Called According to His Purpose

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the problem of pain, as I have shared with you on many
previous occasions, continues to be a real stumbling walk to faith for a lot of people.
If God exists, if He's the kind of loving God that the Bible says that He is, then
why does He allow so often, pain to come into our lives that can cut us to the core of
our being?
As you know, to the answer to that question is never a very simple answer.
People that make simple answers, so don't understand the complexity both of pain and
the purposes of God.
But I think the biblical answer, certainly on the basis of the passage that we're looking
at this morning, is that while God is not the author of evil, and that while His heart,
I believe, often breaks because of the things that we go through.
God in His wisdom uses pain and hurt and injury to work out a greater purpose.
That now is the issue that Paul begins to address.
Here in Romans chapter 8, when He says in these very familiar words, we know that in everything
God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
For those who meet for new, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in
order that He might be the first born among many brethren.
In those some He predestined, He also called, those some He called, He also justified, and
those whom He justified, He also glorified.
We know He says that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are
called according to His purpose.
In this morning, as we take a little bit of time and look at these verses, I want to
begin by pointing out what the passage does not teach.
Please note the passage does not teach that everything that happens to everybody indiscriminately
will turn out for good.
Some people teach that.
There are people who say when bad things happen, there is always a good side to bad things
for everybody and so you lose a loved one.
And there are people who will say, well, you know, that was God's will.
And someday I know you can't see it now, but someday something good will come out of
that.
Now as we'll see a little bit later, there are times and there are some people for
whom good things will come out of it.
This passage does not say however that good things will come out of it for everybody.
Rather it goes on to say only for those who love God and who are called according to
His purpose.
There are two conditions that need to be met in a person's life before you can say everything
works together for good.
You've got to love God that is to say you've got to have a relationship with him.
And you need therefore to be called according to His purpose.
If that is not the case, then there are many things that happen in life that are hurtful
and harmful and that will never have a positive ray of redemption.
I was reminded of that just this past week.
I read the news story and some of you perhaps have too.
That man in Toronto who had trouble in his marriage killed his wife and then killed himself
in full view in the presence of two of their three children.
And those children were locked in the house with those bodies for a long, long time until
help came and they were redeemed and one of the little girls was crying with all her heart
saying, "I want my mother, I want my mother."
Now God may turn that around for good, but apart from God's grace, situations like that
do not produce good.
They produce hurt, they produce harm and the world is full of situations that go downhill
and that produce destruction.
All things work together for the good of those who love God and who are called according
to His purpose.
God has a purpose.
And those who by faith in Jesus Christ are called to that purpose.
We'll discover that all the negative things of life cannot hinder the fulfillment of God's
purpose for their lives.
And indeed, furthermore, the Bible goes on to say that for those who love God and who
are called according to His purpose, God is going to work even the bad things as well
as the good for their good so that in glory they will shine to the fullness of His splendor.
And one of the secrets and keys to understanding the mysteries of pain and the way to come
to grips with the inconsistencies of life is to understand that God in His wisdom will
use both the good and the bad experiences of our lives to shape us, to help us to fulfill
His purpose.
And for that reason to understand life, we need to understand what is the purpose of God.
What is it that God is trying to produce in your life and in my life by not only the
good things that happened to us but also the bad?
Well Paul goes on now in verse 29 to address that issue.
He says in verse 29, those who He forenew, He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of His Son in order that He might be the first born among many brethren.
He says those whom He forenew, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
God's purpose is that we should be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
The word conform means to be made like.
It comes from a Greek word that literally means having the same form.
And God's agenda for those whom He has called and chosen to be His children is that we
should become like Jesus because Jesus, the Bible says, is going to be the first born
of many brethren conformed to the image of Christ.
Just reflect on that a little bit because who is Jesus?
Well you say of course He's the Son of God, it's true.
But that's one of these phrases we so often throw around but what does it mean?
What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God?
It means a whole lot of things but it means at least two.
It means number one that He is the perfect reflection of the Father's character.
Remember in John chapter 14 Philip comes to Jesus and He says, Jesus, show us the Father.
Remember what Jesus said?
He says, Philip, He who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say show us the Father?
Jesus Christ in his incarnation as the eternally begotten Son of God the Father was the perfect
reflection of the character of God because in the Bible to be a Son is to be one who shares
the life and the character of your Father.
Some of you recall the story I told a number of years ago and one of my sons was working
on a construction site and I went to look him up and I couldn't find him, talk to one
of the workmen there and he immediately identified who I was and knew that I was his father,
my son's father that he is.
And they asked him, well how did you know?
And he said to me, well, you walk just like him and I said to myself, well, he walks
like me not the other way around, let's get this straight, I was here first.
But to be a Son is to be a reflection of the Father, it's to share his life and to
share his character and Jesus was the perfect reflection of the Father's character.
And if ever you want to see what God the Father was like, the God whom we cannot say, then
look at Jesus in his incarnation.
If you want to understand what the love of God is like, then look at Jesus.
If you want to understand the hatred that God has of sin and hypocrisy, then look at Jesus.
And if you want to understand the values that are part and parcel of God the Father, then look
at Jesus.
Some people, you know, they make a distinction between Jesus and the Father in the sense
that the Father, they see as this big stirred figure sitting on his throne, long gray hair,
those that picture him that way, big stick at his hand and they say, well, I can't relate
to the Father.
Jesus on the other hand, he's my big brother, he's sweet and kind and lovely and I really
like him.
That's a false dichotomy.
He was seeing the Father.
He was seeing me says Jesus has seen the Father.
Jesus shared the character of God the Father.
Number two to be the Son of God means that Jesus shares the special favor of God the Father.
At his baptism, you will recall there was that voice from heaven that said, this is my
beloved son with whom I am well-placed.
And a Son in Scripture is more than just a member of the family.
It is also a person who stands in a special relationship with the Father.
We talked about that earlier in the book of Romans here in chapter 8, that we are airs
with Christ of all the blessings of God the Father.
And Jesus is the eternally-begotten Son of God the Father has this unique love relationship
with the Father.
He has immediacy of access.
As the Father dwells in unapproachable glory and splendor and all creation and all the
universe stands in all of his majesty and his power, Jesus, he can just has this intimate
relationship with the Father.
He can just run into the office, so to speak.
And they communicate.
As the Son of God, Jesus shares the mind of the Father, He said, the Father and I are
one.
And He says upon another occasion, whatever the Father is doing, that's what I'm doing
because the Father reveals His mind to the Son.
They are in cooperation.
They are in partnership together.
The Son shares the mind of the Father.
Not only that, but He is access to all of the resources of God the Father, all that the
Father has, He says, is mine.
And Jesus, whenever He was confronted by any need or any situation, He could go to God
the Father.
And the Father delighted in porting out His blessings into the life of the Son, just
like you and I as parents, we give things to our children as they can handle it and as
they can responsibly manage it.
And then most of all, of course, Jesus is the Son of God, has become heir to all of the
universe.
He is the Bible, says, in the book of Colossians, the first born of all creation.
Matthew 20, 80, says, everything in heaven and on earth, all authority has been given
to me.
And today the name of Jesus is higher than any other because Jesus Christ, at the right
hand of God the Father, rules over all of the universe.
There is no name among all of creation that is higher than the name of Jesus.
Now I wonder sometimes if the realization of that has ever penetrated into the court
of our being.
Jesus has everything because God the Father has given it to Him.
Now says Paul, coming back to this text, "Those whom He for need, He predestined to be conformed
to the image of His Son."
God's intention for your life and my life in calling us to Himself is that He has destined
us to be like Jesus.
We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, Paul said in 2 Corinthians
chapter 3, the verse of which you began our service, are being changed from glory to
glory into His likeness, into His image, comes from the Spirit who is the Lord, or the
Lord who is the Spirit.
Practically speaking, that means this.
God's purpose for each one of us, if He has called us to Himself in Christ, is that
we become a reflection, first of all, of His character and of His nature.
Jesus Jesus is the reflection of the character and the nature of God.
So you and I are destined to become the reflection of the character of Jesus.
And just as Jesus walked in total faith, obedience and love before God the Father, trusted
Him even in the darkest hour when He hung upon the cross and when He cried out, "My God,
why have You forsaken me?" So the Lord God, in your life and in my life, wants to build
those qualities of faith and trust and obedience that says, "I would rather die than be disobedient
to the Lord Jesus and to the Father because I love the Father.
I want to do His will.
I want to see His kingdom come.
I want to praise Him with everything that is within me.
I want to live for His glory.
I want to be His man.
I want to be His woman.
I want to be the vehicle through which the purposes of God can be accomplished on the
face of the earth.
God is building character in your life and in my life.
And when the curtain falls on history, we shall be made perfect even as the Lord Jesus
Christ has always been the perfectly begotten Son of God the Father.
We will be totally at one with God.
We will share His life and we will share His nature and we will share His character and
God is now in the process of bringing us to that kind of maturity.
Remember that because a lot of things in life that we go through does not make any sense,
do not make any sense.
Unless we can understand the greater purpose is to conform us to the character of Jesus.
So that we learn to love those who hate us.
We learn to be patient in tribulation.
We learn to exercise faith in moments of doubt and despair.
We learn to be obedient to God and put him at the center of our lives even when within
our hearts we sometimes feel our own needs are not being man.
Where to be conformed to the image of Christ means we share His character but it also means
that God is preparing us to share the special favor and the unique position of sonship
in the family of God.
To be conformed to the image of Christ that means that God's purpose is to bring us into
that special relationship with God the Father where we are one with Him.
Where we understand His heart and His mind we have fellowship with Him, we have communion
with Him and He is able to take of His authority and He is able to share that authority with
you and with me and we can exercise it responsibly in an way that gives Him glory and that gives
Him pleasure.
And He is grooming us for the day when with the Lord Jesus we shall sit upon the thrones
of the universe and we will manage God's renewed creation forever and ever and ever that's
what it is to be conformed to the image of Christ that's always been God's intention
from the very beginning.
God's Father Heart has always been so full of love that He has wanted to share His
love with His children and so at the very dawn of history He makes all of creation He
makes Adam and Eve, He makes them in His image and in His likeness.
He gives them a authority over all the works of God and as a Father with His children
He is rejoicing over the glory that He is able to share with His new creation with those
particularly made in His image and His likeness.
It's in mess that all out so why we talk about the fall.
We've lost to a very large extent the reflection of His image and His character.
We've become selfish and turned inward and broken people.
And to the degree to which we've turned inward and to the degree to which we have been broken
as a humanity we have also lost our sense of dominion and we struggle for survival.
We struggle to stay on top.
We struggle to stay ahead of the game and apart from God's grace it is a self-defeating
cycle because life with all of its power, all of its pressures price to tear us down.
Good news of the gospel is that God through Jesus Christ enters into our humanity.
Rings about a way of redemption and a way of salvation and the Bible says in this passage
and we don't have time to deal with it this morning that before the world was ever made
if you're a child of God this morning God for new you already had you in mind and had
a relationship with you.
Not only that but the Bible says He predestined you to be conformed to the image of His son.
He knew that one day He'd call you in His family.
And then when the time was right by the word of God and by the circumstances of life He
effectively called you into a relationship with Himself justified you.
One day the Lord willing will glorify us and glory and we will share with Him forever
and ever the majesty of God.
Listen before you. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son.
God is getting us ready to be a full reflection of His character and to be full recipients
of His authority and His power.
He has His faults in that context and only in that context for those who love God and
who are called according to His purpose all things work together for good all things
are subservient to the purpose that God has for His children and that means the good things
that happen in life they are geared to bringing us to faith in Jesus, to helping us to grow
up to maturity in Christ and to prepare us for the day when we will reign with Christ
over all creation but it also means the bad things because that's particularly the context
of Romans chapter 8 the pressures of life.
The disappointments, the discouragements, the things that break our hearts, the things
that don't make sense to things we can't square with the character of God.
How can he allow that to happen in my life?
The Bible goes on later on in Romans to say there is nothing but nothing that can separate
us from the love of God because not only will these things not hinder the purposes that
God has for me, God is going to turn them around and when push comes to shove everything
that has ever happened to me, God will turn around for good and He will have used it in
some small way to bring me into our relationship with Jesus to help me become more like Jesus
in my character and to prepare me for the day when He can entrust me with authority in
His kingdom and how you and I fare in the difficulties and the disappointments of life when our
heart breaks is going to be determined almost completely by our ability to see the bigger
picture.
If all you see is the pain, if all you see is the disappointment, if all you see is the
discouragement then you cannot but help become rebellious within your heart over against
God and you say well what use is it anyway to serve the Lord because life isn't going
anywhere where I thought it ought to go but when you understand that behind the pain, behind
the discouragement and behind the disappointment there is a sovereign God who loved you so much
that He gave His only son to die for you and that God is working out His sovereign purposes
in bringing you to salvation and to maturity and to glory.
And all the pain doesn't go away and the heartache can still often be there but behind the
pain and behind the heartache you see the overreaching goal and purpose of a father
in heaven who makes all things work together for good and then later often times much later
when you look back at that very deep valley that you went through and the heartache that
you experienced you discovered that God used it for good and you would not be where
you are today in your life of faith or had not for the difficult day and for the disappointment.
Labor Day my wife and I took our daughter down to Redeemer and while my daughter and
my wife were waiting in the registration line I got to do the fatherly thing and put
together some furniture that she had dragged along and while doing that I got a talking
to Debra's roommate, young woman from the Kitchener Waterloo area and in my best pastoral
fashion quister about her life and where she was you know I wanted to see what my daughter
was getting into here and she told me a little bit about her life how at age 12 or 13
her mother had walked out in the family and neither father or mother were Christian.
The pain almost broke her heart and in the brokenness of her pain she happened to wander
into a Christian missionary and a lion's church girl 12 13 years of age and in the pain
she heard the gospel and in hearing the gospel God called her God spoke to her she gave
her life to Jesus didn't make the pain go away but it gave her a focus it gave her a purpose
instead of becoming bitter rebellious and stubborn she made a decision there and then
that she was going to be everything that the Lord Jesus Christ would call her to be she's
now found a Christian boyfriend who's going to join her at a redeemer in a couple of months
time in the spring semester and she's studying to be a medical doctor together with her
boyfriend if that relationship develops she wants to follow Jesus and she wants to make
her life matter for God and I heard that and I say wow all things for those who love
God and who are called according to his purpose they work together for good would she be
a Christian today if her mother had not left the family I don't know all I know is that
God turned it around it became the critical issue in her life that led her to Jesus
Christ and there's a lot of us here this morning we can look back in our lives and there's
some things that we've gone through we wouldn't want to wish them on our worst enemy but
we look back on them now and we say wow if it hadn't been for that financial crisis if
it hadn't been for that illness that I faced and for the loss of my health if it hadn't
been for the pain that I had to go through to bring me to my senses and to make me understand
who it is that I am I would not have bowed my knees before Jesus I would be a happy pagan
for myself and far removed from the promises of God and I would be missing out on the
purposes that God has for my life maybe some of us hurt this morning maybe some of us
don't understand why it is that we're going through what we're going through we don't
have to understand it all we only have to understand that God is working out his purposes
in your life that in my life there will come a day we look back on all of these things
and we'll say wow it's the best thing that ever happened to me because it brought me
to Jesus it helped me to grow in him it helped me to become like him and it has prepared
me for my life's calling at my ministry for those that love God all things were together
for good to those who were called according to his purpose may God give us grace to see
the vision to humble ourselves before his face and yield to him and to see that he is truly
a God who is true to his word let us pray father we confess that many times the greatest
goal of our lives is not to give you glory but to be happy and to be content in fact of
the matter is Lord many times when we come to you we come to you out of a desire to be
happy and to be content and then when you take us through times of testing we get confused
and we become rebellious we don't know what it is that is happening help us Lord to understand
that your greatest desire is for us to be right with you to be fully conformed to the image
of Christ so that you can pour every blessing of your grace into our hearts help us to understand
Lord help us to believe that you delight in our well-being help us to understand to that
in order for us to get there there sometimes are these valleys that we must cross difficulties
we must go through because you are not only bringing us to faith in Christ but you're
changing our character you're changing our nature to become more and more like him and
you're getting us ready for that day of glory help us to see it help us to yield to it help
us to believe it and help us Lord to shine to shine for Jesus thank you for hearing us
in his name, Amen.