Assurance for Living and Dying

[Music] foreign God has rocked this great salvation God has elected God has predestined God has Vindicated his glory god justifies the ungodly God reconcile Sinners God calls them and creates what he calls it's of God God will get the glory way to sing to God forever and ever and ever because of this great salvation what can give us Assurance both in life and in death only the call of God that's the focus of John Piper as he looks at First Corinthians 1 18-25 in this episode of light and Truth this sermon was originally preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church on April 5th 1992. we have to admit right off the bat that the the term call of God doesn't sound like a foundation for full Assurance it doesn't sound like it because if if I get a call like I did day before yesterday from Karen Livingston Noelle wasn't home she's still coming back and Karen said you want to come over and and have supper with David and me in the family since Noel's not there it's called gave me the invitation and I said sure and I went and had spaghetti and it was great but now if you were to tell me that this call is a foundation for the assurance that I would get there or that I would want to get there I would say you're crazy there's nothing foundational about it there's no guarantee and Karen's call to me that I'd not get hit by bolts of lightning on the way to her house or that I even want to go nothing in that call makes me want to go and nothing in that call makes me get there it's no guarantee and so we've got some work to do from the Bible if what I maintain is true namely that the call of God isn't like that phone call but rather with omnipotent irresistible power creates what it commands and therefore becomes a rock solid objective foundation for the Assurance of Hope it is not a phone call inviting me to Heaven it is The Sovereign work of God by which my will to get to heaven is created now let me Begin by taking you to five considerations the Bible says consider your call I want to consider it in five steps number one now who's doing the calling God is doing the calling God is faithful by whom you were called so God when I talk about the call this morning I'm talking about a work an act of almighty God Right Out of Heaven Supernatural intrusion into your life he called now they qualify this just so you'll have a feel for how it happens it always comes through the gospel shared or preached over a lunch table over the radio from a corporate in a tract it always comes through the gospel second Thessalonians 2 14 he called you through our gospel but be careful here the gospel and the call are not identical they're not synonymous rather what I'm going to try to show is that when the gospel comes with irresistible force it becomes the call or another way to say it would be that the call of God is the gospel with a Divine supercharge in it so that it has effect and produces what it commands so the first thing to notice about the call of God is that it is God's call the second thing now to notice is that the call of God is effective or productive or to put it in a memorable way at least it helps me remember the call of God creates what it commands or does what it demands now to see that we have to distinguish between the words coming out of my mouth when I preach and the call of God they're not identical now let's look at this verses 22 24 here in the text put on your thinking caps for a few minutes these verses are just dynamites for unfolding the call of God and what it is verse 22 the Jews demand signs the Greeks seek wisdom but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to the Jews Folly to the Gentiles but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God now notice What's Happening Here Paul is telling the story of Jesus and how he came into the world and how he died for Sinners and I rose again and he's telling the story indiscriminately Jew Gentile Rich poor white black yellow Highborn low-born smart dumb right across the board the gospel goes out in love indiscriminately and people are summoned believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved that's the indiscriminate heralding of the gospel and that's what he's doing Jew Greek are listening and some of them stumble over it no way not without a sign brother and some of them say it's Folly and foolishness oh that's ridiculous which is a resurrection from the dead stuff people don't rise from the dead grow up become a Greek and then there's a group of people and something different is going on with this group of people their response is this Jesus is the power of God this Jesus is the wisdom of God I see it I believe it I embrace Jesus he's not my power he's now my wisdom I lay aside all my Reliance upon my power I lay aside all my Reliance upon my wisdom and I embrace Jesus as the power and the wisdom of my life from this day forward now what in the world happened to those people what makes the difference when you indiscriminately on a morning like this look out over 700 people and say believe in some stumble and some call it foolishness and some embrace it what's happening verse 24. tells us exactly what's happening starting in verse 23 Christ is a stumbling block to Jews Folly to Gentiles but to those who are called both Jew and Greek Christ is received as the power of God and the wisdom of God get it everybody was hearing the gospel everybody was being called in an external sense but verse 24 says that what made the difference between those who believed and didn't believe was the call of God do you see the call of God distinguishes some Jews among those who are stumbling and some Greeks among those who are saying Folly and it creates what it commands namely the receiving of Christ as the power and the wisdom of God the call of God is not the preaching of the Gospel the preaching of the Gospel is the necessary prerequisite and vehicle of the Divine supercharge but it's the supercharged from God Almighty that in the words of the Gospel blasts into some hearts and let there be light Romans 8 30 puts it like this Those whom he predestined he also called and Those whom he called he also Justified now note that Those whom he justified I mean Those whom he called he justified he said how can he do that isn't justification by faith Romans 5 1 we are therefore justified by faith how can you say that everybody who's called is Justified answer the call creates the faith infallibly and irresistibly everybody who is called believes that's the meaning of the call you got it the meaning of the call of God is Let There Be faith and there was Faith it's exactly what happened when there was nothingness at the beginning of the universe and God looked out upon nothingness and he spoke to nothingness and said nothingness let there be light and nothingness obeyed and there was light that's the way you became a Christian that's what I want you to feel this morning I want you to know how you got saved so that you fall on your face and say praise be to the almighty omnipotent creative God in my life and so that you have an objective place to stand to know where your faith came from and believe me it was not born out of your autonomy Romans 4 17 is a beautiful description of the supercharged omnipotent call of God it says Romans 4 17 he gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist he looks out upon the nothingness of the spiritual life zero no spiritual reality in the natural man and he looks into the nothingness of your heart and he says Let There Be faith and there is Faith that's the call of God on your life that's how you became a Christian to God's Great Glory now I can use an analogy here from your own experience to show you how this works you can all do this to people up to a certain measure if somebody is over sleeping and they are to be at an important engagement and you want to help them get there and save them from losing the job or whatever it might be you can walk into their room while they're sleeping and speak to the nothingness of wakefulness there is no wakefulness about them zero non-existent wakefulness and you can say wake up and you create wakefulness it your voice creates what you command now that's an excellent analogy that's an excellent analogy of what God does to dead people right he stands outside Lazarus tomb and according to John 12 17. he says Lazarus come forth and Lazarus obeys life happens in response to the word of Jesus that's the call that's the meaning of God's Divine call it creates what it commands so if a person's dead and he says Rise the word creates it I Stood Beside my my father-in-law's body on Saturday last week in Georgia and I looked at him and he looked like he was asleep and I thought to myself one of these days just as easily as I can wake one of my sons God's Gonna Stand Beside everybody that's ever died and said wake up George sell Mary Jane wake up and he'll sit up just like that he'll sit up because the word of God is no ordinary call it has the power to create what it commands that's how you got saved once you were not a Believer once you had no love to Christ once you did not Delight in the word of God once you did not Embrace Jesus as the power and the wisdom of God he went your own way depending on your own strength and then something happened it might have been like a thunderbolt for some of you others it might have been like a little blade of grass you ever seen this happen I'm always amazed the power of grass have you ever seen a little blade of grass split a sidewalk I remember walking across over Bethel a few years ago uh coming up through the asphalt little teeny blade of grass split split the black asphalt wide open and I reached down and I said what are you made of grass and I picked it up and it was soft it was just a little wet soft piece of grass broke the sidewalk open that's the way God is he can come with a thunderbolt turn you around or it can be such a quiet thing that suddenly having sat under the rain of the spirit and the word you realize the cement of your heart has been cracked and life is there and you say I'm alive I'm alive I believe where'd that come from so many people teach it comes right from your autonomy and I'll tell you that's an offense to God that offense to God and he believe it it's a teach that that little that little piece of grass that broke the concrete of your heart and opened you to the Living God and caused you to embrace Jesus as Lord is from your self-determining autonomy it isn't it's from the almighty omnipotent supercharged Gospel called God's call that's how you got saved give him the glory we've seen two things number one the call is God's call number two it is effective it creates what it commands and now we see number three call of God is designed to guarantee God's purpose of election call of God is designed to guarantee the election of God and its purpose the question I'm asking here is why does God do it this way why does God intrude upon people's lives with irresistible power and create What He commands and the answer is guarantee the purpose of election see you you have to ask if you believe what we've been teaching for the last five weeks you have to ask a question like this now if God got everything rolling back before the foundation of the world by electing and by predestining does he now fold his arms and stand back and watch and say wow I wonder how my electing and my predestining purposes will turn out I wonder if anybody will respond I wonder if people really will be conformed to Jesus I wonder if people really will believe and be holy and blameless I wonder if anybody will be conformed to my son I wonder how the self-determining Free Will of man will really cause this whole thing to shake out that's not the way he does it when God elects and predestines he now in history objectively Moves In by a sovereign call and secures what he destined now I'll show you that from two verses the first one is Romans 9 11. where the call of God and the purpose of God in election are brought into harmony it says that God chose Jacob over Esau in order that now watch this in order that God's purpose of election might continue might stand might remain not because of works but because of the one who calls now notice that God works so that the purpose of election the purpose appointed for the elect way back before the foundation of the world might stand right here in history on this morning by what means by works by self-initiated performances of human beings or by the one who calls things into existence that are not answer the latter the the purpose of God in election is made strong firm short secure guaranteed by the call of God the point of the call of God is to secure the purpose of the election of God here's another verse that says the very same thing second Timothy 1 9. Paul says God saved us and called us he called us with a holy calling not according to our works so the call does not Accord to works there's no correlation between works and call you did absolutely nothing in order to be called Nothing zero the call enabled you to have the first little millimeter of faith and longing for God you did not win the call the call won you this verse says he called us with a holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace that he gave us in Jesus ages ago so ages ago a graceful purpose was destined for the people of God and now in accord with that the call of God moves in and secures those that God destined to be his own you became Gods Not only by virtue of having been appointed before the foundation of the world for Glory but by virtue of an act of God by which he today creates what he destined and what he commands it's God who did it it's a glorious cure firm Unbreakable salvation the fourth consideration is what were we called to and the answer is huge but let me just very briefly sum up four things that you were called to you were called first and foremost to eternal life First Timothy 6 12 take hold of eternal life to which you were called and then secondly you were called to light out of Darkness first Peter 2 9 you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy people God's Own possession that you might declare The Marvelous Deeds of him who called you out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light Life Light and you were called according to Galatians 5 13 to freedom Brethren you were called to Freedom do not use your freedom as an occasion for the flesh but serve one another in love and finally fourthly you were called to eternal glory first Peter 5 10 after you have suffered a little while the God of all Grace who called you into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus Will himself restore establish and strengthen you to him be the Dominion forever and ever amen life light Freedom Glory everything you've ever wanted you can have and do have by the call of God in your life finally number five the call of God is a foundation for full assurance because it is irrevocable it is irrevocable Romans 11 29 the gifts and call of God are irrevocable they're never revoked they're never canceled they're never called back they're never vetoed God never repeals his call once it goes out in fact the whole point if you can catch on to these days the whole point is that the salvation of God was wrought in Eternity for eternity in every piece of it is secured by almighty God it is an unshakable reality because it's all of God God has rocked this great salvation God has elected God has predestined God has Vindicated his glory god justifies the ungodly God reconcile Sinners God calls them and creates what he calls it's of God God will get the glory we're going to sing to God forever and ever and ever because of this great salvation so the sentence that captures that last phrase is this whom God calls God if you're sitting there now outside all this outside looking in saying I don't know what you're talking about you perceive yourself right now to be an outsider to these great realities sort of like I'm describing a magnificent building with all of its structures and and you're on the outside looking at the building and so I pray that you would feel desperate because that's the first evidence of the work of God in your life that's a hopeful sign and then I pray that you would hear the gospel and in it the call of God believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved oh everyone who thirsts come to the waters you who have no money come by and eat come by wine and milk without money and without price why do you leave her for that which is not bread the invitation is indiscriminate and my prayer is that as I give it you would hear it and bow and submit and say yes Jesus is the wisdom of God Jesus is the power of God I forsake my wisdom I forsake my power I embrace Jesus as my strength and my path in life I will not make my decisions anymore without consulting him and I will not Bank any more on my own resources I am the Lord's this is light and Truth god-centered preaching to help you see Christ clearly and treasure him truly I'm your host Dan Krueger thank you for listening on our next episode John Piper continues our series on the Christian's Assurance I hope you'll join us for more resources visit desiringgod.org

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 7,588

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Light and Truth, Light + Truth, L + T, Sermon, Preaching, Assurance for Living and Dying, Life and Death, Assurance of Salvation, Salvation, The Christian's Assurance, 1 Corinthians

Id: cVWwN_biH3U

Length: 25min 19sec (1519 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 10 2023