As we were saying that, I was
thinking how the Lord tells us that the hearing ear and the
seeing eye are both given by God and that we by ourselves,
left to ourselves are deaf and blind. And it's our prayer that
what we just sang or that we would hear your call. Let's open our Bibles to the
11th chapter of John. Once again, John chapter 11,
we've been looking at this miracle of miracles, the resurrection
of Lazarus and his two sisters, Martha and Mary. And Martha met
the Lord before he got to Bethany. And he had revealed to her that
he was the resurrection and the life. And now Martha is going
to run to her sister, Mary. And if you'll look at with me
at verse 28, after Martha made that confession, I believe that
thou art the Christ. the Son of God, which should
come into the world. She confessed him as the Messiah,
the one who came in the full power of the Spirit of God to
accomplish the salvation of God's people. That's what Messiah is.
He didn't come to make an offer of salvation to man, to be accepted
or rejected by us. He came to make himself an offering
to his Father. And he succeeded. in what he
came to do, and that's what she's confessing here. And now in verse
28, and when she had said so, she went her way and called Mary,
her sister, secretly saying, the master has come and calleth
for thee. I've titled this message, How
Do I Know If I've Been Called? When God calls a sinner to himself,
there are some evidences of that. And what we see in Mary's response
to what Martha tells her is the experience that everyone who's
called of God. Now the Bible speaks of two callings,
it speaks of an outward call, an audible call. preach the gospel
to the world, commanding all men everywhere to believe. It's
a general call. But that call by itself will
never convert a sinner. It'll never bring a sinner to
Christ, not by itself. If the Spirit of God does not
take those words and make them effectual, it's the effectual
call, the irresistible call, then that sinner is brought to
faith in Christ. I can remember at a very young
age in school having a teacher correct me when I asked her if
I could do something. I said, can I? And Savannah's
over there smiling because she knows what I'm going to say.
And the teacher looked at me, I was a young boy, and she said,
I don't know, can you? And of course, she was teaching
me the difference between ability and permission. And she explained
to me that what I was asking is if I may do something, not
if I can do something. There's a huge difference. The
Lord Jesus said no man can come to the Father, or can come to
me, except the Father which sent him draw him. He's got to be
called. We don't have the ability to
come to Christ. And it's not until the Lord shows
us our inability that we are able to come for his strength
is made perfect in our weaknesses. Now, Mary is being called. The Lord's called her and Martha
is the instrument that the Lord uses to communicate this call
to Mary. And I find that very interesting
because the Lord does the same thing today. Men want to believe
that they can receive a personal encounter with God without the
means of, without the means of preaching, without the means
of another man testifying to them. Truth is that the Lord
only met with individuals that he was going to use to pin scripture. And he gave to those men certain
gifts in order to authenticate the message that they had been
given. And other than the penman of scripture, God meets with
his people through the means of another man. Someone, gotta
hear the gospel from somebody. I've got to, before the spiritual,
irresistible call can come to my heart, I've got to hear it
audibly. I've got to hear somebody tell
me what the Lord has done. Men in their pride want to believe
that they don't have a need for that. They can go straight into
the presence of God. But, God uses the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe. And the Lord told us
what he's doing with Martha, you're going to be my witnesses
in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and unto the outermost parts
of the world. And so this means that the Lord uses of his people
and of his church and of the gospel is the humbling effect
that the Lord uses. He's going to humble us in our
conversion. He's not just going to call us
but he's not going to let us take any pride or glory in how
we were saved. He's going to use one beggar
to tell another beggar where they found bread. And I love what one preacher said when
he said A preacher is a nobody who tells everybody about somebody
who can save anybody. And that's so true. But hear
Martha now. The Lord obviously says to Martha,
where's Mary? Go get her. I'm calling her to
me. What's Mary's response going
to be to this call? Because her response is the same
response that everyone who receives the effectual irresistible call
has. Paul was obviously one of those
penmen of scripture and if you read the first and second half
of the second chapter of Galatians you'll find Paul defending himself
because there were those who were accusing him of not being
a genuine apostle. Well, he wasn't with the 12 and
he didn't get this message straight from God. And Paul goes into
great detail explaining how he did get the message directly
from God and the gifts that the Lord had given him to prove that. Those penmen of scriptures are
different than we are. They had inspiration, direct
inspiration with God. We have revelation given to us
through the inspiration that was given to them. Martha, go get your sister. And Martha says to Mary in verse
28, the master is come and calleth for thee. And as soon as she
heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him. The effectual call is always
witnessed with an immediate response. If a person hears the call of
of the scriptures, the outward call, and they're able to put
it off. They're able to say, well, I'll
think about that, or I'll consider that, or maybe somewhere down
the road, I'll respond to that. They have not received the irresistible
effectual call. They will do exactly what Mary
did. As soon as she heard that the master had called her, she
got up from where she was and she went to him. That's always
the response. Not something to be considered,
not something to think about. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
four, Matthew chapter four. I used to listen to a radio preacher
and he concluded every one of his radio programs, this was
before the Lord called me, with, now you think about that. Now
you think about that. Man's preaching the gospel, he's
not gonna say, now you think about that. Man's preaching the
gospel, he's gonna say, come. The spirit and the bride say,
come. Don't think about it. The call
of God is not an invitation with an RSVP attached to it. It's
a command, a command given by God to come. And when it's given
by God, effectually, we'll do exactly what Mary did as soon
as we heard, we'll come. Matthew chapter 4. Look with me if you will at verse
18. And Jesus walking by the sea
of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers.
And he said unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers
of men. And they straightway left their
nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he
saw two other brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John,
the brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.
And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and
their father and followed him." Now, I love the story of Matthew,
Levi. He was a tax collector. And the Lord was walking by his
table of exchange one day and looked down at him and said,
follow me. And the scripture says he got
up and he followed Christ, right there. Left his job behind, left
everything behind. That's the effectual call. The
effectual call never leaves us with a decision to make. The
effectual call is irresistible. And the response is exactly what
Mary did. Turn back with me to John chapter
11. Do we not see the same response
in the Philippian jailer? When he asked Paul, what must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that very night he was, baptized
in his family. Ethiopian eunuch, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? He's heard the gospel. He's heard
the command of God to come to Christ. What doth hinder me if
thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest? I believe
that Jesus is the Christ. That one you just preached to
me from Isaiah chapter 53, I believe that he's the Christ. And they
stop the chariot and he's baptized. On the day of Pentecost, 3,000
souls heard the gospel for the first time, one time. And 3,000 Jews submitted to baptism
because they believed what they heard. That's the effectual call.
That's the call of God that doesn't leave it up to man to decide
what he's going to do. It's a work of grace in the heart
that makes him come. And the prophet said, turn me,
oh Lord, and I'll be turned. Save me and I'll be saved. Lord,
you're gonna have to do it. I'm not able, I can't. But Lord, if you do it, if you
do it, I will. Notice also in our text, These
are the signs of having been called of God. I haven't? Well, I hear that he's calling
me. I hear that there, but I'll think
about it. I'll do something, no. No, God's called me, I'm coming.
Secondly, I want you to notice that Mary, came to where the
Lord Jesus was. Verse 29, as soon as she heard
that, she arose quickly and came unto him. He had not yet entered
into Bethany. He was outside of the town where
Martha had met him. And she went to where he was. If we've been called of God,
We're going to go where Christ is. Where is he? Well, he's in the scriptures.
In the volume of the book it is written of me. We're going
to find our life in Christ by his written word. We're going
to look for him in the scriptures. The Lord Jesus told those Pharisees,
you search the scriptures, you're good Bible students, you think
that you have eternal life because you've learned some doctrine
and memorized some verses, but you've missed the whole message
of the Bible. These are they which testify
of me. If we've been called of God, we want to know what God
says. We want to know what the scripture
says. Particularly, we want to know what the scripture says
about Christ. We're not going to the Bible to learn history
or to get some rules and regulations on how to live the Christian
life. We're looking for the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, for
he himself is our life. Mary went to where he was. Where is the Lord Jesus? He's
in his word. Where else is he? He's among
his people. We're gonna associate with God's
people. You know these people say, well I've been called, I
don't need the church, I can do it on my own and don't have
any interest in public worship or in fellowship with other believers. That's not the pattern of having
been called of God. God calls us, he calls us into
his family. He calls us to love our brothers
and sisters. How can we say that we love God
whom we've not seen if we don't love Him whom we have seen. We associate with God's people.
Where God's gospel is preached and where Christ is lifted up.
That's where we go to where he is. And he's not in every church,
is he? We know that. He's where the
gospel is preached. Where the gospel is preached. where Christ is lifted up, where
men are left with no ability to save themselves. Men are declared
for what they are, dead in their trespasses and sins, dependent
upon the Lord to do a work of grace. The Lord Jesus is lifted
up in that gospel as the one who has the power to save. and the only one who has the
power to save and the one who actually did save. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's God incarnate coming to
this world in order to accomplish the salvation. It's good news,
good news. I can't add anything to what
he did and I can't take anything away from what he did. The gospel
is the good news that salvation is of the Lord. It's of him in
eternal election. God chose a people before the
foundation of the world. It's of him in redemption. The Lord Jesus finished the work
when he bowed his head on the Calvary's cross and he said,
it is finished. It's of him when it comes to
regeneration. except you be born of the spirit.
You cannot enter into the kingdom of God. You cannot see the kingdom
of God. The Lord has to birth us. It's his work. It's he that
keeps us from falling. It's he that presents us faultless
before the throne of God. It's all of the Lord and he gets
all the glory. And God's people love it that
way. They love for him to get all the glory and salvation.
That's where God's people go. That's those who have been effectually
called. They won't go listen to a false
gospel. They won't sit under a false
prophet. They won't tolerate a message
of salvation that leaves them with something to do in order
to have hope and assurance. They need a message of salvation
that's been done. and that's where God's people
go, they go where Christ is and he's among his people where his
gospel is preached. You know where else they go? Where else is the Lord Jesus?
Other than in his word, in the preaching of the gospel among
his people, where else is he? He's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. And what are God's people told
to do? Come boldly before the throne
of grace that you might find help in your time of need. That's how we come. God's people
approach the Lord Jesus in prayer. That's... Prayer is to them,
is their lifeline to Christ. They come to where he is. Either
physically or spiritually, they come to where the Lord Jesus
Christ is. It's what Mary did, it's what
every child of God does. Look with me now, back at our
text. Verse 29, as soon as she heard,
she heard the call. She rose quickly and came unto
him. Now, Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in
that place where Martha met him. The Jews then, which were with
her in the house and comforting her, When they saw Mary, that
she rose up hastily and went out, followed her saying, she
goeth into the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come
where Jesus was and saw him, she saw him. This is the result
of the call of God. We see Christ for who he is. We see him as the sovereign,
successful savior of sinners. We see him as the son of God. We don't see him as a little
Jesus who came into the world in order to try to save people.
We see him in the fullness of his glory, the omnipotent one,
the all-powerful one, the sovereign one. That's how we see him. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We see him as the Bible reveals
him and any description of Jesus Christ that's
not consistent with the word of God, we see that too. Mary, when she went to where
he was, saw him. She set her affection on him. She knew who he was. And what
does the Lord tell us? Colossians chapter 3, that we
are to set our affections on things above where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God. Why is the Lord Jesus seated
in the heavens right now? The scripture says that we are
seated with him in heavenly places. All the blessings of God are
in him. In the Old Testament, one of
the Lots of things in the tabernacle and then later in the temple
in Old Testament Israel. But one piece of furniture that's
conspicuously missing is a chair. There's tables and altars and
labors and all sorts of things but there's no chair. Why is
that? Because the work of the Old Testament
priests was never finished. They could never sit down. As soon as they sacrificed one
animal and cleaned that up, they sacrificed another animal and
animal after animal. There was never an end to the
sacrificial system in the Old Testament. And all the blood
of bulls and goats never was successful in putting away our
sin. But when the Lord Jesus shed
his precious blood on Calvary's cross, he said, it is finished. The work of redemption was accomplished.
There's nothing more to do. And so when he went to heaven,
he sat down. And the father said to him, the
one piece of furniture missing in the tabernacle is the dominant
piece of furniture in heaven, if you could call it that, the
throne of God. And the father said to his son,
sit thou here at my right hand until I make all thine enemies
thy footstool. We come into this world at enmity
with God. And the Lord by the power of
his spirit and the preaching of his gospel is bringing everyone
for whom Christ died to faith in Christ by the irresistible
call, by the effectual call. He's doing for every one of God's
people Everyone chosen by the Father, everyone redeemed by
the Son is being regenerated through the effectual call of
the Holy Spirit. And they respond the same way
Mary did. As soon as they hear, they go. They go to where He is and they
see Him. They see Him for who He is. We do not believe in a Christ
who is subject in any way to anything that man has to do.
That's not the Christ. That's not the Christ. No Jew
ever believed that. And you talk to Jews today. I
remember we were talking to a Jewish lady one time and she was talking
to, to us about her Jewish friends who pretended to be keeping the
law but she said, I know they don't really keep the law. And
she made this statement, she said, no one can keep the law.
I said, well, one can. And she stopped me and she said,
you're exactly right. You're exactly right. And the
difference between you and me is that you think he's already
come and I'm still waiting on him. But I know. that when Messiah comes, he's
gonna set everything straight. Now that's the biblical definition
of the Christ. The biblical definition of the
anointed one. It's not one who comes and makes
an effort to save. He's one who's successful in
saving all of Israel. There is no other definition
of Christ in the scriptures. And we see him. We see him. We see him successfully redeeming
his people on Calvary's cross. We see him seated at the right
hand of the majesty on high. We see him for who he is, the
fullness of the Godhead. Job, after the Lord revealed himself
and called Job, Job said this, he said, I had heard of thee
by the hearing of mine ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee,
and I repent in dust and ashes. Oh, that's what we need, isn't
it? For the Lord to open the eyes of our understanding, enable
us to see him. You have your Bibles open in
1 Corinthians 15. Look with me, if you will, at
verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. There's only one gospel. Which I preached unto you, which
also you have received and wherein you stand. This is the gospel
of God's free grace and the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only gospel Paul ever
preached. And he said in Galatians chapter one, if a man comes and
preaches any other gospel than the one that I preached to you,
let him be accursed. He even went to the extent of
saying, if an angel from heaven comes down and preaches another
gospel than the one I preached to you, let them be accursed. There's only one gospel. There's
no toleration for anything apart from this good news, by which also you are saved. There's only one gospel that
saves. No other gospel will save. If you keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures. that Christ died but how that
he died according to the scriptures. When Paul was preaching the gospel
the only thing he had was the Old Testament and that's what he's referring
to. He's talking about that prophecy that God gave to Adam in the
garden when he said the seed of the woman will crush the head
of the serpent. He's talking about that same
gospel that is illustrated in Cain and Abel when the gift that
Cain brought was not acceptable to God. The one that Abel brought
was a blood sacrifice. He's talking about Noah's Ark
where God brought Noah and his family into that Ark and that
Ark being a type of Christ. and the wrath and judgment of
God destroying this world and how God was merciful to save
eight souls. Now all throughout, he's talking
about the sacrificial system, he's talking about the Passover
lamb. When God said, put the blood on the doorpost of your
doors in Egypt and when I see the blood, I will pass by thee.
He's talking about what Abraham said when he told Isaac. And Isaac said, father, here's
the fire, and here's the wood, but where is the lamb for the
burnt offering? And what did Abraham say? God
will provide himself a lamb. You gotta do the providing, gotta
make that provision to himself, and he will provide himself. and all those Old Testament stories.
That's what Paul's talking about here. He said, I delivered unto
you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the scriptures. He's talking about
that day of atonement when the high priest would go into the
holies of holies and put the blood on the mercy seat. And
then on that same day, they would take the scapegoat and transfer
the sins of the people symbolically to the head of the scapegoat
and send that scapegoat out into the wilderness. And that's Christ. He's the scapegoat. He's the
mercy seat. He's the blood. God said, here,
I will meet with you on this mercy seat. And the Shekinah
glory of God that came down and met with him. All those Old Testament
types and pictures were fulfilled in Christ, in Christ. And Paul said how that Christ
died according to the scriptures. If you see him, you see him as
he's revealed according to the scriptures. Go back with me to John chapter
11, please. Verse 32, when Mary was come
where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet. She fell down at his feet. This is always the response of
the effectual call, falling at his feet. Everyone that has ever been called
of God, that's where they find themselves. Mary had been sitting
at his feet, learning the things that he taught about himself
and now she falls at his feet. It's the response of the publican
in the temple. And the Pharisee prayed thus
unto himself and said, Father, I thank thee that I'm like other
men. And he was so proud of his accomplishments, but the publican
would not so much as look up, but smote himself upon the breast
and cried, have mercy upon me, oh God, the
sinner. And the Lord said, which one
went down to the house justified? Which one was justified before
God? The one that fell at the feet. It's always the response. A Saraphenesian woman, when the
Lord called her a dog, she said, truth, Lord, and she worshiped
him. That's where we worship, where
we worship at his feet. When Daniel in Daniel chapter
10 saw that vision of the Lord Jesus and he describes the vision
and he says, my comeliness in me was turned into corruption
and I was without strength. And he fell on his face before
the Lord Jesus. And then the scripture says,
he heard a voice and he felt a hand on his shoulder. And the
Lord said to him, Daniel, fear not. And what does the scripture
tell us? Daniel just jumped up on his
feet? No. The scripture says he got
up on his hands and knees, still afraid to look up. And the Lord
now is bringing him in full fellowship. But the response is always to
fall. When John in the book of Revelation
saw the Lord Jesus, he said, I was a dead man. I fell at his
feet. Isaiah, high and lifted up, he
saw the Lord Jesus. And he said, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. And
he fell at the feet of the Lord Jesus. When the effectual call
is given, this is always the response.
It's immediate response. It's believing what God has revealed
about Christ in the scriptures. It's going to where he is. and
it's falling at his feet in worship. And I want you to notice two
more things quickly. Verse 32, and when Mary was come
where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying
unto him, Lord, Lord. Now the word master, When Martha
said, the master calleth thee, the word master there is the
word teacher. And Mary knew what the Lord was
as far as his coming to teach her of the things of God. She was sitting at his feet. She chose that one thing that
was needful and she knew. what the Lord meant when he said,
all you that are labored and heavy laden, come unto me, come
unto me and learn of me. We learn of him and we learn
from him. But here, she doesn't call him
master. That's what Martha referred to
the Lord as. She calls him Lord. She's acknowledging that he owns
her. He doesn't just teach her. She
is his property. She's been bought with a price.
She bows before him and she acknowledges him as her Lord. It's like Thomas did. Thomas, come, put your hands
up. And Thomas fell at the feet of
the Lord Jesus and said, oh my Lord and my God. Now there's
a lot of talk today in Christianity, and I'm using that word very
broadly, called Lordship Salvation. And... and they're trying to
compensate for this easy believism that's being preached that you
just pray this prayer and you'll be saved and everything will
be good and you could go on and live like you want. And then
the real conservatives have come along and said, oh no, you've
got to make Jesus Lord and you've got to follow him and obey him
and do everything that he commands. Both of these arguments are false
arguments. When the gospel is preached and
when the effectual call is given, the Lord Jesus has bowed to a
savior and believed on his Lord. He's bowed to his Lord. We don't make him Lord and we don't,
you see Lordship, the problem with Lordship salvation as it's
being taught, in religion today is that it takes you back to
the law in order to get assurance of your salvation. Well, is Jesus
really my Lord? Let me see how I'm living. And
they put you under the microscope of the law in order to see if
you didn't just submit to some sort of easy believism or if
Jesus is really your Lord. All that's a false argument when
it comes to the truth of the gospel. We know that, brethren,
don't we? When the effectual call is given,
we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
God, and we fall at his feet as Lord. And every time we take
our eyes off of him, he's so faithful. He's so faithful to
bring us back and again and again and again, to confess our faith
in him and to bow at his feet and to say with Mary, Lord, Lord, I don't have anything to offer
you in exchange. You bought me with a price, I'm
yours. You have the sovereign right
to do with me whatever you will. That's what it means to confess
him as Lord. It doesn't mean to measure yourself
by the law and see if he's really Lord of your life. It means that
you have bowed to him as the one who has the right to do with
you whatever he wills. He's the sovereign God of creation
and you're in his hands. Now, I want to close with one
more word. I hope there'll be an encouragement
to you, it certainly was to me because in every coming to Christ
and in every effectual call, the child of God does all these
things that Mary did, but at the same time, they still see
in them unbelief. I want you to notice what Mary
says. Lord, if Thou hath been here, my brother would not have
died. Our unbelief is often expressed
in what if. What if? What if I had not done
that? Or what if I had done this? Or
what if that situation had been different? And our unbelieving flesh is
often paralyzed and captured by the what-ifs of unbelief. And in every expression of faith,
We come to him with this God-given faith, having been effectually
called, irresistibly drawn. We bow to him as Lord, but we're
bringing with us our old man. And we can't escape him. And
he's with us all the time. And even right after she said,
Lord, she said, if you had been here, Is she not accusing him? Is she not saying, Lord, you
should have done something different than what you did? She just confessed
him as Lord. And now she's calling into question
what he obviously purposed. He stayed two days behind in
order for Lazarus to be in the grave for four days when he got
there. All the what ifs. of our minds. Let us come to this conclusion. Yeah, a lot of things we could
have done differently. But we believe, not what if,
but what is. And what is, is that we have
a God who is absolutely sovereign over everything that's ever happened. And he works all things together
for good for them that love him and those that are called according
to his purpose. The Lord permitted it. and he
will bring good from it. And he's sovereign. He hasn't
changed. How foolish it is for us to waste
our time. What if he? What if he? Paul put it like this. I've not
yet apprehended that which has apprehended me. But this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, I press
towards the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ
Jesus. In all the things that every
child of God does when they're effectually called, They still can't escape their
what-ifs. Apart from God's grace, Lord,
remind me what is. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for this story of Martha and Mary. Thank you for your tender
and effectual call Lord, call us and turn us and
cause us to come to where you are and to believe you for who
you are, to bow to you as Lord, and Lord, forgive us for our
unbelief. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 23 in this vow hymnal, let's
stand together.