Tonight I want preach to you about THE CHARACTER OF THE CALL. What I want to do is summarize, or give you a general overview of what the Scriptures teach concerning the call of God by which we are brought from spiritual death and unbelief to life and faith in Christ.
Let's begin by looking at that blessed, blessed passage, which I hope has been etched in our hearts by the finger of God - 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.
In these two verses, God the Holy Spirit tells us that the only reason you and I are here tonight worshipping our great and glorious, almighty, sovereign God, rather than kneeling before a stump, the only reason we are not deceived with the rest of the world by the idolatrous, free-will, works religion of antichrist is the fact that we have been chosen by God the Father, redeemed by God the Son, and called by God the Holy Spirit. Let us ever ascribe the whole of this great work to God alone and praise God alone for it!
Psalms 115:1 "Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake."
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Pay close attention to the Words of Holy Scripture. Too often we read the Word of God like we would read a newspaper, just scanning for the highlights. In the Book of God the highlights are in the details. Here the Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, tells us five things which go right to the heart of the gospel.
NOTE: The things here described are words of assurance given to every sinner who trusts Christ alone for redemption, righteousness, grace, salvation, and eternal life. If you have been granted faith in the Son of God, here are five things of which you ought to be assured by the Word of God. As surely as you trust Christ, these five things are true of you.
What blessed, good news that is! The holy Lord God chose you as the object of his special love and distinguishing grace in Christ before the worlds were made by his hand. Indeed, the reason why he made this world is that he chose you.
2. God chose "you TO SALVATION"!
The Lord did not choose you to have a chance at salvation. He did not choose you to receive an offer of salvation. He did not choose you hear about salvation. He chose you to save you! Election is for salvation.
3. God chose "you to salvation THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT".
The Lord God chose to save his elect in Christ, upon the grounds of justice satisfied, by the irresistible grace and power of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. He has saved you, not only by imputing righteousness to you in justification, but also by imparting righteousness to you in regeneration. The Holy Spirit, in regeneration, sanctifies God's elect by giving us a new, holy nature, a nature created in the image of Christ in true holiness.
4. God chose "you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit AND BELIEF OF THE TRUTH".
Faith in Christ, who is the Truth, is as essential to salvation as election, redemption, and regeneration. And this faith in Christ who is the Truth is inseparably connected with believing the truth of God revealed about Christ in the gospel. You and I who believe on the Son of God believed him "after that we heard the Word of truth, THE GOSPEL of our salvation" (Eph. 1:13).
5. God chose "you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, WHEREUNTO HE CALLED YOU BY OUR GOSPEL".
I come back to this point tonight because it is absolutely essential that we understand the teaching of Holy Scripture in this regard.
Proposition: Chosen, redeemed sinners are brought into the blessed experience of God's grace in salvation only by the effectual call of the Holy Spirit, which comes only through the preaching of the gospel.
Divisions: Tonight, I want you to see that the Word of God clearly teaches that the call by which we are saved has these four characteristics…
I. IT IS A CALL FROM GOD.
A. As in all other aspects of grace and salvation, all three Persons in the Holy Trinity are engaged in this call of grace.
Sometimes it is ascribed to God the Father. He has called us by his grace and revealed his Son in us. He has called us unto the fellowship of his Son. He called us by his Son, Jesus Christ (Ga. 1:15,16; 1 Co. 1:9; 1 Pet. 5:10).
Sometimes the call of grace is ascribed to God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is represented to us as Wisdom and as the eternal Logos (God the Word), who calls us to life and faith in himself (Pr. 1:20-33; 8:1-4). God's saints are described as "The called of Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:6).
However, this call of God is set before us in the Scriptures primarily as that which is the office work of God the Holy Spirit, that blessed Comforter sent by the Father and the Son to reveal the things of Christ to the elect.
"There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling"; called by the one Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. It is God the Spirit who gave us life, who illuminates our hearts and minds, revealed Christ in us, and brought us into the liberty of the Sons of God.
It is God the Spirit who brings chosen, redeemed sinners to Christ, creates faith in them, and speaks peace to their hearts through the blood of Christ, and teaches believing sinners to live in the blessed hope and expectation of eternal glory with Christ.
B. The effectual call is a divine work, arising from and accomplished by the will of God alone.
It is not in any way or to any degree dependent upon or determined by the works of man (2 Tim. 1:9) or the will of man (Rom. 9:16). This is not a mere fine point of theological orthodoxy. It is vital. If you make the call of God to be dependent upon or determined by the works of man or the will of man, you make man his own savior. Such doctrine cannot be tolerated!
"It is the Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profitteth nothing" (John 6:63).
C. Because this effectual call is God's work and God's work alone, it is always an irresistible call.
I hope you have learned to love the term "irresistible grace". Grace that can be resisted is not grace at all. A call that can be resisted will never save anyone. It is only irresistible grace that makes doomed, damned, dead sinners willing in the day of God's power!
The call of the Spirit is an irresistible call, because when God works none can hinder. When God calls sinners who are dead in trespasses and sins rise out of their graves of sin and live, at his omnipotent, all commanding voice; just as Lazarus came forth out of his grave at the call of Christ. That call cannot be resisted which carries with it life-giving, resurrecting power! This irresistible call of the Holy Spirit is issued to God's elect with the very same by power that was exerted in raising Christ himself from the dead (Eph. 1:18-20).
Ephesians 1:18-20 "The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,"
II. IT IS A CALL BY THE GOSPEL.
In our text, Paul told the Thessalonian believers that God had called them to salvation by the gospel which he preached to them (2 Thess. 2:13-14). He told the Ephesians believers that they came to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ after that they heard the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation accomplished in Christ (Eph. 1:13).
I have dealt with this matter a good bit recently. Therefore, I will say little about it tonight. But this is a matter of immense importance. "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." God does not by-pass the means by which he has ordained the salvation of his elect.
To suggest such a thing is utterly ludicrous! If it is God's pleasure to save his elect by the preaching of the gospel, the only reason he would ever do otherwise would be if he were caught in a bind and could not do things the way he pleases! You don't ever have to concern yourself about God Almighty ever being caught in a bind!
God saves his elect, gives them life and faith in Christ, by the sovereign power of his Spirit, only through the instrumentality of the preaching of the gospel (Rom. 1:16; 10:17; 1 Cor. 1:21-25; James 1:17; 1 Pet. 1:23-25)
Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
Romans 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
1 Corinthians 1:21-25 "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
1 Peter 1:23-25 "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."
I stress this fact because it places upon our shoulders a tremendous burden of responsibility (Ezek. 33:7-9; 1 Cor. 9:16).
Ezekiel 33:7-9 "So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. 8 When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. 9 Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul."
1 Corinthians 9:16 "For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!"
I take this matter of preaching the gospel to be a deadly serious responsibility.
A. As a preacher, it is my responsibility to seize every opportunity God puts before me to preach the gospel.
It is not enough merely to preach, or merely to preach the doctrinal facts and moral lessons of Holy Scripture. The Word of God has not been preached until the gospel has been preached.
B. As individual believers and as a local church, it is our responsibility to use everything God puts in our hands and seize every opportunity he gives us for the furtherance of the gospel.
If we faithfully meet these responsibilities and sinners refuse to believe the gospel, their blood is forever upon their heads; but we have delivered our souls and are free of their blood. If we refuse to meet these responsibilities, their blood shall forever be upon our heads.
III. IT IS A CALL OF GRACE.
The Apostle Paul ascribed his salvation experience on the Damascus road to the fact that God "called him by his grace" (Gal. 1:15). This call of God is a matter of pure, free, undeserved grace.
God, as the God of all grace, calls sinners to grace and glory by Christ. The super-abundance of God's grace is displayed in this call. The first open display of grace, and discovery of love, to a sinner is made when he is called. It is then that God brings salvation, life and immortality to light by the gospel (2 Tim. 1: 9-10).
It is by this call that we were drawn with loving kindness, as a fruit and evidence of God's everlasting love for us. Therefore, the time of our calling, is called the time of love (Jer. 31:3; Ezek. 16:8).
When we think of the call of God as the work of his grace, three things come to mind immediately.
A. The call of God's grace is the fruit of his everlasting love for us (Jer. 31:3).
Jeremiah 31:3 "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
B. The call of God is issued to chosen sinners according to his sovereign will and good pleasure (Mk. 3:13; Rom. 9:16).
Mark 3:13 "And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him."
Romans 9:16 "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."
C. The call of God is without repentance (Rom. 11:29).
Romans 11:29 "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
It is unchangeable, irreversible, and irrevocable. Those who are called of God to life and faith in Christ shall be preserved safe to the kingdom and glory of God and shall most certainly enjoy it in all its fulness. It is written "faithful is he that has called them, who also will do it" (1 Th. 5:23-24).
Here is the happiness and joy of this doctrine. Those who are called of God are assured by his Word of their election; for "whom he did predestinate, them he also called". Election and calling always go together. The one is the fruit, effect, and evidence of the other (2 Pet. 1:10). Election is revealed and known by the call of the Spirit through the ministry of the Word (1 Thess. 1:4-5).
Being called of God, we are also comfortably assured of our justification in and by Christ. "Whom he called, them he also justified." If the Lord has called me, then I am justified. Therefore, I have every reason to conclude that I am safe from all charges, from all condemnation, and from wrath to come.
Moreover, if the Lord has called me, if he has granted me faith in Christ, I must, believing his Word, conclude that I shall at last enter into and possess eternal glory with Christ. Are we not assured that all who are called of God are justified, and that those who are justified by God, "them he also glorifies"? Mr. Gill rightly tells us that "Between calling grace and eternal happiness, there is a sure and an inseparable connection."
IV. IT IS A CALL UNTO GLORY.
The call of God is a call to a state of happiness and bliss in another world. God "hath called you unto his kingdom and glory" (1 Th. 2:12). He has called you to a glory, which is a kingdom; to possess a kingdom of grace here, which cannot be removed; and to inherit the kingdom of glory hereafter, which is everlasting one.
He has called us "To the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thess. 2:14; John 17:22; Col. 3:4) and to eternal glory by Christ Jesus (1 Pet. 5:10). Imagine that! We have been called by God to "lay hold on eternal life", (1 Tim. 6:12) and to an eternal inheritance. And "they which are called, receive the promise of it".
What does all that mean? It means that we shall most assuredly enjoy eternal, heavenly glory; having a meetness for it through the grace of God and the blood and righteousness of his dear Son. Indeed, by Christ's blood and righteousness, we have a right to it (1 Pet. 1:3-4; Heb. 9:15)
Children of God, we are all "called in one hope of our calling" (Eph. 4:4) to partake of the same inheritance with the saints in light; and to enjoy the same blessed hope laid up for them in heaven; and for which hope of righteousness we wait by faith, through the Holy Spirit, trusting Christ alone as our all-sufficient Savior. That inheritance of the saints for which we wait is the very glory of our Savior (John 17:22).The very glory given to him as a man, as our God-man Mediator, shall be ours! Can you grasp what I am telling you? You and I who are called of God are "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ"!
Now let's read one very familiar, blessed text of Scripture and go home rejoicing in the call of our God (Ps. 65:4).
Psalms 65:4 "Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple."
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