God's Irresistible Grace

Q: What does the Bible say about God's irresistible grace?

The Bible teaches that God's grace is effectual and irresistible, meaning it triumphs over sin and brings chosen sinners to salvation. God's irresistible grace refers to the divine power by which God effectively calls His chosen people to Himself. This grace is always effectual, meaning that when God calls a sinner, that sinner cannot resist the call. Romans 8:30 states, 'Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified.' This reflects the unbreakable chain of redemption rooted in God's sovereign will. Grace is not merely a feeling of goodwill; it is God's almighty power actively saving those who are spiritually dead by bringing them to life through Christ.

Q: How do we know irresistible grace is true?

Irresistible grace is affirmed in Scripture and is demonstrated through God's unyielding pursuit of sinners. The truth of irresistible grace can be seen throughout the entire narrative of Scripture. God does not force us against our will; rather, He transforms our hearts so that we willingly come to Him. Jesus illustrated this in His teachings about the Good Shepherd who seeks out and finds His lost sheep (John 10:27). When God calls, He 'allures' us, making us willing to respond to His grace (Hosea 2:14). Hence, the effectiveness of God's grace is rooted in His sovereign will, which overrides the natural inclination of human hearts to rebel against Him. Those whom He predestines to save will respond to His call.

Q: Why is God's grace important for Christians?

God's grace is essential for Christians as it is through grace that they are saved and empowered to live a life honoring Him. Grace is foundational to the Christian faith, as it is by grace that believers are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). This gracious gift is not earned or deserved but is freely given by God to those He has chosen. Understanding the nature of God's grace leads Christians to recognize their total dependence on Him for both salvation and daily living. The recognition that we are justified by faith because of God's grace produces humility and gratitude. Moreover, grace empowers believers to grow in holiness and live in obedience to God's commands, as they are continually reminded of their need for His sustaining power and mercy.

Q: What is the relationship between grace and salvation?

Grace is the means by which God grants salvation to His people, making it entirely a work of His sovereign will. In Reformed theology, salvation is seen as a work of God’s sovereign grace. As stated in Ephesians 2:5, 'Even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.' This illustrates that grace is God's unmerited favor, applied to those who are spiritually dead, causing them to be made alive. Furthermore, God's grace does not only save but also secures the believer's salvation, affirming that grace is not just a starting point but integral throughout the believer's life. It affirms that salvation is entirely a gift from God, which emphasizes His mercy and love for unworthy sinners.

haven't yet gotten one, be sure to pick up a copy of the Sovereign Grace paper from David Plager's congregation. He puts it out periodically, and there are several good articles in there, but I especially want you to get the paper and read the article by Jonathan Plager concerning the death of his four-year-old sons a few months ago.

You'll be blessed and subdued and rebuked and encouraged by it. I encourage you to get it and read it. And my subject this morning is God's irresistible grace. We believe, according to the scriptures, that the grace of God is always effectual, unfailing, and irresistible. There are some sinners in this world from whom God will not take no for an answer. Some sinners of whom he says, none shall deliver them out of my hand. None shall deliver them out of my hand."

The grace of God is that which God grants to his people because they are chosen and redeemed in his sight. They are chosen in eternal election, and they have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and therefore they must be called by God's effectual, irresistible grace. And the calling of them is the saving of them.

You understand that? When God calls sinners, God saves them. When God calls, sinners respond. Now, I call, and I preach, and I encourage you to believe, and mom and daddy call, and we encourage you to believe, and husband and wife, and neighbor and friend call, and we proclaim the gospel to you, and we urge you, come to Christ, come to Christ, come to Christ. Oh, but when God calls. Ah, when God calls, you'll come, you'll come, there's no question, none shall deliver the call out of his hand.

Grace, you see, is not a feeling of goodwill in God's heart towards sinners, which stands by helplessly with its hands tied, waiting for the sinner to make the right decision. Grace is God's almighty, irresistible power, the operation of his love, by which sinners are saved, by which those who are spiritually dead are made to live in Jesus Christ.

By grace are you saved. This is the language of the Bible. Blessed is the man whom thou choosest. That's grace. And causes to approach unto thee. That's irresistible grace. thy people, it is written, shall be willing in the day of thy power. The people chosen of God are made willing by God in the appointed day of God's power and of God's grace in the time of love. He comes, he spreads his skirt of righteousness over the dead and causes the dead to live what he says live. When he says live, the dead live by virtue of his almighty power and his sovereign grace.

Grace, I hope you understand, is more than undeserved mercy. Grace is more than unmerited favor. Grace is undeserved mercy and unmerited favor and salvation freely and effectually bestowed upon sinners by God's irresistible sovereign goodness. James Moffat, the commentator, once wrote, the religion of the Bible is the religion of grace, or it is nothing.

And he was right insofar as he stated it. But I want you to understand this. Grace is effectual and irresistible, or it is utterly useless. This is the reason we insist so tenaciously upon the doctrines of God's free and sovereign grace. Grace that is not irresistible Grace that is not always effectual is useless grace. It is nothing more than an idealistic philosophy. Grace that waits for you to do something before it can operate is of no benefit to you whatsoever. If man is dead and trespasses and sins, and he is, if you and I by nature are without any life before God, and grace waits upon us to do something, grace waits upon us to exercise our will, grace waits upon us to decide for Jesus, then grace is altogether useless insofar as we're concerned.

Oh, but that is not the case at all. We are dead in trespasses and in sins, by nature. You who are without Christ are utterly without spiritual life. Oh, but if God in sovereign power speaks his word, the dead live! And he calls us then to approach the dead. I pray. I have been praying and I pray now. Spirit of God, come in sovereign power and awake the dead. come in sovereign power and calls us, whose hearts have been awakened by free grace, now to be awakened again to Christ in gratitude, in praise, and in love.

The grace of God by which we are saved, like God himself, is almighty, omnipotent, irresistible. When the Bible speaks of grace and gives us illustrations of grace, all the illustrations of grace declare two things, plainly, clearly, and repeatedly. First, the salvation which grace bestows is free, undeserved, and unconditional. As you know, I love the stories of the prodigal son and Onesimus, the runaway slave. I relate to them real well. They describe my experience of grace perfectly.

But in those stories, the Lord God demonstrates that his salvation bestowed upon us prodigals, bestowed upon us runaway slaves who have robbed all our master's goods and taken them for ourselves, who have attempted to rob God of his very glory. The grace that God bestows upon the prodigal when he is utterly destitute and utterly without anything whatsoever and is perishing for lack of life, perishing for lack of anything for his soul. And that old slave who's a bondman in prison, condemned, that man, pictures us how that God brings his grace to those who deserve nothing but his wrath. And he freely bestows grace upon sinners unconditionally, without any qualification on their part.

Will you hear me now? God Almighty, if He comes to you in mercy, does not require anything of you. Can you get hold of that? God does not require anything of you to prepare the way for His grace. He does not require anything of you to make His grace possible. He does not require anything of you to make yourself fit for grace. Those who are fit for grace are those who know themselves totally unfit for mercy and unfit for grace. They're the ones whom God has fitted for His mercy and fitted for His grace.

Secondly, every illustration given of God's free grace, that grace by which God Almighty brings sinners into a saving union with Christ, not only demonstrates that it is free, undeserved, and unconditional, but they demonstrate that it is always effectual and irresistible.

The Lord Jesus tells us of the shepherd who goes out to seek his one lost sheep. And when he seeks his sheep, he seeks it until he finds it. And he finds his sheep and lays it upon his shoulders and carries it all the way home. Such is God's grace to us. He tells us of the woman who had a lost coin and she swept her house and thoroughly swept her house searching for that lost coin. And she searched the house until she found the coin.

He tells us of Lazarus. that dead man who was in a tomb for three days and had already begun to stink, his sister says, his body has already begun to corrupt and decay and go back to the dust from whence he came, the Lord Jesus comes and says, Lazarus, come forth! And Lazarus came forth by the power of his word. Of course, grace is irresistible.

Perhaps, however, the most touching and most instructive picture of God's love, mercy, and grace toward guilty sinners to be found anywhere in the Bible is the story of Hosea and Gomer that we read just a little while ago. I want you to turn there again, and while I'll be looking at the whole second chapter, we will use verse 14 for our caption. Let me refresh your memory. God commanded Hosea back in chapter 1 and verse 2 to go take unto thee a wife of Hortens and children of Hortens. He said Hosea go down to the red light district and find yourself there a daughter of a harlot and take her for your wife.

Now that may seem inconsistent to many but He's teaching us of His grace. And God commands His prophet to do that which seems altogether inconsistent for a prophet to do. But the prophet of God is obedient to God. For God is going to show us how He has been gracious to us.

And so Hosea went down into the red light district and he found Gomer. And he married her and he loved her. And God gave them three children. Jezreel and Lerubimah and Loene. And then Gomer forsook her husband. She fell into sin, the sin that was natural to her heart, the sin from which she had come.

She fell into the arms of her lovers. Oh, what a sad description, what a perverted description is given here for a harlot's immoral companion. She calls him her lover. Her lover. Anything but that. But she has gone and run after those whom she imagines to be her lovers. They are in reality but AIDS in her destruction. But she thinks they are her lovers and she runs after them. But Hosea still loves them.

Oh what a picture that is of you and me. God created us upright. And we ran after our lovers. We ran after other gods. We ran after the gods of this world, and the gods of greed, and covetousness, and lust, and lasciviousness. And we thought we were running to those things that would give us such pleasure. But those that we thought would be our lovers, we found to be our destroyers. And yet, God loves us. He loved us still. He would not let us die. He would not let us perish outside the veil of his grace. He would not let us perish but what he brought us safely back to himself in redeeming love and mercy.

Hosea loved Gomer and so he sought her. He bought her to himself and he provided everything she everything that she had need of, everything that was necessary for her life's sustenance. Not always that which was needful for her comfort, for that wasn't best for her, but everything that was necessary to sustain her in life, even in the midst of her rebellion and ungodliness, Hosea provided for her. And then at last Hosea came and brought her to himself.

We'll look at it and see here a picture of God's grace for us. Hosea's love for Gomer and his grace to her is a perfect, blessed, instructive picture of God's love for us and his irresistible grace to us by which we have been saved. And if God is pleased to have mercy on you, it is a picture of his love and grace by which you shall be saved. Will you read verse 14 with me? Behold, I will allure her and will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. Let me show you five things, and I'll move along as quickly as I can, but I pray God will give me your attention.

First, our text begins with the word, therefore. Therefore, With those two words, God is directing our attention to the wonder of his grace. The word, therefore, gives us the reasons why God is gracious. But if you look at the context, you'll find out that his reasons are altogether astonishing. And so he says, therefore, behold, as if to say, behold the reasons I have for being gracious and be astonished at my grace. The word therefore in this verse refers back to what we have read previously in chapter two.

It refers to all the horrible sins that are described in the chapter. Now some of the commentaries suggest the word therefore should not be there at all. Their argument is that it is out of place because the context refers to Gomer's ill-deserved, not her good works. The context refers to something that is evil, and that, they consider, could not possibly be a motive for God's grace. Now, if we believe that salvation was based upon the will, the work, or the worth of man, like them, we must expunge the word, therefore, from the text. Oh, but I love to read He has just described for us our helplessness. He has described for us our rebellion, our running from Him, our straying from Him, our fall, our corruption, our utter worthiness of condemnation. And He says, therefore, behold, I will allure.

Do you see that? Oh, that's a picture of God's astonishing grace. Circle the word in your Bible. It'll give you a reason to adore God for His grace. When He says, therefore, behold, He's calling for us to behold the wonder of grace. Our hymn writers speak of grace with adjectives that seem to express an inability to describe grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. Astonishing grace, marvelous grace, infinite grace, and yet we can't find adjectives properly in God's free grace, our adoration of God's grace.

When God is determined to save a sinner, you see, he finds reasons for grace where there are no reasons. He says, therefore, behold, I will allure her. Why? Because he so desperately needs her. Oh, that's the character of God. I will allure her. she leaves. She's forsaken me. Do you see that in verse 7? She's forsaken me. She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, shall not find them. I'll be gracious to her, because having forsaken me, she's going after those with whom she has done shamefully. Look at verse 5. Their mother hath played the harp. She that conceived them hath done shamefully.

She said, I'll go after my brothers that give me my bread and my water and my wool and my my oil and my drink. I'll go after my lovers. They'll take good care of me. I'll go after them. They're my joy. They're my delight. They will satisfy and please and gratify me. God says I will be gracious to her. I will allure her because she's despised my goodness.

Look at verse 8. This is one of my favorite texts in all the Bible. She did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal." You may read that and wonder, well, Don, what's so special about that text? It's a picture of God's prevenient grace.

Hosea, you see, in those days could have gone down and taken Gomer anytime he wanted to. She was his prophetess. She was his prophetess. He could have gone down by right and taken her and had her stoned to death. That was his legal right, because he was an adulterous wife, and she fully deserved it. But Hosea loved her, and he would not destroy her. And yet, he would not force her to come home against her will.

So what does he do? He went down in the red light district. He found out where Gomer was. And while Gomer was in her room, in the arms of her imaginary lovers, in the arms of those who would use and abuse and finally destroy her and cast her off. Hosea would slip up at night, and he'd set a bag of groceries by the door. And he didn't tell her anything about it. And Gomer'd get up after her lovers left the next morning, and she'd see that bag of groceries, she'd say, she'd say, they take good care of me.

They take good care of me. throughout the days of our rebellion. We live with our fist in God's face and would have nothing for him and have nothing to do with him but despise him, his name, and his goodness. All the while, he provides for us our bread and our life and holds our lives in safety, even when we ran to destruction because of his love for us. Why will he be gracious? Because he burned incense today. She's gone and worshipped her imaginary gods. And so we too have run every way away from God. Grace is for the undeserved.

If a beggar comes to us and needs some help, we want to investigate and see if he's a worthy beggar. Call up and see if he's really worthy. We'll check him out at the welfare office, see if he's really in need. Oh, but when God has beggars come to him, he seeks not worthy beggars, but unworthy beggars. He seeks not those who can bring some credentials, some qualifications, but he seeks to be gracious to those who have absolutely nothing to offer him or to commend themselves to him. Christ God be merciful to me, the second."

And he went down to his house. The Pharisee went down to his house condemned, thinking he would justify. The Pharisee went down to his house still robed in his guilt, deranged of his own weaning. But the publican, who had nothing, went down to his house justified wearing the robes of Christ's perfect righteousness, because he confessed he had nothing to offer God.

Be merciful to me, he said. David prayed. He prayed an astounding prayer. This is what he said. Pardon my iniquity, O Lord. And then Rexy gives this reason, for it is great. Isn't that amazing? We would think he would say, pardon my iniquity, Lord, because I couldn't help it. Pardon my iniquity, Lord, because I came from bad stock. Pardon my iniquity, Lord, because I was pressured into this thing. Pardon my iniquity, Lord, I didn't mean it. Instead, he throws himself flat into the arms of free mercy and says, pardon my iniquity, O Lord, for it is great. God has great mercy for great sinners. Will you hear me? God delights in mercy for great sinners. There is great mercy in the great God of heaven.

God makes reasons for grace which overrule every reason for his wrath. Any man who has a wife like Omer might find a thousand reasons, a thousand just reasons for putting her away. But Hosea found a reason for bringing Romer back to himself. And God found a reason for saving us. We fully deserve his wrath.

God would be just if he damned us forever in the lowest pit of hell. Understand that there's not any exception here. Not any exception here. If God should cast you or cast me into hell forever without mercy, he's absolutely just. We fully, fully, fully deserve God's wrath.

But he loved us. And because he loved us, he's graciously And he says, therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. God is so gracious that he turns reasons against us into reasons for us. Iniquity is a reason for destruction. Transgression is a reason for wrath. Sin is a reason for death. But God graciously turns our sins and reasons for his mercy. God looks upon our sin as a great need which only he can supply, a horrible disease which only he can heal, a terrible infinite debt which only he can pay, and he assumes the whole thing.

We must then come to God upon the footing of our sinfulness. Would you come to Oh, hear me, would you come to God. Come to God right now on the footing of your guilt, on the footing of your depravity, on the footing of your sin, on the footing of your corruption, on the footing of your deserved wrath and condemnation. Come to God.

His great, His great pleasure is to have mercy upon guilty sinners. He saves sinners of whom I cheat. God doesn't want your fullness, but your emptiness, that he may be your fullness. Your misery is an argument for his mercy. God doesn't want your goodness, but your foulness, that he may be your cleansing in Christ Jesus. Now this is the wonder of grace. Grace is for the guilty. It's for sinners. Grace is the folks that need it. You need it. Do you need grace? Grace is the folks that need it. Secondly, our text reveals the will of grace.

Our preachers today talk about man's will and the power of man's will, the freedom of man's will. We live in a generation of They think the will of man is autonomous and almighty. They imagine somehow that the grace of God cannot be exercised sovereignly, and that the grace of God cannot in any way do anything without the permission of man's free will. But I defy anyone to find anything attributed to the will of man in the Bible except sin. There's nothing else there.

Your will is always to destruction. Your will is always to iniquity. Your will is always to unrighteousness. Your will is like your nature. It is a part of your nature. It is bound to your nature. And that's the reason you will to do evil. Oh, but God wills.

He says, I will allure her in these verses that we read in this chapter. The Lord God declares twenty times, I will, I will, I will, I will. And he's declaring it because he would have us to understand that salvation is the result of God's will, not your will. If God had left me to my will, Oh, if God had blessed me to my will, I'd be in prison today, or in hell, or somewhere between here and hell. But thank God, probably, he didn't leave us to our will.

He says, hitherto shalt thou go, and no further. You're going to be mine. You're going to be mine. I will allure her." The will of God is absolutely sovereign. The will of God is the salvation of specific sinners. The Lord God did not say, I will allure everyone, but he takes Hosea, who says, I will allure And Hosea picked Jesus himself. God says, I will allure you, my chosen you, my redeemed you, the objects of my love, I will allure you. And the will of God is irresistible. Pastor, do you believe that God's will is always irresistible? Absolutely. Absolutely. But, I don't care what exceptions you throw my way, God's will is always irresistible. Always universally irresistible.

Either God rules, or He is ruling. Either God's will controls man, or man's will controls God. Either God's will prevails over man, or man's will prevails over God. Take it either way you want. I prefer what the Bible declares God's will rules, and God's will saves, and God's will brings mercy.

God says, I will, as far as I'm concerned. That settles the issue. Thirdly, the Lord here shows us what I call the wooing of grace. That's a good old English word, wooing. He said, behold, I will allure her. I like that word. God does not say I will drag her, or I will drive her, or I will force her. Oh, no. No, not at all.

And I'll be perfectly honest with you. Seeing things as I now see them, I would praise him forever. If God Almighty had stopped me in my mad rush to hell with absolute moral force, knocked me in the head and drug me to his throat. Oh, I'd praise him forever if he had done so. But that's not the way he operates.

He says, I will love the Lord. I will love the Lord. I will love the Lord. The word we would use for wooing or for charming It's almost the word that we would use for seducing. God would not have us if he didn't have our hearts. Oh, his grace is irresistible. God, however, does not save sinners against their will. Rather, he makes them willing in the day of his power. God's grace is moral and spiritual power. It is a power beyond all power. A power over the hearts of sinners.

Let me see if I can prove it. Let me see if I can prove it. I'm asking you who are redeemed, you who are saved by God's free grace, which of you, which of you, coming to Christ, could have resisted? Huh? Well, yesterday I did. Yesterday I did. I despised him. I would not hear him. I would not come to him. But then suddenly something changed. God put his finger in my heart. And I couldn't resist him. I said, I've got to have Christ. I've got to have Christ. He heals us. He wounds us.

The allurement of love supposes the power of God Almighty in this passage, and surpasses the power of all other things. You see, grace woos and wins by its graciousness. It conquers not by arm, not by might, but by allurement. It prevails not by fear, but by love. God says, I will allure her like a bird allures to the nest, like a mother allures her baby, like a man allures a young lady. Nothing else could prevail to bring us back to God. Nothing else could touch our hearts until he begins to woo our hearts. Look at the context today. He said he would send afflictions. He said, I'll hedge up your way with thorns.

I'll make a wall that she cannot find her paths. She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. She shall seek them, but she shall not find them. And yet those afflictions with the thorny hedge could not cause her and would not cause her to forsake her lovers.

So God is good. In verse 8, we looked at the goodness of his providence, but instead of turning and lifting her heart to God, as she looked at her wool and her oil and her flax and her wine, she turned and lifted her heart to her lovers and said, look what my lovers have given me. And so the goodness of God would not turn her to him. Not even the deprivations of providence would do so.

Look at verse 9. Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool in my flask, given to cover her nakedness." You would think that the judgments of God would turn us to repentance, even if the goodness of God didn't.

Let me talk about myself a little bit. I'm not really talking about myself, believe me. I'm talking about God's grace. In God's good providence, I was raised in the most comfortable of circumstances financially, most comfortable circumstances. As far as society is concerned, our folks weren't wealthy, but we had plenty. They weren't wealthy, but we had plenty. I wasn't raised in the streets of Chicago or New York, one of those places. I was raised in a nice, conservative, fairly pleasant environment.

That's God's providence. And I took all the good things that God gave me, all of them. All of them. and use them for other purposes. The strength of my body, the strength of my mind, I used for nothing but corruption. And I thought I was finding great pleasure, but there you was. I knew how to find the places where things were going on. I knew how to find Before I was 80, me and Bart were there.

My soul and my heart, my life, my mind was full of hate. I mean full of the horrid terror of hate. Full of the horror of guilt. And I had nothing but emptiness! But not even my emptiness. Not even the poverty of my soul would bring me to repentance from faith in Christ. Not even legal convictions.

Look at verse 10. Now, now, I will discover her lewdness, and I'll do it right in front of her lovers. I'll show everybody what she's made of. And God showed the world what I was made of, but it didn't change my heart. Not even a little. But what will it take?

When all else fails to reach the heart, God says in verse 14, therefore, will I allure. And the allurement of love overcame the will to resist. Gomer could not resist Hosea's love. She could resist everything else, but not his love. And I could resist everything. Everything.

But the observance of God's love and conscience. When assaulted by providence, I rebelled the When accused by God's law, I defended myself. When exposed, my lewdness, my corruption is exposed, I excuse myself still. But when God said, I will allure him, I had no will to resist. Oh, I pray that God will do that for me.

So that you have no will to resist this body. God has many charms by which he effectually wounds and wins the hearts of his chosen. The Lord Jesus says, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. And if you ever see Christ crucified as your substitute, you ever see Christ crucified in your place, Christ crucified for sinners, Christ bearing the load and the guilt of your sins before God Almighty on behalf of your helpless sinful soul, He will call you to Him. The self-denying love of Christ, no heart can resist when one says no. The fullness of divine pardon, oh, who can resist that? Who can resist that? I recall the first time I decided I had had enough of Mama and Dad's rule. You know, I was, let's see, I was 14, 15 years old, and I decided, I'm not going to do anymore what you saved me to do.

I didn't anyway, but I decided I'm not going to take the punishment that comes as a result of it, and I packed up and took off. And when I run out of money and run out of places to sleep, and began to get a little cold, a little hungry, I wanted to go home. But I didn't know whether hell itself was waiting for me at home or not. I thought, oh my soul, what do I do now? I had spent my life running from God, straying from God, rebelling against God, despising his rule, despising his authority.

And I heard that if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I heard that there is therefore now no condemnation, not now, not ever, but in the reign of Christ Jesus. Who can resist that? Who can resist that? And coming to Him, coming to God by faith and promise, trusting Him who's able to say to the uttermost, then to come to God by Him, my guilty soul ceased to tremble with fear. trembles no more with the terror of God's holiness, but joys in the goodness of God's grace. You understand that?

I yield thy mighty love subdued who can resist its charms. I throw myself by grace pursued into my Savior's arms. Now look at the work of grace. He says, therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness. If God allures, he brings. That's the resistibility of his grace. Grace never fails. God says, I will bring her into the wilderness. Let me tell you what that means. Bear with me a minute. I hope I'm not weary. Oh, I hope I'm not weary. It means I will cause her to be alone.

It's customary for a man when he takes a bride to take her away to some secluded spot where he and she shall be alone, separated from family and friends, where they can commune with one another alone together. And when the Lord God would wed our souls to himself in Jesus Christ, he separates the one whom he loves from family and friends. He allures the soul of that one to be alone with him, separated from the world, to dwell with him alone. And he has his way of doing that.

The story in John chapter 8 of the adulterous woman, they caught this gal in the very act of adultery. She had broken God's law, and because she broke God's law, she fully deserved to be stoned to death. And so they brought her to the Lord Jesus, and they thought, well, we'll get him now. If he lets her go, he violates the law. He's not the gracious, kind, merciful one everybody thinks he is. And so they brought her, and we're going to accuse her. And the Lord Jesus stooped and wrote on the ground. He said, he that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. Go ahead and kill him. If you're righteous, go ahead and kill him. And he wrote on the ground again.

I don't know what he said. I got some ideas, but I don't know what he said. He may have wrote times and places. I don't know. He may have wrote what was right in their heart. I don't know what he wrote. But whatever it is he wrote on the ground the second time, tomorrow when he looked up, there was nobody standing around, but that's for sure. And when Jesus was alone with the woman, he said, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Who doth now condemn you? And she said, no man.

Lord, God brings you. I'm telling you, if you come to Jesus Christ the Lord, none shall abuse and none shall condemn you for he has justified. He has cleansed away your sins. As Hosea separated Gomer from her lover, so God separates his elect to Christ alone.

He alone is our trust. He alone is our righteousness. He alone is our desire. He alone is our hope. He alone is our love. Grace brings us into the wilderness with God. As God brought Israel into the wilderness out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, to be alone So in the wilderness, we are alone with God. He's our Lord, our provider, our protector, our guide, our glory, our salvation. I read one of the sermons by Brother Scott Richardson on imputation in David's paper last week while I was out of town. And he told a story I remembered. I heard him tell it a long time ago.

A lady was Confessing faith in Christ. Someone asked her, said, well, is Christ enough? And she said, if he's all you've got, he is. If he's all you've got, he's enough. Let me tell you something. Jesus Christ is all I've got before God Almighty. He's all I've got. He's enough. His righteousness is enough. His redemption is enough. His sanctification is enough to make me acceptable.

Grace has brought us into the wilderness for the same reasons that God brought Israel into the wilderness, that we might live upon his goodness, glorify his name, and have our hearts prepared for the land to come. Now let me show you one more thing and I'll quit. The Lord says, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness. There's the word of grace.

I will speak comfortably. Now, if you have a marginal reference, you'll notice in the margin that the Lord God The words that our Lord speaks here might better be translated, I will speak to her heart. He's the only one who can. I can talk to your ears. I can even speak to your emotions. But I can't speak to your heart. All God can and God does.

The Lord God pictures here, Hosea and Gomer. Hosea is down in the marketplace one day. You can read it in verse 2 of chapter 3, says, I bought her for me, 15 pieces of silver, an omer of barley and a half omer of barley. He's down in the marketplace and they're selling off the slaves. And they got all kinds of them there, attractive young, strong men, beautiful young ladies. And then Back on the back row. In the very back backyard. Hosea spots Goma. She's ragged and withered. Her beauty's gone. Her lovers have cast her off. And she's another abject opposite. No one to cook for her. No one to care for her. No one to minister to her. Hosea said, Gober? Gober? That you, Gober? She glanced up at him and hung her head in shame. And Hosea bought her. He stuck her arm right here and walked through the streets with her back to his house.

I'd like to have been lie on the walls of the parsonage that night. The old preacher takes over in his banqueting house, and his banner over here is love! Even as Christ has taken us, sinners that we are, and parades us before the world, and takes that which is despised and useless and forsaken and cast off, and says, this is my gift. And then he speaks comfort. Let me tell you what it says. In verse 15, he speaks to her about hope. You see that? Hope. Oh yeah, there's hope for you. He speaks to her so as to make her see.

Brother Ralph Barney used to tell a story about Brother Burke. He said he was preaching and old man Burke went to church with his wife and he thought the preacher had been talking about him. talking to her about him and he said, he said, you've been talking about Preacher, that everything he said ain't right at me.

And she didn't say anything. No, I had no say. So he went back the next night. He began, took up right where he left off, just poured salt into the wound. And he said to us, I won't be going back tomorrow. Third night, she was sick. He couldn't go. Or she couldn't go, sir. He went on anyway. He said, I'm just going to go back and see what else that preacher got to say about me. He went and sat down, and God spoke to his heart.

He just put joy in his soul. He's brought home, said, it seemed like the birds in the trees were singing, glad to know you're saved, Brother Burke. Said the wind whistling through the trees, he said, well, God saved you, hadn't he, Brother Burke? He said, everything was different. He said, I started to walk up the sidewalk. As I was walking in, wife looked at me and said, well, I'm glad to know the Lord saved you.

And that was his testimony. God graciously intervenes and takes away the misery of a self-condemned soul. He calls his singing to be heard. He speaks of marriage. Oh, he said, you can call me my husband now. My husband. No more call me my lord. Now that doesn't mean that we don't look on him as our master and lord. It means that we don't look on him as a despot who is despised, who's rule is gauling, but we look upon him as our lord to whom we've been married.

In verse 17, he talks about a covenant. covenant that includes even the beasts of the field and the things of the ground, and the breaking of the sword in the battle, and making them to lie down safely. And he speaks of this mercy and grace that is so richly and fully bestowed upon us that he says in verse 20, I will even betroth thee unto me in thou shalt know the Lord. I will sow her, verse 23, I will sow her unto me in the earth. I'll have mercy upon her that hath not obtained mercy. And I'll say to them which were not my people, thou art my people."

This is grace. Free, sovereign, irresistible grace. Grace is the freeness of God's The grace of God does not find sinners fit for heaven, but rather grace finds us sinners and makes us fit for heaven. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. This is what grace has done for me. I was battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but he held it up with a smile. What have I bidden good folks of Christ? Who will start to bid it for me?

A dollar? A dollar? Then two? Only two? Two dollars will make you three. Going for three, but no. room, far back, a gray-haired man came forward, picked up the bow, then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loosened string. He played a melody as pure and sweet as caroling angels sing. The music ceased, and the officer's ear was a voice, quiet and low, said, Now what am I dead, good folks, folks? A thousand? Who makes Two thousand, who makes it three? Three thousand once? Three thousand twice?

Going and going, cried he. The people cheered as some of them cried. We don't understand. What changed the worth of the old violin? And quick came the replies, the touch of the master's hand. And many a man, with life out of tune, battered and scarred by sin, was oxen cheap to a thoughtless much like the old violator. But the master comes, and the foolish crowd can never quite understand the worth of a soul, and change its wrongs by the touch. Oh, master of our souls, touch every heart here this day,

God's Irresistible Grace

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Why is God's grace important for Christians?

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God's Irresistible Grace

What does the Bible say about God's irresistible grace?

How do we know irresistible grace is true?

Why is God's grace important for Christians?

What is the relationship between grace and salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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