Dale Partridge - PART TWO： Romans 8_30 - The Golden Chain of Salvation with Dale Partridge

00:00:00.880 What a blessing it is to be in Romans 8 still. Today marks my 75th sermon. As you

00:00:10.640 guys know, we have planted this church originally in Cottonwood. We moved up

00:00:14.160 here with a handful of families and continued and planted here in January.

00:00:20.240 But this is my 75th sermon to the book of Romans. Some of you have actually been

00:00:24.320 here for all of them. So that was just a wonderful reflection for me this last

00:00:29.360 week. I hope to complete Romans in 150 sermons. That was the original intention. And Romans 830

00:00:37.660 is the exact verse in the middle of the book of Romans. There's 433 verses in the book of Romans,

00:00:45.460 and we are at the dead center at sermon number 75. So I thought that was kind of cool

00:00:50.640 that Providence is already working through here in the sermon delivery. So I'm going to be

00:00:57.000 presenting the second part of a series, what I have called the golden chain of salvation.

00:01:02.860 We have already done part one. This week we are going to be doing part two. Last week was on

00:01:08.880 verse 29. This week is going to be on verse 30. So last week I broke down the first two links of

00:01:15.960 this chain. This week we're going to go for the last three links of that chain. The first two

00:01:21.600 links were foreknowledge and predestination. This week, we are going to be going through

00:01:27.480 calling, justifying, and glorifying. Before we begin, I just want to remind you about the context

00:01:34.880 of the passage that we are going to be discussing. We have to understand where this passage sits

00:01:41.060 within Romans chapter 8. In chapter 8, we learned that there is no condemnation for those who are

00:01:47.700 christ that's verse one we still face suffering and even bodily death that's verses 10 through 11.

00:01:54.020 both trials and suffering are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in

00:01:59.620 us that's verse 18. but in this suffering we learned a few things what we learned

00:02:05.140 that god does not leave us without divine support we're not left without a divine support so we have

00:02:11.460 the promises of god again that's verses 8 1 bodily resurrection that's 8 11 living hope that's verse

00:02:16.820 verse 824, and support in our deepest prayers through the intercession of the Holy Spirit.

00:02:21.280 That's 826.

00:02:23.060 But the greatest support, the greatest support that we've been given is His benevolent providence

00:02:30.040 that works all things together for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose,

00:02:33.740 which is 828, which we talked about a couple weeks ago.

00:02:38.300 Now, this also includes the working together of our very salvation.

00:02:42.740 This actually includes the entire process of your redemption, which is what we're in

00:02:49.960 at 829 through 30.

00:02:51.800 And this occurs in five distinct but progressive phases.

00:02:57.640 So last week we talked about foreknowledge, which is, we defined last week as a relational

00:03:02.880 knowledge.

00:03:03.400 It's not just God knowing information before the foundation of the world.

00:03:07.460 but He actually knows people relationally,

00:03:10.120 a specific individual's relationally.

00:03:14.080 God knew you before you were born.

00:03:15.600 He cast His love upon you

00:03:16.720 and His affection upon you in a unique manner.

00:03:20.320 Predestination we defined as God determining the destiny

00:03:23.820 or the end prior to the existence

00:03:27.280 or the creation of that particular being.

00:03:29.940 And today we're gonna walk through

00:03:31.060 the remaining three links of this golden chain,

00:03:32.920 which is again calling justification and glorification.

00:03:37.460 And so we're going to start in verse 830, and I'm going to talk about sections A and B.

00:03:43.340 So just follow with me here.

00:03:44.320 It says, and these whom he predestined, he also called.

00:03:50.660 All right, do not miss the grammar.

00:03:53.620 Again, I say it all the time.

00:03:55.340 We are smart Bible interpreters.

00:03:57.740 Do not miss the grammar that's being communicated here.

00:04:00.480 Verse 28 to 29, Paul uses the demonstrative pronoun, those.

00:04:04.980 but here in verses 30 he uses the same demonstrative pronoun but he shifts it to the the near version

00:04:12.800 to these if you guys have homeschooling kids you know the song you know this that these those right

00:04:18.700 you have to learn your demonstrative pronouns because you understand that there's this is close

00:04:23.540 um you know these is close those is far uh that is far and so the text continues to affirm

00:04:32.880 that the apostle is speaking out about a particular group of people those whom he

00:04:38.880 has predestined or these whom he has predestined depending on the

00:04:42.220 translation that you're looking at and from that phrase alone just look down

00:04:46.240 your Bible just look at this from that phrase alone you can deduce two things

00:04:49.320 number one God does predestined people that's easy number one number two his

00:04:57.640 predestining is limited to a certain group of individuals these it's not everyone it's these

00:05:08.760 so if you're wrestling with the idea that god only predestines some to heaven if you're

00:05:15.240 struggling with that you have two options that you get to deal with option number one

00:05:20.840 deny and twist this passage of scripture many do go to any calvary chapel and you'll find it there

00:05:27.500 Okay, or number two,

00:05:30.060 submit to the fact that God is an electing God.

00:05:33.640 Just submit to that reality,

00:05:35.220 that God is an electing God.

00:05:38.480 Again, I said it last week,

00:05:39.660 I think Charles Spurgeon made a quote

00:05:41.920 that men struggle

00:05:44.980 or men who love to elect their own wives 0.88

00:05:50.360 and choose their own bride

00:05:52.420 will not allow Christ the same privilege.

00:05:56.600 Why don't we let God be God

00:06:01.780 and the fact that he is an electing God?

00:06:04.420 He's an electing God through the Old Testament.

00:06:05.880 He certainly didn't elect the Philistines. 0.95

00:06:09.700 We are grafted into Israel now. 0.85

00:06:12.860 Why are we shocked that God is an electing God?

00:06:14.720 It should not shock us.

00:06:15.800 The reason it shocks us is because we are in this weird,

00:06:22.100 you know, equity focused,

00:06:24.600 everybody's equal egalitarian culture that can't grasp privilege, blessing, honor.

00:06:37.340 Paul's main point is to continue demonstrating that there's a chain of events that occur

00:06:42.060 as a result of foreknowledge and election.

00:06:46.740 There's a chain of events that happens as a result of foreknowledge and election.

00:06:50.620 if you were relationally foreknown.

00:06:58.520 And again, we talked about this last week,

00:07:00.020 but I feel like I need to talk about it again.

00:07:01.280 It's, you know, before you were born, I knew you.

00:07:06.360 It's that kind of knowing.

00:07:09.160 You know, many will say to me in that day,

00:07:12.120 Lord, Lord, I did all these things in your name.

00:07:13.680 I cast out demons.

00:07:14.800 I did all these miracles in your name.

00:07:17.200 Away from me, I never knew you, okay?

00:07:20.620 This is a relational knowing.

00:07:22.940 If you were known before the foundation of the world,

00:07:26.380 God has decided to, for some reason unknown to us,

00:07:29.800 to set his benevolent love upon you.

00:07:34.080 If you were relationally foreknown, you will be predestined.

00:07:39.080 That was last week.

00:07:40.920 And if you're predestined, you must logically, theologically be called.

00:07:47.600 You must be called.

00:07:50.620 Now, I spoke about calling in my last sermon

00:07:52.260 on Romans 8, 28 a few weeks ago.

00:07:55.880 I wanna look at that term calling again.

00:08:00.740 I tried to think, you know, we can maybe move on.

00:08:03.640 And then I started studying, I think,

00:08:05.000 this whole sermon is gonna be about calling again.

00:08:08.280 In regard to salvation, what does it mean to be called?

00:08:13.620 I feel like today and every generation is like,

00:08:15.100 oh, it's my calling, my calling.

00:08:17.160 Everybody has a version of their calling.

00:08:19.900 According to scripture, what does it mean to be called?

00:08:23.200 Does it mean that you were audibly called

00:08:24.480 by a gospel preacher?

00:08:26.180 Does it mean that you are called by the Holy Spirit?

00:08:29.020 Does it mean that you are called to new life?

00:08:34.380 Certainly it can mean all of those things.

00:08:35.660 Honestly, it means every one of those things

00:08:37.460 in a variety of dimensions,

00:08:39.380 depending on what you're discussing.

00:08:40.560 But I'm gonna argue that the term called in our passage

00:08:43.000 is most accurately defined

00:08:44.880 as the act of making an elect person alive.

00:08:49.600 Okay?

00:08:50.080 Making an elect person alive.

00:08:51.980 Making that foreknown person, that predestined person now alive.

00:08:58.900 People often call making someone alive in scripture regeneration,

00:09:06.320 or the more common term, being born again.

00:09:10.220 Born again, the new birth.

00:09:13.340 But those words describe the result.

00:09:17.240 Regeneration is what happened.

00:09:19.560 Being born again is what happened.

00:09:26.820 1 Peter 2.9 says,

00:09:28.520 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

00:09:33.160 a people of his own possession,

00:09:34.140 that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness

00:09:38.940 and into his marvelous light.

00:09:41.080 So there's something with calling that has to do with taking you out of darkness

00:09:45.180 or death or blindness or deafness

00:09:47.820 or whatever you want to describe it

00:09:49.120 and into light.

00:09:51.680 1 Peter 5.10 says,

00:09:53.580 and after you have suffered a little while

00:09:55.020 in the God of all grace

00:09:56.140 who has called you

00:09:57.260 to his eternal glory in Christ,

00:10:00.080 which is we're going to find out

00:10:01.040 is exactly what's talking about here.

00:10:02.380 We are being called to what?

00:10:03.360 Well, we're being called to glory.

00:10:05.240 Anyways, glory in Christ

00:10:06.220 will himself restore, confirm, strengthen

00:10:08.080 and establish you, end quote.

00:10:10.500 The question we have to ask is this.

00:10:12.320 If a person was foreknown

00:10:13.560 And if that person was predestined, can the calling of God fail?

00:10:20.520 Can the calling of God fail?

00:10:23.600 Can the calling of God fail because of man's, quote, free will to reject the call of God?

00:10:31.980 This is an important question because it's the entire basis for the next chapter in chapter 9.

00:10:37.020 We are going to go through this.

00:10:39.960 Romans 9, 1 through 5, Paul assumes that the Romans might think that because not all of

00:10:43.480 Israel has come to the Messiah, that the word of God has failed, that the calling of God

00:10:48.420 has somehow failed.

00:10:50.740 To which he responds in Romans 9, 6, but it is not as though the word of God has failed

00:10:56.200 for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.

00:11:02.340 Not all the people that are in ethnic Israel are actually Israel, the true invisible church.

00:11:09.000 Not everybody in the visible church is part of the invisible church. 0.74

00:11:13.080 We know that.

00:11:14.960 How many Americans have come to church but never came to Christ?

00:11:19.360 We're saturated in it.

00:11:24.240 For the rest of chapter 9, he explains why only some of Israel heard and were saved by God's call through Christ

00:11:33.140 and why others did not hear the call and were left to justice.

00:11:38.500 He gives you an entire chapter of why.

00:11:44.000 Isaiah 55, 11, God says,

00:11:45.980 My word that goes out from my mouth, it shall not return to me empty,

00:11:51.260 but it shall accomplish that which I purpose

00:11:54.760 and shall succeed in the thing which I sent it.

00:11:59.560 Does the calling of God ever fail on a person?

00:12:02.360 Not according to Isaiah.

00:12:03.840 Romans 11 29 says for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable

00:12:09.020 like there should be no other passage of scripture I need to offer to you

00:12:15.020 to conform your mind to that truth it's there the calling of God is irrevocable

00:12:22.860 God's word will accomplish that which it set out to do

00:12:28.880 let me explain it another way

00:12:32.380 God called everything into existence by the use of His Word.

00:12:42.520 He called light from darkness.

00:12:46.360 He called Adam from the dirt.

00:12:49.320 He called Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

00:12:54.560 He called the prophets.

00:12:57.380 Through the prophets, He called the kings and the rulers.

00:13:01.120 Through his angels, he called Mary and Zechariah.

00:13:05.200 Jesus personally called the apostles and many of the disciples.

00:13:09.340 Jesus calls Lazarus and Talitha from the grave.

00:13:13.000 John 10, 3, speaking of himself, Jesus says, the sheep hear my voice.

00:13:19.840 And he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out.

00:13:27.080 Isaiah 48, 12 through 13 says,

00:13:29.120 Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I called.

00:13:33.500 I am he, I am the first and I am the last.

00:13:36.700 My hand laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand spread out the heavens.

00:13:40.800 When I call to them, they stand forth together.

00:13:47.560 That's just a small sample of the countless verses that have to do with calling in the Bible.

00:13:56.360 Think about the absolute absurdity that God created a being,

00:14:03.160 that we are created beings that can resist the call of their creator

00:14:07.900 in light of that biblical testimony.

00:14:12.840 Every single possible historical event that God says that he called into existence

00:14:17.840 comes to happen.

00:14:21.100 But then we're going to deny the fact that God calls us,

00:14:23.700 but man has free will that we can deny it.

00:14:25.160 Because God can't overcome our free will, right?

00:14:27.300 He's a gentleman, right?

00:14:35.180 Consider the irrationality in the face of the scriptures

00:14:39.020 that testify over and over and over again

00:14:41.560 that when God calls any created thing

00:14:44.300 according to his purpose, it comes to pass.

00:14:48.460 It comes to pass.

00:14:51.620 Think about how the idea of man's free will

00:14:54.420 clashes directly with this concept of the effectual call of God.

00:15:00.720 Think about it.

00:15:01.660 Logically, no matter what you do, you will logically deduce it into a conflict.

00:15:10.580 Think about the heinousness of Paul, who in one moment hated Christians and willed to

00:15:17.160 murder them, and in the next moment became one. 0.95

00:15:21.680 That's an interesting reality. 1.00

00:15:23.560 I hate Christians. 1.00

00:15:24.540 I want to kill them. 1.00

00:15:25.480 And then in a second, all of a sudden, I want to be one. 1.00

00:15:28.540 Well, what happened?

00:15:30.960 We all know the answer to that.

00:15:32.420 Jesus came right before him and called him.

00:15:36.440 He called him.

00:15:39.060 He didn't say, oh, Paul, accept me into your heart.

00:15:44.180 And if Paul says, oh, no, sorry, I can't do that, Jesus.

00:15:46.740 I hate you. 1.00

00:15:47.880 And I'm here to murder your Christians. 1.00

00:15:49.840 All right, I'm going to go find another guy. 1.00

00:15:51.440 it's a ridiculous and absurd reality 0.80

00:15:54.860 think about the idea 0.97

00:16:00.860 of God calling a spiritually dead person 0.98

00:16:02.940 to make

00:16:05.020 a decision that scripture says

00:16:06.660 they cannot and will not make

00:16:08.280 do you know what a dead

00:16:10.840 person can do

00:16:11.780 stink that's what they can do

00:16:16.920 that's an answer from Steve Lawson by the way 0.98

00:16:18.680 so I can't take credit for it but 0.55

00:16:20.400 but they can stink. They can't hear. They can't see. They can't act. The word in the Greek in

00:16:33.780 every essence that's being used is nekros, and it actually means corpse. It doesn't mean like

00:16:41.200 kind of dead or like coma. No, it's dead, corpse. And you were dead. You were a corpse is what it's

00:16:49.760 saying in Ephesians 2. Romans 8, 7 and Colossians 121 says, your flesh is hostile to God. Ephesians

00:17:00.680 4, 18 says, in the flesh, a person's understanding of the gospel is darkened and alienated from the

00:17:06.240 life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their heart. Romans

00:17:11.820 5, 10 says that our flesh, we are enemies of God. First Corinthians 2, 14 says, in our flesh, we

00:17:18.300 believe the Gospel is foolishness. 2 Corinthians 4.4 and John 12.40 says that

00:17:25.120 we are spiritually blind. Romans 3.10 through 11 says that our flesh that we

00:17:31.000 don't understand or we don't seek God. In fact, no one does. Ephesians 2 says that

00:17:38.460 we are in our flesh spiritually dead and that we follow the world and the devil

00:17:42.620 and we are by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

00:17:48.300 John 3, 3-5 says that in our flesh that we cannot see or enter the kingdom.

00:17:55.700 Later, he says the flesh is no help.

00:18:00.760 Just think about the logic here for a second.

00:18:03.780 In the light of all of these truths,

00:18:06.880 the anthropological description of man in the Bible,

00:18:10.460 who we are, think about that.

00:18:15.000 God created you.

00:18:17.340 He set his saving love on you and foreknows you.

00:18:22.320 We don't know why.

00:18:25.380 God isn't looking down the corridors of time and seeing that I'm going to do good things

00:18:29.040 and therefore has set his love upon me because I'm such a good person.

00:18:32.320 No.

00:18:33.740 In fact, if he looks down the corridors of time and sees me, he's going to, one, 0.89

00:18:37.140 see how terrible I am and how terrible you are.

00:18:40.180 And two, that's a heresy because God doesn't learn.

00:18:42.520 but because he foreknows you he predestines you to be saved and because he predestines you

00:18:54.420 he calls you he calls you just think about this particular question

00:19:01.840 let's just put our brains on for a second how can predestination work

00:19:07.940 with a calling that man can reject?

00:19:14.880 It's an illogical reality.

00:19:17.920 How can predestination work

00:19:21.140 with a calling that man can reject?

00:19:28.500 That doesn't work.

00:19:31.280 It's an impossible reality.

00:19:34.540 There are two clashing ideas.

00:19:36.720 predestination means that the God is controlling the end or the destiny

00:19:42.180 prior to this creature being made he's controlling the end but if you put

00:19:50.240 calling in there and you say that man controls the outcome then you have a

00:19:55.000 conundrum with God just saying that he controlled the outcome it doesn't make

00:19:58.900 any sense. It cannot work. Second, if you're dead, hostile, darkened, deaf, and blind to

00:20:12.240 the need for salvation, to the need for the gospel, how cruel would it be for God to call

00:20:19.140 you without also giving you the ability to hear, see, and believe? Let me give you an

00:20:24.820 example. Imagine a father who intends to save his child who can't swim and is

00:20:34.700 unconscious at the bottom of a swimming pool. And he's yelling from the back

00:20:41.080 deck, get up, come out of the water, start swimming. Imagine a God who intends to

00:20:50.060 save but his efforts fail to overcome the very thing you need saving from what do you need saving 0.98

00:20:58.060 from deadness you need saving from blindness you need saving from deafness you need saving from

00:21:07.340 darkness you need saving from slavery imagine god calling you but not giving you the means

00:21:17.260 by overcoming those resistance to those realities

00:21:21.060 to respond to that calling.

00:21:27.460 We have to realize that we need saving from ourselves,

00:21:34.940 in a sense, right?

00:21:36.320 We actually need saving from our state of being.

00:21:40.320 Yes, we need saving from God's wrath, that's primary,

00:21:43.040 but we need saving, we need to actually be resurrected,

00:21:45.880 we need to be made alive we need to be brought to light we need eyes to see and

00:21:51.160 ears to hear and again as I said last week this is the whole purpose of Jesus

00:21:54.280 is miracles he's trying to show you that you're blind and without divine

00:22:00.760 intervention you will not see and you are dead without divine intervention you 0.69

00:22:05.060 will not live and you are deaf and without divine intervention you will

00:22:08.800 not hear all of these things are images of what we see in salvation you need

00:22:18.460 divine intervention you cannot just choose God without God first acting upon

00:22:24.760 you and that's exactly what God does he not only calls but causes us to hear the

00:22:37.060 call. It causes us to hear the call. Well, we can't hear the call unless we've been made alive.

00:22:42.620 And when that person hears the call, they only hear it because they have been spiritually

00:22:46.240 resurrected first. So God first comes in, spiritually resurrects us, and now we can hear.

00:22:53.360 Now we can spiritually hear. Now we can spiritually see.

00:22:57.720 We often think that salvation works like this. I'm spiritually dead, but all of a sudden I'm

00:23:03.600 going to start repenting, and I'm going to start having faith in Christ, and then I'm going to

00:23:10.000 born myself again. That's American Christianity. That is not biblical. In fact, it is exactly the 0.68

00:23:15.980 opposite. Biblical is God comes by the Holy Spirit and resurrects you without permission. This is why 0.71

00:23:24.220 he calls it the new birth, because your natural birth you have no involvement in. How much

00:23:28.060 involvement did you have in your natural birth? Did you choose it? None. How much involvement

00:23:32.400 should you expect to have in your spiritual birth none god comes and he brings you to new life

00:23:40.880 all of a sudden you're awake you're alive you start to see things and hear things the gospel

00:23:47.200 being preached to you all of a sudden you're you're torn over sin you recognize your own

00:23:53.360 depravity you see your need for righteousness god grants you repentance god gifts you faith

00:23:59.040 and all of a sudden you're casting yourself on Christ kind of sounds like

00:24:05.100 Paul's conversion all of a sudden you're blind and then you see and then in

00:24:13.280 Paul's case God blinds him again but what a beautiful reality to understand

00:24:20.280 that God calls us and actually gives us the ability to hear that call by

00:24:28.380 resurrecting us to new life letting us hear and letting us see now Westminster

00:24:33.660 confession chapter 10 verses 1 through 2 this is our confession of faith here

00:24:39.000 summarizes this entire process right here I love it it says quote all those

00:24:43.440 whom God has predestined to life and those only he is pleased and is

00:24:50.660 appointed and accepted time effectually to call by his word and spirit out of

00:24:58.320 state of sin and death and which they are by nature to grace and salvation by

00:25:05.460 Jesus Christ enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand

00:25:11.880 the things of God taking away their heart of stone and giving to them a heart

00:25:16.680 of flesh renewing their wills and by his almighty power determining them to that

00:25:24.120 which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come

00:25:30.600 most freely, being made willing by His grace." So do we respond to God's call?

00:25:42.840 Yeah, we do respond to God's call. In fact, we respond freely and willingly. So if

00:25:52.380 fighting for free will well there's a sense of it right there is that when god renews your will to

00:25:56.860 his will because your will is either enslaved to satan and sin or it's enslaved to christ

00:26:02.540 and righteousness you don't have a free will you have a will but it's never free right and so now

00:26:08.060 all of a sudden your will your highest desire for things is for the things of god you now will

00:26:16.060 for righteousness and faith and trust in the Savior, but we only do this because God changed

00:26:28.660 our nature. We are no longer in the flesh and dead. We are now alive and in the spirit.

00:26:36.860 This makes sense, right? You're not expecting to do spiritual actions before you're spiritually

00:26:40.920 alive. That's illogical. No, we are performing spiritual actions after we've been spiritually

00:26:47.700 resurrected. That makes sense. So what was once dead is now alive. What was once darkened is now

00:26:56.600 light. What was once impossible to see and hear is now visible and audible. That's why Jesus would

00:27:01.300 say, hey, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has eyes to see, let him see. And for that

00:27:08.180 reason, you do not resist the grace of God's call, but freely and willingly obey and submit

00:27:14.180 to the gospel. That's what happened to you. Every person that comes to faith starts out

00:27:23.540 believing that they were the catalyst or decisive action point for their own salvation.

00:27:28.940 Charles Spurgeon says everybody starts their faith as an Arminian.

00:27:31.700 everybody does because it's one dimensional all i see is that the preaching happened and

00:27:38.920 i responded i made a decision right so it's one dimensional what the scriptures do is it

00:27:46.920 gives you god's perspective of what happened it lets you see oh that calling

00:27:54.520 of the proclamation of the gospel that happened to you when you were 17

00:27:59.000 what was really happening there.

00:28:03.920 You know, Ephesians 2 gives us the biography

00:28:05.820 of our souls prior to Christ.

00:28:10.000 You know, you were dead in your trespasses and sins

00:28:11.760 and the ways that you once walked

00:28:12.700 following the prince of the power of the air,

00:28:13.760 all of that.

00:28:16.000 It lets you see, oh, I was way worse than I thought.

00:28:23.260 This leads us to the next chain of our,

00:28:26.220 link of our chain,

00:28:27.400 and these will not be as long as that one.

00:28:29.900 Romans 8.30, it says,

00:28:31.180 and these whom he called, he also justified.

00:28:34.640 Now, first, it's important to acknowledge

00:28:36.300 that Paul continues to use this term, these.

00:28:41.020 He's demonstrating how each redemptive action

00:28:43.680 is being progressively applied

00:28:45.260 to the same group of individuals.

00:28:49.540 There is no person who will be called

00:28:51.480 who was not first foreknown.

00:28:53.440 There is no person who will be justified

00:28:55.720 that is not first called.

00:28:57.400 This is a progressive, logical redemption.

00:29:05.180 In the Greek, the term justified is dikao.

00:29:08.740 The word righteousness in the Greek is dikaiosune.

00:29:12.100 And so you can see the relationship there is that dikao and dikaiosune,

00:29:16.820 they come from the same root word.

00:29:18.640 And it means to be found righteous.

00:29:20.780 When you're justified, it means you're found righteous.

00:29:25.680 You're found righteous.

00:29:27.960 Now, if he called us from death to life,

00:29:31.040 where we can now see our sinfulness and our need for righteousness,

00:29:34.600 because again, man's greatest need is what? To be found righteous.

00:29:38.380 Because if you're not found righteous, you're under God's wrath.

00:29:41.460 And the only righteousness available to us is an alien righteousness that we can have in Christ.

00:29:46.140 And that alien righteousness can only be applied to us by faith.

00:29:50.620 And so, righteousness is our central need as human beings.

00:29:55.040 This is why the gospel must be preached that you are not righteous.

00:29:58.520 The law of God is here to condemn you.

00:30:00.720 You need Christ.

00:30:02.360 You need his robes of righteousness applied to your soul.

00:30:08.440 But in this calling, he grants us repentance.

00:30:11.400 It's funny, I don't want you guys to turn there,

00:30:13.220 but later, mark it down in 2 Timothy 2.25,

00:30:16.120 shows that God is the one who grants repentance.

00:30:20.140 It's not initiated by you.

00:30:21.620 You don't all of a sudden start feeling bad.

00:30:22.980 I'm sorry. No, God is the one that actually grants repentance for you to even feel that way.

00:30:32.520 And he gives us faith in Ephesians 2, 8 through 9. But because of that faith, he will justify us,

00:30:37.160 not because of works done on our behalf that we become intrinsically righteous somehow,

00:30:42.720 but because of the perfect work of Christ, his perfect obedience to the law. Jesus didn't just

00:30:47.860 died for us he also lived for us keeping the law perfectly the righteous

00:30:52.840 requirement of the law that is applied to us by faith so in Christ our sins are

00:31:00.160 justly paid for on the cross we see that point number one the atonement we have

00:31:05.260 an imputation of our sin to Christ and his sinlessness becomes our robes of

00:31:09.580 righteousness by faith that's the double imputation that you just sung about in

00:31:12.940 and rock of ages the double cure the fact that your sin has been imputed to christ and christ's

00:31:23.820 righteousness has been imputed to you second corinthians 5 21 he made him who knew no sin

00:31:32.060 to be sin imputation number one so that we might become the righteousness of god in him

00:31:38.540 I can't talk.

00:31:40.660 Imputation number two.

00:31:43.580 John Murray makes an important distinction between calling and justification.

00:31:52.040 He writes, calling is an act of God in us.

00:31:59.460 Justification is a judgment of God about us.

00:32:04.600 In other words, God is both doctor and judge.

00:32:09.300 Doctor and judge.

00:32:11.360 In calling, he heals us by working in us a spiritual resurrection,

00:32:15.400 giving us a new heart, granting us repentance, giving us faith.

00:32:18.660 In justification, he pronounces his judgment

00:32:23.540 according to what his people have become as a result of his calling.

00:32:31.720 Okay, they're two different distinct realities.

00:32:33.660 So calling is the action, justification is the result.

00:32:37.180 That makes sense.

00:32:37.780 we're still logical here, right? Foreknown, predestined, calling, justification. That

00:32:42.780 makes sense. Logical reality. It remains one final link to fulfill this sovereign work

00:32:54.500 of redemption. Romans 8, 30, the very end, and these whom he justified, he also glorified.

00:33:04.900 Now, the word glorified is in the Greek, it's doxadzo, it's the root word is doxa, it's

00:33:15.020 where we get the name for the doxology that we sing, where we bring glory to God.

00:33:20.180 So the word doxa means glory.

00:33:25.260 To be glorious.

00:33:26.800 to be glorious is to be perfectly what your creator made you to be. So you want to be a

00:33:37.640 glorious husband? Be exactly what Christ calls you to be as a husband. That makes you a glorious

00:33:44.520 husband. You want to be a glorious daughter or son? Be exactly what the scriptures call you to

00:33:51.320 be as a glorious son or daughter. Do you want to see a glorious table? Well, it better hold up

00:33:57.360 your dinner because that's what it was designed to do. And so glory is being conformed to the

00:34:05.340 perfectness of its intended design. So to be glorified as a person is to be perfectly conformed

00:34:18.860 to christ that's what it means to be glorified

00:34:25.180 that all humanity

00:34:30.460 in a sense if we could be glorified if everybody could be glorified we would be back

00:34:35.100 into a state where god intended humanity to be from the first part of creation

00:34:41.500 adam and eve were in a sense glorious prior to the fall

00:34:45.260 all. In a fallen state, we are not glorious, but we are in a sense redeemed partially as

00:34:53.660 we are saved. If you look back to verse 29 for a second, you can see that conformity

00:35:00.520 to Christ was actually the purpose of God's foreknowing and predestined. Just look down

00:35:04.640 at your Bibles and says, quote, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become

00:35:09.900 conformed to the image of His Son. The purpose of the predestined, predestining, is glory.

00:35:20.060 And glory is the end. And so it makes complete logical sense that the whole purpose that He

00:35:25.480 predestined the end is that He predestined you to glory. Now, in order to get you to glory,

00:35:31.540 He needed to call you and justify you in between there.

00:35:33.480 so we are predestined to be restored to what we ought to be what we were originally intended

00:35:44.840 to be to have glorious souls and eventually glorious resurrected bodies and to live

00:35:51.060 in a glorious world that is glorification

00:35:57.180 Now, interestingly, the word glorified, while it speaks to this future reality, it's actually

00:36:06.400 written in the past tense.

00:36:08.700 Man, the commentaries are thick on that particular point.

00:36:14.240 Every claim, if you actually notice, is all written in the past tense.

00:36:17.440 It's the aorist tense in the Greek.

00:36:19.520 Robert Haldane comments on this verse, and he says, quote,

00:36:22.440 Quote, glorification is spoken of as having already had taken place because what God has

00:36:30.980 determined to do may be said to be already done, end quote.

00:36:36.640 Think about that for a second.

00:36:39.640 Isaiah 46, 9 through 10, I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the

00:36:45.800 beginning and from ancient times, things which have not yet been done.

00:36:52.440 That's what God does. God declares things that have not been done as if

00:36:57.500 they've already been done. In other words, for God's elect, redemption is as

00:37:02.620 certain as if it were past tense because God accomplishes all of his will. You

00:37:09.020 want to know the certainty of your glorification? It's as certain as past

00:37:12.780 tense. That's basically what Paul is trying to do in that passage of

00:37:16.800 scripture. This is how Jesus can make statements of certainty like, quote, John 10, I give eternal

00:37:25.220 life to them. First, just for a second, think about this. Can Jesus make a promise about eternal

00:37:30.380 life if you can lose it? No, that doesn't make any sense. He says, I give them eternal life

00:37:37.060 and they will never perish.

00:37:42.640 Okay, so if you can be saved and then lost

00:37:46.380 and lose your salvation,

00:37:47.700 you have a massive problem with this passage of scripture

00:37:51.420 because Jesus says that I give them eternal life

00:37:53.860 and they will never perish.

00:37:59.580 So either that person who, quote, left the faith

00:38:02.420 was either never saved or Jesus is lying.

00:38:06.120 I'm going to go with Jesus is telling the truth.

00:38:10.740 It says, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

00:38:14.780 He goes on and on and on.

00:38:16.520 And you're going to see this in the next couple of weeks

00:38:18.220 with Paul going on and on and on.

00:38:19.480 Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

00:38:21.120 And he gives reason after reason after reason.

00:38:23.440 Nothing.

00:38:24.680 That's the certainty of your salvation.

00:38:29.500 He can make these statements because our salvation

00:38:32.540 is not dependent upon us, but dependent upon God.

00:38:38.120 John MacArthur's famous statement.

00:38:40.340 I'm wearing my shepherd's conference tie right now.

00:38:44.080 He says, if you could lose your salvation, you would.

00:38:48.240 Easy.

00:38:49.820 Basics.

00:38:51.020 If you could lose your salvation, you would lose your salvation.

00:38:54.940 Any person in scripture or in his own life who has, quote,

00:38:58.700 left the faith because they were never, it was because they were never saved in the first place.

00:39:06.260 This is again, Paul's talking about this in chapter nine. They're not all of Israel who are 0.98

00:39:11.880 of Israel. I could say the same thing. Not everybody who's in the church is of the church. 0.99

00:39:19.500 It's the same reality. They may have been a part of the covenant people of God. They may have had

00:39:24.660 the sign of the covenant applied to their body. They may have attended church on Sunday. They may

00:39:29.320 have worshiped and raised their hands. They may have prayed and done many works in the name of

00:39:32.560 Christ. But if they were not truly born into the family of God, they are not part of the elect.

00:39:42.800 This didn't shock Paul, who watched many of his, quote, kinsmen perish,

00:39:47.780 that he wished that he could save, but he couldn't.

00:39:53.520 1 John 2, 19, speaking specifically to the matter of what we call church apostates,

00:39:58.020 people who were a part of the church, but then left the church, the visible church,

00:40:01.180 not the invisible church, but the visible church,

00:40:03.960 says, quote,

00:40:04.840 They went out from us, but they were not of us.

00:40:09.740 For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.

00:40:13.420 But they went out that it might become known

00:40:16.460 that they are all not of us, end quote.

00:40:22.200 It's right there.

00:40:25.380 John is specifically dealing with the reality

00:40:27.220 of people's faith being stumbled

00:40:31.020 because people are leaving.

00:40:32.900 And he said, hey, hey, hey,

00:40:34.300 if they were of us, they would not leave us.

00:40:38.480 He knows.

00:40:42.780 So what does this all mean?

00:40:44.040 What does this all mean for your life?

00:40:49.260 How should you be thinking differently as a result of having a comprehension of this passage of Scripture?

00:40:56.460 First, it teaches us that our salvation rests completely in the hands of God.

00:41:05.580 Just as you were not involved in the act of being made,

00:41:10.320 You also were not involved in the act of being made new.

00:41:16.960 That should really just sit on your brain for a few weeks.

00:41:22.280 The effect of this truth in your real everyday life should be assurance.

00:41:30.720 You should feel assured.

00:41:33.100 I remember a few years ago worrying about my losing of my own faith.

00:41:45.140 I was incredibly sick, maybe on the verge of dying.

00:41:52.820 I'd been sick for months.

00:41:55.500 And I remember thinking that maybe my faith would fail.

00:42:03.100 And I was worried about that.

00:42:06.300 I remember coming to the knowledge of the doctrines of grace, the perseverance of the saints, and realizing that I could finally rest.

00:42:18.980 I could finally rest knowing that my faith is not sustained by me and that my relationship with God is not sustained by my acts of obedience, but that Christ in me through the Holy Spirit sustains me.

00:42:40.860 It permitted me to obey with a motive not of fear or duty even, but a motive of gratitude and love.

00:42:57.380 I obeyed to please God, not as some sense to maintain or sustain my own salvation.

00:43:07.000 The gospel became good news.

00:43:10.860 that I could actually rest, knowing that whatever happens,

00:43:16.980 whatever trial comes before me, that my faith would not fail.

00:43:23.420 Maybe one day again, we'll start singing the song,

00:43:25.580 He Will Hold Me Fast.

00:43:29.280 It should offer you peace, this passage of scripture,

00:43:34.980 that you can rest in the goodness of God.

00:43:38.880 1 Peter 1.5 says of the elect who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

00:43:50.040 John 6.39 says, and this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

00:44:00.260 Philippians 1.6 says, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

00:44:08.880 this should cause you to praise God.

00:44:17.160 It should cause you to worship.

00:44:21.420 There should be some greater degree of devotion

00:44:25.360 as a result of knowing that God,

00:44:28.360 before the foundation of the world,

00:44:30.160 has chosen for some unknown reason to call you

00:44:33.360 and to elect you and to involve you

00:44:36.800 in this plan of redemption.

00:44:38.880 The only reason in the Old Testament given to Israel of why God chose Israel,

00:44:46.840 he says, it's not because you were one of the greatest of the nations,

00:44:49.660 but because God loved you.

00:44:53.620 Why did God choose you?

00:44:56.700 Because God loved you.

00:44:59.940 We don't know who the elect are.

00:45:02.780 Therefore, we're called, as Christ commands us to, is to preach the gospel.

00:45:07.000 to go to all nations, proclaiming the gospel

00:45:11.720 and teaching them to obey all that Christ commanded.

00:45:17.720 We are to be faithful in the proclamation of the gospel.

00:45:26.100 But it should change your life, this passage of scripture.

00:45:31.000 It should give you a sense of peace, assurance, and praise.

00:45:37.460 Amen?

00:45:38.320 Amen.

00:45:38.980 Let's pray.

00:45:40.380 Father, we thank you.

00:45:44.080 We thank you, Lord, for the masterful orchestration of our own redemption.

00:45:50.580 Lord, that the decisions we've made were not isolated events,

00:45:54.380 but a chain of events that you have caused all things to work together for our good.

00:46:02.480 Lord, I pray for this congregation that these truths would sink deep into their hearts and minds,

00:46:07.860 that they would see the beauty and the depth of the gospel.

00:46:15.540 Lord, that they would be so enamored by the truths of redemption

00:46:19.560 that it would ignite a passion in their marriage

00:46:25.160 and a passion in their home

00:46:26.400 and a passion in their life

00:46:27.640 and that we would see some degree of revival in this town.

00:46:37.100 We thank you, Father, for the gospel in Jesus' name.

00:46:40.040 Amen.

00:46:41.580 Amen.

Dale Partridge - March 28, 2024

PART TWO： Romans 8_30 - The Golden Chain of Salvation with Dale Partridge

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