Order of Salvation

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth. I think I start the show most of the time like that. I got an email from Nancy the other day in Oregon. Hi, Nancy. And she said she was glad to listen to No Compromise Radio, and she thinks my style is—she didn't say conversational, she didn't say authentic, she didn't say relevant, to use Stephen Furtick's words, she didn't say audacious, but she said I help people reach their potential.

No, she said it was like I was sitting in the room teaching people the Bible. And that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm sitting here in beautiful downtown Burbank, also known as West Boylston, Massachusetts.

We are known for the reservoir here that contains all the Boston water. And so West Boylston decades ago was flooded, and now all our water goes to Boston. So you can't swim in that reservoir. It looks pretty.

It looks like a lake. It's large. You can't fish in it unless there's a certain time of year, a certain kind of fish. No ice fishing, of course, no ice skating, of course, and so you can't touch it because it's the Boston water.

So same thing, you know, you live in California, you have the no-cows and the so-cows, and the northern California people are bugged for lots of reasons, but one is that they have to ship all their water elsewhere.

So this is like the Golan Heights, in other words, and there's the Jordan right down there. Well, what are we doing today? Well, I'm just seated here in my studio, my office, my—what do you call it? You're not supposed to call the pastor's office an office because in offices you do clerical work, administrative work, that kind of thing, and you're supposed to call it a study because you're supposed to study in here, and most of the things that I have in here are books.

But now there's a little studio here, too, so now it's a studio office study, study office studio. Well, the other day I started a series that I didn't finish, so I thought I'd better finish today, and that is the order of salvation, the order salutas.

And if you look at superlapsarianism, infralapsarianism, when did God decree the fall, and people like to argue these things. In seminary, I said before that the order of salvation that I was taught was found in Romans chapter 8, and so let's look at Romans chapter 8 today as we finish up the order of salvation, at least tentatively finish it up.

The Golden Chain of Redemption in Romans 8

Paul says in Romans chapter 8, this great chapter on the security of Christ Jesus' people, there is therefore now no condemnation, that's the opposite of justification, justification, antonym condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus.

That's chapter 8, verse 1. He goes on to say 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. And then here comes the order of salvation, Romans 8, 29.

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.

So the order of salvation that we looked at last time was number one in this five-link chain of eternal security, redemption, security in Christ Jesus. The first word we looked at was foreknowledge, to foreknow those whom He foreknew.

And remember, it would be an error, a categorical error, a critical error, an error of the worst kind. I'm trying to think of a word. I can't think of it. Salubrious comes into my mind, but that I know is the wrong word.

There's a guy that sells hot dogs here in his car, truck, cart, Meals on Wheels deal, and he always says—he died, but he used to say, have a salubrious day. Have a salubrious day, lugubrious day. Now that would be something different.

So number one, foreknowledge, God loves ahead of time. Remember the Hebrew idea of to know, to know intimately, and God knows all the nations intellectually with omniscience, with knowledge, but He only knows, that is, He only loves Israel.

And so we looked at that word. Then we looked at predestination, which is close to foreknowledge, except it is focused upon the goal. It emphasizes the goal. It looks toward the end in view, while foreknowledge is focusing on the people.

And so, when you use foreknowledge, these are the people. He didn't foreknow that they would believe. He foreknew the people. He loved them ahead of time, to love before. You know what, just for fun, let's do this.

I've got the message right here. This was not part of the show. You know, I plan out these shows. It takes me like three hours for every show to plan. It used to. And now I just come over here. Lord help, hit the record button and see what happens.

And it probably shows. All right. It says here, I'm looking for 828. It's hard to find it in the message Bible now, isn't it? Why? Because it doesn't have these things. All right, this is really bad. Praying.

God knew what He was doing from the beginning. He made the decision. See, it's so weird because here's what it says. God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the life of His Son.

The Son stands first in the line of humanity He restored. We see the original intended shape of our lives there in Him. After God made that decision of what His children should be like, He followed it up by calling people by name.

After He called them by name, He set them on a solid basis with Himself. And then after getting them established, He stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what He had begun. So what do you think?

I didn't add that. So what do you think is in the message? Number one, foreknowledge. Number two, predestined. He marks out people ahead of time. He chooses. He destines them before. It's not post-destination.

He determines after they do something, it's pre-destiny, destiny before. To what end? To what goal? To be conformed to the image of His Son. God's eternal purpose, conforming Christians into the image of His Son, the pattern of His Son, the model of His Son, to be made like Christ.

As A .T. Robertson said, an inward and not merely superficial conformity. Then we go to the next chain, and here's the new information for the day. So you can just speed up past through this, and you could use the Fire Bible or Holy Soil or something like that to get to right here.

And whom He predestined, these He also called. Word number three, for our third link in the five links of this golden chain of redemption, the ordos salutis found in, that almost sounded like I was speaking in tongues, didn't it?

Ordos leucis? Ordos leucis? Called. Called. These He also called. That's word number three. Called. See it right there? Romans 8 .30. Now, when you look at the Gospels, the word called there, many are called but few are chosen.

Come one, come all is calling people, and so you call people to the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel call, that is a Gospel word there to call, used in the Gospels. But when it's used in the Epistles, Romans through Jude, the word called always means an effectual call, irresistible grace if you want to go to TULIP.

An internal call, effectual call, a saving call. God knows people in advance. He carves them out for a certain goal, to look like Christ. He calls them. This is in time, the Spirit of God regenerates, opens hearts, open minds.

This is something that is done to you. Called. Even here, passive word. The fourth word that's shown in Romans chapter 8 for the order of salvation is justified. This is an alien righteousness, declared righteous, forensically.

This is judicially. This is not infusion. This is imputation. And of course, if you've been listening to No Compromise Radio, you realize the word reckon or count, don't count this charge against him, reckoned, what's another word, credited to.

This is the word imputation. And logizimai is the Greek word. There are three, remember, great imputations in the Bible, imputation. The first imputation is Adam's sin to everybody except Jesus. Second imputation is our sin, the elect sin to Christ at Calvary.

And then the third great imputation is Christ's perfect righteousness to all the elect. And so here we have declared righteous. And then finally, we have glorified. So when you look at Romans chapter 8, it says, verse 30, and those whom he predestined, he also called.

And those whom he also called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. And Paul uses a perfect, excuse me, a past tense here for this future event because it is absolutely a done deal.

There's certainty here. Denny said that this verse is one of the most daring verses in all the Bible. When God starts off with a million elect, for instance, I just picked a number, I don't know the number, that's not the number, he ends with a million.

And so why is he using past tense here for a future event? Because it's as good as done. Our glorification doesn't depend on us, because if it depended on us, we would never make it. What's missing here?

We've got forno, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. There's nothing there about sanctification, because this is God's golden chain of redemption. Deffenbaugh said, our sanctification relies completely upon God, and what God determines will come to pass.

Paul has not said that some of those whom God has chosen will be called, nor that some of those whom are called will be glorified. From election to sanctification, it is the work of God, and it is certain.

The Response to God's Saving Work

And so what I like about this order of salvation, Paul goes on to ask questions about it. I mean, what's your view? If I said to you, knowing that you, a Christian, were loved in eternity past, God predestined you and conformed you to the ultimate goal of being in Christ's image and likeness, that He, in time, called you by His Spirit, He declared you righteous based on the work of the substitute Christ Jesus, and then He will glorify you.

Now in the middle of the passage, we've got Romans 8, there's groanings and creation problems and suffering and trials, and knowing that when God starts a work, He's faithful to complete it to use loose language of Philippians chapter 1 verse 6.

What's the conclusion to that? So what? Right? When you teach a Bible study, when you teach the Awana curriculum, Pioneer Boys, when you teach Sunday School, VBS, I hope you have a so what at the end.

You can tell the people, so what's our response? This is a great, confident ending and conclusion, and so what do you say about that? What's your response? And so Paul even anticipates that, and he says in verse 31, Romans 8, 31.

You can make it very personal if you'd like. Sometimes this is not the right thing to do hermeneutically, but here it will work. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for Mike Abendroth, who can be against Mike Abendroth?

I mean, ultimately, really, who can be? No wonder John Calvin called Romans 8, 31 his life verse. Now I don't know what my life verse is. It seems to switch around pretty much every week, whatever passage I'm in.

I love Romans 8, 31. I love 8, 32. I love 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. Here we have the response. This is like Isaiah 50, verse 9. This is a rhetorical question that Paul asks. Will the threat of the culture be too great for us?

Will the threat of Islam be too much for us? Paul knows that there's an advocate and a protector, and here there's a long silence, probably, that should be after these next questions and statements. If God is for us, who can be against us?

What do we say to these things? The sovereignty of God in salvation. What do we say about God's ultimate salvation found in Romans chapter 8, 28, 29, and 30? I guess the response should be dumbfounded, mouth open, can't hardly get over it, to say hallelujah, to say thank you.

These words in Romans 8, 28 and 30 through 30 are not meant to be simply a seminary discussion. The order of salvation, whether you want to study it more philosophically with the supra and infralapsarianism, laps meaning the fall, or if you would like to default to Romans chapter 8 verses 29 and 30 for your order of salvation, it should not be simply an academic exercise now, should it?

Just think for a minute that in eternity past, before there was anything, before there was even heavens, earth, angels, place, space, time, God set his love on you. That's pretty amazing. For years I thought to myself, as a single person, I'm never going to find anybody who will marry me.

Who would marry me? There are things about me I don't like, and there are things about me other people don't like. And as an unbeliever, I had no idea about the sovereignty of God or anything like that.

I just thought, how does that work? It reminded me of the Billy Bragg song, how did dad meet mom? How does it happen? And how could anybody set their love on me? That's why, as the joke goes, when I asked my wife Kim to marry me on May 6th, I had to ask again.

She said yes, and I asked again, and she said yes again. And we said, we'll get married in a few months, and then a week went by, we moved it up a month, a week went by, we moved it up a month, another month, a week went by, we moved it up again, and then why not, let's get married June 6th.

That was 24 years ago, in 1989. That's amazing. To think that God set his love on me is amazing, because if I'm thrilled that my wife said yes and she meant it, what about God? Luthi, the Swiss pastor, wrote, they would not at all be surprised if God were against us.

They know that God would have good reason for being against us, that God is for us is something we do not deserve. It would serve us right if God were against us. So since he is for us, can it be that there is something wrong with justice and righteousness?

Surely God who loves justice has not become weak and evaded and offended against justice. If that were so, how could he expect us to respect his commandments? The eternal keeper of eternal justice does not deviate from the law.

He is not God at the expense of justice. That would be the end of moral order and the end of the world. Do we have opposition? Yes. Do we have adversaries? Yes. But they're small in light of our advocate.

If God is for us, Paul challenges. If there's nobody on par with God, as A .T. Robertson said, then who is against us? And how is God for us, you ask? You say, well, you know what, I know we're supposed to study the order of salvation, at least Romans 8, 29 and 30, and God is for us, who can be against us?

But really, how? I'm sick financially, I've got problems spiritually, emotionally, all kinds of issues going on. This is a vice grip of a culture that is anti-Christian now, it's post-Christian. How is God for us?

To what extent is God for us, Romans 8, 32? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Here God the Father gives his most precious possession for you, for the elect.

If God doesn't withhold the greatest blessing, does he withhold lesser blessings? This is a good reminder for us. Sin has been dealt with, but what's more important in Paul's argument, he doesn't spare his best.

And when you see that word spare, immediately to your mind you should be thinking what? Old Testament, Genesis chapter 22. It means to withhold. When God said to Abraham, you have not withheld your son, you have not spared your son.

Do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing for him, for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld. Same word there translated in the Greek New Testament as in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

You have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. John Murray said, The Father did not withhold or lighten one whit of the full toll of judgment executed upon his own well-beloved and only begotten Son.

No mitigation. Judgment was dispensed upon the Son in its unrelieved intensity. God spared nothing. Look at the generosity of God and the giving nature of God and the love of God. His own Son is private possession.

Winslow said, Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for money, not Pilate for fear, not the Jews for envy, but the Father for love. Literally he bestowed out of grace. Translation one of them is freely gave us.

Look at the goodness of God. We have an argument from the greater to the lesser. And then he asked a few other questions that I can't help but tell you here on No Compromise Radio. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

Well maybe you sin, maybe you did something really bad. Is there a higher court than God's court? It is God who justifies. There's not going to be any contempt of court unless there's the enemy trying to bring up sin against us because we have an advocate with the Father if we sin.

First John chapter two. Jesus Christ the righteous and he himself is the propitiation for our sins. God isn't going to reverse that. So he goes on to ask another question. Who is to condemn? By the way, the Father gives the right to judgment to the Son, John 5 .22.

If Jesus dies for you, why is he going to then judge you with a double judgment? Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Sins paid for, Christ died. He's powerful over death and sin. He's been raised from the dead. The Father accepted his atoning work. Christ is at the seat of power and authority and dominion, the right hand, and he intercedes for us.

He intercedes for us. That's pretty amazing. One man said, if I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies, yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.

Hebrews 7 .25, hence also he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Oh, it was probably about 23 years ago that I saw a little book in my library that I had purchased some time before.

It was called A Divine Cordial by Thomas Watson. Out of all the Puritans, you ought to read Thomas Watson because he is probably the easiest Puritan to read. He has all kinds of great illustrations and you're going to be benefited by reading Thomas Watson.

You can read his little systematic theology. You can read things about the Ten Commandments. You can read things about Sermon on the Mount. I'm just talking out loud now. You talk out loud most of the time.

To remember what his little body of divinity, that's what it's called, little systematic theology kind of, body of divinity, and you will be refreshed. But it was about Romans 8 .28, The Divine Cordial, and I thought, you know what, I'm not going to read that because if I read it I'll have to live it out and I don't really need that in my life right now.

So I put it back and then I thought, that's a dumb reason not to read a book. So I pulled it out, read The Divine Cordial, and then a week later I got downsized. I got laid off. And in fact, now looking back, God was super faithful.

God kept his promises. I had a new little baby, and what do I do? I got 21 weeks of severance pay, I believe, 22 weeks, and at 21 weeks I got a new job and I never missed a meal. My child didn't miss a meal.

Now I need to miss meals. That's why we have MyFitnessPal now, don't we? And so we have the faithfulness of God. And so this is a divine cordial. Christian, are you suffering? Christian, are you hurting?

Christian, you know, people in trials, let's go back to think about God. What God has done. Can you imagine God foreknew you if you're a Christian? He predestined you. He called you. He justified you.

He will glorify you. What do you say to those things? He is for you. Who can be against you? How did God show that He was for you? He sent His Son, His own Son, His begotten Son, that Jesus should die for you.

Now that's love. That is a divine cordial, to be served by the risen King, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.