Irresistable Grace

Introduction to Irresistible Grace: Meaning and the Problem It Addresses

0:01 In our series of messages on the five points of Calvinism, we come now to point number four. It's entitled, Irresistible Grace. Irresistible Grace. As we together look at this doctrine in more detail, we'll be covering the following areas.

0:18 First, the meaning of the teaching. Second, the misunderstanding of this teaching. Then, the moorings of this teaching. And the message of this teaching.

0:28 Thirdly, what in the first place does the doctrine of irresistible grace mean? Perhaps we can best get at it by looking at some biblical and present-day events. In Acts, the second chapter, the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter preached a dynamic sermon in which he told his listeners to place their trust for salvation in Jesus Christ, the one whom they had crucified.

0:54 Many of those who heard him, over 3,000 of them in fact, were cut to the heart, we read. And we are told that they accepted the message. However, there were also those who mocked and laughed at Peter and what he had to say.

1:11 On his missionary journeys, the Apostle Paul traveled from city to city, country to country, proclaiming Christ as Lord.

1:18 In each of these places, there were those who believed, but also those who sharply rejected God.

1:26 In our day, too, thousands of people hear the gospel proclaimed by an evangelist, or on radio, or in a book. At each of these occasions, some respond positively to the gospel call, and many are unconvinced. Some people are deeply moved, others remain unaffected. Why is it, we ask, that one person believes and another one does not?

1:53 Two people may hear the identical message from God's word, may be challenged by the same promises of the gospel, and yet one gladly embraces the good news while the other bitterly opposes it. Why is that? That's the issue which stands at the heart of the doctrine of irresistible grace.

2:13 Why, under similar circumstances, do people respond differently to the good news that Jesus is Savior and Lord?

Human-Centric Explanations and Arminian View of Salvation

2:22 Various suggestions have been proposed to explain this. Some view it strictly from a human perspective. The individual who accepted the gospel may have been right for the occasion. He had recently lost his job, had run into some serious family problems, and had been in a lot of trouble.

2:39 He had been in a lot of trouble. He had been in a lot of trouble. He had been in a lot of trouble. He had been in a lot of trouble.

2:39 He had been in a lot of trouble. He didn't know which way to turn anymore until he heard the message of salvation and felt that that was just what he needed to put his life back together again. The individual who rejected the gospel, on the other hand, was tired. When he heard the gospel, he hadn't had much rest the evening before.

2:57 He was distracted by a small child sitting in front of him. Besides, it was a little cold where he was seated. The sermon barely registered. And so acceptance or rejection of the good news, depended entirely on outside factors.

3:14 The circumstances, the conditions, or situations in which a person may find himself at the moment. The spirit's activity has no part in the process of salvation, according to this explanation. God plays absolutely no role. When a person receives Christ, it is all his own doing.

3:33 God can take none of the credit. The individual takes it all. That position has, of course, no biblical basis whatsoever. It implies, contrary to scripture, that an individual is very much spiritually alive and without any participation on the part of the spirit can secure his own salvation.

3:54 Moreover, it runs diametrically counter to the words of scripture in Ephesians 2, which inform us that we are saved by grace and not by our own efforts.

4:06 There is a second suggestion which has been proposed, one which reflects the position of the Arminians. They say that when people hear the gospel, they are saved by grace, and when they don't hear the good news of eternal life being proclaimed, whether at a conference or church, the Holy Spirit is very much active in their hearts. God certainly plays a vital role in an individual's salvation. As God's word goes forth, the spirit encourages and persuades and pursues and woos a person.

4:36 He exerts a great deal of influence. But in the final analysis, according to this position, in the final analysis, it is left up to the individual. To allow God's spirit to enter his life or not, it is possible for that individual to effectively resist the spirit's efforts.

4:57 While not denying God's part in the salvation process, it does seriously limit God's power. In the end, it is still up to the individual whether or not to admit the Lord into his heart. He can turn God down. What is required for a person to be saved is the powerful working of the spirit, along with a person's acceptance of the Spirit's work.

5:22 Reasonable and humanly appealing as this position may sound, it cannot be supported biblically. As we have seen in past weeks, it again makes salvation contingent on the individual. We as people ultimately decide our salvation and not God, according to this explanation. God may, so to speak, put the pressure on, but it still hinges on us whether we embrace or resist the efforts of the Spirit.

Defining Irresistible Grace: God's Invincible Work

5:54 There is yet another position firmly based on the Word of God, which states that the activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of His chosen people cannot be thwarted. The grace of God as it works in their hearts cannot be effectively resisted. God's grace will come out the winner. It is irresistible.

6:16 The final decision, on whether or not to embrace God's grace, does not rest with us, but on God alone.

6:24 One definition states this conversion of sinners in this way. The conversion of sinners, quote, must be wholly ascribed to God, who as He has chosen His own from eternity in Christ, so He calls them effectively in time, confers upon them faith and repentance, rescues them from the power of darkness, and translates them into the kingdom, the kingdom of His own Son, unquote. Our being saved is God's work from beginning to end. It is not as though God coaxes and woos us by His Spirit, but it still remains up to us to actually make the decision.

7:04 That places God's salvation at our mercy, and not our salvation at God's mercy.

7:12 The teaching of irresistible grace, founded in the Scriptures, as we shall soon see, also flows very naturally from the other points of Calvinism, which we have so far examined. We began by studying total depravity, and were reminded that by nature we are dead in sin. We cannot make the move toward God. He must turn to us, and that's precisely what God did.

7:38 Spiritually lifeless as we were, God chose us to be His children. That's unconditional election. But not only did God choose us, He also saved us. That's what limited atonement teaches.

7:52 Christ, died for those whom God has chosen. And now taking this one step further, the God who chose and saved us, also gave us the means to ensure that salvation. His all-embracing, invincible, irresistible grace. To gain an even better understanding of irresistible grace, it is helpful to lay to rest some misunderstandings people have concerning this teaching.

Misunderstanding 1: Are We Passive Blocks of Wood?

8:20 And there are two in particular that we must deal with. We'll put these into form, in terms of questions. The first misunderstanding is seen when we ask the question, Does the doctrine of irresistible grace teach that there is nothing you can do to resist the Spirit's work in our hearts? Are we like a block of wood or a piece of granite in the sculptor's hand, docile, immobile, doing nothing?

8:47 Don't we, because of our rebellious nature, offer resistance to the Spirit's work? Perhaps the term irresistible grace leaves something to be desired. Some have suggested that a better term would be invincible grace. By nature, we do resist the Holy Spirit.

9:06 We're at odds with Him. We oppose Him. But the difference between the Arminian position and ours lies in this. While the Arminians claim that people can actually and effectively resist the Spirit's operation and turn down the wonderful grace of Christ, we claim that no matter how strongly we may resist the Spirit's work, He wins out every time.

9:30 His grace is invincible, unconquerable. Or as one teacher writes, Man resists, but his resistance is ineffective.

9:40 We have an illustration of this in the life of the Apostle Paul. He battled against God's grace. He had devoted his life to persecuting and murdering Christians. But in a dramatic moment, while journeying on the road to Damascus, he was halted in his tracks by the loving voice of the Lord Jesus.

9:59 At that point, all of Paul's efforts were in vain. God's grace so overpowered him that he gladly responded to the Lord and faithfully served Him for the rest of his days. Or take the example of St. Augustine, who as a young man had no use for Christ.

10:20 He engaged in rebellion and immorality. How this man resisted the work of the Spirit. But God, through the preaching of Ambrose, changed his heart. And St. Augustine's resistance,

10:33 melted away. He became a leader in the Christian church.

10:39 By nature, none of us is any different from these two men. Because of sin, we oppose the ways of God. We resist the Spirit's work. Sin has not only made us unwilling, but unable to follow the Lord.

10:53 We resist the inward secret and wonderful operation of the Spirit. But resist as we may, God's grace is invincible. In the end, it cannot be resisted. The Lord's grace, wins out.

11:07 When I was a boy living out in the country, our neighbor had a mule. It was an absolutely stubborn animal. It wasn't mean. It didn't run away.

11:16 It just stood there when you wanted it to move. If the weather forecast for the evening would be heavy rains with thunder and lightning, the mule would have to be brought into the barn. Our neighbor would go out into the field with a bucket of grain and entice the mule with food. Sometimes he would succeed in getting the mule to come with him.

11:36 But more often not. The animal resisted, no matter how much our neighbor coaxed and enticed him. Later on, when our neighbor found the idea of the bucket with grain wasn't working very well, he simply took his tractor with a heavy rope out to the pasture, tied the rope around the mule, attached it to the tractor, and slowly took off. Although the mule resisted, his resistance was in vain.

12:03 You know who won the tug-of-war, and it wasn't the mule. So it is. It is with the Spirit's work. The Arminian view is as the Spirit coming to us with a bucket of grain, as it were, trying to woo and entice us.

12:19 But we can effectively resist. Our position is that of the tractor and the rope. We may resist the Spirit's work, but we know who will win, and it won't be us. God's grace is invincible.

12:35 In the end, it is irresistible.

Misunderstanding 2: Is God Forcing Us Against Our Will?

12:40 But this leads us to a second misunderstanding. The second misunderstanding, which comes in the form of this question. Does God then cause us to do something against our will? Does he force his grace upon us?

12:52 Is it a situation where we are kicking and screaming, not wanting his grace, but he compels us to receive it anyway, much like trying to give a small child bitter-tasting medicine? Can a Christian be a Christian against his will, so that when he comes to heaven, he says, Really, I didn't want to be here, but God made me. Well, as we have seen, in our past message, nobody seeks after God. But in another sense, the answer is no.

13:21 When God's grace begins to operate in our hearts, something wonderful happens. It brings a complete change within us, so that we desire to do God's will and follow his ways. As we hear God speaking in Ezekiel, the 11th chapter, verses 19 and 20, where we read, I will give them an undivided heart and put another in their hearts, and put a new spirit in them. I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

13:52 Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. Unquote. Ezekiel 11, 19 and 20.

14:05 When God's spirit enters an individual's life, then, to use Paul's word in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, then he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come. The work of the Holy Spirit illumines our minds and renews our will, so that new desires begin to spring up within us. Then our resistance completely disappears. And we joyfully, eagerly, and earnestly follow the Lord.

14:34 We love his grace. No follower of the Lord says, I am a Christian, but I really don't want to be. That's impossible. God, through his spirit, has imparted grace so that such a person as I am, such a person rejoices in his new position in life, from being dead to being alive again.

14:53 No one is a child of God against his will. The Lord changes a person's will to want to be his child. The apostle Paul, who has resisted God's grace, did not finally, reluctantly relent. God has changed his heart, and he gladly responded to the Lord's grace, operative within him.

15:14 Perhaps this mundane illustration may help us. A small child is petrified of the water. He's deathly scared of it. He resists going into the pool.

15:26 But then the child's father speaks quietly to him, allays his fears, holds him securely, and very gradually eases him into the water. First the child puts his little feet into the water, splashes them around. Then the child is lowered to his waist, and finally he is in up to his neck. He's having the time of his life.

15:47 He loves it. Then it is time to go home. The small child cries because he wants to stay in longer. Now we might ask, was the child forced into the water?

15:58 Did he go in kicking and screaming? The child himself would say no. The boy's mind had been changed so that he wanted to stay in the water. And so it is with the teaching of irresistible grace.

16:13 God's grace is not something God crams down us. Rather, he gives us a new heart, which makes us thankful for his grace, and we desire it. Irresistible grace is the working of the Spirit within us, by which he rescues us from sin and the power of darkness and brings us to light in Jesus Christ. Although we by nature resist the Spirit's efforts, the power of the Spirit overcomes our resistance by changing our hearts and wills so that we joyfully and earnestly follow the Lord.

16:48 The God who chose us and who saved us also ensures our salvation. The God who chose us and who saved us also ensures our salvation through the working of the Spirit's marvelous and invincible grace.

Scriptural Moorings of Irresistible Grace

16:59 But is this doctrine of irresistible grace moored in the foundation of God's word? That is, of course, a most important question. Is this the teaching of Scripture? A careful study of the teaching of evolution will lead to the discovery that it's based on almost 600 assumptions.

17:17 Charles Darwin, in his book, The Origin of the Species, warned those who read it that evolution was only a theory, sad to say it has become regarded in the minds of many as established fact. Is the teaching of irresistible grace something like the teaching of evolution based on assumptions? Most certainly not. It is grounded in the pages of the Bible.

17:42 But you ask, what scriptural moorings does it have? If it does not have scriptural moorings, then we must discard it. Again, like the other points of Calvinism, we find that this doctrine is firmly lodged in the word of God. We can only cover a few of the many passages.

17:58 In our scripture reading, taken from John 6, we hear Jesus saying in verse 37, John 6, verse 37, All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. These words are not tentative. All that the Father gives me will come to me. There is no question about it.

18:23 God's grace, His unmerited favor toward us, will come to us. It cannot be turned down. It scatters the thick clouds of darkness and ignorance which once rested in our minds and makes us see the brilliant light of God's love in Christ Jesus. Everyone whom the Father has chosen from eternity and for whom Christ died will taste His grace and will come to the Lord.

18:47 Verse 44 of this same chapter states it even more strongly. No one can come to me, says Jesus, unless the Father who sent me draws me to Him. And I will raise him up at the last day. God the Father draws people to Christ.

19:03 And that word draws is the same word that is used for drawing in fish with a net. Even as fish may resist being drawn in, yet cannot escape, so those whom God draws will come to Him. God doesn't merely encourage and advise and coax, but He draws with His invincible, irresistible grace. Those whom God draws, cannot effectively resist the Spirit's work.

19:30 That's the teaching of irresistible grace. Some teachers make a grave mistake when they state God can and does draw men, but man's resistance can defeat the pull of God. That's simply not true from a biblical point of view. Jesus said that those whom the Father draws, He will raise the last day, which means that those whom God calls to Himself through grace will experience grace, new life with Christ at the end of time.

20:01 No one can defeat the pull of God. Even as my neighbor's mule could not resist the tractor's pull, everyone who is drawn by God will know what it is to live with the Lord forever. Not one will be missing. Man's resistance never triumphs over God's grace.

20:21 The words of John 6 clearly teach this doctrine of irresistible grace.

20:27 Moving to John 10, the passage we focused on in our last message, we hear Jesus saying in verse 16, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Speaking to His fellow Jewish Christians, Jesus informs them that there are still more people, both Jew and Gentile, who have been chosen by God who must yet come to conversion, and be brought into the sheepfold.

21:02 I must bring them in, He says. Will their salvation be uncertain? Is it possible for them to reject God's grace so that they will not be saved? Never.

21:13 They will listen to Christ's voice. They will become a part of the flock. The voice of grace is victorious over the voice of people. Let's take one more passage from Scripture.

21:26 Acts chapter 16. It's the story of Lydia. She was a businesswoman, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira. After Paul proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ to her, we find these words, The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

21:45 Unquote. These words tell us that Paul did not open her heart to the gospel, nor did Lydia open her own heart to receive the message of salvation, but the Lord opened her heart. It was the Lord's doing. With His invitation, with His invincible, irresistible grace, He opened the heart of Lydia, whose heart had formerly been closed tighter than a drum in the ways of God.

22:10 The opening and closing of our hearts to the good news is not up to us. It is up to God, and it is performed by the Holy Spirit with irresistible grace. We could add passages such as Galatians 1.15, Romans 8.30,

22:27 and Romans 9.16. They all express the thrust of this teaching of irresistible grace. The moorings of this doctrine are not embedded in assumptions, nor in theory, but in the word of God.

The Message of Irresistible Grace: God's Sovereignty

22:41 We now come to the question, what is the message of this teaching for you and me today? Does this doctrine have something to tell us in our everyday living? Yes, it does. Let me mention just two things that this doctrine conveys to us today.

22:57 First of all, it reminds us of the sovereignty of God. He is on the throne. He is the author and source of our salvation. God is omnipotent, all-powerful.

23:09 If God's grace can be obstructed by man, that would make us, man, stronger than God. If it is finally up to us whether or not to admit the Lord into our hearts, then we exercise greater jurisdiction in our salvation than the Lord himself does. Do we think that we are stronger than the Lord to be able to turn down his amazing grace? Yes.

23:34 We have always found it curious to think that we are all agreed that in our own strength we cannot overpower the efforts of Satan. We need the armor of God to withstand him, writes Paul in Ephesians 6. Yet we can help us as we are in ourselves to withstand the work of Satan. We somehow think that we can thwart the grace of God, which is much, much more powerful in its operation than the devil is.

24:05 It does not make sense. God's grace is dynamic. It is invincible. The feeble efforts of any of us to withstand the marvelous grace of the Lord fail.

24:16 God triumphs in giving us his glorious grace. We cannot turn it down. He works in us to will and to act according to his good purpose, writes Paul in Philippians 2. The Lord is completely in charge of our salvation.

The Message of Irresistible Grace: God's All-Encompassing Grace

24:32 Nothing we do can stop him from effectively carrying out his saving grace in the hearts of those whom he has chosen. God is sovereign. What good news that is! And secondly, this doctrine, like all those that have gone before, reminds us again of the grace of God.

24:52 If somehow the choice of accepting the Lord were left up to us, if it were possible to either accept or reject God's unmerited favor, then some of the credit for our salvation would be ours, wouldn't it? After all, we would be the ones who made the final choice. God may have wooed us and coaxed us and advised us, but it was still up to us to make the decision. We should be given some credit, and then it is not all grace anymore. Then part of it is our doing and our effort. But none of

25:25 the credit is ours. We are not able to effectively resist God's grace. His grace is so magnificent that it creates within us something new. We are given a new heart, a new will, a new spirit.

25:39 We are new people, and in gladness we receive that wonderful grace. It is all grace from beginning to end. While we were dead in sin, God made us alive. That is grace. While we wanted to

25:51 have nothing to do with the Lord, He chose us. That is grace. While we were going our own sinful way like lost sheep, the Lamb of God became our atonement. That is grace.

26:03 While we opposed the Lord and turned our backs to Him, He overwhelmed us with His invincible, His irresistible grace, His unmerited favor. That is grace. And when we reflect on that marvelous grace, which we can never begin to even comprehend, it leads us to say, All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given, the Son and Him who reigns with them in highest heaven.