Romans 8:26-30 (The Spiritual Life, Part 4, Pastor Jeff Kliewer)

High-minded, puffed-up knowledge of this particular professor. You see, hyper-Calvinism is a big problem. When people begin to sit back and not pray because God's going to work everything out anyway, and not go out and do, and not send missionaries, and not work and fight and make war against the forces of this dark world, we have a problem.

Sovereignty of God and Real Creaturely Will

But two things can be true at the same time. The first great truth that we learn about today is the one we'll focus on, and that is the sovereignty of God. Church, God has free will, utterly free will, to plan and to do whatever he pleases to do according to his purposes, and nobody can question God and ask him why he does it.

But a second thing is true, and that is each one of you and I have real creaturely will. We're not robots, we're not automatons. We actually make choices that make a difference in this world. And notice from the Bible today, I'm going to give you three preliminary texts to underscore this point.

The first is Genesis 50, verse 20. You know the story of Joseph. His brother sold him into slavery. Now when they did that, they made a real willful choice because of jealousy in their hearts, the purpose to get rid of their brother because they hated his coat of many colors, they hated the father's favoritism, they really hated their brother.

And so they had a purpose, and it was an evil purpose. But Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, speaking of the same event, the selling of Joseph into slavery, says this, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

One event that happened in real time, the selling out of Joseph by his brothers, was meant by the willful choices of the brothers to bring about evil. It was a wicked choice, but God meant it for good.

God had planned the salvation of so many people through Joseph being sold into slavery. A sinful thing that people did was part of God's decree. A second example is Isaiah chapter 10, verses 5 to 7. In Isaiah chapter 10, we learn about the Assyrian army.

You could not imagine a more wicked people than the Assyrians, what they did to the people that they conquered. But in Isaiah chapter 10, verse 5, it says, Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger. Whose anger did Assyria represent?

God's. They were a rod, or picture an instrument, as you have a a scalpel in the hand of a doctor, or a club in the hand of a viking. Here you have Assyria, this wicked nation, in the hand of God. They are his rod that he will use to punish his own people, Israel, for Israel's wickedness.

But look at verse 7. Speaking of Assyria, but he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think. So follow with me for a moment. The same event, Assyria ransacking the city, is meant by God in his plan as punishment on Israel.

God means it. He wills it. He decrees it and intends it. But man wills and intends something completely differently. It is a real will resulting in the same event. Both things are true. God's decree, his sovereign predestination, and man's real creaturely choices.

Make sense? That's what we call theologically compatibilism. That these ideas are compatible. They're not opposed to each other. The Bible presents both of them. A final example is Acts chapter 4 verses 27 and 28.

Acts 4 27 and 28. For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed. Now to come against the holy son of God is really the definition of evil, isn't it?

It is a wicked thing to do. The worst. To betray the son of God. It says, Jesus whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. So really four groups represented.

Two individuals in two groups. One, Herod. What did he want? He wanted the throne. He was the king in Israel. Really a puppet king of Rome, but he wanted that authority. What did Pontius Pilate want? He wanted to keep the peace.

He wanted to keep his job. He didn't want Rome cracking down on him. What did the Jewish people want? A different messiah. Not this one, but a conqueror to ride in on a white horse and crush Rome. And what did the Roman soldiers want?

They just wanted to get paid. They're just doing their job. So they all have real willful choices. They do what they do. They crucify Jesus. That's creaturely will. It's real human choices. But look at verse 28.

They also did whatever God's hand and his plan had what? Predestined to take place. God's predestined plan was worked out in the wicked choices of man. So both realities are true. We need to get rid of the kind of hyper-Calvinism that gets rid of human will and leaves nothing that we are to do and to obey.

Martin Luther started the reformation. And how many of y 'all are going trick-or-treating on Thursday, October 31st? No, you're not? Okay. I thought all you adults were going to go trick-or-treating.

That's not what the holiday is about. October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, protesting the Roman Catholic Church and the corruption in the church. A few years later, he would write a book called The Bondage of the Will.

The Bondage of the Will talks about how man's will is not free. It's bound and dead in sin. It's a real will that people have to make real choices. But sin is controlling man. Man is under the dominion, the slavery of sin.

In fact, man is dead in sin. Now, I want to ask you something. Did that kind of quote-unquote Calvinism, which is anachronism, Calvin doesn't come until a little bit later after that book, but did that stop Martin Luther from working?

In the winter of 1521 into 1522, Martin Luther translated the entire Greek New Testament into German. And they printed it and gave it out to the people. In 11 weeks, he worked night and day tirelessly.

He led the Reformation because he believed in the decree of God, the plan of God, but that didn't stop him from working and praying and evangelizing, preaching, striving for the things of God. Turn with me to Romans 8, and this morning we take a deep dive into some deep waters.

I'd like to describe it as graduate school. Graduate school. Romans 8 is all about the spiritual life, and if you would, the first seven verses or so are elementary school by comparison. The big idea in the first seven verses of Romans 8 are that the Holy Spirit is more powerful than the flesh.

He is the one you need to overcome the law of the flesh, which wars against the law of God. Middle school, if you will, is verses 9 through 17. Here the question is, do you have the Holy Spirit? You may believe that he is powerful and can help you to overcome the flesh, but the question is, are you saved?

Let's get over that hurdle before we move on. How do you know if you're saved? How do you have assurance of salvation? A lively pursuit of righteousness. Putting to death the deeds of the body. Being led by the Spirit is a third sign.

You're under the headship of God. He can tell you what to do. Not controlled by a spirit of fear. Crying, Abba, Father. That is, you pray in distress. You have the eternal witness of the Spirit inside of you, and finally, when you suffer, you don't turn tail and run.

You continue to hold on to Christ. You got to make sure you have the Holy Spirit if you're to have the spiritual life. That's middle school. Last week we moved on to high school. High school was living with hope of a coming world.

Getting your eyes off of the things of this world and onto a coming millennial reign of Christ. When the creation no longer groans, the lion lays down next to the lamb. Christ rules as king in Jerusalem, and we are spread out across the earth.

We go up and worship him in festivals for a thousand years, and then there's a final rebellion, a great white throne, a new heaven, a new earth. These are the things that give us hope. So high school is getting free from worldliness, and having hope in the greater things to come.

Looking to the kingdom of God. Graduate school this morning is knowing that God has free will. Knowing that God has free will, and God's decree, his will to do as he pleases, is good toward you. Let's read about it.

Romans 8:26-30 and the Golden Chain of Redemption

Romans 8, verses 26 to 30. Because this affects how you live your life in very practical ways, which you'll see in the application. But first, let's take the meaning of the text. And church here, I'm not going to impose a system, Calvinism or Arminianism.

What we're going to do is we're just going to exegete the text. Ten exegetical points that come right out of these verses. Let's read them. Romans 8, 26 to 30. Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

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. To summarize this passage, I want you to remember the phrase, the golden chain of redemption.

How many of you heard of the golden chain of redemption? It is a five link chain that cannot be broken. The links are foreknowledge, predestination, effectual calling, justification, and glorification.

The links can't be broken. They're as strong as the arms of God. It's a certainty that one leads to the other, with the final result that those who God foreknew will ultimately be conformed to the image of the son.

Glorified and made like him. A brother in heaven. A certainty. It's a golden chain of redemption because it has luster. It's beautiful. It shines. It is something that we should celebrate, not run away from.

Maybe some of you by tradition have been taught to run away from a word or two in the golden chain. Probably predestination. But it's a beautiful thing when rightly understood and rightly applied. Let's look at verse 26 to begin with, and we'll just make 10 quick points out of these verses.

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Man is not presented as hyper-competent. We're not presented as having great knowledge. We are presented as being weak, not strong. In contrast to that, notice that the Spirit is here to help us.

The first big idea is that we have limited understanding, but an omniscient helper. Omniscience meaning knowing everything. There is a helper for us who knows everything. But first you have to recognize your need, and that you don't know everything.

It's kind of good news actually when you embrace that. The Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know. Now in verse 27, notice there is one who knows. And in verse 28, there's something that we know.

So the issue here is knowledge. What do you know and what does he know? First, what don't you know? You don't even know what to pray for. You don't know how to pray. You don't know what to pray. But you do pray sometimes with words that you don't even understand.

You're just groaning in suffering. This world has gotten hard on you and you're crying out to God. Sometimes it just sounds like a groan, like the creation groans. But in that groaning, the Spirit is helping you to pray.

Notice at the end of verse 26, it says, groanings that are too deep for words. Does that mean A, that your words are so deep that you don't even really understand them? Or B, that behind the scenes the Spirit is talking in deep words?

It is A. Because if you read verse 27, it says, he who searches hearts. The heart that's being searched by the Father is this praying heart that's just groaning out words that you might not even be able to put into words.

You're praying and you don't even know what to pray for or you can't get what you've been praying for for so long. Charles Spurgeon gives a really helpful illustration here to make it a little, put a finer point on this idea.

He said, there was a father who had been praying for wayward children. He had prodigal kids, but this father was aging and the longer he prayed, the kids never came to faith. It became the greatest distress in his life until he faced death.

As this older man came to the point of dying, he wanted to be strong so his kids could see his faith and say, yeah, Christianity worked for dad. I want that faith too. But instead, this father began to break under the pressure of death.

He even began to doubt and he was in such distress and agony. He was crying and he did not stay strong for his kids and that became his greatest distress in dying. His kids all rallied to his deathbed and as he died, his kids saw him fail.

That's what broke his heart is that he didn't finish strong. But little did that father know that at the funeral, those boys listened to the preaching of the gospel and here's what brought them to saving faith.

Each one of them said in their own heart and they told one another later that dad was the greatest man they ever knew. And if even a great man like that trembled and broke under the power of death, we better get right with God.

That's profound. Think about it. This man had prayed and he was distressed and groaning and praying to God, save them, save them. And he died thinking that he failed, but it was that very distress at the end that God had ordained to bring those very kids to saving faith.

You see, that's the idea. We groan and we pray and we strive, but we don't even know what to pray for. His failing, God used to bring answer to his own prayers. A beautiful illustration of this. God has omniscient understanding.

Notice also in that verse, it says in verse 27, and he who searches hearts, that means he's looking at our hearts, but that's not what causes him to decide what to do. Isn't that good news? It says he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit.

The spirit's mind is decisive at that point, not what he sees in us. Did you know God knows your heart better than you do? The heart is deceitful above all else. Who can know it? We don't even know ourselves.

God knows our hearts and he doesn't always give us what we want. He knows something better. Here he gives us according to the mind of the spirit and notice, because the spirit intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God.

Big idea. The will of God is the base from which everything else springs. The will of God is completely free. We love the idea of free will, but how many of us have really thought about the freedom of God's will?

The wind blows where it wishes. Nobody knows where it's coming from or where it's going. So it is with those born of the spirit. God sends his Holy Spirit like wind to bring people to saving faith. Who is he able to save?

Whosoever he wills to save. His will is completely free. Now, we have real will, creaturely will, but it's not free like God's. We have this little problem called sin, which enslaves us and kills us. And holds us in slavery until we are set free through regeneration.

When the spirit gives us that faith and brings life to the dead spirit inside of us. So the will of God is what's truly free. Notice also, the spirit intercedes according to the will of God. So it's the father whose will is worked out in the universe, but the spirit prays according to that will.

In other words, is there any disharmony between the spirit and the father? No disharmony. Perfect accord. Father, son, and spirit are perfectly united in saving. The father predestines, elects. The son dies for the elect.

The spirit applies that redemption to the very ones the father elected. Do you see that harmony in the work of the trinity? It's according to, it is not over against one or the other. Romans 8 28. Don't you love this verse?

What a privilege to hear this verse in the church and be reminded of this great truth. We know that for those who love God, that doesn't mean if you meet this condition because we love because God first loved us.

1 John 4 19. It's descriptive of a certain class of people, the believers, the lovers of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. God has a good decree for what's going to happen in the world and it's good for us.

It's better than the script we would have written for ourself. Even though it includes suffering, Joseph going into slavery, the Assyrians ransacking Jerusalem, Jesus crucified on a cross. Who of us would have chosen that?

It's a better plan than what we would have written. It's a good plan. It says in verse 28, for those who are called according to his purpose. So now that goodness of the plan is my fourth point and the fifth point is this word called.

It's not referring to the universal call to the ends of the earth. When William Carey went to India, he issued a universal gospel call. He told anybody and everybody that would listen, Jesus is Lord. He was crucified.

He was buried. He rose from the dead. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. He did not look for an E tattooed on the chest of certain people. Elect. He wasn't looking for that. He just preached the gospel.

But here's the big idea of verse 28. There are certain ones who are called. Not universally called as in the gospel goes out to everybody. But this word called refers to believers. And how do I know that?

Because of the context of Romans. Go back to Romans 1 .1 and 1 .7. Paul is a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle. This is not a universal call that depends on Paul making the right decision.

Because for all of Saul's life until God effectually called him, he was at war against God. He was enslaved to sin. He was going from Jerusalem to Damascus to arrest Christians and throw them into jail.

He was there for the stoning of Stephen. But when God effectually called him, it was the work of God. He blinded him and he spoke to him and he called him in such a way that Paul's heart responded. Because he put light in a dark place.

Not just a light that blinded his eyes, but the light of God filling his heart with the knowledge of the Son of God. Second Corinthians 4, 6, and 7. So this is the work of God. Now look at verse 7. It's not just Paul.

Romans 1 .7. To all those in Rome who are loved by God, and yes God generally loves the world, John 3 .16, but this is referring to a special choosing love because it says, and called to be saints. A saint is a holy one and this calling is effectual.

Makes a person a saint. So in case you doubt the context then, as Paul develops the thought of calling, he says in our text verse 28, those who are called. In verse 30, he says those whom he predestined he also called.

So it's the predestined who are called and then he seals the deal so that nobody can argue. In chapter 9 verse 11, he's referring to Jacob and Esau. In the womb of their mother Rebecca, having done nothing good or bad, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue.

Not because of works, but because of him who, what does it say? Calls. Him who calls. This is the meaning of calls and then you see it again in verse 24, chapter 9 verse 24. Even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.

So to follow the flow of the text here, the word called in this context refers to an effectual call. A destiny to belong as a saint. But Spurgeon said, there will not be found at the last day of account one single soul who can say, I knocked at mercy's door, but God refused to open it.

The Bible says, everyone that asks receives. Can that be true? That everyone who asks receives and at the same time it depends not on man but on God? How can that be true? If it's God who predestines and calls then justifies and glorifies, how can it be true that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved?

Don't these two ideas seem to contradict? Well guess what? Good news for you. You don't need to figure out how. The very idea of this passage in verse 26, there are things you do not know. You don't even know how to pray.

You don't even know what to pray for. But he is the omniscient one and that's the idea. It's to set him up over against us as the one who does know. In him these concepts work together. Here's what we do know.

That God has predestined and called and justified and glorified and whosoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That our part is to repent and believe. We are to tell everyone the good news of Jesus Christ and God will hold people accountable for either accepting or rejecting that call.

These two things are not against one another in the mind of God. The problem is here we are with limited understanding and unable to reconcile things that seem impossible. Spurgeon described it as two railroad tracks that seem like you could never bring them together but somewhere in eternity future those tracks merge.

Or I like what my seminary professor said, when we look at the gates of heaven it says whosoever will. But once you've entered that gate from the perspective of God looking back on another on the other side it says chosen from the foundation of the world.

Same gate different perspective. From our human perspective we cannot reconcile the two. But that's the point. God knows how to do this. Our part then is to not reject anything that God says and this is my sixth point.

Also in verse 28 it says according to his purpose. God calls according to his purpose. According to means that this is the basis on which he does something. The purpose of God is within his will. I want you to notice what it doesn't say.

It does not say, although it could, it does not say according to foreseeing the faith decision of a person. It does not say that God looks down the corridor of history and sees who will choose him and so he circles around and chooses them.

Could have said that. Could have said that right there. But it does say something. It says according to his purpose. Ephesians 1 11 says that God works all things all things. It says in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

So God has a will, a free will. Within his will he has purposes. He can purpose to do this and not that. Guess what? He's free to do that. Here's the great problem with Arminianism. It presumes to tell God what he cannot do.

And here's the rule of life. We do better when we do not presume to tell God what to do. So important. The text tells us God has purposes in what he does in electing some and passing over others. Some people will come along and say that purpose has to be that God foresees who will choose him and then he makes his decision based on that foreknowledge.

Right? That's not in the text. That's imposing on the text. What we are wise to do is to be still like like Job when he was humbled at the end of the book. Were you there when I made the creation and I told the oceans how far they can go and told Leviathan what he can do in the sea.

And before long Job finally claps his mouth and says I repent in dust and ashes. That's where we need to sit on this question. Like Job humbled. We don't know the purposes of God. We can't tell him why he's able to do what he's able to do.

And so it's not according to foreknowledge. That's not in the text. It's according to his purpose. Next. We're almost done. In verse 29 when you see that term foreknowledge that's a biblical word. But it doesn't say foreknowledge of a decision that somebody would hypothetically make in a counterfactual world.

It's foreknowledge of a person. Look what it says. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined. Those elect exiles in 1st Peter 1 .1 are foreknown by God. God knew them before he made them. Before he put them into his world and gave him a mom and a dad who would tell them the gospel.

Or else a descendant of Moloch who would throw them into a fire. Only God knows all the circumstances of life. But listen. It says in verse 29 those whom he foreknew he predestined. The first link in the golden chain of redemption is foreknowledge.

1st Peter 1 .20 says we were known foreknown by God. I'm sorry 1 .2. But look with me real quickly at 1st Peter 1 .20. 1st Peter 1 .20. We need to understand what foreknowledge is in biblical context so we don't get confused by teachers that say otherwise.

1st Peter 1 .19 is referring to the blood of Christ. The Lamb of God. And in verse 20 it says he was foreknown. Before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

Question for you. Did God look down the corridor of history and learn what Jesus would do? Or had he known him in eternity past as the Son? It's the second. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Foreknown is of a person.

And here's the big idea now going back to Romans 8 verse 29. When it says for those whom he foreknew he's saying God knew you even before he made you. He crafted you and made you for this world. Knowing you would be in Adam's sin.

Knowing that he would send his son to die for you. Knowing that the Spirit would send the universal gospel call. And that the Spirit would regenerate you on the inside. Do you see that? Foreknowledge was of you.

Not of some choice that you might hypothetically make. So here then is the conclusion of the matter in verse 30. For those whom he predestined. You believe in that word? You better if you believe the Bible.

Right? The golden chain of redemption is unbreakable. Philosophically I have the same problems with this as you do. It means that the world in some sense is determined. Determined by God. And that could sound like it's fatalism.

And it doesn't matter what we do. But that's not how the Bible presents it. The Bible presents both a God who has a decree and a will that is free and will happen. There's no chance that Jesus wouldn't have been crucified.

Even if Herod changed his mind. His willful choice was predestined to happen. And it must happen. And it did happen. So when it says for those whom he predestined, if you take foreseen faith and make that the reason, you still haven't solved the problem.

Because if God has foreseen faith and now we're dealing in time from the whole golden chain of redemption. Once he's predestined, guess what? You still have the same problem. It's still certain to happen according to God's predestination.

All that to say, the golden chain is completely unbreakable. You might try to tug on that as hard as you can. You'll never break it. Because the way I'm reading this, those whom he predestined, he also called.

And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Notice that if you were to introduce foreseen faith, it would have to go somewhere between called and justified, right?

Called, foreseen faith, justified. But that's not what it says. All it says is that those whom he called, he also justified. And lastly, my tenth point, notice the tense of the verbs. Past tense. Because we're looking at this from God's perspective.

It's as certain as if it had already happened in time. Those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Every verb is in the past tense.

It is a settled reality. In other words, here's what you can take to the bank. From God's point of view, it is finished. It's done. God has certainly accomplished what he hoped to do. Now, this is a worldview.

And I called it graduate school at the beginning. Because if you will go with the text to this understanding, without bringing tradition and fighting against the Word of God, it will change how you think.

How Sovereignty Changes Suffering, Prayer, and Salvation

Here are four ways. Number one, victim mentality is undone. The context of Romans 8 26 to 30 is suffering, as it was in the previous section. There's this groaning creation. Now we're groaning. We don't even know how to pray, but we're under distress and we're crying out with groans too deep for words.

We can't even form the words. When you are going through a moment like that, it would be easy to think, somebody did this to me. Or a natural disaster did this to me. Or the devil did it. But if you come to this text with eyes to see, the Lord will help you to understand that he is behind it all, good and bad.

Do you think that changes how you live your life? It means that your suffering has a purpose. God might be conforming you to the image of the Son with your suffering. It's not this person victimizing you.

God is behind that who knows that you need what you're going through. Sometimes that suffering is disciplined from a loving Father. Other times you're more like Job, suffering innocently, but for a purpose that glorifies God in another way.

But in all these things, it's God, not man. It changes how you cannot be a victim and be one who believes in a sovereign God. It just destroys your victim mentality. Changes your whole mindset. Changes how you pray.

Secondly, it means that the villains of this world are actually toothless. I hear so much talk about a hyper-competent world system that's just behind the scenes. One world government that's rising and the world leaders who are controlling our leaders like puppets, and ultimately there's nothing we can do to resist them.

I want to tell you, there are nefarious actors like that. There really are. And many of the leaders that we see are like puppets. But these villains are toothless compared to our God. They just can't do anything but what God allows them to do.

Like Satan in the book of Job presents himself and God allows him to wreak havoc, these world leaders can only go as far as God lets them. And so can they steal an election if God lets them? But we don't live in fear of these kind of things.

Their villainy is not hyper-competent. There's only one who can do as he pleases with an utterly free will. Number three, this changes how we pray. We go into prayer as a groaning because it doesn't make sense.

We don't even know what to pray for. But when we come to this text, it's meaning to bring us out of that groaning to a calm confidence. Your prayer is informed by this text. If you don't listen, you don't get this word, your prayer stops with that groaning.

And then it stops. You become prayerless because you don't get the things that you ask for anyway. And so you stop praying. But the one who takes this text to heart, because it's about prayer, your prayer becomes calm and confident as you rest in this truth.

You learn how to pray. And yes, you're asking God for things, but ultimately you know that his secret will will answer in a way that's better for you. So you can accept a no from God when he says no to your prayer, or wait.

It doesn't break your prayer life. You see, you have to have this high view of the sovereignty of God to pray right. The groaning is fine. That's where it starts. You do cry out to God, and the Spirit helps you.

But this is meant to take you to a deeper place of prayer. Not my will, but yours be done. And lastly, salvation is so much sweeter. The higher view of God and salvation, the lower view of yourself, the more you will thank God for it.

If you recognize that it was because he foreknew you, that he predestined you, that he called you inwardly to faith, that he justified you, and he will glorify you, and it's all him, him, him, him. Not you.

You're the weak one in the text. You're the one who doesn't know anything, or even how to pray. It wasn't you that saved you. It was the great and glorious God, Jesus Christ. When you pray and you thank God like that, salvation is sweeter than ever before.

So why not take that gift from the text today? Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for these deep things, and I know that the deep things of God are hard for us who are immature and know so little, and in some ways it's all over our head anyway.