This is a message about the irresistible power of grace
Do you think Jesus can make any headway in a place like this? Please bring up our first picture.
How about here? Next picture.
Do you think Jesus stands a chance in a place like that—honestly? Both these pictures are of the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore.
How about here? Please bring up the next one.
This is an artist’s rendering of what was called Canton in China in the nineteenth century. Does that look more promising? Ni Yong-fa lived a place like that. He was a cult leader. When he heard about Jesus, he told Hudson Taylor, “When I heard you preach, I found what I wanted. I was so overjoyed [that] if you had said I must be immersed in fire instead of water I should have desired it with all my heart.” That’s how much of a chance Jesus stands—any man he sets his grace on would be happy to be immersed in fire just to be near him. That’s the sort of chance Jesus stands in Canton. Please bring up the next picture—any Canton, even Canton, South Dakota.
When grace works, it’s irresistible—anywhere and everywhere. That’s the claim of this sermon.
We’ll study this in two points. First: irresistible grace. Second: our role.
First: irresistible grace. This is our fourth week in the doctrines of grace. You can think of each week so far in terms of a person and what this person contributes to salvation. The first person is you. “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary,” as Jonathan Edwards put it. This is total depravity. The Bible teaches that, by nature, our hearts have no desire to submit to God. We want rule ourselves and don’t realize that this means that sin is sitting on throne of our heart.
The second person in the doctrines of grace is God the Father. He chooses. That’s unconditional election. Since none of us would come to Him, He chose to soften some hard hearts to come to Him.
The third person in the doctrines of grace is God the Son. Since none of us would or could do any of what it took to bring us back to God, Jesus did it all. He didn’t just make the salvation of those the Father chose possible. He made it happen at the cross. He made both forgiveness and faith happen; “because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved,” as Paul put it.
Today we think about God the Spirit and what He contributes to salvation. He takes the forgiveness and faith Jesus secured at the cross and puts it in the people the Father chose. By looking at salvation in terms of the three persons of the Trinity, I’m just copying Peter who referred to the born again as “those who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood.” Remember, the other person is you, who contribute nothing to your salvation other than the sin that made it necessary. That’s why these are the doctrines of grace.
Today we consider how the Holy Spirit turns irreconcilable rebels into people who want nothing more than to please Him. The Spirit does this by changing the heart. As Article 11 puts it, “the regenerating [or the born-againing] Spirit… penetrates into the inmost being, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised.” This process of opening the closed heart is referred to in different ways here because it’s referred to differently throughout Scripture. Moses called it circumcising the heart. “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” Ezekiel called it taking the heart of stone out and putting the heart of flesh in. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Jeremiah called it having the law written on your heart. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” Jesus called it being born again or born of the Spirit. “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again,” and later, “So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
No human makes this spiritual birth happen just like no human made their own conception or physical birth happen. John referred to those who have been born again as, “children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” Listen again to a very familiar verse from Paul again perhaps in a new way; “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this [as in faith and the whole process] is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” I’ve talked to a lot of people over the years. None of them has ever boasted in anything they did to get themselves born; so it is with those born of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives the rebirth in one way—the message of Jesus and his cross. As Article 17 puts it, “God in great wisdom has appointed [the gospel] to be the seed of regeneration.” Some people can remember when the Spirit softened their heart through the gospel. “When I heard you preach, I found what I wanted. I was so overjoyed [that] if you had said I must be immersed in fire instead of water I should have desired it with all my heart.” Lydia could remember too, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” Some people can’t remember. Ruth Graham Bell said, “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t love Jesus.”
Maybe you can remember when the Spirit changed you. Maybe you can’t. Either way, what you do now is look for marks within you. Do you hate sin? Do you hate it even more when you see it in yourself than when you see it in others? Would you love to be even more obedient to God? When you find something within you that displeases the Spirit, does a holy war begin? That’s not you by nature. That’s not me by nature. These marks are part of what Jesus was talking about when He said, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Since this rebirth is the Spirit’s work, it will happen in every heart He opens. That’s why this doctrine we are studying this morning is called irresistible grace—the “I” of TULIP to use that acronym. We’ve been studying this grace for four weeks now, and irresistible grace says that this grace is not just powerful enough to stand a chance in Canton in Baltimore or Canton in China or Canton in South Dakota. It’s irresistible. It will have its way.
This doesn’t mean that people are saved against their will, though. Does, “I was so overjoyed [that] if you had said I must be immersed in fire instead of water I should have desired it with all my heart,” sound against Ni Yong-fa’s will to you? No, it sounds like it’s what that man wanted most. Listen to Jesus on this, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” It’s almost as if he finds that treasure irresistible. As Article 16 puts it, [grace doesn’t] “abolish the will and its properties or coerce a reluctant will by force, but spiritually revives, heals, reforms, and—in a manner at once pleasing and powerful—bends it back.” It’s really you—but it’s new you. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ—new creation. The old has gone, the new is here!” Really you. Really new. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. Now we are going to think about how this applies to outreach. That’s our second point: our role.
So, you’re convinced that the Spirit can do whatever He wants in hearts in Canton in Baltimore and in Canton, South Dakota. Now, where do we come in? Here’s three principles from this doctrine. First, check yourself; check your pride. Do you recognized that this longing to please God and submit to Him didn’t come from you, and it didn’t come from being raised right? Do you really think it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and [even] this is not from you, but it is the gift of God—not because of anything about you so that you can’t boast? When others seemingly have no appetite to die to themselves and live for God, do you honestly think, “there but for the grace of God, go I?” Do you long to see them changed like you were? Do you think they can be changed? That’s Article 15, for those “who have not yet been called, we are to pray to the God who calls things that do not exist as though they did. In no way, however, are we to pride ourselves as better than they, as though we had distinguished ourselves from them.”
So, first—we all need to check our pride; it’s always waiting to pop up. Second principle—offer the gospel sincerely because God does. This confession we’ve been studying was written in response to pushback. People thought that these doctrines of grace made God seem like a hypocrite—“You’re saying that God wants people to come to salvation, but apparently He doesn’t because He’s keeping them from salvation by not choosing them. That’s not my God.”
Well, that’s not this God either. God truly does want everyone to repent. “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” Ezekiel 18:23 asks. “Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? … Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!” God is completely earnest when He speaks this way. As Article 8 puts it, “For urgently and most genuinely God makes known in the Word what is pleasing to Him: that those who are called should come to God. God also earnestly promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who do come and believe.”
The Spirit isn’t responsible for people choosing not to come to Christ. People truly make that choice all on their own. As Article 5 of our first doctrine put it, “The cause or blame for this unbelief, as well as for all other sins, is not at all in God, but in humanity.” You never get the sense that it’s the Holy Spirit’s fault that more Pharisees or tax collectors didn’t come to Jesus. You never get the sense that Jesus blamed his Father for not drawing them. “Come on, Father, why are you damning these men who would love to live for You?” No, Jesus thinks that their rejection of grace is their responsibility. His words to them and the crowd were sincere, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink,” and those men—with equal sincerity—rejected that offer. God is not at fault for leaving people in the sin they love. He wouldn’t have been at fault for leaving me in it. On the final day, nobody will be able to say, “God, it’s your fault that I rejected You.” Any judgment of God or the ways of God is a judgment on self.
Now, if you still yourself tied up in knots about those God hasn’t chosen to soften, ask yourself two pointed questions. First, have you heard the gospel? If so, how have you and how are you responding to it? One of our favorite foolish tricks is to focus on hypotheticals rather than dealing in the real of what we’re responsible for. You don’t know the ins and outs of anyone other than yourself, so you deal with you and you let God deal with others whom He hasn’t seemed to soften. What you know for sure is that you will answer for yourself—so how you are responding?
Second question—if you are concerned about those whom God isn’t softening, is it theoretical or practical—meaning how often to do you present the message of salvation? If the answer is, “not that often,” ask yourself if it’s really concern for those who aren’t softened that’s driving your questions. If you’re really concerned about something, you put your money where your mouth is. Now, if you are concerned about those who aren’t being softened and you do present the gospel, then please recognize that you’re only presenting the gospel because this same Spirit is working in you so that you want to present it. God is much more earnest about this than any of us. That’s our second principle—offer salvation sincerely because God does.
Third principle—unleash the word . As Article 17 puts it, “God in great wisdom has appointed [the gospel] to be the seed of regeneration.” God uses the word to open hearts. “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God,” as Romans 10:17 puts it. “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God,” as 1 Peter 1:23 puts it. “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth,” as James 1:18 puts it. You should be most interested in whether what is said from this pulpit is faithful to that word because that’s what God uses to give life, and, as we’ll see next time, to preserve life.
So, if we believe that the Spirit works through the word, let’s expose people to the word. It’s going forth twice a week from this pulpit. We’ve got Bible studies among us. This word is what God uses to give new life. Let’s invite people to hear it. This is your opportunity. People rarely respond when a pastor invites them to come. 6% of unchurched people who come to hear the word of God come because a pastor invites them. 86% come because a friend or relative invites them. That’s because the minute unchurched or dechurched people hear that you’re a pastor, walls go up. When people find out I’m a pastor, they usually apologize for whatever swear word they recently said as if I’ve never heard such words before and might melt. In a small community, I fear people are even less likely to take a pastor seriously because they know I’m an outsider. They know that no longer how long I’m here, I’m temporary. You’ve got the opportunity. You’re the insider. You’re the one with the connections and relationships in this community. People want to see if that matters to you. They think this Jesus stuff is just my job. You’ve got a prime opportunity to invite someone next week. We’ll be at Pahoja. We’ll have a meal afterward. Don’t worry if you miss that opportunity. We’ve been opening this word together every week here. We’ll keep doing that because “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God,”
Does the word of God stand a chance? What can grace actually do? Please bring up the next slide.
Does Jesus stand a chance in a place like that? How about a place like this? Next slide.
That’s Inwood, New York and, of course, Inwood, Iowa. Do you think Jesus can make any headway in either of those places?
His grace is just needed and just irresistible there as here—let’s see the next picture.
“When I heard you preach, I found what I wanted. I was so overjoyed [that] if you had said I must be immersed in fire instead of water I should have desired it with all my heart.” That grace is irresistible here—let’s see the next picture.
It’s just as irresistible here—let’s see the last picture.
“It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this [whole process] is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Amen.