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Doctrines of Grace Part 4 - Irresistible Grace By David Calderwood

A question for you this morning again. As Adam started off with questions, so did I.
Why does any given person, any given individual, become a Christian?
Why does any given individual become a Christian?
Now you might think, well that's a pretty easy question to answer.
Very simple. A person hears the message of salvation in Jesus
and then they decide to become a Christian. Is that answer correct? Yes, it is.
But that question then really prompts another question.
And the question behind the question then is, where did the person get their desire from?
Now here's a scenario to think about that takes us into this topic of irresistible grace.
Two friends, Fred and Barney, and apologies that shows my edge and where I borrowed the name from,
but it works for me. Fred and Barney, two friends, go to an evangelistic meeting
as the guest of another friend.
Fred and Barney each hear the exact same message. They're rebels without hope and without God in the
world that Christ's death was to save sinners. Each of Fred and Barney hear the urgent plea
of the preacher to turn to Jesus for the salvation they so desperately need and each responds.
Fred becomes a Christian
recognizing his desperate need of Jesus, desperate need for Christ and salvation,
and expressing a sudden new determination to live under the lordship of Jesus.
But Barney, his response is to become really angry and to go home saying,
that is the biggest load of rubbish I've ever heard.
I'm so sorry I came with my friend and I will never be back to a meeting like this again.
Now clearly each response has a real choice.
And clearly each response is the expression of desires, internal desires.
Conscious desires. But here's the question again. Where did Fred get his desires from?
Why did he recognize his desperate need while Barney didn't?
Now it seems to me there's really only two alternatives. There might be sort of subsets,
but generally speaking there's only two alternatives to answer that question.
The first alternative is that Fred got the desire from within himself somewhere,
from within his own resources. So perhaps Fred was more intelligent, perhaps he listened better,
perhaps he understood better what was said, or perhaps he just had somehow or other put
all those things together and somehow or other you might say well he just used his native ability
a bit better. But that doesn't really fit, does it, if you've been in that situation
with your own friends. Because generally speaking, and Barney's rejection here wouldn't
have been because he didn't understand. In fact, we can say he did understand because
he actually got annoyed. So it wasn't that he didn't understand,
that he was just determined not to hear it. He was determined to reject it.
He just wouldn't accept it. So it doesn't quite fit just to make it a matter of understanding
or a matter of hearing, a matter of our own resources. So what's the other alternative? Well,
I'm going to suggest to you this morning the only other alternative is the Bible's answer.
That is, that his desire came from outside himself
and was the result of a direct work of God in his life. And I believe, and I'll be trying to
convince you this morning if you don't already believe that, I believe the Bible teaches that
a person becomes a Christian when God acts decisively within them
in such a way that they respond to the message of Jesus.
The Bible terminology for this aspect of God's work is the call of God.
And it's our focus this morning. So the call of God is that teaching which says that God
speaks to the inner person, and we'll spell out what that means in a minute. It's a little bit
hard to actually quantify that. But the teaching is clear that God speaks decisively to the inner
being of a person and creates that desire that in real time, in real choice,
becomes the expression of, yes, I will bow to the Lord Jesus.
The call of God, therefore, is another key aspect of God's salvation,
God's work and salvation which we've been looking at in this series on the doctrines of grace.
It's the Bible's teaching about what I might call the why and how of a person becoming a Christian.
It's the explanation of how the benefits of the death of Christ
are actually applied to specific individuals in real time, in real history.
So what we've been seeing over the past weeks, God's act of salvation, God's plan of salvation,
God's work in salvation, is in large part what God does behind the scenes.
It's all of God, but much of it is behind the scenes in a sense. We can't see it.
We don't know who God has elected. We don't know why, this and not that person.
We don't know all the organization of the death of Christ in terms of God's eternal plan.
But all of that work of God's work and salvation becomes real in the individual life,
in our own experience. The call of God is what brings the two together.
The fourth doctrine of grace we're looking at this morning, irresistible grace.
It's another term for what's called God's effectual call. And the term
irresistible or effectual is used because it's not just a matter of saying God's grace
to a person of salvation, but totally God's grace in the work of salvation. But
it's God's grace to bring a person to life through a work in that person
that is always effective, that is in fact irresistible at that point.
And so the way it fits together is this. It's not, as we saw last week,
the saving benefits of the death of Christ. It's not as if God somehow or other just puts them on
a table and said, well okay, it's up for grabs now. Any individual can come to the table and
take the benefits of Christ to themselves if that's what they want, or equally they can
reject the benefits of Christ if that's what they want. Rather, what the Bible teaches is that God
actually and effectively applies the benefits of the death of Christ to individuals
by working powerfully in them, giving them the desire and the ability to embrace Jesus Christ
as their Savior and Lord. That is, God as part of his sovereign grace and salvation
brings the two together as it were.
And the Scripture seems to back that up. Not only has God the Father planned
that a great number would be saved, but he sent Jesus the Son into the world
to, through his death, do that which is a requirement of salvation.
And finally, God completes the process through the distinctive work of the Holy Spirit
to apply that salvation in real time, in the real experience of individuals.
And so once again, this work of the Spirit within a person is totally effective and cannot be
resisted. That is, God saves every single one of those he intended to save, every single one of
those he planned to save. And so we can put it in other words. When we talk about irresistible grace
or God's effectual call, we can put it in the words of saying it's an offer you cannot refuse.
Because God won't just make the offer, he will work in you
to understand and accept and desire that offer in your own experience.
Okay, well, we've got sort of an orientation where we're going there. Let's turn to the Scripture
and see if I can establish it before you this morning and with you. First point I want to
emphasize then is the fact and necessity of God's effectual call. The fact and necessity of God's
effectual call. Now again, it might seem like stating the obvious, but I'm going to state it
anyway. The idea of the call of God is right through the Bible. It's not again just something
that's been made up by theologians at some period in history. The idea of God's call permeates the
Bible from the very first word. God called or spoke the universe into existence and it happened.
Abraham was called by God. Now when you think about it, see there he is in Mesopotamia
happily worshiping the sun and moon as the God of the universe.
And God called Abraham to himself and said, Abraham, I have stored up salvation for you and
through you a great community of people that no person can number.
The result of God's call? Abraham was totally renewed. Completely new life,
completely new desires, completely new attitudes,
completely new desires, completely new attitudes,
new loyalty, the call of God. The disciples were called
and we know the disciples that probably they're pretty rough around the edges, little educated
fishermen.
And Jesus called them to be fishers of men, called with the promise of being radically renewed.
Again, new attitudes, new desires,
new loyalties renewed from the inside out. Paul, the apostle Paul was called
when he was actively busy persecuting Christians.
The arrestor was arrested,
suddenly saved, radically changed, renewed from the inside out. Again, new attitudes,
new desires, new patterns of life, the call of God.
Friends, we could go on with numerous examples. The fact of the call of God is established
across Scripture. Whenever a person chooses to trust the Lord, whenever a person
decides to serve the Lord obediently, the message of Scripture is clear. That is the outworking
of a prior work of God, a prior call of God in that individual's life.
The necessity of God's call is also very clear in Scripture. Now turn with me to John chapter 6,
the passages that were read. Very, very briefly put in context, it's the day after
Jesus miraculously fed an absolutely huge crowd. The miracle could not possibly be disputed,
but there's plenty of disputes over what it meant about Jesus.
And we engage in this bit that was read with Jesus really taking on the crowd. It looked like
the crowd were really keen to follow Jesus. They traced them all around the light. Next day,
there they were, they were all there. And Jesus, instead of being flattered,
turns around and points the finger at the crowd and said, you guys are only after a free feeder.
You're opportunistic because of what you think I can do for your bodily urges, feed you, heal you.
You don't really believe in me as I present myself to you in the evidence.
You don't believe that I am God, which is what the evidence is pointing to in all my miracles.
Verse 29, let's see how this plays out. Jesus said,
the work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent.
If you really believed in me, says the crowd, then you would believe that I'm God, sent into
this world by my Father. Why would you believe that? Because that's what the evidence says.
I'm doing things that you'd expect only God could do.
Verse 33, Jesus, 32 and 33, Jesus said to them, I tell the truth, it is not Moses who has given
you the bread from heaven, referring to the manna, but it is my Father who gives you the
true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world. You guys, you're following me because you think I can give you a free feed, but if you
really believed me, if you really had your eyes open, then you would look to me for spiritual
nourishment from God. You'd look to me as your spiritual life and your spiritual nourishment.
Verse 40, for my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall
have eternal life, and I will raise him up the last day. If you guys really believed me on the
basis of the evidence, on the basis of my miracles, on the basis of my teaching,
you would be trusting me for salvation and life, not just to fix your next immediate physical problem.
Verses 36 and 7. The crowd, having heard Jesus' response, get really worked up. They're just
plain annoyed at Jesus because they can't separate out what he's doing from what he's saying, and
he's saying very clearly to them over and over again, I am God. I am Messiah.
Verse 36 and 37. In response, Jesus isn't at all phased to the hostility of the crowd. He
says to them, as I told you, you have seen me. That is, you've seen all the evidence,
but still you do not believe. Now is Jesus in a panic because this massive crowd's slipping
through his fingers? Not at all, not phased at all. All that the Father gives me will come to me,
and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.
While the majority of the crowd will not believe, Jesus knows that some will, and this group that
will is described there in the verse as all that the Father gives me, and it's to them
that Jesus guarantees life and salvation, and again it stirred the anger of the crowd,
and that in turn prompted an even stronger statement from Jesus. Look at verses 43 and 44.
Stop whinging, Jesus answered.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
And I will raise him up at the last day.
Now that verse is very, very clear there in terms of the Greek.
No one is able to, no one has the power to, no one has the internal wherewithal
to come to Jesus, to respond to Jesus as God and Savior, the giver of life,
the source of spiritual nourishment, the only hope of heaven and eternity.
Jesus has no one as a wherewithal
to say that, to embrace that, unless, unless what? Unless the Father draws him.
Unless God intervenes, in other words, in a person's life and calls them,
it's that all those things that are on promise, on offer, actually become reality.
In other words, Jesus says categorically that no individual is able to recognize Jesus for who he is
or come to him for salvation unless God acts powerfully and decisively in his or her life.
Now turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. We looked at this passage a few weeks ago to start all this
process, series. Ephesians chapter 2 makes exactly the same point, different language.
Remember we saw verse 1, people are spiritually dead. That is so radically affected by sin at
every point, not as, not as bad or as evil as a person can be. That's not the issue.
It's just so radically affected by sin at every significant point in life,
at every point of their being, that they're totally unable to respond to God. And so we saw
back then the language of Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 to 10, because on the one hand the person
is dead, a corpse, then the only hope of spiritual life is essentially spiritual
resurrection. If God makes them alive,
they're unable to respond to God apart from that. If they're to have a life and a future,
then something needs to be done to them because they're lying there. They're a corpse. Something
needs to be done to them. Something needs to be done for them. The call of God, the intervention
of God into a person's innermost being to give them the desires and the ability to respond to
Jesus. That's what God does in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. He makes them alive purely as an act
of grace. Now this is, I think, what I'm going to say next is probably where most people get
hung up on this whole issue of the doctrines of grace. That is, salvation is 100% charity.
And we don't like charity, because charity takes the control away, doesn't it?
We often find it easy to be charitable, that is giving to others,
but we don't find it easy to accept charity and salvation. The end of the day is 100% charity.
Even our faith, verses 8, 9 and 10 of Ephesians chapter 2, even our faith, which is our expressed
response to Jesus, is a product of God's work in us. I will say a bit more about that in a minute,
but the faith that's expressed is our faith. It's not somebody else's faith, it's our faith.
But then you go behind that and ask, well where's the source of desire to express that faith
come from? Where's the reality of that faith come from? Well, the scripture says it comes from the
inner work of God, which then the outworking of what is our conscious individual expression of faith.
Salvation is all of grace. And it says there in Ephesians,
because if it's not then otherwise we would have something to boast about.
If 99.9% of salvation is grace, but then somehow or other my faith is sourced in my own
wherewithal, then I can actually claim a bit of a pat on the back for that 0.01%.
It's not all of grace, it's largely of grace, predominantly of grace.
Romans 8, 28 to 30, turn with me please to that passage if you haven't been turning to the other
ones because this is one of the classic ones. I referred to this a couple of weeks ago too,
I'm trying to bring stuff together now. Again, same point, different language.
In chapter 8, Paul's writing about the absolute assurance that Christians can have in life.
Romans 8 chapter 1 not only assures that there is no condemnation now for those who are in Christ
Jesus, but also the assurance that every circumstance of life is used by God for our good.
See, we can say on the one hand that yes, there's no condemnation, but sometimes our experience of
life, sometimes our conduct of life as we wrestle with our own sin and failings doesn't feel like
we're in a good status, a good relationship with God. And so Paul wants to give us assurance in
that situation too, that every circumstance of life is used by God for our good. Put it the
other way around, adverse circumstances do not mean for the Christian that God has somehow
changed his mind and is now no longer favourably disposed towards us.
That's the context. What's the basis of that assurance?
Well, look at verses 28, 29, 30. We know that in all things God worked for the good of those who
love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And then Paul strings it all together,
what's called the golden chain of salvation. For those God foreknew, and that doesn't mean
like we would use the word foreknew, that is God started to look down into the course of history
course of history and so in advance who would believe. That's not what it means.
It means that God set his love in advance, God acted before history in eternity
to determine something. For those God foreknew, he also predestined or elected to be conformed
to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Purpose of the
election? That be the firstborn of many brothers. Great community of safe people. Keep going. And
those he predestined, he also called. There's that word again in the process of God's
word of salvation. Those he called, he also justified. That's tied up with the actual death
of Christ, putting people back into a right relationship legally and morally. Those he
justified, he also glorified. In other words, he'll complete the transaction, he'll take us
home to be with them in heaven. So from eternity past to eternity future, from before we were born
to the day we end up in heaven with the Lord, God guarantees every step of our salvation.
It's well called the golden chain of salvation, isn't it?
Second point I want to make then is the mechanics. Look at the mechanics or process of God's call.
Now put that in inverted commas there because I'm not quite sure what word to use, all right?
That is, how does God make people alive? Process we're talking about at the minute. Now,
when Paul talks in Romans chapter 8 there about the call of God,
if you explore that across the scripture, you'll actually find that it's a summary term for a whole
series of things that are inseparably linked but different, all of which combine under the word
salvation. And they all need to be understood and held together as one unit. So put simply,
when we talk about the call of God in practical terms, we're talking about what we call or describe
conversion, the new birth, all right? So that's the angle I'm coming at. Now for that what we
call conversion, the Bible uses several words like the new birth. Another word that's used you might
be familiar with is regeneration and the word spells out what it means. Other issues that are
attached with this are the concept or the doctrine of adoption. So a new life presumes
a new family. You're born into a family. Adoption. Union with Christ. By virtue of being in a family,
you're linked into it, you're bound into it. So when we sort of loosely talk about conversion,
we're actually sliding over all of those things that the Bible spells out separately, even though
they're inseparably linked. And the reason they're inseparably linked is this, because
birth and life are inseparably linked but they're not the same. So a baby is born,
that's birth, but its life isn't its birth. Is this getting too complicated? In other words,
a birth is a once-off event. The life is inseparably linked to the birth but it's an ongoing event.
Regeneration. New birth. Adoption. Union with Christ. The Bible talks about them as one-off
events connected with the birth, the rebirth, the new birth. But they're inseparably tied to
the issues of new life. Things like faith and repentance, sanctification.
The process of becoming more like Christ, which is what sanctification is. Discipleship,
and eventually glorification that has been made like Christ when we're taken home to heaven.
So when we talk loosely about conversion, when we talk more specifically about the call of God,
then we're ranging over all of those things. And we're saying that all of that is an act of God
in the life of a person.
So how does God's call actually work or happen? Turn with me to John chapter 3 now.
Of course it's the well-known exchange between Nicodemus and Jesus. Now,
the context here is that Nicodemus comes to Jesus as an educated, influential Jewish religious
professor. In other words, he knows what he's talking about in terms of the Jewish religion
in the Old Testament. And he's there to debate the claims of Jesus as to who Jesus is and what
his mission in this world is. He's actually there to debate with Jesus. Now there's nothing that
says he intends a hostile debate, but it is a debate, all right? Now, if anybody turns it
hostile, it's Jesus. He sort of king hits what seems like a reasonable lead-in from Nicodemus.
Verse 3, poor old Nicodemus gets king hit by Jesus. In reply, Jesus declared,
I'll tell you the truth, or in other words, let's not stuff around anymore. Let's just get to the
heart of the matter, Nicodemus. No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
Now, we all know Nicodemus's response, but let me try and put some context to it.
Because of who Nicodemus was, I suspect that notion of being born again, which Nicodemus,
I think, initially would have had an idea of what it was about, because he would have known
his prophets, Ezekiel and Jeremiah, where God said, I will give, put a new spirit within you.
So Nicodemus should have known something about this idea of a complete restart, fresh start,
new creation. But his reply, I think, shows Nicodemus's attitude. In other words,
it's a dismissive, don't be ridiculous, Jesus. My whole life has been as a professor of religion,
doing that which I know will please God, so don't throw me that rubbish.
I think it's got to be something like that.
Well, Jesus, unperturbed, replies again that unless a person is born of water
and the word, look at that, Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God
unless he is born of water, sorry, and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives
birth to spirit. Now, verse five, notoriously difficult, lots of different interpretations.
Let me just give you what I think is the preferable interpretation.
Throughout the Bible, but especially in the Old Testament, the idea of water is, not surprisingly,
linked with purification, but particularly in the prophet Isaiah, the idea of purification
in water is linked with the word of God. That is, it's the word of God that purifies, Isaiah 55,
verse 1, Isaiah 44, verse 3. The same idea is actually in the statement in Ephesians, chapter 5,
where Jesus purifies his bride by his word, by his teaching.
So what I suggest is this, when Jesus says you must be born, no one can enter the kingdom unless
he is born of water and the spirit, then I think what he's saying is, look, there's a two-fold
action of God in a person's life. That is, you will hear the word of God and that word of God
will be applied by the spirit of God, the outcome of which will bring people into the kingdom.
And the reason why that has to be the case, verse 6, is because of the radical defilement of sin.
It requires something that drastic, because flesh gives birth to flesh. That is,
you can't break the cycle. Flesh will just keep on, as Adam said, corrupting, corrupting, corrupting.
So something needs to break the cycle, something needs to do a sort of new birth.
The spirit has to get involved to break the cycle of corruption,
to turn it to a cycle of spiritual reality.
So the new birth, therefore, is a picture or metaphor for the radical renewal or recreation
or regeneration that God must affect in the life of a dead sinner if there's to be salvation.
And verse 8, in that strange turn of phrase, the wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound,
but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone born of the
spirit. I think Jesus is simply affirming there in verse 8 that this rule of the spirit in this work
of salvation, this inner work, this mysterious work of God in a person's life, that the outcome
of which is salvation. Like the wind, the spirit must work with absolute certainty or in an
effectual way in the life of any person who's to be saved. We don't see where the wind goes,
but we sure see its effect. It rips our roof off. We don't see where the Spirit of God is operative
in the life of an individual, but then do we see the effect? New desires, new attitudes,
changed lives. So, filling it all together, there's an outward call of the Gospel as a
person reads about or hears about the life and death of Jesus so that people might escape God's
wrath and be made acceptable to Him. That's people hearing, either spoken to them or they're reading
it. The outward call of the Gospel. But of itself and by itself, that doesn't mean anything because
at that point people obviously do resist. People read the Bible. People can read and read and read
the Bible. But for some people it just remains a strange story about a strange race of people a
long time ago. They see nothing relevant about it to themselves or to the world they live in.
And this story of Jesus, well, I don't mind debating with you sometime. It's an ancient topic, but
I don't see what all the fuss is about.
There are people out there who know the Scriptures better than you and I do,
but it has nicely made them Christians. So, with the outer call of God through the Gospel,
there's also an inward call of God. Now that, historically, and probably in old-fashioned language,
again I'm going to show my edge with the Flintstones, is sometimes called the quickening
of the Spirit. And do any ladies know here what the word quickening was originally used to describe?
Yes, that means you're as old as... No, I won't say that. It means you're very knowledgeable.
Your quickening used to be associated with the first time a mother would feel a baby moving in
her womb. It was the first signs of new life before they had ultrasound and all that other stuff.
Now, the inward call of God, when God touches a person who has heard the Word of God,
the Gospel of Jesus, and brings that person to life, out of death, regeneration, new birth,
recreation. That is, the Spirit of God works in a person's innermost being,
changing their attitudes, giving them what they need to engage with Christ.
The Spirit gives new understanding of stuff they'd previously read and rejected.
He changes their desires, enabling them to come to Jesus and embrace Him with delight,
when previously they'd been oblivious both to their desperate need and Jesus' wonderful offer
of rescue. And this internal, unseen operation of the Spirit is so powerful because the Spirit
will not take no for an answer. He persists until the dead sinner is totally alive
and secure in salvation and union with Christ and legally adopted into God's family.
And this is where the work of the Spirit internally is so beautiful.
It's not the brutal invasion of a rapist.
It's the gentle wooing or drawing of a lover that so changes attitudes and desires.
That when a person actually, in real time, becomes a Christian, there is nothing else in the world.
They want more. That is their desire. It's a real choice based on a real desire
put there by God's wonderful, gracious, loving work.
In Acts chapter 16, verse 14, Lydia, she heard the word, she's just one of a crowd,
and you have the beautiful, loving outcome of the call of God in her life, in the words,
the Lord opened her heart to respond.
Just as when dead in sin, going back to the very first in this series, just as when we're dead in sin,
our natural choice would be to reject God's salvation because that's the sphere in which
we operate. So now with the gentle, powerful work of the Spirit, when a person becomes a Christian,
they also operate on their natural choice. But it's a new choice implanted by the work of the
Spirit so that now the desire is to live under the authority of the Lord Jesus.
As I said before, while these new desires are sourced and prompted by God's secret work and
a patient's life, their faith and repentance are the actual persons. And so faith and repentance
at the same time become the fruit of regeneration or the evidence of regeneration.
For the first time, the person is able to make a determined choice to live obediently to God
and in the light of his word in every circumstance of life. So all these things are the action of God,
the call of God, but they're inseparable. Now here's where us Christians get ourselves into
a whole heap of trouble and it drives me absolutely batty. So if you want to push my
buttons this morning, this is the way to do it. Christians take all these things that are
inseparably linked and they troll over them as theologians and what they do is they line them
up like ducks and then they try and put time gaps in between them and they try and say well okay
this happens here and then there's a time frame and this happens here and then they start and
argue about which order things are in and then they start and divide because one says now that
one should be for that one and that and then they start to split and then they start to hurl insults
at each other and then they start well we'll leave the rest for your imagination and it's rubbish
because they're trying to separate out in an unreasonable way
that which God has inseparably linked together.
The person who has been made new or regenerated will be the person of faith and repentance and
discipleship and vice versa. Where you see a person with strong faith and repentance
and discipleship you can be sure they've been regenerated
because they're inseparable.
The ultimate outcome of God's call.
I just wanted to make one point. It displays God's glory
because ultimately the call of God shows that God and not Satan or sin
will have the last word in God's world.
Now C.S. Lewis was converted. This is the sort of things he wrote of.
He wrote of how he fought tooth and nail against God against any idea of becoming a Christian.
Remember C.S. Lewis was an Oxford don like that highfalutin professor. He knows a lot of stuff
about a lot of stuff. But all the God stuff would not leave his mind says C.S. Lewis until finally
one night it all came to a crunch for him. C.S. Lewis kneeled in prayer in his room at Oxford
and simply confessed God I now confess that you are God.
Now he speaks with such warmth and genuine affection for the Lord and for God's grace
because he appreciates how God persisted with him as a sinner. And to use Lewis's terms he says
that God actually dragged him through the high gates of heaven even when he was turning his eyes
this way and that looking for a way of escape. He writes that the words of Jesus in one of his
parables compel them to come in were so sweet to him because that was how he experienced God's
grace. There was a beautiful says Lewis a beautiful but gentle irresistibility about God's
grace that brought him to life and repentance and faith and a life lived from that point forward
for his Lord and Savior. Now hear me really carefully Lewis is not saying that he was dragged
into being a Christian kicking and screaming. That is that God violated him. That's not what he's saying.
He's speaking about God's inner working that over a period of time persisted and broke down
gently broke down his resistance and brought him to the point where his desire
where his desire was simply to serve the Lord he had thus far rejected.
The call of God is a wonderful piece of news. Let's pray.
Lord we're somewhat overwhelmed
by the concept of charity and the concept of your unconditional love and powerful
effect of grace in our lives for it leaves us Lord with no place
to turn where we can find something in which we can boast.
And yet Lord it's overwhelmingly also in the sense that we're scarcely sure how to we to
begin praising you for your work in our lives. We think of our sinfulness Lord and the offense that
we wear to you and the rightness with which you would condemn us to hell and send us there actually
and yet Lord we have known your grace your forgiveness your recreating power.
We now enjoy being adopted into our new family the family of Jesus with all the benefits that
he has and look forward Lord to going home to the family home. Lord that equally overwhelms us
and we can but start to try and appreciate what it means to say that salvation is of the Lord.
Amen.