Word and Spirit

Pastor Martin opens up another dimension of Christ's prophetic office: not only does Christ bring His Word to the outer ear through inspired Scripture and faithful preachers, He also exercises an inward, sovereign ministry by which He opens the eyes of the heart so that men and women savingly perceive the beauty and power of the truth. From Luke 24, the Emmaus account, Lydia in Acts 16, and 1 John 5:20, he demonstrates that Christ alone gives this understanding, and then draws out three practical implications: a spirit of dependence (expressed in prayerfulness), a spirit of fear lest we sever the inward work from the written Word, and a spirit of gratitude when Christ does open our eyes.

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.