God’s Effective Call
Jeremiah 31:31-34
July 16, 2017
As you know, we are working through those 5 Solas of the Reformation
And we have camped out for several weeks on that second Sola, which is of course SOLA GRATIA, or the belief that we are saved By Grace Alone.
And I think you will probably agree,
That though there are many who give a sort of lip service
To the notion of grace,
But the true reality of it is much deeper
Than most of us have ever really pondered.
It is becoming increasingly clear to us that
We have absolutely no part in the credit for our salvation.
We are not saved by “Grace A lot” we are saved by “Grace Alone”
And in order to see that in a more systematic way
We have been working through what is commonly referred to as
• “The Doctrines of Grace”
• Or for some “5 Point Calvinism”
• Or even still “The TULIP”
And thus far we have learned that:
Because of man’s ABSOLUTE INABILITY to seek or even to respond to God by his own human effort, he is in total need of God’s divine intervention.
• Man cannot and would not respond to God on his own.
• He is dead, by reason of the fall, and utterly helpless and hopeless apart from God’s intervention.
The good news is that God has chosen to save some
In spite of their utter rebellion and inability.
We call those whom God has chosen to save “the Elect”
And they are referred to all throughout Scripture.
And of course most recently we have seen that God’s will in SOVEREIGN ELECTION is totally fair and totally just.
• God is the sovereign God of the universe and therefore He holds absolute autonomy to do whatever He pleases with His creation.
The good news again is that God has not chosen
To give every man what they deserve, which is judgment.
Instead, God has graciously chosen
To bestow mercy upon some for His own glory.
It is all grace.
Now, if you are keeping score, what we have covered thus far would be the first two legs of those Doctrines of Grace.
• Man’s Absolute Inability (Also called: Total Depravity)
• God’s Sovereign Election (Also called: Unconditional Election)
TONIGHT I WANT US TO MOVE AGAIN A LITTLE FARTHER.
Many people who take issue with these doctrines
Would explain the phenomenon of salvation a little differently.
Instead of seeing man as universally dead and totally dependent upon grace for salvation, they sort of spin it a little differently.
As we have noted, they like to take the decision out of God’s hand,
And put the decision solely in the hands of man.
To them, all men are certainly lost,
But God has in fact universally chosen all men
And universally called all men,
And the decision of salvation is totally up to man.
Everyone (they suppose) gets an equal shot,
It’s really just up to man whether they accept the call or not.
And of course this road is taken mostly in an attempt to maintain
What they refer to as Man’s Free Will.
To that, we have said that man does have a sort of free will.
• That is to say, he is free to choose whatever he wants, It’s just that in his lost condition, all he will ever choose is sin.
• And the only reason anyone ever chooses God is because God causes them to choose Him.
And that brings up YET ANOTHER POINT OF CONTENTION
Among those who deny these doctrines.
It is the old “YOU MAKE MAN OUT TO BE A ROBOT” argument.
So let’s look at this a moment.
• Is that true?
• Is man nothing more than a robot?
• Does God drag men (kicking and screaming) into the kingdom of heaven absolutely against their will?
If you’ve ever watched the John Wayne movie “The Horse Soldiers” there is a scene were a young group of Confederate boys decide to march into battle against John Wayne’s horse soldiers.
As they are leaving one of the boys mothers grabs him and literally drags him out of line as the boy is kicking and screaming and resisting.
Does God do that?
And of course we have to answer: NO
Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”
Perhaps you will remember Stephen’s sermon before the Sanhedrin:
Acts 7:51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.”
Those passages clearly reveal that
Men often times RESIST God’s offer of grace.
Well these passages have been used countless times to try and refute the third doctrine of grace which we are introducing tonight.
It has been historically referred to as: IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
WE DO TAKE A LITTLE ISSUE WITH THAT LABEL
After all, men clearly resist God’s grace all the time.
Hebrews 3:7-12 “Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS. “THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'” Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.”
That is obviously a clear warning
Not to resist the call of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Or even later in the book we read:
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”
Those were people who had grace poured out to them in enormous fashion.
• They “have once been enlightened”
• They “have tasted of the heavenly gift”
• They “have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit”
• They “have tasted the good word of God”
• They have tasted “the powers of the age to come”
Their partaking in any of that was nothing but grace and yet, we read in that passage that despite their benefits, they still rejected Christ.
It is comparable to those 8 great rejected privileges of Israel
Which we recently read about in Romans 9.
So clearly, talking about IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
Brings with it some obvious and fitting debate.
However, what we are talking about here
Is something much more significant than that
Which is relayed in the statement “Irresistible Grace”.
John MacArthur gave it a better term I think in referring to it as
“GOD’S EFFECTUAL CALL”
NOW, LET ME EXPLAIN THIS A BIT.
If I talk to you about “The Call of God”
You can understand that easy enough.
It would be any request or invitation that comes from God about anything.
• Maybe God calling you to salvation
• Maybe God calling you to repentance
• Maybe God calling you to obedience
• Maybe God calling you to ministry
You get the idea when we talk about a call.
What you must understand is that Scripturally speaking
There are two types of call which come from God.
THERE IS A UNIVERSAL CALL
This is the call which God universally delivers to all men.
It is the “whosoever” concept.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Revelation 21:6 “Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”
Revelation 22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”
These are universal calls to all humanity.
What we see in Scripture is that this call is UNIVERSALLY REJECTED.
No man answers that call
Because man is not interested in repentance or salvation or righteousness.
And Scripture is literally filled with examples
Of people rejecting God’s universal call.
However, there is a second type of call also revealed in Scripture and that is GOD’S EFFECTUAL CALL.
To put it another way,
It is when God calls in such a way that it is never rejected.
This call is spoken of in:
Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
There is no indication anywhere in that verse
That there is one single person who is “called”
Who is not also “justified” and subsequently “glorified”.
It is a call which comes with a 100% success rate.
That is obviously different from the universal call we so often see rejected.
We saw this call last time in our study of Romans 9:
Romans 9:22-24 “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”
There Paul is referring to those whom God did save,
Whom he referred to as the “called”.
And this, by the way, is A COMMON DISTINCTION OF THE REDEEMED.
“Called” is the Greek word KALEO
And it refers to being summoned or called into someone’s presence.
For example:
Matthew 2:7 “Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared.”
Well, we are called the Church which is EKKLESIA
KALEOIS is to be summoned
EK-KALEOIS is to be called out
The church is those who have been called or called out by God.
WE ARE NOT just those, who like everyone else, heard a universal call.
We are those who have been specifically called out by God.
1 Corinthians 1:26 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;”
You are familiar with that verse,
Paul is clearly referring to God’s sovereign and electing call of salvation.
Ephesians 4:1 “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,”
Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.”
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 “But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Timothy 1:9 “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,”
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION,A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”
1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”
You get the picture.
It is a specific and effective call from God
By which He purposely called you out of darkness and into light.
It is a justifying call
It is a sanctifying call
It is an effective call
That is to say it always works
Because everyone who receives this call
Is also justified and glorified as Romans 8 says.
Jesus said it like this:
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
So, while we do see sinners
Reject God’s universal call of salvation all the time,
What we also understand is that to His elect
God issues a call that cannot and will not be refused.
• To those whom God has foreknown…
• To those whom God has predestined…
• To them God issues an effective call which will not be rejected.
To put it another way, if God chooses you,
There is a call that you will absolutely respond favorably to.
HOW CAN THAT BE?
If God does not drag us kicking and screaming against our will, how can you say that all of God’s elect will absolutely respond favorably to this call?
Are you ready for the answer?
BECAUSE GOD FIRST CHANGES THEIR WILL
God first causes them to want what He offers.
Look at our text in Jeremiah 31
(We’ve got several, but we can run through them quickly because the point is so obviously made)
Now, we read verses 31-34 to get started tonight.
What you should know is that
• Jeremiah is speaking to a people who are under judgment.
• Most of their people have either been killed or deported to Babylon.
• All that is left is Jerusalem and it is under siege and they are being starved out.
In a very short time, Nebuchadnezzar is going to break down the wall,
Burn down the temple and deport what remaining survivors we find to Babylon, where they will be held captive for 70 years.
You should also know the reason for this turmoil.
It is because Israel broke their covenant with God.
Israel made a commitment to obey all of God’s Laws.
Exodus 19:7-9 “So Moses came and called the elders of the people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do!” And Moses brought back the words of the people to the LORD. The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.” Then Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.”
You know that Israel didn’t not keep their end of the bargain.
I don’t want to drudge all through it,
But if you were to read Deuteronomy 28 you’d find a very long list of curses which God promised to bring upon Israel if they failed to live up their commitment to follow God.
Here is one of those pronounced curses or consequences.
Deuteronomy 28:30-37 “You shall betroth a wife, but another man will violate her; you shall build a house, but you will not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit. “Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and will not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you will have none to save you. “Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and yearn for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do. “A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. “You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see. “The LORD will strike you on the knees and legs with sore boils, from which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. “The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. “You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the LORD drives you.”
So it is very clear to see that all that is happening to Israel and Jerusalem
Is the direct result of them having failed to keep the commandments of God.
They broke the covenant and they are suffering for it.
Now, the strange part of Jeremiah 31 is that before we get to the passages we are studying, there are 30 verses that seem way irrelevant and out of place.
Jeremiah gives 30 verses that describe a coming day of absolute bliss and blessing.
• It talks about Israel again being the people of God.
• It talks about God rebuilding the temple
• It talks about tambourines and merrymakers and singers
Look at verses 12-14
Look at verses 28-30
Now you read that, especially in light of the Babylonian army outside
And it just doesn’t seem to fit.
We know why Israel is in this predicament,
It’s because they couldn’t obey God.
All of those things Jeremiah talks about in the first 30 verses
Are for people who do obey God.
So what in the world would make anyone in Jerusalem think that they will ever achieve any of those things?
Surely they know that when given the choice,
Their history reveals that all they ever choose is the wrong thing.
Why would they think that it will ever be any different?
Why would they think that they will ever choose correctly?
And then comes the answer:
READ JEREMIAH 31:31-34
Let me give you 3 quick things there.
#1 THE DECISION
Jeremiah 31:31
Notice that God has made a decision.
He DOESN’T promise all that bliss and then say, “Because I’m thinking you will have learned your lesson, and next time you’ll do what is right.”
• God knows better.
• God knows that if left up to them, Israel will never keep their agreement.
God described them accurately in Psalms 95
Psalms 95:10 “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways.”
God knows that they will never keep their end of the deal,
So God’s decision is “I will make a new covenant”
Well, what makes this one any better than the other one?
#2 THE DISTINCTION
Jeremiah 31:32
This covenant will “not [be] like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,”
Do you remember that covenant?
Let me sum it up for you.
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
Joshua 24:15 “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
The old covenant took a set of Laws and inscribed them on tablets of stone and said, “Now, you have a choice to make.”
• You can either choose to obey these commands wherein I will bless you.
• Or you can choose to disobey these commands wherein I will judge you.
That covenant was dependent upon the will and decision of man.
And here in Jerusalem, with Babylon breathing down their neck,
Israel learned firsthand how ineffective that covenant was.
God said, the new covenant, will not be like that old covenant.
SPECIFICALLY, IT WILL NOT DEPEND UPON YOU.
The Decision, The Distinction
#3 THE DESCRIPTION
Jeremiah 31:33-34
What a thing of beauty!
No longer would God write His commands on tablets of stone and present it to the people, God would now write His commands upon their hearts.
God will make them His people.
And it will be a totally intimate relationship.
“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know me.”
The old system maintained a definite pecking order.
• Moses went up, talked to God, received the commands, and then brought them
to you and told you who God was and what God desired.
• Even after Moses, priests entered the temple and communed with God and
came out to tell you what was expected.
• The only thing you knew of God was what someone told you about God.
God was here saying, it won’t be like that anymore,
I’m going to do a personal work on everyone’s heart.
It is going to be a Divine Work
It is going to be an Internal Work
It is going to be an Effective Work
For it will end in forgiveness.
Now, you are familiar with that passage, it is also recorded in Hebrews 8.
It reveals that God will do an internal work in His elect
And cause them to be who He calls them to be.
That’s not the only place it is revealed.
TURN TO: EZEKIEL 36:22-32
• Again, we don’t have to dwell long here, but you’ll see the point.
• Ezekiel is announcing that same new covenant.
(22-23) – Make sure you see WHY God is doing it. As we have said repeatedly, this is all about the glory of God, not the happiness of man.
But look at what God will do.
(24-27) Do you see that?
God is doing it all.
He is taking a hard-hearted people who always choose wrong
And He is promising to change their heart
In order to cause them to do what is right.
(26-27) “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from 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 be careful to observe My ordinances.”
My goodness, Ezekiel was a Calvinist before Calvin was a Calvinist.
Perhaps we should call Calvin an Ezekielist!
God will “cause you” to do it.
And the result then of your new-found obedience is that you will receive all the blessings of obedience.
(28-31)
See how God is taking matters into His own hands?
And again, remember why (VS 32)
THIS IS ALL FOR GOD’S GLORY.
Now, if those two passages are not enough to get the point across,
GOD EVEN GIVES A LITTLE ILLUSTRATION.
READ EZEKIEL 37:1-14
Did you see it again?
Now the reason I give you all that is because
I want you to understand GOD’S EFFECTUAL CALL.
I want you to understand how Jesus could say:
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
How can you say that all the chosen will come, when we no darn good and well that people resist God’s call all the time?
Jesus could say that because He knew that in the case of the elect,
God would change their heart and change their will
And cause them to respond favorably.
Have you not recognized this in your own life?
• I did, specifically in regard to my calling to preach.
• I wouldn’t do it because I wanted to do it so bad, and I figured that couldn’t be
right.
1 Timothy 3:1 “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.”
Where do you suppose that desire came from?
God did that.
And that is what He does in regard to His call for salvation to the elect.
He changes their heart and changes their will
And causes them to respond.
Paul said it like this:
Romans 5:5 “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
That is a love for God, which was given to us by God.
It is God’s means of effectively calling His chosen.
And for this reason, those whom God calls, He also justifies, and those whom He justifies, He also glorifies.
Jesus certainly knew that.
John 10:14-16 “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”
John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. “I and the Father are one.”
Do you see that?
He knew His sheep were coming.
WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE
IS ANOTHER ASPECT OF GOD’S AMAZING GRACE.
• Not only does God choose to save those who don’t deserve it.
• Not only does God choose those who would never choose Him.
• But God also does such a work in their heart as to cause them to want Him so that when He calls, they respond.
God did a work in your heart to cause you to want Him.
If He had not, you would not have responded to Him.
That is GOD’S EFFECTUAL CALL
And look, if we had time, all we have to do is go to the life of Abraham, whom God called out of Ur of the Chaldeans into the land He promised him.
But how many times did Abraham try to mess that up?
God just wouldn’t let him.
• Go read Genesis 12 and see how no sooner does Abram enter the promised
land then does he try to leave it and throw Sarai to the curb, but God
won’t have it.
• God was calling Abraham, and God was seeing to it that Abraham responded.
It is God’s Effectual Call.
And let me tell you what that does.
It absolutely crushes your pride and gives every stitch of glory to God.
We can’t even say that we were saved because we chose what was right.
The only reason we chose what was right
Is because God caused us to choose it, by doing a work in our heart.
• We were sinners, dead in sin and choosing death.
(ABSOLUTE INABILITY)
• But God chose us, by pure grace, for His own purposes.
(SOVEREIGN ELECTION)
• Then God caused us to desire Him by doing a transforming work in our heart.
(EFFECTUAL CALL)
And so at the end of the day all we do
Is praise God for His amazing grace!
