5 Stages of Hope

26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

28 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.

29 For 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.

30 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.

This passage is often abused and misused. It is not dealing so much with theology or philosophy, but more with the spiritual experience of the Christian believer.

If the pure logic of philosophy and theology are applied, then the passage says that God chooses some for heaven and others for a terrible hell.

But this is simply not the meaning God intends for the passage. What God wants believers to do is to take heart, for He has assured their salvation.

His Wisdom - Foreknowledge

Foreknowledge is a Divine attribute of God’s ability to see everything in the present.

Remember, God is Omnipresent - Past, Present, and Future, God is present.

This is a concept that is virtually impossible for us to understand because we acquire knowledge in the present from the past observations in order to predict future experiences.

God has simply always known.

Psalm 139:1–6 (KJV 1900)

1 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.

3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways.

4 For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thine hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Psalm 139:13–17 (KJV 1900)

13 For thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well.

15 My substance was not hid from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; And in thy book all my members were written, Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

1 Peter 1:20 (KJV 1900)

20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Acts 2:23 (KJV 1900)

23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

Romans 11:33 (KJV 1900)

33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

You were not an afterthought with God. You were a forethought. Just as Adam, the first man, was fashioned by the hands of God. You also were known before you were known.

His Will –Predestined!

Predestined = to determine beforehand.

2 Peter 3:9 (KJV 1900)

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Revelation 13:8 (KJV 1900)

8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Before Adam was ever created, God in his foreknowledge made preparation for His will to be carried out, knowing that Adam would sin.

John 3:16 (KJV 1900)

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

His Word –Called!

Called = to cry out in a loud voice, to command or request to come.

to authoritatively communicate a demand for the presence or participation of.

How does God call?

2 Thessalonians 2:14 (KJV 1900)

14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:8–15 (KJV 1900)

8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:

Proverbs 1:22–27 (KJV 1900)

22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge?

23 Turn you at my reproof: Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, And would none of my reproof:

26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

27 When your fear cometh as desolation, And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish cometh upon you.

Proverbs 1:28–32 (KJV 1900)

28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

29 For that they hated knowledge, And did not choose the fear of the Lord:

30 They would none of my counsel: They despised all my reproof.

31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, And be filled with their own devices.

32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

John 3:17–22 (KJV 1900)

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

John 1:44–51 (KJV 1900)

44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!

48 Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.

49 Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.

50 Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.

51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Revelation 22:17 (KJV 1900)

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Romans 10:8–11:1 (KJV 1900)

8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.

20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.

21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

His Witness –Justification!

Justification = to pronounce a verdict that you are in full accordance with the Law of God.

Just as if You never sinned.

Denotes pardon and protection.

Galatians 2:16–17 (KJV 1900)

16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.

His World –Glorified!

Glorified = To positively acknowledge, recognize, or esteem one’s character, nature or attributes.

John 17:22 (KJV 1900)

22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV 1900)

18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

1 John 3:2 (KJV 1900)

2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Romans 8:31–39 (KJV 1900)

31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32 He that spared not 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 lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh 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 thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that 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 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.