TULIP-I-Irresistible Grace

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Mike and Steve talk about the "I" of "TULIP".

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle
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Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.
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This is Mike Abendroth, and I'm in the studio today in beautiful downtown Burbank with Pastor Steve Cooley.
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Also known as your local ne 'er -do -well, so. Well, we were just talking a moment ago, and Pastor Steve didn't know that I pushed the button to live on the air record.
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And so I was just kind of babbling on as I often do. That's why I'm called
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Babblefish. Talking to Christian Harris the other day, I was telling Steve, and he's a faithful listener in Texas of all places,
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Tejas, and he said he didn't originally like some of our banter back and forth, Steve, with pop culture references,
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Green Hornet references, and he just likes straight -up Bible teaching. But he says we have actually grown on him.
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Yeah, what happened is he moved to Texas, got a little visit from Chuck Norris that took care of the situation, so. All right, we on Tuesdays talk about basically whatever we want to talk about.
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And we talk about things that hopefully provoke you to study the scriptures and search them like the
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Bereans who were considered noble. We want you to know the Bible. We don't want you to trust your pastor or your spouse or your teachers or those people on the radio farther than my dad would say you could throw them.
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And so what do we mean? Well, of course we want you to trust your pastor, but as long as he's faithful to the Word. So we want to try to provoke your thinking today to find out if we're faithful to the
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Bible and can you agree with Pastor Mike and Pastor Steve as we continue our study in Calvinism.
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Calvinism, when we have discussed T -U -L, which is Total Depravity, Unconditional Election.
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T -U -L, T -U -L, yeah. If we just left it there, where would we be?
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T -U -L, T -U -L. I'm a three -pointer, T -U -L. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
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I'm a 4 .97 pointer. T -U -L -E. Oh, I guess we're getting to the T -U -L -E now, right?
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Tell us what that I is for. Irresistible Grace. We've had Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, and now
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Irresistible Grace. Yeah, but when you say Irresistible Grace, I automatically think that when we preach the gospel to people, can't they resist?
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When Stephen was preaching to people, they thought, no, Stephen, we will not.
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These people are uncircumcised, stiff -necked people. They resisted. Yeah, well, you know, that's the difference between...
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That's the difference. I'm close to just pushing the record button over, but let's just keep going. That's the difference between a theologian and a...
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Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, and a mock theologian. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Well, I mean, there's a difference between effectual grace or grace that actually works and just general grace, you know, or like a general calling.
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Grace, I guess it's grace to hear the gospel, period, but that same gospel saves some and not others, and we always come down to the question, why?
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You know, why is that? And the answer, biblically speaking, is because God opens the eyes of those
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He has chosen, and He irresistibly draws them to Himself.
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They cannot, those that the Father sets His affections on, cannot resist
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His will. Those whom the Holy Spirit regenerates do not say, you know what, no, I'd rather not be born again.
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John 3 doesn't, you know, Jesus never says to Nicodemus, by the way, it's kind of optional. If the
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Holy Spirit works on you, you may be born again, you may not be. Well, I think what's happening, Steve, just with this acronym of TULIP, total depravity might be better termed radical corruption.
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I think R .C. Sproul came up with that, or total inability. I like unconditional election as a term, but even limited atonement, people call it particular redemption, or definite or definitive atonement, and here too, irresistible grace.
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Just by definition, if people are lazy and default to the English definition, oh, here's grace, it can be resisted, so therefore irresistible grace isn't good.
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So effectual calling, I believe, is a better way to talk about irresistible grace.
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God can call people through the gospel, repent and believe, and He then effectually calls sinners as the
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Spirit of God, as you said in John 3, regenerates them and draws them. I second that nomination. Let's go to the canons of DORT for definition.
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I just want to know what our acronym's going to wind up being if we apply all yours. Have you worked that out? Somebody had
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R .O .S .E .S. as a new acronym, and I can't remember who had R .O .S .E .S. It was radical corruption. It was ostensible offspring of God.
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But seriously, there is an acronym one of these modern scholars came up with, R .O .S .E .S. So at least it went with the floral botany.
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Oh, probably specific redemption or something, and then effectual call. I don't know what the O would be. And saints persevering, no,
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I don't know. Oh, the O, I thought you said the S. I don't know either. Some things we don't know.
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I guess you could call Tom Krause if you want that answer. Many things we do know that we do not know. Listen to what the canons of DORT said.
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When God accomplishes His good pleasure in the elect, our works in them true conversion,
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He not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illumines their minds by His Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the
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Spirit of God. But by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, He pervades the innermost recesses of the man.
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Now that's kind of an archaic definition of effectual calling or irresistible grace. But Steve, I like the pervading the innermost recesses of the man part.
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It's like an invasion. I mean, God just kind of moves in. Am I gonna, you know, I just think of speaking of pop culture,
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Christian Harris, this is for you. Invasion of the body snatchers. But Steve, you're gonna like this better.
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That was only a hop, skip, and a jump to the real one. What we believe when it comes to pop culture and teaching this doctrine, if you've ever watched
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Star Trek, The Next Generation, we have some people called the Borg, and they assimilate people. And they're so powerful that they assimilate and they bring in into the collective people from all different races and nationalities.
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And what do they say? Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.
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And so how can God be resisted by finite creatures?
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He cannot be. And so when God, through the preaching of the gospel and the ministry of the Spirit of God, quickens someone, calls them, regenerates them, they will respond.
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That's what that means. You know, and this, people don't, again, they don't like this.
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Why? Because they don't want, you know, to be kind of devolved into robots or whatever.
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But I'm just reminded, you know, the sovereignty of God is so overarching in all of scripture.
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And I think maybe my favorite story in the entire Bible, my favorite description of the sovereignty of God is the book of Jonah.
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Because, you know, Jonah just sets out to defy God in every way possible. And God, guess what?
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Gets his man, gets his way, does what he wanted in the first place. And it really is a pretty good illustration of the fact that, no, you don't resist
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God's will. You do exactly what he wants. And I would just like to go to a
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New Testament verse that I think makes this all very plain, John 6 .37. Hey, I was going to go there first.
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Well, I've got dibs on John 6. Okay, well, then I'll go to John 6 .37,
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reading from the New Authorized Standard Version, also known as the ESV. All that the
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Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
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Now, listen to that again. All that the Father gives me will come to me.
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Well, who is it that the Father gives? We would say, and we would, if we actually walk through this entire text, we would see that it is those that the
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Father has chosen. And we would have to look at other texts to see that he chose them before the foundation of the world.
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But the point is that the Father gives them. Well, again, the
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Father doesn't give a multiple choice quiz and, you know, pick the smartest or those who get the right answer or anything like that.
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He gives them to the Son and they will come, not may come, but they will, without fail, come.
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Well, there's some biblical logic here in this TULIP acronym. People are dead in trespasses and sins, so God before time has to choose them.
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And so the same people that God has chosen before time, God sends his Son to die in time.
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And then those people, the Spirit of God, working perfectly within the Trinity, the Father choosing, the
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Son dying for, and now the Spirit makes alive or he quickens these people.
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And so that's why all those that the Father has chosen in unconditional election will come because their sins will have been paid for by the
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Son. And then the Spirit of God regenerates. And I know since you've got dibs on John 6 in the 30s,
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I'll go down to the 40s. John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
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Not one man, not no man, no person, this is all inclusive, can come to God unless the
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Father is drawing or dragging. And so what we have with this effectual call or efficacious call is people who are rebellious, sinful, will not bow to Jesus Christ have been enabled by the
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Spirit of God. The Spirit of God creates in them new life and now they willingly follow Christ.
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And no new creature, no one who has that new nature looks upon Christ and says, you know what,
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I could have salvation, but I choose not to because they do have that new nature, a new nature that is able for the first time to choose to follow the
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Savior. I was thinking about this the other day, Stephen, I never had pondered this like I should have.
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In the garden when God gave the call, the external call, a word from himself and said,
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Adam, I'd like you to do X, Y, and Z, before Adam sinned, Adam could say, yes, I'll do it. And he wouldn't need the
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Holy Spirit to help him and recreate some kind of ability in Adam to do the work because Adam was able to obey.
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But then the fall happened and see how everything revolves around the fall. If you get the fall wrong, you get everything wrong.
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And the fall happened, Adam could no longer obey God. So God would give the word, Adam, obey.
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Adam could not obey unless the Spirit of God came and enabled Adam to obey.
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So it's because of the fall where we need the effectual calling of the Spirit of God to enable unbelievers to believe and follow
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Christ. Yeah, because apart from that, they would have absolutely no capacity to do so.
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And so when we talked about the irresistible calling, irresistible, what is it, effectual calling that you have there, it isn't that God somehow, that God somehow forces people to believe.
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And this is what you hear, that God somehow, he's even been called some kind of cosmic rapist and horrible things like that.
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I mean, really perverse things to call the creator of the universe, but he doesn't do that.
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What he gives is a new nature where we become children. We're transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.
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And we don't go grudgingly. We don't go, you know, dragging, kicking, and screaming. We run to the cross.
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We love the Lord. We don't, we're not hesitant at all because we have, our eyes have been opened as it were.
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Well, let me read the Westminster Confession of Faith for a good definition. And I think you'll find it, listening audience, listening congregation,
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WVN ears, and those on iPodcast, this one might be a little easier to follow. This is a definition of effectual call.
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This is No Compromise Radio. All those whom God has predestined unto life and those only, he is pleased in his appointed and accepted time effectually to call by his word and spirit out of a state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone and giving unto them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills, and by his almighty power, determining them to that which is good and effectually drawing them to Christ.
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Yet so they as come most freely being made willing by his grace.
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That's exactly what you were talking about, Steve. They're made willing to come. It's not like they're forced to believe, they're forced to have a new nature out of God's kindness, and then that new nature believes willingly.
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Well, I mean, just think about this. You know, God says, I transform you,
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I give you, I'm taking you from spiritual death to spiritual life. The spiritually dead person who's just been transformed to life says, no,
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I'd rather be dead. How does that work? It couldn't work. The whole idea, as you said, it misunderstands the effects of the fall, and it misunderstands regeneration.
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If you don't think that God irresistibly draws, if you don't believe that he effectually calls some people, then you don't understand regeneration.
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You don't understand what that is. God causes us to be born again, as it says in 1
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Peter. It's not a, being born again is not simply a human choice.
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It is a God -ordained action that results in a so -called choice.
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Well, there you have it, because when it comes to effectual call, what we're saying is opposite of the Pelagian or semi -Pelagian view.
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That is the Pelagian view which says it's all about human ability. You don't need grace. People can have a full free will and they can decide to stop sinning anytime they'd like to and then follow
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God. Well, that's heresy, and then following that, moving a little bit closer to biblical truth, but still far away, is the semi, this is a
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Pelagian's younger brother, semi, and it's more a cooperative kind of deal.
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It is more synergistic, working along with God, and Pastor Steve was talking about regeneration.
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He didn't use the term, but he meant it, monergistic. God alone makes alive, and so here in semi -Pelagian view, the human will first chooses
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God because God has given some kind of assisting grace, and then God finishes the deal.
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What we're saying is if you go back to T, and then to U, and then to L, these biblical truths, and don't tell me, oh, that's just logic.
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No, this is biblical truth. Biblical logic determines that something has to be done by God to a dead person, and when
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God does something, he does it effectually. What does God do ineffectually? Just think about this idea you mentioned here, assisting grace.
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So you have a spiritually dead person. ♪ Assisting grace ♪ Ooh, I think we got a singing contract.
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I've got the smoker's cough going on. God walks up, as it were, to a spiritually dead person, as we would see in Ephesians 2 .1,
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and he offers them a hand. He reaches down, as it were, and says, come on, take my hand, and I'll pull you up.
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The dead person then opens his eyes and gladly responds. No, a dead person can't do anything.
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The whole idea of assisting grace. Let me just say a word about Pelagius. Please do. Some of you probably are not familiar with him, or his brother,
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Semi, but Pelagius was kind of the enemy of Augustine, and he was a heretic.
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He said the fall didn't impact anyone except Adam and Eve, and that we're all born morally neutral.
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I mean, this is the stuff of cults. This is the stuff of Mormonism. This is not the stuff of Christianity, and this was actually -
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He could have been a good guest on Oprah, though. An excellent guest, and actually, he was denounced.
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His doctrine was denounced at the Council of Orange, and which, by the way, I think the
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Catholic Church claims as one of their own councils, even though they now teach against it. Don't ask me how that works.
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But so, denounced as a heretic, this whole idea was denounced, and now it's somehow crept back in under this semi -Pelagianism where, okay, maybe the fall affected you, but not completely.
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Wrong, just wrong. It is salvation from beginning to end is a work of God's grace.
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If you add anything to that, including your own decision, you have moved away from a gospel of grace and possibly into a gospel of works.
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I like what Thomas Watson said, a great Puritan. Ministers knock at the door of men's hearts.
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So what he's saying so far is men will preach the gospel, repent and believe in this great
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Savior who died on behalf of sinners, this risen Savior. Trust in Him, follow
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Him. So ministers knock at the door of men's hearts. The Spirit, Watson says, comes with a key and opens the door.
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Nice. That is great, because that's exactly what happened with Lydia in Acts chapter 16. Lydia did not partially open the door a crack and then let the
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Spirit take care of it. When you were talking just a minute ago, Steve, about this arm being used and sticking your arm out,
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I could even take that and make it a little bit, maybe more dramatic. Okay, make it so. For effect.
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John chapter three talks about being born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the
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Spirit is spirit, and Jesus says you've got to be born again. You know, Nicodemus said, how can a man be born when he is old?
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Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Well, if you've sat in any labor and delivery room, and I've seen several children born for my own and one when
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I was working in the operating room, someone I can't remember who it was, I've never saw once something besides the head come out of the birth canal first.
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It's always the head. It's called a crown, I think. And so here you see the baby's head starting to come out, and it's the most fascinating thing you've ever seen in your life, as you know.
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But I've never seen an arm come out. An arm come out, kind of feeling in the air, almost looking around like it has eyes, and then begin to pull, grabbing some of the instruments, grabbing the doctor's arm and pulling himself.
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Grabbing maybe a sheet or something, you know? Yeah, yeah. Security blanket. Yeah, some little periscope hand coming out, looking around.
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No, because being born is a good analogy that Jesus uses, because being born is something that is done to you.
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It's a passive kind of verb. You are born. You don't bear yourself. And so when it comes to the effectual call, it is
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God bearing you, and it is something done to you. You don't bear yourself the first time, and you don't bear yourself the second time.
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But Pastor Mike, what about Revelation 3 .20
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where Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock, knock, knock.
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If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me.
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Doesn't that mean that we have to open the door of our heart and let Jesus in? Oh, the gentleman
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Jesus. What did we used to say back in California in the late 70s and early 80s?
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I think it was Frank Zappa's daughter, Moon, who would say - Moon unit. Gag me with a spoon.
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Yeah, I was - It was right from Sherman Oaks Galleria, by the way. I changed it to gag me with a chainsaw because I really wanted to be gagged.
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Well, without getting into the context of Revelation 3, I guess I have to, Jesus is calling to the dead church,
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Sardis, I believe, to say, you know, if there's anybody alive, you need to motivate because you're all dead there.
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It has nothing to do with personal evangelism. It has nothing to do with you open the door of your heart first and allow
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Jesus. That's just taking a text out of context and putting it in some kind of -
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But everybody says that's what it means. Well, I guess everybody says that the
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Red Sox are gonna win this year, too. You know, you think about the word calling out. When Jesus was called out of Egypt, it's the same term that is used in the
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New Testament for the effectual call. This is not, hey, Jesus, you're down in Egypt and it's time to get out.
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It's time to get out of Egypt. Come on out. No, this was more than an invitation. It sounds like a phone call.
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Different area code. This is not an invitation. This is God bringing Jesus out. He calls him out.
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He ushers him out. He forcibly does the work to get Jesus, the God's son, out of Egypt.
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And so we want to make sure that if you're listening today, there's a real hope for your loved ones who are not believers now because if God calls them, he will have victory over them no matter how many drugs they're into, no matter how much pornography, immorality, rebellion, licentiousness.
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When God calls someone through the preaching of the gospel and the Spirit of God applies that to someone's heart, they are done.
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Two quick points and then one more question for you. But number one, these doctrines are so comforting.
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Why? Because when you pray to God, you want to know that God is able to save. And these doctrines drawn straight from the
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Bible show that. And the second point is, don't just take our word for it on No Compromise Radio.
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We encourage, we beg you, we beseech you, study the Bible for yourself. Look at these verses in context and please tell us, write us, tell us if we're wrong.
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But the other thing I want to ask you is here's another verse that's often used to disprove this doctrine,
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Matthew 23. If I was Kreskin, I'd put an envelope to my forehead right now and say, Matthew 23, oh
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Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The city that kills the prophets, this is verse 37, and stones those who are sent to it.
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How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you would not see?
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Jerusalem refused the grace of God. Well, that one's a pretty easy one, even though so many people trip over it.
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Jesus is talking about the leaders, the false leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the hypocrites, the lawyers.
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And he was talking to them and saying, you're the controlling agent here in Jerusalem. And he says, oh
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Jerusalem, Jerusalem, leadership personified in a city. You are the ones who are hindering the followers, the people, the children.
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You wouldn't let them. And so he's talking about the leadership hindering people from following Christ Jesus.
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He's not talking about irresistible grace can somehow be squashed by Jerusalem. I'm convinced.
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Well, I think that goes back to James White's The Big Three in his excellent book called, it's an unforgettable book title.
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Potter's Freedom. The Potter's Freedom, well, it is a great book and I would encourage everybody to read that.
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The Potter's Freedom, it's his response to Norman Geisler. And it's just a great book.
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I was hooked from the introduction by Phil Johnson. I think it was The Big Three, First Timothy chapter two,
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Second Peter chapter three, and Matthew chapter 23. Well, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry. We got a few extra seconds because of the irresistible grace of the producer there,
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Dave Reno in Worcester. I just outside of Auburn. We'll have one more part on irresistible grace that will be next
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Tuesday. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.
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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.
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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.
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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.