Importance of the Doctrine of Calling

Driving home: God's gracious designs of salvation break, as it were, out of the thick clouds of eternity and into our experience in the work of calling.

Pastor Martin pictures Romans 8:29-30 as a golden chain. The first two links — foreknowledge and predestination — are embedded in eternal mystery. The middle two — calling and justification — break out into experience. The last link — glorification — disappears again into the eternal state. Calling is the link we see and feel.

If I may use the term that has often been used with respect to this text, it is the golden chain of redemptive design and accomplishment, and the first two links of that chain go way back into eternity. They are enveloped in the clouds of divine mystery and eternity. We cannot see them. We cannot read them. The link of faith foreknowledge and of foreordination. They are out of sight. They stretch back into eternity. And the first link that breaks into human awareness and into human view in that great chain is the link of calling. Calling is linked to foreordination, which is linked to foreknow...

13:15 - 14:11 Read in full sermon

Pastor Martin describes driving the George Washington Bridge between New Jersey and Manhattan. The cables look thin from a distance — how can they hold all these cars and trucks? The secret is not in their thickness but in where they are anchored: deep into the palisades on both sides. So calling appears thin until we see its eternal anchorages.

And from a distance you wonder how in the world are those little cables that look so thin from a distance going to hold up my car and all the hundreds of other cars and the tons and tons of steel and concrete until you do a little study about how that bridge is made. And you will discover that the main cables on that suspension bridge are no less thick than a full yard. They're 36 inches thick. And those things that look like little pencils coming down, each of them is 4 inches thick.

17:51 - 18:20 Read in full sermon

On one side the cable of calling is embedded in eternity past — foreknown and foreordained. On the other side it stretches forward and is anchored in the eternal state, where the same God who called us will glorify us. The traveler crosses safely because the cables are anchored in mystery on both sides.

What a wonderful thing to know that on the one hand, that great work of God is embedded in eternity. When I was foreknown and foreordained to be conformed to His Son, and the cable is embedded on the other side in the glorification that is sure to come as God is God and His Son has died for sinners. So you see, this is no Light matter, the importance of the doctrine of calling can be seen in its strategic place in the plan of redemption. A passage that is somewhat parallel, I will not take the time to expound it, simply direct your attention to it so that you will be familiar with the pivotal ...

19:46 - 20:39 Read in full sermon

Pastor Martin notes the New Testament's gospel logic: 'You are, therefore be.' Not 'do that you may become,' but 'you are, therefore live like it.' Paul's exhortations are based on the privileges already conferred — including the privilege of being called.

In other words, the emphasis of the New Testament with regard to Christian growth is this. You are, therefore, be. It doesn't say, do that you may become. It says you are, therefore, do. Having then been justified, we have peace with God. Having been raised with Christ, let us.

24:21 - 24:47 Read in full sermon

Pastor Martin recalls a tall man nicknamed 'Shorty' and a serious friend nicknamed 'Stoneface.' Such nicknames stick because they say something distinctive about the person. So 'the called ones' is a divine nickname for the people of God — what they are in distinction from what they were and what the world is.

good nature and the rest. He doesn't mind. He kind of likes it. That's the affectionate name by which all his friends address him. Hey, Shorty, how you doing? Well, you didn't just stick the name Shorty on him for no reason. Shorty epitomized what he is in his physical stature. Or you may know that fellow that's about a foot taller than everyone else. He sprouts an Adam's apple usually about two years before anyone else does. And he looks like he's all Adam's apple elbows and ankles. And so he gets nicknamed Stretch.

36:55 - 37:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop being mentally lazy with the Word — exercise your head over the doctrine of calling and reap the spiritual fruit.

Heresy never comes down the street dressed in loud garb with neon letters announcing itself. It comes modestly, often clothed in truth, courting Christians who are too lazy to think carefully. Pastor Martin uses the image to defend his demand for hard mental effort on the doctrine of calling.

Heresy never came down the street all dressed out in loud garb with letters printed all over in neon lights. I am heresy, please court me. Heresy often comes very modestly in truth's garb. But there's a peace sown in here and there that ought not to be there. And if your eye is not keen to recognize it, you may court heresy thinking that you have truth.

45:43 - 46:11 Read in full sermon