This will be a in-depth Biblical study of Gods salvation plan. There will be no definate time schedule for this study and more material and pages will be added from time to time. If you have any questions or wish to make any comment regarding this study please feel free to either post your message on the church bulletin board, E Mail me or contact me at my IRQ. number. The material for this study has been taken from the book "Gods Magnificent Salvation Plan" by Harold Camping.

This is Page 6 of our Bible Study. On this page we will discuss Irresistible Grace.......Brother Frank

What does the Bible tell us about Irresistible Grace? Is it a fact that man can NOT resist the will of God; or on the other hand, is it a fact that man CAN resist the will of God? If God really wants somebody to be saved, is there anyone powerful enough to resist his will?

Now of course we know that we can never pit man against God, since God is infinite and omnipotent, all powerful; e.g., He speaks and the universe comes into existence...while man is a finite creature. There is no man who could frustrate the will of God. Everything that we know about God tells us that he is absolutely in control of every situation. BUT; Is it possible, as some would teach, that God is the type of "gentleman" that wouldn't force anyone to be saved against his will?

If we hold the position that we can resist the will of God absolutely nobody would be saved. Why is this so? Remember, we learned earlier in our study that "there is none that seeketh after God." We have already looked at the principle of TOTAL DEPRAVITY and discovered that man is dead in his sins and would never come to God. Even if the Gospel were preached for a thousand years or longer, nobody would come to salvation by his own choice. And so the idea that God is a gentleman and would not impose his will upon man's will is contrary to the Bible.

It is a fact, however, that thousands, and even millions, of people thoughout history ARE saved. God speaks of the saved as being as numerous as the stars in heaven, and as the sand on the seashore in number. This indicates that God has indeed imposed his will upon mankind in some way! And that is what we want to look at now, under the topic Irresistible Grace.

In (John 6:37-39) we read the significant truth that the Father has given to the Lord Jesus Christ certain ones who are to be saved. Verse 37 reads, "all that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." In this verse the Bible teaches us first that there are certain ones whom the Father has given to the Lord Jesus. The second truth is that they "shall come to him." That is, it is God's plan that nothing can frustrate his will. Those whom God plans to save are given by the Father to Christ and they shall come to him. There is no suggestion that these who were given to Christ can avoid being saved.

The fact is, John 6:39 states very implicitly, "This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." In this verse Christ is declaring with absolute certainty that there will not be any defects in Christ's salvation program. Every individual God planned to save will be saved. God is giving us a solemn promise and declaration that his salvation program, in which he has decided whom he would in his sovereign will save from before the foundations of the world, would be accomplished. Nothing would or could frustrate the will of God! And so he irresistibly would have to draw us to himself.

Philippians 1:6 states, "Being confident....He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Again God promises, God commits himself to complete what he has begun. Can you see that the work that Christ began to do started even before Christ became SIN for us! Our names were identified with him at the cross. Therefore, even before we were born, he had already begun his work of grace! As we are presented with the Gospel, and as God opens our spiritual ears and hearts to respond to the Gospel, God is continuing his plan of salvation for us. Philippians 1:6 declares that which he has begun will be completed. He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God's plan will not be frustrated. It is an irresistible plan that is under the irresistible will of God.

Remember, in Matthew 16:16 Christ declared, "I will build My church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." What is the condition of the unsaved person before he is saved? He is a slave of Satan. He is under the dominion of darkness. He is a bond slave of his own sin. But Christ said, "I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail..." `Hell cannot hold these that I plan to save. No one can stop Me from what I intend to do.' And that is the reason that men and women are being saved. God is irresistibly drawing them.

Remember that Jesus said in John 6:44, "No man can come to me, except the Father draw him." Again, we see that it is required that God draw us to himself. This is so because spiritually we are dead. As dead people we have nothing to offer for or against our salvation. Christ has set up his plan, and the Father draws us (yes, irresistibly) so that plan cannot be frustrated.

It is true that many, when they are first brought face to face with the Gospel, are offended by the Gospel. But every once in a while one of these will finally give in and admit he is a sinner: "Yes, I know that I am a sinner, and I know that I need salvation." -- What has happened? Who can resist God's will? When God wants to save a person, God begins to do his work of salvation within that person so that his heart is inclined to be obedient to the Gospel command...to believe on him.

You see, we have as much to say about our new birth in Christ as we did about our first birth from our mother's womb. (Think about that for a moment.) Remember when you were born the first time? What did you have to do with it? Could you select your parents? Could you decide when you were going to be born? Could you decide if you wanted to be born? The answers to these questions are obviously and absolutely NO! You had nothing at all to do with it! You simply came into this world completely apart from your will.

Now, do you recall what Jesus said in John 3:6, as He talked to Nicodemus? He said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." He is talking here about the NEW BIRTH and indicating that it is just as real a birth as the first birth. We had nothing to do with our first birth. God is the one who inclines our hearts. If left of ourselves we would never seek after him, as we have so frequently seen in this study. We would go our own way, right up until the moment we die.

We don't want to turn to God. Our whole life is in rebellion against him. But God decided to save us, in his own timetable. It may be when we are at middle-age, or it may be as an elderly person, close to our death bed. But if it's God's plan to save us, you can rest assured, he will draw us at the appropriate time. He will give us a will to believe, and a desire to turn away from our sins. Nobody can frustrate the will of God. Christ declared, "I will build My church..."

Remember what we read in Romans 9, where God said in verse 16, "Then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shall have mercy." Our will, ultimately, has nothing to do with it. What we think is an action of our will as we do respond to the Gospel is simply the fact that God has already imposed His will upon us and is irresistibly drawing us to himself.

May I quote again from John 1:13, where God is speaking of those who have become sons of God? There he declares, "Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Could God be any plainer? If God waited for us and for our will to respond to the Gospel, we would never be saved! We would try everything possible to frustrate the Gospel because we, of ourselves, don't want to be saved. But when God says he is going to save us, you can rest assured he will save us! He will draw us irresistibly to himself.

Let's look again for just a moment at Lazarus in the tomb. He is dead. And Christ decides to resurrect him. And so Christ stands outside of that tomb and says, "Lazarus, come forth!" Now let's entertain an unreasonable notion for a moment. Picture Jesus hoping that Lazarus would really will to come forth, the idea being that if Lazarus didn't so will, he wouldn't come forth.

NO! That isn't what happened at all! Jesus stood outside of that tomb and said, "Lazarus, come forth!" And Lazarus did come forth! He came forth because Christ also gave him a will and inclined it with a desire to respond to that command. It was Christ's intention to raise Lazarus, and neither Lazarus nor anyone else was going to be able to frustrate Christ's plan to raise him.

And there we see dramatically a picture of our salvation. When Christ comes with the Gospel, as he comes to seek and to save that which was lost, you can depend upon it that everyone that he comes to save will be saved! There is no way that we can frustrate the will of God! Isn't that a marvelous doctrine?

Think about this...Suppose you had an unsaved loved one who was particularly rebellious against God, very wicked, and very hardened in sin...oh, so sinful! And you were hoping and hoping for this person's salvation, because you loved him dearly! You tried to witness to him, but he loved his sin so much that he didn't want to hear any of the Gospel.

And yet you know that God will not be frustrated by the wicked will of man. If God should decide to save this loved one, he would impose his will on the will of the loved one so that in due time this person would come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He would have a desire to come!

Isn't that a wonderful, wonderful blessing to know? Otherwise, you look at your friends and loved ones who are hardened in their sins, and you say, "Why pray for them? They'll never respond! They're far too wicked! Their consciences have been seared! How can it be that they would ever come to the Gospel?"

But praise God! God has given this avenue of prayer! And God has promised that the "effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16). God expects us to pray for the unsaved. And we are to pray without ceasing. And God works through our prayers! We don't know if this loved one is elect or not; that is God's business. But we know that if he is God's elect, God will work through our prayers and God will impose his will upon the wicked, hardened, rebellious will of our loved one, so that his spiritual eyes will be opened, and there will begin to be a response to the Gospel. Oh, it is so marvelous! It is so heartening to know that God is in complete charge of the salvation program, and ultimately there is nothing that man can do that might frustrate him in any way whatsoever!

And so this beautiful, beautiful principle Irresistible Grace, is so comforting to us! It gives us such great assurance when we know that Satan can never, never hold anyone in such terrible bondage that he would never be able to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody can resist the will of God when he wants to save someone. God gives the faith, the repentance. Satan is absolutely helpless when he is up against the powerful intentions of a gracious Sovereign Almighty God! What blessed assurance we have! Praise God!

Once again a warning must be voiced. If we believe that man can resist God's will to save those whom he plans to save, effectively we have arrived at a gospel of grace plus works. For we are declaring that God has done what he must do and now it is up to us to take action, to do a work, that will complete this salvation plan for us. That work is to believe or accept what God has offered to us. This is our work, for presumably God will not impose his will upon us. We can receive credit for this action of ours. Thus God has done his part and we have done ours. Together we have accomplished our salvation. Christ indeed has done the major work because he has paid for all our sins. But only because we of our own free will have accepted Christ does God's salvation program become effective for us. The very fact that we can frustrate God's plan to save us indicates the importance of the work we have done in accepting christ.

But this whole line of reasoning will lead us to Hell. Our work has no bearing on our salvation. We are saved by grace alone. As we have seen repeatedly in this study, any salvation plan that includes even the smallest work on our part is not the salvation plan of the Bible. The only reason we turn to Christ is that the Father is drawing us. God is giving us the spiritual ears to hear and the regenerated heart to believe. It is of eternal importance that we understand that it is God who has irresistibly drawn us to himself.

On our next page we will discuss Perseverance of the Saints. This concept is also referred to as Once Saved, Always Saved. Is this doctrine Biblical? We will take this matter up, which is also called Eternal Security.

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