Gtcotr/ws100511
Last week the Spirit of God allowed me to continue preparing my message on predestination while He continued speaking to me about Samson and Delilah. When I got to the pulpit on Sunday morning, ready with the notes I had studied, I still could not get away from the word burning in my spirit concerning just how much Samson loved Delilah.
God did not give me a whole sermon which He wanted me to preach but rather an exhortation, an encouraging word, a revelation which He desired me to share in order to help someone along their way. I was sensitive to God’s leadership and obeyed His re-direction.
Since that service a great number of you found the time to personally contact me and let me know that the word concerning Samson and Delilah and how each of them approached their relationship explained some things you had encountered in your own relationships. Some of you said that you had been the Samson, blindly loved, trusted and gave more than was healthy at times, while others surprisingly identified yourselves as a Delilah, processing key relationships with a selfish heart, expecting and even demanding more than you were willing to give, wanting to have a loving partner but not wanting the partner to have you, controlling, manipulative and self serving.
There have been so many comments made to me about the content and implication of that exhortation that I decided to show a short 5 minute video tonight to give some greater perspective. This is one segment of a made for TV series which I filmed on location to show the valley of Sorek, the place where Samson meet and fell in love with Delilah. This valley is also the place where Samson lost his strength.
Video
Now back to the conclusion of our series on Religious Terminology.
Romans 8
29 ¶ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Foreknowledge speaks to us concerning salvation.
· God, who is all knowing and sees the end from the beginning, has foreknowledge of every life and each decision. He knows who will and who will not be saved.
· Although God has foreknowledge, He does not make that choice for anyone.
· God has given man free-will to choose, free will to make their own spiritual connection with the god of their choice, with no god at all or with themselves as their own God.
· But God knows …
Predestination is based upon foreknowledge, not pre-choice.
· God has already pre-determined what will happen to those who accept Him and His Son as Father and Messiah, Lord and Savior.
o They will live eternally with the Father and the Son as family.
· God has already pre-determined what will happen to those who do not accept Him and His Son, Jesus.
o These will be lost eternally and exist in torment throughout the ages without remedy as enemies of the truth.
· These decisions have already been made by God and He has made them clear to each generation so that everyone would be without excuse on the day of Judgment. Even the very things of nature cry out God’s existence and God’s goodness.
o God can be found in nature but that does not make nature God.
· God has already decided – pre-destined, now the choice is ours.
Called – With a holy calling before time began. (2 Timothy 1:9)
Called to be holy, cleansed, purified, separated and set apart for God’s purpose.
Sanctified
Sanctification is a process of cleansing and purifying us to perform our holy calling.
· We are sanctified by the Word of Truth (John 17:17)
· We are washed by the pure water of the Word of God
Ephesians 5:26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.
Isaiah 1:16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do well.
· Sanctification is a process which uses the Word of God washing over us to remove every spot, wrinkle and blemish so that we might appear Holy before God, fit to perform our calling.
Justification deals with the legal question concerning sin and its eternal claim on your soul.
· Everyone has sin in their life. (Romans 3:23)
o Everyone appears guilty before God. (Romans 3:19)
· You sin, you’re guilty, you die. (Romans 6:23)
o But there is a gift, an eternal pardon, eternal life.
· You are redeemed by grace through faith when you ask. (Romans 10:13)
o Ephesians 2:8-9 It is by faith in God’s grace, not by works
o Romans 10:9-10 The heart believes and the mouth confesses
· Justified – “Just as if I’d” – Just if I’d never sinned …
Romans 8
29 ¶ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Glorification is a forever settled certainty which is so true in God’s eyes, it is as if it had already happened.
· God has a future plan for us to live in a glorified state of existence.
o A state of splendor, beauty, grace and magnificence that we have never known or even imagined.
o Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of any man those things which God has prepared for those who love Him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)
· We are predestined to be clothed in majesty, arrayed in splendor, adorned with beauty, and covered with the glory of God which no man has ever seen.
Moses only saw a glimpse of God’s glory and his face shinned so bright that he was forced to wear a veil because the people could not look upon him.
Matthew 17:2 Jesus was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Those whom God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son … Called, Sanctified, Justified & Glorified.
Online Bible Greek Dictionary: Glorified < doxazo > to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged.
Now let’s conclude by reading the rest of Paul’s exhortation on this subject.
Romans 8
31 ¶ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Who shall accuse?
Who shall condemn?
Who shall separate?
No One!!!!!!
