A GLORIOUS CALLING

The story is told of a lady who spent a considerable part of her day working on gigantic picture puzzles. Her card table was always in the living room with the current project cluttered on the surface, and in the box top and bottom on the floor beside. One day, when a visitor was in the room watching television, her husband wandered through the room and subtly removed half a dozen pieces and placed them in his pocket. He smiled and winked without any explanation. For some reason the visitor was back again before the week was out. Again the lady's husband came through the room and this time he added some similar pieces from another puzzle. He mischievously explained that this was his way of keeping her busy so that she didn't have time to keep him busier than he wanted to be! It must have been quite a distraction because the man was well known for enjoying his retirement more than most!

I say this to explain some of the doctrinal distractions that many churches practice when they add to or take away from the very word of God. The habit does keep people confused and never quite certain of how they can piece together the whole of Scripture. As a result the "piece keepers" can easily maintain theological control of their denominations and congregations and all the while go about their real business unminded by a confused laity!

This is not so here at Christ Covenant as I learned twice just this last week. You all are to be commended for keeping me honest! In one case I was reminded that I had overlooked something in the text from last week and it was something important which pertains to the development of our theme for this week. In addition, I found something rich and deep in Thomas Watson's book which I need to fit into our study this morning as well. By the time we add in the purpose and explanation of question thirty-one, I have three pieces to explain from the theological puzzle which is our doctrine of Effectual Calling.

First let us consider the unfinished Greek text from last week, if you will turn to Ephesians 2: 4 where I will read from the New King James translation: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us". Now contrast that with the translation in the New International Version: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy". That translation difference may seem to be a very small matter. But, it really is important because the accuracy of the NKJ highlights the fact that the important matter in this text as well as in all of scripture is the saving fact of God's great love instead of the fact of His love for us! In following the mere English text of the NIV, we might mistakenly believe that we, as the object of God's love might somehow be lovable in and of ourselves, and thereby deserving of the love that God expends upon us. This is not the case as the doctrine of Effectual Calling takes great pains to point out. We, the unlovable reprobates descended from Adam, are the objects of a lovable love so awesome that we are thereby transformed through the triune powers of our God who first loved us and has called us to be into becoming newborn creatures, covered and blessed by the worthiness of Christ whose sacrifice on the cross atones for our sinful nature as well as the multitude of sins which we have indeed committed.

With all of that said, let us look again at our text from Ezekiel and consider carefully the personal impact of the Lord's words in verse twenty-two. "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone." How does Peter phrase it in his letter (1 Peter 1:12): "Even angels long to look into these things." These things include the redemptive process of salvation and grace.

We well know that if salvation was completely up to man, it would be an impossible dream! But thanks be to the lovable saving love of our Father in heaven, we have hope of something better than our common earthly experience. But, how does the process of God's lovable saving love work in and through the Spirit's effective calling us into a saving faith? Now, there are many places in scripture where parts of the process are detailed. And from these parts the Westminster Divines collected and collated their elements of the salvation process of which effectual calling is but one important part.

In our text from Ezekiel we can outline six things that God tells us that He will do, they include:

Ezekiel Outline	Westminster Outline
	The Holy Spirit must:
24 I will take you out of the nations	convince us of our sin & misery
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you	enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ
26 I will give you a new heart	renew our wills
27 I will put my Spirit in you	enable us to embrace Jesus Christ
28 I will be your God
29 I will save you from all your uncleanness

The content of our Westminster question is very similar to these Old Testament prophecies of Ezekiel. But here Westminster's teaching on effectual calling outlines four concepts, they include:

The first one is the most vital in the process of salvation. Those who need God's free gift of salvation have first to learn of their fallen human nature and the sin and misery which is the common heritage of all mankind. As Dr Kennedy recently explained it, imagine if you will a rescue team breaking into a house where there is no fire and several men are sitting in a recreation room watching the football playoffs. As a firefighter steps through the dusty hole in the wall and announces "We have come to save you", he is greeted with cat calls and other choice words because the residents have know knowledge of any danger!

Compare that fictional account with another rescue team breaking through a wall in a collapsed coal mine where another group of men are breathing the last molecules of oxygen. The phrase "We have come to save you," takes on a completely different meaning and a much more welcome reception! This first task of preaching the fact of sin, wickedness and our fallen human condition is not welcome and indeed in our day, is actively discouraged by every social agency at the command of Satan and all his minions. One hairdresser who attended Christ Covenant for a few months eventually lost her job because she was bold enough to try and win her employer to Christ by telling her about the fact of sin.

The second concept is the more enjoyable one to witness to! This is the sharing of the knowledge of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The world actually gets into this one slightly, as long as we don't push the Deity issue too passionately!

The third concept is hardly ever mentioned in most churches in our time. The very idea that our will to come to Christ is not our own is foreign to a society that thinks so little of Adam's fall from grace. We live in a society that believes: that every little one is perfectible, if only the right professionals control their upbringing. Natural and innate wickedness is regularly overlooked as some particular flaw of conditioning and education which must have been learned from parents! Even many evangelical churches invite people to put on Christ fully expecting that every human has that potential ability to make a decision for salvation! But the sad fact remains that so many people who should embrace Christ do not! Even within Christ's own Church there are common misunderstandings about what faith is and how it is ultimately focused on Jesus Christ.

This brings us to our final piece in this doctrinal puzzle this morning. In Dr Watson's teaching on "The application of redemption" he looks back to question thirty in the Catechism. In the phrase that reads "The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us", we are challenged to consider just where our own faith is focused this morning. Dr Watson would have us know that there are four kinds of faith.

First, there is "an historical or dogmatic faith". Here we should understand that very many people are able to recognize the superiority of the Biblical revelation. Even Ninety-five per cent of the population are able to figure out that there is a Supreme Being who has something to do with the establishment and management of what we call creation. Very many people go more than a few steps further to actually recognize the moral relativism of the commandments and the common sense of God's rules and regulations. There are even people who are sincere Catholics, Baptists, Fundamentalists, Presbyterians, Methodists and such who never discover that there really is something more. Paul himself, declared that he was raised a Hebrew of Hebrews and he thanked God for the Jewish religion which prepared him to recognize the Christ.

Second, there is what we might call a "temporary faith, which lasts for a time, and then vanishes". A large number of churches know exactly what we preach here. So many converts are thrilled when the go forward at a revival, but by and large the great majority are no longer around after eighteen months. According to one former employee of the Billy Graham Association, a study was once made of those who came forward to make a decision at their crusades. Now, we will leave aside those church people who renewed their commitments and focus on those people who declared their faith for the very first time. Of that group, only one in a thousand was still in any of Christ's churches after two years. Admittedly a much greater percentage of those who already had some knowledge were strengthened and empowered to rededicate and continue their life in Christ.

Third, there was a miraculous faith, which was granted to the apostles and those who lived in the time of Christ whereby the gifts of the Spirit were manifest in the first generation of believers. Even Judas was empowered to cast out devils, but we know what happened to him!

By this time you may be wondering what is the nature of the faith that I must have in my own heart? That is a very good question. Let us turn to Paul's letter to the Colossians (2:12). There we want to look at the phrase "through your faith in the power of God". Dr Watson's translation read "a faith of the operation of God". And the NKJ reads: "faith in the working of God". This is very simple, but you must learn the proper emphasis here in the effectual calling into faith which we must teach.

If there is any hint in your soul that you believe in God because you have chosen Him, you need to be challenged.

If there is any hint in your soul that you believe that faith in God is the intellectual or common sense thing for any intelligent person to do, you need to be challenged.

If there is any hint in your soul that the faith you have allows you to perform miracles in convincing others of their need to come to Christ, you need to be challenged.