Romans 8:28–30Scripture
We're in Romans 8 today. Today is supposed to be a summary day, because we had the awesome privilege of hearing from Cameron last week. I'm going to go on to 8:28 through 30. And although it is only three verses, oh man, I need five weeks. Literally, I have five weeks' worth of notes.
I'm not going to try to do that today, so I'm just going to start. We're going to go through this as well as we can, and I'm going to get, hopefully, to talking about foreknowledge. However, that is only the first part of the five links in the golden chain of salvation, right? So that's all I can do, is I can set it up in verse 28. We can look at verse 29, and then we will begin to see this thing that God does for us called salvation and his work in that plan. Let's read it together, Romans 8:28–30. It says this: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Paul's
This is one of those what I refer to as needlepoint theologies. It's one of those things that you would crochet on a pillow
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:25
or put in a wall hanging. It is cherry-picked out, and because we are so common with it, we do not honor it as it should be honored and we do not properly contextualize it, and that needlepoint theology leads you astray every time you look at that pillow. It is a truth, it is something pitched as the truth
Introduction
That is not the truth. Verse 29: "For those whom he foreknew he also," oopsie daisy.
Oh no, Shawn, please say you don't make it to predestination. You're going to have a problem with foreknowledge. That one's tough enough as it is. P.S., verse 28 is tough enough. Like, I don't have enough time today to talk about 28, but we're going to try to do 28 and 29. "For those," listen, watch the golden chain of salvation. This is how God saves. "For those whom he," what? That's number one. "He also," what? Is number two. "To be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also," there's another one, "and those whom he called he also." Now all through Romans we have been talking extensively about sin and the depravity of man and man's inability to save himself, and we have been talking about the fact that the law cannot save but only Christ saves, amen. He is the only way to salvation. Your works do not get you there. That salvation is a gift that no man can boast. He has spoken, we have read and heard extensively, God tells us it is by him and him alone that men are saved. It is not by works, it is a gift of God, that no person, child, man, woman, whatever, be able to take credit for it and steal glory from God.
P.P.S., that's a dumb saying. You can't even steal glory from God. You can't even do that. It's like going into a fortified fortress hoping to get in, it's impossible to get in. You can't take anything from God anyway. You just think you can. You try to rob God of glory, but God will get glory, right? He's got a plan, right? It's important. So then we have, so, predestined, justified, and then glorified. Now notice that justification, after all of that it's a gift, that's not law, that's not works that we're saved, but it's a gift of God. It gets to justification, and Romans up to this point has been talking mainly of justification. We have heard no real, true conversation of foreknowledge or predestination or being called. We have a little bit on the calling side, that Jesus doesn't save those whom God did not first call. There's a limiting factor to who Christ saves, right? Christ saves those whom God calls. That's really important. But justification, if you go back and you look at these five things, justification is at the end, it's at the end. This is all saving, God's saving grace. All of this is God's saving grace, but notice where it begins. It begins all the way back before time began, and what? And God's foreknowledge. So we think that salvation begins when we come to the altar at a conference? No.
Paul begins to line out over the next several chapters what foreknowledge and predestination and election look like, and then he begins in chapter 9 at the very beginning to use Israel as an example of how these function in our world. It's beautiful. It's beautiful, because although Israel has rejected God has not rejected them. Why? Well, it's not because of what they do or don't do, it's because he chose them and elected them from the beginning. So in other words, God's love and adoration for a people, and him calling them and making them his chosen people, has nothing to do with the people. It has everything to do with God's foreknowledge and his predestination. This, ladies and gentlemen, all happens outside of our existence. That's important. So Paul here is laying down an argument that he knows even us today are going to have a hard time dealing with, because we want even to take foreknowledge hostage from God and make it about our sovereign will and not his. Oh come on now, listen to me. Well, because he foreknew, he saw what I was going to choose, even though the Bible in Romans up to this point has said a man can't choose him unless God, and we learned that you don't choose God chooses you. That's in the Bible just like that. And so we want to move the foreknowledge into, well, God just looked ahead, and then because he saw we were eventually going to choose him, then he predestined us and called us and justified us and glorified us because he knew what we were going to choose. It removes the sovereignty from God and puts it on us, and Paul is trying to help lay the foundation that salvation is a gift, ladies and gentlemen. It's real simple.
It's a gift that no man yet may boast, yet we create theological positions that allow us to boast.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:49
It's crazy, right?
We are entering into some dangerous territory, and there are going to be some interesting conversations in the small groups, and I think it's great, because it's good for us to wrestle with the text, amen, and it's okay for us to disagree, amen. It's important that we wrestle. You can't wrestle unless you disagree, so let us wrestle, but let us do it with grace and with dignity and with kindness and with love and with the word of God and the truth therein the priority of our argument. All right, now verse 30: "And those whom he predestined he called." I know I've already read it. "And those whom he called he justified, and those whom he justified he glorified." Well, what about me living victorious, having a bunch of money, everything going great in my life? Because, you know, one of the chain, all the way through, justification in the chain has to do with God's work, and then it goes straight from justification, which has nothing to do with you, because God calls and God saves and the Holy Spirit gives you the gift of repentance, that's in the Bible, so even repentance, which leads to salvation through justification, all is God's work. And then you just jump over my life and you go straight to when I'm dead and I get a new body and I'm glorified. Where do I fit in there?
All of that is for God's glory and happens to you because God does it for you.
Hence these are the five golden chains, five golden links of salvation, the chain of salvation. This is all God's
Point 1True worship requires knowing the Triune God
Work. It's important. Now, so I have three points today. I'm going to try to extrapolate things out of here. Oh my goodness, I don't have enough time.
But the first point is this: our worship. Our worship, as we've been learning, and Pastor J.R. And ebony specifically will appreciate this, but I'm afraid, I'm afraid often times in church, regardless of the heart of the musicians or those leading us in worship, and we know worship is beyond a praise and worship song, right, amen, it's a position of the heart, and more importantly it's where we position God in our heart. All right, there are many people though, although the heart of the man or the woman up here might be right, and although part of the hearts of you might be right, there are some people who sit in worship and they're worshiping a different Jesus than you do. It is the Jesus they have constructed in their life, and it is a false worship.
Why have we made some shifts in our worship? Because it is important that we know who we are worshiping, and if our worship is all about feelings and we're not learning about who God is, then what are we worshiping? Whom are we worshiping? We've been learning the gracious, mighty, wondrous work of the Holy Spirit.
We blaspheme the Holy Spirit most often in the Godhead. P.S., the Holy Spirit is God, so you blaspheme God by the way you think of the Holy Spirit and his purposes. You blaspheme God. It's important. The wondrous work of the Holy Spirit on behalf of every Christian is sufficient to motivate full-hearted, joyous, grateful worship, and worship is the priority for every believer. We are first and foremost worshipers. That's who we are. The Father is seeking, but the Father is seeking true worshipers, those worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth. So if you get the truth wrong, you blaspheme the Spirit and ultimately you blaspheme God. This is why we are compelled in all thy getting to get an understanding, because why? Because it affects your worship. Improper understanding is blasphemy.
We are first and foremost worshipers. The Father is seeking true worshipers, and we are those who worship in spirit, according to the apostle Paul. We're first and foremost worshipers, and the object of our worship is a triune God, not the part of the Godhead you like with the rejection of the rest. There are some of you here, you worship the right Jesus but you have rejected God the Father and God the Spirit, which then should let you know this is a triune God and you cannot separate one from the other, and if you only accept Jesus but reject the other two, you blaspheme him in your worship. Worship is the acknowledgment of God in his rightful place, and that counts the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and God the Son. We have blasphemed God with our worship in churches across America and the world, with our worship, with the way that we understand the working of the Holy Spirit. And it is important. Why, Shawn, have you been talking so much about the troubling things that are taught about the Holy Spirit? Because I don't want your entire life to be blaspheming God, I want it to be a life of worship, and we've got to get this understanding right. We worship many people on Sunday, we worship an idol we call God the Father. It's the God the Father you have accepted while at the same time rejecting the part of him. You've basically fashioned a god that is the God the Father of all the good things but the judgment and the anger and the righteous indignation and judgment and condemnation, all of that in hell and sending people there, all of that, you're like, "That's too judgy, I don't need that in my life."
You worship a false idol. We worship an idol we call the Son, and you know, I could go into it but I don't have time, of all the things we worship regarding the Son. Listen, I've said it over and over again, the Son was there when God destroyed nations. They are one, and so was the Holy Spirit. So to reject God the Father because you see his name listed in him doing things you don't like, and rejecting him, you actually reject all of God. Our worship of the Holy Spirit, like our worship of the Father or the worship of the Son, is only as true, only as pure, and only as accurate and only as extensive as our knowledge of the Spirit's person and work. And since that is a very glaring problem in the evangelical church today, we have been, over the last few weeks, endeavoring to take a look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit, for which he is to be worshiped. But the general evangelical church in our time has been cheated of the understanding of the Holy Spirit as to his person and his work and his ministry, and consequently our worship of the Holy Spirit is convoluted, trashy, and it functions in ignorance, and the evangelical church has produced endless misconceptions about the Holy Spirit, endless misrepresentations of the Holy Spirit, and abuse and blasphemy, calling his name in worship, but the worship is not even towards him.
The worship is towards us. The Holy Spirit is nothing more than a powerful force that we can wield at our will. It is not a person, it is a force.
We have taken New Age theology, ideology, ideas and concepts, and we have applied it for our good pleasure with regard to how we deal with the Holy Spirit.
It's sad. The Holy Spirit is not, nonetheless perceived, not a sovereign God, not as a sovereign Spirit ruling, commanding the believer, nor as the one to whom we submit, whose words we obey, but rather the Holy Spirit is presented almost in an impersonal way as a force that does what we please. It is, in a way, us taking the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of the Spirit. P.S., the Holy Spirit is sovereign, and the Holy Spirit is not less sovereign than you, and the Holy Spirit in his sovereignty does not bow down to your sovereignty.
You do not wield him as a sword for battle. That's not what the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit wields you when he pleases.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:23
Watch this video. This is the way people in church worship when we talk about the Holy Spirit. This is what we do. This is what we think of the Holy Spirit.
Shut up, Holy Spirit!
Holy...
That's funny, but it's not funny, yet that's what believers do. That's what believers do.
What God are they worshiping, exactly? How do we go from, in verse 17 through verse 30, how do we go from Paul switching to having hope in the glory that will come, eschatological, and this is how you have that hope for one day glory, one day you will be glorified, to now making it about us wielding God to do what we want today? What in the world? We laugh, but many of us do that in our prayers. "Holy Spirit, activate! I didn't study for my test, Holy Spirit, activate!" It's nonsense, isn't it? Good that the Holy Spirit intercedes with groanings when you do stupid things like that. See, here's the thing: a hundred percent of us do that at some place in our life.
That's why the Holy Spirit has to intercede with groanings, because we all be stupid, right? And I want you to understand this is a work of God. You know how you can stand in confidence that which he promised he'll deliver? Not because of you, but because of God. Here's a few things that people that have the "Holy Spirit, activate" thing, here's some few things I've read on Instagram this week, current posts by pastors, kind of pastors I follow just to see what kind of crazy things are out there so that I can warn you about the crazy things that are out there. Right here, if you, so yeah, because you know this, you know somebody's like, "Oh good, I got an extra follower." I'm like, yeah, but it's kind of, it's kind of like a negative follower, actually. Here are a few things I heard on Instagram: "No, never, ever go to the Lord and pray stupid prayers like 'if it be your will.'" Oh, okay. Where did you get your degree?
Have you read the Bible? That's important. "Listen, Shawn, you're just being judgy." No, I'm warning the church, because you guys are listening to this and it's important. We can't let man undermine the word. Which word do you value the most? You can't say, "I value the word," and then not ever because then you're really showing those of you who never pick up this, don't tell me you love God, because you can't hate his word but love the God who gave it.
It's important, like, we need this warning. Here's another one: "The activity of the Holy Spirit is dependent on my words and my words alone. He will move when I say he will move, and he will not move when I say he will not move. I wield the power of the Spirit in me." I memorized that one.
"Holy Spirit, activate." Are you with me today? We blaspheme him with this mess. So he is sovereign.
Actually, some of us feel that we are sovereign and the Holy Spirit is some force that functions in response to whatever we say. This is a false system.
Again, it's metaphysics. It's the idea that the Holy Spirit is a mystical force and that there are certain laws that operate in the universe metaphysically, and if you engage those laws you can wield God as you please. This is a strong belief system since the twentieth century, and it has grown and been birthed out of that time period, and we've got a problem on our hands. It's a false system. It's the idea that the Holy Spirit is a mystical force and we can wield him as we please. How serious is this? In Exodus, write these scriptures down, I'm going to give you a bunch, we're going to go through them quick. I'm going to be looking down a little bit because most of these are scriptures I'm reading, all right, but I need to give you some scriptures to give you background so you don't think I'm just making junk up. In Exodus chapter 20, verse 7, where the Ten Commandments are laid out, one of them says this: "Do not take the Lord's name in vain." That's a very dangerous thing to do, but that's precisely what this kind of metaphysical treatment of the Holy Spirit is. It is taking the name of God in vain. It says, "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain."
Woe to the one who does this. Scripture ascribes to the Holy Spirit every attribute that is ascribed to the Son and to the Father. The same thing is applied to the Holy Spirit. He is fully God. The Holy Spirit is sovereign over all believers, over all believers. He does not obey us at all. He don't obey us. He does not fulfill our will, he solely fulfills God the Father's. He does not act in response to certain metaphysical laws that we set in motion because of the way we talk, the way we have faith, the way we live. He does not move according to our verbal confessions or professions. He is not some kind of natural force waiting for us to get him going, stirring him up, fanning the flame for our convenience to burn things down that we want to burn down. We want the flame, but it is not what you think. The Holy Spirit is sovereign over every believer. We are to obey his words, submit to his authority. He is not to obey our words and submit to our authority. What in the world?
We are to walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, obey the Spirit, and be filled constantly with the Spirit. He is the authority of God in us and over us and ultimately for God. You thought I was going to say "for us," didn't you? It's not for us, it's for God. We've been looking at the true ministry of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8, and here's a brief summary. Here's a brief summary, I didn't make this up, I found this in a commentary, I love it, I think it's fantastic: the Father initiates this salvation plan, the Son both validates it at the cross and demonstrates it in his life, but the Holy Spirit activates it. You want to talk about him activating something? Here's what he activates. He don't activate your test scores, you don't activate for that, he activates something else.
You don't activate the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit activates the work of God and the work of the Son.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:49
We don't activate the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit activates the work of God in us, and that is inclusive. It is the Holy Spirit who leads us to repentance, one verse says he gifts it to us. He convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgment. It is the Holy Spirit who regenerates us and gives us life and understanding so that we can believe. Therefore it is the Holy Spirit who both convicts us of sin and regenerates us. It is then the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us. It is also the Holy Spirit who secures us, that is, guarantees us of our future glory, which is what he's talking about in these verses. And then it is the Holy Spirit who glorifies us. He will raise us up by the power of the Spirit as he raised Jesus. You want to talk about his power? By his power he raises you up from death to life,
Point 2Familiarity with verses breeds carelessness
And you don't even wield that to get it. God gifts it. Oh dear. The second point: our good.
Our good. You probably heard the proverb, "Familiarity breeds contempt." That's often true with relationships. How many of you know that's true? The more familiar you get with somebody, the more easy it is to be angry at them, the more easy it is under your breath when you get mad to call them "stupid head" as you walk away, right? Familiarity breeds contempt in relationships and institutions. As you're in close proximity, you see cracks and blemishes that you wouldn't notice in just passing by.
However, when it comes to Scripture, listen to me here, familiarity breeds carelessness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:43
Oh, that's so good, guys. And we've become so familiar with some needlepoint theology that we've been careless with how we use it in our life. In some cases the abuse is more passive, and that's true of the verses before us today. Romans 8:28, which says this: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose." At first glance it might be hard to imagine that somebody could actually take this out of context and use it inappropriately. However, it's one of the most, one of the highest ranked verses being misappropriated in our culture today. It's definitely in the list of top ten, and I think it breaks the top five list. The number one, in my personal opinion, if I were to rank it, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." It's a misappropriation, it's a use of carelessness of the verse, because you've become common with that thing, and you've become so common with it, there are people who for twenty years have quoted that verse, have been common with that verse, have been careless with that verse, and actually read that verse when they're reading the Bible in proper context and like, "Oh my goodness, how have I seen this wrong for twenty years?" Well, it might be because you haven't been reading the Bible. You just read needlepoint theology in pillows and houses and "you name it and claim it for your glory." But in this case the abuse of the verse is tied to familiarity and simplicity. Most believers have heard this verse so many times that they rarely stop to consider the larger context or give any thought to the point the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote it. All right, Romans 8:28 is a prime example of how careless familiarity can lead to corruption. The verse is applied to virtually every hardship, disappointment, trial the believer encounters. It's an all-purpose spiritual salve for every situation in my life. Wrong.
Matter of fact, this promise is telling you, in spite of your life, in spite of your life, you will one day be glorified.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:09
That is the good, ladies and gentlemen. That's what he's been talking about, glorification, from verse 17 through 30.
That is the context. It's the context. Let's revisit where we have come from regarding the work of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8. I'm going to give you a bunch in a list real quick. Since arriving at verse 17, we've been looking at one particular work of the Holy Spirit, and here's a list of the things we've run into: the Holy Spirit secures us, the Holy Spirit regenerates us, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us. This all happened in chapter 8. The Holy Spirit separates us from sin and death, the Holy Spirit enables us to fulfill the law, the Holy Spirit changes our nature, all the note takers in here are freaking out, the Holy Spirit calls us to behave in a right fashion, the Holy Spirit is adopting us into the family of God and making us sons. All of these are elements of sanctification and identity and union with Christ.
What does your test have to do with it? We're not looking at the final work that is laid out for us, and that is the Holy, we are now looking at the final work laid out for us, and that's the Holy Spirit's work of guaranteeing or securing our eternal glory. This is about eternal glory. This is from verse 17 all the way down to verse 30. We look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit by God, which he secures your eternal salvation, your place in heaven. That's what it's talking about here. I want to remind you that you have been secured to your future inheritance, which is reserved for you. It is protected by the power of God, namely the Holy Spirit. It's there waiting. It's imperishable, it cannot be defiled, these are the things we hear in Romans, it cannot fade away. It's reserved for you and you're protected so that one day you're going to be there. That is the securing work of the Holy Spirit. He is therefore called the Spirit of promise. He is the guarantee, he's the down payment, he's the engagement ring, he's the seal of God that will bring you to final glory. What God says will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So then, starting in verse 17, here we go, here's, I'm going to break this down for you so you can get the context. Starting in verse 17, the theme moves from regeneration and sanctification to glory. So we start in the beginning of Romans, regeneration to sanctification, and then we move to glory in verse 17. That's what we're talking about, eternal glory. That's what we're talking about, one day receiving the new body. That's what we're talking about, not the pain and the suffering of this world. We've moved out of that. Pain and suffering produce holiness, pain and suffering produce righteousness, pain and suffering produce sanctification. He uses those things to do that. Then he moves on to the topic of glory and says that glory is obtained and kept by the Holy Spirit, even when you pray wrong. The Holy Spirit's interceding to protect the glory that will one day be revealed to you. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to get you from the point of foreknowledge to the point of all these chains, to justification, to the glory that will one day be, and make sure that you don't do something stupid and hijack what God had planned. That's it. This is verse 17, we're at the glory part.
In verse 17 we begin to talk about being glorified with him. In verse 18, the glory that is to be revealed in us. In verse 21, the glory of the children of God. We all begin to look to the future. We come into the hope for that glory in verse 24. Again in verse 25, all the way down to 30, we see the word "glorified" over and over again. So the theme of 17–30 is our future glory. Everybody say it with me: future glory. And the emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit, who secures that future glory. The Holy Spirit, when he groans, is groaning for us to gain glory, the future glory, because you don't have it yet, but one day you will. So we're seeing that the picture shifts to future glory, the glorious revealing of the sons of God. He says, "which is what God planned from the beginning." And then we move to 29 and 30. It's the future glory. God works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. What does that mean? He gets you to your future glory. It doesn't mean he gives you what you
Point 3Salvation begins with God's foreknowledge, not our choice
Want today. Okay, our salvation. Point three, and I'm almost done. I can't see that. I don't even know why I sweated. Looking at verse 29, we read this, and this is the trigger-inducing thing, and I'm only going to talk about one of these. We need to talk about all of them but I don't have time to talk about all of them. We're on schedule and we're moving out. Do your homework. Go do some homework, all right? Go do some homework. Verse 29: "For those whom he foreknew," everybody say "foreknew." "He also predestined." Everybody say "predestined." Yikes.
Then go to verse 30: "And those whom he predestined he called, and those whom he called he justified, and those whom he justified he glorified." In other words, foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. These are the five cardinal realities that make up the great redemption story and purposes of God in salvation. These are those five things.
So many of us ask the question, and write this question down, this will help you, I want you to think about this week: where does salvation begin? Then, Shawn, well, I'm glad you asked. Most people believe it begins at justification, after response to an altar call and a certain prayer, say it a certain way. But ladies and gentlemen, that's not what Paul is saying here at all. Not even close.
Not at all. "Whom he foreknew he predestined." So where does salvation begin? What's the primary point at which it all launches? I'm going to tell you, verse 29: "for those whom he foreknew, for those whom he foreknew, he predestined." It starts at foreknowledge.
Why is it important that we understand fully what foreknowledge is? Because if you get this wrong, what happens to the chain?
It's compromised. If a link is gone, are you with me today? It's important that we get an understanding about this, and I think we can clearly understand what this means without all this conjecture and opinions. I truly do believe that we can figure out what it means. Verse 29: "For those whom he foreknew." Some say, "Oh, that's the key, John, he foreknew." He foreknew what I was going to do. He knows everything that's going to happen. So he looked ahead and he saw what people were going to do with their own free will, and since he knew what they were going to do, he acquiesced to their doing and he chose them as his own post haste.
Is that what foreknowledge is really teaching us here, that he saw what was going to happen and he just had to go along with it? Who's sovereign here? See, we don't have a problem with sovereignty, we have a problem with God's sovereignty. There's a lot of debates happening in the church because people don't like that word. No, they love that word.
Everyone loves that word when that word is applied to them. When they pray like they're sovereign, they act like they're sovereign, they live like they're sovereign. Everyone, no one has a problem with sovereignty.
They just have a problem with God having it, and that's a greater problem than the problem you think you have.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:25
It's a big problem.
That's why we move salvation's beginning to justification, and we even get the understanding of justification wrong, because we apply it to our free will and our choice choosing him. But the Bible says we don't choose him. The Bible says he chose us. But we don't care what the Bible said, because we can't possibly fathom to worship a God who's in control.
We would rather worship a God who submits to our control, but then we're not worshiping God.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 41:59
We're worshiping a false idol we've constructed for our good pleasure, and this is blasphemy in the church. Outside the church it's just simple blasphemy. Is that what he's saying when he says foreknowledge, he saw what's going to happen? Listen, he does have what is referred to as prescience, if you want to call it that. I don't even like that word, but some people use that word. He does have knowledge of what hasn't happened. He has full knowledge of it. But is that what he's talking about here? Did God just look ahead and these fully independent people say, "Well, they're going to believe and they're not going to believe, so since I know who is going to believe, those are the ones that i'm going to elect"? Is that what the Bible says? First of all, that would make the word "elect" complete and utter nonsense, and I don't think the words of God are nonsense, because he didn't choose anything, so he didn't elect anything. We chose. You see what I'm saying? So all the talk of predestination, foreknowledge, and election, which are all intertwined, is nonsense. We totally strip God of any ability to have an opinion or a will that he can force upon the earth.
It's nonsense. But is that what we're talking about? Did God just look ahead fully into the people and say, "Well, they're going to do what they say"?
So forget the doctrine of election, because he didn't choose anything. It would actually be a doctrine of a reaction. Can you imagine worshiping a God who just reacted to every dumb thing you did?
He's just running around trying to react. I mean, even the world gets this right when you watch an inappropriate movie like Bruce Almighty and you see him get God's duties of answering prayers for a week, and then you realize, listen,
Even the world understands that man isn't sovereign.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:15
How has the church gotten here?
How have we got here? If that's true, if man is sovereign and man chooses, then how do they do that when they're dead?
How did that, how does man, who's infinitely wicked above all things, totally depraved, how does man who is full of sin, who can't choose good, that Romans talks about, how does that type of man overcome his fallen state? By what power do these people that he looked at in the future who had free will overcome their depravity, their fallenness, their deadness, their blindness, their darkness? And then you'd have to ask this: if God looked ahead and saw that people would not choose the gospel and would not choose to believe and would therefore go to hell, why did he go ahead and create them? You don't get God off the hook here.
Some of us take this issue of foreknowledge and we shift it up out of context in the Bible because we're trying to hedge bets for God and we're trying to protect his character, but in trying to protect his character you have walked and stumbled into all kinds of inappropriate errors, and you don't protect his character. In trying to protect his character, what do you mean? What do you mean by foreknowledge? What do you mean by that?
Well, we all understand that it doesn't mean that God just knew what would happen and then he just reacted. We know that. Why? Write these scriptures down. John 3, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. Here's what he said: "You must be born from above. You must be born from above."
This is speaking to foreknowledge, speaking to predestination, speaking to election. It's speaking to these things. In John chapter 6, Jesus says, "No man comes unto me except the Father draw him."
Oh wait a minute, I thought it was a good altar call and a banging sermon. That's what I thought it was.
At the end of the chapter, verse 65, he says the only people who come to me are the people the Father draws to me. I thought we drew close to God. We understand that. Listen to Matthew 11:27: "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Oh, that's troubling for some people's possible perspective on foreknowledge, because this puts the power in God's hand, not yours.
The only way you can ever know God is if the Son reveals him to you, and the only way you can ever know the Son is if the Father draws him to you.
And by the way, did you notice the word "know" there? This is the first key: no one knows the Son except for the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except for the Son. You say, "Well, whoa, we know about the Son, don't we? We have information about him. The demons know the Son, right?
I mean, angels know the Son, they know him, right?" The word "know" must then have a different meaning.
If the demons know him and the angels know him and people know him, what is he talking about, that you have no part with me unless you know me? It must mean something different than having information, because the Holy Spirit, the holy angels, fallen angels, and everyone, and even people have information about the Father and information about the Son, but this knowing that it's talking about here must be something else besides just information. How about John 10?
This is a passage that speaks using the same word, the same word that's used in this verse, "he foreknew." It's the same word. Everybody say "foreknew."
It's the same word. John 10:14: "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father." It's the same word. What kind of knowing is this? You mean when Jesus says, "I know my own,"
Is he saying, "I have information about my own"? That'd be nonsense. We know he has information about us as if he has no information about anybody else. In Amos 3:2, write that down, God says, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth." Oh, so he's not known anyone else, he has no knowledge? You're just floating around here on the galaxy on Earth, just floating around in space and spinning around the sun, and God don't even know you're here? He has no knowledge of you being here?
God says, because he only knows Israel, this must be a different kind of knowing. "You only have I known." What does that mean? God knows everything.
"You only have I known." What here's something different. In John 10:26: "You do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them." The same known. "I know them." What kind of knowing? What are we talking about here? John 17:25 says, "O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name." This is the same known.
What kind of knowing are we talking about here? Why do we not get it wrong in all the other verses? Why do we just get it wrong in this one?
Because
We want the sovereignty of our salvation. We don't want God to have it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:30
Why on earth would we not want God to be sovereign in regards to our salvation? Why?
This is why Paul is beating into our brains, you are saved by faith, not by works, not that any man can boast.
It is a gift of God. How do we get it so wrong when we get to the first link of the golden chain of salvation?
Point 4To be known is an intimate love
We get it wrong. Let me give you a helpful analogy. Genesis 4, you don't need to turn to it, you can later. Genesis 4, and the original language says this: "Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore a son." Same knowing as in Romans 8. There, it's the same knowing.
Cain knew his wife. In the beautiful, veiled, euphemistic language of Scripture, that's a carnal knowledge, that's an intimate love relationship.
And the shocking thing for Mary when Gabriel showed up and told her she was going to have a baby was that she had never known Joseph.
She had never known him. This is the knowledge that we're talking about in Romans 8:29, sorry, 29.
This is the knowing we're talking about. We're talking about a knowledge of intimacy. Hosea 13:5 says, "I knew you in the wilderness." Same knowing. What do you mean? I set my love on you. I established a love relationship with you in the wilderness. This is seen in so many places in the New Testament. Here's another one: "Many will say to me, 'Lord, did we not do this, we did this, we did that, we did another?' And Jesus said, 'Depart from me, I never,'" what? Oh, he didn't know who that person was? We don't get it wrong here. We get it.
We get it. Why do we get it wrong in Romans 8:29? Why?
Of course he knew we were here. He knows who we are.
"I never had an intimate love relationship with you."
Pastor Shawn Gray · 54:29
That's what he's saying.
The kind of knowing that we're talking about in Romans 8. Let me show you a couple other verses and then I'm going to close because I'm out of time. Let me show you a couple other verses you might want to write down, because this question comes up a lot about foreknowledge and I'm trying to help you to be able to answer the question in your mind so you can speak to the minds of others and you can help. Listen to 1 Corinthians 8:3. It's very simple, it says it all: "But if anyone loves God, he is known by him." Somebody, if anyone loves God, he's known by him. Some of you just right there went, "Oh, so we have to love him first." Some of you instantaneously moved it to you being sovereign.
"If anyone loves God, he is known by him." Okay, so I'm saved if I love him? You just moved it to works. If anyone loves God, got it, that's it, put an asterisk by that. If anyone loves God, he's known by him. Let me ask you a question: why do we love him? Use Scripture.
Oh shoot. Oh shoot, no you didn't. Oh, so I just have to love him and then I'll be saved because he'll know me?
Okay, yeah, I agree with that, but just know that it started with God. It didn't start with you at justification when you prayed a prayer at the altar.
He is sovereign. If anyone, in other words, loves God, he's known by him, but God loved us first. He first loved us, which empowered us to love him back. When the Bible says that you are known by God, the Son says, "I know the Father and the Father knows me."
This is an intimate love. It's an intimate love. You remember Jesus asking someone, "Do you love me?"
This isn't a friendly kind of love. This is not an acquaintance kind of love. This is an intimate love that is shared by those who are in covenant with one another. This is not about him looking ahead to see what you're going to choose, because you see if you're going to choose to love him first, because you don't love him first, he loves you first.
It's an intimate love. Why is it foreknowledge? Because before that love could ever happen, before anyone was ever born, God ordained it to be so.
That's why it's foreknowledge, foreknowing him intimately. That's foreordination. That's established before it ever happens. Galatians 4:9, and I'm closing with this, speaks of salvation this way: "Now that you have come to know God, or rather" (I love this) "to be known by God." What does it mean to be saved? It means to be known by God. What does it mean to be known by God? That he knows you exist?
No. That he has information about you? No. That he has established a loving relationship with you, and he's chosen to do so before you even showed up on earth. And it's sovereign election even in Romans chapter 11, that really significant chapter on the whole issue of sovereign election. You're going to love that. At the very beginning of the chapter, verse 2, it says, "God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew."
God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. What does that mean? Whom he predestined to love.
It is not dependent on you, ladies and gentlemen. If it were dependent on you, none would be saved.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 59:20
We have hope in the midst of the greatest suffering. We have hope in the midst of the greatest suffering because we know that God is in control. We are a hopeless generation when the only thing we can trust in is us.
That's why it is so important in this day and time to move from a meology to a theology, because
We live in the most medicated, hopeless generation the world has ever
Pastor Shawn Gray · 59:59
known. You know why? Because the church can't even get the gospel right. That's why.
We have sown seeds of dissent, of bad theology, to a world. We have sown, as a church, tares in the midst of God's goodness, all in the name of God, and we should wake up and be aware that this is a problem.
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