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Sometimes people come to our church because they’ve heard we are “reformed.” What does it mean to be a reformed church? In simple terms, a reformed church believes and teaches the sovereignty of God in every area of life, and especially in the area of salvation. Man doesn’t save himself, or help God save him. God saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, based on Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone. These are called the solas of the Reformation. You may have noticed them on the banner at the entrance to our church. We also believe in the doctrines of grace. You’re probably familiar with the acrostic TULIP. We believe the Bible clearly teaches man’s total depravity and inability in his sin to respond to God. Unconditional election means God chose in eternity past all whom He will save based on His own good pleasure. Limited atonement means God sent His son to pay for the sins of all those God has chosen. Irresistible grace means God will be sure to save all He chose and Christ died for. Perseverance means everyone God chose in eternity past will continue in the faith through trials and afflictions and will finally arrive in the Celestial City, conformed to the image of God’s Son.
This is what it means to be a Reformed church. We believe God saves sinners; we don’t help Him save us. We don’t believe God saves us because we say a prayer, go to an altar, raise a hand, or sign a decision card. We don’t believe in what’s known as “decisional regeneration,” that we trigger our own new birth by our own free will, that man makes the final choice. God’s saving plan is not contingent on man’s choice. If it were, no one would be saved. Some even believe people can be saved for a time and then finally be cast off. This kind of false teaching can be compared to a DAISY, “He loves me, He loves me not.”
Most of the men we highly regard in church history were or are reformed in their understanding of salvation, from Paul to Augustine to Calvin to John Bunyan, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Spurgeon, R. C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Steve Lawson. Missionaries like John Paton and Adoniram Judson went to foreign lands knowing their only hope in evangelizing is God’s sovereign grace. In Acts 13:48 Paul preached to the Gentiles and “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” In Acts 18:9-10 God encouraged Paul to stay in Corinth, “I have many people in this city.” Paul stayed a year and a half, and many came to Christ.
While we’re at it, not only is God sovereign over your salvation, He is also sovereign over all history. History is not unfolding willy-nilly without a purpose or plan. No, history is His story. Each day is the unfolding of God’s sovereign, predetermined plan.
Isaiah 46:9-10, “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’.”
Only because God controls history can He reveal what He plans for the future. That’s why He can reveal the coming rapture of the church, the coming seven-year tribulation period which He revealed 500 years earlier to Daniel, the second coming, the millennium, the new heavens and earth, all the unfolding of God’s sovereign, predetermined, predestined plan.
What a glorious God we have! How wrong are those who believe God doesn’t know the future and say we’re just careening through time and space. How wrong is godless evolution which says our universe and humanity all came from nothing and we don’t know where it’s going, that life came from non-life, that man came from animal over millions of years, that all is random and purposeless. The truth is that God is in complete control and believers are headed to a marvelous, glorious future. This brings us to our text this morning.
GOD’S GREAT ETERNAL PURPOSE IN OUR SALVATION.
Romans 8:28-29, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose…to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren.
God called you for the specific purpose of becoming like His Son, and He’s going to get you there. Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” If you are a believer, you will be like Christ forever. Can you imagine that? To be perfectly good, perfectly humble, perfectly gentle and kind, perfectly loving and joyful and peaceful, perfectly sinless and holy. We’ll still have our own identity. We’ll recognize each other – we have no reason to think otherwise. I may be wrong, but somehow our genetic structure will be with us forever.
Let this powerful purpose control your heart every day. You are here today to become more like Christ. When you are tempted to get angry, or jealous, or resentful, or grumble, or feel offended, or critical of others, or insisting your way is right – ask yourself, “Am I responding in a Christlike way to this situation?” God is in this trial and using it to help you grow to be more like Christ. Philippians 2:3-5 in the NLT is a wonderful measure of Christlikeness. “Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”
But how do we know we’ll make it? If salvation in any way depended on us, not one of us would make it. That’s what these five golden links are about. If one of them breaks, we all go tumbling into the pit. God is telling us right here how we know that God’s plan will come to fulfillment. Romans 8:1 started out assuring us there is no condemnation to those in Christ. Romans 8 will end assuring us of no separation from the love of God in Christ. And these five links that connect eternity past to eternity future give us the reason we are absolutely secure, and we can have blessed assurance that we will end in glory with Christ. There are no breaks in the chain.
THE FIVE LINKS STRETCHING FROM ETERNITY TO ETERNITY.
Romans 8:29-30, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined… 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Notice there is only one subject for each link – God. He does it all. Everyone, “those whom,” He starts with in foreknowledge, He ends with in glorification. If God determined to save 20-billion sinners in eternity past, it is those exact same 20-billion people who end up in eternity future. There is no breakage in these links. Nothing can destroy God’s plan to save His people and build His church. Jesus guaranteed, “I will build my church and the devil and hell itself won’t stop it.”
LINK #1 – GOD FOREKNEW YOU IN ETERNITY PAST.
Many people start off wrongly here thinking God means He knew ahead of time who would come to His Son, and therefore He foreknew them and chose them based on their choice. There is one major problem with this interpretation. If God simply knew ahead of time who would believe and based on their decision included them in His plan, he wouldn’t have anyone in his plan, because Paul already told us in Romans 3:11, “No one seeks for God.”
The word “know” in the Bible often speaks of an intimate, loving relationship. Genesis 4:1 says Adam knew his wife. This means more than Adam was aware of Eve; she conceived and gave birth to Cain. Psalm 1 says the Lord “knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” In Amos 3:2 God says of Israel, “You only have I known.” Now obviously God knows everything, so it means more than “I am aware of you.” John 10:27 says, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them.” In Matthew 7:23 Christ says to unbelievers, “Depart from Me; I never knew you.” He was certainly aware of those who rejected Him, but He never knew them in a loving, saving, intimate relationship.
We must look at Ephesians 1:3-6 to see that foreknowledge and choosing are two sides of the same truth. And notice here that God’s choosing you was in and through His Son, and that He was motivated by His love.
Ephesians 1:3-6, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
The Father loves the Son. Everything God does in saving us is for the glory of His Son. Jesus is always the center of attention. He is the firstborn and has the preeminence or first place.
So, God knew you in eternity past, set His love on you because of His Son, chose you to be holy and blameless like His Son, and conformed you to His image. God’s foreknowing those He determined to save flows out of His sovereign love and mercy and grace. It’s all God. First Peter 1:1-2 says God chose you according to His foreknowledge. So, if you are a believer, it all started in eternity past when God set His redeeming love on you to save you for His glory and the blessing of His Son. Spurgeon said, “It’s good God chose me before I was born, because He certainly wouldn’t have wanted me afterward!” You are a gift from God the Father to the Son. John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives me shall come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out.” You were in the loving plan and heart of God before the foundation of the world. Wow!
LINK #2 – GOD PREDESTINED OR DETERMINED YOU TO BECOME LIKE HIS SON.
Romans 8:29, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son….
Predestine comes from two Greek words, “pro” (before) and “horidzo” (to mark out a boundary or goal). God intimately knew you and personally chose you to be saved. He decided through His Son’s redeeming work, coming to pay for sin, conquering death, and defeating Satan to make these people He had chosen to become just like His Son. Christ will be the firstborn of all the many God planned to save. This is God’s work. There are no conditions or weak links in this plan. God will use suffering and trials and afflictions and mosquitoes and leaky faucets and what-not, but God planned for you to be like Christ, and you will be like Christ. God always accomplishes what He starts.
You may be thinking, “What if God didn’t include me in His foreknowledge and predestination? What if I want to come to Christ but I can’t because I’m not included in His plan?” I’m glad you asked. God has said in His Word that this is impossible. Romans 10:13 promises, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Jesus promised, “The one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out. The one who hears My word and believes on Him who sent me shall not come into condemnation but has passed out of death into life.”
When we first get saved, we think we’re the one who initiated our salvation. We believed. Ironside illustrates it like this. The gate into heaven promises, “Whosoever will, may come.” You’re a “whosoever” so you come to Jesus for salvation and are saved. But when you walk through heaven’s gate, you look back and above the gate on the inside it says, “Chosen before the foundation of the world.” It may take you a while to really embrace this sovereign grace and mercy of God but keep studying your Bible. That’s what I did. Even when I was in seminary I wasn’t settled on the sovereignty of God. But after 50-years of Bible study there’s one thing I couldn’t be more convinced of than the sovereignty of God in salvation.
LINK #3 – GOD CALLS YOU THROUGH THE GOSPEL AND ACTUALLY BRINGS YOU TO REPENT AND BELIEVE ON HIS SON AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR.
Romans 8:30, and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
The first two links are in eternity past. Now we come into time, and this applies to everyone since God called Adam up to the last believer at the end of the millennium. Let’s apply this calling to you. We mentioned last week that many people hear the gospel and don’t come to Christ. That’s the outward or general call. But God sees to it that all of those people He foreknew and predestined will hear the gospel and the Spirit of God will give them a new heart, and they will respond. That’s what happened to Lydia in Thyatira.
Acts 16:14, “A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.
That’s the effectual call: “the Lord opened her heart.” The effectual call is when God regenerates you or gives you a new heart. Ezekiel describes it.
Ezekiel 36:26, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Christ clearly taught this effectual call.
John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me…
We’re all born dead in our sin and children of wrath. This includes everyone. But God comes after His chosen, hunts us down, maybe as a youth, maybe as a 20- or 50- or 80-year-old. He may use a parent, friend, sermon, book, radio program, or Bible study. God uses means to accomplish His purpose. We become aware of our sin, our guilt, and that we’re in trouble with God. Sometimes His call is like a gentle breeze and comes to youngsters growing up in Christian homes; they may not know exactly when God called them, but they believe in Jesus and love Him as their Lord and Savior. Some may reaffirm their faith in Christ later. Other times God sends the call like a spiritual tornado, ripping us up and bringing sharp and deep conviction of sin. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, we sense something of the load of guilt and God brings the gospel of Jesus to us. The Spirit opens our hearts like He did in Lydia, and we repent of our sin, of going our own way. We trust Christ to save us, and we begin to follow Him.
This is the great miracle of regeneration. No man can regenerate himself, just like no man can conceive of himself in his mother’s womb. This is why evangelism doesn’t depend on our slick techniques or oratorical skills. People are dead in their sins; dead people can’t help themselves. We need to tell them the gospel, that Christ died for sinners and is the only way to forgiveness and eternal life. We plant and water, but God gives the increase. God gives them the new heart so they can believe.
LINK #4 – GOD JUSTIFIED YOU.
Romans 8:30, … and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
When God calls you to His Son and gives you that gift of faith to believe on His Son, what does He do? He immediately justifies you or declares you righteous. Your sins are forever removed from your record before God because God imputed or placed your sins to Jesus Christ who paid for them on the cross, and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to your account before God. God sees you perfectly righteous in His Son and that’s why Paul assured us in Romans 5:1, “Therefore having been justified (declared righteous) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” You are wrapped in the righteous robes of Christ. God declares you righteous and you are as ready for heaven as you’ll ever be. Luther called justification the chief article on which the church stands or falls. Calvin called it the main hinge on which religion turns. This was the doctrine that turned 16th century Europe upside down or right-side up with the great Reformation.
Sanctification isn’t included in these five links because sanctification doesn’t save you. But justification always leads to sanctification. When you come to Christ, your life immediately begins to change. You’re a new creation in Christ Jesus. You begin to grow and change to become more like Christ, but your sanctification doesn’t make you more ready for heaven.
LINK #5 – GOD GLORIFIED YOU.
Romans 8:30 … and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
In just one verse we’ve gone from eternity past to eternity future. Notice, glorified is in the past tense. Why? It’s so sure it’s as good as done. When God appeared to Joshua outside Jericho He said, “I have given you Jericho. Now go take it.” In Ephesians 2:6 Paul says, “God raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” So secure and guaranteed is our future glorification with Christ it’s like we’re already there! Every believer in Christ is as good as glorified in Christ.
When will we be glorified? Not at death. When believers die, they go to be with the Lord. Absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But we’ll still be waiting for the redemption of our bodies. We’re looking forward to the rapture and the resurrection of our bodies when we shall be like Him for we shall see His as He is. Paul described our glorified body like this.
1 Corinthians 15:51-53, Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
This is when Christ will present us faultless, perfected in holiness, shining like the stars of the heavens, in bodies just like His, and radiating His glory!
2 Thessalonians 2:14, It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SO WHAT?
Isn’t this amazing? God’s plan is not hit and miss. God didn’t go to plan B when Adam sinned in the garden. It all began with God foreknowing all those He would save and finally glorifying them in His Son forever. This is why God is working everything in your life for good to honor and magnify His Son. Please notice Paul’s challenge at the end of this chapter, verse 31 – “What shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Nothing! No one!
In view of God’s great purpose to conform us to the likeness of His Son, we should ask ourselves every day, “How can my attitudes, my words, and my habits reflect something more of Christ today?”
And if you are still outside of Christ, the full responsibility of your soul rests on you. Don’t trifle with your eternal soul. God commands you to repent and come to His Son. You will never charge God with being unfair if you go into eternity still under God’s wrath. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And if you repent of your sins and trust in Christ alone, you will look back and see that sign, “Chosen before the foundation of the world.”