All right, well, we're still in chapter 20. I just want to finish this up tonight before we move to the next section. Kind of review real quick. Since some of you weren't here last week, this is a great chapter. It's interesting because This chapter is totally not in the Westminster. So this is a chapter that is unique to the Savoy and to the 1689. And we talked a little bit about why this chapter was included. Some people believe there was a very incipient or beginning form of deism, kind of the idea that God made everything and then just sort of took his hands off of it and said, I'm going to see how this plays out myself. That's kind of my version of what deism is. It's more than that, but that's kind of what a deist believes. There is a God. He might have made everything put together, but he's kind of hands off now, just letting us figure it all out. So, some people believe that, and I can see that specifically the Baptists and those who wrote the Savoy were really trying to combat Sufcinian, Sufcinianism, because it was a lot like that, but it was also very Arminian in the sense that they believed men could kind of bring themselves to God, but also they even went further and thought, we're teaching like if men adhere to, if man would adhere to the greater good of their culture in the greater sort of unwritten laws of culture then they could ascend some way to God by doing good and being good and there was enough natural revelation for people to understand they need to do these things and if you do those things then you come to know God or God would accept you. And so with that in mind it kind of helps you understand why were they so intent in including this chapter. they really had some battles against this Sosinian thought and so and I'm still trying to I try to read some about Sosinianism but sometimes I think it's important to know about heresy because it's amazing if you think about it I mean as we said these heresies repeat themselves and just look around and you see that this is being taught, even in so-called evangelical churches, that man is good enough to do what he needs to do by himself. I mean, if you'll just reach down deep inside and find that David that's in there, then you can be victorious and you can slay the giants and walk on water and everything else. And so there's that idea that And also really, I mean, there's an idea that you can be saved apart from what this chapter talks about. Not only saved apart from the gospel, but saved apart from any kind of divine calling. You know, and that's kind of the other thing that Arminianism brought to the forefront was more of the idea that we're gonna tell you about Jesus, but the human ability to reason things out and reason and logic will bring you to understand who God is and you can just be saved because you're making a better decision. And so at the end of the day, people go to heaven because they're better decision makers than people who don't make right decisions. And so with that in mind, of course, we just finished the chapter on law and what the law is and how and why God gave the law because Adam broke the law written on the heart of man, right? Even though we say, well, what did Adam do? Well, he ate of the tree that God told him not to. But we talked about the fact that that command from God was built on the law that was already written in his heart. Adam knew to obey God before God told him don't do that. And so the fact that he didn't, it was just a way that the law was manifested in put it was an addition not addition to the law but a positive that's the way that's the way the the our confession describes a positive law which means God took what was already the law and said and here's how you're going to keep it that's how you're going to obey me by doing this and then of course eventually God gave more positive law in the law of Moses that he gave to Israel and we talked about those three different categories of law which are moral and ceremonial and then sacrificial and the only thing that we still obey and it's still relevant for us to understand and preach is the moral law because everything else is built on the moral law. We don't sacrifice animals anymore and nobody does. and neither does anybody follow the ceremonial, I mean, the judicial law of Israel. So the moral law, the Ten Commandments, summed up in the Ten Commandments, we preach that because it teaches men the standard of God and the standard of righteousness and holiness, and it teaches us we've fallen short of that, and that's why Adam broke, right? So all that, to get to chapter 20, the gospel and the extent of its grace. And I stole from Sam Waldron. since he's a preacher and a pastor, even when he's talking, when he's doing a commentary on the 1689, he still puts it in sermonic form, right? He's got all these points. But I thought when I read back through this, I said, you know what, it's a good way to sum up each one of these sections. Because what we're talking about is divine, direct, supernatural intervention and salvation. In other words, what does God do, God does something through the preaching of the gospel to bring men and women to faith. Because we believe that the power of God and salvation is the gospel. But I can preach the gospel until I have no more breath in my body and if God doesn't call you divinely through the general call of the gospel, right? I preach the gospel and I say, hey, let whosoever will, that's why the whosoever is in the Bible. Whosoever will, let him come. Whosoever believes will be saved. So I call whosoever will, but then God divinely, specifically, lifts people up from the dead, gives them life. It says, gives you faith to believe, right? And so that divine special call, there's another word, that special is not right. Affectual. Affectual call, thank you. That's what we're talking about in this chapter. Because if you don't have that, you'll have nothing. And that's why, really, I get very leery of people who almost seem braggadocious about how many people have been saved through their preaching. Because if you understand this, you have no way, no room to be bragging about preaching. I think I might have told you all this, but I'm gonna tell you again if I did. A few weeks back, I had this random meeting with this guy who was a former pastor, and I hope y'all know him, and I probably shouldn't put this on the recording, but he introduced himself to me, and he said to me, my claim to fame is I led Lex Luger to the Lord. Some of y'all know who Lex Luger was. Yeah, he's a wrestler. I didn't know he was a Christian. But it was just very strange to me that that's how he introduced himself to me. You might have heard of him. My claim to fame is I led Lex Luger to the Lord. And I know we use that language. But I don't know, I'm just kind of standoffish, because I think if God saved people, it really had almost nothing, little nothing to do with me. Even if I preached the gospel, I didn't lead you to nothing. I mean, all I did was say, here's what's written in the Bible, and God does something I can't even see or explain. So I don't even... And I don't know, maybe that's a little too finicky or whatever, but I just don't even like saying, claiming like I've done something, you know, in that. Now I guess maybe you can say, you know, this is my disciple, I'm trying to make a disciple, but I don't know, I'm just very cautious. That just was really odd to me, like, wow. See, that's how you introduce yourself, I don't know. How do you respond to that? I just said, okay, and then he kept talking. You can look it up on YouTube and see the video of me, him talking, and I'm on that video. I mean, obviously it was an important thing to him, you know, but it was just a strange thing, and I didn't really know how to respond. I just said, okay, well, I didn't know, you know, I said I didn't know he was a believer. Anyways, I don't know. It was very strange, but You know, that's what this chapter is helping us to grab a hold to. I'll use these right quick to get to four, because that's where we are, because we did one through three last week, pretty much. But talking about this. He breaks it down this way, this is what chapter, section one is, the inauguration, wait a minute, my computer just did something funky, the inauguration of it, in other words, the beginning, what started it, section one, because the covenant of works was broken by sin, was unable to confer life, God was pleased to proclaim the promise of Christ, to see the woman as the means of calling the elect and producing in them faith and repentance. In this promise, the gospel in its substance was revealed and made effectual for the conversion and salvation of sinners. So we believe that the gospel is not in the New Testament. The gospel is in the Bible, the whole Bible. It started in Genesis 3 because, and it was inaugurated because the first Adam failed. He broke the covenant of works. You know, we talked about that. We, as Reformed believers, we, to hold to Reformed theology, we believe in three covenants. we have the covenant of redemption which was created and made before the foundation of the world read about in Ephesians 1 especially where the Godhead made a covenant that they would save the elect right and then there was a covenant of works made with Adam which he broke and then there was a covenant of grace and if you if you keep that in mind reading the Bible it makes it a lot simpler you can just once you leave once you get out of chapter 3 of Genesis you know you see the covenant works was broken But you see, from there on, it's God dealing with us according to grace. And the law's still there, and we got this history of man continuing God accepting him based on sacrifices in the intermediary, which, of course, pointed to Christ until Christ came. Then all that was done away with. There's no more need to sacrifice, right? So, that's what section one was just showing us how this got started. Why and how did God start dealing with man through promise and this divine calling? Because men were dead, right? We believe that. We believe in total depravity. When man sinned in the garden, it plunged him, according to Romans 5, it plunged all of us into sin. That's why we don't believe in free will when it comes to this. Why? Because your will is not free. It's at least tainted by sin. Unlike Adam, he didn't have that. Our free will is no longer free, it's embonded to sin. So if you're going to talk about will we can talk about human will we have a will it's not free okay if it was free in that it's free in some sense you can make choices and decisions it's not free like God's free if it's free like God is free we'd be God and we're not we're free to make choices the problem is as I always say our chooser is broken and we choose the wrong thing and if we're dead spiritually we can't choose anything so that's why you don't hear until the divine direct supernatural call of God awakens you to life and then all of a sudden you're here, right? and your eyes are open and like Paul, the scales are removed and you can see. So the inauguration of it, then the necessity of it, section two, the promise of Christ, a salvation through him is revealed in the word of God alone. The works of creation and providence when assisted only by the light of nature do not reveal Christ or grace through him. Even in a general obscure way, much less are those without the revelation of him and the promise of gospel, and the promise or gospel enabled to attain saving faith or repentance by seeing these works of God. So why does God have to operate according to a divine effectual call? Because there's no other way for us to be saved. We can't just look outside and say, wow, again, we looked at Romans 1. We're without excuse because of creation, but there's not enough in creation to reveal to us the gospel so that the supernatural call of God can awaken us to it, right? And that's important because that affects everything. That affects evangelism. I mean, if men can look at the trees and come to know Christ, then why bother preaching the gospel to them? Why go to Iran or to Africa? Right? Because If natural revelation is enough, you don't need special revelation. But we believe, and these guys who wrote this certainly believe, there's got to be divine direct revelation. Above and beyond natural. It's great that man can look out and see, we can look at the human body and see there's got to be a God. Oh my gosh, this thing don't just happen. I was talking to a man this week who, I don't know how he would categorize himself, he's just not religious at all, but he's a history professor, a 94, 96-year-old history professor that said, I believe, I don't know how everything came to be, all the stuff, I don't know where the stuff came from that came together to make everything that there is. I guess if you call whatever made that God, that's probably a good name for it, but I don't know what that is, I don't even know what that means. But I was thinking, wow, I mean, how do you look at everything? It's almost like, I don't even think he believes that, but he's convinced himself that there's not a God, everything just happened, but he don't know and he's not willing to even try to answer where everything came from to make everything happen. And it's just, to me, again, that's where Romans 1 does apply. Hey, you're without excuse. You're looking at this saying there's a missing link. And the link is God, obviously. But you have determined by suppressing the truth in unrighteousness that there is no God. You're not gonna accept that. So you need divine special revelation through the preaching of the gospel. And hopefully, pray for me because I do want to share the gospel with this man. Hey, he's he's lived some more life, kind of life that I don't want to have to get into right now. But I mean, if he if God saves him before he's gone, I don't care if it's 100. That's amazing. Even if he's lived no life here in belief, but anyways, So the necessity of it, then the sovereignty of it, section three, the gospel has been revealed to sinners in various times and in different ways, along with promises and precepts describing the obedience it requires. The particular nations and individuals who are granted this revelation are chosen solely according to the sovereign will and good pleasure of God. This choice does not depend on any promise to those who demonstrate good stewardship of their natural abilities. That's the attack on socinianism right there, by the way, the major attack. Men can't just decide to do good things or, based on the common light received apart from the gospel, do good things and inherit eternal life. No one has ever done this, nor can anyone do so. Therefore, in every age, the preaching of the gospel to individuals and nations has been granted in widely varying degrees of expansion and contraction according to the counsel and the will of God. And basically, you can travel far and wide and take the gospel, and we should, but still, it's God that gives the increase. You can go everywhere and anywhere, and we should, and pray that that happens, but still, just going there is not magical. And even preaching is not magical, right? It's the divine effectual call of God that's supernatural. It's not magical. I guess you could call it magical in the way that we define magic. It's something that is supernatural is what it is. So in God's sovereignty, he chooses these things. He don't work on our timetable. He works on his own. And that brings us to where section four the sufficiency of it. The gospel is the only outward means of revealing Christ and saving grace, and it is abundantly sufficient for that purpose. Yet to be born again, brought to life, or regenerated, those who are dead in trespasses also must have an effectual, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit in every part of their souls to produce in them a new spiritual life. Without this, no other means will bring about their conversion to God. And I mean, just that paragraph alone It doesn't give me despair in preaching. It gives me great hope in preaching. Because I look at that and think, okay, you know, I can't really mess this up. I've been called to preach the gospel. I know the gospel is written. And whether I'm real good at preaching or not so good at preaching, look at all this stuff that's got to happen. I can't do any of that. I can't even jumpstart that. I can't even, I mean, there's nothing in that that is for me to do. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them in their loss. That's my only job, the foolish part. I get the foolish part. You know, the wisdom of God. In the wisdom of God, He chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. I mean, it's just amazing. And I look at that, and I think, wow. And this is so important, because again, we've been teaching people all kind of things. I don't know how many people have told me, I was out singing, and they were singing this song about heaven, and I got saved. And I'm not doubting they got saved, I'm just not, they didn't get saved by listening to a song about heaven. You gotta hear the gospel, and then all this is gonna happen. And I'm not even saying that you didn't, I don't know what, you know, God does what he wants to do and how he brings people to himself is fine. But what happens is that turns into, well, you know, we can have a, we can have a gospel meeting without the gospel. We're just seeing or whatever. And you know, how many times I've heard that, especially in charismatic circles. Oh man, nobody said a word. The Holy Spirit just fell and people started falling out and shouting and before I knew it, you know, 20 people were saved. There's no way. Spirit led service. Yeah, spirit led service. That's also how you get churches that don't need Bible, right? Yeah. Old or New Testament. Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that before. Nobody even opened a Bible. And again, I mean, I mean, how God, you know, God does work sometimes slowly and over time bringing people, but we have to, and I think it's important to see that our Baptist forefathers, they saw the importance of this. And I was talking to somebody this week about, one of the reasons I love confessionalism, if we would have maintained confessionalism, our Baptist churches wouldn't be in the mess they're in. Because somebody would have went back and said, hey, wait a minute, preacher. I don't know what happened the other night when everybody was hooping and hollering and going crazy, but nobody preached the gospel. I mean, we gotta make sure that don't happen again. If people are gonna get saved, we gotta preach the gospel. And if y'all wanna hoop and holler, it's fine, but some of us gotta preach the gospel. I mean, we can't, and then what happens, you give people this false idea and false understanding, and they think because something happened, they were excited, then they're saved. And I was thinking about this the other day, and I haven't really fleshed it out and tried to trace it, but I think the Bible is so much more concerned about teaching us how to live in the bad times than it teaches us about the good times. And I'm not saying there aren't good times. I mean, Jesus came and we might have life and have it abundantly. But I see all these people teaching this stuff about, and I listen to it when I'm in the facilities every day because they have TBN or whatever it's called now on, and these guys are preaching this, feel good, you know, up on the mountaintop all the time. And I'm like, you know, I think about my own life. Where do I live most of the time? at best I'm on the medium ground, you know, the high grounds come but I usually do something to mess that up pretty quick and I'm back down middle or even down here but I feel like the and again I haven't you know tried to outline this but it just seems to me the scriptures are more and God has intentionally given us more of the word to teach us and even Jesus how to live when you are persecuted, when things aren't going well, Because it's pretty easy to figure it out when things are good. That's an easy time to cruise. But man, when the weights are heavy and you get bad news or whatever it is, I think it's those times that the Bible really speaks to us and gives us things that encourages us. Things like, He will not allow us to be tempted above what we are able, but with temptation we'll make a way of an escape. And that's amazing. And man, if you want to hear something misquoted, that gets misquoted all the time. All the time. I think I might have told you a couple weeks ago, I was with my friend. His mom was dying. And he was telling me everything that was going on. He had another person in his family that was about to die. And he just had a lot going on. He was just explaining. He's like, man, we can't leave. I mean, my mom's dying. And we've got to be here. But I need to be there and over there. And he's a pastor. And he's like, I got people that need me. And I said, jokingly, I said, brother, has anybody told you that the Lord won't put more on you than you can bear? And he said, yeah. And the lady behind me said, that's right, he won't. The Bible says that. I thought, oh, and my friend's like, it don't say that. She said, oh, yes, it does. He said, it does not say that. And I was like, oh, gosh, I'm trying to be funny now. And she was intent. You know that Lord don't want you to struggle. I thought, oh gosh. So finally he just was like, I mean, you know, it wasn't a proper place for that kind of thing. He said, you're right. You know, God doesn't, God loves us. And so later I apologized. I said, man, I was trying to be funny. He said, I know what you're doing. But he said, He said, isn't it amazing that people don't, and we both quoted what the verse says, the only verse that's close to that is this, and it says he will not allow you to be tempted above what you're able. But with that, we'll make a way of escape. It doesn't say that he won't put more on you than you can bear. There's nothing in the Bible that says that. In fact, I mean, I think it's I think that's one of the purposes of preaching the law is it's so heavy and you see the righteousness of God in this weight of your sin till it presses you down so far that you have no recourse other than call out to Christ. What about all those Christians who have suffered so intently in prison? That's a lot to bear right there. Well, and the truth is, I think sometimes that is what God does, is weigh us down with burdens that we do turn to Him. Not that... I mean, I guess that sounds kind of mean or cruel, but I mean just... He's not being mean or cruel. Right. Because you can't. I got a buddy reading Deuteronomy, and he's basically got that same mindset. He said, you read that, and you see what these people had to go through and what they were asked to do, he said, you come out from that with no hope? You can't do that. You can't keep this up. There's no way. And the burden is so heavy. All you can do is call it. Well, I mean, for most of us, that's where we live. Until we get in that kind of spot, till we realize, oh my gosh, I can't. I'm not going to get out of this unless God does something. Which is more than you can bear. Yeah. It is more than you can bear. Because he can bear it. I mean, again, all you who are laboring or heavy laden, come to me. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. because he is our burden bearer. And we're all guilty of that. Well, I can figure it out myself. I mean, I know I am the world's worst. I don't need any help. I can figure it out. Until I get to the point where I realize, if God doesn't do something about this, it's just not gonna happen, or I'm gonna be in trouble, or I'm gonna be stuck. So anyways. Well, you know, God closes a door. He opens a window. Now I started something, y'all gonna quote all the bads. I had a book one time that R.C. Sproul wrote, and I don't know, it might be in my office. The most misused Bible verse, most misquoted or misinterpreted. You've heard that? You do? I talked through that one once on Wednesday nights, and it was amazing to see some of the stuff. Right. That's in the Bible, you know. My aunt told me that. I said, oh dear me. That's right. Absolutely. And I think that's, you know, this is what... That's the gospel. And that's what they're, you know, they're fighting against that Socinian thought that would say you can do this. Man is highly superior and able to reason these things out and you can fix yourself. And so these guys are saying, no, that's not the gospel. It's sufficient and it's the only sufficient help for man. And it's the only help that keeps us, not only saves us, but after it saves us. We've talked about this a lot. We continue to preach the gospel because it's the gospel in Jesus that teaches us and gives us the strength to live and the rest that we need in Christ. And we recognize that we're not trying to earn his favor and earn his love because we can't. And we don't have to. Even though we've been told that most of our lives and most church we've been to, you know, do good and be good. You gotta be better. And we constantly, you know, think, well, I'm not doing enough, I'm not doing enough. And, of course, we aren't. But I think that the gospel would say, would rather encourage us, hey, you're not, remember, you're not working for something, you're working from something. Who you are gives you, in Christ, gives us a reason to obey. And when we fail, we still run back to Christ, you know? And we look for what we need, just like a child. I mean, you know, you let them go for a little while, and if they mess up, they fall, they get hurt, they're running for mom, you know? They're calling for mommy or whatever. Daddy, they need some consoling, they need help. They know they'll get it. And that's, I think that's why the Bible teaches us, you know, Jesus himself about Abba, Father, intimate. God, he's our God that loves us and brings us to himself so that we keep preaching the gospel. I wanted to look at those Bible verses right quick. These are some great verses to show the sufficiency of the gospel, and the necessity and the fact that the Bible is teaching this effectual, irresistible work of the Holy Spirit. Even in the Old Testament, Psalm 110 and 3, your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments. From the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. Your people will offer themselves freely. Why? Because they have a free will? No, because their will has been arrested and changed. 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. He's not even able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Are these in the book? Because I'm looking on the... Okay. 1 Corinthians 2 14 is a great verse to memorize if you'd like to memorize some verses just Especially if you're a preacher Or if you're even just trying to talk to people if you can keep that in mind If people say ugly things or they say thing you think man, I can't convince this person I'm getting nowhere. Well, the natural person can't understand the things of the spirit of God. The natural person won't understand that verse. No. He's the one who understands. That's right. Because it's foolishness to him. Folly. And what is the, this is Ephesians 119. And I know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might. It's amazing if you just start studying, if you just try to look in the scripture, the scripture is very clear about how people get saved. It's the power of God. I mean, it's so clear. We are the ones that have turned it into the power of man. The power that he worked in Christ, it keeps going in verse 20, Ephesians 1. The power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. That's an amazing thing. His power toward us who believe is according to the same work of his great mind, which raised Jesus from the dead. So it can definitely raise our souls from the dead. And John 6, 44 is a great, John 6 is amazing anyways. Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up to last day. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And you know, a lot of people will quote that, when I mean, yeah, nobody can come unless the Father draws them. Well, but look what Jesus says. You can't believe that everybody's being drawn and believe John 6, because he goes on to say, and whoever the Father sends to me will come to me. And all who come to me, I will know I was cast out. And you have to be universalist, like you said. Yeah, you've either got to be universalist and say, okay, well then everybody's going to be saved, or you've got to believe in this section four right here. Within the gospel call and the general call of whosoever will come, there is a divine, special, effectual, regenerating call of God that brings some. And in John, Jesus says a lot of times, he talks about the many. Not the all, but the many. He does talk about all, but he talks about many a lot. Usually the many qualify to all, or the all's qualified by the many. And this is a great passage, 2 Corinthians 4, 4 and 6, really just all of it. He's talking about unbelievers. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. When it's frustrating, you're like, why do these people not see? The God of this world has them blinded. The only alternative is verse six. For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. The God of this world is blinding people from the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but when God, who caused light to shine out of darkness, shines in our hearts, he will give us the ability to see the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the only way people get born again. It's supernatural, it's divine. Not that I don't think y'all, that I thought y'all didn't believe that, but it's just good to look at it again and be reminded. And also, it's encouraging to say, man, this is what God did to me. I didn't even realize I was dead, right? Until I was alive, I didn't realize I was dead. I mean, until I could see, I didn't realize I was blind, right? And that's the beauty of it. What do y'all wanna say about it? I talked the entire time. That's right. Well, it is something to be excited about, and it ought to excite us. And, you know, I understand some people are excitable in different ways, and I'm not opposed to, I mean, if somebody said amen while I was preaching, I'm not gonna be like, hey, hey, hey. I've done that before. I didn't say, hey, hey, hey. And what if your hand goes up? Right. Come on. It's an amazing thing