What does God do in the lives of his elect? By Bill Clark

1992 Soverign Grace Family Conference Session 8

Now, in this session, I want to draw your attention to some of the verses that we read together a few moments ago from 1 Peter chapter 1.
Now, what I'm saying to you during this conference, you might not recognize a plan and pattern in it, but I hope you will as we get towards the end in the fourth session tomorrow.
The first time I spoke to you, you remember we spoke from Romans chapter 1, thinking about evangelism, thinking about the responsibility which we have in the world in which we live.
And when we looked at Romans chapter 1, we looked at the message which we had to proclaim, the eternal gospel and the message which God has entrusted to us to proclaim to the world in which we live.
Then we went down from there last night to look at God's work in the heart of sinners of his elect through the proclamation of that message.
We proclaimed the message, God does his work.
Christ met with that elect woman beside the well.
We saw that from John chapter 4, and we were fed in passing to how God led Stephen to...
It wasn't Stephen, who was it who preached the Ethiopian eunuch?
Philip.
Philip, of course it was.
God led Philip to preach the Ethiopian eunuch in the wilderness, a man there in a desert on a road about 170 kilometers long, a man he had never met.
Just go there.
I'm not telling you where, I'm not telling you who it is.
You've never seen him before, but God led the two of them together.
And that's what he does, you know.
God leads those of us who he has called, but every one of us leads us to his elect.
So we noticed the work of God is bringing his elect to himself, convicting and convincing.
Now, today, I want to talk to you a little bit, Father, after the message, after God's
work leading us to the people and bringing it to himself, what we should look for as
a result of God's work in the lives of his people, if his elect, when he brings them
to himself.
And tomorrow, in the will of the Lord, I hope to spend the time looking at the servant of
God himself.
Now, let's look at this subject today.
What does God do in the lives of his elect?
When the preacher, the witness, the servant of God goes and presents the gospel to the
unconverted as he has called us to do, what do we look for?
What results are we looking for?
Now, let us remind ourselves of that verse which we have in, well, those couple of verses
we have in Matthew 7, verse 21 to 23.
Now, these are heart searching verses that I always keep before me, friends.
I find that these verses give me, well, sometimes they make my blood run cold, but they certainly
keep me on my toes as to what I'm looking for in the preaching of the gospel of God's
grace.
We've looked at these verses before and we ought to keep them constantly before us.
People standing before God in the judgment.
Christ says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, no matter how piously they say
that, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.
But he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, it's not just saying, it's doing.
He will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, do it again, have we not prophesied in your
name, cast out demons in your name and done many wonders in your name, remarkable things
in the name of Christ, notice it in the name of Christ, not in the name of someone else
in the name of Christ, prophesying, casting out demons, many wonders, then Christ has
something to say, Christ has something to say, says then I will declare to them, I never
knew you.
What terrible words to hear, what terrible words to hear, I never knew you.
Oh, yes, we've got many people in the world today who make professions of faith, just
like these people in Matthew chapter seven.
They will say, Lord, Lord, they will say, yes, Christ is my Lord.
And they will have a spiritual vocabulary, which they are very fond of using.
They will be people who will be involved in Christian work, perhaps spectacular Christian
work.
They may even be medical workers.
Friends, being a medical worker is no sign of a relationship with Christ.
And that's what that passage is saying.
I know many people in pagan religions in Africa and elsewhere don't even profess to be Christian
who can speak in tongues and do miracles.
And when we look upon that as being a sign of true spirituality, there are many people
in the world today, you know, who look like Christians, talk like Christians, live like
Christians.
And when we look upon them, we say, well, we've no reason to suspect they're not a Christian.
That's as far as we go.
You know, when I baptize people, I always say, I don't know whether this person is a
child of God or not.
I cannot tell.
They know and God knows.
I can only baptize on profession of faith, credible profession of faith.
Yes, I look for signs.
I look for evidences.
And that's what we're going to look at this morning.
But a true child of God is not just simply someone who calls on the Lord, who says, Lord,
Lord, who lives a religious life, who is involved in Christian activity, even in an evangelical
church, even in Grinstall Street Church.
Let's remember that, friends.
What do we look for when God deals with a sinner?
Well, I want to point out some things this morning, what to look for when God deals with
a sinner.
And the first thing we'll see is in verse 17.
Now, here is Peter writing to these dispersed Christians.
We've always got to remember who he's talking to.
These were people who at the time of the great persecution which came upon the church in
Jerusalem had to get up and leave their homes, probably leave leave families, certainly leave
belongings, leave the fellowship of the church, lead the oversight of the elders and the and
the apostles who were there in that Jerusalem church, and simply because they were children
of God and this great persecution came about after the stoning of Stephen, you can read
about it and the actually apostles and the apostle Paul was involved in it.
He was involved in it.
And the Christians were scattered and Paul, when he was converted, was on his way to Damascus
where some of these Christians had fled, you see, to persecute them even more.
And here was Peter writing to these people in this epistle.
This is called a general epistle, but it was written to those people who were dispersed.
How would you encourage people who had suffered persecution?
What would you say to them if you wrote to them?
Look what Peter does in the first couple of verses.
He says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, there's my authority sent by Christ to the
pilgrims of the dispersion and look at the scattering, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia,
Bithynia, the whole of Turkey and the Middle East.
Now, this is how he encourages them.
He says, elect, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the sanctification of
the Spirit for the obedience and the springing of the blood of Christ.
He reminds them of their election and of God's dealings with them and of the application
of the blood of Christ to their hearts.
He reminds them of what God has done for them and in them.
That's the greatest encouragement.
And some of us, you know, dear friends, we find ourselves in difficult circumstances,
up against persecution and obstacles and problems.
Let us remind ourselves that God has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world and God has redeemed us and made us his.
Now, writing to these people, come now down to verse 17, what does Peter say to these
people concerning these evidences that they are truly elect?
The first one is that they call on the Father, you see what he says?
And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's
work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear.
If you call on the Father, now that little word if, it can be used in two ways.
It can be used to express doubt.
For example, I would say, if you were to go to Newcastle, you'd find the Sovereign Grace
Conference there.
If, perhaps, you might, or I would say, if you go there, you'll find it.
If you go there, you'll find it.
It's right there in Newcastle.
Now, that's the way this is used here.
If you call upon the name of the Lord, of the Father, which you do, which you do, if
you call upon the name of the Lord, if you're one of these people, you see how it can be
used in that sense?
If you call upon one of these people, if you call upon the name of the Lord, you're one
of those who do, then it's the first part of a two-part sentence starting with a fact
and leading on to the consequence.
If you call upon the Father, now that is a sign of a true child of God.
There is no doubt about it.
A child of God is one who calls upon the Father.
Note the word which is used, Father, and that is denoting a personal, intimate relationship.
There's only one person in the world that you can call Father, legitimately.
I know that there are adoptive fathers, but really, biologically, there is only one person
in the world who is our Father.
Here we have this personal, intimate, and unique relationship with God Almighty, God
Almighty, the creator of the earth, the one who is a God of providence, the one on whose
hands, as we heard this morning, are the leaders of the world and the leaders of our nations,
the one who rose sovereign over all of mankind, whether they admit it or not, whether they
like it or not, the fact is there, that is the God who is our Father.
That does not thrill yourself, doesn't it?
That is the God with whom the true believer has got a personal and intimate relationship.
The apostle Paul puts this in a very homely way.
You say homely here or homely?
Homely.
Well, you know what I mean.
If I said that in America, it would be grossly misunderstood.
Homely in America means ugly.
But in Romans chapter 8 verses 14 and 15, here's what Paul says, for as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, the children of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit
of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Daddy, Father.
A bit farther on in Galatians chapter 4, we see a similar thing.
Well, Galatians chapter 4 verse 6, it's all through the scripture as you know.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born
under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption
as sons, sons in the family of God.
Here we have this wonderful, intimate, and personal relationship of the child of God
with his heavenly Father.
Now, what does that mean?
What does that mean?
Well, it means three things.
Let me give them to you.
First of all, it means that we have been begotten of God, begotten of God.
You know what that word means, it's used frequently in scripture, that we are made his children.
We have passed by a new birth.
We are new creatures, just as we were begotten of our earthly Father, so we have been begotten
by God.
Now, this is something which is just as radical in the life of a believer as his first birth.
It's a radical change.
It's a radical change.
It's been born again, and those are scriptural passages and scriptural references.
That's what Christ said to Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you've got to be born again.
Now, Nicodemus understood in one sense what he was saying.
He said, how can I be born again?
That's something which, that can only happen once.
How can I be born twice?
Well, we are born twice.
It's just as radical an experience in the life of someone as his birth, and indeed the
person is just as active in his second birth as he was in the first, and that's not very
active.
God does it.
God does it.
Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, new creation.
Now, what do we mean by creation?
When God created, what did he do?
He made something from nothing, and that's exactly what God does in the new birth.
He makes something from nothing, something from nothing.