Alright brethren, let's go to
Psalm 65. Psalm 65. Blessed is the man. Look at verse
4. Blessed is the man. whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
even of thy holy temple. Now Friday night we had our class
with the young people and we're looking at TULIP and we're at
the eye in TULIP. Irresistible grace. That's what
we see here in the second part where he says, Blessed is the
man whom you cause to approach unto you. Who you cause to approach
unto you. That's what irresistible grace
is. God causing His child to approach unto Him in faith. It's an irresistible call. It's
an irresistible call. We cannot Stop it. Those that God has chosen Christ
redeemed and the Holy Spirit shall irresistibly call to Him. Now, first of all, I want to
show you that it's God's will and purpose. It's God's will
and purpose from eternity to irresistibly call His people. Go with me over to 2 Thessalonians. You know the scripture in Ephesians
that tells us that whatever God's purpose, whatever God wills to
do, that's what He does. There's no changing God's counsel. It's called the immutable counsel. It's unchanging. We've obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
Whatever He purposed, whatever He wills to do, He does it. He does it. And this is what
he purposed. Now he's speaking to believers
here. 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 3. He says, We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. God's purpose, God's will in
choosing his people was not simply to choose us and offer us salvation. It was to choose us and save
us. He chose us to save us. That's
why He chose His people. How did He purpose to save? Verse 13 says, Through sanctification
of the Spirit. It's God's will and purpose that
He's going to sanctify all those He chose by the Holy Spirit of
God. Sanctification is God separating
us out from the rest of all the sinners in this world by creating
in us a new holy nature, causing us to cast all our care on Christ. I promise you, when you do that,
you're separated from 99.9% of the people in this world when
you trust Christ alone for your salvation. And that's what God's
purpose to do. And in verse 13, He's purpose
to do it through the belief of the truth. It was God's will
to send His gospel to His people wherever they are and make the
gospel cross their path so they could hear the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. And they'd be called to believe
the truth of Christ. Now if He's going to call you
to believe the truth, you know how He's going to do it. He's
going to call you through the preaching of the truth. It's not going
to be through the preaching of lies. It will be the preaching
of truth. That's what He purposed. So seeing that this is what He
purposed, this was His will, this was His purpose, this is
what He did. Look here in verse 14. He says,
Whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are some of you sitting
here and you can say the same thing. He called us to a belief
of the truth through the preaching of the gospel. to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He called us irresistibly
and made us obtain that which He purposed for us from eternity.
To obtain the glory of Christ. Free justification, free forgiveness
of sins, free righteousness, free acceptance with God, fit
to be in glory with Christ. This is what he purposed, and
that's what he does. We're not called to faith in Christ by
our will. It's not by our purpose and what
we determine. It's by God. The Lord has appeared
of old unto me, saying, Yea, I've loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. I've drawn thee to myself. Now here's the second thing. God irresistibly calls His child. It's because God's holiness demands
it. God's holiness demands it. God
is holy. That's His chief attribute. He's
holy. So everything He does, He does the right way. Everything. He sent forth Christ to manifest
that. that He only does what is absolutely,
perfectly righteous. And Christ manifested. He upheld
the law so that God is just by fulfilling it perfectly in precept
and in penalty. And He justified all His people
from our sins. He made mercy and truth meet
together in harmony. So, judgment's already been poured
out on His people when He poured it out on Christ. So it wouldn't
be just for God to pour it out again on you and me, who He died
for. If thou hast my discharge procured
and freely in my place endured the whole of wrath divine, payment
God will not twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand
and then again at mine, that would be double jeopardy. If
you've been before a judge, and you're found not guilty,
you can't be tried for that crime again. That's double jeopardy. And so, we've already been tried,
we've been found guilty, judgment's been poured out on us. When? At Calvary's cross, when it was
poured out on Christ. And so, He will not demand a
second payment. So then, Holiness demands that
Christ call us, because He's the Good Shepherd who's been
entrusted with His people. And so He's risen now, He's the
head of the church, and that's what He's doing. He's calling
His people to Himself, because His holiness demands it. His
holiness demands it. When He calls you through the
gospel of Christ, and He makes you behold Him, and you see mercy
and truth meeting together in Him, All these vain things that we
used to say and all these vain ideas we had about needing a
sign or thinking it was foolishness, all that goes out the window.
And we behold Christ is the power and wisdom of God. Go to 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. This is through the irresistible
call. the effectual call, the invincible
call. Look here, 1 Corinthians 1 verse
21, After that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believed. For the Jews require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, and so did we. Left in
our sins, so did we. But we preach Christ crucified
unto the Jews, unto the self-righteous man. He's a stumbling block because
we say that you can't fulfill the law yourself. He did it. So that's a stumbling block to
the self-righteous man. To the Greek, the worldly philosopher,
all of this is foolishness. All of this is foolishness. But
unto them which are called. You know what he's talking about?
He's talking about that irresistible call unto you from whom God would
not take no for an answer. To you, Christ is the power of
God and the wisdom of God. You see now how God could be
just, and justify His people. You see now, you've experienced
the power of God in calling you through such a despised means
as this gospel, preaching a bloody cross, it's a despised foolish
means, preaching a despised foolish message, a bloody cross, a man
who is the God-man died upon a tree, that's a despised message,
And through it, God does a work that is despised and rejected
of men and He causes the Holy Spirit to come into you and He
draws you to Christ. And when you experience that,
you say this, the foolishness of God is wiser than men and
the weakness of God is stronger than men. He is so far above
us, He is not worthy to be compared to us. And that's what you find
out when He calls you. His holiness demands this call.
Now here's the last thing. God must call His people irresistibly
and He must cause us to approach Him because left to ourselves,
we will not come to Him and not only will we not, we cannot. We will not and we cannot left
to ourselves. The spiritual A spiritually dead
sinner is bound to his sin nature. Everybody is bound to their nature.
Every being is bound to its nature. God is bound to His nature. God
is holy. He can only do what is holy.
That is the natural thing for God to do, what is holy, because
He is holy. And when we are sinners, the
only thing we can do is what our sinful nature dictates for
us to do. And since he says the carnal
mind hates God and cannot subject ourselves to the Word of God,
we wouldn't bow to God. We wouldn't submit to God. There's
no way we would do that. We heard this message and we
hated it. We came to the book looking for
something we could do. Christ stood there that day and
He talked to those Pharisees. He said, search the Scriptures.
You ought to search the Scriptures. We ought to search the Scriptures.
That's not what he was condemning. Here's what he was condemning.
He said, for in them you think you have life. You search the
scriptures to find what you can do and by what you've done, you
think you have spiritual life. Remember how Paul said, I was
alive without the law once. He thought he was. Christ said,
but you will not come to me that you might really and truly have
life. That you won't do. The natural
man, Paul said, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God
for their foolishness to him. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. Look over at John chapter 1. Here's why we can't get upset
with our loved ones and family and friends that reject us when
we preach the gospel to them and declare the truth to them
is because they cannot do otherwise. Look here in John chapter 1 verse
11. He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. He came to the children of Israel
who He was born amongst. He came to them and they didn't
receive Him. They've been hearing about the
Messiah all their lives for thousands of years. And here He comes. And they didn't receive Him.
We didn't either. We didn't either. Look at this. But as many as received Him,
some did. Some did. But why'd they do it? To them gave He privilege to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name,
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. It's not by
our will, not by our sacrifices. How are we called? How are we
born of God and called irresistibly but of God? It's of God. It's
of God. Turn over to John 6. We'll see
this here laid out for us just plainly. When we see side by
side here, we see the general call and we see the effectual
call. The general call is what's happening
right now. The gospel is going forth and
everybody hears it. There's a general call going
forth. Everybody hears it. But the only ones that are going
to respond positively to this call and come to Christ and continue
in Christ are those who are irresistibly called. So there's a general
call, preaching of the gospel, and there's an irresistible call,
which is the grace of God worked in us. Now, we see this right
here side by side. After Christ had preached, after
He'd fed the multitude, all these folks decided we're going to
follow Him forever. And so they start following Him.
And He started preaching the truth to them. He started preaching
the gospel to them. John 6.41. It says, The Jews
then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which
came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then that he says, I came down from heaven? Now listen to how
Christ answered them. He wasn't dishonest with them.
He was just as truthful as you can be. He answered and said
unto them, murmur not amongst yourselves. No man can come to
me except the Father which has sent me draw him. That's the
only way. He has to be drawn by the Father
irresistibly. It's written in the prophets.
They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Everybody who the Father's taught,
they irresistibly are drawn to Christ. Everyone of them. So he's told them, you can't
believe on me. Don't murmur. You cannot believe
on me except the Father draw you. So what was the end? Now he's preaching the general
call to him. He just preached irresistible
grace to him. He preached salvation, justification
by faith to him. He said, this is the work of
God. You believe on Him whom He sent. I'm the bread from heaven,
he said. Believe on me. Now he preached
the gospel to him. There's the general call going
forth. They heard it. What was the result? Here's the
result, verse 67. Then said Jesus, I'm sorry, verse
66. From that time, many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. They heard the gospel
preached from the Master, from the Christ. And they said, this
is a hard saying, we can't hear this. He's telling us we can't
do anything to save ourselves? Well, we're not going to listen
to this message. So they did exactly what he told
them they would do. They did exactly what he told
them was the only thing they could do. You know, our rebellion
against God only proves God right. We can rebel against God all
we want to. throw down the Bible and say, I'm not going to believe,
I don't care if it does say it, I'm not going to believe it.
All we do is prove what the book says. We cannot believe on Him
unless He irresistibly calls us. But now there was some sitting
there who He had irresistibly called. They heard that general
call too, but the difference was He had irresistibly called
them. And here was the result of that. Look at verse 67. Then
said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord... There's the result of this effectual
call. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. They shouldn't just preach unto
us anymore. These are the words of eternal
life. And we believe and we are sure
that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And look
what Christ said to them. Have not I chosen you twelve
and one of you is a devil? Judas and all the rest of them
that went away, they hadn't been called irresistibly. So they
did what men do who have not been called by Christ. They went
away. But these others had been chosen
and caused to approach unto Christ. And they couldn't go away. They
couldn't go away. You see why our text says, Blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee?
When He does this work, He makes you satisfied. You are satisfied
with Him. You are not looking for anything
else. You are satisfied. Look at John 10. We see another
example right here. John 10. Here you have the general
call and the effectual call right side by side. John 10.24. Then came the Jews
round about Him and said unto Him, How long dost Thou make
us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
I preached it to you, and ye believed not. The works that
I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. I've shown
you, I've not only preached to you, I've shown you the works,
and you believe not. But you believe not, because
you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. They heard the general
call from Christ Himself. They saw the works of Christ
Himself. Surely if a man saw Christ in
person, he'd believe on Him. No, he wouldn't. That's not what
makes a man believe. They wouldn't believe on Him. But then He tells you how He
makes His call irresistible. Look here at what He says. Verse
27, My sheep hear My voice. We don't hear His voice audibly.
We hear His voice in the heart spiritually as the gospel is
being preached. You ever been sitting in here
and the gospel preached and your heart just start overflowing
with joy? Or become rebuked in your heart
and you just, oh, you're just so sorry for your sin. That's the voice of Christ speaking. My sheep hear my voice. And what
does He do to make us hear it effectually? And I know them. This is an intimate knowing.
He knows us in our heart. And that makes us know Him. Here's
the result, and they follow me. They follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. You know how you're going to
know if you're elect of God? Paul said to the Thessalonians,
Knowing, brethren, your election of God. Here's how he knew. Our gospel came not unto you
in word only. but in power and in the Holy
Ghost and in much assurance. He said, you know what manner
of men we were. You know we didn't make you follow
us and follow the Lord. He said, but you became followers
of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost. That's how you were drawn, irresistibly. And that's how you know you're
elect. He draws you irresistibly. It's Christ's power. He creates
a new man, a new spirit, a new heart within us, a new nature
in which He dwells, in which He has the dominion, in which
He makes you hear His voice and He knows you and you know Him.
And when He does that, now you can't do anything but what that
new nature dictates for you to do. All you can do is believe
on Him. You can't do otherwise. Cannot
do otherwise. Why? Because when God the Father
raised Him to His right hand, He said, Thy people. Not everybody. Clay, aren't you
disappointed at how many people you preach to and how few actually
believe the gospel? No. Because He said it's just
going to be Thy people. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That's what God the Father said
to Christ His Son. It's His power that does it.
You know, you be preaching to fellas and talking to them or
whatever and they'll say, well I'm not going to do anything,
that sounds like God's offending my will. Well, God didn't offend
the will of those Pharisees that said, how long do you make us
to doubt? He didn't offend their will. He left them to their will
and they did what they wanted to do. They rejected it and went
to hell. But when He comes in power, He
gives you an entirely new will. Oh, you come willing. You don't
come against your will, you come willing. Because He gives you
an entirely new will. and subdues that fleshly will. And you come. You can't do otherwise. In fact, He makes you so satisfied
with Him that you don't want to hear any other gospel, period.
You can't stand anymore to hear lies told about one you love. Before It was just doctrine. You didn't love him. You would
embrace a free will works religion. It's just the same as you would
embrace the Calvinist. It didn't matter. Because it's
just doctrine. But now, it's one you love. Now it's somebody you're in love
with. And you can't stand to hear somebody
tell lies on them. Not anymore. Not anymore. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee, that he may dwell
in thy courts. You know what the assurance,
that word dwell means live forever, dwell forever in your courts,
in His presence, in His church, where the gospel is preached,
in His presence. We are always going to be with
Him, dwelling with Him. You know what the assurance is
that men won't leave where the gospel is being preached? Him
causing you to approach to Him. If He caused you to approach,
you're going to dwell in His courts forever. Why? We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. His people are
our people. born of the same Spirit, begotten
of the same incorruptible seed, the same Word of God which was
preached to us, and we love each other. And you know what we do?
We endeavor, we endeavor, we endeavor to keep the unity that
He has worked in us and given us, this bond of peace. We labor to protect it. It's valuable to those in whom
He abides. Because we're satisfied with
the goodness of His house and we don't want to see His people
divided. We don't want to see the work disintegrate into nothing
over a bunch of squabbling stuff that doesn't make sense and it's
not worth anything. We don't want that to happen.
So we lay aside ourselves. And whatever offended us and
whatever it was that caused us to get a sour look on our faith,
caused our countenance to fall, caused us to start ignoring our
brethren, we lay it aside. And we endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That's right. That's right. Would you divorce your spouse
over it? Would you divorce your spouse over this? Is it that
important? Well, it's not really that important.
Then it ain't important. It's not important. That's when we stop trying to
steal Christ's glory and we rest in His glory. We love His glory. We say, not unto us, not unto
us, but unto Thy name be the glory for Thy mercy and for Thy
truth's sake. Go to Romans 8. I'll show you
one last thing. That's when everything becomes
good news to us. The way we're walking, where
we're headed, the circumstances we're in in life is good news
to us. Even though it may look bad, for the time being, we know
it's going to end up right. When a brother's fallen, we can
take his burden upon ourselves and bear it and just be long-suffering
and kind and patient, pointing him to Christ and wait on Christ
to work in him because we know He's going to. How do you know
everything's going to end up so well? Here's how I know, Romans
8, 28. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called. To them who have experienced
this irresistible call of His grace according to His purpose. Because whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His
Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He justified. And whom He justified, He also
glorified. That's how I know everything
is going to be good. I can just wait on Him and trust
Him. How do you know that? Because
I've been irresistibly called. I've experienced the power and
the wisdom. Have you? And we know it's all good, don't
we? Alright, let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Thank You for calming us and comforting us teaching us
and showing us how that this thing has been purposed and determined
from the very beginning. Nothing is off course, nothing
is running off track, everything is running right according to
Your purpose, worked by Your sovereign hand. And we know it
because of Your power in drawing us to Yourself. Thank You, Lord. Thank You. Forgive us our sins. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.