Adrian Rogers - You Can Be Sure
Turn to Romans chapter 8. Have you ever been in a department store and seen a little child, maybe a boy, generally it will be a boy about eight, who is trying to run up the down escalator? The escalator's coming down and he's just trying to see if he can go up while that thing's going down. And, he's going with all his might, but still is going down faster than he can go up. Now that's what it's like for people who are trying to earn salvation by their own strength. There's the downward pull of sin and there's that human effort, but friend, the downward pull of sin is so much greater than that human effort. They're just simply running up the down escalator and never making it. "Were it not for grace". We're going to be talking about that grace today and how that grace can give you absolute, rock-solid assurance.
Now look in Romans 8 verse 28 and notice the first few words there, "And we know," do you see that? "And we know," K-N-O-W. Now that's what I want to talk about today: knowing. I want to talk to you today about being sure, having assurance, having a know-so salvation, so you can be a shouting Christian and not a doubting Christian, so you can be an exclamation point rather than a question mark with your head bent over. To say, "Praise God, I know, that I know, that I know, that I am saved and on the way to Heaven". Wouldn't you like that? Don't you know, people need assurance? I've been in the ministry for a long time; I've never known anybody who was any good to the service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who did not, first of all, have a rock-solid assurance that they're saved and on the way to Heaven.
Now friend, we don't need a hope-so, a maybe-so, think-so, feel-so salvation. We need a know-so salvation, Amen? And you need to be sure. Now I'm not trying to talk you into being sure if you're not saved. If you're not saved, you have no right to be sure; but if you are saved, you can have that wonderful, wonderful assurance. Now let's begin to read in Romans 8 verses 28 through 31, and look at it, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose". And that's the key phrase, "His purpose".
Now that introduces verse 29, "For whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He," that is, God's Son, "might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? 'If God be for us, who can be against us?'" Now friend, I want tell you something: God's on your side. God is for you. And salvation from start to finish is of the Lord.
William R. Newell wrote that great song: Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan, Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span, at Calvary. Now, there're five foundational facts, five great stones upon which our faith rests, and I want you to look at these right now in Romans 8 verses 29 and 30, "For whom He did foreknow," underscore the word foreknow, "He did also predestinate". Now hey, don't let this get too complicated to you and check me out. You just stay with me. "He did predestinate". All right, and then verse 30, "Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called". So you've underscored foreknow, predestinate, called, and now notice this, "and whom He called, them He also justified," underscore justified, "and whom He justified, them He also glorified".
So you have those five words, because, friend, those are the bedrock of your salvation and the basis of your assurance, and don't miss those wonderful five bedrocks of assurance, because God's plan for you and for every mother's child that knows Him is to have assurance. Now let me tell you five things you can be sure of, five things that you can bank on, five things that you can say, "I know it is true," and by the way, the only way you know these things is by divine revelation. You don't know them because you've figured them out. All right, first of all, you can be sure of God's foreknowledge of your salvation. Now in plain English, God knew that you were going to be saved before you ever got saved. God foreknew.
Now, you see, God doesn't learn anything. God already knows everything. Do you believe that? Of course you do. We call that God's omniscience and this word "foreknow" is the word "proginosko". Well I know you've been waiting to hear that. I know you've been blessed by that. It's the same word that is prognosis. You go to the doctor. He pokes around on you and he makes a prognosis. That means he tells you what he thinks is going to happen to you. He just makes a prognosis based on his investigation. It may be a good prognosis, it may be a bad prognosis, but I want to tell you it's only an educated guess as far as the doctor is concerned. I heard about a doctor, he told a man, he said, "You've only got a year to live," he said, "That's the news. I'm sorry". And he said, "Your bill to me is $5,000". The man said, "I can't pay it". He said, "Well, I'll give you another year".
Now, sometimes the doctor's prognosis is not always correct, it is not always exact. But when God foreknows something, God is not making an educated guess. God knows beyond a shadow of any doubt. Now that's the reason that sometimes we get confused when we get into things like foreknowledge, because we're looking at it from a human vantage point. Can you imagine a little boy watching a parade through a knothole? He can't even get over the fence to see the parade, so he just sees epics in that parade as they go past. But then suppose somebody takes the little guy, feels sorry for him, and says, "Come, son, into my office building, and come up here and we'll look over the parapet wall from ten stories".
The little guy can see the parade as it's forming down here. He can see it as it's dispersing down here, and he can see everything, all the bands, all the floats, everything in between because he has a different vantage. Now that's a very poor illustration, but it illustrates, poorly, what I'm trying to talk about is that, folks, we are limited; we're looking at life through a knothole. Do you understand that? I mean the events pass by this way; but God sees it all. God inhabits eternity. God sees the beginning, God sees the middle, God sees the end. God sees it all at one time, so God saw you getting saved before you ever got saved. God foreknew it. I mean, God can't learn anything. That means that you were in the heart and mind of God before He swung this planet into space.
Now, the elect are people that receive Jesus. The elect are the, "Whosoever will," and God foresees these people receiving Him. Now, let me give you a verse for your margin and it will clear up a lot of things: First Peter chapter 1 and verse 2. The Bible says we are, there in that verse, the Bible says we are, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God". "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God". There was a boy down in West Palm Beach, Florida, disobeying his parents, skipping school, cheating in school, using bad language, getting in fights, but he heard the Gospel, he repented of his sin. He said, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart, forgive my sin and save me," and God said, before He ever made, God saw that boy doing that, and God said, "He's one of My elect, he's one of My elect".
By the way, you want to know his name? His name's Adrian. That's his name. God saw that boy. God saw that boy repenting of his sin and trusting Christ before he ever made the world, and He said, "He's one of My elect". Elect according to the foreknowledge of God; that's what the Bible says. Now the Bible teaches that God chooses certain people to be elect. You know, Jesus said in John chapter 6 verse 37, "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out". That's looking at it from God's viewpoint, from God's viewpoint. That's looking at it from eternity. We look at it from time. That's the reason we sometimes get confused. Yes, God has given the elect to the Lord Jesus. Yes, God says they will come to Him, no ifs, ands, and buts about it. And yes, Jesus said they will be received. And one of these days, concerning the elect, the Lord Jesus is going to say, "Father, there they are, all present and accounted for".
Now that's from Heaven's viewpoint. Now the reason we get so confused about this election and free will business and all of this is; we try to put God in a box. We try to think with the mind of God. And friend, you can't do that. If you put God in a box, and you call that box "The Sovereignty of God," and you say, "Man has nothing to do with it. God is completely, totally sovereign, and so God just zaps everybody and makes them saved," the free will of man will pop out of that box. But if you just put God in another box and say, "It's all of man, and God has nothing to do with it, and God is not sovereign, and man just decides everything," then the sovereignty of God will pop out of that box. You're just not going to put God in a box, folks.
I want to tell you that God is God, and what we do sometimes, we're just looking through the knothole. We have never seen the thing from eternity. But the point I want you to understand is that your election is based upon God's foreknowledge. To "foreknow" does not mean to cause. It doesn't mean from before the foundation of the world God says, "I'm going to send this one to Hell, and I'm going to send that one to Heaven". Oh no. God foreknows. That doesn't mean that God causes. Do you know the astronomer can tell you when Haley's Comet's going to appear again? He foreknows it. That doesn't mean he causes it to appear. He just simply knows, as he studied astronomy, that this is when Haley's Comet is going to appear again.
Let me ask you a question. See if anybody can disagree with this statement: "Everything that's going to happen eventually will". Isn't that right? That may sound like a silly statement, but you think about it. "Everything that is going to happen eventually will". Right? God knows everything that's going to happen. God knows I just scratched my ear, but God knew from eternity I was going to scratch my ear. God knew I just patted my head.
You say, "You're being silly". No. Listen. God can't learn anything. Not a blade of grass moves but what He knows it. And friend, everything that's going to happen eventually will. That doesn't mean that God's great plan was for me to scratch my ear. No, that's silly, that's inconsequential. But I'm just simply saying that God foreknows everything. Do you understand that? He knows it all! He knows it all! He is omniscient! And God foreknew that you would receive the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. That's what the Bible says. Nothing takes God by surprise. God never says, "Ooo, I never thought of that". And God never makes any mistakes. God never says "Oops". No. God is God. All right, now you can be sure of God's foreknowledge of your salvation. Right? Okay, now number two: you can be sure of your predestination to be like Jesus; you can be rock-solid sure of that.
Now look again in God's Word here. God looks at those that are receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, and so God says, "Here's My plan for that person". Look in Romans 8:29, "For whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son". Now predestination is not dealing with the lost; it's dealing with the saved. It's dealing with the saved. God doesn't predestine some people to go to Hell, and God doesn't predestine some people to go to Heaven. God predestines every child of God, everyone who is born again, to be like Jesus. Now just read it, "For whom He did foreknow, them did He also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son". God, when He saw you receiving the Lord Jesus Christ in His omniscience, says by His omnipotence, "I am going to make him just like Jesus". That little teenage boy who gave his heart to Jesus Christ is now predestined, predestined to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, listen. Don't get the idea that God has predestined some people to Heaven and God has predestined some people to Hell. God, listen, God wants everybody saved. Now there're some people don't believe that. There're some people believe that, concerning Heaven, that God sort of says, "Eeny, meany, miney, moe, this must stay and that will go". But, no. Listen, God wants everybody to be saved. Now let me give you some Scripture, and don't argue with me after this, you just argue with these Scriptures. First Timothy 2 verses 3 through 6, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth". God wills for all men to be saved.
All right, Second Peter 3 verse 9, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all," A-double-L, "should come to repentance". God wills that all men should be saved. God is not willing that any should perish. You see, the problem is not that God doesn't want people to be saved. The problem is that God also gives human beings a will. And if God had not given human beings a will, He could have no more fellowship with us than I could have with a potted plant. No! You have a will. That's the reason, put this Scripture down.
In Matthew chapter 23 and verse 37, the Lord Jesus, as He was approaching Jerusalem and realizing that soon Jerusalem would be destroyed by Titus, the Roman general, and realizing that they had refused the king, and that they were saying on that day, "Hail him, hail him," but in a few days, a few hours they would be saying, "Nail him". They'd be putting Him upon a cross. And Jesus, coming down the slopes of the Mount of Olives, heading towards Jerusalem, was weeping great salty tears. And with a heart broken, He convulsed in sobs and said in Matthew 23:37, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee, as a hen gathereth her chicks beneath her wings, but ye would not". "I would have," He said, "but ye wouldn't".
You see, it's not God's will that any perish. God would have redeemed them, Jesus would have saved them, but they chose not to be saved. Put this Scripture down, Second Corinthians chapter 5 verses 13 through 15. They were accusing Paul of being crazy. They said, "Paul, you're a madman. You're so driven". He says this, "For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if One died for all," there are some people who just say, "Well, Jesus only died for the elect". "No. One died for all, then were all dead. And that He died for all, they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again".
Paul said, "Some people think I'm a driven man," but he said, "No. Jesus died for all, and I want all to be saved". Well, you say, "Why are you getting so excited about this"? Because there's some people teaching God doesn't want everybody to be saved. And when you believe that, and when you believe it's already finished, already done, already signed, already sealed, already delivered, and you don't have any choice about it, that's stultifying to evangelism and missions. You just say, "Well, they're going to be saved. Nothing I can do about it. I can't change it at all". You say, "I thought God already knew". Yes, He does already know, but He already knows that people must decide. It is their decision that God already knows.
Put this Scripture down, First Timothy 2 verses 3 and 4, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who will have all men to be saved". Now what does predestination mean then? It doesn't mean that God says, "You're going to Hell, and you're going to Heaven". Predestination means just what it says. "For whom He did foreknow, them did He also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son". Romans 8:29. When God saves somebody, God predestines that that somebody is going to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ.
First John 3 verse 2, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God," yes, we are, thank God, "and doth not yet appear what we shall be". Who can understand what the resurrection body is going to be like? I can't. Neither can you. "But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him". See, you're predestined to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, friend, you talk about eternal security. I'd have to believe in eternal security if this were the only verse in the Bible that talked about it. Think about it. "Whom He did foreknow, them He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son". Predestination is the act of an omnipotent God who says, "It's going to be done. I have settled it". I mean there's no way. What has been settled in Heaven cannot be annulled by Hell or humanity; it is fixed! You're going to be like Jesus, if you're saved.
Now if you're not saved, you're going to spend eternity in Hell with the devil. But friend, if you are saved, you are predestined to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are some people, they foolishly say, "Well, but wait a minute. What if the devil were to take you away from Jesus? What if the devil were to take you out of Jesus' hand"? Now you think about that. Do you think he could? Well, if he could, why hasn't he? Well, if he could and he hasn't, hasn't he been good to you? So now you're going to Heaven by the goodness of the devil. Think about it. See, listen, the only reason he hasn't is because he can't. He can't! Because you're predestined to be like the Lord Jesus.
Now, here's the third thing. Watch. You can be sure that God foreknew that you were going to be saved. You can be sure, dear friend, that because you're saved you're going to be like Jesus. And you can be sure of your calling to salvation. Look if you will here in this same passage of Scripture in Romans 8 verses 29 and 30, and it says, "Whom He did foreknow, them He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He," God's Son, "might be the first-born among many brethren," that is, He's going to have a whole family like Jesus, "moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called". Now, does God just call some people to salvation and not call others? No. Whenever the Gospel is preached, God is calling people to salvation. How does God call? Through the preaching of the Word.
Put this Scripture down, Second Thessalonians 2 verses 13 and 14. Paul said to the church at Thessaloniki, "But we're bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation". You say, "Uh, oh, looks like we don't have anything to do with it," but continue to read. Here's where people get into mistake. They take a part of a verse and don't read the whole verse. But listen to it, "Beloved, we're bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth".
You see, it's when you believe the truth, that's what makes you a part of the chosen. "And whereunto He called you by our Gospel". How does God call people? By the Gospel, by the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and this message is God calling you. Now if you've not yet been saved, God wants you to be saved. And how does God call? God calls through the preaching of the Gospel. And this calling, you see, is through sanctification of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God takes the Word of God, and when God has a man who is blind, God opens the eyes of the blind so he can see what he could not have seen otherwise.
And when God has a man who is spiritually dead and therefore deaf, God opens the ears of the dead and the deaf that they might hear the Gospel. I am totally incapable of bringing you under conviction or calling you to Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Spirit. It is the sanctification of the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that takes the Word of God, and this is the call that goes out, but I'm telling you folks, that when you hear the Gospel, it is God calling you. Now who does He call? Put down Revelation 22 and verse 17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come.'" Now the Spirit, that's the Holy Spirit; the bride, that's the church. "And let him that heareth say, 'Come.'" If you've ever heard the Gospel you can tell it to somebody else. "And let him that is athirst come".
If you want to come, if you have a thirst for Jesus, come. "And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely". Anybody. You say, "Well, Pastor, can I be saved today if I'm not one of the elect"? I'm just telling you if you want to be saved, God'll save you today. You're "whosoever". Whosoever will! The elect are the "whosoever wills"! Now I'm going to tell you something else. Somebody wrote me a nasty letter when I said this in a preaching service one time: "But you'd be surprised how many more people will get elected in a red-hot evangelistic service". They said, "You ought to know better than that. That's not when people are elected". I said, "You ought to know tongue-in-cheek talking when you hear it".
What I'm saying is, friend, with a burning heart we ought to preach the Gospel. And plead with souls to come to Jesus Christ! And we ought to do what Revelation 22:17 says, "Let him that heareth say, 'Come.'" And we ought to tell everybody what the Bible says, "And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely". Our God calls. He calls the lost, wherever they are, to come to the Lord Jesus. Now there are some people who say, "Well, when God calls, you can't resist the call". They call this "irresistible grace". No, you can resist the call. You don't want to come? There're not enough angels in Heaven to drag you down this aisle, or to make you say, "Yes" to the Lord Jesus.
Listen to these verses, put them down; Acts chapter 7 and verse 51. Stephen is preaching to those religious leaders of that day, and he said, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as did your fathers". The Holy Ghost can be resisted. Remember the Scripture that I read to you from Matthew 23 verse 37? Where Jesus said, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered thee, but ye would not". Listen, to Proverbs chapter 1 where the Lord is personified as wisdom. Proverbs chapter 1 verses 22 and 23, "How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity, and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. Turn you at My reproof. Behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you. I will make known My words unto you". In other words He's saying, "Listen, I am pleading with you". But then in that same chapter He goes on to say, "But you would not, you would, you wouldn't have any of My reproof".
Now friend, irresistible grace, that's forced love. Forced love is a contradiction in terms. In order for it to be love, it cannot be forced. I talked to our college and high school students and I said, "Can you just imagine a boy who says to a girl, she doesn't particularly like him, but he's fixed on her. And she says, 'Well I think we need to date around a little bit.' He says, 'No, no, no. You can't date anybody else.' She says, 'Why not?' 'Because I love you.' She says, 'Well, thank you, John, but I think we need a little space.' 'No,' he says, 'You don't understand. I love you.' She says, 'Well, thank you John.' 'No,' he says, 'You don't understand. I love you and I'm going to see to it that you love me. I'm going to make you love me if I have to.' She looking around for the door about right now, isn't she? I mean, man, you get a spooky feeling when somebody says, 'You are going to love me and I'm going to make you love me.'"
Now I don't care how much tenderness or how much whatever it is that you might say is in the Almighty, still, dear friend, forced love is a contradiction in terms. You can resist the Holy Spirit if you wish to resist the Holy Spirit, but how foolish it would be to resist the Holy Spirit. I think C.S. Lewis summed it up real well. C.S. Lewis said that basically in life there're two categories of persons: those who are like Satan and those who are like Jesus. Now in Isaiah chapter 14 verses 13 and 14 you have the heart of Satan. And five times Satan says, "I will, I will, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will be like the, the Most High". "I will, I will, I will, I will". Satan is vaunting himself. And what Satan was saying was to Almighty God, "Not Thy will, my will be done".
That's what made Satan Satan. There was another, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, who knelt in Gethsemane with blood upon His face, bowed His head, and said, "Not My will but Thine be done". Satan, "Not Thy will but mine be done". Jesus, "Not My will but Thine be done". Two categories of persons. Some of them are in this room today. Some who are saying, "I'm not going to give my heart to Jesus. It's my life. I'm going to live it. I'm going to go my own way".
And the Lord is not willing that you perish, but God has given you a will, and you're saying to Him, "Not Thy will but mine be done". And friend, when you drop into Hell, a brokenhearted God will be there to say, "Not My will but thine be done". The Lord is not willing that any should perish. "Not My will but thine be done". You said no. You trampled beneath your feet the precious blood of Jesus Christ. You spurned the wooing of the Holy Spirit. You heard the call and refused the call, and God says, "I was not willing that you should perish. Not My will but yours be done," as you drop into Hell.
All right, now, watch this. Foreknowledge: God knows who's going to be saved. Predestination: God says those who're going to be saved are going to be like Jesus. Calling: God calls people to salvation through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a call that can be accepted or a call that can be refused. You can be sure, my friend, that God has called you. Don't get the idea that God calls some and God doesn't call others. Fourth thing: you can be sure of your settled justification if you receive the lord Jesus Christ. Look if you will again in this passage of Scripture, Romans 8 verse 30, "Whom He called, them He also justified".
Now, what is justification? What is justification? Listen to me very carefully. Justification is an act of God where He declares those who've received Jesus Christ righteous. It doesn't mean that they've earned righteousness. It means that righteousness has been given to them, apart from anything that they have done to deserve it. The key verse is Romans 4 verse 5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness". Did you see that? Your faith is counted for righteousness. Now justification is more than a pardon for your sins. Justification is more than an acquittal.
You see, listen, if you went into a court and the courtroom said, "You're guilty but we pardon you," that wouldn't be justification. Or if the courtroom said, "You are acquitted," that means you never were guilty to begin with. But justification means that you are not only pardoned; but that God now, by a forensic act of His love and His divine righteousness, declares you, just declares you righteous, apart from works of any kind. Not because you've been a good boy, not because you've kept the Ten Commandments, not because you've gotten baptized, but because you have trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Romans 4:5, "To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness".
Now, listen to me. What is the basis of this justification? It is the blood of Jesus Christ. Look in Romans chapter 5 and verse 9. Look at it, "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him". The only way that you can be justified is through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. You cannot by your own good deeds, by your own emotions, by your own intuition, by your own anything, justify yourself. Friend, if you could be saved by any other way, then Jesus Christ would never have died on bloody Calvary. Your sin will be pardoned in Christ or punished in Hell, but it'll never be pardoned and you'll never be justified apart from the blood of Christ. How does justification become effective? When you trust Jesus.
Look in Romans 3 verse 24, "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". It is grace, friend. Romans 4:5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness". Romans 5:1, "Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ". And what are the results of this justification? Romans 4 verses 6 through 8, listen, "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works," God just says, "I count him righteous," "saying, 'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,'" thank God for that, but it gets better, "'and whose sins are covered,'" thank God for that, but it gets better, "'blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.'"
God will never again put sin on your record when you get justified. If God put sin on your record, you'd be lost again. One half of one sin would take you to Hell. Does that mean, therefore, that you can sin and not worry about it? No. God'll carry you to the woodshed and beat the daylights out of you. Hebrews 12 verse 6, "Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives". But God is dealing with you, not as a sinner now, but as a son and a servant! And God will chastise you! But the Bible says Psalm 32 verse 2, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin". That's justification. Friend, that's glorious. If you can only understand what justification is. That's the reason Romans 8 verse 33 says, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth".
All right, so you can be sure, you can be sure of your settled justification through the blood of Jesus Christ. Now here's the last thing: you can be sure of your eternal glorification. Look if you will now as we continue to read in this passage of Scripture in Romans chapter 8 verses 29 and 30, look at it. Now, "Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified". Doesn't say "will glorify".
Listen, remember, God's in eternity. God saw you, a lost sinner. God saw you under conviction. God saw you receiving Christ. God saw you in your sanctification. And God sees you already in Heaven. Did you know that God can see you in Heaven right now when you're not even there? Because God knows it all. I mean, look, there's no time with God. God is not looking through the knothole. And so, in the heart and mind of God, you're already there!
Listen folks, God is going to glorify you. This is the "why" of our eternal security. What's been settled in Heaven, can't be annulled and undone in time. What a marvelous future is ours. Now, what does all of this mean? Bottom line: friend, if you'll put your faith where God has put your sins, on the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be absolutely sure, absolutely sure, absolutely, totally sure. Have faith in God, He cannot fail! Have faith in God, He must prevail; Have faith in God, Have faith in God. Bow your heads in prayer:
Lord God, I just pray today that there are many who will say, "Yes" to Jesus and trust Him for salvation.
Now while heads are bowed and eyes are closed, how many would say today, "Pastor, I don't have that assurance, but I really want it. And if a person can know, a person can know that they're saved, I want to know it". All right, would you let me just lead you in a little prayer? And friend, it's like receiving a gift. Right now, I mean right now, right now you can do that. Why don't you pray this prayer out of your heart?
Dear God, I know that You love me, and I know that You're calling me to be saved. God, I need to be saved and I want to be saved. Jesus, You died to save me, and You promised to save me if I would trust You. I do trust You. I put my faith in You right now. I receive You right now, Jesus, into my heart as my Lord and Savior. I believe You're the Son of God. I believe You paid my sin debt with Your blood to justify me. I believe that God raised You from the dead and now like a child, right now, I trust You to save me. And Lord, give me the courage to make it public. In Your name, Amen.