Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Grace”
Our Bible verse for today: “We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Acts 26:14 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “God’s grace is irresistible.”
So far within the category of God’s special grace we have looked at two of the four sub-categories including “prevenient” or what we called “enabling” grace, and “efficacious” or “effective” grace. Today we want to consider “irresistible grace”. Finally! A word we can understand and don’t have to redefine!
Irresistible grace is exactly that, it is irresistible. Once you experience it you can’t resist it. It is closely tied to enabling grace and effective grace. Enabling grace is the grace of God to me which existed even before I had any interest in Jesus Christ. God loved me and was reaching out to me. Enabling grace is that quality of God’s grace which ensures that God’s grace will have its desired effect in me. But irresistible grace is that quality of God’s grace which, once I’m open enough to experience it, makes it too good to resist.
This is what Paul experienced in Acts 26:14 during his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. Without him even realizing it was happening, Paul’s heart had been prepared to receive Christ. He was in exactly the condition the Holy Spirit needed him to be in. As the encounter with Christ was occurring, and the light of awareness and truth was flooding into Paul’s heart, it was too much for him and he couldn’t resist it. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “It’s hard for you to kick against the goads.” In other words, “You can’t resist Me can ya?”
The concept of irresistible grace helps us to understand that although a person can have a hard heart and thereby resist and rebuff God’s overtures, once the heart is open enough to allow grace in, it comes in like a flood and immediately becomes too much to resist.
In Psalm 34:8 King David urged us to, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Yes He is, and it doesn’t take much to come to that conclusion. Open your heart just a crack and the grace of God will come bursting in and you will quickly discover how much you like it.
There was a television commercial many years ago which urged the viewers to “Try it, you’ll like it.” Well, that may have been true of their product but it’s even truer of God. Try God and you will find that He is indeed irresistible.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 