If grace is the goodness of God, then it seems obvious that some goodness can be resisted while others can’t. Think about a baby being born. If the mother and father want to bring the baby out of the womb there’s nothing the baby can do to stop it. Or consider an unconscious man whose heart has stopped or is beating irregularly.. He will find it impossible to resist the emergency surgery or the doctor shocking his heart back into a normal rhythm. But other types of grace can be resisted. That same child years later can refuse to celebrate his birthday with his family and can sulk and pout even if his parents force him to come to the party. The man whose heart has been restarted can refuse to take his prescribed medicines or to exercise as he should. It is similar in the Christian life. Scripture talks about man resisting the grace of God. But it also talks about man being born again and the Spirit blowing where it will. It talks about God giving man a new heart and replacing the heart of stone with one of flesh. If an earthly parent can show irresistible grace to their child then it is hard to argue that the Father of Spirits cannot do the same.

For those who hate to think of God as God, as the One who sovereignly rules in heaven, irresistible grace or effectual calling is considered something immoral. But scripture says that it is about the glory of God. It is about God choosing to show compassion to those who He wants to show compassion. We are saved by grace and if you don’t want to receive grace from God, you should question if you are saved. So let’s start off with a question: Is there a biblical reason why we would want saving grace to be resistible?

Timecodes
00:00:00 Intro
00:08:04 Why Grace has to be Irresistible
00:12:29 Fallen Man Cannot Understand Good Gifts
00:21:25 Hate the Prerogative Belonging to God
00:26:14 This Grace is Given Throughout a Believers Life
00:34:24 It is God’s Work and God’s Purpose
00:38:59 Irresistible Grace from Scripture
00:43:41 Picture of Jonah
00:48:23 Example of Those that did not Receive Grace
00:52:51 Resisting the Holy Spirit

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson

Recently, Tucker Carlson interviewed Ambassador Mike Huckabee and asked him questions that he struggled to answer. Questions like: Who are the children of Abraham? Who are the Jews? What is the land that God promised? And what was the nature of that promise? And, in this present time, how do we identify the people God promised that land to? 

Many people say the answer is obvious because there are people that call themselves Jews, but when you consider that many Christians believe America should support Israel militarily as ones who have a God-given right to the land, the answers matter a great deal. This becomes even more important when you consider that Israel does not allow Jews who have converted to Christianity the right to return, so it is not purely genetic in national Israel’s eyes.  So before we talk about the problems with both Huckabee’s and Tucker’s arguments, who was the promise of the land that was given to Abram?

Listen to the audio version here:
Timecodes
00:00:00 Tucker and Huckabee
00:05:35 Promise to Abraham
00:13:33 Israel Divorced
00:14:43 How God Gives Land
00:22:52 Two Promises
00:29:13 Descent by Father or Mother?
00:47:44 What is the Promised Land?
01:00:10 Conclusions

Production of Reformation Baptist Church of Youngsville, NC
Permanent Hosts – Dan Horn, Charles Churchill and Joshua Horn
Technical Director – Timothy Kaiser
Theme Music – Gabriel Hudelson