1689.10.2 pub

TOWRITE: Chapter 10.2 The Calling of God Outside of Us #71

src/confession-1689/1689-10-2-the-calling-of-god-outside-of-us.md

@@ -18,14 +18,26 @@
 
 >Ephesians 2:8 (CSB) For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
 
-TODO: 
+In other words, God has not seen down the corridors of time and seen that we would choose him, and then called us.  Likewise, God has not seen those with soft tender hearts and then he decided, "I'll call them."
 
-- Calling of Isaac
-- Calling returns not void
-- not irrevocable
-- not looking down the corridors of time
-- Eph 2:8 D-all of the above
-- 
+>Romans 8:29 (CSB) For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
+
+In fact, the Bible never says he foresaw but rather, he foreknew. What did he foreknew in us? That we were good?
+
+>Romans 3:10-12 (CSB)  
+>There is no one righteous, not even one.  
+>There is no one who understands;  
+>there is no one who seeks God.  
+>All have turned away;  
+>all alike have become worthless.  
+>There is no one who does what is good,  
+>not even one.
+
+What does God know about all who were born of Adam?
+
+>Romans 3:23 (CSB) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
+
+What God knows about each of us born of Adam--that is the entire human race--that we were running from him, we denied him, we hated him and wanted nothing from him.
 
 ### being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit;
 
@@ -35,12 +47,90 @@ TODO:
 
 >John 5:25 (CSB) “Truly I tell you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
 
-TODO: Expound John 11 The Calling of Lazarus
+What God knows about that us is that we are dead because of sin. What he knew about us is that we were good as a valley filled with dry bones.
+
+It is no coincidence that the book of Ezekiel is bookend with the gospel of Christ in chapters 11 and 36:
+
+>Ezekiel 36:24-30 (CSB) “ ‘For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. <bgy>I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.</bgy> I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not bring famine on you. I will also make the fruit of the trees and the produce of the field plentiful, so that you will no longer experience reproach among the nations on account of famine.
+
+After God declares the his great and mighty gospel, what is the first example he gives to Ezekiel? The Valley of Dry Bones.
+
+God takes the prophet Ezekiel out to the middle of some forsaken valley filled with the dry bones. No sinews. No tendons. No guts. No skin. Devoid of life completely.
+
+God turns to his prophet and asks:
+
+>"Son of man, can these bones live?"
+
+Look at what God commands Ezekiel to do:
+
+>Ezekiel 37:4-6 (CSB) He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you will live. I will put tendons on you, make flesh grow on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you so that you come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”
 
 ### he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, and that by no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead.
 
 >Ephesians 1:19–20 (CSB) and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—
 
-TODO: The response of being raised from the dead
+>Isaiah 55:11 (CSB) so my word that comes from my mouth will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I please and will prosper in what I send it to do.”
+
+From the moment sin entered into the world, death started its vile, cruel work by turning everything light into darkness. Seemingly so, God steps into the fray like he will so many times, and he calls to Adam and Eve:
+
+>Genesis 3:15 (CSB) I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
+
+God has called you! Do you believe?
+
+>Genesis 3:21 (CSB) The LORD God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them.
+
+God has declared the gospel to a pagan heathen named Abram:
+
+>Genesis 12:1-3 (CSB) The LORD said to Abram:  
+>Go from your land,  
+>your relatives,  
+>and your father’s house  
+>to the land that I will show you.  
+>I will make you into a great nation,  
+>I will bless you,  
+>I will make your name great,  
+>and you will be a blessing.  
+>I will bless those who bless you,  
+>I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,  
+>and all the peoples on earth  
+>will be blessed through you.
+
+God has called you! Do you believe?
+
+>Genesis 15:6 (CSB) Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
+
+The gospel is proclaimed to the valley filled with the shadow of death--filled with the skeletons who apart from God are dead and under his wrath forever:
+
+>**Son of man, can these bones live?**
+
+What is dead's response?
+
+>Ezekiel 37:7-8 (CSB) So I prophesied as I had been commanded. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. As I looked, tendons appeared on them, flesh grew, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
+
+God has called you! Do you believe?
+
+>Ezekiel 37:9-10 (CSB) He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man. Say to it: This is what the Lord GOD says: Breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these slain so that they may live! ” So I prophesied as he commanded me; the breath entered them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army.
+
+The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Living Word, the Blessed Redeemer, the Messiah and the Savior of the world, condescended from his perfect communion with the Father and Spirit, into our broken world and sin-filled existence and steps into not to avoid death but looked into the face of death and said:
+
+>John 11:41-43 (CSB) ... Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.”
+>
+>After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, **“Lazarus, come out! ”**
+
+What is dead's response?
+
+>John 11:44 (CSB) The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. 
+
+God has called you! Do you believe?
+
+>Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.”
+
+God only calls the dead and not alive. Christ has come for the unrighteous and sinful, not the righteous. Jesus is here for those who are sick and dying in our sins and so desperately need to live!
+
+>Romans 10:13 (CSB) For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
+
+God has called you! Do you believe?
+
+>Romans 10:17 (CSB) So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
 
-I tell you these things so that you joy may be complete. (John 15:11)
+My beloved, I tell you things so that you might live and not die! I tell you these things that you might believe and be saved! I tell you these things so that you joy may be complete!