Every Good and Perfect Gift

Would the Lord’s people please take their Bibles and turn once again to Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8. As we return to this study, flyover we’re calling it, of the book of Romans. Not as deep, not as lengthy as we typically do, but It’s still God’s Word and it’s still rich and nourishing. As we saw last week in our very brief overview of Romans chapter 8, Paul outlines God’s provision for the sinner. What the sinner most needs is not more law, Not more example, not more instruction, not more motivation. What the sinner needs most is divine assistance. We need God’s help. And in this chapter, Romans chapter 8, Paul discusses this very thing, divine assistance in the life of the Christian.

And the beautiful thing about this passage is that all three members of the deity are here present, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We find ourselves still in this third great section of Paul’s letter, that of sanctification. That’s the general scope of what Paul’s talking about, introduced back in chapter 6, verse 1. And his treatment of the subject of sanctification will course all the way down to the end of this chapter.

I’ve characterized this chapter, as I just said, divine assistance in the life of the Christian, and we’ve already considered the Christian’s life is established in Christ Jesus. Verses 1 through 11. And in the heart of this, the greatest chapter and the greatest treatise ever written, Paul tells us as well about the Christian life being sustained by the Spirit of God. And then finally here in verses 28 through 30, he will present before us, even if briefly, that the Christian’s life is ordained by the Heavenly Father. It’s established in Christ Jesus, sustained by the Holy Spirit, and ordained by the Heavenly Father. In these three short verses this morning, Paul turns his attention to address the divine assistance provided by God the Father. If you would, if you have your Bibles, if you would glance down at verse 28 of Romans chapter eight.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined, to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. and whom He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

God the Father pours out His gifts and blessings upon us. First of all, He gives us life itself, and He gives us humanity. other people, families, and friends. As Paul declared to the Athenians, God gives us life and breath and all things. He gives us his creation to enjoy the mountains, the skies, the sun, moon, and stars, and every manner of animal, plants, flowers, trees. He gives us food. He gives us everything that we eat and drink.

Psalm 65, I love Psalm 65. You visit the earth and cause it to overflow. You greatly enrich it. The stream of God is full of water. You prepare their grain for thus. You prepare the earth. You water its furrows abundantly. You settle its ridges. You soften it with showers. You bless its growth. God gives every gifts. In fact, the Lord’s brother James broadens it out infinitely, doesn’t he?

When he says, every good thing given and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights. God has given, he’s made provision for what we need most, forgiveness, He makes provision for our sin by giving to us His only Son as sacrifice and Savior. The Heavenly Father showers His creation with an infinite array of gifts, blessings, bounties, but there’s one blessing that we too seldomly acknowledge, divine providence. God’s sovereign direction over the course of the entire world, the course of our lives.

And so Paul desires here in 28 through 30 to tell of the glorious feature, pardon me, the glorious features, plural, of God’s providence, of which there are three. Three glorious features of divine providence, if you would, Track back to verse 8. Paul will unfold before us divine assistance rendered by the Father, a shower of blessings, and he gives us these three glorious features of God’s sovereign providence, first of which is the bounties of the Father’s gift. The bounties of the Father’s gifts. look at verse 28, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good. Paul initiates his discussion here of God’s good gifts by calling upon his reader’s knowledge.

We know, he says, there’s a subtle tie-in in this particular verse to the previous section. There in verses 26 and 27, Paul was talking, remember, about the Spirit’s intercession on our behalf. When we hit the wall and we no longer know how to pray, the Spirit intercedes on our behalf. So the natural connection here, when Paul uses that little word and, is that the Father is likewise quietly helping us.

God is ever at work on behalf of his children, and Paul treats this truth as common knowledge. We know, he says. This wasn’t just a conviction that Paul had developed in his knowledge, in his observation of God, in his reading of the Scriptures. He says, we, we know. including not only his readers there in the Church of Rome, but down even to us. We know. We can read and take in the promises of God’s Word. We know. We can look around us at God’s handiwork and creation. We know. We can draw from our own personal experience, looking back at how he has orchestrated the beautiful tapestry of our lives. We know. And what is it exactly that we know?

Paul says that we know that God causes all things to work together for good. It’s a beautiful sentence. It’s a wonderful thought. Most of us could quote this without even reading it. But there are some transitional issues, translational issues that we need to resolve. Literally, the verse says, we know that to the ones loving God, all works together for good.

The biggest issue in translating this passage is that The word God only occurs once, not twice, as some of our translations have it. In the Greek, it does not specifically attribute things working out to God himself. There are some very ancient manuscripts that have the word God occurring twice. God working out things and those who love God. But most trustworthy sources do not have God occurring twice in this passage. Some include the reference to God in brackets, or they call attention to it by way of a footnote.

As a result, some translations speak only of those who love God, and they omit the phrase about God being the one who is working things out. Translations that leave the idea of God out of the picture, and they just simply say, all things work together for good.

It ends up making it sound like as if our whole universe is automated, as if things are just working themselves out. In the original, the one word that leads to that two-word translation, work together, it has generated some translations that only feed this confusion about who’s doing this work.

All things contribute, as if the world and all the mechanisms of the world are cooperating and just happen to work together. Another translation had it, all things are conspiring harmoniously. Well, that’s a fascinating and beautiful thought. All things cooperate, but are things just really working themselves out as if by some cosmic force or chance? Did God just set creation in motion in order to watch it function on its own?

Of course not. I want to take a brief break and turn back, if you would, to Psalm 104. Psalm 104. We’ll be there for a few minutes and then back here to Romans 8. Did God just set creation in motion? Step back only to watch it unfold? Is creation itself working things out independent of the creator? Psalm 104 opens with a simple outline of telling us about the God of creation.

Look at verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a cloak, stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks upon the wings of the wind. He makes the winds his messenger, flaming fire his ministers.

It’s as if the psalmist here is just grabbing at human words, human ideas to express the grandness of God. The God of creation, that’s where the psalmist starts. And in the subsequent section, verses five through nine, the psalmist awes God’s creation. He’s already talked about the God of creation, now he wants to speak of the creation of God. Look at verse five, he established the earth upon its foundations so that it will not totter forever and ever.

You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters were standing above the mountains. At your rebuke, they fled. At the sound of your thunder, they hurried away. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place where you established for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over so that they will not return to cover the earth.”

Well, that is an awfully terrific thing that God has set in motion, hasn’t it? But the grandest portion of Psalm 104 by far, the most lengthy, is verses 10 through 30 where we see God’s preservation of his creation. We see the God of creation in the opening. We see the creation of God. And here we see God’s preservation, His sustenance of creation.

And the psalmist proceeds to tell us about its operation, how it works, how it functions. He talks about its perfection, that everything has its place and its purpose. And he talks about its fullness. Absolutely everything is under God’s loving care. The point is God did not merely just set creation in order. He sustains it every minute of the day. Divine providence is what works together for the good. But behind that divine providence is God himself.

Back, if you would, to Romans chapter 8. God is the one who is working all things together for good. Martin Lloyd-Jones, godly pastor of the preceding century, said it very well when he said, all things do not work together in and of themselves. There is no impersonal principle in working life.

It is God who acts everywhere. God has not only made everything, it is God who sustains everything. It is God who controls everything. The universe does not work automatically. And so God is here in this verse, even if the word God is not in the Greek.

These three verses, remember, are extolling the assistance rendered to believers by God the Father. God the Father is the one working together all things. Not only is God at work in his creation, working out the details and intricacies of our world, Paul pulls out all the stops and boldly declares that God’s sovereign oversight of his world touches all things, beginning with the difficulties that Paul addressed in the previous section. You know, in verses 26 and 27, Paul spoke of the sufferings and longing and futility and groaning and hope. God is working those out.

God is able to turn every heartache or trial into a positive good and a happy end. That it’s better than the previous option. It’s better that we went through those sufferings, those trials, those difficulties, those heartaches. It’s good because God himself ordained it. There are no boundaries to God’s blessings. All things are encompassed here in God’s bestowal of these good things.

When Paul says all things, he means unequivocally all things. down to the smallest contingency, every uncertainty, every disappointment, every twist, every little event that occurs is under the Father’s sovereign guidance. And you know, my great grandmother used to quote this verse all the time, in part. If somebody was having a bad day, calamity struck, if the dog bit, if the bee stung, you know, that kind of thing. She would exclaim in that sweet musical tone, all things work together for good. With all due respect to my great-grandmother, there’s only one problem.

It’s not true. Not for everyone. Paul isn’t encouraging us towards some kind of worldly optimism. All things work together for good. Statement is true, but it’s not true for everybody. There’s no inconsistency there. God does indeed work all things together for good, but not for every single person.

So the second glorious feature of God’s The blessing of divine providence is the recipients of the Father’s gifts, the boundaries of the Father’s gifts, and secondly, the recipients of the Father’s gift right there in the middle of verse 28. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. See, the Apostle Paul qualifies his claim with those two statements. God’s wonderful gifts are not for everyone. They’re only for those who love God, only for those who are called according to his purpose. Those are the limiting elements of God’s blessings.

This little clause, to those who love God, speaks of natural affection, like the love of a child toward a parent. It tells of the affection between a child of God toward his heavenly Father. In simple terms, this clause, to those who love God, actually occurs at the beginning of the sentence, not near the middle or the end of the verse as our translators tend to have it. That’s not insignificant. The placement of this portion at the outset of the passage puts it in the emphatic position. Love to God is named as the highest priority. The love of God is not a mere emotion. It’s not a feeling. There may be an emotional expression attending our love for someone. But emotion alone is not love.

In the first place, we must ever keep in mind that our love to God is responsive, isn’t it? We love God because he first loved us. In us, as believers in Jesus Christ, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us, Paul told us in Romans 5. We love because God loved us. It’s responsive. Now this caveat, the love of God, it should not catch us by surprise.

Love toward God, after all, is an overwhelmingly biblical idea from cover to cover. The concept of developing, cultivating, maintaining, and expressing the highest affection toward God is a sustained theme in scripture. This is one of the great commands of the Bible, what is known as the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 5. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. We’re commanded to love God.

There’s good reason to express our love to God. Psalm 116, 1. I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my supplications. I know where I can turn when life gets difficult. We may as we ought express our love to God. Psalm 18, 1. I love you, O Lord, my strength.

But the expression of our love to God is not just verbal. As his children, we exhibit our love for him by our obedience to him, Deuteronomy 11, by keeping his charge, his statutes, his ordinance, his commandments. And so we see What a caveat this is indeed to the promise that God causes all things to work together for the good, not for everyone, but to those who love God. As such, it is the highest and most exclusive standard of all. In our natural state, we do not love God. We’re in enmity with God. We’re at war with a holy God. And until we are saved, our sin is that which we love. We love everything but God in our natural condition.

And so when Paul says those who love God, he refers to only those in whom God has first produced that kind of love response. But there’s a second qualifier, a second caveat, Not only are God’s blessings poured out only upon those who love God, but secondly, only on those who are called according to his purpose.

This word called is used and may be found in two different senses. Called may be understood as an outward general call, like calling the children in for dinner, but it’s also used in the sense of an inward, that is, effectual call. Paul is referring here in verse 28 to the latter. He’s referring to God’s great work of salvation in the sinners’ lives, whereby he calls them out of sin and death and into life and righteousness. The called one is in this second sense, it refers to the individual who has answered the divine call to salvation.

This call is that which attends the hearing of the gospel and prompts the sinner’s response, repentance and faith. It is affected by the Holy Spirit. It will not be rejected by the hearer. It inevitably draws the sinner to repentance and to faith in Jesus Christ. The order of these two qualifiers is interesting because really the first one, love for God, is proof of the second one, our calling. I love the way the older confessions state it. Just listen.

Those whom God has predestined to life, He is pleased in His appointed time to effectually call by His Word and by His Spirit out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. Isn’t that beautiful? God is the one who is able to effectually call a sinner to life. How?

By enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God. Suddenly it’s what Calvin referred to as the spectacles of faith. They read the Word of God and they suddenly begin to understand. How? by taking away their heart of stone and giving to them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by his almighty power, determining to them that which is good and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ. That’s God’s work through the Holy Spirit.

This is a theological concept that is especially dear to Paul. He says of believers in Christ that they are called through the gospel. 2 Thessalonians 2 14. The gospel call goes out, Christ died for sinners, and there are some who respond. The called. We are called, Paul says, by the grace of Christ. We can’t come on our own. We can’t incline ourselves to God without God first exhibiting his grace on our behalf.

Galatians 1.6. When the Holy Spirit does this work, we are called into fellowship with God’s own Son, Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1.9. As such, it is a holy calling.

2 Timothy 1.9, a calling out of sin and shame to holiness. By our faith in Christ, we are called to hope.

Ephesians 1.18, we’re called to God’s own kingdom.

1 Thessalonians 2.12, we’re called to eternal life.

1 Timothy 6.12. We’re called. We heard the general invitation and we responded and now we are the called.

Paul essentially encompasses all of this when he speaks here of those who are called according to his, that is God’s, sovereign purpose. God’s purpose refers to his own sovereign plan. And we know, first of all, that God’s purpose is his own glory, ultimately. And given the context, God’s purpose is our redemption. God’s purpose is our salvation.

And so you see, as you back away from this, you see that it’s only a Christian who can truly acknowledge that God really is working out all things together for good. Only a believer is able to take God’s glory into view as being part of the equation of what is truly good. Only a follower of Christ can come to lovingly trust God with every facet of his or her life. Only a child of God can affirm God’s answers and guidance and providential turnings as good.

And in order to prove and expand upon his statement, Paul takes us in verses 29 and 30 into the deep and wonderful workings of the triune God. It’s important to remember that in verse 28, Paul is declaring God’s magnanimous blessings that God causes all things to work together for good. In 29 and 30, Paul gives us a string of magnificent examples. How is God working? Would God’s people just look down at verse 29 and 30, the examples of the father’s gift for whom he foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom he predestined, these he also called. And whom he called, these he also glorified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified.

Now I’ll tell you up front that the string of theological truths that Paul discusses here are among the deepest and most profound concepts in all of Scripture. these all pertain to the sovereign inner workings of the members of the Trinity in every person’s life. But Paul, under the sanction of the Holy Spirit, has been allowed to reveal these things to us. Now, May I just say, before we begin to look into these truths, that when I interact with someone regarding the doctrine of election, I will often ask this simple question.

With regard to your salvation, who moved first, you or God? And I will tell you that invariably, I don’t know that I’ve ever had an experience otherwise, invariably people reply, God. God moved first. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a single occasion where that wasn’t the answer.

Because the opposite, of course, would be so profoundly arrogant. That yes, as a matter of fact, I just woke up one morning and decided that one day God should have me on his team and I proceeded to convince God that this would actually be the best course for both of us to pursue. That’s just silly.

Can we even imagine such pride and arrogance? I would be so bold as to say that every reasonable person, that is everyone believes in salvation, knows that God moves first. Where the disagreement comes in is with the largeness of that first step that God takes. How big was it? You see, is it just a wink and a nod in our direction to kind of begin to move toward God? Is it akin to perhaps God leaving the door of heaven ajar so that all we have to do is nudge it open, sauntering into God’s presence? I don’t think so. And frankly, neither does the Apostle Paul, as he presents the reality of the matter here in these verses. The verses before us present what is known in theology as the Ordo Salutis. That’s Latin for the order of salvation.

How did it happen? How did I get here? These are the successive stages in the spiritual life of the Christian. And they answer that question, how big was the step that God took in my direction? Every portion of the way, all five of these steps presented here are things that God does. The implication here is that it’s one step, not a series of many steps. None of these elements could be omitted from a consideration of God’s step in our direction. When God steps in our direction, he affects these five things. If a person is foreknown, he or she will be predestined. And if she is called or justified, ultimately she will be glorified. These five terms are sometimes referred to as the golden or the unbreakable chain. You can’t have one without all the rest. And so how big is the step that God takes when he takes that first step in our direction? It’s massive. It’s infinite. It captures our salvation, these five terms, from beginning to end. In presenting these truths, Paul takes us from eternity past to eternity future.

With that said, there are certainly elements that are assumed They’re not mentioned in this list, but they have to be there, at least in the background. Important things like regeneration, repentance, faith, they’re all folded into that word called. Similarly, while Paul speaks of justification, he presumes the work of God by way of sanctification. We know that because he ultimately refers to Glorification. We’re not glorified, perfected when we get saved. That’s a process. It’s a process that’s not completed until heaven. Well, that’s Paul’s focus here. God’s incredible gift of salvation, God’s grand stride towards sinners.

Let’s consider each of these five features briefly. First term I want to look at is the term foreknowledge. The word itself, prognosco, only occurs a handful of times in the New Testament, and the usual way of misunderstanding this word is that it simply refers to God’s omniscience, seeing who it was that would believe in him, and okay, yeah, I’ll choose him. That’s just an absurd interpretation. That God knows who’s going to move in His direction, and so He first moves in their direction. God knows every person ever born in that simple sense.

He knows about us. Peter uses this same word to speak of Christ’s ministry. that he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but God didn’t wait for things to unfold with regard to Jesus’ ministry. Oh, he’s doing a really great job. I think I will endorse him. He ordained it.

So that this faulty expression, explanation rather, it really rests the act of salvation completely and forever out of God’s hands. And he puts the entire equation in the hands of sinners. That explanation of foreknowledge is faulty. Biblical foreknowledge refers to the act of taking knowledge of a person, taking a special interest in a person, setting one’s mind upon someone.

And in this case, God’s affection was determined. God’s sovereign delight was established. His love shone to particular individuals as the result, not because of anything in them, but purely because of His mercy. He foreknew them. Remember, all five of these terms refer to God’s effort in salvation, not ours. And we might even consider this foreknowledge as electing knowledge. It presents God in eternity past choosing, setting his love upon certain sinners.

And it isn’t because of anything good in you, because God had to reach into a cesspool of dead sinners to save some. Paul says it this way, in setting forth this same truth in Ephesians chapter one, verse four, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Likewise, in Paul’s final letter to 2 Timothy, he declares that our salvation is not according to our own works. You can’t earn your way into heaven. not according to works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. So the first aspect of this giant step in the direction of sinners is that he foreknew his children. And that leads logically to the second aspect that he predestined us. This word is as strong and clear as the previous.

It means to mark out and to define beforehand. For knowledge identifies those who are the objects of God’s saving love. Predestination affirms that those who are so identified by indicating that God is moving toward the application of his love. For ordination refers to the mental, the volitional element. Predestination refers to God’s outward movement to bring about their salvation. This is precisely how Paul uses this word in Ephesians 1.

He predestined us to adoption as sons. It wasn’t that we caught his eye. that there was something remarkable in us. It was only because of His mercy that God chose us. It’s the act of God being God. It’s the act of God exercising His sovereignty. God chose His angels. God chose individuals to service, Moses, Levites, David, kings, prophets, the apostles, all of which were expressions of God’s sovereignty. and God chooses sinners for salvation. That doesn’t make God unfair. The truly amazing thing is that God should save any of us.

And Paul concludes this stunning thought by pointing out that he predestined us to become conformed to the image of his son. That we might be made in time and by God’s transforming grace like Christ. What an amazing thought. That obviously doesn’t refer to some kind of family likeness, but to the core of our being, to our character, that we should be holy, that as Paul says it in Titus 2, that we should deny ungodliness and worldly desires, that we might join Christ in glory. We want to be like Him. This is Paul’s first hint of the unmentioned work of sanctification. That’s what’s taking place in the life of the believer. Little by little, they’re being conformed, transformed to the image of Christ.

That brings us to the third element in this incredible gift. The third element of God’s giant step in our direction follows immediately and logically after the first two, foreknowledge, predestination, calling. We dealt with this a moment ago. This is the Holy Spirit’s practical application of God’s foreknowledge and his predestination. Now it’s time. Now it’s time to put into effect God’s sovereign choice.

And as we’ve already considered in this powerful event in the life of the Christian, God is working. It’s a divine summons to which the sinner responds in faith In addition to the outward general call to salvation, which is made to everyone who hears the gospel, the Holy Spirit extends a special inward call that inevitably brings that sinner to repentance. By means of this special call, the Spirit irresistibly draws sinners to Christ. The Spirit graciously causes the sinner to cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly to Christ. God’s grace therefore is invincible.

It never fails to result in the salvation of those to whom it is extended. As I mentioned a moment ago, there are a number of elements. in the salvation of sinners that are not even mentioned here. There’s no mention of Christ’s atonement, although no sinner could possibly be saved without that. There’s no mention of regeneration. The Spirit mysteriously and miraculously brings about the spiritually dead sinner to life. There’s no mention of that. Neither is there any mention of either repentance or faith, two sides of the same coin in the sinner’s response to salvation. None of those things are specifically mentioned, and yet they’re all here. The call to salvation could not be effectual without those things, the atonement and regeneration, repentance and faith. And so Paul generalizes here by pointing to the entirety of those things under this one heading, the call.

Here God’s call becomes effective when for the first time the sinner recognizes the horridness of their sin and they’re brought to repentance. And in that same moment, not only do they see their sin for what it is, they behold Christ for who He is. They fall before Him in faith. This is the description of the effectual call in the sinner’s life.

And faith in Christ’s atoning work, Christ dying on the cross, is obviously assumed here. Because the fourth element in Paul’s declaration of this great stride that God takes towards sinners is justification. This justification, as we’ve seen again and again in this epistle, is God’s declaration, not guilty. The sinner is absolved of any and all guilt and penalty from sin because of his or her Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement on the cross. When the sinner sees Christ for who he is for the first time, a loving Savior who has already offered himself as a sacrifice for sin, when he or she puts their full trust in that sacrifice by faith, then and only then God pronounces them not guilty.

One Puritan pastor said it so well when he declared, such we are in the sight of God as the very son of God himself. It is our wisdom and our comfort. We care for no knowledge in the world but this, that man has sinned and God has suffered, that God has made himself the sin of man, and that men are made the righteousness of God.

In that instance, they are said to be justified, not just forgiven, but righteous before God. The sinner is bestowed Christ’s righteousness, the righteousness and not trickled down to them by degrees over time. God sees them now standing before him in Christ’s own perfect righteousness.

It’s one massive step, isn’t it? All of those things, It includes foreknowledge, his electing love, predestination of the sinner to salvation, his calling of such sinners to repentance and faith, whereby he justifies them, declaring them righteous before him. And as massive as those elements are in God’s step in our direction, if you will, his foot has not landed.

Paul adds a fifth element to complete his list of elements of the Father’s gift. The last one there at the end of verse 30 is glorification. As we noted moments ago, there’s another element that Paul assumes here, because between justification and glorification, there has to be sanctification. What happens in between is no other than the sanctification, the progressive, little-by-little advance in real righteousness that the sinner enjoys. One writer simply presented this equation. Justification plus sanctification equals glorification. Paul hinted at this sanctification in verse 29, that incremental conformity to Christ’s image.

This life, as long as we’re in these earthly vessels, would be one long continued period of spiritual progress in sanctification. And so it has to follow our justification and it has to precede glorification. One day we will bid farewell to our bodies and this world. We will be, as Paul calls it here, glorified. Incredible concept. And that too is God’s work. You don’t have to earn your way. You can’t possibly work your way towards glorification to where one day you present yourself to God as some kind of a surprise.

This is His perfecting of the redeemed sinner. It’s God’s end of our ultimate conformity to Christ. It’s the completion of our sanctification and its total transformation. One day our souls will be glorified, our hearts will be renewed, our minds will be purified, our tongues will be cleansed, our conscience will be cleared, and Paul, as Paul declared to the Colossians, we will be revealed with him that is Christ in glory. The apostle said the same thing with such hopefulness, that he, when he appears, we will be like him. because we will see him just as he is. So basically in these verses, Paul lays down an argument from the greater to the lesser. Listen to this.

If God has done all of these incredible things, he foreknew us, he predestined us, he called us, he justified us, he glorified us, or he will in time. If He has done all of those magnificent things, He will take care of the little things in our life, those trials, those difficulties, those heartaches. God causes all things to work together for good. Would you humble yourself before Him?

Our merciful King, Our years don’t deserve these incredible things, this explanation of God at work. Lord, we thank you and praise you that the Holy Spirit endorsed Paul to write about these things, to uncover them to us, to give us, as it were, the order of salvation, to lay before us the fact that God is sovereign and God is doing his work. Lord, we thank you for your work in our lives. And for every believer here, we know that you have done the work that enables us to be here this morning. Lord, our prayer is that if there are any here who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, that you would so work in their lives. Apply that work from eternity past to their life in the here and now and call them to repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That is our plea. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.