When you come with me now for a short while, it is more than enough for us to merge your time into the chapter that we have just read. Chapter 8 of Romans. We can read verses 29 and 30. For whom it did foreknow, he also did protest at it, to be conformed to the image of his Son. that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and purely called, them he also justified, and them he justified, them he also glorified. And especially these words that we have in verse 30, me called, then be also justified, and from me justified, then be also glorified. In other words, the called is justified and the glorified. We have these words in the chapter eight of all to the Romans, a chapter that ought to be of great comfort and encouragement to the Lord's people in every generation. The apostle begins by reminding them very clearly that there is no condemnation to them that they are in Christ Jesus. Can I ask you just in the passage, are you in Christ? Go away with that thought. There is no contemplation to them that there is Christ Jesus. And then as it comes to the end of the chapter, he states very clearly, for a little bit, though they might have rich trials and tribulations in this life as Christians, many had many a trials and tribulations, that there were more than conquerors through him who loved them. So bear that in mind, Christian friend, if you're experiencing trials, It is going through difficult times. Don't forget that you have more than accomplished through Him who loved you. Do you know this? This is easier said than to accept. There's no doubt about that. And if that wasn't all, He concludes the chapter not only by declaring that there was no, that there were more than a carpenter for him to do something, but he was crowned of a descent by emphasizing that there was no separation for them from the love of God, from the love of Christ, for who shall separate Jesus our Lord. They'll just give you these three things, no condemnation, no malconqueror, and no separation. And the great doctrines and teachings that we have between these great truths are black have no meaning whatsoever apart from those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as a passionate redeemer and a savior. Now we come to the words that we're going to consider, with the Lord's help, with trust. Holy God, who did he call, and who does he, and who will he call? He called and calls those he foreknew. He foreknew them. He foreloved them with an everlasting and an unchangeable and an electing sovereign love. For he loved Jacob, and he abhorred Iniquity. He calls them. He's going to find them. Has he found you? Well, if he has loved you, he will find you. You will see him when every other person says, when he's found you. He said to her, I have loved thee with a loving kindness, and with loving kindness I have taught thee. He foreloved her. What a love! There is no love like this. We are so ignorant of it. We know very little about it. But what a blessing if we swallow darkness. and have been sworn at them and headed from all eternity before God. And not only that, He predestinated, He predestinated, for what? To be conformed to the image of His Son, of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. to be conformed to him in their soul, yes, eventually, and to be conformed to him in their bodies when he comes again. He will bless them. They are the ones whom he has called, and whom he will call. What a call, what a dustbin of the call that we have here. Rather you've heard and you still hear from time to time about the call of the gospel. And the call of the gospel goes to every soul who has the word of God and who has the privilege of hearing the gospel. And you know this, what a privilege that you and I have been born into this world, that we've been here in the Gospel, and that we still hear it in sincerity and in truth. And the call of the Gospel is the Gospel, it comes to us, I don't know, I just, basically, before it's just a few things, It comes with a command from God, but God commands us all men everywhere to repent and to forgive in Christ. The gospel comes with a command. It comes also with an invitation. The gospel invites you to come to Christ. The gospel invites you to look to Him. I don't know what it is, because just Christ himself invites you to come to him. Christ himself invites you to look to him. That's implied much more than the earthquake call of the gospel. And there's another aspect. of the call of the gospel here. We've heard of the outward call of the gospel. There is to have it now. But the aspect of the call that we have in these words, homicold, the inward call of the gospel, is at best not to the ear of the body, not to the ear of the body, but to the ear of the soul. And it comes when it comes. When the outward call becomes an inward call, as the sword of the Spirit, it is a powerful and it is an effectual call that no one, when sitting in death, much as he may try to resist it, that no one can resist. And it is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, yes, it is God the Highest that calls sinners by His Word and by His Spirit, powerfully and effectively. And it is the Spirit, of course, Are you here today under the notion of striving with the Holy Spirit? With whom the Holy Spirit is striving? Well, I warn you. God says in His Word, My Spirit will not always strive with them. That striving must cease one day. And not only what a blessing it was for Saul of Tarsus, but what a blessing it was for you and for me, for the Church of Jesus Christ down through the ages. But Christ said to him, it is hard for thee to kick against the face. And so it was, so hard that he couldn't kick any longer. He believed in Christ, closed in with Christ, was a practical believer. So the Holy Spirit that calls, and the Holy Spirit that calls, it's the Holy Spirit that calls, it was the Holy Spirit that quickened the soul. This implies being born again. This implies being regenerated. And that disappearance, it is a person who has been brought alive by the Holy Spirit that responds to the call that is effective upon him. Just as lightness, it is a person who is alive naturally that responds. Responds to the call that hits the ground. Yes, it responds. that this nice war saw through of those who are called powerfully and defectorily by the Holy Spirit. Yes, called from what? Or from where? They are called out of the grave of their natural state, where they were dead in trespasses And it says, what a powerful call. The call of salvation is, and He hath called them to darkness and to His violent light. He hath called from sin to holiness, to full and life. They are called from the throne room of Satan's power to take up Christ's cross, to embrace Christ the Lord, and to follow Him with the strength He gives to lead them. You must agree that the call There is no doubt about that. And in the womb of the call that is powerful and effective, there are graces. There are graces? Yes. And there are elements. What graces? In the call that is powerful and that is effective. There is the grace of hope, there is the grace of faith, there is the grace of love. Now that doesn't mean to say that when a person has been called effectually, has been born again, called effectually, that he is conscious of this grace, far from it. And there is an element in the work of the call that is powerful, and that is affection. There is conviction of sin, as there is faith in God. For he that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them who diligently seek him. There is faith in God, there is compassion of sin, of subjectively and objectively. When anyone is in the embrace of the God that is vector, he is conditioned to assume subjectively and objectively. Objectively, he sees maybe through time, through time. His sins being impuritied to another, and another who was sinless, who was made sin, severing the wrath and the curse of God that he since descended and died. But not only that, there is a confession of sin. has been called publicly and effectually, but the Holy Spirit of God has confessed his sins and will be confessing his sins to the end of his days. And he has prayed, and he prays for forgiveness, and he prays to be cleansed. Now that is the difference, one of the differences between the young Christian and the old and exercised Christian. The young Christian, those of you who are Christians, if you could go back, if you understood, that was what was taking place. You were very under the conviction of sin. You prayed, you didn't pray to be cleansed or something. You prayed for forgiveness. But as you have been done in the Christian life, not only did you pray for forgiveness, but you prayed to be cleansed, to be made meat for His presence in time and eventually in eternity. And of course, where the passion is practically called, yes, there is life, spiritual and eternal life. Yes, there is much more besides. Demi also called, and she also called. I mentioned, for instance, that there was patience and there was enmity in the womb of the province, impeccable and powerful in the experience of a servant. But when you hear of the faces of animals that are there, at the beginning of your Christian life, possibly you're not aware, you don't know what's taking place. But as you go on in the Christian life, you will grasp it little by little. I have met Christians, and that's what jealous them, more than they'll see us, that they couldn't say that they loved Christ. But if you saw it, if you were conscious and aware of the lives that they lived, yes, they very clear by the way they loved, that they loved Christ, much more so than those who had assurance that they have, that they loved Christ, them He also called. Are you under conviction of that? You're cast down. There is no death in it. But don't give up. Keep going to the throne of grace. For what? For nothing. And what is in your hour and time of need? What, Lord, and time of need it is? But once in the conviction of sin, but once lost in this life. holding on to the cross. Has he called you? Well, he has, powerfully and effectively. Do you know much that you didn't know before then? I don't need to go into that. Has he called you in the gospel? Tell me. The end of your sins, Thomas, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then he also got it. He got it. Though seemingly foreloved, though seemingly destinated, to be conformed to the image of his Holy Spirit. And then this is, then he also justified. This is the great teaching and doctrine of justification. There we also justify. It is God who justifies the sinner. It is an act of God, done once and for all. And God justifies the sin the very moment the sinner believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. And though you may go away with the idea that the sin is justified by faith, well, that has to be explained. Faith is the ground upon which God justifies himself. Not at all. Faith is the ground. What is the ground upon which God justifies himself? Oh, it's a blessed ground. It is nothing less than the glorious passion of His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing less than the glorious passion of His own Son. And nothing less than His obedience. And the obedience that was unto death, even that of the cross. For Christ is the end of it all. Our delight is this, to everyone that believes. So that is the ground upon which God justifies this effort. And where does faith come in, in that respect? gave us the means of appropriating that justification. Christ, as Paul says in chapter four of Romans, He was deliberately sent for our offenses and raised up again for our justification. You know this? what it cost him, what it cost Christ, even a superior native without sin, being made under the law, conformed to that law, rendering perfect obedience to that law, and with the atonement That is the way, that is the ground upon which God justifies a hell deserving sufferer and no other. It is God who justifies the sufferer. Yes. Justification has to do with the sinner standing in the sight It has to do with the citizen in the sight of God. And you may ask, if you don't know your John Deacon, of course, you may ask, what is justification? Well, the answer is, you know, that John Deacon is a fantastic, fascinating compendium of of the doctors of the faith. What is justification? Justification is an act of God's free grace for any hardness of our sins. God accepts us as righteousness in his sight. All people, the righteousness of Christ, may give beauty to us. I've listened to it, I've received it by faith alone. By faith alone. By faith alone. You know what's happened? Men just beside us come before me about to call I leave it at what I said, but much more, much more to say. Yes, you just put what is in it to account for the short of justice. Yes, justification. Yes. And in justification, in justification, God absolves all our guilt. And God does this. Just think of it. And delivers from the proud and damaged. It is that, yes, and from the wrath and from the gush of God that those sins descends, and that's from the God who has justified. What a God! What a justification! Now does that mean to say that sin doesn't serve as a believer? You say that sin isn't powerful? Not at all. Sin is powerful. And sin does continue to trouble the believer. And that's giving false old words of it. Remember in chapter 8 when he says that? Isn't it? And what a believer he was. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not, can't I do? No, if I do that, I would not, it is no more than I that do it. But sin does not do anything. I find in the Lord that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the Lord God after the evil man. For sin has lost its power, its power. For sin continues to trouble and get the better of the believer. God and grace is more powerful than any sin that will trouble the believer. And what a blessing, that is all, that is all. God calls by His Word to the Spirit, and it is God who justifies. And, in fact, dear colleagues, the word of justification is an act, once, then, and for all. And then we also glorify it. Oh, you know this, that's what that was meant. See, when you've got three great truths of God's Word, you know this, it tells you how we mishandle the truth. We're good at that. We're not so good at expounding it at all. But we're good at mishandling it. Then we also know that. And you know this, it doesn't say, the Holy Spirit doesn't say to the poor, it's usually the past tense. For because he also justified, and when we justify, then we also glorify it. So the past, it doesn't say then we also, we will glorify it. What was that for? Yes, that the truth, that it was so certain and so sure that it would happen as God had predestinated it. Yes, and what a blessing. What a blessing for you and for me as Christians. that it is as sure and as certain as God has predestinated that human and an animal as a Christian will grow and be glorified. It's far from it, but not yet. Yes. And you may ask, when does it When did this glorification begin? This glorification began when they were born again. Yes. The new birth, they had a nature. They got a new nature. They became new creatures. It commenced the moment will progress little by little until the deemer's life unto Christ comes again. Yes, you see, unlike the stone, it's a long process. So it is. Yes. There's another way of looking at it, too. That glorification commenced Yes, the sanctification, yes. And they go from grace to grace, as they go from strength to strength, measure by measure, and they glorify it. That's what Paul, the Apostle to Euripon, he wrote to the Corinthians. Do you remember what he said to the Corinthians? 2 Corinthians chapter 3, he said to them that they were going from glory to glory. Yes. Isn't that what he said? Now, the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face, behold, he has seen the glass, the glory of the Lord, and changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as the Spirit of the Lord. And if we put it as well, that he's quite devout, then quite literally. He went from death to grace, and from strength to strength. Yes, there's been growth. And of course went from the believer, for if you were to die in this world, the soul of the believer, at the moment of death, is made perfect in all it is. And this immediately passed into glory. But his body will be united and united to Christ until the morning of the resurrection, until Christ comes again. His body, that will seem corrupted, will be united to him whatever is left. And when Christ comes again, when he comes, as he will, and that the believers will rise from the dead. Yes, like Christ, in soul and in body. This was their hope, going through life, that they will save us, yes, and they will, and they shall be light. What can I ask you? Are you going to see Him? But how are you going to see him? Are you going to see him as the Lion of Judah? Or as the Lamb that is in the midst of us all? Or are you going to be what you will be if you receive us now? Be eternally like him in your soul and in your mind? And then you'll be glorified in a manner, in a manner that you will never glorify in this world. You will see Him as He is, be a light, a delight. And He will present you as His glorious body in the presence of the Father without spot and without darkness. And to know this, have you ever met a Christian, even a very abscessed Christian, and a very fruitful Christian, who said to you that he was sanctified, that he was worthy, that he was like Christ? I have done it. It was like I said, I said nothing. I really don't know. Whatever progress we've done in the Christian life, there's just very, very little in comparison to when the price comes again, when you'll be left And no doubt about it, how deep a wisdom of Christ, and how saved by Christ that we are. I'm sure there are people here, many people here, who are appreciative in the process of the work. And they might say that there wasn't much there for years. But there is an image in this chapter for you, when nothing is yet mysterious to see the Lord, holiest of all, of the power of God, holiest. He is so near to us, we don't realize how near to us He is. He is so near to us, In Him we learn how to obey, and especially in the world, in the gospel, in the means of grace, and in His whole believing people, because they are Christians. What a blessing it is to be a Christian. You know, at the end of this year, I don't think I've ever had so many guests on the island, ever. Ever. And again, all of them, so many. But you must have a clear mind. How many of these people died without hope? If you die without Christ, you'll be dying without hope. There's only one place for you, and that is at last eternity, at heaven, forever and ever. Amen. Why should you? Christ has said yes. But Christ is passing in the everlasting gospel with hands of flesh to this chief of sinners. and saying to those who have killed them to me, I will in all wise cast out. I will in all chastity, in all wisdom. And open to Samuel Rutherford said, If one soul from mine meet me at God's right hand, my heavens will be two heavens, and in my house So I leave you with these words, to call just the night, to blow the night. And don't go away with the idea that I have brought them up for you. No, far from it. But may the Lord bless these few thoughts, who are never time to move.