Please turn with me once again to our study of Benjamin Keech's Catechism. My plan this morning, Lord willing, is to consider questions 33 and 34, which take our study into the doctrine of effectual calling. I believe this still remains under the bigger heading of our study of God's decree, where we are now considering the application of Christ's work in gathering all things together in one in Him. God has chosen to glorify Himself in redeeming lost sinners. That's the gospel. And so every single situation and every event, no matter how big or small, is working together as part of God's decree to redeem lost sinners. Of course, the greatest event in all of history, in both the darkest hour and the brightest hour, was the crucifixion. And even this event was ordained by God to gather together all things in one in himself, right? It was there that hell took aim at man's only hope at redemption, and it was there that the Son of Man accomplished redemption. God decreed that redemption would be purchased in Jesus' precious blood on the cross, and that's exactly what happened. It was God's decree that Jesus would suffer on behalf of sinners, and it was God's decree that he would serve mankind as their prophet, priest, and king. And it was God's decree that he would accomplish everything he was sent to accomplish through works of righteousness and obedience to the Father's will. God, in his decrees, governs all things according to the counsel of his will. And so when we think about Christ's work, in light of God's decrees, it's important to realize that Jesus was quite literally upheld by God and His decrees in His earthly ministry. He was upheld by His Father and He was upheld by the Holy Spirit's power ministering to Him. Jesus overcame the world for us by God's decrees. But we see that the Son's work alone isn't enough to save us, is it? No, because His work now needs to be applied to us. That is also part of God's decree. We need Christ's work applied to us. We need the benefits of His work applied to us. Everything He accomplished was to gather us according to His decrees. And so His decrees would do more than just gather. His decrees would also prepare us for the eternal gathering. God would bring us to himself, not as wretched sinners, but as worthy and holy and righteous sons and daughters, people who are renewed in the holy image of their God. God did not intend to gather a bunch of evil people to spend eternity with. At least not without first making those evil people holy. That's the purpose of God's decrees and that's the purpose of the gospel. His purpose is to gather a people who have been bought by the blood of his son and made completely new in the image of his son. And that's a wonderful truth that we hold dearly. God doesn't just take murderers and adulterers and thieves and liars and slanderers and just bring them to heaven. He takes those murderers and adulterers and thieves and liars and slanderers and he makes them holy and righteous in the knowledge of God so that when they stand before him in heaven, they're no longer wretches. They're children of the Most High God. They're renewed in the image of their Creator. They are pure and holy and loving and true. God's decrees make that happen. God governs every situation that brings this gathering and this transformation to pass. None of this is left to chance. Just like the sun's work, was upheld by the Spirit and blessed by the Father as part of his decrees, so is the Spirit's work in applying it to the elect. God is sovereign in accomplishing redemption in the Son, and God is sovereign in applying redemption to the saints by the Holy Spirit. Last week began this section on the application of Christ's redeeming work. This week, we will consider the application of his work in terms of effectual calling. In the coming weeks, we'll see the application of the benefits of redemption, which are justification, adoption, and sanctification. This is a very theological section that we're in. So first, Christ works to redeem us. Then the Spirit effectually calls us, and then the benefits of that redemptive work are applied to us by the Spirit, first justifying us, then revealing to us our adoption as sons and daughters, and finally sanctifying us and renewing us in the image of God. These are God's decrees in applying redemption to us. Turn to question 33 with me, please. Question 33 says, how does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? Compare this with question 32 which asks, how are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? The answer for question 32 stated that we are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit. So the emphasis here is on the Holy Spirit. So last time we saw that there is an effectual or a successful work that is done by the Holy Spirit that applies this redemption to us. This week I'd like to think more deeply on what that really looks like. What does it really look like that the Spirit applies redemption to us? How does he do it? And that's our question today. So this is kind of like a part two message on the Spirit's application of redemption to us. Part one was how are we made partakers? And the answer was by the Holy Spirit. Part two is how does the Holy Spirit do it? It's said in a different way. Last week we saw that it is the Spirit who applies redemption. This week we see how the Spirit applies redemption. Our answer today for question 33 is the Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. So once again, notice the work of the Holy Spirit. God the Spirit has work to do in redemption just like the Son had work to do in redemption. So God is active in gathering his saints. God is infinitely and intimately involved in the process of redeeming people. This is why we believe in something called particular Redemption. I think we've all heard that word. Actually, our Baptist forefathers were often referred to as Particular Baptists, as opposed to Reform Baptists, like we call ourselves today. And this was because of their view of Particular Redemption. What is Particular Redemption? Well, Particular Redemption means that Jesus died for specific or particular people. Jesus died for a predetermined group of people that the Father had elected for salvation from before the foundation of the world. It's a very Calvinistic view of redemption. But it also reveals to us that God is lovingly and actively involved in the salvation of each particular person. There's a real and personal aspect of God's role in all of our salvation stories. None of us came to him apart from his careful involvement in calling us. God didn't send his son to die hoping that people would hear the gospel and be saved by that work. That's the kind of thinking that puts all the burden and all the glory, by the way, of salvation on the people who are being saved or the people who are ministering that gospel. That's the popular Arminian view of redemption. They say Jesus didn't die for individuals necessarily. Instead he died for everyone and it's up to each individual to come to faith and believe and be saved. Now on the surface that sounds kind of nice, right? It leaves it up to us. So God didn't pick anyone but it also means that he didn't leave anyone out. People seem to like this idea better than predestination. They say he just made redemption possible and then left it to the free will of the people to decide if they wanted to partake of that redemptive work. But that view is not only not good, it's completely unbiblical. It robs God of the glory he deserves for lovingly and carefully drawing particular people out of the world, and it denies probably hundreds of scriptures and scripture references teaching that we are unable to even believe. Why? Because the Bible says we are all dead in trespasses and sins, right? Dead people can't save themselves. Dead people can't call 911 for CPR, and they can't even swim to a life buoy to save themselves from drowning. dead. They can't do anything for themselves, right? And so the deadness of mankind requires more than just a lifeboat. It requires somebody to dive into the water to grab hold of us and then to put us into the lifeboat and then work CPR on us to bring us back to life. This is a work that must be done by someone other than ourselves. And this is what the Holy Spirit does in saving us. This is effectual calling. This is what it looks like to say he redeems us. He comes from heavenly places. He dives deep into the waters. He pulls us from that deep. He brings us to safety. And then he breathes new life into us. like an EMT giving CPR to a dying and drowning patient. And this is what we call effectual calling. That's the kind of lifelessness that we have naturally in Adam. We are dead men walking. At least we are spiritually before salvation. But after the spirit works, we are made alive and we are even called new creations, right? Why is that necessary? be called new creations because the old dead man has died and we are made new in the gospel. That's effectual calling. The old man in Adam, the Bible says, is dead and the new man is made alive no longer in Adam but in Christ. This means that the Holy Spirit has a lot of work to do before we can be redeemed. And that will be the topic of our study today. What exactly does the Spirit do in applying redemption to us? If we can't do it, the question remains, how does He do it? And the answer, once again, is the Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. We are saved by grace through faith, and it is the Holy Spirit who works that faith in us in effectual calling. That will be the focus of our attention this morning, effectual calling. And with that in mind, before we begin, let's pray as we always do. Let's pray that the Holy Spirit, as part of his great work, would do a work of faith in our hearts and guide us in our study this morning. Let's ask him for that now. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day that you've given us. We thank you for one day in seven, your day, that we come together as a body of believers to join ourselves to you in Holy Communion, to join ourselves with all those believers around the world who are all worshiping you in spirit and in truth today. May we be a part of that universal church. May all of our voices be risen to you together as one united voice and may that be a sweetness to your ears and may you accept it oh lord we thank you for who you are we thank you for the promise of your spirit to deliver our prayers to you and our worship to you we pray lord that your spirit would minister us to us today that he would be our teacher that he would guide us and that he would Bless our day and we pray all these things in the name of your son. Amen Okay, so the Spirit comes along in this work of redemption And it was first purchased by Christ and he applies it to the Saints the Son purchased redemption the Spirit applies redemption and we see he does it by working faith in us and But before we get going, how does he work faith in us and how does he unite us to Christ? It says, in our effectual calling. So we really need to start with an understanding of effectual calling before we even think about the work of faith or the work of uniting us to Christ, right? And we get this understanding, I think, in question 34. So let's skip ahead to question 34 and let's start by studying this idea of effectual calling and then we'll come back to question 33. Now these need to be considered together, I think. Question 33 introduces this term, effectual calling, and then 34 defines effectual calling. So I want to go to question 34 and learn what effectual calling is. And then let's come back and look at what it means that the Spirit works faith in us and unites us to Christ in that effectual calling. Okay, question 34. What is effectual calling? The answer here is effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel. Once again, this is the Holy Spirit's work applying the Son's work to the elect. And that, as I mentioned, is our topic this morning. How are we saved? How is the redemption that's purchased by Christ applied to the people? So let's start by defining this word, effectual calling. What does it mean that the Holy Spirit effectually calls? Well, as I mentioned last time, the word effectual basically means that something is successful. To be effectual is to be successful in accomplishing whatever the goal is. In the case of the Holy Spirit, effectual calling means that when he calls a sinner to convince them of their sin and misery and enlighten them and renew their wills and to persuade them and enable them to embrace Christ, that work of his will be successful. He will accomplish what he sets out to accomplish. So that's effectual. Effectual means successful or effective. And this successful or effective work of the Holy Spirit is specifically in his calling. We might say he is successful in his gathering, right? God calls people. He gathers people by calling them. If you have heard the gospel or you've heard a pastor or a friend share the gospel, you have been called. This is called the outward call. Every person who has ever heard the gospel has been outwardly called. This is also called the general call as opposed to the effectual call. So a general call simply means you've heard the call of the gospel with your ears. Effectual calling is different though. How many people do we know who have heard the outward call of the gospel but remain unfazed by it? A lot, right? Lots of people sit in churches for their entire lives and never come to a saving knowledge of the Lord. And that's because the outward call must be accompanied by the power needed to accept it. And that power is what we call the effectual call. Sinners are quite literally unable to accept the gospel without the Holy Spirit doing a supernatural work inside of us first. And that's because sin has had such a devastating effect on the soul, both heart and mind, and so we are unable and unwilling, both in heart and mind to believe the gospel because of this sinful condition of ours. Well, you might say, I'm not so sure about that. You might say, I'm certainly not as sinful as some people and I have a mind that works pretty well and a heart that feels. I'm not so sure that my mind and my heart are unable to accept the gospel if I wanted to. Most people probably would reject what I'm saying here. But here's my response. God created mankind to be holy and to desire everything God desires and to honor and glorify him in everything we do. So tell me something and be honest with yourself. When you wake up in the morning, what is your first desire? Behind every decision you make, what are the most important factors in making that decision? If it's not a pure and loving desire to honor God and enjoy Him, then it almost reveals to you that you are overcome by sin. Am I wrong about that? Does your heart long for the presence of God and for the will of God to be done? And does your mind long to be renewed in holiness and in thoughts of God and His glory? Amazing, but that's probably a good first test as to the purity of the heart and the mind. Is God's honor and glory and His will and your own personal love for Him, the very foundation of everything you do, because that is the way that we were created before sin. The perfect person, who is Christ alone, was our example of this kind of sinlessness. And He did everything He did for the honor and glory of God. And if we're honest with ourselves, we fall far, far short of that kind of holiness, don't we? And this lack of holiness, if we're honest again, means that we have no natural desire for God, which means we have no natural ability to come to him. If we did, we would have come the first time we heard the gospel, right? But what's the experience of most of the people around us? Are people just accepting the gospel every time it's preached? Or do they generally reject it? Even those in this room, most of us rejected it, right? The most wonderful offer of grace and salvation are rejected more often than they're not. There should be nothing offensive about the gospel and free grace and forgiveness, and yet it's the most offensive message ever spoken by men. Why? because men's hearts and minds have been messed up by sin. And only the Spirit's work of effectual calling can remedy all this, and that's what we see in this 34th question. So let's look at it, section by section here. First, the Catechism says He, the Holy Spirit, convinces us of our sin and misery. A moment ago I mentioned the hypothetical person who might say, I'm not that bad. My heart can feel and my mind can think. I'm able to receive the gospel's calling if I want to. Well, as I mentioned a while ago, the Bible tells us that we are dead in trespasses and sins. That's a pretty good way to describe our sin and misery. And what that means is not that we are actually dead. And it doesn't mean our hearts don't feel and our minds don't think. It just means that our hearts don't feel toward God and our minds don't think about God or like God. This is part of our sin and misery. This is part of what the Holy Spirit does in teaching us about our sin and our misery. And so effectual calling means that the Holy Spirit is going to change us and release us from this deadness of ours. First, he convinces us of our sin and misery. That's the first step. And that's something that reveals to us our receiving and our accepting of the Bible and the gospel must be the work of God alone. It isn't a natural thing for people to see themselves as sinful and miserable like this. 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9 tells us, God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. Listen to that. According to his purpose. According to his decree, we might say. So why do we say that we can't receive the gospel in our own strength? Well, we say that because the Bible tells us how the gospel comes to save us, and it's not according to our works. It's not because we have really smart brains that are able to believe, and it's not because we have good and feeling and obedient hearts to trust in Christ or believe the gospel. No, instead, the Bible says that salvation happens by God's calling. According to his own purpose and grace, this calling, the kind of calling that is called God's calling, is referring to effectual calling. This isn't the calling of the preacher that only penetrates the ears. This is the calling of God that accompanies that outward call and makes it effective and successful for the hearer. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 13 and 14 says, we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth to which he called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He chose you That's his decree in particular redemption. And then he called you by our gospel. That's effectual calling. God uses the outward call of the gospel along with the effectual call of the spirit to apply redemption to us. Jesus himself says in Matthew 20 that many are called but few are chosen. Jesus is saying here that it's one thing to be called by the outward call of preaching. It's yet another thing to be chosen. To be chosen means you are effectually called. This is God successfully calling or effectively calling and applying the redemption that was purchased in Jesus' blood. He has chosen you. He has determined to be effective and successful in redeeming you, particularly, specifically you. And only He can do this work because of our sin and misery. And so part of this work of His is convincing us of our sin and misery. We need to know we are sinners in order to be saved from our sin. We also need to know the depths of our sin in order to understand that the gospel and salvation are a call to holiness. A person who enters the church through their own works will inevitably believe that they have done the choosing. And that person, generally speaking, if he hasn't come to understand his own sinful and miserable state, will inevitably become self-righteous. This is dangerous because it's a deception. we must know our sin and misery to be saved. But God doesn't teach us our sin and misery because he wants us to feel sad and depressed about ourselves either. He wants us to see the extent of his grace and the heights of his own glory, the very grace and glory that he intends to share with us in heaven forever. And to see that, to understand that, We need to first know our sin and our misery. We need to be conscious of our neediness and the great chasm between us and the holiness of God before we can even receive that grace. Without this knowledge of ourselves, how can we understand the beauty and the love of God to save his enemies? And the misery being referred to here is knowing that we are slaves of sin and creatures unable to save ourselves. And worse, we are creatures who would choose what is grotesque over what is good if left to our own desires. That's our misery, whether we know it or not. It's important to understand that. And that's what the Spirit teaches us in effectual calling. And that's something a person should be able to see if their salvation experience is authentic. We should see ourselves learning about our own sin and our own miserable condition. That's part of being effectually called. Acts 2 in verse 37 is an example of people who have heard this kind of message. It says, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? That's a person confronted with their own sin and misery. They have no more hope in themselves. A heart that has been pricked and has begun to understand its own sin and misery realizes that it cannot save itself, and so it does the only thing it can do, and that is to cry out. What shall we do? This is the experience of the Christian. He realizes he can't do anything. That's part of the Spirit's working. And what does Peter tell them? He said, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. It's that word, calling. And what was the response of these people who had been pricked in the heart? who had come to know their sin and misery. It says they gladly received his word and were baptized. And that day, about 3,000 souls were added to them. And people got saved because they understood their sin and their misery. And this is the effectual, successful, effective work of the Holy Spirit. Second, the Catechism says he enlightens our minds in the knowledge of Christ. A great example of this is the story of Paul in the book of Acts. Paul, of course, was a persecutor of the church and was even responsible for the arresting and killing of Christians. But God supernaturally overcame him by effectual calling. And he not only overcame Paul, he also set Paul apart for the work of opening the eyes of the Gentiles and bringing a knowledge of Christ to the world. So he effectually called Paul just to use him in the calling of others. That's how the Spirit works. He uses you and me to outwardly call, and then he accompanies that outward call with his own effectual call. In Acts 26 and verse 18, Jesus says to Paul that his ministry will be to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. In me, he says, bringing a knowledge of Christ to the world is now the purpose of Paul's ministry. He is saved so that he might bring the general call of the gospel to the world. Effectual calling gave Paul sight and now Paul and his new ministry will be used by God to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light. This of course is referring to salvation. Opening eyes is a matter of spiritual sight here. It's an enlightening of the mind in the knowledge of Christ, as the Catechism puts it. Isaiah prophesies about this in Isaiah 29 and verse 18. It's a famous passage that's repeated in Scripture. He writes that in that day, the day of the gospel, The deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. Part of knowing our sin and misery is to know that we are deaf and blind to spiritual things. But when we begin to understand that, we can already see the spirit's effectual work, can't we? To see our sin is a gift of understanding. Our minds are enlightened to know Christ. Again, our deaf ears finally hear and our blind eyes finally see. Deafness and blindness is part of our natural condition. This is part of our sin and misery. And sight and hearing is a gift of effectual calling. It's the enlightening of the mind. It overcomes nature. Third, we see that the Holy Spirit renews our wills. Once again, we see this in the light of sin and misery and deafness and blindness. Our wills are also polluted by sin and the effectual and successful and effective calling of the Holy Spirit is cleaning that pollution up. He's cleaning us up, just like our passage in Ezekiel this morning. That's why he is successful, because he's actually repairing us from everything that sin has destroyed in us. Ezekiel 36, verses 26 and 27 is one of my favorite passages in scripture, and it's a passage about effectual calling. God says in the day of the gospel, I will give you a new heart. and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues and you will keep my judgments and do them. Jesus says, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. This requires a new heart. a completely new will, and God promises to do that in His Spirit's effectual calling. Once again, salvation is the work of God alone, and man can contribute nothing except the sin and misery that he brings to God. John the Baptist said it best when he said, He, Christ, must increase, and I must decrease. What happened in John's ministry must happen in our own lives too. That's what happens in effectual calling. The Spirit teaches us to decrease so that we can lay hold of Christ. He teaches us of our sin and misery and our own lowlessness and our deafness and blindness and our need for a new heart. We must decrease so that He may increase. This happens as our will is renewed. We no longer desire ourselves to be first but last. I think that's why Jesus says in the kingdom of heaven, the last will be first and the first will be last. Because our wills will be renewed to see things like God sees them. To see our sin and misery and to have our wills renewed. And then fourth, it says he does all of this so that he can persuade and enable us to embrace Christ. All of this so far has been so that He might persuade us. Think about that. We're not coerced. That would make us unwilling. And we already saw that we are given a renewed will, right? So we're not coerced. We're persuaded and enabled. To persuade means to convince of something. God speaks to us and changes our minds to agree with Him. both about our need for salvation and about the hope that is found in Christ's blood alone. That's persuasion. We willingly and cheerfully agree with him. He also enables us to embrace Christ, meaning we weren't able, and yet after he works, now we are able. How is that? Because he has taught us of our sin and misery, right? and he's enlightened our minds and given us new wills. Again, this speaks to the debilitating aspects of sin, makes men unable to embrace even the free offer of grace. It's a sad thing. But God takes those who are unable to embrace him and enables them. Again, the application of the redemption purchased by Christ is this work of the Holy Spirit. We are made able and willing to follow Him and to love Him and to embrace Him as the Savior of our souls. We might say He is teaching us, right? God teaches us to embrace Christ. He persuades us by educating us. He's renewing the mind. Every time we study God's Word, we ask Him to be our teacher. Our minds need to be renewed so that we might be persuaded of eternal truth. These are deep and spiritual things we're studying, and we need a spiritual teacher. This spiritual teacher persuades us and enables us to embrace Christ. Jesus says in John 6, verses 44 and 45, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God. That's effectual calling. Then he says, therefore, everyone who has heard and learned, been persuaded, from the Father comes to me. Right, because they have been persuaded and enabled. Everyone who has learned from the Father comes to me, without exception. When you lay hold of Christ, it is because of the work of God teaching you. In your own strength, we cannot know God. But by his grace, he teaches us, he persuades us to embrace Jesus Christ. And God is absolutely hands-on in saving souls. Everything we've considered today is a careful work that the Spirit does, preparing us and teaching us and persuading us and enabling us to know Him and love Him. And this is a work that is particular to each individual person. Everything required of us in the gospel is provided for us in the gospel. That's the God of the Bible. This is not a hard master. This is a loving husband, a gentle teacher who patiently persuades us to lay hold of the one who died for us. What exactly do we learn in being saved? How does he persuade us? We learn the cost of grace, don't we? and the mercy of God towards his enemies. We learn of the cost of our sin in nailing the Savior to the cross. We learn the joys of Christian love and communion. We learn the peace of a life given to God. And we learn of the honor and glory that awaits us as children of the Most High God. These are the things we are taught. And this is how we are persuaded to embrace Christ. Jesus says, those who are taught by the Father, come to me. Philippians 2 verse 13 is another famous passage, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure. God works to persuade us and enable us to do everything he requires of us. That's effectual calling. It's the work of the Holy Spirit to bring us into the kingdom of God. It's the work of God that prepares the soul to lay hold of Christ. He convinces us of our sin and misery. He enlightens our minds. He renews our wills. And all of that to persuade us to embrace Christ. We are literally made new. Every single one of those things are impossible apart from the Spirit's work. So now let's go back and read question 33 again. It said, how does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? And the answer is, the Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. Can you see how that makes more sense now that we've considered question 34? I'm not saying, by the way, that the catechism is in the wrong order. I'm just saying that it's hard to explain question 33 without first understanding question 34. The 34th question explains the 33rd. So how does the Spirit work faith in us? by convincing us of our sin and misery, by enlightening our minds, by renewing our wills, and by persuading and enabling us to embrace Christ. That's how He works faith in us. That's how we come to trust Him and love Him and obey Him and enjoy Him. That's what faith is, after all. It's a knowledge of God in Christ. It's knowing Him and believing Him. And that's how we are united to him as well, by effectual calling. When the spirit does his work, we have communion with God. We are united to him. We are joined together. To be united means we think alike and share the same desires and joys and interests. A person can't be united to God unless they are first joined to him by faith and changed to be like him. Enemies cannot be united because they have opposing views. And so one or the other must change their views, right? Romans 5 says, when we were still enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. And we can see that that's exactly what happens in effectual calling. The death of Christ is applied to us by the Holy Spirit. Our whole being is changed. We're changed from deaf and blind to people who know their sin and misery. And we see sinners made into holy and righteous saints, adopted and justified and sanctified by God himself. It's pretty remarkable, really. Enemies become friends and friends become united. The question for all of us is this. Is this your experience? Effectual calling isn't something that happens once, years ago in a Bible conference. It's something that is continual. It's seen in perseverance. And it's seen in repentance over and over and over again. And it's seen in our ongoing faithfulness. Effectual calling never ends while we're here on this earth. God will call us and call us and call us and call us until we die if we are his. God has promised to bring us all the way to glory. He doesn't just get us started to finish on our own. He takes us by the hand and guides us all the way. Is that your experience? Have you heard the outward call? Have you heard about your sin and misery? Have you heard about the Savior who lived the life you could never live and died to take away your sin? Have you heard that salvation comes to those who repent and believe on the name of the only Son of God, who was killed for sinners and rose again to bring his saints into eternal life? If not, you have now. The gospel shows the way to salvation. And the gospel offers effectual calling to make that impossible thing possible. Listen with me to the words of our Savior as we close. He says, all that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day." Jesus says, come. May the Holy Spirit accompany the outward call, and may He do so every time it's given. And may all of God's elect come quickly, and may we all one day be gathered at the marriage supper of the Lord together in one in Christ. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, once again we thank you for the blessing that it is to hold your word in our hands. To think that you would teach us personally by the work of your Spirit within our own hearts and souls is more than we can imagine. The infinite God is so careful and so caring as to speak to us each individually. It's more than words can express. We thank you, Lord, for this wonderful teaching. We thank you, dear Lord, for the Bible that is so clear on these things. Help us to love you. Help us to embrace Christ. Help us to live a life that is given all to the glory of God. May we serve you. May we love you. May we enjoy you, just as we were designed to. We pray for the Spirit's work to apply these things to us. And may we be the recipients of Christ's work. In Christ's name, amen.