In his sermon titled 'Conformed to the Image of His Son' based on Romans 8:29, Pastor Steve Hopkins delves deeply into the theological concepts of foreknowledge, predestination, and conformity to the image of Christ. He emphasizes the assurance and eternal security provided by understanding these doctrines. Hopkins explains that God's foreknowing is not merely cognitive awareness but a relational and affectionate knowledge set upon individuals before time began. This foreknowledge leads to predestination, forming an unbreakable 'golden chain' of salvation, which includes being called, justified, and ultimately glorified. The sermon highlights the transformative process of sanctification, where believers progressively become more like Jesus in character and holiness, culminating in perfect conformity to Christ's image in glory. Pastor Hopkins stresses the importance of understanding these concepts correctly, free from modern misinterpretations that diminish God's sovereignty and grace. The sermon concludes with an encouragement for believers to rejoice in their assured future transformation and eternal relationship with God.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Let's turn in our Bibles once again to the book of Romans, the eighth chapter, where we've been camping out on verse 29 for quite some time. And so if you would stand with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord, once again we'll be reading verse 29 of Romans chapter 8 together. Let's read together the word of the Lord.

For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Let's pray. Father, our Father, high above the world, We pray, God, that you might be pleased once again to give the Spirit, to shed light on the text that is before us, and to open the understanding of our minds, and to open our hearts, God, to receive the truth of Your Word, that we might leave this assembly today with a greater understanding of the person and of the work of Your Son, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and just what it means to be predestinated, to be conformed to His image. For we ask it in Christ's holy name. Amen.

There's so much in this text that will help to bolster your assurance and ground your hope of eternal security on the person and work of Christ alone. I would ask you to fix your eyes and your hearts on this text and as we go forward to pray for spiritual understanding and expect to be comforted by this text expect to be encouraged expect to be convicted of the love of God for you of the love of God for you that was fixed on you before the world began everyone who believes And the love of God from which you who have trusted Christ will never be separated. That's where Paul ends in chapter 8. We'll never be separated from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. And that love was set on His people before time began, before the world began.

And that love, because of which you were predestinated to be one day fully and finally conformed to the image of God's Son, to Christ in glory. Our scripture says, for whom the Father did for no, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. And I want to review for a moment because it's so important to understand this foundation here of this passage and where the Apostle begins so that we can see where he's going. And in this last session we nailed down this doctrine of God's foreknowing of people before time began. And we focused on those first five words of verse 29, or these first four words of verse 29, whom he did foreknow.

And I said, this is the beginning. This is the beginning of what theologians have termed the golden chain, the golden chain of salvation. That unbreakable chain of events in the order of the salvation of every believer that began in eternity past and then culminates in eternity future. And I said, since being foreknown of God in eternity past comes first In the order of our salvation, we really need to understand what it means. Especially because there's so many people that in history and in our modern age are changing the words of the apostle to make him say things that he wasn't saying.

And before we went there, I said, notice the chain, look at the chain, verse 30, the golden chain of our salvation. First, Paul says that we are for known of God. We are for known of God. And then he were told that those who were for known of God were predestinated by Him, by God, to be conformed to the image of His Son. That is to be conformed inwardly and outwardly and finally to the image of Jesus.

It's the beginning of a chain that cannot be broken. A chain that begins with God for knowing a people and ends with God glorifying those same people, that is making them like His Son and bringing them to heaven. For whom He did foreknow, we read, He predestinated those He predestinated, He also called those He called, He also justified those He justified, He also glorified. It's a chain that begins in eternity past with God foreknowing a people and comes to completion in eternity future with God glorifying those same people that He foreknew in eternity past. A note in my Reformation Heritage Bible here says bringing them culminates or ends in or comes to that place in eternity where he brings them into his eternal glory and the presence of Christ and the image of Christ.

But it all began in eternity past. It all began with God foreknowing a people. And I said at the outset, we really need to focus on these words, because there are many our time who have changed the apostles words and they make God's foreknowing here to be in relationship to events rather than people. And in their denial of predestination and in their denial of God's foreknowing particular individuals in eternity past they make the Apostles to say for what God did for no but look at the text it doesn't say that the Apostle doesn't say what God did for no, he says whom he did for no. And then those who change that word go on to change the entire text and to add to the words that they've changed and make the apostle Paul say what God did for no about certain individuals cause God to predestinate them, which of course destroys the meaning of what it means to be predestinated altogether.

I said a couple of weeks ago, if God knows that certain individuals are going to respond positively to his son and to the outward call of the gospel when they hear it, predestinating them is altogether unnecessary. It's completely unnecessary. Why would God need to predestinate someone to do what he knows they're already going to do. God knows everything about everyone before they're born. The text says, whom he did foreknow, not what he foreknew concerning the future actions of those he foreknew.

And I said, it's pretty serious. It's a pretty serious perversion of the text that some of these modern preachers and many from history have engaged in because it touches God, because it makes God a responder. The God who created the heavens and the earth, who holds everything together by the power of His Word all over the entire world, the entire universe, and created all things. It makes God a responder to the works of men rather than man a responder to the work of God upon them. It makes salvation based on what God foresees a person will do in the future, rather than on God's work of grace, which he determined to do in eternity past, thereby perverting the meaning of the text altogether.

And then we focused on the actual words of the text of the biblical doctrine taught by the apostle Paul that God foreknew a people in eternity past that all whom he did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. That's where we're going We understood from Romans 829 that we who believe on Christ were before known of God We were for known of God we're for known of God known of God before and in some way. And I said, but what does it mean to be known of God? If we were known of God in some way before, what does it mean to be known of God? And I said, well, there's, biblically speaking, to know someone is to know them in one of two distinct ways.

You can be known in the sense of cognition, the sense of being cognitively aware of a person or their existence, of which we have an example in Romans 1.21. You know where the apostle talks about unbelievers and how that when they knew God, they refused to glorify Him as God. Paul was saying everyone knows God in the sense that they're aware that he is. Everyone knows him in the sense that they're cognitively aware of his existence, being understood by the things that he's made, even his eternal power and Godhead. But Paul says unbelievers suppress that knowledge, that cognitive knowledge that they have of God in their unrighteousness.

So one way in which the Bible speaks of knowing someone is knowing them cognitively, is to knowing them cognitively in a cognitive sense. The other way in which the Bible speaks of knowing someone is in a relational sense, affectionate sense, an intimate sense. And we looked at the first place in the Bible where we find the word knowledge used with regards to knowing someone in Genesis 4.1 where we read that Adam knew Eve, his wife. And I said, that's not cognitive knowledge. The Bible isn't saying that Adam had cognitive awareness of his wife, or like we might say, yeah, I know that girl.

Yeah, I know her. Speaking of Adam knowing his wife in an intimate sense, in an affection, in a loving, in a relational sense. And we know this because the passage goes on to say that Adam knew his wife and she conceived, and there came. That's not cognitive knowledge. So there's a sense in Scripture in which to know someone speaks of something distinct from mere cognition.

And it has to do with affection and loving or intimate knowledge of someone. And I cited Amos chapter three and verse two where God, speaking of Israel, says, You only of all the nations or the families on the earth have I known. Speaking of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth. It wasn't that God was saying he didn't have knowledge of other nations or family on the earth. He was saying, Look, you among all the nations on the earth have I known that is have I set apart in a distinguished way and distinguish you from a distinctive of every other nation on earth.

But God also sets apart individuals. God sets his love upon certain persons. In Jeremiah we looked at chapter one of verse five where the Lord says to Jeremiah, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before I formed you in your mother's womb I already knew you." Of course he knows about everyone.

This is affectionate knowledge. This is a distinguishing love upon him. He knew him. God's distinguishing affection was upon Jeremiah before he was even conceived in the womb of his mother, before Jeremiah existed. And so it is with every believer in this room and every child of God in all the world today.

If you're a believer, God knew you, God loved you before time began, and it's a love that sets you apart, a love that predestines you to be conformed to the image of his Son. To be known of God is to be loved of God with a distinguishing love that sets one apart for God. And of course, to not be known of Him is the most horrifying thing that could ever take place in the life and eternity of any person who has ever lived. To be known of God, Wonderful. To have His affection fixed upon you from before the foundations of the world and to bring you into relationship with Him through His Son in the process of time.

Wonderful to not be known of God. Horror. Eternal horror. Jesus said in Matthew 723, Many will come to me on that day, and they will profess me. And I will say unto them, I never, " what?

I never knew you. I never knew you. I never knew you. I never knew you. I never had that relationship with you.

I never knew you. Most horrifying words that anyone will ever hear. And those words are spoken by Jesus to many, He says, who will come to Him professing, I know you. We taught in your streets and we did good deeds and you know, remember me? And Jesus will say, I never knew you.

Horrifying. John 10, 14, Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. It's relationship. It's a connection.

It's affection. Jesus knows his sheep. He loves his sheep. His sheep know Him and love Him. And if you are a believer here this afternoon, God knows you.

You know Him. His affection is forever fixed upon you. And he knew you and fixed his love upon you before you were born, before you were ever born in eternity past. And having foreknown you, he also did predestinate you to be conformed to the image of his Son. Praise God.

Praise God. To be conformed to the image of His Son. Praise God. Praise God. To be conformed to the image of His Son.

If you love God today, if you love God in Christ today, of course it's because He first loved you. We love Him because He first loved us, John says in 1 John 4 19. God's grace preceded your response to His grace. God's love for you preceded your love for Him. The reason that you love Him if you love Him today is because He first loved you and He loved you before time began.

And He determined to predestinate you to be conformed to the image of His Son. God's grace preceded your response to His grace, and that grace was given you in Christ Jesus before you did anything. I quote it from Romans 9 where God says, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. So that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calls. As it is written, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated.

Wow. God's love for those he foreknew is a distinguishing love, and it's a love that was fixed on his people before the foundation of the world. We who believe were known of God, foreknown of him, forloved of him, with a distinguishing affection before the world began. That's the foundational doctrine here. We have to understand going into and being able to understand this predestination based upon God's foreknowing and for loving us this predestination whereby we were destined beforehand by God to be conformed to the image of his Son.

The biblical doctrine is that God knew you before in eternity past. He set his affection upon you in eternity past, before you ever came into the world, before you were ever conceived in the womb of your mother. Just like Jeremiah, before God formed you in your mother's womb, He knew you. His affection was already set upon you. Is it wonderful to think about?

God, before the foundations of the world, I was already in His mind and His love was already fixed upon me. And that's why I'm where I am today. That's why I came to Him. That's why I ever had any affection for Him at all. That's why I came under conviction for my sin.

That's why I first gazed upon Christ, first realized that I was a sinner and violated God's commands. That's the reason that I'm here today in a church listening to the Word of God, singing the praises of God, praying with the people of God. That's the reason God set His affection upon me before time began. He loved me, the unlovable, the sinner, before time began. And in the process of time, He sent His Son to die for me.

And in the process of time, He brought me out of my mother's womb. And in the process of time, he sent his son to die for me. And in the process of time, he brought me out of my mother's womb. And in the process of time, he brought me to hear the gospel. And in the process of time, while others around me heard that same gospel and rejected.

He brought me to my knees in humility before Him, in repentance before Him, in birth of faith in my heart. It's all because of His love. All because he loved me before time began. Oh God, how wonderful is your love. We concluded in that last session with 2 Timothy 1, 9, where Paul laid it all down very clearly, where we read that God, quote, saved us, and He called us with a holy calling, a different calling than a set apart calling, a calling that distinguished us and set us apart, not according to our works, not according to something God foresaw in eternity that we would do in time, but according to his own purpose and grace.

The definition of which is free, unmerited love and mercy, which was given us in Christ Jesus way before we were born, before the world began. If you're a believer here today, today God's grace, God's undeserved love and mercy was given you in His Son before the world began. Your salvation from start to finish is a work from God, is a work of God. And if His love was set upon you and you love Him because He first loved you then you can be assured of this right now that what He began in eternity past He will complete. You have been predestinated to be conformed ultimately to his son.

But what does it mean? What does it mean that we who were for known or for loved of God in eternity past were predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son? What does it mean to be conformed to the image of his son. What does it mean to be conformed to the image of his son? The word predestinated means to be destined before.

That is to be before destined to something. And our text tells us that those who God knew before, He destined before. Look at your text. Those whom God knew before, He destined before, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. But again, what does it mean to be conformed to the image of his son.

But again what does it mean to be conformed to the image of God's son? Well ultimately it means that we will be made just like Jesus. We're on our way to that now then it will be perfected. We will be made like Jesus, not in equality. He's the eternally begotten Son of God, the God-man, not in equality, but in likeness, made like unto Him.

We will be conformed to his likeness in both spirit and body and that in perfection when we see him as he is. And this corruption puts on incorruptibility and this immortality puts on, or this mortality puts on immortality. Conformity to Christ is something every believer experiences progressively here on earth. But we will be conformed, we will only be conformed to his image ultimately and completely and perfectly in glory when Christ returns or at our death when we are raised at Christ's return. We who are in Christ are being sanctified progressively here on earth.

Every true child of God is becoming incrementally more like Jesus throughout the course of his or her life. If you're a believer, that's your experience. That's why we're still here. That's why we weren't whisked away to heaven the moment we first trusted in Jesus. God would have Christ to be formed in us and to have us to be conformed more and more to the character and sufferings of his son in this life.

And then finally and ultimately conformed perfectly to His image in glory at His return. That's your destiny to which you were predestined, destined before if you're a child of God. The moment we first trusted in the person and work of Christ alone, before our right standing before God, the moment we were first brought to repentance and faith in Jesus, we were justified in God's sight. We were declared right in God's sight. The moment you first believed.

And at that very moment, God saved us. And when he saved us, we were set apart, and the process of our sanctification began. The moment that you first believe the process of your sanctification began. If you're a child of God, if your trust is in Him, the day that you first believed, a change took place in you, and that change has been going on ever since. At that moment that you first believed, and you were first changed by God, The moment that you first came to Christ in saving faith, you began to be molded in a moral sense to Christ's character and to Christ's likeness, growing in holiness and purity and obedience and conforming to his suffering.

But when he returns, which is the object of the apostle ultimately here, and we see him as he is, all our remaining corruption, all the corruption that's left will put on incorruptibility and we will be changed into his perfect image. You will be changed into his perfect image. It's hard to really understand it, to comprehend it. We will be made like Jesus. Inwardly, outwardly, spiritually, bodily like Jesus.

Not in equality, but in likeness and perfection. Matthew Poole in the 1700s commenting on this passage writes to be conformed to the image of God's Son is quote, to be conformed to him in holiness and sufferings here, in glory hereafter. Those whom God was pleased to, Poole says, pitch his love and favor upon, which is what we've been talking about. He severed from the common lump and mass of mankind and did appoint them to be conformed to the image of his son, to be conformed to him in holiness and sufferings here, and in glory hereafter, as perfection hereafter. Scottish theologian Robert Haldane, back in the 1800s, puts it this way.

So we got Matthew Poole, 1700s, let's move up to the 1800s. Robert Haldane says in the 1800s, believers are quote, conformed to the image of God's Son in holiness and in suffering in this life and in glory in the life to come. That's the path here. That's the destination to here. That's the destination to which you were predestined there.

Are you on that path? Late 1800s Princeton theologian Charles Hodge agrees, the end to which those whom God has chosen are predestined is conformity to the image of His Son, that they might be like his son in character. Everybody understands what that is, in character and destiny, predestined, and destiny. We are to be like our savior in moral character in our present sufferings, that is in the things we're ordained to go through here on earth and future glory Paul writes in Ephesians 1 of verse 4 according as He hath chosen us, according as He hath chosen us, in Him, in Christ, again, before the foundation of the world, Paul won't let us forget that. It started in eternity past, before the world began, before the foundation of the world, what?

That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. John Gill comments here that we were not chosen because we were holy, but that we might partake of the sanctification of the Spirit, that we might be sanctified by Christ, set apart by Christ here, and be perfectly holy there, hereafter, when we will be entirely freed from all sin. Do you look forward to that day? We're going to be freed, if you're a believer in Christ, if you've been changed by Him, if His love was set upon you, and you're one of those that has responded to that love and love, you believe on Christ, your trust is in Jesus. He just wanna serve the living God out of love for what he has done for you and giving his son to suffer and die for you and to be treated as though he did the things you've done and to pay the penalty for your sins and to bring you to God.

Oh, does it just bring you to a place where you just praise Him and thank Him? Oh God, we're going to be entirely freed from all sin when we're in your presence. I'm not going to be able to sin against you ever again. I'm on a path right now and you're on a path right now that is headed toward perfection when we are made like Christ at His coming, when we see Him as He is, but we're on a road right now that is very, very difficult. And it's that pathway of sanctification, of growth in holiness, where we see our deficiency.

We know we have repetitive sin in our life and it grieves us and we hate it, but we know that one day God's word is true, that he who set his love upon us in eternity past and sent His Son to die for us in the process of time, and who is sanctifying us now and turning us away from sin, and we can see it in our life's history. 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, maybe five days ago, we're not what we were then. God is changing us, that there is a work that He is doing in our lives, and that He's bringing us into conformity to His Son, and one day we know we're going to be entirely freed from all sin. There's not going to be any more temptation. There's not going to be any more impediment to us worshiping Him perfectly as He deserves to be worshiped for all eternity.

What a glorious day that's going to be. But we're on that path now and it's difficult. We're on that path of sanctification now and there's some suffering that's involved in it. I don't want to say those kinds of things anymore Lord. I don't want to think those kinds of things anymore Lord.

I don't want to do with my hands things that I've done with my hands anymore. David said my sin is ever before me. Oh God, I want to be more like Jesus and I'm so grateful for the hope that one day this corruption is going to put on incorruptibility and that which I would attain right now if I could attain it right now, which is perfect obedience to you will be mine then. Perfect holiness will be mine then. Oh, but we're on that road.

Concerning our conformity to the image of Christ on earth, Dr. Sproul writes, the instant true faith is present in the heart of the believer. The process of sanctification begins. Change begins at once. Is that your experience?

Change began at once. You came to Christ and change began. You don't want to do the things that you were doing. You do want to do the things that God wants you to do. Is that your experience?

It's the experience of every believer. Change began at once, not total change, progressively, progressive conformity to Christ. Change begins at once. The Christian begins to be conformed to the image of Christ as a scroll. We are becoming holy, we're becoming set apart.

And if we are not, then Christ is not in us and our profession of faith is empty. We are growing in holiness. Change has begun. We're beginning to be conformed to the image of Christ. We're seeing change in our lives.

Our affections have changed. We don't always do as we should do. And Paul expressed this in chapter 7. I do things many times I don't want to do but even that is evidence that he's a believer because there's doing things he doesn't want to do. He has to be drugged now, kicking and screaming into sin.

Is that your experience? Are you being made holy? Are you being conformed to the image of Christ now? Do you see it? Do you have a past life and a present life and hopefully a future growth and holiness if we continue to live?

Do you have that in your life? Can you look at your life and really see God's putting more and more distance between me and that sin? I'm not doing the same things that I was doing five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, ten years ago, however, last year. There's more distance between me and that sin. I fall sometimes, but there's more and more distance.

I see God putting more and more distance. I'm growing in holiness and maybe the distance isn't all that great yet, but my heart is such that all I want to do is please the Lord. And it wasn't that way a year ago or two years ago. He changed my affections. He's increased my passion for righteousness and holiness and to live for Him and to do His will.

Is that your experience? Is there a past you and a present you or is it all just a bore And you might as well just go to sleep. The Christian begins to be conformed to the image of Christ. Sproul says we're becoming holy. We're being made more like Jesus.

If we're not, then Christ is not in us. And our profession of faith is worthless, it's empty. Brothers and sisters, we begin to be conformed to the image that is the character and likeness of Christ here on earth the moment we come into union with Christ by faith. I think it was Martin Lloyd-Jones, I couldn't remember where I heard this, but that said the fact that you are being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is further evidence that you are in Christ and among the elect of God. The fact that you're being conformed to him now, that you're seeing progress in your sanctification over the last 50 years is further evidence that you are in Christ and among the elect of God.

You have some evidence. There's evidence there. And That's encouraging. I think it was Newton that said, I'm not what I should be, I know, God. I'm not what I should be.

I'm not what I want to be, oh God. I'm not what I will be in glory. But one thing I know, I am not what I used to be. To be conformed to the image of Christ, of Jesus, is to resemble Him in holiness and obedience more and more here on earth. To be conformed more and more to His character and purity incrementally here on earth and the here and now even as we undergo the patience with patience the things Christ underwent and would have us to undergo and to be perfectly conformed to His image and perfection in both spirit and body and the hereafter.

God is glorified when we resemble His Son and the more we resemble His Son here on earth, guess what? The more the world will hate us. The more you look like Jesus on the earth, the more you resemble Him on earth, the more the world's gonna say, I don't like you. I don't want to be around you and they hate you because they hate him We love Him because He first loved us. They hate us because they hate Him and He is in us.

And if they could just get their hands on Him, they would do the same thing. Or they would want to do the same thing that they did 2, 000 years ago to Him. But now He is in you. The more we resemble the son, the more the world will hate us. This is one of the ways in which we share in his sufferings and are conformed to his sufferings.

Paul says in Philippians 3, 7, that I may know him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death." We haven't attained, we haven't attained this perfection that's coming, this perfect conformity to the image of Christ that we will have in eternity when we are made like Christ. But we press for the goal. We press toward the goal of Christ's likeness. Paul writes in Philippians 3, 12 and 14, not as though I had attained. I'm not saying I've attained, he's saying.

Either we're already perfect. That's Paul speaking. I haven't attained, I'm not already perfected, But I press toward the mark. Is that you? You press toward the mark.

I press towards the mark. That's here on earth. In this world, we press toward the mark. We want to grow. We press toward it.

We want to grow in Christlikeness. At the moment of our conversion, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, to our accounts and justification, and then we're progressively sanctified until death. But when we see Him as He is at His return, we will experience the reality of full conformity to His image in our glorification. Until then we press on, we press on, we press toward the mark, not as though we have attained or remained perfect already, but we press toward the mark of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And everyone who is pressing toward that mark is one day going to be changed perfectly into the image of Christ.

When this corruption, as I said already twice, will put on incorruptibility and these mortal bodies will put on immortality. Brothers and sisters, we who believe that the day of Christ's return will be ultimately and perfectly and finally conformed to the image of Christ. Amen? It is a done deal. Past tense in the eternal mind and purpose of God.

Began in eternity past and you can be a confident of this that who he who began that good work in you is going to complete it. Rejoice in the finished work of Christ. Rejoice on account of the reality that the free, unmerited love and mercy of God was fixed upon you before you were born, before you ever came into the world, and before the world began. And final conformity to Christ's image is yours. It's as if it's already done.

You will, you who believe will behold Him in His unveiled glory, being made like unto Him without sin, and able to worship Him and love Him and adore Him as He deserves to be worshiped and loved and adored forever in glory. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Oh God, what wonderful words these are, with wonderful certain expectation, hope grounded in the certain expectation of the fulfillment of the truths of Your Word and the promises of Your Word toward Your people.

Oh God, how wonderful. We will not be fighting forever. We will not be in the struggle against sin forever. We will not be in this world of sin forever. We are whose faith is in you, who love you on account of the love in which you loved us before time began.

We who trust in your Son, who are brought to repent and believe on his name, who have been changed and are being changed and will be changed, God, we praise you and thank you for what's coming. For one day, we will be made like unto our Lord Jesus and we praise and we thank you for it God because that is not true of every person on the face of the earth or even every professor of Christ. We thank you God and we praise you Lord that that which you have begun in us you will complete. You will bring to completion. We thank you God that it's a done deal.

And oh God, our gracious master and our Lord, assist us as the old hymn says to proclaim to spread to all the earth abroad the honor of your name amen