Working Things Together For Those Who Are Called Series

“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)