If you are like me, you were raised in church. You heard the gospel many times before you were ever saved, Sunday morning and Sunday night and every revival meeting that came through. It was not that I did not understand the English. Oh, I knew it.

But something happened the day the Lord saved me. It was the same gospel I had heard all my life, out of the same Book. That day it was different. What was it?

Maybe you have got somebody on your heart who fits that description. Maybe it is a grown son or daughter, or a man at work who has heard you talk about Jesus for ten years and still rolls his eyes. They know the words. You have told them and you have prayed for them, and nothing seems to move. You wonder what it would take.

There are two wrong answers to that question floating around. One says the difference is in the sinner: one day he finally made up his mind. The other says it is all of God, so it does not much matter whether anybody preaches or witnesses. The most famous conversion in the Bible answers both of them. God calls His chosen ones through the gospel by a grace that cannot fail, and He turns His enemies into willing followers of Christ.

In our study of what we believe, we have been working through the doctrines of grace. We have looked at total depravity, unconditional election, and limited atonement. Here we come to the fourth, irresistible grace, and Lord willing we will finish with the preservation and perseverance of the saints.

Some folks will tell you these are man-made doctrines, and they will point to where the five points came from. In 1618 and 1619 the Dutch Reformed churches met at the Synod of Dort to answer the followers of a professor named Jacobus Arminius, and that is where the five points as we know them were laid out. Somebody later arranged them to spell TULIP. But Dort did not invent anything. These truths were preached by Paul. They were taught by Jesus. They are found on the pages of the Old Testament, and there were preachers and churches holding them long before Calvin was ever born. I do not believe them because Calvin did or because Dort did. I believe them because thus saith the Word of God.

There are two ditches on this road, and we need to stay out of both. The first is the Arminian ditch. It puts the deciding vote in the sinner's hand, so that God does all He can and then waits on you. The second is the ditch of hardshellism, or Hyper-Calvinism. It says God will save His elect whether anybody preaches the gospel or not. That ditch loves this doctrine, and it loves Acts 9 in particular. We will deal with both before we are through.

So begin where Luke begins, with a man on the Damascus road carrying arrest warrants for the people of God.

A Rebel on the Road

Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts 9:1–2 (LSB)

Notice that little word "still." Luke has already told us who Saul is. The witnesses at Stephen's stoning laid their garments at his feet. In chapter 8 he was "ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women." The church has scattered since then, and Saul is still at it. He is "breathing threats and murder." That was the air he breathed. He got up in the morning thinking about it.

Nobody drafted him for this job. Verse 1 says he went to the high priest, and verse 2 says he asked for the letters. He volunteered. Damascus was better than a hundred miles up the road, and Saul was willing to make that trip to put men and women in chains whose only crime was belonging to "the Way."

Years later he told King Agrippa what was going on inside him:

"So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus the Nazarene. "And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. "And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. Acts 26:9–11 (LSB)

What was Saul doing? He was doing what came natural to him. He was living by his free will, and his free will took him straight at the people of God with a fistful of warrants.

Do not miss this either. Saul was the most religious man on that road. He was brought up "at the feet of Gamaliel" and was "zealous for God" (Acts 22:3). And he was as dead toward God as any drunk in the gutter. His religion did not make him alive. It made him a persecutor.

Most folks are not hauling Christians off to jail. But I submit to you that they are just as active in their pursuit of sin. They are at war with the God who made them. God says one thing and they do another. Maybe that is you. It was me. Every single person who has ever been saved was at war with God until being arrested by the grace of God.

Paul wrote it down for the church at Ephesus:

And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1–3 (LSB)

That is where Saul was. That is where I was, and where you were. If you have never been saved, it is where you are right now: dead, walking according to the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, and by nature a child of wrath, "even as the rest."

What can a dead man do? Can he come to Jesus? Can he do a good work? No. I will tell you what a dead man can do. He can stink. That is about all a dead man can do, and that is where every one of us was outside of Christ.

There may be somebody you have quietly decided is too far gone. It might be the cousin who mocks your faith at Thanksgiving, or the man down the street who cussed you the last time you handed him a tract. Before you write him off, remember who was on the Damascus road. Before you look down on him, remember where you were. You were not a little bit chipped. You were dead.

If you are not saved, understand that you are not neutral. You may never have lifted a finger against a Christian, but you are on the road, and you are going the wrong way.

Saul was dead and on the warpath, with no intention of turning around. If anything was going to change on that road, Somebody besides Saul was going to have to change it.

A Call He Could Not Refuse

And as he was traveling, it happened that when he was approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do." And the men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. And Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. Leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Acts 9:3–9 (LSB)

Look at that word "suddenly." Saul did not put this on his calendar. He was almost there. A few more miles and he would have been knocking on synagogue doors. When Paul told it later, he said it happened "at midday," and the light was "brighter than the sun" (Acts 26:13). Down he went.

Then he heard his name. "Saul, Saul." The Lord called him twice, by name. This was personal. Listen to what He asks: "why are you persecuting Me?" Saul thought he was cleaning up a troublesome sect. He found out he had been fighting the Lord of glory. Christ is so joined to His people that when you lay a hand on them, you have laid a hand on Him.

"Who are You, Lord?" The answer was the one name Saul least wanted to hear: "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." It was the very Jesus he had been trying to stamp out.

Let me define the doctrine. Irresistible grace, also known as effectual calling, refers to the fact that all whom the Father elected and the Son died for (and by the way, that is 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 in the effectual call, the sinner most willingly comes to Christ, for it is impossible to resist the will and power of God.

Put plainly, God, of His own free will, gives life to whom He chooses. He calls certain people to Himself, and when He calls, that call does not fail.

That is how Paul understood his own conversion. Listen to how he describes the Damascus road to the Galatians:

For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who had set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might proclaim Him as good news among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, Galatians 1:13–16 (LSB)

Paul does not say he found God on the Damascus road. He says God "called me through His grace" and was pleased to reveal His Son in him. That is the same calling Paul wrote about in Romans 8:30: "and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified." Nobody falls out of that chain between the calling and the glory.

Jesus taught the same thing:

"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. … "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:37, 44 (LSB)

Saul was not looking for Jesus when he got up that morning. He did not pray the sinner's prayer, and he did not walk down to an old-fashioned altar. By the way, you will not find a sinner's prayer in the Bible the way folks use it today. Those old-fashioned altars are not so old-fashioned when you study out their history either. They trace back to the mourner's bench at the camp meetings and Charles Finney's anxious bench in the 1800s, not to the apostles. Saul was not looking for the Lord. The Lord came looking for Saul.

Look at verse 7. The men with Saul "stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one." The LSB margin says that word can be translated "sound." When Paul tells it in Acts 22:9, he says they "did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me." They heard a noise. Saul heard Jesus. It was the same road at the same moment, and the call was for Saul. The others did not get it. He did.

Keep your finger in Acts and flip over to Ephesians 2 again, because Paul did not stop at verse 3.

But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:4–10 (LSB)

Underline or circle "But God." If you are coming up out of that Arminian ditch, do something for me. Go through this passage, find the verbs, and ask who is doing them. God loved us. God made us alive together with Christ, even when we were dead, and raised us up and seated us with Him, so that He might show the riches of His grace. The active agent is God all the way through. Then verse 8 says even the faith is "not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."

Sometimes I think the Holy Spirit knew that one day somebody would build a whole system on getting the sinner to do his part first. So He had Paul write, "and this not of yourselves." You do not have to be a Greek scholar to see it. Just read the English and pay attention to the words.

Who is the hero of your salvation story? Jonah got it right from the belly of the fish: "Salvation belongs to Yahweh" (Jonah 2:9).

Back to our text. This grace did not drag Saul to Christ kicking and screaming. Verse 8 says he got up off the ground with his eyes wide open, and he could not see a thing. The man who came to lead Christians back to Jerusalem in chains was led into Damascus by the hand, like a child. For three days he sat in the dark and did not eat or drink. He had quit fighting. He was undone.

Some of you came up out of Arminian teaching, and the first time you saw this it was like somebody turned the lights on. Rejoice in it. Some of us have believed the doctrines of grace so long we could recite them half asleep. Do not get so hardened that you lose the thrill of it. Whether you have been saved five minutes or fifty years, "But God" ought to move you to rejoicing and humble admiration.

So try this. The next time you tell somebody how you got saved, whether it is your grandchildren or a fellow at work, make sure God is the subject of the sentences. If you are the hero of your testimony, you have told it wrong.

The Lord stopped Saul on that road, and Saul stayed down. What happened over the next three days shows us what kind of grace this is. It makes a rebel want to come.

An Enemy Made Willing

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." And the Lord said to him, "Rise up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight." Acts 9:10–12 (LSB)

The Lord knew the street and the house, and He knew who was sitting in it. He knew what that man was doing too: "behold, he is praying." Matthew Henry hears the Lord saying to Ananias, in effect, "Behold, and wonder, that he who but the other day breathed nothing but threatenings and slaughter, now breathes nothing but prayer."

Saul had said prayers his whole life. He was a Pharisee. But he had never prayed like this, a blind sinner calling on the name of the Jesus he had hated.

Ananias was not so sure about any of it.

But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem. "And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name." Acts 9:13–16 (LSB)

You cannot blame Ananias much. He had heard the stories, and he knew why Saul had come to town. But the Lord answered him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine." That choosing did not happen on the road. Paul said God set him apart "from my mother's womb." That is unconditional election, and here we watch it carried out. God chose Saul long before Saul ever chose to persecute anybody, and the call on the road was God doing what He had already purposed to do.

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And he laid his hands on him and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord sent me—that is Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming—so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he rose up and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened. Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." And all those hearing him continued to be astounded, and were saying, "Is this not the one who in Jerusalem destroyed those that called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?" But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this One is the Christ. Acts 9:17–22 (LSB)

Listen to the first two words out of Ananias's mouth: "Brother Saul." Three days earlier Ananias was on Saul's list. Now he lays his hands on him and calls him brother. Only grace explains that.

Then watch how fast things move. The scales fall off, he regains his sight, and he rises up and is baptized. He spends several days with the disciples, the very people he came to arrest, and "immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues." Those were the same synagogues he had been carrying letters to.

When Paul told this story to the crowd in Jerusalem, he remembered the question he asked on that road:

"And I said, 'What should I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Rise up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been determined for you to do.' Acts 22:10 (LSB)

"What should I do, Lord?" He's done switched sides. A few days before, his question was how many Christians he could lock up. Now he wants to know what the Lord wants. Before Agrippa he put it this way: "So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19).

That is what irresistible grace looks like. Saul came to Damascus with chains for the saints. The Lord did not bring any chains for Saul, and He did not need them. He changed the man's heart, and the man came. The psalmist saw it long before: "Your people will offer themselves freely in the day of Your power" (Psalm 110:3). God promised it through Ezekiel:

"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to do My judgments. Ezekiel 36:26–27 (LSB)

The new heart comes first, and the willing follows.

Ananias was surprised, and so was the church at Damascus. The Jews in the synagogues "continued to be astounded." "Is this not the one who in Jerusalem destroyed those that called on this name?" Everybody was caught off guard. Do you know who was not surprised?

God. He had already told Ananias, "he is a chosen instrument of Mine." That one's Mine. God knew it all along. Paul never got over it. Years later he wrote to Timothy:

It is a trustworthy saying and deserving full acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. Yet for this reason I was shown mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Christ Jesus might demonstrate all His patience as an example for those who are going to believe upon Him for eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:15–16 (LSB)

Some of us are Ananias in this story. God may put you in front of somebody with a reputation, somebody you would just as soon avoid. Go anyway. When a man with a past walks through those doors and the Lord has saved him, what are we going to say? Will it be "Brother Saul," or will it be "Isn't this the one who…"? Make up your mind now how you will receive him.

Ask yourself one more thing. Has grace turned your direction around? Saul was baptized and took his place with the disciples, and within days he was telling the synagogue that Jesus is the Son of God. If you say God has saved you and nothing about your direction has changed, take that seriously.

That brings up a question some folks like to raise about this chapter. Read Acts 9 again and you will notice there is no preacher on the Damascus road. Nobody preached Saul a sermon. So did God save him without the gospel?

A Gospel He Had Already Heard

This is where the hardshell brethren like to plant their flag. They will say, "See there? The Lord struck him down without anybody preaching to him. God doesn't need the gospel to save His elect." There are stories going around on the internet about Muslims in countries where the gospel has never been preached being saved without it. I am not calling anybody names, but I will tell you plainly: that is just not true. Saul was not saved in a vacuum. Let me show you.

If you grew up with the King James, you remember the Lord saying in Acts 9:5, "it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." In the LSB you will not find that line in chapter 9. Luke saves it for Paul's own telling before King Agrippa:

"And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying 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 (LSB)

A goad was a sharpened stick a farmer used to drive his ox. An ox that kicked back at it only drove the point in deeper. Jesus told Saul he had been kicking. Kicking against what? Where were those goads coming from?

Go back a couple of pages to Acts 6. Stephen was "full of grace and power," and some men "from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and were arguing with Stephen. But they were unable to oppose the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking" (Acts 6:8–10). Saul was "born in Tarsus of Cilicia" (Acts 22:3). I cannot prove Saul was in that argument. I can show you where he was at the end of it.

Now when they heard this, they became furious in their hearts, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But crying out with a loud voice, they covered their ears and rushed at him with one accord. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" And having said this, he fell asleep. Acts 7:54–60 (LSB)

Stephen had just preached through the whole history of Israel to that Council and laid it at the feet of Jesus Christ. Saul was there. Luke does not tell us whether he heard every word in the Council chamber, but he heard enough. He heard Stephen say he saw "the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." He heard a dying man pray, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" And Saul held the coats.

Luke goes right on: "Now Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death" (Acts 8:1). After that he went house to house, "dragging off men and women" (Acts 8:3). Think about what that means. Every Christian he arrested, he heard testify. In Acts 26:11 he says he "tried to force them to blaspheme," which means he heard them confess the name of Jesus over and over. Meanwhile "those who had been scattered went about, proclaiming the good news of the word" (Acts 8:4).

Years later, standing on the barracks stairs in Jerusalem, Paul still could not get Stephen out of his mind:

"And I said, 'Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. 'And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and guarding the garments of those who were slaying him.' Acts 22:19–20 (LSB)

Those were the goads. Saul of Tarsus had heard the gospel. He had heard it preached and watched it lived, and for a while he kept moving forward, resisting that call. Then the day came when the effectual call came, and he could not resist that.

Notice too that even on the road, the Lord Jesus did not hand Saul the whole message right there. He said, "rise up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do" (Acts 9:6). Who told him? A disciple named Ananias. The risen Christ appeared to Saul in person, and He still sent a man with a message. Cornelius got the same treatment in chapter 10. An angel stood in his house, and what did the angel say? Send for Peter, "and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved" (Acts 11:14). That angel could have preached it himself. God sent a preacher.

So where do the hardshells go wrong? They confuse the general call and the effectual call.

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. Mark 16:15–16 (LSB)

That is the general call. We are to preach the gospel to all creation. As one preacher put it, every creature needs a preacher. Why? Because we do not know who the elect are. Only God knows that. Even if we did know, we do not know God's calendar, the day and the hour He means to save them. So we preach to everybody.

The general call goes out to all, and it can be resisted and often is. Saul resisted it for a good while. The effectual call is the Spirit of God taking that same Word and making it live in a dead heart, and the effectual call is never resisted.

The same God who is sovereign over salvation has sovereignly determined the method by which men are to be saved.

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO PROCLAIM GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!" However, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:14–17 (LSB)
But we should always give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:13–14 (LSB)

Look at that. "God has chosen you." That is election. "It was for this He called you through our gospel." The God who chose the who also chose the how. He calls His people through the gospel.

That is exactly what happened in Thessalonica:

knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election, for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 1 Thessalonians 1:4–5 (LSB)

The gospel "did not come to you in word only, but also in power." There are the two calls working together. The preacher gave the word, and God gave the power. The general call went out, the effectual call came with it, and people were saved.

Paul put our part and God's part side by side for the Corinthians:

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6–7 (LSB)

We are the sowers of the seed. We are the water boys. God gives the increase.

Think about Stephen for a minute. He fell asleep with Saul standing there guarding the coats, and he never saw on this earth what came of that prayer. Stephen planted and Ananias watered, but God caused the growth, and the young man guarding those coats became the apostle to the Gentiles.

Let me be honest about something. Too many churches have evangelistic Calvinism in their history and in their confession, but in practice they are hardshell. They believe in the gospel on paper and never carry it across the street. We need to avoid that and root it out.

Maybe you have witnessed to a friend or a neighbor for years with nothing to show for it. Don't you worry. The seed has been sown. Go back and water, and sow some more as God gives you opportunity. You do not know His calendar. Saul looked like the last man in Jerusalem who would ever be saved, and he was a chosen instrument the whole time.

On the other side, don't you dare sit back and say, "If they're elect, God will get them." He will. He will do it through the gospel, and He may well do it through you.

Amazing Grace

Saul left Jerusalem with letters in his pocket and murder on his breath. A few days later he was preaching in Damascus the very name he had come to stamp out, and in between, the Lord met him on the road. What made the difference? Saul did not decide his way into it, and no preacher argued him into it. The gospel had been sown in his heart by a dying man's sermon and prayer, and on the Damascus road God made it live. That is irresistible grace.

That is what happened to me. I had heard the gospel all my life, and I knew the English. Then one day it came to me the way it came to Thessalonica, "in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance." It was the same gospel. God did it.

John Newton was a blasphemer and a slave trader, and God saved him too. No wonder when he wrote the hymn he called God's grace amazing. That is what it really is.

If you do not know the Lord, I want to speak to you directly.

You may be a lot like Saul, religious and raised in church, and you know all the words. But you are still on the road, and you are still going the wrong way. You have heard the gospel, maybe more times than you can count, and every time you push it away you are kicking against the goads. It is hard. Every sermon you sit through and shrug off drives the point a little deeper. Do not mistake God's patience for permission. A man can resist the general call his whole life and die in his sins.

Saul found out on that road that the Jesus he was fighting is alive, and He is Lord. That same Jesus "came into the world to save sinners." He went to the cross carrying the sins of His people and paid the penalty they owed. He was laid in a grave, and He rose again victorious. Paul called himself the foremost of sinners, and he said God saved him as an example "for those who are going to believe upon Him for eternal life."

Remember what Ananias said about Saul? He came to Damascus with authority "to bind all who call on Your name." Three days later, Saul was one of the ones calling on that name. The Bible says, "WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED" (Romans 10:13).

Do not sit there trying to work out whether you are elect before you will come. That is God's business. Yours is to repent and believe. Jesus said, "the one who comes to Me I will never cast out." If you find something in you that wants to come, that pull is the grace of God. Do not kick against it. Come to Christ. If you want to talk about it, reach out to us.

Christian, here is your comfort. You did not find God on your road. He found you, and He called you by name. The same Lord who said of Saul, "he is a chosen instrument of Mine," has said that over you. Your salvation did not start with your decision, and it does not hang on how tight you are holding on.

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. John 10:27–28 (LSB)

The Jesus that Saul could not resist is the Jesus who will never let you go.

Church, this week I want you to do two things.

First, write down one name. Pick the person you have been tempted to write off, the Saul in your life. Pray for that person by name every day this week, and before next Sunday comes, put the gospel in front of them again, whether it is a conversation over coffee or a tract and an invitation to come sit with you on the pew. You plant. Let God handle the growth.

Second, the next time you tell somebody how you got saved, start with "But God." Tell it so the Lord gets the glory. Somebody listening needs to know He saves the foremost of sinners, and if He could save Saul of Tarsus, He can save the one whose name is on your paper.