The Certainty of God’s Call | SWO25

Why did you say yes to the gospel when others didn’t? Romans 8:29–30 offers a powerful glimpse into God’s eternal plan—a plan that began before time and guarantees your future with Him. In this session, Rob Conti explores how God’s foreknowledge, calling, and saving work reveal a love that is deeply personal, intentional, and absolutely unshakable.

When life is painful and uncertain, this truth becomes our anchor: your salvation isn’t fragile or accidental—it’s the result of God’s loving initiative from beginning to end. He knew you, called you, justified you, and promises to glorify you. Come discover how God’s eternal love brings peace in suffering, confidence in doubt, and lasting security in every season of life.

Romans 8:29-30

Full Transcript: The Certainty Of God’s Call

All right, you all doing good? All right. Me too. All right, go ahead and open your bibles to Romans 8, we’re going to pick up where we left off and really in verse 28, which we listened to this morning, but we’re going to bridge for context right there, so I’ve got four kids and my two oldest are girls and when they were little, when they were young, we used to, I guess it was a game, play, this game where we tried to outdo each other in saying how much we loved each other. So, I remember it would just be whatever, playing outside and my daughter would say something like I love you as big as an elephant and I’ll be like, oh, wow, that’s a lot like, well, I love you as big as a dragon because they were real and then, we just go back and forth and back and forth and, you know and she’d eventually say, I love you, all the way to the moon and to the back and I’d love you to the end of the universe and back and try to outdo each other and as a parent you’re looking at her, it’s just fun, but the reality is, there’s no way she loves me as much as I love her, but she can’t even comprehend that, really, that was something I couldn’t comprehend until I have my own kids, because I remember my mom saying stuff like that.

Every time I even I was in college, I’d call home and at the end of it, I’d say, love you and she’d say, love you more. I’m like, why you always got to do that, you always got to win, huh? But this is just true, the love that a parent has for their child is just more, but for the child like you don’t have a concept of that, because it probably is the person at the time that you love the most and I think, we’re going to look at this passage tonight and my prayer is that we’ll just be overwhelmed by the type of love and the depth of love and just how great the love of God really is for us and the truth is, though, we can’t even begin to comprehend it, we can get just a taste of it, but the reality is, we can’t like he gives us enough to like, we know what love is, we know in relationships, what that feels like, how it motivates you, but we can just barely scratch the surface of understanding the depth of God’s love for us, but that’s really true with everything about God, it’s true about his creation, there’s really nothing that you and I understand completely. Spencer talking this morning about memory, right and like, did that blow your mind thinking about, there’s so little that I actually remember what is even my life and like and then, you think.

Oh, God, doesn’t forget anything, he doesn’t forget anything, he has perfect knowledge, complete knowledge, of everything, everywhere at all times, from all times and through, into eternity past. God knows everything that’s happening always. you think about that like right now, he knows exactly what’s happening in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, microscopic organisms that are floating around down there that probably no human has ever even seen and he knows what’s going on inside of them. Take that and then, zoom all the way out to like light years and light years and light years away of some distant solar system, he knows what the stars are made of and how long they’ve been shining and how long they have left and he knows everything in between and he hears all of our thoughts and he knows our motivation every human being alive right now, he hears the little old grandma who’s saying the same prayer that she’s prayed to him for, 50 years, he hears it and he responds to it and he knows the people right now, he hears and sees people who are doing horrendous things and hurting other people, he sees it all, he knows it all and he’s not like strained by it, he’s not straining to concentrate, to hold it all together, because the writer of Hebrews even tells us, not only does he see it.

He knows it, he’s actually upholding all of creation all the time by the power of his word, he’s so far above and beyond us, we can, begin to comprehend the depth of God and that’s actually Paul says in, Romans 11:33 – 36 he says he’s just celebrating, he’s saying, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable or unknowable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things, to him, be glory, forever, amen, he’s just so far above and beyond, it should leave us in awe and wonder like we should try to wrestle with these things, but we can’t understand eternity. God has always existed, he’s always been God, father, Son, in spirit, existing in perfect harmony and love, in peace, in joy, perfect knowledge of one another, we can’t understand that no beginning, no end, everything that we experience has a beginning and an end, but in a passage what we’re about to read tonight, it says, If God just tears back the fabric of space and time just a little bit for us to get a glimpse into eternity, just to get a glimpse and it’s for that purpose, it’s to that end, so that we would get a glimpse.

Just a little bit better understanding of just how awesome he is and just how awesome his love is towards us and what that should do in us is create security, to know that we are secure in this relationship that we’ve been talking about all week. God wants you to know that he loves you beyond your ability to fully understand he wants you to trust that you are more secure in his love than you could ever imagine. I’m going to read our passage starting in verse 28 and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined, he also called and those whom he called, he also justified and those whom he justified, he also glorified. See this, he’s saying, he’s talking about things that happened, that God did before time and space began before he said, let there be, he’s giving us a glimpse into eternity past, but then he goes all the way to the other side of eternity future, where he says he talks about being glorified, this is so far above and beyond us. Why is he saying it? Well, look at verse 28 how does that start? Paul says and we know, we know. We know what?

We know that all things are working together for good, for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, it begs this question. How do we know, how are we secure in that? Paul says and we know and I think, well, how do I know? When life really hits, everything’s good on the good days when things are going well, you typically don’t think super deep, it’s when things go wrong, or when our expectations aren’t met, when somebody hurts us, betrays us, when we look at the evil in the world and you’re overwhelmed by it and you start asking, okay, can I really trust this, am I really secure in this, how in the world can God use that in my life for good, how is that at all according to his purpose? Paul says and we know. How do we know? Well, that’s why verse 29 and 30 are here, he says in verse 29 for those. Now look, that’s the same those as in verse 28 he’s talking about the same people. Who’s he talking about? Believers, Christians, those who have been justified by faith, those that he’s rescued you, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Now, again, we’re looking into eternity past where God alone was acting for those whom he foreknew. What does that mean? It means this God chose to love us. God chose to love you and bring you into a saving relationship with himself before time from all of eternity. So, God knows everyone.

He knows everything, he’s not limited by time or space, he’s outside of it, he’s over it, he’s beyond it, but this word foreknow it meant throughout the bible, it’s such a rich term, he uses this term a lot in the Old Testament, speaking about Israel. The nation of Israel, God’s chosen people and he actually, he says this about them in Amos 3:2, he says, God, speaking to Israel, the nation of Israel, he says, you only have I known of all the families of the earth. What’s he saying? God knows everyone, he knows everything, he knows, not only the nations, he knows where they’re located, he knows what’s going on, he knows what the king is thinking about, what’s he saying? The word to know here isn’t an intellectual thing. Listen to me, it’s a relational thing, it’s the same word that’s used in the most intimate of relationships, for humans, the relationship between husband wife. What God is saying to Israel here is like, not that you’re the only one that I even know on the whole planet, he’s saying you’re the ones that I’ve chosen to bring into a covenant close personal relationship to me. You’re the ones that I’ve made the objects of my love and with Israel, that was just a foretaste, it was just a shadow of what was going to come to be in Christ for us. So, when he says, okay, this is how you can know that I am working everything.

Every event in your life, for your good, he’s saying this because I’m telling you I loved you before time even began. I saw you. I knew you. I loved you. I chose you. Listen to what he says in 1 John 4:10 and then, verse 19. This is real love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins, we love each other, talking about love between Christians, because he first loved us. See God and his love for you, takes the initiative to save you, he loved us when we were his enemies, he loved us when we were dead in our sins, he came to rescue us. So, what does this mean? If God’s letting us peak through space and time into eternity, what’s he showing us? It means that before you were born, before God created the world, he knew you, it means he already loved you, it means that he chose to rescue you so that you would be his son or his daughter forever, it means that he made you the object of his divine, eternal love. Why would he tell us this and this is some of the most beautiful truth in all of scripture, you know what’s sad, is that this is also truth that sometimes in the church, in the history of the church, people fight about, they argue about, they divide over these words and we miss the heart of what God’s saying to us. Listen to the way one pastor talked about it, he said this, he says, God has loved us from eternity and in love he destined us for eternity.

You see that? He’s loved us from eternity past and we are secure in that because he’s destined us for eternity future, because, he goes on to say this, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined. So, the same people that he’s working all things together for, he foreknew them and he predestined them and I love it, because pause here before we move on to predestined, but he could have just started with predestined, that’s before time, but I think he puts the word foreknew in there, because it is such a personal, intimate love that we can understand through that word, he puts foreknew in there, so he could say the closest kind of. Love that you can even conceive of in your human mind is like the love between a husband wife, the love between a father and his daughter, or mother and her son, he’s saying, it’s like that, but greater, deeper, wider, he also predestined. What does that mean? It means God has worked everything in your life so that you would come to know, trust and love him, his will for you is to hear the gospel and to respond in repentance and faith. See, we’ve looked at it a couple times this week, Romans 3 says, no one seeks after God, no one’s righteous. No, not one, he says, no one seeks after God, no one on their own is seeking God for God, he says, no, we’re we’ve all become sinful.

Rebellious, we’re liars and murderers and we’re selfish and we worship our-self and instead of the creator, we worship the creation, he says, no one seeks after God. So, you know what God did? He sought after us, he came to rescue us when we weren’t even crying out for help. Do you see that, what kind of love is that? When we hated him, when we were hostile in our minds, when we weren’t looking for him, when we were just living for ourselves, that’s when, he knew that’s what we were going to do, he knew Adam and Eve were going to bite the fruit, he knew the sin that I would commit and he still sought after us. Listen to the way Paul talks about in Ephesians 1:3 – 6 and I want us to get the heart behind this. Listen to what he’s doing, he says, blessed be. What does that mean? Worship, God is worthy of praise and glory and honor, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him in who, in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, here it is, in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to what, according to the purpose of his will, to what end, to the praise of his glorious grace.

With which he loved us, which he has blessed us in the beloved What’s he saying? Paul’s blown away by this truth, too. Paul’s getting the same glimpse into eternity past and saying, you’ve always loved me, you do. If you knew anything about me, you would know that I’m a sinner, you know that I would betray you, you know that even after you rescued me, I’d still mess up and you love me like that you came to rescue me and Paul’s response in that passage, it’s the whole point of these passages, is it brings him to a place of worship where he says, blessed be God. Why are we learning this? So, that it would turn back to praise, to the praise of his glorious grace. I’m undone all I can do. How can I respond to this love, how can I do anything, but just worship him, celebrate who he is, for what purpose? We are called according to his purpose, remember verse 28 we’re called according to his purpose. What is it? Well, he tells us, right here you see it, to be conformed to the image of his Son, predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. What does that mean? It means that in this life, it begins in this life and it ends in glory that you would grow, that you and I, if you’re a Christian, that we would grow in Christ’s likeness and the way that you live your life and how you view God, how you seek God.

In how you love and serve others and what you prioritize in your daily life. What does it mean to be conformed to the image of Jesus? That you think like Jesus, that you’d love like Jesus, that you’d worship like Jesus, that you would serve like Jesus, that you would live like Jesus, that you’d become more and more in this life, it’s a process, we make progress every day. The Lord’s making us more and more like his Son, he’s working every, everything in your life to that end that is his ultimate good for you. That’s why tragedy and suffering in this life can be used by God for good. How? Because, he’s using it to form you and mold you and make you more like his Son, but he says to be conformed and he’s pointing to eternity future, when that work, that process and that progress is perfected, it’ll be done. The bible says, we’re going to be like him, because we’re going to see him as he is. Listen to how Paul says it in Philippians 3:20 and 21 he says, but our citizenship, talking to Christians, but our citizenship where we belong, where our real home is, where our loyalty should lie, is in heaven and from it, from heaven, we await a savior, he’s coming back, the Lord Jesus Christ. What’s he going to do? Look at this. Who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. This week, we’ve talked about the flesh. You remember that?

Sometimes when Paul talks about the flesh, he just talks about our actual physical body. What does it mean to be human, but usually what he’s talking about is the part of us that is sinful and rebellion, that does not want to submit to God’s law, that doesn’t want to please God’s law, that has to be overcome by the Spirit of God in our life and he’s saying the day’s coming, Jesus is going to return and when he does, he’s even going to transform your body to what, to be like his glorious body, we won’t even have the desire to sin anymore. We’ll no longer even have the temptation to sin. What does that mean? It means we’re going to be like Jesus, the process that we’re in right now, being conformed to his image, it’ll be perfected, he’s not done, predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, the firstborn. You see it? In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. What does that mean? We talked about a little bit the other day with Brody, remember that? What’s it means that he’s the firstborn? Well, it means that he has preeminence in the family. On one hand, it means he’s the greatest. There’s no one above him, he’s above all, but in the ancient world, this meant something really important, because the firstborn in the family, he would inherit everything from the Father and you think, oh, that’s not fair. Well, it’s not just that, he inherited all the money and all the possessions.

He also inherited all the responsibility for who, everybody else in the family, it wasn’t just a position of prestige where he gets everything and everyone else has to go figure it out on their own. No, no, he gets everything so he could take care of the rest of the family. Do you see that? So, what’s he saying? He’s saying this is what God is working together for good in you. This is his purpose for you, that you would be made like Jesus and, oh, you’re going to get everything that he gets, the inheritance that Jesus receives as the resurrected savior of the world, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who sits at the right hand of the majesty on high, you get to share in his glory, you get to share in his inheritance, you get to share in his Kingdom, you’re going to be with him forever and everything that the Father gives him, he gives to you, he’s the firstborn of many brothers, we get it. We’re grafted into that. So, whatever suffering we experience in this life, it’s why it’s temporary, it’s why it’s not worth comparing with the glory that’s going to be revealed. God’s using that suffering to make you more like Christ, because you’re going to be with your big brother forever, he’s going to provide for you, he’s going to take care of you and no one can steal anything from Jesus and it means that we would worship him and honor him.

Love him and obey him and follow him forever, verse 30 and those whom he predestined he also called, those whom he called, he also justified those predestined he also called. What does that mean? Listen to how Jesus talks about it in John 10. This will be familiar. I’m going to read verses 2 – 5 and then, jump down to 27 – 30. Jesus, talking about being the good shepherd, says, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep, to him, the gatekeeper opens, the sheep, hear his, voice and he calls his own sheep by what, you see it? He calls them by what, by name and leads them out and when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, verse, 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand, my Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. What’s he trying to show us? Our security in the relationship. Remember, he says and we know. How do we know? Because, he knows you and he call’s, you by name and you hear his voice and you follow him. Do you ever stop? You all, you all, look at me.

Have you ever just stopped and wondered, why me, Lord, why’d you save me, why do I believe? I do, I was an idiot. I’m an idiot, I wasn’t looking for God, he saved me. Why did I respond and the guys that I used to run around with, why didn’t they? I don’t know, he called me by name. God calls us by name, it’s personal to him, he called you by name to partake of the blessings of salvation. How does God call us, where do we hear his voice, what does that actually look like? He calls us through the gospel. What does it feel like to have your name called out by God? It feels like you come under conviction of sin and your eyes are opened and you just trust you believe that it’s true, you didn’t used to trust him, you didn’t used to care that you sinned and now you feel bad for it and you trust and you believe and you surrender. Some of you. God has called by name this week, he called you out and you responded, you put your faith and your trust in Jesus, because you’re one of his sheep and he’s the good shepherd and he knows you and he calls you and you heard his voice and you responded. Think of the picture of John 11 Lazarus is dead, been dead for four days, he’s wrapped up in linen cloth, he’s behind the rock in the tomb and Jesus shows up and he says, roll the stone away and the family says, it’s been four days surely, he stink-eth and Jesus, it actually said King James and just more fun and Jesus says.

It actually says he gets a little angry, he says, roll the stone away and the New Living Translation says and Jesus shouted, Lazarus come out and it says that, let me read it to you, it says, Lazarus come out and the next verse says and the dead man came out, no one seeks after God, no one is righteous, no one seeks after God, we weren’t seeking after God. Lazarus wasn’t seeking after Jesus, he sought after us and he calls us by name, just like he called Lazarus come forth, he called him out of death, physical death, it’s no different and no, no, I take that back, it is different, it’s a greater miracle when he calls us out of the darkness and death of sin and unbelief, he says, follow me, trust me, believe me, in love. God calls us by name out of death and into life those he called he also justified. You see how he keeps saying also? Those who he foreknew, he also predestined, he also called, he also justified, remember when we talked about being justified, it means that God took our sin and guilt and he gave us the righteousness of Christ so we have a right standing in relationship with the Father and then, he says, those who he justified, he also glorified and I love this, he also glorified, remember, he loved us from eternity past into eternity future, he says he glorified us and it’s in the past tense, it’s like God already sees it as done

Listen to what John Wesley says about this, he says he speaks as one looking back from the goal upon the race of faith, it’s like these, the also are these links in this unbreakable chain. If you’re one of those who love God, it’s because he foreknew you and he predestined you and he called you and he justified you and listen to me, if he did all that, the next link in the unbroken chain is you’ll be glorified. What does that mean? You’ll be made like Jesus, that work that’s in progress right now will be perfected listen to how he says it in Philippians 1:6 and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to what, completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So, back to our original question. So, how do we know that God is working everything for good for those who love him, how do we know we are secure in this relationship? God says you can know because I have loved you from eternity to eternity and right in the middle of eternity to eternity, he proved it by entering into space and time, going to the cross, dying for your sin and rising again. We’re going to see tomorrow and that’s why we have confidence. There is absolutely nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ, Jesus, it’s how much he loves us.