“To Those Who Are Called “
Romans 8:28
Nobody is nameless; Everybody has a name. Throughout the Bible, there are many different names which describe followers of the True God. In the Old Testament there were those who “found favor in the eyes of the Lord,” “my people”, “my chosen ones”, “treasured people”, a ”remnant”, a small part of the whole cloth, those who receive “circumcised hearts” (Deut 30:6) or “hearts of flesh” instead of stone (Eze. 11 & 36).
In the New Testament some of the names are: “believers”, “children of God”, “sons of God”, in John 3:7, Jesus spoke of those who were “born again, not of water but of the Spirit.”
We are called “saints”, “holy Ones, “worshippers”, “followers of Christ”, “followers of the way”, the Church, and a few times we're actually called Christians. Last week we saw that God IDENTIFIES believers as “THOSE WHO LOVE GOD”, and today we look at yet another name for believers: “to those who are called.”
One of the most tremendous verses in the Bible is the promise and security of Romans 8:28; I’m going to rearrange those words just a little bit and describe what we observed recently: “And we know that God causes to work together all things for good to those who love God.”
And WE KNOW: we see with our eyes, we understand with our minds, and WE are convinced in our hearts, right here in the center of our beings.
THAT GOD: God is the implied subject. He is the God of the Bible and the Bible is all about Him and what He is doing in this world: He is overthrowing satan and his kingdom and God is bringing about HIS Glorious, Everlasting, Perfect Kingdom. He is working mightily in the hearts and lives of SOME people to be part of the Kingdom of Our God and of His Christ.
CAUSES TO WORK TOGETHER: that verb for "causes to work together," (synergeô) from which we get the word “synergism” which means " than the sum of the individual parts and effects working together." It is a power that puts all things together, and in this case it is GOD’S POWER that is working together in ALL THINGS for the believer.
ALL THINGS: There is absolutely NOTHING that happens in the life of a Believer and Follower of Jesus that is “accidental” or insignificant. God is working powerfully in every event in the life of a believer… How is God working?
FOR GOOD: The Word is “agathon” and means "good in the purest and truest sense," it’s what is morally good, practically good, but that which is God’s HIGHEST GOOD. HIS ULTIMATE PURITY: It is for God’s GOODNESS that all things work together but also…
TO THOSE WHO LOVE GOD- Remember the question Jesus asked Peter? Do you LOVE me? No one on this earth does ANYTHING perfectly so we don’t love God perfectly, but as a believer, you HAVE a love relationship with God in Christ and it is in the process DAILY of BEING PERFECTED in this life, by His Spirit.
Those who LOVE God are those to whom God gives new hearts; we understand the MAGNITUDE of His LOVE and GRACE to us in Christ, and we wholeheartedly TRUST God, we COMMIT to God, we LIVE for God, and we LOVE God more than anything in this world because of His Great Love to us.
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to THOSE WHO ARE CALLED (or THE called) according to His purpose.”
Now Paul adds that phrase, “to those who are called (or THE called) according to His purpose”? (9-10 words in English but only 4 in the Greek.) This is not another group or category of people for whom God causes all things to work together; this descriptive phrase actually DEFINES and explains “those who love God.” It is really the HOW and the WHY of “those people who love God” more than anything else in the world!
Those whom God has Called
Those who love God are the “CALLED”. They are those people who have been invited by God through the proclamation of the Gospel to obtain eternal salvation through the Life and shed blood of Jesus, and they become members, not just of a church, but of the Kingdom of God.
God calls people generally throughout the world through the proclamation of the Gospel. Millions of people have heard it with their ears, and this call includes three basic elements:
1. The Bible teaches that You miss the mark of God’s perfection, that you are a sinner. “ALL (I) have sinned and fall far short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
2. The Gospel teaches that the penalty for sin is death and that YOU are spiritually dead in sin, and you and need a Savior: “For the wages of sin is death,(That is what I deserve) but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
3. The Bible also teaches that ONLY Jesus’ shed blood is able to pay the penalty for your sin: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Do you believe that verse by putting yourself into it? “But God demonstrated His own love toward ME, in that while I was a sinner, Christ died for me.”
Where does this message of the Gospel originate? It’s God’s message to the world, it’s His Gospel, it’s His PLAN and His PROVISION, and it’s His invitation to come to Him, as sinful as you may be, and find forgiveness, reconciliation, hope, and eternal life through Jesus Christ. It is the Sovereign God who takes THE INITIATIVE in extending the offer of His Grace to those who need grace and He broadcasts that message and invitation to COME TO HIM.
Not everyone responds to this calling, to this invitation from God. Some people may say: I believe those elements of the Gospel, I accept Jesus, but yet it doesn’t have any effect on the way they live their lives. (We looked at the parable of the different soils.) You may remember that Jesus said in the parable of the wedding feast in Matt. 22:14: "For MANY are CALLED but few are chosen."
“CALLED” (klay-tos') in that verse is the same word that Paul uses in our text. Jesus is saying that MANY PEOPLE hear the Gospel with their ears but few hearts are actually changed; THEY DON’T RESPOND to the message. The many times in which Paul talks about the “CALLED” or the “CALLING”, it is ALWAYS about the “few” who DO respond and not the MANY who do not. Those people who DO respond actually demonstrate the teaching or doctrine of God’s Sovereign Effectual (or Effective) Calling: It means that when you hear the Gospel, you DO respond!
The “CALLING” is God’s Sovereign Calling because it is God’s internal personal invitation. to those who will be citizens of God’s Kingdom. God is the one who is calling for us to come. Jesus said “MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27 God alone exercises supreme, DIVINE authority and He is the one calling with His Voice. Many may hear the EXTERNAL CALL of the GOSPEL but they don’t recognize it as God’s Voice because they are not His SHEEP. They will not recognize it as the internal spiritual, personal heart-changing invitation of God and His Spirit.
In our text, those who have been “CALLED” by God have received this personal INTERNAL invitation by God to come to Him, and they have RESPONDED to that CALLING, BECAUSE they are able to recognize that IT IS God’s powerful CALLING to save them. We KNOW that “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way ; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. (Isaiah 53:6)
When we stand in a position of being justified by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, and realize that we are saved by the grace and faith given by the LORD JESUS, we are IN AWE that GOD HAS INTIATED and accomplished what we could NEVER do! We are in amazement that we can TRULY LOVE God, not just because He is giving, and gracious and saving, but because He is God.
Responding to His Call in our lives, we realize that God’s Sovereign calling is EFFECTUAL- It Is EFFECTIVE. It has done what He promises to do: IT IS LIFE-CHANGING. It changes our hearts. It brings light, Life, faith and forgiveness to us.
Jesus said in John 6:44 says "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me DRAWS HIM (hel KU o); and I will raise him up on the last day.” The word for “DRAWS” means to “drag off”. In John 12:22 Jesus said: "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." It is used again in Acts 21:30: “Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they DRAGGED (hel KU o) him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.” In James 2:6, it is used to describe someone DRAGGING another person into court. God brings us to HIMSELF. It means that God’s effectual call, the Gospel, His invitation, HE, HIMSELF, has AFFECTED your HEART and YOUR life.
The Confidence of the CALLED
We have to remember the context of “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.” The context is in suffering for and with Christ. It is in the context of still struggling with sin and groaning and longing for the day when we will receive our new bodies. We know that the process of being sanctified continues until that day, but our confidence, our hope is in OUR SOVEREIGN and powerful God, since He is EFFECTIVE in all that He does.
Paul said in Phil 1:6, that, “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” We do not depend on ourselves to be faithful but on His Character of FAITHFULNESS. God cannot break a promise that He has made and neither can anyone or anything interfere with God’s promises.
God’s call is called EFFECTUAL because NO ONE CAN BREAK A BOND THAT God HAS MADE. We break commitments, promises, or pledges or the time, but God will not. He will fervently keep His promise to you through any and ALL circumstances…even death. Romans 8:31-32 says, “If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us ALL THINGS.”
God invites the “CALLED” to come out of the world into His Kingdom by the POWER and Gospel of Jesus Christ: The CALLED is where the Church receives its name: The “Church” is “Ekklesia”. The root word is “call”, (the same root word as Called) and the Church consists of those who are CALLED OUT of the world and called to place their faith in God’s power to save through Jesus. 2 Timothy 1:9 says: “(God) has saved us and called us with a HOLY CALLING, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.”
This morning, is your confidence in a commitment or decision that you made or is it in the Lord Jesus Christ? The most important EVENTS in our lives should be the CROSS and Resurrection. The most important PERSON in our lives should be the LORD JESUS CHRIST. Has the Lord JESUS changed you?
Jesus said, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”(Matt. 11:28) “To all who received Him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” (John 1:11-12) To those who may be lukewarm or “on the fence”, Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20)
If you truly come to God, you can no longer hold onto sin, but you willingly renounce it in repentance. In Acts 2:38, Peter said: "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Baptism is the public profession that you are turning from sin to God. Acts 3:19 explains this effective response to the Gospel: "Therefore repent and return (be converted), so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
Through the Gospel CALL, God speaks to the INTELLECT by explaining the facts of salvation in His Word; He speaks to the EMOTIONS and spirit by issuing a personal invitation to respond. He speaks to the WILL by asking us to respond willingly in repentance and faith. Has God affected ALL these things in your life so that you have made a COMMITMENT to turn from your sins, and receive Christ as Savior as well as LORD for your life?
Isaiah 55:6 encourages us to: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. (He can be found now and today!) 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.” “I tell you, now (Today) is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor. 6:2)
Revelation 17:14 gives this blessed hope for the Called: “The Lamb will overcome his enemies, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful." To Him be the Glory. Amen
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (Heb. 10:23)
OUTLINE: All Things work together to “those who love God”: We wholeheartedly TRUST God, we COMMIT to God, we LIVE for God, and we LOVE God more than anything in this world because of His Great Love to us.
I. “Those who love God” are the “CALLED”?
A. God’s general call through the proclamation of the Gospel:
1. You are a sinner. (Rom. 3:23)
2. You are spiritually dead and need a Savior. (Rom. 6:23)
3. Only Jesus can pay the penalty. (Rom. 5:8)
B. God’s Sovereign Effectual (or Effective) Calling:
1. The “CALLING” is God’s Sovereign internal invitation.
2. God’s Sovereign calling is EFFECTUAL:
God, HIMSELF, has AFFECTED your HEART and YOUR life.
II. The Confidence of the “CALLED”
A. God is effective in all that He does.
B. The Church consists of those who are “called out” of the world into God’s Kingdom.
In Deuteronomy 7:6, God said: “For you are a people HOLY to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has CHOSEN you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be HIS PEOPLE, his treasured possession.”
