All Things Together For Good: Chap. 7 Pt. 1

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All Things Together For Good: Chap. 7 Pt. 2

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All righty. So this evening we begin Chapter 7.

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We are just plugging away over here. But after seven weeks in Chapter 6, all good things must come to an end.

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Well, that's not true. Not all good things, right? We're talking about all things for good. So the verse

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Romans 828 is basically what Thomas Watson has been expositing this whole time and just going in depth on it.

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And it says, sure, you could, most of you probably know it by heart, but, and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love

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God, to those who are called according to his purpose. And that's from the New American Standard.

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So we've discussed how all things work for good, the best things, the worst things, and why.

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We talked about the first qualification of the people for whom this statement is true, those who love

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God. And we talked in depth about love to God. Now we're coming into Chapter 7, and Thomas Watson talks about that second qualification of the verse of the people for whom the statement is true, those who love

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God. I'm sorry, those who are called by God. So as we realize the context of this verse, if you're familiar with Romans 828 and the verses that are following, well,

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I'll read this paragraph and then we'll discuss it. The second qualification of the people to whom this privilege in the text belongs to is they are called by God.

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All things work for good to those who are called. Though this word called is placed in order after loving of God, yet in reality it goes before it.

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Love is first named, but not first wrought. We must be called of God before we can love

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God. Calling is made the middle link of the golden chain of salvation.

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It is placed between predestination and glorification. And if we have this middle link fast, we are sure of the two other ends of the chain.

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For the clearer illustration of this, there are six things observable. So who's familiar with the golden chain of redemption or salvation?

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Most of us. So what's the golden chain of redemption? Any volunteers for that?

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We've got three out of four of them. Anyone, anyone?

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Yes, Pastor Anthony, I'll read it for you. This is where God knows us, predestines us, and calls us.

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He says, for those whom he knew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And those whom he predestined, he also called.

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Those he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What shall we say?

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If God be for us, we will be in his sight. Right. So we're talking about,

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I mean, this verse, 828. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love

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God, to those who are called according to his purpose. So, you know,

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Thomas Watson puts it as two qualifications, the first qualification and the second qualification. But these qualifications are, they're linked.

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And you can't separate them, not for this. There isn't a group that loves God and yet isn't called.

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And there isn't a group that is called but doesn't love God. Maybe doesn't love God as much as we should, but those things are tied together.

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Love is linked to calling, and calling is, as Watson points out in the middle, points out, calling is in the middle of the golden chain of redemption.

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So he gives us, any questions about that before we head into these observations? This is probably pretty familiar territory for most of you.

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No questions, no comments? Okay. The coffee's in the back. It's been a long day.

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Okay, so the first observation about this.

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A distinction about calling. There is a two -fold call. One, there's an outward call, which is nothing else but God's blessed offer of grace in the gospel.

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His parlaying with sinners when he invites them to come in and accept of mercy. Of this our savior speaks, many are called but few chosen.

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This external call is insufficient to salvation, yet sufficient to leave men without excuse.

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Any question or argument with that? Man is without excuse just by general revelation, right?

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That's what Romans 1 tells us. All creation testifies to the creator whom they refuse to acknowledge or give thanks to.

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But certainly to hear the gospel is the more light you have, the greater the judgment if you reject that truth.

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The more truth you have, the more you're responsible for. So all are without excuse because creation testifies to the creator who we reject.

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But to hear the gospel presentation, to hear of the savior of the world, of the king of kings, and to reject him is to incur more.

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So someone that grows up without knowledge of Yahweh, what would they, who would they have to,

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I guess like, so there's no excuse for them because of creation.

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So who would they have to kind of like, how would they know that there isn't? I mean, how would they know to worship

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Yahweh? Like, I don't know how I feel. That's, I know what you're saying, right?

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If they don't know, how would they know who they're supposed to worship so they would be found guilty?

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And this is actually Romans is the perfect place for this. If you read the first three chapters, that will tell you about man's condition and man's problem.

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Romans 1 talks about from verses 18 and following how the wrath of God is being manifested against all mankind.

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Because they refuse to acknowledge a creator, they choose to worship the creation rather than the creator.

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General revelation gives us enough to condemn us. It's not special revelation, it's not telling us about Christ per se, that we would know, he's the one

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I'm supposed to acknowledge and I'm rejecting him. But they know there's a creator, they know they are sinful.

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When you read through those first three chapters, Romans 1 talks about the general situation for mankind because they're all without excuse because of the creation that testifies to the creator.

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Namely, his invisible attributes, his eternal power. Romans 2 talks about the

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Jew who has the law and disobeys it. Judges others with the law and yet does the very same things they know they're not supposed to do.

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And following that, he talks about the Gentiles where he says the Gentiles, though they don't have the law, when they act in such a way as it's in accordance with the law, their conscience accuses them at times.

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If you've ever talked to anyone who's never heard of the Ten Commandments, never heard of the law of God, maybe he's never heard the gospel, never heard about Jesus Christ, never heard about the

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Bible, but ask him if they've ever felt guilty for anything. And which one of us hasn't felt guilty knowing that there's a right way and wrong way of doing things?

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Our conscience is that vestige, that reminder that we are made in the image of God and that we understand that there is an objective truth, there's an objective standard outside of us, of right and wrong, of good and evil.

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And we're guilty of it. So, general revelation is enough to condemn us, it is not enough, it doesn't give us enough information to be saved.

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Not everyone is gonna hear the gospel presented to them. I mean, there are people who lived, obviously, long before Christ came on the scene, they were not of the

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Jewish people who had the law and the oracles and the prophets, and yet they're still guilty because they still sin.

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And even with what they know is right and wrong, they still fail to uphold that standard perfectly, and so they're guilty.

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It's only special revelation, hearing the gospel, hearing the law, those type of things that give us more information about who the

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God is that we're supposed to be serving. Does that make sense? Pastor Anthony's gonna add to that.

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Yeah, cuz you brought up the word conscience, and that's real important. Conscience is compound word, coming with science and knowledge.

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Everybody's born with knowledge of right and wrong. We talked about it a while ago, about guilt, being guilty.

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Have you ever felt guilty? Yes, why? Because you violated God's standard.

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And then the question you ask, well, how are they gonna know? How are they gonna know

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Jesus? And then Paul answers this in Romans chapter 10. He says, how then will they call on him whom they have not believed?

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How will they believe in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? That's why we send missionaries to places to proclaim the gospel, to proclaim the good news.

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So that they can hear, they can turn and repent and trust in Jesus.

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But if you haven't heard it, then you're kind of just unlucky and can't be saved. Well, I wouldn't say unlucky.

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I hear what you're saying, but - You're guilty in God's sight. If you cried out,

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God, I know I'm guilty. How do I reconcile with you? God will get the message to you.

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He'll get a missionary to come out, but nobody cries out. God save me, until God opens their eyes.

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That's where you go and you read Romans 3. It says, there's none who seek after God. There's no one good, no not one.

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There's none that seek after him. I think we also have to remember that I think of that verse often in Job, will not the judge of the earth do what is right?

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And like when we know God's sovereignty and goodness, you can assume that someone who dies in their sins without having heard the gospel, if they had heard it, would have rejected it.

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Like God, everyone who God has in his people will be saved. And there's comfort in that. Yeah, that's when you start understanding

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God's sovereignty and you understand the condition of man. And we're about to talk about that in a moment.

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We're going to talk about the outward call, the inward call, and then we're going to talk about the condition of man apart from that call.

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And it's basically, we're all guilty. Aside from God choosing us and effectually calling us, we would all reject him anyway.

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Think how many people were confronted with God. I mean, think of Cain, right?

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He's speaking to him because his sacrifice wasn't given with the right heart attitude and God didn't accept it.

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And Cain was angry, his countenance fell. He goes, why has your countenance fallen? You know, if you do well, you'll be accepted.

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He goes, but he tells him, he warns him, sin is crouching at the door, its desire is for you. So he's confronted by God about his attitude, about his sacrifice, and he rejects him.

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He goes out in anger and he kills his brother. And when God confronts him again, he says, where's your brother?

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He's sarcastic with God. Am I my brother's keeper? You know what that meant?

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That's not just like, oh, it wasn't my turn to watch him kind of thing, which is just as bad. But Abel was a keeper of the flock, right?

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He was a shepherd of the flock. Am I his keeper? Like he's smart -mouthing back to God after he killed his brother.

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That's the hardness of heart that all men left to themselves would have. You think of the Pharisees, where they want to put

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Jesus at death. They know. And even when they hear that he's of the resurrection and they hear about the angels, they just said, we'll give you some money.

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It's not like, oh, wow, we've been wrong this whole time. We need to go find Jesus and repent. They're like, here's some money.

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Here's a story. Just go and we'll keep you out of trouble. That's the hardness of men's heart, even when they are confronted with God face to face.

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And that's the heart of all of us, except that God would have mercy on us.

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So we're going to talk about the effectual calling. And he goes, there's a distinction about calling. It's a twofold.

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So we have the outward call. Now, what's the outward call? What's another way of saying that?

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The gospel, right? It's the preaching of the gospel, going out there and sharing the gospel with a friend, giving out a tract, open air preaching, however you go about it.

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It's proclaiming the goodness of the Savior and telling him, telling him or her about the mercy of God.

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So that's the outward call. He says it's insufficient to salvation, yet it's sufficient to leave men without excuse.

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The second part is the inward call. When God wonderfully overpowers the heart and draws the will to embrace

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Christ, this is an effectual call. God, by the outward call, blows a trumpet in the ear.

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By the inward call, he opens the heart as he did the heart of Lydia in Acts 16.

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The outward call may bring men to a profession of Christ. This is interesting.

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The outward call may bring men to a profession of Christ. The inward call brings them to a possession of Christ.

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The outward call curbs a sinner. The inward call changes him. What do you think about that?

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Does that make sense? Makes a profession. Someone who can hear the gospel could make a profession.

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Could that profession be a true profession, a false profession? Jerry and then

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Alex. Right. Right, the parable of the sower.

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Yeah, you have those that spring up immediately, and then under various circumstances, they fall apart, right?

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And then you have those that give good fruit. Jerry. Shameful, Jerry.

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Alex was clearly going to say that. You saw it on his lips. Right, so you have the parable of the sower.

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What about that last sentence there? The outward call curbs a sinner. What do you think about that?

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Curbs, oh, Sarah, sorry. Like I think of like when, like in the 1800s, like the

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Christian Society of America, there was probably like a lot less what we see today because of that Christian society, but not all those people were actually not doing sin because they didn't want to.

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They were just like, oh, it's not gonna be like acceptable or so like it curved them, but it didn't actually change them. Right.

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For a bunch of Christians, we have a bunch of cheaters or liars.

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The next book is on sanctification.

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That's what we're going to do. But that's exactly right. When the gospel is saturating a culture, even sinners who have no love for God, recognize to be as bad as they want to be would be socially unacceptable.

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And their sinful pride actually keeps them from sitting in other ways. Wasn't there an atheist, and I can't think of his name,

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I can picture him, who made a comment similar to the effect of, I wouldn't want to live in a world without Christianity.

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Yeah. That's right. That's who it was. That was Dawkins? And that's perfect example.

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No, no, no, Christopher Hitchens. Christopher Hitchens. Really? Yeah, Christopher Hitchens. Well, whoever it was. Richard Dawkins mocked him for saying that.

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Christopher Hitchens says, if there was one Christian left on the planet, I would not talk him out of his faith.

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Interesting. But there are atheists who have recognized, I forget his name, but I've seen him being quoted on social media.

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An atheist who acknowledges Christians have had a good impact on society.

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They have made it better. So while they don't believe in their God, they like their work.

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And we see that. You think of Ananias and Sapphira dying for lying to the

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Holy Spirit. Now, the rest of the community saw all the Christians and saw what they were doing, and they held them in high regard.

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But they stopped trying to join them. They stopped trying to be part of that community when they saw the holiness and the high standard.

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So they were a little bit, OK, we're not just going to join in with these guys. But they still held them in high regard.

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But they realized it was a serious thing to be a believer. Wow. So for those who can't hear it on the tape, a cop, his wife became a believer, even though he was not.

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And a year later, he was still not interested in the gospel, but enjoyed the benefits of having a good, godly

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Christian wife, which is, there's a woman who's doing it right, where, well, I mean, obviously, only

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God can change the heart. So she's not responsible for salvation. But the fact that he would see her difference in her behavior, as what

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Peter is commending to the wives of unbelievers, if a woman gets saved and her husband is still not trying to win him over by her attitude, her behavior, that she might not without even a word.

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Of course, there are giving words, but you know what I mean. What's that? Years later, he became a

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Christian. So it was a good ending. Praise God. So, yeah, she was really doing all right. So praise

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God for the godly wife. And so, yes, the outward call curbs a sinner.

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And one more little story. With the Ministry of Mercy, we were going to a particular area that was a tougher area.

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And while we were out there, we're still questioning, like, are the methods good enough and everything?

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But talking, one of our guys was talking to one of the men who kind of had his finger on the pulse of the community.

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And now we had been out there a couple of times. We're handing out clothes and maybe some toys for the kids and some sandwiches and food and whatnot.

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And asking how things are going, he goes, things have been quiet. Like, for a tough area, it seems like the toughness, some of the harsher elements seem more subdued.

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And I can't help but wonder, was the presence of the church having an impact? We know that's certainly possible.

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And so we should be looking to be ministering to the community in that way.

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So something to think of. So you can have the profession of Christ, but the inward call makes a possession of Christ.

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And the inward call changes. Number two.

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So this is number two of the six observations he's making about this effectual calling. Our deplorable condition before we are called.

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Number one, we are in a state of bondage. Before God calls a man, he is the devil's slave.

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If he says, go, the man goes. The deluded sinner is like the slave who digs in the mine, hews in the quarry, or tugs at the oar.

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He is at the command of Satan as the donkey is at the command of the driver. Any questions about that?

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But my free will. All right. Don't be sorry.

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I just, I don't understand why God gives the devil power over men in the beginning.

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Why does God give the devil power over men? Well, man chose. I mean, in the garden.

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Predestined. But if you read through our confession, it talks about the decree of God, that God has decreed all things whatsoever come to pass.

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But he goes, but there's first causes and second causes.

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And he doesn't violate the free will of creatures. When man rebels against God, he, and you see this terminology in,

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I think, judges and kings, where it says, you know, they sold themselves to do evil.

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If, again, Romans, you might want to read the Romans. It's a, it's a hell of a book. Hefty theological, theological treatise there.

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But it covers all of this Romans six. He says, let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

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Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. Later, he says, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either a sin, which leads to death or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

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He says, thanks be to God. You were once slaves have been become obedient. Later, he says, for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness.

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So now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. And in Ephesians two, he says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work and the sons of disobedience.

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All living, you know, in the passions of our flesh. So man has enslaved himself to sin by rejecting

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God and all of Adam's posterity is plunged into sin, to death, to destruction.

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You know, this is about federal headship. You know, again, Romans talking about through the one, you know, all sinned and death came into the world.

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And yet through one, many are made righteous and made alive. You know, we have countries at war, you know, are the individual

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Ukrainians, the citizens there, or the citizens of Russia saying we want to go to war. Of course not.

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But the powers that be have determined it. And so they're at war. This is federal headship.

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It's everywhere. It's inescapable. It's just God's economy, the way the world works. There's really not much else you can do, you know.

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I would say a faith that can't be tested is a faith that can't be trusted, right. So God meets with Adam, creates

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Adam. God puts Adam to sleep, creates Eve, leaves Adam out of his thoughts.

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So God, Adam sees the fact that God is creative. God says, look,

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I'm going to give you everything. Everything in this garden you can have, except don't touch the fruit of that one tree.

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That's it. You can have everything else. Oh, won't come

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Satan to be accusing me, right. Stop speaking to Eve. Well, God said we must not eat it.

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You must not even touch it. Only mirror it. And what does Satan say? Did God do this to you?

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Did he do this to you? So he questioned God's authority, God's word.

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Man freely chose to follow what Satan said and not what God said. He voluntarily became a slave to Satan because he believed what

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Satan said rather than what God said. He had everything. And it's a picture of exactly what we would do in the same situation.

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God could offer us everything except for one thing. That's the one thing we're going to go after.

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So God permits that to happen to show us just how easily led we are into deception and then actually redeems us from and opens our eyes such that in John chapter 10,

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Jesus says, I know my sheep, my sheep know me, my sheep hear my voice. I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

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The word hear doesn't mean just audible. It means obey. They hear and obey my voice.

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So if your eyes have been open, your ears have been open, and you hear the voice of Christ, that is an incredible, incredible blessing that not everybody gets because it's mercy.

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Right. So man rebelled.

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Man continues to rebel. You know, when he talks about presenting your members as slaves to impurity, to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, we pursue it freely.

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You know, no one's putting a gun to our head when we're making decisions in our own mind. I want to sin.

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And we develop sinful habits that grow more sinful over time or gets us into even more sinful and destructive things.

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So it's not always a case of demon possession or Satan forcing us to do anything.

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You know, we struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil. It's not always the devil, you know, but the more that we enslave ourselves to sin, the more we are willing to serve him and be used by him.

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So I hope that answers the question. OK, so that's our deplorable condition.

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There's a few things here. So there's a state of bondage and then there's a state of darkness. You were once darkness,

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Ephesians 5, 8. Darkness is very disconsolate. A man in the dark is full of fear.

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He trembles every step he takes. Darkness is dangerous. He who is in the dark may quickly go out of the right way and fall into rivers or whirlpools.

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Just so in the darkness of ignorance, we may quickly fall into the whirlpool of hell.

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Questions about that? I mean, we all recognize the danger of being in the dark, right?

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If we're driving and it's not a well lit road and our headlights are out, we're going to go very careful because anything could jump out at us.

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Or if you're just walking in a room in the dark and you don't know where the Legos are or worse, right?

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It's dangerous. We're concerned, rightfully so, about tripping, about falling.

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We need the light to see the way and avoid danger. But how much do we recognize that's a spiritual reality for those who are not called is they are in darkness.

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They can't see. You know, David talks about thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path.

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It shows us the way to go. The person who rejects God's law does not know.

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I mean, there's a degree of common grace when we talk about, you know, the outward call curbing the sinner's behavior at times.

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And common grace can see if the law is out there and being followed sufficiently that unbelievers can avoid certain things if they follow biblical principles, even if they're rejecting

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God. But because they're in darkness, they don't recognize that they are heading to hell.

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You know, and you think of the sinners in the hands of an angry God being totally unaware that, you know, the path that they're walking, it's a rotting bridge and hell is waiting underneath to devour them.

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They walk in darkness and they're totally unaware. They could be fearful. And I mean,

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I remember a friend, acquaintance from years ago talking about fearing death because he doesn't know what comes after.

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But whenever any talk about the Bible or the gospel came up, he rejected it, rejected the one source of light that could dispel that fear of the unknown.

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But this is the condition before we are called bondage, darkness, impotency.

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When we are without strength, when we were without strength. Also, while we were weak, while we were still weak, we had no strength to resist the temptation or grapple with a corruption.

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Sin cut the lock where our strength lay. Let's reference to Samson, lock of his hair. Nay, there is not only impotency, but obstinacy.

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You do always resist the Holy Spirit. Besides in disposition to holiness, there is opposition to holiness.

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All right. We are, we're too weak to resist temptation, but too obstinate to yield to the

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Holy Spirit. This is our condition before calling. Does that make sense?

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I don't have any questions about that. You know, we talk about in counseling, we talk about addiction, we talk about, you know, trading one idol for another, you know, talking about,

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I was talking with a pastor a while ago about a case he had because he was a narcotics detective for a while.

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And there was a guy who was into heroin and got himself clean, but then ended up a drunk.

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He just, because he never turned to Christ. He just switched from one thing to another. We are weak.

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We're unable to resist temptation. We're going from one thing to another. Questions or comments about that?

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No? Continuing. Number four, we are in a state of pollution.

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I saw you polluted in your blood. The mind coins only earthly thoughts.

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The heart is the devil's forge where the sparks of lust fly. Looking at that word polluted, obviously that's from Ezekiel and he's referencing

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Israel and referring to Israel, Jerusalem as a baby cast off in the field.

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The ESV says wallowing. I think the NASB says squirming in their blood, right?

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Just right there. Just like born and thrown in the field, left to itself, left to die, in need of being cleansed and needing of being taken care of.

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But just that's where they're at. The Hebrew word, just because I was trying to figure out, like, you know, he's using the

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K -E -J -V. So sometimes the ways we would read that verse might be different. But the

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Hebrew word behind it can mean trampled, tread down or wallowing. But the sentence is dirty.

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The sentence is destined for death. He says twice in there, but I said to you, live. He said it twice.

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I said to you, live. So this is the condition. They are polluted. They are dying. And God is the one who can bring life.

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God is the one who can make them live. Jake? Yeah, it just reminds me, you know, it magnifies the doctrine of justification all the more because, you know, outside of being justified by virtue of the righteousness of Christ, that's what all of our works were before the righteousness of Christ.

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That's what Isaiah says, yeah? All our righteousness is as filthy rags.

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So one more. We are in a state of damnation. We are born under a curse.

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The wrath of God abides on us. This is our condition before God is pleased by a merciful call to bring us near to himself and free us from that misery in which we were before engulfed.

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Talking about the reality of mankind outside of the effectual calling. As we go through it, trying to think if I'm going to talk about the stuff kind of runs together, it all ties together the way he,

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I mean, it's the golden chain of redemption and salvation. So he's talking about those who are called, those who love

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God, but they love God because they're called. And they only love God because God has predestined them to love

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God. He's predestined them, he's called them, he's justified them, and he will glorify them.

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But before that happens, and if it doesn't happen, but we're in a state of damnation, we're under that curse.

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Our federal head has plunged us into sin and we are at war with God. This is the reality for all those outside of Christ.

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Sinners in the hands of an angry God, I mentioned almost completely unaware of the danger that they're in. God's wrath abiding on them.

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Only at times when they ponder death or deal with guilt, do they have a hard time suppressing that truth and start to wonder at it.

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But in our rebellion against God, even though we're scared, you have people who are terrified of death, they're terrified.

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I mean, look at the way the world has been turned upside down over COVID. People are afraid to death of death and they will do anything to try to make sure they live another day, right?

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Says scripture, say the wicked flee when no one pursues. That's why I don't jog. I don't want anyone thinking

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I'm wicked. That's another story. I got to start jogging again.

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But there we are. The state of damnation. Any questions about any of those, about the condition of man?

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We understand the need for the calling, the effectual call. So we'll talk about one more thing before we...

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We'll talk about the means. This is six observations we've done, two of them. The third is the means of our effectual call.

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The ordinary means, which the Lord uses in calling us is not by raptures and revelations, but is number one by his word, which is the rod of his strength.

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The voice of the word of God is... I'm sorry. The voice of the word is God's call to us.

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Therefore, he said to speak to us from... He is said to speak to us from heaven. That is in the ministry of the word.

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When the word calls from sin, it is as if we... When the word calls from sin, it is as if we had heard a voice from heaven.

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Again, looking at that and looking at the King James Version, I'm like, what? But in the

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King James, it says, the Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule down the midst of thine enemies.

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And so it says similar, but a little bit differently in the New American Standard and the ESV. But if you look at Isaiah 2, 3 and Isaiah 11, 4, it'll give you some context for what it means.

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His word, the rod of his strength. In Isaiah 2, 3, it says, and many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the

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Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths.

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For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And then

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Isaiah 11, 4, but with righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.

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And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth. And with the breath of his lips, he shall kill the wicked.

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And of course, Hebrews 12, 25, which he references, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking.

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For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

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And so the word is the rod of his strength. If you're familiar with Revelation and Jesus coming and the two edged sword coming out of his mouth, his word is powerful.

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And so we have the word of God, which is the means that goes out.

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And that brings about the outward call. But then the other means of the effectual call by his word and by his spirit.

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This is the loud call. The word is the instrumental cause of our conversion. The spirit is the efficient cause of our conversion.

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The ministers of God are only the pipes and organs It is a spirit blowing in them, which effectually changes the heart.

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While Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. It is not the farmer's industry and plowing and sowing, which will make the ground fruitful without the early and latter rain.

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Just so it is not the seed of the word that will effectually convert unless the spirit puts forth his sweet influence and drops his rain upon the heart.

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Therefore, the aid of God's spirit is to be implored that he would put forth his powerful voice and awaken us out of the grave of unbelief.

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If a man knocks at a gate of brass, it will not open. But if he comes with a key in his hand, it will open.

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Just so when God, who has the key of David in his hand, comes, he opens the heart, though it be ever so fast locked against him.

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And so we have his word, which brings the outward call, but it's not effectual without the spirit behind it.

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And within. And so he references Revelations. Revelations.

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That's a rookie. Revelation. There's one. Revelation 3.

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The one who has the key of David. The key of David.

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He has the authority. The king. You ever hear of an award being given and the mayor gives the recipient the key to the city, right?

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He's got a power. He's got authority. He's showing, you know, he can come and go as he pleases.

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He can lock things up. He can open things. It talks about his authority. And so obviously,

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David was the greatest king in Israel's history prior to Christ. And so it speaks of his authority.

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So he talks about an act while Peter spoke, the Holy Spirit fell on those who heard the word.

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I think of First Thessalonians chapter one, when he says, 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

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Holy Spirit and with full conviction, right? So how does he know that they were chosen?

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Because when the word came, it wasn't just the word. There was power, power of the Holy Spirit. There was conviction of sin.

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God did a work through his spirit to the people. So this is the means of the effectual call.

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We can preach till we're blue in the face. But if the spirit does not open the heart, does not change the heart, take away that stony heart, gives a heart of flesh, it doesn't matter how eloquent you are.

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The best you might get is, scary enough, is a false profession, but not someone who's taking possession of Christ by the truth.

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Now, this is familiar ground, like I said, for most of us. But it's good for us to be reminded, what's the encouraging thing about this for someone who's offering the gospel to people?

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It's not up to them. It's not up to the person who's preaching. When you see how

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God uses people, I mean, think about Paul. I mean, Paul wrote a large majority of the

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New Testament. But when he's describing himself or how he's being described, he's like, well, he's not much of a speaker.

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Here's Paul, this great, brilliant theologian. Like, he's not much of a talker.

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Moses stuttered. Yep. Yes. Yeah.

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Yeah. You never heard Moses talk? It's in the audio version of the

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Bible. It's a really good reader. But he's acting like he's not a good reader.

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Nevermind. When Moses sees the burning bush and he goes and God says, take off your sandals.

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You're on holy ground. God proceeds to tell him that he's sending him back to bring deliverance for his people.

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And Moses, who 40 years before is killing an Egyptian saying, oh, look, I'm going to help save the day.

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And then they reject him. He's like, he gave up on that dream. He's like, I can't go back.

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He goes, no, you're going to go and speak to Pharaoh for me, you know, to the king of Egypt. He goes, I'm slow of speech.

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I'm not a good, I'm not good with the words. So he says that in there. I'm paraphrasing. That was probably for the message.

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No, I, yeah, he says stutters. Yeah. Yeah. What's interesting is because God tells him, first of all,

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I formed the mouth. I'm the one who's sending you to go. But he also tells him,

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Aaron will speak on your behalf. So he goes, you'll be like God. And Aaron will be like the prophet, right?

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And he will speak. And then I don't know if it's for the sake of, you know, concise in the story.

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We see Moses talking to, but was Moses talking to him through Aaron? Or did

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Moses finally grow up, you know, and speak to him? But Moses makes that excuse.

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He stutters. He's not a good talker. He can't go and represent the people and tell Pharaoh to make them, set him free.

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Moses, if I was standing before a burning bush and it was hot, I would stutter.

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Yeah, a number of us would develop a stuttering problem on the spot. And there were others too.

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Was it Jeremiah? I think he was talking about his age, that he was young. And he says,

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I knew you in the womb. I planned this plan for you. So Balaam's donkey.

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If anyone, if a donkey can share the truth with someone, the rest of us are kind of without excuse, right?

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Because God is the one who enables us to speak. But I remember listening to someone who was talking about, he was part of this crusade sort of thing.

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And he was going around and there were teams going out there and evangelizing. And he goes up to this group of young people, and he's just stammering and stuttering, trying to give a gospel presentation.

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He goes, they're not just, this is awful. Like he's just, in his mind, he's just cringing at his own presentation, just feeling totally inadequate.

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And yet he sees one of the girls is just like nodding, like God was speaking to her heart.

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She was tracking with him, you know. So he, you guys watch me up here, right?

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And see how I stutter through things. Go ahead. But it's not about us, you know, that it's by his power.

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And praise God for that. Because, yeah, I do not know how to speak that well.

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So, but yeah, it just goes to show that it's not about us at all. And he's just humble, and that's not by our power.

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And it's an encouragement to people that do not speak well. If we still do

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God's work, we still do his work.

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Yeah. Hey Jonah, five words. That's right. 40 more days and then it was going to be over time.

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The whole city repents, everybody. Down to the right. Cows are going to fast. Cows are fasting.

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Yeah, they were saying eat chicken. Eat more chicken, the cow said.

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All right. On that note, I hope you're happy. We're going to stop now.

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So that's the means of the effectual call, is by his word, which is necessary.

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Whether St. Francis of Assisi actually said that or not. You know, preach the gospel at all times.

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When necessary, use words. You have to use words. The gospel is good news. You can't act it out.

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They don't get sketches, you know. We have to give the word. And we might stumble through it.

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We might feel inadequate. I've heard it said, you know, sharing the gospel is just one beggar tongue, another beggar where they found bread.

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The spirit has to do the work. So no matter how inadequate you feel, or no matter how eloquent you might think you are, you might have all the answers.

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You know, you might have the apologetics course memorized backwards and forwards, and you have an answer for everything. Everything.

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If the spirit does not change the heart, it's for naught. But we're called to be faithful.

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God will handle the success. So we'll close there. And next time we'll talk, we'll start talking about the method

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God uses in calling sinners. Any questions or comments before we close? My question slide is a couple more down.

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So you'll just have to imagine it's up there. No? Good? All right, let's pray.