The Assurance of Our Calling
By Pastor Matt Black
2
July2006
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 1:18
Introduction: Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In our text this morning, we learn that the massive power of God is the only thing that can overcome a rebel sinner’s will. There is a call of God that goes into all the world. God’s people are “preaching the Gospel to every creature.” This is the general call of God. This call goes out indiscriminately when the Word of God is presented. But there is another call that God makes. It’s not just an outward call to repent, but an inward call that transforms and resurrects the soul so that it actually hears God’s voice and wants to obey it. Jesus said, in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” This powerfully compelling voice of God in the sinner’s heart irresistibly compels him to repent and turn from his wicked life and turn to God. We are going to look at this call this morning and how it brings assurance to our hearts. The title of this morning’s message then is “The Assurance of Our Calling.” Let’s stand together and read Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 15 through 23.
[Stand and read Ephesians 1:15-23]
Our main text will come from verses 18-19, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us–ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power…”
Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:10 tells us that we should “give diligence to make your calling and election sure.” Our text this morning makes clear that we are able to “know what is the hope” or assurance “of our calling.” We hear His voice—“his calling” and we see the greatness of His power to us-ward—it is so great a power that Paul loses words to try to describe it! And we hear God’s voice, which represents God’s will in this calling. So both God’s will and His power are for us, and what shall we say to these things? Romans 8:31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”!!
This is crystal clear in the text: our conversion is a result of God’s moving in and touching our soul. In our text, Paul prays, “that ye may know what is the hope of his calling…” We have to ask ourselves a few questions about this phrase “the hope of his calling.”
Though all are called to believe the Gospel and “commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30), Christians are the only ones given what Augustine called “the effectual call.” As Matthew 22:14 says, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” There are many who are called to believe in Christ.
1. Jesus called people. The Bible says that Jesus himself many times called the multitude and preached to them. For instance we see this in Matthew 15:10. We read, “And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand.”
2. We should call people. “We are ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). “How shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). We ourselves are told to “Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in” (Luke 14:23). We are to “go” into “all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). So many are “called” in that sense. They are called, but they are not chosen (Matthew 22:14). Many are called, but do not believe. It is as Jesus said in John 6:36, “ye also have seen me, and believe not”. We must recognize that there are those in the Lord’s ministry who see and hear Jesus Christ during His ministry and do not respond. In fact, Christ says in John 12:39 that “they could not believe” because God had left them in a state of blindness and hardness. That is where we would all be except for God’s grace! Man has no ability, and this is proved by the fact that here we have the perfect evangelist, and yet many, indeed most walk away and desert Jesus in the end. If man had any ability in him whatsoever, all that Jesus called would come. They do not come because they do not believe, and they do not believe because they cannot believe. It is just as the Lord said in John 5:40, “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” They will not come to Christ—their wills won’t permit them. They are servitude to sin which is their master. So there are MANY who are outwardly called, but there are FEW that are actually CALLED and CHOSEN.
There are those who are not just outwardly called, but inwardly called and compelled to come to Christ. That brings us to the second type of calling. There is not just a general call to all men to repent…
1. This effectual calling begins with Election. We see this first, in what we call the “golden chain of redemption” in Romans chapter 8. Look there. Romans 8:30 says, “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Here we see a definite difference between the general call and the effectual call. All are called, but all are not justified and glorified! Only those who are called before the foundation of the world are called in that way.
This is clearly laid out in 2 Timothy 1:9, which says that God has “saved us, and called us with an holy [SET APART] calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began…” Now we see it more clearly—this calling refers to our election in Christ. We call this Christ’s drawing. Without this inward call, this drawing, this compelling power inside of us by the Holy Spirit, none of us would ever come to Christ! But notice this compelling power was ordained “according to his own purpose and grace…before the world began.” Do you recall what the Bible says happened when Paul and Barnabas started preaching to Gentiles in Antioch? They gave the Gospel indiscriminately to the all and what do we read happened in Acts 13:48? “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Ordained when? Ordained by God before the foundation of the world!
We read also in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 how Paul said, “we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2. The effectual call is utterly Essential. If God never called His people to Himself, they would be left dead in their trespasses and sins. We can not come to Christ on our own. We would never be compelled by the Word of God, and we are not compelled until the Father draws us to Christ by the Blessed Holy Spirit. We are totally incapable of ourselves to respond to the Gospel. We are as incapable as Lazarus to lift himself out of the grave. That is exactly what John 6:44 says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” This drawing is that inward call. These are the people that are truly blessed! As Revelation 19:9 says, “And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” This cannot possibly be referring to all people who have ever heard the Gospel, but only those who were compelled by the inward call of God that we call “drawing” or what others have called “the effectual call” or the call that yields the effect that God has for it.
You see until Christ comes and delivers us, we are helpless slaves in the household of Satan. Until we know Christ we are “of our father, the devil” and the “lusts of our father we will do” (John 8:44).
God must do a work in us and make us “meet” or capable to come into his kingdom—He does this through a massive excursion of His mighty power. Listen to Colossians 1:12-13, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
Thomas Goodwin says this about the verse, “…so He also translates them, rescues them as it were by force and violence, from the power of sin and Satan they had once lain under.”[1]
Without God drawing us—literally arresting us and dragging us to Him, we would not be saved. You say, that sounds extreme! Oh, it must be extreme, for listen to what Ephesians 4:18. You see without God’s intervention, our “understanding” is “darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in” us, “because of the blindness of” our “heart.” So this inward awakening—this calling is absolutely essential if one is to come to Christ.
But now we come to a second question.
Look at our text again in Ephesians 1:18, ““The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling…” This knowing the hope of our calling comes as a result of our eyes being enlightened. This answers the question “how does the call of God take place in a sinner’s heart?”
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see!!
This is exactly the commission that God gave Paul. The Lord said that He would send Paul to the Gentiles in order to “open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18).
Objection: But don’t all people have the ability to say yes or no to God? Doesn’t man have a free will? I mean, you came here today because you wanted to.
First let me say this—if man has a truly autonomous will—and he has the ability to choose God, then there is no need for God to open up his eyes. If man has the ability, then man, who is dead in sins, can raise himself out of his spiritual death.
Now don’t get me wrong. It is true that every one freely chooses what he wants. The problem is that man by nature always chooses that which is corrupt. It is just as 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [UNDER-STAND] them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Martin Luther said it this way,
“’Free-will’ is nothing but the servant of sin, of death, and of Satan, doing nothing, and being able to do or attempt nothing, but evil!” --From his book Bondage of the Will (1525).
Luther was not speaking for himself, but was only referring to the words of his Master. Jesus clearly said in John 8:34, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [SLAVE] of sin.”
Therefore, man will never choose God unless God “opens the heart” as He did with Lydia. Why was Lydia saved and many other women in that city left in a spirit of slumber in their own sin? Deuteronomy 29:4 is clear: “Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.” So what was it that allowed Lydia to “attend unto the things which were spoken of Paul”? It was that inward calling! John 6:44 says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: Lydia was effectually called! She was “drawn by the Father”! God opened Lydia’s heart.
So we have seen what God’s calling is and how people are called, but now we must ask…
Paul in I Corinthians chapter 1 speaks of people whose eyes have been opened, who can see! Paul gives an extended description of the “called” in 1 Corinthians 1: 26-31. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
God calls people in such a way that it is an unmistakable fact that only the Lord could have done this! Listen again to who he calls:
1. (26) not many wise men
2. not many mighty,
3. not many noble, are called:
4. (27) But God hath chosen the foolish things
5. God hath chosen the weak things of the world
6. (28) And base things of the world,
7. and things which are despised, hath God chosen,
8. yea, and things which are not [nothing]
So, in summary we see of who God does not choose:
· the wise, mighty, and noble people
So who does God choose?
· the foolish, weak, base, and despise people who are nothing!
Now all men are foolish, but no man thinks of himself that way. It is God who reveals their sinfulness to them. He humbles them. So how did they get humble? If all men are born proud sinners, how did they get humble? The answer is: God taught them! Look again at John 6:44-45. We read, “No man can come to me, except the Father…draw him. And what does he say in the following verse to prove this? Verse 45, “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God.” We believe our selves as Isaiah to be “undone” and “unclean” people because our “eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5).
So these people are shown by God that they have nothing. All men are in God’s eyes “foolish…weak…base…despised” and “nothing”. But now these men see that they are nothing and come to Christ because they have “all been taught of God.”
These people have been taught of God. With head hung low, they cannot boast, they have been humbled! Look at verse 29 back in 1 Corinthians 1, “29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.” They have been shown to have nothing! Nothing that is but one thing! One All Sufficient Person! They have Christ! Look at verse 30, ”But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
· Has God enlightened you? Do you see yourself as you really are? Do you see yourself as “foolish, weak, base, despised, and nothing? If so you are the called
Transition: These are not only people who have been “TAUGHT OF GOD” but also…
We read in Psalm 110:3 “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.”
Peter speaks of this, and says God has “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
Here we see the massive resurrection power again that transforms. It’s the power the raised Lazarus from the dead, that raised Christ from the dead. The said it is this power that will “raise us up on the last day” (John 6:39).
God has “begotten us again”. As 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Conclusion: Do you have assurance of your salvation? Has God done a mighty work in you? Has he “enlightened the eyes of your understanding”? Does the truth of the Word of God burn inside your soul? Are your eyes well aware of the eternal truth of God? All of these things should give us hope and assurance that we have been called.
Closing Hymn: 327 Jesus Is Calling
[1] Thomas Goodwin. Irresistible Grace as found in The Five Points of Calvinism (Sovereign Grace Publishers: Lafayette, IN, 2000), 126.