Lesson 19 - Romans Chapter 8:24-29 | Deer Creek Canyon Bible Church

The last time we met we talked about the fact that we’re “born-again,” that we are indeed, children of God. As children of the God of this universe, we are also joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ. All that belongs to Jesus, we will one day inherit… along with… (17) “But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.” We learned that even though we are sealed as God’s children, we, along with all of creation, groan within… “for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.”

Do you ever wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and just groan? Yep, these old bodies are wearing out! We rejoice because of the hope that one day we will be with Jesus and all of the concerns of this world will be gone.

Rom. 8:24-25
“For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”

“We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.” (NLT)

The hope we are talking about here doesn’t come from our desires or wishes, it comes from God.

Hope (el-peace’) for the Christian is our joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. Our biggest expectation is in the Author of hope, our Lord Jesus Christ. For the Christian, he has put all his eggs in one basket. I know growing up we’re always told not to put all our eggs in one basket, especially when it comes to your finances, but I think we’re safe here when it comes to trusting God.

Psalm 39:7
“And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.”
When someone says, “Trust me,” we have one of two reactions. Either we can say, “Yes, I’ll trust you,” or we can say, “Why should I?” In God’s case, trusting Him naturally follows when we understand why we should. Here are some examples:

Numbers 23:19
“God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?” (ESV)

Psalm 89:33-34
“But I will never stop loving him nor fail to keep My promise to him. No, I will not break My covenant; I will not take back a single word I said.” (NLT)

Isa. 14:24
“The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has sworn this oath: “It will all happen as I have planned. It will be as I have decided.” (NLT)

What are the objects of our hope in God?

Salvation… our Eternal life, Titus 1:2 “This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God—who does not lie—promised them before the world began.” (NLT)

Righteousness, Gal 5:5 “But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.” (NLT)

Our resurrection from the dead, Acts 23:6 “Paul realized that some members of the high council were Sadducees and some were Pharisees, so he shouted, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, as were my ancestors! And I am on trial because my hope is in the resurrection of the dead!” (NLT)

The glory of God, Col 1:27 “For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing His glory.” (NLT)

The Second coming of Jesus. Titus 2:13 “While we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.” (NLT)

Now let’s look at verse 24 and 25 again…

The hardest part of this verse is to wait patiently and confidently.

Rom 8:26-27
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

How many times have you found yourself praying and you also found yourself at a loss for words? You’ve talked with God, you’ve given Him all your requests, and then you’re just not sure what else to say, but you know you want to spend more time with Him.

Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God;”

This is when the Holy Spirit steps in for us… but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;

John MacArthur; “Contrary to the interpretation of most charismatics, the groanings of the Spirit are not utterances in unknown tongues, much less ecstatic gibberish that has no rational content.

As Paul says explicitly, the groans are not even audible and are inexpressible in words. Yet those groans carry profound content, namely divine appeals for the spiritual welfare of each believer.”

Praying is always important, and too many of us don’t pray enough, I know I’m guilty of that. Praying keeps us connected to God, it keeps us familiar with God… He should never become a stranger to us. Prayer is not getting my will done in heaven, it’s getting God’s will done on earth. If we spend more time with God our relationship will naturally be fresh, and if this is true for you, you will know when God is speaking to you and you will know when He isn’t. But, understand this, when you come to the end of yourself in your prayers, know that God is right there with you by His Spirit, and He knows exactly how to pray for you… when you’re still before the Lord, He is still working.

Rom. 8:28
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Here’s another “flagship” verse from Paul. This is a verse that most Christians will memorize. Why? Because of the hope we all hold onto.

John MacArthur; “For Christians, this verse contains perhaps the most glorious promise in Scripture. It is breathtaking in its magnitude, encompassing absolutely everything that pertains to a believer’s life. This magnificent promise consists of four elements that continue Paul’s teaching about the believer’s security in the Holy Spirit: its certainty, its extent, its recipients, and its source.”

Paul says, “we know,” this shows a confidence in the truth of God’s word. As we covered before, we know that God is always faithful and He keeps His word. These two words, “we know” express the Christian’s absolute certainty of an eternal security in the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind that what Paul is saying here isn’t his opinion or that he has some kind of agenda, Paul is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

God causes all things… once again, here we have the word “all” and quite simply, all means all. When we’re going through a particularly hard time in relation to Romans 8:28, we might be tempted to say, “most things” or “some things work together.”

These thoughts are little whispers coming from satan trying to derail you, causing you to doubt what God’s Word says. Our flesh wars against us as well, and we tell ourselves, “This thing that’s happening to me is way too hard, it hurts too bad, this can’t possibly turn out for good.” This could be very true in our own strength, but remember in John 15, Jesus tells us, that apart from Him you can do nothing.

If you’ve been a believer for any length of time, you’ve seen God work, and how He will take the most horrendous thing and turn it into good. For example, a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with cancer. When you hear the doctor say, “you have cancer,” it can jolt you, even devastate you. But for me, once I got over the initial shock of just hearing the word cancer, God used the whole thing to draw me even closer to Him. (There’s always room for improvement)

In fact, we all wouldn’t be sitting here tonight if it wasn’t for my cancer. I had been praying about starting a Bible study for several months, but did not sense God’s direction. In the middle of the night after my surgery, I was awake and praying to God, asking Him again for direction in the matter. I didn’t hear an audible voice, but in my heart I heard Him as if He were speaking to me aloud. He said He wanted me to get started. I truly believe He used the surgery and recovery time to set me apart from everyday life to focus solely on Him. The experience has drawn me closer to Him than ever before.

I’m sure if you think long enough you can come up with some of your own examples of how God has turned something bad into good in your life.

When some hard things were happening to Jacob he said, “You are robbing me of my children! Joseph is gone! Simeon is gone! And now you want to take Benjamin, too. Everything is going against me!” (Gen. 42:36). So we can see from Jacob’s experience, that when things are piling up on you, it’s easy to miss the hand of God holding you up. We know that in the end, everything worked out for Jacob and his sons.

If we look at Jacob’s son Joseph and how he was mistreated, we can see that hard things came into his life; Joseph’s brothers betrayed him, he was sold into slavery, Potiphar’s wife accused him of attacking her (when it was all a lie), as a result, Joseph was in prison for many years. Joseph accepted all this because his faith in God was strong.

Gen. 50:20 (Joseph talking to his brothers)
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”

When the bottom slips out from under you, when you find yourself going through the toughest of trials of life, know that God has you and He will hold you up through it all.

John 10:27-30
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. “I and the Father are one.”

Does this mean that you will always see the good that comes out of any circumstance? No. We’re not promised that, but we are promised that God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Heb, 13:5b-6
“For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

And we know that the very worst man can do to us is take our life, and if he does that, we just go home to be with Jesus a little sooner.

God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God

Remember, God has two purposes; our “good,” and His glory.

Those who love God and those who are called according to His purpose, are two of the many descriptions for the Christian we find in the bible. From man’s perspective we are those who love God.

From God’s perspective “we” are those He has called. The way God sees things, there are two kinds of people in this world, those who love God and those who hate God.

Jesus said; Matt. 12:30 “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”

• What does it mean to love God?
This is the heart of what it means to love God: to be satisfied in Him… In Him… and not just in His gifts, but in God Himself, as the glorious person that He is! Loving God will include obeying all His commands; it will include believing all of His Word; and it will include thanking Him for all His gifts.

To love God is to worship and praise Him. “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only'” (Luke 4:8).

To love God, is to put Him first in your life. The number one commandment for us is to love God “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). By doing this, we won’t allow the world to steal us away from God. It is so important that we place God in the number one position in our life. Here is the proper order: 1. God, 2. Spouse, 3. Children 4. Job, and serving.

Finally, to love God is to obey Him. Jesus tells us, “If you love me you will obey what I command” (John 14:15), 23; 15:10; 1st John 5:3). However, this is not a matter of merely following rules and registering good deeds. It is about having God’s love written permanently on our hearts.

We naturally wish to please those we love. When we love God, we will want to please Him and obey His commands eagerly.

Psalm 40:8 “I delight to do your will”

Those who are called according to His purpose.

When Jesus said that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matt. 22:14), He was referring to the gospel’s external call to all men to believe in Him. In the history of the church nothing is more obvious than the fact that many, perhaps most, people who receive this call do not accept it.

John MacArthur; “But in the epistles, the term called and calling are used in a different sense, referring to the sovereign, regenerating work of God in a believer’s heart that brings him to new life in Christ.”

I Cor. 1:9
“God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Eph 3:11 (speaks of being called)
“According to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,”

II Thess. 2:14
“It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

God’s calling on each person is to come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ, resulting in salvation. When each person makes a decision for Christ, thus becoming born-again, this brings glory to God.

According to His purpose. The believer is in God’s hands, and God can do just as He pleases.

Rom. 9:21
“Or does not the Potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”

God does everything, including redemption, in order to accomplish His central plan. Yes, God has a plan and purpose for each one of His children.

Rom. 8:29
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

“For God knew his people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, He called them to come to Him. And having called them, He gave them right standing with Himself. And having given them right standing, He gave them His glory.” (NLT)

Foreknew (proginōskō): to have knowledge beforehand, to foreknow, of those whom God elected to salvation, and to predestinate.

Ephesians 1:5 and 11 tell us, “He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will…In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will.”

Many people have a strong hostility toward the doctrine of predestination; however, predestination is a biblical doctrine. The key is understanding what predestination actually means, biblically.

Predestination is God determining certain things to occur ahead of time. What did God determine ahead of time? According to Romans 8:29-30, God predetermined that certain individuals would be conformed to the likeness of His Son, be called, justified, and glorified. Essentially, God predetermines that certain individuals will be saved.

Matt. 24:22
“Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

The “elect” that Jesus is speaking of are the chosen ones, those predestined.

Col. 3:12a
“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved”

II Tim. 2:10
“For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”

From GotQuestions.org;
“The most common objection to the doctrine of predestination is that it is unfair. Why would God choose certain individuals and not others? The important thing to remember is that no one deserves to be saved. We have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and are all worthy of eternal punishment (Romans 6:23). As a result, God would be perfectly just in allowing all of us to spend eternity in hell. However, God chooses to save some of us. He is not being unfair to those who are not chosen, because they are receiving what they deserve. God’s choosing to be gracious to some is not unfair to the others.
No one deserves anything from God; therefore, no one can object if He does not receive anything from God. An illustration would be a man randomly handing out money to five people in a crowd of twenty. Would the fifteen people who did not receive money be upset? Probably so. Do they have a right to be upset? No, they do not. Why? Because the man did not owe anyone money. He simply decided to be gracious to some.
If God is choosing who is saved, doesn’t that undermine our free will to choose and believe in Christ? The Bible says that we have the choice—all who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved (John 3:16; Romans 10:9-10). The Bible never describes God rejecting anyone who believes in Him or turning away anyone who is seeking Him (Deuteronomy 4:29 “But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.) Somehow, in the mystery of God, predestination works hand-in-hand with a person being drawn by God (John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”) and believing unto salvation (Romans 1:16). God predestines who will be saved, and we must choose Christ in order to be saved. Both facts are equally true. Romans 11:33 proclaims, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out!”

I Cor. 2:11
“For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.”

Isa. 55:8
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

For every person whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you should count your blessings each and every day… then pray for those who haven’t given their life to Christ yet.

II Peter 3:9
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

In closing, remember that our hope is in our Lord, and everything He says in His Word will come to pass.

“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.”

We have been “called” by God to be a part of His family… what an awesome privilege that is!