Sunday Sermon: The Golden Chain of Redemption, Part 1 (Romans 8:29-30)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an

Old Testament book on Thursday and our Q &A on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series.

Here is Pastor Gabe. As we've been studying this section of Romans, particularly

Romans 8 verses 28 to 30, we have been hearing about how God has ordered so that those whom he has called from eternity past would come to salvation.

John Bunyan, of course, the author of the famous Pilgrim's Progress said the following, to be saved by grace, supposeth that God hath taken the salvation of our souls into his own hand, and to be sure it is safer in God's hand than it is in ours.

And so let us hear once again of the order in which God is bringing about his redemptive purposes as we open the scriptures to Romans chapter 8 verses 28 to 30.

In honor of the word of the King, would you please stand. Romans chapter 8 and once again

I begin reading in verse 28. Hear the word of the Lord. And we know that for those who love

God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

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.

You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, we come back to this passage today and we rejoice to hear of your purposes in redemptive history to call a people to yourself and save them through your

Son Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to die and then hope that somebody somewhere would hear about this and maybe by the free will of the creature they would decide to believe in it.

And even by the free will of that individual that they would thus walk in righteousness and in the good word that you have spoken to us through your law.

But know you have purpose that not only would your Son come and die but he would die for a particular people.

And that people would not only come to faith but would also be sanctified in that faith.

And would be made righteous and actually demonstrate that righteousness living as the people of God even in this present day, even amidst the dark world in which we live.

We have been called not only to salvation but to sanctification. That we would be holy and blameless before you in love.

And you have not only promised to justify us, not only to sanctify us but even to glorify us.

And there is laid up for us a glorious and beautiful inheritance, the kingdom of God.

That as Jesus will inherit this kingdom so he is also promised to those who have been given to him as a possession.

We are fellow heirs with Christ. God, we rejoice in that kingdom and study of that kingdom, hear of that kingdom even during the

Christmas season. When we hear those famous ancient passages that to us a child is born and to us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders.

So even in that prophecy of the Son who would come, we find fulfilled and rejoice in during this

Christmas season. Lord, make these words that we read today relevant to us, applied to our hearts, applied to our lives, that we may live these things to your glory and grace.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray and all God's people said, Amen. You know, it's every

Christmas of course that we hear the Christmas story as Brother Chris read to us today from Matthew chapter 2.

Last week we had heard from Luke chapter 2. It's of course in Luke 2 where the angels appear to shepherds who are out in their field tending their flock by night.

And we all know these words that the angel said to the shepherds for unto you is born this day in the city of David a

Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign unto you. You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger.

There are so many Americans that memorized that announcement from the angels if they didn't read it from their

Bible. They heard it every year in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Now 60 years old this year as a matter of fact.

Little Linus that comes out on stage and quotes that passage verbatim from Luke chapter 2.

Now he quotes it from the King James. So what most people recognize from the

King James announcement is the chorus of angels joining that angel who has appeared to the shepherds and they say together,

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. What goodwill towards men.

That's that's how it's translated from the King James. That's not the most accurate translation however.

There are many other translations that were that word it this way and this more faithful to the original

Greek glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased and the peace of God that we have which

Paul says in Philippians 4 surpasses all understanding is for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Now this is an announcement a gospel that is certainly gone out to the whole world but only we who are in Christ know the peace of God.

Only to us is given peace with God that the judgment of God is no longer upon those who are in Christ Jesus, but we have been truly saved our sins forgiven and reconciled to God by the peace that has been made through the blood of Christ.

So as we have read here in Romans 8 28, we know that for those who love

God not for all men but specifically for those who love God all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose peace on earth among men with whom he is pleased.

We've been studying this particular section for the last few weeks. This is where providentially

God has placed us in our study of Romans as we have been studying of his good work that he does working all things together for good for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And then last week hearing in verse 29 those who before knew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

I'm going to come back to the second half of that verse today in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and then most of our concentration today is going to be on verse 30.

And those whom he predestined he also called those whom he called he also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Now you're probably aware that this is called the golden chain of redemption. That was an expression that was first used by the

Puritan William Perkins or at least he was the one that made it most popular back in the late 16th century.

It is more commonly known among many many traditions rather as the

Ordo Salutis which in Latin simply translates as the order of salvation.

And though there are some that may not be of the reformed tradition in our doctrine there are many that will use that expression though it may not always be reformed in its application.

But this is what we have here in Romans 830 is that that order of salvation or what we would call the golden chain of redemption.

As R .C. Sproul says of it this is not a rusty chain. It is a golden chain made of the precious truth of the gospel.

And we see the wonderful gospel promises even as we come to understand these terms and the order in which

Paul has placed them for the benefit of the church as we look at this today. Now my outline as you're commonly familiar with the way that I will outline passages on a

Sunday morning I typically do. How many points? Three points. Yeah. It's a good Baptist minister just to make a three point outline.

I'm going to throw you for a loop today and give you 10 points. Now hopefully that doesn't mean my sermon is going to be three times longer than usual.

But we have five main points that are given to us here. So if we're if we're looking at an order of salvation or a golden chain of redemption the five that are given for us in these three verses are for knowledge predestination the effectual calling that we talked about last week those whom he called then justification and glorification that those are the ones that are spelled out exactly in this golden chain of redemption.

I'm going to add a few points in between and not that I'm adding to scripture but actually drawing from the scripture to show to us that this is not the complete chain because of course sanctification is not listed in this.

And we know that those whom God has justified he's also in the process of sanctifying.

So Paul doesn't deliberately leave sanctification out. We've talked about it in other places even as we've gone through this book of Romans.

But if we're putting everything in order sanctification is going to come after justification. But even before sanctification there's another another part in this golden chain that we've read about even in Romans chapter 8 that's between justification and sanctification.

Do you know what that is? It's adoption. So adoption we would even put in this order of salvation.

So my 10 points for you today with emphasis on those five that Paul places here in this passage we're going to talk first about for knowledge.

Which we'll come back to that even though we considered it last week. Predestination or election, atonement, the gospel call which we identified last week is that external call.

The internal call or the effectual call which includes regeneration and conversion.

And then faith and repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification.

There's my 10 points. But I will summarize those of course as we go through them together.

So let's come back to verse 29 and even as we come to understand this term that Paul uses that is translated for us as for knowledge or for know.

Verse 29 those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

Now last week as we went through these terms I went through them in the order in which Paul presented them in the text.

That's not necessarily the order in which they will happen in the order of salvation. But as we look at the terms today especially as we come into verse 30 this is the order in which they are given in the order of salvation.

So first of all we begin with foreknowledge. And as I said to you last week foreknowledge is not

God simply knowing the future. That is the most common way that foreknowledge is defined in American evangelicalism in particular today.

It's just this idea that God knows the future. Of course he knows the future. We would not deny that.

But with the word foreknowledge there is an application here that doesn't have to do with God knowing future events.

The application is God knows the people whom he's going to save before they're even born.

He knows them. He has placed his love and his affection on you before you were born.

That's what it means to foreknow. As we had looked in the Old Testament that word known of the way that a husband will know his wife.

There's an intimacy to him knowing her and God intimately loving us and placing his affection on us before we were even known to our own parents.

Before they even knew that they were expecting you. God knew you and had a plan and a purpose for you.

As David says in Psalm 139 you have known me and before I was even formed in my mother's womb.

Every day was written in your book before one of them came to be. This is what it means for God to know us.

Now God doesn't just simply know us or the way that the word foreknowledge is used is not just in application to us.

It's also in application to Christ. The father foreknowing

Jesus. Now you might say well of course he did. He's the son who is in eternity with God.

Jesus saying in John 17 father glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the ages began.

So of course the son was with the father beforehand. But foreknowing specifically the incarnation of his son his son incarnate

God had foreknown consider as Peter puts it in first Peter 120.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

God knew and had an affectionate relationship with his own son even before time began but was known in the destiny of what

God would be doing in redemptive history that he would send his son as a baby born in Bethlehem and even upon him

God had placed his affection. As R .C. Sproul has said regarding our salvation the only reason why anyone is saved is for Christ's sake and so God foreknowing his son is essential before even foreknowing us.

God did not leave the inheritance that he had promised to his son to the free will of his creatures.

He will absolutely save people and give them to his son and no one will be lost and he will not fail to accomplish this.

The father did not send his son to die and then as his son is dying sat up there in heaven going well

I sure hope someone hears about this and I sure hope they love my son and that they're saved but I'm going to leave it in their hands for it to happen.

That was not the plan. God had purposed not only that his son would die but he purposed that beginning with these apostles and announced in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the earth the gospel would go forth so that there would be people who would hear a particular people that God had predestined as the inheritance for his son that they would hear and be saved and we would be given to the son as his reward and God would absolutely ensure that this would succeed.

In Ephesians 1 18 the apostle Paul prays for the Ephesians to have their eyes and hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you and what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

His glorious inheritance. So do you understand that you dear saint are the reward that the father has given to the son because of all that he did in faithfulness to the father and the father would ensure that there would be an inheritance given to the son glorifying his name

Titus 2 14 Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

So again not only that we would be justified but even that we would walk in those good works that Christ had purposed us for.

And so Jesus was foreknown to the father but then of course you were foreknown and I come back to Peter again first Peter 1 1 and 2 you know really when it comes to foreknowledge this is my favorite verse that talks about the way that God foreknows us not the one in Romans 8 although it's a great passage too but I like this one in first Peter 1 1 and 2 to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia according to the foreknowledge of God the father in the sanctification of the spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood may grace and peace be multiplied to you and nowhere in that does foreknowledge mean

God knew you were going to be dispersed to all these regions. It's even though you're spread out

God knows you and he loves you and has had affection for you and called you to his eternal purposes and grace may grace and peace be multiplied to you.

So again God's foreknowledge is him knowing us and placing his affection on us before we even came to be.

Matthew Henry says this God's foreknowledge of the Saints is the same with that everlasting love wherewith he is said to have loved them

God's knowing his people is the same as him owning them and we are his possession.

So that's first in the golden chain of salvation of redemption we have looked first of all at foreknowledge and secondly in that chain is predestination.

Those whom God foreknew verse 29 again he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so not just predestined for salvation but even predestined that we would know the son and walk in his ways in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Now as I said to you last week regarding that particular phrase this implies that there will be others. Jesus is the first to rise from the dead specifically to conquer death.

Now there were of course others who had been risen from the dead Elijah and Elisha the great prophets they raised the dead.

You had Jesus even raised the dead as many of the miracles he performed in his earthly ministry the apostles raised the dead.

So there were there were dead who were raised even before Jesus died and was raised.

So what is the difference then with his resurrection compared with theirs. Well they all died again right.

I mean that's kind of a bummer for Lazarus. It's an incredible miracle after four days in the tomb

Lord he stinketh and you want us to roll the stone away. Jesus calls to him

Lazarus come out he comes out. I just have to wonder if Lazarus his reaction to that was come on.

I got that over with and now I'm going to have to do that again or maybe that came to him sometime later

I don't know. But all those who were raised from the dead would eventually have to die again. But Jesus is raised from the dead and even as Paul has said to us in Romans death no longer has any mastery over him.

He will never die again. And just as Jesus died and is raised and will never die again so will be the same promise and reward for you.

You also will die but when risen you will never die again.

And so Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers implying that we as the brotherhood of Christ will likewise rise with him and he being the firstborn again this goes back to what we had just said regarding foreknowledge that God has purpose for his son and inheritance.

And we are that inheritance we are they who will be raised with him who have been risen with him in the giving of his spirit to us.

He might be the firstborn among many brothers and we will be among those saints in glory who will be gathered at the throne singing the praises of Christ our

King forever. Now even as I go through these links in the golden chain of redemption you'll notice that I'll refer to other links in the chain even as we're looking at one in particular.

So here we're talking about foreknowledge and predestination together and even looking forward to that glorification that is to come which is to say that each one of these links is part of the whole chain.

It's not just one thing at a time or that somewhere over the course of this chain if one link gets broken then all suddenly they've broken the chain of redemption and now they're not going to make it to glorification.

If God has foreknown you if he has predestined you if you are justified in Christ you will be glorified.

This is this is all one thing. This is not a progression that we move from one thing to the next.

OK well I finally got predestination out of the way. I finally got faith and belief in the gospel out of the way.

Now I can move on to the next one. If God has purposed you for this he will fulfill it even to your glorification.

And so even as we come into understanding that we have been predestined for salvation or the other word that we find in the

New Testament that's synonymous with this is election. We understand that it's not just a salvation or a conversion experience that happened to us at a point in time.

But this is part of that purpose that God has for us to not only bring us to himself but even keep us to himself.

What does predestination mean it very simply means very simple definition is destined beforehand.

You knew that right. So God had purpose beforehand for your salvation.

One of the great sentences that we have in the New Testament that explains predestination for us is in Ephesians 1 3 through 6 is a long sentence.

But it's where Paul lays out the understanding that we have been predestined in Christ blessed be the

God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

And notice that all of that in there is accomplished in Christ. It is in Christ that we have been purposed predestined elected for salvation to himself.

And he chose us in him not just he chose us arbitrarily just like some heavenly lottery that was going up there in heaven well who am

I going to pick this you know whatever all of it was purposed in Christ. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

Now there's still going to be some incredible mystery to that and as I had said to you last week even drawing from my own life experience why would

God choose to save me and not my own flesh and blood brother I don't know the answer to that.

We will get to heaven one day and all of that plan will be laid out before us and we will see and we will understand it though we may not fully understand it now.

God knows and he sees and he has purposed and we need to submit to God in knowing that he will accomplish all that he means to accomplish.

We don't know who the elect are but God does. As Charles Spurgeon had said if I could know who the elect were if God had marked them with like a yellow

X on their back then evangelism would merely consist of me going around lifting up the back of people's shirts and finding that yellow

X and going okay that's the one then I'm going to preach to you. But that's not the way that God has done it and he has commanded that the gospel would go out to all the world.

Those whom God has predestined he will accomplish salvation for them but that's not for us to know.

It is for us to be faithful to what God has commanded knowing that this is the plan that he has purposed.

That it would be through the preaching of the gospel that people would come to faith in Jesus Christ and so be saved.

And that's what we must do. So in predestination God having determined from before the foundation of the world those whom he would call to salvation and he's not only he's not only made the way for the person to be saved or not only purpose that we are going to be saved but he's also purposed the means by which we would be saved.

His son dying for us and then the announcement of that death being given to us so that we would believe and be saved.

So the third link in that chain of of salvation is atonement.

We've had foreknowledge, predestination and next we have atonement. God had predestined but part of that plan would be that his son would come and die.

Christ's redemptive work that he accomplished on the cross providing the basis for salvation is atonement.

Now the interesting thing about that word atonement even though we would put it in the in the golden chain of redemption the word atonement you won't find in the

New Testament. You find it only in the old. Now that's not to mean though that the concept isn't there because it certainly is.

John 3 16 for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son and whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life because Christ has made atonement for us.

Romans 5 8 God demonstrates his love for us and that while we were yet sinners

Christ died for us. And 2 Corinthians 5 21 for our sake he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

All of these passages speaking about the atonement that Christ has made by his shed blood fulfilling that sacrificial system that had been laid out to the

Israelites in the Old Testament. The book of Leviticus begins with an instruction of sacrifice that the head of the household would bring whatever animal lamb ox goat that is to be sacrificed brings it brings it to the priest.

The one who brings the sacrifice is to lay his hand on the head of the animal as the animal's throat is cut and the blood is spilled and this symbolizing that the animal is dying on behalf of the person who gave it.

And the sins that this person should be dying for having committed sins against God those sins are being transferred to the beast symbolically and that animal being slaughtered instead.

And this making atonement for sins. And it is

Christ who has become our sacrificial lamb on our behalf.

Remember the word of the of John the Baptist in John chapter 1 behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and Christ fulfills that in his atonement for us.

Now even though the word atonement itself doesn't appear in the New Testament there is another word that is synonymous with it and that is the word propitiation.

And we have seen propitiation come up in Romans 3 25. God put forward his son as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith propitiation meaning that the wrath of God has been satisfied in the sacrifice of Jesus first Peter 2 24 he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed and Peter directly drawing from Isaiah 53 to show that the sacrificial lamb in Isaiah 53 is

Christ. He is the one who is fulfilled that prophetically. So he is a propitiation for us.

First John 4 10 in this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins again

God is not only provided the way of salvation but the means for our salvation he is not only purposed but that we would also come and we come through the blood of Jesus.

He is the propitiation for our sins. Through his blood the wrath of God being satisfied that God's wrath and judgment is on us no longer but his love and his mercy and his grace now how does

God then put upon us his mercy and grace that is through faith we're not to that yet in the golden chain of redemption but it's not just simply enough that Jesus died but that we would believe in him and through faith

God is transferred all of the glorious riches of his grace to us because we believe in his son whom he gave and died for us.

So next we have to hear about it. So God is foreknown he is predestined he is provided atonement through his son and then the announcement of what

Christ has done comes next that is the gospel call or as we had considered it last week the external call remember there's a difference between the external call and the effectual call or that outward call and the inward call.

So first of all we have the gospel call now everyone as I said to you last week everyone will hear the gospel call whether they believe it or not but that doesn't mean that the person who did not come to faith in Jesus Christ somehow stopped at that point in the chain of redemption.

Well they didn't get past link four. They heard the gospel call they didn't believe in it so they don't continue on in the chain that's not that's not it that's not how we understand the chain of redemption.

But those who will be effectually called first had to hear the gospel call.

So all of us must hear the gospel the announcement of Jesus Christ and so believe in it

Romans 10 13 to 14 that we'll get to and how long is this going to take us several months before we get to Romans chapter 10.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching.

So there are those whom Christ is sent out to spread the good news of what he did and what he taught and this is what we call the

Great Commission that was given to his disciples that commonly the Great Commission passage is what we have in Matthew 28 but it's not the only place where we find that it's at the end of the gospel of Luke in chapter 24 it's at the beginning of Acts and Acts chapter 1 but anywhere we see

Jesus sending out his apostles to now therefore go and spread the good news of the kingdom of God that has been purchased by the blood of Christ and given access to all those who would believe in him

Romans 8 28 beginning in verse are sorry Romans sorry now Matthew 28 beginning in verse 18 he says to his disciples all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me now therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo

I am with you always even to the very end of the age and so now

Christ having accomplished all that the Father sent for him to accomplish he sends out his apostles to now go and preach the good news and that's very simply what the word gospel means it's good news this is the good news of salvation that as that angel announced to those shepherds in Luke chapter 2 will be for all people that it would be announced the

Son of God has come in fulfillment of the prophecies to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life that's the announcement of the gospel cannot be saved without it you cannot simply have some sort of mental assent to the existence of God well okay

I'm not an atheist I believe God exists what was James response to that good even the demons believe that and shudder so the demons have better theology than atheists do it's not enough to just simply believe that God is there it's not even enough to believe that God is loving because what definition of love are you placing upon God to think that he has to meet my definition of love and now

I'm saved we must know his son to be saved we must know

Christ who was given by the Father and through his sacrifice for us and through his resurrection from the dead believing even that he was raised as Paul will argue in Romans 10 we know that also from 1st

Corinthians chapter 15 if Christ has not been raised from the dead no one gets raised and you're still dead in your sins so we believe that he was crucified for us he was buried and he rose again according to the scriptures and all of this is part of that gospel call that we would know these things even when the

Apostle Paul spoke to the church at Areopagus church now even when the

Apostle Paul spoke on the Areopagus this was sharing the gospel and then eventually a church would be started there in Athens but that wasn't who he was addressing unless you're gonna talk about the church of the pagans anyway

I'm trying to cover for my verbal flub there but anyway so in in his preaching at the

Areopagus the garden of the gods so to speak in amidst all of these idols

Paul finds that altar to an unknown God and he says men of Athens I see you're very religious for as I walked around and I looked at the objects of your worship

I find this altar here to an unknown God what's Paul pointing out there well the

Greeks had all these different gods for all these different things a god of thunder a god of the sea a god of a goddess of love and all that but just to make sure that they don't upset any of the gods or goddesses they may have forgotten we're gonna create this altar to an unknown

God so hopefully that guy won't get mad at us that we forgot to make him a statue and Paul essentially this is an exact wording from Paul but essentially he says the

God that you say is unknown I'm gonna proclaim to you as known and he goes on to say the times of ignorance

God is overlooked but now he calls all people everywhere to repent for he has purposed the day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness and he is going to judge the world by a man whom he has shown to all by raising him from the dead so even there in Paul's first gospel presentation there in Athens he doesn't even mention the crucifixion at the cross but he does talk about the resurrection from the dead he does talk about the judgment of God is coming upon you and the only way that you can be saved from that judgment is by faith in Jesus Christ and it's through this announcement that a person therefore comes to faith and is saved

Romans 10 17 faith comes from hearing and hearing through the

Word of Christ so you have heard it was announced to you it must therefore be announced to the rest of the world this is the gospel call this is the next link in that golden chain of redemption and every single one of you who came to salvation in Jesus Christ heard at some point the message of the gospel maybe you heard it from an evangelist

I remember the story of a W Tozer who said that he was walking home and as he was walking along he passed by an evangelist and the evangelist was standing on a box and he was saying repent for the kingdom of God is at hand same words that John the

Baptist announced in the gospel same words that Jesus said also repent and believe the gospel and Tozer listened to him for a little bit and he was going home and as he continued his walk home he was beginning to feel convicted by the words that he heard from that evangelist and he got home and he went up to his attic and he got down on his knees and he gave his life to Christ because he heard the gospel and was convicted of his sin and knew that it was only by faith in Jesus that I can be saved from the judgment that I know that I deserve so maybe for you it was the same it was the message of an evangelist my grandmother my mom's mom

Mimi was singing in the choir at a Billy Graham crusade she was in the choir and as she's listening to Billy Graham thunder away and share the gospel that many of you of that older generation probably remember from Billy Graham she was convicted standing among the choir and she said

I'm not I'm not a Christian as Billy Graham presents that invitation and says if you were to die today do you know where you would go she's standing there honestly saying

I don't know I don't know if I would go to heaven or if Jesus would say to me depart from me you worker of lawlessness

I never knew you and so she leaves the choir embarrassed in some sense because she's the only one walking out of that choir and coming forward to give her life to Christ but because God did that for her in God's purpose of salvation it would come on down through the line that one day

I would be born and I would hear the gospel because that gospel call came to my grandmother and effectually she believed it and was saved my mom being born to her my dad marrying my mom the two of them wanting to raise their children in the discipline and instruction of the

Lord and that it's from my parents that I would hear the message of the gospel so you may have heard it from an evangelist you may have heard it from your parents you may have heard it from somebody else who just loved you enough to want you to know the message of the gospel because without it you can't be saved maybe you heard it in church maybe you heard it on a recording in a message somewhere remember that being the testimony of rich Mullins that he was just listening to tapes and was convicted by the message that he heard listening to tapes so that he had to pull over to the side of the road and weeping gave his life to Christ however

God had purposed that the gospel would get to you you heard it and believed by the intentional plan of God for you the gospel call is essential to our salvation

Jesus had commissioned his disciples to go out and share it and on down through 2 ,000 years of church history now the gospel has continued to go forth it's been the same manner in which

God has called people to himself as he did from the very beginning by grace through faith in Jesus Christ after the gospel call number five we have the internal call or the effectual call because as I said to you last week it's not just simply enough that we hear it with our physical ears something has to happen inside of us that changes us from the rebellious sinner who didn't want to do anything that God told us to do and now suddenly we're gonna hear the gospel and be transformed by it and become a new creature by his grace well something has to happen in the heart before that takes place and that's the effectual call as I defined it last week is regeneration the regenerating work of the

Holy Spirit upon the heart to change you from that hardened sinner rebellious against God into into now still a sinner but who loves

God because of what the Holy Spirit has done for you and you are converted you go from from that rebellion now into a relationship and this is the calling that we read about in Romans 828 it's this calling that Paul talks about when he says we know that for those who love

God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose you were called a factually when you heard the gospel and the work of the

Holy Spirit was done in your heart to believe the gospel in our confession of faith the second

London Baptist confession of faith chapter 10 it says those whom God hath predestined unto life he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time to effectually call now before I keep going let me stop there for a moment

CS Lewis once said that God saves you at exactly the time that he means to save you not a moment too soon and not a moment late and Lewis was not a

Calvinist but he said that about God's purposing you for salvation he appointed the accepted time to effectually call going on with our definition in the statement of faith by his word and spirit out of that state of sin and death in which there are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God taking away their heart of stone and giving to them a heart of flesh that's from Ezekiel 36 renewing their wills and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ yet so as they most freely being made willing by his grace as I said to you last week often it's it's described for us who come to salvation that we were in rebellion against God we did not want to follow

God but then by the changing power of his Holy Spirit in our hearts we've been transformed and brought kicking and screaming into the kingdom of God I and reason why

I don't agree at Jeff gives that an amen but the reason why I don't agree with that is because we don't come kicking and screaming into the kingdom of God we come willingly because of that change that has happened in our heart we love now to come we know that we don't deserve to be there no one is gonna walk through heaven's gates going here

I am give me my inheritance for great is my reward I deserve this no one is gonna say that I don't know if you remember the

US women's soccer team a few years ago winning and one of the gals on the soccer team was broadcast on television holding that trophy and saying

I deserve this none of us will deserve that reward all of us will know that we got there by his grace and his grace only all of us will sympathize with those elders who take their golden crowns and cast them before the throne around the glassy sea for I don't deserve to have this but Christ has called me by his grace effectually called me transformed me made me willing when previously

I was rebelling we would not on our own power in our own circumstances have willed ourselves into the kingdom of God it is by his will that we are called it's by his will that we are saved

I've been through five points thus far in this ten -point golden chain of redemption we've got five more to go so we're going to put a pause on it for this week and come back to it next week

I'm glad you're loving it because I do as well you've been listening to the preaching of Pastor Gabriel Hughes a presentation of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande Arizona for more information about our church visit our website at ProvidenceCasaGrande .com

on behalf of our church family my name is Becky thanking you for listening join us again