How Did God Call Me to Himself?
00:00:00.000 | [Music]
00:00:04.000 | Well, how did God bring me to himself?
00:00:08.000 | How did he call you to himself?
00:00:12.000 | And what happened in that sovereign act of his?
00:00:16.000 | It's a question Pastor John addressed in a 2010 sermon on 1 Corinthians
00:00:20.000 | chapter 1, verses 26-31, and it's a clip sent in to us from a listener
00:00:24.000 | named Sue, who never forgot it. She loves this clip. She wanted to share
00:00:28.000 | it with us. It's a good one. Here now is Pastor John.
00:00:32.000 | Both Jews and Greeks, Christ
00:00:36.000 | the power of God and the wisdom of God. So when the called
00:00:40.000 | look at Christ crucified, they don't see stumbling block. They don't
00:00:44.000 | see folly. They see power. So there are three
00:00:48.000 | groups, right? Three groups in those verses. Number one, Jews. Number two,
00:00:52.000 | Gentiles. Number three, called. That's not quite accurate, is it? Let me say
00:00:56.000 | it a little more carefully. There are Jews who are not
00:01:00.000 | called, Gentiles who are not called, and Jews
00:01:04.000 | and Gentiles who are called. Those are the three groups.
00:01:08.000 | Are you with me? We're considering our calling. We're obeying
00:01:12.000 | verse 26. There are Jews
00:01:16.000 | not called, Gentiles not called, Jews and Gentiles,
00:01:20.000 | some of whom are called. And then he describes the response
00:01:24.000 | of each to the cross. Jews, yeah, stumbling block.
00:01:28.000 | Crucified Messiah, never heard of such a thing. Gentiles, foolishness.
00:01:32.000 | A dying God, silly, mythological. Called, power,
00:01:36.000 | my God. What kind of call is that?
00:01:40.000 | I'll tell you what kind of call it is.
00:01:44.000 | It's the kind of call that creates what it commands.
00:01:48.000 | The call gives light.
00:01:52.000 | The call creates sight.
00:01:56.000 | The call raises the dead.
00:02:00.000 | Lazarus, come forth. He didn't
00:02:04.000 | decide to. The call raised him from the dead.
00:02:08.000 | Let me give you an analogy that could be misleading. It helps me.
00:02:12.000 | Just to get your handle on it, because lots of you have never been
00:02:16.000 | taught about the call of God. The mighty, effectual, irresistible,
00:02:20.000 | powerful, saving, awakening, life-giving call of God
00:02:24.000 | that saved you. You've never been taught about this. So you need a little
00:02:28.000 | analogy to help you. What is he talking about? I've never heard
00:02:32.000 | anything like this. I thought I just believed in Jesus.
00:02:36.000 | Suppose somebody is asleep and you want
00:02:40.000 | to wake them up. What do you do?
00:02:44.000 | Well, you bend over. They're sound asleep. You bend over them and you say,
00:02:48.000 | "Wake up!"
00:02:52.000 | And they bolt right upright.
00:02:56.000 | Now, what are the dynamics of that moment?
00:03:00.000 | They were sound asleep and bang, they were awake.
00:03:04.000 | Did they hear the call and say, "I'll think about
00:03:08.000 | that before I wake up. And then I'll
00:03:12.000 | decide if I want to wake up."
00:03:16.000 | This is a good analogy. When God issues
00:03:20.000 | a call to your dead heart and says, "Wake up!"
00:03:24.000 | You wake up. You did not make yourself a Christian. Just face it.
00:03:28.000 | You didn't make yourself a Christian, which is why you should feel
00:03:32.000 | so incredibly loved. In fact, if you need a text to say that,
00:03:36.000 | just go to Ephesians 2, verse 4, where Paul
00:03:40.000 | says just as clearly as can be, "Because of his great
00:03:44.000 | love," it's the only place he uses that phrase in all the New Testament, "Because of his
00:03:48.000 | great love, he made you alive when you were
00:03:52.000 | dead." So if you have any spiritual life in you at all,
00:03:56.000 | you have been greatly loved. It's called regeneration.
00:04:00.000 | It's called calling. You have been
00:04:04.000 | called and you are greatly loved in this
00:04:08.000 | calling. God loved you by putting you in
00:04:12.000 | Christ. Verse 30,
00:04:16.000 | "And because of him you are
00:04:20.000 | in Christ Jesus."
00:04:24.000 | That's pretty clear. In the original, very, very literally,
00:04:28.000 | it would go, "From him are
00:04:32.000 | you in Christ Jesus." Or, "Of him are you
00:04:36.000 | in Christ Jesus." "Because" is probably a pretty good translation.
00:04:40.000 | "Because of his doing, because of his work, you are
00:04:44.000 | in Christ Jesus." So he chose you
00:04:48.000 | before the foundation of the world. He, through Billy Graham
00:04:52.000 | or a preacher or your mom's testimony or reading the Bible or hearing a
00:04:56.000 | worship song or however he wanted to do it as far as human agency goes, he
00:05:00.000 | spoke the word, "Wake up!" or, "Come!" or,
00:05:04.000 | "Live!" And you suddenly stopped seeing
00:05:08.000 | the cross as folly. You stopped seeing the cross as
00:05:12.000 | boring. You stopped seeing the cross as mythological.
00:05:16.000 | You stopped seeing the cross as a stumbling block. And suddenly
00:05:20.000 | it was what you needed
00:05:24.000 | and true. And you embraced it. You embraced
00:05:28.000 | it. Because God woke you up,
00:05:32.000 | changed your heart. And when in that
00:05:36.000 | time you were united
00:05:40.000 | to Christ. Back in when we were talking about
00:05:44.000 | the doctrine of regeneration or
00:05:48.000 | the new birth, I tried to explain how
00:05:52.000 | calling, regeneration,
00:05:56.000 | faith, union with Christ are simultaneous.
00:06:00.000 | There are causal connections here, but there aren't
00:06:04.000 | temporal gaps. In an instant,
00:06:08.000 | in an instant, he wakened you from the dead.
00:06:12.000 | Your eyes now went, "Tch!" And what you saw was a glorious
00:06:16.000 | Christ. And in seeing him as
00:06:20.000 | glorious, you were a believer. You were. That's what
00:06:24.000 | believer means. He's glorious. He's Savior. He's Lord. He's
00:06:28.000 | mine. That's what it is to see him for what he really is.
00:06:32.000 | And in that moment, you were united to Jesus. Which means
00:06:36.000 | God loved you by making
00:06:40.000 | Christ your wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
00:06:44.000 | and redemption. Verse 30, "And because
00:06:48.000 | of him you are in Christ Jesus." So God awakened you,
00:06:52.000 | united you to Christ so that you have a vital union
00:06:56.000 | with Jesus. You're connected with him maybe like a vine and a branch.
00:07:00.000 | Who, that is Christ, became
00:07:04.000 | to us, are you with me in verse 30? Who became
00:07:08.000 | to us wisdom from God,
00:07:12.000 | righteousness, and sanctification, and
00:07:16.000 | redemption. So when you
00:07:20.000 | unite with Christ, all that he is now,
00:07:24.000 | you are without making you God.
00:07:28.000 | All the benefits that are in him, all the inheritance that is in him, all that
00:07:32.000 | he ever purchased, all the obedience he ever performed,
00:07:36.000 | all the forgiveness he ever purchased, you now have by virtue of
00:07:40.000 | union with him which you feel by faith and God worked sovereignly.
00:07:44.000 | He has become through God's
00:07:48.000 | loving you this way, everything for you. Which is why when I walked in
00:07:52.000 | tonight and heard the worship team rehearsing,
00:07:56.000 | I said, "Hallelujah, all I have is Christ."
00:08:00.000 | Hallelujah, Jesus is my life.
00:08:04.000 | I said to Chuck, "Okay, I'm doing an audible here. I had a hymn picked out for the end.
00:08:08.000 | Bang, we're going to do that." All I have is Christ,
00:08:12.000 | verse 30, right? If I need wisdom, he's my wisdom.
00:08:16.000 | If I need righteousness, he's my righteousness. If I need sanctification,
00:08:20.000 | redemption, you are loved, Bethlehem.
00:08:24.000 | You are loved, sons and daughters of God, because
00:08:28.000 | God chose you for himself.
00:08:32.000 | Secondly, you are loved because he called you to
00:08:36.000 | himself. Number three, you are loved
00:08:40.000 | because he united you to Christ.
00:08:44.000 | And four, by making you one with Christ,
00:08:48.000 | Christ becomes everything you need.
00:08:52.000 | That's a sermon clip from Pastor John's sermon, "Consider Your Calling,"
00:08:56.000 | preached on April 25, 2010 at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis
00:09:00.000 | and sent to us by a listener named Sue, who says, "My husband and I had the privilege of
00:09:04.000 | attending Bethlehem Baptist Church from 2002 to 2015
00:09:08.000 | when we lived in Minneapolis. We now live in North Carolina."
00:09:12.000 | Thank you, Sue, for the clip. I suspect you first heard it live, and
00:09:16.000 | I appreciate you sending it in. No matter how you find them, send us your
00:09:20.000 | favorite sermon clips of Pastor John. Give me the title of the sermon and the time stamp
00:09:24.000 | from the audio of when the clip begins and ends. Tell me why it's impacted you. Give me your
00:09:28.000 | name, closest city, and email me all those details.
00:09:32.000 | AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. Put the word "clip" in the subject line, please, if you would.
00:09:36.000 | And who knows, maybe we can share it here on the podcast.
00:09:40.000 | Next up, how do we raise kids in this world who are not naive and who are not
00:09:44.000 | cynical? Not naive, not cynical. It's a fantastic
00:09:48.000 | charity question from a dad, a listener to the podcast named Rick in Fort Worth, Texas. That's up next
00:09:52.000 | time on Friday. I'm Tony Reinke, and we will see you then.
00:09:56.000 | [end]
00:10:00.000 | [music]
00:10:04.000 | Thank you.