So we don't preach a God that
is beholden to man. We preach a God that is truly
God. And in doing so, He has the right
to choose some for salvation and others not for salvation.
This is His prerogative. He is God. There is none beside
Him. And so we learn that there is
an unconditional election. And that election is not based
upon anything that man does. That election isn't based upon
foreseen faith. That election is not based upon
good works. That election is not based upon
ethnicity. The election of God is based
upon solely His mercy and His grace and His will. And then
we, after we talked about election, then we look now at atonement,
which we just concluded in the last hour. And we've seen that
the atonement of Jesus Christ was an efficacious atonement.
It had an effect and it was vicarious. It was for actual people. It wasn't for just a covering
of all mankind, and only those who choose it will receive the
benefits of it." No, it was actually for specific people with a specific
effect out of that. And so we looked at particular
redemption, or we looked at efficacious atonement, and we just finished
that up. But now we want to look at, and
we're going to start, Lord willing, next week, we're going to start
looking at overcoming grace. If we are totally enabled, which
the Bible clearly speaks that we are, if God has elected some
for salvation, and part of that salvation, or at least evidence
of that salvation, is their coming, is their believing, is their
repenting, is their trusting. If part of that is there, then
something has to be done for them because they are enabled.
And if the effects of Jesus' atonement is applied upon them,
We read throughout all these scriptures over the last few
weeks that that will take place. They will have this. And so we
see that in that, we come to find that the Bible teaches that
there is a grace that is exerted upon certain individuals that
Christ has died for, who just like everybody else was born
of Adam, spiritually dead, born of Adam in sin, born of Adam
dying, Born of Adam, unable to keep the law of God. Born of
Adam, without any ability to save themselves or to even respond
to the message of God's salvation. That of certain people of that,
God gives exerting grace, overcoming grace. He overcomes their inability
and gives them, by grace, life. Now a lot of people, whenever
they talk about this, and another term is irresistible grace, and
I don't particularly care for that term. And it isn't necessarily because
I think it's wrong. And I'm not afraid to use that.
It's not necessarily because of the connotation that people
have in their mind. But that is a big thing. Whenever
people hear irresistible grace, they think the wrong thought
about what this is talking about. They think that there is someone
who has rejected Christ, doesn't want to be saved, and most of
the time, at least I'll say it as far as what I thought, you
know, I'm thinking of atheists. or Luciferians. They've made
up their mind, I'm going to be an atheist or Luciferian, and
then God comes and drags me, kicking and screaming, I want
to continue to be an atheist, and God's going to make me be
this. And so He turns me into a robot,
and I'm doing all this stuff, but I all the time don't want
to do it, but He's making me do it. Well, that's the most
stupid, foolish thing. I thought that. And that's the
most stupid, stupid thing. That is not irresistible grace.
Matter of fact, I talk to every person whenever I'm talking about
this thing of overcoming grace. I talk to every Christian who
professes Jesus Christ, and I ask them, I said, hey, whenever you
became aware of your need for Christ, your sin, and your need
for Him, did He drag you kicking and screaming,
or did you come to Him running? They said, no, I came running. I knew I needed Him. Well, my
question is this, is why did it take you so long? Why did you not do it the day
before yesterday? Why did you not feel that the time before
last, earlier on in your life? Because you've been like that
your whole entire life. Why did you not do that? Why all of a
sudden the change? Something changed in you that
made you want to do that. Before, you didn't want to do
that. But all of a sudden, you did want to do that. Or I'll
ask any person who professes the name of Jesus Christ, do
you feel that you were coerced and made to come, and at any
point since you've come, do you feel that you want to return
and just go back? And I've not met anybody who professes Christ
who's ever said, yeah, I feel like I want to quit and go back
to the way I was. I wished I'd never, I've not
ever met anyone who says, I wished I never would have come to Christ.
I've never met anybody that says that. Now that doesn't mean that
they're going to be apostates who were religious for a short
amount of time that goes away. Peter tells us that there's going
to be people like that, but he says they never really were of
us. Because if they were of us, they would not have went out
from us, okay? So we know that that's not a
genuine thing that can take place in the life of a true Christian.
But whenever I ask a Christian, and if they truly be a child
of grace, has there ever been a time in your mind that you
think you wish you could go back and not ever have experienced
any of this and done what you did? Not one of them said that. So, So whenever God brought grace
to you and convicted you of sin, let's just talk in Arminian terms
here because probably most people that see this and probably most
people that listen to this at some point were either Arminian
or maybe still are. Let's just talk in those terms.
If whenever you felt the need for Christ and you felt the weight
of sin or you felt You needed to come to Jesus, believe on
Jesus, trust on Jesus, invite Jesus into your heart. At any
of those times, did you ever feel like you were being forced
to do something that you didn't want to do? And I've not found one person
that said that they are. So whenever that grace was given
to you, that grace brought something to your heart, to your mind,
to your understanding, to your emotions, to your will, that
made you, or at least you assumed, that I need to do this. What
made the person raise their hand and come down to the front of
a church? What made the person pray, forgive me? What made the
person, I need you? What made the person cry and
weep over their sin? What made the person say, without
Christ, I'm dead. I'm doomed." What made the person
do that? Especially if they say, there's
nothing that coerced me to do this. I felt this in my heart. Well, brethren, the Scripture
says in our heart we don't feel those things. But all of a sudden
you begin to feel those things. You know what that is? That's
irresistible grace. See, people hate irresistible
grace because they think it's a mean God making people be something
they don't want to be. Whenever the fact is, it's all
people don't want to be, and God in love brings some to understand
that they need Him and bring them to Him. That's where irresistible
grace is. Irresistible grace is God giving
you a heart that wants Christ loves Christ, looks to Christ,
looks away from yourself, knows... Listen, irresistible grace is
what even gives you the understanding that you are a sinner. Without
irresistible grace, you wouldn't even understand the depth of
your sinfulness. And so why would people want
to run from that whenever they know the Bible teaches that there
are none that seek after God, there are none that do righteous,
all of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags, that none of
us can understand the things of God because they're spiritually
discerned, none of us can know those things, none of us can
be born again unless the Spirit does something to us, none of
us can do any of this. I mean, you go through, go back
and listen to the studies on inability. If we understand the
Bible teaches that, then how can we come to God? How can we
change our mind and our hearts? Brethren, we can't unless irresistible
grace rests upon us. And so, what once was a hated
doctrine, as a matter of fact, I've told you brethren here before,
before I come to understand the truth of these things, I don't know if I... I almost
hated irresistible grace as much as I hated the last subject we
talked about, limited atonement or particular redemption. I probably
hated irresistible grace because I thought a God that would do
that, a God that would just force somebody to... Man, I just hated
that. That's because I didn't know
the God of Scriptures. That's why I hated that. That's why
other people hate that, is because they don't know the God of Scriptures.
They know the God of religion, but they don't know the God of
Scriptures. They know a Jesus of religion, but they don't know
the Jesus of Scriptures. Here in Psalms 65, verse 4, we
see if not any other verse in Scripture was ever there, and
there are, and we're going to read more coming in the next
couple weeks. If there was not any other verses
in Scripture, here is the one that is not only telling about
whether or not there is such thing as overcoming or irresistible
grace, but is also one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture. Psalm 65 and look at verse 4.
Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, that's election, and
causeth to approach unto thee, that's irresistible grace. that
He may dwell in thy courts." Now we're going to see in a few
weeks that that's going to be part of preservation, perseverance. "...that He may dwell in thy
courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,
even of thy holy temple." Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest
and causeth to approach unto Thee." The first thing that we
see here is that those who come to Christ, who approach Christ,
who follow after Christ, receive Christ, call upon His name, And I'll just use the Armenian
terminology so you know what we're talking about. When He
knocks on the door of your heart, when He asks you to come in,
you know, whenever you ask Him to come in, all those things,
we're talking about the same thing. We're talking about the
point of quickening. We're talking about the point
of quickening. God quickens your heart. God gives you spiritual
life. Now, I don't believe that God's
outside the door of your heart knocking, asking to come in.
That's a misrepresentation of that verse in the Scriptures.
I don't believe that God is inviting anybody to come to Christ. I
do not believe that we make Him Lord or Savior of our lives. I don't believe that Jesus has
given you an option A or B, I believe that He has saved His people.
I believe that He is bringing them people to the knowledge
of that salvation. And He is doing that through
quickening and the preaching of the gospel. He quickens souls
so that they can hear the gospel The preaching of the Gospel tells
them the good news, that new spiritual heart and mind understand
it, believe it, receive it, and look away from themselves and
look only to Christ for their salvation. That's what this is
saying. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. He's the one who chooses who gets this. We're going to
see the Scriptures throughout the Scripture, Jesus has been
given power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many
as He chooses. Brethren, that is not on man,
that is on God. And let us leave that on God.
But it says, blessed is the man whom thou choosest, but here
it is, and causeth, and causeth, and causeth to approach unto
thee, that he may dwell in thy courts, that he may Cause us,
is what we ask. Cause us to approach. Whenever
we pray, we don't pray, I wish those people would just make
a decision for Christ. I wish those people would just
understand. I wish God would get to them so that they would
realize. No, we pray that God would cause
them to approach. That's the only prayer we can
pray for a person to be saved, is that God would approach. And
I find it amazing, at least I found it in my life, before I believed
these truths, that whenever I got on my knees to pray that someone
might be saved, I always prayed that God would overcome them.
Oh God, do whatever you can just to save them. Cause them to believe. Well,
why am I praying that if I don't believe that God can irresistibly
give grace to whom He wants to? Why do I pray that if it's up
to man, if God's done, if Christ has done all that He can, and
it's up to man to choose, why am I not going and pleading and
begging and praying for the man to understand? I don't. I pray that God would give him
understanding. I pray that God would give him
knowledge. I pray that God would give him
the heart to come and love. Well, why? Well, why would you
ask that if they already have everything that's needed, just
the willer to be willed? No. This right here says that
the man that is blessed is the man whom God has chosen. and
causes to approach to Him. Brethren, if we're not caused
to approach to Him, we'd never come. There is none that seek
after God. None. I don't care what your
big churches say. I don't care what your big surveys
say. I don't care what Rick Warren
and his books and his giant Saddleback Church. I don't care what the
John Pipers and the R.C. Sprouls and the men of those
rapport that have this universal free offer, invitational gospel
type scenario. I don't care what the Billy Grahams
and the Adrian Rogers and I don't care what men say. The Scriptures say no one seeks
God. And I'm going to believe God.
Let God be true and every man a liar. No man seeks after Him. So if anybody seeks after Him,
have you sought Him, brother? Sisters? Brother Mark, have you
sought after Christ? Well, if you have, it's because
He's caused you to approach unto Him. If you've sought Him, it's
because He sought you and caused you to come to Him. Now that's
the biblical model. Why not preach the biblical model?
Why do we keep preaching? What do preachers say whenever
they say, no one seeks after God? No one can understand. No one can believe. Their eyes
have been darkened. Their ears have been shut up.
Their heart has been hardened. What do preachers say whenever
they say that and then turn around after 55 minutes of preaching
that and say, if you just will, come. Don't put it off any longer. Just come on. If you'll just
choose Him, He'll choose you today. If you'll just come forward,
you take that step forward, He'll give you the courage to come.
If you'll just do this, if you'll just do that, if you'll just
do this. Why do they speak in terms of inability and then turn
around and expect ability? The only ones that can do that
are people who believe in the sovereign grace of God. Those
are the only ones who can preach inability and then expect ability
from anybody. because they know without the
sovereign grace of God, no one will come. No one will come. I'm not here today to tell you
to make a decision for Jesus. I'm here to say I pray that Christ
will give you that. I pray that Christ will give
us that. Causeth to approach. Causeth to approach. Causes is Him, right? Doing the work. Irregardless of our feelings,
our thoughts, our emotions, our wanderings, it's Him doing the
work. And His work is successful because
He says, Who causeth to approach. He isn't asking us to approach.
He causes us to approach. But the approaching God is grace
in and of itself. Have you ever thought of that?
Just the very fact of us being able to approach God is a grace
in and of itself. But for Him to cause us to approach,
that is an irresistible grace given to us. and overcoming grace. It overcome our inability. It
overcome our rejection. Do men reject God? Absolutely
they do. Some people believe because we
believe in irresistible grace that men can't reject God. That's
not what we're saying either. Whenever we say irresistible
grace, we mean that whenever God gives you grace, you get
it. You get it. But that doesn't mean that people
don't reject Christ. That doesn't mean that people
reject the Gospel. They reject it. As a matter of
fact, was it Philip, who whenever he was preaching called them
stiff-necked, who always reject God? See, that's the default
position. That's why grace has to be irresistible. Our default nature is to always
reject. to reject, to reject, to reject. And so, unless there is a causing
on God's part, we would reject to the day that we die. So we
praise God for His overcoming grace. And I've mentioned to
you now, I don't know how many times, but what a beloved doctrine
this is to me now. Where once I hated this so much,
it is blessedness to me to know I was a floundering idiot that
didn't know nothing. I thought I was the, you know,
I thought I was God's man, running about trying to establish my
own righteousness, running about preaching how men can control
God. Now, I wasn't saying it in those
terms, but that was the doctrine that was being preached whenever
I thought that men can't do anything or God can't do anything unless
men get out of the way and let Him. Let go and let God. Let Him, give God control, make
Him your Lord, all those things. And how foolish I was whenever
I found out. And how humbled I was whenever
I found out all the things that I'd said wrong about God and
about Jesus Christ, all the false gospel that I'd spewed out of
my mouth for all those years, that He would still even consider
to cause this stupid kid to approach unto Him. What an amazing thing. That's where the grace part comes
in. Not only is it overcoming, but it's grace. And it truly
is grace. It's grace. Grace is filled with
mercy, love, and compassion. And that truly is what was shown
to this guy. Blessed is the man to whom Thou choosest and causeth
to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts." You
notice one of the things of overcoming grace is that we dwell in His
courts. We dwell in His courts. That's
where we like to be. We like to be in His Word. We
like to be in His churches. We like to be around His people. We like to be under Him and with
Him. We desire Him. Where before we
didn't have an inkling of that. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple. Now I know this is in the Old
Testament and some of the things that are said in the Old Testament
is said in metaphors pointing towards Jesus But it says, We
shall be satisfied with the goodness of His house and His holy temple. Who's God's holy temple? Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is His holy temple.
Remember, Jesus said, Tear down this temple, three days I'll
raise it up again. He's speaking about Himself. And we, because we're in Christ,
we're part of that holy temple. Living stones in that. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple. You know what?
I don't look for anything else anymore. Since God exerted grace
upon me, let me see who I am in Adam,
but also to give me good news of what Christ has done, I don't
need anything else. I don't thirst for anything else.
I don't want anything else. His righteousness is good enough
for me. His work is good enough for me. I don't need to keep
all the law. I know that now. It isn't about
me law-keeping anymore. Not that I don't want to keep
His commandments. I want to keep His commandments. I want to do
what's right. I want to be morally good. I want to be doctrinally
sound. I want to be a spiritual person. I want to be those things, yes.
But I don't have to do those for righteousness anymore. And
I understand that. There isn't this persona that
has to be there, some religious activity, I know that he's enough. Why? Because blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causes to approach him that he may dwell
in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. We shall be
satisfied with him. Alright, brethren, that's kind
of an introduction of what we're going to look at over the next few
weeks. We're going to look at how God exerts His overcoming grace.
We're going to look and see that the Bible teaches that apart
from this, we can't ever come to God. And that we are willing,
but we have to be made willing. We have to be given spiritual
life to will spiritual things. So we'll look at that, Lord willing,
next week. Anybody got anything that you'd
like to add, Brother Larry? and all reiterates what happened
in the end. And the end result was that, where
upon fatigue and grief I was not disobedient, but it never
did. So it is a revelation in God.
That is the new birth experience. God repeats Himself to us. That's right. What an amazing. Yeah. I rise and stand on my feet,
and I will appear unto thee with this purpose, to make thee a
minister and a witness, to both of these things which thou hast
given me. I will dream of thee. And it's so amazing in contrast,
because when you started out, you needed to be reading to me.
sharing the story of the trip. He said, uh, right before we
went on this trip, he says in verse 10, which things I also
did in the roots from the name of the saints, I should have
shut up in prison. I punished them all in every
synagogue until the last day. I persecuted them in every street,
even in the street in the cities. There had been some in the town.
At midday of the evening, I saw a wave of light from heaven above
the brightness of the sun shining round about me, and then it was
turned to light again. And we were all all up in the
air, and I heard a voice speaking to me, saying, Yeah, that's right. And if you'll
notice there, he didn't say, stand upon my feet, I've appeared
unto thee to ask if you would become a minister for me. Now
he said, For I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to
make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou
hast seen, and of those things in which I will appear unto thee. Paul wasn't a seeker. The only
thing he was seeking was the Christians to kill him. So, yeah,
it's an amazing thing. I mean, John the Baptist wasn't
asked to be what he was. Peter and them, he didn't invite
them. He said, come, follow me. And they dropped their nets and
followed him. Immediately went up and followed
him. Now, we sometimes we think that, you know, we don't realize
that that was an immediate reaction that they had. And here's this
man that just came on the scene. These were fishermen out doing
their day. I mean, we're not talking about
guys that get paid a weekly wage. We're talking about if they don't
get out and catch the fish and come back in and sell the fish,
they don't have nothing to live on. They don't have nothing to
eat. We got to get out and work. It ain't social security and
guaranteed pay. No, it's work for what you get.
And here are these men out there working, and here's this stranger
come up and say, come and follow me. And they just dropped what
they did and followed him. Now, how's that? That ain't irresistible. They think that maybe Jesus went
over and kind of reasoned with them. Hey, I'm the Messiah. I'm
coming here to kind of start my church. And I'm forming these
men here in a little band. And I'm going to train some of
you guys here. And then whenever I die, you're going to kind of
lead out and start beginning to teach these doctrines as it
goes out. And eventually it's going to
perpetuate throughout the centuries until I come again. No, He just
said, Come and follow Me. And they followed Him. That's a good illustration, brother,
how God worked in the life of the Apostle Paul, who was, if we can use the word, hell-bent
on destroying Jesus Christ. I mean, the followers of the
way, they were called those who were of the way. Well, the way
of what? The way of Jesus is who they
were talking about. The leaders have said, we don't
want you to speak no more of this man, Jesus. So Paul knew
what he was, he knew Jesus, kill, Jesus, kill. That's what he knew. Anything about Jesus, we're going
to kill it out, snuff it out. That's what we're here for. And
that's what he was on his way to Damascus for. There wasn't
a Billy Graham crusade in the middle with a sweet, you know,
softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling, calling, oh, sinner,
come home. No, that wasn't that. There was a knock you down off
your horse with a bright light and say, this is what you want
to do. And you know what Paul said? That was a blessed thing
to him. I'm glad he knocked me down off
my high horse and blinded me and told me what he was going
to do with me. And it was. He couldn't kick
against the pricks. He couldn't do nothing about
it. The pricks overcame him. They overcome every child of
grace. They're there. Amen, brother. That's a good
example. Anybody else? All right. Let's stand. We'll have a word
of prayer.