Well, as you know, we have been continuing our study of the Shorter Catechism and we are in that section of three questions that talk about how redemption is applied to us. Remember that just to review the overall outline again, we saw with question 20 through 22 that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer that we really need. And then we saw in questions 23 through 28 the work that he was given to do as our Redeemer as prophet, priest, and king. That was the task that he was given to fulfill those offices so that we could be saved. And then the questions that we are dealing with now are questions 29 through 31 that have to do with how the work that Jesus did is applied to us so that we can benefit from it. It's one thing to have Christ do the work that was required to redeem a people for God. It's another thing for those people to be connected to his work so that they receive the benefits of it. I mentioned an illustration with a cure for cancer. If you have a bunch of cancer patients, we are a bunch of sinners, cancer patients, and you have a doctor that has a cure for their cancer, and they're never joined up with the doctor and that cure, then it doesn't do them any good. And so God provides for our salvation, both in sending Christ as our Redeemer, as doing the work that questions 23 through 28 refer to, and then the Holy Spirit comes and unites us to Christ so that we can benefit from that redemptive work, what questions 29 through 31 talk about. So let's review these three questions. We're on the third one today. We've done the first two of these three that have to do with the application of redemption. So question 29, let's confess this together. How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual application of it to us by the Holy Spirit. When we studied this, we looked at Titus 3 and we saw in Titus 3.5 that it was not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy that He saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So that is how the Spirit effectually applies the work of Christ to us. He washes us from our corruption That's what has to be done so that we will come to Jesus Christ. We did not initiate our coming to the Lord to be saved, but He came to us and washed away our corruption and renewed us so that we would come. Then last week we looked at question 30, so let's review that one. Question 30, how does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? Now you see here that the Spirit unites us to Christ by faith. We saw that to be redeemed we have to be united to Christ. And that those who are without Christ are, remember what we saw last week in Ephesians 2, they're without hope. They are without God and without hope in the world because they are without Christ. They are not joined to Him. So we must be joined to Him to have His work applied to us for salvation. And we are united to Him, we saw it two ways. Legally in a covenant relationship so that His work is legally credited to us. Okay, the work of redemption that He did. so that we're made acceptable to God, so that we're forgiven and we're made righteous. Not that we're actually, in that case, the legal aspect changed in our character, but that Jesus representing us, what He did on the cross and so on, and even in His obedient life, is accounted to us, or credited to us, as if we had done that so that we could be saved. That was the legal, covenantal relationship that we have. And then we also saw, though, that we are united to Him vitally so that He makes us alive who are spiritually dead. And that's what the first part of Ephesians 2 talks about, that you who are dead in your trespasses and sins, He made alive by bringing us into union with Christ, the Holy Spirit. made that vital living union. And the instrument or the chord that the Spirit uses to join us to Christ is faith. So that's why the Catechism says He works faith in us. And we saw that in Ephesians 2 as well. That we're saved by grace through faith. And that not of ourselves. It is the gift of God not of works, lest anyone should boast." So He works faith in us. It's His gift. We can't boast and say, well I believed and so-and-so didn't believe. No, if you believed it's because He gave you the gift of faith. He worked it in you. And that's really now what we're coming to this week We're going to look, okay, if He works faith in us, how does He go about doing that? And we've seen in a broad general way that He washes away the corruption. But what does He change in us? What are the specific things that He does? You see, so we might say that last week we saw that the Holy Spirit works faith in us in our effectual calling. This week we want to look at what this effectual calling that produces faith in us is. Okay, what is this effectual calling? What does it entail? Well, let's confess then question number 31, our subject for this week. What is a factual calling? A factual calling is the work of God's Spirit wherein, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds to the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ through the offer to us in the Gospel. Our scripture reading related to this subject is Ezekiel 36, 16-38. Now I've mentioned to you before that if you ever want a passage that talks the most clearly about the substitutionary atonement of Christ, then that would be Isaiah 53. If you want a passage that talks about regeneration and effectual calling and how God brings His salvation to us in this way, then the clearest passage would be Ezekiel 36. And so that's what we're reading today. I ask you to give attention because this is God's holy and infallible word. And I'll begin in verse 16. Ezekiel 36 and verse 16. Moreover the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds. To me, Their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity. Therefore I poured out my fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for the idols with which they had defiled it. So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I judged them according to their ways and their deeds. When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned my holy name. When they said of them, These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land. But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the LORD God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hallowed in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and multiply it and bring no famine upon you. I will multiply the fruit of your trees and the increase of your fields, so that you need never again bear the reproach of famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Not for your sake do I do this, says the Lord God. Let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord God. On the day that I cleanse you from your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, this land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden. And the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited. Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus says the Lord God, I will also let the house of Israel inquire of me to do this for them. I will increase their men like a flock, like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days. So shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. And may God bless to us the reading of His Holy Word. Now let's begin with a basic overview of what effectual calling is and how effectual calling is revealed to us in Ezekiel 36. First I want you to think about what the words effectual calling mean. Essentially it's a call that is obeyed. Children if you're playing outside and you're having a really good time And your mom comes and opens the door and you hear her calling you. And then you're thinking, oh, but I just got started with whatever it is you're doing. And you don't go, then you are not effectually called. You are called, but you are not effectually called. But if you go, then you are effectually called. An effectual call is a call that works. You could give a similar kind of illustration. If there was a city, that was being threatened by an enemy kingdom, and the king of that city that was being threatened called his men to arms. He calls them to arms. The men that come are the men that were effectually called. They are the ones that hear the call, and they respond to the call, and they come. In the same way, the call to salvation is effectual when it is obeyed. Many people are called to repent and believe the Gospel. The Word of God goes out into the world, And many people hear it. They are called to turn from their sin and to come to Jesus for salvation, as He is offered in the Gospel, where we are told that whosoever believes in Him will be saved, will have their sins completely forgiven, and will be granted eternal life. But you know that even though many people are called, there are only some people that come. Jesus illustrated this with a marriage feast. Where lots of people were invited to come to the marriage feast. And then one by one they all began to make excuses. And they had some pretty silly excuses about why they couldn't come. And every excuse to not come to Jesus is a silly excuse. So they didn't come. And He said then in Matthew 22, 14, Many are called, but few are chosen. So the ones that are chosen are the ones that are effectually called. They're the ones that come. But there's something interesting about what Jesus says there. He doesn't say, many are called, but few choose to come. He says, many are called, but few are chosen. And you see, that puts the emphasis on something that we have already seen about how people receive redemption. Yes, we do choose to come, but it is the work of God and the work of the Holy Spirit that so works in us that we do choose to come. God is the one who takes the initiative to unite us to Christ because we were dead in our trespasses and sins as we saw in Ephesians last week, and He's the one that works faith in us so that we come. When we would not have come, we could not have come, except that He effectually calls us. So effectual calling is His work. And Ezekiel 36 shows you that it is God who gathers us to Christ for salvation. It is He who not only calls us, but who effectually calls those who are saved. Just look at this passage. Look at it in a general way and you can see that this is so. First of all, you need to understand the overall context of Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36. Centuries before Ezekiel the prophet was around, God had graciously gathered Israel out of Egypt that they might be saved. That they might be His people. He called the people together to Himself. They were brought into the land. You remember? And that was a precursor of what it means to be brought to Jesus Christ. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, in the land, what did God have in the land? He had a temple in that land. And what did God show in that temple? He showed sacrifices that were offered by priests every day to atone for people's sins, to represent them as their righteousness. Spotless lambs that were offered as burnt offerings to represent them. sin offerings that were made, all kinds of offerings, fellowship offerings that were brought before him to show God saying, I am reconciled to you people through the blood of the covenant. I'm your God, you're my people, I receive you, I accept you as my people, I dwell in the midst of you. All of those things were shown in the temple. And so that's why I say that it was a precursor to Jesus coming to Jesus Christ. Coming to the land where the temple was, where God was reconciled in all the symbols and ceremonies, was a picture or a precursor of what would happen when Jesus came, and people would be then gathered to Jesus Christ. So all the people in the land were called, but not all of them were effectually called. Because you see these sacrifices, there were many in Israel that Though they were there in the land, they were not really reconciled to God as their God. They had come into the land, and outwardly come, as it were, to Jesus. The land, coming into the land, representing that. But their heart was not in it. They did not live as God's people. Because they were not really His people. They were not really saved. There was something wrong with them. Their heart was not in it. So eventually things became so bad that God says in Ezekiel that He had to drive the people out of the land. Because it didn't make sense for people to be gathered, as it were, pictorially to Christ, and yet not really be reconciled to God. Because the whole point of coming to the land was to be reconciled to God. The whole point of coming to Christ was to be reconciled to Him. This is what it's talking about in Ezekiel 36, 17-20. In verse 17, the Lord says that they were like an unclean woman to Him. They're supposed to be My people, but their heart is not in it as My people. They are not born again. And in verse 18, He says that He poured out His fury on them. For two things, both for shedding blood and for idolatry. And really, you can sum up sin with those two things. Shedding blood is talking about murdering people. And you see, that's our problem with our neighbor, isn't it? That we're murderers. We have malice and contempt for our neighbor. And so, that's all the sins that we commit, even when we just are going, you know, to someone and we hate them, then this is murder that is within us, bloodshed. God says, that's why I drove them out, because they were not my people. And then the other thing is the idolatry. And see, that's everything to do with how we interact with God. We pretend that we can make God to be what we want Him to be. And when they did that, you know, they did it because they didn't like what God was or what God said. And so they remade God. That's what an idol is. It's a remaking of God into something that you came up with. And because God was so furious with them for this, verse 19 and 20 tell us how He scattered them among the nations. He drove them out of the land. He told them He would do that if they were like this. And this is what we call the exile or the captivity. It was the time when Israel was taken into exile or captivity by the nations. They were driven out of the land by God and they were scattered from Christ, as it were. from the place where God's acceptance of them was revealed, from the land. But what is the overall thrust of the passage that we read in Ezekiel 36? What is it? It's God's promise to His people that He's going to regather them into the land again, in His mercy. He's going to bring them back into the land. Not because they did anything to deserve it. He says, it's not for your sake that I'm doing this. But it's because all the nations were looking on and my name was profaned and they said, look, these are God's people and they're scattered all over the place. I thought He was supposed to take care of them in the land. So He's going to bring them back. He's going to bring them back into the land because they are His people. You can see where this is declared in verse 24. He says, For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. So He's going to gather them back to the place, back to the temple, back to the land, where He shows them that He has reconciled to them, that He is their God, and that they are His people. He will forgive them, He will restore them as His people. And you see what it says in verses 25 through 27. He tells them that not only is He going to bring them back into the land in an external way, But He's going to baptize them. He is going to sprinkle clean water on them. So that they will be cleansed from their defilement. Not just in a ritual way. Okay, I mean you can sprinkle water on people all day and it doesn't do anything. But He's showing that He's going to actually renew their hearts. He's going to cleanse them, what the sprinkling of water represents. God is actually going to accomplish in their hearts. Ezekiel 36.25, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and you will keep My judgments and do them. Now we will look at these verses in more detail in a minute. But for now I want you to see that God is promising to do what if we use the language of our catechism? To effectually call them, to gather them to Himself. You see? That they might be His people. He's going to gather them so that they will come to Him. Not only a physical bodily return, but they will come to Him in heart as His people. Because He gives them a new heart. You can see clearly that it is His work. It is His initiative. It doesn't have them go and clean up their own heart. He is the one who effectually calls them. to use the language of Ezekiel who gathers them to himself. He is their God and they are his people. And again, gathering them to the land where the temple is with its promise of reconciliation to God by blood sacrifice symbolizes gathering them to Christ. So we learn what it means to be gathered to Christ, to be affectionately called from Ezekiel. It is the Lord who affectionately calls us to Christ for salvation that we might be reconciled to Him, that we might be His people. We were in bondage, but He releases us that we might come to Him. We were dead in our sins, but He raises us up to spiritual life. We were blind, but He opens our eyes to receive that we might see. We were corrupt, but He baptizes us with His Spirit to wash that corruption away. We were far from Christ, cut off from the land, but He brings us back into the land. Now, let us look more detail at how the Lord effectually calls us. In the last week and the week before, we saw that it's the work of the Holy Spirit. We already know that, so we won't dwell on that so much this week. And we have also seen in previous weeks that it's the work of gathering or uniting us to Christ with true faith. As we saw in Ephesians 2. But in question 31, the Catechism refers to this faith that joins us to Christ as the Spirit doing what is necessary to what? Persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel. Now what's one word that we would use to say what happens when we're persuaded and enabled to embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel? Faith. He works faith in us. That's how He does it. He persuades and enables us to embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel. He works faith in us. That's what it's talking about. So effectual calling is the Spirit working faith in us so that we trust in Jesus Christ and we come to Him for salvation. There are three things that the Spirit does according to the Catechism to effectually call us. To get us to come to Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel. These three things are mentioned in question 31. And first of all, it says that he convinces us of our sin and misery. You know what one of the main things is that keeps people away from Christ, from answering God's call to come to Christ, is our spiritual blindness to our condition, to our desperate need of salvation. Our Psalter captures the sense of the Hebrew quite well in Psalm 36, 1 and 2 when it says, Transgression to the wicked speaks. Deep in the heart it lies. There surely is no fear of God at all before their eyes. Because himself he flatters so in his own blinded eyes, that he in his iniquity sees nothing to despise. In other words, the natural man, before God's spirits worked on him, he doesn't see how wicked he is before God. And he makes himself oblivious to the danger that he is in to God's judgment. He's like an idiot who convinces himself that he can go and poke a lion with an ice pick in the nose between the eyes and the lion won't care. And he's there doing this and saying, nothing is going to happen to me. And he goes around living that way. Before the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the judge of all the earth. Here He is before Almighty God, who cast us out of the garden because of our rejection of Him, and who expelled His people, His own people from the promised land because of their malice and their idolatry that we saw, and His fury came against them. And they're saying, oh, there's not much sin in me that I need to worry about. You know, I'm a pretty good person. I try to do the best I can. I get along with people. God, who has declared that all men are sinners, and that He Himself is a consuming fire that envelops sinners, and they act like that's not an issue. You see, mankind continually convinces himself that there's nothing much wrong with him. Nothing much that God would be displeased with. And sometimes he even convinces himself that there's no God at all. Now, why would such a fellow ever come to Jesus Christ for salvation? He's got no reason to, does he? What does he need to be saved from? He's such a fine fellow, you know? He doesn't need any salvation. In the Treasury of David, Spurgeon says of this fellow, he counts himself a fine fellow, worthy of great respect. He quiets his conscience and so deceives his own judgment as to reckon himself a pattern of excellence, if not for morality, yet for having sense enough not to be enslaved by rules which are bonds to others. He is the free thinker. the man of strong mind, the hater of Kant, the philosopher, and the servants of God are, in his esteem, mean-spirited and narrow-minded. Of all flatteries, this is the most absurd and dangerous. Even the silliest bird will not set traps for itself. The most pedophilic attorney will not cheat himself. To smooth over one's own conduct to one's own conscience, which is the meaning of the Hebrew, is to smooth one's own path to hell. The descent to eternal ruin is easy enough without making a glissade of it, as self-flatterers do. A glissade is like a snow slide. So, you know, he makes this icy slide right into hell. Like he's just saying, man, I'm covering up my conscience, you know, I'm such a good person, I'm not wrapped up with all this moral stuff. He has no need to bother with seeking salvation. Or at least for salvation that he can't take care of himself and his own strength. Oh, I can fix anything like that. What does such a fine fellow have? What need does he have? This is the way of the natural man. This is the way of most people that we meet. I don't see any need for this salvation stuff. What's the root of the problem? It's a corrupt heart. What does God do if He effectually calls us? Gives us a new heart. Ezekiel 36 tells us how the Lord fixes our hearts. Verse 26, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I'll put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. You see that it is a promise of a new heart that causes us to walk in God's statutes and judgments. In order to walk in them, we have to understand them. We see what God requires. We see the punishment that our sins deserve. And this new heart that the Holy Spirit gives us enables us to see that. Our sin and its punishment. So our self-evaluation completely changes. What does it become now? Instead of flattering ourselves and seeing nothing to despise in our own eyes, verse 31 describes the outcome of the Spirit's work. In those whose hearts He renews, saying, Then you will remember your evil ways, and your deeds that were not good. And you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and your abominations. Once we get to this stage, then we begin to see how much we need a Savior. We see that we are in a desperate condition that no human remedy can fix. We are done then with man-made solutions, with denials, with self-justification. We see that only God can help. Now on a side note, I would like to point out that a factual calling does not happen all at once. The catechism refers to it as a work of God's Holy Spirit. Do you know how the catechism distinguishes between a work and an act? Do you know the difference? A work is something that's done over time, and an act is something that's done all at once. I'll use an illustration. Work is a process type of thing like Like teaching someone to play the piano. It happens over time, doesn't it? But playing a particular piece at a recital, that's an act that you do. So at one time, it's something that you do once. So effectual calling is a work, really, that leads to an act. The work in effectual calling is convincing us of our sin and misery. That takes time. Enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ. That takes time. Renewing our wills. That takes time. The act that results is our coming to Christ. We embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel. So the work can take many years or it can be done rather quickly. Many of you who embraced Christ when you were older can testify that over the course of the years the Holy Spirit was convincing you of your sin and misery. Like you began to see little bits of how you were a sinner and how there was a need in your heart. You began to see more and more that you needed to be saved. Now a few of you may have had this all happen fairly rapidly in your life. But for many, it's over a pretty long period of time that this effectual calling is going on. Bringing deeper, until you fall into deeper and deeper conviction. But whether it was a faster work or a slower work, it was the Holy Spirit who convinced you of your sin and misery. And that, to bring us back on course here, is the first work that He does in effectual calling. The second work that the Spirit does to get us to come to Christ is enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ. It's one thing to see that you need God to save you from your sin. It's quite another to see who the Savior is. To see that Christ is the only Savior. that as the scripture says in Acts 4.12, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Not only is Jesus the only one that is appointed for our salvation, God's chosen Savior, He is also the only one who is qualified to save us. Paul says that the Lord spoke to him about this work of the Spirit when the Lord told him that He was sending him to open the eyes of the Gentiles. It's another aspect to the work of the Holy Spirit that we saw in Ezekiel 36. Will, the wrong thing. We don't want to do God's will. It goes against all that we are by the fall. All that we have become. It is true that the call of God is there and that it says, hey, whoever will can come. Revelation 22, 17. The Spirit and the bride say, come. Let him who hears say, come. And let him who thirsts, come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely. But our desires are all messed up. We don't will to come. It's not in us to desire that. Not until God's Spirit works in us and changes us. We do not will to come. It's only when He changes us that we will to do His will. Romans 8 goes on to emphasize the impossibility of a person submitting to God unless he has the Holy Spirit. After saying, the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be, it says in Romans 8.8, so then, those who are in the flesh, what does that mean? It means without God's Spirit. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. So when God's Spirit has come, when God has sent His Spirit to work in you, Then you can respond to God. Then it explains that if the Holy Spirit is in us, then we put to death the deeds of the flesh and live for God. We're given a new will. We have new desires. Now take a look at the promise again in Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27. Look at the whole flow of these verses. They show that you're given a new heart. What does that new heart give you? A new will. New desires. new interests, new things that you want to do. Those desires, what do they lead to? They lead to a new life, a new walk in obedience to God. 3626, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments. This is marvelous. By the mighty working of God, one who is at enmity with God and could not submit to God, the carnal mind, the natural man, cannot do that, is now changed so that he has a new heart and he walks with God. Mighty working of God's power. He delights to do the will of God. He lives to please God. God's Spirit actually changes our will. So you see that a factual calling is a complete transformation. of our whole life. We see our sin and the condemnation that it brings. That's the first thing. We face it, our sin. We see how Christ is the perfect Savior and the only one who can deliver us. That's the second thing. And then we're given a new will, a desire to be saved, to be forgiven, and to be reconciled to God so that we can come to Him. That's how God's Spirit changes us so that we will answer the call to come and be saved. And then we do come. I want to emphasize that we must not forget that the final outcome of a factual calling, what it is, that we actually come to Jesus Christ. Just what the Catechism says. We come to Him and we embrace Him for salvation as He is freely offered to us in the Gospel. We answer the call that we would never have answered if God's Spirit had not transformed us by the renewing of our heart and mind. But be clear about this. A factual calling is not complete until you come to Jesus Christ. You know what? You could be convinced of your sin by the Holy Spirit. You can see that Christ is the only way of salvation by the working of the Holy Spirit. You can even have a renewed will. But, it is only when you actually come to Christ that you are saved. You cannot be saved unless you actually Trust in Jesus Christ. You must turn from your sins, from your own way, and trust in Him and in the work that He did as Redeemer for salvation. That's what always happens in those that are effectually called. If the call to come to Christ is not answered, you may have even experienced the Holy Spirit's work. The Bible talks about that in Hebrews and in Peter. People in whom the Spirit worked that did not really come to Christ. You have not been effectually called, if that's the case, and you will perish in hell unless you come to Christ. Just because the Spirit worked in you and you said, oh, I know I'm a sinner. You said, oh, I know Jesus is the only way. And you said, oh, I want to be saved. But then you never bothered to go to Him. John makes it very clear in 3.18 that we must come when he says, he who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already. So coming to Christ is believing in Christ, of course. So he who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So the great question for you is not simply, do you know that you are a sinner, and that Christ is the only way, and do you have a desire to come to Him? The question is, have you come to Jesus, that you might be saved? The offer is freely given. To quote Revelation 22, 17 again, The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him who hears say, Come. And let him who thirsts, Come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. It would be a dreadful thing for you to have a sense of your need, and for you to have a sense of the sufficiency of Christ, and for you to have some desire not to be condemned but to be saved, and to be so close, so close, to have all that, where you're brought right to the doorstep, and yet, you never actually put yourself in the hands of Jesus Christ, to be saved from your sins. You can't be saved. Romans 10, 8-11 speaks about this idea of being so near. It says, the Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of faith which we preach. that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. So the call, you see, is only effectual when you come. But the only way that you can come is when the Holy Spirit first graciously works in you, which He always does in those that are chosen to convince us of our sin and misery, to enlighten our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and to renew our wills. Now let's give thanks to God for the work that He does in order that we may belong to Jesus Christ. Please stand. Heavenly Father, we thank You that the reason that any of us have obeyed your call is because we were effectually called, because you worked in us by your Holy Spirit to work faith in us. And the way that you did that was by causing us to see our sin and our need, by causing us to see Jesus, His sufficiency as a perfect Savior, suitability for salvation, and causing our wills to be changed, so that we desire to come to You. And we thank You, Lord, that all those that You have chosen do come, and that they do embrace Jesus Christ as He is freely offered in the Gospel, that Your Spirit brings about that actual embracing of Christ as well, which is the final completion of our effectual calling, when we've actually been gathered, not only outwardly, but also in heart. And we thank you for the promise that is in Ezekiel 36, that when you do this work for your chosen people, that you do it in order that they do come and they walk with you. They walk in your statutes and your ordinances. They walk in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we thank you, Lord, for that work that you have done. We would have been left without any hope if it wasn't for the working of your Spirit to bring us to Christ. We pray, O Lord, that everyone here would indeed embrace Jesus Christ for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel. In Jesus' name, Amen. May the Lord your God be with you as He was with your fathers. May He not leave you nor forsake you, that He may incline your hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments which He commanded your fathers. Amen.