Father, thank you for for this day again. We thank you for your spirit. We thank you that you dwell in the midst of your people we pray for your presence. We pray for help. The help that we need so desperately. We ask you that that help might be manifest in this, that we receive from you what we need from your word. Please encourage us as we think about your word and as we continue to study this confession of faith. I do pray that what you've done for us in Christ would be increasingly clear to us because of our time. Especially this morning, may we be encouraged by what Jesus has done for us. So help us and encourage us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Alrighty, come on in. Last week I forgot my notes. I didn't this week see. Here they are. But I had a technical malfunction with my computer printer. My printer didn't print and that meant because I typically kind of put this all together in an outline on Saturday. So my printer didn't work so I couldn't set the point is you don't have an outline but at least I got my notes. What I'd like to do, we're going to stay at chapter 8 for this week but we're going to be making our way referring this morning to chapters 10 to 13 of the confession. But focus on a couple of phrases from the confession from chapter 8 this morning and then next week in the next couple of weeks we're going to look at those chapters in a little bit more detail through 13. Although we're not going to have as we haven't had up to this point we haven't had time really to deal with everything in great detail. In 10, 11, 12 and 13 we're going to have to hit maybe a little bit more lightly than we have some of the previous sections. But I want to do this because again what I'm anxious to show is the connections that exist among things. This is the big picture stuff. And all of this stuff does hang together and it all emerges from this statement in chapter 8 at the end of the first section. Chapter 8 has to do with Christ, the mediator of the covenant. This is page 69 in the Williamson study guide. But it's chapter 8 section 1 of the confession. Now we took some time last week to walk through the people really were offended that I didn't have my notes last week. I guess they've gone to another class or something. I tried to show last week the relationships that exist among these chapters beginning at chapter 1 and walking through all of this and last week we focused upon God's decree to choose a people for himself and Christ is the one who purchases redemption for that people. Now what we're going to talk about today is the constituent parts of that redemption and how they relate to one another. So you've got before the foundation of the world you have the decree of the triune God. Father, son and Holy Spirit, that Frank James out there making noise. Frank, it's 925. My dad is a false professor. Is that what she's worried now, false professor? They grow beards. All right, here we go. So last week, you know, in these weeks we've wanted to show the relationships among things and connect the dots between the chapters. Next week, we talked about the decree of the triune God, Father, son and Holy Spirit to redeem a people for themselves. Here's a kind of a catchy way to think about what we're going to be dealing with today. Let me come to that in just a minute. We talked about the decree of the triune God to save of people. And then last week we talked about Christ, the mediator, who by his work. And when we talk about the work of Christ, we're talking about two things. What are they? What two things generally constitute the work of Christ, all right? His life of obedience. I think this is so important and I think it's really overlooked. I don't think we talk about this enough. When we talk about the death of Jesus, we all know what we're talking about. When we talk about the life of Jesus, we tend to think about his miracles and his teachings and all that kind of thing. But the thing that is central and key about the life of Jesus is that he obeyed. He was a substitute for you in keeping the law. You haven't kept the law. You need somebody to be a substitute for you in keeping the law. If you look at sections 23 and 4 of the confession, they refer to section 2 of chapter 8 refers to this hypothetical union of the two natures in the one person of Christ as humanity and his divinity. So that he is fully God and fully man. This one unique person with these two natures. But then sections 3 and 4 go on to talk about, if you look at section 3, the Lord Jesus in his human nature that's united to the divine was sanctified and anointed with a Holy Spirit above measure having in him all treasures of wisdom and knowledge in whom it pleased the Father. But all fullness should dwell to the end. That being holy, harmless, undefiled and full of grace and truth, he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a mediator and surety. Folks, that is one of the most precious sections as you'll ever read in the English language. The second person of the Trinity Christ the mediator was fully furnished, given everything that he needed to execute the office of mediator and guarantor. The mediator being the one, the high priest, the substitute, who by his mediatorial work unites us to the Father from whom we've been estranged. And that word guarantor is a big word. He's not only a mediator, he's a guarantor, he guarantees it. I think the week that I was gone, correct me if I'm wrong in this, I think that someone raised a question or there was some bit of discussion in this regard about whether or not Christ could have sinned. Was it possible for Christ to have sinned? The answer is no. It was not possible for Christ to have sinned. The reason it was not possible for Christ to have sinned is because of this hypothetical union of these two natures in this one unique person. The divinity and the humanity so mysteriously united ensured that the humanity of Christ was preserved and remained wholly undefiled. What were all of those things? Where'd it go? Where'd it go? Where'd it go? Being wholly harmless, undefiled, full of grace and truth and thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a mediator insurity. Now, inclination is to think that because Jesus was so endowed that the temptations for him were somehow illusions are not real. Now, there are a couple ways to think about that. Christ really was tempted. Hebrews makes quite a lot of that. It makes quite a lot of the fact that Christ was tempted in all things as are we yet without sin. That he is a great high priest who is sympathetic to our weaknesses because in the incarnation he was exposed to all of these temptations. Now, were these temptations real temptations or is this just the piece of theaters? This is just a bit of drama that's being acted out. They were real temptations and Christ really did. As section 4 says of the confession, this office, the Lord Jesus, did most willingly undertake which that he made discharge, he was made under the law and did perfectly fulfill it endured. Most grievous torments immediately in his soul and most painful sufferings in his body was crucified and died. What is in view in the grievous torments that Christ experienced, and this just catches it just a little bit. What Christ experienced when it talks about these torments of his soul is not just his death upon the cross, but it is the torment of the perfect soul living in the midst of an imperfect world. It is like someone who has perfect pitch listening to me sing. You see the temptations of Jesus because of his holiness, because he was undefiled, the temptations of Jesus were even more intense, more excruciating, more painful, more real for him than the temptations you experienced. That's the first thing to think about this. Whatever you imagine, the greatest of your temptations to be, ratchet that up to the nth degree, and that is what it was like for Christ. It's like nails being dragged across a chalkboard. That's what his entire existence was like, that constant dissonance and incongruity about everything between him, the pure perfect undefiled soul, and everything around him. Now the second, are these real temptations? Yes, they are. Think of it in this way. Think about your own experience of temptation. Have you ever been tempted and resisted it? Yes, you have, haven't you? This isn't a loaded question. This is okay. It's okay to say. I've been a Christian 25 times, maybe five times in the course of the 20th. I've resisted temptation. It's okay. We're all, we know this. We're there. You know, we're not just talking about one too. Somebody said something about donuts. We're not just talking about one too many donuts, that kind of temptation. We're talking real temptation here, okay? We're talking those, those, what do we call them? Those, those, the words that are escaping me, those besetting sins, those besetting sins. You all know about that? Don't you resist those temptations? There are times when you don't, but there are times when you do. Why is it that you resist those temptations when you resist them? Now, sometimes your resistance is rooted in your sin. Sometimes you resist just because you don't want to get caught. It's not out of a desire to please God that you, that you resist the temptation. It's because you don't want to get caught. But, again, every once in a while, every once in a while, we can, we can look at ourselves and we can say, we resist it. Not just because we didn't want to get caught, but because there was some power at work in our souls that enabled us to understand, to see, and out of hearts of gratitude to Christ for what he's done for us, we resisted the temptation. Now, when you resist, is that, and why is it that you do that when you do it? You resist that temptation because the spirit of God is operating and is overpowering and preserving you. When that happens, are those temptations for you any less real? No, no, it's a real temptation. The fact of the matter is that God by His Spirit has preserved you. There are times that confession talks about this in chapter three. There are times when God gives us over to ourselves. When God gives us our heads, as the English would put it, you know. And why does God do that? We talked about that. God does that to discover unto us a new, the hidden corruptions of our own hearts. Now why does God do that? Because He wants to beat us up, make us miserable, not at all. He wants us to see it so that we're driven back to Christ yet again to be renewed and refreshed and reminded of the greatness of His grace. But when we are sustained in temptations, it is because of the Spirit operating to preserve us and to keep us. And what we're saying when we say that this union of these two natures, of the divine and the human in Christ, the implication of that is that Christ was preserved in all of those excruciating torments of the soul and never once failed. And they were real. They were real, beloved. You don't sweat blood as a piece of theater. They were real. And that's the first thing that we have to, you know, we really need to focus on this. And I tell you, just talking about this stuff, you know, my heart starts to feel better. I start to feel like you, gee, was. You know, maybe I should be more grateful than I am. Maybe there should be a song. Because what Christ has done is acted as a substitute with respect to the law for me. For me, okay? I don't have to perform for God. Do you see that? I don't have to perform. Christ has performed. I don't have to try to impress the Father. The Father is already impressed. The only audience that really matters has already said, because of my union with Christ, he has already said to me, this is my beloved son, whom I'm well pleased. So Christ, as the mediator, lives this life of perfect obedience, and then he dies. And this death, of course, is the whole complex of things pertaining to that death. The life of obedience, of course, leads to it. But it doesn't end with the death. There is the entombment. There's the phrase, again, in section 4. Endured painful sufferings in his body was crucified and died, was buried, and remained under the power of death yet son no corruption. That, by the way, the fact that Christ did not experience corruption, that is another testimony to the fact that this union between these two persons preserved his humanity. Preserved his humanity. He never in his body, he never experienced corruption, was under the power of death, but saw no corruption. On the third day, he rose from the dead with the same body in which he suffered, with which he also ascended into heaven, and there in that same body he sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession, and he shall return to judgment and angels at the end of the world. The whole complex of things, his death, his entombment in the grave, his resurrection, and his ascension. That is all a part of Christ's work as a substitute for us, as a priestly substitute. So by his life of obedience, and by his death on the cross, and all of the complex of things surrounding that, Christ has become for us a mediator and guarantor of the blessing of God. And this Christ's work, this work is redemption. What's the word I'm going to add next? Accomplished. Accomplished. Okay. Redemption. Accomplished. Accomplished. Take that word home. Accomplished. Accomplished. Accomplished. Accomplished. Accomplished. It is finished. It is done. There is nothing to be added to it. The one who lived the life of obedience died as a substitute, and is now at the right hand of the Father has done it all. It is redemption accomplished. Now what we're talking about now is redemption applied. Okay. In Roman Catholic theology, there is this idea of the treasury of merit, you know, this reservoir of merit, this accumulation of righteousness, that the saints accumulate. I mean, I got to sit down with the Pope sometime and ask him about this. Come on, guy. If you have the infinite God man living faithfully before the law, accomplishing obedience on behalf of this, you have an infinite treasury of merit. Right? And now from that infinite treasury of merit, from that vast resource of righteousness, from that vast resource of life now, out of that it is being applied to Christians, applied to the elect, to those whom the Father has set apart for himself from before the foundation of the world. Okay. Christ accomplishes redemption. The Spirit commissioned by Christ applies all of the benefits of that redemption to the elect, to those whom the Father had set apart for the Son from before the foundation of the world. Okay. That's what's going on right now in your life. That's what's happening right now. Here's this little, this little catchy way to think about this. It does violence to the Trinity, but it's helpful to think about the purpose of redemption. You know, this little ditty, when you think about redemption, the Father thought, thought it conceived it in his mind, the Son, oops, father here, the Son, what, bought it, purchased it, secured it. You see, the Father conceived it, the Father covenant together with the Son, the Son came to purchase the redemption that was needed for those whom the Father had given to his Son, and the Holy Spirit brought, brought it. Father thought it, Son bought it, and the Spirit brought it. It is the work of the Spirit right now to apply all of the benefits of the work of Christ to the elect who the Father had given before the foundation of the world. That is what the Spirit is doing. That's what He's commissioned to do. Okay. Now how does He do that? That's what we want to take the next several minutes to look at any comment or question before we do that. Okay. We're talking about the application of the benefits of the work of Christ. Okay. Boy, Christ has done it all. He's done it all. And the Spirit now is taking the all and is applying it to me. All right. If you look again at 8-1, now, yes, Hoover Dam, Hoover Dam, man, John's making the point. This is the compassion of grace that is always pursuing us, always hounding us, always chasing us, always running us. I love that image of standing at the base of the Hoover Dam. And imagining what it would be like for those waters to be unleashed, and how utterly overwhelming they would be, and they would just chase you down. They would just chase you down. Yeah. What do you mean? Well, I could do it sort of the way Harry Blackman defined pornography. I'm not sure I can define it, but I sure know it when I see it. I mean, look, if obedience, if obedience, if obedience is loving the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself, if that's the summary of the law. And I think it's very interesting. Very interesting. Here we go, a little side road, very interesting that sin really is a matter of the heart. obedience is first a matter of the heart. It is loving God with all of your heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself, which issues in certain behaviors. That's where sin starts. I think it's interesting. I wonder about this. Maybe some of you guys, some of you guys who know more about these things and I do can help me with this. But do you remember what Eve said in response to the serpent when the serpent came to her and said, you know, has God really said that? Do you know what she said? She said, the prohibition was you can't touch this fruit, right? You can't have the fruit and you can't eat the fruit. The serpent comes, this is Genesis 3, the serpent comes and says, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden, and the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Now I've heard people say in explaining that, that Eve twisted herself, twisted, altered the word of God. I don't think so. I think she understood the implications of the word of God, that sin isn't just a matter of eating the fruit, sin starts prior to that, even with desiring the fruit and reaching out to touch the fruit. The lust of it, which is conceived in the heart, she understood the nature of the law, that the law isn't about external conformity, right? It's about the affections, it's about the heart, it's about the interior stuff, right? When Jesus summarizes the law, he says, you see why the law just kills you? I was having this Bible study with these guys on Thursday, and just quick background. Two weeks ago, or whenever it was, we were talking about whether or not it's right for God to send people to hell, because one of the guys would say, how can God send a good person to hell? Now you know what the response to that is, he can't and he won't. He can't send a good person to hell, he won't send a good person to hell. The question is, what constitutes the good? What makes a good person good? So I said, for next time, you come up with a list of things that you think constitute a good, what makes a good person good? So he brought in these 12 or 13 things, and I said, all right now let's read the 10 commandments. And it's interesting, the middle eight have to do with external conformity. The first and the tenth, you know the commandments are put in this parenthesis, if you will, are contained in stuff pertaining to the heart. What's the first one? You shall have no other gods before me. You can have gods without having creatures made of wood and stone. Right, you can have all kinds of idolatries in your heart, and they never manifest themselves in any material way. What's the tenth commandment, covetousness? You can desire all kinds of things. You can keep the middle eight. That's what made the rich, the rich young man go away sad, because he'd done all the external stuff, but his heart was tied to things that it shouldn't have been tied to. His heart was not tied to God. Well, if that's sin, then temptation is anything designed to draw me away from love of God and love of my neighbor. If law keeping is first a function of the heart manifested in the conduct of my life, and sin is first a function of the heart manifested in the conduct of my life, then temptation is anything that would first draw me away. From love of God and love of my neighbor. Anything that would draw me away from love of God or love of my neighbor. You know what these things are? Anything that draws me? They're substitute saviors to be repentative, substitute saviors. It's me looking to find joy, to find contentment, to find peace, to find whatever in something other than love for God and love for my neighbor. And those things become substitute saviors. And you know what substitute saviors do? Break your heart every time. Break your heart. Now, how do we respond to this? Well, see this is why we can never get away from, very far away from the substitutionary work of Christ, both in his obedience before the law and in his death. I know my foolish and wicked heart. When I'm confronted with these idols, with these things that would draw me away, what do I do? Do I run out and try harder? What's the inclination? What do we usually do when I'm confronted by my sin? I run out and try harder, right? I go by another book. Secrets to the spirit fill life. I get out the crusade blue book. Don't take offense at this crusade people. Don't take offense. I get out the blue book and I breathe spiritually. I exhale and I inhale. You try and do it on your own. When I find these idols, what do I do? I repent. I repent. I go before the Lord and say, God, have mercy upon me. Acknowledge my idolatries. Acknowledge my misplaced affections. And then remind myself of the substitutionary work of Christ touching his obedience before the law and his death on the cross. By his obedience, he has purchased righteousness by his death. He has taken the wrath of God upon himself so there is no longer any threat of judgment for me. I go to a father who is a whole lot more concerned about my idolatries than I am by the way. I go to my father and I repent and I cling to the cross again. That's what I do. I don't run out and try and work harder at this thing. I repent and I believe. Repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. That's the Christian life. Folks, the Christian life, please understand me. I want to be righteous myself. I'm tired of my own sin. But the Christian life in the first instance is not about my obedience to the law. The Christian life in the first instance is about repentance, acknowledging my sin and believing the gospel. I think if I give my energies to repentance and faith, the obedient stuff kind of takes care of itself. Not easily. And I'm not saying that we should be cavalier or light about this. But that's more and more. Let's wait. I'm sorry. Let me lay with this. But I have breakfast with Steve Smarman, who's now the executive director or headhunt show or whatever he is of wild harvest. And he said, he said, even jellicles, this is almost a verbatim. Even jellicles tend to think of the gospel as the intellectual content that the non-believer needs in order to come to faith. You know what the gospel is? A life support system for me. I need the gospel. It's not just this intellectual content. It is what I need to get out of bed every morning. Oh, I'm sorry, Harry. I'm sorry. I thought it was terrible. And attorney. I mean, you'd expect that a lawyer would know that. Either that or he studied the issue closer than I have. No. They're self-righteousness. See, I'm going to say this in the sermon this morning. Some of you have already heard it. What does it take to abide in Christ? What do we need to do to abide in Christ? And I'm convinced we need to abide in Christ by the same means that we came to Christ in the first place. Yes, the question, how do you abide in Christ? It begs the question, how did I get into Christ in the first place? And I get into Christ by repentance and faith. And I abide in Christ by the same means. And here's the point. If I don't do that, if I view sanctification, growth, and grace, and that kind of stuff as a function of what I do, if I rush out and try to do something first, one of two things is going to happen. I'll be crushed by my failure or I'll grow prideful because of my success. One of those two things is going to happen. The first thing to abide in Christ is continuing to believe the gospel and see the gospel as, and I say that Mike in response to that comment, that Christians most often need to repent not of their unrighteousness but of their self-righteousness. We find our security and our external performance with God and with one another. Think about it. Just think about how you relate to people in the church. You know, really, I mean, you'd be ashamed of me if you knew the truth about me. Really touching things that you probably think, because I just know people have these lofty, lofty views of pastors. You know, like they're cut out of some different kind of cloth or something. And we deal with one another at that level too often. And we need to deal with one another at the point of the gospel, repentance and faith. The choir folks in the gospel. Yes? Would you say that the gospel allows us to focus on Christ's perfection rather than our performance? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's a long answer to the question, what is temptation? You're welcome. But I think that's it, right? I mean, temptation has first to do with the heart out of the heart of the issues of life. Keep the heart with all diligence for out of it or the issues of life. Proverbs, it doesn't say, you know, keep your behavior. It's your heart. You know, watch our hearts and have our hearts attached to right things. And the right thing that our hearts attached to is the gospel. Now, what is this business of the application of the benefits of the work of Christ all about? Well, if you look... Excuse me. If you look again at chapter 8, section 1, let me read this. Please God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son to be the mediator between God and man. The prophet, priest, and king, the head and saviour of his church, the heir of all things and the judge of the world unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed and then listen to this. To be by him in time redeemed, called justified, sanctified and glorified. Now, what does the confession mean when it lists those things? Well, it begins by saying that Christ... who is given this people and who is the mediator between God and this people will in time, in the course of time, redeemed those who are... will redeem them, call them, justify them, sanctify them and glorify them. And it begins with redemption. And this is what we've been talking about. Right? Redemption is accomplished by Christ and the order of these things is so... it's just so very important because what the framers of the confession are recognizing is that redemption, Christ, redeeming, precedes everything else for us. Christ, securing redemption, precedes everything else. This is redemption accomplished. And then it goes on to talk about them being called justified, sanctified, and glorified. And this is what the theologians refer to. This is a great little Latin thing that you can drop on your friends at lunch. This is what the theologians refer to as the ordo, or the gordo, the ordo salutus, which being translated means, the order of salvation, the logical order of the securing and applying of redemption, the logical order. Now, you recognize that in time you've got this time before Christ and you've got this time after Christ. We're not talking about a chronological order here. We're talking about the logical order in which the benefits of salvation are first secured and then applied. And they are secured or accomplished by Christ. But then they are applied in this order by calling, justification, sanctification, and glorification. This is the order in which these things are applied. Now, let me, I want to flesh this out for you. I know this may be familiar to some of you, but maybe to others it isn't. And it's awfully important because if you understand this, if you really understand this, there are two things that occur. The first is, when the Bible says salvation is of the Lord, you really begin to understand that salvation is of the Lord, period, plus nothing on my part. And the second thing it does, it contributes again to your security, your sense of well-being, your soul's rest. The theologians identify first the general call. And this is a call that is extended to all people indiscriminately. Remember last week, Bob and I had this little conversation about Romans 5, 18. We talked on the phone about this again this last week. And Bob had done some research on this phrase in verse 18. Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. Now there's a division in the house about whether the all men of verse 18 refers to a general call that is extended to all people, which results in justification of life for some, or whether the all men of verse 18 corresponds to the second atom in Christ, so that the work of Christ then comes to all men resulting in the justification of life. There's a division in the house, and you can talk to Bob about who lines up on what side, because he read several people on this. The point is that we recognize that in the application of the benefits of the work of Christ, there is first the extension of the gospel to all people indiscriminately. I don't try to figure out who the elect are before I preach. I just preach, because I don't know who they are, and that's not my business. That's God's business. It was his business before the foundation of the world, and it's his business now. So preaching is to all people in Matthew 11, when Jesus says, come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He's speaking to whomsoever will come. There is a general call, but then this general call is made effectual by the operation of the spirit through the preaching of the gospel. Romans 10, real quickly, how are we doing? You're doing okay. You know this passage. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things? Verse 10, for with the heart one believes under righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between you and Greek, for the same Lord overall is rich to all who call upon him, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord, the opportunity, the communication of the invitation to respond is given to all people indiscriminately. That's the general call. Then this, verse 14, how shall they call on him and who they have not believed, how shall they believe in him, whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things? The call is made effectual by the preaching of the gospel. We have to send people to preach. You all know the story of the Scottish missionary David Livingston. When he went to his Presbyterian, his denomination, and said, I believe God has called me to preach the gospel to the heathen in Africa, and the response of these hyper Calvinists, do you know what their response was? If God wants to save the heathen in Africa, He'll do it in his own time. And they didn't support David Livingston in wanting to go to Africa to preach the gospel to the heathen, and they completely misunderstood that there is a necessity placed upon us for the preaching of the gospel. We must preach the gospel. We have to communicate the truth because it is one half of the equation that results in people being effectually called and drawn to Christ. Now, that call is not going to be effectual, apart from the operation of the Holy Spirit. That's why this is a crazy thing about this. You just never know when somebody is going to be converted. You just never know when that's going to happen, and you also never know when somebody is not going to be converted. People say he's really close to the kingdom. Bologna, he's only as close as the Holy Spirit, enables him to get close. I mean, people can be making all the right sounds and all the right noises and everything else, and it can be a sham in a show. What is it that makes it effectual? Look at John 3. You know this passage. This is Nicodemus. Rabbi, verse 2, we know that your teacher come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. You know what time of day Nicodemus came to Jesus? Coward. Verse 3, Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Little bit farther down, Jesus says, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit, not marble that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. The other half of this equation is the operation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in connection with the preaching of the gospel results in a person being effectually called and then what happens? Not yet. A person who is regenerated, born again and Jesus says to Nicodemus who is identified by John as a teacher of the Jews, a teacher. This is a learned man. He knows his Bible. Jesus says you can't even see the kingdom of God, much less enter it without this operation of the Spirit. Now, what happens when a person is regenerated is that a person repents and believes. And the result of repentance and faith or faith and repentance do this smart stuff here. General call, effectual call which results from the operation of the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. That results in regeneration. I mean, you got to understand that there is mystery in this. And exactly what happens where and all of that in terms of chronology? I don't know. That is the part of the thing that I get. Can a person be regenerated before being effectually called? Does regeneration occur simultaneously with the effectual call? Ask Frank. He knows. But this complex of things results in repentance, faith, repentance, faith or faith, repentance, faith, repentance and faith are twin sides of the same coin that we call conversion. This is where a person is converted. And what results from that is justification. What occurs in justification is that God declares on the basis of the finished work of Christ that this one who is believed is not guilty. And we say quite a lot about the idea of justification by faith. Let's be clear what we mean by that. Is it your faith that justifies you? No, it is not your faith that justifies you. It is Christ who justifies you on the basis of his finished work received by faith. It is Christ who justifies you on the basis of his finished work received by faith. I mean this is awfully important to have that distinction in your minds because I don't know if you struggle with this but people struggle with do I have enough faith? Do I have enough faith? Do I believe hard enough? Am I believing enough? My 13-year-old daughter and I had a long conversation about this the other day. She feels like she doesn't believe enough. That is a very hopeful sign to me. That is a very hopeful sign. We talk through this idea of justification. Lesslie, why is it that you would be forgiven? Is it because you believe strong enough? Well, no. Is it because Christ believed strongly enough for you? Oh, yeah. You see even touching belief Christ is your substitute. Your faith is never perfect. Your faith never warrants from the Father that He do anything for you. It is always an imperfect and mixed faith. It is what we call the instrumental means of our justification. But it is never the final means. It is never the ground of our justification. The ground of our justification is the finished work of Christ. What then flows from justification is adoption. Read, let me encourage you to read J.I. Packer's chapter called Sons of God in his book Knowing God. There is a wonderful discussion of the relationship between justification and adoption. He calls justification the foundational blessing of the Christian life, the foundational blessing and adoption the highest blessing of the Christian life. You see, we are not just forgiven, but we are made sons and daughters with Jesus as our elder brother. So there is adoption and then throughout the course of our lives, there is sanctification and people break this up into positional sanctification and all of that kind of thing. But sanctification is this work that goes on in our lives throughout the course of our lives by which we are brought into conformity with the image of Christ. What is the ground of my sanctification? What is my confidence in the midst of this work of sanctification? The finished work of Christ, which is the expression of the love of God set upon me before the foundation of the world. What is it that guarantees me that this process which is begun in my life is going to be brought to completion? The promises of God. The promises of God. Sanctification involves Christ working relentlessly and perfectly in my life to apply, to infuse, to impart to me his very life so that it gets worked out in my life. It involves Christ working in me perfectly relentlessly without ebb and flow. It involves me working intermittently, half-heartedly and imperfectly. My sanctification, the ground of my sanctification, the hope that I have in my sanctification is never upon my working. It is upon Christ working in me. And the result of this where this all ends up is that at the end of the day, I am finally glorified. I am brought into perfect conformity with the image of Christ. All of this, all of this, all of these are the benefits which Christ has secured for His people. He secured the gift of faith which we exercise throughout the course of our lives. He has secured justification. He has secured adoption. He has secured and insured our sanctification. And He has secured and insured our glorification, our final enjoyment of conformity with His image. Now, where you see this, again, worked out in the confession just very quickly, if you go back to the beginning, if you have Williamson's things or anything else, just look at the table of contents. And you look at chapters 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16. And then you have to jump down to 32 to get the glorification part. But you see the order of things. We talk about the scriptures, talk about God, talk about God's decree, then creation, providence, fall, then God's covenant, then the mediator of the covenant, then free will. We've talked about that sort of woven that in and out of all of this. Maybe we'll look at that next week too. But then here is the application of those things which Christ has secured, effectual calling, saving, and I'm just elaborating what they mean by and discuss in the chapter, mean by a factual calling and discuss. Then 11, saving faith and repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, the outcome of it all is glorification, which you can read about in chapter 32. Okay? All right. I want to read this. I was going to ask if you had a question, but I want to read this because it is so wonderful. This is from the institutes of the Christian religion. You see, again, when you think about this, here I am, one who's dead in my trespasses and sins, one who by nature is a child of wrath, just as all the rest, one who can't even see the kingdom of God because of the blindness of my soul. All right. God intervenes. God intrudes Himself based on His having set His love upon me from before the foundation of the world and He calls me to Himself. He changes my heart. He grants me the gifts of repentance and faith. He justifies me, adopts me. He begins this process of transforming me which will result in my glorification. That's what the end of it will be. When I hear all of that, you see, I can rest. I can rest. Listen, this is what Calvin writes in the institutes. He quotes a gust in this passage and we'll conclude with this. For this reason, the heading for this particular section is this. That's my friend Rick Wellock right there. He's a mad rock and roller, a dangerous man. Listen, the work of atonement derives from God's love. Therefore has not established the latter, meaning His love. The cross doesn't establish the love of God for us. The love of God is expressed in the work of atonement. Listen to this. For this reason, Paul says that the love with which God embraced us before the creation of the world was established and grounded in Christ. These things are plain and are in agreement with Scripture and beautifully harmonize those passages in which it is said that God declared His love toward us in giving His only begotten Son to die and conversely that God was our enemy before He was again made favorable to us by Christ's death. But to render these things more certain among those who require the testimony of the ancient church, I shall quote a passage of a gustan where this very thing is taught. God's love, says He, is incomprehensible and unchangeable. For it was not after we were reconciled to Him through the blood of His Son that He began to love us. Rather, He has loved us before the world was created, that we also might be His sons, along with His only begotten Son, before we became anything at all. The fact that we were reconciled through Christ's death must not be understood as if His Son reconciled us to Him that He might now begin to love those whom He had hated. Rather, we have already been reconciled to Him who loves us with whom we were enemies on account of sin. The apostle will testify whether I am speaking the truth. God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore, He loved us even when we practiced enmity toward Him and committed wickedness. Thus, in a marvelous and divine way, He loved us even when He hated us. And, you know, my little way of paraphrasing all of that is simply this, it is not the cross which secures the love of God for you. It is the love of God for you which secures the cross for you. God's love set upon you before the foundation of the world. Let's pray together. Father, these are marvelous, marvelous things, things that our souls need desperately to hear again and again. Help us, help me but help all of us daily and weekly to preach the gospel to each other, to speak to each other, of the vast, limitless riches of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, set upon us before the foundation of the world and now secured for us in time by our one true mediator and guarantor, the same Lord Jesus. O Lord, set our hearts at liberty as we preach the gospel to each other and be with us as we come to worship to stir our hearts up yet again. We praise Jesus' name. Amen.