The Called
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 22nd September service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
The Called
Verse 28 teaches the church of Jesus Christ about effectual calling. Here Paul identifies a people whom He designates, ‘the called’. It is not the first time Paul has employed this title to describe the believers in Rome. In 1:6 he tells them their faith confirms them ‘among the called of Jesus Christ’. The called are saved men and women; boys and girls, who have been regenerated, made spiritually alive and made partakers of the new birth by God the Holy Ghost. They are ‘called’ to salvation internally by efficacious grace and externally by the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A spiritual work
This calling is not an appointment to an office in the church nor a commission to fulfil a specific vocation. It is not a general offer made to all men and women in the external ministry of the word. It is primarily the powerful and spiritual application of grace by which those who are dead in trespasses and sin are given new life in Christ, called from darkness to light, called from bondage to liberty and called to personally experience saving grace. In verse twenty-nine Paul tells us the subjects of the effectual call are those who have been ‘predestinated to be conformed to the image’ of Christ and foreordained to be like Him.
Effectual
We describe this calling as effectual because the call to life and liberty is attended with divine power to effect or accomplish the spiritual objective intended. It is irresistible and irreversible. It quickens dead souls and implants a desire for forgiveness of sin and peace with God. It breaks the chain of evil habits that binds a sinner under Satan’s control. It is a calling performed by the Holy Ghost, founded on particular grace and conferred exclusively on those said by Jude to be ‘sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Jesus Christ, and called’.
Purposeful
This calling by God is ‘according to his purpose’. By this we learn that the persons called are chosen to salvation by God in eternal election, set apart in the covenant of grace and committed into the care of God the Son for the cleansing of sin and redemption from the curse of the law. No one is effectually called except those particular individuals God purposed to save from the beginning. The calling of the elect is the out-working of God’s plan. Having been chosen, redeemed and called to salvation ‘the called’ own no other reason for their spiritual blessedness than the sovereign will and free grace of God.
Consequential
Accordingly, the timing and circumstances of the effectual call fulfil the purpose of God. Ezekiel says, ‘behold, thy time … the time of love’. The called are said to be drawn in lovingkindness and made willing in the day of God’s power to receive the blessings of grace. The internal call is secret. Ordinarily, a sinner’s first felt experience of grace is conviction of sin, repentance, and conversion under the external call of gospel preaching. By such means God gathers His church.
Providential
God sends preachers to minister the word and witnesses to testify to the truth of the message. He prepares the ground, supplies the good seed, sends the sower and brings forth fruit in the lives of those He calls to salvation. In all these elements the sinner is essentially passive. His natural enmity is overcome and conquered, spiritual appetites are stirred up and Christ is made the desire of our souls. God calls His elect to new life in Christ and His gift of faith fixes our hope upon our Saviour.
Amen
Our hymns are below.
Hymn 1
Gadsby selection 240
Repentance and Faith. Matt. 9. 13; Luke 13. 3
J. Hart C.M.
1
What various ways do men invent,
To give the conscience ease!
Some say, Believe; and some, Repent;
And some say, Strive to please.
2
But, brethren, Christ, and Christ alone,
Can rightly do the thing;
Nor ever can the way be known,
Till he salvation bring.
3
What mean the men that say, Believe,
And let repentance go?
What comfort can the soul receive
That never felt its woe?
4
Christ says, “That I might sinners call
To penitence, I’m sent;”
And, “Likewise ye shall perish all,
Except ye do repent.”
5
Those who are called by grace divine
Believe, but not alone;
Repentance to their faith they join,
And so go safely on.
6
But should repentance, or should faith,
Should both deficient seem,
Jesus gives both, the Scripture saith;
Then ask them both of him.
Hymn 2
Gadsby selection 406
Praise for Reigning Grace. Rom. 5. 20, 21; Rev. 5. 9
J. Kent 8.8.6.
1
Hark! how the blood-bought hosts above
Conspire to praise redeeming love,
In sweet harmonious strains;
And while they strike the golden lyres,
This glorious theme each bosom fires,
That grace triumphant reigns.
2
Join thou, my soul, for thou canst tell
How grace divine broke up thy cell,
And loosed thy native chains;
And still, from that auspicious day,
How oft art thou constrained to say,
That grace triumphant reigns.
3
Grace, till the tribes redeemed by blood,
Are brought to know themselves and God,
Her empire shall maintain;
To call when he appoints the day,
And from the mighty take the prey,
Shall grace triumphant reign.
4
When called to meet the King of dread,
Should love compose my dying bed,
And grace my soul sustain,
Then, ere I quit this mortal clay,
I’ll raise my fainting voice, and say,
Let grace triumphant reign.
God's calls His people from death to life, darkness to light with an effectual, spiritual call of grace. He calls us to conviction for sin, conversion through faith, conformity to Christ and completion in glory. God calls and His people are 'the called in Jesus Christ'.