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Well, maybe we ought to sing a verse of 554, too. I hate to be wrong, too, John.

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Well, let's open our Bibles together to our study in Romans, chapter 8.

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The Christian life is one of knowing, not guessing.

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It's interesting to study the Word of God to see what we may know.

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Among the things we know is that God is working out all things for the good of His people, Romans 8.28.

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Because He is sovereign, we need not live in fear of the future or live in fear of anxiety regarding our circumstances.

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God is bigger than all of them. His purpose will be realized.

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And as the gentleman said, whom we quoted last week, if we cannot trust God in the dark, we can't trust God at all.

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So whether it's a dark time or it's a time of joy and light and happiness, we can trust God because He is at work this very moment in the life of each one of us who is His.

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The certainty of God's purpose is guaranteed by five actions which He has taken and which are listed for us in verses 29 and 30 of Romans 8.

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For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

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And whom He predestined, these He also called. And whom He called, these He also justified. And whom He justified, these He also glorified.

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Last week we looked at the verb where it says that God foreknew. It means that God knew beforehand, but it means more than that.

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This verb implies a designation on the part of God, that God designates something or someone as a part of His foreknowledge.

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We saw that this verb was used of the nation of Israel that God foreknew and chose the Jewish nation for its special purpose.

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Likewise, we saw that God chose, He foreknew Jesus Christ to be the Savior who would shed His blood.

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And then we have seen here in this text and in another one I'd like us to turn to right now that He foreknows the Christian.

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Would you turn with me please to 1 Peter chapter 1, where Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, writes to those who reside as aliens or pilgrims,

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if you'll pardon me, who are scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

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Sounds like a Holy Land tour, doesn't it? Who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

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Now notice that. Foreknowledge of God has to do not only with Him knowing ahead of time certain things will happen.

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He does know that, of course, but it means that He also designates ahead of time.

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And according to that designation, it says here we've been chosen. Now how does that take place?

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He says, well, it's by the sanctifying work of the Spirit. That's one side of the coin.

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The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those that God has chosen. That's the sanctifying work of the Spirit,

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setting them apart to that purpose that God has for them.

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But then He speaks also about the fact that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.

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There is the human side. It is our obedience to Jesus Christ. That is, our obeying Him and believing on Him.

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Bowing the knee to Him, our obedience, our believing of Jesus Christ so that we're sprinkled with His blood.

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And so locked up here in these phrases tightly in this verse is a tremendous amount of truth,

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both from the divine perspective and the human regarding our salvation.

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Now it is this divine perspective that is in view primarily in Romans chapter 8 where we go back right now.

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We have seen that God foreknew, the implication being that before we were born, yes,

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even before God created the world, that God foreknew those that would be His.

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Now it says that those whom He foreknew and designated, He also predestined.

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The word predestined means to mark out with a boundary beforehand. That's what God did.

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He marked out a certain boundary ahead of time for those that would be His.

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This is a term that is used of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He is predestined by God to do the work that He did on the cross of Calvary.

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But we're going to limit our thinking tonight to this word in relationship to the Christian.

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It says here that He predestined us to become conformed to the image of His Son.

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That's the goal that God has in mind for those that He has foreknown and chosen.

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He has ahead of time marked out this boundary around us, this end for us, this destiny for us,

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that we should be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ

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so that He might be the preeminent one, the firstborn among many brethren

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who would reflect His likeness as children in the family of God.

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Now I'd like you to turn over to Ephesians chapter 1 for a moment

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where we see this term used again.

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Here beginning in verse 3 of this chapter we have the blessings that God gives to us in Jesus Christ.

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He describes these blessings as every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

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In other words, there's not a thing that you and I lack spiritually as the children of God.

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Sometimes we are intimidated by those who claim to have some kind of an experience

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that's beyond where we are, and they suggest and sometimes even proclaim to us occasionally

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that we're missing something, that there's something we haven't had yet,

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that we need to pray for this or seek out something.

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But the fact is that God's Word says that already in Jesus Christ we have every spiritual blessing.

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Now we may not be appropriating it.

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We may not have entered into the experience of it, but it's ours.

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We lack it. It's there.

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But we haven't opened the treasures of it yet, and of course we need to do that.

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Now he goes on in verse 4 to say,

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Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world,

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that's equivalent to the foreknowledge we've talked about,

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that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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Now he says, In love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself,

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according to the kind intention of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace,

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which he freely, lavishly, abundantly bestowed on us in the Beloved.

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Now here he says, he uses this language, We're predestined to this destiny, adoption as sons.

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Now to the culture in that day, that was of great significance.

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Adoption wasn't like we think of adoption today.

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Those who were naturally born children were adopted at a certain point,

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and at that point they became adults in the eyes of the parents and legally before the law system.

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Adoption was a process or a declaration by which children became adults.

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And when they did, they had all of the rights and the responsibilities of adults.

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Now here what the Word of God says is that we have been predestined to this,

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that we should all who are saved, chosen by God,

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that we should all be placed into God's family as full grown children.

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Now you and I realize that we have to grow from a human perspective, that we mature spiritually.

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But from the standpoint of our position in Christ,

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from the standpoint of our legal rights and our responsibilities,

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at the moment that we're saved, we enter into adulthood.

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We are the sons of God. We are adopted by God.

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Now what did this? Well, God's motive was love.

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God being a God of love is always seeking and providing for the very best

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of those who are the objects of His love.

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And in love, in love God did this for us, that we might be the full heirs,

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not just servants or friends or little kids in God's family,

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but that we might be the full heirs of all that He has for us in Jesus Christ.

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Now what's the means by which He's doing this?

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Well, He says that it's through Jesus Christ.

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In other words, it's because of the saving work of Christ on the cross,

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His redemptive work, all of that made this possible.

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It's through Jesus Christ, no other way.

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The only way into God's family and the only way that we are brought into that family

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as full grown heirs is through the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And what's the basis?

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Well, He says, according to the kind intention of His will,

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to the praise of the glory of His grace, the basis of it all is grace.

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As we said last week, salvation is not 95% God and 5% us.

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Else we would have to give ourselves 5% of the praise.

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The salvation is of the Lord, and therefore we give to Him

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to His saving grace the fullness of praise.

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Now we want to move ahead tonight to another verb here in Romans, chapter 8,

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then we'll be on our way, and that is in the verb called.

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He says, whom He predestined, these He also called.

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Now this is not the first time in this book that the apostle has used that term.

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Come back with me to chapter 1.

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He explains in these first verses to whom He is writing.

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And He says in verse 7, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ,

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to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints.

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The only way of saying that is saints, by calling.

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This is a wonderful verb.

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By the way, this is the first verb in this list of five

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which involves our own personal experience in our lifetime.

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What I'm saying is that when God foreknew you, you weren't around, nor was the world.

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And when God predestined you, you weren't around.

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But when God called you, you were around, because this is a part of your own life experience.

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The definition of the verb is fairly clear, I think.

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We're used to using the term this way.

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To call means to more than invite, it is an invitation, but it's more than that.

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It's really to summon someone.

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A couple of years ago I got a note from the courthouse in St. Paul

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inviting me to serve on a jury.

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But it wasn't really an invitation.

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It was a summons.

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It was more than my just going if I wanted to.

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I was told to be there, and if I wasn't there, the sheriff would come and get me.

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I was summoned.

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I was called in the sense of this term.

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And involved in this verb that God called us,

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there is the implication of the power or the enablement given to us to respond to that, to obey it.

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Now with regards to the call of God, there are two aspects we have to keep in mind.

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There is what is called the general call of God, and then there is the effectual call of God.

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Now many of you know this already, but it's good for us to review it even if we've heard it before.

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What is the general call of God? What does that mean?

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The general call of God is His invitation to come to Him whenever the gospel is preached.

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Whenever the gospel is preached on the television,

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or when someone personally shares the gospel with a friend,

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there is present in that the general call of God.

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This general call of God likewise is present in His providential kindness to all men,

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and in the conviction that all men have within their conscience regarding their good or evil behavior, their works.

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This is the general call of God, and all men are susceptible to that.

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Whether they respond or not isn't the point. The point is that there is this calling of God to all men.

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But then within that broad category, there is the effectual call of God.

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This specific calling of God produces the desired effect in the one who is reached.

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J.I. Packer has said,

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It is the operation whereby God causes the sinner to understand and respond to the gospel invitation.

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So it is more than a general call.

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Here we have God's effective call going out to those whom He has chosen.

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Those who are foreknown, those who are predestined, and those who are then called.

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In this specific effectual sense.

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We see this illustrated in the Gospel of John.

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I would like you to flip back there with me and look at a couple of verses.

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One that you may have a hard time finding.

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John 3.16. You know where that is in your Bible?

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If you just kind of let it fall open on your lap, it probably opens to John 3.16.

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What does it tell us?

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For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,

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that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

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Is that true? Of course it's true.

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It's a wonderful invitation from God.

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That is an invitation that is extended to all men everywhere.

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You and I can go to a friend of ours or we can stand before a large group.

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We can read John 3.16 and we can preach John 3.16

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and know that we are doing that rightly and in the will of God.

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When that verse is preached, the general call of God goes out.

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Whosoever will.

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But then if you look over just a couple of pages or chapters,

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you'll find another aspect of this in John chapter 6.

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Look at verse 44.

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Apart from that general proclamation and the general call and invitation,

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we come now to this statement of Jesus that deals with the effective or effectual calling.

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No one can come to me, said Jesus, unless the Father who sent me draws him.

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That's Jesus speaking.

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Let's back up a few verses to verse 37.

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He says, all that the Father gives me shall come to me.

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And the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out.

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So here's another line within the same gospel, the gospel of John.

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We have the general call, whosoever believes on him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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But then Jesus points out to us that more specific effective call

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when the Holy Spirit causes the individual whom God has chosen to respond and to come to Christ.

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This word draw in John 6.44 comes from ancient pagan writings.

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It's referred to there in those ancient writings as an irresistible force.

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It's described like the force of a hungry man coming to food.

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He is drawn to that irresistibly.

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Now the Holy Spirit has taken that word and scrubbed it up and put it in the Bible.

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And he says that that is a word that describes what happens in the effectual call of God upon those whom he's chosen.

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We might illustrate it by one of these electromagnets that operate in salvage yards.

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They come down over this pile of debris and the magnet is turned on, the power is there, and what happens?

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Well the metal pieces in that pile leap up and are drawn to that magnet by that irresistible force.

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All of the glass and the aluminum and the wood and all the other pieces just fall down into a smaller pile.

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They're not drawn.

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Well you see that same drawing is over the whole pile, but it's that metal that responds to it.

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And so it is with the effective call.

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Those who are God's chosen respond to that when the Holy Spirit woos that chosen one in his sin.

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Wesley wrote the great hymn, And can it be that I should gain?

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We love to sing that, don't we?

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Now listen to these words, one of the verses of that.

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Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night.

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Thine eye diffused a quickening ray.

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I awoke, the dungeon flamed with light.

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My chains fell off, my heart was free.

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I rose, went forth and followed thee.

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Not bad for an Arminian theologian.

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That's exactly right.

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He expressed it so well.

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Thine eye diffused the quickening ray.

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Something in me that called for that? No.

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The grace of God.

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Now what are the implications of this?

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It poses a very wonderful implication.

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And it's this.

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It gives us confidence in our witnessing.

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Because it means that when you and I go out and we share our faith,

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and we don't know who those people are, that God has foreknown and predestined.

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But as we go out and share our faith, the Holy Spirit is going to use that to extend a general call.

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And then He is going to use it even more specifically and powerfully in the hearts of those that God has chosen.

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And they will respond.

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Do you know if it were not for the truth that we're talking about tonight that no sinners would respond?

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Not one would come to God of his own.

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Not one seeks after God.

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Not one.

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The Apostle Paul was really discouraged, it seems, in Acts chapter 18.

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There, I believe it was in the city of Corinth if I recall it correctly.

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In fact, let's turn there and make sure I recall it correctly.

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Acts chapter 18.

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I'm looking at verse 8. Yes, it is Corinth.

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And Crispus, it says, the leader of the synagogue believed in the Lord with all his household,

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and many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing and being baptized.

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And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, Do not be afraid any longer.

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Can you believe it? Here's Paul, and he's afraid.

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He sees what's happening in Corinth.

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And so there's this vision, and as clear as can be, the Lord says, Don't be afraid any more.

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But go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you,

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for I have many people in this city.

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He's not talking about people who were already saved.

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He's talking about people who were yet to be saved.

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But he's saying, Paul, you've got to go out there and preach. You've got to go out there and share.

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Because that's the means by which I'm going to call people to myself.

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When you and I see this wonderful truth that whom God has foreknown, he has predestined, and he has called,

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it should cause our hearts to be encouraged in our witnessing.

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Because when you and I witness, it is not in vain.

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God is using that, and we may not see how God is using it at the moment, but God is using it.

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There is a seed that is planted there, and we can praise God that he's going to use it.

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Now, how does God call? Well, we've talked about the Holy Spirit, but of course the Word is a part of that too.

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God uses the truth of the Word in the heart and the power of the Holy Spirit,

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and those two unite, they ignite within the heart of the sinner whom God has chosen,

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so that faith is born and the sinner trusts in the Savior.

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Well, there are some objections that people have to this.

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In fact, someone asked me after the message last Sunday night, and it's a logical question,

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why did not God choose everybody?

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If God foreknows those who are going to be saved, why didn't God foreknow everybody?

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And we might ask the same question about this verb.

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Why doesn't God effectually call everybody? Could he do that?

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Well, God is God, he can do that I suppose.

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I think that Charles Ryre has a helpful comment about this.

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He says, what has been said, what we've talked about tonight basically,

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what has been said does not imply that the doctrine is without problems.

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The chief problem is that of reprobation.

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In other words, why did God not include all in salvation?

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The most direct statements of reprobation are found in Romans 9 verses 18 and 21.

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It might be good just to look at those verses.

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They're probably not going to answer many questions for those who are troubled,

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but they're worth looking at.

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Romans 9 verse 18 says,

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So then he, God, has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

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Say, wait a minute, wait a minute to you.

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Listen, God is God.

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God can do what he desires to do.

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You say, well that's unfair for God to know, not at all.

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If it were not for the mercy of God, none would be saved.

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It goes on to say in verse 21,

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Does not the potter have the right over the clay

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to make from the same lump one vessel of honor, honorable use, and another for common use?

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What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath

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and to make his power known, endured with much patience

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vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

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And he did so in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy,

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which he prepared beforehand for glory, even us,

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whom he also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

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Riri goes on to say,

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Usually reprobation is in the nature of God's abandoning man to his evil deeds and just reward.

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However, the fact that only a certain group are elected by grace

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does mean that some have been passed by.

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Nevertheless, this passing by never implies that God delights in the destiny of the wicked,

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that they are driven against their wills,

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that election nullifies a whosoever gospel,

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or that any individual can consider himself non-elect and thereby excuse himself

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for rejecting God's grace in Christ.

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He says this and all problems concerning the doctrine can only find their resolution

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in the ultimate purpose of election, that is, the glorification of God.

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This somehow doesn't set well with our human reasoning,

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but the fact is that God passes over some and allows them to go into judgment,

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which is just and deserved,

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so that through that he might glorify himself as a holy and righteous and just God.

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How many have heard Charles Colson speak?

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How many of you? Isn't it thrilling to hear him?

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It was my privilege to hear him a few months ago in a meeting.

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Some time ago he shared this as part of his testimony.

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With this I close because Colson here illustrates what we're talking about in this call of God.

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He says, it was ten years ago next month that I went during the throes of Watergate

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to talk with my friend Tom Phillips.

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I was curious, maybe even a little envious, about the changes in his life.

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His explanation that he had, quote, accepted Jesus Christ, close quote, baffled me.

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I was tired, empty inside, sick of scandal and accusations,

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but not once did I see myself as having really sinned.

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Politics was a dirty business and I was good at it.

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And what I had done, I rationalized, was no different from the usual political maneuvering.

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What's more, right and wrong were relative and my motives were for the good of the country,

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or so I believed.

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But that night, when I left Tom's home and sat alone in my car,

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my own sin, not just dirty politics, but the hatred and pride and evil so deep within me,

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my own sin was thrust before my eyes forcefully and painfully.

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And for the first time in my life I felt unclean and worst of all I could not escape.

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In those moments of clarity I found myself driven irresistibly into the arms of the living God.

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Now it may be that our testimony wouldn't be quite as dramatic as that,

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but I can tell you this, if it were not for this work of God in calling us, none of us would have come.

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But whenever it was last week or 30 years ago, wherever it was in that camp or in that church meeting

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or in your home beside the bed, those of us who are saved tonight can look back

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and we can say, even if we can't pinpoint the exact place and hour,

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we can look back and say, yes, God drew me to Himself. God called me.

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Jesus said, all that the Father gives me shall come to me, and I will certainly not cast him out.

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My friend, if you're here tonight lost, and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior,

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will you tonight come to Him? You say, I don't know if I'm elect. I'll give you a test.

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Respond tonight to the invitation to trust Jesus Christ, and that's proof that you are.

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Is that fair enough? The opportunity is yours. It's open to you, if you will.

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Whosoever will may come.

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And once you've gotten past that reception, you'll look back upon it like many of us here tonight,

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and you'll say, you know, God was working in my heart and preparing me for that in ways

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that I didn't even know at the time.

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Dwight Moody perhaps had the most down-to-earth way of putting all of this together.

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He said, when you approach the gates of salvation, it says over the top,

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whosoever will may come.

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And he said, you see that, and you believe it, and you enter in.

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And you look back on the other side of the gate, and it says,

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chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.

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Those are two blessed truths, and they're truths that work.

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They've worked in your life, and they're truths that are ready to work in the lives of your friends and family,

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those that God has called us to preach to.

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And we'll be faithful in doing that.

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I'd like for us to take our hymnals and to sing a couple of verses of 545.

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The words and music by Charles Gabriel.

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And we will sing verses one and two.

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545, would you please sing with me? And stand as we sing.

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Look at the words now as we sing.

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I must confess, I chose this hymn primarily for verse two.

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So especially notice the words as we sing that.

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He called me long before I heard, before my sinful heart was stirred.

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And when I took him at his word, forgive he lifted me.

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From sinking sand he lifted me, from shivering hand he lifted me.

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From shades of night to planes of light, O praise his name, he lifted me.

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Let's bow together.

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Father, thank you that you called us generally and then effectually,

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and stirred our hearts and awakened us.

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Your eye diffused that quickening ray that brought us to life,

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and caused faith then to come forth from our hearts that we might be saved.

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We bless you for the certainty of your purpose,

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and for these works expressed in these simple verbs,

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how profound the truth within them.

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Lord, I pray this week that we'll be encouraged in our witness.

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If there are some of us who've gotten a little weary in well-doing,

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may we be encouraged to go on.

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Knowing in due time we'll reap if we faint not,

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because of the certainty of your purposes.

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In Jesus' name, amen.