God's Chain of Redemption

Romans 8 and the Theme of God's Chain of Redemption

Take out your Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter 8, hold your place at verse 28. The title of today's message is God's Chain of Redemption. And I want to preface today's message with a few remarks before we read the text.

The last couple of weeks I have been out of my series. I normally preach verse by verse through text of the Bible. We did a long series in Genesis. And as many of you know, I'm preparing for taking several weeks off when the baby comes.

Jennifer is, you know, going to be needing some help. So the elders have graciously given me four Sundays where I won't have to preach. Brother Andy is going to preach too. Brother Mike is going to preach too, which will be the longest I've taken off on Sunday, I think, ever.

But I'm grateful to have that opportunity. And the reason why I bring this up is because I'm not in a series right now, so I've taken these opportunities over the last several weeks to preach on individual subjects, but they do tie together.

If you'll remember, I preached on church membership and why membership is necessary and important. Then I preached on what are the essentials and the non-essentials of the faith, right? All of these are pointing toward something in my mind, and my mind is this, and that is that we understand who we are as a body of Christ, that we understand what it means to be part of this church and what we teach and believe at Sovereign Grace.

And so what I have decided to do today to sort of round out this thing, because, as I said, the eviction notice for the baby is Tuesday, one way or another we should have a baby, Lord willing, by then.

I know I'm not going to have another week, so this week is the end of this little mini-series on membership and doctrine and things like that. And what I've decided to talk about today is what defines us in regard to our understanding of the nature of God and particularly the subject of predestination.

Calvinism, Predestination, and Why These Terms Scare People

Now, the reason why I want to talk about this is I know that some of you are new to our church, you've just joined or just about to join, and you've heard us use these terms, Calvinism, predestination, election.

These words can be very intimidating. And sometimes people come in, hear those words, and they run because those words scare them to death. And we try about once a year to reiterate what we teach about these things and try to help people understand them.

Last year we had five Sundays. Brother Andy and Brother Mike preached with me, and we did five Sundays through the five points of Calvinism. So we have sermons about every year. And actually that's something I adopted from Roy Hargrave, who many of you don't know who that is, but Roy Hargrave was the pastor of River Bend Community Church, which was in Ormond Beach, Florida.

He's with the Lord now, but he was one of the men who helped me come to the doctrines of grace and understand them from a biblical perspective. And he did that. He had the First Baptist Church of Ormond Beach, which became Ormond Beach River Bend, and every year he would preach at least once on the doctrines of grace to help the church understand what those are.

Because I'm going to tell you that what I'm going to teach you today and what I'm going to explain to you today is not popular in mainstream evangelicalism. In fact, there are many in mainstream evangelicalism who would balk at some of the things that I'm going to say.

Some of them would even go as far as to say that the things that I am saying are unbiblical. I hope to prove that's not true. But understand, these are not popular things. And some of you may even have people in your family who go to other churches who say, man, you go to a weird church, you go into one of them predestination churches, or you go to one of them Calvin-believing churches.

In 2008, we had a small group of people within this very church who wanted to have me removed because of preaching the doctrines of grace. Brother Jack Bunning will remember that conversation very well because I knew something was going on, and so I asked him for a meeting.

I hope you don't mind me telling this story, brother. He was an elder at the time, and he and I were sharing the role of elder here at the church, and I said, Jack, there's something going on. Can we meet?

And we sat down, and he sat across from the table, and he said, they say you believe in Calvinism. And I said, well, what does that mean? He said, I don't know. It's just what they say, right? Because they were so afraid of it because they didn't understand it.

And I would argue when the people who left still don't understand it. That may sound a little ugly, but it's the truth. So what I want to teach you today is I'm going to come directly out of the text, and I'm going to show you one of the texts that was most convincing to me in regard to this doctrine.

It uses the words predestination, election, foreknowledge, and we're going to define these words. I didn't bring my normal Bible, and I brought very little notes. I only have one page, which really is just a piece of a dictionary definition I wanted to read to you.

I brought my Greek text. It's Greek and English interlinear. I'm just going to use this to show you what this means, and this is how we're going to do it today. All right? So let's together stand, and we're going to read Romans 8, beginning at verse 28, and we're going to go down to verse 33.

Romans 8:28-33 and the Golden Chain of Redemption

Beginning at verse 28, it says,. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.

I pray, Lord, that you would keep me from error. For I know that I'm a fallible man. I'm capable of preaching error. For the sake of your name and for the sake of my conscience, I pray against that with all of the fiber of my being.

Lord, keep me from error. And I pray, God, that you would open the hearts of your people to the truth. And Lord, for those who are confused about this subject, may today be a helpful tool to bringing them to an understanding of what it is that we teach and what it is we believe the Bible teaches.

Lord, for those who have come understanding this, I pray this will just add to their understanding. And I pray, Lord, for those who are not saved. Lord, we don't believe that election means that someone is just automatically saved.

But Lord, there is the means of grace whereby you bring about the salvation of the soul through the preaching of the word. So I pray that the preaching of the word today, if it be your will, would result in the salvation of your elect.

In Jesus' name, amen. Romans 8 .28 has to be one of the most well-known and beloved passages in all of the Bible. Anytime a person goes through a terrible experience in life, whether it be the loss of someone they loved or a medical diagnosis or an economic distress or something, oftentimes our go-to verse is either Psalm 46 or Romans 8 .28.

Psalm 46, of course, reminds us that even though the world gives way, the Lord is still on its throne. But Romans 8 .28 is probably the most common go-to verse. It's the verse which says that all things work together for good.

And so many people cite the passage just like that. They say everything works together for good and that's it. Well, beloved, if I could just challenge you today, that is not what Romans 8 .28 says. That is a portion of it, but even that portion of it is easily misunderstood, if not understood within the framework of the entire chapter.

If you look at Romans 8, and I've been preaching through Romans at Set Free. As you know, I go there every Thursday morning and I preach there. And I've been doing a chapter-by-chapter overview of Romans.

And last week I just happened to do Romans 8. And I said Romans 8 is the greatest chapter in the Bible in my estimation. It starts with no condemnation. It ends with no separation. As one theologian said, if you can imagine the Bible being like a ring, Romans would be like the stone and Romans 8 would be the sparkling point of the stone.

It's this wonderful text which begins with no condemnation, ends with no separation. It's filled with the work of the Spirit in our life. And it reminds us that we have been adopted as sons. What a wonderful chapter.

But there's a moment in the chapter where the Apostle Paul says, these present sufferings are not to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Some say to us, some say in us. But ultimately everything that we suffer is not to be compared to what we're going to experience in glory.

Hello, I'm still here. So all of this is leading up to this point in verse 28. Because when we get to verse 28, Paul has just expressed about the suffering that we're going to experience and he wants to remind his hearers that even in this suffering, God is still sovereign.

God's Sovereignty Over Salvation and the Meaning of the Call

And we're going to start with that word. As I wanted to do, I brought my handy dandy whiteboard. He wants to express that God is sovereign. And the way that he expresses that God is sovereign is this.

He says that all things, actually in the ESV he says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. Now I prefer the New American Standard translation at this point. The New American Standard translates it like this.

God causes all things to work together for good. So it becomes an active thing. It isn't as if God just takes lemons and makes lemonade. But that God is actively causing all things to work together. It's God doing this thing.

This is why many of the Reformed confessions stress that God has ordained from eternity past all that will come to pass. By the eternal counsel of his own will, God has determined all that will come to pass.

A lot of people say, Amen, brother. Until we address the subject of salvation. Because then it becomes all about me and my free will. You see, it's okay if God determines the flood. It's okay if God determines the volcanic eruption.

It's okay if God determines the tsunami or the hurricane. It's okay if God determines whether or not a bridge is going to collapse or a building is going to fall over. But when it comes to my salvation, I must be the arbiter.

I must be the one who gets to make the final decision. And so we've come up with all kinds of ways that people describe this. God does 99%, but you have to do the 1%. You ever heard somebody say that?

If you haven't, you haven't been around Southern Baptists very much. I heard that many times. God is doing his part, but you have to do your part. And so it all becomes, salvation becomes, rather than an act of God, it becomes an act that we must in some way allow him to do, empower him to do, or participate in.

And so when we come to salvation, sovereignty takes a back seat. And the sovereignty of the human will becomes primary. That's a problem, as we will see. Notice in the text what it says. It says, I'm sorry, verse 28.

It says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. Notice it doesn't stop there. It says, for those who are what? Called. Now we're going to come back to this word later, because this is actually part of a greater chain.

But understand this. It says that all things work together for good, not for everybody. I can honestly say that the person who's in hell now, or who is in, we could say, the intermediate state of punishment, awaiting the final lake of fire.

But people who are right now, you know, we're going to get real theological. The person who is now suffering, all things didn't work together for good for them. In that sense, would we agree? That's the thing.

When it says, all things work together for good, that is immediately qualified. All things work together for good for those that are called according to his purpose. So understand the logic of Paul's argument.

He has been talking about suffering, and then he deals with suffering by saying all things work together for good. But then he qualifies that by saying it only works for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

So this becomes the context of the next statement. This becomes the context which sets up verse 29. Because what he says in verse 28, for those who are called according to his purpose, now he begins to give us a picture of what it means to be called.

And by the way, theologians have always defined the call in two ways. And I do want to mention this as we start. We have two terms here. What we call the general call, and what we might call the effectual call.

The general call is that call that goes out to all men. Acts 17 says, God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. That's a general call. When a man stands before a group of people and says, repent and trust Jesus.

That's the general call. And this is why we read in scripture, many are called, but few are chosen. Because in that sense it's referring to what we call the general call. The general call goes out to all people by virtue of the preaching of the gospel.

And that is the general call. But, when Paul speaks here of the call, he cannot be referring to the general call. And you say, why not? Well, consider what he just said. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called.

Well, that can't be the general call. Because that speaks of a specific subset of humanity who are referred to as the kaleo or the called. And so the called right there refers not to all people who have heard the call, but those who have received the call and have responded to the call.

So the call has become effectual. We understand. The effectual call is the difference. In theological terms, sometimes we call this irresistible grace. Some people call this, again, effectual calling.

We could discuss that another time. But the point of the matter is, the called in verse 28 is a specific group. And this specific group has been called by God and all things work together for their good.

Foreknowledge, Predestination, and the Golden Chain of Redemption

Now, he says, For those whom he foreknew, that's link number one, by the way, when we start talking about the chain. Those whom he foreknew, he called. Notice that's what it says. Verse 29. For those whom he, pro-egno in Greek, whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

He also predestined. So we see the word foreknew becomes the word predestined. And I want to say something, and I hope you understand that what I'm about to say is not intended to be overly sarcastic.

So if it's taken that way, please understand that's not my intention. Sometimes I have been known, it's been said of me that I can be abrasive. Don't want to be. There are people who will say, the Bible doesn't teach predestination.

Okay, that's a little sarcastic. It's the word is there. Now, how you interpret it may be different. But don't tell me the word ain't there. It is all over the place. So the first thing I would say is, if anybody comes to me and says, the Bible doesn't teach predestination.

I say, you can't read. Because the word is there. Now, how you interpret that word may be different, and we're going to talk about the different ways people interpret it. Hope you guys got time. We won't be here for a few minutes.

But the idea is, if you tell me the Bible just don't say it, you are intentionally ignoring the passages that do say it. So that has to be clear. It says, For whom he foreknew, pro-egno, he also predestined, pro-horetzo.

The reason I'm bringing out the Greek is because I want to talk about what those words mean. And notice the next thing. I put a line here that was actually incorrect. The line actually starts here. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined, and we're going to see in verse 29, whom he predestined, he called.

I'm sorry. Verse 30. But understand, this is the logical argument Paul is making. Okay. All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined.

Now, here's the interesting thing. What did he predestine them to according to this passage? To be conformed to the image of his son. That Christ might be the firstborn among many brothers. So what Paul is saying is that predestination is more than about who gets to go to heaven.

Everybody makes a big deal about going to heaven. And I get it. It's a big deal. But it ain't the only thing. People ask me all the time. If God predestined us, why didn't he just take us on to heaven?

Why did he wait? I say, well, first of all, that argument works just as well against the Arminian as it does the Calvinist. Because we can't always know why God does what he does. But in this sense we can know because he didn't just predestine us to go to heaven.

He predestined us to be changed. You understand that if you are a believer, God has predestined you not just to enjoy the glories of heaven, but to be like Christ on earth. He predestined you to have a changed heart and a changed life that you would mirror his son in this world to a lost and dying world and be the example of Christ hands and feet in this world.

So that Christ would be the firstborn among, and I can't wait to preach Colossians. By the way, when I get back, I'm starting Colossians chapter 1, verse 1. And Colossians 1 is all about the supremacy of Christ.

It's all about Christ being first, supreme, above all. And he talks about Christ being the firstborn of all creation. But Christ is not born like we're born. Christ is eternal. But we are born into the family of God.

We are brought into the family of God by Christ through the act of redemption that he did on the cross. He gives us the adoption of sons. Paul just said that. We become co-heirs with Christ through that adoption.

But how did we get there? You know, when somebody asks you, how you got saved? You ever had somebody ask you how you got saved? How do we normally respond? Well, when I was 19 years old, I was confronted with an unbeliever.

He made me question some things. I was driving my truck home on Broward Road. And I became a believer because God changed my heart in that very moment. That's how we normally do it. Anybody ever done this?

Hey, how did you get saved? Well, in eternity past. Because that's really how it happened. See, you think your salvation began with you. Oh, no. Your salvation actually began within the Trinitarian mind of God in eternity past when he determined to create this world and by default determined to create people in this world and as a result determined to create you in this world and you were an object of God's knowledge.

God knew you before you were ever born. What does Psalm 139 say? Before he formed me in the womb, knitted my inward parts. I'm looking, I don't got one. But before he formed me in the womb, he knew me.

Right? Theodore, his days are numbered right now. You know that's what Psalm 139 says? That every day of my life was written in God's book before the foundation of the world. There's some comfort in that, isn't there?

Now, that doesn't mean you need to be stupid and go run out in front of a truck or something like that. I mean, don't tempt the Lord. But at the same time, we can trust that I'm not going to live one day longer than God has determined and I'm not going to live one day shorter than God has determined because God has determined my end from the beginning.

See, again, people don't have a problem with that. They don't have a problem with God getting to determine where you're born. They don't have a problem with God getting to determine who you're going to be born to.

You didn't get to pick your parents. They don't have a problem with God getting to determine how old you're going to be or what you're going to look like, what color you're going to be, what language you're going to speak.

God determined all of that. We don't have a problem with that. Where do we have the problem when we start thinking about salvation? No, that's got to be up to me. Everything else is up to God. Everything else is determined by God.

But I have to be the captain of my destiny. See this is why we don't like the doctrine of predestination because we just haven't really thought about it. Just think it through. I actually believe, and someone might argue with me on this, I actually believe where we're born and who we're born to is part of God's elective purpose.

Because I was born in a situation where when I was seven years old my stepmom brought me to church and I got to be in this same church that I'm preaching to right now is the church I grew up in. You think that was an accident?

You think God didn't know? And that God didn't have a plan for that? It's all part of the plan. It's all part of the plan. Now, let's talk a little bit about this word forenew. Because a lot of people see that and they add in some ideas that are not actually the case.

Pro-egno, the Greek word there, is the root of that is the word for knowledge. The word to know something. And so what some people see this, they'll say, because by the way, let's go and write the whole chain down.

For whom he foreknew, he predestined. Whom he predestined, I know I already wrote called here, but I'm going to go ahead and put it over here just so we don't forget. Whom he predestined, he called. And I do think that's a big part of it.

I think the word called here is often, this is the part that convinced me, by the way. How'd you become convinced? Well, through a lot of different passages and a lot of different time. It took me two years of deep, deep study to arrive at the conclusion that these things are true.

But this word, I couldn't get past. Because I want you to notice where it is in the list. And we'll come back to that later. But the fact that it's not first, but it's actually third in a line. That God was doing things before this ever happened is huge.

We'll get back to that in a minute. Whom he called, he justified. And whom he justified, he glorified. Some theologians call that the golden chain of redemption. I've been, this week, I've been listening to people who disagree with me.

I try to do that to prepare my thinking. What do people say who don't agree with me? Why listen to somebody who agrees with you? I know what he's going to say. You know, spend some time listening to people who disagree.

And one of the things that I've noticed is, one, they want to put these out of order. Or two, they want to redefine the words. Or three, they want to say this doesn't have anything to do with salvation.

If that ain't got nothing to do with salvation, if justified ain't got nothing to do with salvation, then you are really reaching. And if glorification ain't got nothing to do with salvation, then you have left the reservation.

Okay? This is a part and parcel of what is sometimes referred to as the Ordo Salutis, the Latin of order of salvation. Now, this isn't all the order of salvation. Because we could go back to 4 New, and we could say God's determinant for counsel, where he determined to create.

We could add some things in. And in between some of these things, we could put some things like between justification and glorification. We could add sanctification. So Paul is not intending here to give a completely fleshed out order of salvation.

But what he is, is he is showing us five things that God does. By the way, that has to be understood. Everything in this list is in the past tense, aorist tense actually in the Greek, which is a specific type of past tense.

It's in the indicative showing it's God did this, not you. It's not an imperative. It's an indicative. And it's active. So if you look at the Greek, it would be AIA. Aorist indicative or active aorist indicative.

So these are five things that God does. And if you can understand God is the one doing this, then you will never again come to the conclusion that your salvation was something you did. So whom he foreknew, he predestined.

Oh, I heard a guy this week. He said, well, this doesn't say everyone he foreknew was predestined. And everyone was predestined was called. And everyone, he got, this dude had solo cups. And he goes, see, here's the predestined cup.

And I'm going to put it inside the called cup. And I'm going to take the call. And he's trying to make this argument. And he says, but there could be some people over here who weren't predestined, but they're called.

Or there could be some over here who were foreknown, but weren't predestined. And I was like, bro, again, you're so desperate to avoid the plain meaning of the text that you try to find any way you can to avoid it.

In fact, one of the most famous non-Calvinist, I don't, he's a non-Calvinist teacher. A lot of people who are not Calvinist promote him. He doesn't convince me, but he convinces some people. He argues that foreknow is talking about people in the past.

So Paul, this is his argument. Paul is talking about people that God knew before, like Moses and Abraham and Noah. And they're the ones who are foreknown because God knew them before. As if God is in time.

And this is speaking from God's perspective of being, you know, with us. And he just happened to know Moses before or know. That's not what this is referring to at all. Understand this, pro-agno, the root word of the word foreknow is the word know.

And when the Bible says God knows someone, it does not mean the passive intake of information. Like for instance, if I said, I know Tim. I know Tim likes to work out. I know Tim has a wonderful family.

I know Tim and I, we've been friends for 10 years. So I know you by virtue of learning about you. And I know Gary. You know, we pray together, we talk together, we're good friends. And I know you because I have taken in information about you over time.

And see, that's the idea some people have of God knowing someone. But the Bible never uses that language when it talks about God knowing. The Bible always uses the language of God knowing in the active sense.

Remember what I said earlier, aorist indicative, active. God's foreknowing is verbal. It's not adjectival, it's verbal, meaning it's something he's doing. He knows and he knows actively. So in that sense, it's the idea that God actually knows the person in the redemptive sense.

You say, well, where does the Bible ever use that language? Again, I don't mean to sound like I'm being sarcastic. Stop, stop. I gotta be nice. I'm trying to be winsome here. I don't want to run anybody off.

I'm trying to be nice. Amos chapter 3, verse 2. God is speaking to Israel. And he says, you only have I known of all the nations of the earth. Now for a moment, forgetting this for just a moment, let's interpret that.

Do you think that that means that God only had a passive understanding of who Israel was? Or does that mean that God had an active relationship that he determined by choosing Israel out of all the nations?

It's obviously the second, right? Because if you think, oh, by the way, if we have a problem with the election, then we have to have a big problem with the Old Testament. Because can we honestly say that God treated Israel the same way he treated Egypt?

Can we honestly say he treated them the same way he treated the Amorites? Can we say that God gave the same amount of grace to the Israelite high priest as he did to the high priest of Ammon? No. Nobody's making that argument, and we shouldn't.

So God chose Israel. He says, you alone have I known of all the nations of the earth. You see, when God knows someone, it's referring to his active entering into of a relationship. Here's another way to prove that.

I want you to think of Matthew chapter 7. In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus says, beginning in verse 21, on that day, many will come to me. And they will say what? Have we not done this in your name and done that?

Have we not worked many miracles in your name? And I will say unto them, I never knew you. So what does the word no there mean? We were never in a relationship. We were never in covenant. I never knew you.

Now with that in mind, just to kind of make my argument, it says those whom he, he is God, so he is God, those whom he foreknew. Go back to Matthew 7. I never what? Knew you. Guess who is not included here?

Those people. Because it says they were never known by God. And you say well God didn't know who they were? God knows who everyone is. It's not talking about passive knowledge. It's talking about active entrance into a relationship.

This is what I brought, my little print out. Nelson's Bible Dictionary. Now that is not, I ain't bringing in John Calvin's dictionary. He doesn't even have one. But what I'm saying is I brought a generic Bible dictionary.

Nelson, Thomas Nelson publishers, man they'll publish anything. So what I mean is they ain't got an agenda. They're just Bible publishers. I think Thomas Nelson owns a New King James Version. So I mean they're Bible publishers, commentary publishers, equal opportunity people.

But listen to the definition of the word foreknowledge. By the way if you're on my Facebook, I put this on last night. I just posted this definition of foreknowledge. Listen to this. The unique knowledge of God that enables him to know all events including the free acts of people before they happen.

Now right away you say well that sounds Arminian. No, no, no, listen. God's foreknowledge is much more than foresight. God does not know future events and human actions because he simply foresees them.

He knows them because he wills them to happen. Thus God's foreknowledge is an act of his will. In Romans 8 .29 and 11 .2 the Apostle Paul uses the word foreknew which means to choose or to set special affection upon.

The electing love of God not foresight of human action is the basis of his predestination and salvation. And this same idea is used to express the nation of Israel's special relationship to God. So listen to what it just said.

It says God's foreknowledge is not mere foresight. And that was really honestly the thing that drove me to the conclusion that I have. Because if this simply means who God foresaw, well then it doesn't say anything.

It simply says God foresaw them. It doesn't say anything about them. So it says he simply foresaw them and then he predestined them. Why? Well you have to start inferring things. He saw that they were going to believe or he saw that they were going to become redeemed or whatever.

It doesn't say that. So if you take this word to mean mere foresight, then the rest of these things become about something you do rather than something God does. Because he's foreseeing you do something.

That's not what it says. Instead, if you take this as God knowing, meaning to set his affection on someone, which is what it does mean, those whom he foreknew, he chose to set his affection upon, he predestined.

That makes sense. Because God looked and saw Keith who he knew he was going to create and he determined before I was even born that he was going to show grace to me in a way that I did not deserve. By the way, if you think Calvinism or this doctrine should make someone prideful, it doesn't.

Because, and here's the kicker, I didn't deserve any of this. God chose me in spite of me. God did not choose me because I deserve to be chosen. By the way, if you believe that, that leads to pride. I was smart enough to believe or I was spiritually sensitive enough to listen to the preacher or I was willing to follow Christ when no one else was willing.

That kind of thing can lead to pride quickly. But when you say, there is nothing in me, it's like Spurgeon, and I don't remember the exact quote, but basically what he said was he said, When I look at myself, I find nothing for which the Lord should have chosen me.

And yet he chose me still. I find nothing in myself that would make me worthy. And yet he determined to save me anyway. That will knock you off your pride barrel. And by the way, a lot of times people become Calvinist and they get a little prideful because they get a little bit of knowledge.