Published: April 21, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 46 | Scripture: Romans 8:28-30
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many Brethren and whom he predestined these he also called and whom he called these he also Justified and whom he justified these he also glorified let us
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pray father thank you for justifying us I pray that through this serm and through more like it we would be trans
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Ouray this in Jesus amen well this morning we come to the second most populator popular refrigerator
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magnet verse among evangelicals now I will not uh stand by the statistical veracity of that because I conducted the survey and the only person I asked was
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myself so but the first most popular I believe we find in Philippians where we read I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and then once we
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taken that verse out of context and misapplied it and 30 make a mash of things we turn to the second most popular God works all things together for good and so this is the way we kind
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of align our modern Christian lives we think we can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and then when we find out that what we're doing is not
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according to his will we turn to this verse Romans 8:28 God works all things together for good but of course we don't even use the whole
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verse I did a survey of verse art you know the stuff you can buy at the Christian bookstore to hang on your wall and I find um I don't usually use visual
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aids but I did find a few that might be interesting to you here's one all things work together for good to those who love God Romans God Romans 8:28 well not
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quite not the whole verse is it well here's one that does use the whole verse but I want you to if you can see hopefully you can see the emphasis all things work together for
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good for those who love God to them who are called according to his purpose this this is really indicative of a problem we have in modern
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evangelicalism in fact on these two verses hinge all the presumptuous desire of modern of modern evangelicals these are two verses in
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Philippians 4 and Romans 8 that characterize the vending machine mentality that modern professing Christians have toward God that he is
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there to to help us do what we want to do succeed in that which we are doing and make it all work out when we muck it up but these are also two of the
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clearest vers verses that we have that show the importance of context for example in Ro in Philippians 4 the context is something that very is
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very rarely preached about and certainly very rarely in terms of the verse I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me the context is
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contentment Paul writes I know how to be a based and I know how to abound in every and every in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret
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of being filled and going hungry both of having abundance and suffering need I can do all things through Christ who gives me
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strength that goes against our modern and especially American mentality that God would never abase us God would never allow us to go
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without we're taught that God only wants us to have plenty and prosperity and success and so we take that verse out of context and say that God is with me I
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will be successful in the context of Romans 8:28 is
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8:28 is groanings creation groaning the believer groaning and even the Holy Spirit groaning when we read all things work together for good what are the things
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that work that work together but what we've just read the groanings of creation the groanings of the believer still remaining in the body of this death the
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groanings of the Holy Spirit on our behalf because we do not know how to pray as we should these are the things that God works together for our good not
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the many things in which we muck up our lives those are not the things that God is working together for good that is totally taking this verse out of
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context and context and so we need to put it back in its context and when we read what we've just been through starting up in in uh Verse 18
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for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be re revealed to revealed to us we ask ourselves well what do we make
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of all of this is there any hope well Paul has already addressed that that we are saved in Hope and so what is the content of that
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hope well that's what we're getting into in verse 28 verse 28 is the content of a hope that does not see any chance of fulfillment in this
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life it is the content of a hope that looks first to the Flesh and sees nothing but failure then to the body and sees nothing but
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corruption and Decay then to the world and see nothing but frustration and
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vanity and response to all of that by hoping in God who will work all things together for good and that is what the what the context even though it looks so Grim as
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one author comment superficially the sufferings Inseparable from this present age and the inescapable struggle against the powers of Destruction in which the
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Christian is here involved seem to hinder and oppose God's purpose for the Christian this is one of the main heresies of modern
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preaching and that is we as Christians can avoid can avoid suffering that is the essence of the
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Prosperity Gospel and that is the essence of of much alleged Evangelical preaching that if we obey God he will give us what we desire we will not
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suffer ill health we will not suffer ill with our finances we will get along with everybody life will be we will live our best life best life now and as I said before only the
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unbeliever can live his best life now The Believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit reborn to the new creation cannot live in this present Dark Age without
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groaning without suffering the believer who has been regenerated in heart dead to sin dead to the law dead in Christ and yet alive in the body of this
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death cannot help but groan at the weakness of the flesh that's Paul's perspective that's our experience and yet we still
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latch on to the false hope of prosperity and health and well-being in this world as if we're never going to die not realizing that all we're doing is lining
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the pockets of charlatans and false preachers when we would read our word we'd see that this is the way it is in this world and yet we are not without
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hope Paul says suffering is inherent within the body of this death suffering is the current lot of creation that awaits Redemption these are the things that God
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is working together for good so far more important than the trivial desires that we have in our life though God does care for them and he
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bids us to put them before him that is not what Paul is talking about here we we should know from the context that that is gone before when he broadens The
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Experience from each one of us in the body of this death to all of
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creation that he's not talking about trivial things of this life that he works together for good and keeping in context you know verse 28 being taken out and put on if
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you have this on your refrigerator please take it down or put the whole chapter up there because it it is true one of those as Philippians 4 it is truly one of those that is that is most
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dangerously taken out of context because the reason it's there goes before and the way that God works all things together comes later
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immediately later in verses 29 and 30 so what is it God's doing to work all things together for good well for whom he fornew he also
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predestined to become conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many Brethren and whom he predestined these he also called and
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whom he called these he also Justified and whom he justified these he also glorified now go back to verse 18 for I consider that the sufferings of the
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present time are not worthy to be compared with the what Glory that is to be revealed in us that is what Paul is linking in verse
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30 he's linking back to verse 18 this is the core of Paul's doctrine of salvation it's known as the Ordo salutis
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verses 29 and 30 the order of Salvation And I want to start out with two points concerning these two incredibly important verses in our
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Bibles first I want you to note that God is the subject of each and every Clause he
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Clause he fornew he fornew he predestined he called he justified he
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glorified where are we in all of this we are the incredibly fortunate and entirely passive recipient ience of his
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grace we don't factor into it at all and that is really the essential statement of reformed theology at its
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root and there are many variations and aberration of reformed theology but at its root there's a simple phrase salvation is of the Lord the essence of
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reformed theology the second point that I want to bring out of these two verses ver is that the list of what God is doing spans
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all time from eternity past he fornew and fornew and predestined in predestined in time he calls and
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justifies and for eternity future he glorifies that's where it got the name the Ordo salus the order of salvation but I want you to see that it reaches
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back to the the to the reaches of Eternity past when all that was was the mind of God the existence the self-existence of God he
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fornew now the Armenian tells us that that means looking ahead into time God saw that we would believe and therefore fornew that we
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would believe and therefore as a result of that he elected us or he predestined us well there's nothing of that in this verse this is eternity p in the councils
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of the godhead before the foundation of the earth he chose us in Christ by his Sovereign will and incredible Mercy he chose us he fornew
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in the sense that and this may sound a little bit crude but the sense in which Adam knew his wife the word in the Hebrew and in the Greek as it's used in the Bible is a term of intimacy so God
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says to Israel you alone I have known among all the nations does that mean God wasn't aware of the other nations no that knowing is an active
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choosing knowing it's a selecting and it discriminating knowing but this discrimination is not made on the behalf or as a result of any goodness in Israel
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Deuteronomy 7 God makes that clear where he says I did not chose you choose you because you were the greatest or the largest or the best of the Nations he said you were the least and certainly his for knowing us
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is not based on anything he sees in us as Calvin said and it sounds better in in English than it did in the French or the or the Latin God cannot foresee that which
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cannot be he cannot look ahead into time and see a sinner choosing him out of the motive of their own heart and desire because as Paul tells us
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there are none that seek God no not one and so God could not foresee that which could not be so from eternity past he forn knows and for knowing he
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predestines which means he has chosen for a for a purpose and then in time each one of our lives our chronological existence on
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this Earth he calls through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and no other means as Paul said is by the foolishness of preaching that we must be saved so he
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calls when you hear the gospel when you hear of Salvation alone in faith through faith in Jesus Christ that is the call and when that call becomes
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effective when the Holy Spirit regenerates the heart of the sinner he justifies he declares that sin to be righteous in Christ he removes the sin
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as far as East is from the west and remembers it no more this he does in time because it is appointed unto man once to die and then
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the Judgment from the moment of one's birth to the moment of one's death is the window of opportunity for salvation beyond that there is no Purgatory there is no second chance
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there is no hope of Salvation beyond the grave but what is ahead eternity future Paul doesn't leave that out either he
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glorifies Anders nigran said these are Mighty affirmations which are closely knit together and stretched from eternity through time to Eternity so we have past present and
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future but Paul's grammar once again would fail modern academics because in all of these Clauses he uses the past tense he uses a
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tense in the Greek known as the arist which simply means something that has already happened in the past so he doesn't use past tense for
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the for knowing and the predestined he doesn't use the present tense for the calling and the justifying and he doesn't use the future tense for the glorifying he uses the same tense for
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every verb in these two verses so does that mean we have already been glorified well no yes you're
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right there have been and there were even in Corinth those in the church who have said yes that we have been glorified that we are already glorified in Christ and that is taking a truth and
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turning it into a lie which is really the worst kind of Truth there is Paul teaches that the plan and purpose of God is so
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sure that while it is yet incomplete the Assurance of its full completion can be given to us in the past tense if if God has determined to do
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something he need not use our verb tenses he can simply use the past tense because whatever God determines to do he will do he who began a good work in you
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will perfected until the day of Christ Jesus Faithful is he who calls you Paul writes to the Thessalonians and he also will bring it to
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envision is the eschatological completion of God's work on behalf of Believers that began before began before history and the aist T signifies the
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certainty that what God has begun he
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finish that is what we ground Our Hope on not anything we find in ourselves not even as is so often taught the evidence of sanctification that is a foundation of
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sand because we all know how our lives are up and down how we're strong and then weak we all know that we can what's the word backslide we all know that we
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have periods of weak faith and even sometimes doubt so we don't ground Our Hope in anything so transient as our own
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behavior we ground Our Hope as we see in the context for in this if this hope excuse me in hope we have been saved but
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hope that is seen is not hope but if we hope for what we do not see we persevere we eagerly wait for it what do we do not see but we do not see our glorification
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we do not see the Redemption of creation these are the things that we look forward to but Paul is saying as you look forward to these things you look
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back to the Eternal Declaration of God that he will do them there is no other Foundation the Eternal the present and
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the eternally future work of God is built on the solid foundation of God's faithfulness Paul writes to Timothy that
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even though we are faithless he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself even though we fail and we all fail often even though our
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faith Flags even though our faith is weak he is faithful our flesh and the corruption of creation cannot hinder the work of God
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cannot alter the purpose that he has set for his creation and for his people that is hope that is hope that passes Beyond the Veil that is hope that goes beyond
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what we see with our eyes both in ourselves and in the world around us and even in the church because it is grounded solely in what God has promised he would do and
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that's what Paul is saying here with verses 29 and
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30 do you remember studying sets in math set a set B set do you remember that how the sets overlap and all of that the circles that was the fun part drawing the circles Armenians who read this passage need a
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refresher course on something called coextensive sets a coextensive set means that every member of One set is a member of the
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other the boundaries of each set Encompass the same members within it so if a is coextensive with B then every member of a is a member of B and vice
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versa they are coextensive well Paul gives us a lesson in the mathematic of sets here twice in this passage first in
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verse 28 that that part of the verse that so much of verse art has left off we like God works everything for good to those who love him well if you leave it
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there that is not a very encouraging verse because no one loves God out of their own will out of their own heart Paul is already established as has human
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experience nobody loves God but here we have the first example of a coextensive set who are those who love
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God those who are called according to his purpose they are coextensive s there's not even a word and there Paul doesn't
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say for those who love God and those who are called according to his purpose because you could kind of pervert that as into two groups there's not even a word the it's just the same group same
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group described two different ways and yet the Armenian wants to find in loving God the source of his calling the source
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of the sinner's call but it's actually the other way around entirely as the rest of scripture clearly teaches Paul does not speak often of our love toward
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God commentators have noted that he speaks very often of the love of God but very rarely and this is one of the few places where he speaks of our love toward God and that's not because Paul
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does does not think that the believer need not love God but it only means as John puts it we love because he first loved
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us they who love God have not brought that about themselves it has been given to them through the calling that has come to them from God which has its
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basis in his eternal
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so if you do buy this verse either for your wall or for your refrigerator make sure it's complete and if you're going to enlarge
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the font enlarge the font where it says Those whom he's chosen because all the glory of your salvation
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and the glory of your ability even to love God as insufficiently as we do goes to God we love because he first loved
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us but the second example of coextensive sets in verses 29 and 30 well this is this is uh in a sense the heart of what is known as
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soteriology the doctrine of salvation this is to me uh an argument that no one who emphasizes the Free Will of man in
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Salvation can get past this passage because the coextensive sets here in verses 29 and
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30 are airtight I I challenge you to find someone who drops out of one set as Paul moves to the next has anyone that that God has forn failed then to be
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predestined has anyone that God has called failed then to be justified or to put it all together in
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summary has anyone that God has forn failed to be glorified well according to the grammar according to the language these are Co
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exensive sets those Those whom he predestined these he also called Those whom he called these he also
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Justified these Justified these are the works of God that really can be called the work of God in our salvation and we can take
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assurance that if we have come to a knowledge of God through Jesus Christ it is because he fornew us from before the foundation of the world and we then we
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are in that set and because we are in that set we are in every other set including the one that says he has glorified now again when we look forward
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we realize that we're not glorified yet we we know from our bodies that we are not glorified yet we know from the earth
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and creation that the world has not yet been redeemed we know that the revelation of the sons of God has not yet occurred but that leads us to the
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doctrine that we often talk about the now and the not yet Paul says that if any man be in Christ he is a new creation all things have passed away behold all things are
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new and yet we still have our same bodies we still have our same personalities sadly we often still have the same sins and the same
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struggles and that is why hope that is true hope doesn't look upon what is seen but rather looks on what is
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Promised so all things work together for good so what then is the good to which all things all things work and this I think is is one is one place where taking this verse out of
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context is perhaps the most dangerous because Paul tells us verse 29 the good to which all things work for whom he fornew that's one set in the same set he
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also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son there is the good toward which all
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of God's activity in us and in creation is moving it is not to our financial success it is not to our physical health
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it is is toward conforming to the image of his son everything that God is doing and has done from eternity past is with the
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purpose of conforming us to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn of many Brethren and in glory as John says we are the children of God and
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Brethren it does not appear yet what we shall be but when he appears we shall be at he is that is the good to which God is
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doing all these things to which God works all things together all of our groanings all of creation's groanings all of the frustration and vanity and failure God is working together to
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conform us and creation to the image of son we don't look for Glory now we don't look for
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the consummation of the ages within this age rather we look with Paul again in verse 18 we look for the glory that is to be revealed in us and to
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us and this is because we know that our God is faithful and we know that our God is omnipotent we know that he is the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and
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the end we know that what he straightens no one can bend what he bends no one can straighten out straighten out and we know as Paul says here in verse
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31 that if God before us who can be against us let us pray father we do thank you that you are
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such a great and awesome God and a loving and gracious God full of Mercy full of loving kindness that in spite of our rebellion in spite of our
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wickedness while we were yet sinners Christ died for us help us by your Holy Spirit to fix our hope firmly upon you and your
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faithfulness fixing our faith firmly Upon Jesus fixing our hope firmly upon the faithfulness of God that we would not waver or go to the right or to the
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left but rather forward to Glory as you lead us in Christ from glory to glory father we ask that
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these words this Ordo salus might give us great comfort in the knowledge that salvation is entirely of you and that your mercy has shown to us
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the image of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ for it is in his name we pray amen please rise for a benedictory
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prayer from Paul's letter to the Ephesians where he writes I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is
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the hope of his calling what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who
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believe these are in accordance with the working of his strength and his might