In the sermon titled 'What God is Perpetually Doing,' Jason Dohm addresses the continuous work of God in believers' lives as described by Paul. Dohm explains that Paul helps believers understand their present sufferings by comparing them with the future glory that awaits them, emphasizing that the future glory far outweighs current hardships. He also discusses the role of the Holy Spirit in aiding believers in their weaknesses and the sovereign work of God in orchestrating all things for their good. God uses both positive and negative experiences to conform believers to the image of His Son, Jesus. This transformation is part of God's ultimate purpose to honor Jesus by making Him the firstborn among many brethren. The sermon underscores that God's work is for the good of believers, defined as being conformed to Christ's likeness, and that this process is assured from predestination to glorification. Believers are encouraged to trust in God's unbreakable plan and find comfort in His sovereignty.

The title of the sermon this morning is, What God is Perpetually Doing. You ever wonder about that? What is God doing? Paul here brings us into an understanding of what God's doing, what He's always doing. He talks about the workings of God in the world.

He always has been doing it. He's doing it right now. And he always will be doing it until he sends Jesus to come back and bring human history to a close. So I'm going to tell you what God is up to today. Because Paul tells us.

Paul has been helping believers with our difficulties and challenges and hardships. I hope you've been finding that helpful. And today's text is a continuation of that. So again today, Paul's going to help us with our difficulties and challenges and hardships. First, in verses 18 through 25, Paul compared our present sufferings with the future glory that belongs to believers.

So if you're a believer, he puts on one side of the scales the present sufferings. He acknowledges that we do have present sufferings. So he's not sticking his head in the sand over the fact that we do have challenges and hardships. No, he acknowledges them, but then he compares them with the glory that's waiting for his people. And he says they're not even worthy to be compared.

That helps you in your present sufferings to know that what's coming will last forever and that everything there is better than the bad things are bad now. Second, in verses 26 and 27, Paul instructed us on the help of the Holy Spirit in and for our weaknesses. So we have weaknesses, the Holy Spirit has been sent to help us in those weaknesses. We have weaknesses, sins, frailties, remaining corruptions, God has deployed the Holy Spirit to help us for all those things. Now, thirdly, in verses 28 through 30, Paul teaches us about how God sovereignly works in all things for our good.

So if it wasn't enough that he compared the present sufferings with future glory that's much better than the present sufferings are bad, If it wasn't enough that he instructed us on all the help that we get from an indwelling, always present Holy Spirit who is deployed to help us in our weaknesses, he gives us this third thing. That God is working as a sovereign king. No one could ever stop him from doing anything that he intends to do, wants to do, plans to do. This sovereign king is working in all things for our good. All these things help us in our difficulties and challenges and hardships.

Let's pray God. I thank you for these encouragements We do have difficulties and challenges and hardships thank you for not Leaving us alone to sort them out as best we can, but by giving us these truths that help us through them. Pray that you would cause these truths to be pressed on our souls, to be remembered in the moments where we need them the most. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we'll take it verse at a time.

Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Romans chapter eight. Let me reread verse 28. Paul writes, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. This verse, Paul teaches us that God is working all things together for the good of believers. So if you're taking notes on handout, on the handout by filling in blanks, all things and believers fill in those blanks.

God is working all things together for the good of believers, people who trust in his son, Jesus Christ. Do believers have a mix of joys and sorrows, comforts and discouragements, victories and defeats, sins and progress in Christ-likeness. Of course we have a mix of all these things. We live in a sin-sick world, isn't that true? The world, the flesh, and the devil are mighty tireless enemies.

They never grow tired of doing us harm. They never sleep or slumber either. They're always trying to defeat the Lord's people, defeat the work of grace in the Lord's people. So we cannot expect life to be all sunshine and butterflies. Sometimes it actually feels like life is all storm clouds and lions, doesn't it?

Where did the sunshine and butterflies go? All I can see is storms and lions. Fellow believers, can I tell you a secret over the loud speaker? God uses it all. God uses it all.

God uses it all. At Men's Bible Study, Gary said this, all means all, and all is all means. All means nothing more or nothing less than every single thing without exception. Everything is on the list. Nothing is off the list.

All means all. All things work together for good for believers in Jesus. God does that. God always has done that for his people. God is doing that for his people today.

God will do that until Jesus returns. God is perpetually up to that. You want to know what God's up to? He's working all things, nothing accepted, everything's on the list for good for believers in Jesus. God weaves together somehow.

I get to teach it. I can't explain it exactly how it all works. That's okay. I've grown comfortable with that. There's a lot of things I can't explain that I can teach with the authority of the Bible behind me.

This is one of them. God weaves together joys and sorrows, comforts and discouragements, victories and defeats, sin and progress in Christlikeness for the good of believers in Jesus. Somehow he does it. I've seen it. I've been walking with the Lord for 40 years.

For whatever reason, he hasn't cast me off, so I don't think he's going to cast me off. And I've seen him work together all sorts of this mixture of things for good in my life. God takes this mix of good and bad and brings them together according to perfect wisdom to produce good in his people and to produce good for his people. These things have been good for me and these people, these things have been good in me, meaning they've resulted in progress in my life, walking with the Lord. Listen to Matthew Poole.

Oh, Matthew Poole had some gold this time around. Listen to him. Matthew Poole says, all things, even sin itself, because from their falls, God's children arise more humble and careful. Ever had that happen? A sin in your life, such a discouragement that you sin that sin again.

How do you come out the other side of it? More humble, knowing more about who God is and His greatness and more of who you are in your frailty. These are good things to know. More humble. Come out the other side of this.

More humble and more careful. More vigilant over your life. Is that good? Yes, that's good. So God has used even sin in your life for good.

Listen again to Matthew Poole. Some more gold from Matthew Poole. He says, Take this or that providence singly by itself, and you shall not see the good it does, but take it in its conjunction and connection with others, and then you may perceive it." What's Matthew Poole saying? He's saying, oh, it's dangerous to look at these things in isolation as a one-off because you'll miss the good of what God is doing. It is working things together in conjunction with each other, in connection with each other, that you can actually see the good.

So, so beware of getting tunnel vision and just looking at this one bad thing that's happening in your life, say nothing good can come out of that. I don't care what Romans 828 says. Nothing good can come out of that. Well, guess what? God's not just doing that in your life.

He's doing that in connection with, in conjunction with this and this and this and this and this, and He will work them all together for your good. He will. So, Take off the blinders so you don't just have tunnel vision, looking at that one thing and not imagining. This is one case in which our imaginations are insufficient. Not, I can't imagine How God could work that for good.

No, he works it together with the other things that are going on in your life for good. Question, is this for everyone? No, absolutely not. This is a promise for genuine believers in Jesus and only for genuine believers in Jesus. God does not work in this way in the lives of unbelievers for unbelievers.

Paul describes these believers looking from mankind's side and looking from God's side. So we get two descriptions. Two descriptions. One description is from our side of the equation. One description is from God's side of the equation.

Looking from mankind's side, Paul says, they are those who love God. So he's describing believers in Jesus. They love God. Loving God saves people? No, that's not what Paul said.

Only trusting in Jesus saves people. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10, 9. We're almost there. Actually, if you saw the preaching schedule, we're not almost there.

It's going to take us a while. But In terms of numerically, we're in chapter 8, that's chapter 10, we're almost there. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Faith saves. Only faith saves.

But those who are saved always love God. Always, always, always. They are unfaith and love for God are unbreakably connected. These people who have faith have been given a new heart with new affections and those affections more than anything are pointed at God. So when you believe in Christ you get a new heart And with the new heart comes new affections.

That's what the heart is for, right? Loving things. And the affections are pointed at more than anything else the God who saved you. That's how it works. That's how it always works.

We love Him because He first loved us. He loved us first. And out of His love, out of His saving love, we see Him for who He is and we experience His mercy. And it gives birth in us to all sorts of new affections that we never had before. And the main one is loving God, love for God.

It always comes with believing in Jesus. There are no people who are saved by faith who don't love God. That's not a thing. Looking from God's side, Paul says that believers are those who are the called according to His purpose. So believers from the human side, how do we know?

How do we know them when we see them? They love God. So humans, now you know how to recognize them. They love God. They have a real affection for God in their hearts.

From God's side, they are those who are the called according to His purpose. That's for God to know. He's never given me a list. Is He giving you the list? Here are the list of those who are the called according to His purpose.

No, that's from God's side. Believers are people who God has claimed for his own. You don't know who's on the list, but he knows exactly who's on the list. And he's claimed everyone who is on that list. They are the called according to his purpose.

He decided in eternity past to make them trophies of his grace, to show off his grace by making them his own. And so he called them in time. We'll talk about more of this. This gets developed in another verse so I won't spend more time on it here, but he puts them on the list in eternity past, but in their lifetime, he calls them to claim them for his own, to show off his grace. Those who have been saved by God out of slavery and from destruction love him." That's not controversial.

Someone took you when you were a slave and bought you out of that slavery and plucked you out of destruction, you would love them. That's what happens when anyone gets saved. Those who have been called by God have been claimed by him as trophies of his grace and for these people God works all things together for their good. They love him, He's marked them out and made them his own and he's weaving together this mix of all the things that you experience in your life for their good if you trust in his son Jesus. Before we move on to the next verse, let me give you two examples in Scripture.

Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8. We see this so well expressed. I think it's such a helpful explanation of what Paul is teaching here. Deuteronomy chapter 8, I'll be reading verses 15 and 16.

Deuteronomy 8, 15 and 16. I'm picking up mid-sentence here. That's going to be dangerous, but I'm warning you. It's talking about God. The who here is God.

Deuteronomy 8.15. Who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know that he might humble you, and that he might test you to do good to you in the end." So he's describing the 40 years in the wilderness and he gives you the mixture. It was a dry land in which there were no waters. There are fiery serpents and scorpions But he also brought water out of the rock and he gave you manna. It's this mixture of hard things and good things.

And he did it to humble you and he did it to test you that he might do good to you in the end. Here's the thing, had they judged midstream they wouldn't be able to tell that God was trying to do good to them. It was in process. But all these things, the good and the bad, the wonderful and the hard, he was weaving together to humble them, to test them, and to do good to them in the end. The good was the destination.

So if you're in process on these things, you say, I'm making a judgment right now. All bets are off on that because God's taking us to a destination of good. There's lots of good along the way. But understand, it's hard to judge midstream on these things because God's weaving, He's working in these things. What is God perpetually doing?

He's always doing this. We are in the process of God weaving things together for good. The other place that I thought was very helpful is Psalm 57 verses one and two. Psalm 57 is a Psalm of David, and he's running for his life. This is when he fled from Saul into the cave.

So where's David living when Psalm 57 is written? In a cave. Why is he living in a cave? Because Saul, the king, is trying to kill him. So that's the context of Psalm 57 verses one and two.

Listen to what David says. It says, be merciful to me, oh God, be merciful to me, for my soul trusts you. And in the shadow of your wings, I will make my refuge until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God most high to God who performs all things for me." So David's living in a cave and he's in the middle of calamities. He said, God, I'm crying out to you until all the calamities pass by.

You're the one who performs all things for me. So David sees even hardships in his life and he doesn't say, the devil doing it. And does the devil have a hand in Saul trying to kill David? I guess, Probably, my guess is yes, but he sees a sovereign hand above it all, the sovereign hand of the King of Kings, whose plan can never be thwarted, put off track by the devil. The sovereign king is working these things.

The calamities actually have come from God. David's acknowledging that the calamities that are in his life, the fact that he's living in a cave, God brought it to him. God performs all things for him, and he's convinced that God is good in all of it. So this is a very helpful perspective. I think it unfolds what Paul is teaching us here.

One final word here and it's very important. Good is more than my comfort and my ease and my health and my prosperity. If you define good as only those things then you have no hope at all of getting what Paul is trying to teach us here. If in your mind good equals nice to me right now, circumstantially, you'll never get what Paul is saying. Good has to be more than just my comfort and my ease and my health and my prosperity.

Those things can all be good. Those things can all be a curse as well. It's easy to prove that. Are there any people in comfort and ease and health and prosperity who are going to spend an eternity separated from God in torment? Yes!

It's a number that can't be counted. In Revelation chapter 5, if the number around the throne worshiping Jesus is a number that can't be counted, then the people who today and even for long stretches or maybe they're the vast overwhelming majority of their life, are in comfort and ease and health and prosperity, that in eternity will be separated from God and tormented is a number that cannot be counted. So beware of defining good as only that. Those things can be a curse. If those things take you to an eternity separated from God in torment, those things have been a curse in your life and not a blessing.

Those things have not been good. Knowing and experiencing God is good. Seeing God at work in boom times and bust times is good. Do you see God at work in boom times when you have comfort and ease and health and prosperity? Yes.

Do you see God at work in bust times where there's a discomfort and you don't have your health and you're not in prosperity. Yes, sometimes God is known, experienced most sweetly, most fully in bust times. You wanna know God? You oughta wanna know God. There's nothing better than knowing God.

Sometimes you need bust times for God to draw near to you and you to draw near to him. Certainly that is true. What did the psalmist say? It is good for me that I was afflicted that I may learn your statutes. This is Psalm 119 verse 71.

It is good for me that I was afflicted. God, you did the right thing when you afflicted me. I never would have learned your statutes. I would have been footloose and fancy free and not caring about any of these things, but you brought affliction into my life and now you've taught me to treasure the right things." What did Joseph say to his brothers who sold him into slavery? You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good." Genesis 50 verse 20, at least a portion of it.

His brother sold him into slavery, But Joseph could see through all that and say, God is working all these things together for good. He saved his family from starvation. He saved many nations from starvation by doing that. He was weaving together good things and bad things for the good of his people. All right, verse 29.

Back to Romans chapter 8, verse 29. Paul continues, 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. This verse, Paul teaches that God is conforming believers into the image of his beloved son. So if you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, image fills in the first blank, beloved or beloved fills in the second blank. God is conforming believers into the image of his beloved son, the son that he loves.

The verse begins with the word for, So this verse explains the last verse. Paul, how is it that all things work together for good for those who love God and are the called according to his purpose? How is that? There is a people says Paul and God foreknew them He knew them beforehand When There was nothing else for anyone else to know about them, because it was before any of them had ever breathed a single breath." Okay, so there's his people. And God knew them, but none of them existed yet, but God knew them.

None of them had, not one of them had ever taken one breath, but God knew all of them. God says this in Jeremiah 1 verse 5. Jeremiah 1 verse 5. God says, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. You're not even a baby in the womb.

Before that, I knew you. God knew this people described in Romans chapter 8, our text, in eternity past, like he knew Jeremiah. Before he formed me in the womb he knew me. This is God. No one else is remotely like him.

This is one of those places, one of many places where we get the feeling, ah yeah, there's no one else like that. We're thinking about, we're talking about something that's completely different than anything else we have a frame of reference for. This isn't normal as we think of normal. Listen to this note from Reformation Heritage. The Reformation Heritage Study Bible has this note, for no, not equivalent to know about beforehand since this would be true of all things.

Knowing a person is a common biblical expression for loving that person. So what the Reformation Study Bible is pointing out is that it has to, for no, has to mean more than just knew about it ahead of time. If that's all it meant, then there's no distinction being made at all. There's no recognizable distinction because God knows everyone who will ever live and everything that could ever be done in human history before it happens. So there's nothing distinguishing about foreknowing if it's just know about ahead of time.

He knows all that. All the people, all the things, all the circumstances, all the timings, he knows it all ahead of time. That's what it means that God is all-knowing. But he's saying, Paul's clearly trying to make a distinction here, so what's the distinction? It has to mean more than just he knew these people beforehand, because that's true of people who will be believers and true of people who will never be believers.

He knows all beforehand. So what's the distinction? He's saying there's another sense in which the term know is used in the Bible. In the early chapters of Genesis, Adam knew Eve and she gave birth to children. It's talking about a deep level of intimacy.

It's used as the deepest level of physical intimacy in the early chapters of Genesis and throughout the Old Testament. And the Reformation Heritage Study Bible is saying that's how Paul is using this. Before time, he knew these people in the sense that he had already set his affection on them. He already, how do you love someone before they take a breath? Ask God.

He knows how to do that. Paul says, in essence, not literally, but in essence, meaning I'm trying to get at what Paul's trying to get at, putting words in his mouth if I'm allowed to do that. And God had a pre-plan for this people, says Paul. He had a pre-plan. He pre-planned.

God predestined this people for something very specific and something very special. God predetermined it. He determined before any of it was ever in place, any of the building blocks for it were ever in place, He predetermined this is what I'm going to do. God pre-planned these people to be conformed to the image of his son, Jesus. God's beloved Son, Jesus, has the most magnificent image ever.

No controversial ground here. Anybody got a magnificent image like Jesus? No one would be bold enough to say such a thing because it's not true. So God is taking these people and conforming and shaping these people into the likeness of his son Jesus. And for God planning is the same as doing as is the same as it is done.

If God predestines it or pre-plans it or predetermines it, it's as good as done. Paul, why is God doing this? Thank you for asking, says Paul. God is doing it so that His beloved Son, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren. That's why I'm claiming these people before I make any of them.

I'm claiming these people to be mine and I'm doing it for a very specific reason, a very special reason, and it's to conform them into the most magnificent likeness ever. The image of my son. God is taking his son Jesus and honoring him, honoring Jesus by making Jesus the cornerstone for a larger family. He's going to be the foundation stone for the whole building. He's going to be the cornerstone for a larger family, the firstborn among many brethren.

The devil hates the thought of it. The devil will do all he can to stop it. He cannot stop it. He is going to do this. He has predetermined that this is what will happen and he won't be stopped short of one on the list, not a single one.

Jesus' person, who He is, and Jesus' work, what He has done is the basis of rescuing these people that God knew before He had even formed them and transforming them from enemies of God into children of God. He also knew that they would be his enemies, born in Adam, born in rebellion, born twisted and warped against him in every way. He knew they would all be born that way, but he plans to rescue them through the person who Jesus is and work what Jesus has done of his son. So who has the place of honor in the family? Jesus does.

Who is the firstborn in the family? This speaks to importance and honor. Who's the most important, far and away is Jesus. Who gets the most honor far and away is Jesus. Listen to Hebrews, Hebrews 2 verse 10.

Hebrews 2 verse 10. For it was fitting for him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. It was fitting for God the Father, all things are for God the Father, all things are by God the Father. It was fitting for God the Father in bringing many sons to glory, many sons to glory. Jesus is the firstborn of many brethren to make the captain of their salvation.

His person in work is going to accomplish the salvation of these people perfect through sufferings. Now, let's link this back to the verse that this verse is explaining. The verse 29 is explaining verse 28. What was verse 28 again? And we know all things work together for good for those who love God to those who are the called according to His purpose.

God is working all things together for good. What is good? He's doing it for those who are the called according to His purpose. What is His purpose? Those are questions we should be asking of the text.

He's working all things together for good. What is good? He's working all things according to His purpose. What is His purpose? Verse 29 is explaining that, is giving us the answers to those good questions.

God is taking enemies and making them sons and daughters through the person and work of His son Jesus. And then he is conforming them to the likeness of his son Jesus in order to honor his son Jesus. What is God doing? That's what God's doing. He's taking enemies and he's making them sons and daughters through the person and work of the Son Jesus, to honor that Son, to bring honor to that Son.

That is good. That is His purpose. By the way, I don't think that's a comprehensive list of everything that the Bible says is good or a comprehensive list of everything that the Bible says is the purpose of God. But I think we have a right to think of it as the greatest good and the highest purpose. Paul is setting those before our eyes.

What's the greatest good? That God would take his enemies and make them sons and daughters and conform them to this most magnificent image ever, most magnificent likeness ever, his son Jesus, in order to honor his son Jesus. It's all for the honor of his son. That's the greatest good and the highest purpose of God. Finally verse 30.

Verse 30. Romans 8 verse 30. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified.

Taking notes on the handout, it's God is working pre-womb to post-tomb. We've got B's on the end. Womb to tomb. Sometimes when you're describing the total lifespan of anything, a project, a person, anything, you call it womb to tomb. In a mother's womb developing the beginning of a lifespan to tomb, the end of the lifespan.

Put them in the tomb. Womb to tomb. God is working pre-womb. Before there's ever anything being knit together in a mother's womb, God's already at work. And post-tomb.

The tomb is not the end of the story for these people who love him or who are the called according to his purpose. The verse begins with the word moreover. So all of this is linked together and this continues as part of Paul's explanation. This is Paul, how is it that God predetermines to take people, transform them into the brethren of his son Jesus, and conform them into the likeness of his son. How do you do that?

This is Paul's answer to that question. All the people who God predestined or predetermined when He made the list before anyone had ever taken a breath. He also called. Everyone on the list called. All Who he marked out for himself in eternity past he predestined them He marked them out to be his own in eternity past He acted to draw to himself in human history But before human history, he put them on the list.

When the time comes, I'm claiming them for my own. I know they'll be enemies. I know they'll be in rebellion against me, but I'm going to make them my own. Then in human history, in the course of their life, at some point, with how he's weaving all these things together in their life, he acts to draw them to himself. Listen to Jeremiah 31, verse 3.

Jeremiah 31, verse 3. Jeremiah says, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you." Let me read it again. Think about it. This is exactly what Paul is saying.

Yes, this is God. Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I didn't start loving you when you started believing in me. No, no, no, it predated all of that. You'd never taken a breath when I determined to show off my grace by claiming you for my own.

I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, because of that, because my love for you has predated all of that, because my love for you was a reality before you ever took a breath, before you were ever being knit together in your mother's womb, because of that, with loving kindness I have drawn you. God's loving kindness in drawing you is just a response to the love that was reality before you ever breathed a breath. Imagine, imagine that. God has loved the people, individual people like me and you who then are made a part of a group.

He loved them with an everlasting love that predated any of their existence and therefore because of that he drew them in with loving kindness sometime in their lifetimes. Believers in Jesus can look back at that period of their life when they were being wooed by God. They were being drawn in. He was making himself irresistible to them. They were feeling the weight of their sins and they were seeing Jesus and all of his goodness and all of his saving power.

They might have heard a thousand sermons better than the one on the day they were saved. But that day, he was just bringing all things together. Good circumstances, hard circumstances, bad circumstances, sin, and he was weaving it together and on that day they found him irresistible. They had to have him. That's God drawing them in.

All the people whom God called, he also justified. Everyone who was predestined was called. Everyone who was called was justified. Now there's lots that goes unsaid between these links in the chain, but Paul knows that you've read to this part in the letter, so you can bring along everything that you read up till now. We had chapters on justification.

I don't think we need to go over that ground again. It means to be declared righteous. All who are called are declared righteous. God makes all of these people right with himself on account of his son Jesus. He doesn't declare them righteous because they're righteous.

He declares them righteous because his son is righteous and they have a claim to his righteousness by trusting in him. All of the people who God justified, he also glorified. God honors and makes glorious all of these people. We think only God should be honored, only God should be considered as glorious, and there is an angle at which that's right, that's good, but The Bible says that those who are predestined will be called, will be justified, will be glorified. God honors and makes glorious all of these people.

Listen to Paul in another place. This is 2 Corinthians 3, 18. Just listen to 2 Corinthians 3, 18. Paul there says, But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord so we're beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. There's a bunch of touch points with Romans 8 and that verse.

One of it is how this ends just as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord is doing this. How are you getting transformed from that old image into the most precious, special, glorious image ever, the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's by the Spirit of the Lord. Being transformed into Christ likeness from glory to glory, meaning it's progressively happening until we shed this body and our remaining corruptions and it's finalized perfect conformity to the image of Jesus for the glory of Jesus so that Jesus would be honored.

Now a couple of points about this verse. First we should think of verse 29 as the prophetic past tense, meaning there's a lot of past tense in here which actually isn't past tense. For instance, moreover, whom he predestined past tense. Okay, we know that happened in the past. Great.

These he also called. Are there any unsaved people in the world today who will be saved? You betcha! Have they been called? Is it past tense?

Not hardly. It's prophetic past tense. Whom he called, these he also justified." That also is true of people who are unbelievers today, but God has them on the list and he's going to weave things together and claim them for his own and save them, but they're not justified today. It's the prophetic past tense. Are they glorified?

No. None of us are glorified in the sense that we'll be fully conformed. We're not yet. So the prophetic past tense is used by who? The prophets.

That's why I call it the prophetic past tense. To say about future things as if they've already happened. Why is that? Because God can never lie with God saying that it will happen is as good as if it has already happened. So The prophet talks about this all the time.

I hadn't really thought about this or done this, but one of the commentators sent me back to look at Isaiah 53 about the suffering servant and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Almost all of it's in the past tense. It's 500 years before Jesus is even born. But Isaiah 53 is past tense. He suffered for a people.

He laid down his life past tense for a people. He won't even be born for 500 years. When God says he will do it, it's as good as if it were in the past already. We should take comfort even from the verb tenses in Romans chapter 8. The prophetic past tense.

God has said it, He cannot lie, it's as good as if it had already happened. Second, notice that Paul doesn't make any room for leakage or loss. Look, moreover, whom he predestined. There's a list. These he also called.

How many of the people that he predestined he didn't get around to calling zero. No leakage of loss. However, whatever the number is on the list, it's the same number of called. Whom he called, these he also justified. No leakage, no loss.

Whatever the number is, it's still the number. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. Whatever the number is, it's still the number. There is no leakage, there is no loss. There's no hole in the bucket.

God determined, I'm claiming these people for myself. He puts those names into the bucket. There's no there's not even a pinhole at the bottom of the bucket where there's a little leaking out of, a little loss, there is no leakage, there is no loss. Because God is the one who is acting, the outcome is perfectly certain. If you or I were acting, we'd need some of a loss ratio, right?

The dependent on me and you, the dependent on us, we'd have some loss in here. Actually, the truth is the loss rate would be 100 percent, with God at 0 percent. Listen to Matthew Henry. Matthew Henry says, created wills are so very fickle and created power so very feeble that if any of these did depend upon the creature the whole would shake. But God himself has undertaken the doing of it from first to last, that we might abide in a constant dependence upon him and subjection to him and ascribe all the praise to him that every crown may be cast before the throne.

Amen. Listen to John Murray. John Murray says this, it is to be observed that calling, justification, and glorification are set forth as acts of God. He called, He justified, He glorified. The same divine monergism, monergism means only one acting so God is acting alone.

The same divine monergism appears as in he foreknew and he foreordained. God alone is acting in those events which are here mentioned and No activity on the part of men supplies any ingredient of their definition or contributes to their efficacy. Thank God for that. None of this, the predetermining, the calling, justifying, glorifying, none of that depends on anything from me and so it is certain. It all depends on God who is perfectly faithful and so it is certain.

Applications I give you four. Number one, if you're a believer, God is working every single difficulty in your life for good. Every single one. Oh, please take off the blinders. They give you this tunnel vision where you only see that one difficulty and you have no imagination to understand how God could make that for good.

He's not just doing that in your life, he's doing a bunch of other things and he's going to weave them together and in the end you'll look back and say that was good. Sometimes it helps to fast forward to the end. I think, what would my perspective be then? In the end, when we're in the glory that's not worthy to be compared with the present sufferings, we'll look back and say, Oh, that was good. God knew exactly what he was doing.

Perfectly done, God. Perfectly done. Number two, then be patient and don't grumble. If one, then two. If it is true that for believers God is working every single difficulty for their good, then we should be patient because it's not time to judge these things yet.

Remember Deuteronomy 8, to do you good in the end. I'm in process on all these things in the end it'll all be good. Be patient. Don't grumble. When you grumble, you're grumbling about things that God has determined are good.

Remember Psalm 119, it was good that you afflicted me so that I learned your statutes." Don't grumble. John Calvin says this, the afflictions of the faithful are nothing else than the manner by which they are conformed to the image of Christ. Do you want to be more and more and more? Do you need to be more and more and more like this glorious likeness of Jesus? Of course.

Of course believers want to be more. They long for that. They know they need to be more. They long for that. Well, God is using these things that you're grumbling about for this purpose to conform you to His image.

The afflictions of the faithful are nothing else than the manner by which they are conformed to the image of Christ. Amen to that. Number three, Matthew Henry says this. Oh boy, are you ready? Matthew Henry says this, this is the humdinger, none can know their election but by their conformity to the image of Christ.

Surely it cannot be a temptation to any who are conformed to the world to believe that they were predestined to be conformed to Christ. What's he saying? God's not going to let you look at the list. God's not gonna let you look at the list. What list?

Oh, the list that he made up before anyone ever breathed a breath. The list of people he determined, I love them. At the right time, I'm going to take them from enemies and make them sons and daughters. He's not going to let you look at the list. You want to know if you're on the list?

How's it going with being conformed to the image of the son? Paul told you with breathtaking clarity, his purpose in this is to conform his people to the image of his son. If you're conformed to the world and you're not making there's no progress and being conformed into the likeness of Jesus, you have no reason to think your names on that list. None can know their election, but by their conformity to the image of Christ. Not trying to talk anyone here out of being saved.

If you're saved, you're saved. But there are things that can help us diagnose the fake version. This is one of them. Surely it cannot be a temptation to any who are conformed to the world to think that they were predestined to be conformed to Christ. On what basis?

If you're conformed to the world, you look just like the world. You think like the world, you talk like the world, you consume all the things that the world consumes no difference between you and the world but somehow God has predestined me to be like his son well he better start soon number four believers take comfort The chain is unbreakable. Sometimes verse 30 is called the golden chain of salvation. Those who are predestined are called. Those who are called are justified.

Those who are justified are glorified. It's links of a chain linked together. They're unbreakable. There's no leakage. There's no loss.

There's not even a pinprick hole at the bottom of the bucket where one drop will escape. He who began a good work in you will complete it. Ephesians 1 6. He will complete it. God thank you.

Thank you for these glorious truths that are set before us. I thank you that this is really just a foretaste, just a dipping our toe into the rest of chapter 8 and chapter 9 and the deep truths that are there. I pray that you would so firmly establish them in our hearts and minds. Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.