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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Once again we're coming together and we are going to continue the series that we started a few weeks ago. And we've gone through the five solas a few weeks ago and we started in the doctrines of grace.

TULIP as we know them, T-U-L-I-P, total depravity, unconditional election. Last week our brother taught us on limited atonement. And this week we will look at irresistible grace. Now we're going through it not because the acronym puts us through the TULIP, obviously that is a good reason, but also because the doctrines logically follow one another. So you'll see there's a lot of mixing between the doctrines and there's also a lot of follow through.

And so what I'll say today follows through from what our brother said last week on limited atonement. So Brother Nelson explained last week the L in TULIP, limited atonement. Effectively, limited atonement answers the question of who? Whose sins did Jesus atone for in his death? Did he die for everyone, potentially, or did he die for some efficaciously?

If you remember our brother gave us two theological words to further explain what was achieved in the atonement of Christ and he gave us those words last week and one was expiation and the other was propitiation. expiation is to remove or blot out the guilt of sins and to remember those sins no more and propitiation is a big word but essentially what it tells us is that Jesus bore the wrath of God on that cross the wrath that we his people deserve and he appeased the righteous requirements of the judgment of God on that cross justice was served in propitiation So, expiation and propitiation are necessary for sinners to be reconciled to God, but whose sins were being atoned for? In other words, when our Lord Jesus Christ hung on that cross 2,000 years ago, on that cross of Calvary, in the final moments before he gave up his life, he cried out the words, it is finished. For whom was the work finished? The answer to that question is found in the biblical doctrine of limited atonement.

Our brother last week explained to us that the atoning work of Jesus Christ was specifically for the elect who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. The atonement is for the elect only. And God has done all this for the salvation of sinners, yes, but ultimately it's for the greatest good, and that is for the glory of God. Now moving from limited atonement, which as I said before, addresses the who question, who did Jesus die for? We move to the doctrine of irresistible grace, and this doctrine addresses the how question.

How is salvation applied to the elect? In other words, what is the role of the person who is being saved and what is the role of God in the application of the atonement of Jesus Christ? So we'll be taking a closer look at the biblical look into salvation and what the Bible speaks to salvation. We won't be learning any new words this evening, so sit back and relax. Just old ones that we're familiar with.

Words such as faith and repentance, conversion, gospel call, and inward call. Words we've probably all heard before, but we'll dig a little bit deeper, not only to understand them a little bit, probably clearer, hopefully, but also to see what part they play in the salvation of sinners. It's best from the onset to quickly address a misconception that has been brought about by a total misunderstanding of this doctrine. because of its name, Irresistible Grace. Some, in opposition to this doctrine, have incorrectly thought that the doctrine of Irresistible Grace teaches that it's impossible, generally, to resist the grace of God.

And this thinking has brought about some to the natural conclusion that God drags people into his kingdom, kicking and screaming, who otherwise really, really don't want to be in his kingdom, but he forces them in. Now that's not true of course. God doesn't coerce anyone and he doesn't force anyone into relationship with him. This is a misconception and we'll explain this further. We don't have to read much into human history before we see evidence of continual resistance of God's grace.

The scripture abounds with examples and passages that speak to man rejecting God and in particular the rejection of Christ. who is the personification of grace. I gave some examples of this type of resisting or rejection in our exposition on Sunday, on the sermon on the first chapter of the Gospel of John, and when we looked at verse five in particular. And one of these examples are found in every one of the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as well as in 1 Peter. And that is that the stone that the builders reject has become cornerstone.

It's evident that God's grace has and continues to be rejected. Beloved, hear this. Even we Christians continue to resist God's grace, despite having our hearts of stone removed and being given hearts of flesh which overflows with love for Him. Even now, as new covenant members, we're capable of resisting God's grace to a certain degree. This is why we have instructions in the scripture not to grieve the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4, and not to quench the Spirit in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

But what is central to this doctrine, the doctrine of irresistible grace, is not that the grace of God cannot be resisted, but rather the grace of God is so powerful that when He chooses, and this is the point, when He chooses, God overcomes and overpowers our natural evil predispositions to resist His grace. The grace of God cannot and will not be resisted when He decides to save a sinner from his sins. but rather than thinking of it as a coercion or a forceful act on God's behalf, as some have misrepresented him saying, or the doctrine to say, think of it as a miraculous changing of the inclination of a sinner's heart, whereby the sinner is made to see the true condition of his soul, and the incredible grace for forgiveness of sins extended towards Him in Christ Jesus. In this case, there's no kicking and there's no screaming, just an all-out overwhelming heart of joyful gratitude and total amazement of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. This is why many have preferred to avoid calling this doctrine irresistible grace and rather go for effectual grace, precisely because God's grace will effect or accomplish perfectly that which he purposed to effect.

His purposes in saving the elect will be achieved with no resistance or opposition which will obstruct him or stop him from accomplishing his will perfectly. This point is so clearly articulated in Romans chapter 8. And it reads, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined, He also called. And those whom He called, He also justified.

And those whom He justified, He also glorified. This is what's known as the golden chain of redemption. In our English Bibles, the work of God is rightly in the past tense. And this indicates that in the mind of God, it is a done deal. The chain will not be broken.

God's will in real time will bring every single one of his elect, those he foreknew, all the way from being foreknown to being glorified. This is a divine work of God that cannot, belovedy, cannot be thwarted. The elect will be saved and God's purposes will be accomplished. I'll open this up as time goes on in a few moments. But before I do, I want to reiterate something I know that we have mentioned before.

And it's in regards to the opposition found to these doctrines of grace or Calvinism. They are controversial, but nonetheless they are foundational. And this is why Nelson and I have decided to spend some time taking us as a church through these doctrines, because we believe they would be immensely, immensely beneficial. But I also don't want us to think that these doctrines are somehow new, or that these controversies are only a result of modern day differences, because they're not. This may have entered our minds because of the Reformed resurgence in recent years, the worldwide reigniting of Reformed theology, and beloved, I am so grateful to God for that.

But these are not new controversies. This debate on the doctrines of grace can be traced back very early into church history. But it was a little later on, in the 16th and the 17th centuries, when these biblical teachings were formalized. and this debate was between the Dutch theologian named Jacobus Arminius and the followers of the reformer John Calvin I won't spend much time on this because our brother Nelson in a previous study gave us some history into this but it will suffice to say that Arminius called into question some of the foundational teachings of Calvinism basically opposing the doctrines of grace as we know them today After the death of Arminius, his followers, called the Romanstrants, which simply means to strongly object or oppose, wrote what we call the Five Articles, by way of complaint against Calvinism teaching. Now, this is all to say that in 1618-1619, the Dutch Reformed Church outright rejected the teachings of the Remonstrants and they reaffirmed the teachings of Calvinism Their formal response was made in a beautiful document called the Canons of Dor which, although a greater work, has come to be known as the Five Points of Calvinism Beloved, this historical, the historical reformed church for the most part rejected Arminianism and labeled it as erroneous.

That's because the church historic as we do today wholeheartedly believe that the doctrines of grace, although sometimes hard to accept with the limitations of our human minds, they are indeed biblical. But at the same time, we don't want to be seen as picking on those that we truly acknowledge as our Armenian brothers and sisters in Christ. This, and the Lord knows this, is not our intention for these studies. But there is a way of being able to respectfully honour our Arminian brethren as brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as not diminishing the fact that we do believe in that some of the doctrines they hold to be seriously in error. Because as I said in our study, in our study on total depravity a few weeks ago, the sovereignty of God is in question here.

With that in mind, let's look a little deeper into the doctrines of irresistible grace by looking at the elements of salvation in a sinner becoming a saint. From the onset, I want to acknowledge that salvation is a Trinitarian work. All the members of the Holy Trinity, I want to acknowledge that they are all involved in perfect unity and in perfect harmony in the salvation of sinners. and they revolve from the beginning to the end. In eternity past, the Father decreed and chose those whom He will give to the Son.

Ephesians 1, 4 and 5 reads, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him, that's in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. The Father's work here speaks to unconditional election. The Son, then, the Son of God in the fullness of time became flesh to accomplish that which the Father had decreed by becoming the atoning sacrifice for his people. As the author of Hebrews says, that when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God His work is completed, waiting for the time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.

For by a single offering, He perfected for all time, hear this, those who are being sanctified. And a little further in that passage, it goes on to say, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. The Son's work speaks to limited atonement. And in real time, the Spirit of God powerfully applies the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ through regeneration, the giving of faith and repentance to those the Father has elected before time began. The work of the Spirit speaks to irresistible grace.

You see, when we speak of irresistible grace, it's mainly the extent of the application of the work of the Spirit that is in question. The doctrine answers what exactly is the Holy Spirit's involvement in the salvation of a sinner? What exactly is his role and what exactly is the role of the sinner being saved? I'll answer these questions as we walk through the key elements of salvation this evening. A few weeks ago I mentioned that total depravity comes first because it really is the foundational doctrine for the doctrines of grace.

And so when speaking of salvation of sinners, that's where we have to start. So let's open our Bibles together. And if you'd open to Ephesians chapter 2, we'll be reading from verses 1 through 10. Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.

following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience and among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind but god being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Amen.

So let's start with agreeing that all mankind is in a natural state of being spiritually dead. He is in enmity with God, walking in the passions of the world, in complete disobedience to God, and under the righteous wrath of God. This is essentially what the first three verses of the passage we just read are saying. Now, we don't have to spend too much time on this point, because a few weeks ago we had the point of total depravity, and we opened that up further. But it would suffice to say that man, the Bible teaches that the man is deaf, he is blind, and he's all out dead spiritually in the natural state apart from the redemptive work of God.

So the question tonight is this, how can a spiritually dead rebellious enemy of God turn to Christ in true repentance and faith How is that even possible? For starters, the Bible is clear that fundamentally preaching is necessary. God saves the elect through the human preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel needs to be preached. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?

And how are they to believe in him whom they have not heard? Romans 10, 14. The preaching of the gospel needs to contain at least some basic facts so that one can understand salvation. Facts such as all people have sinned, that's in Romans 3, 23. The penalty for sin is death, Romans 6, 23.

And Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins, Romans 5, verse 8. They should at least contain those three elements. Now, when the gospel is preached, we call this the gospel call or the outward call. The sinner is encouraged to respond with repentance and faith. This is taught throughout scripture.

We see this on the day of Pentecost when Peter said, repent and be baptized to all that were listening. We see this also in Matthew 11, 28, where Jesus himself says, come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. The response to come is a response of faith and it requires them to come forward to Christ. Also in John 8, 28, Jesus says, I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. Again, this is a command to believe.

That's faith for salvation. But in Matthew 22, our Saviour makes clear the point that although many are called, and this suggests the outward call or the gospel call, only a few are chosen. The scripture teaches that only those chosen will have the irresistible grace of God applied to them in salvation upon hearing the gospel. Now this is where our beloved Armenian brethren bring up their objections. Up until this point, The gospel call and the encouraging of sinners to repent and to respond obviously in repentance and faith are all points of agreement, but it's the next point that we see disagreement arise.

The Arminian belief system argues that if God commands all people everywhere to repent, and this is Acts 17 verse 30, then God must have given them also the ability to obey that command. They give an explanation of this. You see, they say that also grace is necessary for salvation and one cannot be saved without grace, but it's not an effectual grace. You see, the grace that is necessary for salvation, they say, is what they call a prevenient grace, or you may have heard it as a pre-regenerative grace. That's grace that's given to all mankind without distinction This places a person in a somewhat neutral state, although it does give them strong convictions towards the gospel, but he or she, that's the person, is still able to make a decision according to their own free will to accept Christ or to reject Christ.

Now you can see how the doctrine of total depravity, as we know it, as the Reformed faith articulates it, is being violated in this. We must once again remember and ask ourselves, how is it that a spiritually dead person, how can he respond in and of himself to a spiritual call? Isn't this a denial of Paul's word to the Corinthian Christians, where he says, In other words, you need to be alive spiritually to understand these things. You may understand the words, you may understand some concepts, but there's no way in this world that apart from God's divine work you'll be able to see that you are in desperate need of a saviour and there's no way you'll see the depth of your sin and rebellion against God unless He first opens your eyes. And another question that needs to be asked is this, if it's true that according to the Armenian theology, that a person, that it is the person who makes the final decision to accept or reject Christ, then ultimately there are some good people and some bad people in the natural state.

That doesn't sound right, does it? You see, if we agree that everyone is totally depraved, no one is righteous, no one seeks after God, no one is good, not even one. Romans 3. Then we would have to conclude that the natural man loves his sin and always chooses to remain in the darkness. Isn't this John chapter 3?

Then how is it possible for the natural man to make a righteous decision when no one is good? righteous. Didn't Jesus himself say in Matthew 7, a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. The trees in his parables represent the heart of a man. So if a person is making a righteous choice to accept Jesus, then this righteous decision, hear this, is indicative of a clean heart.

But the Bible teaches that every heart is corrupt. You remember Jeremiah 17, nine, what does it say? It says the heart is deceitful, and it's wicked. So prevenient grace cannot be right. So then, let's ask the question again.

How is it that a person is able to respond in repentance and faith when the gospel is preached? This leads to what is called the inward call or the effectual call. It's the effectual call which is spoken of in the passage that we read earlier in Romans chapter 8. You remember the passage that we called the golden chain of redemption? The effectual call is the divine call by the power of the Holy Spirit to save those who have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

This is done through the preaching of the Gospel, which when accompanied with the Spirit of God, has power to bring the response of repentance and faith. Paul writes to the Christians in Thessalonica talking about salvation. To this, Paul says, he called you through our gospel so that you may obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. But a crystal clear answer is actually found in the passage that we read together in the book of Ephesians. So open your Bible once again and let's just go back to Ephesians chapter 2.

Probably a good idea to keep your finger in that passage because that is the passage I'm going to continually refer back to. But we want to start from verse 4 this time. Ephesians chapter 2 and we'll start from verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." This is such a rich passage. Firstly, we must acknowledge that it's God doing the work. Paul says, but God. I love these words.

These words are medicine if anyone has predispositions to pride. Salvation is initiated and completed by God. This is so obvious in the text. because the apostle has already laid the premise that all as we said before are spiritually dead and he does it again in verse five it must be a work of God and God alone in order to bring about life to a dead people now beloved this is what we call regeneration regeneration and so a person cannot be converted unless he or she has been regenerated. Let me explain.

Conversion simply means to turn spiritually from sin, that is turning from your rebellion and your hate towards God, in repentance and turn towards Christ in faith. So repentance and faith are two essential elements for true conversion. Both these things are done simultaneously when someone is converted and brought into a right relationship with God. But the question remains, how is it possible for a dead person to be saved if he has no desire to repent and has no desire to trust in Christ? Well, this is why Biblical Christians hold the belief that regeneration, now we need to hear this, regeneration precedes faith.

Regeneration comes before faith. This is what's said in Ephesians chapter two. Hear this, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together in Christ. By grace you have been saved. The doctrine of regeneration teaches that when God makes an inward call, an effectual call, the person is by grace brought from a state of being spiritually dead into spiritually alive.

And this is a done, this is done a part from our will. So the regeneration happens apart from our will. He's given a new nature with new desires. Now, because he is alive, he becomes willing to look to Christ to obey and to serve. A new nature is given that longs for the things of God and has a love for his commands.

When a person is regenerated, his or her eyes are opened and they are flooded with love for the triune God. Jesus calls this to be born again or born from above or born from God. the regenerated person, the one who has been implanted with spiritual life, is only then given faith and repentance simultaneously. Regeneration is what's spoken of in the book of Ezekiel chapter 11, 19 through 20. Hear these words.

And I will give them one heart. This is God Yahweh speaking. I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them and they shall be my people and I will be their God.

Again in John chapter 5 verse 24 Jesus says that those who believe in him pass from death to life. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit sovereignly breathing life into the souls of dead people to bring about a reconciliation with God and salvation through the gift of repentance and faith. This is conversion. Listen to how the pastor and theologian Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones puts it, Conversion is the first exercise of the new nature in ceasing from the old forms of life, starting a new life.

It is the first action of the regenerated soul. And the late R.C. Sproul explains it beautifully in these words. Regeneration precedes and produces conversion.

But the conversion is your repentance and faith. There is a cause and effect relationship between these two. Regeneration is the cause and conversion is the effect. Put another way, regeneration is the root and conversion is the fruit. You see, the point that both these theologians are making is that the spiritual dead soul is first miraculously transferred from death to life, and then, and only then, is that person able to exercise repentance and faith.

The regeneration part is a mystery. We only, as Christians, we only remember an overwhelming sense of the perjured nature of our sin and a wholehearted trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. We can only experience the fruit, the regeneration part, and how that works is still a mystery, but we can experience the fruit, which is the repentance and the faith. The Bible abounds in examples to this. Listen to how Luke narrates the conversion story of Lydia in Acts chapter 16.

After hearing the gospel from Paul's lips, Luke writes, one who heard us was a woman named Lydia from a city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshipper of God. Hear this, the Lord opened her heart. to pay attention to what was said by Paul. The Lord, that's Christ, that's God who initiates, who opens her heart. In and of herself, Lydia would not be interested in what Paul has to say, spiritually speaking, but the Lord took the initiative and opened her heart He brought spiritual life.

And this is also articulated in Colossians 2.13. And it makes this point that God is the one who brings life. And you, Paul writes, who were dead in your transgression and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. And of course, We must not move off this point unless we've at least quoted the words of our Saviour in John 6, verse 44.

And there the Saviour says, Beloved, beloved, every one of us was naturally walking in darkness, oblivious to Christ and our need for Him, the salvation of our sins. But when God, when God invaded our soul with regeneration, with spiritual life, He turned the light on And we loved every single bit of what we saw about Him. Whereas before, we hated Him. Before, we were rebels against everything He stood for. Irresistible grace of God in salvation is not resisted because the work of salvation is a work of the sovereign God, the all-powerful sovereign God, from start to finish.

Even Even our conversion is a gift from God. You remember that I said the conversion has two elements, the repentance and faith. And the repentance is to turn from our sin and the faith is to turn to Christ. In regards to repentance, listen to what the Apostle Paul says when instructing his son in the faith, Timothy. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, he says, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.

This is the point, that God may perhaps grant him repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. Repentance is granted by God. As to faith, well I'll take you back to our passage in Ephesians chapter 2, but this time we'll look at verses 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is a gift of God. not a result of works so that no man or no one may boast.

And again, this is clearly articulated in Philippians chapter one, verse 29, where it reads, for it has been granted, granted, given to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe, believe is granted in him, but also suffer for his sake. Even faith is granted, gifted by God because of the grace of God. Beloved, this is rich. This is incredible. But in all this, we must note one thing at least, that although the salvation of the elect has been decreed by God before the foundation of the world, and the grace of God is what brings it about, salvation cannot be thwarted and is efficacious.

Those who are saved have, by the Spirit of God, a new nature and new desires. Unlike when they were spiritually dead, now here this is important, unlike when they were spiritually dead, when they were rebels and hated God, and they loved their sin, they loved their darkness, They now find themselves alive in Christ and governed by love with new motives and new desires. They now desire to abandon their filth, the sin and darkness and walk in holiness and in the light. They earnestly seek to live a holy life and obey God in all of life. They are now joyfully and willingly embracing God and His Word.

Can you see it? Can you see that the irresistible grace is not coercion or forcefulness by God? It's just a willing obedience because of the cheerful gratitude for what God has done in irresistible grace. This is why, beloved, we as believers, we preach the gospel and we ought to preach to everyone. We don't know.

We don't know who the elect are. We don't know who the Lord will save, but we know how he saves. And he saves through the preaching of his word. In summary, And I'll end with this. I just want to give you a paragraph to summarize what we've all, what we've spoken about and what we've looked at this evening.

Irresistible grace or effectual grace is efficacious. It's unshakable. It's irresistible. It's the irresistible call of God through the proclamation of the gospel to redeem elect sinners. It'll never fail to accomplish the perfect will and purpose of God.

This grace produces spiritual life, and that life brings true repentance and faith, causing the sinner, hear this, to willingly turn from his sin to Christ for his or her justification. It's not a result of a person's own choosing, but the sovereign choice of God because of his goodness and because of his goodness alone. Therefore, the purpose for which it was intended is perfectly accomplished. That is the salvation of the elect, but ultimately it's for the glory of the triune God. Amen.