The Sovereign Foreknowledge of God

Introduction

Imagine that you are with 99 other people on a ship in the middle of the sea. Bad weather arises. The bow of the ship breaks and everyone ends up in the water. It is a desperate situation. You and everyone else are in desperate need of saving. The shore is so far away that you can’t even see it. There is absolutely no hope of swimming to safety. And furthermore your clothes are saturated with the water and they are weighing you down. As you look around in a frenzy you see that everyone else is in the same position as you. There is nothing to float on, there is no way you’ll swim to safety and you are all sinking beneath the waves.

We’re going to come back to this illustration a couple of times. Because it’s a useful way to understand salvation and to see God’s part and our part.

Our text this morning is Romans 8:28-30. And last week I told you that I wanted you to see that your salvation is secure and that when Christ declared, “It is finished” from the cross everything that needed to be done to save people from their sin was done.

I also told you that we would come back to these verses and I would make the argument for you that God is sovereign over salvation. That He chose those that would be saved and it is those elect people that are saved. Today we are talking about God’s sovereign foreknowledge.

Our passage this morning is Romans 8:28-30. Let’s read it.

Romans 8:28–30 (ESV)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Of this passage the most contentious word is “foreknew”. Predestination closely follows it, but your understanding of “foreknew” shapes your understanding of predestination. This is where the disagreement takes place between people who believe that God chooses people for salvation and that all people are free to choose to Jesus. So this morning our sermon will focus mainly on God’s foreknowledge and what that means.

Christian people love the idea of God being sovereign. We read our Bible’s and we see an almighty, all-powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing, God who is in control of all things. We love the idea of the sovereignty of God to protect us, the sovereignty of God to sustain us, the sovereignty of God to guide. We love that our God is truly God. He is sovereign there is no one above Him and all people are subject to Him—all things—every thing in the universe is subject to His will. We love God’s sovereignty until we talk about God being sovereign over who is and is not saved.

Many people struggle with this biblical teaching. And I understand that—but I hope at the end of this sermon you will be convinced that it is a biblical teaching.

Here’s our framework for the sermon this morning.

I. The Spiritual State of Man

II. The Sovereignty of God

III. Look at our text again through the lens of the Bible.

And throughout I want to answer some questions. So I promise that within this sermon I will answer these 4 questions often asked about this biblical teaching.

What about those who don’t have a Bible? Who have never heard?

How is this fair?

How is following Christ meaningful if it’s not our decision?

How does God choose the elect?

Why should we share the gospel?

I. The Spiritual State of Man

Go back in your mind to the picture of all those drowning people. The water is churning with drowning people. Splashing, yelling, struggling—these sounds all fill the air. And now imagine with me that another ship shows up. And on the deck there is a man who has a single life ring and he begins to throw it into the water within the reach of drowning people. And as you are imagining this—imagine that some people take hold of the life line and are pulled to safety—but there are others who reject the lifeline, they are suspicious of it, they don’t trust it, some don’t believe that it is really a life line—and so they reject and continue to drown.

This is how some believe salvation works. People are in the world—drowning, in danger of death—and the gospel goes forth. It is thrown out as a life line to the drowning. And some choose to take the life line while others choose to reject the lifeline. This is fair because if someone rejects the life line and dies it’s their own fault.

What does the Bible say about the spiritual state of man? Are we thrashing about in the water—trying to keep from drowning? Let’s look.

Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—”

Matthew 8:22 “And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.””

Luke 15:32 “It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ ””

Ephesians 5:14 “for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.””

Colossians 2:13 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,”

Ephesians 2:1-5 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—”

Friends, what is the picture that the Bible gives us about the spiritual state of man? Is man drowning but alive? Seeking God?

Romans 3:10-11 “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.”

Let’s go back to our scene on ocean. And now let the Bible’s own words shape the picture for you. What do you hear? Drowning? Splashing, yelling, struggling? No—dead people don’t do these things. There is silence. There are only dead people here.

This is the picture that God’s word gives us about the spiritual state of man. Spiritually we are not dying—we are dead. We do not seek God. We are not struggling against this spiritual death. We love our sin—we hate the rule of God. We are dead in our trespasses, we are dead in our sins.

Dead people cannot grasp onto a lifeline to be saved. You can throw a lifeline to a dead person in the water forever and a day and they won’t grab onto it once.

Dead people do not need a lifeline—they need a resurrection. They need to be made alive.

And the dead person cannot contribute at all to their resurrection—they have nothing to do with it. They can’t help themselves be saved.

If they are not saved—they will remain dead. This is the picture that God gives us to describe our spiritual state. There are no drowning people—there are dead people.

“Okay, but maybe what God does is he saves people brings them to life and then lets them choose if they want to be alive”

Well that’s problematic in many ways. One, God can’t half resurrect someone. There is no middle ground here. It’s a coin—there are two side. On one side you are dead in your trespasses and sins and on the other you are alive in Christ.

Two what then does God do with the alive person who rejects Jesus? Kill them again? So that one minute they are alive and saved, but then they choose to be dead instead and so lose their life?

I hope you see the absurdity of this. No one loses their salvation once they have it. And no one would choose to die and suffer the consequences of their sin once they saw their need for Christ and their salvation in Christ.

And someone could twist this illustration to their liking so that it fits their framework for what they want to be true—all analogies fall apart somewhere—but to do so would be to leave the biblical teaching on the spiritual state of man.

Man is spiritually dead. And unless he is made alive by the actions of God—man will stay spiritually dead forever.

We see as we read the Bible and believe what it says that man is dead in sin. That man cannot reach for a life line. Man cannot choose God and climb the cross to safety. Now that we have a right understanding of the spiritual state of man let’s turn and see what the Bible says about...

II. The Sovereignty of God

Let’s go back to our scene on the ocean again. Even though the Bible has just proved for us that it is not accurate. Let’s see again all those drowning people who are struggling and clamoring—fighting against drowning. And let’s see again that there is a man throwing a lifeline into the ocean trying to save people.

This man is God and He wants to save people. He wants every single person who is in the water to be saved. He has the life line and if they grab onto it they will be saved. And that is what God wants. He wants them all to be saved.

But the reality of the situation is that some reject the lifeline and others drown in the water before God can get the life line to them.

Even though God wants to save all of them—He cannot. Either because they won’t let Him—or because they don’t get a chance to see and grab the lifeline before they die.

If God is not sovereign over salvation then this is what we are left with. A sovereign God who is not really sovereign. A God who cannot accomplish what He wants to do. A God who’s will is overcome by the will of his creation.

And some would argue here, “Well, it’s that God allows his creation to determine his own way. In this matter—God puts the will of man above his own will.”

But friends again we must let our thinking be shaped by what the Bible actually says. What does the Bible say about the sovereignty of God? Let’s look. And there are many passages that show the sovereignty of God but we only need to look at one here.

Isaiah 46:8-11 ““Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”

God says I am God—there is none like me. I am in a category alone by myself. And what is it that God references as the defining mark of his uniqueness?

“I declare from the end from the very beginning, from ancient times things not yet done.”

And here in Isaiah we see what Romans 8:29 means when it talks about the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge of God is not just that God looked through the annals of history and foreknew what people would do and so he “chose them based on their choosing Him first”.

That is how people forknow things. That is the only way that foreknowledge can apply to people. That we know ahead of time what someone will do. But that is not what it means for God. He tells us so right here in Isaiah.

He says, “My counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose. I call a bird and it comes. I call a man and he comes. I will bring to pass all that I have purposed to do—I will do it.”

The foreknowledge of God is not based on what any man will do—God’s foreknowledge is based on what He will do. What he purposes. What he has declared. What his counsel is!

Sovereignty means supreme power and authority. It means superiority to all others.

We use the word sovereign to describe earthy kings and kingdoms, but really sovereignty only applies to God. Because the “sovereignty of kings” is foiled—they don’t accomplish whatever they purpose.

And the “sovereignty of nations and kingdoms” is false because they are constantly being put upon and cannot accomplish all that they will or purpose. Look at Russia and Ukraine, both claim that they are sovereign nations and neither truly are.

It is only God who is actually sovereign.

God’s sovereignty means that He is never inferior to anything or anyone—even by his own choice.

Sovereignty is not something that God does and then puts down. It’s not an object that He weilds sometimes.—sovereign is who God is.

And so when it comes to the salvation of His people—God does not suspend his sovereignty because to do so would be to be something other than what He is. And God is never anybody but God.

God is sovereign over salvation. He doesn’t just know ahead of time someone’s decison to follow Jesus. He delcares the end from the beginning. He purposes from the beginning to save people in Christ and He will always accomplish saving every person that he purposes to save.

And this is what we see all throughout the Bible—not just the NT. God chooses Abraham. God chooses Moses. God chooses Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. God chooses David. Jesus says to the disciples follow me and they follow Him. Jesus chooses Paul on the road to Damascus.

We don’t see anywhere in the Bible where God consults with the people that He is choosing. Where God asks them if they’d like to be chosen.

God is sovereign. He accomplishes everything that He wants and purposes to do.

So now we see in the Bible that man is spiritually dead and unable to reach for a lifeline. We see that God is absolutely sovereign in all things. That his foreknowledge is based on knowing what He will do and not based on knowing what we will do. So now let’s go back to our text.

III. Look at our text again through the lens of the Bible.

Now having seen all of this let’s look again at our text and answer some questions.

Romans 8:28–30 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Those who love God are those who were called according to His purpose. Not ours. But His.

He foreknew His people—in that He declared before the foundation of the world who would be elect. Who He would save. He declared it—He purposed it—and that means that He will accomplish it.

These people that God foreknew—he predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son. It was fixed. That what predestination means. He predetermined their destination based off of what he declared—based off of his own purpose—based off of his sovereignty and nothing else.

Foreknowledge—for all that we have seen—cannot mean that God foreknew that we would choose Him and so he chose us because dead people will never choose Him—they cannot.

If God’s foreknowledge was based off his foreknowing who would choose Him—then God’s foreknowledge would reveal that none would be saved because none would choose Him.

But that’s not what we are seeing here. If you are saved in Jesus God forknew you—he declared your salvation to be true—he purposed that you would be saved in his son Jesus. He purposed that he would draw you to Christ and resurrect you. He pre-determined your destination.

And because God did this—the rest of our passage is true. Those whom God forknew and predestined he called. And those who were called He also justified—He did it. Justification was done to us. And those whom he justified he also glorified.

So let’s go back now to our scene on the ocean and see it for what it really is. Let’s see it through the lens of the Bible.

The ocean is filled with dead people who are unable to see a life line. They are unable to hear it hit the water. They are unable to grab onto it because they are dead and dead people do nothing. God is not throwing a lifeline to people for them to grab onto.

He pulls the dead from the water and he resurrects them. Their heart is dead and so God gives them a new heart. One that is not dead in sin.

He brings them to life. Justification is done to them—and they contribute nothing at all to their own justification.

God gives those that he foreknew and predestined a new heart and this new heart always chooses to follow Jesus.

Let me say it again, its not that God gives a person a new heart after they choose Jesus—because no one seeks God—no one would choose Jesus because dead people don’t choose to do anything.

God gives the new heart and the result of that new heart is that we choose to trust Jesus for our salvation.

God saves every single person from the water that he purposed to save from the foundation of the world.

When we let the Bible determine what the words of our passage mean then we see God’s meaning in our passage.

We must let God define God’s word. Now with the rest of our time I want to answer some questions.

Questions

Q. How does God choose who will be saved?

On what criteria did God choose some for salvation while not choosing others?

The answer is not based off of anything within us. God did not look at the hearts of all people and determine that some were worthy of salvation while others were not. He did not tally sin and those with the least were chose. He did not weigh good works and determine that those with the most would be chosen. Our salvation Ephesians 2 says is based not on works, but on God’s grace.

The Bible tells us that we were chosen by the perfect will of God. God did not simply flip a coin.

1 Corinthians 1:24 says that Christ is the “power and wisdom of God”.

God chose the elect in wisdom. He delcared those who would be saved according to his perfect will. God is righteous and perfect in all that he does.

This means that while we do not know the mind of God as chose certain people for salvation we do know that his choice was perfect, righteous, and full of wisdom.

Q. How is this fair?

The simple answer to that question is that it’s not fair.

If you have sat under my preaching for any amount of time you have heard me say this time and time again. It is not fair that Jesus, an innocent man died for our sins.

The unfairness of the gospel does not bear upon man—it bears upon Christ.

All of mankind, You and I, we are all sinners. And if we were to stand before God and receive the punishment for our sins that would be completely just, righteous, and fair. We are not owed salvation. We don’t deserve to be saved.

Only Christ deserved to be spared from judgment and yet the sins of all God’s chosen people were placed on Jesus and he received the punishment for our sins.

The gospel is unfair, but not toward humanity—it is unfair to Jesus who, though innocent, was treated as guilty.

When God decides not to save people they are getting what is fair, what they deserve.

When God chooses to show grace to some it does not make it unfair that the sinner still received judgment. Grace doesn’t make justice unfair.

If you and I work for 15 dollars an hour for 10 hours and we both receive a paycheck for $150 dollars that is rightoues. IF the boss then hands you another $50 that’s grace. It’s not unfair. I still received what I earned.

Q. What about those who have never heard the gospel? Who have never seen a Bible?

This is the same question about fairness asked in a different way. The person who has never heard the gospel and never had access to a Bible—or the person who has had very little access to the gospel and very little access to the Bible will still receive fair judgment from God.

God doesn’t weigh a persons sin against how much gospel exposure that they have had and then tabulate the results.

God is a righteous judge with a righteous law and those who break the law—aware of their law breaking—or ignorant to their law breaking are still law breakers.

Whether they have the Bible or not or have heard the gospel or not they have still broken God’s law and it’s not because they are innocent and just didn’t know better—that if they had God’s law they would have kept it.

No one can keep God’s law—that’s why he sent his son to keep it for us—that those who he purposed to save could be saved.

This idea of the innocent person who has never heard the gospel doesn’t exist. They might not have heard the gospel, but they aren’t innocent.

And the glory of God’s sovereignty in salvation is that regardless of where they are in the world—regardless of the remoteness of their culture and their geography. IF God has purposed to save them they will be saved!

There will be people from every tribe, tongue, and nation Revelation 7:9 says. God is sovereign and will save all of His people.

Q. Well, if this is how salvation works why should we share the gospel?

Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

Romans 10:14 “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

Why would people who believe that God chooses people for salvation go and share the gospel?

Because God has called us to go and share the gospel. And the very way by which he draws people to Jesus is by the proclamation of the gospel.

I share the gospel first and foremost because God calls me to. I share the gospel because I want people to be saved. I share the gospel with all who will listen because while God knows how he elect are I don’t. And so I share the gospel.

Believing in the sovereignty of God in salvation should only give you more boldness in gospel proclamation. Because it means that it is not up to you—to throw the life line well. To share the gospel better.

If God is not sovereign in salvation then gospel proclamation Is a terrible burden. If you shared it better then people would believe it and trust It. If you answered their questions better. If you were more charming and convincing. If your passion was more obvious and your walk with Chris was more winsome then maybe that person who rejected Jesus would have accepted Him instead of rejecting him.

But God’s sovereignty in all things—including salvation means that when you share the gospel in weakness—God uses it to save his people. It’s not up to you to make the gospel appealing. It’s up to you share it. Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.

Q. Doesn’t this make our decision to follow Christ meaningless?

Friends, if you are saved in Christ you really do make a decision to follow Christ. Every believer when they tell their salvation story will talk about deciding to follow Christ. The Bible doesn’t teach that you don’t make a decision. It teaches that God pursued you, he saved you, he gave you a new heart, and that new heart will always choose to follow Jesus because God is sovereign and accomplishes all that He purposes.

The sweetness of the gospel is not based off of your choosing God: It’s based off of God choosing you.

Despite our sin. Despite what we deserve. Despite what is fair. Jesus died for us. His innocent blood was shed for us. He clenased us at great cost to Himself. Why?

Because He loves us. He decided to love us when we were not lovable and then he transforms us in his Son to be like His Son.

The beauty of salvation has nothing to do with our determination and everything to do with God’s.

Conclusion

My goal this morning and my hope this morning is that you would see the biblical picture of salvation. That man is unable to chose God because of his spiritual death.

And that God’s sovereignty extends to everything including the foreknowledge of Romans 8:29.

I hope that for anyone struggling with this teaching that at least this morning you would see and believe that it is what the Bible is teaching.

Let me encourage you this morning to not fear God’s Word ever. It is always trustworthy, it is always good. And where we find ourselves in disagreement with it—we bring glory to God as we align ourselves with it. I pray that you’ll do that this morning.

This teaching is beautiful as it teaches us that there is no one that God cannot save. He will accomplish salvation for all those whom he has foreknown. It doesn’t matter where they come from—what they've done. There is no obstacle that God does not overcome to save His people.

Maybe this morning you have never trusted Jesus for your salvation. Would you do that today? Would you come and receive forgiveness for your sins? Would you come and be made righteous by the work of Jesus done for you on the cross?

Let’s pray.