Effectual Call - Pattern and Means

Pastor Martin asks the children: how does your mother sew you a dress or trousers? She doesn't grab cloth and start cutting. She lays out a pattern on paper, pins it to the cloth, and cuts very carefully along the lines. So God works in calling — never haphazardly, always according to a fourfold pattern.

The pattern is there in a cloth. And she lays that pattern on the cloth and pins it. And then she very carefully, not with her left hand like I do, but probably with her right hand, she cuts the cloth. But if she doesn't have the pattern actually there on the cloth, at least she has a pattern in her head. Now, what would you think of a mummy who went in and started to make a dress, and she had no pattern in her head or on paper, And she just hoped that by cutting somewhere, somehow, everything would turn out all right once she zipped it up together on the sewing machine. Now, what would you th...

6:42 - 7:35 Read in full sermon

Pastor Martin pictures a man with a hammer pounding nails into any board he can find — ten-penny, twelve-penny, finished. What kind of house would he build? You need a blueprint to build a house. So God needs no blueprint forced on Him; He always works in calling according to His own pattern.

And started pounding away ten-penny nails, twelve-penny nails, finished nails. He's just pounding away. Any board he can get his hands on. Any nail he can get his fingers on. And wherever he can meet a nail with the hammer and a board, he's just pounding away, pounding away. And you say, what are you doing, sir? He says, well, I'm hoping to build a house. Now, what would you say of a builder like that, kids? Huh? What would you say of him? You'd say, he's a crazy builder. He's never going to get a house. You've got to have a plan.

8:15 - 8:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You were marked out in the eternal purposes of God as one who should be called. Let the glory of that fill you. Let the glory of that nerve you.

2 Timothy 1:9 — God 'saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.' You were marked out in the eternal purposes of God before time began.

And you were marked out in the eternal purposes of God as one who should be called. Let the glory of that fill you. Let the glory of that nerve you. And face your own generation with courage and with spiritual fortitude. Now what does it mean before time's eternal? How can we who are creatures of time, whose lives are lived here, in sequences of minutes and hours and days and months. How can we conceive of eternity? We can't. But though we cannot conceive of it, we must think of it. Though we can form no adequate conception of eternity, we must think of eternity because the Bible forces upon u...

12:54 - 13:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Take comfort in trial: the God who calls works according to fixed pattern — He is not haphazard or confused.

Pastor Martin pictures the same effectual grace at work that very day through the preaching of pastors in Kenya, East London, and elsewhere — wherever a sinner is called into union with Christ, the same fourfold pattern is at work.

So that this very day, there in Kenya, if God is pleased to call a sinner into union with Christ through the preaching of our brother Keith, there in East London through the preaching of our brother Pastor Blaise, and there in Onyarade in the Gothenburg section of Sweden through the labors of our brother Don Ritter, if there is someone who begins the day blind to the glory of God in the face of insensitive to the claims of God's law and God's gospel. No love to Christ. No love for His law. If there is anyone who sits in this place today in that condition, and there are no doubt not a few of yo...

25:21 - 26:14 Read in full sermon

2 Thessalonians 2 — one of the most frightening doctrines in Scripture. If you love your sin long enough, God will give you up. Pastor Martin pauses to underline this awful warning before turning to the positive note of the means of calling.

May I pause to remind you that's one of the most frightening doctrines in all of the Word of God. If you love your sin long enough, you know what God will do? God will give you up to believe lies that will let you hug your sins and go down to hell with them. You see, truth and sin are in constant conflict. Error and sin are in a constant embrace. They make passionate love to one another day and night.

30:23 - 30:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What is the means of a man's effectual calling? It is not a special revelation from God that he is elect.

Acts 16:14 says the Lord opened Lydia's heart so she 'attended to the things spoken by Paul.' She did not hear the choirs of heaven singing, 'Lydia, you are elect.' She heard ordinary preaching — and the Lord opened her heart to attend.

Not to hear the choirs of heaven singing a song with her name in it, Thou art included in the divine purpose. No, the record says, Whose heart the Lord opened so that she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul. And what were those things? The same things you hear in this place week after week. That God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The same things that you hear in this place, week in and week out, that God bruised His Son. God raised Him from the dead. God has exalted Him to His rig...

39:50 - 40:44 Read in full sermon

The point: Come to Christ trembling on the general promise — 'whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.' Don't wait for a special invitation.

Pastor Martin warns those who say they want a special revelation that they are elect: 'You'll go to hell waiting for it. You'll perish waiting for it. It will never come.' Take the general gospel promise as enough.

And then only giving a general invitation. I want a special invitation. My friend, you'll go to hell waiting for it. You'll perish waiting for it. It will never come. God will say no more to you than what He said in the Gospel. Whosoever will, let him come. You go to God with that promise. And you know what's going to happen?

43:19 - 43:48 Read in full sermon