In this sermon, Pastor Babij examines the fourth Doctrine of Grace: Irresistible Grace. Is God just a concerned bystander or does He actually draw people to salvation?
Using Scripture, Pastor Babij explains that there is precedent for God’s irresistibility besides Irresistible Grace, such as at creation and in our physical birth. Pastor Babij then carefully shows how the Bible teaches that, without God’s drawing, man’s sinful heart will never and can never call upon God. A person requires the Lord’s special interference in his life to hear and respond to the calling of God. Divine regeneration must occur first for a person to have the faith to savingly respond to the gospel. Pastor Babij closes with Jude 1:1, reminding that those who are in the faith are called and sanctified by God and preserved by the Lord Jesus Christ.
NOTE: The last part of the sermon video was lost due to a technical glitch. We apologize for the inconvenience. You can hear the rest if you listen to the audio version on our website starting at about minute 44:00.
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okay let’s take our Bibles this morning we’re going to look up several passages but start off with gospel but not excuse me the Epistle of Romans chapter eight we’re going to look at some passages I’ve been preaching on the doctrines of grace they are of course biblical doctrines and if they matter very deeply all all really should believe these five points commonly known as Calvinistic but we should never regard these five points as being as Spurgeon said barbed shafts which are thrust between the ribs of fellow Christians if they don’t understand them as of yet instead we should look upon them as being five great lamps which help to irradiate the cross give us a better understanding of what Christ did for us on the cross the five points of Calvinism came to be summarized by the acrostic tulip and of course today it’s usually referred to as ruh pep and which of course as RC sprawl says rooms the flower garden but nonetheless today we’re going to be looking at irresistible grace or effectual calling you missed something on that one but all right so today we’re going to be looking at a resistible grace so when considering the irresistible grace there is something that needs our attention which is the nature of the sovereignty of God in other words is God active and goes after people or is he passive like a concern by standard some say that man is in control and therefore can accept and reject God’s offering of salvation in other words God is viewed as waiting and hoping that people will come to believe others say those who believe in the doctrines of grace say God is sovereign and actively pursues the elect and will inevitably bring them to salvation that God’s children will be found by him one of my professors Eric Alexander called this fourth point prevailing grace where it says for example where it says in Matthew 16:18 and I say unto thee that thou are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Douglas Wilson writing on irresistible Grace said that there are all there are already to resistible processes in place that we all actually have experienced the first one is creation creation by definition is irresistible God created out of nothing God spoke and creation came into being the heavens and the earth the stars and pebbles trees and galaxies toads and lions were all fat as a result of the divine word we actually know from the Word of God and from what we see especially in the Gospel of John that nothing was made apart from Jesus Christ for it says in John chapter 1 verse 3 all things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being we also know that the worlds were framed out of that which cannot be seen when we read the book of Hebrews we find that by faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible so that’s one part of understanding you’re the irresistibility of creation we had nothing to do it in other words it came into being another one that we actually were involved with is our own birth birth is by definition irresistible we are beings who at one time had no being just think for a moment about your physical birth you didn’t decide to be born you didn’t decide when to be born you didn’t decide where to be born you didn’t decide what race to be born you didn’t decide what sex you would be you didn’t decide what your eye color would be you didn’t decide anything with regard to your physical birth you played no part in it except that you’ve experienced it your birth happened to you and now you are experiencing life because of that birth there is also a third irresistible process and that’s the spiritual new birth just as you had nothing to do with your being born so you have nothing to do with being born in now just take your Bibles for a moment and turn to first Peter chapter 1 verse 3 first Peter chapter 1 and verse number 3 and it says this in verse number 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead now that one passage of Scripture God in His mercy needs to cause a person to be born again if you are going to be born again at all just as God caused you to be physically born so God must cause you to be born spiritually just as you could not determine your physical birth so you cannot determine your spiritual birth only God can do that now the question that comes up is the question of how does God gather his children how does God gather his children that is the question and so there are three points that will fall fall under this one and the first point is that of how does God gather his children by calling them with the gospel that’s the first thing in fact the passage of Scripture I asked you to turn to in the beginning in Romans chapter 8 in verse number 29 and 30 we get this chain that the Bible gives us it’s kind of the unbroken Theological chain and in verse number 29 it says for those who me for know he also predestined to become conformed to the image of a son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren and these whom he predestined he also called and these whom he called he also justified and these whom he justified he also glorified so this passage of Scripture in Romans chapter 8 verse 29 and 30 we see the rich fullness and completeness of God’s work toward the believer really this can be illustrated by this golden chain all he foreknew he predestined all he predestined he called all he called he justified and all he justified he glorified so this first one is that God gathers his children by calling them with the gospel alright we read the passage of Scripture but just highlighting the words there he also called and these whom he called be justified in in that unbreakable chain we see that in this event that happens we know that God had a for know something he had a predestined something someone and then he had to call them and then once he called them he justified them and once he justified them he also brings them to glory so the operative word in our text would be the word called why because the text says these whom he called he also justified that means all the call are ultimately justified so how are we to understand the word called there’s two definitions or distinctions in call the first one is there’s an outward call of the gospel while we have while we actually hear with our ears the gospel even you and I the first time we possibly ever heard the gospel we either ignored it or outright rejected it we just said well that’s good for you and that’s not good for me at that particular point either way it’s an outright rejections Matthew chapter 22 verse 4 and remember 14 says for many are called but few are chosen see all who here are invited that’s that’s why we are to preach the gospel to everyone we are to invite everyone to Christ every single person we could ever talk to we should invite to Christ but this call is ineffective by itself but because all men are totally depraved and hate God they resist this call and the work of the Spirit another great passage of Scripture that is in the Word of God in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 through 29 it says this and listen what it says it says in verse number 26 the 1st Corinthians it says chapter 1 for consider your calling brethren that there were not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world God of the world the despised God has chosen and the things that are not so that he may Noah fie the things that are so that no man no one may boast before God so the reason the Lord has done it this way is to exclude any possibility for boasting nobody can claim anything that comes to their salvation no one could say I did it or I raised my kids this way and I take all the credit and nobody I’m a preacher who preaches a great clear message nobody takes the credit when it comes to salvation we are not saved by anything we have said thought or done in our condition of death so by our experience we all know that not everyone will receive the call of the gospel not that means not everyone will be justified because not all believe the gospel when they hear it but thank the Lord in my case at least I heard the gospel at least three times before I trusted Christ right and so you can have a similar story maybe you heard it more than that but see the point is is that the gospel is going out and people are hearing it but it doesn’t mean that they’re believing it it could mean – they receive it with joy but as the parable goes that the joy quickly gets dissipated by the troubles of the world’s the care of the world the desire for riches so of course the question that we would have is why don’t people come to the gospel when they hear it why don’t they well I’ve covered a little bit of that but I think Acts chapter 7 and verse number 15 gives us a real good understanding of that where it says in Acts chapter 7s verse verse 51 actually several things are brought up here in this particular passage the first thing in acts 7 verse 51 is that the reason why people don’t believe the gospel because they are hard of heart they have a stony heart a spiritually stony heart it says in verse 51 you men who are stiff-necked they have a stiff-necked type of heart in fact this word right here is only used 1% in the New Testament and this word is stressing simply that you are stubborn you are obstinate you are rebellious you are disobedient people that’s why people don’t believe it and then the second thing in verse 51 of Acts chapter 7 they have an uncircumcised heart now no label could have been more exasperated to these Pharisees to these Jews these Jewish leaders than to refer to them as having an uncircumcised heart these Jews bore on their flesh the sign of the Covenant of course that is physical circumcision to show their obedience to the law yet they were disobedient to the part of the law which demanded a responsive heart to God’s fuller out revelation so in that passage of Scripture those are two ways why people do not come when they hear the gospel of course a another reason would be met one I already mentioned well in Acts chapter 51 there is the secondly that people don’t believe the gospel because they have a heart their heart of hearing notice what it says and it says in verse 51 and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit you are doing just as your father’s did resist as an old word that means to fall against or to rush against something they’re resisting it they are they’re holding it off they refuse to believe it so the resistance here is not just against in the passage of scripture Stephen but against God himself what great sin is committed when people resist the Holy Spirit by refusing to listen to the Word of God this was not just slow comprehension this was an inability not to comprehend at all in other words it’s like the Prophet Jeremiah was right on the money when he diagnosed the people spiritual problems when he wrote in some and excuse me in Jeremiah 6:10 to whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear behold their ears are closed and they cannot listen behold the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them they have no delight in it and there’s many who fall into that category today they do the same exact thing their ears are closed they’ve made up their mind about their spiritual existence or destiny or they don’t think about it at all but nonetheless their ears are closed and they just just don’t listen because they really can’t listen they don’t know what to listen for and of course a third reason could be that of what I mentioned already people are just spiritually dead they’re not just wounded they’re dead it says in Ephesians two we and you were dead in your trespasses and sin and there’s no better word then dead to describe man in his fallen condition now ultimately dead means to be ignorant of God people don’t know God like they ought to know him like John 17 verse 3 says this is eternal life that you may know that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent not to know God is death and life that is non-christian is living death so you can be alive physically but completely dead spiritually what they don’t know or what they do know about God what people do know about God what does it say in Romans 1 they suppress that particular truth about God and they twisted and – what they think it ought to be like Romans says for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse for even though they knew God they did not honor him as God or give him thanks but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened just giving you a picture of what the Bible says about who we really are right we all we all ought to know that and remember that because of man’s fall into sin people are spiritually dead unregenerate people can no more choose Christ or spiritual truth in a rotting corpse can play football or debate philosophy there’s no middle ground between being alive and being dead unregenerate people are not just sick or handicapped or impaired they’re dead w/e best writing on regeneration and conversion wrote you may use all human persuasion possible but you cannot give spiritual life where death reigns God alone by a creative act can bring life out of death spiritual argument arguments to an unregenerate person our only warm clothes to a corpse alright so there’s the outward call the outward call goes out to everybody and we know that everybody doesn’t respond to the gospel when it’s first given but there is a second way we understand this word call and it’s the inward call usually taking place when the outward call of the gospel is made where by God the Holy Spirit calls people to himself effectually by working a miracle in their hearts bringing them from spiritual death to life so that means that the Holy Spirit transforms the heart the mind and the will I believe that we can understand this passage that’s Romans 8:30 that it is referring to the inward call because the inward call ends up a person ends up being justified that means being made right before God and then a person ends up being glorified so that call that we’re talking about in Romans is the call that happens inside of us so in that call it always results in justification it always results in truth now another passage of Scripture without turning there is James 1:18 which says in the exercise of his will he brought us forth by the word of truth that’s how God brings us forth so this passage really enforces or reinforces being called by the Word of God the Lord doesn’t save anyone apart from his word he cannot the Spirit of God will not bypass the Word of God to save people it’s got to be the Word of God that comes to you in power and demonstration of the Spirit of God that gets ahold of your heart and gets ahold of your mind and your will and it does something very specifically there another passage that I have on the screen is in Hebrews where it says for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant so that sense a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant and notice what it says those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance in other words when somebody is genuinely called with this inward call something happens something’s changed and in this case they receive a promise and what does that promised eternal inheritance so in other words this internal effectual call results in something that we can actually grasp on to by faith that what God has done in saving someone he also will promise to give them an eternal inheritance so jesus effectively obtained Redemption by himself and he did so for those who are called so that’s the first way God would gather his children he’ll gather his children by calling them with the gospel that call goes out as a general call and then it ends up for those who will finally believe as an inward call right now I’m getting to the place where I’m saying that this inward call you can no longer resist this inward call you can no longer reject this inward call when God calls what the gospel is the time in which you surrender and believe now the second way that God gathers his children is by drawing them by the power of the Spirit of God so God uses the Word of God and the Word of God is backed up by the Holy Spirit of God who is the author of Scripture now to look at this and examine this point a little bit more specifically let’s take our Bibles and turn to the Gospel of John chapter 6 I want you at first to focus in on one passage and then we’ll look at the whole context so this next point that we have that God gathers his children by drawing them by the power of the Holy Spirit now by means of this special effectual call the spirit irresistible II draws sinners to Christ he is not limited in his work of applying salvation by man’s will nor is he limited by depending on man’s cooperation for success the Spirit of God is not depending on those things the spirit graciously causes the chosen or the elect sinner to cooperate to believe to repent to come freely and willingly to Christ now how does the Spirit of God draw people well the first part of that is that the father actually draws them I’m saying it like this to the bread of life the father draws them to the bread of life now if you just think about bread for a moment we can think about it in a spiritual way or in a physical way when you when when we put bread on the table that bread is therefore not to look at not as a decoration it’s there to take and eat right well when we think about when Jesus is referred to as the bread of life that’s the same thing we ought to think about we ought to think about when Jesus is laid before somebody it’s it’s not for anything else but for someone to take and eat make it part of them that’s why when we come to the lord’s table the first thing it says in the first element which is what the bread take and eat all right because we’re appropriating what God has given us in this realm of salvation that Christ was given to us as the bread of life for us to take it so we can have life now look at verse number 44 this is the verse I want to focus in on and look at the words in it and it says in John chapter 6 in verse number 44 it says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day now I just want to focus in on that passage first alright now there’s several words in that passage the first word is can no one can come to me now this word is a is linguistically a negative absolute the word can refer to ability in other words our our text is saying no one has the ability to come to Christ on their own another word in our passage is unless the father draws him this word unless this is a acceptive clause this means there must be a prerequisite or a necessary condition that must be met before someone has the ability to come to Christ something in other words has to happen before anyone could come to him it is saying none of us has the natural ability to come to Christ unless the necessary condition is actually met unless God does something unless the father gives it to him and of course there’s a third word in that passage and it’s the word draw he draws him there’s another this this term here of course means either it can be translated to drag to pull or to draw other passages scriptures that actually use that same Greek word are now some people say this word also means to woo – woo people to Christ well I wouldn’t take that particular definition of the word and the reason why is because in passages other passages that use this word it actually means to drag to drag someone like in James – 22 verse 6 it says but you have dishonor the poor it is not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court now that person is not coming to court willingly when they’re being dragged to court right and then of course in acts 8 verse number three but Saul began ravaging the church and entering house after house and dragging off men and women he would put them in prison he wasn’t wooing them to come he wasn’t enticing them to come to jail he was actually dragging them off to come to jail but then there’s another word that is used in John chapter 6 verse 65 where it says and he was saying for this reason I’ve said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the father so in other words this word dragged good could some people have interpreted as being wooing or enticing I don’t believe that said the Augustinian word definition would be to drag or to draw maybe drag is too strong a word so the word draw is a better word and of course even in the kettle’s New Testament dictionary theology says this word means to compel by irresistible force so in other words that’s how the father is drawing us he’s overcoming things in our own personal life like our flesh like the world like Satan himself and he’s drawing us by an irresistible force now again some may ask the question how does the father draw people well a quick true answer would be God always draws people by the preaching of the gospel we must say that the preaching of the gospel is the instrument that God uses to draw people to Christ however we must be reminded of the context in which this passage sits Jesus was addressing the people of Capernaum he had already preached plainly to the people of that town he preached to them the woes of the law he performed many mighty works in the town he performed many miracles amongst the people and Jesus gave them the Word of God and they were following Jesus but there was some something missing they were following Jesus but they weren’t believing in Jesus there’s two different things people can actually follow Jesus and not understand what it means to be really saved in Jesus Christ they may be following him but they really don’t believe in their hearts there’s no change there’s no effectual change where God overcame their stubborn will and their deafness and their deadness and actually drew them to himself now saying that I want you to go back to John chapter 6 and let’s read the whole context look what it says in verse number 24 that Jesus reveals really the really the real motive of their heart in this passage and notice how it’s packaged in verse 24 it says so when the crowd that Jesus was not there nor his disciples they themselves got into the small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus verse 25 when they found him on the other side of the sea they said to him rabbi where when did you get here jesus answered in him said truly truly I say to you you seek me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled jesus said to them verse number 35 drop down at verse 35 said to them I am the bread of life he who comes to me will not hunger and he who believes in Me will never thirst verse 36 but I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe yet do not believe you see me you have seen my miracles you have heard the word of God but you don’t believe look at verse 41 therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he says I am the bread of bread that came down out of heaven they were saying is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph whose father and mother we know how does he now say I have come down out of heaven verse 43 jesus answered and said to them do not grumble among yourselves no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day in verse 45 it is written in the prophets and they said all they and they say they shall all be taught of God everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God he has seen the father truly truly I say to you he who believes has eternal life in verse 48 I am the bread of life so three times in the passage of Scripture Jesus said I am the bread of life I am the bread that came down out of heaven and I am the bread of life so in other words these people were seeking physical things from Jesus they were seeking to be fed by Jesus but they were not seeking Jesus as the bread of life as the one who can as they person takes the bread and eat the bread can actually have eternal life they were not seeking and for that so in other words that these people were following Jesus but they were just not believing in him now saying that another point to make is this that that word draw and then of course this verse of scripture in Titus that the Holy Spirit draws them not only the father draws them to the bread of life but as the father draws them now the Spirit of God draws them making them that sinner willing to believe if you notice what it says there in Titus it says he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit so the Lord is regenerating someone making them born again and then renewing them and it’s all done by the Holy Spirit of God so the Holy Spirit of God draws the sinner by making them willing and when the Holy Spirit works he influences the heart so the people or the person is glad to obey the voice that they once despised and rejected and resisted so we really don’t know how the Spirit of God does it but he does it now there are some visible apparent things when he does do it when the Holy Spirit of God enters into the person’s heart he shows the sinner who has already a good opinion of himself and feels that he can walk into heaven because he has been a fairly good person that’s BAE Stickley the answer or what people go on when it comes to you know if you ask most people are you a good person where they’re gonna essay to you probably 99% of the times they’ll say I’m a good person because I did this this and this I know I don’t kick my cat you know I don’t don’t do stuff like that you know I walk old ladies across the street you know whatever they say they say things like that but they’re really convinced that somehow God has these divine scales in heaven and that hopefully they’re good is going to outweigh their bad and in their mind they’re good does outweigh their bad because they really have never done really bad things right but they don’t realize that just by rejecting the gospel is the worst thing you can possibly do so the Holy Spirit really exposes the sinner of their cancer he uncovers to them the blackness of their heart the defilement and the corruption that is in their heart and the rebellion that has always been there in their heart the Spirit of God makes that known to them no one could be saved unless they see themselves a sinner right so that’s what he does and then when the sinner begins to see that the ugliness of their heart a person begins to say I thought I never thought it was like that I never thought I doz things worse in my sins against God are too great and too many to count they began to realize and calculate how many times they’ve lied or how many times they’ve stolen something or how many times they have not worshipped God how many times they use God’s name in vain so they’re guilty not only of one point but all the points of the law and so now they’re under condemnation and who does that the Spirit of God brings a person to see that they’re condemned under God’s wrath and so the Holy Spirit of God reveals to the person that they’re dead is too great to work off and that there is nothing they can do to make themselves right with God the person’s heart sinks in despair thinking I am hopeless thing can save me then the Spirit of God does something else he comes and shows the sinner the cross of Christ see that’s the demonstration of God’s love it’s when the Spirit of God shows that person what Christ did for them on the cross and they begin to make the connection that wait a minute if this person named Jesus died in my place took my condemnation that I should have taken and then satisfied the Justice of the Father and forgives me of my sin and washes in a way and then takes my sin and nails it to the cross and gives me his righteousness and puts it on my account well then he’s the one I want he’s the one I could go to so they they are convinced the Holy Spirit of God convinces them of the cross he gives them ears to hear and eyes to see to look at the man who died to save sinners and you feel at that point that you are a sinner but you also know that he’s a savior what would you want to do if you needed to be saved go to someone who could save you right don’t go to someone who can’t save you you can’t save yourself no one could say you I can’t save you but Christ can save you so the Holy Spirit of God enables at that point the heart to believe and to come to Christ for salvation and eternal life and when God gives us the grace of a new heart the first thing we do is to repent and believe that’s the first thing we do it’s just like in the book of Acts the the first chapter second chapter of the book of Acts remember when Peter was preaching all right he was preaching specifically to the Jews there and what happened when they finally connected that they crucified Christ and they were guilty of that what did they say when they heard this it says in the book of Acts they were pierced where in their heart what was that conviction oh no word the ones who are guilty were the ones who are under condemnation were trouble what do we do and Peter and the rest of the Apostles and and the brethren that he was speaking to says yell out what shall we do and Peter said to them repent each of you and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so that means that faith and repentance and belief are gifts given to us by God they are yes actions we perform but which require the prior gift of life you have to be given life first before you can have faith and repent and believe in Jesus Christ now if the old heart we’re capable of repentance in faith which was really which is all of God requires of us then why do we need a new heart if we could do it on our own why do we need to have this heart of flesh made into a heart this heart of stone made into a heart of flesh where God can mold it and ply it and shape it and convict it see if we can do it on our own then hey let’s get saved right but we can’t do it on our own that’s the point we can’t do it on our own so in the Word of God we find out that man’s greatest need is to have