JULY 27, 2008  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen

The text for our meditation today is the Epistle of the Day, from Romans chapter 8:28-30. There we read these words:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Dear Christian friends:

Paul writes in verse 29: 'Those God foreknew, He also predestined' (Romans 8:29). When you hear words such as these, do not make the mistake of thinking that if God predestines some people to heaven, He must therefore also predestine others to hell.

Each and every time that the Word of God speaks of God predestining someone, it always talks about Christians. God's predestination applies only to those people, who like each of you, trusts in and believes in Jesus Christ as Savior.

God does not predestine anyone to hell. Man in his unbelief is quite capable of working that sort of predestination entirely on his own.

So, then the question is this; why do some people go to heaven? The answer? Because 'those God foreknew, He also predestined.' So then, why do others go to hell? 'Their destiny is destruction' (Philippians 3:19) because they chart that course for themselves. 'Blackest darkness has been reserved for them forever' (Jude 13) because they made the reservation-not because God in any way desires their death or destruction. In fact, we read in Ezekiel 33, 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked,' declares the Lord, 'but rather that they turn from their evil ways and live' (Ezekiel 33:11).

This scriptural truth-that God predestines only believers and never unbelievers -this scriptural good news will allow you to look upon today's Epistle and see it for what it truly is: it is the overflow and inundation of the Gospel; it is the most precious of promises, stacked thick and high; it is the joyous perspective that allows you to look rightly upon everything you face and endure during your earthly lives.

Here St. Paul not only calls you the ones God foreknew and the ones He predestined, but you are also the ones God has called, the ones He has justified through the blood of His Son, and even the ones He has already glorified, that is, raised up from among all others, out of death and into resurrection.

The particular focus of this Epistle-and our struggle for today-is upon God 's foreknowledge and upon your predestination as the children of God and siblings of Jesus. 'Those God foreknew, He also predestined' (Romans 8:29).

You see, dear friends, it is plain from the Scriptures that God knows all things. As the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, not a single sparrow falls to the ground without Your Father's knowledge and will; and even the hairs on your head are numbered (Matthew 10:29-30). Jesus' disciples likewise say of Him, 'Lord, you know all things' (John 21:17. cf. John 16:30). And when we speak of this kind of knowledge that God has, we realize that this includes knowledge of evil.

Your heavenly Father knows every plan that the devil devises against you, and He knows that many in this world hate the Church and seek its destruction. In fact, the Lord mercifully uses His foreknowledge of evil as a way of guarding and protecting you against it. Like an earthly father who his turns toddler-child away from a hot stove or an open staircase before the child gets hurt, God uses His foreknowledge of all things to protect you and to guard the salvation He has given you in Christ Jesus.

But today's epistle does not talk about God's general foreknowledge of both good and evil. It speaks, rather, of a specific foreknowledge-a foreknowledge that applies only to Christians. 'Those God foreknew, He also predestined' (Romans 8:29). There is a sense in which God does not know anybody but Christians. It is as if the unbelieving world has not only turned its back upon its Creator, but has also fallen out of God's memory.

Your Lord Jesus warns that He would say to the unbeliever on the Last Day, 'Depart from Me, for I never knew you' (Matthew 7:23). But to Christians your merciful and gracious God says, 'I know My sheep and My sheep know Me' (John 10:14); and again, 'I have called you by name, you are Mine' (Isaiah 43:1).

When we talk about God's knowledge in this way, we might even say that God is like a man living in a large city: He doesn't know everyone who lives in the city, but only those whom He has incorporated into His own circle of friends and family. All of the others are strangers to him.

Or again, you might compare God to 'a merchant looking for fine pearls' (Matthew 1345): He only knows and recognizes the pearls and He does not bother getting to know the sand or the shells or the other debris the pearls lay. He knows pearls!

This is the sort of foreknowledge that St. Paul speaks of in today's Epistle. It is very true that God knows who will hate His Christ and reject His promises. But St. Paul is not concerned with those people right here and now. Here He is concerned with the other people whom God knows, the people God concerns Himself with knowing: those people whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life (Revelation 21:26); those people whom God marked out for salvation before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). St. Paul is talking about you who are Christian when He says, 'Those whom God foreknew, He also predestined' (Romans 8:29).

This in itself shows the amazing depth of God's love for you. He crucified His Son for you-and with you directly in His mind-long before He created you in your mother's womb. He claimed an intimate knowledge of you before you even existed. He loved you-individually-even before He commanded light into being. This is an amazing God, and the mercy He expresses to the saints runs way deeper than the mind can comprehend!

But your God does not simply claim that He knew you a long time ago, as if He is your long-lost college buddy. Rather, He has put His foreknowledge of you to work for your salvation and preservation. 'For those whom God foreknew, He also predestined-He predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son' (Romans 8:29). Part of God's foreknowledge of you includes His knowledge of those things that you struggle through in your daily lives, be it money problems or family matters or health struggles. Your heavenly Father knows everything about you-including all of the ways in which you suffer.

And this is a good thing. God uses His loving foreknowledge of you to work all things together for your good. It is written in this Epistle, 'We know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose' (Romans 8:28).

And here is another amazing picture of your amazing God: Your heavenly Father loves you so much that He will not remove from you all of your earthly suffering! Rather, He uses these things for your good, so that He might conform you 'to the likeness of His Son' (Romans 8:29). It is as if God is a sculptor, and you are a block of stone. He uses the sorrows and the struggles of your daily life as if they were chisel and hammer, and with these tools He sculpts in you the likeness of His own Son.

He wants you to be like Jesus, because He loves Jesus and Jesus loves Him. He wants you to be exalted to the highest place, as was Jesus, and so He lovingly chips away at those things that prevent you from being like Jesus. He has predestined you 'to be conformed to the likeness of His Son' (Romans 8:29) and He uses you own existence to achieve that purpose.

The good thing about your predestination is that your goal is certain and assured. You may, indeed, find that your life is not all to comfortable all of the time, but that is really a secondary consideration as far as your Creator and Redeemer is concerned.

What concerns Him is your inclusion in the body of Christ.

What concerns Him is that image and likeness of His perfect Son, which He now creates in you through sufferings similar to His Son's sufferings.

What gives Him greatest joy is the destination for which you have now been set apart, for as St. Paul has said elsewhere, and this by the authority of Christ Jesus, 'we will be united with Him in His resurrection' (Romans 6:5).

And truly, Christ Is Risen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.