Turning your Bibles, please, to Romans chapter eight, Romans chapter eight, Paul's epistle to the Romans chapter eight. And I would like to have us read verses twenty eight through thirty. Twenty eight through thirty. And as you are turning in your Bibles and as we are getting ready to read the word, before we do that, let's ask God's blessing upon his word as it is read and preached. Let us pray. Eternal God, we come to you tonight. We are, as has been said, sinners, one and all. We are those who in themselves have no life. and no good thing. All that is good and all that is living and all that lasts for this age and the age to come comes from you, your word and your spirit. And so we ask that as we read it, that you would speak through it to us by the power of your Holy Spirit. For we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Please stand for the reading of God's Holy Word. Romans chapter 8, verses 28 through 30, and I'm going to read from the New King James Version. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, and whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. So ends the reading of God's holy word. Please be seated. As you came in, you may have received a little handout, and in that handout you have sort of laid out graphically each of the items that are mentioned by the Apostle Paul in verses 29 and 30. which form, as it were, a chain, an unbroken chain of God's dealings with us in salvation. As you may know, as you have been coming on Sunday nights when I preach in the evening, we've been dealing with topics having to do with Christian doctrine. And we are now in that area of doctrine that have to do with the application of the work of Christ to us by the Holy Spirit, the application of the work of Christ to us by the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus, in his earthly ministry, acted as a prophet and a priest. And he, in his priestly work, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, and was buried. In his heavenly priestly work, He takes that which he has done on earth into the Holy of Holies. As you remember the layout of the tabernacle you have in the outer court, you have the altar. The priest offers the sacrifice in the courtyard on the altar. He takes the blood from the courtyard and he takes it into the once a year. The high priest takes that blood into the Holy of Holies, which was typical. That is, it foreshadowed and pointed to that which Jesus would accomplish for us in his priestly work. And that priestly work has two parts. It has that earthly work which he did, which he offered himself once and for all as a sacrifice for sin on the altar of God, that is the cross. And upon his ascension into heaven and his receiving glory from the Father, he takes that sacrifice and that blood of the sacrifice into the presence of God himself for us. And because of the work of Christ for those who trust in him, we know that the Holy Spirit then applies that work in the hearts of those that God has purposed to call and to save. And so what we want to talk about has to do tonight with the application by the Holy Spirit of salvation to the hearts of those whom God has chosen. And what I want to do in this as as you may have expressed to you in the past to preach a doctrinal or a topical sermon textually is not an easy thing to do because I want to preach from the text and I want you to be able to see what I'm what I have what I would like to bring out tonight from the text itself. And so I want to begin by calling attention to the fact that in this passage in Romans chapter 8, the Apostle Paul is dealing with believers and helping them to see how they are to understand and relate to the trials and the sufferings that they go through in life. And I want to call your attention as we begin here to verse 17. Because in verse 17 you have of Romans chapter 8, and I hope that you will follow along with me tonight in your Bibles, you see there that the Apostle Paul speaks about the fact that those who are in Christ have been constituted and made to be heirs of God, that is, fellow heirs with Christ, co-heirs with him. And then he says, provided that we suffer with him in order that we may be also glorified with him. So, you have the sufferings of Christ and you have the glory of Christ. I just mentioned a minute ago You have the two parts of the priestly work of Christ, his sufferings, his offering of himself on the cross as a sacrifice, but then you also have the glorified Christ in his ascended glory at the right hand of the Father. Now, the Apostle Paul says to you and to me, We have the privilege of sharing in the glory of Jesus Christ. And then he adds this proviso, and that is, provided that you also suffer with him. And so the Apostle Paul wants to help us understand the role that suffering, trial, turmoil, difficulty plays in our lives and how we need this, how we need to be able to do that. And the first thing I think that we want to grasp that he says here, and I'm here still dealing with the wider context in chapter 8, He says that we have to understand that suffering must be sort of paired up with and put side by side with the glory that is to be revealed to us. And if we do that, if we look at what we go through in this life and in the tears that we shed in this life and the pain that we experience in it, he says it can't be compared to the glory that lies ahead. If you look at chapter 8 verse 18, for I consider that as I think about this, I've pondered this carefully and I've come to the conclusion that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. So the Apostle Paul says the first thing that you and I need to understand if we're going to live in this present time prior to our sharing in the fulfilled glory of Christ that we need to understand that it is comparatively comparatively a light thing, a momentary thing, for that which we suffer can't be compared to the glory that is to be revealed to us. The next thing I think that the Apostle Paul wants us to see in chapter eight is this. Our pain and the difficulties that we endure are part of a worldwide process. we are taking part, we are merely a part of the world that in its completion, the whole world in which we live in is also in the pangs of this groaning that he describes. Verse 20, for the creation was subjected to futility because of him who subjected it in hope And the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay to obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pangs of childbirth until now. The whole creation is groaning in the pangs of childbirth until now. So, think about what you are going through as a Christian and understand, Paul says, that you are part of the process that is underway in the whole of creation. That creation itself longs to be released from that which has been imposed upon it by God. This futility. Futility has been imposed upon creation by God because of the curves. Everything comes up short. The blanket's too short. The money that you put in your pocket comes out. The hole's in your pocket. Nothing really accumulates. Nothing is really gained. Futility or vanity characterize this creation. But what is that all about? The creation is groaning, waiting to be released in the pangs of childbirth. I think of what you may have watched on the television this week as the royal family and all of England waited for the birth of King George or the future King George. And what excitement, what media attention was paid to this event. And she went into the hospital and the very time when the labor began, from that point to the birth, all of the attention of all of the news media was upon this. Why? Because we like to focus on a woman who is in pain? No. The reason is that there was a great anticipation of joy. And in comparison to the joy that everyone was expecting to come any hour, This would, this birth, this labor would pass. And so the Apostle Paul wants us to see our suffering in that kind of a context. We are part of a worldwide process in which all of creation is eagerly waiting. Waiting for what? Our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. That is our resurrection in the new creation and new bodies that Pastor Al spoke to us about this morning. So, that's something that Paul is focusing on in this chapter. He goes on to say that we need to understand, and this is I think my third point, we need to understand our suffering In the in in the light of the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and helps us to deal with it with this because he says in verse twenty six the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we are. And here notice that the Apostle Paul says we do not know what to pray for as we are prior. He had said for I consider And then prior to that he said, for we know. Here he says, I do not know. We do not know. We live in the time between the present time and the completion, the adoption of our bodies and the resurrection of the dead. We live in this present time and often it is the case that we do not know. We live with a lot of we do not knows. We don't know the outcome. We don't know the future with respect to our lives or the lives of our children and those that we care and pray for every day. And so, there's this sense that we deal with that we don't know how to pray and we don't know what we should be praying for, but the Holy Spirit dwells in us and helps us to deal with this with groaning that is too deep for words. He intercedes for us with groaning too deep for words. He searches the heart, you see. He searches our heart and He causes this groaning that goes on within us. to be known and to be heard by God. So that's the third thing. In the process of this, we are not alone. We who are in Christ are indwelt by the Holy Spirit who helps them in the I don't knows of life. He helps us in the I don't knows of life. But then I think the Apostle Paul goes on and he wants us to know in verse 28, something that is crucial and important. And that is that we need to realize that in our lives, all things work together. And he limits, though it is important that we notice this for those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose, who are we talking about? We're talking about those who are called. Those who are called according to His purpose. Those who are regenerate. Those that the Holy Spirit has raised from the dead. Spiritual death. Those who have life and who see and who hear the things of the Spirit. Who hear and see the things pertaining to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. And have responded to that in faith. Those who have placed their faith and their trust in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the eternal Son of God, these who love God and are called according to His purpose, Paul says about them, all the things that we go through in our life, God works together for good according to His purpose. That God has a purpose and that God is working in it. How important for you and I to know and how easily lost to view. How easily we forget when we are discouraged. When we are downcast and we cannot bring ourselves to raise our eyes to heaven. and to look and to seek the help that God has for us. How we forget His fatherly care for us to all these things. In all of the unexplainable, the unendurable, the unimaginable, that which you did not anticipate, that which you did not plan for, That which right now tears your heart apart. All things that cause this groaning within us, they are all a part of the purpose of God, and He works it to our good. It has a purpose of good. And I think that when you are in the dark, and when you are discouraged, And when you feel that God is against you in many ways, sometimes you are brought down to this very basic thing. God is good. God is good, and his purpose is good. And I don't get it. I don't understand it. It makes no sense to me because I feel that I'm losing everything. Everything that is dear to me is being stripped away. But remember that our getting it is not the prerequisite. But that faith in God, that God has a purpose and it is a good purpose. and that he is working these things out according to his purpose. He is at work. Trust in it. Trust in that. Know that. God is at work. How important for us, how we need to be reminded, how comforting this verse has been to so many Christians. For we know that all things work together for good. to those who love God, those who are called by His Spirit and His Word, those who are called according to His purpose. And now the Apostle Paul wants us to know why he thinks this. What does he think about God's purpose? He's really unfolding this idea of God's eternal purpose. And in the process now, he unfolds for us, as it were, a chain. And he begins in unfolding this chain by telling us that those whom God foreknew. Those whom God foreknew. What is he saying here? God foreknew. Those whom God foreknew. I lost my place. Those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. So let's ask ourselves, what does it mean for God to foreknow? For God to foreknow is not for him to know ahead of time. It is not for God to foreknow in the sense that we speak of that usually. For God to foreknow, the proper way of understanding the word know in the Bible is that He knows in the sense of loves. God knows, He loves. To know for God to know is for God to love. And for God to foreknow is for God to forelove. And so, God then set his love upon his people. He set his love upon them and he distinguished them from others. And this is the first thing that the Apostle Paul focuses upon. Those whom he foreknew. God has foreknown. That is, he has foreloved his people. The second thing that the Apostle Paul tells us for us to consider in his reasoning about the purpose of God is that those whom God foreloved, he predestined. He predestined. For God to predestined is to decide, that is destined, pre, ahead of time. For God to decide something ahead of time. And so God decided something for those whom he loved. He decided that he would have, that the end result for them would be. What is it that God decided or predestined for them? He decided that they would share in the glory of his own son. and that they would be conformed to the image of his own son. Notice that for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. So, if we go back to where we started in verse seventeen of chapter eight, if we are heirs with Christ, if we are fellow heirs with Christ, he says, provided that we suffer that we might be glorified with him. And so the apostle Paul is saying here that God has predestined the outcome for each one of his children, and he's predestined that they will be conformed to Jesus Christ. What does that mean to be conformed to Jesus Christ? Well, I think it means that they will share, as he says, that we will share in his glory. But it also refers then, glory then, refers to His holiness, His purity. He will sanctify or make us holy. What does that mean? It means that all of the things that attach themselves to us, which we know to be contrary to God's holiness and God's will, and we've been learning in Sunday School as we've been studying the Ten Commandments and the Proverbs and as we read them and as we apply them in our own lives, we realize how far we fall short. We are not holy. We sin every time we think. We sin every time we speak. Our motivations are warped and perverse. In so many ways, we are not holy. But God has ordained, and God has predestined, He's determined that we would share in the glory of His Son, that we would be fellow heirs with Him, but that we would also share in His holiness. That we would share in His holiness. And that He is bound and determined to purify for Himself a people. And that's what He's doing. He's purifying you. And the suffering in the trials that you go through are a part of that purification process. And now the apostle Paul continues, and he gives another part of God's purpose. In verse 30, those whom he predestined, he also call. OK, God set his love. He predetermined that they would be conformed to the image of his son. And now, in time, he calls you. How does God call you? Is he in heaven and does he do this? Is he calling? Does he call you? Yeah. Yeah. How does he do that? He does it through the Gospel. He does it through the Gospel. When parents teach their children the Gospel, God is calling them to faith and to belief that Jesus is the Son of God. That He is the Savior of those who believe in Him. He calls us. And He calls us through the preaching of the Word. He calls us through many means that he has. But the calling is not merely something that is superficial. It gets to the heart and it gets to the quickening of the soul and the giving of new life. The Apostle Paul speaks about this in another place when he says, we always give thanks to God for you, brothers, Because God chose you. Because God chose you as the first fruits of those who are saved. He says to this end, to this he called you through the gospel. He called you through the gospel so that you would obtain the glory of Jesus Christ. God is calling you every time you hear the word of God. Every time you open the Bible, every time you hear the preaching of the Word, God in heaven is calling you. How important it is that we pay attention to how we listen. But when God calls, he doesn't merely call in an ineffectual way. When he calls those whom he has predestined and those whom he has foreloved, he causes them to respond. He gives them the gift of faith and all who believe are, Paul says, also justified. Those whom he called, he justified. What does it mean to be justified? God justifies when he forgives our sins. God pardons our sins. But actually, he goes farther than pardoning our sins. He declares his child to be righteous in his sight. This is a legal act that God accomplishes for his people. He declares them to be righteous in his sight, not because of any righteousness that they have manufactured, but because the righteousness that Christ accomplished in his life has been imputed to them, laid upon their account, as it were, and God looks upon them from now on as righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. He pardons our sins. But not only does God for know, for love, not only does God predestined, not only does God call, But not only does God justify, but the Apostle Paul finishes this by telling us that all those who are justified are also glorified. That is, you remember where he started, where we started, where we looked and we said that we are co-heirs with Christ, that provided that we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. To be glorified with Christ is to be set free from death. To be set free from death and all of the effects of the curse upon the world that God has put upon the world because of sin. And when will this happen? When Christ comes again. He will raise his children from the grave and he will give them new bodies and he will glorify them. He will make them like his son. And so the Apostle Paul in talking about the Christian life and talking about salvation, he sees it as something that is a part of God's purpose and that God works this salvation process out from the very beginning of time, you see, in his for loving and predestinating to the end in his glorifying us and making us like Christ. And so you have the beginning before the creation of the world and at the end you have the resurrection from the dead, a new heavens and a new earth that are described for us in Revelation chapter 21. What a wonderful thing it is to realize that God's purposes are being worked out. And that as a Christian, as one who has put his trust in Christ as his Lord and Savior, we know how to deal. We know how to live in the midst of this present time. We know that God is at work and that the end is good. All things work together for good to those who are called, to those who love God. And what is that good? It is that final glory that is to be revealed to us in the coming of Christ, in the resurrection of the dead. I hope that that is a word of comfort to you. I hope that that is something in which you can put your faith and your trust. And as you see that little diagram, you see how God is at work from beginning to end. Our comfort is not in ourselves, but it is in God and his power and what he has accomplished in Christ. Let us pray. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for the revelation that you've given to us here of the way in which you work out your saving power in our lives. Grant us that we may be able to live our lives in hope, knowing that this life and the trials and the difficulties that we endure in it are merely the birth pains for that which is about to be accomplished in Christ. We thank you that it is a certain thing that it is a sure thing and that you have accomplished it in him. And I pray that you would enable us to place our faith and our trust in him. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.