Sermon Tone Analysis

Pottery Wheel Video

Last time

God in His sovereignty has ordained suffering

It reveals our brokenness

It exposes our idols

It displays our hope

God uses suffering for our good and the good of others

That good- Making much of & being made more like Jesus

How is Paul so sure?

What gives those “in Christ” this confidence

Remember this was a letter ( No Chapters, Verses, Headings)

Just finished - God uses suffering for the good of those “in Christ”, this is an encouragement for those “in Christ”

Moves to the reason of His confidence

Begins in Romans 8:28

He doesn’t finish until the end of Romans 11

We must not miss the weight, the worth and the worship of God

There is going to be discussion/debate within these verses

But Paul’s purpose is to spur us to Worship, to stand in AWE

God’s Unsearchable Wisdom and Knowledge (Complexity)

God’s Power and Authority (Sovereign over all things)

God’s ferocious love and devotion to........HIMSELF

We must not forget God is ultimate, this is HIS story

If He was not completely devoted to Himself....idolatry

This is good news.

Salvation comes so that the mercy and grace of God is exalted

Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified

SO Christ would be the firstborn, (supreme/glorified)

Death/Burial/Resurrection - Savior

Conformed to His Image - Our Treasure, Our Goal

Do Not Miss - Sense of Mystery, Awe, Weight of it all

Paul is writing from the “Divine Perspective”

A glimpse of God’s redemptive plan, from God’s viewpoint

Not Dry Doctrine, Not “busy work”, this should stir our affections

Paul’s sure foundation is placed upon God’s unbreakable chain of salvation.

These passages are typically taught one of two ways.

(much debate)

Disagreement about the word “foreknew” (Simplified)

God looks into the future, and seeing those that would respond to Him by faith, elects those people to salvation

God knowing that the heart of man is dead unresponsive to God, elects for Himself a people to salvation, and in grace grants them faith to believe.

I want you to know there are different views on this text

This issue is open Handed - (divorce, alcohol, dress)

It is OK to disagree and debate (in love)

It is OK to have questions and concerns

My prayer is that this will spur us to deeper study, awe of God

I am what is traditionally known as a Calvanist

I preach from a Calvinist view (especially the next three chapters)

Feel free to come discuss, and ask questions… in love

There will be questions and objections

Many are addressed in 9-11, hang on be patient

Borrowing from Kevin DeYoung as the “why Calvanism”

The paradox of Calvinism is that we feel better by feeling worse about ourselves, we do more for God because we see how He’s done everything for us, and we give love away more freely when we discover that we have been loved and saved by free grace.

In Scripture, we see a God who is holy, independent, and unlike us.

We glory in God’s goodness, that He should save miserable offenders, bent towards evil in all our faculties; objects of His just wrath.

We rejoice in God’s electing love, which He purposed for us before the ages began.

We are grateful for God’s power, by which He caused us, to be born again and enabled us to believe His promises.

We take comfort in God’s all-encompassing providence, whereby nothing happens according to chance, but all things—prosperity or poverty, health or sickness, giving or taking away—are sent to us by our loving heavenly Father.

We find assurance in God’s preserving grace, believing with all our might that nothing—not even ourselves—can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We delight in the glory of God and in God’s delight for His own glory, which brings us, on our best days, unspeakable joy, and on all other days, still gives purpose and order to an otherwise confusing and seemingly random world.

What draws people to Reformed theology is the belief that God is the center of the universe and we are not; that we are worse sinners than we imagine and God is a greater Savior than we ever thought possible; that the Lord is our righteousness and the Lord alone is our boast.

Now that that cat is out of the bag, let’s dig into our study of the end of Romans 8

Notice, we call these a chain because of the 5 links...

Foreknew, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified

English Majors - This is a conditional clause

Think Cause/Effect, or If/Then

They are a series of connected, yet isolated events

Predestined is not justification, but the justified are predestined

If you are called, then you are justified…not maybe but certainly

The first link in our chain is that of foreknowledge.

Foreknew - Here is the big debate

Used in Scripture as - Known, or Foreknown

Is this God seeing future events (and responding to man’s will)

Or, is this an intimate knowing in eternity past

Yes, God knows/sees all events (Omniscience)

But this is a special knowing :

No need to add: “Forknew those who would believe”

There are two types of “knowing”

Informational - Facts, Observation, Surface

Relational - Intimate, Close, Approval

George Washington vs.

My Wife

God knows about the way of the wicked — leads to judgement

God knows the way of the righteous — approval, love, relationship

He knows they were lawless, but He doesn’t “know” them

An intimate, loving knowledge

God is about to judge Sodom

Shall I hide this from Abraham?

I have chosen him, same word translated known him

God chose Abraham to be the Father of Israel, in this choosing there is a deep personal relationship between God and Man

Foreknowledge is God choosing to set His love on us in a personal way.

To be foreknown is to be fore-loved.

The second link in our chain is our being predestined.

A lot less debate about what this word means.

It is to set a destination

The idea behind the word is a ship marking a destination on the horizon and setting sail to reach it.

God has set our destination - to be conformed to the image of His Son

We will look more at this, but for now...

The end result: we are going to be glorified (destination)

So we can already begin to see that..

God has set His love on us

God has a destination for us (plan/purpose/working towards)