The Golden Chain of Redemption

The Golden Chain of Redemption and Romans 8:28-30

Tonight, we're going to discuss what is called the golden chain of redemption. The golden chain of redemption is the process by which God saves an individual, and it is outlined for us in the book of Romans, chapter 8, verses 28 through 30.

So I encourage you to turn there with me and to stand. Romans 8, 28 through 30. 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.

Father God, be that it is within your will tonight that you open the hearts of everyone here to hear the truth. And Lord, that you would keep me in the truth, keep me from error, focus my heart's attention upon your word, allow your word to speak, O Lord, I pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

Why Predestination Is Controversial

See, I told you we were going to dive right in. Anytime the doctrine of predestination is mentioned, that word is mentioned, it causes some people to cringe just by hearing it uttered. But as should be noted in our passage that we just read, predestination is not a word that is foreign to the Bible.

The Bible uses the word and frankly, it uses the word quite frequently. In fact, in the three passages we just read from verses 28 through 30 and three passages, the word was used two times. Based upon this, we can immediately understand that if a person says, and I've heard this many times, I don't believe in predestination.

Well, then, as nicely as you can say it with the Bible, because the Bible says that God predestines. Now, the method of God's predestination can be debated, but what cannot be debated is that the Bible teaches it.

How God predestines is what we are going to talk about, and that's that's what we're going to to really flesh out tonight. But the big question is not whether or not it's in the Bible. In fact, if you look at the doctrinal statements of all of the major denominations, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Presbyterian, even the Methodist church, the Baptist churches.

If you look at the doctrines, their statement of faith, their early creedal documents, you will notice that this doctrine is dealt with by them all because it's in the Bible. It's not talked about a lot, it is definitely not preached about a lot, and I can be very honest in saying that many ministers have been removed from the pulpit for being bold enough to speak on the truth of this subject.

And I say that not to try to produce any type of martyrdom or complex or say, you know, well, you know, here I stand as a bold man to do this. I'm not trying to lift myself up in any way. I'm just saying I know for a fact of men who have been removed from the pulpit for teaching the doctrine of predestination, as it is outlined in the Bible, simply because it runs roughshod over people's traditions.

And traditions are hard to break. But again, the word predestination is in the Bible for someone to say, I don't believe in predestination at all, then to look at a passage like this, they would either have to say, well, the word doesn't mean what the definition is.

Or they've defined it in another way. But again, this is where things get more complicated, most Bible believing Christians do not deny that predestination is taught in the Bible. Some will say it isn't, but they're truly ignorant, as we've said, they just totally run past certain passages.

Again, what is debated is the method, and historically there have been two views, and I'm going to expound tonight what those two views are. Of course, this is a reformed. Theology conference, so we are going to look at the reformed view, if you're taking notes, I'm trying to show you how I would put notes on a paper if this were me, because I think it's important to kind of to just say the doctrine of predestination are basically two views.

There is the reformed theology view, which, of course, I espouse, I wouldn't be ever teaching it. And there is the view. Called prescience, the prescience view, reformed theology teaches this. God has and please, this is the time to engage your mind, because I want you to I want you to truly know the difference between these two reformed theology says God has before the foundation of the world set his affection upon a remnant of humanity referred to in the Bible as the elect.

And these will be saved because God will irresistibly draw them to himself. They said, again, make sure everybody, if you're trying to write that down, it's going to be hard. I can give that to you at another time.

God has before the foundation of the world set his affection upon a remnant of humanity referred to as the elect, and these will be saved because God will irresistibly draw them to himself. So reformed theology.

Says. God predestines based his will. He chooses God, wouldn't that be easier? God chooses and then there is the prescience view. Prescience teaches this God before the foundation of the world, notice they both started the same way, God before the foundation of the world, nobody, nobody.

Listen, nobody disagrees that God did this before we were ever even created, even those who believe the prescience view believe this happened before anybody was ever created. So don't ever let somebody who holds the other view tell you, well, you think God did this before we were all created, before we did it.

Well, so do you, if you believe the Bible, because what the Bible teaches is not even a question. But what they believe is that God, before the foundation of the world, looked down the corridor of time.

And saw the decisions that people would make. And based upon those decisions. God predestined them for heaven or hell. You see the difference, because in this one, God predestines according to human will, you see the difference in the reformed theology view is that God predestines based on his will.

God is the one who makes the choice and the prescience view. God predestines according to human will. Man makes the choice. OK, that's the that's the the the two of you. I mean, really, that's the easiest way that I know of to break it down.

These two views prescience, the most popular today. However, I will argue tooth and nail that this was not the most popular view during the time of the Reformation. This was not the most popular view during the time of the Great Awakening.

This was not the most popular view during the time before the Roman Catholic Church grew to the expansive thing that we see happening right before the Reformation. This was the this was not the view of Augustine in the fourth century.

This was the view of Augustine even way back. This is a view of Paul, too, by the way, we'll get to that in a minute. This view is popular today because of. The change that happened during what is called the Enlightenment period, time that happened at the latter part of the 1800s, early part of the 1900s, and it was pushed along by men like Charles Finney, who began to teach that because it was man's decision and not the sovereignty of God that brought someone to salvation, that they could manipulate people into receiving Jesus Christ.

And what we see in churches today is manipulation tactics being used to try to win people to Jesus Christ. I once met a guy who told me he said, I could sit with anybody and I don't care who it is. You give me one hour with anybody and they'll receive Jesus Christ.

I said, no, I'll give you an hour with anybody and they'll say whatever you need them to say to shut you up. All you are is a Jesus salesman. But you cannot manipulate the sovereign will of God.

He thought he could.

And that's what happens with a lot of churches today. This is this this view so permeates that it becomes the the mindset behind everything in the church. Again, prescience is the majority report in the church.

And sadly, it is the only one that most people are ever exposed to. I want to tell you, you are in a very, very small minority group because you're in a church where we're actually discussing these things.

Let me tell you how this usually happens. And I'm not telling you this is what I think happens. I can tell you by experience and by testimony of people that I've spoken to. This is how this conversation normally goes.

A person, a congregation member will read Romans eight or they'll read Ephesians one or they'll read John eight, John 10, or they'll read John six, not just verses, they'll read entire chapters that teach these things and they'll say, hmm, there might be something to this and they'll go to their pastor and they'll say, Pastor, what about this?

And the pastor, either not believing in the reformed view, we're believing in the oppressive view, or however, what I've noticed a lot lately, a lot of pastors believe this, but won't teach it because they're afraid of losing their jobs.

If I'm lying, I'm dying. This is absolutely true. They believe it, but they will not teach it. So people will come to them and the pastor will say to them, they'll say, man, I'm intrigued. This is something the word of God teaches this, this, this, this thing.

And the pastor will say, well, what's really meant when it says predestined, it doesn't really mean God made a choice. What it means is that you made a choice and because God can see into the future, God knew what choice you were going to make and because he knew what choices you were going to make, that's how he predestined.

So it really doesn't mean what it says, but you see what all the pastor is trying to do or whoever it is trying to do is he's trying to bring down the situation because he knows that if people begin to discuss this, it becomes a powder keg and it can get very explosive because there are people whose traditions cannot accept it and there are people who do not want to hear it.

And when that happens and it begins to bubble up and sooner or later, that bubble is going to burst. And now the pastor's got a doctrinal nightmare on his hands and it's better just to keep everybody happy.

Then to speak the truth. I'm not trying to be ugly, I'm just telling you the way of the world, it is much easier and it would be much easier to never talk about these things because then you never have to deal with the debate.

You never have to deal with the argument, just kind of cruise along with the, you know, Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life messages and never dig into the deep things of God. So the question I want to ask tonight, if this is the majority view, which I think that the statistics would would bear out the fact that this is the majority view of churches today.

If this is the majority view, is this view correct? Now, I think you already know what I think, but it doesn't matter what I think. The man I am, I didn't matter what I believe, it doesn't matter what I think, if the Bible teaches this, I'm wrong.

Amen. I mean, it's true. It doesn't matter what he believes in, no matter what he said, no matter how many hours I've spent studying, if the Bible teaches this, I'm wrong. So where does this idea come from?

Well, it comes from the very verse. That we open with tonight, the doctrine of prescience is based upon the verse of scripture that I read in our introduction. Many in history have looked at the word for new and looking at that word, they have found the answer to the difficulty of predestination for them.

And all predestination is, is God giving us a play by play of something he watched on his ethereal television set, God actually watched it happen. And now he's just giving us a play by play of what's going to happen.

It didn't involve himself. He just knows because he's you know, he's pretty intelligent guy, God, and he can look and see what's going to happen. And you know what's funny about that? And this is off the subject, but I just want to mention some people have even gotten away from this.

Because what do you believe in the reform view, whether you believe in the prescience view, you believe that the number of people going to heaven has already been set by God, because whether he determined it by his will or whether he knows it by the virtue of the fact that he knows everything that's going to happen, the numbers set and that bothers people so badly that they've even got away from that.

And open theology. Has become the new playground for a lot of people, open theology says God doesn't even know what's going to happen. He just he just took a good guess. It really is open theology teaches God is not certain what's going to happen until it happens.

So some people can't even accept this anymore. However, again, the question is, is the prescient view the right understanding of the word for no. I submit to you, it is not. In fact, I submit to you that the fundamental flaw of many Bible teachers is their misinterpretation of Romans 8, 28 to 30.

I believe that this is the is the failure point of so many theologians as they come here and they read it for something it does not say. So I don't want to outline for you four reasons. Why I reject the prescient view of predestination based upon context and reason.

And again, this is the view I'm saying is not it based upon this passage. So let's read the passage again, I'm going to you guys mind if I erase this, does anybody need this? I need to I need more writing.

I need another board, but a big old board behind me. The reformed theology view, God predestined according to his choice, prescient view, God predestined according to our choice. Now, in Romans eight, we have what is called the golden chain of redemption, and it goes like this for whom he foreknew.

So let's put that one up there for whom he foreknew. He also did what they also predestined. Thank you. And whom he predestined, he. Well, go to the second use of the word predestined there for whom he foreknew, he predestined whom he predestined, he called.

Thank you. Yeah, the conforming is part of it, but in the chain, I just I want to put.

These together. All right.

Called for new predestined, called next justified. Thank you. And whom he justified, he glorified. OK. Golden. Chain of redemption. For whom he foreknew, he predestined him, he predestined, he called him, he called, he glorified for whom he called, he justified him, whom he justified, he glorified.

Now, let's look at this from a just a purely logical viewpoint. The argument of. The prescient view. Is that God foreknew, and what that means to them is that God looked into the corridor of time, saw who was going to receive his call and believe it, and then responded based upon that response, he predestined them.

Right. That's the that's the view. Where does the calling land in this list predestination and that interesting that the calling comes after the choice has been made. Honestly, if you stop right there, that's logic enough to say God looked at the corridor of time, saw who was going to receive the call.

Oh, wait, if the call comes after the predestination, that logic does not work for new predestined the calling to justify and glorify. If you think of it as a populace of all the people in the world, God foreknew the elect.

We'll get to the word election and predestination. We'll get the word election later. But of all the population, God foreknew them. And we'll talk about what foreknew means in a minute, because it does not mean to look down the corridor of time and see what they're going to do.

But we'll get there in a minute. The elect are predestined, they are called, they are justified and they are ultimately glorified. This is another reason, by the way, to believe in eternal security. You've heard me talk about that doctrine before, that those who are saved, those who are justified will will not lose their justification because this says those who are called are justified.

Those who are justified are glorified. Nobody gets left out. It doesn't say some whom he foreknew, he predestined and some whom he predestined, he called and some whom he called, he glorified and vice and so on and so on.

Says those whom he did this for, this happened, those whom he did this for, that happened. And as a result, this and this and that, that's just I mean, that's just looking at it from a clearly basic understanding of language.

If the foreknowledge is based upon the call and the call comes later than the foreknowledge and the choice, then how can the choice and the foreknowledge be based on the call? So it says, oh, wait a minute, he can see into the future.

Let's deal with that. I have four reasons, again, to reject the prescient view. Let's look at the first one. And if you're taking notes, I want you to take notes in this fashion. Big Roman number one, the object, make sure I say this, yeah, of the verb foreknew, this is Roman number one.

This is our first first point, the object of the verb foreknew, what is the object of the foreknew, the person and the reason why that's important, it says whom he foreknew. It doesn't say. He foreknew they were going to believe.

Now, you might say, well, that's implied. Show me where where is it implied? It doesn't say it for someone to say what this means is that God knew they were going to believe. Show me where it's at. It doesn't say for what he foreknew about them was that they were going to believe thus based upon that he predestined them.

Anyway, it says it says for whom he foreknew what's the object of the verb? The person. God will not choose a person without first knowing the person, that's pretty obvious, right, he knows them to foreknow does not simply mean to look at what they're going to do and make a choice based upon that, because if that's the case, we are reading into the text.

And what is the what is the definition of reading into the text? What's the word? We call it eisegesis, right? That means to read something in that is not there. And that's what so many people do. They say, well, this says God foreknew what they were going to do.

And that's why he made the decision. Well, it doesn't say that we have to add that in to make that the case. I like what R .C. Sproul says on this particular topic. He says, excuse me, R .C. Sproul says to add that this is foreknowledge of what people are going to do before he predestined them runs contrary to the rest of the list.

Why? Because if this is based on what we do and these are all based on what God does, it runs contrary to the list. These are all actions God is taking. It says nothing about man's actions. God is the one who foreknows.

God is the one who predestines.

God is the one who calls. God is the one who justifies. God is the one who glorifies.

Where in any of that list is anything you've done? Nowhere. So the object of foreknowledge is the person. The the person who will believe now that may not have convinced you, so let's go a definition.

The definition, this is the net, the definition of the verb for new, what does the word no mean in the Bible? When it's used of God knowing someone. Does it mean simply that God has a passive understanding of who this person is ever?

Does the Bible say, does the Bible ever express that God knows Kiefoski or knows anyone in the Bible in the expression of simply, yeah, I know who that guy is. The way we use the word, no, never, ever.

In fact, on the contrary, the word no in the Bible is often used in the saving sense, the affectionate sense like this. When Jesus said this, Matthew seven, he said, on that day, many will come unto me and say, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out many demons in your name and do many mighty miracles in your name?

And on that day, I will look at them and say, depart from me. I never knew you. Does that mean Jesus never met him like Jesus? I mean, a little confusion there, but is that what it means? Does Jesus say, yeah, we never met, you know, you didn't come to any of my parties.

No, it means I didn't have a saving relationship with you. There was not a saving relationship based upon faith with you, a saving knowledge. There are other places where we see this. And we see that we see the word for no used.

As a relationship word, first, Peter, one, 20, if you want to make a note of this first, Peter, one, 20. Talks about Jesus, guess what it says about Jesus, it says he was foreknown. Before the foundation of the world.

But was made manifest in the last times for your sake, does God just passively know Jesus or does God have a loving relationship with Jesus? Oh, I think that was pretty obvious, right? To foreknow in this sense must mean a relationship.

The idea is also seen in the Old Testament, Amos, chapter three, verse two. God is speaking to Israel and he says, you only have I known of all nations of the earth. Therefore, I will punish your iniquities.

God says, you are the only one of all the nation that I have this loving relationship with. That's I'm going to punish you like I punish my children of all the nations in the world. And you know what's so funny about election and predestination is nobody has a problem with it in the Old Testament.

Because it's so obvious in the Old Testament, God only chose one nation. Nobody has a problem with the fact that God didn't choose the Assyrians.

God didn't choose the Egyptians.

God didn't choose the Canaanites. In fact, God had the Canaanites wiped out man, woman, child and animal. And we just read that and go, OK, and then we get in the New Testament and we say, well, God doesn't work that way anymore because God changes all the time.

We know that's not true. There's no problem with election in the Old Testament. We know it. God said that God said Israel of you, of all nations of the world. I've chosen you. I've set my affection on you.

I have known you from the foundation of the world or I foreknew you. Then he comes to the New Testament and he says, for whom I foreknew, I predestined, whom I chose, whom I set my affection on, whom I loved.

You know what? The first time the word no is used in the Bible, you know what it's used for? Relationship between a man and a woman, Adam, new Eve and they born. The word no is never used when it's spoken of God to a person or God to an individual is never used of passive knowledge.

It speaks of affection and relationship.

Whom he foreknew.

He predestined, oh, man, that's scary, because that means God made the choice. Well, yeah, we're going to talk about how difficult that is at another time, but my goal for tonight is not to is not to debate the ins and outs of it.

It's just to say, is this what it teaches? Because what did I say at the beginning? If this is what it teaches, then the questions and the answers come later. We've got to determine, is this what it says?

I want to I want to read you from Nelson's Bible Dictionary. Now, Nelson's Bible Dictionary is not one of those great tombs of theological material. It's a good it's a good Bible dictionary if you have it.

But it's you know, it's not Kittles Theological Dictionary or something like that. This is just a basic dictionary. You can buy it at Lifeway. It's nothing fancy. That's why I went to it, because I wanted to get one of my dictionaries that I thought, you know what, I'm going to look up for knowledge, I'm going to look up for new in the dictionary and I just want to I'm going to I'm going to print out what it says just so that everybody can hear my definition and see, does this, you know, does this jive with?

Yes, I said, does this jive with the standard definition? Here's what it says. Nelson's Bible Dictionary, go to the apps, look up for knowledge, this is what it says. The unique knowledge of God that enables him to know all events, including the free acts of people before they happen, period, goes on to say this.

God's foreknowledge is much more than foresight. God does not know future events and human actions because he foresees them. He knows them because he wills them to happen. And it gives a list of scripture verses.

Thus, God's foreknowledge is an act of his will, and it gives some scripture verses in Romans eight, twenty nine, which is what we're examining. This is from this dictionary. I didn't add it in in Romans eight, twenty nine, eleven to the apostle Paul uses the word for new to mean choose or to set special affection on the electing love of God, not foresight of human action is the basis of his predestination and salvation.

And a list of scripture verses, the same idea is used to express the nation of Israel's special relationship to God and a list of scripture verses. You know what's so funny about that is that is not a reformed publication.

Nelson's Bible Dictionary wasn't put out by a bunch of reformed guys hoping to score a little credit with their dictionary definition. This is one of the most I could go to any preacher's study on the north side.

I could walk right into his library. I could pull his Nelson's Bible Dictionary off of his shelf and show him that the definition is what it is. It's not like it's a debate.

It's just is what it is.

And even the standard text, the standard definitions from a regular old Bible dictionary gives it to a straight.

It is what it is.

So we've seen based upon what we've learned so far, the context is that the object of the verb is the person. The definition is a setting of affection upon for now to know someone to to to enter into relationship with them.

Now, the third point, again, running out of space and they need this.

All right.

Third point, I get rid of this, too. This is the third point. This is my favorite. God's foreknowledge is not passive. It is determinative, underlined, not passive. It is determinative. Now, what does that mean?

God doesn't just know what's going to happen because he can see the future. He knows what will happen because he has willed it through divine decree. The Westminster Confession of Faith says it like this.

I like the Westminster Confession of Faith because it tends to simplify difficult things. This is what the Westminster Confession of Faith says. It says, God, from all eternity, did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will freely and unchangeably ordain whatever shall come to pass.

Simply stated, nothing happens in the world except according to the decree of God. Now, you might say, but wait a minute, Pastor, there's a lot of bad stuff that happens. Are we blaming it on God? No, but what we are saying is that God has purposed from the foundation of the world to ensure that his plan is going to be what is certainly brought in the end.

And there will be nothing that thwarts the plan of God. God's will will be worked out. And the best example ever is the example of Joseph. Yes, I know if you've ever heard me preach on God's sovereignty, you've heard the story of Joseph many times.

Well, you came, you can hear it again.

Is this important?

The story of Joseph in the Bible is one of the most powerful stories expressing the determinative will of God that I know of. Because what happened to Joseph? He was thrown into a well, he was sold into slavery by his brothers.

That's bad. He was wrongfully accused of attempted rape by the wife of Potiphar. That's worse. He's put into prison. He helped some guys out. They don't even, you know, he helps the guy out and he doesn't even reciprocate and try to help him back.

That's even worse. So finally. It comes about that the pharaoh needs someone to interpret a dream. Joseph is brought out of his cell to come and be the dream interpreter.

And what happens?

He receives the approval of the pharaoh. He's lifted to the highest position, second only to the pharaoh in all of the land of Egypt. And then the famine comes and his brothers come looking for food and they come to him.

They don't know it's him right away. And like I said, I want to go into the whole story, because most of you, most of you know it. But they come to him. He kind of plays a little bit with him, doesn't tell him it's him automatically.

And then when he finally exposes himself to him, what do they do? Oh, my goodness, he's going to kill us. Because that's the natural response of anybody, right? I mean, you threw him in a well, sold him into slavery.

You were going to kill him yourself, but you decided to make a little money off of him.

You did bad.

You deserve to be punished. That's what they all thought. Boy, we're going to be punished. Genesis 45. Verse four, if you want to write this down, it's verses four through eight, go back later and take a look at these Genesis 45, verses four through eight.

So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near and he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into slavery. You did it. It was your responsibility. You did bad. I'm not saying that's how he said it.

I'm just there's a point being made. You sold him into slavery.

You did it.

And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. Oh, wait, no, wait, wait. First thing he says, you sold me here, but don't be angry with yourself. Why? For God sent me before you to preserve life.

Yeah, you had a hand in this, but God is the one whose will was done. It goes on to say, for the famine has been in the land for two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

And God sent me. Same phrase, by the way, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on Earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. Wow, what you did was wrong, but guess what?

God's determinative will was done even in your horrible action, because God is sovereign. Later on in Genesis 50, they think they think again, he's going to kill him because now the father's died and they think, oh, man, now that dad's dead, they're really going to take it to us.

He was just he was just trying to be nice. He want to kill us from dad that make that all sad and everything. Now that dad's dead, he's going to just totally wipe us out. He didn't. But he did remind them, as for you, Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, as for you, you meant evil against me again.

He doesn't he doesn't fail to remind them you were wrong and what your heart's desire was. However. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

Same action.

The same action that could be meant for evil by a human being can be meant for good by God. And guess who's the only one who knows? God don't always know, and it's hard for us to look at the world and say, man, why did that happen?

That is so terrible. God knows. And his will is determinative. If anyone understood God's foreknowledge is purposeful and determinative, it was Joseph. God doesn't just passively see the future coming and wonder, like I said this morning, he doesn't sit up there going, boy, I wonder what's going to happen next.

And God doesn't just sit and like I said, watch the God didn't sit before the foundation of the world and watch the ethereal television set and say, oh, well, now I know how it's going to turn out. If that's the case, how could he ever how could he ever say that he knows for certain that Christ would be the victor over sin?

How could he prophesy anything if God just simply got an idea of what's going to happen? If God is not working out his will in the world, how can he know for certain what will happen? It's a tough question.

And if you are wondering about the phrase determinative, I like to show one thing to you. Act 223, and you can make a note of that. And I'm going to read this from the King James because it uses the word determinate.

I like the word determinate there. Act 223 in the King James Version says this, Jesus being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

So basically what Acts chapter two and chapter four teach us, because both of them say very similar things, is that even though the most evil act in all of history by man, the crucifixion of the only innocent man who ever lived, Jesus Christ was a horrible, terrible, bad thing.