Effectual Calling - [John 1:12-13]

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Well, I'm certainly having a good time, I trust that you are as we are looking into the
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Word of God together in these great and profound truths. And I do want to say again just by way of introduction that any great movement of God has always come back to reestablish and reclaim the high ground of these doctrinal truths.
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I mean, this is the engine that pulls the entire train. There will never be a
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Reformation apart from the doctrines of the Reformation. There will never be another golden Puritan age apart from the doctrines of the
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Westminster Confession. There will never be another great awakening as there once was here in the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s apart from the doctrines of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield and the tenants, etc.
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There will never be another modern missions movement apart from the doctrines of William Carey and Andrew Fuller.
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And so, the answer is not in the methodology like we need new music or we need a new building or we need a new program or we need a new strategy or we need a new this or that.
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The answer is always to come back to the truth of the Word of God and for the truth of the
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Word of God to once again roar like a lion and to thunder like a storm and to be heard and to be felt.
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This is the only message that I believe that will cause a free -born American to be brought to stop in his tracks.
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And it's not a little message that tickles his ears. It's not a little message how to have a happy vacation.
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It's not a seminar on Solomon and sex. It's not even going to be a prophecy conference.
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It's not going to be all of these other lesser truths. These are the doctrines that God has already honored in history.
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These are the truths that God has been pleased to send the
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Holy Spirit with extraordinary power like the wind to move upon continents and to shake the church and the great and mighty in this world.
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So, let's don't kid ourselves. What God did in the 16th century, what God did in the 17th century, what
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God did in the 18th century, what God did in the 19th century from the Reformation to the
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Puritans, the Great Awakening to the modern missions movement is what God will honor yet again.
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These are not peripheral doctrines. These are doctrines that exalt God. These are doctrines that magnify the glory of His grace.
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These are doctrines that when God hears them preached, God says, amen. And God comes in great power and works providentially in the affairs of the church to send out the message far and wide and for there to be souls who are saved.
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So, what we are looking at in these sessions is not incidental, it is fundamental.
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It is not secondary, it is primary. These truths really frame our message and frame our understanding of who
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God is and what salvation is. So it is critically important that we understand the truth of God's Word and that we rightly divide the
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Word of truth and that we handle it accurately and correctly. Well, as you have your
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Bibles, turn with me to John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13.
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And as you're turning to it, let me just set the context by saying that salvation is
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Trinitarian. Each member of the Godhead is a Savior. We certainly identify the
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Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, but the
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Father and the Son are no less a Savior as well. All three members of the Godhead play a very specific and definite role in saving lost sinners.
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God the Father, His work of saving is done in unconditional election and sending the
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Son and sending the Spirit. The saving work of Christ we have just looked at in the definite atonement of Christ upon the cross.
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And now we want to look at the saving work of God the Holy Spirit in His work of irresistible grace.
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Each member of the Godhead works together in perfect unity of purpose. They are pulling in the same direction, saving the same people for their own glory.
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The Trinity is undivided in their saving purposes.
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They work in perfect harmony and unity. Jesus said, the
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Father and I are one. The same can be said with the Holy Spirit as well.
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So in this sense, salvation is Trinitarian. The Father chose us, the
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Son has bought us, and the Spirit has sought us and has brought us to Christ Himself.
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So we want to consider now the doctrine that is known as effectual calling or irresistible grace.
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What is this? It is the work of God the Holy Spirit in drawing and bringing to faith in Christ all whom the
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Father has chosen and all whom the Son has purchased. It is the sovereign work of the
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Holy Spirit regenerating those who are spiritually dead and their sins and resurrecting them to faith in Christ.
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It is the powerful work of the Holy Spirit opening blind eyes, opening deaf ears, giving the gift of repentance and saving faith, opening dead hearts that elect sinners and blood -bought elect might believe upon Christ and God the
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Holy Spirit overcoming all resistance in the sinner's heart, activating the spiritually dead will to come alive that it might call upon the name of the
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Lord. So I want us to consider now several verses and as we look now at the effectual call of God.
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And I want to begin with sovereign regeneration. Sovereign regeneration.
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I want to look at this in John chapter 1 verses 12 and 13 as John speaks to the nature of the new birth.
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Now, we've already touched on these verses. We will not need to linger long here. But verse 12, as many as received
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Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in His name.
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Now, verse 13 gets to the matter to which we want to speak, who were born.
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And when He says born, He's referring to not physical birth but spiritual birth. This is the doctrine of regeneration which is the act of God in which
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He gives new life, spiritual life, eternal life. He implants it in the spiritually dead soul of a man.
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What regeneration is, it is the life of God in the soul of a man. The new birth gives a new heart.
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It gives a new mind. It gives a new disposition. It gives new affections. It gives a new will. It gives a new life.
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It gives a new nature. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things passed away.
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Behold, new things have come. That is the doctrine of regeneration and all regeneration is sovereign regeneration, meaning it can only be brought to pass by God Himself.
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We cannot cause ourselves to be born again, can we? There was nothing we could do to cause ourselves to be born physically the first time.
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We just appeared, equally so in our spiritual birth.
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It is a sovereign act of God. And so, He amplifies that here in verse 13, giving three negative denials and then one positive assertion.
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You'll note the threefold use of not, not, and nor. Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.
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Not, or excuse me, not, nor, and nor. We've already described this.
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Not of human descent, not of human efforts, not of human will. But, now the conjunction that makes the contrast, but of God.
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Only one positive but. Three negatives, one positive. Not, not, or not, nor, nor, but,
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He says, our birth. When He says, of God, it refers back to what is at the beginning of verse 13, who were born.
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He is saying, we are born of God by divine initiative and by divine sovereignty.
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Based upon nothing foreseen in us, based upon nothing that we ourselves have done, the choice originated with God Himself.
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And therefore, it is of God that we are born. A .W.
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Pink writes concerning these two verses, just as verse 12 gives us the human side, so verse 13 gives us the divine.
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The divine side is the new birth. And the taking place of the new birth is not of blood.
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That is to say, it is not a matter of heredity, for regeneration does not run in the veins, nor the will of the flesh.
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The will of the natural man is opposed to God and has no will Godward until it has been born again, nor the will of man.
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That is to say, the new birth is not brought about by the well -meant efforts of friends, nor by the persuasive powers of the preachers.
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I would place the not of the will of man even with the will of the sinner himself. A .W. Pink says, but of God.
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The new birth is a divine work. It is accomplished by the Holy Spirit applying the
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Word in living power to the heart. Now this brings this issue, which is saving faith is the gift of God given in regeneration.
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Which comes first, faith or regeneration, or regeneration and faith?
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The answer of the Bible is regeneration precedes faith. Regeneration produces faith.
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Let me give you some verses to back that up. Acts 3 verse 16, on the basis of faith in His name.
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Now what makes this verse so incredible is faith is mentioned in two ways in Acts 3 verse 16.
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Now I didn't stumble across this verse until just a couple of years ago, and just when you think you've got your arms around every one of these verses, then another one pops up and you go, where has this been all my life?
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And there it was, like marrying the girl next door. I mean, this John 3 verse 16, it was there the whole time.
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And so, and on the basis of faith in His name.
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So Christ is the object, faith is the means, it is faith. Notice the preposition, in His name.
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It is the name of Jesus, which has strengthened this man whom you see and know, semicolon, the faith.
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Now listen to this, the faith which comes through Him has given
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Him this perfect faith. Two prepositions regarding faith. Faith in Christ is a faith that comes through Christ.
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The only reason we have faith to exercise in Christ is that there has already been a faith that comes through Christ that He has given to us.
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Did you see that? He must give us faith in order for us to exercise faith.
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That is why regeneration must precede and produce faith. Acts 11, 18,
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God has granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life. No one can repent until God gives the gift of repentance.
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Acts 14, 27, God opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Listen, that door is shut.
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There is no way we can open a door of faith. God Himself must open the door. Someone says, well,
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He's on the outside knocking on the door saying, oh, won't you let me come in?
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Well, the fact of the matter is Jesus goes all the way around the house. He breaks into the back of the house. He comes into the house and He opens the door from the inside to let
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Himself in. That's the way it works in theology. God opened a door of faith to the
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Gentiles. Ephesians 2, 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourself.
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It is the gift of God. What is the gift of God? The closest antecedent grammatically in this verse is faith, even before grace.
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Both grace and faith are the gift of God. Sometimes we hear people say grace is the hand of God reaching down, faith is the hand of man reaching up.
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When God's grace and man's faith come together, there's salvation. There's a sense in which that is true because no one else believed for you.
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Your mother couldn't believe for you. Your spouse didn't believe for you. You believed in Christ or you wouldn't be saved.
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But it is with the faith that God has given to you when you were dead in trespasses and sin.
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Philippians 1, 29, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
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It has been granted to us by God to believe in Him. How about 2
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Timothy 2, 25? If perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.
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Hebrews 12, verse 2, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith.
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Who authored saving faith within you? Well, let us give glory to God. It was authored by Christ Himself, the very one who is the object of our faith.
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And 2 Peter 1, verse 1, is a slam dunk verse. To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours.
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Now, that's the first verse of the entire book, 2 Peter 1, 1. This presupposes how well taught the early church was by the apostles that on the first verse of these books, this is where we find some of the most extraordinary statements of God's sovereign grace.
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Now, they were steeped and well taught in the doctrines of grace. Sovereign regeneration.
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We are born of God. Now, second, monergistic regeneration.
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Monergistic, come to John 3, verses 3 through 8. Jesus taught that the new birth is a sovereign work of the
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Holy Spirit performed within God's elect, and there is only one agent that is at work in the new birth, and it is
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God. Now, I want to read these verses, and I want to explain monergistic, that term, monergistic regeneration,
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M -O -N -E -R -G -I -S -T -I -C. You need to write that word down. Name your children that.
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I mean, just really let them know where you stand. John 3, verse 3, "'Truly, truly,
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I say to you, unless one is born of God or born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"
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Verse 5, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it. Do not know where it comes from, where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the
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Spirit.'" The Spirit's work in the new birth is sovereign.
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It is incomprehensible. It is mysterious, but it is omnipotent, and it overcomes all resistance, and it always brings about its intended effect.
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Now, when we say it is monergistic, we mean this. The prefix mono means one.
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The root word erg, from which we derive the word energy, means a unit of work.
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Monergism means there is only one agent doing the work.
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Monergistic regeneration communicates the truth that only one agent, that one being
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God the Holy Spirit, is active in the work of regeneration.
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It is a saving work produced singularly by God. God alone is active.
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Man is passive. Just as we were in our physical birth.
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Conversely, synergistic regeneration lies on the other end of the theological spectrum, being distinctly man -centered.
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Syn, S -Y -N, means together with, syncretistic, synthesis.
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Synergistic regeneration claims that there is not one agent that is at work, but that there are two agents at work, and each has the power of veto over the other.
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That God and man must cooperate with each other, and both are at work in regeneration.
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This is the Arminian view. This is the semi -Pelagian view.
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This is the Wesleyan view of the new birth, that there are two equal powers,
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God and man, and the two must cooperate in this two -party view of the new birth.
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Man must cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit must cooperate with man, and in the end, man has the power of veto and can resist the
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Holy Spirit of God. Well, yes, we can resist the Holy Spirit of God until He makes us willing in the day of His power, and when
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He comes upon us with the power of the wind of heaven, it is monergistic, and when
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He comes knocking on the door, He knocks the door down, and He comes in, and He gives us new life, and He gives us repentance, and He gives us faith, and He gives us a new mind, and He gives us a new heart, and He gives us a new will that we might call upon His name.
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James Montgomery Boyce, I keep quoting Boyce, he's one of my all -time favorite
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Bible expositors, buy everything you can by Boyce. Boyce writes at this point, quote, clearly,
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God uses this image, referring to the new birth, because it alone shows the initiative lies with the father entirely and not with the son or daughter who is engendered, that would be you and me.
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What did you have to do with your birth, Boyce asked? Did you say, I would like to be a boy?
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I would like to be born of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They seem like such a nice couple.
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Did you say, I'd like to be a girl, five feet, six inches tall. Oh, I'd like to have blonde hair.
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Of course, you did not. You had absolutely nothing to do with it. Instead, your father met your mother, and between them, they produced you, and you only realized what had happened afterwards.
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It is obvious, therefore, most of us have, it is obvious, therefore, that when
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God uses this image, He does so to show that He alone is responsible for your salvation and that you believe only because He first created the life within you to do so.
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The Reformation Study Bible explains this further. Quote, regeneration is the act of God alone in which
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He renews the human heart, making it alive when it was dead. In regeneration,
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God acts at the origin and deepest point of the human person.
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This means that there is no preparation, no preceding disposition in a sinner that requests or contributes to the new life given by God.
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Regeneration is the gift of God's grace. It is the immediate supernatural work of the
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Holy Spirit wrought in us. Its effect is to quicken us to spiritual life from spiritual death.
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It changes the disposition of our souls, inclining our hearts to God.
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Now, listen, the fruit of regeneration is faith.
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Regeneration precedes faith, close quote. Think of it this way.
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In other words, regeneration is the root, saving faith is the fruit.
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The fruit of repentance and faith grows out of the root of regeneration.
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I've written in my book, regeneration precedes faith because regeneration produces faith.
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It is only after a person is regenerated, then he can exercise saving faith.
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To be sure, man cannot cooperate with God in his spiritual birth any more than he does in his physical birth.
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In both cases, God is powerfully active and man is feebly passive.
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The lost sinner can only be the recipient of new life, never its initiator. Telling a sinner to choose to be born again is like urging a corpse to choose resurrection.
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Such urging falls upon dead ears. Clearly, the Holy Spirit is the sole agent of the new birth.
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He alone is the dead raiser, the life bringer, and the faith giver, close quote, from your humble servant.
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So, monergistic regeneration. Number three, spiritual resurrection.
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John 5 verse 25, we're talking about effectual calling.
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Irresistible grace. It is seen in the metaphor or in the image of spiritual resurrection by which elect sinners who are dead and trespasses in sin are spiritually raised to life by the power of a life -giving spirit.
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John 5 verse 25, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the
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Son of God and those who hear will live. We looked at this verse last night. We saw this does not refer to physical resurrection at the end of the age.
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It refers to spiritual resurrection in the hearts of those who are spiritually dead in this present hour and moment.
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Sovereign power of the Spirit raises the elect sinner to life which enables him to hear the voice of Christ and to believe upon Him.
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No spiritually dead sinner can raise himself to life and believe.
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Those who are spiritually dead are spiritually deaf. And Pink writes, quote, his voice alone can penetrate into the place of death.
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And because his voice is a life -giving voice, the dead hear it and live.
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Therefore, the life -giving one that the dead hear is the voice of Christ.
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George Whitefield in his preaching used to liken the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead to be a picture or an illustration, a biblical illustration of our new birth.
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And just as Jesus came and stood before the tomb of Lazarus and He said,
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Lazarus, come forth. And there was a resurrection of Lazarus and He came walking out of the tomb in His grave clothes and Jesus said, unleash
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Him from His grave clothes. Whitefield was fond to say, even so,
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Christ must come and stand before our hearts and call forth life out of our dead hearts, out of the tomb of our soul.
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And we'd be resurrected to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as we are dead in trespasses and sin, we cannot believe upon Christ.
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What can a dead man do? The last thing he can do is exercise his will towards Christ. And it's why there must be the impartation of life and the giving of the gift of faith and the resurrection of the soul unto life in order to believe upon the
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Lord. Now, this all happens in a split second. But there is a chronological layering out in order to salute us, in order of the salvation that comes to us, and so it is.
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In fact, Whitefield said, if Jesus had only said, come forth, the entire graveyard would have come forth.
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But He said, Lazarus, come forth, because He calls His sheep by name.
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And it was only Lazarus who came forth. So it was. In each of our salvation, it was
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Christ who called us forth. Ephesians 2 verse 1, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but God being rich in mercy with the great love with which
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He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.
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Colossians 2 .13, when you were dead in your transgression, in the uncircumcision of your flesh,
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He made you alive together with Him. 1
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John 5 .1, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. The verb tenses indicate there that we must first be born of God before we can believe upon Christ.
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And you remember Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones. Son of man, can these bones live?
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Ezekiel was smart enough to say, Lord, you know all things. And as Ezekiel did, the four winds of heaven began to blow representing the
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Holy Spirit, and there was a resurrection. The dead bones were raised, and they became connected together and stood on their feet.
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And it was a picture of the spiritual resurrection of Israel in the last days, that all Israel will be saved.
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But this is what we all do when we witness to unconverted people. We are standing before dry dead bones, and we are dependent upon God to blow like the wind of heaven for there to be a spiritual resurrection.
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Let me give you this one. Come to John 6, verse 37, and following, sovereign drawing.
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Jesus further explained that all the elect of God are powerfully drawn to believe upon Him. This divine power guarantees that they will come to Christ.
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Now, look at verse 37. All that the Father gives me, again, we understand who this is.
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This is the elect of God. Note the certainty of this. Note the inevitability of this. Note the guarantee of this.
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Will come to me. It will happen. It is certain. The one who comes to me,
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I will certainly not cast out. Of course, He won't. The Father has already given them to Him. And eternity passed.
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Now, look at verse 44, critically important text. No one can come to me.
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Well, there's human inability. There's the bondage of the will. There's total corruption. There is moral depravity.
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No one can come to me. No one can believe in me unless the
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Father who sent me draws Him, and I will raise
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Him up on the last day. Jesus is teaching that all those chosen by the Father will be irresistibly brought to faith in Christ.
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Now, can we talk a moment about this word, draws? Do you see it in verse 44? No one can come to me unless the
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Father who sent me draws Him. Helco or helcuo carries the idea of dragging someone or something by force.
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Now, sometimes I hear our Arminian friends say, oh, God would never drag someone to Christ, would they?
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Well, Caiaphas, out of your own mouth, yes, they will be drawn.
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That's what this word means, but the word is more than just a little urging along.
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This word is used to refer to hauling bricks and towing a heavy load.
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Let me give you some cross -references where this word is used for draw. Acts 16, verse 19, it was used of physically dragging
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Paul into the marketplace. In Acts 21, verse 30, it was used of dragging
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Paul out of the temple. In Acts 18, verse 10, it was used of Peter drawing a sword.
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Excuse me, that's John 18, verse 10, of him drawing his sword out. There's no way that sword's going to pop out by its own.
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There's no way Jesus could just try to...or Peter could try to kind of urge it out. No, he'd have to lay his hand on it, apprehend it, and pull it out or it's not going to come.
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John 21, verse 6 and 11, it is used of Peter drawing a fishing net with those muscular masculine biceps and arms of him and dragging the entire net that was full of 153 fish ashore.
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And literally putting both hands with those burly muscles of Peter, and he lays hold of it, he apprehends it, and drags it with his strength onto shore in order to begin to cook the meal.
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In James 2, verse 6, this word for draw is used of physically dragging the poor before a judge.
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I can assure you the poor do not want to stand before a judge and be there without representation. And they were forcibly drawn and drug before a judge.
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What we are saying is that this is the very same word that is used in John 6, verse 44, of powerfully drawing the elect to faith in Christ and overcoming and overpowering all resistance.
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That is the word that is used here. All that the
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Father gives to me shall come to me. Could we hear from Spurgeon for just a moment?
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Spurgeon said, preaching on the text out of Matthew, many shall come from the east and west and shall sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God.
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Spurgeon gloried in the triumph of sovereign grace. Listen to what Spurgeon said. This just does something for me every time
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I read this. Spurgeon said, oh, I love God's shalls and God's wills.
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There is nothing comparable to them. Let a man say shall, and what is it good for?
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I will, says a man, and he never performs it. I shall, he says, and he breaks his promise, but it is never so with God's shalls.
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If he says shall, it shall be. When he says will, it will be.
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Now, when he has said here, many shall come, the devil says they shall not, but God says they shall come.
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Their sins say, you shall not come, but God says, yes, you shall come. You yourselves say,
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I won't come. God says you will come. Yes, as Spurgeon said, there are some here who are laughing at salvation, who scoff at Christ and mock at the gospel, but I tell you, some of you shall come yet.
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What do you say? Can God make me become a Christian? I tell you, yes, for herein rests the power of the gospel.
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It does not ask for your consent, it gets it. It does not say, will you have it?
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It makes you willing in the day of His power.
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The gospel wants not your consent, it gives it. It knocks the enmity out of your heart.
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You say, I do not want to be saved, Christ says, you shall be saved.
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He makes your will turn around, and then you cry,
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Lord, save me or I perish. Spurgeon concluded, they shall come, they shall come, they shall come.
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They shall come from the east and the west, the north and the south. They shall come to Abraham's table.
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They shall come to Abraham's bosom. They shall come to Christ. All the elect sheep shall come to Christ.
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Do you believe that? I wouldn't preach for one second if I did not believe that.
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God is working both ends of the aisle. Not only is He at work in the preacher, enabling him to make the gospel crystal clear, but He is also working in the heart of the sinner, guaranteeing the response in the hearts of His elect.
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Come to John chapter 10, John chapter 10 verses 1 and following.
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We just saw number 5, sovereign drawing. I want you to see now number 5, sovereign calling.
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Jesus effectually calls out His elect to Himself. He calls them individually by name out of the world into a personal relationship with Himself.
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John 10 verse 1, truly I say to you, He, and the He refers to the false shepherds, the
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Pharisees, those not appointed by God, those false teachers of false religion. They are the thieves and the robbers.
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They are not the true owners of the sheep. He who does not enter by the door into the fold, the fold here.
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There are two folds that we mentioned. You need to stay current on this. This fold is the community sheep fold.
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It is the common property of the local farmers. At night, different shepherds would bring their flocks to the door, leave them overnight, go retire in the end, come back the next morning to the community sheep fold that would contain many different flocks of sheep in this one community sheep fold, into the fold of the sheep.
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But this false shepherd climbs up some other way. He is a thief and a robber.
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Rather than coming to the front door for his own sheep, he instead tries to break in during the night and to steal out of the community sheep fold the sheep that do not belong to him.
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Look at verse 2. But he, this he is the true shepherd. This is the true owner of the sheep.
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But he who enters by the door, and this door is the messianic credentials of Old Testament prophecies.
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He comes in the right way. He comes according to the prophecies of Scripture, and he comes in a sinless perfection.
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He alone qualified to be the true shepherd of the sheep. Verse 2, he enters by the door, he is a shepherd of the sheep.
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He enters by the door, he comes lawfully, he assumes full responsibility for the welfare of the sheep.
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In fact, he knows them and he loves them. And these sheep are those who have been given to Christ before time began.
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Not all Israel are his sheep, verse 26 tells us that. And there are sheep of another fold, the
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Gentiles, verse 16 tells us that. Continue to watch now. Verse 3, to him the doorkeeper opens.
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The doorkeeper stood guard over the entrance to the sheep fold until the true shepherd come to the flock.
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I believe that John the Baptist is this true doorkeeper who has pointed out the true shepherd of the sheep.
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He is the one who said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So, the doorkeeper is the one who points out the true shepherd when he comes to the community sheep fold.
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Note, and the sheep hear his voice. This voice is the shepherd's voice.
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In the morning, the true shepherd returns to the community sheep fold for his flock. He approaches and the doorkeeper identifies him as the true shepherd.
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He is allowed to walk into the sheep fold to call out his own sheep and he does so by name.
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Now, listen to this. When his own sheep hear their shepherd's voice, they are arrested within.
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They raise their head and begin to look for their shepherd.
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They hear his voice. They recognize his voice. The other sheep continue to graze. The other sheep continue to be preoccupied with what is in front of them.
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But as soon as the true sheep hear the voice of the shepherd, they begin to separate themselves from the other sheep and they are drawn towards where the voice is coming from and they are drawn to the shepherd for they recognize that voice.
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That is my shepherd calling me. That is not the voice of a thief.
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That is not the voice of a robber. That is my shepherd. I recognize the voice and further he is calling me by name.
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He alone knows me by name. He calls his own sheep by name and they are drawn to their shepherd.
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They begin to separate themselves out of the community sheepfold. They are drawn to the door where the true shepherd is standing and he will now lead them out of town, out to the green pastures, out beside the still waters and that is what we read in verse 3.
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The sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out to a country sheepfold that he will build only for them.
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They started out in the community sheepfold in town with all of the flocks put together.
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He now leads them out to the privacy of the countryside and he rolls rocks together and he makes a sheepfold only for his own sheep.
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Verse 4, when he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them. For he is a true shepherd.
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He doesn't drive them like cattle. He leads them like a shepherd and the sheep follow him.
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Why? Because they know his voice.
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It is the spirit of God who causes them to, in that moment, recognize the voice of the shepherd that is my shepherd and I must go to Jesus.
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Verse 5, a stranger, they simply will not follow.
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No, none of these elect sheep will follow a stranger. They will go to Jesus.
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They will follow Jesus. A stranger they simply will not follow but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
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Frederick Godet, a French commentator on the Gospel of John, tells the story of a Scottish traveler who was touring the city of Jerusalem.
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He saw a shepherd leading his flock next to the city wall around Jerusalem.
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He approached the shepherd with an idea. He said, let me change into your shepherd's clothes and disguise myself as you and let me call the sheep.
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Let me see if they will follow me. So, the
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Scottish traveler dressed in the clothes of this shepherd called out to the flock.
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They remained motionless as still as statues.
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Then the true shepherd raised his voice and called them and instantly, immediately the sheep came.
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Do you know why you have responded to Christ and maybe others in your family have kept their heads down, continuing to graze?
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You know why you have lifted your head and said, He's calling me by name.
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That is my shepherd that's calling me. It is because the Spirit of God has been so at work in your heart that He opened your ears,
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He opened your eyes, He raised you from the dead, He gave you saving faith and He powerfully drew you, overcoming all resistance that you might believe upon Christ.
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When the voices of strangers call out to the flock, they simply will not follow.
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When the voices of modern apostates and cult leaders, liberal preachers call out to the sheep, they will not come.
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The voice of Brigham Young is the voice of a thief. The voice of Mohammed is the voice of a robber.
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The voice of the Pope is the voice of a stranger.
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Pink writes, let a man of the world hear two preachers, one giving out the truth and the other error, and he can discern no difference between them, but it is far otherwise with a child of God.
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He may be but a babe in Christ, unskilled in theological controversies, but instinctively, he will detect vital heresy as soon as he hears it.
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And why is this? Because he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and he has received an unction of the
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Holy One, 1 John 2 .20. How thankful we should be for this, how gracious of the
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Lord to have given us this capacity to separate the precious from the vile.
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Are you one of the Lord's sheep? Have you been called out? It's what the word church means, ecclesia, the called out ones.
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Have you been called out of the community sheepfold, out of the clutter of this world, out of apostate churches, out of false religion, out of the evil world system, out of dead religion?
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Have you been called out? And has there been this response in you that is inexplicable?
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That is, it's a mystery. Why did I respond and my sister did not?
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Why did I respond and the guys that I played ball with in high school did not?
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Why me? The answer is found in the sovereign grace of God because it pleased
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Him to have mercy upon whom He would have mercy. And He called you by name.
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He raised you spiritually to believe upon Him. And it's why when we get to heaven and He gives us our crowns, we're going to look at this crown and we're going to think for one moment.
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Let me get this straight. I was dead in trespasses and in sin.
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I was running away from God as fast as I could. My heart was uncircumcised.
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He chose me. He redeemed me. He called me.
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He drew me. He regenerated me. He gave me grace. He gave me repentance.
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He gave me faith. He has led me. What am
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I doing with this crown? And we will cast it back at His feet and it will signify that from Him and through Him and now back to Him are all things.
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Let us lay our praise at His feet. Let us lay our lives at His feet because it is all of grace.
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1 Corinthians 15, I am what I am by the grace of God.
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To God be the glory. Let us pray. Father, this is the high ground of truth, sovereign saving grace.
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This is as pure and high as it gets.
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All other truths find a supportive role to these central core cardinal tenets of sovereign saving grace.
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Thank you that you have made us a trophy of your grace. In Jesus' name, amen.