God said once upon a time in your life, let there be light in John Piper's heart,

and all the rebellion, and all the wickedness, and all the resistance collapsed.

Discover the transformative power of God's grace as John Piper unpacks Romans 167 in this episode

of Light and Truth. This sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church

on May 17, 1998.

As God who has called you, notice who's the caller, God who has called you into the fellowship

with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. And we could look in numerous other texts

where God is the caller, and He calls into the kingdom. He calls into light. He calls into

the fellowship with the Son of God, and He calls for glory, and He calls for eternal joy.

God did that. If you are called this morning, God did that. And if you are called this morning,

you are now enjoying fellowship with Jesus Christ. He's your friend, your lover, your husband,

your Savior, your Lord, the one who said, I'll never leave you, I'll never forsake you,

and we'll bring you and keep you in this called condition forever. Here's the second thing I

assumed, and now I want to try to defend, namely that the call in this verse is a call that is

issued by God, not to everyone, but to some. Turn with me to chapter 8, if you'd like to see

the evidence for this, we'll look at two texts for evidence. Romans 8 verses 28 to 30.

We know that God causes all things to work together for good for whom now, for whom does all

things work together for good. All things work together for good to those who love God,

and who are called according to His purpose. So not all are called. To those who love God,

that's the subjective experience of what we have in our heart, and then the objective thing that's

been done to us is, and who are called according to His purpose, to those people, everything works

together for good. To the non-called, everything doesn't work together for good. Some are called, and some

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