All Things Together For Good: Chap. 7 Pt. 1

Romans 8:28 and the Second Qualification: Those Who Are Called by God

All righty. So this evening, we begin chapter seven. We are we are just plugging away over here. But after seven weeks in chapter six, all good things must come to an end. Well, that's not true. Not all good things.

Right. We're talking about all things for good. So the verse Romans 828 is basically what Thomas Watson has been expositing this whole time and just going in depth on it. And it says, sure, you can. Most of you probably know it by heart.

But and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. And that's from the New American Standard. So we've discussed how all things work for good, the best things, the worst things and why we talked about the first qualification of the people for whom this statement is true.

Those who love God. And we talked in depth about love to God. Now we're coming into chapter seven. And Thomas Watson talks about that second qualification of the verse of the people for whom the statement is true, those who love God.

I'm sorry, those who are called by God. So. As we realize the. The context of this first, if you familiar with Romans 828 and the verses that are following. Well, I'll read this paragraph and then we'll we'll discuss it.

The second qualification of the people to whom this privilege in the text belongs to is they are called by God. All things work for good to those who are called, though this word called is placed in order after loving of God.

Yet in reality, it goes before it. Love is first named, but not first wrought. We must be called of God before we can love God. Calling is made. Calling is made the middle link of the golden chain of salvation.

It is placed between predestination and glorification. And if we have this middle link fast, we are sure of the other two. We are sure of the two other ends of the chain. For the clearer illustration of this, there are six things observable.

So who's familiar with the golden chain of redemption or salvation? Most of us. So what's the golden chain of redemption? And he volunteers for that. We've got three out of four of them on the. Anyone, anyone?

Yes. Pastor Anthony, I'll read it for you.

This is where God knows us, predestines us and calls us, he says.

But those whom he knew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. And those whom he predestined, he also called.

Those he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

What should we say? If God be for us, we would need his life.

Right. So we're talking about, I mean, this verse 828. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So, you know, Thomas Watson puts it as two qualifications, the first qualification and the second qualification.

But these qualifications are they're linked and you can't separate them. Not for this. There isn't a group that loves God and yet isn't called. And there isn't a group that is called, but doesn't love God, maybe doesn't love God as much as we should.

But those things are tied together. Love is linked to calling and calling is, as Watson points out in the middle, points out calling is in the middle of the golden chain of redemption. So he gives us any questions about that before we head into these observations?

This is probably pretty familiar territory for most of you. No questions, no comments. OK. The coffee's in the back. It's been a long day. OK, so the first the first observation about this, a distinction about calling, there is a twofold call.

One, there is an outward call, which is nothing else but God's blessed offer of grace in the gospel, his parlaying with sinners when he invites them to come in and accept of mercy. Of this, our savior speaks.

Many are called, but few chosen. This external call is insufficient to salvation, yet sufficient to leave men without excuse. Any question, argument with that man is without excuse just by general revelation, right?

That's what Romans one tells us. All creation testifies to the creator whom they refuse to acknowledge or give thanks to. But certainly to hear the gospel. Is. The more light you have, the greater the judgment, if you reject that truth, the more truth you have, the more you're responsible for.

So all are without excuse because creation testifies to the creator who we reject. But to hear the gospel presentation, to hear of the savior of the world, of the king of kings, and to reject him is to.

Incur more.

So someone that, you know, grows up without knowledge of Yahweh, what would they. Who would they have to, I guess, like. So there's no excuse for them because of creation. Because that's so who would they have to kind of like, how would they know that there is, I mean, how would they know to worship Yahweh like.

You know, I don't. That's.

I know what you're saying. If they don't know, how would they know who they're supposed to worship so they would be found guilty? And this is actually Romans is the perfect place for this. If you read the first three chapters, that will tell you about man's condition and man's problem.

Romans one talks about from verses 18 and following how the wrath of God is being, you know, manifested against all mankind because they refuse to acknowledge a creator. They choose to worship the creation rather than the creator.

General revelation gives us enough to condemn us. It's not special revelation. It's not telling us about Christ per se that we would know, oh, he's the one. I'm I'm supposed to acknowledge and I'm rejecting him.

But they know there's a creator. They know they are sinful. You know, when you read through those first three chapters, Romans one talks about the general situation for mankind because they're all without excuse because of because of the creation that testifies to the creator, namely his invisible attributes, his eternal power.

Romans two talks about the Jew who has the law and disobeys it, you know, judges others with the law and yet does the very same things. They know they're not supposed to do. And following that, he talks about the Gentiles, where he says the Gentiles, though they don't have the law, when they act in such a way as it's in accordance with the law, their conscience, you know, accuses them at times.

If you've ever talked to anyone who's never heard of the Ten Commandments, never heard of the law of God, maybe he's never heard the gospel, never heard about Jesus Christ, never heard about the Bible.

But ask them if they've ever felt guilty for anything and which one of us hasn't felt guilty, knowing that there's a right way and wrong way of doing things. Our conscience is that vestige, that reminder that we are made in the image of God and that we understand that there is an objective truth.

There's an objective standard outside of us, of right and wrong, of good and evil. And we're guilty of it. So general revelation is enough to condemn us. It is not enough. It doesn't give us enough information to be saved.

Not everyone is going to hear the gospel presented to them. I mean, there are people who lived, obviously, long before Christ came on the scene. They were not, you know, they were not of the Jewish people who had the law and the oracles and the prophets.

And yet they're still guilty because they still sin. And even with what they know is right and wrong, they still fail to uphold that standard perfectly. And so they're guilty. It's only special revelation, hearing the gospel, hearing the law, those type of things that give us more information about who the God is that we're supposed to be serving.

Does that make sense? Pastor Anthony is going to add to that.

Yeah, because you brought up the word conscience. And that's real important, because conscience is compound.

Word coming with science and knowledge.

Everybody's born with knowledge of right and wrong. We talked about it a while ago about guilt being guilt. Have you ever felt guilty? Yes.

Why? Because you work.

You violated God's standard. And then the question you ask, well, how are they going to? How are they going to know? How are they going to, you know, know Jesus? And then Paul answers this in Romans chapter 10.

He said, he says, how, how then will they call on him and whom they have not believed? How will they believe in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? That's why we send missionaries to places to proclaim the gospel, to proclaim the good news so that they can hear, they can turn and repent and trust in Jesus.

But if you haven't heard it, then you're kind of just like unlucky.

You can't be saved.

Well, I wouldn't say unlucky. You're I hear what you're saying, but you're guilty in God's sight. If you cried out, God, I know I'm guilty. How do I reconcile with you? God will get the message to you.

We'll get a missionary to come up, but nobody cries out. God saved me. Until God opens their eyes.

That's where you go and you read Romans three. Says there's none who seek after God. There's no there's no one good. No, not one. There's none that seek after him.

I think we also have to remember that I think of that verse often. And Joe will not the judge of the earth do what is right. And like when we know God's sovereignty and goodness, you can assume that someone who dies in their sins without having heard the gospel, if they had heard it, would have rejected it.

Like God. Right.

Everyone who God has in his people will be saved. And there's comfort in that.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's when you start understanding God's sovereignty and you understand the condition of man. And we're about to talk about that in a moment. We're going to talk about the outward call, the inward call.

And then we're going to talk about the condition of man apart from that call. And it's basically we're all guilty aside from God choosing us and effectually calling us. We would all reject him anyway.

Think how many people were confronted with God. I mean, think of Cain. Right. He's speaking to him because his sacrifice wasn't given with the right heart attitude and God didn't accept it. And Cain was angry.

His countenance fell. He goes, why is your countenance fallen? You know, if you do well, you'll be accepted. He goes, but he tells him he warns him. Sin is crouching at the door. Desire is for you. So he's confronted by God about his attitude, about his sacrifice, and he rejects him.

He goes out in anger and he kills his brother. And when God confronts him again, says, where's your brother? He's sarcastic with God. Am I my brother's keeper? You know what that meant? That's not just like, oh, it wasn't my turn to watch him kind of thing, which is just as bad.

But Abel was a keeper of the flock. He was a shepherd. Am I his keeper? Like he's smart mouthing back to God after he killed his brother. That's the hardness of heart that all men left to themselves would have.

You think of the Pharisees where they want to put Jesus at that they know. And even when they hear that he's of the resurrection and they hear about the angels, they just said, we'll give you some money.

It's not like, oh, wow, we've been wrong this whole time. We need to go find Jesus and repent. They're like, here's some money. Here's a story. Just go and we'll keep you out of trouble. That's the hardness of men's heart.

Even when they are confronted with God face to face. And that's. That's the heart of all of us, except that God would have mercy on us. So we're going to talk about the effectual calling. And he goes, there's a distinction about calling.

It's a twofold. So we have the outward call. Now, what's the outward call? What's another way of saying that? The gospel, right? It's the preaching of the gospel, going out there and sharing the gospel with a friend, giving out a track, open air preaching.

However you go about it, it's proclaiming the goodness of the Savior and telling him, telling him or her about the mercy of God. So that's the outward call. He says it's insufficient to salvation, yet it's sufficient to leave men without excuse.

The second part is the inward call. When God wonderfully overpowers the heart and draws the will to embrace Christ. This is an effectual call. God, by the outward call, blows a trumpet in the ear. By the inward call, he opens the heart as he did the heart of Lydia in Act 16.

The outward call may bring men to a profession of Christ. This is interesting. The outward call may bring men to a profession of Christ. The inward call brings them to a possession of Christ. The outward call curbs a sinner.

The inward call changes him. What do you think about that? Does that make sense? Makes a profession. Someone who can hear the gospel could make a profession. Could that profession be a true profession, a false profession?

Jerry and then Alex. Right. Right, the parable of the sower. Mm hmm. Yeah, you have those that spring up immediately and then under various circumstances, they they fall apart. Right. And then you have those that give good fruit.

Jerry, shameful Jerry. Alex was clearly going to say that you saw it on his lips. Right. So you have the parable of the sower. What about that? That that last sentence there, the outward call curbs a sinner.

What do you think about that? Curve. Oh, sorry, sorry.

Like I think of like when like in the 1800s, the Christian Society of America, there was probably like a lot less what we see today because of that Christian society. But not all those people were actually not doing sin because they didn't want to.

They were just like, oh, it's not going to be like acceptable. Or so like it curved them, but it didn't actually change.

Right. That's a little high paid.

For a bunch of Christians, we have a bunch of cheaters. Or liars, one or the other of both. The next book is on sanctification. That's what we're going to do. But that's exactly right. When when the gospel is saturating a culture.

Even sinners who have no love for God recognize to be as bad as they want to be would be socially unacceptable. And their sinful pride actually keeps them from sitting in other ways.

Wasn't there an atheist? And I can't think of his name. I picture him who made a comment similar to the fact that I wouldn't want to live in a world without Christianity.

Yeah. That's right.

That's who it was.

That was Dawkins.

And that's perfect.

No, no, no. Christopher Hitchens. Christopher Hitchens. Really? Yeah. Christopher Hitchens. Richard Dawkins. Well, whoever it was.

Yeah. Richard Dawkins mocked them for saying that.

So Hitchens says if there was if there was one Christian left on the planet,.

I would not talk him out of his faith.

Hmm. Interesting.

But there are atheists who have recognized. I forget his name, but I've seen him being quoted on social media. An atheist who acknowledges Christians have had a good impact on society. They have made it better.

So while they don't believe in their God, they like their work, you know, and we see that, you know, you think of Ananias and Sapphira dying for lying to the Holy Spirit. Now, the rest of the community, you know, saw the Christians and saw what they were doing and they held them in high regard.

But they stopped trying to join them. They stopped trying to be part of that community when they saw the holiness and the high standard. So they were a little bit, OK, we're not just going to join in with these guys, but they still held them in high regard.

But they realized it was a serious thing to be a believer.

Yeah, I've worked with a guy who is not a believer. His wife got saved. He knew that I was a Christian. I ran into him about a year after he told me that. He said, yeah, my wife is a Christian. I said, what about me?

He said, no, not me. But I'd recommend everybody marry a Christian woman.

Nice. Hey, there you go.

It's really affected our marriage for the better. He said, but no, it's not. Wow. Yeah.

So for those who can't hear it on the tape, a cop, his wife became a believer, even though he was not. And a year later, he was still not interested in the gospel, but enjoyed the benefits of having a good, godly Christian wife, which is there's a woman who is doing it right, where, well, I mean, obviously only God can change the heart.

So she's not responsible for salvation. But the fact that he would see her difference in her behavior. I asked what Peter is commending to the wives of unbelievers. If a woman gets saved and her husband is still not trying to win him over by her, her, her attitude, her behavior, you know, that she might not without even a word.

Of course, there are giving words, but you know what I mean. What's that? Years later, he became a Christian. So it's a good ending. Praise God. So, yeah, she was really doing all right. So praise God for the for the godly wife.

And so, yes, the outward call curbs a sinner. And one more little story with the Ministry of Mercy, we were going to a particular area that was a tougher area. And, you know, while we were out there, you know, we're still questioning, like, are the methods good enough and everything?

But talking, one of our guys was talking to one of the men who kind of had his his finger on the pulse of the community. And now we had been out there a couple of times. We're handing out clothes and maybe some toys for the kids and some, you know, sandwiches and food and whatnot.

And asking how things are going, he goes, things have been quiet. Like for a tough area, it seems like the toughness, some of the some of the harsher elements, seem more subdued. And I can't help but wonder, was the presence of the church having an impact?

We know that's certainly possible. And so we should be looking to to be ministering to the community in that way. So something to think of. So you can have the profession of Christ, but the inward call makes a possession of Christ and the inward call changes.

The Human Condition Apart from Effectual Calling: Bondage, Darkness, Weakness, Pollution, and Damnation

Number two. So this is number two of the six observations he's making about this effectual calling, our deplorable condition before we are called. Number one, we are in a state of bondage before God calls a man.

He is the devil's slave. If he says go, the man goes. The deluded sinner is like the slave who digs in the mine, hews in the quarry or tugs at the oar. He is at the command of Satan as the donkey is at the command of the driver.

Questions about that. But my free will. All right. Don't be sorry.

I just I don't understand why God gives the devil.

Why does God give the devil power over men? Well, man chose. I mean, in the garden predestined. But if you read through our confession, it talks about the decree of God that God has decreed all things whatsoever comes to pass.

But he goes, but there's first causes and second causes, and he doesn't violate the free will of creatures. When man rebels against God, he. And you see this terminology in, I think, judges and kings where it says, you know, they sold themselves to do evil.

If again, Romans, you might want to read the Romans. It's a it's a hefty theological theological treatise there. But it covers all of this. Romans six, he says, let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Later, he says, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either a sin which leads to death or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

He says, thanks be to God. You were once slaves have then become obedient. Later, he says, for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness.

So now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification and in Ephesians two, he says you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience.

All living in the passions of our flesh. So man. Has enslaved himself to sin by rejecting God and all past all all of Adam's posterity is plunged into sin, to death, to destruction. You know, this is about federal headship.

You know, again, Romans talk about through the one, you know, all sinned and death came into the world. And yet through one, many are made righteous and made alive. You know, we have countries at war, you know, are the individual Ukrainians, the citizens there or the citizens of Russia saying we want to go to war?

Of course not. But the powers that be have determined it. And so they're at war. This is this is federal headship. It's everywhere. It's inescapable. It's just God's economy, the way the world works. There's really not much else you can do.

You know, I would say that can be tested.

It's a state that can't be trusted. Right.

So God meets with Adam, creates Adam. And God puts Adam to sleep, creates Eve. He's Adam's son. So God, Adam sees the fact that God is created. God says, look, I'm going to give you everything, everything in this garden you can have, except don't touch the fruit of that one tree.

That's it. You can have everything else.

All right.

Along comes Satan, he accuses him. All right. Start speaking to Eve.

Well, God said we must not eat it. He must not even touch it. Or near it.

And what does Satan say? Did God do this to you? Did he do this to you? So he questioned God's authority, God's word. Man freely chose to follow what Satan said and not what God said. He voluntarily became a slave to Satan.

Because he believed what Satan said rather than what God said. He had everything. And it's a picture of exactly what we would do in the same situation. We, God could offer us everything except for one thing.

That's the one thing we're going to go after. So God permits that to happen, to show us just how easily led we are into into deception.

And then actually redeems us from and opens our eyes such that in.

John chapter 10, Jesus says, I know my sheep, my sheep, my sheep hear my voice. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. The word here doesn't mean just audible. It means obey. They hear and obey my voice.

So if your eyes have been open, your ears have been open, you hear the voice of Christ. That is an incredible, incredible blessing that not everybody gets because it's mercy.

Mm hmm. Right.

So man rebelled. Man continues to rebel. You know, when he talks about presenting your members as slaves to impurity, to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, we pursue it freely. You know, no one's putting a gun to our head when we're making decisions in our own mind.

I want to sin. And we develop sinful habits that grow more sinful over time or gets us into even more sinful and destructive things. So it's not always a case of demon possession or Satan forcing us to do anything.

You know, we struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. It's not always the devil, you know, but the more that we enslave ourselves to sin, the more we are willing to serve him and be used by him.

So I hope that answers the question. OK, so that's our deplorable condition. There's a few things here. So there's a state of bondage and then there's a state of darkness. You were once darkness. Ephesians five, eight.

Darkness is very disconsolate. A man in the dark is full of fear. He trembles every step he takes. Darkness is dangerous. He who is in the dark may quickly go out of the right way and fall into rivers or whirlpools.

Just so in the darkness of ignorance, we may quickly fall into the whirlpool of hell. Questions about that. I mean, we all recognize the danger of being in the dark, right? If we're driving and it's not a well lit road and our headlights are out, we're going to go very careful because anything could jump out at us.

Or if you're just walking in a room in the dark and you don't know where the Legos are or worse, right? It's dangerous. We're concerned, rightfully so, about tripping, about falling. We need the light to see the way and avoid danger.

But how much do we recognize that's a spiritual reality for those who are not called is they are in darkness. They can't see, you know. David talks about thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path.

It shows us the way to go. The person who rejects God's law does not know. I mean, there's a degree of common grace when we talk about, you know, the the outward call curbing the sinner's behavior at times.

And common grace can see if the law is out there and being followed sufficiently that unbelievers can avoid certain things if they follow biblical principles, even if they're rejecting God. But because they're in darkness, they don't recognize that they are they are heading to hell.

You know, and you think of the sinners in the hands of an angry God being totally unaware that, you know, the path that they're they're walking. It's a rotting bridge and hell is waiting underneath to devour them.

They walk in darkness and they're totally unaware. They could be fearful. And I mean, I've I remember a friend acquaintance from years ago talking about fearing death because he doesn't know what comes after.

But whenever any talk about the Bible or the gospel came up, he rejected it, rejected the one source of light that could dispel that fear of the unknown. But this is the condition before we are called bondage, darkness, impotency, when we are without strength, when we were without strength.

Also, while we were weak, while we were still weak, we had no strength to resist the temptation or grapple with a corruption. Sin cut the lock where our strength lay. That's reference to Samson, the lock of his hair.

Nay, there is not only impotency, but obstinacy. You do always resist the Holy Spirit. Besides in this in disposition to holiness, there is opposition to holiness. All right. We are we're too weak to resist temptation, but too obstinate to yield to the Holy Spirit.

This is our condition before calling. That makes sense. I don't have any questions about that. You know, you know, we talk about in counseling, we talk about addiction, we talk about, you know, trading one idol for another.

You know, I'm talking about something that would pass a while ago about a case he had because he was in our narcotics detective for a while. And there was a guy who was into heroin and got himself clean, but then ended up a drunk.

He just because he never turned to Christ. He just switched from one thing to another. We are weak. We're unable to resist temptation. We're going from one thing to another. Questions or comments about that?

No. Continuing. Number four, we are in a state of pollution. I saw you polluted in your blood. The mind coins only earthly thoughts. The heart is the devil's forge where the sparks of lust fly. Looking at that word polluted, obviously, that's that's from Ezekiel and he's referencing Israel and referring to Israel to Jerusalem as a as a baby cast off in the field.

While the ESV says wallowing, I think the NSV says squirming in their blood, right? Just right there, just like born and thrown in the field, left to itself, left to die in need of being cleansed and needing of being taken care of.

But just that's where they're at. The Hebrew word, just because I was trying to figure out, like, you know, he's using the KJV. So sometimes the ways we would read that verse might be different. But the Hebrew word behind it can mean trampled, tread down or wallowing.

But the senses is dirty. The senses is destined for death. He says twice in there. But I said to you, live. He said it twice. I said to you, live. So this is the condition. They are polluted. They are dying.

And God is the one who can bring life. God is the one who can make them live.

Jake, it just reminds me, you know, it magnifies the doctrinal justification all the more because, you know, outside of being justified by virtue of the righteousness of Christ, that's what all of our works were.

Before the righteousness of Christ, that polluted, polluted garden.

That's what Isaiah says. Yeah. All our righteousness is as filthy rags. So one more. We are in a state of damnation. We are born under a curse. The wrath of God abides on us. This is our condition before God is pleased by a merciful call to bring us near to himself and free us from that misery in which we were before engulfed.

Talking about the reality of mankind outside of the effectual calling. As we go through it, I'm trying to think if I'm going to talk about the stuff kind of runs together, all ties together the way. I mean, it's the golden chain of redemption and salvation.

So he's talking about those who are called those who love God, but they love God because they're called and. They only love God because God has predestined them to love God. He's predestined them. He's called them.

He's justified them and he will glorify them. But before that happens and if it doesn't happen, but we're in a state of damnation, we're under that curse. Our federal head has plunged us into sin and we are at war with God.

This is the reality for all those outside of Christ. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. I mentioned almost completely unaware of the danger that they're in. God's wrath abiding on them only at times when they ponder death or deal with guilt.

So they have a hard time suppressing that truth and start to wonder at it. But. In our rebellion against God, even though we're scared, you have people who are terrified of death, they're terrified. I mean, look at the look at the way the world has been turned upside down over COVID.

People are afraid to death of death, and they will do anything to try to make sure they live another day. Right. It says scriptures say the wicked flee when no one pursues. That's why I don't jog. I mean, I don't want anyone thinking I'm I don't want anyone thinking I'm wicked.

That's another that's another story. I got to start jogging again. But there we are. The state of damnation. Any questions about any of those about the condition of man? We understand the need for the calling, the effectual call the.

The Means of Effectual Calling: Word and Spirit

So we'll talk about one more thing before we. We'll talk about the means. This is six observations we've done, two of them. The third is the means of our effectual call. The ordinary means which the Lord uses in calling us is not by rapture, raptures and revelations, but is.

Number one, by his word, which is the rod of his strength. The voice of the word of God is I'm sorry. The voice of the word is God's call to us. Therefore, he said to speak to us from he is said to speak to us from heaven.

That is in the ministry of the word. When the word calls from sin, it is if we when the word calls from sin, it is this we had heard a voice from heaven. Again, looking at that and looking at the King James Version, like what?

But in the King James, it says the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule down the midst of thine enemies. And so it says similar, but a little bit differently in the New American Standard and the ESV.

But if you look at Isaiah two, three and Isaiah 11, four, it'll give you some context for what it means. His word, the rod of his strength in Isaiah two, three. It says that many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And then Isaiah 11, four, but with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. And with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked.

And of course, Hebrews 12, 25, which he references, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking for if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.