93-07 – Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line? – The Effectual Call

In this scripture-packed series, Dr. Betters discusses regeneration, effectual calling, conversion, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance and glorification. Come along on this journey and find great joy in discovering many treasures in your journey along your spiritual birthline. Peter’s spiritual journey is a clear picture of a man intrigued by the Messiah, but not converted. In this message we watch as God removes Peter’s spiritual blindness. Peter’s journey helps us see our own spiritual birthlines unfold.

Transcript

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Welcome to In His Grove with Dr. Talk of Fetters, produced by Marking Ministries. Each In His Group message is designed to help turn your heart toward Jesus and equip you to walk by faith. Let's join Dr. Betters as he preaches the series of Do You Know Your Spiritual Birth Line.

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Now we're kind of in a little detour out of the Gospel of Matthew. We have been uh studying in Matthew the confrontation that Jesus had with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees, who were the legalists of their day, and the Sadducees, who were the rationalists of their day, teamed together and determined to confront Jesus with the issue of his message. And in Matthew 16, we have that account, and we see that Matthew 16 forms the preamble or the preface, if you will, for the coming passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But in that confrontation, Jesus declares their blindness. He says that you have a blindness and ineptness in spiritual truth, that even though you have been given the Old Testament scriptures, even though the fulfillment of that prophecy is sitting right here in front of you, you are blind to the signs. Now, along that line, we have tried to make application to where we are in the church today. Because I honestly believe we are approaching the last days. If we're not already in them, I believe we are very close. Just this past week, I hope that every Christian, I hope every believer, I hope you witnessed firsthand what we have been trying to say from this pulpit for a long time. I hope you understand as you pick up the newspapers and read it, what you're reading. I hope you see that the Bible speaks of the time when the persecution against the church will increase as the time preceding the coming of Christ. That there will be a persecution from without and there will be a tribulation from within. That within the church, the organized show church, now I don't mean by that the church made up of believers who have trusted Christ as their savior, because we know that in every local church there are people who do not know the Lord. I am talking about organized religion, organized Christianity. I call it the show church. In that show church, there will be a form of godliness, but we will deny the power that that godliness is supposed to represent. That marks the coming of Jesus Christ. That is a sign that the end is near. So we have this hatred of Christianity from the outside, and we have this disintegration of Christianity that is in its organized sense from within. Those two things happening simultaneously form one of the most potent signs that the coming of Christ is near that you'll ever find in Scripture. Apostasy or falling away, the love of many waxing cold, murder and theft and adultery and every form of perversion will characterize the last days. You say, Well, we've always had these things with us. It's always been the case. We've had those things with us from the beginning of time. Yes, that's true, but never have we in the history of the world had such a potent representation of gross immorality smacking in the face of God. And now here's the key in this country, which I believe forms the mission base of the world, in this country, the show church has degenerated from within, and the lifestyle of immorality has become acceptable and right, and those who question the lifestyle of the immoral are the ones who are on the outside looking in. We are the ones who are socially incorrect. You following me? And if you don't believe that, you haven't read your paper. In just one week, 12 years of a restraining force was removed with just a few signatures from the pen of Bill Clinton. I think you better understand this. This is not a Democrat, Republican, independent issue. This is a moral issue, and the ground or the battle zone is going to be the Church of Jesus Christ. We are the ones who are going to have to stand against that tide. You are in a minority, and you better get that through your head. With just a stroke of the pen, the gag rule that for years restrained states and local governments from allowing for free choice abortion. The gag rule with just a stroke of the pen was lifted. Just like that. Instantly. With just a stroke of the pen. The abortion pill, the uh RU 486 pill from France, with just a stroke of the pen, it has been brought into this country. You see, the abortion protests at the local clinics are going to be a moot point. You're going to be able now to go to the drugstore and buy a pill and abort your own child in the privacy of your own home. We can protest all we want to, and we can lay down in front of the doors all we want to, but with just the stroke of the pen, Mr. Clinton has opened the doors of this country to the abortion pill. In just a few days, I think you're going to see, in just the stroke of the pen, the ban on homosexuals in the military is going to be lifted. And you're going to have a massive influx of AIDS, patients into the military, and we are going to fund the bill for the rest of their lives. You say, Pastor, where's your compassion? I want to tell you, compassion has nothing to do with the issue that I'm talking about here today. We're talking about an acceptance of a lifestyle officially and legally by this country that I believe has opened the door of heaven to judge this nation. And the primary target of that judgment, I believe, has to be the church because it's in us that the failure lies. We are the ones who have missed the mark. We don't understand. We don't know what we believe. We don't know what we believe. And what we do believe, we're not sure we're willing to die for. With just a stroke of the pen within seconds. And I think it's interesting to note two things. Number one, Mr. Clinton specifically labeled his act as an anti-abortion act. He specifically targeted the pro-lifers and said, it is time for their agenda to end. Secondly, I think it's very important to note that Mr. Clinton is a part of that show church. He is a Southern Baptist member of a fundamentalist church in Little Rock, Arkansas. Even his pastor has denounced some of the positions he has taken. This is what I've been trying to tell you. The enemy is not from without, the enemy is from within the show church. We are the enemy. Sadly so. And in many respects, he does emulate John F. Kennedy, at least in some of the moral choices he's made. But it's interesting to note as he lays the flowers down, he prays. It's interesting to note how many church services he's attended and the image that he is trying to portray. But I've got news for Mr. Clinton. And I've got news for everybody else who doesn't understand the issue that's at hand here. We are not talking about political issues. We are talking about moral issues. We are talking about slapping God right in the face. We are saying to God, you don't understand. We don't accept the issue of life. We believe we have the right to terminate what you have given. And we're going to do it whether you like it or not, whether you believe it's more a perversion or not, we are going to accept as normative in this country the lifestyle of the homosexual. And if you don't like it, God, that's just too bad. And we're expecting God to stand back at this point and say, well, now you just go ahead and do whatever you want to do. You're free people. You have the ability to make those free choices. And God somehow or another is going to withhold his judgment on a nation that does that. Is that stupid or what? We are facing a very serious crisis, a moral crisis, a political crisis, a religious crisis in this nation. And we'd better know what we believe. Because as Christians, you know where the rubber's going to hit the road? Right in your life, right in churches like this one. I've said this in previous messages, and I'm not afraid to say it again. I believe our freedoms religiously have been seriously threatened, seriously eroded. We do not have a friend in the White House. We do not have a friend in Congress. We have an enemy there. He is an enemy, and we need to pray for his conversion. We need to pray that he comes to know Christ. You say, Well, how do you know he doesn't know Christ? Nobody who knows Christ will take these scriptures and spit them out and throw them away and says, this is not binding on my life, and it's certainly not binding on my politics. No believer can do that. And I think it's time we say it. Should we pray for him? Romans 13 says we should. We need to pray that God would either save him or remove him. And the same thing is true of every legislator, every congressional leader, every state legislator, every governor, everyone who holds positions of immorality. Immorality is going to erode the fabric of what makes us a free people. And eventually those moral choices that people make are going to infiltrate into the Church of Jesus Christ. Many of you sitting here right now believe in the same policies, the anti-life, the pro-homosexual policies. Many of you sitting here or listening by radio who call yourselves believers, you have been convinced that it's right to accept these things, that it's okay to accept these things. Somehow or another, you've listened to the garbage, you've listened to the media, and you've bought into the system. Say, Pastor, you look angry. You better believe I'm angry. You better believe I'm upset. With just a stroke of the pen. This man has undone in two minutes what it took 12 years to build. I think that's sad. That's the bad news. How about some good news? Ephesians chapter one. Verse three. 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. Now note this. And I have a little outline in the bulletins for you that's going to kind of serve as a roadmap to where we're going. I want to ask you a question as we read this passage. I want to ask you a question as we examine some of these scriptures. What do you believe? Having said all of those horrible things that all of us know are true, and watching the direction in which our nation has gone. Having said all of that, are you depressed? Are you discouraged? Have you become an antinomian? You know what an antinomian is? An antinomian is the person who says, okay, Sarah, Sarah. Doesn't really matter what I do because it's out of my control anyhow, so therefore I'm not going to do anything. Are you depressed? Read something here with me. When you look at that passage in Ephesians chapter 1, I want to ask you a question. How is a man or a woman saved? Because you see, that's ultimately what counts, isn't it? I'm going to spend my 50, 60, 70, 80 years on this earth, and then I'm going to die. So are you. You're going to die. And when you die, you're going to stand before a holy God. And he's not going to ask you, are you a Democrat? Are you a Republican? Were you a member of the first phony baloney church of Wilmington? He's not going to ask you any of that. You're going to stand before a holy God, and the whole of where you spend eternity is going to be determined by how you answer one very simple question. And I think you know what that question is. What have you done with my provision for your sins? You're a sinner. You have any trouble with that statement? Anyone here disagree with that? As much as we want to speak of the evils of the Clinton administration and the feminist and the liberals and the humanists and all these others, as much as we want to say that, may I ask you a question? Are you any more or any less a sinner than they are in the sight of God? You see, the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. When we stand before God, he's not going to ask us what our political affiliation was. He's going to ask us whether or not we have trusted his provision for our sins. If I were to ask you a question, how are you saved? What would your answer be? Think to yourself now, how am I saved? Now, most people will say, I am saved by believing certain things. Usually we say something like, you're saved by faith. You have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him as your Savior and turn from your sins and believe the gospel. And the root of what we're trying to say is we've got to believe. We've got to have faith. Somebody asked me this morning when I came to church, did I get any questions from anybody about some of the statements I made last week? That there's a big difference between being born again and being converted. A lot of you just kind of did one of these things. You know, just kind of, what? I don't understand that. Well, I'm going to say something else to you. You're not saved by faith. In fact, if you look at the outline, I want to tell you that salvation and redemption is not by faith. Salvation and redemption is by what? Grace. By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it the faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Grace from beginning to end. If you don't believe that, you don't understand Ephesians 1. When you look at Ephesians chapter 1, you've got the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the ministry of each one of them clearly enunciated to you in that passage. Look at Ephesians chapter 1, beginning with verse 3. Now I'm reading out of the New American Standard. You can read out of any version you want to, and you'll find the same language. 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, the Father, chose us in Him, the Son, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He, the Father, predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his what? Grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. There is the role of the Father. The Father chooses to himself, ordains to himself, predestines or chooses us in love. That's the first point you can put on your outline. We are ordained by the Father who predestined or chooses us in love. Let me ask you a question. What is the basis of that choice? Why did God make that choice? Why did He choose you and not choose somebody else? Why are you privileged people? How come you can sit here in the freedom of this sanctuary and listen to the word of God without worrying, at least for now, about somebody coming in and shutting it down? Why do you have that privilege? Why are you a saved man or a saved woman today? There's one word and one word only: Grace. Grace. The moment you begin to try to put definitions on it, the moment you begin to try to explain it is the moment you lose the significance of the word grace. If it's something you've done, if God looks and says, Well, you know, I think that everybody that is six feet tall has dark curly hair and is as handsome as can be, ought to be saved. Or everybody that's blonde or blue-eyed or whatever, if God made determinations on the basis of what you have inherent in you, your character, your nature, all of a sudden we lose the meaning of the word what? Grace. It doesn't mean anything anymore. All of a sudden there's a list of factors that enter into the process. God made a choice because he said, Hey, Chuck's not as bad as everybody else. He's going to accept me as his Savior. He's going to believe the gospel and become a preacher. On that basis, I choose him. Then it's not of grace anymore, it's of works. Or by grace, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, which is the follow-up passage to this, for by grace you have been saved through faith. The means is faith, but the power and foundation of our salvation rest in the grace of God. God the Father, who chooses to himself a people. You say, Well, I thought you said something about Trinity. Well, let's look at verse 7. In him. Who's the Him referring to? Well, he's just told us the grace he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. He said in verse 5 through Jesus Christ to Himself. In him, in Christ. We have redemption through his blood. The forgiveness of our sins or trespasses according to the riches of his what? What's that word again? Grace. You know, friends, I gotta tell you something. I think most of you believe grace is something you do in about 15, 20 minutes, or 30 minutes whenever you go out and you sit down at Wendy's or whatever restaurant you're going to, and you sit down and you pray, you think that's grace. Let's say grace. Why can't we say, let's pray? Choose your words carefully. Grace is a very serious word. And you better comprehend it because the whole of your eternal existence rests on it. Grace is why God chose us. Grace is why God becomes a man. You see, it's important that we understand that God became a man. You know why? Because the moment our salvation is secured some other way, it's no longer of grace. If God says to us, look, there's another way of salvation. You need to become this, that, or you need to believe this or that. The moment we do that, it's no longer of grace. That's why Jesus has to die. We cannot look for salvation through some other means. God himself becomes the sacrifice. That's what Abraham was told on Mount Moriah. God Himself will become the sacrifice. God becomes a man. In him, Paul says, we have redemption, which he lavished on us. Oh, I love that word. Which he lavished on us. Eris tense. Point action. God lavished, when did he lavish his love on us? Two thousand years ago when he was butchered on a cross. He lavished his love on us. Overabundantly, supernaturally, totally outpoured his love to us. God loved us with that free grace. Grace, grace, grace. And then verse 9, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him. You know doing the language there? Can you see the picture of a master artist at work? From beginning to end. You see, if you want to put something on the second point, it says, We are ordained by God the Father, who predestined and chose us in love, accomplished by God the Son, who atones for our sins. See, that's vital. That's what makes the Christian church unique. You know what we're saying? We are saying that there is absolutely nothing we could do to save ourselves. We could be the member of 50 churches, we could give hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, we can preach until we're blue in the face, we can be this, that, or the other thing, but just as lost as Satan is lost. Why? Because Christ is our atonement. And it stands to reason. If God is a holy God and he must be appeased in his holiness, if our sins are offensive to God and we cannot see God because of the offensiveness of our sins, then those sins need to be paid for. Either paid for in you or paid for in him. And that's the beauty of our message. We don't die on the cross, he dies for us. We don't atone for our sins, he atones for us. Thank God it's that way. Thank God it is, because if it were any other way, we would all be lost. Well, he's not finished. Look at verse 13. He says, In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. There's the work of the Spirit. And notice the means that the Spirit employs. God the Father chooses, God the Son atones, but it is God the Holy Spirit who calls us and unites us to Christ, because unless we're united to Christ, we can have no life. But notice the means he uses the preaching of the word and faith. You heard the message, you believed the message, and the Holy Spirit is given to you as a down payment of your inheritance, a seal of your inheritance. One of the most glorious passages, enunciating to us the cooperative effort between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not three gods, but one God who reveals Himself as Father, as Son, as Holy Spirit to secure for us our salvation. And here's the key from beginning to end, it's all of what?

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Grace.

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If you really understand that, and then you tomorrow morning you open up the newspaper and you see that the world's going to pot, and you see Mr. Clinton doing something else crazy, or the Congress voting in something else, and you say to yourself, Well, now wait a minute, has God lost control? If my salvation, if God is that minute that he can take this boy's salvation from beginning to end, and orchestrate it and predetermine it by his grace, if God is that small that he is that concerned about every single one of his elect children. Do you have any trouble believing that that same God is in control of the political structures of our country? Say, wait a minute, you just denounced what's happening in the White House and in Congress. You're telling me God's in control of that? Absolutely. From beginning to end. You know what the beauty of all of this is? Israel went into bondage because Israel was disobedient. And what did God do? What's the scripture clearly tell us? God raised up who? Pharaoh. Who raised up Pharaoh? The Democrats raised up Pharaoh. For this reason, I've chosen you. Who hardened Pharaoh's heart? God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Say, what are you saying? I'm saying that for 430 years Israel was in bondage because Israel deserved to be in bondage. And the vehicle that God used to bring them into bondage was Pharaoh. But God was the one who leveled his judgment against the church and used the political leaders to do it. I believe that has been repeated in 20th century terms. I believe the church has been driven back into her four walls to reassess what we believe. We are about to experience tremendous judgment and even bondage if this is allowed to run its course. We need to be praying that God would bring revival. And the revival needs to start right here. In me, in you. And that's the hope. The Father predestines, the Son secures what the Father has predestined, the Holy Spirit applies that work, but it's all of God. It's all of God from beginning to end. That's why when you come to Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it is so crystal clear. It is not your faith, it is his faith. It is not your grace, it is his grace. It is not your mercy, it's his mercy. It is not your works, it's his grace that saves. From beginning to end. Now, last week I introduced something to you. And I know it raised a few eyebrows. And I wanted it to raise a few eyebrows. I wanted it to drop a few jaws and raise a few eyebrows and rattle a few brains because I want you to begin to rethink what you believe. If you look at that little circle that I have for you, I've broken it up into pieces, little pies, pieces of a pie. That circle represents the whole of the salvation plan. And what's so beautiful about all of this is you can place in the center of that circle two words. In Christ. In Christ. Because the whole of our salvation rests in whether or not we have union with Jesus Christ. Not union with the church. Not a member of Glasgow Reformed Presbyterian or this church or that church. That is secondary to our union in Christ. Up in the upper right-hand corner, I want you to write the word regeneration. That's the beginning process, regeneration. And if you want to put in parentheses something, put the words born again. That's where it begins. It begins when you are born again, when you are regenerated. Now, here's the beauty about that act of regeneration. You don't have anything to do with it. You can't will that to happen. You can't make that happen. When Jesus turned to Nicodemus in John chapter 3 and said to him, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The verb in that case is a passive verb. It's an aorist passive, which means it's a point action that is totally independent of the individual. It's something that is done to you. You can say, I hit the pulpit. Or you can say, the pulpit hit me. The one is active, the other is passive. God is active, you are passive in that experience. Now I would encourage the couple, just had their baby baptized, and for every one of you who have small children, that you pray that God would do that early in your child's life. Abraham Kuyper, who wrote the classic work on the Holy Spirit, he said, What better time is there for regeneration to occur than at baptism? What better time is it for the covenant people to believe that God can supernaturally impose the work of his Holy Spirit in our lives than at our baptism? I believe John the Baptist, I can't prove it, John the Baptist was regenerated in the womb. I can't prove that, but I can't prove either where I was regenerated. But somewhere along the way, I came to know what it means to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it had to begin somewhere. You say, What are you talking about? I am comparing the spiritual birth with the physical birth. That's what Jesus did. He said, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus picks up on it. We discussed this last week. Regeneration is that moment of conception, it is that moment when the Holy Spirit takes up residence in my spirit. Before that, how would you classify my spirit? As alive or dead? Dead. Before that experience takes place, I'm dead. I don't have the ability to believe. I am a lost man. If you don't believe that, you haven't watched children grow up. Watch your children grow up. Their propensity is to what? Do good or to do evil. You don't have to teach them to lie or to cheat or to steal or to rob or to hurt or to injure. Why? Because the nature is evil. So something has to happen to change that nature. And that something that has to happen is the supernatural impartation of the faculty of faith. God places that independent of you. And who does he place it in? The ones he chose before the foundation of the world. All of our early education of our children, you parents, listen to me. All of that early education needs to follow along those lines. You need to believe that God is active in that child's life and you need to educate them as though they are regenerated. Now you don't know for sure if they are, but you need to educate them as though they are, because inside of a regenerated person is the faculty of faith. Now here's the key: every regenerated, born-again person will be converted. But unless you are regenerated, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless you are born from above, that's what the literal translation of that verse in John 3 is. Unless you are born from above, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Now move to the next column, toward the right. After a person is regenerated, what does this Ephesians passage tell us that the Holy Spirit's going to do? He is going to effectually call them. Write those two words in. Effectual call. What's he going to do in that effectual call? How is the Holy Spirit going to work in that effectual call? You see, I can look back on my life. And I hope you can look back on your life. In fact, I want to challenge you to do this because it'll show you the beauty of the grace of God. I can look back on my life, and I am 45 years old. 45 years old. And I can go back and I can rethink many different events and circumstances in my life prior to my actual conversion that were instrumental in bringing me to that point of conversion. You following me? I can look at what we call the chance happenings. I've said some of these to you before in the past. I told you about the time, for example, when my mother took sick and had to be hospitalized. And I had to take my baby brother out because I wasn't going to cook for him, take him out somewhere. And he chose the restaurant to go to. He's just a little kid at the time. And we look at that and we say, well, that's a chance circumstance. The waitress in that restaurant was working her very last night. She was quitting the next day. This was her last night. I may very well have been her last customer. That waitress was my wife. She knew the Lord. I didn't at that point. I had not yet been converted. Is that a chance circumstance? And the Lord was also working in her life, bringing her to an understanding of what it means to be converted. And he brought the two of us together. And for a while there it wasn't pretty. And I want to tell you something. As we review that, we sit down and we talk about it periodically. We review the hundreds of circumstances that took place. They were all a part of this effectual calling. God was taking two people who were regenerated and bringing them to the point of actual conversion and using some pretty serious and nasty circumstances to make it happen. That's only one. I can think of my upbringing as a Roman Catholic and the many different emotional and spiritual experiences I had, especially on Good Friday. Good Friday was very important to me as a Roman Catholic. I remember making, as the Catholics would call it today, the stations of the cross. They meant something to me as a young child growing up, and I would never do that now. But it was something I believe God was using to bring something to bear in my life, and that is what did Jesus do on that cross? I was always fascinated with the crucifixion. It always upset me to think that Christ was crucified. And I can even go back to those days when I was a little boy singing at midnight masses at Christmas time. And it was a spiritual experience for me. And we look at these things and we say, wow, these things can't, God can't use those. You don't tell me God can't use those things. If God can use Balaam's donkey, he can use those little things to bring somebody to Christ. And he used those circumstances and he used those events. My athletic proudness as a child growing up and the competitive spirit and all those other things. I can point to a hundred things in my life that were a part of that effectual calling. Where God was moving and developing and changing. And I look at some of the painful things that happened. I look at some of the difficulties my parents had to go through to struggle financially to raise the family. I remember how many times the suffering that my parents were enduring drove me to prayer. I didn't know who or what I was praying to, but I remember praying that God would somehow see fit to deliver my parents from these things. I was not yet a converted man. And I can go back and I can recall for you circumstances involving my brothers and my mother and my father and my relatives and the church life and the community in which I lived and the ball field. And I can make up a list of hundreds of things that I believe the Holy Spirit used in that process of effectually calling me. Do you know what we tend to look at? We tend to focus our energies on the next block. And the next block is conversion. And that's where we're going to stop for today. Conversion. We tend to think in terms of that moment, that point X. We call that born again. That's not when it happened. Conversion is the fruit of being born again. And conversion involves two things. And you can put those both in that same block. You're not truly converted unless two things happen. Number one, you must repent of your sins. The word repent means to turn away from and to turn towards something else. And you must believe the gospel as it is revealed in the scriptures. That is, you must receive Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. You must turn Turn away from and you must believe. Now I want to ask you a question. Faith and repentance, which one do you think comes first? How many say faith? How many say repentance? How many don't know? Well, I'm going to tell you, here's what comes first. In order to be converted, the first thing that has to happen is you must have faith. You say why? Because it takes faith to repent. You following me? You cannot repent unless you believe. Now, the faculty of that faith was implanted when you were regenerated or born again. And that could have happened a long time ago. And God was nourishing and cultivating and developing and fertilizing that faith during your effectual calling. And it is at your conversion that that faith becomes operative so that you actually choose Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. But He is the one who imparts that faculty of faith, nourishes it, and that faith becomes activated at the point of conversion. You believe the gospel, and because you believe the gospel, you turn from this lifestyle and you turn toward Jesus Christ and you trust Him as your Savior and Lord. But now here's the thing I want you to see. From the point of regeneration to the point of conversion, who's in control? God's in control. What's that called? Say it with me. Grace! That's what it is. Grace from beginning to end. So you could say that the first circle represents that impartation of life that the Holy Spirit plants within you. And then all along, He is calling you using the circumstances in your life, using the pain to bring you to Christ. You know what that effectual calling is? Several things are going to happen in that process, and it may take years. This is why you have to be patient when you're being a midwife. When you're spiritually being a midwife, you need to be patient where people are. And I know many of you can think of people right now that you're really wondering where they are in this process. But you see what's going to happen during this time? What's going to happen during this time of effectual calling that will lead up to conversion is this. That person is going to be convinced of their sin and the misery of their condition. I got to tell you something. You can't make that happen. Only the Holy Spirit can make that happen. You can't change anybody's heart. Only the Holy Spirit can change that heart. They need to be convinced of their sin and misery. Now here's the key. Their minds need to become enlightened in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. That's why so many people who do not embrace the Christian faith but are involved in something else, you have to be very patient because you see the mind has to be enlightened. You can't turn that switch on. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Your job is to proclaim it's his job to enlighten. Convinced of their sin and misery, their minds are enlightened in the knowledge of Christ, and here's the key: their will, which has been dead prior to their regeneration, their will is renewed as they are persuaded and enabled to embrace Christ as He's offered in the gospel. That's all of grace. And that's what happens during that period, that time, that birthing process, when that person is convicted, enlightened, and enabled, then and only then can they be converted. Otherwise, they're still lost. And you know what's even more beautiful as we complete this circle, and we'll do that in the weeks to come. You know what's even more beautiful is that even after that person is converted, grace is still the foundation of everything that happens after that. It's still God's marvelous, magnificent, wonderful, glorious, majestic grace that says, Oh, I'm disturbed. I'm disturbed by all that I see going on around me. I'm angry. I'm downright angry. But you know what I'm even more angry at? As I review some of the testimonies of small children, I'm talking seven, eight, and nine years old, who were saved during the Jonathan Edwards revivals in New England. We call them Jonathan Edwards revivals simply because God used Jonathan Edwards as the means to bring a great revival to New England that swept across the country. By the way, what very few people know is that subsequent to that, Jonathan Edwards was voted out of his pastorate by his people. The same guy who preached the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, where people were clinging to the pillars for fear that the ground under them would open and that hell would suck them in. That same preacher that God used as the means to accomplish great revival was kicked out of his own pastorate by his people. Imagine that? Yeah, I can. Because where there's the force of Christ, there's the force of Antichrist. But you know what troubles me? And I'll close with this. Yeah, I'll close with this. Somebody asked me once about the watch. I said it doesn't mean a thing. Just for your sake, every once in a while I look at it. But listen. We are almost finished. Here's what really troubles me. I read these accounts, and I've read a lot of them, of what happened during these revivals, and I see seven this age, these children right here. I see children that age being converted. And understanding all of this. Speaking about it, talking about justification and adoption and sanctification and regeneration and all this other stuff. I see these small children, I read the accounts of little children enunciating doctrines that most of you are scratching your heads at right now. Is that to be some sort of a put down? No, it's not. But I believe we are uneducated as Christians about what our salvation is. Therefore, we grow not to appreciate it. How can we express what we don't possess? How can there ever be revival unless we really understand the grace of God? How can we ever come to grips with what it means to enter into the presence of God in worship if we don't understand what that G-R-A-C-E word means? But I'll tell you, once you grab it, once you understand its significance, and it becomes a part of who you are. All of a sudden, these choruses we sing, all of a sudden these songs we sing are going to mean so much more. The service of worship is going to be so much more intensely beautiful because you're going to understand the Father chose me. The Son came for a purpose and redeemed me. And the Holy Spirit is going to carry out what he and the Father and the Son are covenanted together with before the foundation of the world. He is going to apply that to me personally. Personally. Chuck Batters. Personally. Man, if that doesn't send a chill up and down your spine, you're just a crocodile. You just don't understand. You just haven't gotten it yet. And we need to pray that in that effectual calling, God will enlighten your mind and enable your will to embrace the Christ of the gospel. Regeneration, effectual calling, conversion. What do we tend to jump to immediately when we're dealing with people? Conversion. Did you pray the prayer yet? Did you walk the aisle? Did you say what you're supposed to say at the end of the Four Spiritual Laws booklet? Have you said, Jesus, come into my heart, forgive me my sins, help me to live forever for you? Have you made that prayer yet? That's what we tend to jump to. And we bring these babies out prematurely. And what happens? The seed falls among the rocks, grows for a little while, has some life, then dies. Why? Because there's no root. A root. Is that your fault? No, of course not. But you got to understand God's in the process of converting. I hope you come to understand this because once you do, world events are going to take on a different meaning. Because you're going to see, and I'm going to close, honestly, I'm going to close with this statement. Listen, honestly and truly, every single world event that you are watching unfold is a part of the program of God's elective purposes, which are wrapped up in how he is going to and when he is going to gather together his church. The purpose of God is his church. Everything else is a means to accomplishing that end, including the election of, in my opinion, an anti-Christian president. I believe that with all my heart that God's purposes will not fail as he gathers his elect. Pray with me, please. Father, thank you for introducing us to doctrines that we hope and pray will change our lives for years and years to come. Help us, Lord, to be focused on you. Help us to be understanding who you are. Help us to see that glorious, marvelous grace of the Lord Jesus Christ at work, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, accomplishing what only He can accomplish.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

Now may the grace of God, the love of our Lord and our Savior, Jesus the Christ, the very presence, person, and power of his Holy Spirit abide with each of you now until Christ comes again and forevermore. And all God's people said.

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Mark Ace Ministries exist to offer help and hope to hurt people by pointing them to the promises of God and the comfort of his word. Through In His Grip, Ask Chapter Betters, failing treasure, and help and hope, we provide free, faith-based resources for those walking through suffering, grief, confusion, and feelings of each need. To learn more about Chapter Bells, export resources or contact them, visit M Cord.