1689 London Baptist Confession (part 21)

The Effectual Call and the General Call

Well, we were talking about last week the effectual call. Now, who wants to define the effectual call versus the ineffectual call? What do we typically call the ineffectual call? If something is effectual, it means it actually works.

So the ineffectual call would be, what's that? One that doesn't work, okay? The non-working call. We would refer to that typically as the general call. And if you'll recall, we went to... If you'll recall, we were talking about the call in, yes, Matthew 22, which is a bit of a story that Jesus tells.

Let's look at Matthew 22 because I think it draws the point out very nicely. The parable of the wedding feast, beginning in verse 1. And again, Jesus spoke to them in parables saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.

Now, I'm going to stop there for a moment, and I'm just going to say this is the general call. God sends forth his servants, that is to say, we could argue each of us, to go out and invite people to come to faith, to come to know him.

Again, he sent, they would not come. Again, verse 4, he sent other servants saying, tell those who are invited, see, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered and everything is ready.

Come to the wedding feast, but they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treating them shamefully and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned the city, burned their city.

Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go, therefore, to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good, so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw that there was a man who had no wedding garments, and he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen. And again, this has to do with the general call and then the effectual call, that many are called, everybody who hears the gospel, but few are chosen.

And if you look, I have the authorized version, the notes there. And MacArthur says of the wedding garment in verse 11, says, all without exception were invited to the banquet. So this man is not to be viewed as a common party crasher.

In fact, all the guests were rounded up hastily from the roads, and therefore none could be expected to come with proper attire. That means the wedding garments were supplied by the king himself. So this man's lack of a proper garment indicates he had purposely rejected the king's own gracious provision.

His affront to the king was a greater insult than those who refused to come at all. So, just to explain that rather unusual anomaly there. So, when God calls somebody, they always come. That's what it means that it's effectual.

It is effectual. It is also called the irresistible call. No one resists the actual, the effectual call. It just happens. God, you know, does God always get his man? The answer is yes. We looked at the golden chain of salvation, Romans 8, 29 and 30.

For 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. So, we see it's called the golden chain of salvation because from before the foundation of the world, when God foreknew somebody, when he set his affection upon them, when he predestined them to salvation, it's his work we see again and again.

It's God. In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, God predestined, he also called. And those whom he, God, called, he also justified. And those whom he, God, justified, he also glorified.

It's God, God, God, God taking action. Okay. So, the efficacy, as we start new material here, the efficacy of the effectual call is demonstrated from the fact that the called, all the called are saved.

Every single person who is called will be saved. Calling is the outworking of election. Election is the pattern of calling. In other words, God chose some before the foundations of the world, and in time, then he actually brings that election to pass by calling them.

God's voice is powerful in redemption as it is in nature. Let's look at John 6, 44, again, to just sort of illustrate this concept. It illustrates a few things. First of all, it illustrates human inability to respond, but it also demonstrates the effectual work of God in salvation.

John 6, 44, and would somebody please read that when they get there? John 6, 44, true or false? And we've gone through this before, so we should all be able to answer this question. True or false? When we get saved, it seems as though we have done something.

True, thank you. It seems like we have come to faith, right, that we did it. Sometimes that's even given some visual aids by the fact that somebody walks forward and, you know, accepts the call of the altar call or whatnot, or they come forward at some sort of mass revival kind of meeting.

But again, looking at John 6, 44, it says no one can, no one has the ability, nobody has the power to come to Jesus as is him speaking unless the Father who sent me does what? Draws him. And I think Pastor Mike, was it last week?

I think he actually mentioned that this word has the idea of something being dragged. In fact, one dictionary puts it this way, to move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion with the implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or is unwilling to do it voluntarily.

So if we consider it that way, if we think about someone being drawn in that way, it gives us a better idea of what God actually does. He doesn't take the willing and affirm their willingness. He takes the unwilling and does what?

I don't want to stretch the metaphor too far and say he drags them because he doesn't drag them to salvation. What does he do? Makes them willing by doing, I'm sorry, giving them a new nature. When God causes somebody to be born again, it should be clear to us, you know, before salvation, we might think that we're okay with God.

We might think that we're all right with him or that we would be willing if we had a little more information. But the truth is we're dead in our sins and trespasses. We're incapable. We're not able, it says here.

No one can. And then God causes us to be born again. And what do we do? We don't wait until the Holy Spirit drags us, you know, kind of I want to lay on the ground and then be dragged, but that would be too much.

I don't think I could drag myself, which I guess is part of the point, right? You can't drag yourself into salvation. Nobody gets dragged to salvation when he gives us that new nature for the first time ever.

It's like basically the scales are removed from our eyes. We see Jesus Christ as our refuge. You know, if somebody said to you, you're dying, you've been bit by a rattlesnake, you have, you know, 30 seconds to live.

You can either, you know, take this vial of antidote or you can die. You don't look at the antidote and go, I don't really know if I want that or not. It doesn't really appeal to me. You say to yourself, I can't believe there's an antidote right here.

Look at this. And that's kind of the, that's more the picture because now we have a new nature. We have new desires and we don't reluctantly come to Jesus Christ. We flee to the cross. We flee to Christ.

We're delighted to be saved and we can't believe that God would save us. Let's look at Romans 417. There are many passages we could look at to get here, but I found this one kind of helpful. Romans 417, if somebody would read that, please.

I think I'm going to start paying money to people who read Scripture. Romans 417. Yes, go ahead, Anthony. Who gives life to the dead and calls in the existence of things that do not exist. This is a powerful God who does what he wants.

I mean, we acknowledge that God is sovereign, but there are many churches will say that God is sovereign except in the area of salvation. In the area of salvation, he's carved out this little island called free will.

And he leaves people on that island and lets them do whatever they want. But if we look at what the Bible actually says about salvation, we would see things like, if we go back to John 6 for a moment.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And listen to what Jesus then says. And I will raise him up on the last day. What does that mean? God draws him and then Jesus says, I will raise him up.

Not I may raise him up or I'll raise him up if he believes. There's an assumption in Jesus' words, which are the person that God the Father draws will believe. And through that belief, then what? That person will go to heaven on the last day, on the day of judgment.

God never fails to get his man, ever. The London Confession of Faith says that effectual calling is personal. It's individualized. Says this, those whom God hath predestinated unto life, 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 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.

I mean, a nice summary of what we've just been talking about. God doesn't drag us kicking and screaming as some Arminians like to... What's the word I'm looking for? Mythologize the Calvinist position, mischaracterize it.

He changes our will so that we are no longer against him. We're no longer dead in our sins and trespasses. We are no longer his enemies. We are his friends and as his friends and his children, we flee to Christ.

Let's see, also in the London Baptist Confession of Faith, it says, others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the word. This is the general calling we're talking about. And may have some common operations of the spirit.

In other words, they may be convicted of their guilt. They may sit here on a Sunday morning and hear the word of God preached and say, man, that makes me feel guilty. Goes on to say, yet not being effectually drawn by the father, they neither will nor can truly come to Christ and therefore cannot be saved.

Much less can men that receive not the Christian religion be saved, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the law of that religion they do profess. Now, what does that mean in plain English?

In non-London Baptist Confession of 1689 English, what does that mean? Maybe I should give out a copier, you know, project it overhead. Let me see if I can break it down for you a little bit. Can somebody be saved?

Can they go to heaven apart from Christianity? What if they're a really good person and they live according to the light that they're given? What if they never hear the gospel? What's the answer to that, by the way?

Somebody never hears the gospel, how can God possibly send them to hell? I'm going to disallow that answer. It is correct, but they're without excuse. And we would find that in Romans 1, okay? I mean, people say, you know, people want to debate this and they want to say, well, what about, you know, a person who only knows the Buddhist religion or they only know the Hindu religion or they only know the Shinto religion or whatever religion it is that they only know and they're faithful to that.

They're faithful Mormons, they're faithful Jehovah Witnesses. The problem with that is each of those religions is A, false, B, demonic. Yes, demonic. And thirdly, they are suppressing the truth and unrighteousness because that which can be known about God is evident in his creation.

You know, even in Psalm 19, it says the heavens declare the glory of God. They suppress the truth and unrighteousness, they worship idols. No amount of church attendance, scripture reading, or other good work can regenerate somebody.

It's only the work of the Holy Spirit that does that. Questions or thoughts about the effectual call before we move on to justification? Yes, Christine. Well, I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you asking that why is it that their faithfulness doesn't lead them to God?

Okay, why are they without excuse? In what ways can he reveal himself? Well, I mean, we have the example of Paul who was zealous, right? Super zealous for good works in Judaism. And then, you know, Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus.

You know, can we all expect a Damascus road moment? No. But people, you know, there is something, and I tend to see it a lot on Facebook, there is something that we do as human beings that we're fully capable of deluding ourselves, right?

I mean, we could think of it as the Stuart Smalley kind of theology. You know, I'm good enough, I'm likable enough, you know, people like me, you know, etc., etc. And part of what people do in religion is they convince themselves that they are good, right?

Because here's what their religion says good is, and it's like, I've done all those things. You know, I'm the rich young ruler. I've done all those things since my youth. You know, I've paid my tithing.

I've gone to church on Sunday. I've been baptized for the dead. I've, you know, collected fast offerings. I've passed sacraments. I've, you know, I went on a two-year mission. I did all these things, you know.

Why shouldn't God let me into heaven? Because by the standards of, whether it's Joseph Smith or Buddha or Muhammad or whomever, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. And so what we wind up with always is a religion of works, which is, you know, I am, you know, building my own Tower of Babel.

I am, you know, creating my stairway to heaven. You know, I'm working step by step by step and making myself worthy of entrance into heaven, or it's divine accomplishment. Jesus did it all. Jesus fulfilled the law in ways that, you know, in every way.

And I couldn't do it. You know, it really is a matter of misunderstanding the nature of man, misunderstanding the nature of sin, how pervasive it is, what it really means to miss the mark, what it means to fall short of the glory of God.

People think they're doing really well. Well, you know, like when I went to school at seminary to get an A, you had to get 96 percent and 95 was an A minus. And I always said, boy, that's pretty tough, you know.

But 96, if God commands 100 percent, and this is just a crass example, but if he says 100 percent, you do 96, and you think, well, I got an A. Isn't that good enough? No. I'm keeping most of the law. No.

If you're trying to justify yourself by the law, what does the Bible say? You have to keep all of it. If you miss even one part, one time, then you're guilty of the whole thing. So, you know, every other religion sets this kind of lower standard.

I'll get to you in a moment, Erickson. They set this lower standard for what our behavior must be to enter heaven. And then they say, well, I've met that standard. Well, you've met that standard, but you haven't met God's standard, Erickson.

Yeah, they worship the creature instead of the creator. Yeah, you know, I mentioned the idols before, but it's like who, you know, who or what is the idol. It's not necessarily made out of stone or wood that they fall down and worship.

It can be a man, right, that they say is enlightened. Or, you know, it can be a man who sits in Rome. It can be in all sorts of different things. But ultimately, what they're worshiping is not the God of the Bible.

Well, that's a good question. But I would I would say this. I would frame it slightly differently. You know, God ordains the beans, right? Jesus in Matthew 28 says, go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations.

He doesn't say that he personally or the father personally is going to make disciples of the nations. He works through means. And that means is us working through the word of God. So I agree with your larger point.

But the the detail is this. And by the way, when you're talking about a parable, as where Matthew 22. If you analyze the details, then you miss the bigger point of the parable sometimes. But in this case, here's here's all I would say is that it's just this, that God ordains the means and the ends.

So he ordains who will who will respond. But he also ordains the means, which is that people will go and preach the gospel. And that is the very power of God unto salvation. So, yeah, I mean, we, you know, often it's people who go to what a missionaries do.

You know, they translate the Bible into the local language and that kind of thing. But they also reach areas where people are steeped, drowning, one might say, in another religion. And in our area, people are really, you know, drowning in another religion.

And that religion happens to be Roman Catholicism, even if most of them don't actually practice it. The culture around here is very Roman Catholic. And this is a particularly sad day for those of us of the Reformation, because the the papists are still rejoicing their victory over the mighty Trojans last night.

Okay. Other questions about the effectual call? Okay, let's go. Yes, pretty. Okay, there was a lot there. And let me just kind of see if I can get some of it back. I think one point that you made was very salient.

Not that you didn't make several salient points. But one is that because they have the image of God in their hearts, they also have the law of God in their hearts. And even though they have this false religion, there is something ultimately that is, I'll say, unsatisfying about false religions, even to those who belong to them.

And from this perspective, that in their heart, they have this unsettled notion that they're still not right. After all that they've done, they're still not right. And so what does that then compel them to do?

Even more, right? It's this never-ending search for fulfillment, because there just isn't enough works that can be done to salve the conscience of the heart. Because we have the law of God written in our hearts.

We know that we fall short. And even by all of our works, no matter how good they are, you know, it's like Luther. What was he doing, you know, before he stumbles upon the truth of the gospel? He doesn't really stumble upon it.

God brings it to him. But he's always in confession. Well, why is that? Because no matter how much monkery he did, you know, he understood that he still was deficient. It didn't matter, you know, what everybody else said.

Oh, Martin, you're fine. He knew he wasn't fine. Because, you know, he had that image of God, and he had that sense of, I haven't done enough yet. There needs to be more broken glass for me to crawl on, or, you know, whatever.

And this is why, you know, some people are so zealous about their religion, because they know that they haven't done enough yet. So, yeah. And then with regard to other cultures where the word of God has not gone yet, or where Christianity has not been introduced yet, yeah, there is really a burden upon us as the servants of God, as the slaves of God, to go and to do that.

So, other thoughts, questions? Charlie? Well, it's good. I mean, it's been recently, you know, we just had Columbus Day. Thank you, Charlie. We just had Columbus Day. And, you know, some, I mean, how many of you have ever celebrated Columbus Day?

I never have, you know. I mean, it's just not a big deal to me. But, you know, there are places where they're renaming it Indigenous People's Day, you know, et cetera, as if they should be honored. And you're right, right?

I mean, what people don't want to talk about is, you know, the fact that human sacrifice or slavery and all these things were practiced on this continent before Columbus got here, right? So, you know, was Columbus a great man?

Well, no. But if he didn't come to the United States or, you know, North America, let's put it this way. His coming to the United States facilitated the gospel coming here. For all the evil that has transpired and everything else, souls have been saved as a result of his accidental finding of North America.

And the people who were here, I mean, if you look at the Aztec civilization or the Mayan civilization, these are not kind and nice, you know, civilizations. So, yeah. Okay. We're going to spend a few minutes here introducing the concept of justification because it's the next chapter in the London Baptist Confession of Faith.

Justification and Why It Cannot Mean “Just as If I Never Sinned”

Justification. Some people say, what, just as if I never sinned. Is that sufficient? Is that a sufficient definition? That's an excellent answer, really, because some people say, you know, if you look at it just as if I never sinned, that would get us, as Gary said, to ground zero because there is righteousness, perfect righteousness that we need to get to heaven.

And if all justification does is make it just as if we never sinned, then somewhere we need that righteousness and we wouldn't have it. We would have to manufacture that righteousness ourself. How long would it take you to manufacture the righteousness needed to get to heaven?

I'm going to venture to say it would take a few million years in purgatory because you're just not going to make it. And you have to celebrate Columbus Day. Absolutely. And by the way, just for the record, there is no purgatory, just in case anybody's wondering.

Waldron says, I mean, he says a lot of things, but I just sort of summarize it this way. This is the necessity of justification, being made right with God, being reconciled to him. This is the answer that every religion is seeking, the question that every religion is trying to answer.

How can I be right or just before God? How can I be righteous before God? And how do some religions answer this question? How do they make you right with God? How do they resolve this gap that exists between you and God?

Okay, works is one way, right, that we just steadily work our way up to heaven. What's another way that they do it? Reincarnation, right? You come back and every time you get better, of course, sometimes you get worse.

You know, if I'm reincarnated as a cockroach, I don't know how that helps, but what's that? Monasticism, okay? You know, just kind of segregation or separation from the world and dedicate myself to holiness.

But again, you know, basically a form of works. How else do they do it? Well, let's put it this way. How else do Christian churches, sacraments, okay, sacerdotalism, again, a method of works. I guess what I'm looking for is there are a multitude of ways to try to get us up to God's level, but what about the opposite?

You know, bring God down to our level. That's certainly what Mormonism does. You know, the God of Mormonism used to be just like one of us, sitting in a pew, probably sinned. I mean, it's blasphemous when you get right down to it, but this is the God they worship.

And really it stems from, if you look at most false, well, every false religion, every false religion, and I would dare say a lot of nominally Christian churches, they fail in one epic way, and that's that they degrade the holiness of God.

They degrade the holiness of God. Let's look at Revelation 4. I mean, we could go to Isaiah 6. There are a lot of places we could go, but I thought Revelation 4, as I was looking at it, I thought this is pretty tasty.

And just back up to verse 22 of chapter 3. He who has an ear, this is a vision he's having here, but he says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And then in chapter 4 he says,.

And after this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me, like a trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.

At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian. And around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

Around the throne were 24 thrones, and seated on the thrones were 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder.

And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind.

The first living creature like a lion. The second living creature like an ox. The third living creature with the face of a man. And the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within.

And day and night they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. When you read that, you just think, you know, I even sat in a service once where a man said the point of one particular passage was that Jesus wanted to be your friend.

He wanted to be in relationship with you. That so lowers the picture of the holiness of God. I mean, that may be true in a very crass way, but it's a very crass way. And, you know, the idea that God, the first person of the Trinity or the second person of the Trinity or the third person of the Trinity would be frustrated or thwarted by anything that we wanted.

You know, Jesus wants to be in relationship with us. Won't we do that for him? That's lame. So unbiblical. Leon Morris said this about the holiness of God based in Revelation 4. He said, God is holy. The word means primarily separate.

We think of it as separate from sin, but it just means separate, means other. He says,. And this separateness includes complete purity. Our God is good, and he is the Lord God Almighty. Real power is not with evil, but with God who is holy.

Nor is this a passing phase. God is, I'm sorry, God is he who was and is and is to come. God's power and eternal being ensure that his holiness will triumph over all evil. You know, when the Bible ends, as one of my prophets used to say, you know, let me just spoil Revelation for you.

Jesus wins. Like, that's right. What happens? You know, all the things that we worry about, sin and death and hell and Satan. Jesus puts an end to all these things. You know, I say that I hate death. I hate cancer.

Jesus is going to put an end to cancer. He's going to put an end to death. He's going to cast it into the pit. Every false religion marks down the holiness of God. Also mark down the justice of God. We think about God being just, that he always does what's right.

Some religions solve this problem by making God less concerned with justice and more concerned with love. We even see that in some Christian churches. You know, God is love, and basically that's his overriding power.

His overriding characteristic is love. Let's look at Nahum 1 .3. And I just wanted to put Nahum in there just so you'd have to find it. And, of course, then I cut and paste it in my notes, which makes it easy for me.

Jonah, Micah, Nahum. I mean, if you sing long enough, you'll get there. Nahum 1 .3. And would somebody read that, please? And we'll close here at Nahum 1 .3. He will by no means clear the guilty. When we think about the justice of God, we need to understand that not only is he holy, not only is he separate, is there an otherliness to God, but he's also just, that he's not going to pass over any sin.

He's not going to clear the guilty. If someone is guilty, they are going to pay the price. All that to say, we need to close. But this shows, you know, when we preach the gospel of somebody, when we share the gospel of somebody, this is part of the bad news, right?

This is the bad news. God is other than us. He's not like us. His standards are way above ours. And he's not going to, as we might hope, just sort of overlook some of our minor sins. He doesn't really care that I thought this, or that I told a white lie, or that I stole that pack of gum, or that I...

And I'm not confessing to anything, by the way. He doesn't care about these things. He's going to let me in because, you know what? He's only concerned about the big things. He's only concerned about, you know, murder and rape and, you know, really bad, bad sins.

Those are the people that he's going to punish in hell. Everyone else, he's just going to welcome them into heaven because we're basically good people. That is not what the Bible teaches. And we're going to see next week.

It's only by the death, the resurrection, and the perfect life. We need that perfect life. We need that righteousness imputed to us, and we'll be talking about that next week. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the magnificent grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ that you would condescend to us and grant us a pardon for our sins, and not just a pardon for our sins, but righteousness.

Righteousness that we could never earn, that we could never even dream of earning, no matter how much we did, no matter how many steps we took up that ladder, no matter how many good deeds we did in our own minds.

They would all be tainted with sin, and we could never fully obey the law. But Father, we thank you that your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, did obey the law perfectly in our place, and that we appropriate these things by faith.

Lord, even the faith that you have granted us. Bless each one here, and bless us as we prepare to worship you in our service here in a few minutes. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.