 So, you're having an essentials class today, and we were last week beginning this class on Salvation, the Golden Chain of Romans 830. Last week, we only covered election, and today we are only going to cover effectual calling. We're going to end up making three or four lessons out of this one, I think. Does everyone have one of the handouts that Brenda was passing out? Oh, okay. So, we're going to focus most of our attention on the 1689 and what it says about effectual calling. But we'll be referring to some other books. This one, John Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied. If you don't have it, it's something you ought to have and read. We're going to look at a Birkhoff's Systematic Theology, and we may refer a little bit to this Sam Waldron exposition of the 1689. All good resources for you, but let's just start with the definition of effectual calling, that call that ushers men into a state of salvation and is therefore effectual. That is from this book, John Murray's Redemption Accomplished and Applied. Turn with me to, well, if you've got your 1689, and by the way, there's an app that you can always have your 1689 with you. Preparing for this helped me to have a better grasp on the 1689 itself and to understand the order of the things that are in here. But the effectual call is dealt with in Chapter 3, Paragraph 6. One place. We'll look there first. I'll read that to you. So the title of the chapter is God's Decree, and Paragraph 6 says, as God has appointed the elect unto glory, so by the eternal and completely free intention of his will, he has foreordained all the means of bringing their salvation about. Accordingly, those who are elected being fallen in Adam, are redeemed in Christ, are effectually called to faith in Christ by his spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, are kept by his power through faith unto salvation. Neither are any but the elect redeemed in Christ effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved. So he deals, so we're going to come back to that, but that's Chapter 3, Paragraph 6. And then Chapter 10 is effectual calling. And if you just look at the table of contents in the 1689 chapters 10 through 17 or 18, depending on how you count it, each chapter covers one of the steps in what we call the order of salvation. So 10 is effectual calling, then justification, adoption, sanctification, saving faith, repentance and salvation, good works, the perseverance of the saints, and then 18 is assurance of salvation. And it's interesting that there's not a chapter titled Regeneration, but that's part of, part of the reason for that is the reformers in the 17th century wrapped effectual calling and regeneration sort of into the same concept. And we'll see part of that as we go through what's covered in 1689. So as we talk about these things in the order of salvation and all of those logical pieces of it, it's not as if they happen sequentially. There is a logical order to them, but I found a brief article on Ligonier's website that I thought described the process together. He says, I don't have the writer, which writer this is. But he says, there is no time sequence in this as if we could be called for a while before we are regenerated and then live regenerated without having repented and then we could repent but not turn to Christ and then finally come to justifying faith. No, they are all logical steps in the same event. So when God calls us, we are immediately regenerated and we turn from sin to God in one action which justifies us. And those who are justified are immediately glorified in the sense of being adopted as children of God. So don't get caught up in some sort of time lapse when we're talking about these different logical steps in the order. So let's look at 10, chapter 10, effectual calling. I'm going to just read through it and then we're going to come back and try to break down these things in more detail. And this lesson is really built around Romans 8, 30. So, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. That doesn't cover every single step in the order of salvation, but it does sort of frame the logical progression of things. And we'll see that certain things have to happen in certain order. But effectual calling, chapter 10, section 1. Those whom he has predestined to life, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time to effectually call by his word and spirit out of that state of sin and death which they are in by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ. He enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God. He takes away their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh. He renews their wills and by his almighty power causes them to desire and pursue that which is good. He effectually draws them to Jesus Christ yet in such a way that they come absolutely freely being made willing by his grace. I'm going to read two and we'll break down one and two before we get to three. We'll come back to three and I guess if we have time. This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone. Not on account of anything at all foreseen in man is not made because of any power or agency in the creature who is wholly passive in the matter. Man is dead in sins and trespasses until quickened, made alive and renewed by the Holy Spirit. By this he is enabled to answer the call to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by it. This enabling power is no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead. So as I was thinking about this lesson and I wanted to really I wanted to take like the first 38 minutes of the 45 and just preach the gospel. That's really what we're talking about. It's you can have no effectual call. The spirit of God works in the preaching of the gospel. Romans one that 16 or 17 says gospel is the power of God to salvation. As I was thinking about this though, I mean I heard the gospel quite dozens and dozens of times before it was effective for me. And so then I started thinking about when was it effective? When did that actually happen to me? When did that internal working of the spirit to sort of grab me? And I was I was 42 and it was, I believe January 2nd of 2000. I'd been in church for seven or eight years, I guess at that point. Three different churches, you know, been in and around the church Christians, but lost. And I was sitting there that was sitting at First Baptist Orlando that Sunday morning. And just I don't remember what the preaching was about. I don't remember. But it probably wasn't very good. It's probably some New Year's message, you know. But the whole time just just gripped by the reality of what a hypocrite in the center I was. And just wrestling with like, what am I doing here? What is going on? Why am I like this? You know, why do I live this way? What is wrong with me? And so that is when I can, you know, when I look back at my conversion, I don't know that. I don't know that, you know, I can say that, you know, at that moment I was born again, but it was at that moment that I began to realize that I was not. And over the course of the next three months or so. And CS Lewis talks about how he, you know, he walked over a bridge and on one side of it he was lost and on the other side he was saved. And he doesn't really understand why there wasn't anything in particular that happened, you know, as he was crossing the bridge that, you know, brought this new life. But I know that's where I started on that day in January 2nd and I came out about three months later on the other end understanding that I had been lost and that I was found. Praise the Lord. So. Perfectual call. Does anybody else want to take in? I mean, is this something that you've thought about like when was that? When did that? When did the spirit of God. Yes. Smooth. I think it's important to say, like, and I know you know this. You know, effectual calling and regeneration is an instantaneous act where God imparts spiritual life to a dead sinner. But when people kind of kind of describe their conversion or then becoming a genuine Christian, sometimes that instantaneous act is imperceptible to them. So I just think it's important to note that that the way that CS Lewis explains his conversion could come off unbiblical in the sense that, well, nothing happened in between me on this side of the bridge being lost and me being on this side of the bridge and being saved. If he indeed came to saving faith, then something did happen, instantaneous effectual call and regeneration. But to our understanding, sometimes it's imperceptible. Right. And so I asked the question only to, you know, ask you to think about it. It's worth thinking about. It's a, you know, this is God working in you and giving you a new life, giving you, making you a new creation out of you. So, you know, I do, I am going to sort of cross over between the effectual calling and regeneration. And we're going to see as I think we go through this lesson that there is a very close connection. What has happened since the reformers, since the 1689 was written, is that these are more clearly distinct, distinctly defined ideas. But I think that that story he recounted in Surprise by Joy by CS Lewis and the idea that nothing happened is nothing miraculous in the sense that like he didn't see an angel or hear a voice or it was that God effectually called him. And it just happened during that walk. Like he's on one side of the bridge, an unconverted man and nothing miraculous like, again, an angel, some manifestation, uncontrollable weeping. Right. It was he's considering these things and as he's reflecting upon the gospel, he's an unconverted man. And then on the other side he's, he's converted. And I think that's the idea in Surprise by Joy that what he's trying to communicate, not that nothing happened, but that nothing miraculous. God didn't just show up and say, hey, he did, but right. And no, no, Saul of Tarsus, no audible voice. No, no, that. Yeah. I remember Albert Martin kind of describing this, this change and when it comes to the perspective of the recipient of grace and he said, this, this effectual calling and regeneration for, for some, it's as bright as the noon day sun and like a lightning bolt. But for others, it's like the, the shifting of the day from, from dusk to dawn, not dusk to dawn, but from, from dusk to day and from day to noon and from noon to dusk. So it's very subtle shifting instead of like a Martin Luther lightning bolt strike struck God revealing himself in a very perceptible way to bring the person to Christ. So it was very helpful with me because, you know, with people growing up in the church, a lot of times it's like that, you know, you, you'll have, they've been in church all their life. They've heard the gospel time after time. And then all of a sudden there, there starts to take root in them. Evidences of grace and they start to manifest genuine repentance and saving faith. And it's hard to say, well, this, this is the time. This was the exact time. And with other people, it can be very, very clear, especially when they live an external immoral life and there's an exterior radical change of behavior. Well, so, so back to chapter 10 and the first paragraph of this section on effectual calling. There's a, there's a commentary that I found on online that is Gary Gamble, I think is his name. And it's a 1689. He's a, he's a part of a church in Arizona and his, his exposition in some ways is really more helpful than Waldron's. But so I've borrowed from some of the things that, that I think it's 1689confession.com, I think is the name of it. But the, so he says, the first act in the order of salvation is effectual calling, but it is rooted in election. And we talked about election last week. As such, the confession begins at predestination. So this first paragraph, first sentence, those whom God hath predestined unto life. He is pleased and is appointed accepted time to effectually call. And that's the order of Romans 830. One of the, the, if you go, so looking at Romans going back before 830, starting in, well in 829, for whom, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. You know, one of the things that I think we, we, we can't overlook is that if you, I mean, so who is doing in 829 predestined to be conformed, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Who did the, the predestining God, the father? So it was encouraging to me to, to think about that, you know, when we think about our relationship with God, I mean, I'm primarily thinking about Christ. And sometimes I think, well, I don't think enough about, you know, this is how the person of the spirit of God is, is God and, and, you know, I ought to have a greater consciousness of who he is. But in thinking about God the Father's role in, in this, it was just encouraging to know how much of a role he has and, you know, how intimately involved in our salvation God the Father is. Gamble says God the Father effectually calls the elect. The spirit and the son are certainly involved in effectual calling, but it is the Father who initiates it. Murray gets at this and his chapter on effectual calling. He said, it is God that, so this is his chapter 11, page 89. It is God the Father who is the specific agent in the effectual call. This aspect of biblical teaching we are too liable to overlook. We think of the Father as the person of the Trinity who planned salvation and as the specific agent in election. And we think properly when we do so, but we fail to discern other emphases of scripture and we dishonor, and we do dishonor to the Father when we think of him simply as planning salvation and redemption. The Father is not far removed from the effectuation of that which he designed in his eternal counsel and accomplished in the death of his son. He comes into the most intimate relation to his people in the application of redemption by being the specific and particular actor in the inception of such application. The evidence to support this is copious and conclusive when Paul says, or over whom he did predestinate them he also called. It is obvious that the author of predestination is the author of the call. And in the preceding verse the author of predestination is distinguished from the person who is called the Son whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Only of the Father can it be said that he predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son for the simple reason that only in respect of the Father is the Son the Son. So that was encouraging and amazing and just makes me feel closer to the Father to know of his specific intentional action in my salvation. Think about that. So going back to this first paragraph the Father effectually calls by his word and spirit. I've spent less time in this systematic theology Burkhoff's than I have in Grudem's. But Burkhoff deals with the subject of effectual calling and regeneration I think much more thoroughly than Grudem. So I encourage you to spend some time reading it. But Burkhoff says the calling of God may be said to be one so external and internal so the call the gospel call in other words may be said to be one. And the distinction between an external call and an internal call or effectual calling merely calls attention to the fact that this one calling has two aspects. And then Gamble sort of explains this the word is the gospel message and without it there is no salvation. So we're talking about this phrase the Father effectually calls by his word and spirit. So what does that mean exactly well it's by his word it's the preaching of the gospel. The word is the gospel message and without it there is no salvation. This is so because as chapter one in the confession established general revelation is insufficient to explain God's will for our salvation. But it is it is by the word and spirit. So the spirit is working in the word preached. So in Burkhoff's systematic theology this idea of how does this happen? What is the actual how's God working in the preaching of the gospel to cause someone to be born again. And it's worth thinking about. And so he deals with first of all at the beginning of this chapter he talks about this the idea that the reformers sort of wrap these things together effectual call and regeneration. But one of the things that the out that the systematic theology deals with and that is the subject of a lot of you know theologians attention is you know what is the order. Are you regenerated so that when you hear the call you will respond or are you regenerated when you hear the gospel. What is the how does this work what is what is we're talking about the order of salvation what is the order. And it's interesting there was I found an article by Derek Thomas in which he's written some of the I can't remember all of the books we've read some of them here. But he has a chart which shows like nine different ideas about what is the order of salvation. Of course now the Armenians have the order you know regeneration always comes after the call because they're you know you're calling God down to save you and their theology. But so this is one section in Burkhoff's book the relative order of calling and regeneration. This is probably this is perhaps best understood if we note the following steps one logically the external call and the preaching of the word except in the case of children generally precedes or coincides with the operation of the Holy Spirit by which the new life is produced in the soul of man. Then the creative word God then by a creative word God generates the new life changing the inner disposition of the soul illuminating the mind rousing the feelings and renewing the will. In this act of God the ear is implanted that enables man to hear the call of God to to the salvation of his soul. In it man is entirely passive. Having received the spiritual ear the call of God in the gospel is now heard by the center and is brought home effectively to the heart. The desire to resist has been changed to a desire to obey and the center yields to the persuasive influence of the word through the operation of the Holy Spirit. This is the effectual calling through the instrumentality of the word of preaching effectively applied by the spirit of God. The effectual calling finally secures through the truth as a means the first holy exercises of the new disposition that is born in the soul. The new life begins to manifest itself the implanted life issues in the new birth. This is the completion of the work of regeneration and the broader sense of the word and the point at which it turns into conversion. That's a lot to read and to digest. Do you have a question? From what you just read and if we were to take verse 29 and try to apply that practically let's say on a Saturday morning. Before we walk out this door if we're going to preach to John Doe who's you know currently not converted at the time he is foreknown and predestined right even though we haven't knocked on his door yet. So we knocked on his door we preach the gospel by the spirit of God the effectual call takes place right and the Holy Spirit convicts him and then after that is regenerated. Would you say that stuff like if you were to throw it down in a nutshell that's how we would practically take place. I wouldn't say after that there is there is it so we are talking about an order but these things are all simultaneous. So it is in the preaching that he is the spirit works and he has regenerated. There's not like this time lapse necessarily. But as far as being like where it says if he's going to be for you and also predestined. Let's say that you know taking that Saturday morning and maybe it's it's wrong to kind of put it on sequence by days but prior to us knocking on his door. He was predestined and foreknown. And then through the preaching maybe the effectual call and regent regeneration take place at the same time. That's what you say. Yeah, I think yes to the effectual call and regeneration are not separated in time. But they've become distinct concepts over the last couple of hundred years when the 1689 was written they were more dealt with as the same. Yeah, I think the what's important to understand about the order of salvation is that one it is clearly taught in the Bible that there is a particular order. I think Romans 8 highlights that truth and the intention and I think it's a it's a biblical intention and the purpose of outlining that order is to highlight the grace of God and salvation. So that in another scheme right for example you have many texts that call men to repent and believe. In an Armenian scheme man's response would be the cause of regeneration. The purpose of the order is to highlight the grace of God in redemption how it's God who who causes men to be born again through the word preached. I don't know if that that's helpful, but I think it's necessary to understand that the order is not artificially imposed upon the Bible again Romans 8 teaches it. And the purpose of making those distinctions is to make very apparent to the believer that it's God who gives life and enables men to repent believe all those other things. So looking again at chapter 10 this first paragraph those whom God is predestined to life he is pleased and is appointed in an accepted time to effectually call by his word and spirit. What what what is he what is the effectual call accomplishing calling him out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature. To grace and salvation in Jesus Christ. If you look back at chapter 9 in the 1689 the section on free will. Chapter 9 section 3. This is this is where man is before this effectual call happens. Man by his fall into a state of sin has completely lost all ability of will to perform any of the spiritual good which accomplish which accompanies salvation. As a natural man he is altogether a verse to spiritual good and dead in sin. He is not able by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself for conversion. So the effectual call. Must. Come with a full the full gospel must be preached so you know that maybe you guys can correct me if you think I'm wrong here but if so can there can there be an effectual call. If the preacher says God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life I mean. I would like to think that you know of those hundreds and thousands of people who who respond to that altar call at first Baptist for example over the course of the centuries that some would have come. In genuine repentant faith. To Christ. When when when the message was God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Breonna and then pass for it. So I would be in a Pentecostal grown up in a costa rather. I would base that on was the gospel preached if the gospel is a power into salvation was the gospel preached thus the effectual call works through the gospel. Nothing else. So in in in Galatians Paul makes it clear that. Galatians six one out one six Paul makes a reference to a different gospel which is really not another right so there there is preaching that is not gospel preaching right and I think to say to people. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life is very deceptive. Right particularly in the context of American prosperity preaching and self esteem is my guess would say so I don't think that constitutes the preaching of the gospel at all in any sense. Now that God may use a crooked stick to draw a straight line as God's prerogative right so when we're thinking about proclaiming the gospel or making the gospel known instead of looking for the least common denominator or you know what's what's the smallest amount of truth that I could give to an unbeliever so that he might be converted. I think we've already started thinking improperly. I think your point is correct that on our part. It's so as pastors it's our responsibility to preach the gospel with as much clarity and scope as we can and then as individual believers. To as believers to believe those things and as we are declaring those things to other to be as as thorough and as biblical as we can in the presentation of the message. Right now if we're talking about the truth of the gospel, I think that's a very important point because you know what I mean, I think it's a very important point because you know what I'm trying to say, as thorough and as biblical as we can in the presentation of the message, right? Now, if God chooses to use a donkey to bring men to faith, that's God's prerogative, right? You know, and I don't think we're going to get to this, but the section three about infants dying, I was stunned really when I first saw this. In the 1689, the exposition that Waldron, when he deals with this chapter, he spends like the first two-thirds of his exposition of this chapter on paragraph three. Because of the implications that come from, you know, can someone be saved without hearing an understanding of the gospel? And Waldron and Gamble take completely, like Waldron says that really there's no scriptural support for this idea. In fact, the language I believe originally in the 1689 was elect infants dying in infancy. This version just says infants dying in infancy. It's a different thing. So the commentator, like Burkhoff and Grutum and, you know, most others, when we're talking about external call and effectual call, it is through the word of the gospel. It is through the true gospel. So the, you know, Isaiah 53-6, we have all gone astray and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. You need to have the full counsel, you need to have a discussion about what the effectual call is. We're assuming that we're talking about the actual call, which is that call that says you are a sinner bound for hell and apart from, you know, Christ's substitutionary sin-bearing atonement, there is no hope for you. So going on in this paragraph one, he enlightens their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God. He takes away their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh. He renews their will by his almighty power and causes them to desire and pursue that which is good. It actually draws them to Jesus Christ yet in such a way that they come absolutely freely being made willing by his grace. And that last section there, becoming absolutely freely, is probably the most misunderstood part of, well I don't know, the most. It's widely despised that you could be predestined and come willingly. What was the guy's book that we read last year? What? Geisler. Yeah. Yeah, well it was a disputation of that book, yeah, practically needed to to understand the disputation. But even Geisler, this guy who is widely respected in other areas of theology, mischaracterizes what this means. We are not being converted against our will. Our will is what's being changed. They come in such a way that they come absolutely freely being made willing by his grace. And then section two or paragraph two in this, this really addresses the Armenian error. The effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not on account of anything at all foreseen in man. So these arguments, I mean they go back a long way. It is not made because of any power or agency in the creature who is wholly passive in the matter. Man is dead in sins and trespasses until quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit. By this he is enabled to answer the call and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed by it. An abling power is no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead. Pretty scounding. So not on account of anything at all foreseen. It's not that God saw down the corridor of time and knew who would respond, but that is the core belief of a lot of professing Christians, especially it seems the prosperity of the gospel, but that's the theology of some of the people that I've interacted with who are by the world standards, radical Christians. And when I first began to think about reformed theology, and when I got to this church I had no idea what it even was, but when I began to understand it and embraces, then I thought, well how can these people who think this even be saved? Can they? Yes, we don't have any Armenians in here. Yeah, well, Brian? So the question is, can somebody who is kind of Calvinist be saved? Is that what you're asking? So I would say that if the person is trusting in the finished work of Christ, if that person is turning to Jesus Christ in faith from their sin and understanding that there's nothing good in them, yeah, they're saved. You don't have to be a Calvinist to be saved. There's a lot of people who might have theology that is wrong. I believe that the true Christian, if you approach a Christian from the word of God, I believe the Spirit will lead them in truth. I don't know that necessarily there's a timeframe associated with that, but to say that somebody is not saved because they have a misunderstanding of predestination or election I think is wrong. I believe, I'm convinced from Scripture that I think Romans 9 makes it, I think it's all throughout the Bible to be honest with you, I'm convinced from Scripture that if it wasn't for Christ changing my will, I would have never chosen Christ. And most people, you know, like my father I always think of, like I would probably characterize him as a quasi-Arminian, right? But even him admits that if it wasn't for Jesus, if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit, drawing him and changing him, then he would be lost. He just, I think a lot of people it's more of a tradition kind of thing that they're just indoctrinated in throughout their entire life and they can't rectify those things. But yeah. So yeah, I agree. If at the end what you're doing is you're trusting in Christ alone. If you arrive at that same place, a genuine belief, then you just need to be discipled. But I did, I struggled with it at first. It's like, well, you know, but there is a sense in which we're, and I've heard this said, we're all Arminians right at the beginning, right? You know, what we see is that we need to repent and believe the gospel and it's up to us, you know, to do that in order to be saved. But when we understand how that actually worked itself out, I think we are more, have a greater understanding of God's glory and salvation and, or, or able to, well, to worship him and praise him more holy and to then not be led off into other errors. I know, I know a lot of people who believe that they can lose their salvation. And that's because they start from the point that, you know, it's up to me to hold on to it. I'm so glad it's not up to me. So let's, I think we're, I've gotten the red flag back there. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are grateful for how you have called us and saved us and been so merciful and kind to us and changed us and caused us to love you and worship you and praise you. It is our greatest privilege. And we thank you in Jesus' name.