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Pastor David Mitchell
Well, we're going to sort of pick it up where we left off last time. The title is Known from Eternity into Time and Out the Other Side to Eternity. And we find this in the middle of chapter 8 of Romans, verses 28 through 30, and this is where we are.
The interesting thing is we've already covered from 30 all the way to the end of the chapter, so once we finish 28 and 30, we'll be done with chapter 8, the most majestic chapter of the whole Bible, perhaps.
Of course, I think that about whichever chapter I'm in, don't you? So right now, I think Romans chapter 8, 28 through 30 is the most amazing part of the whole Bible. So I want to welcome all of our home folks there at Park Meadows, and starting a week from today, we will be meeting in person again, we think, the Lord willing, and we'll also be broadcasting from there live, though, for you guys that are out there around the country.
We don't want you to miss a thing. We might be a little rusty, because doing it from there is different than doing it from here. My home office is set up for this, but church, a little different, but we should do just fine.
So we'll see all of you next Sunday. Also, I want to make this announcement. We've had several families ask if they can join our church from afar, and we have put that before the elder board and the deacons, and of course, we've said, let's pray about that.
Yes! Okay, so anyway, we did have to put some thought into how to accomplish that, though, so we've created a form that Ben Mitchell will make available by Tuesday of this week, and we'll find a way to get that out to you guys, and then of course, starting next Sunday, we'll post it in the chat box also, but there'll be a way for you to get out to the form, fill it out, send it back to us, and then you can be added to the membership role of Park Meadows Church, and we're even going to be talking about other ways to have fellowship from a distance, other than just 11 o 'clock, 10 and 11 o 'clock on Sunday, some other things we can do together.
So that'll be great. So any of you guys that are out there around the country, and you want to be a formal part of Park Meadows, we have a way to do that, and you're always welcome to visit, too. You don't have to join to be here, right?
So you can do it either way, the Lord leads you to do it. All right. Well, let's pray, and we'll get started. Lord, thank you so much for another day to come before you with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we ask that you would bind Satan and his demons and rebuke them, send them away from all of our homes, at this time from our church, because the church is us, and give us freedom.
May your Holy Spirit have complete and soul freedom to do the teaching today, and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. All right. That's an actual picture, by the way. It's pretty cool, isn't it? We got some pretty nice telescopes out there nowadays, don't we?
All right. So let's review just a little bit. We're in Romans chapter 8, verse 29, and for whom he did for know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We talked about this last time, and in this particular verse, we first spoke of the scope of predestination and election, and the scope of it is twofold. First, we're predestined unto salvation, and we find that in the second half of verse 29, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
That's a reference to being born into God's family. Obviously, that is about salvation. And then the first part of the verse talks about predestined unto good works. So both are true. God predestinates who will be saved, but he also predestinates how they'll be saved, but he also predestinates that they will do good works and be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.
So we discussed all that last time. And then we went on into verse 30 a little bit. Not really. We're going to get to that more. Of course, we've already covered the word predestination, but mainly we were discussing foreknowledge last time.
And today, we'll complete that and also get into the next phase, which is the calling. Now notice, by way of review, when you start out in verse 29, whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate.
That happens before time began. So that's prior to Genesis 1 .1. There is no time there, therefore there's no sequence. It's not like the foreknowledge caused him to be able to predestinate or vice versa.
It's not true either direction. Both are just now, because God is now all the time. He's in the present tense. So they just are. So foreknowledge is, predestination is, it was with God, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, before he created anything physical or time itself.
So that is before time, before Genesis 1 .1. Then when we move into verse 30, whom he predestinated, those he also called. Now we're in time, because that happens in time and space on the planet Earth.
And in our lifetime, we are called. If we were foreknown by God and predestinated to be saved, then we would be called by the Holy Spirit. And this is known as the effectual calling. And we'll get to that in a moment, if we have time today, I hope to.
And then the same group, notice it's the same group of people going out throughout these two verses. The same group that he foreknew, he predestinated. The same group that he predestinated, he called in time on their spiritual birthdays, when that happens.
And the same group of people that he called, he justified. So that means they were made right with God. They were made just as if they'd never sinned. They were given the righteousness of Christ in God, the Father's viewpoint.
And they were made positionally righteous. That's what justified means. And the same group that are justified are the ones that end up in heaven. Now what's interesting, glorified there in that particular verse in the Greek is also in the same tense as called and justified.
So the Father already sees us as if we are glorified, isn't that something? We know we still have sins, and we confess those and keep getting back up and moving forward. But from the Father's viewpoint, we're already glorified, isn't that cool to know?
But all that's there. So the main thing we're talking about today is we're still in the part before time began on the foreknowledge, and then we're going to move into time today, hopefully, and talk about the calling a little bit.
And there are two types of calling, and we'll get to that in a little bit. So now we talk about the breadth of God's love. Well, the breadth of His love, as I said last time, is the distance between His two hands on the cross, right?
That's the real breadth of His love. But actually, His love started from before time began and moved into time and then out the other side into eternity, what we call eternity future. That's how broad His love is.
So it's all-encompassing. All right, now Romans 28, 29 says, for whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate moreover whom He did predestinate them He also called. That's specifically what we're going to talk about today.
So last time we started out talking about foreknowledge, we'll sort of pick up there and finish the thoughts on foreknowledge, and then we'll move into the idea of being called. After that, we'll move into justified, and after that, glorified, and then we'll be done with Romans chapter 8.
We'll move into Romans chapter 9, which is going to start talking about predestination even in a stronger sense. In fact, Romans chapter 9 is left out of nearly all Southern Baptist quarterlies, and most churches never discuss it because it's so strong they're afraid it will create disunity.
It will never create disunity among the sheep, I don't think, at least not among saved sheep. So there are some people who are lost sheep who will be saved in the future, but they're just not saved yet.
But if you just look at saved people, it won't cause disunity. It might cause some people to go and study more, but it won't cause disunity. So preachers are silly when they ignore this topic, but anyway, we'll get to 29.
We got to finish 28 first, don't we? All right. So let's go back and talk about foreknowledge a little bit, and I'm going to quote Arthur Pink a little bit, not the whole thing that we did last time, just to review a little bit.
Arthur Pink said this, saying that God foresaw certain sinners would believe Christ and that because he foresaw that, talking about foreknowledge, that because of the foreknowledge, he then predestinated them to salvation is the very reverse of the truth, he said.
It's the reverse of how it happens, he says. Scripture affirms that God in his high sovereignty singled out certain ones to be recipients of his distinguishing favors, and he quotes, let's see, I can hear someone needs to be muted, Dave.
Oh, that's Coach Davis. Yeah, I can take care of that for you. All right. Thank you. Yes, sir. Oh, you don't have to do that, I think. All right. You should be good to go. Got it. All right. It doesn't take a whole lot to sort of keep my mind going out the wrong way.
I threw you off just a bit. Kind of like a dog that sees a squirrel. And then the car hits me, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. So let's get back in here. Sorry about that, folks. All right. So he says the very reverse is true.
Scripture affirms that God in his high sovereignty singled out certain ones to be recipients of his distinguishing favors, and he quotes Acts 13, 48, which is right down there at the bottom of your screen.
Therefore, he determined to bestow upon them the gift of faith. The Bible teaches that, and you'll see it at the last part of verse 48 down there in Acts chapter 13, as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
The ones who believed were the ones who had been foreordained to eternal life. And he quoted that verse as he makes this statement. He goes on and says, false theology makes God's foreknowledge of our believing the cause of election.
False theology makes the foreknowledge the cause of it. So true. I grew up being taught that. Whereas God's election is the real cause, and our believing in Christ is the effect. Arthur Pink says this.
And you have to wonder, okay, is that true? Well, we're going to be looking at scripture today because we didn't get to the scripture part last Sunday, so that's what we're going to do today. But this is an amazingly strong quote.
Now, C .I. Packer wrote a book that all of us read back in the 80s called Knowing God. In fact, entire churches would study his book in Sunday school classes for weeks, Knowing God, J .I. Packer. And he wrote recently in something that I read, something very similar to what Pink is saying here, and he said, today in the modern church, the gospel is not even the real gospel.
I'm going to touch on that a little bit later today too, Lord willing. But Pink says something that really would blow people's minds. He said God's election is the cause of salvation, and that believing in Christ is the effect of it.
Now, none of us were taught that. We were taught, well, what do you do to get saved? You believe. So it's what you do that saves you is what we were led to believe. And yet Pink says, no, it's what God did that saved us.
First of all, he knew us. Then he chose us all at the same time before time began. It's hard to even talk that way, isn't it? There's no time, but it's all now. It should be aorist, right? Just now. Okay.
So that happened before time began. Then in time, he called us, and when he called us, we're going to talk about that specifically today too. The Holy Spirit woke us up, and that's called regeneration, and that was all of God.
All we did was receive that as a benefit. And once we were awakened, then we can believe and repent and all these things that some churches say saved us. Those are actually the effects of the salvation.
The actual cause is the Holy Spirit awakening us and regenerating us, and this is what Pink is talking about. He's very, very accurate here, I think, but we'll look at Scripture and make sure we can prove that.
What is meant by foreknowledge? To know beforehand is the ready reply of many, and I believe this is a quote from Spurgeon. He says, if you ask the general population, even in churches, what does foreknowledge mean, they'll just say, well, it means to know beforehand.
God knew stuff before it happened. And then Spurgeon says, but we must not jump at conclusions. You know what? I think this is actually Pink again. It is. This is Arthur Pink. He says, but we must not jump at conclusions, nor must we turn to Webster's Dictionary as the final court of appeal, for it is not a matter of etymology of the term employed.
What is needed is to find out how the word is used in Scripture. Now that was Pink's rule for defining biblical terms is see what the Bible says they mean, not what Webster's Dictionary says that they mean.
The Holy Spirit's usage of an expression always defines its true biblical meaning and scope, he says. It is failure to apply this simple rule, which is responsible for so much confusion and error concerning the topic of foreknowledge in particular.
The fact is that foreknowledge is never used in Scripture in connection with events or actions, Pink says. Instead, it is always, it always has reference to persons. So it is never used with respect to actions.
Now, omniscience is, omniscience is a similar doctrine, but it talks about the fact that God knows all things. So that includes actions and everything that exists. But foreknowledge, the particular word as used in Scripture, never has to do with God looking out and seeing actions take place.
It always has to do with persons that God is said to foreknow. He knows them, not the actions of those persons. Now that, you say that's nitpicking. No, no, no. No, it's not. It's very important to make that, to distinguish that.
Because if you don't understand the difference, then you'll fall into the Arminian view that God just looked out and saw who would believe and then chose them, which is false doctrine. But if you understand that foreknowledge doesn't mean that he looked out and saw them doing anything, it's that he knows them.
And we'll show you what that word actually means in the Bible, all right? So do the Scriptures attest to Pink's idea or not? Well, we have to go to the Scriptures to find that out. So let's do. So first let's go to John chapter 10, verses 14 through 15.
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep. So now we have this word. It's partly the same word in Greek that foreknowledge comes from, the same root word. I know my sheep and I am known of mine. As the Father knows me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.
So now we start to see this word being used in the New Testament. And let's continue to look. But notice here that as concerning God's knowledge, it says he knows his sheep. Those are people. So it's not an event or an action that God is knowing here.
It is a person that he knows. And even the Father knows Jesus, so that's a person. And Jesus knows the Father. And so here we see this root word that's the same as in the word foreknowledge, and it has to do with people, not actions.
So he knows these particular people. Second Timothy 2 .19, another usage of the same word. Nevertheless, the foundation of God's standard is sure, having this seal. The Lord knows them that are his. You see, those are people.
So foreknowledge has to do with people, not actions. And let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Romans 11 .1, I say then, has God cast away his people? It's talking about people.
God forbid, for God has not cast away his people which he foreknew. So foreknowledge has to do with people. In fact, a certain group of people known as the elect, as we will see, for whom he foreknew, them he also predestinated.
In Ephesians chapter 1, that's who he chose or elected. So we see here that foreknowledge has to do with people. Genesis 4 .1, and Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived, and bear Cain and said, I've gotten a man from the Lord.
Now, this really homes in on the real biblical meaning for the phrase to know someone. It's not an action, it's about a person. You know a person. And here, the King James reflects the correct biblical meaning in the Hebrew, but also in the Greek version of the Old Testament Septuagint, it would be the same word, know, and it gives the biblical meaning.
He knew his wife, and she conceived, and had a baby. So we see that the biblical term to know is not a term of merely perception, or cognition, or recognition of something, but rather a term of eternal, affectionate, loving, personal relationship.
So to know someone in the biblical meaning means you love them, you know them with a loving knowledge, you know them personally with love. And that's what it means throughout Scripture, and this is what it means when we see the idea of foreknowledge.
God didn't just know about us, He didn't just recognize who we were, He didn't just perceive that we're out there. That's what know means in modern English, that's not what it means in Bible terms. If you looked at Webster's, it would say, you know, to perceive or have cognition of.
That's not what it means in the Bible. It's a term of eternal, affectionate, loving, personal relationship with a person. And this is always the way it's used in these terminologies with regard to foreknowledge in the Bible.
So God, in scriptural usage, does not foreknow actions, He foreknows persons. Now, let's look at another example, Acts chapter 2, verse 23. Pick it up there. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
So this is in a sermon in the book of Acts, and talking predominantly to the Jews, saying that Jesus Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. And it says, you then are responsible because you did what you wanted to do.
You took him and you killed him. So God will hold you responsible because you did what you wanted to do. But the truth is, Jesus was foreknown to have been the Messiah. Now, if you only read that verse, you might think, well, there's an example of foreknowledge being an action God saw.
But it's not, it's a person, because it's a reference to Jesus, and you see that as you keep going, whom God had raised up. He foreknew Jesus, the person, Jesus, the Savior. He foreknew the Savior of all of God's people.
That's who he knew, whom God had raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be held by who? Jesus. So God the Father foreknew Jesus Christ would be the Savior, and then men with wicked hands killed him.
So David speaks concerning him. So here it's a person. This is Jesus. I foresaw the Lord. That's foreknowledge. He foresaw the Lord, the person, always before my face. And this is what proves the issue here.
This is still talking about a person, not an action. Always before my face for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. So Jesus is on the right hand of the Father. The Father foresaw that even before Jesus was born in the manger.
So this example of foreknowledge also is with regard to a person, not an action. Therefore, did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope because thou will not leave, Jesus now speaking, says he won't leave my soul in hell.
Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption. Why? Because Jesus was foreknown. And the same is true of you, ladies and gentlemen. Because he foreknew you with love and affection, you will never see hell, just like Jesus didn't.
Beautiful, isn't it? Boy, that totally eliminates the false conception that a person could lose their salvation, doesn't it? So you have to understand the great doctrine of eternal security is not Baptistic.
It's not the Baptists didn't invent that. Neither did the Lutherans or the Presbyterians. It goes all the way back to Augustine, you know, 1 ,400 years before John Calvin lived, goes all the way back to Jesus and to Paul and to the Holy Spirit before time began.
So eternal security is based on foreknowledge. It's based on the fact that God knew and loved you as his own before he made anything, before Genesis 1 -1. And the Bible says the same group that he foreknows, he then predestinates, he chooses, all before time begins.
And then in time, he calls that same group to himself with the effectual calling, we'll discuss in a moment. And that same group, he justifies, he takes their sins away. And that same group, he glorifies, they find themselves in heaven.
Same group all the way through, from before time, into time, and out the other side of time. It's all based on foreknowledge. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Now, this is interesting.
Many will say to me in that day, when the Lord comes back, oh, I did a lot of things in your name. I went to church, I prophesied, I cast out devils, I healed the sick, I did many wonderful works in your name.
And Jesus looks at many of these people and says, I profess to you, I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. You see, he didn't have foreknowledge of these individuals. And they went to church and did good works and all that, but good works don't save us.
You see, so many denominations in all the false religions of the world are based on good works for salvation. All of that is false. And yet, even certain Christian sects do that. And if the people truly believe their gospel, they can't be saved unless the Holy Spirit calls them.
And then I think they'll come out from among them and be separate, say the Lord, hopefully. But once a person sees Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, changes everything, and everything else flows from that as all these effects happen.
They believe, they repent, they do good works, they walk with the Lord. When they fail, they get up and confess the sin and go again until the Lord comes back for us. And so there are saved people, saved sheep in all the denominations, but there are also lost sheep and goats going to churches in all the denominations.
We know that. Jesus taught the wheat and the tares, did he not? And so there'll be a lot of people that went to church their whole life, and when the Lord comes back and they stand before him, they'll name all the good works they did.
And he'll say, yeah, but the problem is I never knew you. I did not foreknow you as my own. Depart from me. So what's it based on, ladies and gentlemen? Jesus said it's based on foreknowledge. But foreknowledge doesn't mean that he knew about the works they would do.
It's not about their actions. It's about the person. He knew them by name. He loved them. He loved them with all of his heart from before he made anything, even before they were born. And then when time came along and their lifetime came, he called them, and we'll see that in a minute.
First Corinthians 8, 3, but if any man loved God, the same is known of him. Now, think about the simplicity of that verse. People just say God loves everybody today. Preachers say that. That is not taught in the Bible.
And people say Jesus died for everybody. That's not taught in the Bible either. And yet what it does say is people that do love God, it's because God knew them. And we know clearly the Bible says it's not that we loved God, but that he loved us first.
Then we loved him back, right? That's the order it works in. So if any man finds himself loving God, it's because he was known of God before the foundation of the world, and God woke him up. His Holy Spirit tapped him on the shoulder at his spiritual birthday in time and woke him up or her up.
Now they love God. You see, that's what the Scripture teaches so clearly. It's a matter of being known, foreknown by God. Second Timothy 2, 19, nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal.
The Lord knows them, not the actions they do, the them, the person. He knows them that are his. That's foreknowledge. And let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. That's the effect of doing good works later after you're saved and the effect of trying to be like Jesus.
And then when we do sin, 1 John 1, 9 comes into play and we confess it, and he makes our conscience feel clean again, and we get up and keep going because he's already removed the sin before we did it.
Think about that. Before the foundation of the world, he knew who we were. And before our salvation, our sins were placed in the body of Jesus Christ when he was on the tree 2 ,000 years ago. It's all accomplished by the finished work of God, and we receive the benefit from all that.
It's all because he knew us and loved us with great love as his own children. So now let's switch and talk about the calling. So notice here that it says, for whom he has foreknown that same group of people he did predestinate.
All that happened before Genesis 1, 1. Now we move into time in verse 30, and several things happen in time. Two in particular, they're listed here, actually three, but the third one goes out into future eternity.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called. So let's talk about the calling for a moment. And I want to give you a beautiful quote here first. Not only do we study the Scriptures, we study our books.
We need to study about what our brothers and sisters have felt certain passages of Scripture have meant for 2 ,000 years so that we don't have our own private interpretation. So let's look at this. To be in the eternal plan of God is a position of surpassing importance, both with regard to the reality itself and its timeless character.
The human mind cannot grasp what it means to be in the divine purpose from all eternity, nor what is indicated when it is declared that the same divine purpose extends into eternity to come. So it starts before time, comes into time, goes out the other side.
Whom he predestinated, he glorified. This is Lewis Barry Schaefer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary. Wrote one of the, in my opinion, if you want to study systematic theology, get his eight-volume set.
It's the best. You won't agree with every little detail in the whole thing, but most, the large part is beautiful. The parts on salvation are just wonderful. You'll love it. I think he's a little off on the end times, but so are so many people.
But if you ignore that part, you'll love Schaefer. All right, now, a little bit into hyper-dispensationalism perhaps, but there are dispensations. You're going to find some truth in dispensationalism, just like you find some truth in covenant theology.
And the two don't like each other, these two groups of theologians, because they want it to be way over here, way over here. Truth is in the middle here, some truth in each. But anyway, you'll love Schaefer.
Now, so, now let's remember, let's review again. We were talking about the breadth of God's love, right? So, it starts from eternity past, before time began. It comes into time, and that's where we are now with the calling.
So, now we're going to talk about this part, the calling of or by the Holy Spirit. Second Thessalonians 2 .13 is a great example. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you. So, Paul's talking to some of his new converts, people who've just become born again.
Brethren, I give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation. Now, when did it happen? From the beginning. It happened from before God made anything.
Ephesians chapter 1 says the same thing. Romans chapter 8 says the same thing. But here in Second Thessalonians 2, Paul says, you were chosen from the beginning unto salvation. And then not only did God determine who would be saved, he determined the means of salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
So, when the Holy Spirit comes to you being lost in your sins and blind and deaf, and you hate God, you didn't know you hate him, but you loved self. God was not your God, you were your God. And the Holy Spirit awakened you and regenerated you and gave you many gifts.
I've counted 33 or more. One of them was faith of Jesus. He gave you that, so now you can believe. He gave you the desire to repent, which means to change the mind about who God is. You no longer think you're God, you know he is, and you yield.
All of these are effects of the regeneration that the Holy Spirit accomplished along with the work of Jesus Christ, the finished work of Christ that had already been accomplished, and all that the Father had done.
So, yeah, we're saved by works, but all the works are done by God, not us. We're not saved by any works we did. And so, it's beautiful. We're bound to give thanks always to you, my converts, Paul says, brethren, beloved of the Lord, and that sort of has to do with foreknowledge, this fact they were beloved.
That's really what foreknown means, loved, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. I just love the way the Armenians say, oh, he only chose us to do good works, he never has anything to do with salvation.
They're hoping you don't know 2 Thessalonians 2 .13. They just hope you never see that verse, because once you see it, they are found to be liars. They are false prophets, false teachers, and false preachers, and writers of books galore.
And they sound so great in their books, and their logic is impeccable, except their presuppositions, there's going to be something wrong in one of them, and so their conclusion is false. But it says clearly here that we're chosen unto salvation.
How? Through sanctification. So not only is it predetermined we'd be saved and born again, it's predetermined that we would do good works and be changed into the image of Christ. That's what sanctification means over time, day by day by day.
And who does it? The Holy Spirit accomplishes both, the salvation and the molding into Jesus' image. And He gives us the belief, and He gives us the truth through the gospel, and all of it is by God's work.
Isn't that beautiful? Wow. All right. Whereinto He called you by our gospel. So Jesus Himself said you need two things, and there's more than two, but He listed two things a couple of times to be saved.
One is the water, and the second one is the spirit. You're saved by the water and the spirit, and the water throughout New Testament means the Word of God. So you have to have the Word of God, that's the gospel, and you have to have the Holy Spirit calling you, or you cannot be saved.
That's the only way you're saved. Obviously, the blood of Christ has to be a part of this, and that's the finished work that He's already accomplished. That blood has already been applied to the holy of holies, I mean the mercy seat in the heavenlies.
There was a model of that on the earth, the real ones in heaven. That blood was applied by Jesus Himself after His death and resurrection, and then the Holy Spirit at the time of your calling applies that blood to your individual life, and that's just one of the many things He does at the moment He regenerates you.
So whereunto He called us by the gospel to salvation, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wow. It's all finished. It's all done by God. We're the beneficiaries. We don't do any of the work.
We play no part in it. So salvation is by the blood of Jesus plus the calling of the Holy Spirit plus nothing. That's a good way to put it. All right. The term called is not only misunderstood but also practically eliminated from the modern gospel.
Now, let's talk about that a minute because this is dangerous. In 2 Corinthians 11, starting with verse 3, take a look at this. It says, but I fear that by any means, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, who's that talking about?
Satan. Just as Satan beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And he's speaking to his new baby Christians. And he said, look, I fear for you that just like Eve was tempted and led astray by Satan, you will be, and you'll be removed from the simplicity of the gospel.
Now, who is that talking to? Listen, that speaks to so many denominations who claim to be Christian where they add any of man's work to the blood of Jesus. And they say, yeah, you got to believe in Jesus, but you also have to obey the church.
You also have to, you know, make sure you do the sacraments. That would be the Catholics. So it's believing in Jesus plus doing the sacraments. Now, all of a sudden, it's not simple. You've moved away from the simplicity of the gospel.
Now, you're going to add hundreds of man-made rules and count that as equal in authority with what the Scripture says in the gospel. Such a sad mistake. I have so many friends that buy into that still, but they, you know, they seem to believe in Jesus, and I hope that they do.
But they've certainly been beguiled by this beautiful... I mean, Mormonism is that way, Catholicism, they're both beautiful if you just look at the organization of their groups. They do wonderful, massive works on the earth.
And that's all by God's sovereign will too. I mean, God keeps a lot of order in many nations that are predominantly Catholic just by the Catholic works that they say people have to do. It keeps them in line, doesn't it?
But it doesn't mean you can be saved that way. And Paul said, you're moving away from the simplicity of salvation when you get into all that stuff. So, and there, the Catholic, I'm not going to pick on them.
The Baptists do it too. I mean, we got... Listen, there are so many Baptist churches where you got to be at church every night of the week doing good works, or you're not spiritual, and you never have any family time, right?
I mean, boy, I could get on some rabbit trails here. All right. So, for if he that cometh preaches another Jesus. Now, look, this is fascinating, because here Paul is going to talk about three things that human teachers take these things, and then they create false concepts that look the same as the real.
First is a Jesus that's not really Jesus. For if anyone comes and preaches another Jesus, well, they say, well, God loves everybody. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. That's a figment of someone's imagination.
All right. Now, I know God loves his creation, and he loves all people in the sense of he loves his trees and his rocks, but he doesn't love all people like he loves the elect, not the same way as that.
So, that's a different Jesus if you think he does, and you've created that in your mind, and we have to be careful. It's not the Jesus that Paul preached. Don't believe in a fake one that we make up in our mind.
Secondly, or if you receive another spirit, so there's another Holy Spirit who mimics the real Holy Spirit. We see this in a lot of our churches today where they're faking that they're healing, and I'm not saying God doesn't heal, but they're acting like humans are doing it, like the apostles could do it, but there are no more apostles.
That's clear because you have to have seen Jesus physically to be an apostle. That's one of the Bible definitions. That's not happening anymore. So, they are mimicking these things that the Holy Spirit actually did, but it's a different spirit doing it.
So, it's real. So, they say, well, it has to be God. Listen, Rocky Freeman taught me this when I was a brand-new believer, my mentor. He said, look, David, one of the biggest mistakes people make, and it's pride that causes it, is they think that anything that's miraculous is of God.
And he said, sometimes it's Satan doing a miraculous thing. Look at Moses, and look at how the magicians in the court of Pharaoh could mimic what Moses was doing and what the Holy Spirit was doing through Moses.
And he said, that's why the Bible says you got to test the spirits. So, there are other spirits that mimic the Holy Spirit. And then look at this, another gospel. So, you have a false Jesus, a false Holy Spirit, and a false way to salvation, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with Him.
And you say, look, I'm praying for you because these guys are so slick with their words. They make it look...their logic seems so impeccable that you'll go with them off into this false way of thinking and move away from the simplicity of Christ.
What is the simplicity of the gospel? Jesus died on the cross for the sins of His people. He was buried and He rose again. And if you're known by God, then God had placed you into Christ when He died, so your sins are already paid for.
And you were in Christ when He rose again, and so you can have a resurrected life. And when the Holy Spirit calls you and brings the belief and faith of Christ into your heart, you believe, and you receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior because He's irresistible to you, you are one of God's people at that point.
It's just that simple. But when you start adding, but you also got to keep the sacraments. You are like the Church of Christ in Texas anyway. They say you got to tithe, you got to church membership. They got about five things you have to do to be saved.
You got to get baptized in their water, not enough in Baptist water. It's got to be Church Christ water. And they add all these things to the simplicity so it's no longer simple. You got tons of things you got to remind.
And God forbid if you're ever on a desert island where you don't have Church Christ water to be baptized in, I guess you just can't be saved, right? Or maybe they have an exception to the rule because they're never...
When you believe in a lie, you cannot be consistent. You will always argue with yourself, right? So we know that. But look, oh, that's just a different gospel. It's not the gospel that Paul taught in the Bible.
And that's what Paul is talking about here is don't fall into that and be duped by Satan. An example of the modern gospel, my goodness, I'm reminding myself to give you one. So let me give you one that I've made the mistake myself.
And thank God that through Scripture and study of Scripture for 40 years, God has shown me that some of the things that I preached as a brand-new baby Christian and a brand-new preacher, because I heard other preachers do it, the Scripture showed me it's not right.
And I moved away from it and apologized and never did it again. But many Baptist preachers, and I'm sure other denominations, they'll have an altar call, right? People come down and say, well, what do I do to be saved?
And I say, well, Jesus has already died for you, so He's offering a gift. Here's the gift. If you will just determine and decide to reach out and take that gift, you will determine your own eternal destiny by doing that.
So will you do that? Well, pray this little prayer after me. Jesus, come to my heart, save me, amen. Oh, shake my hand, now you're a Christian. That is the modern gospel in many churches, and many of you out there have heard that.
Now, let me say something. That is false. But let me also say this. Even though it's false, it cannot unsave you. Because the odds are, if you're saved today, and you say, well, wait a minute, that's how I got saved.
No, it's not. You were saved before you left the pew. The Holy Spirit called you and made you want Jesus before you left that pew. And if you had that desire, you were regenerated already. So you walk down that aisle and that preacher gives you a false way to be saved, that cannot unsave you.
You see my point? I didn't used to know to say that. But now I know to say that because I don't want to confuse anybody. I can't talk you out of your salvation if you're born again. But you were born again before you ever got down to that altar.
And that's where the lie comes in, because the Baptists, just like the Catholics, they want you to need the church. You need us. You need me to tell you how to get saved. And you need to be at this altar here to get saved.
So therefore, you need to be in this church. And you need to bring your tithe money with you. And I'm not saying all Baptists and all Catholics are that way at all. Don't think I'm saying that. But it's out there, just like it was with the Pharisees.
The religious leaders have that in them, and it's still out there. And those same people would kill Jesus if he came back today, the ones who believe you got to do other stuff. They move away from the simplicity of Jesus.
They would kill him, because he would say, no, you don't have to get baptized in your water. And so they would kill him. Think about that. So the modern gospel is do it this way. He's offered the gift.
You decide to take it. And if you decide not to, by the way, you'll go to hell. So you now determine your destiny. There's a major problem with that biblically, because God says the ones he saves are the ones he knew before the foundation of the world.
And Jesus said, look, no man comes to me unless the Father draws him. That's the ones he knew. That's who he draws to me. And he said, of them, I will lose nothing. Because Jesus is the shepherd. He's the one responsible to get you to heaven, not you.
The sheep are not responsible for getting themselves to heaven. They're responsible for obeying after they get saved, yeah. And when they don't, Jesus will take that rod of his and either spank you with one end of it or hook the hook around and drag you back into the fold with the other one.
That's his work, too. And I know we have responsibility. But listen, when you're dead in your sins and you're blind and deaf, you can't even hear the gospel, how can you be responsible for saving yourself?
You can't. You're not going to do it. The Bible says there's none that seeketh God, not one. We've all gone astray. We've all gone our own way. No one seeks God in the flesh, in a natural body. So you can't say, hey, the responsibility of your eternal destiny is in your hand to make a decision today.
That's not how God saves people. Never has done it that way. But there's an example of where the modern gospel is wrong. And J .I. Packer called it out. And I'm telling you, there's an old book from the 1600s that John, and I can't think of his last name, wrote.
Someone will pop it in there for me. One of you guys will remember better than I remember. Stick his name in there for me, and I'll call it out. But I mean, it's called The Death of Death by the Death of Christ is the name of the book.
And J .I. Packer wrote a preface in the new edition of that book. You can get it on, all right, someone's popping it in. Owens, thank you. John Owens wrote the book in the 1600s. And you can go out to Amazon and get that book.
But get the modern version of it, where it has J .I. Packer's preface. It'll blow your mind. He is so strong. And everyone loved Packer. He wrote Knowing God, right? But no one knows how strong he is on these same things, like Paul says, that people have moved away from the simplicity.
And now they're preaching a false gospel in this country. Wow. All right, so what the false gospel does is it places the eternal destiny of the person in the person's hands, whereas the Scripture places that in God's hands.
It is God who foreknows. It's God who predestinates according to the purpose of his own will and the desire of his own heart. And it's God who calls. The Holy Spirit never goes to anyone with the effectual calling except who the Father said go to.
And it's Jesus who keeps those sheep once they come to him and won't let them be lost. All right, and then the same ones that are called or justified, they're made as if they've never sinned. They are made positionally righteous in the Father's eyes because they have the blood of Jesus covering them, and their sins have been removed, and then those same group glorified.
It's all God's work, but the modern gospel said, no, no, no, man has to play a part in it. So here, what the Holy Spirit says about these false teachers and their false gospel, what do you think? Let's take a look and see.
He says, but I fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. For if he that comes preaches another Jesus or has another spirit or preaches another gospel which you have not accepted, you might go with him because they're so subtle, Paul says.
But what else does he say? How do these people appear? Well, these very preachers who preach this false gospel, how do they look to us? Well, Paul says, such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
They're not really apostles. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. So they appear to be angels of light. They appear to be good people. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers, whose, Satan's ministers, also be transformed into ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.
They'll be judged by their works, and you can't be saved when you're judged by your works. So he's saying they're going to hell, these preachers that preach this. Wow, man, that's strong, isn't it? Well, that's how they appear.
They appear to be angels of righteousness. They appear to be awesome preachers and good people, and they sound so good, and so many people follow them, and yet they teach that man plays a role in his own salvation.
And you say, well, that's what I've heard my whole life. Then you've heard these kind of people your whole life, and that makes it very confusing when you see the truth in the Scripture because it contradicts what they say.
All right, so here's another one. Take a look at this. Paul says, Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. So it's God that called Paul to be an apostle, and God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead, and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches at Galatia.
So Paul is writing a letter to churches, to the elect, to people who claim to know Christ. And here's what he says. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins.
You see, that tells who he died for. Who is the our there? That's the church, not the whole world. You'll find that to be true where this is mentioned throughout Scripture. He died for the elect who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us.
Who's that? The elect from this present evil world. That's the rest of the world. So there's an us and there's a them many times in Scripture. According to the will of God our Father. So listen, Jesus gave his life for the sins of us, the elect, according to God's will because it was God's will for this to happen.
To whom be glory forever and ever? To Jesus be glory. I marvel that you are so removed from this simplicity of this gospel. Now look, he's speaking to new believers, and some false teachers have come into some of these churches and taught that works is a part of your salvation, and they bought into it.
And now Paul is rebuking them. Look what he says. I marvel that you're so soon removed from him. That's a person. Jesus who called you into the grace of Christ, and now you've been moved to another gospel.
You see, this goes away from the simplicity of the true gospel and starts adding stuff that humans have to do, things the church has to do to help you be saved. And he just marvels that they've moved into that rather than the simplicity of the gospel that he had taught them earlier.
And he says about this gospel, he said it's not really another gospel because it's not true. It's not the gospel at all. It's from hell. And look what he says. But there be some that trouble you. These false preachers are troubling you with this false information and confusing you, and they would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we are an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, then let that person be accursed. So even if it's an angel that preached you this false doctrine, let them be accursed.
That means let them go to hell, Paul said. And he emphasized it again. As we said before, so I'll say again now, if any man or anything, the word man is added in the Greek, it says anything preaches any other gospel unto you than what we have received from the Holy Spirit, then let that man be accursed.
Wow. So how do they appear? How should we regard these people? Just like Paul did. Let them be accursed. But what do we do in America? Oh, we just love them. They've built a church with 30 ,000 in attendance.
We love this person. The Lord said, listen, if they're preaching another gospel, you shouldn't count them with love, okay? You should count them as if let the Lord curse them because they're teaching baby Christians false information.
Wow, that's different than what we hear today. So the true gospel must include the calling. For in time, justification must follow the calling, and we'll see that so does glorification. So the modern gospel needs to include the idea of the calling because you don't see justification happening in Scripture until after the calling or at the calling.
So let's see this. Look at Romans 8 30. Moreover, the same group that he foreknew in verse 29, in verse 30, he predestinates that same group of people to be saved and to do good works, and the same group that he predestinates, he calls in time on their spiritual birthday.
And only the group that he calls, I'm adding that, but the Scripture implies that clearly, only the group that he calls are justified. So you don't have the justification, which is what we sometimes call being saved.
You don't have the justification until after the calling, or I should say at the calling, it happens in a nanosecond. At the calling is when the justification happens in over 33 other things the Holy Spirit does to you and for you and me at the moment he regenerates us, but none of it happens unless there's a calling.
And whom he justified, then he glorified. So now look at this. You can't even be saved and end up in heaven unless there's a calling. So you can't be justified and made right with God unless you're called, and you can't go to heaven unless you're called.
That's what the Scripture says. But the modern gospel doesn't even include the calling anymore. How many times in your life, if you're my age or approximately my age, and you went to church and you went to a revival meeting back when they used to have those, they don't even do it anymore, and they said, come down the aisle, and they told you, here's what you do to get saved.
Jesus died for you. He's offering you a gift. What you decide will determine the eternal destiny. Will you accept it or not? If you accept it, you'll be saved. If you don't, you're going to hell. So what will you do?
And they never asked, has the Holy Spirit moved you? You know, maybe the theatrics of the preacher moved you to come down there, right? That's not the calling of the Holy Spirit. So they should be asking, has the Holy Spirit moved you to be here?
But they don't ask that anymore. Now, I've read books about some of the great revivals of old. You go back into the 1700s, 1800s, and even into the early 1900s, and you hear where these preachers went across Europe and then came over in the United States and preached.
Guys like Whitefield, and these guys would preach, and if they did do an altar call, which Neil Moody, we think, invented that concept. I'm not sure it existed for 2 ,000 years up until that time, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing.
It's just not a biblical thing. It's not unbiblical. It's just neat. It's just not in the Bible, except in the Old Testament to have an altar, because for us, the altar is the cross. There's a good rabbit trail to get off that.
So anyway, so people come down at these meetings, and what used to happen, I've read it so many times, they would come down, say, on Monday night, and it's going to be a whole week or a two-week revival meeting.
On Monday night, they come down wanting to get saved, and the preacher would go down there, and you think he said this? Do you think he said, hey, repeat this after me? Dear Jesus, come to my heart and say amen.
No, that's not what he said. He said, listen, you need to just stay here, you know, however many hours it takes, maybe all week, stay on your knees here and plead for the Holy Spirit to come to you and call you, plead that he would call you.
That's the truth. It's history. Go read it. That's not done anymore, because the calling has been removed from the modern gospel, and now it's up to the decision of the human. That's humanism. It used to be up to the Holy Spirit calling you, and you stay down here at this altar and just hope he will, hope and pray that he'll call you, and when you get called, tell me, and then we'll let you be part of the church.
Wow, that's a little different, isn't it? But that's history. Now, there are two kinds of callings taught in the Bible, and one may only tell which one it's talking about by the context it's found in, because it's the same Greek word.
So there's only one Greek word for it, but there's two meanings, theological meanings, and you can tell by the context you find the word in. Context makes it very, very clear. I'll give you some examples.
The first type of calling in the Scripture is called the universal call, and to me, that's the gospel going out into the world, and the Lord commands us to take the gospel to the whole world, and that is universal, and yeah, it is a calling in a sense.
It's the Holy Spirit using the Scripture to put that in the minds of humans everywhere, because they're either going to be saved by it or judged by it. One of the two, the Bible says. So it's important for the gospel to go out.
That's why even though we believe God does the saving, we still witness. In fact, historically, the greatest witnesses in the world have been Calvinists. I know you've been told differently. Look at church history.
The greatest mission works in India, China, and so forth were started by Calvinistic people. So why do we do it? Because God said do it, because the call has to go out. People have got to hear the gospel.
Even the goats need to hear it, because they're going to be judged by it, the great white throne judgment. What do you do with Jesus is going to be the question, and they're going to say, well, we heard about him.
Local church there in town, yeah, we heard that, but we didn't receive Jesus. Well, depart from me. I never knew you. So it's important that everyone get it. That's why there is a universal call, and here's an example in Scripture.
For many are called, but few are chosen. Now, how did we know by context that that's talking about the universal call and not the effectual call, which we'll talk about secondly here in a minute? Well, because if you look at Romans 8, verse 29 -30, where we see an example of the effectual call, it says the same group that are called are all saved and all glorified.
That's effectual. That means everyone who is effectually called will be saved and will be glorified. This one doesn't say they're all saved, so this is talking about the universal call. Everyone can hear the gospel, maybe not with understanding, because only the Holy Spirit can do that, and that's the elect.
He's going to open the eyes and ears and minds of the elect. That's the effectual calling, but everyone can hear it with their ears, and that's the universal calling. And so many are called, but few are chosen.
So in this verse, it's not the same group of people, like the same ones that are called are not the same ones that are chosen and saved. It's a different group. So this is a larger group, and this is a different concept of a calling.
This is basically just talking about the gospel going out to the whole world. Doesn't mean they're all elect that are going to hear it with their ears, but the elect are the only ones that will hear it with their understanding, and there's even a different Greek word for those two kinds of hearing in the New Testament, by the way.
Matthew 11, 28 says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's the universal calling. We call it the gospel. It should go out to everyone. And John 7, 37, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink, Jesus says.
That's universal. That goes out to everyone, and everyone will be judged by what they do with that invitation. Correct? So there has to be a universal calling, and that's part of the justice and sovereignty of God as well.
Revelation 22, 17, and the spirit and the bride say, come. So the bride is the church. So the church is sending out the gospel to the whole world, translating it in all the language, and when it is translated and goes out to all the nations, Jesus says, that has to happen first, then I will come back.
Right? So that has happened. We pretty much have it now translated into every dialect. That's one reason we know his coming is near. And he says, let him that hearsay come. So the Holy Spirit puts out a general calling to everyone giving the invitation.
So the universal call gives the invitation. That's basically what it does, and it is universal in the sense it goes out to the whole world. Let him that hearsay come. So now the church that has heard the elect, they're supposed to witness and give the gospel to everybody.
Let them say, hey, come. You're invited. Come. And let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, whoever has the desire to do it, let him take the water freely. And so that's true. Anyone who ever has the desire to be saved will be saved because it's the Holy Spirit that gives the desire at the effectual calling, which we'll talk about in a minute.
So the call goes out to everyone and everyone who will may come. The problem is the Bible says there's none that seeks God, not one. So no one is willing in their natural state. So if the Holy Spirit didn't do his work of calling and regenerating, no human would be saved because the race is at large lost, right?
The race is lost. And God in his love and mercy and sovereignty decided to choose an elect remnant from that race and save it so that humans could then go into the millennial kingdom and you would have the human race wouldn't totally be destroyed.
That's mercy. And people get angry at God because he did it that way. But that's how God did it. And he saved who he wanted to. He chose who the bride of his son would be. And that's common sense. But it's also scripture.
But the universal calling is discussed in those areas. Here's another one. Acts 1 .8. But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. That's the church right after you're saved.
You can start witnessing. And then you'll be my witnesses unto both in Jerusalem and to Judea and Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth. That's the universal call. That's the job of the church, isn't it?
That's the job of the Calvinist and the Arminian. We all agree on that. We need to be telling the gospel. We do it for different reasons, but we all know we need to do it. So the universal call is tantamount to the gospel message going out into the whole world to every kind of man and woman.
By that, I mean to every type of group of people, whether Gentile or Jew. Not just to the Jew, but to all kinds of men. So that's what the universal call is. Now, what is the effectual call? And we only know the difference by the context, so let's take some examples.
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. Now, if you go back and you look at who the you is in this passage, who is he writing to? It's the elect. It's saved people. So the God of peace sanctify you.
Once you're saved, he's going to set you apart and make you be more and more like Jesus throughout your life. And I pray, God, that your whole spirit, soul, and body will be preserved. That's eternal security.
Blameless. That's eternal security until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to notice he prays that you'll be preserved blameless. That's in the passive in the Greek. That means someone greater than you has to do that to you.
God preserves you. You don't preserve yourself. If it was up to us to preserve ourselves, we would all lose our salvation like so many teach. But it's not left up to us. We are not the shepherd. We're the sheep.
Responsibility lays upon the shepherd. He will have to answer the father for anyone who is lost that was chosen. And none will be because Jesus said of them, I will lose nothing. So he goes on and he says the Holy Spirit preserves not only your spirit and your soul, but your body too.
That's how we know there's a resurrection. And we'll be preserved blameless until Jesus comes back. That's eternal security. And he goes on and says faithful is he that calls you for he will do it and say he might do it.
So this is the effectual calling. So this is the same sense of the word usage as in Romans 8, 29, and 30, where it says the same group he foreknew and predestinated that group on their spiritual birthday.
He called them, and of them, they will all be justified. And of them, they'll all end up in heaven, be glorified. That's effectual. So by effectual, we mean this. There is a sense in which God gives the gospel to everyone.
That's universal. The effectual is that everyone who is effectually called, 100 of them come to Christ. And it's clear from the scriptures. The same group that he calls, he does it. What does he do?
He saves you. He's faithful. He saves you. Same ones he calls, he saves. That's not true of the universal calling. It is true of the effectual calling. Romans 8, 30, the passage we're studying today is effectual calling, not universal, because the same group he predestinated them, he called.
And the same group he called, those are the ones he justified. So it's 100%, 100%. It's not like the calling goes out, and some of them get saved. That's universal. From the universal call, as far as the gospel going out, some of them get saved, and most of them don't.
But when you see the effectual calling, the same group that gets called gets saved. And that is the same calling as when you got saved, when the Holy Spirit lights on your shoulder, turns your chin up, and says, look, I'm going to open your eyes and ears now, and you're understanding.
See that? That's your shepherd. You're a sheep, and you're hungry, and he's got the food. What will you do with him? And he makes him irresistible, and you receive him, because the Holy Spirit gives you the gift of faith.
He gives you the gift of repentance. He gives you all of the gifts that take place at your regeneration in a nanosecond when he saves you, and you play no role in it other than to respond and have the effects of the cause.
The cause is the Holy Spirit calling you and regenerating you. So that's how you can tell that's effectual. Now, how great then, Schaeffer says, how great is the characterizing work of distinctive position, and how immeasurable the opulence of one who is included in the eternal purpose of God.
We don't even understand how special we are. We are so special because God knew us as his own before he made anything, and that's why it's so important to know these doctrines, and yet the world at large, the worldly churches don't teach it at all.
They want it to all be about the church saving you or yourself saving you. So this calling is effectual because every single person who is effectually called by the Holy Spirit is justified and glorified, and that's where we pick up the theological term effectual.
And the word is the same. You can only tell by the context. Here's another example, 2 Peter 1 .3, according as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. You see, God did all the work.
The Holy Spirit did everything when he regenerated us. He brought his power into our life, and he gives us all these things. It's a gift. It's free, and it's from him, and he gives us all things that pertain to life, eternal life, and godliness, not only to get saved and have eternal life, but how to live right.
He gives us all that at the moment he regenerates us, and how does he do it? Here's the means of it, through the knowledge of him that called us unto glory and virtue. So that's the effectual calling, and he not only established that we would be predestinated and called, but he would also predestinate that we would be saved by the certain method, which is to have knowledge of Jesus Christ.
So we have to hear the gospel, and we have to have the Holy Spirit. You got to have the water, and you got to have the Spirit, Jesus said, in order to be saved, and here we see both represented here. Whereby are given unto us, who's the us?
The elect, exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. That's talking about getting born again, is it not? So you have to be called through the knowledge of him that called us.
So you have to know the person who called you, right? So the Holy Spirit has to open your eyes and ears and understanding to even know who it is that's calling you. Maybe you're on the road to Damascus today.
Maybe God's calling you through the gospel of this message, and your eyes are open. Well, all you do is respond like a bride does to the bridegroom, and having escaped the corruption that's in the world through lust.
Now notice, it's interesting here, in this phrase it says, whereby you're given these exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers. In the Greek, the word might is not even found in the language at all.
That's been added in the English. In fact, where it's talking about by these you'll be partakers, it's actually one Greek word, genomahi, genomahi, and it means to cause to be. So a better translation here would be whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you are caused to be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world.
That's what the Greek says. That's what it says. Now, it's interesting in the Old English, sometimes the word might be means is. It just is the Old English way of saying things, but in the Greek it's very, very clear.
John 3, 7 says, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it wants to blow. That's what listeth means in the Old English. The wind blows where it wants to blow. That's a picture of the Holy Spirit.
He goes to who he wants to go to. This is the effectual calling. This is not talking about the universal call where the Holy Spirit sends the gospel out to everybody by the church. This is the effectual call, and here Jesus is teaching this to Nicodemus, a teacher of the law, and Nicodemus couldn't figure it out because his salvation, he thought, was based on human effort.
Jesus says, no, it doesn't have anything to do with your church stuff that you say to do, with the Pharisee rules and all of that that the Jews were doing in their religion. He said, just like the wind bloweth where it wants to, that who gets saved is who God wants to get saved, and who he wants to be saved he will call, and who he calls he will justify, and who he justifies them he will glorify.
Nicodemus says, Lord, how can these things be? Jesus says, it's like the wind. It blows where it wants to blow, and you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it came from or where it's going.
So is everyone that's born of the Spirit, and Nicodemus said, how can this be, right? But then later on in John chapter 6, verse 44, we see another example. No man can come to me except the Father which has sent him draw me.
This is the effectual calling, and this is where the Holy Spirit draws you and opens your eyes, and I will raise him up the last day, Jesus said. Same group. So the same group that gets effectually called, 100 of them are justified, and 100 of them are glorified or raised up in the last day.
That's the effectual call, and we can tell by the context. John 6, 64, but there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
So he knew from the beginning. That's omniscience. Jesus, with his omniscience, knew who would be saved and who wouldn't. He knew who the sheep were because he put them here, and he said Satan put the tares here, the goats.
He didn't. He said, I didn't put them here. Satan did. So he knows intellectually with omniscience who is who, all right? But with foreknowledge, he lovingly knows those who are his, and he said, therefore, I said unto you, no man can come to me except it were given to him by the Father.
So the Father has to call that person and bring them to Jesus. In fact, Jesus said, the Father drags them to me unwillingly, and there's none that seeks God. No one of us today, ladies and gentlemen, we're seeking God the minute we got saved.
What happened was the Holy Spirit drew us to him and opened our eyes, and then he was irresistible, and we think we did it until we study from Scripture and we find out we're like a baby. Baby does not do his birth.
He receives it. The parents do all the work, the same way with spiritual salvation. God does all the work. And he said, therefore, I said unto you that no man can come to me except it were given to him by the Father.
That is the effectual calling listed in verse 65. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Guess what? This doctrine's never been popular. And when Jesus himself taught it, many of them walked with him no more.
And he looked at his own apostles and said, well, you leave also, and they didn't, but they thought about it. Because the doctrine of foreknowledge and predestination is not popular with people because it takes the control out of humans' hands and puts 100 of it in God's hands.
But let's think about that. Would you rather the control be in your sinful hands, even if you're a mom with children and you're not sure which ones will be called or if all of them will be? Would you still rather them have to be saved by you living such a perfect life and example that they would see that and get saved?
Or would you rather their salvation be in the hands of a loving, all-knowing, good God? That's an easy choice for me, and I hope for you too, because that is how it is. And yet, what are the odds if God has the method of saving people is they have to hear the gospel?
Don't you think the odds are he would put a lot of his little baby sheeps in the homes of Christians? So don't worry about your kids. Just pray for them and teach them the gospel. And when you walk with God, when you walk with the kid out in the field, show them stuff God did all the time.
Say, you know, God made that sunset. God made those clouds. Jesus is an artist. Talk to them about God just as you talk about reality of other things, and they'll hear, they'll have little ears that'll perk up.
1 Timothy 6, 12, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life wherein to you are called. You have to be called or you won't lay hold on it. And you have professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Yeah, you made a profession of faith. That's one of the effects of your salvation. 1 Peter 1, 15, by as many, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. And there, once he called you and saved you, we're supposed to be responsible for living like Christ.
We're supposed to try to do better every day, right? That's part of the salvation experience. In verse 9, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, like different than the world, that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
That's effectual calling. And 100 of the people that are called out of darkness into light, 100 of them are justified and 100 of them are glorified. Romans 8, 29, and 30, which in time past were not a people.
You see, you couldn't have saved yourself because you weren't part of God's family. Not in your mind. You were Gentiles. You're not Jews. Most of you guys listen. You're not Jewish. That's what it means by the fact that you are not a people.
So the Jews considered the Gentiles to not even be part of God's family, period. God can't save a Gentile. That's why Paul always said, yeah, Jesus died for all men. He didn't mean every individual. He means all kinds of men, Jews and Gentiles.
And he was always telling these Jews this. I know you Jews think he only died for Jews, but he died for all men. He means all kinds of men. It's what the word pas usually means in the Greek. It doesn't mean every individual.
It means all kinds of people have some people in there that will get saved. Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God. Why? Because you got called, which had not obtained mercy, but now you have obtained mercy.
Why? Because you got called, effectually called. Beautiful doctrine. 1 Peter 5, 10, but the God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ. That's the method. After that, you have suffered a while, make you perfect.
That's the glorification. He will establish, strengthen, and settle you. That's the eternal security and the glorification. All of it has to happen after you're called. Now, can you imagine a modern gospel, ladies and gentlemen, does not even include the calling.
You go down to the altar of your church and never even mention it. Well, as the Holy Spirit called you, they don't bring that up anymore. They just say, repeat this prayer from here. Jesus come to my heart and save me, amen, or whatever their prayer is.
Now you needed the church to teach you that. So you needed the church to save you. So now you need to bring your money to the church. I say that tongue-in-cheek, but a lot of cases that's true. In fact, did not the Holy Spirit say that false teachers teach for their belly's sake?
So that's not me just saying it, right? Now, 1 Peter 5, 10, but the God of all grace who called you unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ. In other words, by hearing the gospel. After that, you suffered a while.
After you're saved, they're going to persecute you, and you're going to suffer for a while in this earth, on this planet. He's making you perfect, establishing you, strengthening, and settling you throughout that whole thing, and eventually you'll end up perfect and glorified, right?
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, and that's why the true gospel only brings glory to Jesus, not to the church, not to the church, its methods, not to the church's tradition, not to the Pope, by the way, not to the Baptist preacher, by the way.
It only brings glory and dominion to Jesus forever and ever. I mean, because it's all of him plus nothing. It's all salvation. It's all the work of God plus nothing that man does. We just receive it as a free gift, and then effects take place, and we do things back because he made us love him now.
That's all part of it too. So here is a, we're running out of time, but I probably need to finish so we can move on next Sunday. So just take a deep breath. We'll finish here. Here is perhaps the greatest example of the effectual calling in the Bible, and it's the salvation of Saul who became the apostle Paul.
So here you actually see the calling, the effectual calling taking place, so let's see how it works here. And it came to pass that as I made my journey, Paul's giving his testimony. He's going out to kill Christian men, women, boys, and girls, and he thought he was doing it for God, right?
And he came near to Damascus around noon, and suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. He's about to get called. And I fell into the ground and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
And I answered, who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, who you persecute, because when you persecute my people, it's like you're doing that to me, Jesus is teaching. And they that were with me saw indeed the light, Paul says, but look at this.
They were afraid. They saw the light and they were afraid, but they heard not the voice. Why? They weren't called. You see this? Paul received the effectual call. The same people all around him were not effectually called, and they're just lost as a goose, but they saw the light, but they couldn't hear the words with understanding because they weren't called yet.
So the effectual calling happened to Paul, but not the others, and you might say they got a universal call when they saw the light, maybe, but they weren't understanding any of it because they weren't called yet.
Maybe they were later, but not at this moment. It was not their spiritual birthday. It was Paul, Saul's, I should say, and he was called effectually. And they that were with me saw the light, and they were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me, because they didn't have ears that could hear, because that only comes with the calling.
And one Ananias, it jumps forward in time, he came to me and stood and said to me, Brother Saul, so now this Christian's calling him brother, so he's saved. He got saved out there on the road, and he said, receive your sight, because at the moment this happened, he was stricken with blindness, so now God uses Ananias to touch him and open his eyes in the same hour he could see, and he said, the God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will and see the just one.
So God had chosen you that you would have eyes to see Jesus. That's how you got saved, Saul. Now we're going to call you Paul now, that thou should know God's will and see the just one and should hear with understanding, the Greek word means, the voice of his mouth.
So Paul was, or Saul was effectually called, saved, regenerated, given faith of Jesus, given repentance, he changed his mind, and he stopped walking towards Damascus and went back the other way towards Jerusalem eventually.
First he went out in the wilderness to be taught by the Holy Spirit for three years, and all his whole life changed here. All of these effects began to take place. For thou shalt be his witness unto all men.
You see how, see that doesn't mean every individual, because Paul couldn't reach every individual. It meant all kinds of men. That's pas in the Greek, all kinds of men, not just Jews, but Gentiles also, of what thou has seen and heard.
Wow, there's a lot in that. Now Colossians 2 .13 says, and you being dead in your sins and uncircumcision of your flesh, has he, the Holy Spirit, quickened, that's us, the same way he did Paul here. While we were walking down the Damascus road dead, thinking maybe we were okay with God, but we were blind and deaf, he quickened us.
He gave us life. He brought us from death to life. That's a total work of the Holy Spirit. He calls you and regenerates you, gives you 33 gifts or more, and he has quickened us together with Christ, just like he brought Jesus out of the grave 2 ,000 years ago.
You were actually in Christ in God's mind, and you came out to live a new life. That's what this means. So what role did you play in it if the work happened 2 ,000 years ago for you individually? None.
You just received it as a gift. Having forgiven you all trespasses, and here's another one, Ephesians 2 .1, and you hath he quickened, that's the Holy Spirit, who were dead in trespasses and sins. You played no role in it.
You were a walking dead man or woman, but you got called. That's the effectual calling, and it's happened to every one of you out there who are saved. The Holy Spirit had to change your want to and make you desire Christ, and when that happened, you were regenerated.
Who cares what the preacher told you later? You were already saved, and maybe you were informed on other things you can do for the Lord as effects because you love him now, and that's great. So Romans 8, 29, and 30, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.
The same group that are predestinated, he also called. It didn't say he might. It said he did, and whom he called, he justified. He made them right with God. He gave them the righteousness of Jesus Christ, positional righteousness in the mind of the Father, and the same group he did that to, he will bring to heaven.
God already, the Father sees him, is glorified now. Isn't that something? So the breadth of God's love and predestination election is from eternity past. They were foreknown and predestinated, known with love and affection, predestinated into time.
They were called and justified and out the other side into eternal glory. Right? So next time, we're going to start talking about justification and glorification, and after that, we will be done with this particular chapter 8, this glorious chapter.
All right. Thank you guys for being with us today. I'm going to turn it back over to Dave, and I hope you benefited from the Word of God. I know you did.