The Unbreakable Chain

Jesus said something that many would like to ignore. John 6 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. In other words, nobody ever presumes to march into the throne room of God and say, OK, here I am.

I'm ready. From our perspective, we might have seen it as some moment following some message or something we learned or something we read. But from the mind and perspective of God, he drew us at that moment so that even the timing of our coming is defined and determined by his sovereignty. When you heard and responded to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that was more than you simply being in the right place at the right time. God was drawing you to himself.

It was God who orchestrated the events that led to your salvation. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey explores this theological truth. We're turning our attention to Romans 8 verses 29 through 30. This is the first lesson in a series that Stephen calls Blessed Assurance.

The message you're going to hear today is called The Unbreakable Chain. Here's Stephen with today's Bible lesson. I'm going to be preaching on a text that has produced more controversy, perhaps than any other text in the New Testament.

You read in that text, for whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. I'm going to preach on one of the most volatile, disruptive, explosive topics known to the church. It is the topic of divine predestination, divine election.

Just saying those words, I can hear the ammunition dropping into the chambers. If you have trouble with what I just read, we're really going to have trouble with Chapter 9. If you look over there very briefly here into Chapter 9, where the working of God's sovereignty over the issue of salvation is so clearly displayed. Romans 9 and 11, Rebekah is about to have twins. And the text says, for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad in order that God's purpose, according to his choice, might stand not because of works, but because of him who calls, God is speaking. Jacob have I loved, but Esau I hated. Imagine that. How do you handle that? Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

I didn't love. Is God unjust? Paul anticipates the reader asking that, and in verse 14, he says, there is no injustice in God, is there? Imagine the implications of verse 17. Look there, for the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. In other words, Pharaoh's unbelief was part of God's plan. Paul goes on in verse 18 to apply the truth. God has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires. And every fiber in your body says that can't be right. Surely they can't be right. And if it is right, I want to have a word with God. Well, Paul anticipated that too, so he wrote in verse 20, the very next verse, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? In other words, who are you to tell God what he ought to do and what he cannot do? So this is going to be a really controversial subject today.

I've kept the truck running, by the way. And what I'm going to do is deal with a subject that theologians call inscrutable. It's a good term, inscrutable. Inscrutable means it's too deep.

It's unfathomable. You can't touch the bottom. You remember the first time you dove into the deep end and you couldn't feel the bottom? How did it make you feel? You felt nervous.

You began to swim for the side. You couldn't quite touch it. And that made you frightened, didn't it? Inscrutable means you can't touch the bottom. It's unfathomable.

It means that you do not have the ability to reconcile. That is, it is inscrutable. I love the way one theologian said, tongue in cheek, our problem is we try to unscrew that which is inscrutable. And that's what we're going to do today.

So get ready to dive into the deep end where your feet will never touch the bottom. I want to give you the fivefold chain of God's sovereign purpose and design and salvation. And each of five key words forged together to make, to create an unbreakable, strong, sovereign chain. Paul didn't write this to get everybody upset. He didn't write this to divide churches and people and start the hot debates. He wrote this to encourage the reader that God is involved in their salvation designed by his sovereignty. He is at the beginning of it and he is at the end of it. And you'll see how these five words go together.

So get your pencil ready to circle them in the text. Verse 29 again, for whom he foreknew, that's the first word. He also predestined, that's the second word, to become conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn, that literally could be rendered, that he might be preeminent, that he might have the priority among the brethren. And whom he predestined, these he also called, that's the third word. Those he called, he also what? Justified, that's the fourth word.

And those he justified, he also what? Glorified. So I'm just going to give you the word. I'm going to define the word, show you how it shows up in scripture, and then I'm going to run for the truck. All right, the first word is foreknowledge. It means this, the believer's salvation began and it begins in the mind and counsel of God. It began in the mind of God. Now some would say the word means that God simply knows beforehand who will believe and then he elects on the basis of that foreknowledge. Since God knows everything, he just looks into the future and he sees who will believe and he says, oh, I'll make him one of my elect. He looked down the corridor of time and he saw Stephen at age 17 trust Christ as his savior and he said, okay, I'll make him one of my elect. That isn't what God means and that isn't what the word means.

There are a number of problems with defining foreknowledge in that way. First of all, as it relates to the origin of salvation. If that were true, salvation would begin with a mind of man.

Man would be sovereign. God would not have chosen man, man would have chosen God. But John wrote in 1 John 4 19, we love God because God first loved us.

The truth is fallen man cannot reach out his hand or receive the gift of eternal life because there is no power in his hand. God must act first. God must take the initiative toward those whom he has chosen. And along that same line, another problem is that the church no longer simply accepts or even tries to understand what it means when we talk about the depravity of man.

That's the second problem. The Bible describes the unbeliever as blind, deaf and dumb. He has no source of saving faith within himself. By the way, if all foreknowledge meant that God would be able to see beforehand those who would respond to him if he didn't intervene, the only thing that God's foreknowledge would reveal is that all of mankind would do what? Disbelieve that all of mankind would refuse him, that all of mankind would reject him without the intervention of God's sovereignty. If all he did was look down the annals of history and future yet to come, all he would see is all of us disbelieving unless he played an active role in changing that. Paul wrote, there is no one righteous, not even one.

And that doesn't leave room for even what? One. No one who understands and no one who seeks God. Romans 3. Now we talk and misunderstand in our talking about people who seek after God. Every passage that talks about people seeking God is written to people who believe in God.

The unbeliever does not seek God. He might seek fulfillment. He might seek peace.

He might seek something he knows he doesn't have. It takes the gospel to reveal what he really needs. And it takes the work of God to open his heart and eyes and ears to hear it. Paul wrote, the unbeliever cannot accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are what? They are foolishness to him. Apart from the intervention of God, the cross is foolishness. The belief that somehow you go to God and you admit you're sinful and that you're going to hell with Adam, well, that's stupidity. That's foolishness. Jesus Christ himself said, light has come into the world, but men love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were what?

Were evil. John 3.19. Again, Paul wrote, the God of this world, the enemy, has blinded the minds of the unbeliever that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. In other words, without the initiating work of God on behalf of his chosen people, nobody would ever believe, nobody would ever see, no one would ever listen to the truth of the gospel. So God's foreknowledge means not only knowing in advance, it means ordaining in advance. The true biblical word that you find here not only means knowing, but it includes intention. Jesus said in John 10.14, I am the good shepherd and I know my own. Does that mean he doesn't know anybody else?

Not in this way. It means that there's an imminent bond that began before time began. Then he also says those rather terrifying words in Matthew 7.23 to a host of people who stand before him, those who disbelieve, and he says to them and among them are very religious people and he responds to their comments. They said, we prophesied in your name and we cast out demons in your name and we did miracles in your name and he will respond to them. God will say, I never knew you. Does that mean I didn't know your name or I didn't know you were on planet or somehow you missed me?

It means they didn't have a relationship with him. There's an even more specific text regarding God's foreknowledge and its intention. The very first sermon preached in this dispensation was preached by the Apostle Peter in Acts 22 verse 23. And in the very first sermon, he said this, listen carefully. This man, he's referring to Jesus, Jesus was handed over to you by God's, you would think he'd say something by God's submission or the son's submission to the father's will or something like that. No, he says Jesus was handed over to you by God's purpose and foreknowledge.

Same word used in Romans 8. And you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him on the cross. Now, was Jesus a puppet?

No. Was Jesus able to choose to follow the will of God? Well, certainly we heard him pray in the garden, not my will, but thine be done. However, Peter says that Jesus was handed over to them by God's foreknowledge. And that doesn't mean that God just looked down through the annals of time, the father, and he saw Jesus come to earth and die on a cross.

And the father said, you know, that'll fit really well. I'll just sort of work that out so that he ends up dying for the sins of the world. Now, this was set before the foundation of the world.

This would occur if God's purposes were, in fact, fulfilled. Paul uses a second word that strengthens the chain of God's sovereign work even beyond that. It is the word predestination. If you have trouble with foreknowledge, you're going to really stumble over this one.

Verse 29. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined. That means to mark out or determine beforehand, pro or predestined, pro ridzo.

Beforehand, the destination is marked out. And I think one author summarized the way we feel about that pretty well, at least within this country. He says it almost sounds unpatriotic to the American mind especially. We find ourselves immediately wanting to guard the tree of human liberty with more zeal than Patrick Henry ever dreamed of. The thought of an all-powerful God making a choice for us makes us cry out, give us our choice, or give us death. The very word predestination makes us think of fatalism. It means we're meaningless puppets or that God is somehow playing games with us. And we naturally feel all of those things as we tread water and we can't touch the bottom in this inscrutable doctrine. But what we have to be careful about, ladies and gentlemen, is that we do not determine what we believe by what we feel. That we don't determine what we believe by what we can understand. Who among us understands the Trinity? Who among us understands the virgin birth?

Who among us understands eternal punishment? Jesus Christ said, as we hold our feelings captive to the word of God, this truth, You did not choose me, but I chose you, John 15. You did not choose me, but I chose you, and I ordained, I appointed that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. Now wait a second, I remember choosing God.

Do you remember? From our perspective, we certainly did. I can remember as a 17 year old going to my knees saying, OK, I accept God through Christ. But on closer inspection, I discovered that I chose him because he had chosen me first.

That is staggering. And Paul intended it to give the believer this sense of security. That God not only determined the purposes for your life so that all of the events fulfill his holy purpose, but that God chose us too. Peter wrote to you, you are a chosen race. That we are his royal priesthood, we are his holy nation, we are a people of God's own possession. And what does that cause us to do?

Go hide somewhere? To count our lucky stripes, stick our thumbs on our lapels and say, well, I'm one of the elect. No, Peter goes on to say that you might show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Paul adds a third link to the strong chain of our salvation. It is the word calling those who be predestined. These also he called, called could be defined as that inward drawing to the side of God. Jesus said something that many would like to ignore. John six forty four. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

Did you hear that? Nobody comes to the father unless the father draws him. In other words, nobody ever presumes to march into the throne room of God and say, OK, here I am.

I'm ready. From our perspective, we might have seen it as some moment following some message or something we learned or something we read. But from the mind and perspective of God, he drew us at that moment so that even the timing of our coming is defined and determined by his sovereignty. Do you know what that makes us?

That makes us incredibly small. That makes us the total recipient of the grace of God. And it also makes God very big, doesn't it? We will leave here not having had our feet touch the bottom feeling very small, but hopefully rejoicing in a very great God who chose us and drew us to his side. Now, you need to understand that the New Testament alternates depending on the context between an open invitation, an open calling and what we call an effectual and effective calling. And the New Testament gives passages where either one are emphasized.

Jesus Christ himself stood and he preached to his Jewish audience. And he said to them, come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you what? I will give you rest. What is he talking about? A nap?

Some of you look like you need it. No, he's talking about salvation, redemption, take off the yoke of everything you're trying to do and all of the legalities of the law come to me and I will give you rest from all of that. And what did they do? They came forward in mass and believed, right? They rejected him. Does that mean his invitation wasn't sincere? Does that mean he didn't do an effective job preaching that sermon?

Was he just playing games? No, the general open invitation is necessary. Listen to this. It is necessary because it is within that general calling that God's specific calling brings some to life. So we deliver the gospel. We spread the seed. We tell everybody.

Spurgeon said, if God had painted a stripe down the back of the elect, I would just go around London lifting shirttails and I know who to talk to. But God didn't do that and so I preach the gospel to everybody. The doctrine of election is given to those who believe.

It's what we know. It gives us incredible security that God sees from the beginning all the way through the ending. And we go out and we deliver the truth of the gospel. That's what Paul said. He said faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If that's true, then people must hear the gospel in order to believe.

They must know Jesus Christ is in order to be drawn to his side, right? Paul then says, how will they believe in whom they've never heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?

Romans 10, 14 to 17. How are they going to hear without a messenger? So we go out and we deliver the open invitation knowing it is entirely up to God. Who among that open calling receives the effective calling? This audience today in these three hours is large enough that I am sure without any doubt that there are people who will die in their sin listening to me right now and go to a Christless eternity in hell. Who will leave here and not believe. Who have heard the invitation of the gospel over and over and over and over again. And there are those who hear it and it is used by the Spirit of God to bring about true saving faith.

There are those who hear it and part of God's drawing to his side from our perspective looks a lot like this. I'm troubled. I know I'm missing something.

I need something. I had a couple in my office a few weeks ago. They'd been coming for just a very short time, in fact less than a month. Their very first visit to a Protestant church was this church, their very first service. They came in, the music just blew them away. They listened to the preaching and they began to be troubled. They made an appointment to come and see me and after sitting there they began to say things like we just know something's missing in our lives and we don't know what it is. We just feel like there's a piece missing to the puzzle. We've heard what you've said, we're just not sure what it all means and we're not sure what to do. And I'm sitting there trying hard not to grin from ear to ear.

Why? God is obviously drawing them and they're so ripe all you have to do is give the limb a little shake and they fall into the kingdom of God. So I delivered to them the gospel. I didn't say to them, well you're obviously one of the elect.

Leave, be warmed and filled. No, I said here's what it means. Here's what God is doing in your life.

Here's how he's pulling the blinders back. You need to know about Jesus Christ, you need to understand the gospel and I delivered it to them. And we held hands in my study and they prayed to receive the gift of eternal life that came to true faith in Christ. Now the final two words we have studied in detail and let me just sort of race through them of whom he called these he also justified. You remember that justification is the legal declaration that we are right with God. Justification doesn't mean he calls bad people good.

It just means he calls sinners right before God because he has deposited all of Christ's righteousness to your account and he has taken all of your sinfulness out of your account and put it upon Christ. He declares you justified. You don't have to add anything to that. In fact you're not even in this text are you? Faith is not even mentioned. Belief is not even mentioned. This is from the perspective of God and his sovereignty.

You don't find membership of the church or giving or baptism or anything in here. You are justified alone by the work of God alone through Christ alone. The final word is glorification. These he also glorified. You could define this as a future fact of uncorrupted bodies, minds and hearts. What I love about this is this is in the past tense. This verb. In the past. In the mind of God you were foreknown and guess what?

You are already glorified. That's why Paul could write that we are already seated with Christ where? In the heavenlies.

And there's incredible security in there. You're not going to fall out of it. He began it and he's going to end it. You are already foreknown before time began and you are already glorified before time ends. You can no more work your way out of salvation than you could work your way in. God we have learned in Romans 8.28 has already determined everything to work together for his good will and glory and him and his name and cause and in your life. He's already chosen all things to work to that end. And now you find out that he's already chosen you.

Imagine that. It is inscrutable. Now what happens if you don't believe it? What happens to the church if it refuses to take the scripture at face value? Let me give you four or five things without the belief in God's word here as it relates to his sovereign purpose and election.

Number one emotional ism becomes more important than examination. Profession of faith. Today is the issue not possession of faith and there is a vast difference. Number two disbelieve this and mankind becomes sovereign and God becomes the servant. Isaiah 46 says I am God.

There is no other. I am God. There is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been. And I say I will accomplish all my good pleasure. God will do right.

Ladies and gentlemen. No one will accuse him. Romans 9 says without sovereign election. Third the messenger becomes responsible for salvation and must then take either the blame or the credit for the salvation of souls. I read of one of Angeles who boasted give me any man alone for 15 minutes and I will get a decision for Christ.

What utter arrogance. Sovereign election reminds us that producing decisions is not our objective. Producing disciples is. Number four deny this and the majority opinion is more valuable than the sole declaration of scripture. And I say that because the evangelical church especially in my generation no longer believes most of what I'm teaching today.

Why? Because the scriptures no longer determine what we believe. We will only believe what we can understand. We can only acknowledge that which makes us comfortable.

That which we can feel. Now what happens when a church sets the word of God aside and says well you know what the movement of men is going this direction. The movement of popular opinion is going this direction and we will simply follow that.

Well how far can we go. Depends on what you believe to be a difficult passage to believe. I've been watching the news of course with the Episcopalian church struggling with this very thing. They believe a hard passage to believe would be that which condemns us in homosexuality.

Right. In the last month one of the 60 bishops who voted to ordain this man. Gene Robinson is the Episcopal Church's first open active homosexual bishop. One of the bishops was speaking this past month in the last three weeks.

At his annual meeting to the diocese. And he was encouraging them to stay together to not splinter and to not divide. And he made this absolutely shocking statement. But it follows the line of reasoning that I'm talking about here.

He said this. If the church must make a choice between heresy and schism. We must always choose heresy. And so what a great quote for our relativistic.

Non-absolute. Independent. Man is sovereign culture. If you got to choose between God's word and your friends. Choose your friends.

Go down in the boat with your friends. A denial of sovereign election. Fifth means that the ability of man to pursue God is simply more appealing. Than the truth that depraved man can never choose God. One author called sovereign election the most pride crushing doctrine taught in the Bible. It eliminates pride. Entirely. We take no benefit.

We accept no credit. It is all of God. And his sovereign grace on our behalf.

Perhaps at the end of the sermon. You're maybe asking the question well how do I know if I'm one of the elect. Well the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be what. You shall be saved.

The question isn't am I one of the elect. But have you believed. Have you believed in the gospel.

Some will say well yeah sure I did I signed that card now believing in Christ. Means you believe in his claim over your life. You believe in his character which becomes your holy pursuit. You believe in his commands which you now seek to obey. Though not perfectly.

So have you believed in Christ. Like that. The invitation is open to all. To believe.

If you came in this auditorium and you could imagine as you walked in over the doorway. A verse. Whosoever will may come. And the open invitation is to everyone. But those of you who believe in the claim and character and command of Jesus Christ leave.

And you can go back through those doors and you can look over them and it could be written to you. Ephesians 1. Elect. Before the foundation. Of the world. This is all of God. God foreknew. God predestined. God called. God justified. And God has already in his mind. And from his perspective.

Glorified. You're listening to Stephen Davey. Pastor of the shepherd's church in Cary North Carolina. If you're unclear on the message of the gospel. We have a resource to help you. It's a resource that we call God's wisdom for your heart. If you navigate to our website. Wisdom online dot org. You'll find this resource in the about section.

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