The Grace of God's Call

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 12:1-3

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Well, we have Dan Anderson to thank for a nice donation of some new audio equipment for the church.
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He had texted and said that he got a wireless mic, and for some reason in my mind
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I was thinking of that hideous ShamWow kind of microphone that wraps around your face, you know, like a phone operator, and I was really happy that it wasn't, there was no headgear, but we'll see how this works.
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I think there's also a wireless mic for our interaction time. I don't know if we have that set up today.
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Maybe not, we'll see, but we're taking great strides technologically here at GRBC, so this is good.
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Well, we're continuing on this morning in the book of Genesis to the very heart of the book. As we begin chapter 12, we begin really what is the core emphasis.
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Chapters 1 through 11, though we had spent, I think, something like seven months in 1 through 11, they really are just the introduction to the patriarchal narrative, which begins in chapter 12, and so we're beginning now this next section in our study in Genesis with the life of Abram, and we're reminded what we considered a few weeks ago about how
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God moves from the great towering city of Babel, which he confuses and causes to disperse over the face of the earth, and in the shadow of that colossus, he's raising up a man after his own heart.
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He's raising up for himself a man in the line of Shem, a man in the line of the promised seed to the woman.
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God is patiently, faithfully, purposely preserving the line of Shem, and his sovereign grace, as we'll see this morning, is reaching down out of heaven, and it's favoring by sheer love.
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It's favoring, and unilaterally resting upon a man named Abram, who's living in Ur of the
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Chaldeans, Genesis 12, 1 through 3. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.
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I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.
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I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
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What is Genesis 12, 1 through 3, but the gracious call of God?
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This is the call of Abram. The history of redemption, as Derek Kidner reminds us, is just like creation itself.
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Creation begins with God speaking, and so redemption begins with God speaking, more specifically,
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God calling, and this is the call. Get out of your country. Get away from your family.
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Leave your father's house. Come follow me, and I will show you a land. Enter with me, and dwell with me in the land that I will show you.
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I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you. I will make your name great, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
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Notice the repetition of, I will, I will, I will,
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I will. There's a priority of God's activity in redemption. Redemption does not unfold by God meeting man halfway.
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Man does not respond to God and then work some things out and develop this symbiotic relationship.
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You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. You meet me halfway, and I'll meet you halfway. Maybe together we can try to work out this promise
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I made back in Genesis 3. No. There's a priority of God, God's activity,
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God's sovereign grace. I will do this. I will do this.
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I will do this. There's no condition. There's no string attached. There's no qualification. This is just promise after promise after promise, and we're supposed to read this and say, why?
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Why will you do this? What has he done? Surely Abram's done something to warrant this kind of favor.
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You're going to bless everyone who blesses him? You're going to curse anyone who curses him? You're going to take him out of this pagan society and make him a father of the faithful, literally make him a blessing to every human being henceforth?
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This guy must be amazing. There must be no one like Abram. This must be one of the most incredible men you could have ever met.
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This must have just been a one -off, the proverbial needle in the haystack. Well, as we'll see this morning, it's simply the priority of God's grace.
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God has chosen Abram. It's as simple as that. God has chosen Abram to be a recipient of sovereign grace, to receive blessing upon blessing upon blessing.
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And this is really the beginning, not just of God's blessing to Abram, but as we move forward in that bigger picture of the history of God's covenantal dealings with man, of God's bringing forth
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His gospel, we see that this is really the beginning of Israel's history. In fact, when
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Nehemiah gathers the people, we read in Nehemiah 9, when the people are gathered and they're cut to the heart because they realize as a result of the sin that's risen in their midst that they're so strayed from the truth of God, and yet here
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God has reconvened them in the land. And so they have this great day of feasting after the feast of booths.
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And, of course, there's these great prayers and the great admonition. The joy of the
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Lord is your strength, Nehemiah 8. And in Nehemiah 9, we have the most incredible prayer that recounts the history of God dealing with His people
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Israel. And this is how it begins. Stand up. Bless the Lord your God forever and ever.
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Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You alone are the
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Lord. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and everything on it, the seas and all that is in them.
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So where are we beginning? Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. This is who you are. You are the creator.
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This is how we identify you, Lord. You are the creator. And yet, how do we specifically uniquely relate to you as your people
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Israel? You are the Lord God who chose Abram and you brought him out of Ur of the
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Chaldeans. You see, you go from creator to the call of Abram.
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That's Nehemiah 9's summary of the history of Israel at the very beginning. The creator
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God chose Abram. He chose Abram. He chose
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Abram. He called Abram and led Abram out of Ur of the Chaldeans. These words are lifted up first and foremost to the
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Lord, but they're intended to instruct the people that were listening. Certainly intended to instruct us today.
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This gives us a summary of God's covenant to Abraham. This operation is
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God being faithful to a covenant. The prayer goes on. You have performed your words because you are righteous.
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And that leads us to ask the question, How could Abram be worthy of this grace?
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Well, Abram couldn't be worthy of this grace. We'll see it shortly. So then how could
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God be righteous? If Abram didn't earn this grace, how could
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Nehemiah 9 say that you performed your words, you fulfilled your promise to Abram because you're righteous?
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How could God be righteous if he's just showing grace to a sinner?
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I thought God was just. I thought he was holy. I thought he couldn't dwell with sin.
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Why would he favor a sin? Should the judge of all the earth show favor to a criminal and count himself righteous?
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No, that would be a corrupt, a wicked judge. The justice had not been served. So how could
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Abram be worthy of this grace? Well, let's take a moment to remember as we proceed this morning, what
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God's grace is. When God in his grace draws near to embrace a sinner, a sinner like Abram, it is a grace that always demands a cross.
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All grace is bloody grace. All grace is cross -wrought grace.
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God cannot justify the guilty. God certainly cannot show favor and blessing upon blessing upon blessing upon the guilty and also be righteous.
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He can only be righteous if he satisfied his justice toward them. And so for Abram, like all the sons of Abraham by faith, that took place upon the cross.
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God is not arbitrary in other words. I feel like grace to him, not grace to you.
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He's not plucking some heavenly daisy. Grace to this one, not grace to this one. He's not arbitrary.
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There's a reckoning. It's not some vague motion, some vague gesture, some bottomless attitude of kindness.
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It's the work of a holy God that sovereignly transforms everything he touches. And the grace of this
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God flows out of this mysterious compassion he has for rebels who resist him and even fight against him and bring dirt and defilement upon his name and make eternal wounds to themselves and bring eternal damage to others.
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And God in his grace and his eternal determination to save countless sinners and continue with them and bring them into a new heavens and a new earth all stands upon what took place at Calvary.
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Grace, if you were to give it a definition. What is God's grace then? What is
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God's grace? At its utmost, in its fullness.
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God's grace is the humiliated Son of God stripped bare and crucified on the cross. Crucified for sinners.
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Risen for their justification. Ascended to glorify them. That's the grace of God.
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Jesus Christ is the grace of God. Jesus Christ is the yesterday man of God. He takes a pack of dogs who eat their own vomit and he touches them with his grace out of his eternal compassion and he makes them into a glorious bride.
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And he delights, he delights to behold them in the splendor that he has created.
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That is the grace of God. So Calvary, in other words Calvary reaches all the way back to the
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Ur of the Chaldeans. The grace of God begins at the cross and yet it stretches all the way back in time to meet
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Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans. And so from our side it's a little bit different from God's side.
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Our perspective of grace is different from God's perspective. The cross is that placeholder over all of human time in history that gives the basis in the war for God to show grace in any way in any capacity to anyone.
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From our perspective the grace of God begins as a call.
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It begins as a call. Now let's keep in mind the world at this time. The effects of the fall are a little more pronounced.
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I say that because people are dying a lot earlier than they used to. We don't have any more Methuselahs around breaking the
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Guinness World Records for oldest age. Shem died at 600 years of age. When Noah got in the ark he had only 350 more years to live.
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Terah's father only lives 148 years. Even while Terah is alive
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Noah's father, Abram's father his son dies. So Abram's surrounded by death and if he knows anything of his genealogy it seems like death is approaching men a lot more quickly.
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Lifespans are being shortened so there's this sharp pronouncement of death but that's not the only thing in Abram's context.
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We also read this in Joshua 24 we read about his family life in Ur what
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Abram would have grown up under. Joshua was making a covenant at Shechem Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and he called for the elders of Israel for their heads, for their judges, for their officers and they presented themselves before God and Joshua said to all of the people thus says the
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Lord God Your fathers including Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor dwelt on the other side of the river in old times the river being the river
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Euphrates and they served other gods then
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I took your father Abraham from the other side of the river and I led him throughout all the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants
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Do you see what Joshua is recounting? Your fathers, Terah and Abram and Nahor and Haran they were idol worshippers on the other side of Euphrates they were pagans living in Ur of the
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Chaldeans Abram was an idol worshipper there's a famous archeologist named
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Sir Leonard Woolley who demonstrated that he had found the ancient city of Ur at least the lowest layer which would have been consistent with the time for the ancient city of Ur and he tried to describe through various sketches of his excavations the scale of that city and estimate what kind of civilization it could have supported how sophisticated were they what was the base population what could be known about some of the challenges they had to face whether through warfare or famine, disease other such things and he esteemed that Ur possessed these grand markets massive civic spaces halls, a library full of clay tablets, many towering buildings maybe not to the scale of Babel but every city became
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Babel Junior after that he estimated perhaps 200, 250, 300 ,000 inhabitants you have these stepped temples, these ziggurats the most pronounced one would have been for the chief deity this god
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Nanna who was a Sumerian god, a fertility god and god of the moon so the chief ziggurat the chief stepped temple would have had sacrifices throughout the day and night being given to this false god, this idol and Abram would have learned as a young boy how to get in line how to pay the priest how to marvel at the priestesses as they danced around and sang praises and hymns and pinched incense and killed animals unto this false god
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I wonder how many nights he prayed in vain to this false god, this fertility god considering he'd married a barren woman how together perhaps they brought more and more sacrifice up those jagged steps for the priest to kill maybe this will be the month we conceive he was a pagan, he was an idol worshipper this towering city, this idolatry, this debauchery it would have pervaded
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Abram's whole life in Ur and that is the scene where God's grace finds him that is the scene where God's grace finds him there's no
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Noah we don't read of any Noah between Genesis 11 and Genesis 12 it does not even seem like somehow
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God's testimony has been preserved through the line of Shem it kind of seems like he had to pluck
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Abram out of Ur because there was no one else that was even remotely following him, heeding to him the world doesn't seem to have had a single believer left if we could put it that way we read at some point,
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Terah decided to move his family from Ur to the land of Canaan, most likely Abram had something to do with that move
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I'll explain why in a moment we read back in chapter 11, 31 Terah took his son
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Abram and his grandson Law the son of Haran, his daughter -in -law Sarai his son Abram's wife and they went out from Ur of the
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Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan but they didn't make it all the way to Canaan they came to Haran they came to Haran and dwelt there and that's where Terah dies and then
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Abram continues on to Canaan, as we'll see next week so Abram had lived all of his 75 years between Ur and Haran, between these two cities who shared many of the same deities
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Haran was very comfortable for Terah, worshipped the same gods the temples looked very similar but something happened to Abram something happened to Abram when he was living in Ur in the shadow of the
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Ziggurat worshipping a false god praying and praising and sacrificing to a god that was not there something happened this is what the great martyr, the first martyr of the
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Christian church, Stephen, has to say about that in Acts chapter 7 Brethren, fathers, listen the god of glory appeared to our father
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Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia that's another way of talking about Ur before he dwelt in Haran and said to him get out of your country and from your relatives come to a land that I will show you then he came out of the land of the
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Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran and from there when his father was dead he moved him to this land in which you now dwell so what does
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Stephen say in Acts chapter 7 he says that the god of glory appeared to Abram in Ur of the
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Chaldeans before he moved to Haran and he only left Haran when his father died then he went to Canaan so you see this picture, don't you?
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Abram had no contact with the Lord no contact with the Lord's people there was no fellowship that he could go to grab a paper plate and slop something out of a crock pot onto it there was no preacher, there was no christianbook .com
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there was no prayer meeting, there was no Bible study group he could join there was no tract that made its way onto his lap and he said
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I'd like to go to this website and find out more information there was no mp3 that made its way into his carceria, there was no brother that came alongside him to bear him up and point him to Christ there was none of this in Ur but God called him but God called him all we have in Genesis 12 1 -3 is this call of God get out of your country, get out of your father's house, leave your people, come to the land
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I will show you Stephen says there's a little more to it than that it wasn't just the voice he says the
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God of Glory appeared to him appeared to him we don't have the details here in Genesis but we have it elsewhere than in Acts 7 something so intensely personal very much like Moses' call in the wilderness, isn't it?
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the God of Glory appeared to him follow me we're told that God revealed himself to Abram we don't know the details but we know the fact of it we also know that God did not reveal himself to Terah did not reveal himself to Nahor did not reveal himself to Haran He revealed himself to Abram God chose
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Abram His grace found Abram out of all of the inhabitants of Ur out of all of the inhabitants of the earth the
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Creator chose this one creature and called him and spoke to him and said now you will follow me now
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I will be your God you will be mine Abram was not seeking that Abram was worshipping a false god he was not seeking
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Yahweh he was not seeking the Creator God he had been worshipping false gods in utter defiance he had been living a life in defiance and that is when
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God's grace found him this was a sovereign gracious act of God that changed the whole life of Abram and therefore the whole course of human history
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Abram was not looking for this but God was listen to me
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Isaiah 51 you who follow after righteousness you who seek the Lord look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him
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I called him alone and God is saying look to that look to my day of power look to the kind of grace
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I show are you looking to me? are you feeling discouraged? look to Abraham look at what my grace does look at my compassion that never fails we find this pattern don't we of God sovereignly calling his people throughout the
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Bible we never find someone beating down God's door it's always the reverse
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Moses in the back side of the desert tending for sheep that belonged to his father -in -law doing this work for 40 years until one day he turns to the corner and there's this bush that is engulfed in fire and yet not consumed by it and there he bows down he's now encountered the living
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God the consuming fire and out of that fire he calls Moses he calls him he speaks to him and says and you're gonna speak for me
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Samuel lying in his bed hears the voice of God calling to him he's just a young boy isn't this what we were just praying for?
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praying for God to do this kind of work in our children in this church Samuel a boy hearing the voice of God getting up Eli Eli no
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I didn't hear anything it was the voice of God God meeting this young teenager she's she receives this vision this visitation blessed are you
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Mary blessed are you he comes to a man named
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Matthew he's there devising how he can perhaps have some deceitful gain from the tax collection the
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Lord comes to him and says follow me you see some brothers casting a net follow me
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I'll make you fishers of men follow me Saul on the road to Damascus the
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Lord cries out Saul Saul why are you persecuting me do you see it's always the priority of God's grace and God's grace begins with a call it begins with a call and that call is effectual that call is effectual we distinguish between the general call and the effectual the effective the working call of God there is a general call it's addressed to anyone and everyone the word goes forth indiscriminately this is the general call of the gospel go out to the hedges and the byways compel them to come in this is the general call of God it goes to millions and billions across the world in every age it's the call of the gospel repent and believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved we see it in Isaiah 45 look unto me and be saved all you the ends of the earth
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John ends the book of Revelation the spirit and the bride say come let he who is hungry come let him who thirst come you see this is the general call of God this is the call that goes out to all come why will you perish
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Jesus says many are called but few are chosen many are called few are chosen in his own ministry he saw the truth of that didn't he he saw the multitudes turn away sorrowful he saw the chief theologians and the most righteous men of his day reject him he saw even people that he healed turn away carelessly where were the others that I healed why did you alone return many are called few are chosen
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Thomas Watson the great Puritan says there is an outward call same way we're using the word general general call outward call which is nothing else but God's blessed tender of grace in the gospel he's engaging with sinners when he invites them to come accept mercy this is when the
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Savior speaks many are called but few are chosen this external call this outward general call it's not sufficient to save but it is sufficient to leave men without excuse now
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Romans 1 very clearly says that all men are left without excuse just by the majesty of God's creative power how much more so when we his people are declaring his word all mouths are silenced this is the word of the
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Lord but then there's also this effectual call what we could say is an inward call if there's an outward call there's an inward call if there's a general call there's an effectual call and Watson says this inward call when
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God wonderfully overpowers the heart do you see it's not that there's complete discontinuity that we have metaphors of salvation which imply that death to life darkness to light right but I think this is very thoughtfully and carefully put he overpowers the heart you are you there is some level of continuity he has not made you into a cyborg or a robot or an automaton his spirit has moved in such a way how does
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Wesley put it I was fast bound in nature's night thine eye
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I diffused a quickening ray I woke my dungeon flamed with light my chains fell off my heart was free
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I rose went forth and followed that's what we're talking about it was still
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Wesley but there's some level of continuity here he overpowers the heart
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I love how that's put he draws the world to embrace Christ this is as Augustine speaks this is just straight out of Augustine Augustine who's who's showing the truth of God's grace against the heresy that's encroaching upon it in his day this is as Augustine calls it the effectual call
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God by that outward call blows a trumpet in the ear by the inward call he opens the heart do you see these things work in tandem
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God ordains the ends he also ordains the means the word blows like a mighty trumpet in the language of holy war these mighty battering rams at ear gate but God's effectual call it's in a secret place it's overpowering moving the heart wooing the sinner alluring them to Christ this outward call may bring men to a profession of Christ profession oh
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I'm a believer oh I signed the card oh I gave my life to him a few weeks ago the outward call can do that the outward call can make men profess
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Christ Watson says the inward call makes men possess Christ he becomes their possession truly his and they are truly mine says the
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Lord the outward call curbs a sinner it restrains a sinner the inward call changes him do you see these are the differences the calling of those who are chosen is the effectual call many are called few are chosen those chosen who are called that's the effectual call it's the call of irresistible grace it's the call of the spirit of God drawing one out of darkness into light and so the
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Westminster larger catechism I mean what a compendium of good doctrinal definitions with scripture to boot and this is what the larger you might be most familiar with the shorter catechism let me challenge you due diligence to the larger catechism they took the time to write it you should take the time to read it
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Westminster larger catechism 67 what is effectual calling what is it answer effectual calling is the work of God's almighty power and grace whereby out of his free and special love to his elect and from nothing in them moving him to them he does in his own time invite and draw them to Jesus Christ you see this language of invitation and drawing the effectual call is this sovereign invitation and drawing by his word and spirit savingly enlightening their minds renewing powerfully determining their wills you see he works in the mind in the heart in the will although they are themselves dead in sin they are here made willing and able freely to answer his call and to accept and embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it that's effectual calling the call goes out you have that word whatever is the outward call the
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Lord moves it inward and he removes that flesh and that heart of stone is cast out it becomes a heart of flesh and what was dark now is illumined what was flesh becomes spirit eyes are opened ears are unstopped the mind is now not darkened but rather illuminated and so the heart is warmed and as the affections grow the will begins to melt and move and all of that is the spirit of God drawing a sinner unto himself this is the effectual call of God this is the mighty link in the chain of redemption in Romans 8 you know that all things work together for the good of those who love
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God to those who are called according to his purpose for whom he foreknew and that's his decree of election his decree of election those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren moreover whom he predestined he also called that's the election that's the call of God's election made effectual in his people and those whom he called he justified and those whom he justified he glorified from God's perspective this is a done deal notice the significance of the tense here these are not
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I will do this for those this is a done deal this is how sure our salvation is the spirit of God as the catechism put it, savingly enlightens our minds, renews and determines our will so that we're made willing we're made willing able to freely answer his call
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I wonder if that's instructive to some of you that you're aware of the issues of Calvinism or the doctrines of grace but we tend to think oh yeah any talk of free will we have no place for that no we certainly do we certainly do
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God does not do violence to the will he does not do violence to the will but that does not mean that he somehow reacts or synergistically works with the will of man he sovereignly liberates someone from the bondage of a sinful will and as he does that by his sovereign grace he makes them willing he makes them willing they freely come to him because of his grace do you see you he has quickened who were once dead in trespass and sins all of this then is completely dependent upon the spirit of God who works both through the external world as well as the internal through the outward call and then effectually inwardly we are all at best dead men speaking to dead men dying men speaking to dying men someone who's found a loaf of bread speaking to those who are starving all the things you've heard before the spirit of God gives life the call of God happens inwardly and outwardly we have this in Acts 16 .14
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what happens when Paul is there in Philippi and he's speaking to this woman Lydia and he's speaking the counsel of God to her what's taking place with that outward call inwardly the
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Lord opens her heart the Lord opens her heart Martin Lloyd -Jones says of this passage there it is the word is preached yes but people don't pay attention to it they look at one another while it's being preached they're writing their books they're reciting poetry to themselves she's talking about Philippi smiling at one another in a sense they hear it but they don't attend to it and you cannot be saved until you attend to it so what made
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Lydia attend to it the answer is the Lord opened her heart the
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Lord put something in her heart this internal work and the result of that was she paid attention and she saw the gospel and she received it the external call became the internal call the general became the effectual she believed and was baptized it is unmistakable it was the
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Lord opening her heart that made the difference otherwise she would have never believed the inward work of God by His Spirit through His word is utterly sovereign completely dependent upon the will of God I don't want to spend too much time on this but I was just fascinated looking at Romans 9 and 10 and seeing all the different ways the word call is used it's fascinating there's so many different angles and depths to this word call
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I'll just breeze past this just to point out some of this Romans 9 -10 he's talking about God's purpose in election and he's answering the question of why
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God seems to have passed by His people Israel so Paul begins by redefining terms in Romans 9 -6 they're not all
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Israel who are of Israel it is not as though the word of God has taken effect for they're not all
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Israel who are of Israel nor are they all children because they're the seed of Abraham but in Isaac your seed shall be called your call is this covenantal purpose of God I'm purposing to call a people through the line of Isaac that is, those who are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of promise, they're counted as the seed not only this but when
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Rebecca also had conceived by one man even by her father Isaac the children not yet being born nor having done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of him who works, but of him who calls do you see again this sovereign calling
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God God this purpose of election is continued, look at this that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called just like he called
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Abraham just like he called out of the line of Isaac just like he called even us not of the
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Jews only, but also the Gentiles as he says in Hosea, I will call them my people, now this is more naming identifying
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I will call them my people who are not my people it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them you're not my people, there, they shall be called sons of the living
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God called sons of the living God notice how Paul, he moves to chapter 10 and he starts going from that inward sovereign elective calling of God to the outward general call of the gospel right, we're looking at this electing call of God in chapter 9 now we're moving to this outward general call the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame there's no distinction between Jew and Greek the same
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Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him right you call upon him for whoever calls on the name of the
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Lord will be saved how then shall they call on him, of whom they've not believed how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard, do you see again and again there's this distinction between the inward work of the spirit of God, according to his purpose of election, in the outward call of the gospel pardoning, begging pleading with sinners to call upon the name of the
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Lord 1 Corinthians 1, Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God to the church of God which is at Corinth, those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints do you see, this is the divine divine calling of God the
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Lord Jesus Christ, verse 7, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, God is faithful by whom you were called into fellowship with his son we marvel to see
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God calling Abram out of Ur brothers and sisters, marvel that God has called you
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God called you God called you into fellowship with his son in the same way, for the same purpose he called
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Abram in fact, if I might put it this way he called
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Abram for your sake he called Abram for your sake
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Jesus says of every man born of women none is greater than John the
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Baptist but even he is least in the kingdom of heaven Abram is least in the kingdom of heaven compared to us because of our proximity to Christ the realization in our lives of his fulfillment
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Abram's call was for our sake sometimes you hear people say things like I found the light
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I found Christ well, you know, a friend took me to church and I just realized that this was something
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I really needed and I had to do it and so I went forth and I, you know, I prayed the prayer you didn't find the light, brother or sister the light found you you can't find the light until the light is shining and that's how it always is
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God has to first make the light shine to dead eyes for you to be able to find it you might hear someone say
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I found the Lord no, the Lord found you when I ask people for their testimony generally speaking,
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I try to be conscious of that I say, tell me how Jesus found you how did Jesus call you and I say, oh, how did you find
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Jesus? like you stumbled upon him it's already setting the testimony up in a certain way, isn't it?
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well, I'm wiser than most people and I set out all the major world religions and I rationally compare them and realize that Christianity seems to be the most rational so I say, well,
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I don't think we can baptize you, unfortunately tell me how Jesus found you it's like the great hymn
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I sought the Lord I sought the Lord but afterward I knew he moved my soul to seek him seeking me it was not that I found oh
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Savior true, no I was found of thee every believer has this great hope of God's calling it's an effectual call it's an effective power and work of God Paul prays in Ephesians 1 that believers would know the hope of his calling the riches of his glory of his inheritance in the saints the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe and the dawning of that exceeding great power is this call not just the outward call of providence but that inward effectual call of the
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Spirit transferring us out of a domain of darkness into his marvelous light and this is the way that Abram became the father of all who believe and this is why
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Abram's faith is the pattern for all faith, it always has been what did we do for God?
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that he should set his love upon us why should he choose to intervene in my life or in yours what compelled him to act were you wiser humbler, more generous kinder than the rest were your sins less odious were your hurts less violent was your life less godless what compelled him to intervene in your life and call you to melt your heart and open your eyes and unstop your ears to be the
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God of glory who reveals himself to you we didn't deserve the gospel we weren't seeking the gospel we didn't desire the gospel but God met us, he picked us up he loved us, he called us he came to us with a grace that we could not resist though we tried your people,
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Psalm 110 .3 your people shall be made willing in the day of your power Thomas Watson says this when
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God calls a man by his grace he cannot but come this is the reason that the world missions movement began this is the reason that there were great revivals in the 17th and 18th and 19th centuries this reason right here when the spirit of God is at work calling sinners to come they cannot but come they cannot stop themselves from coming you may resist the minister's call you cannot resist the spirit's call it's not the hope of every preacher it's not the hope of you when you're talking to someone about your faith and internally you're praying,
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God open his eyes open his eyes Watson says the finger of the blessed spirit can write upon the heart of stone
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God's words are creating words when he says let there be light, there is light when he says let there be faith, there is faith
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God rides forth conquering in the chariot of his gospel he makes the blind eyes to see he makes that stony heart bleed if God will call a man nothing lies against his way this is what we call the eye of tulip, right?
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irresistible grace and it's because of this that we pray for sinners it doesn't matter how rebellious they are how fouled up in sin they are
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Lars Larson always has it whenever he hears some prayer request pray for this person they're an abuser and a drug user they're lying and on the run if there's a warrant out for their arrest,
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Lars would say sounds like a prospect for the kingdom it's a prospect for the kingdom on the obverse brothers and sisters if God is not sovereign in this call if he only works through the general call in hopes that somehow some sinner will say yes, this is in my best interest,
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I guess I'll come I guess I'll commit if God is that weak, if he's that impotent and it all hangs on a sinner's decision to say yes or to say no if the church and the pulpit do not have a
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God that sovereignly calls and saves sinners then inevitably church becomes a circus and a theater for the entertainment of man doesn't it?
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the word of God is watered down to the point of being acceptable alluring somehow persuasive to man the church service is designed to make an unconverted man happy and comfortable and say yes to Jesus through the pianos and the smoke and the artful lighting but when our services are built upon worshiping a
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God who is sovereign in the saving of his people, we roll no punches we preach Christ crucified but God is all powerful we seek to honor him and we humble ourselves before him and we find this boldness to preach as Peter preached in Acts 2 repent let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins this promise is for you and for your children for everyone who is far off whoever
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God calls that's what Peter says in Acts 2 .39 he knows that whatever he is preaching the result is up to the spirit of God this promise is for all of you here is the general call but it will only be effectual in those whom
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God has called this is a call to holiness because it is a holy calling when
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God called Abram it was a holy calling it was a call to holiness walk before me trust me
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I am going to bless you and so that call has come to you brother, sister follow me walk before me follow my ways
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I am going to bless you I am going to bless you blessing upon blessing every spiritual blessing in heavenly places is yours in Christ Jesus blessing upon blessing it's a holy calling this is the beauty of the gospel isn't it this call to the gospel it's a call, it's a holy calling it's a call to holiness but it's for the unholy it's for the unholy it's for the idol worshiper it's for the persecutor of the church on the road to Damascus it's for the coward and the blasphemer it's for the lover of the flesh and the lover of the world it's for the liar and the fornicator and the drunkard and the sluggard the call of the gospel is a call to holiness for the unholy
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I love what Spurgeon says holiness is not the way to Christ Christ is the way to holiness this is the beauty of the gospel isn't it isn't this the glory of the
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Savior who calls so meek, so lowly wooing sinners to come to Him Jesus says in Matthew 21 what do you think a man had two sons and he came to the forest and said, son, go work today in my vineyard he answered and said,
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I will not not a very good son have you ever had that kind of direct defiance?
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I will not usually a son is wise enough to say, well yeah, I'll get to it oh,
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I didn't quite hear you this is just, I could care less I'm not going to humor you, no, I'm not doing that dad
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I will not I don't respect you enough, I don't honor you I don't care what you're going to do
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I'm not going to go work for you but that's the way he regretted it and he went and then he came to his second son and likewise he said and the son answered and he said,
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I go sir I go sir, I'm going to follow you look at my respect and my admiration for you but he did not go which of the two did the will of his father?
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they, this guy's a nefarious, he said, the first the one who said, in open defiance and rebellion, I will not but then regretted it, he repented and went and did it look at the picture,
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Jesus is saying, scribes and Pharisees, do you recognize yourself in this?
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the scribes and Pharisees are the first, are the second son I go sir look at my honor, my admiration for you look at my ritual, my ceremony for you look at how my whole life is ordered around you look,
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I go and yet, I don't do what you command I've lost my first love, you desire mercy, not sacrifice,
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I only sacrifice and yet at the same time, the scribes and the
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Pharisees are watching harlots and tax collectors and gentile dogs, come and follow
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Jesus, that's what's scandalizing them that's what Jesus is responding to they're watching poor, needy sinners coming to Christ, and Jesus is saying do you say, at the beginning, they said
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I will not, my life is in open defiance of God, but they're repenting and they're coming to obey the will of the
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Father and so there's repentance and faith from those who seem so far outside of hope and blindness and rejection from those who seemed in, already halfway there, the natural recipients of the favor of God and Jesus is explaining this as a defense that he eats with tax collectors and sinners assuredly
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I say tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you John came to you in the way of righteousness you did not believe him tax collectors and harlots believed him and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him you're the second son why is it that the harlots and the tax collectors are responding to Jesus, they had said,
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I will not their life was in rejection when you have that level of dishonor disrespect, hatred for a father do you really just say, oh
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I guess I will go work for him now? No there's nothing but contempt in that response what's taking place that would bring him to come back and do this hard work for his father it is nothing short of the effectual calling of the spirit of God, taking someone openly hostile to the will of God and the truth of God and making them willing in the day of his power when
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Jesus calls a sinner, he will follow them he will follow them, and you say
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I'm not following him so Jesus hasn't called me you said it's a sovereign work of God well, if it's effectual and it's sovereign, then
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I have no place in it I'll just simply wait keep pursuing these things I'm pursuing, I know they're wrong I feel bad about them, that's why
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I'm here that's why I'm here, but you yourself said, it's a sovereign work I have no part in it,
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I'm just dead in sin and trespass, pray for me I'm just going to sit here and wait it out you're missing it aren't you, you're missing it this is the outward call this is the outward call, come to Christ when he calls you he will make you willing in the day of his power no excuses no defenses, no hiding you come to see your hopelessness and your need of him you say
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Lord, I know I need to come I don't even want to come save me from that, save me from my own resistance save me from my anxiety, save me from my fear save me from my pride and my idolatrous self -destruction
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Jesus says in Mark 2, 17 those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick sick, it's not that healthy you need a doctor if you're sick and you know it there's only one place you can go there's only one call you can receive there's only one name you can cry out to have you known
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Jesus as the great physician? what does Jesus say? I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance he's not here to call you,
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I'm not here to call you if you're righteous, you have no need of a call, you have no need of a physician Jesus came to call sinners to repentance does that fill you with great awe?
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he does not come to call the righteous that's his mission statement I'm a saviour for sinners
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I'm a saviour for the resistant I'm a saviour to the son who says, no,
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I hate you, be away from me I'm that kind of saviour I pursue my people to the death, quite literally to the death of the cross
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Jesus came to call sinners are you an enemy? let's take it away from this language of being sick or broken are you an enemy this morning?
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are you a rebel? are you a traitor? are you an idolater? are you a backslider?
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are you a coward? are you stained? are you defiled? are you abominable? are you exhausted?
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are you weary? are you hopeless? are you helpless?
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Jesus Christ came to call sinners to repentance to repentance the same lord who called
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Abram by his grace is here in our presence this morning calling sinners to repentance we only pray, spirit of God that he's doing an effectual work an effectual work our words are mist, pus or smoke grass that shoots up and dies away his word, his work is everlasting friend
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Christ is not present here this morning to judge you just as he was not revealing himself as a god of glory to Abram in judgment, but rather in blessing he comes to the pagan in the midst of his paganism, he comes to the idolater in the midst of his idolatry and says
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I'm going to bless you I'm going to bless you I'm going to make you a blessing there's nothing you need to qualify that kind of grace you came as a heap of sin this morning, you are qualified you are qualified you don't need to go home and throw a box away, you don't need to go delete a browser history you don't need to break those bottles you don't need to put away those drugs you don't need to break your
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TV or whatever is the chain of worldliness around you you simply need to cry out to Christ to save you he came to call sinners to repentance
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God sent his son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved this is the promised seed the savior of Abraham the one who came to seek and save that which was lost he calls, he calls he calls
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God knows he's called some of you, so many times so many times you grow up and you're brought to church week after week and every week and perhaps every night he's been faithful to call you and call you, and call you why won't you come?
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why won't you come? why will you perish? why will you die? you have but to answer that call you have but to answer that call because it's a call of grace he says all that the father gives to me will come to me don't worry yourself about that focus on this the one who comes to me,
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I will never cast out if you hear that call and you come to him he promises he will never cast you away he has a 100 % record of never casting away a sinner he has never met and will never meet a sinner who's too sinful for his grace in fact it is his delight because it was his mission and it is his heart to save sinners what a call what a call brothers and sisters, what a call you've heard that in your life if you're a believer this morning, marvel at that praise
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God for that he called you, he chose you for his own sake, for his own purposes he chose to bless you blessing upon blessing, with more blessing to come blessing behind that and then blessing for another 2 trillion years blessing he chose you because he's infinite of grace, infinite in love what a call, come to him come to him if you do not know him, if you're not walking with him if you're straying from him or backsliding come to Christ who calls sinners come to the physician who heals the broken come to the
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Lord and lover of our souls I close with these lines, maybe
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I'll read 1 Thessalonians 2 but you just read these lines from this great hymn called Jesus, sinners doth receive, we deserve but grief and shame, yet his words rich grace revealing pardon peace and life proclaim hear their ails have perfect healing who with humble hearts believe
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Jesus, sinners doth receive come ye sinners one and all come accept his invitation come obey his gracious call come take his free salvation firmly in these words believe,
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Jesus sinners doth receive may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, he who calls you is faithful he will do it, amen let's pray,
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Spirit of God we we pray that you would be working even now in all of our hearts
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Lord, in all of our hearts we pray that Christ and his grace would be so magnified in our eyes that our minds would be newly lit more wondrously illumined, that our affections would not just be warmed but ablaze that our wills
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Lord would be changed that we would be made willing in this day of power we pray for those who are in that bondage of the night of nature as Wesley put it we pray
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Lord for those who are dead in trespasses and sins those who can hear only the outward call we pray that even now that even now
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Lord they would hear you, beckoning them to come to you, they would hear that gracious call, that they would encounter the
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God of glory, that they would bow down and humble themselves themselves before him that they would cry out to him from their very soul that they would cry out to him
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Lord and receive him as their Lord and Savior let us all be reminded that you have come to save sinners that your holy calling comes to the unholy let us labor
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Lord, let us labor to be worthy of this calling that you've called us with help us
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Lord expose those things in our lives that are still displeasing to you but keep us away from you, that make us more like that defiant son who refuses to do your will,