When you give most people a choice, would they rather hear the good news first or the bad news first? A lot of people pick the good news to maybe soften the blow that's coming. But when it comes to our faith, we're unlikely to understand just how good the good news is until we first grasp how bad the bad news is. We'll find out why today on Truth for Life as Alastair Begg continues our study in Romans chapter 8.
Well, let's look at verse twenty nine. God is at work in all of these things. In the lives of those who love him. They love him because they've been called according to his purpose. God foreknew them.
He foreknew them. The foreknowledge of God, you should understand in terms of the foreordination of God. Why do I say that? Because this doesn't simply mean, as some suggest, That God foreknew those who would believe. That when it says that God foreknew, for those God foreknew, in other words, he looked down and he saw those who would believe.
And since they were going to believe anyway, he would give them a little help. Mm-hmm. No. God obviously foreknew who would believe. God knows everything.
Therefore, that wouldn't really be saying very much, would it? Those whom God foreknew. God foreknew everything that would take place. We've said that this morning in the Creed. We've explained it in our songs.
It's certainly true that God foresees everything that comes to pass, but is that what Paul is saying? Is that all he's saying? Clearly not. Because the knowledge that is referenced here is not the knowledge, if you like, of conjecture. or the knowledge of something which is external to or merely factual.
It is The relational knowledge. It is the same knowledge of God for His people described, for example, in Amos chapter 3. Where the prophet speaks from God, and he says to his people, You only have I known of all the peoples of the earth. What does he mean? I only knew you and I didn't know anybody else.
No, he knows everybody. He created everybody. He knows all the peoples of the earth. He knows everything. A God who does not know the future is not God, said Augustine.
So, what is being conveyed here is the fact of God's foreordination. In fact, they NIV translates Amos 3: You only have I chosen of all the peoples of the earth. And what is contained in the foreknowledge of God is once again the notion that is present in the hymn that I just quoted to you, He loved me ere I knew him. And I've given you this analogy many times before, but it bears repetition. If your spouse were to come to you and tell you that she had loved you before she met you, That she had seen you in a variety of contexts, that she had set her heart upon you, and she had longed after you.
Would that be a disappointment to you in any way? Would you storm away from the breakfast table? Had such information? No, you would probably reach up and give her a give her a better hug than usual. But that doesn't mean it all.
Because the affection, human affection for a spouse. is grounded in. At least something that we find attractive in the other person. By the love of God. Is not grounded in something that he finds attractive in us.
Indeed, when he speaks to his people in Deuteronomy 7, he says, And the reason I have loved you is because I have loved you. Yeah. I loved you. Because I loved you. What kind of explanation is that?
How do you go behind that? We go back to another I have loved you. Yeah, but why have you loved me? Because I have loved you. And eventually say Okay.
All the debts of the riches of the knowledge of God. He loves? Because he loves. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. He predestined.
In other words, God has chosen to put together a people that are his very own. An immeasurable company, as we know from the book of Revelation, people coming from all different places and backgrounds and so on. And this is his eternal purpose. There is a sense in which Ephesians chapter 1 is a very helpful parallel to Romans 8, 29 and 30. And if you care to, you could turn just for a moment to Ephesians chapter 1 and let me point this out to you.
Verse 1 and chapter 9 of Ephesians. And he made known to us Notice the phrase, the mystery of his will. The mystery of his will. According to his good pleasure. which he purposed in Christ, To be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment.
That ought to make you think of the beginning of our studies in Mark's Gospel. Remember, we were studying Mark's Gospel? Remember, Jesus stands up, and what does he say? The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is near.
Repent and believe the good news. Here you are in Ephesians chapter 1. To be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and earth and under the earth under Christ.
Now, here we go, verse 11. In him. We were also chosen. having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. Why?
He tells us: in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory. And then verse 13. And you also were included in Christ. When you hear the word of truth, The gospel of your salvation, and having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. That takes you right back to Romans chapter 8.
Only those who have the Spirit of God are sons of God. Those who do not have the Spirit of God do not belong to God. We've already seen that in Romans 8. This is the birthright of the child. That God comes and invades us by the Holy Spirit, takes up residence in our lives.
Creates within us a passion for God, a love for Him. And when people say, Why is it that you love God? Ultimately we have to say it is a mysterious thing. God has come and taken the initiative in my life. God ordains foreordains salvation.
But he also foreordains the means whereby we come to salvation. And the two things are not separated from one another. Take the average church prayer meeting. Go to the average church prayer meeting, and people understand this. They may not lay it out as a doctrine, but they understand it.
That is why, when you're sitting at the table and people pray, you will find every so often somebody will say, and I thank you, God, for saving me. I thank you for coming and reaching into my life when I wasn't even looking for you. I thank you for pursuing me and making me your child. It's not uncommon when you hear people pray in that way. What are they saying?
They're saying, God, you took the initiative in my life. And when they pray for other people, they do the same thing, don't they? God, in a couple of days, Mr.
So-and-so is going to be teaching from the Bible. I'm bringing one of my friends from the office. We're coming down to table talk. He's quite a good teacher, God, but frankly, if you don't open Bill's eyes, if you don't pull the plugs out of Bill's ears, The fellow can talk till he's blue in his face and nothing will happen. Why?
Because they understand this. Because this is the foundation. This does not cut the umbilical cord to effective evangelism. This is the foundation of effective evangelism. Because God is this kind of God.
Because God loves saving people. Because he's putting together an innumerable company, We may then, with conviction and with boldness, say to people. We believe on this Christ. The doctrine of election, for what this really is, is the doctrine of election, is a difficult doctrine. It is a biblical doctrine.
And it is a profitable doctrine. Eric Alexander, preaching from Ephesians 1 to 3 in 1984 at Urbana, said, and I've never forgotten it. The doctrine of election is not a bomb to be dropped on people. It's not a banner to be marched out under. But it is a bastion for the souls of those who are in Christ.
And isn't that true? When all hell is let loose against us? When our hearts condemn us? When we've made a royal hash of stuff. when it's the worst week or the worst month or whatever else it is, and everything seems to militate against us, and all of this working for good seems completely bizarre, to where do we retreat?
Where do we go?
Well, if you're in Christ, you go back to him and you say, Oh they'll laugh. of my Redeemer. That you loved me. Before I knew you. That you love me to the extent of taking the punishment I deserve and dying in my place.
And that the guarantee of all that you have offered to me is found in the fact that you will never quit on a project. That's very different. from a salvation. That is built on our ability to hang on by our fingernails. to whatever we may have professed.
Well, he For new He predestined? Notice to be conformed to the likeness of his son. That little phrase is wonderful. What is God doing? He's making his people like Jesus.
Making his people like Jesus. That's his plan from the very beginning, and he will bring it to completion. As John tells us, when we see him, we will be like him. And Jesus blazes the trail. As the firstborn among many brothers.
Those he predestined, he also called. How did he call?
Well, we saw that in Ephesians 1. He called by the preaching of the gospel. He called by the preaching of the gospel. And when the gospel is preached and the free offer of the gospel is communicated, somehow in a way that is mysterious, there comes the effectual call of God, which raises the spiritually dead to life. That's The reason for The quote from Winslow Has he called you?
Has he called you? Because you would have to be honest if you've come here routinely as somebody who is wondering about faith. not convinced about things. I think you would say in all honesty that people have called you. People have said, hey, listen.
There's a huge difference between belief and unbelief, between light and darkness, between a broad road and a narrow road, and you've heard all of that. You could actually preach some of these sermons. But when God calls out to you. And says, hey. Then Everything is different.
Now do not Do not allow yourself to sidestep the clarity of this instruction. by embracing one of two caricatures in relationship to this truth. and they are as follows The notion That there is such a person who wants to believe But is turned away. Or that is, there is such a person who doesn't want to believe and is compelled to believe. Those are caricatures.
When you read the Bible, You cannot find that there. You can get that out of your head as a result of staying up too late at night arguing about things. But the confluence Between, if you like, the wave of God's sovereignty. And the response of man's will. Are never set for us in the Bible in terms of those caricatures.
Here is Mr. Jenkins who desperately wants to become a Christian and God won't let him. How could that possibly be? Whoever comes to me says Jesus, I will never turn him away.
So here's Mr. Jenkins and he wants to come to Jesus and he's being turned away. No, he's not. Jesus said, You come to me, you're fine. Seek me and you will find me if you search for me with all of your heart.
So there's no notion of, well, I was desperately seeking God, but he wouldn't let me find him. Or that I finally was compelled by some agency that was beyond myself and transcended my will and transcended thoughtfulness and just did something to me. It doesn't say that either. That's the importance of Ephesians 1:13. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the gospel of your salvation and you believed.
When you push back from that, you can go back into the eons of eternity. But in terms of our understanding of what it means to be in Christ, We realize that somehow or another, in the midst of it all, God called us. And listen carefully. Truths. that are contradictory to us.
are not contradictory in heaven. And it is not the job of the pastor. to try and explain The unexplainable. Anytime you deal with material like this, and I do it frequently because of the context in which I'm set, and you have the QA. when you've said this and said it as clearly as you possibly can, the very first question is, well, how do you explain the fact that the thing with the thing and the thing?
And you've just stood there and said, We can't explain the unexplainable. Question number one: Would you please explain the unexplainable? That's why I'm not a school teacher, I suppose. I'm just going, hey, take a hike. And finally, those he foreknew and predestined and called, he justified.
Actually, penultimately, he justified. In other words, he put us in a right standing with God. He put us in the place of acceptance with God, not on the basis of a righteousness of our own, but on the basis of the work of Christ. This is what we refer to as the great exchange we thought about it last time. My sins to the account of Christ and His righteousness to mine.
Christ bears the judgment that the sinner deserves in order that the sinner might enjoy a forgiveness that he doesn't deserve.
So, when you think in terms of the work of God calling us out. He doesn't call us out absent those truths. He calls us on the strength of those truths. He calls us to believe those truths. He calls me as a sinner to say, well, unless somebody lived a perfect life.
I have no chance of this. Unless somebody who was perfect died in the place of my wretchedness. I could never atone for my sins. You see, that truth then precedes The embracing of Christ. That's why conversion actually involves the bad news of my predicament.
And then the good news. of God's solution. And those he justified. He also glorified. The verb you will notice is in the past tense.
The event is finally in the future, but in Christ it's a done deal. I want to finish in this way. Maybe I'll read a quote. Let me see how long it is. Yeah, I've got to read one quote and one statement then I'm then it'll stop.
This is John Murray. The passion for missions. is quenched When we lose sight of the grandeur of the evangel, that is of the gospel.
So, when we lose sight of the nature of what God has done, a la Romans 8:29 and 30. It is a fact. that many persuaded as they rightly are of the particularism of the plan of salvation. and of its various corollaries. have found it difficult to proclaim The fool Free and unrestricted overture of gospel grace.
They have labored under inhibitions. arising from fear, that in doing so they would impinge upon the sovereignty of God in his saving purposes and operations. The result is that, though formally assenting to the free offer of the gospel, They lack freedom. in the presentation of its appeal, And its demand. What he's actually saying there is there are certain people who are frightened.
to press upon people the claims of Christ. unless in doing so Those whom God doesn't want to get saved. Get saved. How stupid is that? How unbiblical an idea is that?
People who feel that way, and I have friends who do. Are so tied up in their theological underwear. That they have come almost to the conclusion that the way in which a person will make it safely into heaven is on account of their understanding of the chain of salvation. Regeneration all the way through to glorification, so that the way that you will finally end up in heaven is on the basis of the order salutus, as it is in Latin. That is is in an understanding of this chain.
And if you don't get this chain or you reject this chain, you'll never make it. Listen and listen carefully. Nobody. Nobody goes to heaven. Saved by the chain of salvation.
Everybody goes to heaven. Saved. By Jesus Christ. And if the thief on the cross would have been interviewed at the gate of heaven. Concerning The process we have just considered now.
Hello, thief. Uh Have you? Appeared here according to the foreknowledge of God. Um okay, well let me try a second one. Have you have you been predestined?
Uh sorry, I I don't know that either.
Well, have you been called according to his purpose? Have you been justified? I'm sorry, I don't know any of these things.
Well, what the world are you doing here? He gives the answer that I'm going to give, and so are you if you're in Christ. What are you going to say? The man on the middle cross told me I can come. The man on the middle cross told me I can come because somehow, in the mystery of God's purposes, in all the bits and pieces of that man's life, it was leading up to that great moment where he suddenly says to his friend, We're up here justly because we're getting what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.
And then he must have said, So how do you get up here for doing nothing wrong? And somehow or another In the mystery of God's purposes. The bell rings. And he must have said Well, he must be up here. Taking the place of us.
who deserve to be up here. I'm gonna ask him. If since He's taken my place. If he would let me take his place. And he said, Today, You will be with me.
in paradise. This is how you will become a Christian. This Is hearing the call of God. Not Seven ideas for fixing up your life. Not All of the superficial religious stuff.
But this. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound that saved A wretch. Like me. I once was lost.
Now I'm found. I was blind. But now I see. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. It is Jesus who saves us.
As Alastair just explained, not everyone goes through the complete chain of salvation. In fact, he used the thief on the cross as an example. You may have seen the short video of Alastair called The Man on the Middle Cross.
Well, we want to let you know that that video has become a new book by Alistair with the same title. In fact, the book was inspired by the popular video. The Man on the Middle Cross is a brief evangelism book. It's written for you to give the gospel to others, to introduce people to Jesus. The book tells the story of three people whose lives were dramatically changed when they met Jesus, and it invites those who have never heard or responded to the gospel.
to believe and to receive God's gift of forgiveness, and transformation. And we're making the book available to you for one dollar. That way you can get multiple copies and give this book away to many people. In fact, you may want to order large quantities for your church, or to pass along to people in your Bible study group. You can buy an entire box of two hundred.
Our prayer is that together we make this holiday season a season of widespread gospel outreach using this little book. To buy copies, visit our website at truthforlife.org/slash middle. By the way, Alistair recently sat down with the publisher of this book to talk about the man on the middle cross. And his hopes for how you'll use it, you can watch the interview at truthforlife.org/slash middle, or you can look for it on our YouTube page. Thanks for joining us this week.
We hope you have a great weekend and are able to worship with your local church. And if you've ever had doubts about whether you'll truly be able to finish the Christian race, Join us Monday for a reassuring message. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
