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We have a statement regarding the sovereignty of God that is worthy of our study, and we

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have studied it now for two services, and tonight we conclude this little paragraph

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beginning in verse 28 that says, And we know that God causes all things to work together

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for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

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For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,

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that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

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And whom He predestined, these He also called, and whom He called, these He also justified,

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and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

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We are studying the theme of the certainty of God's purpose.

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God's purpose for us is guaranteed by five actions that He has taken on our behalf.

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And they are laid out for us here in verses 29 and 30.

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He foreknew, He predestined, He called, He justified, and He glorified.

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We've talked about the fact that God foreknew.

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It means more than just that God knew ahead of time certain facts were going to be so,

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but actually God caused those things to be so.

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There's a causal factor in the idea of God foreknowing.

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And then we talked about God predestining, God determining ahead of time a certain destiny

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for those that He has foreknown and chosen for Himself.

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And that destiny is that we might be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ.

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And we talked about the fact that God called us.

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That there is a general call extended to all men, but there is a specific effective call

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that is extended to those whom God has foreknown and predestined.

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Now the apostle does not include in these verbs the human element of faith.

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That's not his perspective at this point.

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It is earlier in the book of Romans, but here he's talking about salvation from God's

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perspective.

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What God has done that we might be saved.

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This however is the point at which human faith could be inserted in the list, because it

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is in response to the call of God that we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And when we believe on Him, He justifies us.

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Now that's the fourth verb in the list and we want to look at that.

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This is a legal term that means to declare one to be righteous.

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It means to acquit of a charge, to relieve of guilt, but it's even more than that.

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It means that in place of the guilt, which is taken away, there is given the positive

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attribute of righteousness.

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God declares the believer in Jesus Christ righteous.

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Not just free from sin, not just without blame, not just guiltless, but more than that.

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He declares us to be righteous in Jesus Christ.

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Justification has to have some legal basis.

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You see, God is not a God who can just excuse sin.

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God does never excuse sin.

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He forgives it, but He doesn't merely excuse it.

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It's not just that God overlooks it or that He puts it under the rug so He doesn't have

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to see it anymore.

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No, because God is a holy God, He has to deal with sin.

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So in order for Him to declare us righteous in His sight, He has to deal with our unrighteousness,

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our sin.

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There has to be some legal reason for God to justify us.

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And we find that back in the third chapter, if you would look back there with me.

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Paul is saying as he writes in chapter 3 that all are guilty before God.

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Verse 20 says, by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for

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through the law comes the knowledge of sin or the recognition of sin.

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The law exposes the sinfulness, the exceeding wickedness of our hearts.

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It does not save us, but it can expose our sin and bring us to the Savior.

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He goes on to say in verse 21, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has

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been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

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In the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe,

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verse 24, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ

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Jesus.

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And so here he's talking about justification, being something that's apart from the works

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of the law, apart from our own efforts.

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It's a gift from God.

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And then in verse 25, he gives us the legal basis for it.

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He says, regarding Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His

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blood through faith.

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In other words, at the cross, when the Lord Jesus Christ shed His precious blood, He propitiated

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God.

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That is, He satisfied God the Father.

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He satisfied the holiness of God.

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That offense of our sin was legally taken care of and dealt with at the cross.

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So because of the work of Jesus Christ being our propitiation, our satisfaction before

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God, He can now rightly, justly justify us.

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He can declare us righteous.

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It works this way.

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Our sin was imputed to Christ.

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It was reckoned to Christ there at the cross.

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God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.

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So our sin was given to Him.

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It was put to His account.

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And now when we trust in Him, His righteousness, His perfect righteousness, which was demonstrated

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by His life, by His keeping perfectly the law all the days that He lived on the earth,

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His perfect righteousness is now put to our account.

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It is given to us.

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So that God can justly say, I declare you righteous because of the righteousness of

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Jesus Christ that is given to us.

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Now we need to notice too that this justification is through faith.

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That's how it comes.

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In chapter 4 of Romans, He talks about that.

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He says, what shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found?

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He says, for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before

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God.

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Not even Abraham, whom the Jews consider to be righteous and who did many good works,

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not even Abraham was justified by his works.

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For what does the scripture say?

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Abraham believed God and it, that is his faith, was reckoned to him as righteousness.

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You see even Abraham was justified by faith.

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He believed the promise of God.

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He's quoting here from Genesis chapter 15.

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Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, it's not of grace, but

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it's what is due.

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But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith

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is reckoned as righteousness.

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Please understand that faith and repentance, the corresponding work, are not works on our

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part.

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It's not something we do to merit salvation, but repentance and faith are simply the means

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by which we appropriate the gift of God.

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We receive that gift as an act of faith.

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It is the instrument that makes it ours personally.

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It has nothing to do with our meriting it.

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Somebody says, yes, but won't God save a good man?

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Absolutely, God will save a good man, but would you name one?

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The Bible says there is none righteous, no not one.

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If there were such a thing, God would save him by his works.

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But there isn't one who can be saved by his works because we have all sinned and come

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short of the glory of God.

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Therefore we are left to no works of our own to impress God.

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We can only repent of those works, change our mind about them, realize that even those

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good works as we value them were just filthy rags as compared to God's perfect righteousness.

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We are left only to reach out and receive by faith the gift that God would give us when

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he justifies us.

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We need to understand too that this justification is settled forever.

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It is once and for all.

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For when we are justified by God, it establishes a new relationship between us and him.

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We are now in Christ.

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He talks about this in chapter 5.

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He says, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ.

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A brand new relationship between the believer and God.

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It is a relationship of peace.

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No longer hostility.

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No longer offense in us because of our sin.

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God is now at peace with us and we are at peace with him because we are in Christ.

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We are justified.

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He goes on to say a similar thing a little bit later here in verse 9.

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Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath

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of God through him.

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It is a wonderful truth that when God declares us righteous in his Son, that is a once and

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for all act.

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That from that point on our relationship with God forever changes.

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And just as much as our past is cared for, so is our future.

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And we shall never face the wrath of God.

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We shall be saved from the wrath of God through him, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

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That is justification.

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Somebody says, hey that's great but it sounds too good to be true.

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Usually we say when something sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true.

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But here is something that is so simple.

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And it is good and it is true.

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All we have to do is receive the gift of God.

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Have you done that my friend?

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You here on this Sunday night at Grace Church, have you received that gift from God?

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Or are you somehow trusting in those works?

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Somehow by the Ten Commandments or by those good things you have done, surely God is going

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to let you in.

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God is going to weigh you in the scales and you are going to be found acceptable to God

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by the things you have done.

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Oh please, never.

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Not even Abraham was justified by his works, but by believing the promise of God.

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God is waiting for your faith and he will reckon that as righteousness to your account.

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I spoke at a retreat Friday night and yesterday for another church in the area for the men.

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And the theme of the retreat was reaching out.

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And Friday night we had a campfire and some of the men were sharing their experiences

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of witnessing to neighbors and co-workers.

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Really exciting to hear what God is doing in that church and in the lives of some of

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those men.

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And one of the men said that he had shared the gospel with a friend of his and the person

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after listening to it over and over again said, but that is so simple.

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And this fellow from the church said, that is exactly right, you have got it, it is that

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simple.

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All you have to do is receive it as an act of faith.

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It is simple.

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Somebody says, hey but what about James?

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Doesn't he talk somewhere about being justified by our works?

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Well let's look back there just for a moment and let's see what James does say.

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In the second chapter, James chapter 2 verse 21, Martin Luther was so sure that James

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contradicted Paul that he threw out the book of James, didn't even believe that James

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should be in the Bible.

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That is right.

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But look what he says, verse 21, James 2, was not Abraham our father justified by works?

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When he offered up Isaac his son on the altar, how many of you agree with Martin Luther?

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You think the book of James I will be taken out?

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Well please remember that James has a little different perspective than Paul.

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James is here talking about not salvation, but the living out of a righteous life of

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the saved person.

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And James is saying that Abraham gave evidence and proof of his profession before God and

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men by his work.

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The justification was not his being declared righteous before God by his works, but it

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is his being justified of his profession of faith by what he did.

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He proved that he did believe God.

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His claim to faith, you see, was justified by his works.

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The works gave evidence of the fact that he was justified, declared righteous with God,

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by faith.

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James is not contradicting Paul at all.

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And in these following verses in chapter 2, the same is true.

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God justifies the believer in Jesus Christ.

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But we have to move ahead to the next verb and finish up this brief mini-series in Romans

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8 as we talk about the certainty of God's purpose.

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Up to this point, we have looked from our perspective of God's acts or his actions

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in the past that God foreknew before the foundation of the world, that was a long time ago, and

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God predestined and God called.

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Now we're getting a little closer to lifetime, aren't we?

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Because we experienced that.

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And God justified.

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And some of us can look back and we know the time when we believed on Christ and when we

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were justified and when God actually took that action.

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But now we're going to turn around and look the other direction into the future.

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Because we have not experienced this last verb.

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But notice that Paul does not say, and he will glorify those same people.

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He says, he glorified those that he justified.

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It's the same tense as before.

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This someone has said is the most daring verse in the Bible.

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It is absolutely breathtaking what Paul does here.

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Because he says that what God is going to do for us in the future in glorifying us is

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so sure to happen that God can speak of it from his perspective as though it already

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had.

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That's the point.

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What God is going to do in our experience, in our glorification, is so absolutely sure

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to happen that he says that just as much as he did all of these other things, he's going

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to do that in the future.

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Listen, God is not going to lose anybody in the process of all this.

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This is one of the great arguments for the security of the believer.

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You don't get lost in the midst of these verbs.

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Nobody loses out.

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The one whom God foreknew is the same one that God has from his perspective already

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glorified in Jesus Christ.

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What does this verb mean?

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Well, to be glorified means to be transformed.

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Transformed into the very likeness of Jesus Christ, but more than that.

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It means also to be raised up to share with him his reign.

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Now let that soak down into your brain for just a minute.

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It means not only will you one day reflect what Jesus Christ is like, body, soul, and

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spirit.

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It doesn't mean we'll become gods, but it means that in our likeness we will be like

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him.

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We will reflect his glory, but it's more than that.

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It means that God has also purposed that we will reign with Jesus Christ, that we will

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be seated with him on his throne of glory.

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To be glorified does not mean that we are beatified, as the Roman Catholic Church teaches

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about some people who can be worshiped because they are beatified.

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It doesn't mean that we're going to be deified.

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It doesn't mean that we're going to be beautified, although a lot of us could use some help there.

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But it means that one day we're going to be glorified.

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It is in the future, but it's spoken of as a fact, as though it has already happened

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because it is so sure that it will.

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The glorification that we will experience is part of our calling in Christ.

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I'd like you to turn with me to several texts, and we won't take time to comment much, but

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I just want you to see what I'm talking about.

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I look in 1 Thessalonians 2.

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Paul is here encouraging these believers and exhorting them as a father would his children.

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He says in 1 Thessalonians 2, I'm exhorting and encouraging and imploring you so that

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you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

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You see, the calling there to become one of Jesus Christ is linked together with the glory.

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Turn over to 2 Thessalonians 1.

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Verse 9, he points to those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel.

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He says, these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

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Lord and from the glory of his power.

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What an awesome verse that is.

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What a warning that verse is for every person who's not trusted Christ.

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He says this will happen when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day and

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to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

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For our testimony to you was believed.

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To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling

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and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power in order that

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the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace

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of our God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Notice the calling there again and the thought of glory being connected with it.

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Not just the glory of the Savior, but the glory that we will have in him.

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Then in chapter 2 verse 13, we should always give thanks to God for you brethren, beloved

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by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification

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by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

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Notice the balance there.

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God's work by the Holy Spirit and our part, faith in the truth.

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It was for this he called you through our gospel that you may gain the glory of our

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Lord Jesus Christ.

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Think of those words.

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You and I are called by God to inherit the glory of Christ.

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All that that entails we cannot possibly imagine.

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But we can know this, that nothing can possibly prevent this consummating event.

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It includes the resurrection of our bodies when the mortal about us will become immortal,

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when these lowly bodies will be made glorious like the body of Christ, when that which is

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temporal now will become eternal.

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But it's more than just the resurrection.

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It means that we move on and are destined to the throne of Christ.

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That God has purposed that those of us called out as believers one day inherit a position

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higher than that that was enjoyed by Adam in his creation.

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A position higher than that that the angels of God enjoy.

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A position that is above that which Lucifer knew before he fell into sin.

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To the very throne of Jesus himself.

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What this verb does is to underscore once more the security of the saints.

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For what we perceive here in these five verbs as successive steps, God purposes all of them

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simultaneously and they are by nature irrevocable.

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Once God has done this, it cannot be changed.

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It is his purpose and his eternal decree.

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So we can accurately say that heaven for the Christian is as sure as though we had already

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been there a thousand years.

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One day God is going to have a new heaven and new earth.

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All that he's going to do then he hasn't told us, but I can tell you this, that he

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has a redeemed people that he is going to populate that new heaven and new earth with.

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The glorified sons of Adam.

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Those who have been foreknown, those who have been predestined and called and justified.

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We will inherit that new heaven and new earth and we'll populate it.

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It is our inheritance in Christ.

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That's why verse 28 is so strong.

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He says that is the purpose of God that we've been called to.

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He says because of that we can know right now that God causes all things to work together

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for our good.

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We can trust the sovereignty of God.

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We can rest confidently that God is bigger than our circumstances.

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He's bigger than we are.

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We can rest in the sovereignty of God and we can live for the glory of God.

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I hope you noticed there as we read those verses in Thessalonians the emphasis was on

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walking worthy of our calling.

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Let us lift up our eyes tonight and see the glory that's coming beloved.

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Let us see that God is not yet finished with us but he has already decreed what we shall

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be and we shall be like Christ for we shall see him as he is.

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So right now where you're living today in anticipation of that glorious event be done

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with sin.

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That's why this comes in chapter 8 which obviously is after chapter 7 and after chapter 6.

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Be done with sin.

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No longer yield yourself to sin that still is in you to obey it.

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God has set you free from that.

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God has destined you for the throne of Jesus Christ to reign with him.

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Therefore, be done with sin.

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Don't mess around with it.

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Don't yield to it.

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Live on a higher plane.

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Don't cause the Holy Spirit who lives in you to be hindered and grieved by attitudes or actions that quench him in his holy sensitivity.

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Press on.

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Press on.

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And live now in this lifetime in the light of all that God's called you to be.

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Would you pray with me?

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Lord as we pass through the experiences of life we often feel like we've blown it and

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we feel like perhaps we're not quite complete yet.

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We know that in a certain sense that's true for we've not yet experienced the glory that

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we shall one day.

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But oh I pray that because of what you have purposed and because of the certainty of it

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we will live more and more in a worthy manner of our calling.

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Remind us tomorrow morning when we get up and we start the week at school or start the

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week at the office or in the factory as we begin the week of caring for children or whatever

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our routine is remind us that we have a heavenly calling and may we set our affection on things

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above and not on things on the earth.

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Lord Jesus we anticipate your coming.

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But until that day that we see you face to face help us to realize that we are complete

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in you positionally and that we lack nothing so that we might appropriate that and bring

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that into our daily lives.

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And we pray this in your matchless name.

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Amen.