General, Exceptional Usages - The Universal Call

Pastor Martin pictures someone handing you a little cloth bag of dull-looking pieces of glass — at first glance, junk. Only when you learn that they are uncut diamonds do you esteem their worth. Biblical words like 'calling' look ordinary until we discover what they truly are.

Someone may walk up to you and hand you a little cloth bag full of something that at first glance seems to be just a rather homely collection of pieces of glass of various shapes and sizes. And you might treat the little bag as nothing but a bunch of glass fragments until you are informed that they are uncut and unpolished diamonds.

1:24 - 1:50 Read in full sermon

The king sends servants to call the invited to the wedding feast. They make light of it — one to his farm, another to his merchandise, others laying hands on the servants. The king sends his armies, destroys their city, and sends servants out to the highways to bring in any they find. Pastor Martin uses this for the universal call.

My oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast. But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hold on his servants and treated them shamefully and killed them. But the king was wrought, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then said he to his servants, The wedding is ready.

14:56 - 15:22 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He has put no intimation of His election in their own consciousness. The magnet of the gospel — 'come' — is His one way to call His elect.

Imagine a handful of identical-looking metal balls — some steel, some lead, some other metals. How would you sort them? You could try cutting them with a knife, but the easier way is to take a magnet and pass it over them. The steel balls leap up; the rest stay where they are. So the gospel call is the magnet that draws the elect out from the mass of humanity.

Suppose someone handed me a handful of little metal balls about a half inch in diameter. They were all gray, obviously metal, but some were steel, some were lead, and some were other kinds of alloys. Now the person said, I want you to separate all the steel ones from all the lead ones. Well, there are several ways I could do that. I might spread them all out on a table,

39:03 - 39:30 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop waiting to feel 'qualified' before you come to Christ — He says, 'Come.' That is the only credential needed.

God has put no mark on anyone's forehead and no special intimation of election in anyone's consciousness. The elect cannot say, 'I am elect, therefore I will believe.' His one method of calling them and letting them know who they are is the magnet of the gospel: 'Come.'

appear on your foreheads with a big E. Who can say, I am elect, therefore I can believe? He has one way to call his elect and to let his elect know who they are. The magnet of the gospel passes over men saying, Christ has died for sinners. Christ is risen. Christ lives. And in his name forgiveness is announced to all without exception.

40:35 - 41:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop waiting to feel 'qualified' before you come to Christ — He says, 'Come.' That is the only credential needed.

Christ does not ask for proof you have mourned for three months or that the law has piled you up. He says simply, 'Come.' Pastor Martin combats the misconception that an awakened sinner needs to display credentials before being eligible to come.

Produce a record that you've mourned for three months. Produce some kind of credentials that you really have been piled up by the law. He says no such thing. He says, come. Come! And there's no barrier between you and Christ but your own unwillingness to come. There's no barrier but your own unwillingness to come. Not a wonder.

42:10 - 42:36 Read in full sermon

God hides Moses in the cleft of the rock and proclaims His name: 'Jehovah, merciful and gracious, delighting in forgiveness.' That is the God who issues the universal call — He delights in mercy and pleads with sinners to come.

And he hides Moses in the cleft of the rock. Then he passes by and he proclaims his name to Moses. And he says, I am who? Jehovah merciful. Merciful. Delighting in forgiveness. You see, it is God's glory to be merciful. And his mercy is the crowning manifestation of his glory to sinners.

43:38 - 44:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Refuse to hedge the gospel feast with a thousand qualifications when speaking to sinners.

Pastor Martin says nothing is more disgusting than ministers handling issues of eternal weight in a perfunctory, dull voice — like an assembly line in Detroit. The free offer of the gospel must come with passion or it betrays its content.

assembly line in Detroit. What can be more disgusting to God than these issues of eternal moment being handled in a perfunctory, heartless, unimpassioned manner? And oh, may God baptize the hearts of each of us who preach His name with something of that constraint that moves

53:48 - 54:13 Read in full sermon