The Golden Chain of Redemption (4)
Salvation is of the Lord • Sermon • Submitted
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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, 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.
Introduction:
I. God’s Faithfulness (vs. 28)
II. God’s Foreknowledge (vs. 29a)
III. God’s Formula (vs. 29b)
IV. God’s Facilitation (vs. 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.
A. Predestinate
Just to hit this point and then move on, I want to give you a couple of verses to kind of sum up.
We all understand that because the words “predestinate” and “election” are Biblical words, that you have to form a Biblical Doctrine of them.
You cannot avoid them and you must; therefore, formulate a Doctrine on them based on the Bible as far as revelation will take you.
Now, there will always be questions, just like with other Doctrines in the Bible, but we go as far a Divine inspiration will take us and then leave it at that.
We said that to “predestinate” was to “choose or determine beforehand”.
In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
Danel
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Psalm 33:
“I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
So, the picture that the Bible paints for us is that in eternity past, the Sovereign God decreed or predetermined a people that would be like Christ.
Remember that we told you that all of this Doctrine of Predestination has to do with the love of the Father for the Son, that He wanted to give Him a love gift that would be like Him.
So, the ultimate purpose of election has to do with the conforming of a people to Jesus Christ.
Heaven is just a destiny; the purpose and the result of election is the conformation to the image of Christ.
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.
So God foreordains a people out of the good pleasure of His will (), and then Predetermines that those foreordained people would be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and then He calls those people.
And that takes us to the next link in the chain.
B. Called (vs. 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.
“Called” is the Greek word “καλέω” and it means “to summon” or “to be chosen as a recipient for a special benefit”.
For those people whom God foreordained and then Predetermined to be conformed to the image of Christ, He then summoned to come as a recipient of a special benefit.
This is a pattern of God that flows in both the OT and the NT.
First, God called Abraham ().
Then God called Israel.
But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
And this calling is now realized in the Church
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.
And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
God’s predetermined ones are called out of a state of sinfulness and into a state of Divine Grace.
Saints are said to be called.
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
This Greek word is the same root as the Greek word for “Church”.
“ἐκκλησία” means “the called out ones”.
We, as the ones that have been foreordained and Predetermined, have been summoned out of a group.
We have been summoned out of the group of the fallen into a state of Grace to be conformed to the image of Christ.
There are at least 13 different places in the NT where the believer is said to experience the calling of God.
Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
This doctrinal view has many times gone by the name: “Irresistible Grace”, meaning that people cannot resist the calling of God.
When the Holy Spirit comes on the hearts of the ones Foreordained and Predetermined, they will answer the call.
I do not, and there are others that feel this way as well, particularly like that doctrinal designation, because it gives an inaccurate picture of what I see in the Scriptures actually happens.
Because people do, in fact, resist the grace of God.
Sinners do it everyday.
And “Irresistible Grace” gives the idea that God brings people “kicking and screaming” into the Kingdom; which is so much an obvious characterization of the truth, but still needs to be addressed.
I prefer, and I believe is a more accurate picture in the Bible, the term “Effectual Calling”.
Meaning that when the Spirit calls, that calling will effective in what it was sent to do.
So, as you can see, the teaching of the two words are pretty much equal, but the term “effectual calling”, I believe, more accurately portrays what the Bible teaching on our calling.
Why is this calling necessary? Why must we be summoned to come?
Because unless we were summoned to come, we would never come.
I want to give you an illustration that is given by many semi-Pelagians in regard to this Doctrine.
The say that the sinner is sick and he/she needs the medicine of the Gospel in order to be healed of their illness.
Jesus stands beside them with the medicine of the Gospel and all they need to do is to take the medicine that is offered to them and they will be healed.
Now, the obvious problem with that illustration is that the person lying in the bed is not sick; not even sick unto death, but the person lying in the bed is…DEAD!
He/She cannot take the medicine that would heal them of their sickness because they are dead.
This has to do with our nature from birth, we are born spiritually dead.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
“Dead” or “νεκρός” literally means “to be a corpse, to be lifeless”.
So from a spiritual stand point, the one thing that every person has in common with each other is the fact that we all, if we will ever respond to the message of the Gospel, need to be raised from spiritual death to spiritual life.
We are born with natures that will only choose what is its natures delight.
And our natures are in bondage to unbelief.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
The inspired words are talking about willingness, they are talking about ability.
People that are dead in sin do not have the ability to so anything that is pleasing to God.
Is faith and repentance something that is pleasing to God? Yes!
So; therefore, by our nature we cannot do those things ourselves.
By our natures we suppress the truth
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
As Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in , Jesus makes it clear to him that dead sinners cannot bring about their spiritual birth anymore than they can bring about physical birth.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
So, the doctrine of the inability of man to come to God is part and parcel of what is missing in many evangelicals doctrine.
That while they believe that we are all sinners and, while they may not fully admit the following statement, their basically good people down deep.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Would you agree with the following statement?
The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way 3. Effectual Calling and the Bondage of the Will
“The Holy Spirit exerts His regenerating power only on certain conditions, that is, on the conditions of repentance and faith.”
If you would lean to believe that statement to be true, that is similar to asking a blind person to see before they have been healed of their blindness; it is just something that they cannot do.
The truth is:
The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way 3. Effectual Calling and the Bondage of the Will
Only because of God’s one-sided act of regeneration does anyone repent and believe.
You say, “It sounds like you are saying that regeneration proceeds faith and repentance”.
That is exactly what I am saying.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
I particularly want you to notice the first part of the verse.
Now, that is a pretty straight forward statement and not difficult to understand.
What we need to do is to dig down into the text and see what John was actually saying and what his readers would have understood him to be saying.
John starts our by saying:
Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων
That is a very popular phrase that the Apostle John uses in His Gospel; start back in .
And it is translated, “everyone that is believing”.
It is a Present, Participle and it speaks to the nature of our faith that it is ongoing; being the present tense shows continual action.
Then he says something about the ones that are believing.
ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται
“Have been born of God”.
Now, it sounds like on the surface that John is saying that our believing results in our being born of God.
But as you dig into the language that is not what John is saying.
γεγέννηται is a Perfect tense verb which; and you always have to study it in context, speaks about action that is completed in the past and has results abiding into the present.
And when you have Perfect tense verb with a Present Tense Participle, what is the relationship of the words?
And the vast majority of the time, that action that is accomplished in the Perfect tense verb is going to Proceed the action of the Participle.
What that would mean here that this being born of God proceeds the saving faith and I would argue gives rise to it.
Now, let’s look at some verbal parallels to see if this is the consistent message of John.
If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
What you have here is a exact match in grammar.
πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν
“Everyone that is doing....” and also a Present Participle, just like
And then....
αὐτοῦ γεγέννηται
“Is born of Him”, of course the context there is the “Him” being God.
And γεγέννηται is also a Perfect Tense verb, just like .
So, going by the same principle are we going to say that doing righteousness that makes us born of God.
And if not, why not!
It is the same grammatical construction that is founds in .
In being born of God comes before our doing righteousness.
So in our born of God comes before our believing.
Let me give to you another Biblical example of the calling that I think fits well.
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
John 11:
Just as by the calling of the physically dead person life was obeyed, so the call to the spiritually dead person is obeyed.
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
Who hath 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,
2 Timothy