Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Jul 15, 2015: Romans 8:28-31 Who Can Be Against You
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. We are here this evening in Romans chapter 8, and we will be looking at verses 28 through 31. And so let's begin by reading through that passage together. Romans chapter 8 verse 28 says, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. Verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word and our opportunity to study it this evening. And God, as we see some pretty profound truths about who you are and your nature, your character this evening, I pray, God, that you would help us to be able to grasp hold of these truths. Lord, that we might stand secure in our faith and our trust in you. Lord, knowing that you're on our side and so who can be against us? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, as we look at this passage this evening, I've titled the message, Who Can Be Against You? Who is it that can come against you? Now, You might be able to think of some names, right? If I ask that question, who can come against you? And you say, well, you know, this guy, this girl, they're always coming against me. You might talk about the enemy, Satan comes against me, or, you know, my boss, or my spouse, or my in-laws, or my co-workers, or the president comes against me, or, you know, all of these different ideas that we might be able to say, you know, these are people, or these are things that come against us. But as I ask the question, who can be against you? The idea of that question is who can be against you and succeed in their attempt to be against you and succeed in their attempt to cast down what God has in store for you. Now as we're jumping into this passage here in Romans chapter 8, we've been studying chapter 8 for several weeks now and we've been seeing some incredible things that God promises for his followers, for those who have received the gospel message. And so the immediate context of what Paul is talking about here in chapter 8 verse 28 through 31 is We could trace it back a little bit just to verse 18 here of Romans chapter 8, where Paul says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And so keep that context in mind. Paul says there's more glory than suffering, guaranteed. The sufferings of this time aren't going to compare to the glory of And so if you are guaranteed more glory than suffering, who can be against you? Who could bring suffering into your life if, well, the suffering that you experience will not compare. It will be incomparable. There'll be much greater weight of glory revealed in you as a result of the suffering in this life. And so anybody who would bring suffering into your life, only adds more glory to the next life for you. So who can be against you? Well, going down a couple more verses, we saw two weeks ago in verse 26 and 27 that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness when we don't know how we should pray, that he intercedes for us. And he prays for us or intercedes for us according to the will of God. And so if the Holy Spirit is interceding for you, who can be against you? If the Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf, according to the will of God, who can thwart the work of the Holy Spirit? Who can thwart his prayers? Who can counteract the prayers of the Holy Spirit on your behalf? Who is it that can come against you? Who is it that can come between the Holy Spirit and God and interfere with his prayers for you? Who can come against you? Of course, the answer that I'm looking for here is that no one can come against you. And this is one of the incredible benefits of receiving the gospel message. That's what Romans has been about, the gospel message. And Paul's been teaching us the essential elements of the gospel all throughout Romans, leading up into chapter eight, where we've seen that those who believe in Jesus have no condemnation, that we have the Holy Spirit, that we're children of God. We have these incredible promises, this incredible position in Christ so that no one can can be against you. It's similar to what the prophet Isaiah spoke as God was speaking through Isaiah in Isaiah 54 verse 17. He said, And then I like this. He says, This is the heritage of God's children. This is the heritage of those who receive the gospel message. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. No attack mounted against you can actually succeed, can fully succeed. No one can be against you. This is true of all believers. And as I've been reminding you over the past few weeks, these things are not just true for mature believers. You know, those who have been around for a really long time and they've walked with the Lord and they've never messed up and they don't sin every day like the rest of us. You know, that's true for them. No, it's true for every believer. It's not just true for faithful believers. It's true for believers. For those who've, you know, walked the straight and narrow and never wandered to the right or to the left, that those have been, you know, faithful to attend service on Sundays and Wednesdays and they clean the church on Saturdays and, you know, they're involved in everything and it's only for those people, those believers that these things are true for. No, it's true for all believers, even those who are not faithful, even for those who aren't around that much, even for those who mess up quite a bit. This isn't just for passionate believers or growing believers. These things are true of all believers. No one can be against you. And so there's three points I want to walk us through as we look at this passage to help us appreciate and understand what it means that no one can be against us. The first point we'll see in verse 28, and that is that God works for your good. No one can be against you because God is at work for your good. Look at verse 28 again. He says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Here we see one of the greatest promises that we have in the scriptures. One of our favorite promises in the scriptures. One that we quote often. One that we know well. We know that all things work together for good. Now, there's a couple things I want to highlight about this promise that we have. First of all, this promise we need to understand is based on God's sovereignty. This promise that we hold so dear, that we count on, that we quote so often, this promise is based on God's sovereignty. And that's important because it comes into play as we go into the next verses in a few minutes. But the idea that God is sovereign means that God has the absolute right to do with his creation as he desires. That is that he is our creator. He is the absolute highest authority and he has the right to do whatever he wants. He can lift up. He can cast down. He can build up. He can destroy. He can do whatever he wants. It also means that there is nothing that happens in this life that without God's direction or God's permission. God is sovereign. He is on the throne. He has the absolute right and nothing happens without his direction or permission. Now that's really important because recognizing that God is sovereign over all things means that we can trust and rest assured that the things that he said he will do, he is able to do because he is sovereign. There's lots of promises that I could make to you that I would never be able to keep, not just because of my own frailties, but because there's a lot of things that are out of my control. I can't promise you you're going to have green lights all the way home. I just don't have that kind of power. I don't have that kind of authority. But God is not limited in that way. He is the highest authority. He is sovereign. And so he has the absolute right to do whatever he wants. And nothing happens without his direction or permission. Now that's really comforting as you consider. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Because it tells us that God has, first of all, the right purpose. make this happen, but he also has the power, the capability to make this happen. He will work all things together for good to those who love him. This is really important to get. When you make mistakes, God is able to work it together for good if you love God. If it's an accidental mistake or Be it some kind of moral error, some type of sin issue, or maybe you just made a mistake at work and cost the company some money. It wasn't intentional. It was accidental. You made a mistake. God is able to work all things together for good. But even when it is a sinful thing, when it's maybe not even so accidental, but when you have pursued sin, when you've turned from God and deliberately violated the law of God and doing things that you know are not of God, God is able to work all things together for good to those who love him. God is sovereign. He has the right to do what he desires, to do whatever he wants. Nothing happens without his direction or permission. He is able, even when we have run away from him, he's able to take those situations, to take those things and work some kind of good out of them. Sometimes it's circumstances, situations in our life that we have nothing to do with. It's just, it happened. Kim and I contemplated that a little bit today because right down the street from us, there was a fire in the riverbed here. There were homes a block away, about 75 homes that were evacuated as a result of the fire. So we were kind of like, well, are they going to evacuate us? And praise the Lord, they took out the fire pretty quickly within a couple hours. And so I don't think any homes were lost. But if we had our house burned down today, terrible circumstances, right? Who would want to be in that position? But you know, God is sovereign. And he is able, he has promised, he will work all things together for good to those who love him and are the called according to his purpose. Yes. And so whether you want to consider disease or persecution or imprisonment or tragedy or failure or weather or, you know, vehicle issues or delays on the freeway, whatever you want to consider, whatever you want to evaluate, God's promise, it's based on his sovereignty, is that he will work all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. One of the clearest examples that we have of that from the scripture is in the life of Joseph there in the book of Genesis. right? Joseph, one of 12 sons, hated by his brothers, and so his brothers sold him into slavery. He went to Egypt as a slave. He served there in Potiphar's house as a slave and was actually blessed there by the Lord, even though he was a slave in the house. And then he was imprisoned because of a false accusation, something he didn't do, but he went to prison for anyways. And He was ultimately delivered from prison when one of the guys he interpreted a dream for remembered him and shared his story with Pharaoh who had a dream that troubled him. And so Pharaoh brought him out of prison. Joseph interpreted the dream. And then Pharaoh appointed Joseph to be ruler of all Egypt under Pharaoh. He was second in charge of all Egypt. He woke up that morning in prison. This process lasted about 13 years from when he was sold as a slave into his last day in prison. But he woke up that day. He didn't know it was his last day in prison. He was just, he was there in prison. But by the end of the day, he was second in command of all of Egypt. Now, later on, Joseph was able to testify to his brothers. These are the guys who sold him into slavery. And after their dad died, they thought, you know, Joseph, he's going to be taking this opportunity now that dad's gone to get back at us, to, you know, execute revenge upon us. And Joseph reassured them in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, he says, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive. Because what happened when Joseph was put second in command of Egypt? Well, he was able to preserve his family as well as many other nations by instructing Egypt and what they should do to prepare for the famine that was to come. And so God did a great work through that, using Joseph, even under these terrible circumstances, enslaved and imprisoned for 13 years. But at the end, he was able to say, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. God is sovereign. And he had his hand at work, even in the life of Joseph. So it's a promise based on God's sovereignty. Second thing I'd like to highlight for you about this promise that God works for your good is that this promise is to those who love God. And it's important to pay attention to that. This is not a general promise for all humanity. It's not that everything without exception works out for good for everybody. You know, when someone dies in our society, there's a general saying that you'll come across and you'll hear that quite a bit, right? They're in a better place. That's just the kind of a standard saying that we say about people who have died. Now that is true of a believer, but that's not always true. It's not true of an unbeliever. If there is someone who has died who is not a believer in Jesus Christ, they're not in a better place. This place is better than the place that is to come for those who do not believe in Jesus. And if you don't believe that, you can read the account in Luke chapter 16 of the rich man who died and was in the place called Hades, the place of torment, while he waited for the final judgment. And he was in torment. It was not a better place. And so there's this general idea, though, well, when anybody dies, they're in a better place. Well, that's only true of believers. This promise is only true for believers, right? Sometimes this verse is kind of thrown around in the same way, like, hey, well, God works everything together for good. Well, he does, but it's limited to those specifically who love God, who are the called according to his purpose. Only those who love God can hold on to this promise. And so it's a good question to consider this evening. Do you love God? Where do you stand? Where do you fall in regards to a relationship with God? Do you love God? Do you fall into that category? Now, what does it mean to love God? Because there's lots of people who would say that they love God, but it doesn't comply with the biblical description of what love is. Sometimes people say that they love God, but they're talking about a warm, fuzzy feeling that they have. They're talking about an idea of the concept of God or a God that they've created in their own minds. But think about love in this way. Love is to put the needs, desires, or good of another before yourself. To love God is a sacrificial love, just as, well, those of you who are parents, you love your kids. And that means that you put their good, ahead of your own. You put their needs ahead of your own. You make sacrifices to meet their needs, to bless them, but it's about putting them before yourself. That's a quick summary of the biblical understanding of what love is. And so to love God means to put the needs and wants and desires of God before yourself, before your own desires. It's to put God first in your life. And so here's the promise. If you will put God first in your life, God will work all things together for good because his promise is that he works all things together for good to those who love him. And so this is a promise to those who love God, to those who have made it commitment, made it a priority to put God first, to love him, to honor him, to follow him, to fulfill his will and to bring glory to his name. Well, the third thing I'd like to highlight about this promise is that it's a promise to receive by faith. This is a promise that we have to accept by faith. Faith, well, it's something that we believe is true even when we cannot see it immediately. To have faith, it means that we believe something is true even when we don't see it right in front of our eyes. And that is absolutely true of this promise that God works all things together for good. Joseph, at the end of his life, was able to say, hey, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And sometimes we get that opportunity to see some of what God does good as a result of or from some of the tragedy and hurt and pain in our lives. But usually we don't see the results in this life. We don't see the full picture of God working all things together for good. That will be finally seen in eternity. Where we'll be able to look back with full perspective. Right now we're very limited in our perspective. We don't get to see all of what God does, but then we will. And so often as we know this promise, as we know this verse, we wonder how will this work out for good? This situation that I'm in that is so hard, so difficult, so hurtful, how will this work out for good? And the only honest answer that we can really give for that is, I don't know. We don't know how God's going to work that together for good. Sometimes we have ideas, but I would caution you to be a little bit slow to say, well, this is why. This is how God's going to work it together for good. I would encourage you to consider that in eternity is when all of those things will be answered. And sometimes we look at things that happen in this life that are temporary and we say, see, God worked it out for good. You got in a car accident and then you got a new car. God worked it together for good. Well, maybe, but I would say if things don't have eternal value, that's probably not really what God's just focused on. He's more concerned about eternity. And so perhaps he wanted to bless you with a car through that accident. But you know, perhaps there's much more to the story than you even know. And it's not just that limited thing. So don't just limit it to what you can see and what you can understand. But again, that's why I say this is a promise to receive by faith. Because you don't see all that God's going to do to work things together for good. You don't know all the good that's going to result from the situations that you're in. But God's promise is that those who love God, those who are called according to His purpose, He will work all things together for good in their lives. And so you can hold on to that. Here's what we know, Paul says. We know that God works all things together for good. I like what Pastor Chuck Smith often said. He says, don't trade what you do know for what you don't know. And some people lose faith faith and walk away from God over what they don't know. I don't know why this is happening to me. I don't know why this is, you know, being allowed. I don't know why God is letting this happen or doing that. I don't know. I don't know. And his exhortation is don't trade what you do know. Here's what you do know. God works all things together for good to those who love him, who are the called according to his purpose. There's lots of things that we don't know. But don't let those things take the place of what you do know. Receive this promise by faith. God works for your good. I like the way that the Greek scholar Kenneth West says, translates this verse. He says, and we know with an absolute knowledge that all things are constantly working together, resulting in good for those who are loving God, for those who are the called ones according to his purpose. All things are constantly working together, resulting in good. This promise is based on God's sovereignty. that we're trusting, we're recognizing God is sovereign. He is full power, full control, and he is able to be constantly working all things together so that it results in good for you, for you who love God. And you can receive that promise by faith. God is able to bring forth good from whatever you experience in this life, guaranteed. And so that's the first point this evening. God works for your good. So again, the question is, who can be against you? If the sovereign God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, is constantly working everything in your life together for your good, who can be against you? Who can contradict the work of God? Who can interfere with the work of God? Who can thwart God's plans so that everything doesn't work out together for good for you who love God? Who can do that? Who can be against you? Again, the point is no one can be against you because God is working for your good. That's an incredible promise. I pray that you take great comfort in that. But there's more. But wait, there's more. Verse 29 through 30, now we have point number two. God predestined you to be like Jesus. God predestined you to be like Jesus. Now again, we're talking about those who love God. We're talking about those who are believers in Jesus Christ. And you have this promise also. You are predestined to be like Jesus. Check out verse 29 again. It says, In verse 28, he says, A natural question to that is, well, how do we know that? And so Paul begins to answer that in verse 29. He says, for whom he foreknew. How do we know that all things work together? He says, all right, let me tell you. And he begins to talk about, well, he gives us five things here that God has done on your behalf. Five things that we can see in verse 29 and 30 that are huge concepts of Really powerful truths. But there's also great mysteries surrounding them because we're talking about the nature of God, the working of God. And so there's much that we don't know, but there's also much that we know. And again, don't exchange what you know for what you don't know. Let's focus on some of the things that we know that is declared about God towards us here in verse 29 and 30. So five things that God has done on your behalf here in these two verses. The first thing we see is that God foreknew you. God foreknew you. What does that mean? Well, we know that God is omniscient. That means that he knows everything. And that's a pretty hard concept for us because sometimes we might think we know everything, but if we're, you know, really pushed to admit it, we will admit we don't know everything. But God actually knows everything. He knows everything about right now. He knows what you're thinking right now. He knows what app you have open there, Colleen. I don't know what you're doing there, but he knows what app you have open there on your device. He knows how many toes you have. He knows how many hairs you have. He knows everything right now about everybody, about everything, about every square inch of this planet. All that's happening right now, he knows every detail about it all at the same time. But not just that. He doesn't just know about everything that's happening right now in the present. He knows everything and all of these things before it happens. And that's what this idea of foreknew is. It means to recognize beforehand or to know previously. So every detail that could ever be imagined about you, God has always known that. God has always known that. Think about what God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5. He says to Jeremiah, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I ordained you as a prophet to the nations. Picture that. Here's Jeremiah. He's a young man, but he's had, let's say, 20 years of life. And God speaks to him and says, I'm sending you to speak to the nation of Judah. And you're going to be my spokesman. You're going to be my prophet. And I didn't just decide this today. I didn't decide this last year or five years ago. I didn't decide this when you were two years old. Before I formed you in the womb, going back to the sovereignty of God, right? God is in control. God's able to say, I formed you, speaking to Jeremiah and speaking to every one of us. God says, I formed you in the womb. I was directly involved in your creation, right? I formed you in the womb and even before that, I knew you already. I already knew who you would be. I already knew what color hair you would have and what color your eyes would be and what your life would be like and who you would get married to and who you would run around with on the playground. And I already knew all those details before you were born, before I formed you in the womb. He tells Jeremiah, I ordained you a prophet to the nations. God is omniscient. He knows everything. And he foreknew you. He has always known everything about you. Isn't it funny how many times we think that we have hidden stuff from God? Okay, whew, I don't think he saw that. He didn't catch that. You know, God knew about that before you were ever born, before he formed you in the womb. He knows everything about you. Now, specifically, we can highlight here, God knows your response to the gospel. He knows your response to Jesus Christ. He knows whether or not you will, going back to the previous verse, love God. He knows that. He foreknew you. He knew about your life. He knew about every detail in your heart before he formed you in the womb. And so God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows a lot of things that you probably wish he never knew, but he knows all of that. And he still loves you. He still sent his son to die upon the cross for your sin. He still reaches out to you with the gospel message, with the opportunity to be forgiven and have everlasting life. He still reaches out to you with opportunity to serve him and bring glory to his name, to love him and be part of the called who are according to his purpose. He knows everything about you and he still says, hey, I wanna work all things together for good in your life. He foreknew you. So who could be against you? God's never surprised. There's no sneak attacks. There's no one who can come against you and be successful. So God foreknew you. But the next thing that we see about what God has done on your behalf here in verse 29 and 30 is that God predestined you. God foreknew you and God predestined you. The word predestined, it means to predetermine, to decide beforehand. God predestined. Again, much like his foreknowledge, this is, Now, the idea of predestination brings up some concerns for a lot of people. I would boil it down to two major concerns to this idea of predestination. The first concern is, well, predestination. If God predestined us, does that mean that we don't get to choose? Because we look at God as sovereign, he's in control, he has the absolute right. So does that mean that our choices don't mean anything? That we don't really get a choice? That's one concern. The second concern is, well, if God predestined, doesn't that mean that he predestined some to heaven and some to hell? That he chose who's going to go to heaven and who's going to go to hell. Now, these two concerns that are brought up to this idea of predestination, they come about because we follow a train of thought beyond what the Bible actually teaches. And so I want to take a moment here to talk about predestination a little bit to try to help us to see the biblical perspective and understand what it's talking about here when Paul says that God predestined you. So again, one concern is, does that mean that we don't get to choose? Because God predestined you, does that mean you don't have a choice? You don't get a choice? You're just going to go to heaven or go to hell according to whatever he chose? Well, we can look at the scriptures and see that the Bible clearly teaches that we have free will. You can just simply look at John 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. There's that call out to whoever will believe. It's an invitation to all. And so there is the free will that we have, the opportunity that we have. We get to choose, but not only do we get to choose, but we must choose. Again, Romans is about the gospel. When it comes to the gospel, you get to choose, but also you must choose whether or not you will believe in Jesus Christ and receive the forgiveness that he offers. But there's this kind of wrestling that happens between this idea of free will, that you have free will, you get to choose and you must choose, and then the sovereignty of God. God has the absolute right over all things. and he can do whatever he wants to do now often free will and sovereignty are described as opposites so the the way it's described again i'm i'm suggesting this maybe isn't the best way but the way it's described is god is sovereign and we have free will and so a balanced approach kind of is in the middle and so you kind of hold on to the sovereignty of god you hold on to the free will But then there are those who go far to this side and say, God is sovereign. And that means you don't have any choice. Nobody has a choice because God's sovereign. He's in control. And so the more you go on the scale this way towards God's sovereignty, the less free will that people have. Or you go to this side of the scale and you say, all right, you have free will. That means God doesn't really have control. He doesn't really get a choice. It's up to you. You won't You're the one who has free will. You have to choose. And the more you go to this side, the less sovereignty God has, the less control that God has. And so we try to kind of find the balance and go to the middle where God is sovereign and we have free will. Now, I think that's not the best way to describe this idea of free will and God's sovereignty. And God gave me an illustration that really helped me. I'm hoping it'll help you too. So I would ask you to think about it this way. I have a next door neighbor. Now, I live on a street called Blossom Hill. So my next door neighbor, well, I have a next door neighbor that lives on Blossom Hill. But also I can say that my next door neighbor doesn't live on Blossom Hill. And you might wonder, well, how can you have a next door neighbor that doesn't live on the street that you live? Is that possible to have a next door neighbor that's not on the street that you're on? Well, I live on a corner. And so I have one neighbor that's on Blossom Hill and I have another neighbor that's on Bayfield because I'm on the corner. They're right next to me. They're my next door neighbor, but they're not on my street. See how much clearer that makes it? No, I'm just kidding. I'm not done yet. Here's the point. You could think about sovereignty and free will as a line and you're trying to like find the balance. Don't think of it as one line. Think of it as an intersection. So I have... Well, I live on Blossom Hill, but my next door neighbor lives on Bayfield. That is, there's the intersection of these two roads. I would suggest to you the sovereignty of God and the free will of man are not opposites. They're perpendicular. That is, salvation occurs where the sovereignty of God and the free will of man intersect, where they meet, where they come together. And that is the perfect situation. The perfect solution to understanding that the sovereignty of God and the free will of men, they're not opposites. They don't contradict each other. They're not in opposition to each other. And setting them out so that the sovereignty of God's over here and the free will's over there and one counteracts the other, that I would suggest is an oversimplification. Of course, my intersection example is also an oversimplification, but things are more complex. There's multiple dimensions to who God is and how these things work. Now, here's the interesting part that I think about an intersection. You have, you know, sovereignty lane and free will way. If you follow that street and keep on going past the intersection, you'll end up in the wrong place, right? So if you keep going down free will lane... and you pass the intersection of God's sovereignty, well, then you end up in the wrong place of where you say, well, I have free will. I get to do whatever I want. God doesn't have any control in my life. He doesn't have any say. And you end up at the wrong destination. And if you take sovereignty lane, I think that's what I called it, sovereignty lane too far, you go past free will, and now God has control of everything. Nobody gets a choice. Now you end up at the wrong destination. No, the destination is where these two intersects. where God is sovereign and he has given you choice. So it doesn't mean that you don't get to choose. It just means that God is in control and you have a choice. Now, how does that work? And many people wrestle with this, but you know, I heard Corson share it this way. I really liked and appreciated the illustration. He says, think about it like two people playing chess. On one side of the table is a master chess player. On the other side is a person who's only been playing for about a week. They're a novice. They can barely remember which way the pieces go. Now as they play this game of chess, the novice is able to, they're free to move how they want to move, to do the opening move, to according to the parameters, you know, the way that the pieces move. They're able to do what they want, but they'll soon find as a novice playing a master that Wherever they go, they find themselves boxed in. They find their plans being thwarted. They find the master is able to work the board and accomplish things much greater in much greater ways. And I think that's a good picture for us. So we're free. We get to choose. And what we find in the sovereignty of God is that he is still in control and he is able to play the board much better than we are. He still gives us the choice. It doesn't negate our responsibility to choose, but God predestined you in his sovereignty. He chose you. Now again, the second concern is that, well, okay, but doesn't that mean that God predestined some to heaven and some to hell? I mean, okay, let's say God chose all these people in this room to go to heaven. Doesn't that mean that he also chose people who aren't in this room to go to hell? And again, this is what happens when you go past the intersection, right? You take God's sovereignty to a place that the Bible never describes or declares. And you go too far on that road. No, you got to stay at the intersection between the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. It doesn't eliminate choice. It gives God opportunity to let people choose. And so God's predestining is based upon his foreknowledge according to verse 29. Again, verse 29, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined. And so remember, going back to that first thing that God does for you is he foreknew you. And he knew what your response would be to the gospel message. He knew what your response would be to the son of God dying on the cross for your sin. And as a result, alongside of his foreknowledge, he made his plans. He predestined. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1, verse 2, he's writing to believers and he says, "'You are the elect according to the foreknowledge of God.'" God's elections, God's determinations are based on his information, his knowledge, which we don't have and we don't understand fully what it means to know everything the way that God does. But God in his foreknowledge, having foreknown, he predestined. And then notice what it says in verse 29. He says, predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. The Bible never declares or even hints at that God predestined some to destruction or judgment. Predestination, the way that God describes it, is always related to being like Jesus, being glorified, being the fulfillment of what God has called us to be. Ephesians 1, verse 5 is another passage that talks about predestination. He says, Predestination, biblically, is always talking about God's choosing us to be his children, to be conformed to his image, to be more like him, to be blessed, essentially. And he chose us based on his information about us, which he's had before he formed you in the womb. The Greek scholar Zodiatis says, the important thing for us to consider when this word is used, talking about predestination, is not who is predestined, but what they are predestined to. He says they are always predestined to salvation, to adoption, or to glory. And so we need to stick to the intersection. Predestined, lane, free will, way, they meet together, and we see the picture. God is sovereign, he's in control, and he's made plans, he's made decisions, and he's based on what he knew about the decisions that you would make and the free will that you would exercise. So that's a whole lot of doctrine. That's a whole lot of information, right? But let's go back a little bit. Who can be against you? You as a believer in Jesus Christ, who can be against you if God foreknew you and he knew... that you would respond to the gospel message. He knew that you would believe in Jesus Christ and be forgiven and have the hope of everlasting life. He knew that. And so he predestined you and he set the plans and he established it so that it's set. He's determined beforehand, you will be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. You will be made like Jesus. So who can be against you? And again, the answer is no one. Looking again at verse 30, he says, moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. So here's the next thing that God does for us. He calls us. This word call, it means to call out or another way to look at it is to invite. So he knew you. He knew how you would respond. He knew who you would be. He knew the thoughts that you would have and the things that you would do. And so he predestined accordingly. And he called you. He gave you the invitation. He called you to himself. Jesus said in John chapter 6 verse 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. Anytime we approach God or draw near to God, it's in response to the call of God, to the invitation of God, inviting us to draw near, inviting us to come close. And so God called you. He gave you an invitation to receive him, to believe in him, to experience the fullness that he has for you. God called you. And I pray, as I'm sharing this with you this evening, that you've answered that call. You've answered that invitation and received what Christ has for you and received the forgiveness that he offers on your behalf. Because when you do receive that, then you receive all the benefits that we've been talking about. No one can be against you because God is working all things together for good. Because he foreknew you, he predestined you, and he called you. I like to think of it a little bit this way. I've shared this illustration before, but it's similar to when I proposed to Kim. Now, I had a pretty good idea what her answer would be. I foreknew. And so I made the plans and I developed the invitation. And I said, essentially, I choose to commit the rest of my life to you. Now, that doesn't mean that she didn't get a choice. That was the invitation. Then she had opportunity to respond. Unfortunately, she said no the first couple of times. No, I'm just kidding. She did it. She said, okay, yes, yes, I, yeah, let's get married. The same is, well, it's basically true. Again, a lot of these things are oversimplifications because we're talking about God who is far superior to what we can understand, but the picture there is valid. God chose you. He called you. He invited you. And then we get to respond. We get to answer the invitation. And those who answer the invitation, well, the next thing that we see here in verse 30 is whom he called, he also justified. And we've been talking a lot about being justified as we have gone through Romans. So I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here. But the idea of being justified, it means that God declared you not guilty and that he declared you righteous. That when you believe in Jesus Christ, you have a perfect standing before God so that it's just as if you'd never sinned. And so God declares that you are not guilty, even though you are guilty. Because you believe in Jesus, God declares you are not guilty. And even though you aren't perfect and you don't do everything you're supposed to do, God declares you righteous because you believe in Jesus Christ. And so who can be against you? Because as far as God is concerned, you are not guilty. Who can bring an accusation against you? You know, Harvey, he's a scumbag. He's a dirty dog. He did this and he did that. And God says, he's not guilty. Who can be against him? Who can be against you? Well, you know, Jake didn't do those things he was supposed to do. Who can be against him? God says he's righteous. Who can be against you? God foreknew you. He predestined you. He called you and he justified you. He said once and for all, for a believer in Jesus Christ, you're not guilty. You are completely righteous. Well, the final thing that we see that God does for us in verse 29 and 30 is that God glorified you. He foreknew you, he predestined you, he called you, he justified you, and he glorified you. The word glorified, it means to make glorious or to clothe with splendor, to clothe with splendor. Now, we talked about this a little bit two weeks ago as we talked about this verse and touched on it. It's pretty incredible because we understand this part has yet to be fulfilled. As it comes to justification, a believer in Jesus Christ right now, this moment today is justified, not guilty, righteous. But we're not yet glorified. That will take place in eternity. We will be glorified. But here he announces it as past tense. God's done all these things. And in addition to all those things, he has glorified us. he's glorified you which is a really strong statement that should encourage us god is saying your glorification is so certain i can say it in past tense it's so certain there's no question about it it's not you might be you may be no god foreknew you he predestined you he called you he justified you and he glorified you it's for sure no question He who began the work in you will be faithful to complete it. For sure. No question. That is God's promise to believers in Jesus. And so the idea of being glorified, it's speaking of what we will be in eternity. We will be made glorious. Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says, this corruptible must put on incorruption. Right now we have a corruptible body. It falls apart. It's not perfect. It's not perfect. but it will put on incorruption and we will have a glorious body in eternity. This mortal must put on immortality, Paul says. Right now we have a mortal body, but we will have an immortal body when we are glorified. And that is guaranteed to a believer in Jesus Christ. Your future glory is so sure, so certain that God sees it as past tense. So who can be against you? If this is the guarantee, if your future glory is so certain, again, looking back at what this point is here in verse 29 and 30, point number two is that God predestined you to be like Jesus. God predestined you to be like Jesus. And it's so certain that God can announce all of these things and say, past tense, done deal. So who can be against you when God foreknew you? Nothing will surprise him. Nothing takes him off guard. God foreknew you. And God predestined you because he foreknew you. He set the plans. He's established, as Ephesians tells us, he set before us the path that we're to walk and the good deeds that he's called us to do. He's predestined. He set these things before us because he knew us and he called us. He invited us to walk the path, to respond to the gospel. And he justified us. He declared us not guilty and totally righteous. And he glorified us. So who can be against you? Now, let me remind you, this is true of all believers. Whether you believe in Jesus for one day or for a hundred years, whether you're really strong and walking with the Lord or whether you kind of bounce around and fumble around a little bit, whether you are reading your Bible every day or not reading your Bible every day. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, these things are true of you. So who can be against you? Who can come against you successfully? Who can thwart the plan of God? Where God says, it's so sure I'm going to say it in past tense, I glorified you. And then someone says, no, no, no, you thought you did, but I figured out something. No, nobody can come against God. He is in control. He is sovereign. Who can be against you? Well, finally, point number three found in verse 31. Point number three is God is for you. He says, what shall we say? Now, man, there's a lot we could talk about here. What shall we say to these things? Going back to verse 1. Verse 16. He declares, we are children of God. And then verse 17, if we're children of God, then we're heirs of God and we're joint heirs with Christ. We are joined together as inheritors with Christ. And verse 18, he says, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. In verse 26, the Spirit himself makes intercession for us. In verse 28, all things work together for good. In verse 29, whom he foreknew, he also predestined. In verse 30, he called, he justified, he glorified. What then shall we say to these things? Now, Paul gives us a suggestion on how we should respond. Here's what we ought to say. If God is for us, who can be against us? When you look at Romans chapter 8, you see these promises of God, these benefits of believing in Jesus that are really beyond description, that are beyond our capacity to fully understand. But as we understand them more and more, I don't know about you, but these things are blowing my mind as I realize and adjust and remember all that God has done for us and the incredible position that he gives you as a believer in Jesus. What shall I say to these things? If God is for me, who can be against me? Who can condemn you? Nobody. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Who can diminish your glory in eternity? Absolutely nobody. Oh, people may try. Satan may try. Never succeed. Who can keep God from working the things in your life for good? Nobody. Nobody can thwart the plans of God. Who can stop the Holy Spirit from praying for you? Nobody. If God is for us, who can be against us? And here's what you need to know. God is for you. God is for you. He's on your side. I know many times we have this concept in our minds, in our hearts, that God's just like looking for an opportunity to smack us down. I know we have that. We carry that. You know where we get that from? It's not from God. We might generate that ourselves. The enemy might try to plant that. He wants you to believe that. But God is for you. He's not out to get you. He's not out to destroy you. He is for you. He's on your side. He has your best interests in mind. And that's why he makes these kinds of promises. Hey, I'll work out all things together for good to those who love me. We need to adjust our thinking and allow God our hearts to be corrected when we begin to think that God is not for us. And I don't care what you would say as an excuse. Well, you know, I've done this or I've done that. I had this, I had that, whatever. If you will love God, if you will believe in Jesus Christ, God is for you. God is for you. He wants to work on your behalf. He wants to accomplish glorious things through your life. So who can be against you? Because God is for you. So many times we're running around trying to get God on our side. And we come up with all kinds of weird things sometimes about how we can get God on our side. There's only one thing you got to do to get God on your side. And that is to believe in Jesus Christ. If you'll turn your life over to him and put God first in your life, that's it. That's all he wants. That's all he desires. That's all he requires. And as soon as you do that, he's on your side. He's working all things together for your good. And you can know, you can rest assured, God's not surprised. I can't believe, oh my goodness, they believed in me. I can't believe it. What am I going to do now? No, no, no. He foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified, and he glorified. Done deal. And so you can rest assured his promises are true. He's for you. He's working all these things of your life out for good so that in eternity, you'll be able to look back and you won't look back with regret and say, God, you know, you really shouldn't have let that happen in my life. Sometimes we have that attitude, right? I have a couple questions for God when I stand before him. Hey, what do you think you're doing there? You know, when we actually stand before him, we'll look to God and say, thank you. Thank you for allowing that. Thank you for doing that. It was worth it because you worked out all things together for good. Who can be against you if God is for you in this way? Pretty incredible, amen? And so we want to take some time at the end of the service here just to worship the Lord and to just celebrate. what we have in Christ, who we are, our position, that God is for you and working for your good. And so Kim's going to lead us in a couple songs, and I would encourage you, stop trying to jump through hoops and do all kinds of things that you think of, that you think, you know, you're trying to please God or impress God. Just receive. Receive what God has done for you. Believe in Jesus Christ. And even if you've never done so, you can do so right this moment and just look to the Father and call out to Him and say, yeah, I am a sinner. I am not able to do anything on my own, but you've done so much for me and I receive what you've done for me on the cross. I believe in you and I'm going to turn from my ways to follow you. You can make that decision and you can call out to God right there, right now and have all of these promises at work on your behalf. And so let's do that this evening. Let's enjoy. Let's build up ourselves and our trust in God, our faith in who He is and what He's doing for us. During this time also, if you are prompted by the Lord and you want to minister to somebody or maybe have someone pray for you, you can go pray for someone, share a scripture with them. You can move about across the room as the Lord leads and we want to give you the opportunity to do that as we worship the Lord as well. Let's worship Him and enjoy the the work that He has accomplished for us.