Doctrines of Grace

Moving from the exceptional universal call to the normal New Testament usage, Pastor Martin examines the effectual call of God under two heads: its author and its results. From 1 Corinthians 1:9, 2 Timothy 1:8-10, and Romans 8:28-30 he shows that calling is God's activity exclusively and the Father's activity particularly — not God plus the sinner, not loving sovereignty plus moral suasion, but the same raw material of grace and the same hand of loving sovereignty that forged election and predestination. He then lays out the three results of this call: it effects vital fellowship and union with Christ, it always issues in holiness (the called are constituted saints and brought from darkness to light), and it always culminates in glorification. He closes by answering the common objection: calling is God's work, but believing and repenting remain the sinner's responsibility.

Pastor Martin completes the doctrine of calling by considering its pattern and its means. Using homely illustrations of a mother's sewing pattern and a builder's blueprint, he shows that God's work in calling is never haphazard but always follows a fourfold pattern: eternal design, determinate purpose, electing love, and Christ-centered grace. Then from 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 he establishes that the divinely appointed means of the effectual call is the gospel: God called you through our gospel. He refutes the notion that sinners need a special inward revelation that they are elect — Lydia's heart was opened simply to attend to the things spoken by Paul — and closes with application to preserving the purity of the gospel, proclaiming it zealously, fusing it with prayer for the Spirit's power, and refuting the canard that sovereign grace cuts the nerve of evangelism.