This morning I got a telephone call from my good friend George and when my good friend George called me on the telephone since we we installed a brand new telephone system I think today What he heard on the other end of the line was hello Hello, George is this George you there? And what I heard on the other end of the line was not George, but a woman talking about how she was going to take her son to basketball practice And this woman clearly couldn't hear me because I was saying hello and she proceeded undaunted through her end of the conversation Though I so I know whoever this woman is. She's picking up her son from practice at seven o'clock So if you think about it during that time pray for her traveling mercies But what we're gonna look about tonight is we're gonna ask the question Really is that ever happened to God? Has God ever dropped a call When God calls us How does it work? How do we come to faith in Jesus Christ does he simply Ring us on the telephone line and hope that we'll answer Or does God's God's phone call through us and through our work of evangelism? Does that get through to people? How does that work? Well Welcome back. We've had some time away on Wednesday nights. So we want to review. Welcome back anybody. No No, no welcome back Carter Fans oh and also as we review here and take a moment to review I want to point out too that all these Wednesday night talks are actually on the website I've told that maybe we missed one along the way, but we they're all on there if you just click on the audio section of our website Tim Sermons are all on there whoever preached on Sundays on there and then also a Wednesday nights on there So if you missed any of these you want to get caught up you can certainly go go check it out first press Tyrion.com Okay, when we started this series last semester Tim began our study of basic Christianity by looking really the most important book That any of us have as Christians and I would say the most important book ever written and produced and it's the Bible We talked about how the Bible is reliable We talked about how it's necessary and how it contains everything that we really need to know about sin About our salvation about God the nature of who he is We looked then in the following weeks about who God is who the Bible reveals God to be He is Trinity father son and Holy Spirit remember we talked about that We talked about some of his in-communicable attributes those attributes that God has that We do not share in God is invisible. We are visible He is immutable. That means he he's unchangeable. He does not mutate. We change often. So He's immutable. We are mutable. He is eternal We will have ever lasting life but our life did have a beginning It will have no end, but it did have a beginning. God had no beginning or end God is omniscient. He knows all and I would venture to say that we are Less than omniscient in many many things. I can barely remember my wife's grossly list that she gives me So I am clearly a not omniscient Then God also has communicable Attributes now these are attributes that are perfect in God and are also present in us in an imperfect way By virtue of the fact that we were created in the image of God. So for example God is creative Many of you are creative your artists or singers or woodworkers or you create computer programs or you you know write letters to people that are creative God is love. He is love in himself and we reflect that in an imperfect way But we reflect that love as well. God is merciful. We are to show mercy to one another as well So those are communicable attributes And if you want to those are a few of them. If you want a complete list Westminster Confession of faith chapter two has just a ton of them and the shorter catechism Number four has has some with some scripture references. I'm just encouraging if you're really interested looking for something to meditate on Maybe in your quiet time in the morning Maybe pull some of the scripture verses out and just pick a couple of them to meditate on. It's just incredible I got to say the the most mind-blowing class I ever took in seminary was a class called the doctrine of God Where we looked at just some of the characteristics of God and the Trinity I just remember sitting in that class my professor was a friend and he would always laugh because I'd just be sitting at the end of that class Just in a haze Just saying this is just so amazing You know when you're really begin to think about who God is in and of himself Man, it'll blow your mind. It'll change your world So these are just a couple of them, but we talked about those a little bit more at length when Tim lectured on that We also talked about who we are We are God's creatures We are created in God's image as I just said the that's sometimes called the Amago day The image of God that means that we don't physically look like God, but that we reflect characteristics of who he is We are originally given a free choice to live and write relationship with God or to rebel against him That was part of the Genesis one through three story where God said here you are Here's the garden you can do anything in this, but don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good evil as we see Adam and Eve did do that and as a consequence the second half of who we are after the fall is that we're falling Through the sin of Adam we inherited a sinful nature Which causes us to commit sins against a holy God Part of what that means is that since we have a sinful nature our bent is towards sin I think as good illustration as you can find about this is you have children in your life whether they're your own or your Nesus or nephews you know you don't need to teach them to do naughty things You need to teach them the right things to do now. They'll do some nice things on their own too But you're gonna spend most of your time saying no hold on we don't do that Conversely, we do do this. We don't hit we do hug that that's They don't need to watch a TV show to learn how to hit one another that's part of this sinful nature And separated from a holy God by our sin we are liable to death physical death in this world and ultimately To judgment part of what we talked about is that sin requires payment and there's sometimes it's it said well Why why can't God simply just forgive us and and and have no penalty for sin? Well, I think that shows and reflects sort of a Limited understanding of what forgiveness involves Whenever there's forgiveness someone pays a price either you pay the price in forgiveness or the person pays the price in Judgment but someone always pays a price if I back my car out of my driveway and I knocked down Raymond's mailbox He can forgive me, but his mailbox is still knocked down and so either he will pay the price by not receiving mail any longer Or he will pay the price by putting up a new mailbox or I will pay the price and by buying him a new one and putting it up for him But someone has to pay a price And so we by virtue of our sin are separated from God and the temporal price that we pay is an end to our earthly life and The ultimate price is separation from God and The presence of God's punishment for us in Now we talked about how God responds then to the fall that's quite a dilemma here We're separated from a holy God by sin God responds to the fall through a loving covenant where he promises to save a people Out of fallen humanity Genesis 3 Genesis 12 Ezekiel 37 some of the passages that talk about how God says I Promise that though you have sinned I will intervene on your behalf And I will provide a path to salvation through Jesus Christ now this is revealed very simply at first If you look at that first one in Genesis 3 15 the verse is I will put enmity between you and the woman and I'm gonna. I'm not quote it exactly right, but I will send an offspring of you Eve the woman and he will crush Satan's head and He will be bruised in the process you Satan will bruise his heel So the very kind of early shadow of the gospel that gets progressively clearer and sort of builds through a Crescendo to when Jesus comes he reads some of those passages and says today This is fulfilled in your presence the kingdom of God has arrived So that that's a part of his plan of salvation. We talked a little bit about that too And this takes place through mediator who is God's own son Jesus Christ for Timothy 2.5 There's one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus and Hebrews 12 really the whole book of Hebrews is a great reference for that too Jesus lived the life that That we should have lived and he died the death that we deserve to die So that we might enter the kingdom of God experience everlasting celebration and joy. That's that's right at a John 3 Just a great passage about God's love for us in Jesus Christ Okay, so with that as sort of the background of the things that we have studied leading up to this point tonight Here's our question If we are spiritually dead as Ephesians 2 verse 1 tells us And by virtue of our sinful nature hostile to God How does the message of salvation that is objectively true become subjectively true? How does God plant the seed of the gospel in our hearts? The gospel is true in and of itself, but how does it become true for you? How does that start to you be implanted within you so that you start to grow and change and love God more? How does that happen? Well the short answer is this God calls sinners We become Christians in response to God's call Mark 1 verse 14 and 15 now after John was arrested Jesus came into Galilee Proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand And then he calls them he says repent and believe in the gospel You see that how Jesus came to call sinners to To faith and Romans 10 14 and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So we become Christians out of response to the call of God directly through Jesus Christ in the time where he was living and walking on this earth And secondarily now through people preaching the gospel that could come formally through a sermon That's preached from a pulpit and it often comes that way and sometimes it could come over a cup of coffee in your living room As you open the word of God to someone, but those are part of the call of God. That's how that that happens So how does God's call work? Well the general call of the gospel goes out to all people without distinction That's the first half of the call the general call You see this in passages like Isaiah 55 Come everyone who thirsts come to the waters and he who has no money come buy and eat Come buy wine and milk without money and without price do you hear that repeated refrain come Come and it's made to all people come come So you can see this also in that the general call To repent and believe the gospel which Jesus preached over and over again And it's really that the main impetus for all the sermons in the book of Acts It's people that are being called to believe
Now here's a question for you Why does some people respond to the general call of the gospel? Well others don't Have you ever shared the gospel with someone? Are you is anyone here batting a thousand In sharing the gospel and if you are Come see me later because you're probably one for one or two for two Because if you share the gospel with enough people There's some people that just don't respond to God's call or maybe they do later on in life and you never see it But why is that? Is it is an affirmative response based on the the quality of our gospel presentation? Our humor maybe our oratory ability if we're making a big speech to someone Maybe our logic that we can really you know argue someone in and sort of disprove their their points and really get in there with it Is in a affirmative response to the gospel based on whether or not we have a compelling testimony or conversion story I just included this picture because I talked about it a sermon one time and I want you all to see it's a real thing Remember the power team those guys they give their testimony they shatter some bats. I love those guys um Is an affirmative response based on that because I've really never been able to smash large blocks of ice with my head Um, if I sometimes as a kid wish that could because man That would give me a real good response for people is that is that what brings them in? Um is the general call like planting a field this has been suggested by some of the angelists If you do it right it'll work every time It's it's the the measures the new measures and if you do this right just like farming you plant that seed you water it right You're going to get a crop is is that how it works Well, if even though we might be tempted to think about that think about that way if it's all about our technique We're left with the very unsettling conclusion and now here this if it's all about technique We're left with the very unsettling conclusion that Jesus wasn't a very good evangelist Now if if you if your Presuppositions lead you to that conclusion. Let me suggest that you are on the wrong track Jesus for example lost one out of 12 of his closest followers One out of three of Jesus most inner circle James John and Peter One of those guys Peter denied Jesus when it mattered the most one out of three In John six Jesus preached a sermon that would make most church growth experts and ministry consultants Break out into a cold sweat Listen to what he says. This is what we call this the the church shrinkage sermon John six when many of his disciples heard it they said this is a hard saying who can listen to it After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him Has there ever been a greater evangelist than Jesus Christ himself? So why when he preached to people did some respond to the gospel while others turned away
Well, if it's not about our choice to respond because we're dead and sin and it's not about the quality of the call Why isn't this some respond while others know well the Bible teaches that the elect to respond to the general Call of the gospel because of the effectual call Of the Holy Spirit and we're going to unpack that a little bit. What what is the effectual call
The effectual call is effectual Because it produces in the elect the effect the Holy Spirit intends it to produce New birth and everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ it achieves its desired effect And we got a lot of effects and effects in there So if you're grammar police you can check and see if I did it right. I think so If you're listening to this on the internet, I did it right and no one is disputing This is really clear and it passage like Romans 829 and 30 you'll you'll see this out works I drew a couple little arrows in there because that helps me see the flow of what they're talking about Obviously, that's a little editorial license there Paul writes for those whom he for new He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son In order that he might be the first born among many brothers And those whom he predestined he also called And those whom he called he also justified And those whom he justified he also glorified You see that the effectual call is given to the elect in order that they that those who got his foreknown Those people will hear the call be justified and glorified Ephesians 2 1 through 5 another passage relating to And Paul writes and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked Now that's that's our starting point dead, okay? That's that's where Paul says we started before we had new life in Christ So if we're if we're dead How are we going to respond to the call the gospel? Um my my back in the old days they used to have They used to have Graviards outside of churches and my dad was teaching on this and he had a particularly obstinate person that he was teaching So he took him out there to the graveyard and he said you start calling these people and you come back inside when one of them responds Uh and uh he never did They're they're still in the grave. So that's that's our starting point, okay? And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked Following the course of this world Following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that has now worked in the sons of disobedience So not only dead you could even say We were active in our opposition to God So not only not only were where we dead is sort of a state of being We were on we were on the devil's team Okay That's that's how far our ledger was on the other side Um and it says among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh Carrying out the desires of the body in the mind and we're by nature Remember that sinful nature we talked about by nature Children of wrath like the rest of mankind and then these two crucial words two of the most beautiful words That you will ever find in all of scripture But God But God Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us Because of the quality of the presentation Because it's like farming no Because of the great love with which he loved us Even when we were dead in our trespasses Made us alive together with Christ By grace you have been saved So the effectual call is the call of the Holy Spirit that produces the desired effect which is rebirth New life and that comes not Because we were smart enough to figure it out Not because we were discipled by somebody who was a rock star evangelist Though if you were praise God that's good I'm not saying that we should not encourage people to do this well But ultimately If you are sitting under the teaching of the greatest evangelist on earth There are many many people that have gone to Billy Graham crusades and have heard him preach on TV Never repented and believed There are many many that did thanks be to God But it's not based on the quality of the person it's based on the Holy Spirit who's working on people Okay Now how does the effectual call come to us sort of in a tangible way We sort of talked about how that that comes to us from God But what form does that call take well the effectual call comes through the word and through the spirit That's the second Thessalonians to 13 and 14 But we are always to give thanks to God for you brothers be loved by the Lord Because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification By the spirit and belief in the truth To this he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ Do you see how the call comes it comes by the spirit and belief in the truth From the gospel that was preached to them
Now how do we know if the Holy Spirit has effectually called us How do we know that Well the effectual call first of all enlightens our minds to understand the things of God First Corinthians 2 verse 12 says now we have received not the spirit of the world But the spirit who's from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God Now that does not mean that if you've received the effectual call that you will know God Exhaustively and completely we talked earlier in one of Tim's talks. He talks about the In incomprehensibility of God we cannot completely comprehend him now. We can understand him but I think that in this life in our fallen world that knowing God will always be a little bit like Holding a ball in your hand a sphere or globe. Let's say you're holding a globe in your hand You can really only see a circle Now the other side of the globe is there But once you you turn it to look at the other side Well, you no longer saw the the first side that you saw do you see that we can understand things about God We can know who God is truly, but we can never fully see All sides of the sphere at the same time Once we're looking at the west side the east side is out of our view once we're looking at the north side We're missing the south side and so we continually that's why we continually study God's word Because he reveals to us more and more and and I would say too that The times in my life and maybe you've noticed this as well where where we find ourselves really seeing More of God than we should be able to see with our own rational mind Happens in worship That's why when we worship We get little glimpses of God where we begin to see More of the sphere that's sort of beyond the reach of our human eye It's somewhat of a mystery, which is why it's a spiritual call so The Holy Spirit it lightens our minds to understand the things of God The the Bible often describes this aspect of the official will call by saying that God has given us new eyes to understand the things of God that's a common way of speaking of it Ephesians 1 17 and 18 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory May give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him Having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he's called you What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? So the effectual call enlightens our minds so that we can begin to understand the things of God there There are many people who read the Bible who are brilliant people Who intelligent scientists intelligent theologians and historians and experts in all sort of fields and they will Read it and it will simply make no sense to them Or they will actively oppose it and reject the ideas of the scriptures It takes the working of the Holy Spirit And so if he's affectionately called you You're going to begin to Understand more and more about who God is and what his plan of salvation and grace is all about Okay, how else how do we know if the Holy Spirit is affectionately called us The effectual call also in livens our hearts so that we begin to love God and others deeply So it's not simply a knowledge of who God is but it's a growing affection in us where we begin to love others and love God deeply Ezekiel 36 26 and 27 talks about this As God giving us a new heart God says and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you And I will remove the heart of stone From your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you notice this Giving us a new heart is sort of part and parcel of putting a new spirit within us And causing you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules And then a Deuteronomy 30 verse 6 and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart And the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul That you may live So do you see that how the call of the Holy Spirit produces a love in us It's not that we Begin to love God and then are acceptable to God because of our love for him It's actually the Holy Spirit who comes to us in the effectual call and creates a new heart in us Takes away our heart of stone puts a heart of flesh in us so that we do begin to love him more and we do begin to love others
The effectual the effectual call also renews our will So that we can now choose to do what is good and pleasing to God a Philippians 2 13 says For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So having been Receiving the effectual call means not only a new mind that understands the things of God not only a new heart That seeks to love God and love others more but also a new will Where we seek to follow after God The commands of God which perhaps at one time seems Seemed burdened burdened someone to us now become a great joy for us Read Psalm 119 it's the read you can read it in several sections made me read a couple every day It's a long longest psalm in all the the Bible along his chapter in all the Bible But it's about the law of God and really about how This person has had a new will put into their hearts by God to love him and to love his laws and to love his His word
Now Though the effectual call renews our minds It's important to remember that our calling is not to an idea Though the effectual call and livens our hearts our calling is not to an emotion And though the effectual call renews our wills our calling is not to a new morality
Our effectual calling is to a person It's our effectual calling is to the person of Jesus Christ John 644 and 45 Jesus says No one can come to me Unless the father who sent me draws him And I will raise him up on the last day It is written in the prophets and they will all be taught by God Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me So our calling is not merely To a new way of thinking or a new way of loving or even a new morality of doing It's to the person of Jesus Christ and it can never be separated from Christ and a sincere affection and love of him
Now how do we know the Holy Spirit is affectionately called us for continuing on here Because God's effectual calling of the elect is based on the riches of His mercy Affectual calling produces what I like to call intoxicating joy in believers Now let me support that with some scripture Less you call my elders and report me Song of Solomon 1 verse 4 Draw me after you let us run The king has brought me into his chambers We will exalt and rejoice in you We will extol your love more than wine Rightly do they love you So the effectual call produces in us just an incredible joy That we would be saved and brought from death in the life Not that God would come to us And help us have a little bit of a better life or help us to be a little bit better parents or to manage our money a little bit better We were brought from death to life and when you get that and when you really start to see and grasp The riches of God's grace and mercy it produces in you joy Joy Do you ever find yourself while you're worshiping just filled with joy Maybe when Tim is preaching and he drives home something about the gospel You can sometimes see his face change and his countenance change and maybe you see yourself or in someone else Just this great joy that overtakes you right I often find myself When I'm meditating on the grace of God in prayer as I do in the mornings I'll find I'll not without even noticing I'll stop praying and I'll just have kind of tears streaming down my eyes Because of just the overwhelming nature of what God has done for us and and this is the nature of the Holy Spirit's effectual call Now what about those who've never heard the general call for the gospel What about people from maybe from other countries who practice other religions Um, this is a good one. What about children who maybe die before they have the ability to comprehend the gospel message Um, how is it possible for us to receive this effectual call that we've been talking about If we've never received the general call or we are we seemingly never received that general call It seems that the effectual call flows from the general call So what about those who have never never heard either because of their age or geography? Well, let's look at some of these things The first part I want to talk about this is infants and effectual calling. I think this is a common question Um, elect infants who we believe that elect infants who die in infancy and or the womb through a miscarriage Um, we believe that they are regenerated or born again by Christ Through the Holy Spirit and the the Westminster Confession says it this way who works when where and how he pleases Let's unpack that a little bit Um, we're trying to understand how it is that infants Be saved if they've never they their brain can't wrap their mind around what the gospel message is maybe they're They die almost instantly after they're born maybe in the womb and they they never heard Well, we believe that they are saved by Christ through the Holy Spirit Um, who works in how he pleases in their life Um, one thing that we can trust for sure is that God has always loved children that something that we do know Um, Luke 18 15 and 16 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them And when the disciples saw it and they rebuked them but Jesus called them to him saying Let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God And so we hear in these words of Jesus Christ That the kingdom is not restricted to those Um, who can hear the gospel necessarily in a conventional way Um, elect infants who are loved by God They too can receive salvation How does this look exactly We don't know Uh, John 3 says the Holy Spirit blows Where he pleases he's like the wind we we don't know the exact mind of God and how he Works but we do know That at base uh, Jesus Christ is a Messiah who loves children Uh, this is echoed in Acts 2 38 and 39 where uh, Peter says that the promises of the Holy Spirit are to be both for adults and for children Uh, I Are you this too now? I think this is a good thing to consider too I think that the the Bible often allows us to make the very strong presumption That the children of believers are part of God's covenant people and will be saved if they die in infancy Now where do I get that strong presumption? There's an interesting passage um, that we find in 2nd Samuel 12 Um, I'll sort of read the setup to this um David's son Was was sick in dying in infancy And he was tremendously dismayed at this he um, wept and he warned and he fasted and he prayed and then We come to this passage then his servant said to him What is this thing that you've done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died you rose and ate food He this is David said While the child was still alive I fasted and wept For I said who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live But now he is dead Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him But he will not return to me I think David makes the assumption that he will go and be with the Lord as this child of his went to be with the Lord Based on the promises of God which are not merely for us, but for their Generations and children and families So while we I don't believe we can say with 100% uncertainty that anyone is saved that's ultimately only a matter of God and we can sort of observe outward things I believe that we are to presume that our children Because of God's promises to us in the covenant We are to presume that they are believers until they demonstrate that they are not And I think that that's what David presumed He presumed that his child was in heaven and that he would go to meet his child in heaven And and I think that the scriptures allow us to make that presumption When my when my father dies when it comes to his time to to to die I have a strong presumption based on his entire life and testimony that he is going to heaven He is received Christ. He is believed. There's given me no indication that he is anything other than Part of God's family part of God's people Similarly, I believe we can make that now you could say well maybe in his last moment before he died He threw it all away and recanted Well, I think that just gets into silliness And I think that we are to make a strong presumption that the children of believers and Perhaps children more broadly that God loves them and will be gracious to them and how that works I don't exactly know. It's somewhat of a mystery but especially for you if you have loved ones and family members I would strongly encourage you if they have lost children in infancy and are sort of racked with anxiety About this I think this is a great passage to take people to you for comfort and hope and insurance Okay, now what about this what about those who have never make a profession of faith but are faithful followers of their religious tradition Faithful Muslims Jews Jehovah's Witnesses Mormons Could God be calling them in some strange way through these religious traditions? I didn't cite examples but that's not an uncommon thing to be argued even by people who would profess to be Christians that well you could be a faithful Faithful Muslim a faithful Joe was witness you name it Hindu whatever and if you are simply faithful In your following of God. Well, God will call you sort of through that I think that's a very problematic problematic. I think that Ernest Christians out of a Serious your desire for everyone to be saved have made alternative paths to God that God does not offer The I think that the standard text on this is John 14 sex we'll get to that in a minute We become Christians as we respond in faith to the effectual call to repent of our sins and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ Some scriptures John 14 sex Jesus said to them. I am the way and the truth in the life. No one no one comes to the father Except through me and then first John 2 23 no one who denies the son has the father Whoever confesses the son has the father also So I would argue that the scripture teaches us that Well, we may say well, what about this faithful Muslim who is following God and he really is after God But he just misses that one component of Jesus Christ I would say the component of Jesus Christ makes who you're worshiping God or not We cannot say that someone is truly following God apart from Jesus Christ because no one knows God apart from Jesus Christ And so while I do understand the earnest desire for all to be saved I think our energies would be better spent actively involved in the mission of evangelizing rather than Making alternative pathways to God that God simply does not allow and I honestly do believe that there's there's no such thing as a person who calls on the name of the Lord and earnestly seek salvation Will not be found by him I think that if the Ethiopian unic in acts can be driving away from Jerusalem on a chariot Reading the the school of Isaiah and God can pluck out Philip and put them on the road there and say hey, go go go to it I mean are you kidding me really there I mean you think there's any situation where someone is going to be condemned on a technicality You think God can't get to people. That's kind of part of what we're talking about with this whole effectual calling thing It's through the Holy Spirit and if the Holy Spirit wants to bring you from death to life There's nothing you can do to stop it. You may be running the other way God is a fast runner and a better tackler You can't get away There have been many people you're you're listening to one right now Who was I running the other way And the Holy Spirit pursued me And he could pursue anyone so I think that we need to not lose that aspect of the biblical vision of calling Okay, now let's talk real quick about six implications of the Bible's teaching on effectual calling you may be Sort of hearing this and saying well, I either know that already or that sort of interesting But really what does it mean on on Thursday morning when I go to work and try to live my Christian life? What does it mean? Well, let's let's look at some implications number one Since the effectual call comes with Observable and experiential works of the Holy Spirit We are to be diligent to make our calling an election sure Ask yourself the following questions Has your mind been enlightened with a desire and an ability to understand the things of God
Has your heart been in live and so that you really do truly love God and love other people Has your will changed so that you now desire to live as a follower of Jesus Christ
Now I'm just gonna say this tonight. I think that one of the the scariest passages for me as a pastor is And as a Christian is the passage where Jesus says Many will come to me on that last day and say Lord God did I not do marvelous works in your name? Did I not cast out namens your name did I not do all these things for you in your name and Many will be told away from me. I never knew you So ask yourself this question if this doesn't describe you if you are a person who Not only I'm not I'm not saying you have to have an advanced understanding of all the things of God But if you don't even have a desire to know who God is If you have no affection for God or other people your neighbors If you have no desire To change sinful patterns and behaviors in your life Not that you're not struggling But that you've given up the struggle and abandoned the struggle and so the struggle is unnecessary if that describes you I implore you tonight Repent and believe Go to the Lord God and say Lord God Here I am Do with me what you will show your mercy to me change my heart and we can be assured that if we seek the Lord in these things If we seek him Matthew 7 Says ask and it will be given to you Seek and you will find knock and it will be open to you For everyone who asks receives and the one who seeks finds into the one who knocks it will be open That's my prayer. I hope that all of you here have been affectionately called by the Holy Spirit But only the Lord knows your heart so I do implore you to examine yourself examine your life and see if the Holy Spirit's at work in you Okay The next implication Since the effectual call of sick since the effectual call of the Holy Spirit comes through the general call Be part of God's gospel mission See the the effectual call doesn't drop down Like a rock from the sky and hit us in the head and it comes through the general call. So be part of God's mission Acts 1 8 be my witnesses Go make the cycles Proclaim as you go saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand Love indeed and in truth Being quick to hear slow to speak slow to anger Letting your speech always be gracious Seasoned with salt so that you may know how you want to answer each person be a part of God's call Engage in it Okay, third implication Since the effectual call comes through the word and spirit Use the spirit inspired Bible when offering the general the general call if you're talking to someone about the gospel Bring the Bible with you and use the word of God the word of God is inspired We are not and so we are leaving our big gun Laying on the truck if we go in to tell people about Jesus we're not bringing his word We learn from the Bible that it's the word in the spirit Who brings people to faith in Jesus Christ? So use the Bible It is a spirit inspired word of God so memorize some key texts bring the Bible with you use it I think sometimes we're I think we sometimes can be afraid of that and we say well Boy, why would I want to bring a Bible to talk to this guy about Christianity? He doesn't even believe the Bible is true Well Part of coming to the place where believing the Bible is true is the Bible Using the being inspired by the Holy Spirit to make you believe it's true So use it use the Bible Since the effectual call comes from the Holy Spirit you can talk to someone without fear You can share the gospel as a friend instead of a salesman Remember it's the Holy Spirit is doing the call You're not selling somebody a used Buick Okay, and you don't have to say okay, you're in my talking points Got these things and I got a flow chart and if they say this then I'm going here and if they say If no follow this you don't have to worry about that It's the Holy Spirit's call share the gospel without fear. He will be with you He will provide the words for you to say and produce the result that he desires
Since number five since the effectual call comes from the Holy Spirit you can share Christ patiently patiently I and one more thing on that too, and I think sometimes we can we can get in there and we can say Oh, man, I got it we can think about it like and I got to get a hole in one with this I got to go to this guy who's totally hostile to the gospel and I need to be a hole in one golfer In one swing I got to get the ball 350 yards and into that tiny hole And for most of us that is a daunting task and so we just don't do it But a lot of times what we're called to do is we're just called to to drive that golf ball a little bit closer to the tea You may not be putting them into the kingdom that day But you may be starting off on that tea and just driving them on in the fairway You may be showing the love of Christ Being a friend giving a listening ear Witnessing in a variety of different ways so you can break down the walls of people's hearts and show them the love of Christ And demonstrate and be patient It's not a one shot deal you may share the gospel with someone for years before they come to faith That's okay be patient the Holy Spirit's at work number six our last conclusion here When we understand the effectual call is from the Holy Spirit We can give glory to God when someone comes to faith Not an evangelist not not a program But to a God who uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary purposes of salvation It gives God the glory and that's a good reason and that's a great implication of this teaching on effectual calling First Corinthians three verses five through seven Paul writes What then is a Paulus what what is Paul Servants through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each again notice it's the Lord It's the Lord's effectual call by the spirit I planted Paulus watered but God gave the growth So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God gives the growth Do you see what this view of an effectual calling that comes by the Holy Spirit Results and glory to God we can truly say not with any degree of false humility. It's not about me It's about God's working with this person and God working on their part and he's gonna use me But ultimately when that person comes to faith in Jesus Christ and many many will We're gonna give glory to God and thanks to God because what he has done Okay, well that sort of wraps it up. I have a little bit of time. Maybe about 10 minutes or so Any any questions on this things were that were unclear or you want to unpack or discuss That's right the question was am I saying that in order for us to seek God the Holy Spirit has to be seeking us That I would say the answer to that question from the Bible is yes. I would say that That the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus It is a pretty powerful picture of that You have a person who was off to persecute people who were Christians and God intervened in a really dramatic way and changed his heart But I think he also intervenes with all of us even in less dramatic ways Our sins may appear to be less um drastic than that but We do believe that the Holy Spirit intervenes Yes The question has to do with sort of the question about predestination and how how the call comes to us I would say that it seems to me that the biblical picture of humanity is a picture of fallen humanity Humanity that is in rebellion against God dead in our sins and actively opposed to him and God's salvation through the effectual call the Holy Spirit comes to a fallen humanity and God simply by his grace by his mercy chooses to save a Huge number of people out of fallen humanity and bring them from death to why why do why on what basis Paul's only answer is in Romans um Nine is it's God's mercy and we don't know exactly Why but we we do know That there's no one who is condemned on a technicality Those who do not respond to the effectual call are actively opposed to God And among that group God because of the riches of his mercy Changes some people's hearts and brings them into a relationship with him And we don't know who those people are It's not up to us to know That's not our purview It's that's one of the mysteries of God but but it seems to be The fairly consistent teaching of the scripture that the general call goes out to all people But the reason why some respond in some don't is the Holy Spirit working in them and on them And and I have no reason to be pessimistic about that in the sense that I sometimes think that we we hear a teaching like that and we think well Not very many people are going to be saved then. I don't accept that present that premise I think that God has many people I think God has people all over the world and he's had many many people millions upon Billions and trillions of people in the course of human history who have belonged to him and have Expressed faith in Jesus Christ and we get to go out and preach the gospel and really find them Be fishers fishers of men Get in there drop the nets and try to to bring the gospel call to them so they will repent and believe
You know, it's um, I think I think one of the Well, this is a hard teaching because I think that it I think within the the heartbeat of Christians is A real earnest desire for all people to be saved And I think that even find that um That desire in Jesus Christ himself He expresses this desire that all people would come to know him that all people would be saved But the question always sort of behind that is is it possible for God to desire something That doesn't come to be is God unable to save everyone because clearly not everyone is And so I think that we talked about in one of the earlier discussions about God's will and God's will of The sort of the the public and the private nature of God's will God desires it's God's will for you to keep the ten commandments perfectly But it's also God's will when Joseph's brothers threw him in a pit in violation of many of those commandments Which would be articulated later on that God would use that to bring about something good So DC sort of that kind of the dual nature of his will there's his will of saying this is what is good And this is what is right and this is my disposition toward people as a disposition of love and yet God allows people To continue on in their rebellion and rejection against him And he also renews the hearts of many many people who come to a saving faith in Christ I don't know if that that sort of helps unpack it a little bit. I you know I I don't think that we necessarily are ever going to have fully satisfactory answered all those questions But but I do believe in the sufficient scene authority of scripture and I I cannot read for example the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17 and come to any other conclusion that God has sheep And he knows him and he's going to call him And he's going to bring him to himself that's John six but then in high priestly prayer John 17 He says I'm praying for those who you've given me out of the world And then unless we get confused he says I'm not talking about everyone I'm talking about those that you've given me out of the world So Jesus says it pretty clearly twice in the space of about two three verses and so I think we just need to simply be grateful for his mercy and to Share the gospel generally we're called to give the general call that's our that's our business predestination and the people that he foreknows and and all that that's God's business Our business is to get about the work of the manualism. Yes
It seems that That in scripture Four knowledge is most often used for example in Romans at based is people Those whom he forenew he also predestined and I think there is obviously a sense in which God foreknows every person But I think that the context seems to indicate it's the the context of salvation Those whom he forenew he also predestined to be justified to be Adopted to be glorified and it seems to be kind of an unbroken chain Yes, no go ahead go ahead
Yeah, that's a good that's a good I that's a good question When we pray for someone to be saved how does that work sort of with election Well, it works in the way that we pray for someone to be saved Because we're acknowledging that it's only the Holy Spirit that can change their hearts Now that change happens in time It's uh those whom he predestined in time come to faith in Jesus Christ out of Response to God's call the elect are called in time And so when we pray for someone's salvation we're praying that the Holy Spirit would Change their heart that they would come and be revealed to be one of God's people Now again, you know, I think that the doctrine of election is best understood In the context of assurance and not in the context of evangelism Um, I think that the doctrine of election Um, and you know if you read Ephesians 1 it talks about those who've been Known before the foundation of the world I think that's designed to give us hope and assurance And a rooting and grounding in the fact that we belong to God because he earnestly desired us to belong to him And I think where we get hung up is we start thinking about election in terms of um our call to evangelize the world and to make disciples of all the world And and when we do that it gets it gets fouled up Because we're trying to peek behind the curtain when when God says That's that's my business. That's my concern You be my witnesses That's X one uh the disciples are staying around Uh, Jesus says I'm gonna go to heaven you uh be my witnesses and they say okay One quick question is now the time when you're gonna restore the kingdom to to Israel and he says You be my witnesses and he ascends to heaven and what are they doing? They're looking up in the air and angels come and say hey remember what I just told you two seconds ago What Jesus just said go be my witnesses Uh, there are certain things that are mysteries uh, when will Christ come again? Who is among the number of the elect uh, we don't know But we do know that we're called to be be witnesses Does that help maybe some as much as it can? Yes Go ahead. Oh, that's that's that's that's a good question. What about saints in the Old Testament? Well, we believe that uh people in the Old Testament were saved based on their belief in the Messiah to come And the promises of God that he would send a redeemer Who would bring in a kingdom now they First Peter says that the the prophets of old longed to look into these things and understand These things that the Holy Spirit was saying to them Um, but we believe that they were saved based on a faith in the Messiah to come and the New Testament says that Abraham long to see Jesus's day He saw it and was glad And so we believe that the Old Testament saints were Saved via the same effectual call the same call Um, and we're given a new heart and a new spirit and we're born again by the spirit Though their understanding of what that deliverance would look like Was like seeing a shadow Whereas we see the fullness and substance of Jesus Christ So we believe that there's really there's only one way of salvation and that's Through Jesus Christ and the Old Testament that was through They didn't know his name they didn't know Exactly where he would be born or at what exact time but they long for that day and they looked for it They looked for a heavenly city whose builder and maker was God and they looked in faith to God that he would provide deliverance And so they were saved based on their faith in the Messiah who was to come And I believe that when they died and their spirits went into the presence of the Lord as all of our spirits will when we die in the Lord I believe that they saw his day as Abraham did and we're glad They saw Jesus there and um And so they were saved by faith in Jesus. It was not as clear as ours is now But it's the same same faith. Well, I'm sorry. We went a little bit long If you have more questions and you want to just kind of hang around a talk I'm not going anywhere for a few minutes. So come talk But I do want to respect the time and I apologize and went a little bit long So let's let's close in a word of prayer and and we wrap it up Heavenly Father we we're swimming in some deep deep waters I and I'm the first to admit that My knowledge of these things is But a glimpse of the fullness of your plan Lord what I do know though is that you are a God who calls people from death to life That you have called me from death to life that you have called many most all of the people here in this room from death to life And we're so thankful for it and grateful for it and we pray that we would be so Impassioned and emboldened and in live-end by that Glorious reality that we would be part of your mission and engage those who are lost with a great hope that many Many belong to you and will come to faith in you and have everlasting life Here are prayer we ask this in Jesus name and in the power of the Holy Spirit in them We'll see you next week