#38 HCBC 10-07-07 AM
The Lord’s Table Celebrates Security
5 Undeniable Affirmations
Romans 8:29-30
This week, I listened as a fellow Christian spoke about another struggling Christian!
It was not gossip, a Christian woman was seeking help for another believer!
The struggling Christian was a woman with many issues.
Caring for several children, without a husband
Financial hardship as she was underemployed
Health problems without medical insurance
Feeling disconnected from other believers
The person describing this woman said something profound!
She said this woman is living on a very valuable piece of land,
But she is living in squalor!
I thought, isn’t this a picture of the spiritual life of many Christians!
Living on a very valuable piece of land, but living in squalor!
We can be so overwhelmed, weighed down, snowed under, plagued, and beset by the
things going on in our lives and around us, that we don’t realize that we are living
on a very valuable piece of land!
If this spiritual problem is not dealt with in a biblical way, what will happen?
We will stop reading our Bible!
We will stop praying!
We will stop coming to church for worship!
We will stop fellowshipping with other Christians!
We will stop witnessing of the good news to unsaved people!
Every one of us, from time to time, forget that we live on a very valuable piece of land and
live in squalor!
Paul shared his struggle in Rom 7:14-25!
Then he said who will rescue me from this body of death!
In the struggle, he realized that he had been rescued and he now lives on a very valuable
piece of land!
Romans 8 is emphatic about the fact that we will never be removed from this very valuable
piece of land!
There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!
The law of the Spirit of life set us free from the law of sin and death!
Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us!
We suffer because of the fall,
We suffer as we mortify the flesh,
And we suffer because we follow Christ;
But we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have
been called according to his purpose!
In Romans 8:28, we saw that we can know:
God is working
God is working for good
God is working in all circumstances
God is working for those who love him
God is working for those he has called
By the time we finish this chapter, every one of us, if we are saved, should be completely
convinced that nothing will ever separate us from the love of God!
And part of that conviction will come from Rom 8:29-30!
Romans 8:29-30 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. 30 And
those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he
justified, he also glorified.
1- Foreknew: prognosko (verb) prognosis (noun)
Job 23:13-14 "But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he
pleases. 14 He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he
still has in store.
Ps 139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
Ps 139:2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
Ps 139:3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Ps 139:4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you
apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Acts 2:23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge;
Rom 11:2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew…
1 Pet 1:2 To God’s elect, strangers in the world… who have been chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father,…
The foreknowledge of God is that which He purposes to come to pass.
The whole order of events from the least detail to the greatest operates under the determining decree of God so as to take place according to His sovereign purpose.
2- Predestined (predestinated) = to mark off to ordain prooridzo
God has marked off the destiny of each saved person.
Predestination applies to Christians!
Acts 4:28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
1 Cor 2:7 No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that
God destined for our glory before time began.
3- Called
That choice on the part of God of an individual through an efficacious working in the mind and heart by the Holy Spirit, to the end that the will of the one who is called may be moved by its own vision and determination in the experience of saving faith.
1 Cor 1:9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is
faithful.
Gal 1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the
grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--
Gal 1:15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was
pleased
Eph 4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling
you have received.
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you
were called--
1 Th 2:12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls
you into his kingdom and glory.
2 Tim 1:9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have
done but because of his own purpose and grace…
Heb 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are
called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a
ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
1 Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people
belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of
darkness into his wonderful light.
2 Pet 1:10 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election
sure…
4- Justified: dikaiow to render innocent to pronounce righteous to justify
Being brought into a right standing before God made possible by the death of
Jesus Christ.
Lk 18:14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will
be exalted."
Rom 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the
law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Rom 3:24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus.
Rom 3:26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just
and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Rom 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the
law.
Rom 4:3 What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to
him as righteousness."
Rom 4:5 However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the
wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.
Rom 4:25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our
justification.
Rom 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rom 6:7 because anyone who has died has been freed(justified) from sin.
Gal 2:16-17 know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus
Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by
faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one
will be justified.
5- Glorified: to magnify, extol, praise doxadzo
To God as He is the only one to whom glory can be ascribed!
But, He says that we will be glorified!
Rom 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the
glory that will be revealed in us.
Eph 1:17-21
Glorification = Release from the flesh 2 Tim 4:6-8
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has
come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the
race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that
day--and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
Glorification = Actual occupation of heavenly citizenship
John 14:1-3 Jesus is preparing a place for us and will come to take us home!
There will be no more pain, or sorrow, or mourning!
Glorification = Possession of a transformed body
Php 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior
from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables
him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly
bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
1 Cor 15:42-44 (that sown in… 4 times)
That sown perishable will be raised imperishable
That sown in dishonor is raised in glory
That sown in weakness is raised in power
That sown a natural body is raised a spiritual body
The Lord’s Table Celebrates Security!
Can we celebrate in the midst of suffering?
…pain
…financial trouble
…loss of a job
…loss of a loved one
We are living on a very valuable piece of land!
And we do not have to live in squalor!
God is working in the circumstances of your life and mine to make us like Jesus Christ!
Are we trying to avoid His work?
Are we open to what He is doing?
What are the circumstances of your life?
In what way are you not yet like Jesus Christ?