Sunday Sermon: Called According to His Purpose (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.

Romans 8:28–30 and the Golden Chain of Redemption

Let's open in our Bibles, if you would please, to Romans chapter 8. We come back to our study of this beloved chapter. We've read of our sin and need for a Savior in our study of Romans. We have come to understand even the process of sanctification that God is doing in us as we read about in chapter 7.

We begin chapter 8 with this statement of there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And everything that we've read about here in chapter 8 has been an encouragement to the believer, especially what we had considered last week with regard to God and his providence and how he is working all things together for good.

And so we come back to that passage again today and we'll go a little bit further than verse 28 today. I didn't quit. I didn't quite get all the way through verse 28, but we'll finish verse 28. Go into verse 29.

Even as we get closer to this portion of scripture that's referred to as the golden chain of redemption. So in honor of the word of the King, would you please stand? I'm back in Romans chapter 8 and going to read verses 28 to 30.

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. Those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we come back again this morning to these deep and wonderful truths, I pray that this opens our eyes all the more to your purpose of salvation, which you had set forth from eternity past.

You had foreordained that these things would take place in exactly the way that they have. Even as we have heard about this morning from Luke chapter 2, arranging that the Caesar of Rome would decree this census would be taken so that the prophecies would be fulfilled.

That Joseph and Mary would return to Bethlehem and there the Savior would be born, just as you had said he would be, in the city of David. And that we would know that he is Christ the Lord. And so you have also purposed the time and place in which we would live and hear the message of the gospel and so come to faith, to believe and be saved.

And Lord, as you work this understanding out in our hearts, may we be conformed all the more to the image of Christ as we read about here in verse 29. That we would be holy and blameless before you in love.

That we would walk in a way that is pleasing to our Savior, always holding on to the hope of the promise that we have of eternal life. These things are written down for our benefit. That we would be comforted by these words, guided and protected by them.

That we would know that whatever circumstance we face, whatever we come into in life, these things have been purposed for our good. For those who love God and have been called for your great plan in Christ Jesus.

It's in his name that we pray, amen. What a season for us to be considering these things as we're in that Christmas holiday season and we've heard the Christmas story so many times.

I love it.

I love coming back to it again and again. Matthew 1 and 2, Luke 1 and 2 and being reminded of our Savior who came into the world. The Savior who came to save sinners such as me. And reading about and hearing how God had arranged and purposed all of these things to happen and in just exactly this way for his son to be born.

So that we would see as we've been talking about the last couple of weeks with regards to Romans 8 .28, God has not only sovereignly purposed that this would happen in this way, but even by his providence has been working in the midst of creation to cause these things to happen exactly as he said they would.

He's not just a God who has decreed these things that they would take place and then just kind of set it in motion and is sitting back watching the movie that he wrote from eternity past. But he is actually in the midst of us now and is causing and is purposing all of these things for our good and for his glory.

As I had mentioned in my prayer, even that Caesar Augustus would issue this decree. Caesar did not know that he was fulfilling the plan of God from eternity past. But yet that was exactly God in his providence working that this would happen so that Joseph and Mary would go from Nazareth down to Bethlehem and what would have been foretold by the prophets would be fulfilled.

That Jesus would be born in the city of David. So that when we look in the scriptures we see that's him. That's the one that God had promised would come and be the savior of the world. Jesus Christ, his only son.

God has not only purposed that his son would come and die, but even that you would believe in his son and be conformed to the image of Christ. And we're reading about that in the section that we are in right now.

Looking just at about the first two thirds of verse 28 last week. We'll finish up verse 28 today and go into verse 29. Last week in looking at Romans 8 28 we focus first of all on those words, and we know, we know that God works all things together for good.

That's a case that Paul doesn't even have to make. We know and we know that in God's character we can know that all things are ultimately working out for our good and for his glory. This is being said in a way that it is a reminder for us and it is good for us to think upon these things as well.

Next we considered the heart of the verse that all things work together for good. Even our most difficult trials, even those unexpected circumstances, even when somebody comes against us, all of these things are moments that may not be so pleasant as we go through them, but God does not mean us for harm.

Somehow I managed to get through Romans 8 28 last week without mentioning Jeremiah 29.

11.

But those verses do go hand in hand. That God does not mean harm against you, but has for you a purpose and a hope. And that in Jeremiah 29 was being said to a people that had been sent into exile. But God saying to them, I'm not going to annihilate you, but I know the plans that I have for you, a plan to prosper and not to harm you.

And so even in the difficult trial we may go through, whether that trial is brought on because we did something foolish or because somebody may be doing something to us or just the natural flow of circumstances in the general course of life.

Yet God is causing all these things even for our good. And finally, we ended last week understanding that God works things together for our good for those who love God. As Thomas Watson has said, the promises of God work for good to the godly.

There are plenty who don't know God, who don't love God, to whom all things are not working out for their good. Not everyone will know that God works things together for good. But for those who are in Christ Jesus, we should certainly know that.

Now there are two qualifications in order that all things would work together for your.

Good.

And they are, first of all, that you would love God. That's the first one. And then the second we're going to look at today. And technically it precedes the first one in order. You must love God. You must be called by God.

But it is those who are called by God who therefore love God. Remember we considered last week 1 John 4 .19, we love because he first loved us. Because we have been called by God. So you must love God.

You must be called by God. And that's going to be our focus today, that we are called according to his purpose. And that very qualification, having been called by God, is what Paul expounds upon in the next two verses, verses 29 and 30.

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. As we continue into this section that is called the Golden Chain of Redemption.

So today we're going to understand this. Here's how we'll break it down. Number one, we're going to understand being called. Secondly, we will understand, by the language that Paul uses here in this passage, being foreknown.

And thirdly, we'll consider being predestined. Now I'm simply following the flow of the words as Paul uses them. We're going to set this in their proper order when we get to the Golden Chain of Redemption next week.

But for now, following the language as he presents it, that we may fully know him who has called us and what he has predestined us for. So first of all, let's consider being called. As we look at these terms this morning, we understand first what it means to be called by God, according to His purpose.

Not our will, but His will be done. What does it mean to be called? Now surely you've heard this explanation before, but I give it to you again by way of reminder. There are two ways in which we are called, or rather we might call this a two-fold calling.

There is the outward call, and there is the inward call. The outward call is that calling that everyone hears when they hear the Gospel. Have you heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ with your ears? Then you have received the outward call of God.

You may not have been paying attention to it, but nonetheless, that outward call was.

There.

It was given to you. You heard it with your ears. Maybe your mind wandered, but nonetheless, the outward call had been given. This outward call, or external call as it may also be called, is insufficient for your salvation, but it is sufficient to leave you without excuse.

On the day of judgment, you would not be able to stand before God and say, I didn't know. You did know. You were told, but your heart was hard and you refused to believe it. Now we've already read in chapter one that no one has any excuse to say that I didn't know God existed.

God's existence is plainly seen in all that has been made, so no one has any excuse to say I didn't know there was a God. I use the example of the atheist and mathematician Bertrand Russell, who was once asked, if God does exist and you have to appear before him, what are you going to say to him?

And Bertrand thought he was so profound in his answer. He said, why did you take such great pains to remain so hidden? But I promise you that when Russell appeared before God that day, he had no word to say.

And he was fully aware that he knew there was a God, he just refused to acknowledge his existence. So it has already been said to us in Romans 1 that no one can say, we didn't know there was God. It is obvious that the Creator God exists.

As obvious as someone made your smartphone. So it is obvious that God made all things. For those who have heard the gospel then, they cannot say, I didn't know how to be reconciled to God. You have heard it in the gospel.

Jesus Christ was sent by God to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. He rose again from the dead so that whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God that we all deserve.

But by faith in Jesus Christ, we have been reconciled to God. Our sin, our rebellion against God had broken that relationship. The only relationship that you had with God at that point was that his judgment was upon.

You.

That you were under his wrath. That is the only relation that you had to God until Christ. Until those two beautiful words that we see in scripture. But God, who is gracious and just, did not leave us dead in our sins, but sent his Son to die for us so that in Christ you could be forgiven your sins and reconciled to God.

And now, in Christ Jesus, the relationship that you have with God is not being under his wrath or being the object of the judgment that he will pour out on the wicked. But you are the recipient of his love and his mercy.

We've even read about here in Romans chapter 8 of having received the spirit of adoption. You have been adopted into the family of God. You are a son or daughter of God through Christ. Woe to the person though who has heard that word and rejects it.

As Jesus said in John 12, 48, the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. So if a person has heard the gospel of Christ and rejects the message of the gospel, greater will be the judgment on them when they heard how they could be reconciled back to God and.

Refused it.

In Luke 11, 32, Jesus said, the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is.

Here.

One of the most indicting questions that Jesus ever asked in the gospels was this, have you not read? And that is an indicting question Jesus could very well be asking of this culture today. There has never been a time in human history when the word of God has been so available to a people as it is to us now.

You can go down to the corner gas station and find a rack with a King James Bible in.

It.

You can download an app for free on your smartphone and the entire word of God that has been revealed to us through His prophets and apostles right there before your very eyes. And yet how many people in this culture today actually read it?

How many people have a Bible and don't read it? And Jesus could very well be saying even to this same culture, have you not read? Woe to the person who has had such access to God's word and has not read it and has not known the message of the gospel that has been sent forth.

No one at the judgment will have any excuse to say that we didn't know there was a God. And certainly no one from this culture in which we live today will have any excuse to say we didn't know there was a gospel.

And it's that gospel, that very preaching of the gospel, the evangelism, that is the outward call to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the type of calling that everyone has been given who hears the gospel.

And as I said, that call is insufficient for your salvation, but it is sufficient to leave you without excuse. What is the calling that is sufficient for your salvation? That's the next one. Number two, the inward call.

When God graciously and mercifully overpowers the hardened, rebellious heart of a sinful person and draws them to embrace Christ. That is the effectual call as Augustine called it. God by the outward call puts the message on the ears and God by the inward call opens the heart to receive it.

One such example that we have of this in the Bible is with the woman Lydia in Acts 16, 14. Paul and his missionary brethren came to Philippi preaching the gospel and they came to a woman named Lydia who was a seller of fine purple fabrics and it says that the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

It was an inward call. She heard it outwardly and it was effectual in her heart to understand it and believe.

It.

Jesus said in John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. So, why is it that two men could be standing in front of an evangelist and hearing the same message of the gospel and one of them hears in that message foolishness.

It's ridiculous. Who can understand this?

Who can believe it?

But the other one is cut to the heart and hears the power of God for salvation in the message of Jesus Christ. Because one only received the outward call and the other one received the inward call. I think about this with regards to my own flesh and blood brothers.

We sat under the same gospel that our father taught to us. Why did I believe and they did not? I don't know that I have a true answer to that question except in the theological sense to say that God works salvation in my heart and not in theirs.

Why does he choose one and not someone else? I don't know. But we know that, as Jesus said, many are called but few are chosen. This is not by our work but by the Holy Spirit of God. It is God's work.

This is what Jesus called being born again or being born from above. The new birth is simply this. It is the life of God in the soul of a man. And as said in John 1, 12 -13, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And again I repeat that we love because he first loved us. You did not act upon God and then he acted upon you. The work of God came first and your faith in Jesus Christ is a testimony to the work of God in your life.

As we read in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, by grace you are saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. Remember, we read back in Romans 3 that there is no one who does good, not even one person.

No one understands, no one seeks for God. So if no one does good, then how could you on your own make a decision to believe in Jesus which would unquestionably be a good thing? You could not do it unless God by his mercy and grace acted upon you first.

And yet how many people want to boast that they overcame their badness and their ignorance and their unwillingness to seek God on their own? They would boast contrary to what the scripture says. We love because he first loved us.

The outward call is of God. The inward call is also of God, so that the one who is called would be born of God. This is what it means to be called. When we read in Romans 8, 28 about those who are called according to his purpose, Paul is referring specifically to those who have received that inward call, that effectual.

Calling.

You have been called by his purpose for you. So in context, when we read of those having been called according to his purpose here in Romans 8, 28, we're reading of those specifically who have received that effectual calling.

The type of calling that we read about here in Romans 8 does not mean that God has called you to ministry, like to the ministry, to go on the mission field. Maybe he has, but that's not the kind of calling that we're talking about here.

It does not mean that God has called you to a political cause or a social movement. Those things can be good, but it's not the kind of calling we're reading about here. It doesn't mean that God has called you to get married or stay single or start a school or sell your possessions.

Those callings, those kinds of calling can be different for everyone. This kind of calling that we're reading about here is the same for every believer. It is the call to turn from sin and turn to Christ.

It is the call to take up your cross and follow Jesus. And this call has been effectual because it was also irresistible. It is by God's irresistible grace. When God calls sinners by his grace, they cannot help but come.

You may resist the call of the preacher, but you cannot resist the call of the Spirit. And praise God for that. When God said, let there be light, the light didn't go, nah, not today. So when the Spirit of God speaks into your heart and says, let there be faith, who are you to resist the power of God?

The power of God that overcomes our stubborn and rebellious heart. As I've heard some preachers say, I was brought kicking and screaming into the presence of.

God.

I don't necessarily think that was the case. God changed our hearts so we would no longer kick and scream against him. But that we would come in faith. Now when it comes to this doctrine of irresistible grace, I've heard from the critics, and those of you who believe this have heard it too, they love to play the Bible against the Bible.

And cite Acts 7 .51 where Stephen said, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so did you. So then when it comes to the doctrine of irresistible grace, the critics will say, see, look there, you can resist the Holy Spirit.

But they say this in ignorance. What Stephen was rebuking them for was resisting the external call. You have heard it, you have heard the Word of God, it's been said to you again and again.

And again.

The Spirit is even behind the external call. Jesus said that everyone who heard that call will be judged who did not believe. When God wills to save a person, that person will be saved. As Jesus said in John 6 .37, all that the Father gives me will come to me.

And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. It is we who have been called by God that God works all things together for our good. And we know that for those who love God, because He first loved us, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.

He purposed it, He did it. Against our stubborn wills, He called us and gave us a new heart that loves God and desires to obey Him. This is what it means that you have been called. Not just that you would believe, but that you would be holy and upright before Him.

Now, what else could we say about this calling? It's an effectual calling. It's an irresistible calling. What else? It is a gracious calling. Remember how Paul started the letter to the Romans. Romans 1 .7, to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a gracious calling. So that's the third thing. Fourth, it is also a high calling. As Paul says in Philippians 3 .14, I press on toward the goal of the upward, what, call of God in Christ Jesus. And fifthly, it is a glorious calling.

As said in 1 Peter 5 .10, He has called you to His eternal glory in Christ. Let me add a sixth one. It is also an unchangeable calling. If He has called you, He's not going to change His mind. Praise God that He is not looking at you going, you know, maybe I made a mistake.

As we will read later in Romans 11 .29, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. And that is good news. Brethren, we have been called according to His purpose, not by our will, but by His will for us.

And as I said to you last week, the good that God is ultimately working out for us is that we would be conformed to the image of Christ, that we would be more like Jesus. And that's where we're going next in verse 29.

Look there. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order, and we'll get to this in a moment, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

So we've talked about what it means to be called, being called, secondly, being foreknown. This is one of the most poorly defined words in the New Testament for a lot of Christians, especially by those who wish to reduce or deny God's sovereignty in salvation.

Most of the time you will hear the word foreknowing or foreknowledge as meaning that God knows or foreknows the future, but that is absolutely not the context here. It's not about God knowing the future.

About the only place that word might be defined that way is in Acts 2 .23 where Peter mentions the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. But that's not the context here. The Greek word from which we have translated the word foreknowledge is proegno, and both times it's used in the book of Romans.

It's in reference to a people, not a thing. It's not God knowing the future. It's Him knowing a people. Yet the most common way that this word foreknowledge, God, those whom He foreknew, the most common way that this is defined in evangelicalism today is that God had foreknowledge of a future decision that you were going to make and He chose you or elected you or predestined you because He knew that one day you would respond positively to the gospel.

This is called the prescient view of the doctrine of election. And as I said, it's the most common view in evangelicalism whenever we get to words like predestination or foreknowledge. Though most evangelicals are probably unaware that it comes from Philip Melanchthon, who was an understudy to Martin Luther.

He was the one who came up with this idea. And this was how my Sunday school teachers and youth teachers used to teach the doctrine of election to me. They never used the term prescient view. They didn't say, they didn't use terms like Calvinism and Arminianism.

To their credit, they use the language that's in the Bible. But when they explained foreknowledge or election in this way, I immediately had a problem with it because I'm also reading my Bible and I'm not seeing what they're saying.

Furthermore, beyond even the definition of the text itself, it made no logical sense. You mean to tell me that almighty, all-powerful God chose me based on a future decision I was going to make before I was even born?

Like I'm obligating God to choose me before I was even born to make a decision? How could I, a puny, non-existent human being, affect the course of God when I hadn't even been born yet? What I heard and what they taught me was this.

If our salvation is dependent upon a decision that we will eventually make and God elects us because he knows that we will make the right choice someday, then we determine the future before we're even born.

And that's absurd. There was a second problem that I had with the way that they defined this argument. If God foreknows what choice we are going to make, then we can't make any other choice except the one that God knows that we're going to make.

So the same people who will die on the hill of free will have just taken away our free.

Will.

I can't make any decision but the one that God knows I'm going to make. My teachers had no idea that in giving me these flawed definitions of predestination, they were actually setting me on a course toward Calvinism.

But I digress. This is not what Paul means when he uses the word foreknowledge. Foreknowledge is about people, not choices. This is about God having loved us and placing his affection on us before we were born.

As A .W. Pink has said, the fact is that foreknowledge is never used in Scripture in connection with events or actions. Instead, it always has reference to persons. It is persons God has said to foreknow, not the actions of those persons.

This is like in the Old Testament, in a passage like Genesis 4 -1, where it says that Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Now when the Old Testament refers to a man knowing his wife, this isn't some euphemism because they're trying to avoid using the word sex.

Rather, he's getting to the very intimacy of that act between a husband and wife and its fruitful result. It would be like saying those whom God has foreknown, he has foreloved. That's what we mean by him having foreknown us.

He has loved us before we were born. As David said in Psalm 139, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. And in verse 16, he says, Every one of my days were written in your book before one of them came to be.

God knows you because he's the author of you. And not in the way that he is the creator of every person, as we're talking about in the context here. He particularly, for his own purposes, has loved you and chosen you.

And if we're going to say anything about God knowing the future, it's because he has ordained the future. He is the author of it. That's why he knows it. He doesn't look down the tunnel of time to see what decisions we're going to make.

One day.

He knows because he has predestined. I had said to you last week that God ordains all that comes to pass. That does not mean that he's the direct agent in all of our choices. But if he could stop us from doing something and doesn't, then we have to accept that he has, in some sense, ordained it.

There was a pastor from Louisiana named Sean Wilson who contended with me on this. I had asked this question, Do you believe that God knew Adam and Eve would sin but allowed it to happen anyway? And Sean replied, For God to know the fall, it doesn't necessitate that God ordained the fall.

The Bible does not teach that God ordained all human choices. So I replied to him, God being all-knowing and all-powerful, he knew it would happen. He allowed it to happen. He created everything in such a way that it would happen.

And he did not prevent it from happening. Then how did he not ordain it to happen? And I suggested to him that his understanding of ordination might be a little bit flawed. And he replied to me, Ordain means to order or decree.

And God allowing people to make their own choices is far different from God ordaining their own choices. If you stop believing that knowledge is causation, it's a very simple concept. So I shifted to another account in the Bible, one that more clearly spoke to God ordaining choices.

And I asked him this, Did God ordain that Ahab's prophets would lie to him so that Ahab would go into battle and die? And he said, this was his answer, Yes, because it's part of God's righteous judgment on Ahab for Ahab's wicked sin.

Now, really at this point, this is a text exchange. If we were sitting in front of each other talking, I promise you I would've been sitting there going, oh my goodness.

Okay.

So I said, You do acknowledge that God ordained that 400 prophets would lie to Ahab, but you say God does not ordain our choices? Now whether or not Wilson wanted to recognize it, he's contradicting himself.

But he would not see it when I asked him this question. Instead, he continued to dig in his heels and insist that God does not ordain our choices, even though he just said he does. And he accused me of teaching blasphemy and being caught up in a blasphemous movement.

When backed into a corner, he couldn't give a scriptural basis for what he believed. Instead, he just attacked the character of the person that was trying to show him the flaws in what he believed. This is a very common response, even among ministers of the word.

My friends, I don't believe for a second that God was sitting around in heaven wringing his hands just hoping and waiting that one day someone would accept this free invitation of salvation. This is the majority view in evangelicalism.

That the destiny of individuals is determined by the individual. And if that's the case, why does the Bible even talk about predestination at all? If our destiny is in our hands, then nothing is predestined.