Paul's Epistles, Part 2

That God has in store for each and every one of us. And so as we look at that, we see how powerful that is. How powerful that example is. And so he tells us that that's what we should be thinking about. He says we were saved in this hope. But hope that's not seen. Why does one still hope? For what he sees. But we hope for what we don't see. We eagerly wait for it with perseverance. That's our perspective. Because where are our minds set? Not on the physical world, but they're set on the Spirit. Our new citizens, our new way of thinking, our new way of living. That's what it's all about. In fact, it's kind of interesting here, the way that he discusses this very thing. As we look at these passages, he says then, where can we have the support and the encouragement we need? He says it's through God's Spirit. Likewise, the Spirit helps with our weaknesses. For we don't know what we should pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. You see, we're on a spiritual level. On a spiritual level. One of the things in this little section that sometimes people get a little sidetracked with is the fact that it says here in verse 26, the Spirit Himself, or back in verse 16, where it says the Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit. Well, what does that mean? That the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity? Oftentimes people will turn to these passages. They'll sometimes, maybe if you hold your place here, in the book of John, the Gospel of John, verse 14. We see something interesting here, the way that Christ refers to the Spirit. Verse 17. Well, verse 16. John 14, 16. I'll pray to the Father, He'll give you another helper, that He may abide with you forever. So the Spirit is also called a helper. Sometimes this is translated comforter. You'll also find the Spirit referred to as an advocate. I think the Apostle John referred to the Spirit as an advocate. And it says, So how do we deal with that when it seems that Christ refers to the Spirit as a Him? Does that mean that the Holy Spirit is a third person? That you've got God the Father? That's a Him. And you've got a Spirit? That's a Him. Why didn't He say something different? If it's not a person, or it's not another entity, if it's not another being? That's one of the challenges, I think, that we should really have a good grasp of when Christ Himself refers to the Spirit, and then it's translated the Helper Himself, or the Advocate Himself, or the Comforter Himself. Well, why in the world would they use that word? I mean, oftentimes we'll read it. New King James here in Romans 8 says, Oftentimes you'll hear the minister will read itself, even though my Bible says Himself. So is that fudging a little bit? Somebody might say, Ooh, why are you reading it that way? Isn't it right, or is it just a mistranslation? Or what is it?

Well, when we read those sections that we read where Christ referred to the Spirit as a Helper, or you read those sections about the Advocate or the Comforter, it's not a mistranslation.

It's technically correct to say the Spirit Himself. Now, before you think that I'm, you know, getting into heresy or anything like that, give me just a minute to think about this for a second. Why would it say the Spirit Himself? A couple of things to remember. Was the Bible written in English?

No. I mean, we're reading English, but we're reading a translation, aren't we? We're reading a translation, so that's very important to remember. This section of the Bible was written in Greek. Wasn't written in English. And New Testament Greek is very, very, very different than English. In English, when we use like a pronoun, like the word Himself, or Itself, or Herself, what do we refer to?

You know, if we were to say, you know, the lady went with her daughter, to the store. Well, the daughter is a Her, went with her daughter. What does that describe in English?

It's referring to a sexual classification. She's a female. And so when we use a pronoun, it means she's feminine. She's a girl, right? She's a lady. We refer to a He. It's a Him, right? It's a male. And we use that distinction in English.

But guess what?

In Greek, that is not the case. That is not the case. So for us, when we use grammar, the pronouns that we use most often, not always, but most often, will point us to what that person is, or who they are, if it's a girl or a boy. Or it's an it. The tree. It has beautiful green leaves. Still summer. How do you like that?

They're not turning yet, right? It's an it. It's not male or female. And so we use those pronouns, and we know what we mean when we use them. When we say, she went to the store, we know it was a lady. You know? We use those kinds of things. The boy is riding his bike. Well, it refers to the fact that it's his. It's a He. It's a male. But in Greek, that's not the case. So this is very important to remember.

Gender. We oftentimes think of gender in language.

And we often think of that as referring to being male or female. When we think of a gender. But that's not the case. Gender is a reference to grammar. Not your grandmother or your grandma, but grammar, like English grammar. G-R-A-M-M-A-R. Gender is a reference to grammar.

Sex is a reference to anatomy. Right? So when we use she, we know it's a girl. Or he is a boy. But in Greek, that is not the case. And anybody ever take Latin? Anybody ever take German? German's a good one. Or French? Other people take other languages? In German, here's a good example. Think about grammar. Don't think about it in terms of anatomy or sexual reference in that sense. We're talking about just the way the grammar is. In German, a girl is Das Mätchen.

Das is a neuter descriptor. Well, is the girl neuter? Is she an it? Well, of course not. But that's a function of grammar. In fact, they call an infant Der Sauerkent, which is a him, if we could translate. Well, is that the case? Or Die Sonne, the sun. But die is a feminine pronoun. Well, is the sun feminine? No, it's an it. Well, do Germans have that confused, then? When you say, Die Sonne, do they think of a girl's son?

Of course not. They know it's an it. They know that's the way their language functions. It's a function of grammar. So the Germans are not under the influence that they're assigning some sexual characteristics to a tree or der Löfel, the fork. It's not a male fork. I'm sorry. It's an it. Right? Let's see. The spoon is a female. Die Gobble. You can tell I took high school German. What's a knife? Messer. Das Messer. An it. Well, is a knife an it? A fork is a she and a spoon is a he? No. It's just a reference to grammar. I mean, if I said about my daughter in German, if I translated it directly from German, and I talked about my daughter, I could say technically, literally translated into English, I love it.

Not that I love her. I love it would be the actual literal translation from German. I love it. I'm glad I had it. My life wouldn't be the same without it. You're talking about your daughter? In English, that's really weird. But that's the way it is in German, because it's grammar. And that's the way it comes out in the Bible when it comes to these references to the Holy Spirit. So to technically say the Comforter himself is a correct translation if you just translate it very literally. In fact, the translators had a problem right here in Romans, in comparing it to those other translations when you talk about the Advocate or the Comforter or the Helper. The grammar in those cases all refer to him, himself, the Spirit. But here in Romans, guess what? The Spirit is actually an it. It's not a he or a she. And so the translators were kind of stuck because, well, there are these personal characteristics to the Spirit, because the Spirit comforts us. It's our Helper. It's our Encourager. It's more like a being. And so they brought that over from those other sections of Scripture and put himself here, even though it's totally incorrect. Every time Holy Spirit is mentioned, just even if you did it very literally, it would be it and itself. And so this is a total mistranslation here in Romans, but not a mistranslation where Christ said the Spirit himself, or the Comforter, he. Those are right translations. But the problem is they're still wrong, because we're translating it as English speakers rather than good Greeks. Any good Greek knows that a Comforter is an it, because they know how the language functions. It's a function of grammar. It's not referring to anything else. It's not referring to a he or a she. So even though the Comforter is a masculine word, where in German it would be dear Comforter, it's not saying it's male.

Does that make sense? Hopefully that makes sense. Some forms of periclitos, the Comforter, are feminine. In fact, there's a whole sect out there in one religion that believes the Holy Spirit. You've got the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can't be a hymn, because that would be discrimination. So you've got to get a girl in there somewhere, so they make the Holy Spirit a girl, because there's one reference to the periclitos as feminine in Greek. But that's the Greek language. It's language. It's a function of language and grammar. It's not a function that has anything to do with a reference to anatomy. And that is so important. So we always remember that. That it is it. Yes, my New King James is wrong when it says the Spirit Himself. If you want to literally translate it, even then it's wrong. Literally translate what we read over in John 14. Okay, technically it's correct, but it's still a wrong translation. Christ was not referring to the Spirit as a person, or an individual, or a male. He was referring to it as an it, because technically that's what it says. So hopefully that becomes clearer. That we don't have to be worried about. Well, why do we say it when it actually says Him? Well, hopefully that makes it a little bit clearer, you know, so that it makes sense. So if anyone ever asks you, well, why does it do that? Well, because in the Greek, it's a function of their grammar. It's the way their language works. And any student that took French, they would know that too. Any student that took German would understand that. And so hopefully that makes sense to us as well. The Spirit is not some sexual classification. That's not the way that it works. And so hopefully that makes sense. Semantically, it's an it, and that's just the way that it is. Okay? All right, well, let's go back there a little bit. Well, let's go back there. Let's see, where did we leave off? Oh, verse 26, I guess, is where we left off. Likewise, the Spirit also helps with our weaknesses. We don't know what we should pray as we ought. The Spirit itself is correct, makes intercession for us, which with groanings, which cannot be uttered. God's given us His Spirit as a down payment. It is a down payment to the Kingdom of God. It's the earnest. It's the fact that if I have the Spirit, I will be in the Kingdom of God if I don't deny His Spirit. And so as we look at this, we're looking at, yes, that is the case. In fact, it's kind of interesting the way that He puts this in this little section. I mean, because He says, notice verse 24 in the context here. And I think this is very important. Verse 24, Romans 8, 24.

What does it say? For we were saved in this hope, but hope that's not seen. Why does one still hope for what he sees? So if someone said to you, are you saved, brother?

What would you say?

Well, He says right here, we were saved.

So is that the case? Could I say, yeah, I'm saved. Would that be a fair answer? Because it does say, we, it's the past. We were saved. Maybe I should write this one down.

Let's see if I can erase this.

So this is referring to a past event, isn't it? So we'll write, alright, saved up here. I'll put past.

And what verse were we reading just now? Romans 8, 24, right? Romans 8, 24. We were saved. You know, there's another interesting section of Scripture that says the same thing. This is not just like one passage that says this, and it's the lone one. And so we can say, aye, he just says that once, so don't pay much attention to that. If you hold your place here, go back to Ephesians.

Go back forward. Go toward the back of your Bible to Ephesians. Ephesians 2, a couple of times he uses it here. Ephesians 2, verse 5. I'll write this down here.

In Ephesians 2, verse 5, he says, even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. And then he says, by grace, you have been saved. And so, once again, it's already done. We're saved.

Okay, well, how are we saved? What is he referring to? In fact, we read just a little bit farther. Look down at verse 8. I'll write this one down too. Ephesians 2, 8.

This one you probably know from memory. Verse 8, chapter 2. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. Not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Same words, same tense. Talking about something that happened in the past. In fact, there's a number of verses you could look at that point to this very thing. Paul wrote to Titus a similar kind of thing. He saved us through the washing of regeneration. It's a past thing. So, whether it says we're saved, you are saved. That looks back. So, if someone said, are you saved?

Well, what should I answer? Well, let's think about that for just a moment. Is this concept of being saved ever referred to differently than this? Than just being a past thing?

Glad you asked that question. Answer is, yes, it is. Because...

Notice I left a lot of room, so we have to have something else here, right?

How about something now?

Is there a sense of being saved? In fact, maybe I should put this... Well, press it. That's good enough. Now! You could put that on the title of that column if you wanted to. How about being saved now? Is that something that the Bible refers to? And the answer is, absolutely. If we turn a few pages over to 1 Corinthians, in the resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, we can read about that in 1 Corinthians 15. I'll just put it down.

Right at the very beginning of the chapter.

1 Corinthians 15, 1.

He says, This is not something that happened in the past. This is something that's happening now. In fact, this Greek word is a continuous action. It's in the continuous present, the Greek present tense. So it means it's happening right now. By which also you are saved. You hold fast to which I preach to you, unless you believe in vain. So you are saved. You are saved. What 1 Corinthians 15 says. In fact, if we turn over a couple pages, how about 2 Corinthians 2?

15. I gotta write that one down. I'm doing alright.

2 Corinthians 2, verse 15. He says, For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing. So once again, we see this is something that's happening right now. Those people are perishing because their way of life, they're living, they're thinking a way of life that produces death. And those who live that way of life are perishing. And yet, on the other hand, those who live a way of life in God's way are being saved.

So we see there's a past sense that have been. There's something going on right now as well. In fact, since I put three passages under past, maybe I better put three under present just to balance it out really well.

Let's see, where should we go? How about 1 Peter? 1 Peter chapter 3 is another one. And there's all kinds of different verses that show that this salvation, this being saved, is ongoing. It's something that's happening right now. 1 Peter 3, 21.

Now, I know we're kind of jumping in the middle of some thoughts here, but this is just to make the point about this concept of salvation and this idea of being saved and how he puts it here in 1 Peter 3, 21. It says, So here, once again, we have this present tense, something that's continuous action right now. This baptism saves us. So we are now saved. We're in that process right now. So as we look at this, we see there is a past sense. There's also a future sense as well. So we can put that down as our third column. Past, present, future. Sounds like a grammar lesson, doesn't it?

He was talking about the spirit itself, and the rest kind of puts us on the grammar list here. What about the future?

Does the Bible have passages that refer to being saved, to obtaining salvation in the future? And I know we're familiar with many of the passages. We probably name a whole bunch of them. I think of those that are in the book of Matthew. How about maybe we turn to the words of Christ for just a moment.

If you look at, how about Matthew 10, 22?

Matthew 10, 22.

Better write that one down.

Here, Christ Himself uses a word that's in the future tense in the Greek. He says, So now we're looking off into the future. The context makes it clear that there's an endurance to the end, and then this happens. So there's a future, some kind of action that's going to happen in the future. The saving then comes down the line. In fact, how many times does He say this? Here we're in chapter 10.

How about Matthew 24? We referred to this a little bit earlier. Matthew 24 verse 13 would certainly be one of those.

Matthew 24, 13. Here in the Olivet Prophecy, here Christ is predicting things to come about, He says, So once again, we've got this future aspect of saving, of salvation that's going to happen somewhere down the line. In fact, a few verses later, look at verse 22. I wrote 22 up there already. Matthew 24, 22.

So that's down the line. Something that's happening in the future. In fact, maybe I could put one more to take us back to the book of Romans. If we go to Romans chapter 5, this will get us close to home again.

Romans chapter 5, verse 9. Romans 5, 9.

He says, So that's a future tense as well.

So how do we answer that question then? Are you saved, brother?

Well, when we look at these things, why have we been saved in the past? How does that work?

What sense of saving has already taken place? Well, if we went under the water and had hands laid on us, our sin has been forgiven. Every time we go before God, that burden of guilt and sin is erased. God has forgiven us. No matter how awful or heinous our past sins have been, they are forgiven. We have been freed from our past sins, from the penalty of the past. So we have been saved from the penalty of all of those past sins, no matter how bad they are. Because if we had that weight, we would be crippled, striving to live a Christian life.

How could we be confident that God's going to give us the kingdom, give us eternal life if we had this huge weight hanging over us? But we have been saved from past sins. And so certainly that's a wonderful way to understand. Now, obviously we're not spirit beings yet, right? We're not spirit beings, so we're not in the kingdom yet. So the ultimate salvation hasn't taken place yet. But what has taken place is that we've been forgiven our past sins. And so we can understand God's love. We can understand His forgiveness. No matter how difficult those sins were, we are not going to be penalized for those past sins.

They are erased. Psalm 105 talks about removing them as far as east is from west. In fact, Psalm 51 even tells us we can be not only forgiven of our sins, but we can have the guilt removed. I love Psalm 51 because it reminds us of that as well.

Remember, David prayed, you know, take from me the guilt, the guilt that was involved, because of the murder that he committed. You know, the guilt of sin. So God removes not only the sin itself, but God promises to help us with the guilt and take that weight off of us as well. So we are saved from past sins. God is not going to penalize us for those things. Now, of course, in the present, you know, we are being saved.

That seems to be the overriding phrase that's used throughout the Bible. We are being saved. Reminds us, this is a process. Salvation is an ongoing thing. It's a process. So when I fall down, I can pray to God. I can seek Him and His forgiveness. He gives us the way to enable us to get back up when we fail. And He empowers us even more so that we can go forward in hope.

And so we are in that process. And we can move forward, because there's going to come that day that we'll never give in to sin again. You know, that day is coming. And we'll never have the sorrow or the pain for us or anyone else ever again. And so we are in that process right now. So we are being saved. And probably that's the most common way, I suppose, we think of it. But then we have such an awesome hope that we can't help but look into the future. You know, in the future, it will be ultimately complete.

The ultimate saving, 1 Corinthians 15, goes into that so much where it talks about the new bodies that we'll receive. We'll be given a spirit body. We will be spirit. And so we look forward to that in the future. In the future, we will be saved. And there will never be an opportunity to ever fail again. We will be spirit. And it will be an awesome time. And so once we commit our lives to God, we're saved from past sins.

And we're in the process of being saved. And ultimately, that saving takes place at the return of Christ. When Christ returns, if we're still here, we'll be lifted up in the air and meet Him in the clouds. Or we'll be resurrected to meet Him. And ultimately, that's the final, complete, thorough, unchangeable way that we will be saved. And it's probably only at that time, only at the resurrection, when we can finally, ultimately, absolutely, without a doubt, say we are saved in a final, complete sense.

So if someone says, hey, brother, are you saved?

I don't know what I'd say. I'd probably say, well, it depends what you mean.

Okay, I am saved from past sins, but I still got a ways to go. I'm in that process right now, but I am looking forward to the time that it will be a done deal and will be spirit in the kingdom of God. And so we don't have to be thrown off when someone says, yeah, but it says right here, I am already saved. Okay, yeah, but we're still in the process. Past sins forgiven, we're in the process right now, and we're looking forward to the ultimate conclusion. So we don't have to be concerned that, uh-oh, that's what it says. Look out. Now, it does make sense when you put it all together, doesn't it? The Word of God is so amazing and so complete in that way. I think it's really encouraging the way God, God doesn't leave anything, you know, up for grabs in that sense. He explains himself and makes it very clear. And I think, well, no wonder, was it Peter, I think, that talked about so great a salvation, so great a salvation, so great this wonderful plan. That God has called us to. It's just an amazing thing.

All right, so hopefully that helps clear that up, if anything came to mind on that, about being saved already.

It's also interesting, if we skip back just for a moment, back to verse 17, where he talks about, You were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart, that form of doctrine, that you were delivered. You used to be a slave. This is literally talking about a bond slave. We were owned, you might say, by sin. That was our owner. Our owner was sin. And in fact, in the Roman Empire, it was interesting, they would often put collars around their slaves that had little signs on it, that probably about that big sign around this collar that would say, something to the effect of, You will receive a reward if you return this runaway slave. They had to wear this, it was basically an iron ring around their neck, that they would wear. And so, this reference here to, yeah, that's what we were. We were once wrapped up and bound by sin. Sin was wrapped around our neck, and we were enslaved to it. We had to do whatever it said. It was contrary to God's way. And yet now, we can have that collar removed. Take that thing right off and throw it away. God be thanked that we obeyed from the heart, because we were delivered from that, set free from sin. One of the things that was interesting about Roman slavery, is it was very, it was unlike American slavery. You go back to the South and slavery in the South. If you were a slave in the South, there was never a hope. That you would get free, I mean, unless you ran away and got away with it. You were that master slave, and that was it. You're going to work that plantation, and that is your life, and that's all there is to it. You are his property, and that was it. Now, it wasn't like that in the Roman Empire.

You were their property, no doubt. They could kill you if you ran away. They had total possession of you. But there was always this little carrot that was dangled in front of the slaves' faces. I guess you could say, not literally. But there was always a possibility that a slave could become free. In the Roman Empire, it was possible for slaves to become free. If they did some great act for their family, for their owners, it could be possible that their owner would free them. If they did some great deed for the state, the city might recognize them as this great patron and give them their freedom.

There was always that possibility that was there before the slaves. They would work hard, and they would do their jobs with the idea that, oh, it just might happen, even though it would probably be as hard to win the lottery as to become free. Yet it could happen. It might be possible. It did happen to some. Even the Apostle Paul, it seems, someone in his family who probably either was a slave or just a regular Joe, an individual, did something great for the empire. It seems that history kind of shows that in Tarsus, where Paul was from, maybe his father or grandfather did something good for the Roman Empire, and they gave him Roman citizenship. And so that's how Paul then was a Roman, because of a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather, did something great for the empire, and they awarded him citizenship. So that's part of the thing where we see a connection here with our citizenship. You know, that we were slaves with the iron wrapped around our neck, but God gave us freedom. God took that away, and now we're not locked into sin anymore. We are not locked in. In fact, he says, verse 20, you were slaves to sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. You didn't have to do what was right. You didn't have anything to do with that. But verse 22, he says, now, having been set free from sin, you've become slaves of God. You've got a new master. You've got a new father now. You have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. And so here we find fantastic things that are mentioned. I'm sorry, I'm reading this in Romans 6. Romans 6, I forgot I turned there and didn't tell you that.

Well, oh, yeah, it was over there here when I was in chapter 5. Take a look at that. Verse 20, chapter 6, is where I was reading that from. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then, verse 22, having been set free from sin, you become slaves of God. This is that famous section where it says, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So Paul ties that back together when he brings in this concept of being slaves to God and not enslaved to sin. That's where, if we flip over to chapter 8, verse 13 comes back again. You put to death the deeds of the body.

We're not that way anymore. We are not debtors to the flesh. We are sons of God. And of course, then the ultimate, verse 26, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. It helps us in our weaknesses. When we rely on God and His Spirit, we get help. It doesn't do it for us, but it certainly helps us. He says, even in praying, we don't know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit makes intercession for us, makes intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered. You see, the Spirit gives us power to overcome our weaknesses. God's Spirit helps us in our relationship with God, no doubt about that, and so that we can live by that Spirit. Verse 27, He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And of course, it's through the Holy Spirit God has given us power. And so those are wonderful things. In fact, He even says here, this is all in connection with verse 28, we know all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. All of it works together, and it all works for good. And of course, you've got to love God, and you've got to have His calling. Those things are utmost importance. You've got to have His calling, and we've got to love God. Love God, and love His calling. And so what about that calling? He kind of ends this section with that whole concept. He says, For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So Christ the firstborn, but it also says, He predestined us, that's us, to be conformed to the image of his Son. Verse 30, Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called he also justified, whom he justified these he also glorified. So he kind of goes through the process of salvation that we were just talking about. We have a calling, and he's going to justify us. We're justified by the sacrifice of Christ. Ultimate, we'll have glory when we're in the kingdom. But how does that all work? You know, is that something that was decided from the very beginning, that I was predestined to this calling of God, that this had to happen? This was my destiny? Was there no choice involved in that? Or did God have it all predetermined?

I mean, there's some that say, Oh, it was all planned before, it's all done. It was finished, it was a done deal, you were going to do that. And that's the way it was. God had it all planned out.

Is that true? How are we predestined? Or what is predestination? What has been predetermined? You know, did God predetermined that I would be born?

Did He figure that out? You know, all the way back, maybe before the earth. Some say, well, yeah, everything was predestined. It was all sorted out before He even made the earth and made the first man. It was all going to happen, and here you are, because He knew it and He planned it. And that is, it was set right from the start. So was it all predetermined? And He knew that I'd be standing here today talking to you, and had it all planned out, that I'd tell my bad jokes, and you wouldn't laugh, and all that sort of thing.

Did He have that all figured out? Well, it does say, He predestined those, so there's some sense, verse 30 more will be, Whom He predestined. So there's something that's predetermined. If there's something that He sorted out ahead of time, you know, was it the existence of every single one of us, that that was what it was all about?

No. Can't be that. Why not?

Why didn't He have it figured out, or at least decide to know that I'd be standing here today doing this exact thing?

Why wouldn't that be the case? Why didn't God predetermine the existence of every single one of us?

How do we know that's not the case?

Well, we know one thing.

Do we have free choice?

Well, we know Deuteronomy says, Choose today! You know, we have a choice. God gave a choice. He gave a choice to the angels. He gives a choice to every single human being. So if it was predetermined that I would be here, would my parents have a choice?

Would my grandparents have a choice?

Or would God have had to manipulate every single event in order for me to be born?

Now, if that's true, you ever seen some of my relatives in the past? Oh, boy! I don't know about your past, relative. You ever do your genealogy? You go, Uh-oh, I've got a horse thief in my background, you know? Or worse! You see, what it would cause? It would cause God to be involved in sin in order for that to happen. He would have to take sinful people and force them to do certain things in order to create whatever event he wanted to be the ultimate result. And so, God couldn't have predetermined that. It would take away all the free choice that He says we have. He told Adam and Eve what to do, and they had a choice. He told the Israelites as they came into the Promised Land, choose for yourselves this day. You know, He said, choose life. He even told them, I love you! I want you to do the best. Choose the best. That's what's cool about God. He doesn't just say, well, here's good and bad, so good luck. Figure it out. No, He says, this is great! Choose life! This is what your choice should be. I know this would be the best way to go. This is what you should choose. But He doesn't force us to do that. And forcing us to do that would cause God to... We'd be robots, and He would have been manipulating our ancestors in order to bring us about. And so we know that's not the case. He didn't pre-determine the existence of every single one of us in that way. He didn't tell Abraham, oh yeah, you're going to have Abraham. And then after you, there'll be Isaac, and there'll be Jacob, and Jimmy, and Joe, and Susie, and figure them all... No, He didn't do that. He didn't do that. He talked about the sands of the sea. There's going to be a bunch of them. I know that's going to happen, but I'm not sorting all that out. That's people's choices to do what they will. We have free choice.

I don't think there's any doubt about that. So that still leaves a question, though.

What is predetermined? As it does say, He predetermined. He predestined. There's some sense of a predetermination of something. So what did God predetermined? Well, we get a little bit of an idea here to start with. It talks about, verse 30, He predestined these He also called, whom He called. He justified these He will glorify. So we could begin by recognizing the fact God was going to call human beings to salvation. I think that is something that was set in stone, that God predetermined He would call people. So we should probably write that down. That is probably the first thing here that we want to talk about in just a moment.

We'll try to wrap this up. Not too bad.

So He's going to call humans.

He's going to have a Savior. They're going to have an opportunity for eternal life. He would call human beings to salvation. In fact, part of that calling, it's not just that He's going to call some.

He's going to give everybody a chance. Everyone is going to have an opportunity. He had to make that decision ahead of time. We know that it says, Christ was crucified from the foundation of the world. I mean, God already had to decide, I'm going to call some people, and they're going to respond and be in my kingdom. There's going to be others. I'm going to wait, and they're going to have a chance later on. But most of them have to be brought back to life to have their opportunity. Not a second chance, but their opportunity. And so we begin to see He would call human beings. And maybe just to support that for just a second, go to 1 Peter 2.

1 Peter 2.

And verse 9.

1 Peter 2 verse 9 says, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God. We had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And so He established the fact, not only that He would call human beings, but I think we also see by what 1 Peter is telling us, there would be some that would be called now. And so we could put that down.

Not only the fact that He would do it, but that some would be called, I'll put, before Christ coming.

And probably second coming would be better. But before the return of Christ, people would be called. He would call and choose a few select people for salvation before Christ's return. So Matthew 22, Christ said, many are called, but few are chosen. And so He makes that point pretty clear then, that He would not only call human beings, but that there are some that would be called, we could say, right now, or had been called in the past as well. And so certainly this concept is throughout Scripture. That God would call and people would have that opportunity to come to salvation. So yes, that was part of the plan, we could say. It was predetermined. God and the Word at the time sat down and figured that out and said, this is what we're going to do. How about if we call human beings to be in our family? Yeah, let's do that. All right, how about if we do some before, you know, your second coming? Okay, yeah, let's do that. And let's give everyone a chance to understand the truth so that they would have an opportunity. And they agreed on all of those kinds of things. And so those are certainly aspects of what has been pre-decided. But there's also a couple of other aspects. Maybe we could think about just for a moment. Because there are a few people that it seems there was more to it. There was more to it than that.

Remember John the Baptist? John the Baptist, actually, it says something interesting about John over in Luke chapter 1. And we just want to notice this because you might say, well, wait a second. Seems like there were some of these people. What about those? There's something about in the womb I knew you, or I called you before. And that seems to be God fixed it and decided it, and it was all set. Isn't it? He didn't give them free choice, did he? Well, let's think about that for a second. I'm talking and not turning to Luke, so I'm going over to Luke.

Okay, the beginning of Luke.

All right, finally made it there. And Luke chapter 1 verse 13, here the angel says to John's father, to Zacharias, Your prayer is heard, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You shall call his name John. And of course, he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He won't drink wine or a strong drink. He'll be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he'll turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

Uh-oh, does that mean that was a done deal and God fixed it, and there was nothing, and he predetermined that whole thing?

Well, let's think about it, because there's a couple other ones, aren't there? Anybody else had that calling from the very start?

I'm thinking of Jeremiah. We go back to Jeremiah chapter 1.

We'll see a similar thing here. Jeremiah chapter 1, and it's almost in the same spot that one in Luke is, verse 14.

Let's see if I get this one right.

Yeah, maybe I've got the wrong scripture here.

Oh, yeah, it's 4. It's not 14. Verse 4, Jeremiah 1, For the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I adored and deigned you a prophet to the nations. So, before Jeremiah was born, it says that God already gave him a job. And so, was it a done deal before Jeremiah? He didn't get a choice. Is that the case? John didn't get a choice. Sorry. Is that true? Or how does that fit into their calling? How does that fit into what was predetermined? What was decided? We could look at a number of different individuals, similar types of things. Similar type of things said about Samuel. Remember, his mom, Hannah, prayed that she would have a son, and she did. And we could look at Jacob, same kind of thing with Jacob, or King Josiah, similar kinds of things. How about even pagan king? What about Cyrus? Cyrus has to make this decree to let the Jews go back to Jerusalem. And it talks about God knowing him before. Well, how does that fit into this concept of what's predetermined?

What was predetermined about these individuals? That's the question. Was every moment of their life predetermined? Well, it doesn't tell us that.

Well, what did it say about Jeremiah? What did it say about John? I think that becomes very important. What did God predetermined? Think about that for just a moment.

Well, he predetermined—I'm going to put it in the simple form—their job.

Didn't he predetermined their job? He said right here about Jeremiah, I ordained you a prophet to the nations. There are certain individuals in the Bible that God predetermined specific responsibilities. John was going to have specific responsibilities to prepare the way before Jesus Christ. Jeremiah has specific responsibilities to preach and prophesy to the nation, to warn them, Cyrus, to let the people go, specific responsibilities. Now, the question, though, is, we know not every single event in their life was predetermined. We know that's not the case. In fact, what would have happened if they chose not to do it?

Well, Christ said, I could raise up stones, you know, to do these things. Well, if Jeremiah said, I don't want to do that, would God say, no, you've got to, because I decided you're doing it.

How do we know there weren't others that he may have done this with? And they said, thanks, but no thanks. We know there's plenty of names in the New Testament that Paul talks about, individuals who turned against him that maybe had a calling, specific calling to do certain things, that turned their back on God, walked away. There are plenty of those examples. Could John the Baptist have said, no, not doing that? Would God have then forced him to, because he's already predetermined, you're doing this. If you're a parent, you know how good that works with your kids.

You could do that for a certain while, up to a certain age, and then after a while, don't do that. They could do what they want to do. And so I think what we see here is this predestination. What's predetermined was they were called to a specific duty, specific responsibility. Some, Jacob, to specific inheritances before he was even born. He was going to inherit these various things.

Now, did they have a choice? Yes, they still had a choice. But it's also interesting. None of those things, whether it's John the Baptist calling, what was predetermined for him, what was predetermined for Jeremiah, Samuel, none of those things that were chosen for them ahead of time had to do with their salvation.

None of them had to do with their jobs, their duties, their responsibilities. And I feel that they still could have said, no, I don't really want to do that. But they still had to choose to obey God. They still had to do what was right. So none of these things had to do with their salvation. So God didn't predetermine that, John the Baptist, you're going to be in the kingdom. He didn't decide that. John had to decide that during his life while he was fulfilling the role and the duties that God gave him. And so what we find then, I think when you really put it all together and go back to Romans for a moment, I think the critical statement on this whole concept, and there's other sections of Scripture, whether it's in Ephesians, talks about predestination as well. Verse 29, it says, "...whom he foreknew, he also predestined." What was the predestined part? "...to be conformed to the image of his son." I think that's a critical one.

God the Father of Jesus Christ sat down and said, anyone that's going to be in the kingdom is going to look like you, Christ.

You're not going to be in the kingdom if you don't have the image of the Son of God. It has been predetermined to be in the kingdom of God. We have to be conformed to the image of his son. We must be like him. And so it's not a guarantee for salvation. That is not the case. But if we're going to be there, we have to look like Christ. One of the passages that always strikes me is in John chapter 3, where John the Baptist, after preparing the way for Christ, gets thrown in jail, his disciples come to him and say, hey, these followers of Jesus are baptizing more than we baptize. You know, what about them? You know, John's response? He said, I must decrease, he must increase.

That's the way it's got to be. John's ministry was coming to an end. Christ was beginning. But more than that, in our calling, I got to get rid of Steve, and I got to look like Christ. I must decrease, he must increase. And so that's been predetermined. We're going to be in the kingdom. We have to look like Christ. And so it's not really a scary scenario here when it talks about this idea of predestination.

It's kind of another way that Paul uses it to show how we can exercise free choice in making decisions and ultimately make the best choice. And so I think that's so encouraging with what he writes here. In fact, he even says, what should we say, verse 31, to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? With God on our side, in other words, we will be conformed to the image of Christ. He says, He didn't spare His own Son, but delivered Him up as for us all. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Love that passage! God gives us the encouragement that He's with us, He's not giving us up. Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

In other words, God's not going to bring the charge. We know who brings the charges against us. Ephesians 4 talks about wickedness in high places. We know Satan's the one that casts fiery darts. Yeah, there's all kinds of those that would work against us, but God justifies. Verse 33, God just—who is He that condemns? Oh boy, all too many. All too many. But it's Christ who died and furthermore is risen, who is at the right hand of God, also makes intercession for us. And He concludes this whole section in such a wonderful, beautiful way. He says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? You ever get down and discouraged? Read Romans 8, 35 and on. It's just really fantastic. Tribulation? Nope. Distress. Persecution. Famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. Will those things separate us from the love of Christ? It says, No way. It says, For your sake we are all killed all day long. We are accounted for sheep for the slaughter. Yet, even though I'm accounted as sheep that's heading for the slaughterhouse, He says, We are still more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

God's not going to change—even after all the things that we just got done talking about that, I sin and I fall short of the way and I'm striving. Sometimes my mind is set on wrong things, on fleshly carnal things. Yet, when we have the Spirit of God, He's not going to condemn us. We're more than conquerors through Him. Verse 38, I'm persuaded neither death nor life, angels, principalities, or powers, things present or things to come, nor height nor depth nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing getting between us and God. Isn't that great? That's just a fantastic passage that reminds us how much God cares, how much He loves us, and how much He cares for us, and how much He wants the absolute best for us. He wants us there. He didn't call us to fail. He called us to success. He called us to succeed, be a part of His family, not just for a little time, but forever. So, this Romans 8 is a wonderful chapter.

All right, how are we doing? I went a little over time. Any comments or questions?

Concerns other than the heat?

Or should we just eat? Forget it. All right, I know it's been a long afternoon. Thanks for hanging in here all this time. I know it's been very hot. You guys did a great job. Thanks for hanging in there. Hopefully you found it helpful. We actually try to take it and maybe dissect it even a little bit more for the ABC students when they come in. But I have a tendency to get kind of excited about some of this stuff, so hopefully you can get excited about it as well. So, looking forward to our meal together and some time for some fellowship.