Predestination and Calling
No. 241-5:129. A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, March 6, 1859, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
Moreover whom he predestinated, these he also called. {Romans 8:30}
1. The great book of God’s decrees is securely sealed against the curiosity of man. Vain man would be wise; he would break its seven seals, and read the mysteries of eternity. But this cannot be; the time has not yet come when the book shall be opened, and even then the seals shall not be broken by mortal hand, but it shall be said, “The lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the book and break its seven seals.”
Eternal Father, who shall look
Into your secret will?
None but the Lamb shall take the book,
And open every seal.
No one except he shall ever unroll that sacred record and read it to the assembled world. How then am I to know whether I am predestinated by God to eternal life or not? It is a question in which my eternal interests are involved; am I among that unhappy number who shall be left to live in sin and reap the due reward of their iniquity; or do I belong to that goodly company, who albeit that they have sinned shall nevertheless be washed in the blood of Christ, and shall walk the golden streets of paradise in white robes? Until this question is answered my heart cannot rest, for I am intensely anxious about it. My eternal destiny concerns me infinitely more than all the affairs of time. Tell me, oh, tell me, if you know, seers and prophets, is my name recorded in that book of life? Am I one of those who are ordained to eternal life, or am I to be left to follow my own lusts and passions, and to destroy my own soul? Oh! man, there is an answer for your enquiry; the book cannot be opened, but God himself has published many of its pages. He has not published the page where the actual names of the redeemed are written; but that page of the sacred decree where their character is recorded is published in his Word, and shall be proclaimed to you this day. The sacred record of God’s hand is this day published everywhere under heaven, and he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to him. Oh my hearer, by your name I do not know you, and by your name God’s Word does not declare you, but by your character you may read your name; and if you have been a partaker of the calling which is mentioned in the text, then may you conclude beyond a doubt that you are among the predestinated — “For whom he predestinated, these he also called.” And if you are called, it follows as a natural inference you are predestinated.
2. Now, in considering this solemn subject, let me remark that there are two kinds of callings mentioned in the Word of God. The first is the general call, which is in the gospel sincerely given to everyone who hears the word. The duty of the minister is to call souls to Christ, he is to make no distinction whatever — “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” The trumpet of the gospel sounds aloud to every man in our congregations — “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and he who has no money; come, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” {Isaiah 55:1} “To you, oh men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.” {Proverbs 8:4} This call is sincere on God’s part; but man by nature is so opposed to God, that this call is never effectual, for man disregards it, turns his back upon it, and goes his way, caring for none of these things. But note, although this call is rejected, man is without excuse in the rejection; the universal call has in it such authority, that the man who will not obey it shall be without excuse in the day of judgment. When you are commanded to believe and repent, when you are exhorted to flee from the wrath to come, the sin lies on your own head if you despise the exhortation, and reject the command. And this solemn text drops an awful warning: “How shall you escape, if you neglect so great a salvation.” But I repeat it, this universal call is rejected by man; it is a call, but it is not attended with divine force and energy of the Holy Spirit in such a degree as to make it an unconquerable call, consequently men perish, even though they have the universal call of the gospel ringing in their ears. The bell of God’s house rings every day, sinners hear it, but they put their fingers in their ears, and go their way, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise, and though they are bidden and are called to the wedding, {Luke 14:16-18} yet they will not come, and by not coming they incur God’s wrath, and he declares of such, — “None of those men who were bidden shall taste of my supper.” {Luke 14:24} The call of our text is of a different kind; it is not a universal call, it is a special, particular, personal, discriminating, efficacious, unconquerable, call. This call is sent to the predestinated, and to them only; they by grace hear the call, obey it, and receive it. These are the ones who can now say, “Draw us, and we will run after you.”
3. In preaching about this call this morning, I shall divide my sermon into three brief parts. — First, I shall give illustrations of the call; second, we shall come to examine whether we have been called; and then third, what delightful consequences flow from it. Illustration, examination, consolation.
4. I. First, then, for ILLUSTRATION. In illustrating the effectual call of grace, which is given to the predestinated ones, I must first use the picture of Lazarus. Do you see that stone rolled at the mouth of the sepulchre? The stone must be well secured, for within the sepulchre there is a putrid corpse. The sister of that corrupt body stands at the side of the tomb, and she says, “Lord, by this time he stinks, for he has been dead four days.” This is the voice of reason and of nature. Martha is correct; but by Martha’s side there stands a man who, despite all his lowliness, is very God of very God. “Roll away the stone,” he says, and it is done; and now, listen to him; he cries, “Lazarus, come forth!” that cry is directed to a putrefied mass, to a body that has been dead four days, and in which the worms have already held carnival; but, strange to say, from that tomb there comes a living man; that mass of corruption has been quickened into life, and out he comes, wrapped with graveclothes, and having a napkin around his head. “Loose him and let him go,” says the Redeemer; and then he walks in all the liberty of life. The effectual call of grace is precisely similar; the sinner is dead in sin; he is not only in sin but dead in sin, without any power whatever to give to himself the life of grace. No, he is not only dead, but he is corrupt; his lusts, like the worms, have crept into him, a foul stench rises up into the nostrils of Justice, God abhors him, and Justice cries, “Bury the dead out of my sight, cast it into the fire, let it be consumed.” Sovereign Mercy comes, and there lies this unconscious, lifeless mass of sin; Sovereign Grace cries, either by the minister, or else directly without any agency, by the Spirit of God, “come forth!” and that man lives. Does he contribute anything to his new life? Not he; his life is given solely by God. He was dead, absolutely dead, rotten in his sin; the life is given when the call comes, and, in obedience to the call, the sinner comes forth from the grave of his lust, begins to live a new life, even the life eternal, which Christ gives to his sheep.
5. “Well,” one cries, “but what are the words which Christ uses when he calls a sinner from death?” Why the Lord may use any words. It was not long ago there came into this hall, a man who was without God and without Christ, and the simple reading of the hymn —
Jesus lover of my soul,
was the means of his quickening. He said within himself, “Does Jesus love me? then I must love him,” and he was quickened in that very same hour. The words which Jesus uses are various in different cases. I trust that even while I am speaking this morning, Christ may speak with me, and some word that may fall from my lips, unpremeditated and almost without design, shall be sent by God as a message of life to some dead and corrupt heart here, and some man who has lived in sin so far, shall now live for righteousness, and live for Christ. That is the first illustration I will give you of what is meant by effectual calling. It finds the sinner dead, it gives
