“And no one can or will believe unless and until the Holy Spirit regenerates their dead and God-denying heart.”
OTOH, I agree - unless God is working, no one turns to God. However, there are multiple passages indicating God IS working in the lives of most men - and that most still refuse to come, that they might have life.
That is my difference with Calvin. He believed life is given in a secret act of regeneration, and then one is irresistibly called and given faith (belief) as a gift.
I believe that when scripture says God desires all men to repent and be saved, that it means all men. That when it says God so loved the world, it means the world. And when it speaks of his own not receiving Him, it means they refused to receive Him.
Repentance is available to all, except those who “knew God, [but] did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened...Therefore God gave them up...”
But we will probably have to agree to disagree. May God bless you as you worship today, and may he bless me & my family as we worship in one of the local SBC congregations.
But that is not what Christ said. He said He came to save His lost sheep. And that all those sheep would hear Him and know Him and that He would return all those sheep to His Father because the Father had tasked Him with that job from before the foundation of the world.
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep." -- John 10:14-15 "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
Christ does love the world; He created it and that's why He is presently redeeming it through the conversion of dead men into spiritual men who love His appearing.
But are all men among the flock of Christ? No. Only those whom the Father gave to Him; those who are given the free gift of God's grace through faith in their only Shepherd...
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." -- John 10:26-29 "But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.
And to insure this miracle would take place, Christ told us the Holy Spirit, God Himself, would be given to us so that we would hear the truth of Scripture and know that Jesus Christ has paid for every one of our sins. Our adoption is secure because it rests not on our desire but on God's declaration of His own desire.
"Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." -- Isaiah 46:10
So are all men given the Holy Spirit? No. Not according to the word of God.
"He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." -- Matthew 13:11
Repentance is available to all
Repentance, like all good things, comes as a free gift from God.
"...In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth" -- 2 Timothy 2:25