|
|
|
T.U.L.I.P.
IRRESISTIBLE GRACE
Text: "Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest,
and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy
courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house,
even of Thy holy temple"
(Psalm 65:4).
INTRODUCTION
-
The only reason any single person of the human
race ever approaches God in prayer, in confession, in faith,
is because God chooses him. The origin of salvation is in the
electing decree of God the Father, that mysterious act of God
in eternity before the world was; a doctrine that is hated by
all unhumbled people, denied by many who exercise their carnal
reason on God—a
foolish practice! The puny reason-of atoms of dust pitting
itself against the eternal "God only wise!" But it is very
solemn, notwithstanding, that God did, in eternity, choose
some people to salvation and eternal life, He did so, as the
Word of God declares, according to His own foreknowledge; and
that foreknowledge not any foreknowledge of what goodness
there might be in the people chosen. If the Lord God chose
people for any goodness that He foreknew that they would have,
how many of us could lay claim to a hope of being among those
elect people? Look through the history of the world, and see
those whom God has chosen and saved: He has taken some of the
worst people, but God's deliberate foreknowledge of them in an
electing decree. He loved them, set His love upon them because
He would love them. No mind of man will ever really fathom the
mystery of divine election, but the Word of God is full of it
from the first chapter down to the last.
-
This divine decree of God in election is made
manifest in the fruit of it in the experience of those who
were chosen before the world was; and the text speaks of that
fruit: "Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causest to
approach unto Thee." The choice of a person in eternity takes
effect in his individual experience in time, by an effectual
call (or irresistible grace). Christ said when upon earth,
when they curiously inquired of Him whether there be few or
many saved, that they should enter because it was so strait;
and He said, "For many are called, but few are chosen."
(Matthew 22:14.) We believe the intention of Christ there was
this, that of the many who hear the gospel word and thereby
are under an outward call, comparatively few are effectually
called and brought out.
-
"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,
and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and
that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of
the Father in my name, He may give it you. If ye were of the
world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of
the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you" (John 15:16, 19).
-
"According as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His
own will" (Ephesians 1:4, 5, 11).
-
"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God
for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
-
"Who bath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9).
-
"For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I
have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou
shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth, And
when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified
the Word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal
life believed" (Acts 13:47, 48).
I. BLESSED IS THE MAN
-
This is a singular word, "Blessed is the man;"
any individual man whom the Lord chooses and causes to
approach unto Him. How this causing of a man to approach unto
the Lord is from a divine teaching an effectual inward
operation of the Holy Spirit showing to the man what he is,
where he is, his responsibility to God, his accountability to
his Law-giver and Maker, and the solemn issues of eternity. An
awakening time comes. The Lord deals effectually with men in
His Own way, so that they are brought to feel themselves lost,
needy, helpless, sinful worms. Very solemn it is! Oh, how
solemn is the dealing of God with a man or woman when He lays
hold of them effectually, to reduce them to the condition
necessary to make them appreciate the provision He has made in
the gospel of salvation! Many of us are of a religious turn
naturally, and unhumbled religious nature is terribly
dangerous and bold.
-
We may think to worship God, to serve Him,
become pious, and because we please ourselves with our
services and our purity we think God must be pleased with us.
But the Lord brings His people down, empties them of all their
supposed merit and righteousness, and makes them feel that
they are just sinful worms. The secret teaching of God the
Holy Ghost is very wonderful. Oh, what secret things He brings
up into the conscience! How He searches the innermost parts of
the soul, penetrates into the very notions and motives and
thoughts and intentions of the heart, and shows a man, not
that he is comparatively good, just a little crooked here and
wants a little repairing, but that he is lost, undone,
helpless, guilty and liable to the curse! To find ourselves,
as some of us did in our early days, by the light and
searching of God, distant from Him, far off and alienated, is
a very solemn experience. When the Lord finds His people out
they are in a waste howling wilderness (Deuteronomy 32:10);
they are far from God by wicked works and a wicked nature; and
the Lord makes them feel it.
-
Now, have you been brought there? Or did you
grow up religious and gradually become acquainted with some
symmetrical form of religion? It is very solemn to us as we
draw near our journey's end to think of this; because vast
eternity is before us, and really to be right for eternity is
comparatively the only thing worth consideration. There comes
a time with every child of God, with every vessel of mercy,
when he is brought to consider his ways. We do not say that
all who are dealt with savingly by God know the depth of
terror that some of the Lord's people have known, but He
brings every one of them down to a sense of guilt and
condemnation and dumbness, so that they can say nothing
against the sentence.
-
We believe we are well within the truth in
saying this, that every one who gets to heaven will, during
his sojourn upon earth, be brought by the teaching and power
of the Spirit to acknowledge that he deserves condemnation.
Until the Lord thus deals with us effectually we are always
trying to foil conviction and to satisfy our consciences by
something of our own; and, like that man to whom Christ spoke,
we are willing to justify ourselves. Read Luke 10:29. This man
did much—many
moral things; "Be he, willing to justify himself, said unto
Jesus, and who is my neighbor?" He could not even reach the
standard of the second table in the law when the Lord put him
to it. Yet there is that inveterate principle of
self-justification; but the Lord kills it in His Own people;
He conquers them effectually, brings them down into the dust
of self-abasement and self-condemnation, so that in substance
if not in word they are brought, each one, to say, "If we are
sent to Hell, it will be just for God to do it."
II. WHOM THOU CHOOSEST
-
God's choice of certain individuals unto
salvation before the foundation of the world rested solely in
His own sovereign will. His choice of particular sinners was
not based on any foreseen response or obedience on their part,
such as faith, repentance, etc. On the contrary, God gives
faith and repentance to each individual whom He selected.
These acts are the result, not the cause of God's choice.
Election therefore was not determined by or conditioned upon
any virtuous quality or act foreseen in man. Those whom God
sovereignly elected He brings through the power of the Spirit
to a willing acceptance of Christ. Thus God's choice of the
sinner, not the sinner's choice of Christ, is the ultimate
cause of salvation.
-
The doctrine of unconditional election to
salvation encounters strong opposition in the heart of men,
and it is therefore necessary to examine thoroughly its claim
to our belief. As it relates to an act of the divine mind, no
proof of its truth can be equal to the testimony of the
Scriptures. Let us receive their teachings on the subject
without hesitation or distrust, and let us require every
preconceived opinion of ours, and all our carnal reasonings,
to bow before the authority of God's Holy Word. The Scriptures
clearly teach, that God has an elect chosen people. Whatever
may have been our prejudices against the doctrine of
unconditional election to salvation as held and taught by some
ministers of religion, it is undeniable, that, in some sense,
the doctrine is found in the Bible: and we cannot reject it,
without rejecting that inspired book. We are bound by the
authority of God, to receive the doctrine; and nothing
remains, but that we should make an honest effort to
understand it, just as it is taught in the sacred volume. The
scriptures teach expressly, that God's people are chosen to
salvation.
-
From the views which have been presented, it
necessary follows, that election is not on the ground of
foreseen faith or obedience. The Scriptures teach that
election is according to the foreknowledge of God. We are,
however, not to understand the foreknowledge here mentioned,
to be foreknowledge of faith or good works. Faith and good
works do not exist, before the grace consequent on election
begins to be bestowed; and therefore a foresight of them is
impossible. Moreover the objects of this divine foreknowledge
are the persons of the elect, and not their faith or good
works. Read Job 14:4; Psalm 14:2, 3; Romans 3:11.
-
God bestows the blessings of His grace. not
according to the works of the recipient but according to His
own sovereign pleasure. God is sovereign in doing what He
pleases, uncontrolled by any other being. "He doeth according
to His will, in the armies of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand, or say
unto Him; what doest thou?" (Daniel 4:35). No superior being
exists, who can dictate to the Lord what He should do, or
hinder Him from the execution of His pleasure, or call Him to
account for anything that He has done. Sovereignty is to be
distinguished from arbitrariness. In the latter, the will of
the agent directs the action, without reference to a wise or
good pleasure. His pleasure is good, because it is always
directed to His own perfections.
-
Now these are the persons whom the Lord
welcomes to Himself. They are chosen to obtain salvation as
dead and perishing sinners. Can you say it? If not, can you
say this, that the day came when, by a secret influence in
your heart, in your despairing, doomed state, you were
compelled to cry for mercy? Has the Lord brought you alongside
that good but troubled man, that sinner who said, "God be
merciful to me a sinner?"
III. AND CAUSEST TO APPROACH
UNTO THEE
-
"Blessed is the man whom
Thou choosest, and causest to approach unto Thee." To
"approach unto Thee" in prayer, with confession of sin. Not to
approach to God with Pharisaism and self-righteousness, and to
offer Him sacrifices to appease Him. God never causes people
thus to approach Him. He will reject them all. The only
sacrifice that God will accept from poor sinners is the result
of His Own mercy, and that is a broken and a contrite heart.
He will have the heart, and He gets it by His mercy and
merciful dealings. Read Titus 3:5-7.
-
There will be a cause in
your experience, a reason, and the cause and the reason are
twofold. First of all, what I have tried to state, an
apprehension of your condition as a lost, helpless, guilty,
hell-deserving sinner. But the other point is this, there will
be given, and there is given, to every child of God, some
inkling of hate the Lord has for poor sinners, how sufficient
He is to save them, how able to save to the uttermost; and
that draws. It is the secret motion of the same Spirit Who
convinces of sin that reveals Christ, that turns the eyes of a
sinner from himself to the Lord Jesus Christ, from Mount Sinai
with all its forebodings and threatening, to the throne. of
God's heavenly grace; and that is invincible. The least
glimpse that the Spirit gives to a poor sinner of the mercy of
God in Christ, of the mercy seat where God in Christ is
enthroned, will invincibly draw and give courage to come, so
that that word in Hebrews, so often quoted, becomes an
experience: "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace" (Hebrews 4:16). Why? Because there is a Savior, there
is a, suitable, all-sufficient, merciful, compassionate High
Priest, the Son of God; a sympathizing High Priest.
-
They do not approach to the
throne of grace and always find disappointment. They do not
always come and cry for mercy and get no answer. The Lord does
hear the cries of His people. He promised to do so. That
wonderful word in John takes effect in measure in every elect
vessel of mercy: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to
Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out"
(Read John 6:37-39). Oh, What a wonderful mercy, and what a
blessing attaches to those of you who know what it is to be
caused to approach unto God through Jesus Christ, and to prove
through Him you have access, mercy, pardon, acceptance, and
eternal life! This means reconciliation with God, and that is
one of the greatest things we can ever desire and ever know.
Without reconciliation with God, eternity presents a terrible
aspect. You think of it! A poor alien, a wretched sinner,
whose nature is enmity against God and cannot be reconciled to
God, for "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans
8:7). Very solemn is that! There is. no mercy in the law. It
is a holy and just law, it makes no provision for mercy or for
repentance. But God in Christ does. He has provided this way
of approach, and the Lord Jesus is exalted at the right hand
of God the Father "to give repentance to Israel, and
forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31).
-
He is a blessed man, who,
caused by the Spirit's teaching and leading to go with the
chains about his neck, confessing his sin, acknowledging that
he deserves hell, obtains mercy and a foretaste of heaven. Who
can be equally blessed as such people? Reconciled to God!
Peace of conscience! If your conscience has been loaded with
intolerable guilt if your poor mind has been darkened by the
awful cloud of condemnation, if eternity has loomed before you
like a terrible spectre, and then the Lord has brought you
near to the throne of grace and given you a clear conscience,
granted you a realization that Jesus Christ died and, by dying, put away your sins,
and that He stands between as your advocate with the Father—why,
my friends, that is a blessedness that is better and greater
than any temporal good.
IV. THAT HE MAY DWELL IN THY
COURTS
-
No doubt most of the Lord's
people, when first blessed with a foretaste of heaven—for
the knowledge of salvation, a sense of redeeming love, is a
foretaste of heaven—have wanted to go to be forever with Him,
never more to part from Him. They wanted to dwell in His house.
They had a hope that they would dwell in His house, eternally.
And everything that subsequently transpires to hide the Lord's
face from the soul, and all that interposing guilt that is
freshly contracted, is the greatest trouble of a favored child
of God. He wants to dwell; not to dwell in the church building,
but to dwell in God's house, that is, in Christ; to be near Him,
to have communion with Him, to live a life of faith upon Him.
-
It includes a diligent
attendance upon the ways of the Lord. If the Lord blesses you in
secret, one effect of that will be that His ways will be your
choice. The ways that are despised by the world will be ways of
desirability and pleasantness to you, because the Lord is there,
and that makes it very different from merely church-going and
attendance. No doubt many people have a natural liking for
church attendance, having been brought up to it and are more or
less satisfied to hear certain correct things said; but that is
very different from knowing the Lord and desiring to dwell in His
courts because they are His courts where He holds court with His
people and manifests Himself to them. However small the
attendance, however unknown the little cause may be, if the
Lord's presence is there the people of God in the neighborhood
will want to be there; and wherever the Lord is, wherever His
presence is felt there is worship.
-
If by the Lord's presence
you have been at the gate of heaven, you have known what worship
is. Not a formal business at all, but an inward, spiritual
exercise of love and adoration and trust. Oh, the sweetness of
worship, to dwell in the Lord's courts! A few times in your life
perhaps, in the public courts of the Lord's house, you have so
felt His presence, His preciseness, His love, His mercy, and a
little of His glory, that you have longed for.
V. W E SHALL BE SATISFIED
WITH
THE GOODNESS OF THY HOUSE,
EVEN OF THY HOLY TEMPLE
-
Satisfied? Yes, but not
with anything short of Christ, His blood, His righteousness, His
all-sufficient grace, His mighty love, His precious truth. There
is satisfaction there; and that satisfaction, received by faith
through the Scriptures, or through the ministry of the Word by
the power of the Holy Spirit, nourishes the soul. There is such
a thing as being "nourished up in the words of faith and of good
doctrine." (1 Timothy 4:6). The prophet Jeremiah said, "Thy
words were found, and I did eat them: and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." (Jeremiah 15:16). How does
the Lord convey to His people His mind, His purpose, His love,
His compassion, His pardon, His grace, His salvation? Through
His word, by the Spirit. How do you convey your heart's
intentions to those you love, to those you would fair favor? You
do so by speaking to them kindly and doing them that which they
need. And the Lord does for His people in their hearts and
consciences what they need by His word.
-
Often-times in His house,
or while you read His precious word, you may find a promise
drop upon your heart so fitting to your case. Better to have a
promise of help, of deliverance, of mercy, of provision, than
to be independent! Oh, we should like to be independent, but the
whole life of the child of God is a supernatural life depending
up on supplies from the Lord Himself, spiritual supplies; and
"we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house"—good
supplies of grace, of truth, of compassion, of mercy, of answers
to prayers, of sensations of love. There is nothing can really
satisfy a living soul but Christ.
-
For instance, if you are in
the dark, if guilt hangs upon your spirit, if some sin has
prevailed and desolated your soul, what can satisfy you? Not a
round of religious form! Nothing less than the Lord Jesus, His
gracious smile, His visitations to preserve your spirit, some
confirmation of your interest in Him, some glimpse of His
well-pleased countenance.
CONCLUSION
-
"Then they that gladly
received His word were baptized: and the same day there were
added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in
breaking of bread, and in prayers. Praising God, and having
favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved." (Acts 2:41, 42, 47). "But if I
tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15).
"Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all
ages, world without end. Amen." (Ephesians 3:21)
-
Well, may the Lord make it
out to us; may He cause us to approach unto Him, keep us close
to His footstool, save us from our guilty wanderings, and, as
and when we need it, condescend to bring us back. He alone can
do it. If some of you an far off from Him, if you have
backslidden from Him in heart, He can bring you back. His
faithfulness and goodness will overcome our unfaithfulness and
our badness, and grace will reign. Oh, may we know it in our
individual experience!
-
In addition to the outward
general call to salvation which is made to everyone who hears
the gospel, the Holy Spirit extends to the elect a special
inward call that inevitably brings salvation. The external call
(which is made to all without distinction) can be, and often is,
rejected; whereas the internal call (which is made only to the
elect) cannot be rejected; it always results in conversion. By
means of this special call the Spirit irresistibly draws sinners
to Christ. He is not limited in His work of applying salvation
by man's will, nor is He dependent upon man's cooperation of
success. The Spirit graciously causes the elect sinner to
cooperate, to believe, to repent, to come freely and willingly
to Christ. God's grace, therefore, is invincible; it never fails
to result in the salvation of those to whom it is extended.
|
|
 |
