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And our scripture text this afternoon
is a very short one from the 8th chapter of Paul's letter
to the Romans a very familiar passage to many of us here Romans
8 from verse 28 to verse 30 only Romans 8 from verse 28 to verse
30 Where we read these words And
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, them he also called. and whom he called,
then he also justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified. May God bless to us this short
reading of his own words. Now as most of us realize on
these Lord's Day afternoons we have been engaged for a number
of weeks in a series of studies and expositions through some
of the great and fundamental biblical doctrines, the doctrines
of God's own inspired word. And so we've arrived this afternoon
at the subject which we call in the Reformed and Christian
Church, Effectual Calling and I'm going to relate, as usual,
what I have to say this afternoon to the Westminster Confession
of Faith, secondarily to Scripture primarily but the Westminster
Confession of Faith, Chapter 10 has the great title of Effectual
Calling and for those of you who are boys and girls and young
people in the service this afternoon you may be puzzled by the word
effectual, a word we don't usually use and employ in our modern
English language and terminology and it simply means the powerfully
effective call of God or if you like, the effective, irresistible
call of God, something that cannot be resisted or made of no effect. So the old English word effectual
is a very wonderful word speaking of an irresistible work of God
as he calls a sinner to faith in himself. Now you are probably
aware that up to this point in our Lord's Day afternoon services,
we have been considering mainly salvation from the standpoint
of what God has done for us. That is to say, remember, for
instance, in chapter 3 of the Westminster Confession, and obviously
in Scripture itself, we looked at the doctrine of God's decrees,
how God has made a decree an eternity past of predestination
concerning those whom he has chosen to be saved by Christ,
it is something that God has done for us, and again the great
chapter on the covenant, one of the longest chapters, incidentally
in the Confession of Faith, was a beautiful scriptural description,
again, of what God has done for us in providing, through His
covenant of grace, the way that sinners can be recovered from
the disaster of the Fall. Once more in the subject of the
Mediator, Christ the Mediator, we were looking again at what
God has done for us. Now this afternoon, as we come
to effectual calling, we begin to look at what God is doing
in us. There is not only something done
for us in terms of our salvation, there must obviously be something
done in us as well. So the salvation which was accomplished
for elect sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ having been purposed
first by God the Father must be applied to the hearts of those
sinners as we'll see this afternoon by the work of the Holy Spirit
something wonderful has been done for us, something equally
glorious, amazing and wonderful has to be done in us by the work
of the Sovereign God Himself through His Spirit. So, a brief
word of introduction as I continue. We have seen that God saves sinners. God the Father has chosen some
for salvation, a great number but not all of the human race,
that would amount as we have seen to universalism God the
Son has accomplished the salvation of those whom the Father has
appointed to salvation and now God the Holy Spirit will apply
what Christ has accomplished to all those for whom it is to
be applied. Now a number of you already will
recognize that What I am saying, or what I have been saying in
these last few minutes, is what we call today the doctrines of
grace. I haven't, I think, used this
term very much in my exposition so far. Many of you will be aware
of the acrostic TULIP, T-U-L-I-P. We're in springtime and hopefully
very soon the tulips will be blooming once more after the
long winter rest. Well, the acrostic tulip, as
many of you realize, is a summary of the doctrines of grace, the
doctrines of scriptural salvation, and each of those first letters,
you children, I'm sure you realize, stand for a particular thing. The T stands for total depravity,
the U for unconditional election, the L for limited atonement,
or definite atonement, as I prefer to call it, the I for irresistible
grace, and the P for the perseverance of the saints. And all of these
things are absolutely necessary to understand biblical salvation. we know that total depravity
means that we are all fallen in all our parts mind and heart
and will and affections all have been profoundly affected by sin
so that we cannot do any good accompanying salvation or toward
it we have seen God's unconditional election of us we have seen his
definite choice from eternity of those who will be saved we're
really coming, in a sense, this afternoon to part of irresistible
grace the effectual work of the Holy Spirit although we're also,
as we'll see, be touching on the perseverance of the saints
as well in that those who are truly called and effectually
called to faith in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit will
persevere to the very end sometimes called the five points of Calvinism
I prefer really to use the term the doctrines of grace or we
could say the five points of the biblical teaching of salvation
because that essentially is what it is. Now any other view of
salvation I think we'll see this afternoon which does not affirm
all of these great truths is in the end defective and denies
at least in part the true religion taught in the Bible. For instance,
Arminianism does not believe in a number of these five great
affirmatives, they would believe in only part of them, and I would
not say that Arminians cannot be Christians, I would say that
depending on the degree in which they have departed from scripture,
they may indeed be Christians, although they have a seriously
defective view of some of the scriptural teaching on salvation. Well, that my way of introduction
to what we're going to look at this afternoon. We come to effectual
calling, the direct work and activity of the Holy Spirit of
God in enabling a sinner to come to Christ in the first place. We read from Romans 8 verses
28 to 30 and you may have noticed that in those short three verses
the term the called or calling is mentioned twice. In verse
28 we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Now I know in some modern versions
it omits the word the and simply says who are called according
to his purpose but in the original Greek the definite article is
there it describes a definite body of people who are the called
according to his purpose and it is only to them in verse 28
that the promise is given that all things will work together
for good a great promise of the final perseverance of believers. And again in verse 30 you notice,
in what someone has called the golden chain of salvation, verse
30, whom he did predestine, or predestinate, them he also called,
whom he called, it's twice mentioned in this verse, them he justified,
whom he justified, them he also glorified. So you notice that
following predestination there in verse 38 is the reference
to the calling work of the Holy Spirit. How does a person then
come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? We're living in a day
and an age, as many of you realize, when many Christians would answer
it is through repentance and faith. It is something that they
do in moving toward God. Now I have to say to you that
even prior to that there is a work of the Holy Spirit that is absolutely
essential and they could not either repent of sin or believe
in Christ without that prior work of the Holy Spirit taking
place. Salvation in terms of what happens
within us begins with the effectual calling work of the Holy Spirit. Now this is made very clear in
verse 3. Predestination, which we've looked
at in eternity past, must issue in the call of God to the sinner. A divine initiative. It's not
ourselves calling upon Christ It is God putting into action
his eternal purposes from the ages past, enabling us to come
to Christ in faith and in repentance. And then justification follows,
and then you notice sanctification is missed out, Paul moves immediately
to glorification, and you notice even glorification is mentioned
in the past tense. Why? Well because it is so certain
in the Apostle's mind he views it almost as already having taken
place. Now of course it hasn't actually
taken place. Our glorification is in heaven
itself. But you notice there is a golden
chain and not one of the links in that chain can ever be broken.
Those who have been predestined will be called, will be justified
and will be glorified and no one will be there at the end
who was not at the beginning and if someone was not there
at the beginning he will not be there at the end a golden
chain of salvation and of course there are many instances we have
no time this afternoon to go into the depth of scripture and
many of the references are given in the confession of faith and
the good editions of it on effectual calling, but you may remember
in Acts 16, when Paul went to Philippi, he met with a group
of women for prayer down at the river, the river Gangites, as
we believe it to be, outside of the Roman colony and city
of Philippi. Among those who gathered was
a woman called Lydia, a seller of purple, in Acts 16. And you
find that the way she became a Christian was how? opened her
understanding or her mind to understand the teaching of the
Apostle Paul. And she was the first recorded
convert in the city of Philippi. It was the Lord's calling of
her that brought her into faith. Well, I want to look quite briefly
then this afternoon at just some of the leading features of this
great biblical doctrine of effectual calling. If you look at chapter
10 of the Confession, section 1, all those whom God hath predestinated
unto life and those only he is pleased in his appointed and
accepted time effectually to call by his word and spirit 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 unto them an 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 we'll look at section 2 in just a moment so first of all
God calls sinners to himself effectually and we've seen it
in Romans 8 verse 30, we've seen it referenced by a living example
in Acts chapter 16 in the case of Lydia and when we read these
magnificent words of section 1 of our Confession of Faith
we need to ask who are called effectually? and you notice that
it is those whom God has predestinated unto life and those only. Now many hear the gospel outwardly
as we recognize they hear the call to repentance and faith
but not all who hear outwardly with their ears are effectually
called of God I'm sure you're aware of many scriptures that
show this when Peter preached so powerfully on the day of Pentecost
in Acts 2 there were only some evidently who were cut to the
quick at the end of that chapter and said men and brethren what
must we do to be saved? When Paul preached later in Acts
17 in the great Greek city of Athens remember his magnificent
address that ended up with the doctrine of the resurrection
of Christ, many mocked, and only a few, a handful, are listed
at the end of Acts 17, who responded to Paul's preaching and became
believers. So who are called? Those whom
God hath predestined unto life, and those only he is pleased,
effectually, to call. When does this happen? now isn't
this interesting, it's in his own appointed and accepted time
you see some people have said, well if God has predestined us
from eternity then surely our salvation is effective from eternity
but of course it isn't. There must be an operation of
the Holy Spirit in His appointed and accepted time. There's no
such thing as our being justified or called from eternity. You know, I came to Christ, not
in a Christian home myself, but in a non-Christian, though I'm
thankful to say a moral and upright poem, and was converted as a
young adolescent at the age of 13. I see in the congregation
this afternoon children of all kinds of ages, and I have to
say to you children, whatever you are, in adolescence, younger,
that God, if you are one of his children, has an appointed and
accepted time when he will call you. The wonderful thing about
the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, and we're going to see
this in a moment, is that he may operate at any time. There
is no accident in his operation. He may even regenerate from the
womb, although that is very unusual. In our reading in Luke chapter
1, in reference to John the Baptist, it does seem that John the Baptist
was filled with the Holy Spirit from his womb. God is sovereign,
he is able to do that although that is very unusual but often
in childhood and adolescence and also in adulthood it may
please the Holy Spirit to make that his appointed and accepted
time. How does it happen? Well we read
very wonderfully the means of the Holy Spirit normally calling
a person to faith in Christ is by his word and spirit it is
the Holy Spirit who must effectually call. The minister cannot do
it. I can preach the Word, I can bear down on the doctrine of
sin and the need for repentance and the fullness and sufficiency
of Christ, but only the Holy Spirit can take that Word and
effectually apply it to the hearts of those whose salvation He has
determined. But this is normally through
the word of God, by his word and spirit, he makes alive those
who are dead in trespasses and in sins. And very wonderfully,
as we read in that first section, the effect of the Spirit's call
is that the sinner comes out of the state of sin and spiritual
death into a state of grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. Did you notice that every part
of our being is affected by this work of the Holy Spirit the mind
must be enlightened it is in darkness, it cannot understand
the things of God a new heart must be given to us we are said
to have a heart of stone and as Ezekiel prophesied in his
great chapter 36 God gives to his people a heart of flesh at
regeneration, at the work of the Holy Spirit in effectual
calling our wills are renewed we cannot choose Christ, we hear
so much language, don't we today? you need to choose Christ, or
I chose Christ well the truth is I had no ability to do that,
I would have had no desire in my fallen and sinful condition
unless God had renewed my will in effectual calling and that's
what He does and we are savingly drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ
as Christ said in John 6 verse 44 no man can come to me except
the Father who has sent me draw him and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out So you see, effectual calling is
God undertaking through the Holy Spirit's work to fulfill His
purpose in the life of His chosen people. And that purpose that
began back in eternity is accomplished at a certain point in time in
the life of all of us. And no one who enters at the
beginning is ever dropped along the way. nor is anyone ever added
who did not start at the beginning. That's made very clear from our
passage in Romans. So we have then effectual calling. Now you look at section 2 there,
this effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone,
not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive
therein, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit
he is thereby enabled to answer this call and to embrace the
grace offered and conveyed in it. So the call is a work of
God's sovereign grace not on account of anything foreseen
in men. and really this section is addressed
against the error of what we call today Arminianism. Arminianism, putting it very
simply, really says that God was able to peer down through
the mists of the corridors of time and see that at a certain
point, in a certain place in human history, in certain times,
there would be men and women who were able to believe in Christ
and repent of sin and to desire Him and God seeing them with
that ability chose them in Christ and appointed their salvation. The Bible, however, is very clear
that salvation is not based on foreseen faith or on anything
that we as fallen sinners can do. Incidentally, we read Romans
8 verse 28 And Arminians have taken the
term foreknow, whom he did foreknow, then he did predestinate. Arminianism
says, well there you have it, God knew ahead of time, he borne
you. that certain people would desire
to turn to Christ and forsake sin, and therefore he chose them
on that basis. Now, anyone who knows the Greek
language knows how completely untrue that is. The word for
new literally means whom God loved beforehand, whom he knew
intimately in terms of the purpose of his love. In other words,
it's almost an expression of predestination itself, but in
some ways richer. And so that is the correct meaning
of the term for new, not foreseeing in any way. Otherwise salvation
is not based on grace alone. Now it does say in this section,
you may have noticed, that the sinner is altogether passive
therein, until being enabled by the Holy Spirit, he answers
the call and embraces the grace of God. and we need to understand
that in the work of effectual calling the sinner is passive
we are dead in trespasses and sins, there is nothing we can
do but of course in the work of conversion which is our response
to the effectual call of the spirit we are not passive at
that point Calvinists don't deny that for a moment once the effectual
call has been issued and our wills have been renewed and our
affections changed and our heart a change from a heart of stone
to a heart of flesh of course we respond we must respond it
is not God who repents for us it is not God who believes in
the Lord Jesus Christ for us we do that and that is the work
of conversion but it's only possible because of God's preeminent or
prevenient grace in effectual calling some of you know the
words of Charles Wesley writer of many poems and in hymn singing
churches these are used sometimes as hymns even he had grasped
this truth I love these lines, long my imprisoned spirit lay
fast bound in sin and nature's night thine eye diffused a quickening
ray I woke, the dungeon flamed with light my chains fell off,
my heart was free I rose, went forth and followed thee but you
notice how he begins long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound
in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused the quickening
ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with
light. It wasn't anything in me that
Charles Wesley is saying. Quite quickly on the third section,
elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by
Christ through the Spirit who works when, where and how he
pleases so also are all other elect persons who are incapable
of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. Now
this is a much disputed and controverted subject in the church still the
salvation of infants dying in infancy. I don't know if anyone
in the congregation has had this very sad experience. And then what about those who
are mentally defective, or sometimes called the incapables? Now we have to say at once, the
Bible does not have very much to say about the salvation of
children who die in infancy, or the incapables, or if you
like, prefer the word, an imbecile, who does not have the mental
ability to come to know the Bible's teaching and to understand it
in the normal way. The Bible doesn't have very much
to say. But what we need to realize is this, that if salvation depended
entirely and always upon a person's being able to hear and understand
and respond to the gospel no infant or imbecile or incapable
could ever be saved and that's why I praise God for this section
of the Confession of Faith, because I believe it brings a scriptural
answer that neither goes beyond scripture, nor does it fall short
of what scripture itself clearly implies. Well, what does it say? It does not say that all children
dying in infancy are elect and will be saved. what it does say
and imply is that all are born in sin and so are under God's
condemnation you notice that even the children dying in infancy
need to be quickened they need to be, I'm sorry, regenerated
by the Holy Spirit of God who works when, where and how he
pleases so Coming from that basis, we have to say that infants,
whether they are born into a believing family or not, and incapables,
who die and have not been able to respond to the gospel because
they lack the mental equipment to understand and so on, there
is the possibility of salvation for them. if they are elect. Now do you notice that? Elect
infants dying in infancy. So also are all other elect persons
who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the
Word. Now this is scriptural. The Westminster
Confession stays with scriptural. It does not say that all infants
dying in infancy are going to be saved, but elect infants and
all other elect in other words, God reserves the right to apply
the work of Christ sovereignly by His Spirit through the work
of regeneration apart from the usual means of the Word of God
being preached and believed on but even those infants who are
elect need the regenerated work of the Holy Spirit and that's
what I believe personally I cannot say, because scripture does not
say, that infants, all infants dying in infancy, are going to
go to heaven. Scripture does not say that.
It leaves it as a mysterious thing. But clearly, I think in
scripture there are indications that God may choose, may, I emphasize,
choose, the children in covenant families who die in infancy to
be saved and regenerated by Christ. Why do I say that? Well, when
David's child died in 2 Samuel 12, remember, part of the judgment
on David for his adultery was the death of the little boy who
was born from that adulterous relationship. David does say
there, I shall go to him but he shall not return to me. Now is that an indication by
the Holy Spirit that David knew that his child was in heaven
and David would see him there one day? Or did David simply
mean the child has gone into the state of death that I know
that I must pass into that state myself? Well, we have to leave
a question mark I think that's a very interesting question there,
and of course we know from New Testament teaching that children
growing up in Christian homes have very special privileges
given and extended to them, and I think there are some real grounds,
and I emphasize some real grounds, for believing that covenant children
within faithful Bible-believing homes, dying in infancy, are
saved and regenerated by Christ through the working of his Spirit.
But we cannot say definitively, because scripture itself does
not say so. Finally, section 4. What about
those who are non-elect, and we're nearly through? well, it's
a wonderful section, there are others not elected, although
they may be called by the ministry of the word, and may have some
common operations of the spirit, yet they never truly come to
Christ, and therefore cannot be saved, much less can men not
professing the Christian religion be saved in any other way whatsoever,
be they ever so diligent to frame their lives according to the
light of nature, and the law of that religion they do profess
and to assert and maintain that they may is very pernicious and
to be detested well what this section is saying
is that others though not elected may be called by the ministry
of the word and have some common operations of the spirit what
does that mean? well the gospel is to be proclaimed
as we know freely we do believe in the free offer of the gospel
the gospel being preached to all the nations and offered freely
and some who hear the gospel may have an operation of the
Holy Spirit upon their hearts and minds that stop short of
a work of effectual court now you can see this very clearly
in many parts of scripture for instance Jesus' parable of the
soils or the parable of the sower as it's more commonly called
in Matthew 13 the four kinds of soil and the seed of God's
word only fell and grew and flourished in one kind out of the four it
didn't flourish among the thorns or on the rocky ground and so
forth, or on the pathway but only on the good ground and Jesus
in explaining that parable evidently was aware that in the lives of
some people the word of God does have effect, the seed sprung
up, Jesus said until the thorns choked it there is the evidence
of life even spiritual life, the evidence outwardly to us
that clearly here was not a saving work of the Spirit. And what
has helped me to understand this is that I've realized for many
years that not all operations of the Holy Spirit are necessarily
saving operations. I'll say that again. Not all
operations of the Holy Spirit are necessarily saving operations. Now if you read in Hebrews 6
and I know some of you have thought of this passage and it's also
a reference in the section of the Confession Hebrews 6 from
verses 4 through 8 the writer describes such people even as
having tasted of the heavenly things and having been subject
to some working of the Holy Spirit in their lives and yet he says
very clearly that they are not in Christ. How can this be? and the answer is the Holy Spirit
does in his sovereignty sometimes illuminate a sinner's mind even
with certain changes on a sinner's heart that stop short of regeneration
not all operations of the Holy Spirit are necessarily saving
operations you only need to read in the Life and Ministry of Jonathan
Edwards how he enabled himself, and enabled us through his writings
to distinguish between a true work of God, and that which often
happened even in genuine biblical revivals, where sinners were
awakened, but not regenerated, they were not effectually called. An illustration too, that has
helped me understand this, is we have chickens on this property,
and I'm sure your children have seen them, and I am always fascinated
that a mother hen with little yellow chickens, fluffy chickens
they be clucking calmly and quietly and the chickens are spread out
some distance from her everything is well she sees a hawk in the
sky and there is a change of tone it is an elective cluck,
if you like and you see all the little yellow chickens rushing
to their mother and hiding under her wing it's an effectual call
there is an ordinary clock and there is an effectual clock. You see what I mean? And we need
to remember that in all Christian ministry, it is only the Holy
Spirit who can issue that effectual call to sinners. Well, you notice
there, I'm finishing here, you notice the last expression here,
to assert and maintain that other religions may save people when
they live with great diligence according to what they profess,
is very pernicious and to be detested. Now this is very strong
language. We live in an ecumenical age,
do we not? And this is very, very unacceptable language. It
is being taught so widely, especially in the World Council of Churches,
that all religions in the end are the same, there'll be a great
homecoming for everybody. Not so. Thank God for the honesty
of the Westminster Confession divines who say that the heathen
who never hear or profess Christ, cannot be saved. It's a very
solemn statement, and it reminds us, doesn't it, of our great
responsibility to be bearers of the gospel into a very dark
world, and to bring the knowledge of the one true way of salvation,
the one true religion, the binding back again of man's relationship
to God, the religare, the one true religion to bring that knowledge
to all with whom we come into contact. We've seen that while
some may be saved without the preaching of the Word of God,
that is to say, elect infants and incapables, none can be saved
by a different message or gospel. No way. So those not professing
the biblical faith have no hope of salvation whatsoever however
diligently they may follow it false religion well there is
the great doctrine of effectual calling I finish with the words
of Thomas Goodwin I love the Puritan Thomas Goodwin he says
God's love is like a river or a spring that runneth underground
and hath done so from eternity where does it break out first?
he asks where bubbleth it up first? where doth this fountain
begin to bubble up or spring forth? when a man is first called
then that love which hath run from everlasting underground
and through the heart of Christ upon the cross breaks out in
a man's heart too and it is the fundamental mercy of all grace
then glory whatever effectual calling We'll stand for prayer. O Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank Thee again for the passages of Scripture that we have looked
at and discussed together, and the great teaching summarized
in our subordinate standard, the Confession of Faith, on this
wonderful subject of the Spirit's work in effectual calling. High these things to our hearts,
in Christ's
(11) - Of Effectual Calling
Series What Presbyterians Believe
| Sermon ID | 9922212138540 |
| Duration | 40:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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