The Effectual Call

Exodus 24:16 ESV

16 The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

Saint Augustine, when speaking on the process of how God draws one to Himself and causes that one to be saved, once said: “You called, You cried, You shattered my deafness, You sparkled, You blazed, You drove away my blindness, You shed Your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for You.”

Very plainly, what is spoken of here is how man is naturally brought into this world with a deafness and a blindness when it comes to the things of God. How man is naturally averse to God and sees not the beauty of God.

But when it pleases God to do so, in a time and in a way of His own choosing, He calls those whom He has chosen to salvation with an effectual call, that is, with a call that must accomplish its desired effect. And when He is pleased to call such a one, he then receives his spiritual sight, his deafness is taken away and he sees God for Who He truly is.

God then gives such a one spiritual life, causes such a one to be reborn and saved. And once such a one has been born-again, he now pants for God, longs to love Him, and serve Him all his days.

Or even more plainly, Blaise Pascal, the 17thcentury mathematician and philosopher says concerning this: “No man ever believes with a true and saving faith unless God inclines his heart; and no man when God does incline his heart can refrain from believing.”

The only ones who have a true and saving faith are those who have had their hearts inclined to God by God. And when God inclines one’s heart to Him, he must believe and be saved.

What both of these quotes indicate and speak of is the biblical doctrine of irresistible grace. A doctrine that states that those whom God wants to save must be saved, and when God calls such a one to be saved, they have no choice but to be saved.

This, my friends, is a beautiful truth! Any and everyone who is a true believer can testify to the truth of this amazing doctrine in the course of their own conversion.

Though I don’t know the exact date or time when I became saved, I have kind of a general idea of when it may have taken place.

Back in my heavy drinking days as a very young man, I had a drinking buddy who was certainly not religious, but he was brought up in a somewhat religious home. And sometimes when we were hanging around, he would talk about some of the things that he learned in church as a kid. And I would find myself strangely intrigued by what he was saying.

I found it strange because I had one or two other friends at that time who had grown up in church and who would also share what they had learned in church as kids. But when they shared what they had to say with me, it was like I couldn’t wait for them to be quiet and talk about something else. But though that was the case, like I said, when this one particular friend of mine talked about his experiences, I was intrigued.

Also, around that time I found myself becoming more and more interested in things of a godly nature. I even, at 21 years old, opened a Bible and read it for the very first time.

I didn’t know why I was doing any of this, I had never had any real interest in getting to know Who God truly is before, and many times I would even try to dissuade myself from this course, but regardless of my attempts to stop, I kept finding myself coming back to inquire of the One Who was drawing me to Him.

This back and forth went on for a few years, then I remember when I was about 25 years old coming to a pretty amazing realization when I realized that I actually loved God. And I didn’t just love the idea of God or who or what I wanted God to be, but I realized that I truly loved the God of the Bible, God as He actually is. It was at that point that I realized that God had saved me.

Praise God! He sought me, He drew me in, and He had me! That, my friends, is what you call God’s irresistible grace!

As we continue in our series of messages this morning from the 24th chapter of the book of Exodus, what we come to is a point in this narrative which describes for us this beautiful doctrine of the irresistible grace of God that He lovingly sheds upon those whom He has graciously chosen to save.

Back in verse 12 of this chapter we read of how God had called Moses to “come up” to Him on the mountain. Then in verse 15 we read of how Moses began his trek up the mountain of God that he may come to God and receive the tablets of stone which God will write the “Ten Commandments”, the summary of His law upon.

Now today we are going to be looking at some interesting facts about this trek that Moses made, by looking first to the beginning of this sixteenth verse, where we read:

Exodus 24:16a ESV

16a The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai,

Now, we’ve talked about the cloud that God was pleased to manifest Himself through, a manifestation that the people were safe to look upon, but here we speak of “the glory of the Lord”.

Now, there is most certainly a massive difference between the cloud that God was pleased to manifest Himself in and the glory of the Lord itself.

What the glory of the Lord here signifies is the beauty that emanates from God’s character, from all that He is. Thus, this “glory of the Lord” is an even greater, brighter manifestation of God. And as our reading says here, God, in this greater manifestation of Himself was pleased to dwell atop Mount Sinai, the mountain of God’s own choosing.

Thus, as the glory of the Lord had appeared before Moses, Aaron, the sons of Aaron, and the elders in the cloud as they fellowshipped with Him and shared a covenant meal, we then know, in accordance with verses twelve and fifteen that this glory, and the cloud that surrounded it had now moved to the top of the mountain.

We then go on to read in the next part of verse sixteen:

Exodus 24:16b ESV

16b and the cloud covered it six days.

We already talked about the purpose of this cloud in our message last week and a little bit in our message today, and again we see the purpose of it here.

This cloud, which was visible to the people, our reading tells us, “covered it”. Thus, this cloud was a covering. And what the cloud covered, our reading says is “it”. “The cloud covered it”.

Now, the “it” spoken of here which the cloud covered is indicative of two different things. The first thing which “it” speaks of is the mountain itself. We look back again to verse fifteen of this chapter where it says, “the cloud covered the mountain”. Thus, one of those things which the cloud covered, which it veiled, was the mountain.

But the second, and most certainly, the most important thing that this cloud covered is what was spoken of in the first part of this sixteenth verse; that being “the glory of the Lord”. Thus, what the cloud covered, veiled, concealed was this even greater manifestation of God, the glory of the Lord.

And as our reading for today says, this cloud cover lasted six days. So this lets us know that either it had taken Moses six days to trek the mountain, or Moses climbed the mountain, and once reaching the top where the cloud was, he waited six days, or it could even indicate that after the covenant meal that was shared between God, Moses, and the representatives of Israel had occurred that the cloud sat atop the mountain for six days and then called Moses to come up the mountain on the seventh day.

And while we don’t know for sure which one of these is certain, what we do know is that it was on the seventh day, as the last part of our reading tells us, that God called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

Thus, it was God, the glory of the Lord within the cloud, Who spoke. He called Moses to come to Him. And to Him, Moses obediently, submissively came.

Now, what was it that made Moses come to the Lord? Was it his “free will”? Did he say, “You know, I think that it’s a good idea for me to go up there” and thus go? No, for then anyone who was then present could have decided to do the very same thing.

No, what made Moses come to God was the call of God. Indeed, the irresistible call of God.

And what is so remarkable about that call is that it was first, a personal call.

As I just said, this call was not a universal call. God didn’t call out to everyone and say, “Hey! I’m here and whoever wants to come up is free to do so. So, if you want to, come on up!”. No, God specifically chose Moses to carry out this task, He had made him fit to carry out this task, indeed, it was the sovereign good pleasure of God to choose Moses and to make Moses able to perform what He called him to.

Once again, this reminds us of what may be called the “Divine prerogative”. God chooses those whom He wills to do whatsoever He has been pleased to choose them to. And then God calls not indiscriminately, but particularly. In other words, the one He has chosen for a specific task, He calls that one and that one alone.

And not only is this call a personal call, it is also an effectual call, an irresistible call. What this indicates is what we said at the beginning of this message, and that is that when God calls someone to something that call will be answered.

Many a man has stood up defiantly against the Lord of hosts and declared that he is the master of his own destiny, that he will serve no one but himself without even realizing that God is using the very rebellion of that person to accomplish His own purposes.

My kids, for example, don’t always listen to me when I tell them to do something.

I won’t name any names, but one of them likes to kick his shoes off as soon as he gets in the house and so his shoes will be laying in the middle of the kitchen floor. I’ll look at him and say, “pick your shoes up and put them where they belong”.

Sometimes at hearing that command, he will do just like I asked and pick his shoes up and put them away.

Other times he will just ignore me; so, then I have to be a bit more persuasive. I’ll raise my voice a little and I will say, “Hey! I said pick your shoes up!” and usually that will do the trick.

But then there are other times, pretty rare times but from time to time nonetheless that he will argue with me and give me every reason you can think of as to why he shouldn’t pick his shoes up. And sometimes, when that happens, I’ll get tired of arguing with him and just go pick them up myself.

Well, God never has that issue, for when God calls, we have no choice but to come. For God not only calls us, but He works in our hearts and prepares us, makes us fit for the calling, before He ever calls us to what He has ordained for us.

Beloved, what an unspeakable blessing it is that what God calls us to He does so personally, to us as individuals. What an unspeakable blessing it is that what God calls us to is always good for us. But most of all, what an unspeakable blessing it is that when God calls us, we must come!

Beloved, stand in awe of this mighty God!