Chapter 15, the first 11 verses. This is the great resurrection chapter, of course. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 11. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and then he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they, So we preach, and so you believed. That is the word of God. And I picked that passage because it talks about the gospel. And as we go through this series of messages on tulip on these five points of the faith. Really what we're doing is we are asking and answering the question, what is the gospel? So that we absolutely have to be clear on that subject. Well, let's come to the Lord's table before we come to God's word, and we will remember Christ given for us. So, Case, if you'll come and serve. Grant, would you like to come and help serve the, one can serve the bread and one can serve the cup, and let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for this ordinance of your church that you've given to us as a blessing, that we have a visible illustration of Christ given for us, his body and his blood. And so, Father, as we partake of these elements, we remember Christ, we pray that we would do so to your glory, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there's no resurrection of the dead? If there's no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We're even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ. whom he did not raise, if it's true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you're still in your sins. Then those who also have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who've fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ. Well here then is the bread that is the emblem Christ has given us of his body given for us. Eat it in remembrance of Christ. And then Christ also gave us the cup, which is the emblem of his blood shed for us. Drink it in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, as we come now to your word, we ask that you would open our eyes, open the minds of our minds and our hearts that we might understand and believe your word. We pray that you would enable us to come into a better and clearer understanding of the work that you've done for us in your son. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen. This, that's the wrong red book here. This book is a little two-volume set called The Reformation of England. And it was written in the 1800s by a church historian named Merle d'Aubigné. And some of you have heard of him. Years ago we read history of the persecution of the Waldensies and the Huguenots and so forth that he wrote. But this is a great, he's a great historian and even the biography of his life is rather incredible. He came out of a time, an era, when all of the university students and seminary students and so forth were being taught Unitarianism. It's a complete heresy, distortion of the gospel. And he and his classmates were dead in their sins. They didn't have the foggiest notion of, most of them had never even read a Bible anywhere. And he came across a Scotsman who came to, let's see, was it Geneva that he was in? At any rate, they intersected there. Yes, it was Geneva. And Merle Daubigny was there as a student and a Scotsman named Robert Haldane. The biography of Robert Haldane is in our library here that you can read about. And he came specifically to bring the gospel to Geneva. If you want to see how fast history changes, Geneva, John Calvin, right? But already by this time in the 1800s here, the gospel had been lost. But this is the account that Merle Daubigny gives here. I met Robert Haldane, he said to a friend, and heard him read from an English Bible a chapter from Romans about the natural corruption of men, total depravity, a doctrine of which I'd never heard before. In fact, I was quite astonished to hear that man was corrupt by nature. And I remember saying to Mr. Haldane, now I see that doctrine in the Bible. Yes, he replied, but do you see it in your heart? That was a simple question, but it struck home to my conscience. It was the sword of the spirit. And from that time, I saw that my heart was corrupted And I knew from the word of God that I could be saved by grace alone. If Geneva gave something to Scotland at the time of the Reformation, if she communicated light to John Knox, Geneva has now received something from Scotland in the blessed work of Robert Paulding. Well, I read that because that's an example of what we're going to be talking about this morning as we come to the fourth point. in TULIP, the fourth of the five points of Calvinism, the I, which stands for irresistible grace, irresistible grace, or as we'll see, another term that's often given to it is effectual calling, the Lord's effectual calling of his people. That's what happened to Merle d'Albigny there. When he heard Romans chapter one and Christ, effectually called him and brought him to faith. Now, a lot of people who profess to be Christians would believe that subjects like this, as we've been talking about TULIP, total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, and now irresistible grace, is that that's kind of an academic thing. It's really not that vital, what is important is my own experience in religion and so on, but I don't want to get, you know people argue about these things and debate about these doctrines and so really many people take an agnostic position on these doctrines. And what they're doing then is they're taking an agnostic position on the gospel, because this is the gospel. This issue has to do with, and it's center of what is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Listen to these really helpful comments that I quote here from J.I. Packer. J.I. Packer wrote a pretty long introductory essay to a book that was written by John Owen. John Owen was in England, he was a congregational minister, and he lived in the, I guess it would have been the 1600s, right? And one of the most well-known works, not an easy one to read, but I'm still trying to work my way through it, but it is excellent, that John Owen wrote is called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. And there's kind of a subtitle to the title that has something to do, and I'll just paraphrase it, but it's something like, A Display of Arminianism. He's showing the errors of Arminianism. And as Packer says, as he notes, and this is true, anyone who wants to claim that the five points of Calvinism are wrong, has no right to make such an assertion if they haven't first dealt with John Owen's book, The Death of Death and the Death of Christ, because nobody's ever answered him. You can't answer him as he makes display of the errors of Arminianism. But anyway, Packer in that introduction to that book says this. Arminianism insists, it's named for Arminius, a British monk, insists that scripture must be, I think Pelagius was a British monk. I might have those mixed up. Anyway, Arminius had it wrong. And he says, Arminius insists that scripture must be interpreted as teaching the following positions. All right, here we go. One, man is never so completely corrupted by sin that he cannot savingly believe the gospel when it's put before him. So it's a denial of total depravity. Secondly, nor is man ever so completely controlled by God that he cannot reject it. And that is a rejection of what we're going to consider here this morning, irresistible grace, all right? Third, God's election of those who shall be saved is prompted by his, God's foreseeing that they will of their own accord believe. See, Arminianism exalts free will. That's the idol of the God of Arminianism, free will. Fourth, Christ's death did not ensure the salvation of anyone. So this is a denial of limited atonement. It did not ensure the salvation of anyone, for it did not secure the gift of faith to anyone. There is no such gift. What it did was rather to create a possibility of salvation for everyone if they believe. And fifth, It rests with believers. It's up to believers to keep themselves in a state of grace by keeping up their faith. Those who fail here fall away and are lost. So there's a denial of the P, perseverance of the faith, in TULIP. And so as Packer goes on, Arminianism made man's salvation depend ultimately on man himself. And make no mistake, this is the stuff that most professing Christians today have been taught in their churches and that they hold to, all right? Arminianism made man's salvation depend ultimately on man himself, saving faith, being viewed throughout as man's own work, and because his own, not God's in him. He goes on here, the Synod of Dort was convened in 1618 to pronounce on this theology, and the five points of Calvinism represent its counter affirmations. They stem from a very different principle, the biblical principle that salvation is of the Lord. It's not of man, salvation is of the Lord. And these points may be summarized as this. First, fallen man, in his natural state, this is the T, total depravity, lacks all power to believe the gospel, just as he lacks all power to believe the law, despite all external inducements that may be extended to him. God's election is a free, sovereign, unconditional choice of sinners as sinners to be redeemed by Christ, given faith, and brought to glory. Third, the redeeming work of Christ had as its end and goal the salvation of the elect. That's the L in TULIP. Fourth, the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing men to faith never fails to achieve its object. And of course, we have a picture of that. That's the statement of irresistible grace. But for instance, just think of Christ. He's going along by the Sea of Galilee. And here's, who was it? The sons of Zebedee, James and John, right there, right there. Does that ever amaze you? Jesus is walking along, here they are, and he says, come and follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. And they followed him. They left their father and they followed him. Who would do that, right? You have people making all kinds of explanations. Well, they must have known Jesus before. What you have there is that effectual calling. Those are his sheep and they hear his voice and they come. And then the fifth point, believers are kept in faith and grace by the unconquerable power of God till they come to glory, the perseverance of the saints. So those are the five points that we've been looking at and as Packer goes on to say, they are conveniently denoted by the mnemonic tulip. And he says, now here are two coherent interpretations of the biblical gospel, which stand in evident, obvious opposition to each other. Arminianism, Calvinism, right? Two systems. The difference between them is not primarily one of emphasis, but of content. One proclaims a God who saves. The other speaks of a God who enables man to save himself. One view presents the three great acts of the Holy Trinity for the recovering of lost mankind, election by the Father, redemption by the Son, calling by the Spirit, as directed towards the same persons and as securing their salvation without fail, infallibly. The other view, Arminianism, gives each act a different reference, the objects of redemption being all mankind. of calling those who hear the gospel, and of election those hearers who respond. And it denies that any man's salvation is secured by any of them, by anything that Christ or the Father or the Spirit has done. The two theologies, Packer continues here, thus conceive the plan of salvation in quite different terms. One makes salvation depend on the work of God, the other on a work of man. One regards faith as part of God's gift of salvation, the other as man's own contribution to salvation. One gives all the glory of saving believers to God, the other divides the praise between God who, so to speak, built the machinery of salvation, and man who, believing, operates it, right? Plainly, these differences are important, and the permanent value of the five points as a summary of Calvinism is that they make clear the points at which and the extent to which these two concepts are at odds, at variance. Now, sometimes the five points are kind of presented in a little bit different form, and either one can be called the doctrines of grace, but you've got it on the windows over here, right? Sola gratia? only by grace, sola fide, faith alone, sola scriptura, solus Christus, by Christ alone, and sola, what's the last one there, Vicki? Gloria, sola deo gloria, to God alone be the glory. The last one is justification by faith alone. And those are another terms that are used to describe the fact that The salvation is entirely of God. It is entirely then of God, you see. Packer goes on here. The question then, which John Owen, like the Synod of Dort theologians, divines, before him is really this. What is the gospel? Now think about that. This means that today, And I don't think this is an exaggeration. Most professing Christians don't know what the gospel is. They don't know. What they hold to is at best some kind of a semi-Pelagian form that makes man, well, it's like, I think Robert Godfrey said something like this this morning. He said Christ's work on the cross was something like he established a big bank account. But now it's up to man to choose to withdraw from it in order to be saved, you see. And we deny that because the Bible denies that. Packer goes on here, so far from magnifying the love and grace of God, this claim that Arminianism makes dishonors both it and him. It reduces God's love to, and I like the way he put this, Arminianism reduces God's love to an impotent wish, and turns the whole economy of saving grace, so-called, into a monumental divine failure. My salvation on this view depends not on what Christ did for me, but what I subsequently do for myself. Our minds have been conditioned to think of the cross as a redemption which does less than redeem, and of Christ as a Savior who does less than save, and of God's love as a weak affection which cannot keep anyone from hell without help, and of faith as the human help which God needs for this purpose, you see. Those are statements worth giving a lot of consideration to. This subject, then, it's vitally important. What is the gospel? What message do we preach? What do we tell people when we say, well, we're going to be a witness to them, to tell them the evangel, the gospel. What is the message? What is it that we tell? Do we tell people, anyone, everyone, Christ died for everyone. He paid for the sins of everyone on the cross. And he is knocking at the door of your heart. He's not kicking it open. He's knocking at the door, wishing and wishing and hoping that you will open it to him. You see, that's the concept. That's what I was taught as a kid in Sunday school and so forth. But ultimately then, ultimately then, I must choose according to that Arminian plan, and that's not the gospel, and it leads to despair. It does turn the cross into a divine failure. Christ dies for everyone, and yet not everyone is saved, you see. Well, let's look more closely then at this fourth point, irresistible grace. And when we come to this subject, the question fundamentally is this. Can the sinner frustrate God's election to salvation? That is to say, is the will of man free to reject all efforts of God to save him? Is the saving gracious work of the Holy Spirit in the elect irresistible, you see? Let me quote Packer again. I'll look at these kinds of sermons when I'm putting these sermons together, and I think all I'm doing is reading Packer, but I can't state it any more plainly than him, and I can't do it as plainly as him, so here we go. The Spirit's gift of internal grace was defined by the Arminians as moral suasion, a persuasion, all right? The bare bestowal of an understanding of God's truth. And this, they granted, indeed insisted, does not of itself ensure that anyone will ever make the response of faith. But Calvinist defined this gift not as merely an enlightening, but also a regenerating work of God in men. You see, the Arminian says what God does is he sends his spirit to people, and he enlightens their mind so that they have this capacity to understand the gospel. But then he hands off the ball to them, it's in their court. And they, because they're not totally depraved, because they have a will that's free to choose, then it's up to them to choose Christ then or not. You see, that's the Arminian position. But Calvinists define this gift that is the Spirit's work in the heart of the sinner. not merely as an enlightening, but also as a regenerating work of God in men, taking away their heart of stone and giving unto them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good. and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace. We don't deny man's choosing of Christ. We don't deny that man must believe in Christ. But by Christ's mighty, regenerating work in the hearts of his people, as he effectually calls them, He grants us that faith which we then freely exercise, you see. And that leaves no room for boasting. By grace you've been saved and that not of yourself, the gift of God that no one should boast. So this grace of God, Packer goes on, proves irresistible because it destroys the disposition to resist. where the Arminian, therefore, will be content to say, I decided for Christ. I'm a Christian. I'm forgiven because I decided for Christ. You remember, you can see this operating then, for instance, in all of the Billy Graham crusades. If you would have gone, I went a couple times as a kid to the Billy Graham crusades, and you remember that the, Do you remember the, I suppose they still publish it, but the magazine that Billy Graham Association published is called Decision, Decision Magazine. This is the whole thing, it's to present the gospel in such a way then that people understand, but then they must choose for Christ. They must walk down the aisle and they must choose for Christ. So where the Arminian therefore will be content to say, I decided for Christ, I made up my mind to be a Christian. The Calvinist will wish to speak of his conversion in a more theological fashion. to make plain whose work it really was. And then he quotes this from this hymn. If I'm not mistaken, this is a Charles Wesley hymn. Now that's interesting, because the Wesleys didn't believe in predestination. They opposed George Whitefield on that, and so on. And yet, they were, these are very Calvinistic words. As Wesley describes it, the conversion, his conversion, this hymn. Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's light. Thine eye, the eye of God, diffused a quickening ray. I awoke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth, and followed thee. And that is the work of God. Clearly, Packer says, these two notions of internal grace are sharply opposed to one another. Well then, what does the Bible say? We hold to sola scriptura, the Bible alone. That is our authority. What does the Bible say the nature of God's saving grace is as he applies it to the sinner through the word by the spirit? And that answer largely rests upon the first three points, if you'll consider those, total depravity, unconditional election, and limited atonement. But let's look at some scriptures here. Ephesians chapter two. What is required here in the salvation of a person that is described here in Ephesians chapter two? And you were dead. in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Now let me ask you a question. Think carefully about those first three verses. Is that kind of person going to choose Christ? Well, first of all, he doesn't have any ability to do so because he's dead. He's spiritually dead. He's blind. He's deaf to the gospel of God. He willingly walks according to the devil, the world, the flesh, and the devil. That's who we were the moment that we were born into this world, and we were just like the rest then of mankind. That kind of a person is not going to suddenly decide, well, I'm going to be alive now. I'm going to have eyes, and I'm going to have ears, and I am going to stop going this way, and I'm going to go this way instead. It's not going to happen. It would be easier for Lazarus, a dead man, to come physically walking out of the tomb than for a spiritually dead person to do that. So why are we saved? What happens? being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive, together with Christ, by grace you've been saved. And it is irresistible. Lazarus could not have remained in the tomb for another second when Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. And that's a picture for us of what Christ does for us when he saves us. He says, Jeff, come forth and you're coming. You're going to come. You're not going to be able to resist that call. And that's what this doctrine of irresistible grace says, because also wrapped up in the call of God, the calling of God, the effectual, it's effectual because it effects our salvation, is wrapped up in that at the same time as this matter of the new birth, regeneration. You know, I remember once hearing R.C. Sproul say, regeneration precedes faith. It doesn't mean that, okay, we know this is a, there's in one moment God regenerates us and then in this moment he gives us faith, in this moment he grants us repentance. Most likely those things are like simultaneous happening than all at once. But when we talk about them logically and in the order we're here, that's what Sproul was talking about is that, you know what? Jeff, if you're going to believe in Christ, if you're going to repent of your sin, if you're going to see your sin and realize you're this prodigal out in the pig pen. The first thing that's going to happen because you're dead in your sin is I'm going to have to make you alive. I'm going to have to give you, I'm going to have to take your heart of stone out and give you a heart of flesh with my law written on it. You must be born again. And once that happens, I'm a new creation and I'm going to answer Christ's call. I'm going to exercise faith and follow Christ. Ezekiel 36, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. This is irresistible. You can't say, oh, no, no, God, you're not going to give me a new heart. I don't want a new heart. Well, of course, the sinner doesn't want it. but Christ's sheep are gonna get it. That's what he affects in effectual calling. I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I'll put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. I don't know when I was born again. I walked the aisle, you know, when I was a kid, my parents took me to church and the pastor at the end of the service would always give an invitation to people that either wanted to join the church or they wanted to profess their faith in Christ and be baptized. And so I remember like about eight years old, going forward at a service, and subsequently I was baptized, but I don't really remember real fruits. I always believed the Bible was the word of God, but I was certainly anything but very obedient to God, and I was a rebel in school. I got in trouble all the time in school, but I do remember that when I was about 21 years old, somewhere in there, something like that, I don't remember the exact moment, but the lights started coming on. And always before, I'd have my Bible, and I'd have my Bible in my room, and sometimes I'd read it, but mostly not. But when I got to be about 21 years old, something like that, something happened. And I wanted to read my Bible. I wanted to, and I wanted to understand it. And the first time in my life, I walked into a Christian bookstore, and I started looking around and getting a couple of books to read. One of the first books that I got was one that I don't agree with anymore. Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth, right? Some of you read that. And the Lord used that, he used that in my life to, And from that moment on, I can see that the Lord was at work in my life. Somewhere there, the Lord raised me from the dead. And if you're a Christian, the same thing happened to you, maybe not quite in those kind of terms or in that time frame, but you were born again and you were going to come. As one of his sheep, you are going to hear his voice because he enables you to hear his voice. Titus 3, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, But according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration, see that's the new birth, and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Christ Jesus our Savior. And of course, John chapter 3, Jesus answered, truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again." Do not be one of these professing Christians, right? Who's a Christian on the outside. But examine yourself, see if you be in the faith. Have you been born again? Do you see the spirit at work in your life, leading you, giving you a desire to love Christ, to love the brethren, to love his word? As I said, irresistible grace is also often called effectual calling. And the theologian John Murray puts it this way very well, calling If you look up the word in a concordance, calling, or to call in the Bible, in the New Testament, say, it's all over the place. It's all over the place. Calling is the efficacious summons. See, there's that word again, efficacious. Powerful, it works, it effects and accomplishes salvation. Calling is the efficacious summons on the part of God the Father, in accordance with and in pursuance of his eternal purpose in Christ Jesus, addressed to sinners, this is God's divine summons, addressed to you who are dead in trespasses and sins, a call that ushers them into fellowship with Christ and into the possession of the salvation of which he is the embodiment. A call immutable, unchangeable in its character by reason of the purpose from which it proceeds and the bond it affects. He uses that word summons. You know, the legal system sometimes will give you a summons. Maybe you get a summons in the mail because you're summoned to serve on a jury. And you are required by law then to report down to the courthouse and serve your term then as a juror and so on. So there's that summons. But human summons can be resisted, right? You can say, yeah, I'm going to tear this paper up. I'm not going to go. And no matter what the penalty might be or whatever, people can say, I'm not going to obey that summons. It's not absolute. God's summons effect the call. Those that are issued God's summons in the gospel by his spirit, to his elect, they are going to come. That is irresistible grace. Romans 8, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called, see there's the word, called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, and here's kind of a breakdown of this call. Those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. It's an unbreakable chain. elects us in eternity past, and there is not a single one of his elect that he is not going to call. He's going to affectually call every single one of us, and he's going to justify every single one, and sanctification not included in the list, but it's there. He's gonna sanctify us and ultimately glorify us. 1 Corinthians 1, to the church of God that's in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. There's another example of that word, you're called by him. You are a saint by calling because of his powerful call. Second Timothy one, who saved us and called us to a holy calling. not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus. So effectual calling is this mighty work of the Spirit to the sinner, who's one of Christ's sheep, and it always effects salvation. It always effects salvation. All whom the Lord calls, he justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies. We have it in our confession of faith. This is the London Confession, the Westminster, very much similar. Those whom God has predestinated unto life, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time effectually to call. How does he do it? By his word and spirit. What does he call us from? Out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. Enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God. Taking away their heart of stone and giving to them a heart of flesh. renewing their wills, and by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come, most freely being made willing by his grace. And it goes on. This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone. not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature, being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened, that means made alive, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, he, the sinner, is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, and that by no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead. When God calls his sheep, there is his power that goes out. It is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. It raises us from the dead and from that spiritual death and brings us into the kingdom of his son. Paragraph four in that same chapter of the Confession says, others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the word, and may have some common operations of the spirit, yet not being effectually drawn by the Father, they neither will nor can truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved. You see, If God does not effectually call us and raise us from the dead and grant us eyes to see and ears to hear and faith to exercise and repentance to repent, if he doesn't do that, no one's going to come to Christ. No one's gonna come. to Christ. We can be thankful that the Arminian view of the cross, of the atonement, is not true. Because if it were true that Christ died for the sins of every single human being, paid for their sins, and now through some kind of weakened, watered down love for everyone invites them to come, hopes that they will come, wishes that they will come. No one's going to come, because they're dead in trespasses and sins. And in fact, they don't desire anything but to hate God and to hate Christ. Listen again to John Murray. The action by which God makes his people the partakers of redemption is that of summons. And since it's God's summons, it is an efficacious summons. And he goes on to say, you can read that later in the handout where he says what I already talked about, the fact, the nature of this summons. When God calls us to salvation, When he calls his elect to salvation, and he issues that summons, this is a summons from the highest court in the universe, and it is accompanied by his divine power. It cannot be resisted, that person's going to be saved. I hope that you can begin as you think these things through to be encouraged by them. Do you know what this means? It means that when the Bible says things like Isaiah 55, my word does not return to me void, but it always accomplishes my purpose. What that means is when we open this book and as a church we meet together, this is just one example, but we proclaim this word. His power is accomplishing things, it's accomplishing sanctification in us, but it's also accomplishing his work of calling his people effectually then to himself. This means that when you have an opportunity to present the gospel to someone, you can do so absolutely confidently that that person, and we don't know who Christ's sheep are, but that person, if they are one of Christ's select, one of his sheep, they're gonna come. They're gonna come. Maybe you won't be the final step in the process there, sometimes you might be, but that person is going to come and you're not going to have to pull all of these gimmicks that Christians today seem to think that we've got to do in order to convince people come on won't you come won't you choose for Jesus won't you come you know we've got all these programs in our church we've got all the trappings all of this this stuff we've got the orchestra up front and so on and you just you just come here and we'll help you close the deal and you can choose Christ and And so here we are, we're just working and working and working trying to push this person into the kingdom. You don't need to. You present the gospel to someone, you present the word of God, God does all the pushing. In fact, he doesn't push, he draws. It's like he grabs hold and you're coming, buddy. You're coming into my kingdom. And as he does that, he grants that person the new birth and creates faith in them by which they freely choose and love Christ, you see. I hope that that is very, very encouraging to you. You know, it's easy for us to think, get into kind of a rut here. It's like, nobody's interested in Christ these days. You know, nobody, and we are living in evil days. But, you know, nobody's that interested. We must be doing something wrong. I don't even know, I don't know what else, what can I do? You know, what can I do? We've had people tell us, I remember one time a guy that used to come to this church, he moved away a long time ago, but one time he visited and he saw that there weren't very many people in the pews and he was saying that, I've probably told you this before, but he said, you gotta get something going here. You gotta do some things, you gotta get some programs going here, you know, if people aren't coming and so on. Well, that's the wrong kind of thinking. Christ says, we heard that in the Sunday school hour this morning, repeatedly he says, if you abide in me, and I abide in you, as a branch abides in the vine, Apart from me, you can do nothing, but if you abide in me and I abide in you, ask of me what you wish and I'll give it, I'll give it to you. Well, we can know without a doubt that if we pray and we ask Lord, Lord, you're the Lord of the harvest, we want to see your people saved. We wanna be put in contact with your sheep that need to hear the gospel so that they are saved. You can be absolutely certain that he's going to, in his time, in his way, in his place, answer that prayer. He's going to do it. Sometimes we won't see the results. We don't know how many people are going to listen to these sermons, for example, or how many people listen online, or how many will watch them five years from now, or these messages, or how many, some person that you run across and you have an opportunity to present the gospel to them, you don't know. Sometimes you won't get any feedback, but this much we know, if we pray and ask the Lord to let us lead people to Christ, he will answer that, because that is his desire. And the enemy would want us to not believe that. It's like, eh, let's just throw in the towel and bag it. And it seems to me, and I think that this is right, Think of the times in the New Testament when the Apostle Paul will say, I had no one to stand with me. Nobody. Think of Jesus' situation, even when he was on the cross. The disciples bailed. There was hardly anybody left with him. And the Bible shows us those things and tells us that that we can expect those kind of situations, that we can experience those kind of things. But what it will also tell us is, in those times, we need to heed what the Apostle Paul said. I know whom I believed. I know who I believed in, and I am convinced that he's able. And not only am I not going to give up preaching the gospel, I'm gonna preach it all the more, you see. And then you trust the results then to Christ. The effectual calling of Christ's sheep to salvation is irresistible. I put a few passages in scripture here of scripture in the handout for you to see that and we'll consider that next time. The perseverance of the saints, the perseverance of the saints. This calling is irresistible, cannot ever stop calling us and we can never be lost then again. But let me close with another great illustration here from that historian, Daubigny. This is just a great example of how Christ works in his people. On a visit to Britain in May, and this came from the introduction to Daubigny's book, The Reformation, in England, and the fellow writing the introduction said, on a visit to Britain in May of 1862, when he was invited by Queen Victoria to preach in the Royal Chapter of St. James, the great church historian, Merle d'Aubigné, also visited, of all places, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, where C.H. Spurgeon was the pastor. And Spurgeon purposely shortened his own sermon to allow time for Daubigny to speak to the vast congregation. Now, if Spurgeon shortened his sermon for a guest speaker to have time there, it shows you how highly he thought of Merle d'Aubigné. And here's what d'Aubigné said to Spurgeon's congregation. There was, he said, in the latter part of the 16th century, a man in Italy who was a child of God, taught by the Spirit. His name was Ionio Palaiario. He had written a book called The Benefit of Christ's Death. That book was destroyed in Italy and for three centuries it was not possible to find a copy, but two or three years ago, so this is back in the 1800s, an Italian copy was found and it's been printed again. It is perhaps singular, unusual, but this man did not leave the Romish church as he ought to have done, but nevertheless his whole heart was given to Christ. He was brought before the judge in Rome by order of the Pope. The judge said, this is classic Roman Catholicism persecution, we will put to him three questions. We will ask him, what's the first cause of salvation? And then, what is the second cause of salvation? Then, what is the third cause of salvation? They thought that in putting these three questions, he would at last be made to say something which should be to the glory of the Church of Rome. So they asked him, what is the first cause of salvation? And he answered, Christ. Then they asked him, what's the second cause of salvation? And he answered, Christ. And then they asked him, what is the third cause of salvation? And he answered, Christ. The first cause, Christ. The second, Christ. The third, Christ. And for that confession, which he made in Rome, he was condemned to be put to death as a martyr. You see, Rome wanted him to say, well, the first cause is Christ, but you know, the second cause is the church of Rome, and the third cause, I don't know what they, one third God, but it wasn't Christ, you see. Daubigny goes on, he went on, he said, my dear friends, let us think and speak like that man. Let every one of us say the first cause of my salvation is Christ, the second Christ, the third is Christ, Christ in his atoning blood. Christ in his regenerating spirit, Christ in his eternal electing grace, Christ is my only salvation, I know of nothing else. Father, we thank you for these truths that describe to us how you invaded the alien and enemy territory of our hearts when you irresistibly and effectually called us to yourself. Father, we pray that we would never be guilty of taking any kind of credit for our salvation, but that we would give all glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that you've called us out of darkness and into light. And we pray, Father, that we would continue to experience the joy of the salvation that is entirely of you. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen.