You have his catechism, whichever one you have, we are either on where we've been looking at question 32 and 33 or 28 and 29 depending if you picked up some of the Spurgeon's catechisms over there on the on the table over there. They didn't, I don't know, we went to Chapel Library, but I don't guess they had the Baptist catechism in the print. Who said that? Oh, there you go. You're right behind Mary Hunter. I was like, Mary Hunter does not. She must have got quite the cold there. Anyway, so they don't have a nice little copy like you can get from Spurgeon, but so either way, If you grab one off the table, we're on question 28, 29. Really, today, we're pushing toward, we're really gonna focus more on 29. So like I was telling y'all in the previous lessons, right, so we are working through, like every question builds on itself, and right, so we're working systematically through the scriptures here, and well, through the catechism here. And so we're working through question, how are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? And then how does that spirit apply to us, the redemption? And remember, these are two kind of the preambles that we're getting toward. to really what is the dynamite that is going to explode, right? I mean, you know, this analogy last week, however good or bad it may be, but this is a fuse that's running through, right? And we've lit it, well, at the beginning, right? We've lit this fuse and now this fuse is getting closer to question 34 or question 30, depending on which one you have, what is effectual calling, right? that effectual calling, that drive, that call from the Holy Spirit that you heard that changed your life forever. We're pushing towards that, okay? So, but we have a little bit of, you know, a little bit of work to get to that point. And so, yeah, I heard a very interesting, interesting morning and evening from Spurgeon this past week. It was on Leah and Rachel, and it was just what, you know, he could take a word and preach, you know, 12 sermons off of one word from the Scripture. But, and I forget the exact verse, but it was basically, you know, that Leah came before Rachel, right? And that he described it as, before we get the joy of Rachel, we have to do however you want to say it, the work with Leah. And so Leah is not the end of the joy, but it's the work that we have to do before we get to the joy. So he had to work seven more years to get Leah, now he has to do seven more years of Rachel. So his analogy here was that The repentance, the work that happens in us, right, and the work that we do towards our salvation, towards the goal of eternity with Christ, right, that is Leah. And once we move through that, then we get to have the joy and the satisfaction of salvation forever with Rachel. Not that this is drudgery, at least I hope it's not drudgery, but this is the work, right? This is the work that we're putting through to get to the question that we all really want to spend some time on, which is the effectual calling. However, these things are not inconsequential or unimportant. What did we talk about last week? Last week, the Spirit. What is the Spirit? If y'all didn't get anything out of that thing last week, tell me what you got out. What is the Holy Spirit? He is the what? He is the gift giver, right? He is the greatest of gift givers, right? And so, out of all the things that He gives, and we named a few things, right, last week. He's the comforter, right? He gives us peace. He works in us to make us and shape us, right, through our sanctification more like Christ. But of all the gifts that he's given us, what is the greatest thing that he has given us? All right, what do I hear? Somebody over here? Don't be shy, right? Say it, say it, right? Right, life, right? He gives us faith in Jesus Christ, right? The greatest gift is we can have. And this is what we're working to. So we talked about how are we made partakers of the redemption? And what is this redemption? What did we need? We were fallen in Adam. We are all sinners by nature. We all hate God. We all are in enmity with God. And who came? We have our Redeemer, Christ Jesus, that came and sacrificed himself for us. The redemption. How do we get a part of this redemption? Well, we get a part of this redemption by the effectual application of it to us by His Holy Spirit. This effectual application of it, right? Just take the words. He applies it to us, right? Is it just happenstance? Does it clip us? Does it just miss us a little bit? No, right? It's effectual. Everything that God does, right, is complete and total and works. right? There is no, well, you know, it kind of hit, you know, it got on him but it didn't really get, right, it kind of grazed this guy and he's got a little bit on him but it's not going to last. No, that's not it, right? Those, right, what's the last of the tulip, right, of the Doctrines of Grace, right, the five points, right? What's the last one? Perseverance of the Saints, okay? that he who has begun a good work will continue it and see it through the end. But he who has begun that work, right, that work is from him. That work is not from any other source. And if it is from any other source, then what happens? then it withers and dies, and it goes away. Because it was never true, it was never genuine. They went out from us because they were not of us. Right? Okay? So how do you become... So this is it, right? How do you become of us? How is this happening, right? Well, it happens because the Spirit effectually applies this redemption that Christ purchased on the cross for you. He applies it. It's a natural flow from this now, right? Well, he applies it. Well, how does he apply it? How does this work? Well, the Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by doing what? Working faith in us. Working faith in us, okay? So, he works faith in us. I'm already running out of time. Sorry. I know when people drink in front of me, when they're standing up here, it makes me so stinking thirsty. So if you got to get up and get out and get some water, I won't blame you. So it works faith in us. So how, what is this faith, right? So how does it work this faith in us? Well, obviously, again, this is continuation of the work of the Holy Spirit. He works faith in us. First of all, who is it for, right? It is for who? His people, the elect. Does it happen to everybody? No, right? It just happens for the elect. He works this faith for his people. John, go to John 6, 37. Sorry, John, I didn't mean to get you all... The book of John, chapter 6, verse 37. And what does it say? All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and I will, what, in no wise cast him out." Right? So the Father, so those that the Father enables. We talked about this a few weeks ago. The order, what they call the order salutis, or actually I guess this is more of the works of the different persons of the Trinity in salvation. The Father is what? What is His role? elects, right? He elects. John 6, 37. It's made for what? Those who are His called, His elect, right? So it works. He works faith in us. This faith is for His elect. He gives it to us how? Is it something we have to earn? Is it something we produce of our own? No. A free gift. A free gift. What is this? Ephesians 2, 8. Ephesians 2, 8. This is very familiar. We all should really know this almost by heart. Ephesians 2 verse 8, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is what? It is the gift of God. And I don't want to get too in the weeds here, but what is the gift? Well, just focusing on the Okay, so the whole of all of it is the salvation through grace, right? But the gift, right, the gift freely given is the grace, right? He freely gives his grace out to us. And what is the grace that he gave us? Well, he gives us all kinds of graces, right? But specifically here, what is that grace that he has given us? Faith, right? That faith, right? That saving faith that we have, okay? So not earned, but a gift, given, right? Not to be confused, this isn't just an offer, right? I don't know if you've ever been in any Southern Baptist church, right? Oh, the offer's there, right? It's always right. You have to write now. This is the gift, right? It's a gift because it is received. Will a gift ever not be received? Then it's not, what? Then it's not a gift if you don't receive it. Now, let me ask you this, is that you receiving the gift? Is it you saying, okay, well, I'll take it. This isn't fruitcake. We're coming up to the fruitcake time of season. We've all been there. Thank you. Oh, I love it. It looks delicious, right? You take it and put that in. Is the dog hungry? Yeah, okay, right? Is that what it is? No, right? So this work, right, this power that happens in you, okay, you see the gift and then the work is you take the gift, right? You take it. Would you take that in and of yourself? No, right? So the power that's wrapped up in this gift... It's the power of knowing you need the gift and the ability to even take the gift and take hold of it. So multifaceted, multilayered here. It's not just, again, we talked about God didn't drag you up here by the collar of the neck kicking and screaming because you didn't want to go. That's the beauty of all this. that He wants you, right, He wants you freely to do this. He wants it of you, and He gives you the ability to freely do it. Okay? All right. We're not gonna spend too much time because, again, when we get to the effectual call, we will see the glory of just how magnificent this is. And we talk about how we use the word salvation to kind of cover it, right? It's just sort of this capsule we put everything into, but when we start to get to the effectual call and we break it down exactly what this does in you and for you, it is more really. This is what makes us have joy unspeakable, right, and full of glory. That's you, right? This is what happens in you, right? So He works this faith in you. He freely gives it to you. It cannot be manufactured on your own. Verse 5 there in Ephesians 2, it says, why? You were dead in what? Trespasses and sin. And you He hath what? Quickened. I love that word. It's only in the King James. I'm sorry, but he's quickened you, right? I know that this sounds a little silly, but I think back on the days when we used to have Nestle's quick, right? Right? And you stir that stuff up, right? And you get it in your right hand, right? And boy, that is kid fuel, right? It kicks you in the pants and makes you alive, right? He has quickened you. Right? He has given you this life together with who? With the only one we want life with. Who's that? Christ Jesus, our Lord, our Champion, our Savior. Right? He is the only reason we are even worth living. Right? The only reason we are around, the only reason God has given you a soul, the only reason you are here on this earth. Why do we know that? What's question one? Well, what's question one in the Spurgeon's Catechism? What is your chief end? to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, right? You glorify God. How do we glorify God? By loving Him and doing what He commands. And that action right there It is a joy to you, right? Because He has worked in you. And now you have it unspeakable and full of glory. Because you were dead in trespasses and sin, but now He has made you alive. Alive, together with His Son, Jesus Christ. Right? This is something that is completely otherworld to us. This is supernatural, right? If the natural, then anybody and everybody could do this. But as foreign to us, as foreign as foreign to be, look at, again, go back to chapter two. Ephesians chapter two just lays this out beautifully. At the very beginning, verse one, you again, he has what? Quickened, he has made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Where in times you walked according to what? To the course of this world. According to who? The prince of the power of the air, which is? Right, the devil. The spirit that now works in the children of who? Of disobedience. among whom you had your conversation. In other words, that's the group that you ran with, right? These are your buds. These are the ones that you enjoyed hanging out with. This morning I was listening to Paul Washer on the way over here, and he was talking about, he was teaching some kids, he's going through the Proverbs with kids as well, and he was talking about scoffers, right? And he gave the example of how, to his shame and discredit, when he was a kid, he said, you know, I wasn't saved, I wasn't a Christian. And we used to scoff, right, in school, he said, you know, I was one of the little rascals that was running around causing trouble. And he said, me and my buddies, uh-oh, me and my buddies, hey, he's got a good arm. You might want to... Sign that kid up. So he said, so me and my buddies ran around, and we would make fun of the kids who did good in school, right? We were scoffers, right? He said, that's the group I ran around with. And he said, really, we did it because we weren't good in school. And ultimately, it's because we hated these kids that weren't good. And he said, and so to cover that, to mask that hatred, right, we would make fun of them, right? Anyway, so that's the group he ran. He said, that was the crowd, right, that I hung out with. Well, this is the crowd. This is our crowd, right? This is the crowd before Christ. This is who we were. We had conversations in times past. Well, we did what? We fulfilled the desires of what? Our own flesh and of our own minds. Those depraved minds, right? That mind that had been perverted. To what? To hate God. This is what, this is what we love, right? This is, this is who we were. We were children of wrath, even as everybody else, right? Then verse four, but God, he was what? Rich, rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he has loved us. That love that is what? Infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, right? Infinite and eternal and unchangeable love that He loved us with who were this way, right? Those who were dead in trespasses and sin. Those who hated God. He gave us what? The ability to love Him. not of ourselves. We were dead. How do dead men do anything, right? They didn't want to do anything, right? This is the group we ran in. We liked these people. We were of one mind and one flesh, right? And then the desires of our heart became the desires of God, right? So we begin to love what He loves and hate what He hates. Could we have done that outside of Him? No. All right. Moving on. He's given us this faith. He works this faith in us. It transforms us. We're going to get into this deeper when we get to the actual call. But the fuse is getting closer. What is this faith? What is faith? Now, this is not a trick question. But it's not an easy question, right? So what is faith? Go to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, verse 1. This isn't the only definition of faith, but it's very nice, very succinct, and really, a little more complicated than you would think, right? Because couldn't he just say, couldn't the author of Hebrews, and as much as our brother Richard Bracillus tried, right, we didn't find out who wrote Hebrews, all right? I don't know, if y'all were there for the Deep South when the power went out, it was a pretty funny moment anyway. I don't think we got that recorded either because the power blanked and it knocked everything out, but anyway. But the author of Hebrews starts this in chapter 11. What is chapter 11? What do we call it? The roll call. I always grew up with it called the roll call of the faithful, right? There's all kinds of other names for this, but we have this chapter where it lays out what faith is, right? So it gives us this initial definition of faith and then it rolls through all these Old Testament heroes where they were what? They were saved by this faith before Christ, right? Verse one, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Other translations, this is obviously assurance of things hoped for and the what? Conviction of things not seen. So, the substance of things, and he could have just said, trust, faith is trust, you have to believe. And quite frankly, it's very interesting in the English language, faith is not a verb. What is the verb that we use to denote faith or trust in something, right? We believe it, right? So, but really here, it's faith, right? Faithing, right, is your belief. Faithing, we don't have that word, but maybe we should make it up. Faithing, right? I faith in this, right? It sounds like an old English word, actually. It might not be too bad. Anyway, not to sound like we're speaking with lisps here, but you have faith, right? You believe. Now, the difference, again, this is not, we could go a whole semester and try to break down faith, right, and all the different facets of faith. So I don't want to get too, too caught up in this, and surely time does not allow us to do that. But can you believe something and not have faith in it? Okay, and I don't wanna get, this isn't gonna be a logic class here either, I don't wanna get too far in that, mainly because my logic goes about that deep, and then I'm drowning with the rest of you. So, well, y'all might not be drowning, I might be the only one drowning. So, but you can have belief without faith, right? Wow, how do we know this? What does scripture tell us, what? You believe, well that's great, you believe, well, the devils believe, right? Do they have faith? They believe it more than you do. Why? They've seen, they know it. Right? They've experienced it. Have they experienced a saving belief? That saving faith? No. Right? Obviously not. So, the substance of things hoped for. Right? So it's this. Another definition for this substance is this foundation. Right? That's another way you could translate this. Right? So we have this assurance, this foundation. Right? We hope that when we're standing on this floor here and we have confidence that this floor is not getting given away. This is our foundation physically right now. Right? I've stood in some places, Richard, you've stood in some places in this facility that doesn't have such a great foundation. We'll try to get off that real quick, right? But this is our surety, this is our sure footing, this is our substance, this is the foundation of what? Faith is the foundation of things we hope for. Again, we go back to the English language and how words start to kind of lose their intended or original meanings. So again, we talked about some weeks back how the word might has changed every time. And we talk about, well, I might go do this or I might go do that. which basically just leaves things tossed up in the air, uncertainty, right? But in the scripture, when it says that he has, that he might be able to do something, right? Again, that is the scripture saying he now has the power and authority and the ability to do it, right? It's not up for grabs. It's not just, well, maybe you will, maybe you won't, right? No, right? And so here we come to another word that we have kind of, in the English language over time, just kind of taken a lesser meaning or a completely different meaning than what is here intended in the Scriptures, right? So, things hoped for. This hope, right? This is not, well, I really hope this happens. A couple weeks ago on Tuesday, November 5th, we were all sitting there hoping something was gonna happen. Well, maybe not all of us. I don't wanna speak for, I was sitting there hoping something was gonna happen. And I had my doubts because there's some shady folks out there doing shady stuff. But we were hoping, right? That was what I would say an impotent hope, right? There was no power in it. You're just sitting there. Last night, I was sitting there watching this wretched sport we call football, right? And I was sitting there watching these guys act like they've never played this game before in their life at 20 years of age. knowing they've gone through many, many games, many, many practices, and I'm sitting there hoping that maybe they'll remember. Will they remember how to do this? Will they remember that they can throw a ball forward? Or that they can run? Or that they can use these hands to catch? We're not playing soccer. You can use these, right? I was hoping for that. And guess what? That was an impotent hope. Right? It was terrible, right? But I digress. Right? That hope was worth nothing. Nothing. This hope is worth everything. Everything, right? This is not a wish we cast upon a shooting star, right? This is certainty, right? This is a hope. This is a trust. This is the substance. This faith is the foundation of the things that we know will happen. This hope that we have is this longing to look forward, right? This looking to what is the ultimate end. Well, why do we know this? God is what? He is infinite and eternal and unchangeable in His being, in His wisdom, in His power, in His holiness, in His justice, in His goodness, and in His truth. God has told us this. Can God lie? Will God ever lie? No. He is the definition of truth. What He says is truth. Again, last week I was telling you, push this up against, right? We don't throw God up against the good wall and see what sticks, right? He is the wall. He defines these, his actions, what he does defines all of this. He has told us, he who has begun a good work will finish it. These are things that we don't just hope for. This is the foundation, this is the substance, right? And I know the assurance, right? We have assurance and that's a great word, right? But I love this word substance, not just because it's in the King James, but I love this word substance because it's things you can grab onto, right? It's not just some hope and some wish that's ethereal that's floating out there, right? Every time, every one of you, every time the Lord does a work in you that is a physical substance, something that has happened that is real, right? It's not this thing that's other. It happened in you. You know it. Because it changed you. And it's the thing that you grab on to, right? Christ is now living in you. The Spirit of God is in you. It's not manufactured. It's not this thing that's just made up. Why do you know that? Because you have never done it on your own. It wouldn't have happened. I grew up in church. I grew up going every Sunday, twice, and every Wednesday, I was in church, right? Like I've told you before, I knew all of this stuff, right? I knew every word of it. What did it do for me? Nothing. I was not saved. I did not come to Christ until I was 27 years old. And I don't know if y'all know statistics, but the rate of kids becoming Christians falls off dramatically after the teenage years if they have not already become a Christian. That's not saying that obviously God doesn't work, but it's just data. It's just simple truth, right? And so I was well beyond that, right? And then one day, And it's the Lord's mercy because he kept me in church, right? I wasn't as faithful as I should have been. But, you know, I was living on my own. I still went. My grandfather, I still brought him to church every Sunday night. I don't know why he just went on Sunday nights. He never went on Sunday mornings, but he just went on Sunday nights. Now, I went on Sunday mornings occasionally, but it was Sunday nights that usually I brought him. And standing there, listening to a sermon from a dear brother that's passed on and is now with Christ, who has probably preached that sermon, and I've probably heard that sermon from many other people many, many times. And then, for whatever reason, that one time, the bomb exploded. The heart was crushed. It was pierced. And the joy of God exploded. The eyes were opened. The ears could hear. And you saw, I saw, all this. Real. As real as we are standing here. As real as the stuff that we sit here on. Truth. That is the substance of things hoped for, right? That thing that we know is going to happen. And then the evidence of things not seen. How do we know this? For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which were seen were not made of things which appear. In other words, what? All created from nothing. Nothing. You, right, physically have been created from nothing. Spiritually, you have been created from nothing of your own. It's that we create things by taking stuff and reforming it and make it into something else. We got really good at it. The image of God is upon us and has given us this intellect to be able to do this stuff. We have these buildings. A modern vehicle is marvel if really if you think about it all the things that are part that get this thing moving down the street right just the transmission alone in that thing is beyond right again I'm just a peon but beyond what I can even understand right but God has given us this ability and but but everything that we make everything that we are we have to have something first right we have to have material to work with God created all of it from nothing, from the Word of His power, and He created you as a Christian by that very Word, from nothing in and of yourself. He didn't say, well, you know, there's just a little bit, you know, David's got a little bit of good in him. Let me just take that over there. Whip it up. Y'all seen the little whiskers, like the little milk frothers, right? You put just a little bit in there and you get going, right? And suddenly you got all, right? I saw a guy put just like a little bit of milk in there and frothed it up and it took up the whole cup, right? The Holy Spirit is not a milk frother, right? He didn't take just a little bit of it and sit there and just, oh, I'm gonna work real good, right? And oh, look at him now, right? And even if he did, what is that froth? It's what, 90% air, right? Nothing, right? It's like yesterday we were going through Jude, right? And we have this passage where it talks of how these men have, they're basically whitewashed tombs, right? They have the exterior, right? The outward show of being good, faithful men, right? But inwardly, they're nothing, right? They are clouds without rain. They are trees that are uprooted that produce no fruit, right? They are husks, right? They are decrepit. They produce death, right? That is what you were. And God wiped that away through faith, right? Substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen. He had framed the world by the Word of God so that things which were seen were made of things which do not appear. By faith, and then we get into it, right? By faith, Abel had a more excellent sacrifice. By faith, Enoch, our good friend Enoch, we talked about him yesterday, our good friend Enoch, was translated that he should not even see death. Now that's faith, right? I think I asked this a few weeks back. How many people are in heaven right now with bodies? Right, not many, but he's one. right? He didn't even see death. Now was that a faith? We look at Enoch. Was that because of Enoch? No. Who is that? It's the work of God. By faith, Noah, being warned of God, prepared an ark. By faith, Abraham, he was called out to go into a place on foreign land, and he sojourned into that land of promise. By faith, Sarah received strength to conceive, even though she laughed. If it was up to Sarah, would that would have happened? No. Who performed faith in her? our Lord, right? So what is this faith? This faith is that this thing created in us that we believe, right? We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that He is the Messiah. We believe that He is the Redeemer. We believe, what do we believe? Well, let's go back to question 19. We believe what? So God having out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elected some to everlasting life, then he entered into a covenant of grace to deliver us out of sin and misery and to bring us into a state of salvation by a Redeemer. Who do we believe in? We believe in the Redeemer. Who is our Redeemer? Who is this Redeemer? That's the next question. The next Redeemer. Who is the Redeemer of God's elect? The only Redeemer of God's elect is? the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God, we believe that He is the eternal Son of God. We believe that He became man. We believe that He so was and continues to be God and man. And we believe that He is in two distinct natures and one person forever. We believe that Christ became man by what? Taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul. That what? Being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, we believe him born of her yet without We believe 24, question 24, how does Christ execute the office of a priest? We believe that Christ once offered up Himself a sacrifice to do what? To satisfy divine justice. And we believe that He has reconciled us to God. And we believe that He is even now in heaven sitting at the right hand of God the Father doing what? interceding for us. This is faith. You don't believe this outside of his work in you. This is foolishness, right? Foolishness to those who are outside of God. And yet for us, it is the foundation, it is the substance of all that we are and all that we will ever be. He is this work from the great gift giver himself, the one who continues to give us gifts beyond measure. Overflowing, shaken, pressed down, right? And still overflowing. These are the gifts we get. This is only part of how we partake of this, how he applies it to us. We'll pick it up next week with the rest of it and get into the final explosion of all this, right? This stuff that gets all over us and in us, this effectual call, okay? All right, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the love that you have showed us in Jesus Christ. We thank you for your great spirit that has pulled us from the depths of sin and depravity and have made us new creatures in you, where what we were once we no longer crave, but we seek after the glory and the righteousness of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that, Lord, our hearts would be attuned to you. Lord, help us this day as we begin our worship. Lord, may we do it in a manner that is pleasing, Lord, and glorifying unto You. May we seek and approach Your throne in all humility, covered in the great righteousness of our great King, of our great Prophet, of our great Priest, Christ Jesus Himself. And may Your Spirit fill this place That indeed our hearts would be overflowing and that indeed we would have joy unspeakable, full of glory as of the only begotten Son. And we pray this in His holy name. Amen.