The Unbreakable Golden Chain
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Introduction
Sermon Introduction
Good Morning, Church.
I hope it is well with you all on this Lord’s Day.
Please turn your Bibles to the Epistle to the Romans.
We will be conducting our study in Chapter 8.
One of the greatest chapters in all the Bible and a favorite among many believers.
Specifically, we will be examining verse 28 through 30 in our message this morning called “The Unbreakable Golden Chain”
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
One day when I was on Facebook, I saw a post that caused me to do a double take.
Maybe you saw this post too.
It was a picture of one of those daily calendars you put on your desk with an inspirational quote.
This verse was for July 3rd and it quoted Luke 4:7.
Church, do you know what Luke 4:7 says?
“If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
Maybe some may think this sounds inspirational.
For one company that produced this daily calendar they thought it was great inspiration.
But there is a big problem.
Church, who is being quoted in Luke 4:7?
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Yes, it is Satan.
This is an inspiration quote from the pit of Hell.
This is what Satan said to Jesus during the temptation in the wilderness.
You see, context is very important when you read the Bible.
So, if you hear or read a verse, always think:
Context!...Context!...Context!
Now this is a great time to transition to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 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.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
1) The Audience
1) The Audience
Verse 28a: And we know that for those who love God
Remember Church...
Context!…Context!…Context!
So, when we look at this passage we need to look at context.
We need to look who this passage is addressed to.
We need to look at who the audience is.
The first half of Romans 8:28 shows us we are talking about those who love God.
.......
We are talking about genuine believers.
And we are not just talking about someone who gives lip service to God and says they love them.
We are talking about those who understand and take to heart John 14:21-23:
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
So, the promise that follows in next portion of this verse is not a promise for everyone.
Unbelievers and nominal Christians (those who are identify as Christian but have never been Born Again), they are not included in this promise.
So, you may ask “what is that promise?”
.......
I am glad you asked.
2) The Promise
2) The Promise
Verse 28b: all things work together for good,
Church, how many things work together for good?
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Yes, “all” things.
That is not an accident.
The word “all” here means “all.”
So, those things in your life; the things you call good and the things you call bad...
If you are a true believer, then I promise you by the authority of the very Word of God, that all of it has a purpose.
Noting that happens in the life of a believer is done in vain.
Every sickness, every struggle, every trial, every storm, every hurt, even every death...
All of it has a purpose.
All of it connects and works together like a finely built machine with a myriad of parts that are working in unison for one holy and good goal.
This is nothing new that I am telling you.
Even when Paul wrote this to the Romans in his letter it wasn’t new.
This is a signature characteristic of God’s amazing working in our lives.
We see this plainly in the lives of Men of Faith from the Old Testament.
Remember Joseph...
He became the second in command in Egypt and God used him to prevent the people of Isreal to go extinct.
But hold on...
Church, what events led to this?
What happened before?
Remember:
A brother was hated...
A brother was betrayed...
A murder was plotted...
An innocent man was sold to slavery...
A man was falsely accused an imprisoned...
And that man was forgotten for years...
But none of this was in vain.
All of it was a part of God’s plan.
Some people incorrectly say that God just turned the bad to good.
That is a false statement and makes God simply a cosmic reactor to events.
But we have a sovereign God who doesn’t use a back up plan.
This was all part of his plan.
Don’t take my word for it.
Take a look at the Word of God
20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
You see, there is no “turning” or “countering” of events.
God “meant” all these events in Joseph’s life for good.
I encourage you to study the Scriptures and pay attention to how God works all things for good for His servants.
Church, I encourage you to study your own life and see how God has done the same for you.
Many of those events you wish to erase from your mind had a purpose.
Speaking of purpose, this takes us to our next point.
3) His Purpose
3) His Purpose
Verse 28c: for those who are called according to his purpose.
Your life is not about you...
Your reason for existence on this world is not about you...
You see, you are called by God not because of your goodness...
Not because of your cleverness or resourcefulness...
Not because of your lovableness or greatness...
You are called according to His purpose.
.......
Church, your life is not about you...
It is about Him and His purpose.
So, you may ask “what is His purpose?”
I am glad you asked...
He reveals His purpose in the next two verses.
We see what many call the Golden Chain or Golden Cord of Salvation.
4) First Link in the Chain: Foreknowledge
4) First Link in the Chain: Foreknowledge
Verse 29a: For those whom he foreknew
Foreknew here is a personal knowing or deep relationship from beforehand.
Notice it says “those” He foreknew.
That means He foreknew some people but not all people.
So, “those” are people He had a relationship with before they even existed or came into existence.
This is a special love for a specific group of people.
This is not just seeing into the future as some people falsely claim.
Scholar, Robert H. Mounce, said in his commentary on Romans,
“Verse 29 is sometimes interpreted to mean that God predestines on the basis of his prior knowledge about how each of us will in fact respond.
But this would mean that in election God would not be sovereign; he would be dependent upon what he would see happening in the future.
Theologians rightly point out that prior to knowledge must be the divine decree.
Unless God determines in some sense that something will happen, he cannot “know” that it will.
For God to foreknow requires an earlier decree.”
Consider what John MacArthur says on the matter too:
“[Foreknowledge is] not a reference simply to God’s omniscience—that in eternity past He knew who would come to Christ. Rather, it speaks of a predetermined choice to set His love on us and established an intimate relationship—or His election.”
Consider also what Scripture says in Romans 11:2-5
2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”
4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.
God will never reject those who he foreknew.
Even when Isreal was in rebellion against God, a remnant existed and they where chosen by grace, nothing of there own doing.
This remnant is the elect.
There is both a Jewish remnant and a gentile remnant and together they are the elect, chosen by God.
Take a look at John 10:16
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
And this takes us to our next point.
5) Second Link in the Chain: Predestination
5) Second Link in the Chain: Predestination
Verse 29b: he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The same individuals that God foreknew where also predestined.
Let’s breakdown “predestination.”
“Pre” meaning before.
Before what you ask?
Before the foundation of the world.
Before all of creation.
Just take a look at Ephesians 1:4-5
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
And
9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
“Destination” meaning your final destination.
Again look to what we just read in Ephesians.
Before He created the world He not only choose us.
He also selected us to be holy, that is set apart, and blameless, that is when we are glorified in heaven.
Before God said “Let there be Light” He already loved His children and had a destination planned for His children.
Are you a Child of God?
If so, know that He knew you from before creation...
He loved you...
And he had a perfect plan for you...
As David said…
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Consider also what Paul said...
10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—
12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”
13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!
15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
This is such a remarkable truth that our limited minds cannot even begin to truly understand this.
But by the authority of the Word of God we know it is true.
Remember He choose us, we did not choose Him.
Jesus said:
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
We are predestined, chosen by the Father, to be molded in the image of His Son, Jesus.
So, we are predestined to go through a process of sanctification and transform by becoming more like Christ.
And this takes us to our next point.
6) Third Link in the Chain: Calling
6) Third Link in the Chain: Calling
Verse 30a: And those whom he predestined he also called,
Those that are foreknown are also predestined and are also called.
This is not the outward call of the Gospel.
This is referring to an inward calling.
Many will hear the invitation but only the ones God chooses are called by an effectual call or personal call.
Think about how Paul was called to be a believer.
Again, don't take my word for it.
Jesus said it plainly in John 10:27-28:
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
And
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
And
3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Who are the sheep?
They are the ones given to Christ.
Look at Ephesians 1:18:
18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
Jesus has an inheritance from the Father and it is all believers.
The sheep are those who are His followers, chosen before the foundation of the world.
Remember John 6:44:
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
The Father purposefully draws the sheep to Jesus.
What happens when you are called by God?
The next thing that happens is that you believe.
When you believe you are considered justified and in right standing with God.
And this takes us to our next point.
7) Forth Link in the Chain: Justification
7) Forth Link in the Chain: Justification
Verse 30b: and those whom he called he also justified,
Those that are foreknown are also predestined and are also called and are also justified.
Scripture is clear tat those who are justified are those that believe.
Just look at some of the greatest verses in Scripture that point to this promise:
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
And
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
The ones who are justified or who are the“whoever believes” are also the ones who are called and predestined and foreknown.
Consider this:
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Pay attention to who believed...
The ones who where appointed to eternal life.
You can’t break the Golden Chain of Salvation.
8) Final Link in the Chain: Glorification
8) Final Link in the Chain: Glorification
Verse 30c: and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Lets recap, Church.
Those that are foreknown are also predestined and are also called and are also justified and are also glorified.
We reach the final stage of glorification after we pass from this life to the next.
Notice the past tense of the word glorified even though it is referring to an event that will take place in the future for the life of a believer.
Paul’s purpose of this is to demonstrate the absolute certainty of this promise of glorification for God’s chosen people, the elect.
So, believers are glorified, becoming holy and blameless as we say in the beginning of this passage.
We see this in other parts of Scripture too:
10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
And
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
This is the ultimate purpose the Father had; to give the Son, Jesus Christ, an inheritance, that is the saints.
In order for the gift to reach its ultimate and final form Jesus had to give His life for His sheep.
Church, recall Jesus’ words:
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Jesus said He knows His own, that is before they ever believe.
We know Him not of our own intelligence but because the Father draws us to Him, because we are called.
So, Jesus must cleans the sheep so that we may be presented as holy and blameless in the eyes of the Father.
Through all this, from the point in which we believe until we are glorified we have the Holy Spirit in us.
Take a look at Romans 8:9-11:
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
The Holy Spirit preserves us so it is impossible for us to fall away.
Consider this Romans 11:29
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Once you are called by Him, once you receive the gift of Grace, it will never be taken away from you.
Again if we look at John 6:44 we see a promise from God.
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
The ones who are drawn to Him or called will raise up on the last day.
This promise is made possible by the Holy Spirit that lives in every regenerated true believer.
And again let us look at John 10:28:
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Once we are saved no one can separate us from God.
Again we have the Holy Spirit to thank for that.
So the act of Salvation is truly a work of the whole Trinity.
The Father chooses us.
The Son purchases us.
The Holy Spirit preserves us
This is the Unbreakable Golden Chain of Salvation.
This is why Salvation is a gift that you receive unmerited.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
And
16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.
And
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
So, if you find yourself among the followers of Christ, you have nothing to boast about.
That is except to boast in the Lord and to boast in the cross.
You need to praise our mighty and awesome God for His mercy on you.
Remember how all the things that happen in your life have a great purpose.
Remember His promises and remember them in the context of the Bible.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
Church, consider this:
As I was leading Sunday School with another servant, I heard heard him give a great example.
My co-leader and friend said to the class of 9th Grade boys, did you know the Bible says “there is no God.”
The boys where stunned.
The look on each of their faces said it all.
Without speaking you could tell they were thinking:
“Has this guy lost his mind!”
“Mom and Dad are not going to be happy with this.”
“I can’t wait to tell the pastor.”
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But he knew what he was doing and he was right.
He said turn to Psalm 14:1.
The verse reads, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.”’
The students where relived and learned a lesson.
Context!…Context!…Context!
As our time together is coming to a close I want you to think of the promise from God from our passage today.
Romans 8:28 said “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good.”
Remember: Context!...Context!...Context!
All things do work out for good for those who trust Him.
That is a true statement ans a promise all believers hold on to dearly.
But, if you are not a follower of Christ, if you do not truly love Him, then I have nothing to offer you for assurance.
Those bad things happening in you life, I can’t assure you that it is for your good.
But if you surrender to God, forsaking your pride, forsaking your desires, forsaking your will...
And if you put your trust in Him and believer in your heart in the Jesus of the Scriptures....
Then you will be saved.
Then you too can hold onto he promise of Romans 8:28.
Then you too can say that all that is happening in your life is for a great purpose and it is ultimately for your good.
And you will be able to find joy in 1 Thessalonians 5:9:
9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
So, trust in Him.
All the Glory to God.
Amen.
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Now if you will all stand to your feet...
