Speaker 1: So today we begin our third sermon in our series on the doctrines of grace, and we changed the acronym around and today we have accomplishing grace.
Speaker 1: My wife asked me this morning what are you preaching on?
Speaker 1: She was excited and I said accomplishing grace.
Speaker 1: And she said that's not true, we don't do that.
Speaker 1: And I said, okay, I got some explaining to do so.
Speaker 1: What do we mean by accomplishing grace?
Speaker 1: Well, it's a historic doctrine that we'll explain from the scriptures, because you really don't care what my opinion is.
Speaker 1: You care what God has to say.
Speaker 1: So as we dive into this doctrine on grace that accomplishes its will, we're going to begin in the Old Testament, because we always want to link the Testaments together.
Speaker 1: We're not a New Testament church, we're not an Old Testament church.
Speaker 1: God's promises go from beginning to end and all of it is one big story upon which you and I are not the main character.
Speaker 1: Christ is, and accomplishing grace will remind us of that today.
Speaker 1: So we'll begin in Ezekiel, chapter 36, verses 25 through 27.
Speaker 1: And we'll hop around a couple different places.
Speaker 1: If you want to follow along or if not, on your printouts there should be the verse slides with you.
Speaker 1: Ezekiel, chapter 36, verses 25 through 27.
Speaker 1: God is explaining the new covenant, what is going to be the new relationship between him and his chosen people.
Speaker 1: This is God's holy word.
Speaker 1: Watch this.
Speaker 1: He says I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols.
Speaker 1: I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.
Speaker 1: I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my.
Speaker 1: There is a necessary emphasis you probably heard me put on that.
Speaker 1: It's all bolded for you.
Speaker 1: Who is the one acting in this?
Speaker 1: It's God, right, god says I will.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say I hope I pray I might.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll have to see If you're really good, you might get this.
Speaker 1: God is not Santa and gives us according to our good deeds for the year.
Speaker 1: He gives us actually what we don't deserve ever on our best year.
Speaker 1: But watch what he does here.
Speaker 1: He says I will sprinkle clean water on you.
Speaker 1: So you and I, we wake up and there's days where you might not feel as sinful and dirty and there's other days where you realize.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I am a wreck.
Speaker 1: My life is gross.
Speaker 1: Today was a gross day.
Speaker 1: I've been working on my house and I'll have you know, I wear the exact same shirt and shorts to work every day in that place, and so by the end of the week they actually hold their posture.
Speaker 1: It's really impressive.
Speaker 1: Those are not clean clothes and it's really obvious.
Speaker 1: Here's the problem you and I have is that we'll wear something like nice to church on Sunday morning and there's a part of us that says, yeah, that's clean, like I didn't do anything in it, it's good to go.
Speaker 1: There's another part that says, well, if we're talking black and white here, it's been worn Thus it is immediately dirty as soon as it's been worn right.
Speaker 1: There's this posture in our lives of judging our cleanliness, our spiritual cleanliness, by how we think our spiritual clothes look and feel.
Speaker 1: We're like oh no, I got the fabric softener on today.
Speaker 1: Like I said, please and thank you.
Speaker 1: I didn't yell at my spouse and I'll have.
Speaker 1: You know, I almost said bad words, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I'm looking pretty spick today and in that moment we'll forget.
Speaker 1: So we have to hold on to the dark days that remind us I'm not clean.
Speaker 1: I am not inherently good, and the way I can prove that is if you get me under a lot of stress and a lot of pain and then have someone start poking me in my side, I will break, and that proves what is within.
Speaker 1: The beautiful thing is that you and I are unable to clean ourselves.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that the best we offer God is filthy rags.
Speaker 1: And yet God looks at our filthy rags and our broken lives and says I will clean you.
Speaker 1: There is an immense freedom in that that everyone in this room needs to kind of soak in for a second, because you and I we've talked about this whenever we were in John.
Speaker 1: You and I have this great way of going to the upper room discourse and Jesus saying like, if you love me, you'll obey, and we're like I'm trying, jesus, I just can't do it.
Speaker 1: I'm trying, I'm trying to love you enough, and we forget, guys, that's a promise.
Speaker 1: And we forget, guys, that's a promise.
Speaker 1: That's a securing, loving, grounding promise of God If you love me, if you're saved, don't worry, you will obey.
Speaker 1: Same thing here I will clean you.
Speaker 1: And then what's going to happen?
Speaker 1: You shall be clean, because what God begins, he ends, he finishes everything and then he gets specific, and from all your idols I will cleanse you now again.
Speaker 1: This is one of those ones where you and I, we take our sanctification right and we judge our justification off our sanctification.
Speaker 1: We're like today was a good day, so I feel pretty saved, today was a bad day.
Speaker 1: I don't know about me or you today, like we're both up the river.
Speaker 1: I think God says in one moment, right, not over time here, this is talking about a moment I will cleanse you, I'll make you clean from your idols Again.
Speaker 1: What is an idol?
Speaker 1: Anything that we love more than God.
Speaker 1: So food, popularity, comfort, candy.
Speaker 1: As you can tell, we've taught on idols before at our house.
Speaker 1: They'll probably tell you their're top three if you ask them Now.
Speaker 1: So God is saying this to Ezekiel and he says in verse 26, and I will give you a new heart.
Speaker 1: If we paid any attention last week, do we need a new heart?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is some radical corruption within me, where my heart is naturally bent towards evil.
Speaker 1: And if you don't believe that, all you got to do is sit in the nursery for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Just go watch toddlers for five minutes and watch them, and one of them will grab a toy, hit the one over the head and walk away, while that one's crying and they're at peace.
Speaker 1: And walk away while that one's crying and they're at peace, like I got my toy, I'm good.
Speaker 1: And we'll say no, no, that's just the kids.
Speaker 1: And we're like no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Like there's this.
Speaker 1: There's this part of us where we all went to high school and you're like man, high school was terrible, like there's so much drama and there's so much things.
Speaker 1: And then you hit like a certain age where you're like did high school ever end?
Speaker 1: Because people keep doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: I thought this was like a teenager thing, but now we're like 30, 40, 50, and everyone's still doing it.
Speaker 1: There's something wrong on the inside.
Speaker 1: But not only does God give us a new heart in one moment, not over time, not in stages.
Speaker 1: In one moment, he also gives us a new spirit.
Speaker 1: Now he says I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh.
Speaker 1: Okay, what kind of heart do you have?
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's try again.
Speaker 1: What kind of heart do you have?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's better.
Speaker 1: We have a stone.
Speaker 1: Say it loud and proud.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're right here.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, because if better, we have a stone.
Speaker 1: Say it loud and proud.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're right here.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest, because if we don't have a right view of where we were at, none of this matters.
Speaker 1: The reason that all of these doctrines are offensive is because we don't believe the beginning part, that you and I are in need and that that need's desperate.
Speaker 1: It's not just a little bit, it's everything.
Speaker 1: Now look at this comfort.
Speaker 1: I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a heart that actually feels, a heart that can respond, and I will put my spirit within you.
Speaker 1: So now we go back to that, the new spirit.
Speaker 1: What is that?
Speaker 1: Why is the Holy Spirit that lives within you and I, and it says don't do that, don't do that.
Speaker 1: No, that one Bible verse we have memorized.
Speaker 1: We're going to use that again.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it applies here, but we got it and we're going to use it.
Speaker 1: We have a tiny dagger and we're going to use it.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit walks with us.
Speaker 1: And what happens?
Speaker 1: Last part of verse 27,.
Speaker 1: And cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Speaker 1: So does anyone need to have anxiety?
Speaker 1: As a Christian of like making sure that we're walking on the thin ice carefully, and like I got to make sure I keep obeying, otherwise I'm about to get the boot.
Speaker 1: The answer is no.
Speaker 1: Our justification, our freedom again remember, justification is the freedom from the penalty of sin.
Speaker 1: Freedom from the penalty of sin.
Speaker 1: Our justification is static, it's one moment and done.
Speaker 1: I could fail for the rest of my life and it doesn't change.
Speaker 1: There's no purgatory for me, there's no works righteousness.
Speaker 1: There's no other option, just Jesus.
Speaker 1: Now, when we talk about accomplishing grace, this sets the background for it.
Speaker 1: Amazingly, because in the Old Testament, god said I will.
Speaker 1: And we have this moment where, again last week was really helpful with learning free will versus free agency.
Speaker 1: We're like, no, I have a free will and you're like no, no, no, you're a free agent, you make choices according to whatever you want.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying you don't want that, I'm saying your free will is corrupted, you don't desire the good things of God, naturally, and that wasn't my opinion, that was Romans 3 and the whole book of Psalms.
Speaker 1: So we look at this and we say God says I will, it's a guarantee.
Speaker 1: And that's what we mean by accomplishing grace.
Speaker 1: What God's grace goes out to do will happen.
Speaker 1: We'll give you a definition and I might shorten it even in a second.
Speaker 1: So what is accomplishing grace?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to shorten this in a second for you.
Speaker 1: Accomplishing grace is God's powerful and loving call, based on his eternal choice, by which he grants people saving faith and repentance through his undeserved kindness to create a new people who are united with Christ and live in holiness, while God unfailingly brings them to glory.
Speaker 1: Okay, that was my simplified definition and I'm realizing I did a terrible job, so let's try this.
Speaker 1: Okay, ready.
Speaker 1: What is accomplishing grace?
Speaker 1: Accomplishing grace means who the Holy Spirit has chosen before the foundation of the world.
Speaker 1: He will not fail to bring to glory.
Speaker 1: Period.
Speaker 1: You can put a mountain in between them, you can make them blind, deaf, unable to walk.
Speaker 1: He will accomplish his purpose.
Speaker 1: The election we talked about two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: That happened before the foundation of the world.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit says I will not fail in making this happen.
Speaker 1: That is accomplishing grace.
Speaker 1: A great part to go to is John, chapter six.
Speaker 1: I got a smattering of verses here in verse 10.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna sit here for a second so you can go ahead and flip over there if you'd like.
Speaker 1: John, chapter six.
Speaker 1: The first verse we have is verse 37.
Speaker 1: Jesus says all that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
Speaker 1: So the first half of that verse we see an absolute.
Speaker 1: The father is giving something to Jesus and they will come to him.
Speaker 1: There's no questions, there's no concerns, there's no comments, there's no qualifications.
Speaker 1: God says those who the father gives to the son will come to me.
Speaker 1: And then we get specifics.
Speaker 1: Verse 44 says no one.
Speaker 1: All right, let's say it again.
Speaker 1: Okay, who?
Speaker 1: No one, no one can come to me unless so we're going to learn the only way someone can come to God the father who sent me draws him.
Speaker 1: Now, that word draws is a fascinating word If you look in the New Testament, for where else it's used?
Speaker 1: It's used of Paul and Silas being dragged into prison.
Speaker 1: It's used of the other apostles being dragged in or out of synagogues or cities.
Speaker 1: If you look in Greek literature ancient Greek literature it's used for drawing water from a well.
Speaker 1: Now, here is where we get to really understand this word and what it means practically for us, because what a lot of people, in their uncomfortability, will look at this and say okay, what this means is the father's drawing them by wooing them and enticing them.
Speaker 1: He's putting the carrot on the end of the stick, he's making it easy for them and that's how he's drawing them to himself.
Speaker 1: A better way of translating that word from the Greek context would actually be to compel.
Speaker 1: So the idea being this no one can come to me unless the father compels them.
Speaker 1: So again, I loved.
Speaker 1: I don't know how long ago, rc Sproul had this great debate with another seminary professor and the argument became about this point of contention no, no, he's, he's enticing them, he's wooing them.
Speaker 1: And rc sprawl said yeah, I just want you to imagine like you're, you're on the top of the well and you're, you're looking down at the water.
Speaker 1: You go here, water, water, come here, water.
Speaker 1: You can do it.
Speaker 1: Is the come Answer no, that water's hanging out and you could talk to it, you could sing to it.
Speaker 1: I mean, you could just belt it out, you could bribe it, and it doesn't care.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: So then the concern becomes on the other end.
Speaker 1: Okay, so if God's dragging people, you're saying he's compelling people to this question mark.
Speaker 1: Does that mean people are going to heaven kicking and screaming Like God's, like no, you're coming with me and it's like the kid that doesn't want to go to school is holding onto the side of the van like, no, I don't want to go to heaven.
Speaker 1: Is that what's happening right now?
Speaker 1: And the answer is no.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: What does that mean?
Speaker 1: That God compels, well, we just learned in Ezekiel 36.
Speaker 1: It's not that God's dragging.
Speaker 1: What does God do?
Speaker 1: He gives a new heart, he gives new desires, new inclinations, and from those, now, all of a sudden, what's happened is a new me is inside of me that says I want God and through that, god irreversibly, unchangeably, unmistakably pulls me to himself and you are mine.
Speaker 1: No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him is a loving verse because it proves the promises of god again.
Speaker 1: Now jesus clarifies further.
Speaker 1: Verse 64 and 65 of john 6 says but there are some of you who do not believe.
Speaker 1: And John then gives us this little parentheses For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him.
Speaker 1: And he said this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.
Speaker 1: Okay, I remember the first time I read those verses and I was like we just did a circle, we said the words and then we said some middle words here and we just go right back to the same words and I know nothing, like I got nothing, no understanding what's happening here.
Speaker 1: So start at the beginning, there, verse 64.
Speaker 1: But there are some of you who do not believe.
Speaker 1: That's the last words Jesus says in that sentence, and he's explaining why they don't believe.
Speaker 1: And they don't believe, end of the verse because the Father has not granted them that.
Speaker 1: You see, we have this notion and we'll get to this in a second that there's this argument of no, no, no, it's all on me, I have to believe.
Speaker 1: And we're like well, that's the front seat, right, that's in front of the curtain.
Speaker 1: Here, in the play of life, behind the curtain is God drawing all to himself.
Speaker 1: And so we'll clarify one thing here there's two different kinds of call.
Speaker 1: Okay, there is the general call of the gospel, upon which you and I are responsible to preach the gospel to the nations and to say you are in desperate need of a savior, and I know him and I can tell you about him.
Speaker 1: Now, there's the general call, and then there's what we will listen to.
Speaker 1: We'll call it the effectual call, the effective call, and that is this, that is accomplishing grace, and that is that you and I, we throw out the general call and we're like fishermen throwing out a net.
Speaker 1: We're like, all right, guys, we'll see what comes in and God's the one that designates the fish to go into the net through accomplishing grace.
Speaker 1: Verse 16 of chapter 10.
Speaker 1: There Jesus says and I have other sheep that are not of this fold.
Speaker 1: Again, we say that a while ago and that has to do with those who are not in Israel.
Speaker 1: Right, this is the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: It's you and me.
Speaker 1: I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice.
Speaker 1: Again, there's no question, there's no trepidation, there's no hesitation or confusion.
Speaker 1: God says they will, and you and I have this weird thing where, like, we read Genesis one and it says, like God said, let there be light.
Speaker 1: And there was light.
Speaker 1: We're like, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Like God spoke and son, yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1: And then we hear, we hear God say and they will listen to my voice, and we're like, yeah, but do they want to?
Speaker 1: We hear God say and they will listen to my voice, and we're like, yeah, but do they want to Like I, you know, like creating a son's one thing, but I mean making someone do something.
Speaker 1: And again we go all the way back to the God's sovereignty in election and we say we're like the table that was made by the carpenters, like I'm a sled, and we're like you can pretend all you want, but it ain't going to work out for you.
Speaker 1: Well, god is in control and that is the greatest news you will ever hear in your entire life.
Speaker 1: We continue.
Speaker 1: One of the things we talk about with granting here.
Speaker 1: That will clarify, that will help greatly.
Speaker 1: Here is in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 24 and 25,.
Speaker 1: Paul is talking to Timothy.
Speaker 1: He's telling him what Timothy must be really, what a pastor must be in general.
Speaker 1: He says the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome.
Speaker 1: He must not be this argumentative guy that's just going around saying you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil.
Speaker 1: We all got to witness that in the last season, haven't we?
Speaker 1: We've all been tested correcting his opponents with gentleness.
Speaker 1: And again, if you've ever listened to dan ashton once, you know that he likes gentleness to be translated as humility.
Speaker 1: Why, why would we do this?
Speaker 1: Why would we not be quarrelsome?
Speaker 1: Why would we be kind?
Speaker 1: Why would we patiently endure evil, correct our opponents with gentleness so that God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth?
Speaker 1: You see, repentance is not a work.
Speaker 1: You and I don't.
Speaker 1: We don't muster it up Like you're not, like in an unsaved spot, and then like you're like working like a video game and you're like leveling up and you're like got 75% repentance.
Speaker 1: I'm like I'm really close.
Speaker 1: If I keep working on myself, I think I'm gonna get there and I'll be a Christian by the end of the year.
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to be a good Christian.
Speaker 1: Actually, I think Not even a bad one.
Speaker 1: You know those bad ones.
Speaker 1: God grants repentance.
Speaker 1: Acts, chapter 16, verse 14 gives us an example in the New Testament of this happening.
Speaker 1: One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of Okay.
Speaker 1: So was her heart open to paying attention before this moment?
Speaker 1: No, it wasn't.
Speaker 1: But now it is why.
Speaker 1: Because the Lord did the work.
Speaker 1: And again, that's why you and I, we always can tell when we're evangelizing somebody.
Speaker 1: We want someone to be saved.
Speaker 1: We can always tell how much we're trusting in God's sovereignty, by how much we're praying, we're like, okay, no, no, I think if I get them in this spot and have this conversation and then hit this point down and we're like, okay, you missed the whole thing.
Speaker 1: The gospel is not this articulation of intelligence upon which, if you can argue it correctly and shut down everyone's questions, you win and they get saved.
Speaker 1: That's not how this works.
Speaker 1: Repentance is granted.
Speaker 1: The Lord has to open their heart.
Speaker 1: So while you and I need to work on our gospel presentation, being able to explain it, understand it we also really need to work on lifting them up to God, because he's the one that saves.
Speaker 1: And, by golly, I can tell you that in my life there have been times where I thought I presented the gospel poetically to somebody, like a one-on-one meeting.
Speaker 1: They're broken.
Speaker 1: And I'm like this is the moment and I preach the gospel.
Speaker 1: And it's like this they're broken, and I'm like this is the moment and I and I preach the gospel and this like this beautiful thing, and I'm like, wow, that came out so well, that was so great.
Speaker 1: And they're like, yeah, I'm just really hungry, like, do you want burger king?
Speaker 1: And you're like, no, it was a softball pitch.
Speaker 1: That was yeah, it was right.
Speaker 1: You'll never get a better pitch than that, probably, and I'm indignant in my pride.
Speaker 1: I did a good job.
Speaker 1: Now you be good and repent.
Speaker 1: I'm like a bad parent Now.
Speaker 1: At the same time.
Speaker 1: I never go back and question.
Speaker 1: When I first became a pastor and I'm a youth pastor and I I could probably barely articulate the gospel well, and kids got saved I never questioned it.
Speaker 1: At that moment I wasn't like man, I'm not that good at this.
Speaker 1: Like I don't know how God's doing this.
Speaker 1: Like I've been pride.
Speaker 1: You're like yeah, I'm doing good.
Speaker 1: Like people are getting saved.
Speaker 1: We're doing a lot of baptisms in our youth group.
Speaker 1: Like this is awesome.
Speaker 1: You see, god in a sense saved more people through my ministry.
Speaker 1: When I was a nincompoop, they could barely explain the gospel.
Speaker 1: Well, probably to prove a point to me it's not me, I'm not that cool.
Speaker 1: He is Continuing.
Speaker 1: This is where we're going to get to a really nice point here.
Speaker 1: Are we saved by grace, through faith or faith through grace?
Speaker 1: You see, because the concept here is one that's called and we're going to use big ticket words here, we don't use those too often Monergism versus synergism Okay, so monergism versus synergism Okay.
Speaker 1: So monergism is the doctrine that our new birth, that's that regeneration, that's becoming a new person, getting a new heart, is the work of God, the Holy Spirit alone, with no contribution and without the cooperation of fallen man, since the natural man of himself has no desire of God and cannot understand spiritual things.
Speaker 1: That's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: Here is what we're often taught.
Speaker 1: Synergism is the false doctrine that our new birth is equally the work of God and man.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is unable to save us unless we cooperate and contribute to our salvation.
Speaker 1: You see, we get to Ephesians 2, right, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
Speaker 1: Why is that important?
Speaker 1: Why does the order of words matter?
Speaker 1: Because it communicates something completely differently.
Speaker 1: If we're saved by grace, through faith, I'm saved by unearned favor.
Speaker 1: That gave me faith, or it is the opposite.
Speaker 1: Then my faith earns me the unearned favor, it grants me the unearned favor.
Speaker 1: And this is how me growing up, this is how the gospel was preached to me.
Speaker 1: It was like all right, buddy, you're on this end, god's on this end.
Speaker 1: You're like Adam with like the finger where you won't put it up all the way, like and if you would, you and God would connect.
Speaker 1: You got to put some work in.
Speaker 1: It's like no, no, no, you missed the entire point of the Bible, from beginning to end, regarding salvation.
Speaker 1: God says I will, I do the work.
Speaker 1: Not only did he promise it, he accomplished it and he applied it to your life.
Speaker 1: We are saved by grace, through faith.
Speaker 1: And then how does that continue?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: So that no one may boast Okay, here's what I always say you and I, you and I.
Speaker 1: We would be like okay, well, it's not 50-50, right, it's like 99% God and 1% me.
Speaker 1: If this was actually true, let me tell you exactly how the sin in my heart works and how it works in your heart too.
Speaker 1: We would have either a physical leaderboard or one in our head that would argue about who got to 1% faster, who put more work in to get there, who was smarter and did that?
Speaker 1: Because, if any percentage of my salvation is on my shoulders, I got something to be proud about.
Speaker 1: Trust me, in this life, with all the things that are going on, that we're building and doing, there's a lot of times where I'm like I did it.
Speaker 1: I can see it.
Speaker 1: I built something, I did it, and there's a moment where you could be proud about that.
Speaker 1: You get puffed up.
Speaker 1: And then there's times where people come over and they actually know what they're doing to my house and they do something and I'm like, yeah, no, that's not me, I did.
Speaker 1: Someone's like that looks so good.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, you should thank Ryan.
Speaker 1: He did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he did a great job, didn't he?
Speaker 1: Or jim, jim did pretty much everything.
Speaker 1: In those moments I can't be proud why there's not even a temptation to be proud, why because I didn't do it, I didn't even measure this stuff someone else did all the work.
Speaker 1: That is the freedom and the necessity of our salvation.
Speaker 1: As you and I freely get to sit in this moment saying God did the work, and we also look back at our wretched lives and say I needed God to do all the work, we get to our final conclusion point here in Romans, chapter 8, and we'll be here for a second.
Speaker 1: This is really what everything comes down here in Romans, chapter 8, and we'll be here for a second.
Speaker 1: This is really what everything comes down to.
Speaker 1: Romans, chapter 8, verses 29 through 30, and you could include verse 28 if you'd like is called the golden chain of salvation, and what it's going to prove to us is that what God begins, he finishes.
Speaker 1: This is God's holy word For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Speaker 1: And those whom he predestined, he also called.
Speaker 1: And those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question Do you feel glorified right now?
Speaker 1: I'm glad you do.
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 1: Like I woke up with a backache and a headache and a something ache and a heartache.
Speaker 1: I got all the aches okay.
Speaker 1: Like then I.
Speaker 1: Probably all the aches Okay.
Speaker 1: Like the then I I probably failed 18 times.
Speaker 1: Yesterday I looked in the mirror and said you really need to work on a lot of things, man.
Speaker 1: Like there's no part of me that feels glorified in this moment.
Speaker 1: If anything, I feel like the opposite of that and I feel like the more I grow in Christ like this, the less I feel like that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hmm, yes, it's like a never-ending mansion.
Speaker 1: My soul is where I clean one room and I'm like, oh man, I'm maturing in Christ, like I'm killing it.
Speaker 1: This is my third room down, knocking this place out, this place is going to be clean.
Speaker 1: And then you like open the next door and you're like, oh, there's five rooms here.
Speaker 1: And you're like, no, no, it's okay, we're going to buckle down, we're going to knock this out.
Speaker 1: And then, three years later, you're like we cleaned all five of the rooms and we're killing it.
Speaker 1: And you open another door and you're like there's 10 rooms.
Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh, they're multiplying.
Speaker 1: How do they do this?
Speaker 1: It's because I don't realize the depth of my sin, of my sin, and God is sweet to me that just degree by degree, he opens the door a little wider For me to see just how many skeletons are in my closet and say, oh, wow, okay, god, in the beginning I was thankful you saved me, but now I look back and I say, why did you save me?
Speaker 1: You do know what I did yesterday, right, and we're still good.
Speaker 1: God never fails to save his people, no matter what.
Speaker 1: Look at this, those whom he foreknew.
Speaker 1: This doesn't again we've talked about this before this doesn't mean that he had some sort of like God telescope where he like looked into the future and said, oh yes, john's gonna choose me, so I'll choose him.
Speaker 1: That's not what this meant.
Speaker 1: When the Bible talks about knowledge.
Speaker 1: One of the main things it talks about with that is this intimate knowing, this relationship.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about like a pre-relationship here.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a good way for us to start.
Speaker 1: We'll go through this.
Speaker 1: One day we'll preach through Romans I don't know when and when we do, we'll go over this in depth.
Speaker 1: Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined we talked about that word Again, you can translate that better as predetermined.
Speaker 1: He predetermined that they would be what Conformed to the image of his son, that they would be Christ-like, that they would look, breathe, act, smell like Jesus.
Speaker 1: And again you and I look at ourselves and say we have missed the mark.
Speaker 1: This chain is already broken.
Speaker 1: I know me, you know me, we know me.
Speaker 1: In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, the desire of God is to love his son and to build a family, a people, a kingdom that he will share with those who deserve nothing.
Speaker 1: Now, when we say the word conformed to his image, you and I will often again look at our temporal sanctification and say I am not conformed.
Speaker 1: What we don't realize is this is pointing to glory that one day you and I will see Jesus face to face, that right now we see in a mirror, dimly lit, but one day we'll see him face to face, in glory, and it will be so free and sweet and comforting and full, and in that moment we'll see him.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because we will be like him is what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: I won't be an idiot anymore, like can you?
Speaker 1: I?
Speaker 1: Just, I can't believe that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my goodness, I'm not going to make a mistake again, I'm not going to say the wrong thing again.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hurt anyone anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to fail want anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to fail, yes, and not because I earned it or because I was the super Christian or because I was a pastor, but because God chose to love me.
Speaker 1: Verse 30, verse 30,.
Speaker 1: Those whom he predestined, those whom he predetermined to save, he also called, he drew them to himself.
Speaker 1: Those whom he called, he also justified.
Speaker 1: God had to do the work not only of pulling you to himself by giving you a new heart, but by making the payment necessary, so that you didn't get a new heart and then say, okay, well, still going to hell, got a new heart, love God.
Speaker 1: And I am stuck because I have a penalty to pay that I can never pay.
Speaker 1: He justified you and I and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Speaker 1: You see, paul is being actually aggressively pastoral in this moment.
Speaker 1: You and I are already declared glorified.
Speaker 1: Our salvation, the end of it, the security of it, is so sure.
Speaker 1: It's already said, it's already done, it's written in stone.
Speaker 1: The names that are written in the book of life are already there.
Speaker 1: You were chosen before the foundation of the world and, from beginning to end, you never have to worry or to be concerned, and that's why the Christian life is not driven by this obligational duty.
Speaker 1: All right, I need to be a good Christian.
Speaker 1: Show up to church, read my Bible, pray, don't be mad at that person, say I'm sorry, and if I do those things, I can report for duty and show up next week.
Speaker 1: That is a terrible way to live.
Speaker 1: You can't bear the burden of the law.
Speaker 1: As a saved person, you will drop.
Speaker 1: You are not able to bear that weight.
Speaker 1: But here's the good news If God has saved you, he's given you a new heart that can obey, and by can obey we mean the beginnings of can obey.
Speaker 1: Like you can start doing disobedience and disobedience a little bit.
Speaker 1: You're going to fail, but it's okay.
Speaker 1: Just, it's a rolling snowball.
Speaker 1: Just keep consistent and just keep moving forward.
Speaker 1: Just keep moving forward.
Speaker 1: You and I are already glorified, my friends Today.
Speaker 1: Go and rest in that and then live your Christian life the correct way, which is you and I.
Speaker 1: We do good works.
Speaker 1: We do the right thing Out of love for God and gratitude for what he's done.
Speaker 1: If you do something out of love and you fail, there's no fear in that, because you were doing it just because you loved them.
Speaker 1: If a kid is thankful for their mother and gives them Mother's Day stuff on Mom's Day and then they go to give it to them and they trip and it falls into a fire and it all goes away, they don't say, oh my goodness, I have failed.
Speaker 1: I need to be scared that my mom's going to react against me.
Speaker 1: If anything, as a child, I'm going to be the one reacting.
Speaker 1: I worked really hard on that.
Speaker 1: Guys, go and live your Christian life the right way.
Speaker 1: God's grace has already accomplished your justification.
Speaker 1: Walk out your Christian life in freedom, knowing that God is the one working mightily within you.
Speaker 1: So strive, push, fight, not because you're surviving or because you have to, but because you're thankful for what God's done.
Speaker 1: Let us pray Father, we come before you and we are in awe of your amazing grace.
Speaker 1: Those are words that we sing and we say that we often don't even think about the implications or the the depth of those words.
Speaker 1: You have been so kind and gracious to us that you have chosen us when we wouldn't have chosen us.
Speaker 1: You have loved us when we are unlovable and you have kept us even when we have fought against you, lord, when we have failed repeatedly.
Speaker 1: Thank you, lord, for your grace and for your mercy, which is new each day.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your love that covers everything.
Speaker 1: Help us to be empowered with that freedom to love others, to serve others, to sacrifice this life, to live it all on the edge for you and to say my life is not my own, I don't live for this world or the things of this world.
Speaker 1: I live for you.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.