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September, 2021 (Vol.55-No.9) |
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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. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:30-31 PLEASE TURN IN YOUR BIBLE TO ROMANS 5 and read the first words of verse 1, “Therefore being justified by faith . . . “ The words “being justified” mean that God views us as though we were just like God, even though we are not. Only God can justify, and He continuously views us as though we were just like God. Now notice the little word “by” in the phrase “by faith.” Greek prepositions are not always translated correctly in our English New Testament. We could say “because of faith” or “for our faith.” For our faith, God continuously views us as being just like Him. That is good news! Verse 2 begins, “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” The words “by whom” mean that all this is done through our Lord Jesus Christ. By Christ, we have access by faith into this grace. In the previous message, I made an analogy to a spotlight on a darkened stage. By faith, we step into the spotlight of God’s grace. We could also describe God’s grace as a sphere of being which flows to us from God. Grace is unmerited; we cannot merit it by anything we do. It is occasioned by our faith, but even our faith does not merit God’s grace. Our faith is just the catalyst, determined by God to be the trigger that causes Him to release the flow of His unmerited favor wherein we stand. As recipients of His grace, we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope.” The English word “tribulation” comes from the Latin word tribulum, which was an implement used to crush wheat in order to separate it from the chaff. In the previous message, we interpreted this passage as “tribulation produces patience,” or literally, endurance; and “endurance produces experience” or triedness. Triedness gives us hope: the fact that we made it this far proves that we can endure, and it gives us the hope that we will complete our entire journey. The destination of that journey is glorification. Every Christian should want that destiny. Paul said in Ephesians 4 that God “gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints . . .” The Greek word translated “perfecting” means “completely furnished” and “fully equipped.” It does not mean moral perfection as measured by the ability to perform a minimum number of necessary deeds. God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. God gave these gift ministers to enable the saints to understand the meaning of the experience of triedness that produces hope. Then we can grow in our understanding of Paul’s words in Romans 5:8, “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were yet outlaws, rebels, and ignorant, God selected us by His grace. Since God has selected us, and if He has tried us and we have endured and persevered, how much more will he finish what He has started! It is all a work of grace. God is not foolish; He will not waste His investment in you. Let me make this clearer by using a human analogy. I could use almost any profession to make this illustration, but think about how much time and money an airline has invested in a pilot by the time he sits in the captain’s seat. There comes a point when the investors would suffer a great loss if they do not help that pilot finish his training. This illustration breaks down, as all illustrations do, but God invests a great deal in us as He prepares us to rule and reign with His Son throughout eternity. We need to see our Christian journey in the perspective, which is why I have said that if you do not get the breath of eternity on you, you cannot even begin to understand what Christianity is. Let me say it again: tribulation produces endurance, endurance produces triedness, and triedness produces hope. We are confident we will complete our entire journey. If you have endured many trials, this passage in Romans will have more meaning to you. I am not only referring to personal trials; I am also referring to any pressure you might have felt because of correction you have received in the church. Maybe you heard a sermon that forced you to reexamine your commitments. Either the sermon hit too close to home or you felt that you were being intruded upon. Have you ever wondered, “Why didn’t I just walk out?” God would not let you. Doesn’t that give you hope? You see, people who are the called can recognize the truth when they hear it. It might not be too palatable at the time, but every Christian knows this is true. Maybe you have experienced the pain that comes from putting your foot in your mouth because some temporary insanity overtook you. Perhaps you have suffered embarrassing circumstances and times when you wished you could take back your actions that produced certain consequences. But no matter who you are or what you have done, if the call of God is on you, you know the truth when you hear it and you are able to receive correction. Those who do not have the call of God try to rationalize their uncalled condition. By faith, for our faith, God views us as though we were just like Him, and He continues to view us that way. For our faith, He pours out unmerited favor on us. We rejoice in tribulation because the very fact that we have endured and have attained triedness proves that we are among those who stand in the sphere of His grace. That gives us the hope that He will finish what He has started, because whom God calls, He enables. Like astronauts being launched into space, we are greatly relieved when we realize that we are finally airborne. We have the assurance that we will make it all the way! Now that you understand this process and that your very enduring gives you hope, please turn to Romans 8:28, which is one of the best-known passages in the Bible. “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.” Many religious bookstores sell what they call “promise boxes.” These are boxes full of little cards, each one having a Bible verse on it. Almost every promise box that I have ever seen included Romans 8:28, and every Christian wants to make this their promise. But God looks on the heart and knows the ones who take His calling seriously. Someone might be thinking, “Well, I haven’t been to church for months, and I haven’t volunteered to help at church in over a year. I haven’t even paid tithes, though I once sent a preacher a hundred dollars. That should cover me for a while. And if a tragedy ever occurs, I know that God will see me through because ‘all things work together for good!’” Oh, how backslidden saints love to quote this verse when calamity strikes. They say, “This promise is mine!” There is bad news to the ones who say, “This promise is mine.” It might not be yours. It is true that Paul said in 2nd Corinthians 1:20, “All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen.” But the promises of God are not yours if you haven’t met the condition. What is the condition? “All the promises of God in him are yes and Amen.” You must be in Christ. You might ask, “How can I know if I am in Christ?” Paul said in Romans 8 that you are in Christ when Christ is in you. I do not know if you are in Christ; all I know is that Christ is not in everyone, and you might be one of the empty ones. Not everyone is in Christ. Not everyone can have saving faith. Not everyone can be in Christ. Some people say, “But I thought ‘whosoever will’ may come to God!” That’s right, but God determines which people will be a part of the “whosoever.” “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,” but not everyone loves God. Here is the key: this promise is exclusively “to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 literally says, “God enters in to all things to work His good to them who are the called according to His purpose.” We are right back to the subject of God’s calling. You had better hope that you are one of the called. You had better be concerned about making your calling and election sure. You had better get out of a presumptuous state of mind and stop deceiving yourself into thinking that God is so hungry for your attention that you can come to Him whenever you finally decide. Jesus’ disciples asked Him to explain the parable of the sower, and He said that if you cannot understand this parable, you cannot understand any parable. Jesus said that He cloaked some truths in parables lest some hear, understand, and be converted. Not everyone is called. The Christian walk is made up of an army of people whom God has selected and called. I said in a previous message that God is still in the business of calling people. It is not a random selection. Romans 8:28 is seldom read in its proper context. Go ahead and buy a promise box and read Romans 8:28. But unless God has previously written your name on this promise, it does not apply to you. I have taught that faith is an action, based upon belief, and sustained by the confidence that when God has promised to do something, He will do it. All the promises of God in Him are yea and amen. That means you can claim the promise of Romans 8:28, but only if your name is on it. It is a self-evident fact. Some people can act in faith on God’s word, and some cannot. Again, Romans 5 teaches that if you have been acting in faith and have found within yourself an ability to not let go, that proves you are one of the called. But some people never take a grip of faith and sustain it, and they never will. You might wonder if that describes you. Or you might wonder if you have reached a stage where you are no longer clinging to the promises of God. You will not know: you can only be aware of your condition as long as you are still acting in faith. If you don’t maintain your grip, you will let go; and if you let go, it proves you could not hold on. So, I am trying to help you hold on! I read a story about a woman who was angry that God had said in the Bible, “Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated.” She went to the great preacher Charles Spurgeon and demanded, “Why did God hate Esau?” Spurgeon supposedly replied, “That is not my concern, lady. I am only concerned about how He could possibly love Jacob!” Worry about keeping your grip of faith and take heart in the fact that you have not let go. Someone will say to me, “But I left the church. I failed in my commitments to God. I wandered away.” I would say to that person, “How many times, and how far? You know that something keeps you coming back to Him every time.” Take heart, but learn this principle: the promise in Romans 8:28 is to the called and to no one else. It must be put in the context of this entire series of messages on our calling. “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.” Someone might argue, “But I have my own purposes too, and they ought to be taken into consideration!” God’s promise is to those who are called according to His purpose. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son . . .” God knew you before you were formed in the womb. Before you were even born, you were foreknown of God. Someone will ask, “Doesn’t that rule out freedom?” No, God’s foreknowledge is regarding who, not what. No one is saying that those whom God foreknew are perfect. In fact, God gives us His righteousness for our faith, not for perfection on our part. That is why Romans 8:28 must be read properly: “God enters in to all things to work His good,” which is His will. You may have a number of options in life regarding what you do, but God enters in to those choices you freely make. God knew those whom He would call before they were born. If that sounds too much like predestination, let me qualify. I am not a Calvinist. Remember, the deepest Christian truths are paradoxical. We must not take the truths of God and stretch them using human logic to the extent that we limit God’s freedom to do as He pleases. This basic truth cannot be removed from Scripture, no matter how hard the Calvinists try. Paradoxically, I am more Arminian than Calvinistic. On this point, all things work together for good because God enters in to all things to work His good for those He did foreknow, who are the called according to His purpose. God already knows who the committed ones are, but that does not rule out the possibility that someone will change. This is where I break with the Calvinists. God can still do what He did to Eli in 1st Samuel. God had given a promise to Aaron and his sons, and that promise was forever established in heaven. Eli was a descendant of Aaron and thus a recipient of this promise. But Eli would not discipline his evil sons. He allowed them to act in violation of God for so long that God finally came to Eli and said, in essence, “I know what I promised you when you were in Aaron’s loins. I know what I said in the past, but now I am saying this: I will honor those who honor Me, not those who despise Me.” If you despise God’s calling, the Bible says that His Spirit will not always strive with you. As He did with Eli, God will find a replacement who will carry out His will. Someone who wants to make this complicated will argue, If God can find a replacement, what does that do to the notion of the calling?” I would answer that God’s replacement was also foreknown. Do you doubt that this is possible? Consider that Jesus, the One who stood in for man, the Replacement who bore all the sins of mankind, was foreknown in the counsels of heaven before the worlds were formed! Don’t think that you can understand God’s abilities using your limited mind. As Spurgeon said, start figuring out how to get on the right track. I have no interest in learning how to be an Esau. I just hope and pray I can figure out how to be a recipient of God’s grace like Jacob. I can make an analogy to a one-sided love affair. Have you ever witnessed a love affair in which one person was very much in love and always doting on the other yet their love was abused and taken for granted? Many Christians treat God like a doting lover: they are so sure that God wants them that they think they can get away with anything as long as they ask for forgiveness five seconds before they die. It would be good for some people to find out that God is not that desperate for friendship. God enters in to all things to work His good to them who are the called, according to His purpose, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.” The word “predestinate” should be translated “foreordain,” which means “set apart in advance.” Some people think, “God likes me, so I should receive from Him whatever I desire.” God did not set you apart in advance to make you a millionaire. He did not set you apart to give you the woman or man of your dreams, to give you a happy family that has tea together every day at five, to give you a one-hour workweek, or to make you happy. For those He did foreknow, He also did foreordain or set apart in His mind before they ever came into being. He set apart those who are the called “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Many denominations erroneously teach that you must try to prove that you are a member of the elect by imitating Christ’s actions. If you are one of the called, friend, you were foreknown and set apart to be conformed to the image of His Son. That image is placed in us in the continuing life of faith. In that continuing life of faith, we rejoice in the tribulum that produces endurance, which produces triedness, which gives us the hope that we truly are the called. God is entering in to all things to work His good, which is His purpose for the called, which is to conform us to His image. “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called.” Do you see how far down this list you have to go to be one of the called? God foreknew and foreordained some to be conformed to the image of His Son, and from that list and only from that list are the ones whom He calls. I have been teaching you how to read the indices of God’s calling by your own response. Now I want us to see that this calling goes all the way back to the beginning. Before the worlds were created, long before Genesis 1:2, a third of heaven was vacated by Satan and his followers who were in Eden before they fell. I believe that great cataclysms struck this earth during the period between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image.” In His wisdom and in the mystery of His planning, God foreordained those who would fill that void in heaven left by Satan and his followers. It is time we restore Christianity to its unique position. Christianity is not a competitor on a smorgasbord of the earth’s philosophies. It is not competing with worldly methods to fulfill your desires in terms of what it can do for you here and now. It hasn’t the slightest thing to do with your “possibilities” for earthly success. It has one and only one purpose: to bring forth out of this creation those whom God foreknew, foreordained and separated, and then called. God is raising up a people who will rule and reign with Him throughout eternity! And to those people only, “All things work together for good.” God is the definer of the good, which said “good” is the fulfillment of His foreknown, foreordained purpose. God’s promises are to those who by their faith keep their connection with His life. The Source of His life, the Spirit of life, does its work in those foreknown, foreordained, “fore-called” vessels. They were fore-called in the planning stage, but were called in existential reality. When the word of truth reaches you, and you have eyes to see and ears to understand, your life is suddenly revolutionized and everything that was once important becomes less important. Old things pass away, and behold all things become new. And that, my friend, is the born-again experience. You are not born again by reciting a prayer handed to you by some evangelical preacher. When you are born again, you are changed. And you are foreordained to be conformed to Christ’s image. When Paul was preparing to collect an offering, he said in 2nd Corinthians that the fundamental proof that the Spirit of God resides in you is how you give. That is the best test of whether or not you are being conformed to His image, and that is why Satan works so hard to persuade people not to give. That is also why Satan always wants to get control of the church’s finances. Let’s read again starting from Romans 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.” Most Christians think that justification is the starting point of faith. They believe that if you walk down a church aisle and recite a few words, God will justify you. But notice in Paul’s sequence how far down justification appears in the chain. Those whom He foreknew, He did foreordain. Those who are foreordained, He called and justified. And those whom He justified through endurance and triedness, He glorified! We are being glorified! Notice also that all these things are in the past tense in God’s view. How can you know if you are one of the called? You recognize that the spirit of giving and commitment is the crux of the new life in Christ. If you have responded to this series of messages and have adhered to God’s word, if you have renewed our commitments to Him, the chances are that you are one of the called. What is your calling? I have already told you where the called fit in: you are either called to be one of God’s gift ministers of you are called to follow one. Decide whom you should follow and be glad you are one of the called. What are the privileges of being in that company? I close with a message of encouragement, starting at verse 31: “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” You see, the benefits of being one of the called are very good! But the church world has cheapened them and made them available to everyone. To those who are the called with all that is entailed in this calling, verse 33 declares, “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” “If God be for us, who can be against us? 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?” Christ did not die for the world. He paid the price for the world, but He died for the called. The very same counsels of heaven, the very same source of purpose and plan that conceived the role of Christ as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, also conceived the called. God did foreknow and foreordain, and He now calls the foreknown and foreordained. If you are still wondering whether you are a part of this group, I would ask you, “How have you been giving lately?” There is a difference between those who give consistently and those who give only sporadically, under pressure, or in response to some preacher’s appeal. You see, God is a Giver, and He gave His Son. His Son gave His life. If the Holy Spirit of life is in you, you are also a giver. In fact, you might even have to restrain your impulse to give. You are like the Macedonian Christians, who begged Paul with much begging that they might be allowed to participate in the offering. God “spared not his own Son.” Do you realize what He gave for the elect? His only Son! You might say, “I thought He gave His Son for everyone.” No, He did not. The price that Christ paid was adequate to cover everyone. God, the Justifier, now has an unlimited “bank account” of grace purchased by the price of Christ’s own blood. But God will write a “check” of grace only to those whom He foreknew, foreordained, and called. You might ask, “Well, isn’t grace available for everyone who has faith?” Yes, but not everyone has saving faith. If you are wondering why, the answer is given in the parable of the sower. The soil determines the response. A measure of faith is given to every man. Some respond and some do not. Be glad if you have been responding! “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? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect?” The “elect” are the foreknown and foreordained. Satan is called “the accuser of the brethren.” He can accuse those who are outside of the called, but “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Who is the “us” in these verses? Those whom God foreknew and foreordained: the called and the justified. You might have tried to make it on your own by going your own way, but God has His own way of corralling you. Of course, you can push Him too far, but the fact that you are still interested in learning God’s word is probably the proof that you have not yet pushed Him too far. Who gets these promises? The called! Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Shall tribulation separate us? No, that just proves our endurance. “Or distress?” No, that just means we often find ourselves in a tight spot, in a pressure cooker. “Or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Who are the “we?” Who is the “us?” The called! “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Most preachers generally apply these verses to everyone. God is more selective than that, friend. That is good news for those who are making their calling and election sure. Aren’t you glad that you can sense that you are the Lord’s because you have pressed on even when you were in valleys of weeping, distress, and persecution through diverse trials? Something kept you hanging in there. I am telling you today what that something is: those whom He did foreknow, He did set apart, before you were even born, to endure these things to the point of triedness, which gives the confidence that you will make it all the way home. There is a holiday called “National Boss’ Day.” Do you realize we will celebrate an Eternal Boss’ holiday in heaven because we are the called and chosen? That is the good news! Like the old song says, “It will be worth it all when we see Jesus.” Before you complain too much about the pain of your calling, you should worry that such complaining might reveal you are not one of those who are going to make it. Lift up your head and walk in faith into the next leg of your journey of your calling. And keep proving the genuineness of God’s Spirit in you by the way you give. Take this promise of Romans 8:28 and claim it as your possession to ease the pain of the tribulum. I would like you to say with me, “Thank God I am one of the called.” And because of that we can say, “We made it through the coming year, and the years to follow!” Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott  Following are dates of the Biblically commanded fall Feasts for 2021. These are not only Jewish Holy Days. In Leviticus 23:2 God tells us, “These are My appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” They are God’s specially appointed times available to all His followers. On the Hebrew/Biblical calendar a day begins and ends at dusk (See Genesis 1). Accordingly, each of these Feasts begins and ends at sundown. Feast of Trumpets: September 8-9, 2021 (to be fulfilled at the Rapture, and most likely the time during which Jesus was born) Day of Atonement: September 17-18, 2021 (to be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation) Feast of Tabernacles/Shelters/Harvest: September 22-29, 2021 (to be fulfilled during the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus reigns and rules on earth with us for a thousand years) | December, 2021 Wingspread | November, 2021 Wingspread | October, 2021 Wingspread | September, 2021 Wingspread | August, 2021 Wingspread | July, 2021 Wingspread | June, 2021 Wingspread | May, 2021 Wingspread | April, 2021 Wingspread | March, 2021 Wingspread | February, 2021 Wingspread | January, 2021 Wingspread | | Year 2019 Wingspreads | August, 2016 Wingspread | 2016 Wingspreads | 2014 Wingspreads | 2013 Wingspreads | 2012 Wingspreads | 2011 Wingspreads | 2010 Wingspreads | 2009 Wingspreads | 2008 Wingspreads | 2007 Wingspreads | 2006 Wingspreads | 2005 Wingspreads | 2004 Wingspreads | 2003 Wingspreads | 2002 Wingspreads | 2001 Wingspreads | August, 2001 Wingspread | November, 2001 Wingspread | December, 2001 Wingspread | 2000 Wingspreads | 1999 Wingspreads | 2015 Wingspreads | Year 2017 Wingspreads | 2018 Wingspreads | Year 2020 Wingspreads | Year 2021 Wingspreads | Year 2022 Wingspreads | Year 2023 Wingspreads | | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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