Irresistible Grace - Part 1 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! The praise of my God and King, the triumph of His grace!

This is LeSaire Bradley, Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. There is a holy city, a happy world above, Beyond the starry regions, built by the God of love, An everlasting temple, and saints arrayed in white. They serve their great Redeemer, they dwell with Him in light. It is no world of trouble, the God of peace is there. He wipes away their sorrows, He banishes their care.

Their joys are still increasing, their songs are ever new. They praise the eternal Father, the Son and Spirit too. The host of saints around Him proclaim His work of grace. The patriarchs and prophets, and of the Godly race, Who speak of fiery trials and tortures on their way. They came from tribulation to everlasting day. Now with the holy transport they tell their suffering's o'er. Their tears and their temptations and all the pains they bore. They turn and bow to Jesus, who gain their liberty. Amid our fears and dangers, our lives are hidden in Thee.

We're continuing our series on what has often been referred to as the TULIP doctrine. The T standing for Total Depravity, U Unconditional Election, L Limited Atonement, I Irresistible Grace, and P Perseverance of the Saints. Now we encounter people these days who say, well, doctrine is not important.

In fact, it's divisive. So if we just focus on loving Jesus and talk about His love for us, that's all that's necessary. But Jesus Himself taught doctrine. And some of the basic things that we're looking at in these messages come from the very words of Jesus. And we learn that scripture being inspired of God is profitable for doctrine. Sound doctrine points to the greatness and glory of God, declares His absolute sovereignty, emphasizes the fact that there is salvation alone in Jesus Christ, and that by His grace He brings sinners to repentance and gives them faith whereby they are justified.

Faith itself being the gift of God. So I trust as we continue with the concluding part of this series today and next week, that you will be edified by the things we look at in God's Word. And I encourage you, if you want these programs to continue on your station to write us, and to pray the Lord will guide you as to what you can do in helping to support this work. The address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. And I encourage you to go to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org. There you can hear both the Sunday and daily broadcasts and read The Baptist Witness.

And I remind you that you can receive these programs on podcasts. And I ask your prayers that the needs will be supplied that we can continue in this work. I've been bringing a series of messages on the doctrines of grace.

There are those who have a negative attitude toward doctrine. They say if we just focus on love, love one another as true Christians. That's what our concern ought to be.

Well certainly I would in no way fail to emphasize the importance of love. We are to love the Lord our God with all our mind, heart, soul and strength and our neighbor as ourself. We ought to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. But there are also principles in God's word that are there for a purpose. All scripture is given by the inspiration of God and it's profitable. And one of the things for which it is profitable is doctrine. That we may have a firm foundation upon which we stand.

There are many doctrines in the scriptures. But these fundamental doctrines of grace I believe are important for us to understand. First of all because it gives us the right view of God. It brings us to realize that salvation is all of the Lord and therefore he is to receive the glory for it. It gives us the proper understanding of man and therefore of ourselves that we are fallen, unworthy, undeserving sinners. But it also brings us to appreciate the marvelous grace of God. To see that the basis of our salvation is not on anything that we are or that we have done but entirely on the grace of God. So we have seen thus far in these messages that indeed salvation is of the Lord.

We first spoke on the subject of total depravity. Once you see that, once you see that man is a fallen, ruined creature you recognize he is unable to save or help to save himself. If a person once embraces this Bible teaching then all the rest of it will fall into place.

Because if you see the condition of man you will recognize he is in no position to save or to help save himself. We then spoke on the subject of unconditional election. Which means that God made choice of the people before the foundation of the world. Clearly indicating that the origin of this salvation is not with man, not with his efforts, but with God who purposed it and planned it.

Made therefore a choice according to his sovereign pleasure before time began. And then we talked about limited atonement or particular redemption. Pointing out that the redemptive work accomplished by Jesus Christ at the cross was indeed his work. And so the basis of our salvation is on his sacrifice, his substitutionary death. What Christ did for us that we could never do for ourselves. Now we come today to see that the application of this salvation is also the work of God. When we have used the TULIP acronym to remember these various doctrines in order we referred to it as irresistible grace. But effectual calling is another term used and it clearly defines this work of grace. So that's my subject, the effectual call of the spirit.

Romans chapter 8 beginning with the 28th verse. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Notice the reference to those who are called. Those who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified. So in those verses we've seen reference to the called. Those who are called by God.

So first we give a little attention to what this really means. What's the definition of this doctrine of effectual calling? It is the work of God whereby he brings the elect to himself. It is God's work. It is his calling, his drawing, his work to bring sinners to Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John chapter 6 verse 37 these are the words of Jesus, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Language could not be plainer. All that the Father giveth me shall come. It didn't say they might come. I hope they will come.

They shall come. This is his purpose. This is in keeping with the great covenant of grace that was ordered and sure before the foundation of the world. The covenant between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father electing a people, giving them to his Son, the Son agreeing to come in the fullness of time and to purchase them and redeem them. The Spirit of God then making the application and bringing this salvation to those individuals so it becomes a reality in their own experience. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9. God who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling.

Not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Who is it that saved us? God. Surely any person here today who would say yes I believe I'm saved would acknowledge that if you are saved you didn't save yourself. Your mother and father didn't save you.

Friend or neighbor didn't save you. The preacher didn't save you. If you're saved, God saved you. That's what God's Word plainly teaches us. He saved us and called us with a holy calling so the saving and the calling is combined.

It's all a part of the same process and it's a holy calling. I've had people say oh I believe in that doctrine of grace. Believe that it was impossible for one saved by grace ever to lose their salvation. I just live any old way.

It wouldn't make any difference. I want you to see that it is a holy calling. God has not called us and made us secure in grace that we can live after the flesh. If you've had an experience of grace your desire is to live righteously and godly in this present evil world. When you fail you're deeply convicted, you're deeply grieved, you're humbled before God. You come before him in true repentance asking for forgiveness. This is a holy calling and it's not according to our works.

Any work that you might describe. Well I feel like I've done some pretty good things in my life. But the scriptures teach us that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

Not one of them is acceptable. Not by one thing can we come before God and present ourselves and say now I have obligated God because of what I have done. Not by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to his own purpose and grace, that purpose of God in making choice of a people and given therefore in Christ Jesus before the world began. A way of definition we would secondly say the spirit is active and man is passive in this work of grace. The dead sinner cannot contribute anything nor can he even cooperate in the matter of salvation. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. To quicken of course is to make alive. You have he made alive.

What was your condition? You were dead in trespasses and in sin. I've actually had people at times who wanted to enter into a discussion about how dead the sinner is. Now if somebody reports to you that an individual of your acquaintance is dead, have you ever asked how dead are they? You understand that if a person is dead, they are dead. They don't have any life. They cannot see, they cannot hear, they cannot act.

They are dead. He has quickened. He has made alive those who were dead in trespasses and sin. Where in time past he walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as others.

But God, here's the difference, here you were going the wrong direction, doing the wrong thing. You didn't love God, you didn't seek God, you were fulfilling the desires of the flesh. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. Man would never come to God on his own. Just cannot, would not happen. Somebody would say, I tell you preacher, I've loved the Lord a long time.

That may be. But I'll tell you this, if you're one of his, he's loved you a lot longer than you've loved him. We love him because he first loved us.

And left to yourself in human nature, you never would have come to him. Let's look at Romans chapter 3, verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. We're not just talking about a group of people who may be blatant rebels, violators of the law, terribly sunk into the very depths of sin.

We're talking about every member of the human family. There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

That's as plain as it could be. Man by nature does not seek after God. We say well, people all over the world have their religion. Yes, man may make a God after whom he seeks. He imagines a God in his own mind.

He's pictured what God ought to be like. He will pursue the interests that he has in some pagan vanity, but man will not seek the true and living God. This is what God's inspired word declares.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, and there is none that doeth good, no not one. And we look at the 9th chapter, Romans chapter 9, verse 16. So then, it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.

Oh, there's such an effort on the part of those who want to carve out a place for man to get some credit. Say well, preacher I just, I know salvation is by grace, but don't you really believe that after it's all said and done, that man has a free will and his will must turn the poet. That may sound reasonable, logical, pleasing, something that you would like to embrace, but here is what God's word says. It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It's not according to the one who acts in harmony with his free will, not of him that runs, works, tries, puts forth an effort, goes through religious rites and ceremonies. It is of God that showeth mercy.

And we look at the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verse 40. Once again, the words of Jesus. He says, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life. You will not come.

Another place he says you cannot come. You cannot come because you're dead in sin. You will not come because you don't want to. Oh, anybody's interested in getting a ticket to heaven.

If they really believe that there is a heaven and a hell, nobody wants to go to hell. But to come to God means I've got to come as a condemned guilty sinner admitting my wretchedness. I have nothing to offer and I'm not coming just to be sure I'm going to heaven. I'm coming to him because I want him to be the Lord of my life. I'm coming to him to be surrendered to him. I want things to be different, not just when I die, but I want things to be different now. I want to live differently. I want to part with sin.

I want to live a godly life. See, man's not going to respond. Man's not going to come to God according to his fallen human nature. Furthermore, by way of definition, we mean that the call of God is not frustrated by man's obstinate will. Psalm 110 verse 3 says, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. It's thy people. It's thy day. It's thy power. God's people.

At his appointed time, his day and his power that makes it all effective. Sinner, though, doesn't come to Jesus Christ kicking and screaming. So I said, by the way, you make it sound, preacher, that God is just forcing salvation on people. And they may be resisting and say, I really don't want salvation. And God's pushing it on me. Anyway, there never has yet been a sinner come to Jesus Christ kicking and screaming saying, I don't want salvation.

Why? Because he makes them willing in the day of his power. There is an internal work. There is this effectual calling, this drawing. Now the question comes then, if they come willingly, did they pull themselves up by their own efforts? Pulling themselves up from unwillingness to be willing? Obviously not. Because they didn't have the ability.

They didn't have the desire for it, the interest in it, or the ability to accomplish it. So it's by his power that these are drawn. John MacArthur writes, when the call of God came on the Apostle Paul, it was a sovereign, divine, gracious, and irresistible summons. He was slammed to the dirt on the road to Damascus with nothing to do but respond.

End of quote. When the Lord spoke to Saul of Tarsus when he was on his way to persecute the church and put Christians to death, I want to tell you it was an effectual call. Saul's call, he understood that this was the voice from above. Who art thou, Lord?

I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest. And then he says, what wilt thou have me to do? He was broken. He was crushed. He was surrendered.

But he joyfully submitted and went on his way. And then Ananias came to bring the instruction to him. John chapter 1, reading in the 11th verse, he came unto his own and his own received him not.

Think of it. The Jews had all the types and shadows of the Old Testament. They had all of the prophetic references.

They had so much light, so much opportunity. But when he came, rather than rejoicing in his coming, they ultimately cried, crucify him, crucify him. He came to his own, but his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he the power or the right to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

As many as received him. This is with reference to those that believe on his name. And so somebody would like to stop there. In fact, there was a church a few years ago that put on the side of the city buses verses 11 and 12. And I was wishing I had the money at that time to have bought enough space to put verse 13, because that's not the end of the sentence.

When you're at the end of verse 12, there is a colon, meaning there's an explanation to follow, and the period doesn't come until the end of verse 13. And verse 13 says, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. These then who received Christ and believed on him were born not according to their will or anybody else's will, but by God, by God and his marvelous grace. It's an inward call.

That's what makes it an official call. Many are called with what we would refer to as an outward call. Matthew chapter 22 and the 14th verse says, many are called, but few are chosen. We continually call on men to repent.

Paul was preaching at Mars Hill as recorded in Acts chapter 17 to the 30th verse, and said at the time of this ignorance God winked at, but now calls all men everywhere to repent. Now I understand we can make that call. We can make it repeatedly. We can call on men saying how vital it is that they repent. We know that nobody is going to repent until there is an inward call. We call on men to believe. In the book of Acts chapter 16 verse 31, Paul and Silas said to the Philippian jailer when he cried out, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I call on you today to believe on Jesus Christ. I can read in the book of 1st John that if you fail to believe the testimony of his son you call God a liar. You ought to believe the truth about his son Jesus Christ. But the outward call is not what we're talking about this morning.

We're talking about the effectual call. This is an inward call made to those who are predestinated and it brings then justification. O thou Lord my refuge art, comfort thou me.

Heal thou my aching heart, thine would I be. The scriptures continually point us to the fact that salvation is all of the Lord. When we view man's fallen condition we understand he cannot recover himself.

So God made choice of a people and he draws them effectually. He calls them by the power of his Holy Spirit. Man left to himself would never come to God but by grace ruined sinners are rescued. We rejoice in the good news of salvation by grace. I hope that you will write us and until next week at the same time may the Lord richly bless you all. Who sets thee out of the noise? Into the heavenly day, bright with thy love, lead me, O Lord, I pray, O Word of God.