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Our text this evening is found in John chapter 6, but before you turn there, I'd invite you to turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 7. I won't have you do a bunch of text turning here, but just for the moment we need to consider this passage here in Deuteronomy before moving to John chapter 6. Deuteronomy 7 is a text that speaks of the sovereignty of God, His good pleasure in choosing His covenant people. And so listen to this, Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 to 11. When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them. You shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their ashram and burn their carved images with fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations and repays to their face those who hate him by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today. God says that He chose Israel as His treasured possession. Israel didn't choose Him. He chose them. The same could be said of all sinners saved by grace. The sinner says, I didn't choose you, O God. You chose me. You called me, you opened my heart and my mind to receive the good news of the gospel. I only came to Christ because I was spiritually drawn to him. There was something or someone persuading and enabling me to embrace Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And friends, we have a term for this persuading, this enabling. It's called effectual calling. And the Westminster Shorter Catechism defines it, saying, effectual calling is the work of God's spirit, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills. He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. Now turn to John chapter six with me. In John chapter six, Jesus is saying to the crowds, I am the bread of life. He says here, whoever comes to me shall not hunger. and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. He says, for this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. What a promise. This is what we would call the general call, the open offer of the gospel, open to whomsoever will come. Freely come to Jesus. and receive life everlasting. It's in this general call, this free offer of the gospel, that we come to our text this evening, because here in John 6, verse 44, Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. Do you hear what Jesus said? No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. In John chapter six, Jesus has just invited sinners to come to him. It's an open invitation, come. He's offered them eternal life through him. The crowd, they've heard this invitation. They've began to grumble about Jesus. They've come to him physically, yes, but they're not coming to him spiritually. They're saying, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? It's in response to such unbelief and open rejection that Jesus says, no one can come to me. unless the Father who sent me draws him. He's teaching us that it's not simply enough to hear the gospel preached. We could have George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Benjamin Morgan Palmer, John Calvin, pick your favorite preacher. We could have them preach for days and days. And apart from the Father's drawing, no one would come to Christ. Don't you see the crowd in John 6, they had Jesus. They had Jesus Himself preaching to them. Yet they did not come to Him. Apart from the internal and effectual calling, not all the preaching in the world will bring a soul to Christ. Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. This verse helps us answer three questions. Who comes to Jesus? That's our first question. Who comes to Jesus? Who willingly and believingly and joyfully comes to Jesus? Jesus says, no one can come to me. He's just offered eternal life to whomsoever will come and eat his flesh and drink his blood. But no one can come. There's a disability or rather an inability on their part to move toward him in faith. What explains this inability? If you whistle for a dog to come, calling him to yourself, and it doesn't come, there's many possible explanations for it, right? Either the dog's deaf, it's dumb, it's disobedient, it's dead, it's terrified, or it's tethered, it's tied on a leash and can't move. Why won't sinners come to Christ? They're deaf to his words. They're dumb in their darkened minds. They're disobedient to his command to come. They're spiritually dead, unable to respond. They're terrified of coming to the judge of the universe because of their sin. And they're enslaved and tethered to that sin. In short, sin is why the sinner will not, cannot, does not respond to Christ's gracious and free invitation to come and live forever. They're unable. And this leads to a second question. How is salvation possible? If sin leaves us unable to respond, how's salvation possible? If no one can come, as Jesus says, and if Jesus is the only way of salvation, then how is anyone saved from their sin? It seems like a catch-22, doesn't it? We must come to Jesus to be saved from our sin, but sin's preventing us from coming to him. How then is salvation possible? Jesus, look at his words again, John 6, 44. No one can come to me unless. Unless. That means there's hope. There's hope for the sinner. There's a way out of this vicious cycle of sin and inability. It's like you're trapped underground. The air's running out, you're suffocating, and then that shovel breaks through the dirt ceiling. You see light. You see a hand reach in and grab you. There's hope. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. God breaks in and reaches down into the suffocating darkness of our sin and death, and he draws us up. Salvation's possible because God saves. He doesn't merely provide us with the possibility of salvation through the cleansing blood of His Son and the life-giving resurrection, but He makes that salvation effectual by actually drawing sinners to Christ. That's why we call it effectual calling, it works. It's not enough that salvation be made possible. Sinners will not, they cannot apply Christ's blood to themselves. They cannot come. And so God enables them to come by drawing them to Christ. And this word, draw, has many uses. John uses it later when Peter draws his sword. It's the word used when the disciples draw or haul up their fishing nets. It's used in the book of Acts and James to describe a prisoner, a being dragged to the dungeon. Jesus uses this word here, and he'll use it later in chapter 12, to describe this divine action, this divine, sovereign, gracious action of drawing people to himself. This is a divine summons. You cannot, you will not say no. We talk about irresistible grace. If the judge summons you to court, well, you go, and if God summons you to Christ, friends, you go. The sword and the net, those are inanimate objects, right? They're senseless. They go where their owner takes them. They don't have a mind or a will. The prisoner has a will, but they have no say in the matter. They're dragged about against their will. But the person who's drawn by God to Christ doesn't go unwillingly like a prisoner. They don't go insensibly like an inanimate object. And this leads us to our third question. What does effectual calling actually involve? What does effectual calling involve? What does it mean that the Father draws us to Christ? If this is the only possible way that we're saved from our sins, then shouldn't you know about effectual calling? We as Christians should be able to flesh this out, to explain it to others, to talk about it, Well, effectual calling involves the whole person. It involves their minds, their hearts, their wills. And this happens internally, spiritually. God doesn't physically drag people to Christ. He spiritually draws them by the inner working of His Holy Spirit. But this inward work of the Spirit is normally not separated from the external preaching and hearing of the Word. We talk about the means of grace and the primary means of grace being the Word read and preached. As theologian Robert Layton says, the Word calls, but the Spirit draws. Not severed from the Word, but working in it and by it. These two go hand in hand, in other words, the Word and the Spirit. And that's why the reading and preaching of the word is so necessary, so important. It is the God-ordained means by which the Spirit draws people to Christ. The word is the love letter of God wooing sinners to Christ. And when it's read and when it's preached, the Spirit uses this love letter to inform our minds to enamor our hearts and to enable our wills to go to Christ in faith and love. First, he informs our minds. You have to have your minds informed. He convinces you that you're a sinner. He convinces you that you need this saving medicine of the gospel. He shows you plainly that apart from Christ, you are destined for condemnation, you're destined for eternal death in the fires of hell. No one will come to Christ unless they see this scary, miserable condition that they're in apart from him. The Spirit teaches us about our natural state in Adam. He shows us what God has done to save us. He presents to us Christ crucified and raised. He makes us learn the ABCs of the gospel. Friends, this is why the study of God's Word must be done always in reliance upon the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit who opens our minds to receive the things of the Spirit, the Word. We must pray and seek the enlightening presence of the Spirit, both when we're at home reading God's word on our own with our families and with the church. Apart from His help, our study, our preaching, our teaching, it will all be in vain. He must inform our minds. But secondly, He must enamor our hearts. The more we learn about Christ, the deeper our love should grow for Him. It's hard to love someone you know nothing about. For a relationship to grow and for love to deepen, there must be progress and development in the relationship. The Spirit teaches us about Christ so that we love Him more. But knowledge doesn't necessarily lead to love. Sometimes the more you get to know someone, the less you love them, right? The demons knew Christ. They hated him. And so one of the things that the Spirit does in our effectual calling is that He woos us with the person and work of Christ. He makes Christ altogether lovely in our sight. He gives us a heart for Christ, a love, an affection for Him. He enamors our hearts with the radiance and renown of the Lord Jesus Christ. And third, He enables our wills. He enables our wills. Children, you have a will. Your will is what chooses and decides. You can will to do something. You can choose to do something. You can choose vanilla instead of chocolate. You can choose to clean your room, or you can choose to not clean your room, like your parents asked. You have a will. Jesus says, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Apart from this special work of God, this effectual calling, we can't choose Christ. We can't will to follow him. Your will in sin is in bondage. Like there's a book, The Bondage of the Will. You can't make a decision to follow Christ and trust Him for your salvation. And so the Spirit works in you to do this. He renews your will so that you're not only persuaded but also enabled to embrace Christ freely offered to you in the gospel. He enables your will. And so all of this is what we mean by effectual calling. It's the work of God's spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. Let me ask you, where in that formula do we get to boast in ourselves? Where do we get to pat ourselves on the back and say, good for me? We talk about the jealousy of God. God is jealous for his own glory. And in this doctrine of effectual calling, we get to put away all of our pride. We get to be humbled. And we get to say, to God be the glory. Praise God for saving me in Christ. Praise God for drawing me out of sin, out of death, and bringing me to life in Christ. This is not just a piece of old, dusty doctrine that we pull out when we're asked our catechism. Now this is very practical. This is worth knowing. First, it's worth knowing because, well, it's absolutely necessary for your salvation. You must be effectually called. No one can come to Jesus without it. There's no salvation apart from this sovereign, saving, drawing of the sinner to Christ. And so, don't you gain a deeper appreciation for something when you realize it's absolute necessity? Second, you need to know whether you've been effectually called yourself. You don't just need to know about this doctrine, you need to know this experientially. You need to know this personally. Has God drawn you to Christ? You might be asking, how can I know? Well, what is effectual calling? If you know effectual calling, you'll be able to look at your life. In the first place, has your mind been informed that you're a sinner and that you're in a miserable condition of inability and sin apart from Christ? Do you know that Jesus is the only way, truth, and life? Can you articulate what He's done to save you from your sins? I imagine when the elders of this church have you come to profess your faith, that they'll ask you a series of questions to discern. whether you have a valid profession. They can't see your heart. They don't know what's going on in your heart. Only God knows that. But they can ask you a series of questions to see if you can articulate what God has done in your life. The second place, has your heart been enamored by Christ? Do you find him to be fair and lovely and altogether desirable? Do you love Him? Do you treasure Him above all things? Is He that pearl of great price? Is He that treasure in the field? Would heaven still be heaven for you if Christ were not there? Do you have a personal growing relationship with Him? And in the third place, has your will been renewed and enabled so that you can respond with repentance and faith to that gospel call? When Jesus says come, do you come? A Puritan, Thomas Watson, put it this way, he who is savingly called answers to God's call. He stops his ears to all other calls which would call him off from God. Again, think back to the, not to call his dogs, but to think back to that dog illustration. Dogs have many opportunities to run after squirrels, right? Squirrel, squirrel. If the owner calls, are they dead set on that owner? If God calls, are you dead set on him, or do you squirrel? Have you been effectually called? If you have, then friends, take comfort. Be thankful for this unspeakable blessing in Christ. Remember that it was sovereign grace alone that's done this, that you have no place for boasting in yourself. All glory goes to God. Again, Thomas Watson, I love reading Thomas Watson. I encourage you to do so too. He says that God should call thee when thou wast in the hot pursuit of sin, admire his love, exalt his praise. Again, that God should call you and pass by others, what mercy is this? So in this doctrine of effectual calling, be humbled, be thankful, be obedient to this call. The Father has drawn you to Christ. He summoned you to a life of blessedness and holiness. And friends, this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God. R.C. Sproul said, in our natural state, we're completely unwilling and morally incapable of coming to Christ. If the Father wants us to come to Christ, He must effectually draw us to His beloved Son. John Calvin, he wrote, the gospel, though it is preached to all without exception, cannot be embraced by all. A new understanding and a new perception are requisite. Faith does not depend on the will of men, but that it is God who gives it. God the Father. draws sinners to God the Son by the effectual calling of God the Spirit. This is one of the most amazing triune works of God. And because this is so, folks, we share the gospel to all people. We share this good news, trusting that our triune God will lovingly and savingly draw His elect to Christ. Whereas Christ teaches here in John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. Amen, let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you for your sovereign, effectual drawing and calling of sinners to yourself by the Spirit to the Son. Lord, would you use the preaching of your word today to do just that? Would you inform our minds? Would you enamor our hearts? And would you enable our wills that we might come to Christ, that we might find in Him our supreme delight, supreme desire? And that we might know Him personally and savingly. Grant us all this by your grace, we pray for His sake. Amen.
Effectual Calling
Sermon ID | 1118241729597655 |
Duration | 28:49 |
Date | |
Category | Sunday Service |
Bible Text | John 6:44 |
Language | English |
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