right here in the new
birth. Look what he says in Ephesians
chapter 4, and look in verse 21. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 21. He's speaking that we have not
learned Christ, that Christ doesn't lead us stay in our sins and
our uncleanness. In verse 21, If so be that ye
have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is
in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former compensation, the
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the
new man. Another place it calls it the
inner man. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Put on the new man, look at this,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. True righteousness and true holiness. It's not a pasted-on holiness. It's not a remodeled job. It's
a new creation. And He is created in righteousness
and true holiness. This begins in the new birth,
brothers and sisters. And look over here in Colossians
chapter 3, just on to your right, and look in verse 9. Colossians
chapter 3 and verse 9. Look at this. You have put on the new man. which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of Him that created him." This new man in the new
birth, you must be born again, and when he is created, he is
created in the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is that image? Righteousness
and true holiness. You say, Bruce, I sure don't
feel conformed to the image of Christ. Well, let me ask you
this question. Do you want to be holy? I mean,
when your heart's desired, when you get down to examine your
longings, do you long to be holy? Do you long never to sin again? Do you long to be free from this
old body of sin and death? Do you want to be like Him? Do you cry like He cried, Father,
Father, in your spirit? Do you want to have Christ's
whole attitude in His sufferings and persecutions? Do you want
to bear with your afflictions and sicknesses with patience? If somebody does you wrong, The
old flesh wants to strike out and get revenge, but do you want
to forgive and be gracious and kind? That is the way the Lord
Jesus was. When He suffered, He threatened
not, but committed Himself to God who judges faithfully. Do
you want to be like Him? Boy, I know when we look at ourselves,
there would probably be something wrong with us if we did think,
boy, I have a right. He lets us see our wretchedness,
doesn't He? To make us to know this work
is of Him. It's of Him. Boy, Stephen had
the image of Christ when he felt those stones pouncing off of
his head. What did he say? Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge. If you and I are being conformed
to Christ's image, His likeness, We want to pray more like He
prayed. We want our desires to be like His desires. We want
to love as He loved, be patient as He was patient. Then we're
being conformed to the image of Christ. You're being conformed
to His image. And in closing, let me look at
1 John 3, and I'll take the rest of this up tonight. 1 John chapter 3, look at this. Conformed to His image, here
is where it begins. Here is where it begins. And
there is coming a day when we will be perfectly conformed to
the very image of Christ. Look at it. Behold what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. It doth not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be
like him. For we shall see him as he is."
That's the end of God's purpose. That's the aim, and He will accomplish
that purpose. Them who have this eternal union
with Him, they are going to be just like Him. Keep looking to
Him. Keep trusting in Him. Keep living
by faith upon Him. Keep following Him. And though
this outward man perish, this inward man is being more and
more conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless His Word. Let's pray.