Father, we confess before you that there are texts in your word that terrify us.
And we also confess before you, Father, that there are promises in your word that frighten us.
Because your promises, Father, seem to be too big and don't seem to have the qualifications that we're comfortable with.
So, Father, we confess before you that there are both promises and other texts which just frighten us.
That we want to edit or that we want to remove.
We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would still our mind and still our hearts and still our wills.
So that we might receive your word.
And we ask, Father, that your word would enter deep within us.
And by your grace, as your word enters deep into our lives,
may our lives bring forth much fruit that brings you glory.
And this we ask in Jesus' name, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, I've already given you a bit of a warning that in a couple of minutes I'm going to deal with,
I think, I can't remember who said this, but it's a text of terror.
Predestination. A text of terror.
And I can also say that I, in fact, we're going to look at a text of terror.
We're going to look at predestination two weeks in a row.
And I'm going to say more about it next week than this.
Because next week, in Romans 9, there's a real in-your-face text.
Where God gets right up and close and in our face.
It's the text, if those of you are familiar with the Bible,
What right does the clay have to say to the potter, what on earth are you doing with me?
Like, it's a really in-your-face text.
So we're going to look at it a little bit more next week, but we're going to look at it a bit today.
And just one other thing before we get into the text, Romans chapter 8.
I ask your prayers for me.
As you know, one of the ministries of our church is a ministry called Church on Wednesday.
And it's always good if you pray for that ministry.
Please pray for it every day if you can.
And I'm not just asking for your prayers because I speak two Wednesdays from now on the 24th.
I'm asking your special prayers because we'll be right in the university center,
the heart of the university, where people can wander by.
And I get to preach on wives, submit to your husbands.
And, of course, you know that's a very popular idea at the University of Ottawa campus.
They have faculties for it and everything.
No, you know I'm joking.
So it's my great honor to talk about that and slaves as well.
And it's really to Daniel's credit and Church on Wednesday's credit that when we,
they preach through books of the Bible and that means also dealing with harder texts.
And I will do that two Wednesdays from now.
So I ask your prayers for that, that God would be honored and glorified,
that I won't do anything to mess things up.
But I also, that I won't want, I'll just speak, try to make it clear what it is that the Bible is saying.
So let's look at this, this text of terror.
But before we get to the text of terror, about God foreknowing us, about him predestining us,
about him calling us, justifying us, and glorifying us,
we like the justifying bit and the glorifying bit.
The other three things causes a little bit of problems and we wish we could edit it out.
Many Christians do.
Before we get to that, the Bible talks about prayer.
And talks about prayer in a very, very, very, very, very helpful way.
Romans chapter 8, verses 26 to 27.
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
For we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Holy Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Now just sort of, we're going to just pause here for a second.
I don't know what you're like with prayer.
You know, at the 8 o'clock service, I thought to myself,
how would I sort of score my prayer life right now?
Maybe I'd give myself a C.
I don't know.
Maybe as soon as I say C, God is up there groaning and going,
oh, George, you're not even close to a C.
But here's the thing.
One thing I do know is that there's been times in my Christian life
when I want to pray that it seems as if I only have one of two brains in my head.
One brain is like a hummingbird that's been chugging Red Bull.
And my thoughts just flit constantly all over the place,
and I can't stay focused in my prayers at all.
My mind just races all over the place on everything except on what I should be praying about.
And then there's other times when I go to pray,
and it's as if my brain has been replaced with a bear's brain who's hibernating.
And I can't get past a few sentences of prayer before I'm going,
I'm just falling asleep.
We're going completely blank.
And I guess compared to those seasons of my life when my brain is like that,
I'm doing all right in my prayers.
But here's the thing about this particular text.
I don't know if you noticed what Paul said in this text.
It was something that really jumps out at you.
It's verse, look at 26 again.
Likewise, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness,
for we do not know what to pray for.
Just pause there for a second.
Paul says we.
He's including himself.
Now just think about this for a second.
Paul is going to end up dying a martyr's death rather than denying Jesus.
Paul is the person who brought the gospel to Europe.
Paul is a person who did, who was the very first person to speak about Jesus in a pagan empire all over the Mediterranean.
Paul is the guy that God chose to help write part of the Bible.
Paul.
Like, if there, and in 1 Corinthians he says he speaks in tongues more than anybody else,
and he wishes we could all speak in tongues as much as him.
And Paul says he doesn't know how to pray.
Now doesn't that take a little bit of a load off of you?
If you're having problems praying, like if Paul's having problems praying,
like is it any, you know, I don't want to put you down.
Yeah, come to Church of the Messiah.
George is going to put you down.
I don't want to put you down.
But it's a little, it takes a little bit of a load off of us to know that Paul had problems praying.
That he in fact describes himself with you and me,
that we do not know what to pray for as we ought.
Like that's actually helpful.
It takes a bit of a load off of our minds,
that we have to be these types of spiritual athletes,
or that we have to feel certain ways,
or we have to pump ourselves up with praise songs
to be able to be in the zone to pray,
or maybe you pump yourself up with Bach,
or I don't know what it is,
but whatever, you have to pump yourself up,
you have to screw up your willpower to be able to pray.
Anyway, Paul here says that we don't know how to pray.
And what is also so helpful here in the text
is that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
That God doesn't look down at you and me and says,
gosh, George is pathetic at prayer.
You'd think at his age,
and after all these years that he was ordained,
that he'd be a lot better at it, you know?
The Father's not saying that to the Son,
and just sort of despising me or despising you,
the Father knows that we can't pray very well.
And because the Father knows that we can't pray very well,
the Holy Spirit doesn't mock us in our weakness,
scorn us in our weakness,
abandon us in our weakness,
deride us in our weakness,
insult us in our weakness.
He helps us in our weakness.
And then,
we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Holy Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groanings
too deep for words.
Now, some people use this to refer to speaking in tongues.
There's other passages that speak about speaking in tongues,
but this isn't one of them.
It literally means wordless groanings.
So it's hard to get from wordless groanings
to speaking in tongues, actually.
Like, it's sort of the opposite.
But what it does mean in here
is the groaning too deep for words
is a way of trying to capture
that it isn't just that the Holy Spirit
is like some little,
you know, like the Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels,
and they just sort of, you know,
there's this mechanical thing
that just goes round and round and round,
and it's as if it's prayer.
Well, the Holy Spirit here
isn't like just a disinterested mechanical prayer wheel
that's just going,
praying for George, praying for George,
praying for George, praying for George.
It's not like that at all.
Well, the groanings, wordless groanings,
is an image of emotional connection,
that the Holy Spirit, in a sense,
is emotionally involved in our lives,
and that he's not only just helping us.
I once, when we used to own a church building,
I came out of the building,
and there was a street person.
It was a cold day,
almost as cold as this cold night,
and the street person had fallen in the garden.
He wasn't supposed to be there,
but he was lying on the ground,
and he couldn't move.
And so I did two things.
First, I ran in,
and I was able to find some old,
some blankets and stuff,
and I put the blankets on them,
and then I called 911,
and an ambulance came.
And I, it was sort of a bit hard to find,
so I was out in the street
so I could flag down the ambulance,
and I flagged down the ambulance when it came.
It's so funny.
The ambulance drivers said,
I said, I'm the one who called me.
They said, where is it?
And I said, here.
It's just down here,
and they're walking along,
and the guy's saying,
bleepity, bleepity, bleep,
not another bleepity, bleepity, bleep.
You can guess what bleepity, bleep means.
Street person.
I, bleepity, bleep,
hate picking up these bleepity, bleep street people.
This is what he's saying.
He says, I was hoping to go home to have dinner,
and now this is another hour out of my life
because, anyway,
he was giving me this big, long rant
for these 200 meters
as we're walking to where the street person is.
Now, fortunately,
as soon as he saw the street person,
him and his partner,
he was very kind.
But his heart wasn't very kind.
I knew what his heart was like.
His heart hated doing this,
but at least he was kind and professional with words
when he was with the street person.
So what the Bible's saying here
is that the Holy Spirit's not interceding for us like that.
He's not interceding for us in a mechanical way.
He's not interceding for us in a heartless way.
In a sense, he's emotionally connected
and involved in what we're going through.
So likewise, the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness,
for we do not know what to pray for as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
with groanings too deep for words.
And he, that's referring to God,
God, who searches hearts,
knows what is the mind of the Spirit.
And here it says,
because, or it can also be for,
for the Spirit intercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.
This is another great comfort.
We never have to worry in the Christian life
that God has these plans
and the Holy Spirit has these plans,
that God the Father is,
he's sort of really hard,
he's like a really mean and nasty God
that writes Ten Commandments
and has high standards,
and the Holy Spirit is warm and fuzzy,
and the Holy Spirit and the Father
have to have a bit of an argument
about what's going on.
No.
It's not like that at all.
The Father knows what's going on in our lives.
The Father knows the mind of the Spirit.
The Spirit's heart is for us and with us.
And the Holy Spirit is always interceding for us.
As you sit here right now,
and maybe some of you are sitting here right now,
your life is a horrible mess,
maybe you're feeling unbelievably depressed,
maybe you feel like you're all alone,
that nobody knows, nobody cares,
but the Holy Spirit, even now,
is interceding for you.
If you're in Jesus,
the Holy Spirit is interceding for you.
You never have to pray alone.
You're never praying alone.
And that's what the Bible is telling us here.
So here's the thing.
Andrew, if you could put up the first thing,
and what I've done this morning,
some of you who are used to coming here,
sometimes my points are in the forms of prayers.
And if you don't have time to write these down,
they'll be on the webpage once Shirley gets back from holidays.
They'll be on the webpage Tuesday or Wednesday.
And, you know, one of my roles is just to try to help myself to learn how to pray
and help you to learn how to pray.
And rather than just putting down an abstract type of point,
I've put it in the form of a prayer.
Heavenly Father, please grow in me a humble, trusting knowing
that I am weak,
but the Holy Spirit always intercedes for me.
Like, I want to encourage you to sometimes pray
in acknowledgement that you're weak.
I know that we don't like to show weakness to our friends
and maybe to our family.
One of the persistent hard parts in marriages for men
is that men don't like to share their weakness with their wives.
It's one of the things that makes wives wonder
whether their husbands trust them and love them
because they don't want to share that they're weak.
The wife can see that the husband's struggling with something,
and yet the husband won't share with his wife
what it is that he's struggling with and is overwhelming him.
It's often a cause of marital problems.
And sometimes we Christians feel that we have to just always come to the Father
with our strengths, but listen,
this text is reminding us that we need to know
that God knows we're crappy prayers.
You don't have to zip that out.
Oh, Andrew's not here.
Crappy.
It means sometimes we're crappy prayers.
And so this text is encouraging you and me to say,
Heavenly Father, please grow in me a humble, trusting,
knowing that I am weak,
but the Holy Spirit always intercedes for me.
Now, just before we get to this whole thing
about predestination and God foreknowing us,
we have this other text,
and it's very interesting that on one hand,
we don't like the doctrine of predestination,
but often this next verse is on posters and on cups and on fridge magnets.
And on one hand, lots of us love it because it makes us feel that we can do anything,
that we can accomplish anything.
It gives us this positive spirit and this positive attitude.
And for those of us who aren't as positively inclined in life,
we hate texts like this,
although you can never say that you hate a text in the Bible.
But what we do is we don't get fridge magnets like this.
And when we go to a house that has fridge magnets like this,
we sort of roll our eyes at fridge magnets like this
because we have more of a sense of the tragedy of life
and the weakness of life
and how things just often all seem to fall apart.
And so this same text encourages fridge magnets
and the same text in our culture
encourages lots of eye-rolling up to the ceiling.
And it's verse 28.
It goes like this.
Some of you optimist types didn't realize
that your fridge magnets are causing people to go,
oh, good grief.
At least not in public.
It's after they leave.
Oh, good grief.
Did you see all those fridge magnets?
Anyway.
It's fine for optimists to find that out
about some other Christians, right?
Anyway, here's verse 28
without eye-rolling or overly being optimistic
like you're the top 1% sales agent in the world for real estate.
And we know, verse 28,
and we know that for those who love God,
all things work together for good
for those who are called according to his purpose.
It's a great verse to memorize.
The big problem with this verse
is that usually we just want to memorize this verse
and we never read verses 29 and 30.
And part of the reason we don't read verses 29 and 30
is because we don't like this whole idea of God
foreknowing and predestining things.
But actually, verse 28 only makes sense
if you read verse 29 and 30.
We're just going to look at verse 29 right now
and it can be seen because the word for is there in verse 29.
In other words, 28 assumes you're going to keep reading
at least to verse 29 if not verse 30.
So let's look at verses 28 through 29
when you read them all together.
And we know that for those who love God,
all things work together for good
for those who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom he foreknew,
he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his son
in order that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers and sisters.
Ah.
So when you look at that text with verses 29 and 30,
you'll see that all things work together for good
for those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus.
It's not saying that all things work together
for good for everybody.
Like, it couldn't just be a business logo.
Business logo.
And that's a bit of a frightening thought for some of you,
for all of us, I guess, to a certain extent.
I'm not going to say that much about it
other than to just lay it there.
It's not a statement that the world
is unfolding the way it should
and that everybody is going to just have
everything work out for them.
It's referring to those who are in Jesus.
And it's saying that God is making you
to be like Jesus.
And that as God is making you to be like Jesus,
all things work together for good.
Bible is not talking about your circumstances.
You can't take this text to take it to mean
that, you know, guys who are single,
that God's going to give you a trophy wife
with trophy kids
and a job that gets you seven figures.
And I'm not counting the pennies.
I'm just the dollars.
And that the senators are going to win the Stanley Cup
and all sorts of other things
are just going to work out the way that they should.
It's not talking that God is going to
make circumstances work in your life
in such a way that in the eyes of the world,
everything about you is a great success.
That's not what the text is talking about at all.
Now, the Bible here isn't forbidding you
to pray about your circumstances.
There's lots of texts, not this one,
but there's lots of texts to tell you
that you should pray about your circumstances.
The Bible is not telling you
not to pray about your circumstances.
But what the Bible here is talking about
is that for those who are in Christ Jesus,
the things that are going on in your life
are under God's sovereign control
and God is using the things in your life
to make you more like Jesus.
That can include tragedy.
In fact, it will include tragedy.
And it will include times of brokenness.
It might involve being unemployed.
It might involve having a really hard time
with your kids or your family.
And it's not telling you
that all of your circumstances,
it's not telling you to have rose-colored glasses.
But it's actually a profoundly hopeful text.
You know, there's that serenity prayer
that really comes out of this.
I'm going to probably get it mixed up
because I should have written it down.
But, you know,
Lord, grant me the courage to deal,
to change the things in my life I need to change
and the serenity to accept the things
which I cannot change
and the wisdom to know the difference.
And that's really fitting in with this text.
But everything that's going on in your life,
God is using in a good way
to make you more like Jesus.
And sometimes we need to just look at the circumstances
in our life and say,
well, Father, are you humbling me?
About some way are you teaching me patience?
But we know that whatever it is,
that it is infallibly,
in an unbroken way,
not by George's word,
but by the Bible's word,
in an unbroken way,
it is making you more like Jesus
and it will culminate in you being like Jesus.
I'm not saying that on my authority.
I have no authority.
I'm saying that's what the text...
Listen to the text again.
And we know that for those who love God,
all things work together for good
for those who are called according to his purpose,
for those whom God foreknew,
God also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his Son,
conformed to the image and likeness of his Son
in order that he, that's Jesus,
might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
If you could put up the next point, Andrew.
Once again, I put it in the form of a prayer.
Heavenly Father, please grow in me
a humble, trusting knowing
that you work all things together for good
as you make me like Jesus.
Heavenly Father, please grow in me
a humble, trusting knowing
that you work all things together for good
as you make me like Jesus.
That's what this text is inviting us to pray.
It's a very, very, very profoundly important text
as we're dealing with failure,
as we're dealing with success,
as we're dealing with ambition working out,
as we're dealing with our ambitions not working out,
as we're getting stronger and stronger,
and for those of us who are older,
as we get weaker and weaker.
It is a prayer for all of our life.
And it's very funny.
We like this thing,
but on the other hand,
it also implies that God is sovereign
over something like predestining
and actually working in a sovereign way.
But then when it actually talks about things
like predestination,
we get very, very worried.
Let's look at verses 28 to 30,
and we're really just sort of going to camp
for a moment here in this whole text of terror
for many Christians of predestination.
Let's look at 28 to 30.
And we know that for those who love God,
all things work together for good
for those who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom God foreknew,
he also predestined to be conformed
to the image of his son
in order that he might be firstborn
among many brothers and sisters.
And those whom God predestined,
he also called.
And those whom he called,
he also justified.
And those whom he justified,
he also glorified.
Amen.
Sorry.
Probably doesn't bring out an amen
in a lot of Canadian congregations.
Well, hopefully we'll change that.
It's a terror text.
So today we're going to just talk
a little bit about this text tomorrow,
next week.
God, you can pray for me
when we look at Romans 9, 1 to 29.
We'll talk more about it
sort of in a more general philosophical
and theological way.
But what we need to understand here
is this text is working
in a particular context.
And the word of God
is always addressing our heart,
the reality of our heart
in the context of the living God.
And the reality is
that our hearts love to boast.
And that even when we seem
to be most Christian,
we're often boasting.
I was at a gathering
a couple of years ago
where a man gave a testimony
as part of the sermon.
And part of it was
he talked about the fact
that he had sex
with a girl when he was 12.
And then he went on
to talk about
the huge number of women
that he'd had sex with.
He was boasting.
He was boasting to us all.
He was trying to have it both ways.
He was very pious.
A very pious expression on his face.
But he was actually boasting
both of that he,
in our culture,
the sinfulness was actually,
he was boasting about it.
And then, of course,
he was boasting about
how great God's grace was
in his life.
And many testimonies
are actually a form of boasting
in evangelical contexts.
And human beings
love to boast.
And human beings
hate feeling helpless.
So here's the thing.
Before we look at this text,
I'll just put them up
very briefly.
Andrew, could you put up
the next point?
Here's the first thing
for us to remember
when we look at this text.
Okay?
In the presence of the living God,
all boasting ceases.
In the presence of the living God,
all boasting ceases.
If you're thinking,
gosh, I can't wait
till I get to heaven
till I can tell God
about this great successful
pro-life ministry I've had
or my, you know,
I don't know.
You know, if Bill Hybels
is thinking,
I can't wait to tell God
about getting the 30,000
a Sunday at my church.
Like, if we think that at all,
we just have to remember
that in the presence
of the living God,
all boasting ceases.
And the other thing
is that in this context,
because the thing
that we worry about
when we boast
is if we can't boast
that we're feeling helpless,
the thing that we worry about
is, you know,
that if we can't boast
that we're going to be helpless.
That leads us to the next point,
if you could put it up, Andrew.
I am helpless,
but God is the helper
of the helpless.
If I just said I am helpless
and said, okay,
now let's go and move on
to communion,
that wouldn't be very helpful
to anybody,
and it wouldn't be
what the Bible is telling us.
But the Bible wants us
to understand
that in God's presence,
in the presence
of the living God,
there will be no boasting
whatsoever.
I mean, the person
who's in heaven
because they died
in the womb
through abortion,
the person who was born
profoundly mentally handicapped,
and the person
who won gold medals
in the Olympics,
and by their work
and their energy
was able to make
billions of dollars,
all of them
will be completely equal
before God.
None of them
will be able to boast.
None of us will boast.
And God wants us
to understand
that we are helpless,
that there is a helper.
In fact,
see, what often goes on
in churches,
and here's something
that we Anglicans
can be very guilty of.
I could introduce myself
as I'm the Reverend Cannon,
George Sinclair,
rector of Church of the Messiah,
principal of Ryle College,
regular speaker
at Parliament Hill
Christian Fellowship,
speaker on CFRA radio,
chair of being
biblically faithful
in my denomination,
original chair.
I could go on
and on and on, okay?
And that's often
how people like
to get introduced,
especially if you go
to some Anglican gatherings.
It's not just, you know,
George and Fred
and Sarah and Alice.
It's the Reverend Cannon,
George Sinclair.
Too bad I don't have
a doctorate,
then I could be
the Reverend Cannon
Dr. George Sinclair.
Not putting down
people with doctorates,
not at all.
But what we should really do,
what this Bible text
is saying is that really
every church service
should be like
an AA meeting.
In an AA meeting,
if you're a multimillionaire
and you go to the AA meeting,
you don't say,
hi, I'm George,
I'm a multimillionaire.
What do you say?
Hi, I'm George,
I'm an alcoholic.
And really,
in church,
we should introduce ourselves
by saying,
hi, I'm George,
I'm helpless.
I'm George,
I'm helpless.
And then Daniel would say,
hi, I'm Daniel,
I'm helpless.
And Anne would say,
hi, I'm Anne,
I'm helpless.
Because you see,
what we want to do
is we want to try
to make it look
as if at some point in time
we are in fact
not helpless,
but we are responsible
for making ourselves
right with God.
Andrew, could you put up
the Romans 1 text?
Those of you who are guests
might not know this,
but every week
that we've talked,
we're going through
the book of Romans
and every week
we read this text.
Because the way
the book of Romans
was written
was that there's
the first,
like a greeting type
of thing
in the first few verses
and then Paul says,
I'm going to do this,
I hope to see you soon.
You know,
and then he says
verses 16 and 17
and it's like an explanation,
a precie of everything
that's going to go on
in the book of Romans,
summarized right at the beginning
and then he basically,
the rest of Romans
is just unpacking this.
So could you read
Romans 1 with me out loud?
For I am not ashamed
of the gospel,
for it is the power of God
for salvation
to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
For in the gospel,
the righteousness of God
is revealed from faith
to faith
as it is written,
the righteous
shall live by faith.
That's what the whole book
is about.
And notice up there
it says,
for I am not ashamed
of the gospel.
And one of the reasons
you're not ashamed
of the gospel
because the gospel
is going to try
to make people realize
that they're helpless.
And God's word
is going to regularly
try to humble you
and me
to make us understand
that we're helpless.
It is the power of God
for salvation
to everyone who believes.
For in the gospel,
the righteousness of God
is revealed.
And what the righteousness
of God means
is that not only
is God going to act
in a way that
at the end of the day
when everybody looks
and sees everything
that God has done
to make human beings
right with himself,
there'll be no one
who can't say
that God did the right thing.
He acted in a way
that was right.
And God acted in a way
that was right.
He did what was right
to make human beings
right with him.
He does it all
with nothing left over.
Nothing of ours.
It's God's power,
not God's power
plus George's power.
Not God's power
plus the Anglican Church's power
or the Roman Catholic Church's power
or the Pentecostal Church's power.
It's not God's power
plus somebody else.
It's the power of God
for salvation.
And he will act
in a way that is right
to make us right with him.
He does it all.
That we will have
no cause for boasting.
And what is it that we do?
How is it the different ways
that we subtly try to go
in that we're boasting?
The fact of the matter is
is that many of us
carry around within ourselves
is, you know,
there's really something
a little bit special about me.
You know,
there's something special about me.
In fact,
there's something so special about me.
It's no wonder
that I'm a Christian.
It's no wonder,
like, I'm just, you know,
good at Bible studies
and good at witnessing
and good at this
and good at that
and there's something
just special about me.
No wonder God chose me.
No wonder I'm a Christian
because I'm special.
Now, we're Canadians
and we don't go out,
you know,
we don't begin our prayer
by saying,
Father, thank you so much
that I'm special.
Thank you so much
that I'm just really special
and that I'm so special
that no wonder you chose me.
Like, we don't say that
in our prayers.
We're too well behaved, right?
But what happens
in our periods
of depression
and tragedy
and sadness
is that our sense
of being special
is lost.
So what we don't realize
is that this sense
of there being
something special
is part of the background noise
of our souls
and our hearts
and we only know
that it's there
when it seems
to be gone.
And we feel depressed
and we wonder
how God could love us
because we're not special.
And in the face
of us thinking
that there is something
about us
that brings out
God's love,
the Bible says
that God foreknows us.
Foreknows here
doesn't mean omniscient.
Foreknow could also
be translated
as foreloved.
Know is the relational word
know.
In terms of entering
into a relationship
and before we thought
there was anything special
about us
or we did anything
at all before
anything like that
before there was
anything about me
God foreloved me.
And some of us
in our testimonies
when we talk
to other people
we talk about
all the things
we did
and all the things
that we figured out
and the whole process
that we went through
to come to a saving
faith in Jesus.
Jesus.
But the Bible says
that He,
God,
organized all the events
that He predestined us
that He set the course.
The word there
predestined
just to get your worries
up on one hand
but it's not to be a worry
because all of this
teaching here
is in the context
of the profound
human lust
and addiction
to boasting.
and the profound
human need
for us to understand
that we are never
gods with small g's
but that we are
always creature
dependent upon God
fallen creature
even more
dependent upon God
that we are helpless.
But the word here
predestined
is exactly like
when you go to
the Star Wars movie
and Han Solo
and Chewbacca
or whatever
and they're in the front
of their spaceship
and they do this
you know
whatever that means
and then they've
set the course
and then they go
into hyperspace
and after they've
set the course
they can spend
the rest of the time
arguing or flirting
or you know
doing whatever
you know
preparing weapons
because the ship
flies itself.
That image
is what predestined
does mean.
So I can't boast
about all of the things
that I did
and how I went
to this speaker
and had this experience
and was seeking
this thing.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Bible saying
I set the course
is what God said
and some of us
might be able
to have these times
where we have
our profound
spiritual experiences
where we called out
to God
and it gets us
on focus
on the family
on the radio
and it gets us
on that crazy
afternoon radio show
on CHRI
about virtual
online community
is an oxymoron
just so you know.
Okay?
Online community
is an oxymoron.
Two words
that contradict
each other
and
excuse me
and we can have
these things
about how we
called out to God
and we had
these emotional
breakthroughs
of calling out
but Bible says
no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I called you first.
I called you
and justified
that's the thing
that we sort of
get our minds around
that we have to
trust in Jesus
that God is the one
who does something
in Jesus for us
and we put our faith
and trust in him
and that he then
makes us right
with himself
but we're so
deeply addicted
and lustful
after boasting
and we're so
deeply afraid
of ever being
helpless
that as soon
as we understand
that we have been
made right
with God
through faith
in Jesus
that it's by grace
alone
through faith
alone
and Christ alone
the second we
understand that
we immediately
want to think
that it's all
dependent upon
how good we are
at doing things
how good I am
at leading the church
how good I am
at preaching
how good I am
with my family
how good I am
talking to outsiders
how good I am
and that somehow
or another
if I'm not being
really really good
at these things
then it's almost
as if my justification
doesn't count
because it's all
about me being able
to accomplish
these things for God
and if I can't
accomplish these things
for God
then God's not
going to accept me
as his child
it's going to be
revealed that I'm
helpless
and it's going to
be revealed
that I'm not special
I am George
I'm helpless
and in terms
of prayer
I'm weak
but God
is the helper
of the helpless
and this profound
text
these five
active verbs
five active verbs
listen to verse 29
for those
whom God
foreknew
God also
predestined
to be conformed
to the image
of his son
in order that
God
that Jesus
might be the firstborn
among many brothers
and sisters
and those
whom God
predestined
God also
called
and those
whom he called
he also
justified
and those
whom he justified
he also glorified
I am helpless
I have no ground
to boast
God does it all
and this text
should be
once again
I don't encourage
tattooing
but if you're going to
do a tattoo
tattoo this
on your arms
so you can look at it
every day
on your hand
as you're paying bills
tattoo it there
or something
don't get a tattoo
but if you're going to do it
get something like this tattooed
that once we stand
in Jesus
it's as if there's
an unbroken chain
I should do it
from your point of view
from there to there
unbroken chain
that he wants us
to stand there
and look down
the course of our life
and understand that
before anything
about myself
God foreloved me
before anything
about myself
God predestined me
before anything
about myself
God called me
that Jesus
is the one
who justified me
and as I look
to that
which is my future
the word glorified
is in the past tense
because Paul
wants you to understand
the Bible
wants you to understand
that once God's
power for salvation
has been received
by you
by grace alone
through faith alone
and Christ alone
that once you have
received that
your future glory
is so certain
that it's written
in the past tense
it is so certain
that it is in the past tense
that you
one day
will stand
on the far side
of judgment
in the new heaven
and earth
that God will create
where the entire
created order
is freed up
and completely
and utterly unleashed
and you will stand
there with your
resurrected body
and your new soul
and spirit
still completely
and utterly you
at one with your creator
at one with the creation
at one with your brothers
and sisters
and that future
is so certain
that Paul writes it
in the past tense
Andrew could you put up
the almost final point
this text is inviting us
to pray something like this
heavenly father
please grow in me
a humble trusting
knowing
that by your grace
you foreknew me
and predestined me
and called me
and justified me
and glorified me
heavenly father
please grow in me
a humble trusting
knowing that by your grace
you foreknew me
and predestined me and called me and justified me and glorified me.
And for some of you, for some of us, this just makes us go like this.
Because we feel, you know, dang it.
And, you know, I just knew that God picked some people to be special and that I was left outside of that.
You know, George, when I was in elementary school and they were picking sports teams, I was never picked first.
In fact, there were some years when I was the last one left and the two coaches fought over who had to take me.
And, you know, I get passed over for promotions.
You know, my parents seem to have rejected me.
My family seems to have rejected me.
I don't get any dates.
If I do get dates, it just is some loser guy who just wants to use me and then I get dumped.
And I haven't done well at school and I'm not doing that well financially and I've never been picked for anything.
And now you're just telling me that this whole Christian thing is just God telling me to shut up and just get used to the fact that I'm just sort of rejected as well.
But God doesn't write this to you who are hearing this today to stop the conversation.
But this is God poking you on the shoulder and saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, my precious one.
This text is for you.
I'm not saying this so you will turn away and think that I've rejected you.
This is your opportunity today to know that this text talks about you.
I don't care about your litany of failures.
Just like I don't care about your litany of success.
I didn't say this to you so that you would walk away thinking that the conversation's over.
I said this to you because it's true and I'm talking to you.
I'm talking to you.
Friend, we're going to just read this wonderful text of 31 to 39 in a moment.
But just before we do that, if you are here and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, there is no better time than right this instant.
I'm not going to tell you some fancy magical prayer.
I remember the early days of going to evangelical churches.
I talked to somebody about the gospel and I think, oh, dang it, what's the right words for that prayer?
Like, what am I supposed to say?
And I get all confused.
And like, that's just magic.
That's like the minister's a shaman and teaching you a spell.
God doesn't have to know a fancy set of prayers.
There is no better time than right now just to call out to God and say, Jesus, I want you to be my savior.
What George has just talked about, I want that.
And I know that you called me first.
Just call out to God in your own words.
There's no better time than right now.
No better time.
Won't be better next week or when it gets warmer.
Just no better time than now.
And one other thing for those of us who are really tongue-tied evangelists, I can just think of, I had a terrible, not a terrible experience, but not a very good experience yesterday talking about somebody, talking to somebody about Jesus.
And, you know, this text is a profound encouragement.
We don't have to carry the weight of evangelism.
God foreknows.
He predestines.
He calls.
He justifies.
He glorifies.
All we have to do is bear witness.
And the wonderful thing about this text is there's people in Ottawa who have not yet recognized that God is calling them, but they are here in this city.
And he just asks us to play a small part in bearing witness and praying for them.
Andrew, if you put up the last slide, because we're going to pray this last slide together in a moment as a congregation.
Or, yeah.
But before that, let's just stand.
And after we now have this sense that maybe this whole thing about predestined is something that if I was going to get a tattoo, I should tattoo on my hand so I could remember it every day.
Because it's a profound truth that you're helpless and you're weak, but God is the helper of the helpless.
That God does what is needed to make you right with himself.
That there's no boasting.
And so mindful of that, listen to verses 31 to 39.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died.
More than that, who was raised.
Who is at the right hand of God.
Who indeed is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
No.
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come.
Nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
Let's pray this together in closing.
Heavenly Father, may your Holy Spirit grow in me a humble, trusting knowing that there is no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus.
And that in Christ Jesus you are always for me.
And that nothing can ever separate me from your love in Christ Jesus my Lord.
Amen.