ADDRESSES ON ROMANS ter the Spirit is leading us, as sons of God, into the secrets of the family. These words are intended only for "the household of faith." . No unsaved person can understand them. "The natural man"; that is, the unregenerated man, "receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Cor. 2:14). My brother, if you do not under- stand the first seven chapters of Romans, you will never under- stand chapter eight. The Holy Spirit here tells how the child of God is led by Him. He shows how He leads His own into the privileges of sonship, into the secrets of the family of God. When I was about seventeen or eighteen years of age, my father led me into his office and unfolded to me his plans and purposes for me. He did not tell ine these secrets the first few years of my life; but when he thought I was old enough, he let me share the secrets and plans and purposes of the family. In Rom. 8:29, 30 we enter into the secrets of the family of God; and they form a chain of blessing that links the past eternity with the future eternity. Foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified - all these blessings come from Christ. In the past eternity God saw you and me, and pre- destined us to be His. Then we were linked to the eternal purpose of God. Foreknowledge and predestination take us back to the past eternity; calling and justification have to do with this present life; and glorification takes us on to the future eternity. Let us consider each of these words separately. 1. FOREKNOWN. "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren" (verse .29). Foreknowledge belongs to God alone and refers to the sov- ereign choice to life. We may sing: "O happy day that fixed my choice On Thee, my Saviour and my God." But God chose us before we gave our hearts to Him. To Page 156]
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