Will you please turn to the book of Romans? Romans chapter 8. We will read from verses 28 through 30.
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren:
and whom He foreordained, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Will you please turn to Galatians chapter 4? We will read the first seven verses.
But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant, though he is lord of all;
but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father.
So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world.
And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Dear Lord, indeed, we are gathered together here unto Thy name, the Name that is above every name. We pray and thank Thee because of Thy precious promise to us: where two or three are gathered together unto Thy name, Thou art in the midst.
Lord, we want Thee to speak to us this morning. May Thy will be done on earth. May Thy kingdom come. Amen.
Thank God for gathering us together here this morning. I am so glad to see you, dear brothers and sisters.
Before I came, I waited before the Lord and looked to Him to see what it is that He wants us to share together during this time. On Wednesday, it seemed that the Lord put one thing upon my heart.
The reason why I feel such an impression in my heart concerning this matter is because I feel very deeply that this is not just something small. I feel that this is something related to the eternal purpose of God.
We know that our God is the eternal God. Everything related to Him is eternal. There is nothing temporal, nothing passing, and it is of immense importance that we too should be related to Him with eternity in view.
God is eternal. Whatever He does, and everything that He does to us, is eternal in nature. If we are to be related to God in any way, it has to be eternal in nature.
If our life on this earth is not related to the eternal God, it has no value. When I think of this matter of sons and sonship, I feel that it is so essential to us believers because it is very much related to God’s eternal purpose.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, when God created, He had eternity in view. That is the reason why we find that He made man according to His image. Because He is eternal, He created man with eternity in view.
You remember Ecclesiastes 3:11. It says that God hath made everything beautiful in its time. He hath also set eternity in their heart.
When God created all things, they are beautiful in their time. You look at a flower, or even at a mountain, and you find that everything is beautiful in its time. But these things were created with time in view. A flower blossoms in its time, and after its time is finished, it fades away.
Even when you look at the world, when you see the mountains and the sea, they seem to continue on and on. Yet even these things are beautiful only in their time. Even the heaven and the earth will pass away.
But God created man according to His image, and because of this, He put eternity in man. Thank God, we are not created for time. This is God’s purpose for man.
Now, if we live for time, in the sight of God it is nothing. It is more than nothing; it is vanity, and it is out of the will of God. Unfortunately, brothers and sisters, most people live for time. Most people live for this temporal world.
Unfortunately, even Christians may forget that God has given us eternal life. We forget that we have this life in us, and we still live our natural life. We still seek after the world that is passing away.
If I may put it in another way, anything which is not in relation to God’s eternity is vanity. I wonder whether these words are too serious to you, but thank God, this is the truth.
We need to measure our life by the eternity of God. Every day that we live according to the eternal purpose of God has value. Anything that we do which is not in line with God’s eternal purpose does not count.
One day, when we stand before God, there will be a record. God will look to see how many days we really lived according to His good pleasure. Anything that is not in His will does not count.
So, brothers and sisters, to me, I feel this is something that we should seriously consider. Why must we who believe in the Lord Jesus grow? Why must we seek the Lord? Why must we grow into sons and into sonship?
It is because all these things are closely related. Do we live for time, or do we live for eternity? Do we live to please ourselves, or do we live for the will of God? That should ever be before us.
Now, with that in view, let us turn again to Romans chapter 8.
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose.
Now, that is true. Oftentimes we see that all things work together for bad, and that is why we become miserable. But the apostle Paul says, “We know.” Do we really know that all things work together for good?
Brothers and sisters, do you really believe that? Or do you think that the exception is the rule? What do you believe? Do you believe the Bible, or do you believe experience?
Now, what is good? That is another basic question. What you think is good may not be good. What the world considers good may not be good. What is really good?
You remember that a young man came to the Lord and asked, “What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” The Lord answered, “Why askest thou Me concerning that which is good? One there is who is good.”
God is good. Anything that is according to God’s will is good. Whatever you may think is good, if it is contrary to God’s purpose, that is not good. There is nothing good but God and His will.
All things work together for good. Whatever circumstance it may be, whatever person you have met, anything that happens to you—God is behind all these things. He makes all things work together for our real good.
God is almighty. He is well able to control everything and make everything work together for good. Do not look at the circumstances. Do not look at your environment. Do not look at what you consider good. God is love, and God is powerful. He is working everything for you—not as good as you think, but good in His thought, which is eternal.
But there is a condition: all things work together for good to those who love God. If you do not love God, you will not see that all things work together for good. On the contrary, when anything you think is bad happens, you begin to murmur against God.
But whose fault is that? Is it God’s fault or your fault? All things work together for good to those who love the Lord.
What do you mean by loving the Lord? It is more than just an emotional thing. Love is deeper than emotion. If you really love God, you love His will. That is real love.
The verse continues: “To those who are called according to His purpose.” Dear brothers and sisters, we do thank God that we have been called. He calls us with a holy calling, a heavenly calling, an upward calling.
But He calls us according to purpose. Even before the foundation of the world, God had purposed, and that purpose is according to His good pleasure.
Our God is a God of purpose. He is not like us. Sometimes we do things on the spur of the moment. We do not even think about them, and we say or do things by chance. But before God does anything, He has a purpose. That purpose is according to His good pleasure.
I often think that we think too little of God’s calling. We think of calling in a limited sense: “My calling is to be a teacher,” or “My calling is to be a housewife,” or “My calling is to be a professor.”
But actually, there is a calling that comes from God, and that calling includes all of us. It is according to God’s eternal purpose. Even before God created anything, even before God created us, He had already, according to His good will, made a purpose concerning what we are to be.
He created us with a purpose behind it. That is the reason why He created us in His image. With that calling, according to that purpose, He calls every one of us.
What is that calling according to purpose? It is explained in the following verse:
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We are all called according to God’s purpose. God has a purpose in each and every one of us, and that purpose is not specific to only one person. It is not merely to be a teacher, for not all are teachers. It covers every one of us.
The apostle Paul, through the revelation of God, tells us that God has predestinated us. Some people are very much afraid of predestination, or election. They think it is too arbitrary. But I thank God for predestination.
I think this is the greatest comfort that we can ever have. It is a great assurance. God does predestinate, but He does not predestinate us arbitrarily or without reason.
He predestinates us according to His foreknowledge. God knows the end before the beginning. He knows everything. Because He knows everything, based upon His foreknowledge, He can predestinate.
Oftentimes I use a simple illustration. Suppose you are a very observant person. You look out from your window and see a man walking back and forth by your house, looking here and there. You become very careful, and sure enough, he proves to be a thief.
Does your foreknowledge make that man a thief? Of course not. But you seem to have foreknowledge about him. You are not responsible for making him a thief; it is your wisdom to know that he will come and try to steal.
Think of God. He knows what will happen to you. He knows whether you will really believe in His beloved Son. He knows all the opportunities given to you and whether you will reject them. According to that foreknowledge, He predestinates.
Is that terrible, or is that wonderful? Before you were born, before you did anything, He already knew what you would do.
Before Rebekah gave birth to her two sons, before they had done anything good or bad, God spoke concerning them. God’s knowledge is complete.
You know, when I was a boy, my parents had seven children, and an American grandmother lived with us. She was a missionary. She came to China, and when my father was young, she led my father to the Lord.
After she retired, she refused to return to her own country and stayed with us. She loved my youngest brother. We would say to her, “You love my youngest brother more than any of us.”
She said, “I love every one of you. I love you all, but my youngest son is closest to me.” You know, God is like that. He loves us all just the same, but some are closer to Him.
Thank God, He loves every one of us. According to His foreknowledge, He has predestinated us. Predestination is the surety of our eternal salvation.
We often think predestination means that God predestined me to be saved and go to heaven, or that someone is predestined to go to hell. Our mind is so narrow. We think heaven and hell are the two greatest things.
But that is not God’s eternal purpose. His purpose is not merely that you go to heaven or that you go to hell. Predestination is so wonderful, so glorious. It has to be as glorious as He is glorious. Anything less than that is not fit for Him.
What are you predestinated for? Here we find the answer: He has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. Can there be anything more glorious?
He has called us. He has predestinated us that we may be conformed to the image of His only begotten Son. Have we ever dreamed about that?
We think, “As long as I do not go to hell but go to heaven, that is good enough.” But that is not good enough for God. He saves us to the uttermost, that we may really be in agreement with His own glory.
If you look into the heart of God, what do you see in God’s heart? You see only one Person: His beloved Son. God’s only begotten Son is the very expression of His heart.
His Son is the exact image of God Himself. We say, “Like father, like son.” You can say that concerning God. No man has ever seen God at any time. God is the greatest mystery in the whole universe.
But when God sent His beloved Son into this world, He declared Him. The Son could say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Do you want to know God? Just look at the Son.
The Son is the outshining of the glory of God and the exact expression of God’s substance. God put His Son as the image, and we are to be conformed to that image. This is God’s predestination. This is God’s calling.
What God has expected of us is so glorious, and how much we have let Him down. We ought to become like Him. By the grace of God, we are to take upon ourselves the character of Christ.
The verse says, “That He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” The word firstborn in Scripture has two different uses.
One is the common usage according to time. If in your family you have five children, the first one who is born is called the firstborn. That is according to time.
But in the Bible, firstborn has another use. It is not according to time; it is according to character. In this special use, firstborn means sovereignty and priority.
He has sovereignty over all, and He has priority—the preeminence—in all. That is the special scriptural use.
So when it says that He may be the firstborn among many brethren, it does not refer to time. In Colossians 1:15, He is called “the firstborn of all creation.” That does not mean that He is created.
He is the firstborn of all creation because all things were created in Him, through Him, and unto Him. That is sovereignty. The Bible teaches us the preeminence of Christ. Everything comes out of Him, and everything must be turned back to Him.
We are conformed to His image. Image in Scripture does not speak of appearance; Scripture speaks of character. When we begin to take up the character of Christ, Christ will be the firstborn among many brethren.
This is God’s eternal purpose concerning us. How can we be content with anything less? This is what God has called us to. This is His will for us.
Shall we not press on toward the goal? Shall we not learn to take up the character of Christ? It is not something external. It is the life of Christ growing within us—from children to young men, from young men to fathers—that Christ may be the firstborn among many brethren.
Now, how does He work? In verse 30, He says, “Whom He predestinated, them He also called.” How do you know that you have been predestinated? Because you have been called.
“And whom He called, them He also justified.” How do you know that you have been called? Because you have been justified.
We had come short of the glory of God. We could not stand before God. We had no standing; we were condemned. But thank God, because of the Son, He took our sins, and we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Now we can stand before God justified. For our offences He died; by His resurrection we are justified. Today, brothers and sisters, we can stand before God because we are clothed with Christ.
When God looks at us, He sees Christ. That is our standing. Thank God, we all have that standing. But oftentimes we stop there. We think that is good enough.
But God says, “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Anything less than glory will not satisfy God. We had come short of the glory of God, and now God will glorify us. He will bring us into glory.
Now, will you please turn to Hebrews? All who study Hebrews know that Hebrews chapter 1 speaks of the Son of God.
Hebrews 1:3 says:
Who being the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The Lord Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, is the effulgence—the outshining—of God’s glory. God is glory, and the outshining is our Lord Jesus. He is the expression of God’s substance, the exact image of God.
Not only did He create the world, but He upholds the world by the word of His power. He made purification of sins by Himself, and He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Here you find the glory of the Son of God.
Hebrews chapter 2 speaks of the glory of the Son of Man. There you find how He became a man, made a little lower than the angels because of the suffering of death, and now crowned with glory and honor.
If you read John chapter 17, you find that our Lord Jesus mentioned two different glories. First, He prayed:
And now, Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
He was going back. He came out from the glory that He shared with His Father before the world was. He left that glory and came to the earth to become a man, obedient to the Father even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Now He is going back to the glory that He shared with His Father.
Then, toward the end of His prayer, He said:
Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
Our Lord prayed that we may see the glory that the Father has given Him. He came upon this earth as the Son of God, and as the Son of Man He accomplished the work of redemption.
Now He has returned to God—not only as the Son of God returning to His former glory, but as the Son of Man entering into a glory that the Father has given Him. God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
That is the glory of the Son of Man. We shall share in that glory. “Whom He justified, them He also glorified.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, how can we be contented merely with being justified? How much we have come short of God’s glory. Yet God will glorify us. His beloved Son will share His glory with us.
We want to talk more about that later, because this is wonderful and glorious. How we need to worship Him for the glorious salvation that God has prepared for us.
Lord, before Thee we do see how small we are in comparison with Thy glorious plan for us. We are so easily satisfied and come short.
O Lord, may we never be satisfied with anything less than that which satisfies Thee. Amen.