Call to Worship
1. Ere God brought forth this world and earth, He saw me fall in sin;
But He ordained I be regained, And Christ redeemed me then.
Chorus:
O Lamb of God! Your precious blood, From heaven’s altar ran;
You cleansed my stain when You were slain, Before the world began.
(Repeat after each verse)
2. You justified and sanctified, In old eternity;
I'll sing your praise through endless days – God’s Lamb eternally!
3. God wrote my name as without blame, Into Your Book of Life;
His firm decree has rescued me, From death and made alive.
4. Eternally no sin of me, is charged to my account;
For You in grace died in my place, and paid my full amount.
5. The death You died, my sin to hide, Was done ere we could see;
But God did show to all below, Your death on Calvary.
(Tune: ‘There Is A Fountain’ Pg.222)
By Pastor Daniel Parks
Irresistible Grace
God chose the elect and Christ died for them in particularly, but this redemption must be applied to them in order for them to be saved. God issues a general “call” to all who hear the Gospel (Matt. 22:14), All who hear are invited. But because all men are totally depraved they resist this call and the work of the Spirit (Acts 7:51).
God has a particular love for the elect and will do more than simply give an external call. He does something that guarantees that they will hear this call. He overwhelms them with what we call Irresistible Grace. In addition to the general call to all men, God gives them an effectual call (Rom. 8:28-30), or what Paul describes as a “holy calling”. It is a calling which is effectual (Gal. 1: 15). God thereby draws the elect irresistibly to Himself with special loving-kindness (Jer. 31:3). He causes the elect to come to Him (Psa. 65:4). This is irresistible, for God “drags” us to Christ (John 6:44) and “compels” us by divine omnipotence to come. He actually changes our wills so that we come willingly (Psa. 110:3).
There is much mystery in how God works grace in the hearts of the elect, but the Bible tells us some definite things about the process. God sovereignly opens the dead hearts of the elect (Acts 16: 14). It is not that they opened their hearts to receive Christ; Christ opened their hearts that He might enter. He opens our hearts, and with our hearts being opened we can hear His voice (John 10: 16). This is not, of course, a literal voice but the effectual call of Christ in Scripture. God sovereignly gives the elect a new birth (John 3:1-8 James 1:18). They did not regenerate themselves; they were regenerated sovereignly by God’s free grace. No spiritually dead man can make himself alive any more than a corpse can. Matter cannot create itself, and the new birth is a new creation that is sovereignly given by God’s grace (2 Cor. 5:17. It is spiritual resurrection (Eph. 2:1, 5).
The elect are not born again because they believe; rather, they believe because they have been born again (1 John 5:1). The new birth is a sovereign gift, and so is faith (Eph. 2:8-9). Repentance is also a free gift that is sovereignly bestowed (2 Tim. 2:25). Because the elect now have faith, God justifies them and they are saved. “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9) If any man is ever to be saved, it is only by God’s free grace from first to last.
- Pastor
I cannot have much faith in God if I believe He is trying and failing, if I believe He is doing the best He can to accomplish as much good as He can and to save as many as He can. But if, like Job, I believe that “What His soul desireth, even that He doeth” (Job 23:13), then with Paul I can say that “He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20). –C.D. Cole
“Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are YOU in mine hand” (Jer. 18: Is. 64:8; Rom. 9:21).
Let those who will, argue about the “extent” of God’s sovereignty or the “degree” of man’s ability, but not with me. I’ve been to the “potter’s house.” They’re merely discussing a DOCTRINE, but I am talking about REALITY! Leave me alone, you who have a “form of godliness but deny the power thereof” (II Timothy 3:5; II Peter 2:1-; Jude 3, 4). For one to deny the absolute sovereignty of God is no less than a denial of the existence of One who is God
- Maurice Montgomery
~~~ O ~~~
“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday's burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.”~ John Newton
Judge yourself at what Christ is rather than what you are. Consider the object of your faith rather than your faith. The promise of God standeth sure, he IS our surety. His oath and promise never fail.
- Unknown
~~~ O ~~~
To know that while our feelings fluctuate, and our frames vary, and our experience ebbs and flows as the tide, yet our righteousness varies not, changes not, and that we are not justified one moment more really, more freely, more completely than another, is a mercy unspeakably great.
- Octavius Winslow
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