Before we turn to the Word of God, just want to quickly say one or two words about this book that maybe you are seeing on display and may not totally appreciate. I first saw it quite a number of years ago when it was first being republished by Solid Ground Publishers, and I was deeply moved by the testimonies that I was reading in it, especially because as a young pastor then, without formal training at that particular time, I always wrestled with how to listen to individuals that were coming with all kinds of spiritual situations. and how to function as a physician of souls in terms of also responding to them. And just seeing how the Ichabod here was dealing with issues was a real joy to me. I particularly remember thinking to myself that I need to record on the various pages what he was dealing with so that it's easier to reference back afterwards. I'm sure many of you go through this. You've got your journals that you have, and they are now almost simply archived material, and yet you appreciate that they have such wealth. You want them to be relevant to you at the point when you really need to refer to them. What I've appreciated particularly about this issue, this copy that's now on sale, is the index at the back. In other words, I no longer need to do what I thought I was needing to do, because it is all there. And if you're one of those that suffered the pain, that I had joyful pain in that you're reading but you're wishing you could keep it somewhere for ready reference, this definitely is the kind of issue, rather copy, that you would want to get a hold of. And then if you have the older versions back there, you could then contribute them to someone else, pass on your pain to somebody else, hoping you will then get this one in due season. All right, so I thought I should quickly throw that in for you before we turn to our last session. Please turn in your Bibles once again to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians and chapter one, And as you do so, I will quickly throw in a word of thanks to all of you for the wonderful fellowship that I have had among you in the last day or two, and for your most generous and gracious comments and responses towards the preaching of God's word that's been conducted here. As has already been said, this is now our last session, and may the Lord truly speak to us. Let's read once again 1 Thessalonians chapter one from one up to verse seven. I trust by now these words are ringing in your own minds. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. to the Church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace. We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake. and you became imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word in much affliction and with the joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. We'll end our reading there. Well, I trust we've had a rich feast over the last day and a half, as our minds have been engrossed with the whole subject of effectual calling. We have seen something of its relationship to the grace of God. We have gone back into eternity past, and seen its relationship to predestination. We have also wrestled with how it relates to those individuals who are not in a position of capability to respond to it, either because they lived at a time when the gospel was not there, at least in its current form, or because of some mental situation that they have, or perhaps they die in infancy. We also spent a bit of time appreciating the urgency of effectual calling, the word and the spirit. And then in the last session, we were feasting on the relationship between effectual calling and common grace. And now as we come into the last session, we're really dealing with effectual calling on the mind, on the heart, and on the will of individuals. In other words, we are becoming students of anatomy, spiritual anatomy. We're getting into the human soul and seeing something of what happens there when God speaks in a voice that wakes the dead and causes individuals to come to him in genuine repentance and faith. We're really asking the question, what changes in an individual? And thankfully, in the passage of scripture that I have chosen, you cannot miss the fact that there is real change. The Apostle Paul puts it in verse six, that these people became imitators of not only the apostles and the preachers, but also of the Lord. He speaks of them receiving the word with joy, he says there. despite the afflictions that they were going through. In fact, there was such a transformation that they became glorious examples of godliness to all the others in the provinces of Macedonia and Achaia. Surely, those of us who are preachers and evangelists and missionaries, can only read this with holy envy, that somebody over a short period of time ministering in a city should have this kind of profound effect. And no doubt, this is what excited the Apostle Paul, and consequently, the passage that we have read represents something of a sandwich, because the first part of it, verse 2, and verse 3, is an expression of joy in the fruit of Paul's ministry. And then again, when you come to verse six and verse seven, you have an expression of joy concerning the fruit of Paul's ministry. And then somewhere in the middle, you will have the actual ministry itself. So Paul was, in this first chapter, really wanting to express his own excitement at the fruit of effectual calling. God himself using him in a way that is, to say the least, totally extraordinary. In fact, in many ways, this is the insurmountable argument that atheists fail to answer with respect to the Christian faith. It is said of D.L. Moody that once speaking at a university and sharing the gospel that some atheist challenged him to a debate. Now whether this story is true or not, I'm yet to finally source it out. But what I was informed many years ago was that G.O. Modi accepted the challenge. But this is what he said, that when we do meet, I want you to come with five individuals who can say that ever since they became atheists, they became more loving husbands. really committed and hardworking citizens in society. And he said, I will bring 20, who will say that ever since they believed my message, this is what happened. It is said that when Mundi showed up the following day for this particular debate, he had his 20. The atheist was nowhere to be seen. The reason is obvious, because human philosophy does not change people. True, genuine, evangelical Christianity transforms. It transforms individuals from inside out. And that's what I want us to see from this passage of scripture. To begin with, effectual calling changes the human mind. It brings about a spiritual enlightenment. And this is captured by the Apostle Paul in this passage of scripture when he speaks about these Thessalonians receiving the word. Verse six, And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction. Because we are believers, and we've been believers for a while, we tend to take a statement like this for granted. What's so special about receiving the word? We begin to betray something of our natural Arminianism, the leftovers of it, even when the Lord has opened our eyes to the profound doctrines of sovereign grace. Well, all we need to do is to remind ourselves of what the Bible says concerning the natural mind. First of all, we need to appreciate the fact that the natural mind is enmity towards God. That's what we read in Romans chapter eight. I'll quickly read it for you there. Romans eight and verse five. The Bible says, for those who live according to the flesh have their minds Sorry, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind of the spirit is life and peace. And then verse seven, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. It's not possible. Or, putting it another way, it is impossible. Such a mind cannot receive the word. It's out of the question. Or in case you're still doubting that, we go to 1 Corinthians chapter two. 1 Corinthians chapter two. This is the way the Apostle Paul puts it. And for now, I'll just read verse 14. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. and he's not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The very Paul who had earlier in chapter one written the fact that the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing now explains the reason why. It is because the natural mind does not have the spirit of God. So that's really the situation in which the Thessalonians were. They were in that state where the preaching of the cross was laughable. That Jesus of Nazareth, hanging on a cross, crying out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? and finally expiring, that that should bring about a completely new humanity. Tell me another one that certainly doesn't add up, it doesn't make sense. similarly to the minds and ears of the average Jew, that He who hung upon the cross in utter weakness should now be the Savior, the Messiah, the Christ that all Israel has been waiting for for so many years. Again, that's an insult to us as a Jewish nation. No wonder the apostles were being persecuted as the book of Acts clearly shows us. It is folly. It is an insult. And yet, we are being told by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 6, that you received the word. How come? How did this happen? Well, it's because effectual calling and regeneration causes the mind to see God's wisdom. to finally perceive that this and this alone makes sense. Simply because it is an immediate working of the Holy Spirit upon the human mind. Earlier on in First Corinthians chapter two and verse 12, this is the way the Apostle Paul puts it. He says, now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God. And what's the effect of that? That we might understand the things freely given to us. That's what has changed things. It is when the Spirit of the Living God has come and worked upon the human mind, suddenly we have begun to see what we did not see before. And as Paul himself puts it earlier in chapter one, to those who are called, verse 24, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of. Suddenly it all makes sense. This is the doorway to heaven and nobody is going to hold me back. That's what happens when the Lord saves us. to use Paul's picture in second Corinthians and chapter four, this is the way he puts it, concerning that evil one blinding the minds of unbelievers and then God turning on the lights. He says that in verse four, Maybe let me begin with verse 3, with the veiling of the gospel. It says there, 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world, meaning the devil, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers. to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of God, who is the image of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Christ's sake. And here is the transformation. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Wow. You see, when we preach the gospel and men and women receive the word. This is not a natural process. It's not like a teacher in a classroom convincing his kids that one plus one is equal to two. This is something that's totally out of this world. is an act of God in the immediate situation, removing the veil, turning on the light, and consequently this individual for the first time seeing the state of danger, the all-sufficiency of Christ as Savior, and consequently calling upon Him with their entire hearts. It's like an individual who is an alcoholic, and consequently in the jungles of Africa, stumbling across a cellar. In opening it, he finds crates of wine and whiskey and champagne and beer and everything else. And while he is in there, obviously he thinks his heaven has come. While he is obviously just going one step further along the lines of self-destruction. And then you see an actual cobra going under the door into the same cellar. You begin to call him out saying, look, you are in danger. There is a cobra in there. It will kill you. You know what he's going to be doing? He'll be laughing at you. I know why you're saying that, I know. You just want to take me away from my pleasure. That's like you. Miserable messenger you are. While he's goggling in his beer. Well, suddenly you see that there is a switch for the lights outside that door. You turn it on. Now at that point, you don't need to bring in eloquence at all. He won't even know how he managed to climb as high as that balcony to get through a window that is half his size. And as he finds himself on the outside, wow, wow, wow, thank you for turning on the light. That's all you did. Well friends, that's what omnipotence does, turns on the light. No need to make your arguments sophisticated because this person not only sees the danger but also sees the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and flees to the Savior for dear life's sake. Well, that's what these people experienced. And hence, they received the word. But let's go on, because effectual calling goes further. It also changes the human heart. It changes the human heart. We already see something of this in the text. Let's go back there. First Thessalonians and chapter one. The apostle Paul says, and you became imitators. of us, that's verse six, and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, and then he says there, with the joy of the Holy Spirit. With the joy of the Holy Spirit. Now, that's a transformation. That an individual should suddenly find the things of God, His highest good, His greatest joy. Do you remember before your conversion how church took so long, especially the pastor's sermons? I mean, he's hardly began preaching and you're already going like this on your wristwatch. wondering, when is he ending? Do you remember how the best word in your pastor's sermon was, finally? Your own heart responded saying, finally, I'm going to get out of here. Reading the Bible, praying, Saving the Lord, giving financially to the Lord's cause, excuse me. You did the least in the hopes that God will accept it and bring you into his heaven. At least you're not as bad as the other fellows who didn't even go to church. Although you admitted that it was killing you with boredom. Well, the apostle Paul here is saying, guess what? Something happened to you. You received this message with joy. You were individuals now who were beaming with excitement. concerning the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the things of God. But it's not only there. When you go to the first part of this passage, notice how Paul is not simply talking about the work and the labor and the steadfastness of these individuals, but he's also pointing to where the work and the labor and the steadfastness was coming from. Look at verse two and verse three. He says there, we give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Here were hearts that at one time were stony hearts. Here were hearts that at one time were full of self-centered rebellion. Here were hearts that at one time were full of unbelief, full of hatred. And Paul is now describing them as being full of faith, full of love, full of hope. Now that's change. That's real change. That's transformation. Writing to Titus, Paul says, just remind the believers how they were before in Titus chapter three and verse three. Look at the previous condition of the heart. For we ourselves were once foolish, that's the mind, Disobedient, that's the will, we'll come to in a moment. But listen to this, led astray. In other words, hooked and being taken in the path of lostness. That hook, he opens it up further. Slaves to various passions and pleasures. Passing our days in malice and envy. Hated by others and hating one another. That's the way we were. The heart was enslaved to sin and consequently being dragged downwards into the very abyss of hell. We knew it. In fact, that's what caused us to despise believers and call them holier than thou. It's because we were miserable failures ourselves. We had a love for sin we could not cure and we know it. But oh, how I love this picture that Paul gives, almost impossible to expound. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved. It's as though from the midst of darkness, suddenly there was a ray of light. And we blossomed, we opened up. We experienced a renewal that was not there before. The way in which at dawn the birds begin to sing. begin to sing their beautiful songs. Some melody begins in the soul where at one time there was hatred and misery. And then he ends by saying, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Wow. That's the change that God does at the point of effectually calling us. And the other part that I want us to notice back in our text is that this is not because of wonderful situations around the believer. It's not because of an ambience that is positive for holy living. No. When you read our text, this is what it says. You received the word in much affliction. with the joy of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the circumstances around you, especially the persecution of the Jews, as we notice in Acts 17, ought to have left you miserable. And yet, that's not what's happening there. You are full of joy. Now, isn't that what sets Christianity apart? I mean, all of us, anybody can be happy on his birthday when everyone is singing, he's a jolly good fellow, he's a jolly good fellow. I mean, we all at that point can be happy. That's what was happening here. It was in the midst of persecution. And yet, there is a river of joy flowing out of the hearts of the saints. A river of joy that cannot be closed down. That's the real transformation. It's a real transformation. It is what shuts the mouths of unbelievers when they've said everything they have to say against the Christian faith. There's one thing they cannot explain away, the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the human soul. Only omnipotence can do this. Let's hurry on to the last. Because effectual calling, it doesn't just change the mind and change the heart, it invariably also changes the will of the person. In other words, its fruit is visible to all. It is visible in actual action. And that's what the Apostle Paul ends with in the rest of this chapter. We won't read the whole of it, but notice what he says there in verse seven. He says that, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. In other words, Paul had preached in Philippi, quickly went through Apollonia, reached Thessalonica, preached there, and then moved on to Beria and all the other cities, major cities in Macedonia and went down further to Achaia and even preached there, including Corinth. And you see, wherever he was going, people were referring back to the changed lives in Thessalonica. It was visible, they could see it. In verse nine he says, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned, you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. It was visible, they could see. You didn't just add church going to your weekly schedule. There was an actual service that began to happen. As I had spoken earlier, your work of faith, your labor of love, they could see that here were individuals whose entire lives had become transformed That's Christianity. And notice it's despite the persecution all around, despite that, these lives still became different. Notice also that it wasn't something that was just transitory. It continued. And I want to add, even in the absence of Paul. Let's quickly jump to chapter three of 1 Thessalonians, chapter three. Paul had been gone for some time. Timothy ministered in Thessalonica. And now he's linked up with Paul. And this is the good news he brings to him. what this Paul is reporting on the good news. Chapter three and verse six. But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you. For this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you, through your faith. For now we leave. If you are standing fast in the Lord, for what thanksgiving can we return to God for you? For all the joy that we feel for your sake. before our God as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith. Wow. Here is Paul the missionary. having labored in this place where it was full of Greek idolatry. It was full of Jewish hostility. And he would have loved to be with these new believers longer, to ground them even further in the faith. But the hostility was so much, he had to be sent away. And then we don't know how much longer it was before he got this news and the news is this, the brethren have been going from strength to strength. The Christian faith there has not only grown, it's blossomed, it's flourishing. In other words, This change is real. That's why when he was rejoicing about them, he also spoke about their steadfastness of hope, their persevering hope. The change was permanent. They were not living as they lived before, no. In fact, their lives were absolutely impossible before, but the change has taken place. What do I want to say to us, brethren? It is that this is biblical Christianity. Nothing else is. We must never accept any cheap imitation. of true Christianity. We should discard it altogether. Remember what I said in my first session, that it is truths like these that give us a robust evangelicalism, one that leaves its mark upon a generation. And that's what we need to long for. Not mere numbers that fill up buildings and then when they get out there the world cannot see any difference between them and the people that fill up the four walls of our churches. No. We must long for the true effectual calling and we must long to see its fruit. What we are reading about here cannot be produced by mere human ingenuity. It's absolutely impossible. You might as well go into your nearest morgue or what we call mortuary back home and tell the guys to get on their feet and walk out of those fridges. Well, you may succeed there, but you still cannot succeed in this. It's utterly impossible. God must do it, and thankfully God says, I will do it to my elect people. And so Paul could be spoken to by the Lord saying, stay here longer, preach here longer, because I have many people in this city. And through your preaching, I will effectually call them to myself. while men and women are trying to kill you, I will effectually call them to myself. I will turn on the light. They will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. I will change their hearts. They will love me instead of loving sin. They will love holiness instead. I will transform their wills. I will make them willing in the day of my power. And they will be totally different. Paul, remain there. Remain there. That's the Christianity we should long for, brethren. And that's why we're studying this topic. It's not simply that we might arm ourselves again so that we might be better able to argue with Armenians or hyper-Calvinists, but that we must have a robust evangelicalism. that cannot be argued away. Men and women who see what's happening in and through our ministries will finally have to say, this is God. We cannot explain it in any other way. This is God. And oh, that those that are a fruit of our ministry may be full of joy as they sing, oh, what a wonderful change in my heart has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart. Not since Pastor so and so convinced me Since Jesus came in, came in, there is light in my soul. For which long I had sought since Jesus came into my heart. That's the Christian faith. And oh, that we may see its glory in the land once again. Let us pray.