Good evening, let's stand together,
we'll sing hymn number six. Hymn number six. We'll add in a few extra bars
of places to breathe. Come Thou Almighty King, help
us Thy name to sing, help us to praise. Father all-glorious,
Lord all-victorious, come and reign over us, ancient of days. Come Thou incarnate Word, gird
us on mighty shore, our prayer attend. Come and Thy people bless
and give Thy word success, Spirit of holiness, Come, holy Comforter Thy sacred
witness bear In this glad hour Thou who almighty art Now rule
in every heart And there from us depart Spirit of power To
the great one in three Eternal praises be Inseverable His sovereign
majesty May we in glory sing And to eternity love and adore Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
126. 126. Rock of Ages, cleft for me Let
me hide myself in thee My wounded side which flows,
Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure,
Could my tears for ever flow, Could thy sin no languor know. Please forsake the God atoned
Thou hast saved and Thou alone In my hand, O Christ, I bring
Simply to Thy cross I cling While I draw this bleeding breath When my eyes shall close in death
When I rise to worlds unknown And behold beyond thy thrones
Rock of Ages, left for me Let me hide myself in Thee 1 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, excuse me. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We're delighted to have Billy
Argeropoulos and his wife Virginia here this evening. He's going
to be preaching for us. He's been very busy. He came
up here and he preached for Bruce Crabtree on Sunday morning. Todd
Nyberg on Sunday night, Danville last night, and here tonight. So I'm looking forward to it. I really enjoy and love and appreciate
his message. I'm going to read these seven
verses here. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. It's because of mercy that we
don't, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
things that we're ashamed of, not walking in craftiness, nor
handling the word of God deceitfully, but malmanifestation or preaching
the truth. commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be
hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this
world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord in ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face,
in the person, of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be
of God and not of us." Our most gracious, blessed God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful we are that
you've allowed us, again, this side of eternity, to meet here
in this place together with the saints of God. Lord, you said
wherever two or three are gathered together in your name, there
you are in the midst. And so, Lord, we believe you.
We believe your word. We believe what you tell us.
And we pray, oh Lord, that you'd come down among us. Come among
us, O Lord, in the presence of the Holy Ghost of God. Come among
us and give us ears to hear, hearts to believe. And O Lord,
let us put the world, let us put the cares of this world,
let us forget this flesh for just a little while and sit and
hear the gospel. And God bless our dear brother
when he stands to speak tonight. Liberate his mind, his heart.
I thank you for him. Thank you for how you use him.
And, Lord, thank you for the fellowship we have in Christ
our Lord. So, Lord, bring glory to yourself
tonight in this service. And, Lord, please be merciful
to our lost loved ones. Oh, God, they don't have a need.
But, Lord, there was a time we didn't have a need. So we ask
you to create a need in our sons and daughters, children, grandchildren,
and great-grandchildren, we ask these things for Christ's sake.
Amen and amen. Hymn number 75. Number 75. The darkness deepens, Lord with
me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, Swift to its close, steps out
life's little day. Birds, joys crow, timids, glories
pass away. change and decay in all around
I see. O Thou who changest not, abide
with me. I need Thy presence every passing
hour. Off of thy grace can all the
timbers bow, Who like thyself my guide and stake it be, Who
cloud and sunshine o'er mine will be. O bow thy word before my closing
eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. Age-warming grace and thirsting
shadows flee. I certainly want the Lord to
abide with me. Yes. Abide with me. Change and decay all around I
see. Thou who changes not, Oh, Lord,
stay with me, stay with me. Well, Billy, Billy R. It's easier saying Billy R. Geropoulos. He's Greek, you know. He's Greek. That's his Greek name. But love
you and appreciate you. And you come on, bring the Lord's
message for us. So good to be here. I'm always honored to be able
to be with you folks tonight. I need your prayers. If I told
you I was tired in body, it would be an understatement. But the
Lord's our help. He can do above and beyond that
which we could ever Ask or think. If you have your Bible tonight,
would you turn it to the book of Galatians, please? Galatians
chapter one. Galatians chapter one, I want
to read in your hearing verses 11 through 16, and then I'm going
to read a little bit in Proverbs chapter
1. But I want to begin here tonight
in Galatians chapter 1 and beginning at verse 11. But I certify you,
brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after
man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it. but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. For ye have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it, and profited in the Jews'
religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. You see that? But, but when it
pleased God. When is a man saved? When it
pleases God. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the
heathen. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Now if you would please turn
over to Proverbs chapter one. Very first chapter of the book
of Proverbs chapter one. I'm going to start reading there,
but before I do, let me introduce the message by saying this. Centuries ago, the old Puritans
wrote extensive books and extensive papers on the two different calls
in the scripture. One is a general call that God
makes to all mankind, which I'm going to read to you here in
a minute. The other is altogether different. The other is the divine,
invincible, Effectual, effectual, I'll get right in a minute. Effectual
call, which I just read in the book of Galatians. If you look
in verse 20 of Proverbs 1, I want to begin here. Proverbs 1 verse
20, wisdom crieth without. She uttereth her voice in the
streets. She crieth in the chief places of the concourse, in the
openings of the gates. In the city she uttereth her
words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity?
And the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge.
Turn you at my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit
unto you. I will make known my words unto
you. Now look here in verse 24. Because
I have called, and ye refused. I have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded." What I'm reading to you here in the book
of Proverbs is the general call that God makes to all sons of
Adam. Now the objectors to invincible,
irresistible, effectual call point to this scripture and they
say, It says right here that the call can be resisted, but
what they're ignorant of is this, the general call. And I'm going
to go through some points about the general call, the general
call that God gives to all the sons of Adam never results in
salvation. Never. The effectual call always results
in salvation. People are ignorant today of
the difference between the general call and the effectual call. You see, the new birth is supernatural. It's supernatural. It's like
the wind. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whether
it goeth. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit. It's a birth. It's not a decision.
It's a birth. It's a supernatural birth. It's Christ in you. The hope
of glory. How does God deal with the sons
of Adam? What is some points about the
general call that we need to look at? First of all, God deals
with men through creation. Psalm 19 says, The heavens declare
the glory of God. and the firmament showeth his
handiwork. I don't care who you are, where
you live, what your culture is, who your mother and your daddy
is, every human being from Adam down to the last man knows by
creation that God is. Now you can get on a plane, fly
to Africa, rent you a jeep, drive that jeep as far as you can drive
it and when you've got as far as you can drive it, get out
and walk as far as you can walk to the deepest, darkest jungle
in Africa and you'll find the Hotentot and HE KNOWS by creation
that GOD IS! Now that's right! Turn to Romans
chapter 1. I'm going to show you something.
Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 and verse 19
says this, because that which may be known of God is manifested
or made known in them. For God hath showed it unto them,
for the invisible things of Him from the creation. You see that? From the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. If that's the only light that
a human being ever gets from God, he's without excuse. He's guilty. He's guilty. The heavens declare the glory
of God. Now what do people do with that
light that God is. Well, here's what the Gentile
world did back in Paul's day, and they're still doing it now. Look at it, verse 21, because
that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Neither
were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish hearts were darkened, professing themselves to be wise. Philosophy. They became fools. What did God do? Well, change
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image like the corruptible
man to birds, four-footed beasts, and creeping things. People worship
snakes, people worship cows, people worship all different
idols. What does God do when people
try to rob him of his glory? Well, it tells you here in verse
24, wherefore God also gave them up. to uncleanness through the lust
of their own hearts. So God deals with the sons of
Adam through creation. Then God also deals with the
sons of Adam through their conscience. Look in the next chapter of Romans,
chapter 2 and verse 15, where we find these words. We find Romans 2.15, which show
the work of the law written in their hearts. talking about the
Gentiles, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts,
the meanwhile, accusing or excusing one another. God has been pleased
to give every human being a conscience. Every human being. God's been
pleased to do that. You can't brag about that. God's
give every man a conscience. And when your conscience accuses
you, it tells you, this is wrong. It tells you, don't do that. You shouldn't have done that.
No, don't do that. And when a man continually overrides
his conscience and so sins, it gets to the place where his conscience
no longer accuses him, but it excuses him. He can sin and sleep good. Never
bothersome. In 2nd Timothy 4.1 we find what
Paul told Timothy. He said, Timothy, now the spirit
speaks expressly in the latter times that some will depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils,
having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Let me give
you an example. I'm guilty of this one. I tried
an iron shirt one time. Phone rang. Left the iron on
the shirt. Went over there and talked on
the phone. I don't know how long it was, but it hit me after I
hung up the phone. Oh, no. So I go back to where
the shirt is, and there's that iron laying right on top of it.
I pick that iron up, and the imprint of that iron, the black
imprint of that iron, is on that shirt. You can't wash that out. What do you do with that shirt?
It's no good. It's no good. It's worthless.
It needs to be discarded. Men today have so sinned against
their conscience that their conscience is seared. They no longer see
wrong in anything. That's so. God's pleased to deal
with the sons of Adam. Not only through creation, but
through conscience. And then, not only that, but
God is also pleased to deal with men through acts of providence. Turn to the book of Amos. Amos
chapter four and verse six. God deals with men through acts
of providence. Look in verse six. It says, I
have also given you cleanness of teeth. What's cleanness of
teeth? It's famine. I've also given
you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and want of bread
in all your places. Yet have ye not returned unto
me, saith the Lord. Did they see God in this famine? Did they think twice about why
this famine existed, why it was happening? Of course not. But you've not returned unto
me, says the Lord. Now listen to me now. Look at
the next verse. I have withholding the rain from
you. When there are yet three months to the harvest and I caused
it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain on another
city, one piece was rained upon and the piece were upon it rained
not withered. You can guess what that did to
the crops. They died. So two or three cities wandered
under one city to drink water. But they were not satisfied.
And here it is again. Yet ye have not returned unto
me, saith the Lord. That's right. Look in verse nine,
I've smitten you with blasting and mildew. When your gardens
and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased,
the palmer worm devoured them, yet ye have not returned unto
me, saith the Lord. This is God in providence dealing
with the sons of Adam. He does it all the time. Do they
turn to God? Never. They never will. And if that's not enough, verse
10, it says, I have sent among you pestilence after the matter
of Egypt. Your young men have I slain with
a sword and have taken away your horses and I've made the stink
of your camps to come up into your nostrils. And here it is
again, yet ye have not returned unto me. Saith the Lord, I have
overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning, yet ye have
not returned unto me, saith the Lord. God deals with the sons
of Adam in a general call through creation, through conscience,
and through acts of providence. Let me tell you something. Every tornado, every hurricane,
every earthquake, every volcanic eruption, every pestilence is
not mother nature, but God. He's the first cause of everything. Don't ever forget that. I get aggravated at these weather
people talking about this front, that front, and it happened because
of this, and it happened because of that. They ain't fooling me.
I know why it happened. It was God. It was God. God's sovereign, folks. He rules
the universe. There ain't nothing that goes
on. There's not one thing that ever
happens that surprises God and makes Him scratch His head and
say, wow, I didn't know that was coming. No, no. God's sovereign. Look in verse
12, and I'm going to go ahead. Therefore, after all of these
All of this light that God gives, creation, conscience, providence,
it never results in salvation. But look in verse 12, therefore,
thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do this unto
thee, prepare to meet thy God. Deuteronomy 32, 35 says, their
footsteps slide in due time. That's right. The only thing
that keeps a man out of hell tonight is the sovereign rule
and will of almighty God. If he ever takes his hand off
of you, you're gone. You're gone. But I'm thankful. that there is another call. There
is another call. And this call always results
in salvation. Always. It's a sovereign Yes, but when it pleased God,
when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me. You see, before
the foundation of the world, God Almighty chose a people for
Himself. Not based on foreseen faith,
not based on your works, but God chose the people for one
reason and for one reason only, because it pleased him. It pleased
him. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. I remember before God saved me,
I would look at Romans 9, 11 through 13, and I'd look at that,
and I would say to myself, how in the world can God hate someone
like he saw? How come? How could he do that? But now, but now, I look at that verse,
and Donnie, I say, how could God love Jacob? How could he love Jacob? Wouldn't
do to trade horses with Jacob. Jacob was as crooked as a dog's
hind leg. He'd beat you out of it. But
God set his love on that man. He set his love on him. Before
the children were born, neither having done good nor evil, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand. You say, I don't agree with that.
What are you gonna do about it? What can you do about it? Because
you don't agree, don't change anything. Who are you to reply
against God? God works, and there's only two
things you can do. You can either get a club and
try to knock God off the throne, good luck with that, or you can
bow to it. and surrender to it, and I hope
to God you surrender to it. Because God ain't gonna change
his mind, that's for sure. It's a sovereign call, it's not
a call of nature. You see, people today think if
we believe the right doctrines. I'll just tell you folks, there
ain't gonna be a lot of Calvinists in hell. You say, why you say
that? Because they believe in doctrine
only. You see, it's one thing to believe
in the depravity of man and another thing altogether to experience
it in your heart. Knowing it up here. and knowing
it in here, oh, what a difference. You can believe in the five points
of Calvinism and still go to hell, but let me tell you something,
my friend. Salvation's a work of grace inside. Inside. You can believe all the
doctrines you want. There'll be a lot of orthodox
theologians that believe the right doctrines, but have never
known the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a sovereign call. 1st Thessalonians 1.4 Paul said,
knowing beloved your election of grace for our gospel came
unto you, not in word only, but in power and in much assurance. It takes the power of the Holy
ghost to save a man. I was reading a book by one of
the Puritans here a while back and I felt sorry for the brother.
He was preaching somewhere in Wales or Scotland, I forget where
it was at. And he is there 12 years and
never had a convert. Never had a convert. And all
of a sudden, the wind began to blow. That's what has to happen. The wind has got to blow. I felt sorry for the brother
preaching all those years. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he
lived in our day when you can get people saved without the
Holy Ghost? Old brother didn't know no better.
He thought he had to wait on God. He thought God saved people. He thought it took God to save
people. And it does, it does. I want
to give you a few examples of the divine call, the divine call. In Genesis chapter 12, the scriptures
tell us about a man named Abram, who later became Abraham. Abraham is in Ur of the Chaldees.
Now picture this, here he is, he's in rank idolatry, he's with
his family, he's having a good time, he's not thinking about
God, he's just being Abram and just living it up and all of
a sudden, one day, WITHOUT WARNING, HE HEARD from God. My sheep hear my voice. Abram,
get up. Pack your things, get up and
get out, and go to a land that I will show you." Now Abraham
didn't say, now wait a minute, Lord. I got steak strolled down
here. Are you sure, are you really
sure you want me to do that? No, he didn't do that. You know
what Abraham did? He got up and packed his things and went. What makes a man leave his heritage? What makes a man leave where
he's lived all of his life, pick up and take off? I'll tell you
what it is. It's the divine, effectual, invincible
call of grace. That's right. Abraham's family
followed with him, but did you notice they went as far as Haran
and they stopped a Lot of times a lot of your friends and family
will come with you But the way gets too straight for them As
I ain't doing with this grace business no more I'm going back
to what I was before But Abraham said you can do whatever you
want to do. I'm Grace separates people. Now it does. Jesus said, I came
not to bring peace, but a sword. Let me tell you something, folks.
The sovereign grace of God Almighty will separate the sheep from
the goats. You mark it down. You mark it
down. Then the next man that I want
to talk about is Zacchaeus. We have Zacchaeus, a little short
guy. And the scriptures tell us that
he wanted to see who the Lord was. And there was a huge crowd
around the Lord that day. And that's the reason why Zacchaeus
had to climb up in that tree. He couldn't see. But he climbed
up in that tree, and he's waiting for the Lord to come by. Now,
I want to tell you this. The Lord Jesus never saved anybody
in that crowd. He was walking and going to look
for one man, and one man only, and that was Zacchaeus. He didn't
save anybody else. He walked up, looked up, said,
Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, look up there, look up there. For today, I must abide. Let me ask you something. Have you ever received this call? Have you? Oh, Zacchaeus experienced it.
Abraham experienced it. Matthew experienced it. Here's
another crook. Table full of money laying in
front of him. Tax collector cheating his own people. Making all kinds
of money. Nice house. The Lord Jesus walks
up to him and he says, follow me. What makes a man leave all that
money on the table? What makes a man wave goodbye? I'll tell you what it is. It's
that divine, invincible, effectual, Then there's the Apostle Paul.
Here's a man with papers in his hand, people following him on
his way to Damascus, going to put in prison everybody that
he found that name, the name of Jesus. And without warning,
a great light shone down from heaven. Paul fell to the ground. And he heard, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I'm Jesus
of Nazareth. Paul found out he was alive.
Paul found out Jesus was alive and sitting on a throne. You
know what he said? Lord, What would you have me to do? I'm not talking about accepting
Jesus as your personal savior. I'm not talking about you making
a head decision. I'm talking about has the Holy
Spirit ever come in power and made you alive? What a vast difference that it
is. Let me end with this. One of
the greatest illustrations that can be found is the illustration
between Christ and Nicodemus. Religious man, Pharisee, ruler
of the Jews, teacher. The only thing Nicodemus knew
he had sense enough to know that And he told Jesus this, we know
that nobody can do the things you're doing except God be with
him. And the Lord wouldn't even address his comment. He said,
Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. How can this be? How can this
be? How can I enter the second time
into my mother's womb? Jesus said, are you not a master
of Israel and you don't know this? except the man be born
of the water and of the spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of
God, the water being the word of God and the spirit being the
Holy Ghost. How can these things be? How can this be? Jesus explained
it so well. The wind blowing. I remember the night that the wind
blew. Oh, I remember it. I remember
when the wind blew, and I've never been the same. I've never been the same. I've
never got over it. Never happened to you? The wind
bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof. Salvation's a birth, not a decision,
which were born not of the will of flesh, not of the will of
man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. As many as received
him, who's him? The Lord Jesus Christ, not a
doctrine. To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. You
see, salvation's a revelation, it's not a decision. Let me show
this to you and I'm gonna quit. Turn to Matthew 13, would you?
Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. I want to read this to you. I
hope this will help you. Matthew chapter 13. I get it right after a while. Matthew
16. I told you I was tired. Matthew 16 verse 13. Now read this carefully. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Who do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or
one of the prophets. Now here we go. He saith unto
them, But whom say ye? that I am Simon Peter answered
thou art the Christ the son of the living God now look at verse
17 and 18 Jesus answered and said unto him blessed art thou
Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not what revealed it unto
thee, but by my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto
thee that thou art Peter. And upon this rock I will build
my church. Well, we know he didn't build
the church on Peter. I mean, that's a given. But upon this What rock does he build his church? The context is about revelation. Blessed art thou, Donny Bell,
for flesh and blood's revealed this to you. Blessed art thou,
Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood's not revealed
this to you. And I say unto thee, your Peter
and upon this rock, the rock of revelation, I will build my
church. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. Salvation's by revelation and
by nothing else. Now that's it, folks. If Christ
has been revealed to you, you know him. You know him. If Christ has never been revealed
to you, you don't know him. You don't know him. The divine, effectual, invincible
God. Our Father, thank you for your
word. Thank you for your truth. Lord,
I pray you take the message tonight. Just use it for your glory. That
your saints would be encouraged and uplifted. Bless your people
here. Bless Brother Donny as he labors
here. Oh Lord, just use him for your
glory. Draw your people to yourself.
Lord, we'll praise you for all you do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Donnie. Two calls. Two calls. I like that effect you're calling.
That's one I like. That's one I like. My sheep,
he said, like this. I lay down my life for the sheep.
My sheep shall, not maybe, but shall hear my voice. Thank you, Billy. Appreciate
you coming by. Well, thank you, Lord, for saving
my soul. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me. Thank you, Lord, for giving me
thee. Thy great salvation, so rich
and free. Thank you, buddy. Y'all, see you Sunday. See you
Sunday, God willing.