The sermon titled 'What We Believe About Irresistible Grace' by David Green explores the doctrine of irresistible grace, one of the five points of Calvinism, through the biblical account of Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus. The speaker emphasizes that irresistible grace, also known as effectual calling, is the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing those whom God has elected to salvation. The sermon highlights the historical context of the doctrines of grace, predating Calvin and being rooted in scripture, and addresses the Synod of Dort as a response to Arminianism. The speaker warns against the extremes of Arminianism and hardshellism, advocating that salvation is achieved through the preaching of the gospel. The sermon clarifies that while the general call of the gospel goes out to all, the irresistible call is specific to the elect, and God's sovereignty ensures that those chosen will respond willingly. The speaker refutes claims of salvation occurring without the gospel, using Saul's prior exposure to the gospel as an example. The sermon concludes by affirming the amazing nature of God's grace and its role in transforming lives.

Go to the book of Acts chapter 9. We'll take for our text, we'll go ahead and read beginning at verse 1, going down to verse 22. Scripture says here, and Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.' And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice be seeing no man.

And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. He was three days without sight, neither did eat nor drink. There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Behold I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the street which is called straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold he prayeth. And as seen in a vision, a man named Ananias coming in, putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.' The Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.' And then I went his way, entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, he received sight forthwith and rose and was baptized. And when he had received meat he was strengthened, then was saw certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed and said, is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

But Saul increased the morn strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt to Damascus proving that this is very Christ. Let's again go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, we thank you for your grace, and how amazing it is as we read of it here on these pages in our Bibles. How you did a great work with Saul. Lord, many of us here, we also know this great work as well in our own lives.

Our Father, we pray that today, that if there's any among us who've never come to know You as their Savior, Lord, that today may be the day they come to know you, the power and forgiveness of their sins, Lord. I pray, our Father, that you'll bless the Word as it's preached and that your people be strengthened and edified. And our Father, we pray, you'll forgive us of our sins. For it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. My message this morning is on the subject of what we believe about irresistible grace.

Irresistible grace. We've been going through a series of what we believe, different doctrines, And lately we've been looking at the doctrines of grace. Those are the five points of the doctrines of grace, often nicknamed Calvinism. But You know, those doctrines existed long before Calvin. They weren't set up in a systematic way, but they were there.

In fact, many people like to point out the great things that Calvin preached and the things that happened at the Synod of Dort and those things, but you know those fellows they set up those meetings and set up those things because there was a problem that was going on in Europe. There was a fellow by the name of Arminius that was bringing up some heresy, And this was an answer to that. But there were men preaching those five points long before any of this happened. These things are in the scriptures and even as we've gone through and we've looked at total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, and now irresistible grace. And then we'll go on to the fifth point of perseverance and preservation of the saints, the tulip doctrines as they're sometimes called.

We find that these are biblical doctrines. They were preached by Paul, they were taught by Jesus, they were even found on the pages as we've seen of the Old Testament. And indeed, even as those fellows met in the 15 and 1600s to discuss the problem of Arminius, there had been preachers and churches preaching those things long before, and in the years during and after and all the way through, going all the way back to the times of Christ. They weren't always known as Baptists, of course, but They were known. There's a trail of blood and of doctrine that goes all the way back to the time of Jesus Christ.

When we look at these doctrines, there are ditches to avoid. One is of course our Minionism as I've alluded to, but there's another ditch and that's the ditch of hardshellism. And hardshellism often raises its head when it comes to irresistible grace. Often these fellows, they'll come along and they'll say, well, God is sovereign over salvation. And the Holy Spirit is going to get a hold of the elect and save them and it's all of God and it all sounds good but I would remind you that the same God who has sovereignly determined who is going to be saved, The same God who has elected certain ones to salvation has also sovereignly determined the way in which people will be saved.

And that is through the preaching of the gospel. We're going to look at some of those things today. In fact, I think it's important to consider that in a message on Irresistible Grace. When we look at this, Acts chapter 9 is a great text for this doctrine, but understand this is not to be considered in a vacuum. Saul was not walking through the road to Damascus having never heard the gospel message.

There are some people who will take this text and they'll say, see how that the Lord struck him down without the preaching of the gospel. I will show you, Lord willing, before the end of this sermon that this was not in a vacuum. There are rumors going around right now by some men on the internet talking about how that God is working with Muslims in countries where the gospel has never been preached and that they're being saved without the gospel. That is just not true. That is not true.

We've got to avoid Arminianism, but we've got to avoid the error of heart showism. And so we'll look at some of this, Lord willing, this morning. Irresistible grace is a biblical doctrine. It's also known as effectual calling. And we ought to rejoice at this.

In fact, we ought to make our hearts sing with joy When we read a text like Acts chapter 9 What what the doctrine is is it refers to the fact that all whom the father elected? And all who the son died for which by the way, that's the same group Will assuredly come to salvation through the power and work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. When the Spirit draws an effectual call, the sinner most willingly comes to Christ as it is impossible to resist the will and the power of God. What we're preaching today, this topic, this subject, this doctrine, is the truth that God, in his own free will, gives life to whom he chooses. God calls certain people unto himself, and when he does, it is irresistible.

But understand something, he doesn't pull us kicking and screaming, he makes us willing as we see even here. Notice our text, Let's just dig into this text a little bit. I believe we'll begin to see some of the truths of this doctrine. By no means will I exhaust it, but I believe that we can learn a lot from irresistible grace just by looking at this text. In verses one and two, we find Saul breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.

What's he doing? He went to the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogue, that if he found any of this way... What way? The Christian way. If he found anyone of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound into Jerusalem.

What was Saul doing? Saul was doing what was natural to him. Saul was being a sinner. Saul was living life according to his free will. He was on the road to hell.

He was doing what he did best, and that is he was at war against God, and he was at war against God's people. I mean he was going to put Christians in jail. He was going to go arrest them and get them thrown in jail. He was actively persecuting the Church of Jesus Christ. Now I submit to you today that even though many are not actively engaged in such a work, They are active in their pursuit of sin.

They are actively at war against God. They are enmity against God. Actively doing what is contrary to God's word. God says one thing, they do something else. Maybe it's you this morning, whether in this room or listening to this broadcast on the internet, but the reality is even those of us who are saved, there was a time when we were engaged in such a war.

We were on the opposite side. You think about this for a moment when we talk about amazing grace. God doesn't just love the unlovable. God doesn't just rescue the dead sinner. Oh, he does all of that.

But he takes those who were at war with him. It's actively seeks them out. And by the way, the sins that they've done, even those sins that are so terrible and awful against him, he pays for them, right? And welcomes them into the family of God, such that when he looks at us now, he looks at us not like, well, David Green, I know what you were. Saul of Tarsus, I know what you were.

No, no. He sees us. And he sees the righteousness of Christ. Every single person who has ever been saved was at war with God until being arrested by the grace of God. And none of us deserved it.

We weren't just a little bit broken. We a little bit broken. We weren't just chipped a little bit. We were terrible sinners. Dead in our trespasses and sins.

There was no hope for us, spiritually speaking, in and of ourselves. Ephesians chapter 2, Paul put it this way as he wrote under inspiration of the Spirit. Ephesians chapter two verses one through three, he said, and you hath he quickened, you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit did now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. This is the hopeless condition that Saul of Tarsus was in, and this is the hopeless condition of every man, woman, and child outside of Christ.

It's the hopeless condition that I was in. It's the hopeless condition that you were in. And if you are here today and you've never been saved, this is the hopeless condition that you're in. Dead trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. Satan is not a friend to anybody.

This world is a dangerous place, beloved, and it will only end in destruction and hell and misery. And were this the end of the chapter, were this the end of the book, there would be no hope for anybody. But notice, he doesn't end here. In verse 4, but God, praise God, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. You know somebody who's rich he can afford to help out those in need and you and I we're we need we need a lot.

The picture painted is a true picture. We were dead. We were walking on the wrong path. We were at war with God. We were by nature the children of wrath even as others, but God who is rich in mercy for his great love.

Nobody, nobody ever loved you, nobody ever loved me the way God loves. The way God loves. Wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins. He wasn't waiting for you to make the first move. He wasn't waiting for me to make the first move.

He wasn't waiting for Saul of Tarsus to turn his life around, to go and to seek him or to find him or whatever. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us, there's that word again, made us alive, together with Christ by grace, that's God's unmerited favor, he are saved, then hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That same power that raised up Jesus from the dead, beloved, is the same power that has raised us up from the deadness of our sins and our trespasses, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches, there's the riches again, of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace Are you saved through faith that not of yourselves? It is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus some two good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." You get into a text like this and all you can do when you really dig in and you read it and you pay attention.

You don't have to be a Greek scholar. Just know some English. And I mean, you just read it and you pay attention to the words. And you begin to realize that this doctrine, the doctrines of grace, irresistible grace, particularly here, all the praise goes to God. God is the hero, beloved.

Go through that text here in Ephesians and tell me again, beginning especially there but God, but starting in verse one and just realize who is the hero of your salvation story? When somebody comes up out of the Armenian ditch, you know, they've believed in Armenians maybe for years and years and years, they begin to see this. It's rich. But all those of us who have believed the doctrines of grace for many, many years, don't get so hardened that you lose the excitement of this because let me tell you you look at this who is active in all of this the active agent is God all the way through truly salvation is of the Lord And whether you've been saved for five minutes or fifty years, that ought to thrill your soul. It ought to move you with excitement and rejoicing and humble admiration to our God.

And Paul, as he wrote this, after having been saved for a while, he wrote this to the church at Ephesus, I'm certain that he thought back to where he had been. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. What can a dead man do? What can a dead man do? What can a dead man do?

Can he come to Jesus? Can he do a good work? No! I'll tell you what a dead man can do. He can stink.

He can stink. That's what a dead man can do. Beloved, that's where we're at outside of Christ. And as he writes down through there, he gets down to verse 8, he says, "'For by grace are you saved through faith.'" And I can just, I don't know, sometimes I just kind of imagine how it must have been for him to write this, and how it was as God breathed those words, and using Paul to write this, and just as if the Holy Spirit knew, and He did, that there'd be someone out there, some group of people, who'd come up with a big argument how that faith comes before regeneration, and that's going to be some big word that we got to get the sinner to do and all of that. The pen Paul writes, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.

Oh beloved, let's go back to our text there in Acts chapter 9. Understand, beloved, that not everyone is going to have a road to Damascus experience. I mean, There are some churches, maybe you've been in them, where people get up and give their testimony. They tell about what happened the day the Lord saved you. And that's good for a person to remember and be able to tell what happened the day the Lord saved you.

But understand something, If it's not exciting like Acts chapter 9, don't be discouraged. You know part about salvation is this. That God took a terrible sinner and saved him. That God and saved him. The God rescued a terrible sinner, saved her.

The God took a child, Saved her, saved him or her. A mother, a father. God's grace is so amazing and our sin is so terrible, understand something, we're all so depraved. Even though we don't act out our depravity in the same way. I'm going to say this, I heard a preacher say it once, and it's true.

The child and the child molester are both sinners. It's the same grace that saves either of them. Both are on their way to hell outside of Christ. Whatever your story is, If you were involved in some great and terrible sin by all means thank God that he rescued you out of that. But you understand something It is also the grace of God that you may be a child being raised in a Christian home and having never been involved in the depths of sin like some of these other people.

Other people. God's grace has rescued us In a great way, though we may not have acted it out in the same way, we may not have had the same background. It's not all about us anyway. It's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus.

It's all about the power of the Holy Spirit. It's about what Jesus did on the cross. It's about God sending His Son. It's about the fact that Jesus took my sins and your sins. He carried them to the cross.

He died there, paying the penalty that I owed. He was laid in a grave. Three days and three nights he rose again victorious you see and in due time in due time God got a hold of us. Acts chapter 9 verses 3 through 8. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.

He fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He said, Who art thou, Lord? The Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. He, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, go into the city, and he shall be told thee what thou must do. And The men which journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man and saw a rose from the earth and when his eyes were open he saw no man they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. Jesus met him there on the road to Damascus. Now notice when Paul got up that morning, he was not looking for the Lord. He was not seeking God.

He did not pray the sinner's prayer. He did not kneel at some old-fashioned altar. By the way, there are no sinner's prayers in the Bible the way that people use it today and the old-fashioned altars that some of these churches have today are not so old-fashioned when you study it out. What we find is he wasn't looking for the Lord at all, but the Lord got a hold of him. And when he did, when he did, Look at this now.

Saul was going this way on his way to persecute Christians. The Lord met him and his life turned around. And he started heading in a different direction. Instead of running away from Jesus, instead of being at war with Jesus, now he's with Jesus. There's a life change that happened there.

Saul, as he's known here, Saul was not captured by the Lord kicking and screaming. No, no. There was no resisting, and This is the irresistible grace of God that God ahold of saw that day. And it was for Saul. Notice the others didn't get it.

They didn't understand, but he did. He knew what was going on. He followed the Lord. He followed the Lord. Verse He followed the Lord.

Verse 4, He fell to the earth. Verse 5, Who art thou, Lord? We see this humility that has overcome him. He trembling and astonished said, Lord, what will thou have me to do? What do you want me to do, Lord?" We see the great change in his life as Ananias came to visit him.

The Lord said to Ananias in verse 11, Behold he prayeth, behold he prayeth. And Jesus said in verse 15, Go thy way, he is a chosen vessel unto me. He's a chosen vessel. Do you know that choosing we already looked at? That happened before the foundation of the world.

He is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles, the kings, and the children of Israel. And when Saul went, or when Ananias went to Saul, put his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, brother Saul, you see. And he was baptized. In straight way, the Bible says, after spending some time with the disciples, which were at Damascus, straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues. One of the major problems that people have with this doctrine is they believe it, but sometimes they'll get confused as to the effectual call, the irresistible grace of God, and the general call.

And so, Some people believe this doctrine and hold on to it. Other people argue against it because of the confusion. So, in Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16 and verse 15. Verses 15 and 16 it says, he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth in his baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And so, we find here that we've been told to preach the gospel to every creature. Now, there's some who will believe and some who will not. And so we're told, oh, see, it can be resisted. But understand, beloved, that there is a general call which goes out and there is an irresistible call.

You and I, we're not the only spirit. We've been commissioned, we've been told to preach the gospel to every creature. To a certain degree, all God's people are to witness to everybody. In a special sense, the Lord's churches have been given that authority. Because we don't know who the elect are, you and I, we have no idea.

Furthermore, you and I, we don't know God's calendar. Or what I mean by that is, even if we did know all the elect, we don't know the day and the time and the hour at which time that person is to be saved. Wouldn't that make things easier? If you're like me, you were raised in church, you heard the gospel many times before you were saved. It's not that I didn't understand the English, oh I knew it, but something happened the day that I was saved.

What was it? Well, in 1st 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, in verse 5. He says, for our gospel, 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 5, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men we were among you for your sake." The Word of God was preached to those in Thessalonica, And it came not in word only, but in power. The power and the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Those people were saved as a result of the preaching.

The general call came out and the irresistible call, the effectual call, was combined with it. People were saved. We give forth the general call. Only God, the Holy Spirit, can give the irresistible call. Every creature, as the preacher said the other day, every creature needs a preacher.

We've been commissioned to give the message, the gospel message, but we don't know. We don't know how the Lord will work, but what we do know is that He will work. He does work in the lives of his people. You and I, salvation is not in our hands. It's in the Lord's hands.

We've been given this blessing and privilege of carrying the gospel. We're the sowers of the seed. We're the water boys, right? But God gives the increase and that's that's scriptural. You can look at that at first Corinthians 3, 6 through 7.

You can you can consider consider those things. You can read Romans chapter 10, where Paul is talking about, how shall they hear except there be a preacher? But there's a question. Where in Acts chapter 9 is there a gospel message? And there's not.

There was not a preacher preaching a gospel message in Acts chapter 9. And some people get kind of hung up on that. They say, see, Jesus met up with him in a vacuum, but wait a minute, we get a clue. We get a clue. Remember, Luke doesn't record everything, but he does give us some clues.

In Acts chapter 9, look at something here in verse 5. Jesus, when he first met up with Saul there on the road to Damascus. He said, Saul, Saul, why persecute thou me? He said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecuteest.

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. What's the pricks? What's he talking about? I believe he's talking about the pricks of his heart. Where were those coming from?

Well, let's go back a couple pages in Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7 and we'll begin reading verse 54. When they heard these things they were cut to the heart. They gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.

Then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord and said, and cast him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. They stoned Stephen, calling upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Stephen gave his defense before the council. And in that defense, He preached Jesus. Saul was involved with others, witnessed others, no doubt. He heard the gospel. One sows and other waters, but God gives the increase.

Saul of Tarsus had heard the gospel message, And while he could keep moving forward and resisting, as it were, that general call, The day came when the effectual call came and he could not resist that. It is hard for thee to kick against the prigs. You see, this is encouraging for us. You're someone you've witnessed to, maybe a friend, a loved one, a relative, a neighbor. No results.

Do not worry. Do not worry. The seed has been sown. Go back in water, sow some more seed as God gives opportunity, but understand something. God gives the increase.

When that day comes, in the life of the sinner, in the life of one of his elect, there's no resisting it. Saul didn't kick and scream. Saul didn't try to resist. Oh, he had an agenda that day, but all that got left behind because he met the Lord. That's how it works.

He couldn't resist the Holy Spirit's power. He was saved that day. The Lord's church was surprised? They said, what's going on? Ananis was surprised?

The Lord's church was surprised? The Jews were surprised. What's going on with Saul? Do you know who wasn't surprised? God.

He's a chosen vessel. That one's mine, and God knew it all along. Praise God, he can take even the worst of sinners, the the vilest defenders the chiefest of sinners as Paul put it and saved them I thank God for his irresistible grace no wonder Newton when he wrote the song he called God's grace amazing, because that's what it really is. And there's much more that can be said about this doctrine, but we'll end there just to rejoice on God's goodness. Brother Isaiah would you please pray for us.