God's Calling
RO120-02

The Destiny of Good, #11

In the famous Romans 8:28, God the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that God the Father has a grand purpose for every church-age believer. This purpose was established in eternity past as the divine decree. That is, the divine plan of God. This eternal purpose of God is to be fulfilled by God alone without any help from the believers. People do not have any part in this except to receive it. This divine purpose, therefore, is absolutely certain of being fulfilled since it depends only upon the character and the work of God Himself.

This destiny of good, as it is described in Romans 8:28 is to be a source of comfort and stability for the believer now in a world of sorrow and of suffering, a world which is under God's curse because of Adam's sin. Christians, of course, suffer the consequences of the decisions of human viewpoint governments on the face of the earth, of the immoral acts of our society, of the disease which is turned loose in the society of mankind. We Christians suffer all that along with the unsaved. And we are indeed the victims of undeserved suffering.

Now, that is the time that you need to understand this passage especially. That is the time when you need to understand that God has a destiny of good for you when you are bearing something that you don't deserve to suffer. Christians do suffer the consequences of the evil age in which we live. Christians, because of Bible doctrine truths, however, have a basis for divine viewpoint perspectives, and thus to have the stability in the time of sorrow and suffering. We know the final end of all of this is for good, and we know that this is God's inexorable purpose.

God's purpose is explained, we have pointed out, in a chain of five divinely-forged links. And so, here we have the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And from God there goes a chain linking man to that eternal destiny that God has prepared for him. These links tie the believer to God's ultimate good toward which all things in our eyes are moving.

The first link that we have here, we have pointed out, is the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge of God has to do with God selecting some members of the human race to be part of His intimate family. Then, a second link will come into effect, and that is the link of predestination. We Christians have been predestinated to be conformed, to be matched up to the exact image of Jesus Christ spiritually and physically in the resurrection body. Since we have been chosen by God in foreknowledge, we have now been predestinated to be made into the image of Jesus Christ. Now, all of this was done in eternity past, and all of this is something that is in the background before a person is born again. We have had pointed out to us also in this passage that the Lord Jesus is the firstborn of the Father in the sense that He holds the place of preeminence and authority in the family of God as the firstborn did in Israel of old. The firstborn position of honor.

Jesus Christ views church-age believers as his brethren in the family of God who surround Him as the firstborn one. And for this reason, Jesus Christ will be glorified as the supreme gem of humanity surrounded by brothers who have been perfected to the degree that they themselves are in the image of Jesus Christ. They do not bear His deity; they have been made the true, beautiful people of the universe. And because they are so magnificent, we are so magnificent by that transformation, the Lord Jesus Christ will be shown to be by contrast even more dramatically beautiful than He would be if we did not surround Him.

In Philippians chapter 2, this concept is pointed out in verses 9-11, where we read, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him [the Lord Jesus], and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." He as firstborn in the family is in the position of preeminence. We as His brethren in the family surround Him and thus exalt His preeminence as the preeminent one in the universe. As the first to be resurrected, Jesus Christ has an immortal body, and in that way, He too is the firstborn in a very special way in the universe.

Colossians 1:18 says, "And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence." He is the first person of the human race to be born with a body that cannot die again. All others who have ever been raised from the dead have died again.

So, the glory and the preeminent position of Jesus Christ demands that nothing can be permitted to break the chain for the salvation of His brethren. All of this chain that God is putting together is for the ultimate purpose of the exaltation of His Son. Now, those of you who are so foolish as to think that we can be saved today and lost tomorrow have some tough explaining to do how a God who forges links Himself apart from any human help can do such a poor job that some puny human being like yourself can come in and do something and break that chain. God says, "If I've ever picked you for salvation in eternity past by foreknowledge, I've also determined that I'm going to transform you into the image of Jesus Christ. That is my decision." Are you really prepared to say that you can change God's decision by something that you do? You can see the foolishness of that. But now, we have crossed the line here from what has been done in eternity past, and let's bring it here into the position of time on earth where we live.

And in Romans 8:30, we come to the next statement which says, "Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called." And there is the next link: the link of being called that is now tied to foreknowledge and predestination. Now, we have crossed the timeline. This is where we live. This is when foreknowledge and predestination actually comes to be applied into our situation. Verse 30 begins with the word "moreover." That looks like this in the Greek Bible. It's the Greek conjunction "de," and this work indicates the next link in the chain of God's purpose. The next link to what He has already done.

He says, "Moreover, whom He did predestinate." This is the word, as we've already seen, "proorizo." "Proorizo" means to mark out beforehand by God for a special purpose. So, those that God has marked out for a special purpose, which we have already seen is to be transformed into the image of His Son Jesus Christ, this special, divine transformation of those that God has foreknown and then predestinated. This word, "proorizo," is in the aorist tense. The aorist Greek tense indicates that this is an action once and for all. It's a sure thing. And it is active voice. God marks out those that He is going to destine for this call. It's an indicative mood; it's a statement of fact. Once and for all, God has predestinated you into the image of Jesus Christ. That means you cannot change it. Nobody can keep you once you are a Christian from ultimately being transformed into the absolute image of Jesus Christ.

"Whom He did predestinate," and then we have the word "them." It's an important word here. Looks like this in the Greek Bible: "houtos." This is the demonstrative pronoun, and it is referring back to those that He predestinated. And it is saying one hundred percent of those He predestinated are the ones that are going to be called. Nobody falls through the cracks. And this word tells us that everybody is going to make into heaven by this chain that God is forging.

Those that He has predestinated, those very ones, He has also, in addition, done something else, "He has called them." And that's the Greek word "kaleo." "Kaleo" means "to summon." It is a reference to God's effective call to salvation. I remind you again that wherever the Apostle Paul uses this word in the New Testament writings, it always is a call to which the individual responds. It is not like your dog that you call, and he wags his tail, and goes about his own business. Or cats. Cats are even worse. Cats are the most independent creatures of all. They will look at you, meow, and then go do their own thing, no matter how you call them, unless you are going to feed them or something like that. Or like your children that you call and they go about their own business.

You see, we use the word "call" with that uncertainty. The Bible, in the writings of Paul, never uses the word "call" in that uncertain way. Anytime that God calls, the response is inevitable. So here again, you see, you are dealing with something that God is putting together that does not depend on human effort, nor is subject to human contamination. This is a reference to God's effective call to salvation.

Again, it is aorist tense. God does it once and for all. He called you once, and you come. It is active voice. God extends this call, which man then accepts. It's indicative mood; it's a statement of fact.

The Nature of God's Calling

2 Thessalonians 2:14 teaches us that, "Unto which He called you [that is, called you to eternal life] by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." Unto which He called you by our Gospel. This is why we preach the Gospel to people. They must receive an external call of the Gospel. When you give them the Gospel, you have given them the external call. Then, God the Holy Spirit comes in, since this person has a dead human spirit, and you cannot respond to God unless you have a living human spirit. So, the person is dead; he cannot respond.

I mean, a dead corpse in the physical realm is a perfect illustration of this. No matter how much you call out to a corpse, it cannot respond because it has a dead spirit. But once you have a living human spirit, then you can respond. So, God the Holy Spirit, the Bible tells us, comes in and substitutes for that dead human spirit so that you can hear the Gospel, you can understand it, and you can respond to that call. So, it takes this external call and this internal call in order for a person to be saved. And that's the kind of calling we're talking about.

So, the Gospel message, you see, is the basis of it all. God the Holy Spirit never saves the person without having the Gospel. He never can save a person just by an internal call. He must always use the doctrine of the Gospel.

Now, you see, immediately, that people cannot respond to the call to salvation if you give them a tainted Gospel, a Gospel tainted with human viewpoint works. You cannot give God the Holy Spirit that He will use as an internal call if you have given the external call of a Gospel that says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive water baptism, and thou shalt be saved," because that would contaminate grace salvation with the human work of water baptism.

Or to come to the person and say, "You must have church membership." Now, if you were in many churches this morning, and you came in as an unbeliever, and you got interested in being saved, and you became concerned, the Holy Spirit brought some conviction, or your heard something that brought some conviction, you would find yourself very often in a context where the Gospel was immediately contaminated. Because the preacher would get to the end of the sermon and say, "Those of you that want to be saved, come and walk down the aisle." And some of us that have done that in the past in our lifetime, who walk down the aisle, and we thought that they had told us that if we would come down that aisle and join that church that we will be saved, we break out in a cold sweat when we realize how if we had not discovered the error of that, we could have continued all our lives out into hell itself.

And many people do exactly that. The tainting of the Gospel with incorporating some human, external action. The whole idea of good works that people like to attach to Christ as Savior. The Roman Catholic Church, goes its whole system on telling people, "You must have the death of Christ plus you must merit that death to be applied to you by your good works." Now, what kind of good works can an unsaved person do? The Bible tell us that because we have an old sin nature that dominates us as king, everything that comes from us, whether it's human good or sins is evil with God. So that, a person cannot perform one single divine good when he's lost. Therefore, it is absolutely stupid to suggest that you are saved by something that you add to what Christ has done.

The religious rituals are prime on the list. I can guarantee you that churches all over this country are full of people who have not been in church the rest of the year hardly, and I can guarantee you that next Sunday, they're going to be busting out at the walls because all the crowd who believes that on certain holy days, you gain merit with God by showing up in church on these sacred holidays, you must be there to hope to make it with God. That isn't going to do it. Religious rituals of any kind are nonsense. And people often do these things without even knowing why they do them.

I've often asked people, "Why do you bring your infant child to have water sprinkled on him, and you call that infant baptism?" Of course, it's not baptism. The Bible is very clear from the language that the only kind of baptism that the scriptures had is one that requires a large body of water because you have to put the person all the way under and bring them back up. That is baptism. If you've never had that done, you are a Christian who has never obeyed the command to make a public testimony by the visual aid of water baptism.

And I find that when I ask people, "Why do you do that," they give me some inane thing like, "'Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,' that's what Jesus said." Well, I said, "Aren't you making an assumption that that refers to water baptism?" And then, they look at you blank, and they'll come up with some statement, like one lady recently did to me, "Well, we just don't agree with you on that subject." But why don't you agree? It's not agreeing with me; it's why don't you agree with the scriptures? Because you choose to interject something of a human element, because you think that if you don't do this for this baby, this baby can't believe the Gospel, can't be saved, will not come under the grace of God.

And of course, that is, as we all know, if we studied church history, a delusion and a heresy which was incorporated into the Roman Catholic Church system from its Babylonian mystery cult background. And many of the Protestant groups came out of that Catholic Church, and they carried over that kind of error with it, never having resolved that problem or any kind of public acceptance. There are some preachers that will really come down hard that if you don't make a public acceptance of Jesus Christ, if you don't walk an aisle, if you don't raise a hand, you cannot be saved. And then, they quote some scripture about publicly making that confession in order to be saved, twisting what the scriptures say. You cannot answer the call to salvation if you give an external, tainted Gospel.

So, you be careful when somebody needs to know how to go to heaven that you tell them exactly what Christ has done for them, what their problem is, how they need absolute righteousness to go to heaven, and how that absolute righteousness can only be received as a gift from the hand of God by believing what Christ has done in their behalf. And do not add any kind of human element to contaminate it. Then, the Holy Spirit can take that and hit that person with the internal appeal. Now, the call is complete, the connection is made, and that person believes the Gospel.

The call that Paul is referring to here is not the external invitation at the end of a church service; it's this internal appeal of the Holy Spirit to the believer. In 1 Corinthians 1:9, we read, "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." It is God who is the one who does the calling.

1 Thessalonians 1:5 points this out, "For our Gospel came not unto you in word only. It didn't come only here, you see, with the external call. Paul says, "Our Gospel did not only come to you in the external, but also in power, and in the power of the Holy Spirit [this internal call, which is the call that makes the difference], and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you." And so on.

So, the call is not the external call that people like to think of in a church service. From time to time, somebody visits Berean Memorial Church, and they'll say afterwards, "But you did not have an invitation!" Now, what did they mean? They mean that we did not invite people to make a public move so that they could get saved. They mean that we did not have some public demonstration on the part of somebody who wanted to be saved, which in fact, churches only do in order to get people to join their membership. That's the technique.

But, of course, we do have an invitation. The invitation is not in our hands. And if we have preached the Gospel, which we do not deal with in every service, but where the Gospel has been preached, so that a person does know what to believe, he has the external call, it is the internal of call of God the Holy Spirit that makes a difference. And we do not add anything to that. When we do, we take a dangerous step toward contaminating the Gospel. And it has not been unusual in my own experience to see people who have come in who have not been Christians, who have begun attending for a while, and suddenly in some service, the Gospel clicks, and you can see it on their face that at that moment, they say, "Ah! The light has hit! I believe it!" And the connection is made. The external call has been connected with the internal call of the Holy Spirit.

So, indeed, we have an invitation. Every time the Gospel has been explained, there is the invitation of God the Holy Spirit, and that's the only one that counts. But of course, that doesn't make much for a rah-rah service. That doesn't make for a lot of hullabaloo. It doesn't make for a lot of external excitement for people to enjoy. But it does keep people from being diluted by something that they have done that they are right with God when they are still on the road to the lake of fire.

Many people today indeed respond to the external appeal of the preacher or to the external appeal of the religious system who have never responded to the internal call of the Holy Spirit. And those people remain lost. They are part of a church organization. They are not part of the invisible church, the body of Christ. They are part of a religious structure, but they're as lost as they can be. And I'll tell you, if there is anybody that is hard to reach with the Gospel for salvation, it is the person who is part of a big religious organization. They think they have it made. The outward invitation to believe the Gospel then is matched by the inward call of the Holy Spirit so that one is able to accept and believe the Gospel. And when you get that inward call, you do believe it. If it were not for the call of God, the truth of the matter is that nobody would believe the Gospel.

Romans 8:7, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God [it is an enemy; it is an antagonism against God]: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." People who are not called are antagonistic to the Gospel.

I was talking to a person recently about a man that we both knew who has died. He was up in his years. He had no church affiliation. And I said, "Well, was the fact of salvation ever discussed with him?" And the lady said, "Oh yes." Well, I said, "What was his response?" "Well," she said, "He just smiled and said he just believed in mother nature." Well, you know, we've all been taught that it's not nice to fool mother nature. But can you imagine what he's discovered of how mother nature has fooled him, now that he is out in eternity facing that God? A man who never received the internal call even when he got the external call of the Gospel. A man who has now discovered, to his horror, the terrible mistake he made.

Mother nature, "alma mater," is the Latin. The name of the ancient Babylonian goddess mother. The poor man did not realize he was worshipping a demonic creature: the goddess mother which has come down to us today in the Mary and Jesus child cult of the Roman Catholic system. The goddess mother: that's mother nature. And he went on into eternity in his confidence that somehow, mother nature was going to carry him through because he was a good man. And he was a nice man, and he was a sophisticated man, and he was a man of some means. And he was a man who was kind to people. Many do not come simply because they are not called. And those who are not called, I can guarantee you, justify their rejection of the Gospel in a lot of ways that they consider very sophisticated and reasonable ways.

You have this illustrated by one of the parables of Jesus in Luke 14, beginning at verse 16. Some of the justifications for those who reject the invitation of the Gospel because they do not have the internal call of the Holy Spirit. Luke 14:16, "Then said He unto him, 'A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, 'Come; for all things are now ready.'"

A great, delicious meal has been prepared. Several people have been invited. A special messenger has been sent to tell the guests to come.

"And they all with one consent began to make excuse. [The call was extended, but they had no motivation to respond. So, they came up with excuse to the call.] The first said, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.'" Here's this man who has gone through all this trouble to prepare a great meal, and this person says, "I've just bought a piece of real estate. I'm sorry. I've got to go look at it. I can't come to your dinner."

"Another said, 'I have just bought the five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.'" Here's another one, says, "I've just bought a brand new sports car, and I got to go out and tool around in it to test it out. I can't come to your dinner. I don't care how much you've worked on it. I don't care how much you prepared. I don't care how much kindness you've extended in inviting me.'"

"And one another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Well, that might have been true, but be that as it, as it may, you would think that since he had a new bride, he would be delighted to come and show her off and to be at a social event. But no, he's uses this as an excuse. What is the problem? None of these people had motivation to respond to the call to come to this supper.

That's exactly what people do without the call of the Holy Spirit. You look at a person. You see the desperate straits in their lives. Many times, their lives are fouled up. You see the eternity that they're headed for, and you wonder what it is that they cannot see the truth to accept the Gospel no matter how much you explain it. Well, this is it. Without that internal call of the Holy Spirit, they will not respond. The truth of the matter is, it's amazing that anyone is ever saved, because people by nature are the enemies of God. They don't want to hear what He has to say, and they're not interested in responding.

John 3:19 puts it this way, "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." Man has fallen short of the glory of God's standard of absolute righteousness, and he stands guilty before God. So, what do people do? Because people do not have the internal call of the Holy Spirit, because they try to justify themselves in their own eyes, they begin to lower the standards of what God will expect of them. That's what people do in their fallen condition. They make their own rules as to how a person should go to heaven.

In 1 Corinthians 2:14, we read, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." When you talk to an unbeliever about the death of Christ, he considers that very gross idea: that some human being should die as a sacrifice in my behalf so that I could go to heaven. That's a butcher religion, and they consider it foolishness. And that's exactly the word that people often use in describing the external invitation of the Gospel.

In 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

People have a natural blindness spiritual on their eyes put there by Satan. They cannot understand the Gospel. They cannot accept it. So, they make up their own religious system. They lower the standards to where they live in their sin, and they think that all will be well with them. You see why the Holy Spirit has to come in? He has to break through the blindness. He has to tear the blinders off the unsaved person's eyes. So, don't tell people to do something externally, physically, like churches so often like to do and like preachers love to do to make an external show, because that will only confuse them and only ensure that they will stay in their blindness.

Ephesians 2:1-3 points out, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our manner of life in time past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh [the sin nature] and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."

This is what we are by nature, so how foolish it is to think that we can come up with a system that's acceptable to God. What it takes to go to heaven is very simply the new birth. It takes being born again. As Jesus in John 3:3 said to Nicodemus, "Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.''"

So, here is a marvelous truth that Paul is telling us. I have linked you to God's previous determination to select you, his determination to predestinate you to the image of His Son. I have linked you now to make that real in your experience, because I'm extending to you the call, by giving you the call of the Gospel. I see to it that somebody has explained the Gospel to you. And now, the Holy Spirit is coming in, and He calls you to believe what you have heard. And you will snap it up. You will bite at it like a fish in the spawning season bites at a bait. You'll take it. The conditions have been prepared.

God does not tell us to simply open your spiritually blinded eyes and see the truth. God comes up, and He opens those eyes. He gives sight to blind eyes. You can't open your spiritually blinded eyes to see the truth just because somebody tells you that. How often have you said to people, "I can't understand." Well, you can't see this? What's wrong with you? That's why they can't see it. They've got spiritually blinders, and you can talk yourself blue in the face.

That's why you can only give the Gospel. You can explain it. Then, you step back, and you say, "Now, what's the word, Spirit of God? Are you going to match this with the internal call, or is this not one who gets the internal call?" Our job is to give the call to everybody, because we don't know whom He has selected. They all get the call, but He gives those eyes ability to see. The called ones are very clearly distinguished in the Bible from the rejectors.

In 1 Corinthians 1:22-24, this is pointed out. Paul says, "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom." When you talk to the Jews about salvation, "Give me a sign!" When you talk to the Gentiles, "Give me some intellectual basis!"

".But [he says] we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block [to them], and unto the Gentiles, the Gospel is foolishness; But to them which are called [A-ha! Those who had the internal, Holy Spirit call], both Jews and Gentiles, [the Gospel then becomes] Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God [that which men call 'foolishness' in their blinded condition, that Gospel which they call foolishness] is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

So, there's a big distinction here, you see, between those who are called and those who are rejectors. You are a rejector because you're not called. The called ones are therefore certain of receiving a heavenly inheritance. Once you're called, since it is God's calling, you will be inexorably linked to that chain.

In Hebrews 9:15, "And for this cause He is the mediator [that is, Jesus] of a new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." They who are called receive eternal inheritance.

So, Christians are called by God the Father to believe the Gospel because they have been previously foreknown and predestinated by Him. This divine call shows that one's salvation, then, is absolutely guaranteed. God sees to it that you will get the Gospel message.

The call here in Romans 8:30 is an effectual call. The word "effectual" means it works every time. When it is given, you will respond. And because it is from God, it ensures that you will realize the ultimate purpose of that call. The purpose for God for us in eternity past becomes a reality, you see, in our experience with this link of God's call to us.

Descriptions of God's Call

In the book of Acts 11:18, here the call is described as granting repentance unto life. "When they heard these things." That is, concerning the fact that the Gentiles had also believed the Gospel under Peter's preaching and been filled with the Holy Spirit, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the other believers said, "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, 'Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.'"

What is repentance unto life? It is the call, the call that enables you to repent. How do you repent? I hope you've learned that. Repentance does not mean shedding tears. Repentance does not mean punishing your body. Repentance means to change your mind - to change your mind about the Gospel. You said it was foolishness. You didn't are about it. You rejected it. Now, you change your mind, and you accept it. You do that by believing the Gospel. You cannot, in other words, repent unless you believe.

Acts 13:48. Here, the call is described as being ordained to eternal life. "And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the Word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed." As many as were called to eternal life believed. As many were ordained.

Acts 16:14. Here, the call is described as the Lord opening the heart or the mind so that one will believe the Gospel. This is the situation where Paul is speaking to a lady's prayer meeting in the city of Philippi. Lydia is among them. And verse 14 of Acts 16 describes how it is that she responded to the Gospel, "And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, who worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened [whose mind the Lord opened], that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul." There it is. Here, the call is opening your mind so that you pay attention and you believe it.

1 Corinthians 1:9. Here, the call is described as having fellowship with God's Son, Jesus Christ. "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ walks only in the light. He has fellowship in the light. He does not have fellowship with those who walk in spiritual darkness. So, what this passage is saying is that we are called to salvation so that we now are in the light and can have fellowship with His Son.

Galatians 1:15. Here, the call is described as being separated at the point of your physical birth for eternal life by God's grace. Galatians 1:15, "But when it pleased God, who separated me [Paul says] from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace. So that, here, the call is described as being just elected. When you were born as a small baby, at that point, God had selected you to put into effect what He had decided in eternity past for your eternal life.

1 Thessalonians 2:12. Here, the call is described as being made part of God's kingdom and His glory. 1 Thessalonians 2:12, "That ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory."

And one more. 2 Timothy 1:9. Here, the call is described as the holy work of God alone given to believers in eternity past as a grace gift. 2 Timothy 1:9, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which He hath given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." Here, the call is described as an act of a holy God who has decided to bring you into His family, not on the basis of your works but on the basis of his purpose and on the basis of an act of His grace. And all of this done before there was any creation.

Responses to the Gospel

If they say, "Yes," that means that they understand the Gospel, and they have accepted it and they believe they're going to heaven on the basis of accepting God's Word.

If they say, "No," they have decided that they believe in mother nature or something else, and they think all that's foolishness, and it's not for them. They're too sophisticated, too intellectual. They'll have nothing to do with it.

But when a person says, "I think so," and "I hope so," people take a great deal of comfort in that. But this verse in 2 Timothy 1:9 says that anybody who says something like that is depending on something that he is doing in his own works. The reason he hopes so, the reason he's not sure, the reason he thinks so, is because of something he has to do to stay tied in to the chain that's tying him to eternal life.

And I hope you've seen by the grammar, and by the words, and by a variety of ways in the very use of this word "call," that when God says, "I give you a holy calling not according to your works," that he's telling us this does not depend on how you act even after you're a Christian. It is not dependent on you behaving yourself. It is according to His purpose, and that's what we're explaining with these five links. God's purpose is to take some of us into His heaven. He does it on the basis of His grace, and He does it through the Lord Jesus Christ. This call of God is at the heart of eternal life.

And if you are a Christian this morning, then thank God that He chose to call you. And if you are not, and you find that within your soul, there is a desire to reach it, then just believe the Gospel. It is a pretty good sign that you are one of the called and He is ready to bring you into His family.

So, this is a tremendous link. It is a link that bring what God has prepared and decided in eternity past into our present experience in time. But, it all depends, first of all, of getting the external call of the Gospel to people in one way or another, and then stepping back and letting God the Holy Spirit as per the decision of God in eternity past to extend the internal call by which they are going to respond.

The next link is the link that God has given specifically so that He can open the floodgates of heaven into your soul. And we'll explain that next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

Back to the Romans index