Let's turn to Romans chapter 8 for a Bible reading. We'll read from the verse 28. So familiar these words are. They are a blessing to our hearts as we consider them, as we think of them. Romans chapter 8, verse 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the cold according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. For over whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified." What shall we say to these things if God before us Who can be against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Our loving Father, we come to the preaching of thy word. How much we need the help of the Holy Spirit. for preacher and for hearer alike. Come, minister to our souls. Help us to understand that which we are being taught today. May we know thy good hand upon us as we preach the word. Help me, Lord, I cry to thee. Fill me with thy spirit. May there be a sense of thy presence among us. We offer prayer in and through your savior's precious and wondrous name. Amen and amen. Having completed our studies looking at God the Holy Spirit historically, today we want to begin by looking at God the Holy Spirit theologically. As we do so, we come to ask certain questions. We come to ask the question, what is it? What is it that God the Holy Spirit does when he brings men and women and boys and girls to faith in Jesus Christ? What role does he play in the bringing of a person out of sin and on to faith. Does the Holy Spirit then, after conversion, play any role in the development and the maturing of the Christian post-conversion? Will all these questions, will, I trust, be answered over the coming weeks as we begin to look at the Holy Spirit in respect to redemption? A simplistic way to look at redemption is to look at it from the perspective of the Trinity. And whenever we do so, we find that God the Father, He authored redemption, we find that God the Son accomplished redemption, and we find that God the Holy Spirit applies redemption. The Father authors redemption, the Son accomplishes redemption, and God the Holy Spirit applies redemption. But I must also say that all three persons within the triune Godhead are involved in the authoring and the accomplishing and the applying of redemption to the sinner. Because what one person does within the Godhead, the other two persons harmoniously assist and they further in that particular work. Now by way of introduction, let me repeat a truth statement that I have stated many times before. God is a God of order. God is a God of order. All that he does is marked by arrangement. Nothing is done in a disorderly or in a manner that is not containing order. That's true when we see him framing and creating the world. In his work of creation, we see order. In his work of providence, we also see the orderly unfolding of God's purposes in this world. Now, you may think that's not the case, As you look into this world today, you may think of it as a world of disorder, a world of chaos. But God is ordering all things after the counsel of His own work. And so in creation, in providence, there is order. then it is then no surprise to us. When we come to think about God's greatest work, the work of redemption, that order marks that particular work. God is seen to be orderly when it comes to the work of redemption. And so we ask the question, since God does a work in the soul of the sinner, in what order does he do it? Is the sinner first regenerated and then they exercise faith? Or is it the case that faith precedes regeneration? Well, the Reformed faith believes that it is the heart that first of all must be regenerated before faith is exercised by the sinner, but we'll get to that in coming weeks. Now, I always try and it is always my aim to make the messages as simple as I can from the pulpit. It is not my desire to bamboozle, it's not my desire to present myself to be one who is greater educated in the terms of theology than maybe you within the congregation. So I want to, as it were, deal with the technical jargon. I use that lightly, that term, just at this point of the service. You see, theologians, they speak about the ordo solidus the order solidus when dealing with the application of redemption salvation to the soul of the sinner now that latin term simply means the order of salvation the order of salvation you see in god's eyes the order of salvation as it is applied to the sinner happens simultaneously at a moment of time. Everything in the sight of God as it happens in salvation, from regeneration to conversion to justification, et cetera, happens at a moment of time from the viewpoint of God. However, because of our limited minds, we can only see God working consecutively. We see things happening in a progression of order, Things happening, an event happens that's followed by another event that's followed by another event that then followed by another event. God sees the collective whole while we only see the single components of that whole being worked out. Let me use the illustration that I used before when we spoke about God being eternal. We think of the band parade. Do you remember that illustration? There you stand at the street corner. You watch the band parade pass in front of your eyes. One band passes, then another band, and then another, until all the bands have marched past. Your knowledge of that band parade has a succession to it, each new part adding to what you have already witnessed. But say you were able to get into a hot air balloon and to float and hover over the entire parade route. From that vantage point, by one comprehensive glance, you would be able to see every part of that parade taking place. Your knowledge of the parade is no longer consecutive, but it is simultaneous. You can see it in a moment of time. And so it is with us and God. finite beings, we view all that God does in redemption, salvation, as it were, standing at the street corner. We see events happening consecutively within our lives, but however, from God's viewpoint, He, as it were, views it from the hot air balloon and therefore He's able to comprehend Everything that happens in salvation and redemption at one glance, simultaneously, he sees it all happening in a moment of time. I suppose this is only but to help us to understand what God does within the life of the sinner. As we study the Bible, we do discern that there is an order to the application of redemption to the life of the sinner. Although no one passage in God's Word gives us that complete order, the theologian of the Bible, the Apostle Paul, came the closest. when he wrote the words that we read together in Romans chapter 8, verse 29 and 30. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. There are stages. predestination for knowledge, then predestination, then the calling, then the justifying, then the glorifying of the sinner. But we must remember that there's also sanctification. And so even Romans chapter 8 does not give us, as it were, the complete ordo salutis, or the complete order of salvation. Now when you come to read various theologians on this matter, the order of salvation, you'll find that scarcely two of them put the various parts of salvation in the same order. There are those, and they would say that a person is with respect to the calling. They would see the calling after the heart being regenerated, and we believe that to be the case. Others put the calling before regeneration. And so even some of reformed theologians, they would dispute with respect to the order of salvation. But let me say this, the order is not essential to salvation. We don't want to get caught up Are we believing the right order when it comes to salvation? None of us are saved because we have affirmed to a belief to some order or to some sequence of events. No, it is the experience of salvation. that brings us into new life and brings us into saving union with Jesus Christ. It is the experience of salvation whereby we are saved from our sin. And so the question that you need to ask yourself this morning or this afternoon is not, what order will I sign up to or affirm to? What order do I believe in when it comes to the order of salvation? But the question you need to ask yourself is, have I experienced salvation? Have I experienced it? Am I a child of God? Have I come to experience a new birth? Now the order that we will consider these things in is the order that I was taught at in Bible college. There is the effectual call followed by regeneration. And yet even that we'll see in coming weeks will be seen to be maybe an overlap with respect to those two events. Conversion follows then the application of the Spirit, the giving of the gifts of faith and repentance, that's all involved in conversion, the justifying of the sinner, then the sanctifying of them, the preservation of that sinner through life, and then eventually their glorification. This is what we would term the order of salvation. Now, as I've already mentioned, Holy Spirit or the work of the Holy Spirit is to apply redemption, is to apply salvation to the sinner. Christ has secured salvation, redemption by His work on the cross of Calvary. He has paid the ransom price. He has brought redemption, and whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Christ has secured redemption. He has purchased redemption, but that redemption needs to be applied to the life of the sinner. This is what happens in conversion. We're going to think about that today. And the first thing that he does in applying redemption is that he effectually calls the sinner on to Jesus Christ. And that's what we want to consider, I believe, not only this week, but in the will of God next week. We want to think about the Holy Spirit and effectual calling. Holy Spirit and effectual calling. We're not going to make it complicated. I trust by the Spirit, He'll open your heart and understanding. So as we consider then the Holy Spirit and his effectual calling of the sinner, the first thing that we want to do is to have an explanation of effectual calling. An explanation of effectual calling. In simplest terms, a person becomes a Christian as a result of them hearing and responding to the call of the gospel. That's it in simple terms. In simple terms, a person becomes a Christian as a result of them hearing and then responding to the call of the gospel. Now in the gospel, there are two calls. There is the general call. That is the external call of the gospel. That's the call that goes forth from this pulpit. Lord's day evening after Lord's day evening. Lord's day morning after Lord's day morning. That's the call that goes out in her children's meeting, in her youth fellowship, in the gospel open air. The general call of the gospel. Men calling others on to Christ. Going into all the world and preaching the gospel. There is, yes, the general call. And then there is the effectual call. That's the internal call of the gospel. That's the call that is heard within the soul. The general call is heard by the ear. But the internal, the effectual call is heard within the soul. You see, it is the effectual call that is the efficacious call. That's the decisive call. That's the conclusive call. That's the operative call. That's the irresistible call. The call that the sinner cannot, cannot close his ears to or shut her ears to. It is the call that the sinner must obey, just as Lazarus had to obey the call of Christ from outside the grave. Lazarus come forth, and he came forth immediately. You see, this call, this call, God calls people out of darkness. He calls them out of unbelief. He calls him out of confusion. He calls him out of chaos. He calls him out of sin. He calls him out of unholiness. And he calls him on to Jesus Christ. Now the question again is, have you heard that call? Have you obeyed the call? Has the call of the gospel come not only to your ear but to your heart and to your soul? And have you experienced what it is to leave your sin at the call of God and to wholly follow after the Master? Now, the shorter catechism does give a definition to effectual calling, the problem being that There is the thought here that it takes more than effectual calling into its embrace. Really, there is regeneration here as well with respect to the effectual call. But let me quote to you the answer to the question, what is effectual calling? The Westminster Divine said, effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit. So there we have it. This is God's, the Spirit of God's work. It's not Christ's work, it's not the Father's work, although they are involved, but primarily it is the Spirit of God's work, whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enabling or enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. That definition, if we would want to call it that, shows us that it is the Holy Spirit that does the preparatory work when it comes to any person's salvation. And we need to remember that. It is not the sinner that does the preparatory work. It's not that the sinner brings themselves to a point of life that they're ready to receive the gospel. For dead sinners cannot do that. They cannot do that. And so thereby it requires the working of the Holy Spirit within. Now we're dealing with great mysterious workings here. This is the deep things of God, child of God. How can we fully understand what God the Spirit does? Do we not read that within one of our hymns? We know not how the Spirit moves. Convincing men of sin. And we'll sing that in some week's time. What truth there is in it. but it is the Spirit that does the preparatory work. And we see that through the effectual call, he does a number of things. We want to emphasize them or reemphasize them just at this time, because we're going to think about them over coming weeks, but we notice that he convinces us of our sin and misery. In this effectual call, he convinces the sinner of their sin and misery. The Holy Spirit, as I've said, prepares the heart and the person for conversion. He shows the sinner their sin, and He shows them their guilt. He impresses upon the sinner's mind the wrath of God against them. The Spirit of God shows the sinner the hopelessness and the misery that they're in because of their sin, and He shows them their need of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 16, 8, speaking of the Spirit. And when He has come, And he will reprove the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment. That is His work. And then He enlightens the mind in the knowledge of Christ, because men, sinners, are held in the darkness of their sin. Their minds have been blinded to God. There is the power of darkness that holds sway over the mind and over the heart. And so what happens is that, as it were, the Spirit of God peels back the blind, removes the veil from off the sinner's mind, and shines into the mind of the sinner the light of the glorious gospel. This is his work. He enlightens the mind to the knowledge of Christ, having shown the sinner their lost and their hopeless state. He then enlightens the mind in the knowledge of Christ to the convicted sinner that longs for deliverance from their sin. The Spirit of God reveals Christ dying for sin. But not only Christ historically dying for sin, but he brings to the sinner the realization, enlightens the mind that the sinner comes to comprehend that Christ is not only dying for sin, but that he's dying for my sin. He's dying as my substitute. He's taking my place. He's bearing the wrath of God on my behalf. And so the Spirit's work is to bring those truths to the heart and to the soul and to the mind of the sinner. He enlightens the mind and then he renews the will. Because our will is inclined towards sin and unrighteousness. Our will is a will that is opposed to God, a will that is at enmity with God. And because of that, The soul or the will is bent on evil and can never in and of itself move itself towards God and towards salvation. Because of our fallen nature we are paralyzed and as a result the will must be renewed by the mighty power of the Spirit of God. He causes the will, once inclined to sin, to be now inclined towards righteousness. And then he persuades and embraces, or enables us to embrace Jesus Christ as he is offered freely to us in the gospel. You see, salvation from beginning to end is off the Lord and the Spirit having convicted us of sin. and enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewed our will, he now persuades us to embrace him and to receive Christ. What happens? This is what happens in conversion. Psalm 110 verse 3, thy people, thy people are made willing in the day of God's power. That's what happens in salvation. People are made willing. where once they were unwilling to come to Christ, where once they were reluctant to come to Christ, now they gladly receive Jesus Christ because there is that persuasion, there is that enabling given by the Spirit of God for the sinner to reach out the hand of faith and to receive Jesus Christ as salvation. Without that work, then no sinner will ever be saved. It is the Holy Spirit that calls us to Christ that conveys us to Christ and, thank God, converts us and sets us in to Christ himself. A Hodge said, effectual calling denotes the internal, spatial, life-giving call of the Spirit, experienced only by God's elect, in contrast to the external, general call extended to all who hear the gospel. While it is true that God uses His Word, and those who preach it as secondary agents to bring a man to faith in Jesus Christ, there needs to be a power that's apart from the Word. There needs to be a power that is apart from the minister, a power that is superior to an evangelist, if ever a dead soul is to be brought to life in Jesus Christ. It is the power of the Holy Ghost. That's what's required. His power, His working, His ministering. You see, without the Spirit's accompanying ministry, a preacher can preach the best of gospel messages. But it can all be to no avail. It is God who opens the heart, the Spirit of God who opens his heart. Now, the preaching of the minister might entertain the sinner. It can do that. You think of Herod, John the Baptist, his ministry, it entertained. He wanted to hear more of John the Baptist's preaching. It may entertain the sinner, but without the workings of the Holy Spirit, it can never enliven the soul. Never. It can never bring a spiritually dead sinner to new life in Jesus Christ. No, only the Holy Spirit can do that. And the initial process that he uses is effectual calling. So we come to understand what the effectual call is. It is that call that the sinner cannot resist. How necessary then it is for every child of God who has grasped a little of what I've tried to present to you, you've come to understand You've come to understand that it requires this different call, this internal, this effectual call. I tell you, if you've come to understand that, then you'll come to the place of prayer, because you'll come to understand that we need the Spirit of God to do the work of God, of convincing and enlightening and renewing and persuading and enabling the sinner as the gospel is preached. You'll come to understand that without the Holy Spirit, Your child, your son, your daughter, the person that sits beside you in the pure, unsafe, will never come to faith in Jesus Christ. And so we need the workings of the Spirit of God. A little side note, and I need to go quickly here. We must not think, we must never think that sinners are dragged reluctantly to Christ when they hear the effectual call. It's not as if they hear the call and then, with great reluctance, they come and they become a Christian. That's not the case. Rather, as they hear the call, they hear it joyfully. Such is the joy of hearing such a call that the sinner seeks after God, pursues after God, until they are assured that all is well with the soul. They're not dragged by this effectual call. We must never think of it that way. I was sort of thinking in bed last night, how could I explain this? I was thinking about a little boy called Jimmy. That's just a name we come up with. It was late enough. Think about him. He hears the call of his mother. Jimmy, it's bath time. Well, you can imagine what a 10-year-old little boy called Jimmy would think of such a call. He would be reluctant, wouldn't he, to come? There wouldn't be much eagerness to come. No, he would be dragging his heels. Do I really have to be bathed? Well, it's been two weeks. The mother would maybe say, of course you need to be bathed. There would be great reluctance. We must never think of the effectual call like that. But rather we are to think of the effectual call a little bit like the mother calling to Jimmy and saying, Jimmy, daddy's home and he wants to play football with you for an hour. And then afterwards, he wants to take you down the street and buy you ice cream. How do you think that little boy would respond to that call? He would gladly respond to it. He'd be out the door in the speed of light. Nothing, as it were, would hold him back. And such is, and I know it's a very simple illustration, but such is the call of the Spirit in the gospel. When it's made effectual by the Spirit, there's no dragging of the heels, there's no reluctance, but rather there's a speed, there's a readiness, there's a joy, there's a gladness. Yes, Christ is for me. Christ is made. over to me, and I'm now unable to embrace him in the gospel. Oh, may such a call be heard in your heart, sinner, where you'll gladly leave your sin behind. I heard the voice of Jesus say, come on to me and drink. Oh, may you come to Christ. And so we have an explanation. Let's think about the affirmation of the effectual call. Now both external and effectual calls are in the gospel or spoken off within the scriptures, but it is the effectual call that we want to affirm from the scriptures. Let me point you in the direction to a number of verses. We're here in Romans 8. We may as well stay there. Let's look at the verse number 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. We note the verse number 28, to them who are the called. Here are a people, and they are called the called. They are the called ones. And we find this repeated over and over again. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, unto the church of God, which is according to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. With all them, with all that are in every place, call upon the name of Jesus Christ our God, both theirs and ours. Verse number 9 of the same chapter, God is faithful by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 24 of the same chapter, but unto them which are called. both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God Galatians 1 verse 6 I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ on to another gospel 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 9 who 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 us in Christ Jesus before the world began. 1 Peter 2 verse 9, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Jude 1 verse 1, Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Christ Jesus and called. And so we have this thought, there is a calling. They've been called, called by God. There is that verse there in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2. Let me just take you back there again onto the church of God, which is according to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. Now, the inspired penman does not say that they were called saints, but rather they were called to be saints. This calling brought them to a position where they became the saints of God. That's the purpose of the call, to make them the saints of God. It is the effectual call of the Holy Spirit to salvation whereby the sinner is made a saint of God. Now, if you can remember a way back, and it is a way back now in our studies on the church, you'll remember that that word church is a compound word. It's made up of two parts, ak and ekklesia. Ak means out or out of. Ekklesia comes from the verb kaleo, which means to call. And so the word church can be translated to call out. And the thought behind even the term itself is that those who make up the church, and I'm not speaking about the visible church, I'm speaking about the invisible church, the church of the redeemed, they are the called out ones. They're being called out. Well, who does the calling? Not the preacher. It's the spirit of God. It's a spirit who calls the sinner out of sin and on to Christ. And so the very meaning of the term church establishes a truth that there is an effectual call that draws people out of the world and on to Jesus Christ. Have you known that call in your life? Now you've heard the gospel hundreds of times. The external call of the gospel has come to your ears on many occasions, but have you discerned the inward call of the gospel. You see, an outward call will bring men to a profession of Christ, but it is the inward call that brings them to a possession of Christ. An outward call will curb a sinner's lifestyle, sinful lifestyle, but an inward call doesn't curb the sinner. It changes the sinner. If you know not Christ, May God in grace call you unto himself effectually by this call. We've thought about the explanation. We've thought about the affirmation. Let's think about the exhibition of effectual calling. And with this, we close. The Bible furnishes us with many, many examples of individuals hearing the effectual call of God in the gospel. We find groupings of people hearing the same message. However, there's a distinction. Because while some in that grouping of people, while some of them come to faith in Jesus Christ, others are left in their sin. Why the differing responses? Well, one of the reasons is due to the fact that some only heard the external call. Others heard the effectual call. We see an example of that in the ministry of Christ. John chapter six, if you want to turn there, verse 65, John six, verse 65. And he said, therefore, said I unto you, And no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe. and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." You know, there are some in that grouping of people, they heard the exact same message as Peter heard, but they walked away. There was no faith. They disbelieved the Word. They would walk with the Savior no more from that moment of time. They were never genuinely converted. And then there is another grouping of people within John chapter 6. They hear the exact same words, but they believe and they rejoice in it, and they desire to walk with the Savior for the rest of their days. What's the difference? The difference being that the word is effectually applied by the Spirit of God to the hearts of some, and they believe, while for others the word is not effectually applied by the Spirit, and therefore they only but hear the external call and never come to faith in Jesus Christ. Here you are. You've heard the gospel. You've heard the gospel preached, but still you're not a Christian. Why not? Could it be that the Spirit of God has not spoken to the soul of yours? That should trouble you. Another example, a very familiar example, is found in Acts, the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 16. We have a grouping of individuals, God's servant, Paul and his missionary band, they come to the city of Philippi and they seek somewhere to worship God on the Sabbath day. And they ask you the question, is that your practice? Whenever you're away on holidays, Is it your practice to find somewhere to worship God? You see, no one would have known in the Jerusalem church whether or not Paul went to church on that Sunday, that Lord's Day, that Sabbath day. No one would have knew. It didn't matter, because God knew. Here's a man who wanted to be in the house of God, a place of public worship on the Lord's Day. I trust that's your desire. I trust that's our desire as a family. that we'll find somewhere to worship God, and if not, that we'll make our own home, that place of holiday, a place of worship. Paul didn't just treat this day like any other day. No, he wanted to be in the house of God. Well, Paul finds as such a company of people who worship God, and he found them meeting by the riverside for the very purpose he's called upon to preach. And so Paul and his fellow travelers, they take the opportunity to present the gospel to those there gathered. And during the discourse, there in verse 14, we read that one woman within that company of people, Lydia, a seller of purple, we read that she attended onto the things which were spoken off by Paul. Why? Well, we read in that same verse, it was because the Lord had opened her heart. which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended on to the things which were spoken of Paul. And when she was baptized, her and her household, she besought us, saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us." Now, there were many ladies gathered. They heard the same word. But it was only Lydia whose heart was opened. Only Lydia. who on that occasion experienced, at least we expect, along with her family, they experienced the new birth. But there were other ladies there, and really the message made an impact upon the heart and upon the soul. You and I know that this happens in meetings in which the unsaved are present, the gospel is preached, God the Holy Spirit works upon the heart of a sinner, are brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, not every sinner's heart is opened in that meeting. Not every sinner hears the effectual call, and so they leave the house of God as they came, unsaved and unregenerate. The key is the working in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As I close, let me ask you, let me ask you who know not Christ and salvation, does it not concern you that God hasn't been calling you in the gospel. Does that not concern you? Are you not troubled that you've never heard God calling you unto himself? If that does concern you, then seek after God. Pray. Pray that he'll speak to you. Don't avoid the gospel. but rather expose yourself to as much gospel preaching as you can, and do not rest until with diligence you make your calling and your election sure, because your escape from hell and your entrance into heaven depends on this very thing, that you hear and that you respond to the gospel. Oh, that today he would touch your ear, that he would open your ear, and that you would hear him saying, come on to me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. May the effectual call be heard within the soul today for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's bow our heads in prayer. I trust if you're unconverted here today, I trust that God is troubling you, that there is this concern within your soul, I've never heard him call. I've never heard him call me. And that that would cause you to seek after God. And for those who know Christ as Savior, let's pray. Let's pray that such a call will be heard. A preacher can only but give the external call. It is the Spirit that applies the call, makes it effectual within the soul. May God be pleased to do so even today. Our loving Father, our gracious God, we rejoice, O God, that we have heard the voice of Christ. We've heard the call of the gospel. We thank you for that day and hour that you opened our ears to hear thy word. Thank thee for the Spirit of God who works so mightily within our soul, whereby we were enabled and persuaded to embrace Christ as he is offered freely in the gospel. O God, have mercy upon the unconverted. Christ offers himself to them today. O may they respond to the call and be saved. for time and eternity. Answer prayer and help us as we continue to wait on before thee. We offer prayer in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen. Let's take the hymn book, turn to 107. The hymn 107, Alas, and Did My Savior bleed, and did my sovereign die, would he devote that sacred head for such a worm as I. We'll sing the verse number one. We'll sing the opening three verses of this hymn just. The hymn 107, the verses one to three, please.