I'd like to turn your Bibles
to Romans 8. Reading from verse 28, And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. to them who are the
call according to His purpose. 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. 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."
What an encouraging verse of scripture this is. No wonder
we turn to it so often for comfort and assurance. The Apostle has
just been speaking about the sufferings of this life. The Lord's people do suffer in
many ways, even for the sake of His Name, but in just a little
while all of it will be seen to have been more than worth
it. We see there in verse 18 of the same chapter, For I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. and although
our infirmities are always with us, we have an encouragement
and help of the Spirit continuous onward. He intercedes before
us in our prayers, giving us hope and giving us confidence
in our God that even in the darkest and most hopeless things we might
endure in this life, our God works them all for our eternal
benefit. Our friend Mr Winslow speaks
about it in this way. It's an article in the Bulletin
I've recommended to you on page 2. Let me just read a small portion
of what he says. He says, It is palpably clear
and emphatically true that all that occurs in the Lord's government
of his people conspires for and works out and results in their
highest happiness and their greatest good. The gloomiest and most
painful circumstances in the history of the child of God without
a solitary exception are all conspiring and all working together
for his real and permanent good. What a wonderful truth that is
for us in the struggles of this life, that God works all things
together for good, not just the general good, but for the good
of His people, but always for the good of His people, them
that love God, them who are the called. God has given titles
to His people. and every title serves to describe
something about them. They are often called the elect
and they are often called the redeemed of the Lord and they
are his sheep and they are his bride and they are his church. All these titles reveal something
about them. And here in verse 28 we see that
the people of God are ones who are called the called. They are the objects and the
beneficiaries of God's goodness. So much so that in all the things
God works for them for their good. And so I want to spend
some time this morning just considering these ones. These ones who are
the called and their amazing title. And of these special ones
we are told that they love God. It is a distinguishing mark upon
them. Men love all kinds of things
in this world. A young converted man may love
a God, be it the God of nature or any one of a million other
Gods this world has to offer, but the calm mind cannot please
God. It cannot please the true God. It cannot love the true God.
You see in verse 7 of this chapter that the calm mind is enmity
against God. The people of God do love God. That's what the scriptures say. But they know in their flesh
that they do not love Him as they ought. So little in fact
that they wonder if it be love at all. They know that there
are so many things in our hearts that oppose the love of God,
that by the Spirit the people of God are caused to look to
and love the true God. He has caused them to know that
they belong to Him. The spirit of adoption it is.
Let's read a little bit from verse 14 of this chapter which
says, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. The children of God are made
to know their adoption and these children are made to know their
Heavenly Father. The Spirit beareth witness with
our spirit. He has sent His Spirit into the
hearts of His people and their love for God is really the love
that He gives them himself first. We love him because he first
loved us. That's God's work. And the called receive their
title because of something God does. They do not bestow this
title upon themselves. They cannot call themselves the
called apart from God. The title cannot be self appointed. They have this title simply because
they are ones who are called by God. And what a blessing it
is to be numbered among them who are the call. God works all
things for their good. That is no small blessing. And
so we might have this question in our mind. It is a good question
to ask, isn't it? Am I one of the called? Is it
possible that God is working all things for the good of me?
Am I one of the called? Are you anxious to know as to
whether you are one of the called? God has given us wonderful examples
of this calling in the scriptures. We have many examples of the
nature of that calling and the means of the call and the purpose
of that call, all recorded for our encouragement and edification.
The first thing we should understand In terms of this call is the
called are a particular people. They are particular objects of
God's peculiar, distinguishing, discriminating, sovereign grace
and love in Christ. They are set apart from those
who are not called. God is determined from the beginning
to set his grace upon them and call them in time separating
them and distinguishing them from all other peoples. What
a great example we have of this in our father Abraham in Genesis
12. You might want to turn there
just for a moment. Genesis chapter 12. A pagan Gentile Reading from verse 1, Now the
Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that
I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse them, him that curseth thee. And in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed.' So Abram departed as
the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abram
was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran."
As I said he was a pagan gentile. Abraham was an idolater. Living
in a foreign land he knew nothing of God whatsoever, but God calls
him out for his great purpose and he gives him a new name.
He gives him the name Abraham which simply means the father
of many. He was called by God and believed
God. Abraham believed God and it was
imputed unto him for righteousness. He was even called the friend
of God. And so here we have this vital
thing, the necessary hallmark of the called. All the called,
without exception, will believe on Him who calls them. They believe
what God says about Himself. They believe what God says about
His way of salvation. And they believe what God says
about them. that He is the potter and they are the clay. He knows
how we are formed, and that men are but dust. You see that in Isaiah 40, He
sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof
are grasshoppers. And in 1 Peter 1, for all flesh
is as grass, and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass.
the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away." We need
to see something important here, a principle by which God always
operates in the calling of His people. If you just turn to 1
Corinthians 1 for a moment. We see it again and again in
the scriptures. Verse 26 God calls the most unlikely subjects,
tax collectors, prostitutes, fishermen, ordinary people, but
even murderers. Verse 26, For you see, O calling
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh Not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,
to bring to naught things that are. And here is the key principle
I want you to get, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
If you are the called, your calling will be according to this principle,
that no flesh should glory in His presence. Friends if you
leave here today with just one thought in your mind, this is
a very good thing to remember. God must have the pre-eminence
in all things, especially regarding your calling and your salvation. So many want to share in that
glory, don't they? But God will not share His glory
with another. No flesh should glory in His
presence. The true Gospel always puts God
high and men low. Brethren, this truth will keep
us low. Do not think of yourselves more
highly than you ought. Only by the grace of God we are
what we are. And Moses, we have a great example
in Moses of one who is called. We need to remember again this
man in fact did commit murder. He killed an Egyptian and hit
him in the sand. Yet God called him for his great
purpose. God chooses the base things of
this world things that are despised. And God called him to stand before
Pharaoh and to wield the very power of God. Yet his calling
was in weakness. When God called him, he pleaded
with God, choose someone else. For I am slow in speech and slow
of tongue, he said. Yet God would make him stand
in that weakness. And even when our courage fails
us, especially when our courage fails us, When we are made to
know our infirmity then we agree with those words that God spoke
to Paul. My grace is sufficient for thee,
my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. So let's now just consider the
nature of this call for a moment. This calling is of God and the
nature of this call is twofold. There is a general call and there
is an effectual call or an inward call. It was commissioned of
the Saviour to us to go into the world and preach the Gospel
to every creature and so we preach the Gospel indiscriminately to
anyone that will hear us. Yet the Gospel we preach in this
place is the Gospel of a particular atonement. The blood of Christ
was shed only for the elect. Now when you say that to religious
people, that the blood of Christ was only shed for the elect,
to save only the elect. It is interesting what they often
say. Often the objection will be, but you don't know who the
elect are. How can you preach the Gospel
only to the elect? You don't know who they are.
But friends, the objection shows that they are ignorant of the
Gospel itself, ignorant that the blood of Christ actually
saves everyone for whom it was shed. The atonement was an effectual
atonement. But also the objection shows
that they do not understand the nature of the Gospel call, that
the Gospel is the power of God under salvation. We read that
in Romans 1. We preach the Gospel of God's
free grace to all who will hear it and let God do the rest. That's
all we have to do. And so the preaching of the Gospel
is God's ordained way of calling His people out. We cannot know
with certainty whom the Lord has elected, can we? And if we
presume to know from outward appearances, inevitably we would
tear up the wheat and leave the tares and we would gather in
the goats and push out the sheep. Yet men by nature hate the truth. They hate the truth and will
not receive it. In fact the karma mind prior to regeneration by
God cannot receive the truth of God. We saw that a little
earlier that the karma mind is enmity against God. And we read
the same thing in 1 Corinthians 2, 2.14 which says, But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him. Neither can you know them because
they are spiritually discerned. Unless that Gospel call is accompanied
with divine power, divine force, unless a man be quickened and
made alive in his spirit, unless his understanding is opened,
unless his heart be supernaturally changed and regenerated beforehand
to receive it, then the truth of the Gospel falls on deaf ears. It will seem like foolishness.
He is dead to its sound and left to our cells we too would be
just as dead. The family and friends of Lazarus
called out to him as he laid in that tomb. Yet there was no
life until Christ came and spoke. The Gospel Himself spoke. The Gospel personified our Lord
Jesus. but also God incarnate and the
words of the Lord Jesus were accompanied with the necessary
power to bring that dead man back to life. And so here is
something to understand about the nature of the call which
is so, so necessary. If God is to save His people
that call must be an irresistible call, an efficacious call. They must be called effectually. The Gospel is not an offer to
be saved. The Gospel does not declare a
possibility to be saved. The Lord Jesus did not simply
create the opportunity to be saved. It is a declaration of
salvation accomplished. And the Lord Jesus obtained something
for us, didn't he? In Hebrews it says that the Lord
Jesus obtained eternal redemption for His people. He actually saved
them and He actually redeemed them. And what a glorious Gospel
truth that is. All are called will be made to
know those truths. And we see in verse 28 of Romans, Romans 8, that the called are
a people called by God's purpose, called according to His purpose. It is the purpose of God according
to election, that great principle by which God's saving purpose
is governed. We see this so plainly in Romans
9.11. You will all be familiar with it. being not yet born,
that is Jacob and Esau, neither having done any good or evil,
one was loved and one was hated. Why? That the purpose of God
according to election might stand, not of works but of Him that
calleth. And again we see that flesh will
have no glory in this. There is no Gospel brethren without
election. The called were elected before
time began. Those who are the called know
that nothing in time caused their election. Nothing that they have
done in time caused their election. In fact the called know that
their election of God to be in spite of what they have done.
That's the truth. It's basically the opposite of
what this religious world teaches. not according to works, but according
to His purpose and grace. For it is God, in 2 Timothy 1,
9 and 10, who has saved us and called us with a 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. Sinners are not called to Christ
because of their will, but because of God's will. They are not given
life and faith in Christ because of what they did. They are given
life and faith in Christ because of what God did. Called love
the truth that their salvation is not their responsibility. Their salvation is no more their
responsibility than election is their responsibility. How
good is it to know that God does all the saving? Friends, the
very nature of salvation is that we need saving. The person is
drowning in the ocean and they need saving. They need someone
else to do it for them. If they could do it themselves,
they wouldn't need a saviour. Salvation is not a cooperative
effort between man and God. It is not even partial man's
work and partial God's work. Salvation is all of God. And the called, you'll see, are
ones at the time of God's choosing are regenerated. saved by the
washing of regeneration. We see this operation of God
in Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost. How necessary it is for the called
to have this washing. The called are also people who
are brought to know something of their countless sins and transgressions
against the Holy God. They know their sins are too
many, far beyond their knowledge. The sins are countless. Only
righteous people can count their sins. Some I know can count them
on one hand. But the called know that sin
is not so much what they do but more with what they are. Not
many believe such a thing. Just ask the average religious
man or woman, how did you become a Christian? When I've asked
that question of different ones, almost always the first word
that spews out of their mouth is I. Their assurance comes firstly
from something they've done. I'm sure you've heard these things
before, I've made a decision, I allowed God, I accepted Jesus. The language seems so harmless,
doesn't it? But those first words that come
out of their mouth reveal something of their hearts. What are they
saying? When they open their mouth to
declare the reason for their salvation, they begin with themselves. That's where their salvation
begins. If you question them further, perhaps they might backpedal
and consider that God was really behind it all, but they've already
revealed their heart. They have themselves to thank
because they have actually saved themselves. Friends, it's a serious
thing to take glory for something that is God's work. They ignore
those vital things we see in these next verses in 29-30. These
things are like, I suppose, a chain of grace. and they are, all of them, the
operations of God. And necessarily they must be
performed for each of the called. You see them there in those verses,
those words foreknown, predestinated, called, justified and glorified. They are called in time, called
at the time of His love. Yet our God determined from eternity
the very place His chosen ones should be called. He fixed the
exact circumstances of their calling according to His divine
purpose. When the scriptures declare that
all things work together for good, how can we begin to comprehend
just how many things that is? Everything that transpires, everything
that will eventuate, How many things is that? Uncountable. Yet our mighty God works all
of them perfectly together all the time for our good. His mighty
intellect has no trouble whatsoever in arranging and directing everything
precisely in time and in eternity. And they include these wonderful
connected graces you will just look at briefly. They are foreknown. The foreknowing of God is much
more than God just knowing what His people will and won't do
in their life. It is not simply what God did foreknow, but rather
whom He did foreknow. God's foreknowledge of His people
is His everlasting love for them. Even then, brethren, He knew
them in Christ with love and affection According to Proverbs
8.31 He takes delight and pleasure in them, knowing us in every
detail better than we know ourselves, but more importantly knowing
us in the person of His Son. When the scriptures speak of
God's foreknowledge of them, the implication is of ownership. and approval. These ones that
God foreknew He owned as His own people before the world began
and that is why our Lord Jesus is the great Redeemer. He came
to redeem that which belonged to God in the first place and
His foreknowledge includes His control of them and His determination
to do them good. His salvation is His good purpose.
If you are a child of God, you were foreknown of God from eternity. He loved you and owned you as
his own and he determined to save you before the world began. That's the Gospel. What a wonder
is the foreknowledge of God. And we see also that they are
predestinated. And the court ones, This predestination is a foundational
Bible doctrine. Predestination is God's infallible
purpose of grace regarding His elect. It means that our eternal
destiny was settled by God and infallibly secured by Him before
the world began. God eternally and immutably determined
who He would save, how He would save them, when He would save
them and where He would save them. Then He sovereignly arranges
all things necessary both to accomplish their salvation and
bring them to glory. I think predestination is perhaps
like a ferry that shuttles us across the river. You know that
Cormorong Island ferry It has very, very long steel cables
that draw it from one bank to the other. And those cables pull
the barge across the river so that it is always drawn towards
its destination. And most of the time those cables
are submerged beneath the water. The boats travel up and down
that river all the time and they travel over those cables all
the time, not even knowing that they're there. But when the ferry
reaches closer to its destination, those mighty cables lift up out
of the water and we can see them. God's amazing work of predestination
is mostly beyond our gaze, yet those cables are there, those
mighty cables are there, drawing us to Him with immutable decree. Predestination is no less than
God Almighty having arranged from eternity everything necessary
to bring His elect children into Heaven in the perfection of everlasting
life. What a comforting truth that
is. We see that they are justified, justified freely. Romans 3.24
tells us, being justified freely by His grace, we have redemption
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And justification
is a legal term. It means that God declares chosen
redeemed sinners guiltless, sinless and perfectly righteous before
His holy law." And friends, when God declares that a person is
guiltless, sinless and perfectly righteous before His holy law,
that person really is those things. Again it has its beginning in
eternity. Now justification did not commence
in time but began in eternity. God's elect were justified in
Christ from eternity. And those whom He justified,
them He also glorified." So the call we see are of people who
are glorified. We are talking about the glory
of God, we are not talking about the glory of men. The call will
know that they have no glory of their own. There is no doubt
the glory to come. See that in verse 18. Paul says,
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. The physical redemption of our
body shall come to pass. The Ephesians 1 tells us that
the called have received all spiritual blessings in Christ
and no doubt glorification is a spiritual blessing. How is
it that we are glorified? Perhaps you cannot think of yourself
as having obtained such a thing. With the evidence of our own
unrighteousness ever before us, how can it be possible that we
are glorified? John 17 is perhaps the best place
I can think of that explains something of this wonder to us.
Now Lord Jesus had this glory all along and in John 17 He says,
And now, Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with
the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. The Father
would glorify the Son on earth as testimony to those who would
believe. It was the glory that he had
from the beginning. And then in verse 22 we have
this astounding statement which says, And the glory which thou
gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one. Christ Himself has become our
glory. He has given His glory to His
people. His glory is our glory. Truly and rightfully by God's
doing we are made everything that Christ is. I have seen religious
men choke on this truth that the people of God are actually
made, the very righteousness of God, made the very glory of
God. If He gives them glory, then
they must become that glory. It is yet another wonderful truth
of the goodness of God to them who are the called. So in summary,
we have considered something of the nature of this call, something
of the purpose of this call, that the called ones come by
the preaching of the true Gospel. the true Gospel of Jesus Christ
the Lord. There is an effectual call by
which God calls out the elect of God. It is effectual because
it is accompanied by the power of God, willing their very salvation,
called by the will of God and called always according to His
good purpose, called in such a way that no flesh should glory
in His presence. So we have this wonderful promise
of God, that God works all things for
the good of them who are the called. And so we still ask,
am I counted among the called? Is God really working all things
for my eternal good? There is a higher question though.
The question is who do you believe? Not what do you believe, who
do you believe? Do you believe God? Do you believe
what He says and what He has done? Believers rejoice in the
character of God and in the ways of God. His election of them
is their joy and His choosing of them is their comfort. They
believe God when He says there is none righteous, no not one.
They believe that mercy and grace is their only plea. They believe
the truth that salvation is entirely the work of God and they believe
that God has saved them and called them not according to their works
but according to his own purpose and grace given them in Christ
Jesus before the world began. They believe God's Gospel that
the Gospel is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Has God given you
faith to believe His Gospel? What do you believe about this
One who is the Gospel? Did the Lord Jesus Christ redeem
His people from all iniquity or did He merely make us redeemable?
Did He actually put away sins or did He merely make it possible
for our sins to be put away? Did He effectually secure the
salvation of those for whom He died or did He only make salvation
a possibility for them? Now the Lord Jesus has finished
completely His work of redemption and His Father is fully satisfied. I hope you find yourselves believing
these things. Believing God is a work that
He performs for the called. John 6.29 tells us this. This
is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.