Effectual Call (part 1)

Saved?

How are we saved? How were you saved? How can you, sinner be saved? In a chaotic world, full of noise… full of people going on their business without paying attention, how does God call us to himself? In a fallen world, full of lost sinners who consciously rebel against God and run the opposite direction, how does God get their attention? You see, we are easily carried away by other voices, and willingly turn away from God. How does God get us? How are we saved? 

Failure to understand how we are saved produces false converts who think their salvation rests on them. It produces weak and insecure converts who think something might happen, they might sleep and wake up unsaved.

First things First: Born-Again?

When we say one is born-again or one is a Christian, what exactly do we mean? One who is truly born-again is one who’s heard the good news of our Lord and Saviour and responded. It’s one who has encountered the majesty and holiness of God, has seen his own sinfulness and the wrath of God over his sin and he’s discovered the beauties of a Saviour who came lived a perfect life yet took his place, condemned and died for him, paying the penalty for his sins. Having discovered this, comes to a full understanding, then runs to the cross saying “save me or I die”.

So, what happens for one to come to such a place? God has chosen a people whom he will save. Those he has chosen or elected are those he’s predestinated, which is kind of saying the same thing. Rom. 8:30 “And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” The God who predestined, also called. All those he predestined, he called. All those he called, he justified and all those he justified he glorified; beautiful chain of salvation!

1. The Problem: Natural Man is Dead and Unable to Come to God… [Eph. 2:1-3]

Looking at v.1 of Eph. 2:1-3 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” All of us, in our natural state without Christ, we are dead. Now, do you know who a dead person is? A dead person is… dead. There’s no life. All people without Christ, although on the outside appear to be really alive, are spiritually dead. Without Christ, we are at best, the walking dead!

But here is something, we were dead but not inactive. We were dead to the things of God… No appetite for anything relating to God but very much active in everything anti-God. We were dead in trespasses and sin; we crossed the boundary and kept pushing the boundary to see how far we could go. Like warning a child “don’t touch” but they not only ask “why?” but keep touching. We were very active in sinning v. 2 we walked in them. Like on a rainy day, walking with your child and there’s a puddle of water and you try to walk where there’s no mud. But your child runs right into the muddy puddle and jumps in it. That’s how we walked in sin. Like a pig running from the pigsty into mud and wallowing in it. We actively sinned and liked it! 

Being dead, there was a force from outside that influenced us v.3 We followed the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, still at work today. We were influenced by Satan. But there was also the influence from within; we lived in the passions of our flesh and carried out the desires of the body and mind. None of us can say “Satan made me do it”, no we gladly did it. We had passions that drove us like a hungry hyena that has smelled blood running to get a bite of the carcass. Like a 25 year old young man with a noisy Subaru Impreza wondering how a demio can overtake him, he drives faster to overtake it until he drives past his home. 

Here’s the last thing about our being dead, the end of v.3 “[we] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” That’s the last nail to the casket… children of wrath. God’s just judgement was not only on us but it owned us, we were its children. Friends, this is the state of anyone who is not saved… children of God’s wrath. If you are a Christian, you are in big trouble… but there’s a solution for you, you can move from being a child or wrath to being a child of God… trust in Jesus who has drank God’s wrath that is yours and given you life.

The problem we have is that we think we are good people. We think we are not that bad. Yes, we are sinners but you know we do good things. Friend, our sin runs so deep, we’ve been so much affected, infected and infested with sin that even the good things we do are sinful. In fact, as someone said, even when we repent, we still need to repent of our repentance. Friend, do you see how sinful you are! 

No wonder Jesus says in John 6:44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” There’s no single individual who can come to Jesus. No one can by their sheer willpower or choice come to God. Why?  Because we are sinners who are totally unable to come to God. We inherited the sinful nature that is in rebellion against God. We are totally depraved; every fibre of our being has been ruined such that all that is there in us is sin…

• Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
• Gen. 6:5 “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
• Jer. 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked…”

Oh, friend, never for a moment think that you are a good person. Some of you hear me say this and you look at yourself and think “I am not that bad”. But let me ask you, according to who’s definition of good and bad do you use to measure yourself? If it’s other people, mmmh, maybe… but if it’s God, the infinitely holy God, saying you are good is like a prisoner convicted of murder telling the judge how good he is and there’s no justification for him to be sentenced to life imprisonment. This is who you were without Christ. Is this how you see yourself?