Let's turn our Bibles to Luke chapter five. Both of our messages today will be from this passage. First hour, we're just gonna look at two verses. Luke five. We'll ask the Lord's blessing before we begin. Our heavenly Father, come before you now as a needy people, in need of your spirit, in need of your power, in need for you to teach us in spirit and in truth. And we ask, Lord, you'd be pleased to do that according to your promise for Christ's sake, for the good of your chosen people. We pray, Lord, that we would truly behold our Savior preeminent and that you might increase us in faith and love for Him and for one another. Forgive us, Lord, for our sins and our unbelief, for Christ's sake, and in His name we ask it. Amen.

All right, Luke 5, verse 27. Luke 5, verse 27. Luke 5, 27. And after these things, The Lord went forth and saw a publican named Levi, that's Matthew, he's sitting at the receipt of custom. And the Lord said unto him, follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him.

Now these short verses are the account of Matthew being called by the Lord. This is when the Lord quickened him and gave him faith and granted him repentance and Levi began following the Lord. Christ came to him on purpose. The Lord in the scripture went to his people that he called on purpose. God the Father chose Levi in Christ before the world was created. And the Lord knew right where he was and the Lord went to him for this purpose of calling him.

That's so with all the Lord's people. This was one that Christ would lay down his life for and justify. And because he justified his people, he said, them I must call. The satisfied justice of God demands he must call all his people. And that's what we have here. I've titled this the effectual call. Now what we're gonna see here is that the Lord Jesus is the power who sovereignly, graciously, effectually calls his people. And the word effectual means this, he gets it done. When he calls, he gives life, he gives faith, he gives repentance, and he causes his people to follow him. This is what he does in power.

We're gonna see, first of all, that Christ calls sinners. Secondly, we're gonna see the power in his call. And then thirdly, we'll see the effect in the sinner. So we'll see that Christ calls sinners, we'll see the power of his call, and we'll see the effect in the sinner that he calls. Now, first of all, Christ calls sinners. That's who he calls.

It says here, he went forth and saw a publican named Levi sitting at the receipt of custom. Our Savior knows his sheep, and he knows right where we are. And he came to Levi. That's who he came to. He didn't go seeking a Pharisee or a scribe or somebody in the day's religion. He came to this publican named Levi. Now, publicans were despised by the Jews. They were despised by their own countrymen because The Jews at this time were under the oppressive rule of the Romans. The Romans had the rule over Israel at this time, over Judah.

Publicans worked for the Romans. They were tax collectors for the Romans. He's sitting there collecting taxes from his own countrymen. The publicans were known liars and robbers, thieves, because what they would do is the Romans required a certain tax be collected from their own countrymen. And so the publican would tell the people, their own countrymen, that it was two or three dollars more than what was to be collected, or however much, they would go over that amount, tell them it was more than what they were to collect, and they would give the required amount to the Romans, and then they'd keep the rest. And so they lied, and they were thieving their own people, and everybody knew it, and their own countrymen despised them for it. So Levi is a sinner, that's the point. He's a liar, he's a thief, He's a sinner, a known sinner. And yet, he stands here as an example of the very ones that Christ calls. Christ calls sinners. That's who he came to save, is sinners.

God's elect might not collect taxes from Rome, but we are all sinners. We are all liars, thieves, and the worst kind, robbing God of the glory due to him. And we do it by denying that we're the sinner, denying we're that bad, denying that we cannot come to God, that we cannot work a righteousness, boasting that we can make ourselves acceptable to God by our works. That's robbing God of the glory due to him and his son, Christ Jesus.

But Christ only saves vile, wretched sinners. When Levi was sitting there, he was a God-hating sinner prior to Christ calling him. And that's what we all are by nature. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And unless God intervenes, unless Christ intervenes, and we meet God in that condition, God will cast us out forever. Christ came to call sinners. We're gonna focus more in the next hour on verse 32, but look there and hear what the Lord Jesus said. He said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

That's who he calls. We sing the song Amazing Grace John Newton wrote that song. He was a slave trader and he was the captain of a slave ship. He was making merchandise of men and was a vile, wretched sinner. And that's why when the Lord called him, that's why he wrote these words. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. that saved a rich like me. I once was lost, but now am found. I was blind, but now I see. It is amazing grace that God saves us because we are sinners.

We can offer nothing to God whatsoever. Don't look to your own merit. Don't look to something in you. Do not look. to yourself. Call on the Lord Jesus and look to Him only. He must be all. He's the only way we can be accepted of God, is Him. Now, secondly, let's see the power in Christ's call. Verse 27, The Lord said unto him, follow me. And he left all. Christ speaks two words. He just said, follow me. That's all. And that's not an invitation. That's not an offer. That was a command that came in power.

God doesn't try to do anything. The Lord Jesus doesn't try to do anything. He doesn't invite you to come to him and let you mull it over. He doesn't offer salvation to you and leave it in your hands so that one day you can say, I decided that I'd let him save me. I decided I'd accept him. That's not what he does. Because if he did that, nobody would believe him. None of us would believe him.

Christ calls in power. His command comes in power. When the gospel's going forth, it pleased God to save through the foolishness of preaching. This is how he's gonna, he's gonna stain the pride of men. This is how he's gonna make it so nobody can glory in his, glory in ourselves before him. When the gospel's going forth, he speaks in power. And he makes the sinner know that he's called him. It's not an audible voice, it's more powerful than an audible voice.

And you will know if the Lord has called you, because you'll suddenly see you are a wretched sinner. Before you heard it, but you didn't believe it. Before you heard the good news that Christ is salvation, but you didn't believe it. But when he calls you, you will find yourself believing every word, beginning with I am a vile, wretched sinner. However bad you think it is right now, it's way worse, and the Lord will make you know some of it.

He'll make you know enough to see you need Him. He said, That verse tells us he doesn't try. When he sends forth his word, it comes out of his mouth. You will hear a preacher preaching, but the word that's gonna make you believe is coming out of his mouth through the preaching of the gospel, and he makes you believe. What does he give you by this call? How effectual is it?

Spiritual life. He gives you spiritual life, a new spirit. That's the first thing that happened right here. A new heart that was not there before. A new man that was not there before. That's what he gave to Levi. That's what he gives to each of his people.

Ephesians 2.1 says, we were dead in sin. And it says, and you hath he quickened who were dead.

He did it by speaking. Before Christ spoke, Levi was a dead sinner. physically alive, but dead spiritually. After Christ spoke, he has a new living spirit in him. When Christ spoke, discernment came. That's what I'm saying. When he speaks, you're gonna have discernment and know these scriptures are true, and you're gonna see what you are, and you're gonna see who Christ is. We know that the Son of God has come and hath given us an understanding That we might know him that is true, and we're in him and that is true The Lord Jesus this is the true God and eternal life when he speaks he yields spiritual life All right the next thing when he speaks He gives faith by speaking Levi was made to believe him Levi discerned who he was, Levi knew who he was, and Levi believed who he was. Just by that word, follow me, follow me. Romans 10, 17 says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

He said, through Isaiah, the word that goes out of my mouth, out of my mouth. Before Christ spoke, Levi had a carnal mind, he didn't want to hear God, He would rather be anywhere but under the preaching of the gospel. He had no heart to hear the gospel preached at all. And Christ spoke, and there was nothing but an unbelieving, God-hating sinner, and when Christ spoke, he believed him.

With that word, he believed him immediately. When Christ speaks, he gives faith so that we see ourselves the sinner, and we see Christ is the Savior. We have an understanding, we have faith, and we know Christ is all. John said, you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all. You know Christ is all. That's what faith lays hold of, Christ is all. When Christ speaks, he grants repentance. Faith and repentance are Siamese twins. They're two-sided coin. When he gives one, he gives the other.

And when he spoke, not only did he believe Christ and see who he was, he immediately knew he's the sinner. And his heart was changed, his mind was changed, to where he realized, I can't trust anything about myself. I can't look to anything about myself to save me.

That's what repentance is. You know, false religion preaches that repentance is turning from certain sins and denying yourself. That would be pretty easy. Anybody can turn over a new leaf. Repentance is he makes you see you can't trust a thing about you. You can't put any confidence in anything about you. You got to repent from self, everything about That's what he grants when he gives you repentance.

And what I love about Luke's account of this is I love how he worded this by the Spirit of the Lord. It said, Christ said, follow me, and he left all, and then he rose up. When the Lord speaks, he does all of this in the new man, in the new heart, before you ever even wiggle a toe. You believe him, you leave all, you're granted repentance from trusting anything about you, you cast it all into Christ's hand, and you begin following him before you ever move a muscle. Because it's a heart work. It's a heart work. It's a complete and total change that gets made when he gives you a brand new heart.

Before, we thought we were righteous. Now we see we're not righteous, we're unrighteous. Before we thought we were holy, now we see we're unholy. Before we thought that we could come to God by our righteousness, now we see we're guilty sinners. And now we see Christ is the righteousness we have to have. Christ is the holiness of the new heart. He's the sanctifier who sanctified us by his one offering. everything becomes Christ. This is what the Lord meant in Ezekiel 36, 26.

He said, a new heart will I give you. A new heart and a new spirit will I put within you. When he puts a new spirit in you, that means you didn't have it before. This new heart is a creation. That's why Paul said it's not circumcision or uncircumcision that avails, but it's a new creature, a new creation. He gives you something that you didn't have. It's totally new.

And I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a heart of flesh. He doesn't remove your sin nature, but he gives you a new heart that can feel and can can love and can believe and can know, whereas your original nature is just like a stone, can do nothing, just a dead stone.

One hymn writer put it this way, describing this call. He said, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I awoke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee. That's what he works.

When the Lord stood before that tomb of Lazarus, Lazarus was dead. And when the Lord got the news that he had died, the Lord waited, for days before he went there. And the scripture said he did this because he loved Martha and Mary. You know, we get in a trial and we start praying and the Lord waits, he doesn't do anything. And we think, he must not love me. No, he waited because he loved them. Why did he do that? Because he wanted everybody to know that when he gave the command and said, Lazarus, come forth, that he spoke in power. He's the life. He's the resurrection. We're not looking for an event. We're looking for a person. Christ is the resurrection. And when Christ spoke, Lazarus was made alive. And he didn't mull it over and say, well, let me decide if I want to come to him or not. He came out of that tomb right then.

And that's what happens when the Lord speaks in power when he calls. Now thirdly, that brings us to this, the effect in the sinner. It says there, he left all, he rose up, and he followed him. That's what the Lord works in everybody he calls. The Lord Jesus speaks in power, and within that sinner, this call will produce a radical change. It takes place. We see this in three distinct actions right here that Levi took. Three things he did.

First off, it says he left all. Spiritually, before he ever moved a muscle physically, he left all. Anything he put any confidence in before, he left it. Anything that was taken preeminence and had his heart and affection, he left it. He left all. in this new man.

Now listen, in the new man, that new man's holy. And in the new man, Christ makes you do this perfectly. You leave everything. You got an old man that's still, like when Lazarus came out of that tomb, he had a lot of grave clothes on. And you still got the old body of death you're carrying around. But in that new man, he makes you know Christ is all so that you leave all else.

The second thing he did is he rose up. Spiritually, he was in a pit, and his sin did, like in a grave, and spiritually, Christ lifted him out of the pit, and he rose up. He takes the sinner off the dome. He sets him among princes. He lifts his people up, and he rose up spiritually.

Physically, he pushed away that ledger, and all his money he was robbing people of, and he got up and he left it. He left it. And he followed him. He didn't just turn over a new leaf and stop doing what he was doing. No, he had a new master, a new savior, and he followed him. He followed him. And you just think about that. Levi was making money, a lot of money. We're gonna see next hour, He had a great feast and invited all his friends. Levi was rich. And when Christ called him, he left it. He left it and he followed him. Why?

Because he's the pearl of great price. He's the treasure hid in the field. He's the alpha and omega in salvation. He's the author and finisher. He is everything. And there's nothing that compares to him in value. And this is what he makes you know in your heart. And he takes preeminence in that new heart. And you leave everything for him.

John 10, 24. Let's look there real quick. John 10, 24. Let's hear the Lord Jesus declare what he just did to Levi, to Matthew. This is what he does in all his people. John 10, 24 says, Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. what we saw him do to Levi bears witness that he is the Christ.

But you believe not because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. See, Christ has to do this operation of grace in the heart or men won't believe. And he said, you're not my sheep. So he didn't do this in them, and therefore they continued on in their unbelief. You don't become a sheep by believing. Christ comes to you because you are a sheep and makes you to believe.

That's how come you believe and that's what he says next. My sheep hear my voice by him being the power, by him speaking in power. My sheep hear my voice and I know them. He enters in and becomes life in us. He knows us inwardly. That means he gives you life. He becomes life in that new spirit.

And here's the result, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Go with me to Philippians 3. Philippians 3. When the Lord called Levi, Levi left everything, and he followed Christ. That's what happened to Paul. I want you to hear what Paul says. I'm gonna read a little longer here than I normally do on this passage, but I want you to see everything he says.

Philippians 3.4.

Well, let's start at Philippians 3.3.

Here's what true circumcision is, and this is what it results in right here. Circumcision is regeneration, to be born by the Spirit of the Lord. Here it is, this is the result. We are the circumcision. which worship God in the spirit, in that new spirit he's given, and we rejoice in Christ Jesus, he's all our salvation, and we have no confidence in the flesh.

Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. As touching the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, that which is by his obedience alone, by his faithfulness, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. What does that mean? What did Christ say when it came time to go to the cross? He said, not my will, but as thy will. And when you make conformable unto his death, we stop being self-willed. and we start saying, not my will, but his will. If you have to go through the fire, you say, not my will, his will. You trust him.

If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead, not as though I already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ, brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth in those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, back in our text, what have we seen here?

Christ calls sinners. He only calls sinners. the worst of sinners, sinners that can't do a thing for themselves. That's what he called. We saw the effectual, powerful call of Christ. When he calls, he creates a new heart, spiritual life, faith, repentance.

It's all of him. We didn't muster up any of that. He gave it to us. And we saw the certain, sure result in a sinner. A departure from anything that we ever trusted in, we leave it. count it done, and we rise up and follow Christ, he's all salvation to his people. Now if you've heard this call, this is why we don't give an invitation, this is why we don't beg and beg and beg, because if you hear this call, that's what Christ works, that's what he accomplishes, and he makes His child, follow Him. We're made willing in the day of His power, not by our willpower. It's by His power. He gives a new will.

And the miraculous result is you leave all. You have no more confidence in you, your flesh. You begin to rejoice in the new heart He's given, and you rejoice only in Christ. Only in Christ. And that's when a man will confess him publicly. We're gonna see in the next hour, Matthew makes a big dinner and calls all his friends. He wanted them to know Christ. And when he's worked this in you, you're no longer ashamed that Christ is all. You're no longer ashamed to tell people, I'm only a sinner. Christ is my salvation. Nothing I do is my salvation. And you confess it in believer's baptism to begin with.

And from that day forward, you want your loved ones and everybody you know to know him. You can't speak to anybody about anybody else but him. When people start bragging on themselves and what they've done, you just speak of him. Because you know, that's the only way he'll save us through that message.

And you pray that he'll work that. Now listen, because we're sinners, Christ never stops doing this work. People act like conversion's a one-time thing. Well, him giving you faith is, you have it, and you have repentance, but we're a sinner. And when he says he's pleased to save through the foolishness of preaching, that means he keeps speaking through the gospel to his children, giving us, increasing our faith, renewing us in spirit, and keeping us repenting from anything that's of us, and cast it all under his hand. And this is how he's gonna keep us all the way to the last day. We never stop repenting, we never stop believing, because it's by his word of power spoken in our heart through this gospel.

All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you for providing your son, Lord Jesus, we thank you for calling us, for making us to know what you had done for your people, how that you are our only provision and all our provision. Lord, you made us to know you, to whom and whom to know is life eternal. And you made us know we're in you and you made us know, Lord, that you're keeping us. And we do thank you for saving sinners. We could give nothing to you. And Lord, you did this all for us, gave it all to us. We pray you keep us hearing, keep us believing, keep us looking to none but you. Father, we thank you for your grace to us, for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.