Ron Dunn Podcast - The Eternal Purpose of God

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

God is working to chisle out the image of His son in your life.

You open your Bibles to the book of Romans the 8th chapter, and I'm going to read verses 29, rather verses 28, 29, and 30. Romans the 8th chapter, verses 28 and 30. And this is a very heavy passage. And the greatest affirmations in all the Word of God are found in these three verses. chapter 8, verses 28, 29, and 30. 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. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that

he might be the first born among many brethren. 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. The message this morning is on the eternal purpose of God. I wonder if when you were a child, if you ever watched your mother embroidery pillowcases. I was always fascinated by that. The only reason I didn't take up embroidering pillowcases, it didn't seem like a very manly thing to do. But it always fascinated me,

and I think the part that fascinated me the most was that on one side, all you saw was just a hodge, podge of threads that didn't make sense. and you could look at that side the rough side where the rough edges were and it seemed there was absolutely no design and no plan and no purpose whatsoever you just couldn't make sense out of it but then when you looked at it from the other side there was a beautiful pattern perhaps someone's name or perhaps the picture of a flower or some other scene but a beautiful a beautiful picture

A beautiful design. Looking at it from one side, if all you could see from that rough side, you could say, well, there's no purpose in it. There's no meaning to it. It's just a tangle web. It's just a mess. And there's absolutely no design to it at all. But when you look at it from the other side, you see it. It all makes sense.

And it comes out in a very beautiful pattern. And as I was reading these verses, it struck me that that. That's exactly the way our lives are. When you view life from the human side, sometimes all you see are a bunch of tangled threads that seem to go nowhere in particular. And sometimes there are nothing more than a mess. And I'm sure that there are some here this morning that feel that way about life. I tell you it would be pretty rough to live through life feeling that we were

merely the victims of chance and fate, and nobody had any idea what was going on, and nobody was in control, whatever is going to happen is going to happen, there's not anything you can do about it, and you're just left up to some blind fate. And life really has no purpose to it, and things come into your life, sorrows and tragedies and difficulties, and it seems as though you're living in an eggshell and it's just cracking all about you, and it seems to have absolutely no purpose. to it at all. But one of the greatest things that I discover as I read the word of God is that the Lord has a divine plan for every life and that God before the worlds were even thought of, much

less founded. God laid out a design and laid out a purpose. And the reason that life looked so messed up and inconsistent and tangled to you is because you're looking at it from the wrong side. And that's what Paul has been showing us in this chapter. He's talked about suffering. He's talked about the whole creation groaning and agonizing and travailing. And that's what we see. He's been showing us the human side of life.

He said, when you look at it from your side, all you see is travail and agony and inequities and injustices and crime. And it seems to make no logical sense. But now he's going to show us life from the devil. divine side. He catches us up into heaven and he lets us look at it from God's viewpoint and we see that the Lord has a gracious design. And listen, when you look at your life from God's side, it's very beautiful. It has design and purpose to it. And so notice what verse 28 says. And we know that all things work together for good. You watch that woman as she soles and as she embroidered. All of it

It's working together for good. To them that love God, to them who are the call according to His purpose. The word purpose in the Greek language means to design something in advance, to lay out, to mark out beforehand. And before the worlds were ever created, before you ever breathe your first breath, God had to design a purpose for your life, all laid out, all laid out. Now listen, everything that God has been doing. doing in your life, everything that God has been doing in human history has been ultimately to work out this plan, an eternal purpose. Listen to what the apostle says in 2 Timothy

1, verse 9. You listen as I read. He says God has saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. God is working out, the Apostle said, His purpose in us, and this purpose was given to us before the world ever began. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11,

he says, in whom, talking about Jesus, we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated, notice now, according to the purpose of him who work up all things. There's verse 28 again, after the counsel of his own will. And then in chapter 3 in verse 11,

according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord. God has a purpose, an eternal purpose. And when you look at the hodgepodge of events that take place in human history, you need to look behind the scenes and to realize that God has his hand on human history. He has an eternal,

purpose. He laid out a design beforehand, before the world began, and all that God is doing. What God's up to today, what God's up to today is to work out that purpose in your life. Now, I want to say three things about this eternal purpose of God. First of all, the revelation of that purpose. Secondly, the realization of that purpose. And third, the reassurance of that purpose. First of all, the revelation of that purpose. What is God's purpose? What is God up to? Listen. Being a Christian doesn't make you immune to the tragedies of life. Being a Christian doesn't lift you above what everybody else is involved in, sorrow, difficulty, anxieties, frustration, sin.

But what being a Christian does is that it zeroes you into the center of God's purpose. And that this is why the Bible says that those who do not know Jesus Christ have no hope, Absolutely. No hope. This is why the apostle says in a previous verse that we are saved in hope, that the characteristic of the Christian life is it is one of hope. For while we look at our lives from the human side and see nothing but tangled threads, yet we understand that God is working out his purpose. Now, you know, it's easier to take if you understand what that purpose is. You don't get so uptight about the things that are happening to you every day if you know what that purpose is. And so God reveals to us that purpose. Now look at verse 29. For whom he did

for no, he also did predestinate to be, and here's the purpose, to be conformed to the image of his son. To be conformed to the image of his son. What's God's purpose for your life, that you might be just like Jesus, not just looking like him, but actually being like him. What is God's purpose in my life. Why does God let these things happen to me? Maybe sometimes you feel like Job. Maybe sometimes Job's wife comes to you and says, listen, why don't you just give up? Why don't you just give up? Everything you've lived for, everything you've worked for is going down the drain. Maybe you have some friends like Job that comes to you and said, oh, I know what's wrong with you. You committed some sin. Tell us what it is. Fess up now. Tell us what it is.

And yet you examine your life. You can't see anything that you've done that would, that would would incur God's wrath, the best you know how you're letting Jesus Christ rule in your life, and all of a sudden the house tumbles in. You know, I've had so many people come to me in the last year and a half, and they said, preacher, you told us that we ought to enthrone Jesus Christ as Lord in our life. And the minute I did that, everything came apart. I lost my job. I got sick.

There was a death in the family. Problems came. difficulties came, the very moment, the very moment that I yielded my life absolutely without any reservation to the Lordship of Jesus, all these things start happening. Is that your testimony? It is to great many of you. Well, why does God let that happen? Because God is working out his purpose in my life, and God is working out his purpose in your life. And that purpose is that you might be just like Jesus. Just like Jesus. And the only way that a sculptor can sculpt out a beautiful figure out of a piece of marble is to do some chipping and some hammering and to let some dust fly. You cannot, you cannot

carve out that beautiful figure any other way. The chips must fly. Some things must be broken off and broken away. And when God takes you in hand and says, I'm going to fashion out, I'm going to chisel out of your life, the image of myself, of my son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's why these things happen to you. You see, oh, in the book of Genesis, the Bible tells us the original purpose that God had was that we might be like him. He said, let us make man in our own image and after our own likeness. That was God's purpose, was that man originally might be made after the image of God and after his own likeness, but man, he didn't want that. He rebe. He rebe. He rebe. held against God. He wanted to be made in his own image. And you know what the Bible says

when Adam and Eve had children? You know what it says? It says that Adam had sons in his own image, in his own image. The image of God was marred and perverted. Now, God's eternal purpose has never changed. When God created man in the first place, it was that man might be like God, that he might be in his likeness and in his image. And God has never abandoned that purpose. That's still what God's up to. And so it failed with Adam, the first head of the human race. And so God started all over again with Jesus Christ, the second head of the new race. You know, there are three races in the world?

Not two races, not Jew and Gentile. There's Jew, Gentile, and Christian. That's the third race, the third human race. God started all over with Jesus. And he says, my purpose hasn't changed. It's that when I save you, you might be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. become just exactly like him in nature, in spirit, in love, in holiness, in peace, in joy, in faith, just like Jesus.

Listen to what the apostle says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18. Now, this purpose is being worked out even today in your life. 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. That means bit by bit, gradually, even by the Spirit of the Lord. When God saved me, he saved me for a purpose, not merely to take me to heaven, not merely to give me a fire escape from hell. He said, this is the purpose I have for you. I want to change you into the image of my son.

Now, we're going to talk about predestination in a minute, and there's a lot I don't understand about predestination. But I tell you, there's one thing I do understand about predestination, and that's the purpose of it. The purpose of it is that I might be like. Jesus. Now, I want to ask you this morning how you get known with your predestination. You any more like Jesus than you were a year ago. Bible says that I, in this present time, in this present life, am to be being changed bit by bit into the image of Jesus Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus Christ comes the second time, he will complete the process, began at salvation,

and in the twinkling of an eye, this corruptible shall put on incorruptible, and this mortal shall put on immortality, and we shall be changed, liken to his glorious body. God's going to finish the work that he began. But, you know, I got a real surprise this week as I was studying this 29th verse. I decided that was the purpose. That was it. The purpose of God doing everything was that I might be like Jesus. The purpose of Jesus dying on the cross was that I might be like him. The purpose of God choosing me and saving me and justifying me was that I might be like him. But you know, I discovered that that is only the immediate purpose. That's not the ultimate purpose. Let's read that verse 29 again. For whom he did

foreno, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Now that's right. That's the purpose of salvation, but there is a purpose beyond that. Notice the next word, T-H-A-T, that, that indicating purpose. In order that, he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now the firstborn is used. times of Jesus in the New Testament, and it is a title of dignity and supremacy and priority. And when I begin to read that and the Spirit of God begin to reveal to me what that verse was all about, it suddenly dawned upon me that the real ultimate purpose of God working in my life, what God is up to in the world today, is that Jesus might be glorified, that Jesus might be the firstborn,

That means he might have top priority. He might have the place of dignity and supremacy in my life. Here's the whole scheme. Here's what God's up to. This is what God's working out. He never deviates on this purpose. He wants to exalt Jesus. That's all He cares about.

That's all the Holy Spirit cares about. That's all you ought to care about in your daily life is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might bear the title of dignity and priority and supremacy. And so God says, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to save you and I'm going to make you like Jesus and I'm going to surround Jesus my son with thousands and thousands and thousands of people just like him and when Jesus stands in the midst everybody will see that he is the first that he is the original that he is the Lord and this will bring glory and honor and dignity and supremacy to him

you see what God wants more than anything else is for Jesus to be first in your life and Jesus is going to be first in all creation and in all the universe. This is God's purpose. I don't know about you, but it humbles me to realize that the only way God can glorify Jesus is through my salvation. The only way God can glorify his son is through my salvation, through making me like Jesus. The glorification of Jesus depends upon my glorification. If I fail to be glorified in the last day, Jesus, fails to be glorified. The only way that Jesus can be glorified is if I'm glorified. Now, friends,

there's the basis of eternal security. God is going to see to it that his son is glorified, and the only way his son can be glorified is if you are glorified in the last day. Now, that's the revelation of his purpose. Now, I want us to look briefly at the realization of that purpose. How does God work it out? How does God work it out? Now, listen, what we're going to talk about now, Charles H. Spurgeon called a family secret. What he meant was the unsaved wouldn't understand it. And those of you here this morning that are not Christians and do not have the Spirit of God, you will not understand what we're going to talk about. And many of us who are saved won't understand it. Man, it's a jawbreaker. And I'm not going to pretend this morning to be able to

understand and explain predestination. I cannot. Listen, even the Apostle Paul could not. In Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11, he struggled with predestination on the one hand and the free choice of man on the other, and he couldn't figure it out. And so he comes to the end of chapter 11, and he throws up his hands. You know what he says? He says, oh, the unsearchable riches of his grace, his ways are past finding out. Paul just throws up his hands. He said, I cannot understand it.

I cannot reconcile it. And if Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, could not adequately understand and explain, oh, one hand, predestination of God, and on the other hand, the free choice of man, I don't think I can either. but we're going to talk about it. Now there are five steps. There are five words. Notice, foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification.

The first two have to do with what God did in eternity. He forenew us and he predestinated us. The last three have to do with how God worked this out on the stage of time. He called us, he justified us, and he glorified us. Let's talk about what God did in eternity before the worlds began. Whom he did for know, he also did predestinate. Now, I thought I had predestination figured out at one time. I never will forget I was sitting in the kitchen at my home in Fortune of Arkansas.

I forget about 18 years old. I've been preaching three or four years. And I was reading this verse, and I'd never been able to understand predestination. All of a sudden, I thought, man, I've got to figure it out. What the scholars to the ages have not been able to figure out I've seen. I said, I understand predestination now. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. I said, that's it.

Predestination is based on his foreknowledge. Here's what happened. God looked down into eternity, and he knew that some people would believe, and he knew that some people would not believe, and so those that he knew would believe, he predestinated them to be saved. Didn't that sound good? Isn't that logical? Man, I was so happy.

That's solved. That's simple. Why couldn't anybody else see it? God just looked down. He knew everybody that was going to be born. He has all foreknowledge. He knows what's going to happen beforehand. He knew who was going to be saved.

He knew who would respond to the gospel. And so on the basis of that, he predestinated them. The only thing wrong with that is that's not what the Greek word foreknow means. And the only thing wrong with that is that completely contradicts the doctrine of grace. You see, if Ward Walker were standing up here beside me, we're two people in eternity in time, God looks down in eternity, he sees that Ward is going to believe, and he sees that when I hear the gospel, I will not believe. And so because he knows that I am going to reject, and he knows that Ward is going to believe,

he predestinates Ward. Now, the only thing wrong with that is that makes the basis of God's election, Ward Walker. The only reason God predestinated him and didn't predestinate me is that God saw that Ward would do something that I wouldn't do. You see, that makes it a salvation of works. The only reason God elected and predestinated Ward Walker is because God knew Ward Walker would do something, and that something was believing. God saw something in Ward Walker, he didn't see in me. And so he chose him. And that contradicts the doctrine of grace, because then that means the reason God elected me is because I was going to do something.

And the Bible says in Ephesians that the basis of God's predestination is the good pleasure of his will, not anything he sees in man. But the word for no doesn't mean what we normally think it means. We always have the idea that the foreknow means you're going to know in advance what people are going to do. Now, it is true that God does know in advance what people are going to do, but that's not what the Greek word foreno means in the New Testament. The word know is used of Joseph knowing his wife Mary. Remember it says that he knew her not until the firstborn? Now, he was acquainted with Mary, but he did not know her in a marriage relationship. What does Jesus say?

I never knew you. In the New Testament language, in the Greek language, the word no means to be acquainted with, to set your affection on, to have a relationship with. It never refers to knowing what people are going to do. It refers to knowing people, being acquainted with them, having a relationship with them, like a man and his wife, having a relationship. relationship, are like God and this people having a relationship. Let me read it out of the Williams translation, and the Williams translation is the most

accurate translation in the Greek text that I know anything about. Let me read verse 29. For those on whom he set his heart beforehand, that's what the word for no means. He marked off as his own to be made like his son, that he might be the oldest of many brothers. Let me read it again. for those on whom he set his heart before him. That's what it means to know us when God knows us.

You remember, he said of Israel, I knew you in the wilderness. Now, he didn't mean I knew you were there. He meant I knew you when you were there. I knew you when you were not even in existence. That's what he said of Jeremiah. He said, Jeremiah, I knew you in the womb. Now, he didn't say, I knew you were there. He says, I knew you.

I had a relationship with you even before you were born. That's what he's talking about. I don't understand it, but before I was ever born, before the world was ever created, God knew me. He knew me. And because he knew me, in that special relationship, he predestined me. He marked me off as his own. That's what predestination means. Predestination means that you draw a circle around something.

You say, that's mine. That's mine. Now, you say, explain that. I can't. I really can't. And nobody else in the world has ever been able to understand it or explain it. But let me just try to throw one little bit of light on it. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse is 3 and 4, you listen very carefully as I read.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now notice verse 4, according as He had chosen us. Now that's the same Greek word translated, elected, or predestinated. He had chosen us. Now notice the next two words and you underline them for there is the only human explanation for predestination. He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He hath chosen us in Christ.

Now let me just give you this illustration and the only way I know to explain it. I go out to Love Field. There is an airplane sitting on the runway that is going to Denver, Colorado next Sunday afternoon. That plane is elected. predestined has been marked off. A circle has been drawn around that plane. It has been marked off as going to Denver, Colorado. Now, remember Ephesians 1-4. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Now, everybody who's in that plane is chosen to go to Denver, Colorado. Everybody who's in that plane is marked off to go to Denver, Colorado. Everybody who's in that plane is marked off to go to Denver, Colorado. Everybody

everybody in that plane is predestined to go to Colorado. Everybody who is not in that plane and who does not enter that plane is not predestined to go to Denver, Colorado. Predestination focuses in Jesus Christ. God never just predestined somebody to be saved regardless of Jesus Christ, and God never predestines anybody to be lost regardless of Jesus Christ. predestination must always funnel through Jesus Christ and it goes through Jesus Christ and those who are in Jesus Christ are predestined to be saved and predestined to be conformed

of the image those who do not come to Jesus Christ those who are not in Jesus Christ are not predestined because Jesus Christ said whosoever will whosoever will may come God never predestines anybody to go to hell God never fixes anybody's damnation beforehand and predestination always refers to those who are saved going to heaven and being conformant never refers to anybody being lost and going to hell never does in eternity god knew me before i even existed he knew me before my mother knew me he knew me he knew me he said his heart on me what william's translation says he said his heart on me can you imagine me boy i tell that just that does something to me before i i had no chance to do good works or bad works god just

said his heart on me. He knew me. And see, Romans chapter 3 says that God has the power to speak to those things which do not exist. He knows them by name. He calls them by name those things that do not exist. That's amazing. That's God. He set his heart on me. He set his heart on me. He said, I'm going to draw a circle around you and your mind. And so when I was born, God carried out that purpose and he called me by his spirit. I respond to that call. He just did. He just defied me, made me as though I had never sin in his sight. And then notice the last verse, Dr. James Denny, one of the greatest theologians who ever lived said the greatest affirmation of the entire word of God is the last word in verse 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate them,

he also called, and whom he called them, he also justified in whom he justified them. He also what? Glorified. Past tense. You mean that? You mean I've been worried about my salvation. I've been worrying about falling from grace. I've been worrying about eternal security. And God says that I'm already glorified in his sight. That's right. You say, well, I don't see how, well, it doesn't matter what you and I can see. You say, it doesn't seem logical. It doesn't matter what's logical you and me. It's the book. It's the word of God. God says, that if he called you, and if he justified you, he also glorified you. And notice how he used the word also, then he also called, then he also justified.

And those alsos are the knots that tie it all together and make it a unit. Listen, if God has called you, and if you've responded to that call, if God has justified you and saved you, listen, you're already glorified in God's sight. You see, I don't understand how that can be. Well, it's just like this. Let's suppose I'm walking down one of the. the main streets of Dallas, the city of Dallas. Now right where I am right now is my present.

Right where I was a block back, that's my past. And there's a block up there, there's a street corner up there that I'm heading towards, that's my future. You see, time is an invention of God to accommodate humans. God invented time for our sake. And time is a line on which you and I walk. Where I am right now is my present. that other block, that other intersection, that's my past, and this intersection up here I'm moving

towards is my present. I mean, it's my future. Now, someone is on top of that skyscraper up yonder, and they look down, and they watch me as I walk up that street, and when they look at me, this is their present. I want you to listen very carefully, they look it back where I I was. They look up to where I'm going to be, and it's my present. I look back to where he was. That's his past, but it's not my past. It's my present. You see, it's all present with me. From my vantage point, I can see the line from beginning to end, and the end is my present, and the beginning is my present. I see it all in one glance in just one look, in one moment of time, my present tense, I can see it all.

I can see where he's been. I can see where he is and I can see where he's going from my advantage point. That's how God sees it. God is the eternal I am. He is the eternal present. And God has no time. There's no time with God. Time is an invention of God to accommodate us humans.

It's a line on which we walk, but it's all God's present. And so I was saved when I was nine years old. That's my past, but it's God's present. He looks at it. He can still see it. One of these days I'm going to die or Jesus is going to come and I'm going to heaven. It's God's present. God sees it now. And so this is why God is able to say, remember now we're looking at it from the divine side.

This is why God is able to say, if I have called you and you've responded and if I have justified you, you are already glorified. Well, that's eternal security. It's already settled. It's already done. All that has to be done now is just to be acted out on the purpose. plain of everyday experience. Now, let me just say one word in closing about the reassurance of this purpose, and this brings us back to verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good, to them

that love God, now notice, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now, if you do not come to Jesus, if you do not get to God. in that plane. If you do not get in Jesus, then the purpose of God for your life is frustrated and destroyed. But once you enter that plane, once you get inside Jesus Christ, there is no power on heaven or hell that can frustrate the purpose of God. Once you are a part of that purpose, once you respond to that call of God and you're called according to his purpose, then God sees to it that there is not a single thing that happens to you that can throw it or frustrate that purpose. Reassurance. Reassurance. God takes everything in my life. He says, listen, your goal is glorification

because unless you're glorified, Jesus can't be glorified, and I want Jesus to be glorified. Now, listen, everything that happens to you, if it's bad or good, ill or fair, no matter what it is, I'm going to work it out. I'll work it out. you keep on looking at those tangled threads it doesn't make sense to you but listen you stop once in a while and flip it over and see the other side see the other side see it from God's side he said I'm working it out

don't worry about it don't get uptight don't fret don't get anxious just let me handle it I'm working it out I'll take care I'll work it out everything Lord what about this sorrow I'll work it out Lord what about this tragedy

I'll work it out what about this horrible experience I'm going through now I'll work it out but Lord you don't know that I'll work it out I'll work it out listen I'm glad I'm a part of his purpose

God has a purpose for your life a glorious plan for your life but it's in Jesus God doesn't do anything aside from Jesus everything comes through him you'll never know the glorious purpose

that God has for your life until you know Jesus are you in that plane are you in Christ this morning you can be Jesus says whosoever will may come whosoever heareth let him come to the water and drink freely

the great word of the gospel is whosoever will. Let him come. Will you come to him this morning?