I don't see too many, actually I don't see any faces I don't recognize, so I'll step right in. I know you have been with us for at least a little bit of time, and so you know that here at Grace Baptist Chapel, there are a few things that we know. We know for certain. For example, we know that the work of Jesus Christ, the God-man born of a virgin in Nazareth, we know that his work is totally sufficient to save sinners, to save sinners from the just wrath of a holy God. However, you might describe what sinners owe the judge of all creation, Jesus Christ paid the price. All who will ever be saved will be saved because Jesus Christ has covered the cost to buy back his people from under the judgment of the Lord. This is what we call redemption. He paid the redemption price. Jesus is a perfect Redeemer. We know this. We also know that this redemption is why the second person of the Trinity condescended to become man. Remember the angel told Joseph that Mary will bring forth a son and that they should call his name Jesus for he would save his people from their sins. We know that this redemption is sufficient forever. The author to the Hebrews said, but Christ came as a high priest of the good things to come, with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands that is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats or calves, but with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. We know that the resurrection proves that the price Jesus paid for his people's redemption was satisfactory. Paul told the Romans that righteousness shall be imputed to us who believe in him, that is God the Father, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. This Jesus, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." In other words, Jesus did not owe the judge a fine of death. He paid the fine for the sins of his people, and so, now that the fine was completely paid, the judgment of death no longer had a hold on him, and he arose. To the Galatians, Paul wrote that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. having become a curse for us, for it is written, curse is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So we know that the redemption price Jesus Christ earned by his perfect life and the one he paid in his death was a price he paid for his people. It is perfect. It is complete. He alone has paid for it. He has accomplished the redemption. And you heard it right there at the end of that last quote. The redemption has been accomplished by Christ. The redemption is applied by faith. Paul told the Ephesians that you have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Paul told the Romans that the righteousness Christ bought for them is revealed from faith to faith. You'll hear a lot more about that next week. We know there is no other righteousness. We know that there is no other redemption from the penalty price we owe for sins. There is no other rescue. There is no other salvation. The only means by which we have to gain a redemption is to have faith in the redemption bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. Now we also know that this Good News, this Gospel, is the thing that brings people out of darkness into the light. It brings people from out there to Himself. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. I just cited Romans 1.17. In Romans 1.16, Paul said, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, the Jew first and also for the Greek. Paul told the Corinthians, The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God. These truths are part of our confession. These are facts we hold dear as followers of Christ. They are essential. They are foundational. They are basic. They are at the root of our faith. Jesus paid the price of redemption. We have access to that payment by faith. The gospel, the good news, is the power that makes it happen. So, simple, right? Voila! Redemption accomplished. Redemption applied. Power of the gospel. Everyone should be flocking to the Lord. Right? This is simple. It's done. It's easy. But of course, if it were so simple, everyone would be flocking. And the obvious question is, what is then the difference between the person who hears the power of God unto salvation and responds in faith, from the one who hears the same gospel call and rejects it. A little bit of insight. We can turn to Matthew 13 if you want to turn there. If you're using one of the Bibles in front of you, that's page 687. Matthew 13 and verse 1. You're going to find the parable of the sower. As you're turning there, on this day, Jesus had done, well, pretty much what we kind of imagine Him doing every day. He was preaching, He was healing, He was calling out the Pharisees for hypocrisy, He was saying things like, those people aren't my family, my family are those who do the will of my Father. So we pick up here, Matthew chapter 13, verse 1. On the same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to him, so that he got into a boat and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower, or someone who scatters seed to make a crop. The sower went out to sow, and as he scattered that seed, some of it fell by the wayside, or the path, and the birds came down and devoured them. Some seed fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth, They immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But other seed fell on the good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear. Now, again, our question is, what is the difference between the one who responds in faith and the one who rejects the good news of God? The disciples had a slightly different question. You see here verse 10, and the disciples came to him and said, why do you speak to them in parables? He answered and said to them, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore, or this is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, Their eyes have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts, and turn so that I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it, or to hear what you hear and did not hear it." Then Christ goes on to explain what's going on in this parable. Therefore hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, that's the seed, and does not understand it, the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one who received seed on the wayside, or on the path. But he who received the seed on the stony places, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, but has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. So when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now the one who received seed among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But the one who receives seed on the good ground, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. So what's the difference? Look there in verse 19. We see the seed is the word of the kingdom or the word that the Lord is by which is bringing men into his kingdom. This is the good news that Jesus is rescuing a people apart from the father or set apart by the father by the power of the spirit. The seed is the message that sinners can be saved by faith and the redemption purchased by the sufficient Savior. This is the gospel call. This is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation from sin and death and punishment. But notice the seed is not different, right? The seed is the same seed. The sower is the same sower. So then the difference is what we have left, the soil. We have the path, the stony places, the thorns. The seed goes and there is no effect. The seed on the good soil, the good ground, bears fruit a hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold. The soil is the difference. Luke helps us clarify this a little bit more explicitly, but Matthew points to it here too, maybe a little bit more subtly, but it's there. Look there in verse 15. Jesus quotes from Isaiah, and he says, it is a dull heart that is the problem. The dull heart causes blindness to the truth. The dull heart causes deafness to the gospel. If the heart was good, they would turn. and be healed. The way that Luke puts it, he says, as for the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast with an honest and good heart. So the difference between the one who grasps the gospel and responds to it by faith and the one who rejects it is the heart. Now, just to be clear, we're not talking about the physical organ in your chest that pumps blood around your body. We're talking, I'm talking about the center of your innermost being. I'm talking about the thing in the driver's seat of your choices, your decisions, your affections. I'm talking about the thing that holds the handlebars of the bike ride through life. What Jesus and the disciples are talking about here is the part of you that makes you, you, the inside, the heart. The sower scatters the same gospel seed to all kinds of hearts, and the good one responds in faith. The others reject the gospel." Now, if you're anything like me, this causes a bit of worry. My heart is easily distracted. My heart is easily tricked. into going after things that have temporary value rather than eternal value. My heart is finicky. Sometimes my heart is foolish, obstinate, stubborn, selfish. And this is what God's word tells us about our hearts, right? Moses warned the Israelites, Deuteronomy 11, Solomon had this perspective, Ecclesiastes 9, are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live. Jeremiah 17, 9, this is a familiar passage. The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately sick. Who can understand it? Jesus called out the religious leaders in Matthew 15. He was quoting Isaiah again. He said, the people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. This unresponsive heart Elsewhere, we're mixing metaphors now, we're comparing pictures, is described as death, right? Paul told the Romans, Romans chapter 6, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead. He told the Ephesians, and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Continuing on, he said, even when we were dead in trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. The heart is the thing that is the difference between a right response and a rejection, and yet here we are with hearts that are faulty, are deaf, blind, dumb, deceitful, sick, full of evil, dead, dead hearts. Does that sound like the fertile ground into which the gospel seed can be planted and grow into fruit. We're in trouble. If this is where we are, we are in trouble. Now, there's an example of somebody who's right here at this spot between hearing the gospel call and whether he's going to respond in faith or rejection is still up in the air. Turn with me quickly to John 3. It's page 744. And the Bible's provided there for you. John 3. Listen to how Jesus handles Nicodemus. Nicodemus doesn't even really seem to understand the danger that I just tried to describe for you. But here he is. He's clearly heard the call. He's followed the ministry of Christ. He's weighing his options, perhaps. He's not sure if he's ready to jump ship from what he already has for himself. to the message of the kingdom. He's right there between the gospel call and the response. John chapter 3, starting in verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered to him and said, Most assuredly, or truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. A dead heart cannot even see the kingdom of God. And don't miss this. Again, Nicodemus is making it sound like he's just chewing on this whole kingdom entrance gospel seed that Christ has been preaching. He makes it sound like he's just curious to straighten some facts out. He's weighing his options. He's shopping around. Jesus won't have any of it. He doesn't even acknowledge that Nicodemus is complimenting him in some sense. Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter, and the matter is of the heart. Nicodemus' dead heart. Verse four, Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. A dead heart cannot see the kingdom, a dead heart cannot Enter the kingdom. Verse six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Don't marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things? In other words, Nicodemus, the spirit brings life. You cannot see his work until you see the effects, the fruit. You don't know where he comes from and where he goes, but you know he's been there when you see the fruit. And think about it, Nicodemus. Born of water, born of spirit, water, spirit, water, spirit. Ring a bell, Nicodemus? Ring a bell, anyone? Keep your finger here in John 3, but turn with me to Ezekiel 36. It's on page 610 there, if you're using the Black Bible. Ezekiel 36, verse 22. This is the Lord speaking to Ezekiel. He says, Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I am hollowed in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Here it is. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new hearts. I will put a new spirit within you. I will take out 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 statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Now there's a parallel passage. This is New Covenant language, right? I think most of you are familiar with this, but let's look at the parallel. Jeremiah chapter 31, more explicitly covenantal language, but you'll see the parallel here. Jeremiah chapter 31, that's page 555, if you're using that black Bible there. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord, but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more." Water. Spirit. What Nicodemus was missing was the water of the Lord's washing, and the Spirit who gives new life. Go back there to John 3, we'll pick up in verse 11. Jesus says, Most surely I say to you, we speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. Now look, here it is, the outcome of Nicodemus' heart. He does not believe. and look at what Jesus tells him to do, verse 12. If I had told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So responding to the seed of the gospel call is a matter of the Lord washing a dirty sinner and the Spirit raising a dead heart to life so that the heart sees the kingdom and enters the kingdom by faith in Jesus Christ. This washing, this new life, this is what we call the doctrine of regeneration. Born again, regeneration. When the spirit joins the gospel call to a new living heart, the outward seed of the gospel call becomes inward and effectual. Ryan alluded to this this morning. This is the doctrine of the effectual call. We have an outward call. It's given to everybody. It is only effectual in some, and the difference is the new washed living heart. Dead hearts do not see the kingdom. They do not want to see the kingdom. Dead hearts do not enter the kingdom. They do not want to enter the kingdom. Dead hearts cannot exercise faith and receive the righteousness of Christ to their accounts. On our own, our hearts are hard ground along the wayside. On our own, our hearts are rocky ground. They are thorny ground. The Lord makes the heart of his people fertile ground by water and the Spirit. This is regeneration. This is the effectual calling. So we have redemption accomplished. We have a redemption that is applied by faith, but until dead hearts are washed and brought to life by the Lord, they will not, they do not, they cannot respond to the outward gospel call. That outward call does not take effect until their hearts have been brought to life. Another way of saying this, and this is easier to remember, regeneration comes before faith. Regeneration precedes faith. Now, we've done some heavy lifting. It looks like y'all are still with me, that's good. You may be wondering, so what? Good, that's exactly what you should be asking. Here's what. there are some who would propose that regeneration comes as a response by the Lord to your faith. For the sake of time, I'm not going to go through all of the variants. I'm going to put them into two categories. Some of these views that say faith comes before regeneration turn the redemption that has been accomplished into a potential redemption. This is something like semi-Pelagianism, this is something like classical Arminianism. Ryan alluded this morning to the corridor of time. Look, if the Lord looks at us now, or if He looked at us in eternity past, before He regenerated us, He sees a valley of dry bones. The Lord must regenerate. The Lord washes with water. The Lord bears us by the Spirit. Looking down the corridor of time just makes it all confusing. The redemption has been accomplished. If the Lord intends to apply it, He brings our hearts to life so that we receive the outward gospel call and respond in faith. If we switch the order, Redemption is potential, and we are the ones who actuate it. This is not biblical. The other category is what we will call or what I will call provisional. There are some systems of thought where regeneration happens, perhaps with infant baptism. baptismal regeneration, and then at some later point, this person is supposedly supposed to come to faith, and this is when the redemption is applied. In these systems, you can also lose that redemption, which means it is provisional, it is not permanent. There are a lot of reasons to reject that kind of thinking. First of all, if you were with me on my description of the heart, and I think you probably mostly were from what I know of you all, those provisional theories reject that whole notion of a heart that's really dead. They say things like, there's a divine spark in there somewhere. It's deep down in there, but the Lord can get to it. Or, there's a foothold of faith on the beachhead of your heart. It's deep in there, but the Lord can get there. And so, the heart is not dead, it's just mostly dead. And when the Lord finds His way, that faith actuates regeneration. The other thing that these provisional views obscure or confuse is the plan of the triune God as a whole. Look back with me at Matthew chapter 13 verse 10. You remember, I noted, the disciples weren't exactly asking the same kinds of questions that we're talking about tonight. Matthew chapter 13 verse 10, again that's page 687 if you lost it. The disciples were asking something like, Jesus, why are you making it harder for people to respond in faith? Why are you telling them parables? Why don't you just speak plainly about what they should do? Look at the Lord's answer there. Sorry, I'm not there. Stand by one second. Look at the Lord's answer there in verse 12. Jesus is speaking. He says, For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. This is why I speak to them in parables, seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Again, he's quoting Isaiah. Hearing you will hear and shall not understand. Seeing you will see and not perceive, for the hearts of the people have grown dull. The Lord, the sower in this case, Jesus himself, is not on one purpose. He is not scattering seed only for the purpose of bringing people to himself. There's another purpose here. Judgment. Up until this point in the book of Matthew, as Matthew follows along, Jesus has been speaking clearly. Now he turns to parables, and he continues to speak in parables in the future, if you follow Matthew's timeline. Jesus is not just sowing the seeds so that he gets the right response. He is sowing seeds of judgment to those who will not respond. To those dead hearts. To those who have some, more will be given. To those who do not have, even what they do have will be taken away. This is the kind of thing that flies in the face of a provisional redemption. The Lord is not wondering who is going to come to faith. The Lord is not wondering who will remain in the faith. None of us will come, none of us will remain except for the Lord who acts and brings us all the way and secures us. There is no potentiality in the Lord's work of redemption. There is no provisional in the Lord's work of redemption. When He moves to redeem a people, He moves definitely and effectually. And because redemption is a move from death to life, from eternal punishment to eternal glory, from being an enemy of God to a child of God, a slave of Satan to a slave of Christ, a slave of sin to a slave of righteousness, from dust to glory, because this is the Lord's work, we all know, all the honor, all the praise, all the worship belong to Him. Now, I'm going to conclude here by reading a decent portion of Ephesians 1 for you. Again, I know most of you. I will say it anyway. If you do not know the Lord, if you do not love the Lord, the simple response here tonight from these texts and from the texts I'm about to read to you, believe that you need a Savior. Believe that He is the only Savior. Turn to Him in faith without hesitation, without reservation. Count the cost. See that what He, His redemption, is more valuable than anything, even amid persecution, even amid the trials of life, count the cost and see that he is worth abandoning everything, even though he offers it for free. And if you know the Lord and you love the Lord, ponder in your hearts the certainty of the hope that you can have that the Lord who has brought you unto himself will finish the work of bringing you to glory with him forever. And just think, see if you could propose anywhere in this reading where you can squeeze in the Lord's salvation is a potential, or the Lord's salvation is provisional. Listen here, Ephesians chapter 1, I'll start in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us all in wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. In him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory. Now skip down to verse 22. And he put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins. in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. If it's good, it's getting better. Verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. Faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. There is no potential salvation here, it is certain. There is no provisional redemption here. It is effectual. And none of this is left in the hands of dead-hearted sinners. The living Lord has accomplished redemption, and the living Lord is going to apply redemption by washing and the bringing to life of a dead heart to faith in Jesus, the perfect Redeemer. Let's pray. Lord, the truths we have pondered tonight are glorious, and they are all glory to you. Lord, we are sinners and we know that we need a redemption. And we are grateful to you who has turned our eyes to these texts and turned our ears to the gospel call. And Lord, if you have not done so already, we pray that you bring dead hearts to life so that sinners turn to Jesus in faith. Amen.