Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Let's hear God's word now from Romans
Chapter Eight. I'm going to be preaching
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again on this passage, from Verse
Twenty Eight Through Verse Thirty, Twenty Eight,
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twenty nine and thirty, but focusing
a little bit more on those last
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two verses today. So let's hear
God's word from Romans Eight, Verses Twenty
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Eight, twenty nine and thirty.
And we know that for those who love
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God, all things work together for
good, for those who are called according
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to his purpose, for those whom
he foreknew, he also predestined to be
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conformed to the image of his son
in order that he might be the firstborn
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among many brothers. And those whom
he predestined he also called, and those
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whom he called he also justified,
and those whom he justified he also glorified.
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The consolations that are given to us
in the last couple verses of this
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hymn from Psalm Ninety eight are reminders
of the consolations that God has been giving
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to us in Romans Chapter Eight,
that we are safe within the fold of
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God, that he is keeping us, that he is protecting us. These
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are there here in this chapter and
in numerous ways, and as I've said
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several times, pointing us to the
earlier part in Chapter Eight. This is
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for a very good reason. It's
because in this present time, we suffer,
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we endure, we are called even
on to or endure these sufferings mentioned
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in verse eighteen and called and couldn't
we're called to them in verse seventeen.
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We are called to suffer with Christ
in order that we may also be glorified
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with him. This calling to suffering
and the consolations that God is giving to
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us in this chapter are consistent with
the calling that Jesus gives in Matthew Sixteen,
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Verse Twenty Four. Remember, he
says, if any man will come
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after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me.
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You See, this is the calling
of our Lord. This is what
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it means to be a disciple.
It's what it means to be a Christian.
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It's to follow after our Lord,
to be conformed to him, to
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follow his pattern or, as Peter
says, I'm to follow his steps.
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In First Peter, to twenty one
through twenty four, we are to follow
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after our Lord, we are to
follow his pattern, and that includes his
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sufferings. But this is difficult and
God wants us to understand. I'm not
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only that we have been called to
this, but as a good and loving
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father, he sits us down and
he talks to us. He puts us
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at the kitchen table. He says, look, I want to explain why.
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I want to tell you why this
is necessary, why this is important,
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how I want you to understand.
Whatever it is you may be going
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through in your life right now,
whether it's internal sufferings and battles within the
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soul or external ones within relationships or
work or your neighbor, neighborhood or community,
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these sufferings that we endure are for
a particular purpose. God takes even
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the most evil things of this world, we read in Verse Twenty Eight,
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and works all things together for good. This is what we are called to
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do. I wonder if you've ever
tried to follow someone and you didn't know
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where they were going? It's kind
of a stressful thing, isn't it?
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Maybe a boss at work who's called
you to do something and you're not really
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sure what you're expected to do,
or even just a party game where you're
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blindfolded and told to go here or
go there. It it's not a comfortable
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feeling is it? You're off balance, your wavering, you bump into things.
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The God doesn't call us to follow
him blindly, does he? He
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tells us to press on his sufferings, knowing exactly where we are going,
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exactly how we are getting there and
how good it is. And that's one
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of the reasons we have these three
verses in Romans Chapter Eight. It's one
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of the reasons these three verses are
some of the most precious verses to Christians
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all over the world and throughout history, for those whom, for though,
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and we know that those who love
God, all things work together for good,
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for those who are called according to
his purpose, for those whom he
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for knew he also predestined to be
conformed. That's the goal, to be
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conformed to the image of his son
in order that he might be the firstborn
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among many brothers, those whom he
for knew, he also called, those
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whom he called he also justified,
and those whom he justified he also glorified.
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In these verses, God gives us
insight into his goal, his desire
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for your sufferings, the objective that
he's trying to meet. That's going to
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be our first point. This morning, God's goal. The second is that
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it beat. This goal becomes a
guarantee for us experience and Stan what will
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thirdly, call a golden chain of
salvation, a phrase that I'm borrowing from
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William Perkins, the father of puritanism. He's called, and all of this
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knowledge, this goal is guarantee,
this golden chain is given for it these
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two purposes to save those, to
call to salvation those who do not walk,
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to Cry Rock with Christ, and
to strengthen us who do walk in
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him, who know what it means
to suffer and suffer as a Christian.
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So let's think about those. First, the goal, as I mentioned.
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God tells it to us here.
He's working all things together for good,
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for a very particular purpose. What's
that purpose? It's that we may be
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conformed to the image of his son, and that is to achieve an even
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higher purpose in order that he might
be the firstborn among many brothers. That's
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the thing God wants us to have
in mind when we are facing our sufferings.
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But what does that mean? How
are we to think about that,
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that Jesus is to be the firstborn
among many brothers? Well, Paul says
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something similar. Similarly, back at
the beginning of Romans. He opens up
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chapter one in this way. I'm
going to read sort of jumping into the
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middle of the sentence ver three,
concerning his son, who was descended from
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David according to the flesh, and
was declared to be the son of God
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in power, according to the spirit
of holiness, by his resurrection from the
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dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord. There was something that happened in Jesus's
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resurrection where he was declared to be
the son of God. Now Jesus,
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of course, is the son of
God eternally, but there's another way in
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which he's the son of God,
this firstborn sense, in which he enters
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into God's presence as one who has
entering into a position. It's a this
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title of firstborn as a kind of
status. We still have vestiges of this
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in our world, but it's especially
true in the ancient world. The to
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be a firstborn son was to have
a very high position of privilege. You
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were going to receive the wealth of
the father. Many sons who weren't firstborn
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would often take other kinds of professions
and things like that in order to maintain
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their nobility because they weren't going to
have any wealth. There was a difficult
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position to not be a firstborn son
or, even worse, to be a
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daughter. Difficult, difficult, difficult. But to be a firstborn son,
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well, that's great. Means you
get all this inheritance, all this honor.
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It means you get to continue on, in a sense, this family
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dynasty, this work. Now Jesus
Has Been Eternally The begotten Son of God,
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but Romans tells us that there is
this aim in his humanity that he
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receives this status, that he receives
according to the righteousness that he earns.
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He says that he is to be
the first born again, and that's in
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Romans twenty nine, in order that
he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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But we remember that that firstborn among
the many brothers is not something in
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isolation. That second phrase is so
important. He's not just firstborn, but
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God wants him to be firstborn among
many brothers. This means that God's plan
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for his son, the father's plan
for the son, the son's obedience to
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the father, is not an isolated
event within the trinity. It involves,
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you, to put it another way, God's plan in making Christ super pre
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eminent above all things would not make
any sense if it weren't for the fact
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of you. He is super pre
eminent. He is pre eminent over us.
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He has firstborn among many brothers.
The fact that we are here allows
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or doesn't allow, but it makes
sense of who he is as this pre
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eminent son. But it has this
other effect. This goal that God has
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for Christ means that there is a
goal for us. Under him, we
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glorify him as pre eminent and under
him he is a pre eminent over us.
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It establishes who we are in him
and this goal that he has.
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Well, all this is to say
this simple thing that God has this particular
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goal to raise Christ to this status
of Pre Eminence. But it involves you
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and me, it involves us,
and that's why he starts that way.
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He says that those whom he for
knew he also predestined to be conformed to
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the image of son in order that
he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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Well, how is this helpful and
suffering? How does knowing God's goal
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for Christ, that the Messiah would
be lifted up and would raise and would
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be seated at the right hand of
the father, help us in our suffering.
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Well, it helps us because it
guarantees for us certain things. It
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means that our salvation is not,
is not just something that God is sort
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of working without us individually. It's
something that's established in the trinity itself.
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Health. It means that God has
purposed this thing in and of himself and
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he won't let that go. God's
goal guarantees your salvation. It means that
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your salvation, past, present and
future depends not on anything in you,
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but on everything in him. It's
a guarantee that our heart, in our
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hearts, that we are caught up
in something greater, that this Pre Eminence
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which the father gives to the son
is something that we are caught up in
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in Christ's ascension, in Christ's resurrection, where it's like we're pulled along in
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his train. We are is is
not an accident, in other words,
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and God is the God. The
father is not going to drop God the
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Sun, because God is one.
God would not be God if he was
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falling apart within himself. But he
doesn't, he doesn't change, he never
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moves. He's eternal from beginning to
end and passed both points. That's how
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secure your salvation is. It's secure
in the very trinitarian nature of God himself.
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If that isn't a guarantee of your
salvation, I don't know what could
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be. But it also means that
we are forever in God's hands. You
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remember what Jesus says in John Ten, that no one whom the father gives
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him will be lost, that nothing
can snatch us out of the father's hands.
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Do you remember why he says that? He says it's because of the
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unity that he and the father have, because of the love they have,
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because of the fellowship they that they
that they share. That's how secure our
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salvation is. God has a plan, a plan to accomplish, and it
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will not be lost. Now,
with this guarantee, there is this certain
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what we might call, or what
William Perkins called, this golden chain of
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salvation that can be inferred. In
other words, if God has this plan
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at the end of this goal that
he will achieve, and if God is
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the one who is capable of working
all things together for good, then that
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means only one thing, that your
salvation, beginning, middle and end,
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is all the work of God.
It's this beautiful chain God binds together each
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and every aspect of your salvation and
into this interlocking, beautiful and, because
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of who he is, unbreakable chain. Each and every portion of God's intended
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salvation for you is locked together by
his will, by his love for you,
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by his love and glory for himself, a chain that is infinitely beautiful
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and entirely unbreakable. With this goal
declared, found it on himself, we
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can assume that nothing is left to
chance, that all things work together for
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good. But you know what,
we don't need to inferth this, even
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though we can, because it says
it right here very plainly. He speaks
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to our hearts and he says,
and those whom he predestined he also called,
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and those whom he called he also
justified, and those whom he justified
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he also glorified. Every single step
of the way, from before you were
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even conceived, God says he chose
you in love, he predestined you for
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salvation. He willed to pluck you
out of the sin and misery into which
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you would be born, the sin
which you would you would commit, and
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he chose, before the foundation of
the world, Paul says, to save
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you from it. He predestined you, before you were born, to reach
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the end. But God doesn't merely
predestine you according to his will, but
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he actually actuates that will, he
causes it to come about. When God
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desired to create the world, he
willed it and he said, let there
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be light. And you know what, there was light. He called the
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world into existence. And he does
the same thing for you. He wills
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this and then he effectually calls you. He changes every aspect of your being,
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every sinful, perverted, destroyed aspect
of you. Your Heart in its
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corruption and wickedness, your will and
the way that it has bent towards sinful
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things, your mind in its darkness, in its cloudiness, in its misunderstandings
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and willful, sinful conclusions. God
comes to you and all of this depravity,
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in all of this sinfulness, and
says, let there be light.
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And the light which was coming into
the world shined in the darkness and the
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darkness did not overcome it. And
each of these aspects of us, our
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heart, our mind and our will, were changed by God in such a
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way that we are enabled and persuaded
to embrace Jesus Christ. Something changes on
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us, something so dramatic that Jesus
says to Nicodemus that it's called a new
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birth or being born again. It's
as if there is a new creature that
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is made, a new creation that
God wills and speaks into existence. He
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doesn't just predestine us for this,
but he calls us to it, and
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then he justifies us. Through this
faith in which we are now enabled to
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have, through this repentance in which
we turn away from our sins, God
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begins to work in us and through
faith in particular, we receive something from
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God, namely our justification. What
is justification? It's the pardoning of all
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of our sins. It's the accepting
us as righteous in his sight. It's
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taking all of Christ's merit and giving
it to you, so that you stand
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before God not in your own sins
anymore, but as one who is justified,
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as one who stands clothed in Christ's
righteousness. In this justification, your
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legal standing changes and from that point
on you walk before God not as one
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who is perpetually moving between I'm innocent, I'm guilty, I'm innocent, I'm
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guilty, I'm redeemed. I'm not
redeemed, I'm forgiven. I'm not forgiven,
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but as one who is eternally and
forever and ever by the unchangeable decree
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of God, justified, forgiven,
innocent, righteous one who walks with the
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name of Jesus on them. Well, that justification that we have in this
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life, that we believe that God
has given us, is not always very
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apparent for many reasons. One of
them is that there is still corruption and
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sin inside of us. There are
things which the devil brings to our minds
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and says you are not forgiven,
you still have sin. And this is
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where, in our glorification, that
justification of God that is promised to you
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now, that justification that you have
now through faith in Jesus, will be
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vindicat hated, will be made visible
that which you now see and believe,
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or see by faith, believed by
faith, God will make openly known,
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visible to all, God, man, beast, Angel, devil. All
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will see you in your glorified body
and say, Yep, that one was
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justified. There won't be any question, there won't be any doubt, because
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you will shine with the radiance of
God. You will be made perfect in
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body, mind, soul, in
every aspect of you, shining with the
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glory of God through the grace that
was given to you in Jesus. Here
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in your life now, in the
past. If you are believer now,
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but made open, you will be
acquitted and acknowledged as a son of God.
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You will be perfectly conformed, no
longer to the image of fallen Adam,
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depraved, be steal perverted, an
enemy of God, a child of
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Wrath, but conformed to the image
of the resurrected son of God, glorious,
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Shining, holy, fully enjoying the
perfect blessings and community. And that,
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all of all that he has earned
for you, that he gives to
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you. Those froom God predestined,
he also called, and those whom he
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called he justified, and those whom
he justified he also glorified. This glorification
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is put in the past tense for
two reasons, I think. One is
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that we enjoy this glorification now.
We have been raised with Christ, Paul
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says in Romans six, you have
been buried with him and therefore also raised
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with him. Colossians three tells us
that we are seated with Christ in the
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heavenly places. Hebrews twelve says,
that is, that we have now come
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to the heavenly Jerusalem Mountain, Z
I, in the city of the Living
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God, in Jesus Christ, the
glory that Jesus has as a glory that
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we have now. But there's also
a way in which there's this kind of
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prophetic past tense being used here,
I think, in which the glorification that
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is to come is so certain that
it is put in this past tense,
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a sense in which we now anticipate
and will be revealed on the last day.
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This too shall come. Now,
you may ask yourself, she link
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these chains together and your mind,
predestined called justified glorified. What about the
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middle part? What about the Saint
tification part? Why doesn't Paul Mention that?
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The answer is because that's what this
passage is about. Remember, it's
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about our sufferings, it's about our
sanctification. This whole passage is about.
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How do we understand our sanctification?
How do we understand our present trials,
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and Paul says, you understand them
in this way, seeing them as a
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part of this golden chain, as
sons of God, as those who have
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been adopted. You see them in
this way because of the guarantee of God
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in Jesus Christ, because of this
goal that he is determined before all time.
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That's how we see things. In
this life, and that's how those
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things connect. The Jesus Christ would
be firstborn among many brothers, that you
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would be called sons of God and
enjoy with him this inheritance as co errs.
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This is God's goal and it changes
our sufferings now, it changes the
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way we perceive them. Think about
what life was like before you were Christian,
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or think about those whom you know
who are not Christians. Do all
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things work together for good for them? Are they able to see things in
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that way? Are they able to
say, because of what God has done
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in Christ, I know that I
will be glorified. I know that I've
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been predestined and called. I've been
justified and glorified and glorified as well.
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Do they have that kind of confidence? Do they know that they will enjoy
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the eternal blessing of God and because
of that, do they know that all
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things work together for their good?
Of course they don't, and you didn't
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either when you were not a Christian. You don't see things as working all
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together for good. you see them
perhaps as faded but meaningless, random or
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maybe just evil and cursed. How
do you deal with that? Well,
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you can pretend it away until it
pushes its face in you again, or
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in your face. You can try
to be stock about it, you can
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have a kind of detachment from life
and say, well, it's all faded
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and it's more or less meaningless,
but here we go, I'll just try
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to do the best I can.
But again there's no joy in that,
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no real hope, no ultimate hope. And then there's those who see things,
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see the events of this life is
not working together for good, because
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they're working together for evil. They're
cursing it's cursed, that it's ending in
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death, and so they try to
counteract them, perhaps by their own power,
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moral or religious, to go out
into the world and conquer the world
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and make it this utopia. But
all the time is staring them in the
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face their own death, the death
of the world, the corruption of our
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societies, of our bodies, the
continual falling apart of humanity. Over and
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over again. How many times as
Utopia been tried? How many books have
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been written that say, if we
would only do x, Y and Z,
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we can achieve these ends? But
none of them ever account for sin,
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none of them ever take human depravity
really seriously. And when they do,
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you end up with depression and meaninglessness
and lostness and nihilism, because it's
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all vanity and it all ends and
death. That's what it's like to live
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in a world and efface the events
of the world and the events of our
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lives as unbelievers. That's before.
But what happens when God speaks in our
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hearts according to his will and says
let there be light? Well, as
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I said, it's the Bible says
the light shines in the darkness and that
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which was meaningless, that which was
evil, is overcome and is given a
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sense of purpose. Not just a
sense of purpose, not just an idea
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or a thing that you might chew
yourself up with a little bit, but
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the very plan of the try and
God who says to you this is what
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I am doing, this is what
I have done and this is what I
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will do. And so when we
face our sufferings and our trials in light
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of this, we don't enter into
them with detachment, just trying to cope.
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We don't enter into them trying to
counteract them or go against them.
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We enter into our trials, even
our trials, even our sufferings, with
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joy and love and confidence, because
what God has promised to do, to
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overcome sin, to overcome death.
You know, in a funny way it
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means that we don't even it's not
that we not. I am sorry.
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Let me put it this way.
We not only endure our sufferings as Christians,
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but when we are really acting in
faith, we press on in them,
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and not just through them in a
sense, but even in them.
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You, I imagine something of like
a warrior who wakes up in the morning
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and says bring it right. He
doesn't just say, well, here I
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am and I'm I'll go through the
battle as best I can and and I'll
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see the I'll try to endure,
but he says instead, where's the fight?
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I'm a warrior, this is who
I'm made to be. I'm here
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to win the battle and I have
already begun a been given victory. This
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is the attitude of someone who is
not defeated but who knows him or herself
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to be a conqueror. He goes
forward, as she goes forward into the
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world with this kind of confidence,
looking for the battles. Bring it,
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they say. When it comes to
trials and suffering, it's not that we
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rush in foolishly or that we bring
evil upon ourselves. We pray that God
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would take these things away. We
asked that he would give us our daily
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bread. But when they come and
he says they're coming, when God says
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to us, provided that we suffer
with him in order that we may be
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glorified him, we don't drop our
heads and say, all right, well,
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I guess I'll try now. We
say I'm in Jesus Christ, this
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is secured for me. Bring it
on, bring on the fires, bring
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on the suffering, bring on the
trials. I know I belong to Jesus
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Christ. Our confidence comes not from
US finding some sort of well of strength
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that was once dry. We find
our confidence in God, who promises these
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things. Notice that this is again
his will. He predestines us, he
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calls us, he justifies us,
he glorifies us. You don't put on
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the armor of pastor or the armor
of yourself or your father or your mother
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or some hero of the faith.
What does Paul tell us to put the
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armor on as we go into battle? The armor of God. We are
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equipped not with our own strength,
but with his, his plan, his
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will, his work, his glory. We don't live and die, or
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rather die and live according to us, but according to him. It's his
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sword, it's his shield, it's
his helmet. This is how we fight,
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this is how we live, this
is how we see and press on
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in our sufferings, even against our
own sins, because we are his,
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we belong to him. We are
his sons to be glorified with the first
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pre eminent son. This is guaranteed
from us from the beginning and to the
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end, even to eternity itself.
Let us pray
