John Samson Fills in for Dr. White on Today's Dividing Line

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Continuing on from Dividing Line broadcasts in February, Pastor John Samson fills in for James on the TULIP (doctrines of grace). Today's subject "Irresistible Grace."

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For our illustrious friend and author and debater and elder,
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Dr. James White, what a delight it is to be on the Dividing Line broadcast today. We're taking a journey,
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I hope you will come with me into the Bible, into the Word of God. And I just wanted to highlight one of Dr.
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James White's books that's been a blessing to me that I've passed on to numerous people. The King James Only Controversy.
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Can everyone take a good look at that one? There it is. It's, I think,
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Rich would tell me if this is incorrect, his bestselling book, would that be correct? Yeah, and has had wide circulation.
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But, you know, while the cat is away, the mice will play.
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I just think we should start a new movement here on the broadcast on Dr. James White's show and hijack it for God's glory and start a new movement.
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And that would be to instead of promulgating the King James version of the
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Bible, how about the English standard version of the
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Bible? The ESV, can we be ESV only people? Was it in 2001 when the great and glorious ESV came out, was published for the first time and God somehow inspired again the written word of God in the
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English language? I think we should start a new movement. How about you? And there might be some reaction from James.
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I realize that he might react to that in a kind of negative way and kind of put everything, every other project on hold and start writing.
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And my little mind, my little mind just thought, you know. His new next book could be this one, responding to what happens on the broadcast day.
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Can you all see that? The English standard only controversy. Can you trust the older translations?
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The divine line has been brought to you by Alfin Omega. Yes, he's pulling the plug.
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And in my little mind, I thought, you know, if if that was to happen and James writes the
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English standard only controversy book, which I'm sure he will, there might be some reaction from prominent members of the body of Christ and they want to put their illustrious thoughts on the back.
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And in my mind, in my mind, here's one that will, I'm sure, be on the back cover by D .A.
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Carson. He says, Dr. James White is a brilliant scholar, but here he disappoints. I'm with Samson on this one.
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ESV only God's revealed word. There's there's actually one from Ergen, you'll enjoy this one,
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Rich. I debated James on this in Montreal, Canada, and for my Arabic friends,
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Punjabi, Punjabi, Jihad, Buntalini. Yes, and George Bryson, he's on there, he says, don't read this book, read my book.
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And then Dr. William Lake Craig, he he's he's he's got a little thing to say, he says, as I see it, there is no difference between King James only and ESV only.
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And then finally, Dr. J. I. Packer. No, not another, not another forward
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I've got to write. Can't an old man just have one night of good sleep? Oh, wow.
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Moving on, let's talk about something that I believe is is dear to the heart of God.
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Before we do that, just wanted to give you some feedback about your prayers, because last time
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I was on the broadcast when James was away in Ukraine and in Europe, I asked if you'd be praying for us as a small church, just starting out here in Phoenix, asking that you'd pray that we'd find a location.
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And in the last couple of weeks, we've found one, a beautiful location. It's actually called Beatitudes Campus on the west side of Phoenix at 1610
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West Glendale Avenue. Actually, we meet in the East Boardroom, which is a little confusing because it's on the west side of this huge campus.
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But God has been very, very gracious to us. And we just are so thrilled about that. So new reformed
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Baptist church on the west side of Phoenix. And we're excited about that. And the address, internet address you can check that out at is kingschurchaz .com.
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If you're in any way in the area, we'd love to see you. Last time I was on the broadcast, we were going through the
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TULIP, the doctrines of grace. And I want to pick up from where we left off last time.
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We'd finished with the T, the U and the L, T meaning total depravity.
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And as you just saw with firsthand experience, total depravity is alive and well, such is our sinfulness and my sinfulness and my humor.
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But today I want to talk about irresistible grace. It's a subject that's very much misunderstood by many.
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But if the first T in the TULIP is true and it is or we could say since that is true,
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God would need to irresistibly draw his elect to himself or else all he would be seeing would be people shaking their fists at him when he called them to repentance, when he called them to faith in Jesus Christ.
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He would not see anyone respond because of the fact total depravity is true. Man is spiritually dead towards God.
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He's alive physically. He has his own thoughts. He makes his own choices. And those choices are always in defiance of God.
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Romans 8 verses 7 and 8 tell us that the natural man, the man that is in the flesh cannot please
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God. He will not submit to the law of God. Neither indeed can he do so.
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There are many cannots in the Bible. First Corinthians tells us very, very clearly the same thing as does
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John 6, 44. No man can come to me. Jesus said, unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
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Powerful drawing. And that's what we're going to talk about here on the broadcast. Irresistible grace.
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Let me define it and I'll do so with a quote from Dr. J .I. Packer, a real one this time.
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Regeneration is the spiritual change wrought in the heart of man by the Holy Spirit in which a person's inherently sinful nature is so radically impacted.
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His disposition so affected, his mind so illumined, his will so liberated that a person can will respond to God in saving faith and willingly live in accord with the will of God.
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That is what we're talking about. God changing the heart, taking out a heart of stone. And if you think about it, a heart of stone does not have any emotion, does not have any desire.
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And that is true of us spiritually. We have no desire for the God of the Bible. Romans 3, verse 11 tells us literally there is no
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God seeker. So if you are now seeking God, God has been first seeking you.
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He sought you and has given you a new heart to know him. There's another quote
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I'm looking for. It's by Dr. James White. Ever heard of him?
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Yes. He says this, the doctrine of irresistible grace is easily understood. It is simply the belief that when
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God chooses to move in the lives of his elect and bring them from spiritual death to spiritual life, no power in heaven or on earth can stop him from doing so.
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It is really nothing more than saying that it is God who regenerates sinners and that freely. The doctrine has nothing to do with the fact that sinners resist the common grace of God and the
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Holy Spirit. They do. Or that Christians do not live perfectly in the light of God's grace.
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It is simply the confession that when God chooses to raise his people to spiritual life, he does so without the fulfillment of any conditions on the part of the sinner.
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Just as Christ had the power and authority to raise Lazarus to life without obtaining his permission to do so, he is able to raise his elect to spiritual life with just as certain a result.
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Objections to irresistible grace are by and large actually objections to the previously established truths of the doctrines of grace.
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Obviously, if God is sovereign and freely and unconditionally elects a people unto salvation, and if man is dead in sin and enslaved to its power,
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God must be able to free those elect people in time and bring them to faith in Jesus Christ and that by a grace that does not falter or depend upon human cooperation.
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Those who disbelieve God's right to kingship over his creation or the deadness of man in sin and put forward the tradition of man's autonomous will can hardly confess that God's grace actually saves without the free will cooperation of man.
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From their perspective, the autonomous act of human faith must determine
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God's actions. That act of faith becomes the foreseen act that controls
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God's very decree of predestination. And of course, that act of faith becomes the trigger that results in one being born again.
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Neither side in the debate will deny that God is the one who raises man to spiritual life. The question is, does he do so because men fulfill certain conditions or does he do so freely at his own time and in the lives of those he chooses to bring into relationship with himself through Jesus Christ?
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This question is normally framed in the context of the relationship of faith and regeneration.
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Do we believe to become born again or must we first be born again before we can exercise true saving faith?
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Can the natural man do what is pleasing to God? Can the dead choose to allow themselves to be raised to life?
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This is the issue at hand. That's again, Dr. James White from his book, Debating Calvinism.
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This is an important area because it affects our understanding of salvation and it, if understood correctly, allows us to boast only in the
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God of our salvation. The opposite would be this. If man is the initiator and God says, all right,
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I've laid it out and you chose, but I didn't do everything to save you.
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I needed your cooperation or we will never, we would never have got to this salvation thing.
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We would never have done it. There's a little bit of glory that goes to man in salvation. Can you imagine
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Bob and George in heaven? Bob turning to George and say, you know what? I want to keep this quiet, but I'm here because I made a really wise choice.
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I keep, you know, don't say it loudly, but there was a guy next to me, he heard the same gospel
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I did and I responded. What can I say? I don't like to talk about it, but I guess
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I was more humble. You know, George says, keep your voice down. We don't boast of ourselves here.
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But, you know, logically, that would be true if the Arminian position was the truth from the word of God.
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There's something of which to boast. But Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 tells us it is by grace for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
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It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that for the purpose that no one should boast the grace, the salvation and the faith, all of that is the gift of God.
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Linguistically, that is what the Greek is saying, that that that we are consumed with.
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What is the that that is being referred to in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8, that not of yourselves, it is all the preceding clause, the grace, the salvation and the faith.
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Philippians 1 29 tells us it's been given you to believe. It also talks about suffering.
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But don't miss the impact of that verse. It's been given you to believe.
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Second, Peter, chapter one, verse one, to those who have received like precious faith.
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Where did you get your faith from? Some people think they came up with that God gives grace, that's his part.
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Man either believes or doesn't believe. And there's a truth to that man does either believe or doesn't believe what
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God has revealed in his word. But what causes us to believe?
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The scripture says you've received faith, not the simple ability to believe, it's more specific, you've received faith, faith itself is a gift.
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Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith.
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He started the work. That's why Philippians 1 6 says he who started the work, he will complete it.
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If you had a hand in it, if I had a hand in my salvation in the sense that my faith triggered salvation by my effort as a dead spiritual man,
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I chose to come alive. It just makes no sense at all. And the biblical example in picture form is
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Lazarus in the tomb. Jesus did not go up to dead Lazarus and interview him and say, look, I've got a proposal for you to sign these waivers.
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You know, I don't want to be sued for neglecting your right to stay dead, fill out the paperwork and we can do this.
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No, Jesus stood at the tomb and dead Lazarus was raised to life by the power of the command of Christ.
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Lazarus come forth. And in spiritual terms, Jesus has stood at the tomb of all his elect people.
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And in time somewhere, whether it be very early on in life or late in life, I just had the privilege of baptizing a couple who late in life came to Christ, hadn't been in church for more than 60 years.
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What a joy. What a joy. God says, I'm having you. This is my time.
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I'm bringing you to life. And he stood at the tomb of our spiritual corpses and said,
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John, come forth. Mary, come forth. Philip, come forth, whatever your name is. If you're a child of God, he stood at the tomb of your spirituality and says, come forth.
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You're coming home today. The fact is, many people reject these ideas, not because they're clear in Scripture, because but because they misread certain texts or read in to certain texts.
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And how do I know that? Because I did that for decades as a Christian. I would see verses like Acts chapter seven, verse fifty one, where Stephen was preaching to the
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Sanhedrin and says, you always resist the Holy Spirit. And I would say, there you go.
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You can resist the Holy Spirit. There's no such thing as irresistible grace or else we would have to take
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Acts seven fifty one out of the Bible. No, I misunderstood what is happening, because quite literally everyone will resist the
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Holy Spirit unless God says, I'm going to overcome your resistance today. And he has every right to do it.
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Man by nature will always resist the Holy Spirit. We will grieve the
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Holy Spirit. But I tell you what, when the Holy Spirit says, you know what, I'm going to do a miracle in this person's life because God has elected
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Jesus has died for this one. And I am going to apply redemption to this one today when he does it.
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It's going to happen. That's what John chapter three is all about. Jesus and his explanation to Nicodemus when he affirmed the fact that you must be born again.
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He didn't say, now, here's three steps you have to do. This is what you have to do to be born again. He just says the wind blows where it wishes.
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You hear the sound of it. You don't know where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who's born of the spirit.
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So is everyone who's born of the spirit. It's a sovereign activity. The wind you can't see.
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You see its effects. You see the trees swaying. You see leaves. You see sometimes animals flying through the air when that wind is that strong.
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When the wind blows, it can blow strongly. And with the force of a hurricane, the
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Holy Spirit has blown into our hearts, removing the debris of the decay of our sin and giving us a brand new heart.
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Yet with the skill of an expert surgeon, he's taken out the heart of stone and given a heart of flesh.
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Now, I remember in 1980 being at a service I really didn't really want to be at. My father inviting me to church on a
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Sunday night. It was May, I think it was May 10th, 1980. I didn't want to be there.
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But halfway through the sermon that I didn't enjoy, I started to become interested and I started to want what the preacher was talking about.
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I actually wanted to know this Jesus. And now I understand what had happened.
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The Holy Spirit had blown into that service and created a new creation so that I wanted what
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I didn't want before. I remember seeing my father reading his Bible. I was about aged eight and I thought, you'd never catch me doing that.
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I looked at his Bible and it was a black book and archaic language. And I thought, not interested.
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What has happened now? I love the Bible. I've got a love for the word of God. What changed? Did I have some humility inside that God says
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I'm going to use that humility and I'm going to work because of it? No, I was dead in trespasses and sins.
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But the Holy Spirit went to work sovereignly, invisibly, but effectually and brought salvation.
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He regenerated my dead spirit, my dead heart. One popular view that's out there is called prevenient grace.
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You may have heard of it, not irresistible grace as we're talking about it, but almost the counter view, prevenient grace.
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And I don't believe it's a view that holds up to biblical scrutiny. And let me give you a quote from Dr.
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R .C. Sproul. He says this about it. As the name suggests, prevenient grace is a grace that comes before prevenient grace, something that comes before something.
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It is normally defined as a work that God does for everybody. He gives all people enough grace to respond to Jesus.
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That is, it is enough grace to make it possible for believers or for people to come to Christ.
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Those who cooperate with and assent to this grace are elect. That's the view. Those who refuse to cooperate with this grace are lost.
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The strength of this view is that it recognizes that man's fallen spiritual condition is severe enough that it requires
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God's grace to save him. The weakness of the position may be seen in two ways. If this prevenient grace is merely external to man, outside of him, then it fails in the same manner that the medicine and the life preserver analogies fail.
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What good is prevenient grace if offered outwardly to spiritually dead creatures? On the other hand, if prevenient grace refers to something that God does within the heart of fallen man, then we must ask why it is not always effectual.
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Why is it that some fallen creatures choose to cooperate with prevenient grace and others choose not to?
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Does everyone get the same amount? Think of it this way. In personal terms, if you are a Christian, you are surely aware of other people who are not
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Christians. Why is it that you have chosen Christ and they have not? Why did you say yes to prevenient grace while they said no?
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Was it because you were more righteous than they were? If so, then indeed you have something in which to boast.
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Was that greater righteousness something you achieved on your own or was it the gift of God?
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If it was something you achieved, then at the bottom line, your salvation depends on your own righteousness.
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If the righteousness was a gift, then why didn't God give that same gift to everybody?
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Perhaps it wasn't because you were more righteous. Perhaps it was because you are more intelligent.
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Why are you more intelligent? Because you study more, which really means you're more righteous.
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Or are you more intelligent because God gave you a gift of intelligence that he withheld from others?
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To be sure, most Christians who hold to the prevenient grace view would shrink from such answers.
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They see the implied arrogance in them. Rather, they are more likely to say, no,
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I chose Christ because I recognize my desperate need for him. That certainly sounds more humble, but I must press the question.
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The question for advocates of prevenient grace is why some people cooperate with it and others don't.
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How we answer that question will reveal how gracious we believe our salvation really is.
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The $64 ,000 question is, does the Bible teach such a doctrine of prevenient grace?
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If so, where? We conclude that our salvation is of the Lord. He is the one who regenerates us.
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Those whom he regenerates come to Christ. Without regeneration, no one will ever come to Christ.
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With regeneration, no one will ever reject him. God's saving grace effects what he intends to effect by it.
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That's R .C. Sproul in his book, Chosen by God. Let's look at our
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Bibles, if you will. And in the Old Testament, we see this clearly as well as in the new. Second Chronicles chapter 30 is a passage
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I'd ask you to go with me to where the writer is telling us of events happening in the ancient world.
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It's a powerful, powerful statement. And I want to read from verse six.
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It says, So curious went throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes as the king had commanded, saying,
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Oh, people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hands of the king of Assyria.
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Does that not sound like many passages in the Bible where God says,
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Return to me, come to me? Jesus said, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, come to me, return to me, return to the
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Lord. And then it says, And I will do something. Does that not sound the exact opposite of what
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I've been talking about, that this sounds like God is waiting for man to do something and he's just hoping that man will.
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And should man do that, then God will respond. That's exactly what the verse seems to be saying.
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In fact, it actually says that, Oh, people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hands of the king of Assyria.
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Let's continue to read on. Do not be like your fathers and your brothers who were faithless to the
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Lord God of their fathers so that he made them a desolation. As you see, do not now be stiff necked, don't be stiff necked.
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God is saying, Don't be stiff necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the
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Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever and serve the
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Lord, your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you.
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For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land for the
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Lord. Your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you if if you return to him.
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Verse 10, So the couriers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they left them to scorn and mock them.
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So God says, Come and some just were full of scorn and mocked the couriers.
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However, verse 11, Some men of Assyria, of Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
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Again, does not that not sound like there's something about these particular men that were better spiritually than the others who mocked?
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Doesn't it at least sound like that? It certainly does. Certainly does. Some mocked were full of scorn, but some humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
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They did what God required of them. Look at verse 12, you know, verse 12 changes everything.
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It tells us what was going on behind the scenes that we would not know unless God revealed
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God commands. Some people mock, some people respond. But of those who did respond, those who did respond, it says this.
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The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of the
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Lord. Oh, so. The hand of God was on the men of Assyria and Manasseh and Zebulun and on Judah in giving them.
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One heart, God gave the heart that responds.
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That's what irresistible grace is. And whenever you and I see text that says, come to me, seek the
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Lord while he may be found, all of these commands of God do not ever make the mistake of thinking that God is waiting for us to do that and then he will respond.
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That would be. An unlikely situation, more than that, it'll be incorrect simply because it's
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God who gives us his people the ability to respond.
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Grace can be resisted until God wills to overcome the resistance.
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As soon as God chooses. He can overcome your resistance and you can't resist any longer than he wants you to.
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Faith and repentance, both are called the gift of God. Second Timothy 24, excuse me, chapter two, verse 24 through 26.
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Remember that? Be gentle, be humble, teach, continue to teach.
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And perhaps God may grant repentance to your hearers. I'm summing up what the passage says, if perhaps it's
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God who gives repentance. Repentance is a gift. Whether someone repents is dependent on whether God grants them repentance.
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It's a gift. We cannot come to Christ unless God draws us.
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Most would agree with that. But John 6, 44 says far more than that. Most quote John 6, 44 and quote two thirds of the verse.
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But it says, Jesus speaking, no man, no one. That's a universal negative. There's no one excluded from this.
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No one can, no one has the ability. The Greek word is related to the word dunamis.
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It's speaking about power, speaking of ability. No one has the power or ability to come to me.
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And if the verse stopped there, no one would be saved because we must come or else we will be lost.
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And in verse 37 of that same chapter, he'd already said all that the father gives me will come to me.
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And then verse 44, no man can come to me. Thankfully, that's not the end of the verse.
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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. A lot of people stop there, but the verse continues and I will raise him up on the last day.
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Why do I highlight the fact that there's more to the verse than what is normally quoted? The reason is there's an effectual drawing taking place in verse 44.
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No one has the ability to come to Jesus unless the father who sent Jesus draws him and the one drawn is drawn so effectively that he's raised up on the last day.
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There is an effective call that always results in its intended result, which is salvation.
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To be raised up on the last day is to be saved, is to have eternal life, is to be in heaven. Everyone who
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God draws in that way is saved. Well, I just believe
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God draws everyone. Not effectively. In fact, if you were to read more in John chapter six, you'll find
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Jesus makes it clear even about Judas, the fact that he was not drawn.
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I hadn't seen this until just recently. Grumbling Jews said, um, he said,
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I'm the bread that came down from heaven. Jesus said is they said, excuse me, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
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How does he now say I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them. Do not grumble. Among yourselves, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I'll raise him up on the last day as it's written in the prophets and they'll all be taught by God.
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Everyone has heard and learned from the father comes to me. We move on to further on in the chapter.
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He talks about, uh, him being the bread of life and continues in that theme.
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The 60, when many of his disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying who can listen to it. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do not, do you take offense at this?
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Then what if you were able to see what if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before?
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It's the spirit who gives life. The flesh is of no avail. Do you believe that it's the spirit who gives men spiritual life?
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Really? The flesh is of no avail. The flesh profit of nothing.
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King James says, Luther said of that verse, that nothing is not a little something.
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But if we believe the provenient grace view, then the flesh profits everything.
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Cause in the flesh, you choose God and everything now is yours.
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Your salvation is due to you while still in the flesh, making the right decision and now everything is yours.
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It profits you everything. No, I believe the spirit gives life. The flesh is of no avail.
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The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe for Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him.
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Now hear that, hear that. He knew who it was who would betray him. He knew of Judas and he said, this is why
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I told you. And just relating the fact that he knew who would betray him.
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He said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father.
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Gosh, that's strong. This is why I told you no one can come to me unless it's granted him by the father in the context of Judas and his betrayal.
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One who never truly came to Christ. Jesus called him a demon. He says,
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I know the one who will betray me and no one can come to me unless it's granted him by the father.
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After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. And Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well?
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Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. There's no other show in town.
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You're the one you're the Messiah. I already know you are the Christ, the son of the living God. I'm not going away.
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But I tell you, some people go away when they hear this kind of a God spoken about. I can't tell you how many people who will not study these things because they say,
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I will never love a God like that. But I tell you, this is the only God we have to deal with.
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The God of the Bible. I want to know him. God does not bring us to a place where he leaves it to man to make the decisive decision.
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But he gives grace that results in repentance, that results in faith.
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God gave those folk in Second Chronicles 30 a heart to do it. And he says the same things occurred in those others.
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Hear that. Hear the language of Scripture. You should never conclude that he leaves it to ourselves to fulfill the conditions he demands.
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This goes back to the ancient debate that took place with St. Augustine and Pelagius, Pelagius being the heretic, the man centered individual who was aghast that Augustine would pray a prayer like this.
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Command what you will and grant what you command. He says, no, no, it's all right for God to command what he wills.
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But God doesn't need to give grace for us to obey his commands. Why? That would that would negate our power as human beings.
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It would be unjust for God to need to give us grace before we could do what he commands.
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If God commands us to do it, the obvious implication is we can do it. And there are many in Pelagius thinking today.
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We're raised in a Pelagius society that thinks we can do it.
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We can be anything we want to be. We can do this salvation. We can raise ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps.
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We can be anything we want to be. And Augustine and the saints of all would say, no, God may command you to do something, but you are powerless to do it unless God grants it to you.
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And that's exactly what Jesus tells us. Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden.
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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I'll raise him up on the last day.
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Do you see that? He commands all to repent. He commands all to come to him, but no one can come to him unless God gives a certain kind of grace and theologians have long made a distinction between two types of grace, a common grace that is available to everyone who lives and breathes on planet earth.
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God gives mercy and grace to terrorists as well as preachers. It's amazing that he would do so.
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We are so used to this that we are not amazed by this kind of a grace. But God does not have any duty to give man life.
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He has no obligation to give man 70 or 80 years of life on planet earth to give him rain, to give him food.
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But the Bible says the rain falls on the just and the unjust. There's a grace that is common to everyone who lives and breathes because in him we live and move and have our being.
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That's grace, amazing grace. But there's a second type of grace which is called often effectual grace, which is actually the name of my blog, effectualgrace .com.
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I'm talking about a grace that is effective, that actually works, that accomplishes everything it sets out to do.
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And he does it. To what do you give glory for your salvation?
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If in any way you give glory to God, give glory for everything, even your faith.
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Your faith is the gift of God. Not just the ability to believe, but faith itself.
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And under severe trial, you still continue to believe. Though the elect may stray for a while, they come back.
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Just as there's a huge difference between Judas who betrayed Jesus and Peter who denied him.
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What did Jesus say of Judas? Not much at all.
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What did Jesus pray for Judas? No record he prayed anything specific.
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What did he say to Peter? Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you.
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And when you have turned, strengthen your brothers. That's powerful. You're going to go through trial, but it's not a question of if, but when.
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I'm going to bring you back. When you've turned, help your brothers, feed them.
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What happened? Judas went away after the betrayal, hung himself. What did
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Peter do? Very remorseful. Came back and he was the first preacher on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
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God restored him. Why? Jesus prayed for him. Jesus makes it clear in John 17.
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He says, I'm not praying for the world. I'm praying for the ones you have given me.
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We are saved not only because the death of the death and resurrection of Christ, but also because he's a mediator between God and men and his mediation works for those whom his sacrifice was made in the
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Old Testament. The high priest, if you remember, not only brought the sacrifice, but prayed for those whom his sacrifice was for.
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That was the high priestly ministry in Old Testament times. On his robe were the 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel.
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There wasn't a 13th or 14th stone in there for the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
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Jebusites. It was the people of God, the people of Israel. And one time a year, he went into the Holy of Holies, bringing the sacrifice and making intercession for the people.
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And you see the exact same thing in John 17. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you've given me.
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It's wonderful when you see the glory of it, to see the beauty of it. God's effectual calling overcomes resistance to the gospel.
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1 Corinthians chapter 1, let's just go there in our Bibles. If you've got access to a
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Bible, maybe you're driving in a car and listening to it. And I advise you not to do so. But if you can, get out your
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Bible. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, where it says, verse 20, where is the one who is wise?
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Where is the scribe? He'd just written, verse 18, for the word, the message of the cross is folly, foolishness to those who are perishing.
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But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Why do you see beauty and value and power in the cross, where others just see an itinerant
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Jewish prophet losing everything? It's a scandal.
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Why would a religion be based on something that happened 2 ,000 years ago, thousands of miles away and in a place that was obscure, that there you'd say the most important act in human history took place?
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Really? Really? Yeah, really. And it takes God to open our eyes to see it.
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Otherwise, we'll just see it as utter foolishness. And the Bible says we will. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.
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But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written,
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I'll destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise?
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Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
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Answer is obviously yes. For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom.
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It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. Look at verse 22.
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For Jews demand signs. Greeks seek wisdom. All right.
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There's Jewish people and they seek signs. They want miracles. Show us a miracle.
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Greeks, they want wisdom. Give us something we haven't heard before. Take us in an elevated sense to wisdom that we have not experienced.
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He says, I know what people want. I don't need to take a poll. I don't need to go door to door and find out what kind of message people want to hear.
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I know. I know what they want to hear. They want to hear of signs and wonders or they want to hear wisdom.
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Paul says this, but we preach Christ crucified. I'm not going to give them what I want, what they want.
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We preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews. He knew that for Jews, it would be a stumbling block because their own scriptures in the
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Old Testament tells us cursed is the one who hangs on a tree. So you're saying that I'm seeing someone on a tree and he's the
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Messiah? Come on. Galatians tells us he was cursed, but not for anything he'd done.
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He was cursed for us. Galatians 3 .13, Christ took our curse so that we could have the blessing.
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Stumbling block to Jews. Folly to Gentiles. Hmm. But to those who are called both
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Jews and Greeks. So there's Jews and there's Greeks. Jews will reject it. Greeks will reject it.
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But to those who are called, there's this third group that are made up of Jews and Gentiles.
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Gentiles are all non -Jews. There's Jews, there's Gentiles, and then there's the called who are made up of people from the
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Jewish community and the Gentile community. And the called get it. The called, both
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Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Paul knew going in preaching at Corinth and anywhere else he went.
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Jews wouldn't like it. Gentiles wouldn't like it. But the called would. The called would love it.
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They'd come alive. They'd see. They'd hear the shepherd's voice. My sheep hear my voice.
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We don't know who the sheep are. We just go preach the gospel to everyone we can. And God knows who it is who are his sheep.
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And they not have a 50 -50 chance, not an 80 % probability.
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They will hear my voice. And they will follow me. They may not follow
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Christ the first time they hear the outward call of the gospel, but they will follow him when they hear the effective call, the call that the
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Holy Spirit gives to the human heart, the effectual call of God. And God says,
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I know you've heard the gospel 18 times, but this 19th time you're coming home. I'm going to overcome your resistance today in irresistible grace, making
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Christ so attractive to you that you want him. You want what you couldn't want before.
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This is not because of some physical handicap. We do have the ability to choose. It's because of a moral handicap, an inability.
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We love our sin far more than we love Christ. We love darkness more than light and will not come to the light as John chapter one tells us.
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John chapter three as well. John chapter six, John chapter 10, John chapter 17.
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It's all through the gospel of John. It's through our Bibles. To those who are called, there is a call.
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In fact, these two types of calling need to be understood or else we'll not understand the
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New Testament. Jesus said, many are called, but few are chosen.
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That's speaking of the general call. There's a general call. Many are called. And you hear this.
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Not everybody hears the gospel. There are nations that were never sent a prophet by God.
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God, as far as I understand, for centuries never sent a prophet to China. I've been to China.
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It's amazing when I walk through customs and stood on that land thinking as many people would have loved to have stood where I'm now standing.
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I've been to Mongolia and preached the gospel. And at the time, there was just an amazing growth of the church.
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But 15 years before, there was only one known Christian in the entire country. And I was preaching in this little village where the church was just a few years old.
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There were 60 people in the service. It was an amazing thing. And the pastor was only six months old as a
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Christian. And he was just one week ahead of his congregation, just learning the Bible, trying to read what he could.
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The Bible was in his language, but there were no books on the Bible. This is Mongolia. There were no commentaries.
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He read Amos. He didn't know who Amos was, but he was slightly ahead of those who didn't have a
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Bible. And he was called by God. I was able to preach the truth of irresistible grace there.
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God in his grace has irresistibly drawn you because he sent the gospel to you.
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How gracious that is. And more than that, to not only bring you the gospel, but to give you ears to hear, hearts to respond to those who are called.
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Many are called, few are chosen. That's the general call of God.
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But when Paul uses the term called, he's using it in the sense of the powerful, effective, drawing call.
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You ever been in a park where you've seen a man with his dog calling his dog, here boy, here boy.
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And the dog does nothing. Why? It's seen another dog. It is excited to see another dog.
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And the call is not effectual. There may be some recriminations because the dog did not respond.
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But when God calls with this effectual call, his people come home. His sheep hear his voice.
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They turn. They follow him. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man.
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And the weakness of God is stronger than man. For consider your calling brothers. He's not writing about everybody in the world.
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He's talking to the church. Not many of you are wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful.
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Not many were of noble birth. Thankfully, it doesn't say not any. It says not many. There are some people with some amazing intelligence and riches who are
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Christians, but not many. Certainly that was the case in the first century.
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Many of the people coming to Christ were poor. We're not the elite in society. And he says you at current.
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You know this. Not many of you were wise by worldly standards. Not many powerful. Not many of noble birth.
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But God chose here. This God chose. God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose.
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That's the second time we read of it. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose. That's the third time we hear that phrase.
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God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing.
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Things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus.
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He's the reason why you're in Christ. He's the source. He and he alone whom
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God made our wisdom, our righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it's written, let the one who boasts boast in the
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Lord. We see this calling in so many places. We're running out of time.
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I'm just delighted with the fact we can talk about these things. You know, the golden chain of redemption, just in quick summary form in Romans chapter eight, verse twenty eight, we have those remarkable words that tell us all things work together for good to those who love
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God, to those who are what the called according to his purpose. And then it tells us the reason or the foundation on which that promise is true.
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Nothing is wasted in the Christians life. That is not true for everyone.
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Not everything that happens in the non -Christians life works for their good.
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If they never come to Christ, if they're going to hell, the fact that they might have even won the lottery is not going to be a thing that is going to be looked upon as good.
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It's actually worked against them in the sense that they have greater judgment for not using the money wisely.
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But all things work together for the good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose for or here's the result or this is why this is true for those whom he foreknew.
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He also predestined to be conformed to the image of a son that he might be the first born among many brothers.
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I remember hearing one man say, you know what? This is not talking about salvation here. It's talking about being conformed to the image of his son.
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But let me ask this. Who gets to be conformed to the image of his son? Do unsaved people become conformed to the image of his son?
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Not likely. Even in hell, they're defiant. That's why their punishment is eternal.
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They haven't got a new nature. They're sinning in hell. Think about that.
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No, those who are conformed to the image of his son are saved people and he's the first born among many brethren.
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If we were to march 100 theologians into a room, that would be a difficult thing to accomplish, but should we do that?
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We would ask them the question, what's the implication of these verses? It's not stated, but there's something implied here.
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Let me tell you what I mean by that. We could go for the idea that some of those who are predestined are called because it simply says those whom he predestined, he also called.
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Does it mean some of those? He predestined, he called, or is the implication all of those? He predestined, he called.
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It simply says those whom he predestined, he also called. Can we say with any authority, theologians, those who study the
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Bible, is the implication some or all? I believe every one of those theologians, despite their many differences on other issues, would say the implication is obviously the word all because the whole context is
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Paul taking us from the banner headline of Romans 8, 1, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, to no separation, the end of Romans 8.
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And he's showing how God not only does not condemn those he brings to Christ, they are justified by faith, faith alone, no condemnation for them, no judgment for them in Christ, and no separation.
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None will fall through the cracks. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
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So we're in a passage where that is where the passage is heading, to talk of the security of the true believer.
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And so the obvious implication is this, those whom he predestined, he also called. And if that means all, and it does, it then says, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.
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Notice the word called. This call, look at it in your Bible, is powerful.
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This calling always, always, always results in justification.
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That's not true with the outward call of the gospel. I've preached the gospel to many who've mocked and been full of scorn.
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But I've also seen some come to Christ and be justified. The outward call of the gospel can be resisted and will be resisted always unless the effectual call takes place, the call of the
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Holy Spirit, the call that always results in justification.
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This is irresistible. Those whom he called, he also justified.
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And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Even though on earth, none of us as Christians have yet been glorified,
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God is so sure it will take place, he speaks of it in the past tense. Foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified.
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And the whole passage is about the elect of God. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
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Why? He foreknew us, predestined, called us, justified us, glorified us. Does it matter who's against us if God's doing all that for us?
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He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, who's the us all? All his elect. How will he not also with him graciously give us?
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Who's the us? His elect. All things. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
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It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died.
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More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.
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He's praying for us. For his elect. Who shall separate us? Who's the us?
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His elect. From the love of Christ. List them. Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
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The answer, though not stated, is obvious. Nah, none of that will separate his elect from the love of God.
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As it's written, for your sake, we've been killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors.
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Hupernacheo. Hyper conquerors. The word Nike comes from this word, nacheo.
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It means to conquer, to be victorious. We, the Christians, are super conquerors.
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Why? Not even death defeats the Christian. God loses no members of his church at death.
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We're more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I'm sure,
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I hope you are sure, I hope you're being built up in your most holy faith. I'm sure, I'm certain that neither death nor life, some people say, but it doesn't mention sin.
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I think death and life covers every event of time. Don't you think? Mm -hmm.
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Neither death, nothing that death throws at you and nothing that life throws at you, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us, us, from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our
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Lord. Oh, what grace, irresistible grace.
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I pray that you, as a Christian, if that's the case, will give glory to God, not only for your salvation, but the faith that calls you to call upon his name.
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And I pray that we will be gospel -centered and go out into all the world and preach this wonderful gospel. I pray that we will share this truth far and wide.
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God is gracious. Come to him, come to him all, and he'll give you rest.
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It's been a pleasure to be here on the broadcast. God willing, I'll be back on Thursday while Dr.
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James White is away. It's been a privilege. God bless you as you walk in the light of his word.