The Golden Chain of Redemption: Glorified

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Be Thou my vision, O Lord, of my heart.

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Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.

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If you guys would open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8.

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Romans chapter 8, I'm going to read the text and then we'll pray. Romans chapter 8, verse 29.

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It says, 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.

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And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

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Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you so much for your grace, this opportunity to get into your

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Word. We recognize right now, Father, that you are God and that these are your very words,

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Lord. So we come before you and we tremble at your Word, God. We humble ourselves before you, Lord. We ask you to teach us.

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We ask you, Lord, to correct, for you to form and shape, God, for you to encourage and equip us,

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God. I pray, Lord, with all my heart, that you would get me out of the way. Lord, in myself, outside of your

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Son, I'm completely unworthy to be doing what I'm doing. So I want to thank you, God, and praise you personally for salvation in Jesus.

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And I pray for your people today, God, that you would use this time, this moment, this place, this message, to meet your people here,

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God, and shape and transform, God. You have the power, God, to accomplish anything,

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God. With you, all things are possible. So I want to pray for those in this room today, God, that are dealing, Lord, with a lack of peace,

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God, a lack of trust in you, God, a lack of hope in the future, God, that you'd meet us in this place, that you'd speak by your Spirit through me, that you'd work through this jar of clay,

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God. And I pray that in Jesus' name, amen. So the Golden Chain of Redemption, this is a fantastic text.

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I mean, it's like when we planted the church, Apology of Church, we're thinking, what's a good series to begin with?

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And we started off with this series, current series of Apology of Church, The Gospel According to Paul. It's a book of Romans, verse by verse, an exposition, word for word, actually, sometimes.

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And so we started off with that. And in my mind, as I'm looking forward to the text that I'll be preaching on, this section was always highlighted in my mind.

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Like, can't wait till I get there, can't wait till I get there, can't wait till I get there. Because it just meets into this climax moment of the book, where you've gone from real, real ugliness to real, real beauty.

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And then there's this moment of just praise. And if you think that, like, well, that's just Jeff's particular thing, that he just really likes that particular teaching.

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No, Paul freaks out, too. It's like he says it, and then he freaks out. After he says this beautiful sequence of events that God foreknows, that God predestines, that God calls, that God justifies, that God glorifies, he says, what then shall we say to these things?

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If God is for us, who could be against us? You see, Paul is even exploding in that moment, really, with praise.

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Like, think about what's being said here. This is something that God is doing. I mean, if you're new to Christ, you should really focus in on this, zero in on this.

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And you should have already discovered this, but it's something you should really hone in on and understand, that this is a central aspect of what divides the message of the gospel from all other man -made religious systems, and attempts to sort of climb to God.

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And it really is this point here, that this is all something that God does. Notice that in the text.

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Listen closely. It says, those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his

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Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Listen, every time, it's something that God does, not what you do.

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And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.

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And those whom he justified, he also glorified. You've got to recognize something that's a major difference between world religious systems, any really religious philosophy, or even secular philosophy, always man -centered.

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Notice that as you enter into this line that Paul gets us to, all of this is something

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God does, not you. This isn't about you. This is God's story here.

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It's something that God does before the world begins, before you and I are in liquid form, before we're a spark in our mommy and daddy's eyes.

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This is something that God has already planned before he even laid the foundation of the earth. It's God's plan to save you and I in Christ, and that's something that he's always accomplished and brought about through his providence and his sovereignty.

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It's God -centered and not man -centered. Notice everything's something that God does. And I want to sort of give you two points as to why that's something you should really hook into and really focus in on.

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Number one is that world religions are always focused in on what we do.

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In other words, it's about your righteousness, your works, your obedience, your cooperation in some sense.

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I mean, you can name the religious system, and it may have a different conception of God. It may have a different conception of a religious text and ceremonies, but it's fundamentally the same message.

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If you look at, say, religions that ape Christianity, like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses or Roman Catholicism, religions like that, you still have religions that may borrow concepts like Jesus, perfect, on the cross, died for sinners, rose from the dead, but they'll distort the message somehow into something that you must do to attain a level of righteousness where you can sort of get to God.

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And so they'll always kind of spin back off into, it's what you do by way of your works and your personal righteousness.

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They're always man -centered. What do you add to the story? Yeah, God did his part, but what are you going to do to add your part, right?

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Jesus kind of pays his piece. Now you've got to do your piece. Let's get those together. Let's get them as bedfellows, and then we'll get our way to God one day.

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Man -centered religions are always about your works and your righteousness, no matter what the conception of God is.

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Think for a second even about a religion like, say, Hinduism, a religion of transcendent mysticism, like Hinduism or Buddhism.

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Even those religions may not even have a concept of a real personal God, or maybe there's like millions and millions and millions of them, but the point is it's about what you do to get to that God.

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And even though there may not be a conception, a real biblical conception of, like, sin and the cross and the death of Jesus and the resurrection, there still is this concept of works righteousness.

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Think about it for a second, how a religion like Hinduism turns everything into a man -centered view of the universe.

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What's the position? Well, you have this picture of nirvana. It's this vast sea of oneness, and really all of us are already essentially one, but we just don't know it.

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There's too many of us thinking in distinctions. And so until you learn to actually really realize there are no distinctions, you'll never enter into the vast sea of oneness, which is nirvana, and one day you'll come back as a snail, horse, aardvark, worm, or dog.

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That's the goal. But see, where you go is going to be based on your karma.

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You get a lot of good karma, you're going to finally maybe enter into that vast sea of oneness, which is nirvana. Too much bad karma and aardvark.

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Right? That's the picture. And what's good karma and bad karma in this situation? Well, it's your good deeds.

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It's your good works. It's your cooperation with the universe in some sense to enter into nirvana. You see what it does?

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You don't have to have a personal conception of a god. You can have many different versions of god, but what's the ultimate message?

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It's what you contribute to get to god, right? So what's the contrast there?

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In this text, Paul, after he explains the gospel, he shows what god has done in Christ and how god has brought his spirit, joined us to his son, and now has given us the power to live for god.

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There's no condemnation. He moves us now to really the beginning of the story. It's god that foreknew you.

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He chose to enter into intimate relationship with you. Before the world began, he said, mine,

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I'm going to save this person, that person. And he chose to save.

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And that god calls. He provides everything necessary to redeem. That god is the one who actually keeps you to the end.

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We're going to do that in a second here. That god is the one that declares you righteous. What is all this? It's something that god is doing.

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It's his story, not yours. Notice the contrast there between world religion, is that this isn't about you.

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It's about his glory. He's getting his. Number two. I want to talk about god -centered versus man -centered by way of not necessarily world religion, but I do want to address the issue of Arminianism just for a moment.

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It's important because church has been around. Church of Jesus Christ since Christ came as Messiah and god was raised up and god really, his kingdom comes into the world.

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God's people have been here in about 2 ,000 years. A lot of controversy has sparked up. Many times controversy surrounding the nature of Christ, controversy around salvation.

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Well, during the Reformation, there was a controversy that arose in Holland and the

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Synod of Dort was called together because there was these protesters against the church at large and they were called the

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Arminians. In Arminianism, the terminology will oftentimes be the same.

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Yeah, Jesus is Savior, Jesus is God, Jesus is perfect, Jesus died, Jesus rose. But there becomes a distortion in many ways when it comes down to what our capabilities are as human beings.

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Are we completely dead spiritually, as Paul says? Are we enslaved, as Jesus says?

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Are we non -God seekers, as Paul says, the Bible says? Or is it really possible for us to cooperate with God?

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Do we have some innate ability really to, even though we're fallen, to cooperate with God in some sense? And Arminianism teaches essentially a different view of God's sovereignty and his plan in history.

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Arminianism basically teaches really God chose on the basis of your choice of him.

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I hear some giggling. That God actually said, I'm going to save because they chose me first.

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And that if you cooperate, in a sense, sort of with your, quote, free what? Will. Then God can now actually accomplish his plan of salvation.

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He's sort of tied at the moment until you actually exercise your free will to actually cooperate with God, to actually meet together in the middle and then come towards God in a relationship with God.

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But also, Arminianism ultimately teaches that if you decide to exercise your free will the opposite direction, then you lose your salvation and there is no further justification in the future.

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You see, what does it ultimately do there? Man -centered versus God -centered. What is Arminianism?

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Man -centered. It's about what you do, you do to cooperate with God to bring about this plan of salvation.

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And there's the devastating point of all of this is you have to understand that Paul's gospel,

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Jesus' gospel, the gospel is a God -centered gospel. It's about what

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God does to save. It's about a powerful God that is not impotent, that is powerful enough to accomplish all of his purpose.

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We're talking about a God who owns everything, who spoke and the universe leapt into existence.

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We're talking about the God who says in Isaiah that he declares the end from the beginning, that he does according to his will in the heavens above and among the inhabitants of the earth and no one can stay his hand or say, what are you doing?

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That kind of God. The God who says, I will mercy whom I shall mercy and I will harden whom

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I will harden. That kind of sovereign God. The kind of sovereign God that says this, I've come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me.

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And this is the will of him who sent me that of all that he has given me, I should lose none.

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That kind of sovereign God. You see, when you take the biblical text, you get a picture of God that is supremely valuable, supremely awesome, huge and in control of every detail of the universe and it makes you look very, very small and a belief system like that people don't like because people don't like to look like they are not autonomous.

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This is a picture of a God who saves and saves perfectly. How do you like them apples?

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So let's talk about real fast this next point of the chain. God also glorifies those whom he justifies.

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Let's do a quick wrap up of where we've been so far. Are you ready? First thing on the golden chain is what, everyone?

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What's that? Four nos. It does not mean, if you're just catching up with us now in this series, it does not mean that God has not formed new information about you.

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God doesn't take information about you in. If you were to ask God, God, how many cookies are in my cabinet right now?

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God not only knew that you were going to ask the question, but he allowed the question to be asked and he already knows all things, doesn't have to check it out.

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If I were to ask you, how many cookies are in your cabinet right now? What would you have to do? You'd have to first think about it, then you have to get in your car, you have to drive home, go home, unlock your door, get to your cabinet, open the cabinet, and look inside and discover that your kids ate them all, or whatever, they're gone.

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I cannot keep cookies in my house to save my life, or ice cream. I can't.

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It's sad, it really is sad. I'd be so excited. Never mind, okay, let's see. God doesn't have to take knowledge in, and you say, well

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God, how many of these are there in the world? God doesn't go, let me get into the banks and figure that out. God at all times knows everything, always, from all eternity, known to God from all eternity, are all his works.

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God is all powerful, knows everything. He doesn't take knowledge of you in. God determined before the world began that he was gonna save a particular people in Jesus Christ.

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That means that if you believe in Christ today, if you've turned to him and trusted in him, it doesn't mean that the source of that was in you.

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It means that God had determined to save you. That before the world began, God said, I'm going to save, and I'm gonna accomplish everything to bring this person to myself, and nothing in the universe is gonna thwart that purpose.

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How does that set with you? It has to change your life. Listen, if you are phasing out of the message at any point, this is where you cannot phase out of the message.

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This is about a mighty God who is mighty to save. You've gotta capture that.

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You see, Christianity is not about your efforts, your quirkiness, right, your power.

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This is about God saying before the world began, I'm gonna bring salvation, I'm gonna choose to enter into intimate relationship with this person.

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That's a beautiful thing. Because I think we all know what that's like, don't we? Haven't you determined at some point in your life whom you're gonna love?

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You say, I'm gonna love this person. I'm gonna love this person. And you choose to enter into an intimate relationship with a person, and you love those people.

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Well, you see, here's the crazy thing, is that our love is fallible because we're broken, and we screw it up a lot, right?

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We do. But God's love is perfect. He is love. Everything we do in love in life is only a reflection of His love.

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He's perfect with it. And we're talking about God who, before the world began, who is love, who chose to enter into relationship with you.

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And He promises to fulfill all of His promises. That's a beautiful thing.

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God chose. He foreknew. Next. The next point is that God predestined.

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We talked about how that means what it says. He predestined you. What was the response in Acts 13 to the

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Gentiles turning to Christ? Go to it real quick. Go to Acts 13. Acts 13, verse 48.

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Listen to what it says. Which came first?

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The believer or the appointing? The appointing. So when it says that God predestined, it does mean what it says, that God chose to save.

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And the response of the Christians when they see these Gentiles believing in Jesus is they say, oh,

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I guess that God has given them this. And the response is always God -centered.

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That God has appointed them. That God has given them repentance. That they were the ones who believed because they were appointed to eternal life.

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So that God predestined. Again, pastors you can look at on this are all throughout the entire Bible. I would recommend a good solid reading in John 6,

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Ephesians 1, Romans 9. Pastures that speak very clearly about God before the world began choosing to save.

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Ephesians 1 says, That is a

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God -centered, powerful gospel. I mean, gospel is the word that God chooses, but I think it should be awesomealospel.

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It's awesome. It's not just good. God calls it good, so good news.

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But it's awesome. Because it goes so far back into where this is a story of God moving throughout history in his plan to save and carry everything together.

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And listen, you're dealing with depression. You're dealing with loneliness. You deal with despair.

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You deal with anxiety. You see all those things are rooted in a misunderstanding of who

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God is and how the world is. All of those things are a display of brokenness through a misunderstanding of who

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God is. And somehow our relationship with God gets distorted. And so what happens? We don't see

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God as he really is, so we feel lonely. We see the weight of our own guilt and shame.

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And so we feel the guilt and shame. We forget what Jesus has actually accomplished. We have death on the horizon or sickness on the horizon.

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And so what happens? We start getting into fear, not realizing ultimately what? God declares the end from the beginning.

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And you know what it says in Revelation? Blessed are those who die in the Lord. Say what?

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Blessed are those who die in Christ? You see?

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And so you'll fear for the future when you don't understand what he's like. And the picture of God in the scriptures as he is will soothe all your wounds, will cleanse all of your fear, and settle all your sorrows.

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Those moments in life, families, strife, difficulty, right? Every day anxiety is going up and down and in and out.

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All of life, you know, where are we going? What's going to happen? How are we going to pay this bill to do that? All those things.

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You will not be able to approach those things in the way that God calls you to and wants you to if you have a misunderstanding of what

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God is really like. And these issues really center on who God is and they will change your life.

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Because if you believe that God is impotent and that God can do nothing or his hands are tied or that God doesn't purpose all things, you will be freaking out.

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And you should. And if you think, well, that's just Jeff's own opinion. No, I'm serious. Jesus taught when he teaches his beautiful sermon, in the

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Sermon on the Mount, what does he teach? In Matthew, when he talks about do not be worried, what does he say?

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He says, don't be like the, what? Gentiles. Your heavenly

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Father knows what you need. How does Jesus contrast that? He says, don't be like the unbelievers.

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They don't know God. He's not their Father. Don't be like them. Don't freak out like them. Don't be scared like them.

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They have every reason to freak out. They don't know him. He's your Father. Don't be like them.

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You can't add a singularity to your life. God has the very hairs on your head numbered. There's not a sparrow that falls to the ground without God knowing about it.

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That's the kind of God that he is. We're talking about a God that is way beyond our ability to comprehend.

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And that freaks people out sometimes, right? Because we like a God we can put in our pockets, right?

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It's insanity. It's crazy. Come to God as he is. Rest in the fact that God foreknew a people for Christ he predestined to save.

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And now, ready? What's next? Predestined, then what? Called.

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And this is the part you and I remember, right? You heard the gospel. What? Jesus did what?

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He calls me to what? Yeah. And you turn from sin and you embrace Christ and you trust him.

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That's what you know, right? Awesome. But what else, though, should be kept in mind?

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Let's go back to Acts again. Go to Acts 11. Acts 11, check it out.

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Verse 18. Did you hear that?

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What was the response to the Gentiles turning to Jesus? What did they say? Well, then I guess

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God has granted the Gentiles repentance. What? They didn't say, oh, neat, the

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Gentiles believed all on their own. Good thing they had good parents, right? Solid upbringing, good stock, right?

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That kind of thing? No, they said, God's granted them repentance. And here's what you and I don't always see, is that you turn to Jesus out of the depths of darkness, wherever you were, different conversations in different contexts, of course, always.

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But the fact of the matter is you heard the gospel, you turned to Christ, you fell on Him, embraced

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Him, and the truth is what could have been said is this. Oh, I guess God even granted

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Christian repentance. Ha, ha, ha.

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No, the truth is, right, every story is the same, right? God granted

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Taylor repentance, Joy repentance, Kenny repentance. Even sinners like me,

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God granted them repentance. Who's in charge of this story of calling? God is.

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You see, and you and I don't always recognize that because we think we're in charge of our path, right? You think you order your own steps.

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You think you direct your own life. You're the master of your own universe. And before you knew it, one day you were caught up in, oh,

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I'm right in God's grasp. How'd I get here? Some of you guys, it's amazing, right? You thought you were going one direction, you're the master of your universe, and God plopped you right in front of someone here, and you heard the gospel, and you turned to Christ.

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You know what that means? God called you. Well, it's beautiful, as you go beyond that, he had already predestined you. You go beyond that, he chose to do this because he loves you.

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You say, well, for what reason? Same reason God says in Deuteronomy 7. Not because you were more numerous, but because he loved you.

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Well, why would you choose me, God? Because I love you. That's got to trip you out and change your life because you know what's amazing about this is what are you not hearing?

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Right now, you're not hearing a guy come up here and tell you, here's the seven steps to success to get to God. Follow this system, do these things, get on your face this many times a day, make sure you face this direction, right?

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What are you hearing? You're hearing a story about what God did to save you. This is all to his glory.

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He called you. He brought you to life. He opened your eyes. You fell on Jesus because he granted you that.

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If this doesn't cause you to fall in love with God, then I don't think you're alive. This is an intimate relationship with God.

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Notice that's the story of Jesus, his entire ministry. Every story is God -centered, Father -centered, Father -centered, Father -centered.

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Religious people don't like that story, so they resist this truth because they want to have a piece of it. I want some of the glory.

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It's got to be about me somehow. What do I have to do? It's all about God. He foreknew, he predestined, he called.

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That's where God gives eyes to see. That's where God raises dead people to life.

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And then he does what to those people? He justifies them.

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Apology at church. We love that word. To be justified, technically speaking, means to be declared what?

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Righteous. And we talked about last week that really the wording there, it's hard to put it into English.

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So Greek scholars oftentimes struggle with, how do we get people who are English -speaking to understand the word justified in the context of Paul?

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And a real good way to put it, I said last week was what? Righteous -fied. Because the truth is what

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God does in salvation is that God foreknows, he chooses to save, he predestines, he calls you. But it's got to be something that occurs where God can bring you into a relationship with himself because God cannot, as a holy

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God and as a perfect judge, take a person who's a sinner and just say, you're good to go.

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Come into my fellowship. Because you see, if that were true, the universe would collapse. As a matter of fact,

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I would say this. Without the cross of Christ, without the resurrection of Jesus, without Jesus taking sin,

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I want to say this, that all religion is bootleg and bankrupt. If you think through it, actually think through it, and the issue of justice,

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Christianity gives a smack down to every man -made religious system in the world. Why? Because only the

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Bible has an answer for justice. Only the Bible has an answer to a holy

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God actually bringing satisfaction to the problem of mankind's sin.

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It's the only thing in the world that has a message of God entering into humanity to live the sinless life his people have failed, to die a death receiving in himself, exhausting in himself the punishment and wrath of a holy

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God in full and in total so that he says, it is finished. This God who rises from the dead as perfect God, perfect man, who in his own righteousness, through faith in him, he actually credits to his people his righteousness because he took their unrighteousness on the cross.

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So that, watch this. How could a holy God say to Jeff, who is a wretch in myself, how could he say to me,

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I declare you righteous without completely destroying his holiness and justice? Here's how.

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Imputation. Union with Christ. These people that God has foreknown, he predestines, he calls them to himself and then he joins them to his son so that he can declare you righteous.

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You know why? Because your righteousness isn't on display. It's the righteousness of Jesus.

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You're hiding in Jesus. So when God makes a declaration, I declare you righteous, it's actually true because your representative credits to you his righteousness, you're joined to him and he took all your sin away at the cross.

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It's finished. Done. Do you live like that? Do you? Honestly? Do you think if we really actually, actually embrace the truth of justification and peace with God and no condemnation, do you think that would actually change your life?

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Do you? Do you think you'd struggle as much with loneliness and despair and depression and sadness and guilt and shame if you really, truly delighted in these truths?

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I don't think we would, would we? Change everything, right? So what's a core thing here on justification?

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This is by way of just a side thing for the church. If you're struggling right now,

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I want to tell you, with life in general, anxiety, fears, depression, sadness, loneliness, the thing to focus in on constantly and always is

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God, this relationship you're in with him and what he has actually accomplished already in Jesus.

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What do you just think about right now? You die in Christ right now. Die. Close your eyes. In his presence immediately, you don't understand that on the other side there's no condemnation waiting for you, that all there is is bliss and peace and joy everlasting, that your condemnation was completed and done at the cross, that all you have waiting ahead of you is just joy with your master, goodness and peace and mercy forever.

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That's awesome. That beats every trial, that destroys every fear, and that will settle the heart of any sad or depressed person, that God actually has already said, peace, you have my peace, and there is no condemnation.

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There's nothing but joy. Justification. Okay. Whew. I can't help myself.

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I'm sorry. Okay, next thing I want to just talk is, what does it mean to be glorified?

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Because it's kind of weird. Think about it for a second. It says, watch. It says, foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified.

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Wait a second. Are you with me on this? Doesn't it feel like you can sort of understand foreknown, because when did that take place?

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Before the world began. Predestined, when did that take place? Before the world began. Called, oh,

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I remember that happening. And then justified, when I believed. What does it mean glorified? Because I don't feel like I'm floating right now, right?

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I don't feel like I'm bright, shining like the sun. We think glory, like glory. Like, you know, where's the light pouring out of me?

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Glorified. But the truth is, you got to see a couple examples to what this means in scripture. Number one, what does it mean he glorified?

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Because it puts it, like it's past tense. Well, number one, I'm going to talk about current glorification.

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Number one, let's talk about current glorification, and let's just bring it by way of this example.

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Union with Christ's resurrection means, ready, this is huge, you are, in a sense, currently glorified with Jesus.

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Now, this is something that I do not believe that any of us can fully comprehend, but should never stop pursuing to taste and enjoy.

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Here's what I mean. We don't talk a lot about the fact, let's bring us some examples here.

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In Romans 6 and Colossians 3, it talks about all who have been joined to Christ, who are joined to him in his death and resurrection, and so we died with him at the cross, crucified with him, and been raised with him, right?

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And then Colossians 3, this whole discussion on growing in Christ, it says something interesting. It says in Colossians 3,

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I want you to go to the text. Go to Colossians 3. I want you to see it with your eyes and go back to it later and meditate on it.

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In Colossians 3, reading in verse 1, look what it says here about current glorification. It says,

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Okay, now stop for a second.

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Look up for a second. I want to engage with you on this point. It's really important. Paul's answer to sanctification is not so much like you not touching, you not tasting, you not smelling, you not going.

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He would put that in a category of putting things to death, right? But his whole understanding of sanctification and what he wants to bless the church with, with the word of God, is that all sanctification is rooted in whether or not you were raised up with Jesus and are already seated with him.

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And you're like, man, I'll tell you what, I did not feel like that this morning. For real.

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I left the house today, left Calvary, came home, and my son Turtle had the biggest fit of his young life.

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And you want to know what over? He could not come to church dressed like Spider -Man. And it was the end of the world.

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Life does not go beyond five o 'clock for Turtle today because he's just decided, if I can't wear my new

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Spider -Man costume, I'm going to make your life hell. And it did not feel today on the way to church like I was raised up with Jesus.

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But if you live your life buying in only to your circumstances and the tension of the moment or the circumstance that's fallen and collapsed in the moment, you will never be able to delight in and glory in this treasure, this treasure.

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Paul is not saying theoretically it'd be cool if we were raised with Christ. He's saying if you have been raised up with Jesus, keep seeking the things that are above where Christ is seated.

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Now you were raised up with Jesus. Listen, again, all man -made religion gets the smack down.

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It just does. It's annihilated because what this is about, this gospel is about you being joined to God into intimate fellowship and relationship and so that you're joined to him in his death and resurrection and that God's view of you as is, is this, through faith, declared righteous, child, sung over by God, friend of God, right?

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And watch this, God views you raised up, already seated with my son in him. How's that for status with God?

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Bold and confident access before God and that God already has joined you to Jesus so he actually already has you in view as joined to my son and raised up with him.

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Now if that doesn't change my life, I don't know what will. What else could you ask for?

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There's nothing else bigger than that, to know the God of all the universe and that he's done everything to save you and he's already raised you up.

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He already sees you as joined to Jesus. He's already declared peace over you. He already sees you as holy in his son.

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He's already taken away all your debt. He calls you child. He wants you to call him father and he already sees you as joined to Jesus and raised up.

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And so what is God telling you in this passage? If you've already been glorified with Christ, then you should be much more heavenly minded.

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And that is to say that as a Christian, you leave a legacy for the gospel. Your whole life is about Jesus and letting everyone know that he is supremely valuable above all things.

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But in another sense, you're saying, but at any moment, I'm good. You'd be like Paul. I don't know what

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I want to do. Like it's cool to stay with you guys and bear fruits, but honestly, to go be with him is far better.

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I feel like that a lot. No offense. You know, yeah, but Steve, this is great.

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Glorify God. This is awesome. Every moment counts. I want to leave a legacy, but you know what? I'm already raised up with Christ.

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The moment I shed this, I sail away to be with Jesus. That's what the passage says in Philippians.

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He says, I long to weigh the anchor to go be with Jesus. I long to depart to be with Jesus.

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Paul's focus is totally heavenly minded. He knows God foreknew him. He knows God predestined him, called him, justified him, glorified him.

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I'm good. I'm good. So there's a current glorification, and that comes down to your union with Christ.

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You've been raised up with him. Now I'm going to say to this B, quick point. I already said it. You're clothed in righteousness. So the sense is, your current glorification is that God already sees you as righteous because of whose righteousness?

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Quick thing, if you're new to Apologia, I want to give you the picture. If I stand before God in myself with my own life on display and my obedience and my brokenness and my fallenness, no matter how good

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I think I am, if you stand before a holy God with your life on display in any respect, what do you have?

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Condemnation. Right? Because if you keep the whole law and stumble on one point, you're guilty of what? All of it.

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The next thing is this. If I'm in Christ and I'm standing before the Father, what am

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I standing hiding in? His righteousness. I'm in Christ. What does he see?

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The righteousness of His Son. One is in Adam. One is in Christ. Christians are in Christ.

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They're already clothed in righteousness. So when you say, He's glorified us, there's a sense of current glorification. You're covered in righteousness.

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Christ's righteousness. You are glorified with Him. The next thing is future glorification.

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And this is the bomb. Future glorification. Is there a sense where there's still a future glorification?

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Yes. We would call this perseverance of the saints. And what does that mean?

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Well, some people would say this. Do you believe in once saved, always saved? And I want to say to that, yes and no.

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You say, what do you mean by that? Well, yes, it's true. If somebody's truly saved, they're always saved.

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There's no question about that. Jesus doesn't lose any of those who are given to Him. Jesus is a perfect Savior.

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But if you mean that someone can say they're saved, profess it, and simply based on profession, they're always saved.

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The answer is absolutely not. There's a difference between a person who's truly saved and in Christ and someone who professes it.

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And so what I prefer when we talk about future glorification is that God will cause all those who are in His Son to persevere to the end.

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You get what I'm saying? If you're in Christ, watch. He chose you. He called you, predestined you, called you, declared you righteous.

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And glorification is that God will keep you till the end. And I just wanna read you the passage so you get a feel for where I'm going on this.

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In Romans 8, look what He says in the same passage we're in. Did you catch it? Listen again. Those whom

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He foreknew, listen, He also predestined for what?

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Watch. To be conformed to the image of His Son. So don't tell me that you're saved, that you're predestined, that you're chosen, and your life is not on a course of pursuing

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Christ. I'm not talking about perfection. If you read the

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New Testament, all the books contain calls and admonitions and exhortations to Christians to live lives that are pleasing to God.

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You talk about John at the end of his epistle saying to Christians, little children, keep yourselves from idols. You don't tell people that who aren't struggling with it or don't have the possibility.

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We're not talking about sinless perfection, but let me just tell you this right now. If you're in Christ, God's goal of having you in Christ is to bring

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Him glory and conform you to the image of His Son. Which means that if you're in Christ, you're on a course and a path of conforming to Christ's image.

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You're gonna go like this a lot. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. And then before you know it, you're like, what do

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I keep? And you look back behind you and God's got a little leash and he's like, all right, let's go. Let's keep going. Boom. You'll fall up.

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Fall up. Fall up. You know what a Christian never does? They never go like this and stay there.

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Christians fall and get up. They have a bad morning and then by noon, hallelujah. Good morning, right?

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You ever been like that? You feel like a spiritual schizophrenic? You're like, I'm not safe. I'm not safe. Oh, God loves me. It's so wonderful. I'm telling everyone about Jesus today.

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And by night, you're just back sad again. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. And God's going to grow you in that and get you more settled and stable so you're not so freakish but that's going to happen.

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Okay? The point is conformity to Christ's image is that what does it say in Ephesians? It says very clearly, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love, he predestined us to adoption of sons. The picture of God's plan of salvation is foreknown predestined, called, justified, glorified.

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You should know you're on a path as a Christian to sanctification and growth in Christ. Listen, let me just give it to you straight.

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There is no such thing in the Bible, nowhere, anywhere of a person who's joined to Christ who isn't also being conformed to Christ's image.

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It doesn't exist. You won't find it. We're not talking about sinless perfectionism.

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We're talking about a person who's joined to Jesus and now their longing and their pursuit is to know him, make him known, to grow in relationship with him.

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What do I mean that looks like? In the text of Scripture, I'll just give you one passage

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I want you to meditate on. John 6, Jesus says this, I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me

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I should lose none, but raise it up at the last day. Philippians 1, 6, says what?

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He that began a good work in you. Notice again, God -centered, right? What does that say? He that began a good work in you will complete it.

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Who's doing this? He started it, he finishes it. He's the author and the finisher of our faith.

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The Bible talks about God who's able to keep you from stumbling. What does the Old Testament say? Very clearly,

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Ezekiel 36, God says this, watch, I will cleanse them with water, he says this, he says I will cleanse them from all their filthiness,

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I will cleanse them from all their idols, I will remove a heart of stone, give a heart of flesh, put my spirit within them and cause them to observe my statutes.

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So listen, the way that God talks about sanctification and God bringing to life, it sounds like something happens.

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That's all. That's all. It sounds like something happens.

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What does Paul say in the Galatians chapter about fruit of the spirit? What kind of stuff happens because God's there?

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What happens? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self -control.

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These things come. Why? Because he's there. He lives there. So they come.

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They just start to happen. I think I shared with you guys, who did I share this with? I think I shared it, I must have shared it with Redeemed Rebels.

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So I'm at, this gives you an example as a good way of a picture of this. I'm at Calvary this week and I'm with a guy who was relatively hostile to me at first and then he came to Christ, never got to talk to me one -on -one, but then he finally sets up a time to meet with me and so we sit down together.

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And so he's never been raised in church, he didn't read the Bible, didn't grow up in nothing, kind of like my experience.

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Heard about Jesus but didn't really know him and never heard the gospel. So he turned to Christ now at Calvary, right?

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And so this is what he says to me. He said it's just weird like all of a sudden like I'm reading the Bible and I like it,

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I love it. Like I'm reading it, I'm understanding it. Before I tried to read it, didn't understand a word of it. Now I'm reading it, it makes sense,

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I'm excited about it. He's like, I actually love to read it. And he says, and like I'm thinking like,

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I don't want to think those thoughts anymore. And he's talking about like, and I really can't wait to get to church and like I want to see what

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God wants to do with my life and like I really want to try to like fight and make a war with this drug thing.

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And he goes, has this ever happened to anybody else? Right? And all

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I'm saying is like, well yeah. I mean that's what happens when Jesus does that.

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You see, it's not about what you do, it's that kind of work that God does. He takes a rebel, raises him to life, joins him to Jesus, and he begins to change their life.

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Because he loves you. He's not going to leave you the same. Perseverance of the saints is ultimately glorification future is going to happen because God's going to keep you and never lose you.

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Period. You will be glorified. Listen, if you're in that church chain, you're in that chain.

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Do you get it? If you're in that chain, you're in that chain. You know where you're headed? Glorification.

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That's it. There also is a future vindication.

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Very quickly, I'm going to bring you to this. We talk about glorifying. Go to Matthew 25. Matthew 25.

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And this one is the final judgment passage Jesus describes after the Olivet Discourse. I'm going to read to you real fast.

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And just show you kind of like what that looks like on the last day. Matthew 25 verse 31.

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When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.

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Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

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And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right,

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Come you who are blessed by My Father. Listen to this. Listen to the words. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

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Hey, Jesus sounds a lot like Paul. And then it says, For I was hungry, and you gave

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Me food. I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed Me.

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I was naked, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you visited Me. I was in prison, and you came to Me.

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Then the righteous will answer Him saying, Lord, when? When do we see You?

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When do we see You hungry and feed You? Or thirsty and give You drink? And when do we see You as stranger and welcome

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You or naked and clothe You? And when do we see You sick or in prison and visit You? And the King will answer them, Truly I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these

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My brothers, you did it to Me. So is there a final vindication at the end of history where there's a glorifying of you at the end where God actually goes,

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Mine. See? See? See? At the final day when

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God does at the end of all time separate the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous, those who have the kingdom prepared before the foundation of the world, there is a moment where God declares to the world,

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Mine. And He shows and displays to the world, what? This moment.

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You fed Me. You did this. You did this. And the righteous say, When? When do we do that? Christians often don't know when they're doing something that glorifies

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God, right? We're just kind of like hanging, chilling, just doing things. And it happens. And they say, When do we do this,

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Jesus? And Jesus says, You did it to the least of these. You did it to Me. And then He says to what? The others.

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He says what? The same thing. He says the same thing but in the opposite. What does

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He say? And He will say to those on His left, Depart from Me. You cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

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For I was thirsty and you gave Me no food. I was thirsty, sorry, I was hungry and you gave Me no food. I was thirsty and you gave

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Me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not welcome Me naked and you did not clothe Me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit

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Me. Then He will also answer saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?

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Then He will answer them saying, Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.

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And those will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Yes, at the end of all things when

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Jesus returns after conquering this whole world, when He raises the dead, there is a moment at the end of time the

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Bible speaks about where God basically goes, and there's this ultimate end of all things of vindication and God glorifying the saints saying, look, mine, mine, look what they did.

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And your works at the end of time, what God has done ultimately in you are on display at the end of the world basically to do what?

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Brag on God. To brag on God. And there's an ultimate day where God points out

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His people and He says, mine, that's what you're looking forward to.

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So what? So what? Always ask the question, so what? So I just want,

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I have some thoughts, quickly, so what? Number one, I think we should all focus on the fact constantly and always, it should be always in front of us, this is

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His story, not yours. It's His story. You're a recipient of grace.

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You stand in it. It's above you. It's below you. It's in front of you. It's behind you.

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It's all around you. You stand in grace. So what should that lead us to as His people?

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Are you ready? All of these truths should cause you to rest. Just rest in these truths.

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You're in God's story. He's the one that finishes it because He started it.

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He's all powerful. You should trust in what

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He says, not in what you see. Right? It's not the five o 'clock meltdown of a four -year -old who doesn't have a

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Spider -Man costume that should direct the course of your day. It's not the phone call that you weren't expecting that should direct whether or not you're going to have joy.

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It's not the relationship that crumbles apart around you that should actually determine whether or not you're going to actually have any pleasure or joy or happiness in your life.

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It's not your bank account that should determine whether or not you have peace.

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It is Him and His promises, His truths.

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All of this stuff should change your whole perspective. The golden chain of redemption should be that moment of your walk with Christ where something happens that shifts in your life.

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Where God actually speaks to you in such a way that it changes the course of your life for good. I want to say that also all this stuff in the golden chain of redemption should cause you to pursue intimacy with Jesus more than ever.

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More than ever. Christians have a tendency to get jaded by Christian terminology and we have a tendency to say, that's as far as I can go.

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Why? Because as far as I've been. Listen, Jesus in His ministry was about bringing life and that life in Christ is a progressive growth of intimacy and joy with God.

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There is never a point where you're going to go, I've tapped Him out. I'm good. I know all about Him.

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I've got all the joy I can have. Never. Never. Don't become jaded. Don't get lazy and don't let these truths just wash over you like, oh, that's nice.

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This should change your whole perspective and it should turn your life into a life of praise. Right?

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Someone said to me a while back, I just said it loosely. I think most of you do too. I said, oh, praise

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God. Praise God. And someone came up to me afterwards and they said, you know what's interesting is you said praise

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God and she goes, it was weird because I've heard people say that before, but it sounded like you meant it.

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And I was like, when did I even say it? They said, oh, you said a couple things. You said praise God. Praise God. And I thought, huh, that's interesting.

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I didn't even notice that. But I sort of think that that should be something that is the highlight of all of our lives.

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Right? Shouldn't Christians be all about praise God? Praise God. Seriously, praise

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Him. I know Him. He knows me. He saved me. There's all His stuff going on here. Everything. Praise God.

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Right? Praise God. All this message, this story, God's story in your life should lead you to praise.

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Even when there's a five o 'clock Spider -Man meltdown. Praise God I'm saved.

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Praise God for the gift of this little boy who is so precious. Who thinks he's a superhero. Praise God.

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He knows not what he does. Let's pray. Father, thank you,

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Lord, for your goodness and mercy Thank you so much, Lord, for this, your story. Wow, there's just no way really,

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God, for us to wrap our minds fully around how good you are. How amazing this story is.

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So all I want to ask, Father, is that you'd meet everyone in this place, Lord. Those in here that don't know you, truly have not turned to you, that you,

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God, would grant repentance to them now. And Lord, for those of us that you've called to yourself and justified,

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I just want to pray, Lord, that you would have this moment be a place where you meet us in your power to transform our hearts and minds for good.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Heart of my own heart,

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Whatever befall, Still be my vision,