Inviting Men to Christ

The Problem of Inviting Men to Christ: Arminianism vs. Hyper-Calvinism

0:05 Inviting Men to Christ.

0:09 What does this title suggest to your mind? What did you think of when you read that it was going to be part of our program?

0:19 I called Pastor Chantry a couple of weeks ago and I said, My dear brother, I was terribly naive when I accepted the assignment of seeking to grapple with this subject with so broad a spectrum of background and theological understanding and practical Christian experience, perhaps to the minds of some of you, you thought that this might be a workshop on 20 new ways to give altar calls.

0:46 You know, booklets are written on that and pastors' conferences are convened around the country, many of them called soul-winning conferences, and almost invariably one of the, quote, experts will give the latest techniques of inviting men to Christ, and by that they mean ways to get people out of their seats and down to the front of a church, or into an inquiry room. Well, perhaps that's in the minds of some of you. Others of you, who perhaps had that as your background and in your new understanding of the word of God, have completely chucked over that unscriptural methodology incorporated into evangelism. You looked at this title and you just felt it oozed with Arminian overtones.

1:34 And you've come rather suspicious this morning, because the whole idea of simply, inviting to Christ seems rather anemic and weak to you. For you've come to discovering God's word that God does not merely invite men to his dear Son, there are some whom He lays hold of in His effectual call and brings them, so that indeed they do come most willingly and freely, but they come because they are made willing by His grace. And so, you've come, no doubt with your fur bristled and baited for bear, lest there be some of the leaven, so you've come, no doubt with your fur bristled and baited for bear, lest there be some of the leaven, and so you've come, no doubt with your fur bristled and baited for bear, lest there be some of the leaven, of Arminian activism in this sermon or lecture this morning. So how does one handle a subject like this?

Navigating the Theological Divide: Modesty and Balance

2:18 It's difficult as to its substance, and it's also difficult as to the manner in which one would handle it in one hour, give or take a few minutes either direction. For this is an issue that has split churches, has rent denominations, has caused the writing of great tomes of theological literature, and so to simply expound some text of scripture with no historical perspective would appear simplistic and perhaps a bit arrogant, as though I had the last word on all of the texts that are the point of controversy. I find myself very much at home with the words of John Newton, who writing to someone on this subject said, it's a point on which many eminent ministers have been and are not a little divided, and therefore becomes me to propose my sentiments with modesty and courteousness. I have no caution, so far as I am constrained to differ from any from whom in general I would be glad to learn. So on the one hand, to approach it simply from a biblical standpoint would appear simplistic. On the other hand, to simply come at it from a creedal and historical perspective, seek to quote those who have spoken with clarity on the issue, would appear to some others as though the case were resting on human authority.

3:38 And unlike the doctor, who has the opportunity of enlarging from the historical perspective in the next two nights and give us the biblical perspective, I've got to squeeze everything into one hour. Now what I'm going to attempt to do is to come at the subject with a balance of biblical and historical and biographical data that I trust will simply whet your appetite for further investigation in those three areas. I'm hoping it will drive you into scripture, and I'm hoping it will drive you to search out what the great masters in Israel have said on the subject, and that as you read the biographies of men whose lives have been marked by usefulness in bringing men to Christ, try to glean their sentiments and their experience in this area. If I've got a sore foot, I don't go to an ear specialist. I go to a chiropodist who will make me feel better by fixing my feet. And if I have a question about the freedom, I don't go to a chiropodist who will make me feel better by fixing my feet.

4:44 I believe it's the part of wisdom to go for help to men who were eminently used of God in inviting men to Christ and who had the seal of God upon their ministries in seeing souls brought to the Savior. Now the way in which we're going to approach the subject, trying to fuse together the biblical and the historical and biographical approach, is first of all to state the essence of the problem. Fourth, what is the problem involved in this matter of inviting men to Christ? Secondly, I want to set forth the biblical perspective on that problem.

The Essence of the Problem: Reconciling God's Sovereignty and Man's Duty

5:22 And then in the third place, I wish to draw some practical conclusions, applications, and exhortations drawn from the biblical perspective. Very well then, what is the essence of the problem? Maybe some of you are sitting there this morning and saying, well, who has a problem? Well, that's a good question.

5:41 Who has a problem? Who has a problem with this whole matter of inviting men to Christ? Well, certainly it's not the person who takes lightly biblical theology, who simply picks and chooses what he shall believe and incorporate into his ministry. He'll have no problem.

5:58 And certainly the person who disregards biblical methodology and simply conforms to the latest modes of popular evangelistic gimmickry, he'll have no problem. But the person who takes seriously all that he reads in Scripture, and in particular certain aspects of biblical theology, and then at the same time takes seriously his duty to evangelize, this person is going to have great problems. And he's going to wrestle with this whole issue of inviting men to Christ. Upon what warrant do I invite men to Christ?

6:39 How do I invite men to Christ? What is the nature of gospel, and how do I invite men to Christ? Well, the answer to this question is the following. The answer to this question is the following.

6:51 You see, the idea that is current in our day, you've heard it often, be a Calvinist on your knees and an Arminian on your feet sounds good. But woe, woe be unto you if that's true of you. For you see, when you're on your feet evangelizing, your methods of evangelism and your message of evangelism is simply an extension into life and experience of your theology. Your methodology is an extension into life and practice of your theology.

7:22 So you are not theologically one thing on your knees in the presence of God and something other methodologically when you're out there talking to men about Christ. And so the person who's willing to live with that clever little evasion, he'll have no problem. But the person who takes seriously his Bible is going to have problems. Now, what is that problem that comes to the mind of everyone who takes seriously biblical theology?

7:52 Well, he sees on the one hand his duty to evangelize and to press upon all men the claims of Christ. But he also sees certain facets of truth that seem to be incompatible with that duty of evangelism. Number one, he sees the fixity of the decree of election. He's studied the word elect, chosen, choose and its derivatives and he's come to the conclusion that the whole idea that election is nothing more or less than ratification by God of man's previous choice is just a butchering of the very words of Scripture.

8:32 And so he sees in Scripture statements like these, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. There is a people given to the Son who shall come. He has heard our Lord praying and thanking his Father that authority has been given to him over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as were given to him, indicating that not all were given to him and that a fixed number have been given to him. He hears Christ saying, other sheep I have already had them in my divine purpose and in my eternal love I have them, they're mine and them also I must bring.

9:15 So he sees there is a fixity in the decree of election. God has chosen a people and yet he says, I find in the same Scripture a mandate to preach the gospel to every creature. These two things don't seem to fit. And then as he studies his Bible he sees that there is a definite design and intent in the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

9:38 He reads the words of our Lord, I lay down my life for the sheep. And in the same chapter he says to certain people, you're not my sheep. The inference being very clear, I'm not laying down my life with a distinct intention. I have the intent of bringing you to myself.

9:58 He reads in Ephesians 5, Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. He hears our Lord praying in the 17th of John, for their sakes I sanctify myself. That is, set myself apart for the work of oblation and intercession as a great high priest. For their sakes, not the world but those whom thou hast given me.

10:24 Now since inviting men to Christ involves setting forth the provisions made for their forgiveness in the atoning work of Christ, how can there be a definite design coupled with an indiscriminate offer and then capped off with a sincere invitation? I mean, isn't this sort of tongue in cheek? It's a problem. Rooted in the decree of election, in the particular design of the atonement, and then the person who takes his Bible seriously discovers that that same Bible teaches that man is plagued with a moral and spiritual inability to savingly respond to the gospel.

11:07 Not a physical inability, but a disinclination of the will and the affections coupled with a darkness of the mind. Doesn't the word of God say, John 6, 44, no man can, can is a word of ability. If we keep on butchering the English language we won't be able to communicate at that point much longer. My son comes up to me and says, Daddy, can I do this?

11:31 And I look at him and I say, yes, you look strong enough to. Oh, what I mean, Daddy, is may I? I say, all right. Can is a word of ability.

11:39 May is a word of permission. Scripture says no man can come to me, a word of ability, except the Father which has sent me. Draw him. Is it not the clear teaching of Scripture that man is spiritually dead, Ephesians 2?

11:54 According to 1 Corinthians 2, 14, he cannot perceive the things of the Spirit of God. Romans 8, in verse 8, so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now, since an integral part of the invitation to Christ is urging upon men the immediate duty of repentance in faith, spiritual acts indeed, how can you urge upon men to do that which you know they cannot? That's a problem.

12:25 Have you ever wrestled with it? Have you lost any sleep over it? Have you expended any mental sweat over it? If not, it's because you've been taking a very surface reading of your Bible and a very shallow grappling with the truth contained therein.

12:40 And then, another contributing factor to the problem is the clear statement of Scripture that both faith and repentance are called God's gifts to men. In the face of passages like Acts 5, 31, 11, 18, and 2 Timothy 2, 26, in which Scripture clearly states that repentance is granted as the gift of God, in the face of passages like Acts 18, 27, where it speaks of those who believed through grace, it was a faith which came through the instrumentality of the operation of grace, Ephesians 2, verses 9 and 10, Philippians 1, 29, unto you it is granted or given to believe. How do you call upon men to do that which only God can give? Now, there's a problem. Now, if you've been content to just gloss over what Scripture teaches about the decree of election and the definite design of Christ's atonement and man's moral and spiritual inability and the fact that repentance and faith are the gifts of God, if you've been willing to gloss all of that over and just sweep it under the rug or just tag it for consideration at a later date, then you have no problem. But if you've taken those things seriously, I'm confident that this morning there's been conjured up in the memory of many a man here lonely hours of deep perplexity and wrestling

14:09 in which these things just seem to haunt you. How can I bring them together? I dare not, with the mandate of my Lord above me, say, preach the gospel to every creature. I dare not move away from that.

14:23 And yet no man can come. All that the Father giveth me shall come. I lay down my life for the sake of God. I lay down my life for the sheep.

14:35 There's the problem. It's a problem which every person taking seriously these aspects of Christian doctrine will sooner or later grapple with. Now, having considered who has the problem, let's ask the question, what shall we do with the problem? Well, know what some do?

Unacceptable Solutions: Dismissal or Distortion of Truth

14:53 Just dismiss the whole thing as irrelevant and unworthy to be grappled with. If so, may God have mercy upon you. For he's committed his word to you as a trust. In 1 Thessalonians 2, 4, as we were approved of God to be entrusted with the gospel, if you're made the trustee of a corporation, of a church, of any organization, it is your duty to preserve all that is included in that trust.

15:23 It is not up to you to sit as a judge over that trust and say, well, this aspect is important and that isn't, and to throw something. No, no. Whatever is put in your trust, you are to jealously guard and preserve. In discharging your obligation to the one who put you in that trust.

15:39 And the Apostle Paul says he looks upon the body of divine truth given to him as a trust from his God. And so there was no aspect that he felt he could just dismiss as irrelevant and unworthy of being grappled with. In fact, you'll be guilty of the blood of the souls of men if there's any aspect of the truth of God which you willfully and deliberately refuse to grapple with and to make a part of it. This is the heart of your proclamation of the truth of God.

16:10 For in the 20th chapter of Acts, as the Apostle is vindicating his own ministry to the Ephesian elders, he says, I take you to record this day I am pure from the blood of all men. Why? For I have not shunned to declare unto you a minimum amount of truth. No, no.

16:26 For I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. I'm clear from your blood because I've declared all that was committed to my trust. In other words, Paul recognized that God was wiser in knowing what sinners needed than he. And this idea that we are wiser than God, all sinners need to know is A-B-C.

16:52 Wait a minute. God's got 26 letters in the alphabet of truth. Who are you? Who am I?

16:58 A-B-C is all that's necessary. It's an affront upon the wisdom of Almighty God. And if we would be free from the blood of all men, we must be able to have some measure of this witness to our conscience that we have sought to declare the whole counsel of our God. In 2 Corinthians 4-1, the Apostle states it a little bit differently when he says, having received this ministry as we've received mercy, we faint not, but we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, a better translation, the hidden things of shame, things that would cause shame in the presence of God are men, we've renounced them, not handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation, the full display of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. I hope this conference will send some of you home with great problems. You say, you're a kind fellow. What did they put you on first thing in the morning for?

18:09 Maybe the best thing that ever happened to some of you, to go away absolutely drained, mentally wrestling, because for the first time in your life, you're taking seriously the whole counsel of God. So how are you going to deal with the problem? Some would dismiss it. I hope the Lord will deliver any from that.

18:34 Well, the second thing you can do is dismiss that aspect of the truth which causes the problem in a feverish penchant for logical consistency. On the one hand, you see the doctrines of grace, but you say, I cannot live with both, and you've grappled and wrestled, so you're going to conceive a way to make election simply ratification by God of man's previous choice. Well, isn't that wonderful? The word elect no longer means elect.

19:04 It now means ratification. Some have done this. I talked with a preacher at a conference a few months ago where I was privileged to minister to a group of preachers, and it's obvious this fellow has spent hours not wrestling with the biblical material and seeking by the Spirit of God to be brought to the place where he's at home with what God says, no matter how it jangles on his own idea of what is logical, but he has spent hours working out a very ingenious way to give lip service to these hard doctrines of election and the particular design of Christ's atonement while in his heart and in reality he's completely bleeding them out of Scripture. That's what some have done. We heard last night of Melanchthon's synergism the Lutheran position as I understand it that there is that moment when through the preaching of the Gospel and the operations of the Spirit when the sinner is suspended for just a moment above all the downward drag of his darkened mind and his perverse will and at that moment he's free to make a valid decision for or against and the moment the mind as it were turns in the direction of Christ then the grace of God takes up the work again and carries it on. It brings him up to here suspends him for a moment and if he'll twitch his head in that direction God will carry it on the rest of the way. Now you see that twitch

20:31 will end up eventually with the whole work being man's as the doctor so very clearly set before us last night. So that's one way you can handle the problem. Just dismiss those aspects of truth from the side of election and the inability of man which caused the problem. Isn't that in brief classic Arminianism?

20:56 Or in the other instance you can say no sir I'd rather sacrifice man than God. I'm going to cling to the throne rights of God to choose whom he will choose. To set his love upon those whom he will set his love and to bypass those whom he chooses to bypass. I won't sacrifice the throne rights of God but if God is truly sovereign then I can't see how I can urge upon men to do what they can't do and to tell them in some sense God desires their salvation when he never chose to save them.

21:33 I can't live with that inconsistency. So they focus upon all those areas of truth that clearly teach God's general desire God's benevolence God's sincere offer of mercy and they begin to manipulate them and hedge them up with conditions and with buts and ands and ifs and therefores. They do what some of you read in one of the recent editions of the banner Spurgeon quoting a fellow preacher gave him this illustration. A little schoolboy was out in the schoolyard and he had a nice bright shiny apple and he shined it all up.

22:10 There it was. And he held it out to his buddies and said, see that apple? He says, yeah. He said, that's all you'll have of it.

22:23 And he stuck it back in his pocket. One of his playmates was a bit more generous. He said, oh take it out of your pocket and give him a smell of it. So he took it out of the pocket and let him smell it and he stuck it in his pocket.

22:36 It went. God doesn't just show the apple of his salvation. And I say it reverently, God doesn't just shine it. He puts it to our lips and says eat.

22:43 And from eternity determined to I'm going to be the fellow that holds up the apple and puts it back in the pocket. That's how you can solve the problem. And this, of course, historically is the position of what has been called hyper-Calvinism. And you see what they both have at the foundation that makes them very comfortable with the idea that the apple is the apple and the apple is a miserable bedfellurs.

23:21 Here it is. It is this penchant for logical consistency that will make a man sacrifice the clear, obvious sense of Holy Scripture and unwillingness to live with what to us seems irreconcilable. A hard core of un-crucified rationality lies at the foundation of both. Well, you can do the first with the problem, unworthy of being grappled with, theological tempest in a teapot, forget it.

The Scriptural Approach: Embracing Revealed Truth and Inscrutability

24:01 Or in the second place, you can deny that aspect of truth which creates the problem. Or in the third place, and I trust this will be our reaction to the problem, we can embrace the clear declarations of the Word of God and follow wherever the hand of Scripture leads us. One servant of God said, and it's been a great help to me, faith is reason at rest in God.

24:33 Is reason, the Bible said, reason is never more reasonable than when it's willing, let me get it straight here now, reason does never show itself more reasonable than in ceasing to reason about things that are above reason.

25:00 You got it? And I trust by the grace of God, that will be the position to which God, God will bring us, that we will have consciences so held captive to the Word of God, it's plain and obvious meaning, consistent with the general testimony of Scripture. And there, we will rest, and from that position, we will labor. All right, we've dealt with the question, then, the problem.

25:27 Who has it? What is the essence of it? How shall we dispose of it? Now let's seek to come to the answer of Scripture.

25:36 As we do, I have two main... subheadings, number one, how to approach that answer, and two, the substance of that answer as it's found in Scripture.

25:45 Now, as we approach the answer of Scripture to this problem, for it's Scripture that raises it, how shall we approach it? May I suggest two principles must be kept before our minds continually. Number one, we must remember the basic distinction between the decrees of God and the duty of His creatures. Now, Scripture does not...

26:09 It does set before us a doctrine of the decrees of God. And it is set there for our profit. It will not do to say, well, over there in the Old Testament, somewhere it says, the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things that are revealed are to us and our children. Election, predestination, that's a secret thing, forget it, believe it, but don't preach it.

26:29 Wait a minute, no, no. Election and the decrees of God, that is not a secret thing. That's a revealed doctrine. He worketh all things after the coming of the Lord.

26:38 He worketh all things after the coming of the Lord. That is the counsel of His own will. For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever. The children, having not been born, and having done neither good nor evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, it was said...

26:56 No, no, the decree of God is a revealed truth. But there is a difference between the doctrine of God's decrees and the duty of His creatures. Just as the Word of God teaches a doctrine of the decrees of God, so it sets before us a doctrine of the duty of the creature. Now, what is to frame our volitional choices, our conscious planning, and our conscious efforts to extend the gospel of Christ?

27:31 Is it to be the decrees of God or our duties set forth in the precepts of God? Now, I think the answer is clear. If I'm asking the question, how shall I preach the gospel? How shall I evangelize?

27:46 How shall I invite men to Christ? Not by the decrees of God, but by putting my nose to the book and finding the precepts of God. If you stand, as it were, looking out upon life, saying, Now, I want to know my path of evangelistic duty. How shall I preach Christ?

28:11 How shall I invite men to Christ? And you're hoping that that path will be marked by a shadow cast from the burning light of the throne of God as that light passes over the form of His decrees. You'll look and look in vain. For there is no light from the throne of God to show me my duty.

28:40 He is marked out by the clear stakes of His priesthood. There it is! God says, walk down that way. Now, what keeps your spirit warm and confident as you do?

29:01 You know that back behind that impenetrable wall, all things are ordered and sure, and His purposes cannot fail. So no matter what I face walking that path marked by the stake of precept, I face it with confidence. Things are working together for my good and to His glory because He has decreed it. But whenever you start trying to get your duty determined, the shadows of confusion will enter.

29:37 This is not just theoretical with me. I'll never forget the first time when, it was in the summer of 1954, and I was down in the little, what would be called the white trash section of the South, the very poor section, ministering there in a little mission church, and someone gave me a Westminster Confession. Here it is. I still have it, the one that was given to me then.

30:00 They didn't give me Pilgrim's Progress, though, were they? They were only half-saved. And someone gave me another book that introduced for the first time the doctrine of predestination and the rest. And I'll never forget, as I read it through and looked at the proof text, and I thought, well, what am I doing here?

30:27 Here I've given up a good paying job for the summer because a text of Scripture wouldn't let me go home. I was going to school in the South, and I had a construction job waiting for me at home. I had no money to come back to school. I had to put myself through.

30:38 And the verse from Ezekiel kept coming back to me, Woe be to the shepherd that leaveth the flock. My dad came down to pick me up at school. I said, Dad, I can't do it. I can't go home.

30:48 I've got to stay with those people. I said, that text is haunting me. I go to sleep with it. I wake up with it.

30:52 I've got to stay with it. And there I was, staying with them out of, I trust, some genuine Christ-imparted love for their souls, pleading with them, holding home Bible studies, entreating them. And then all of a sudden I began to say, Wait a minute. If God has chosen something, how do I know?

31:06 Well, maybe I'm spending all this effort in vain. How do I know if the Lord has chosen a person in this place? And that thought began to haunt me, and I grappled with it until finally I said, No, this will just drive me crazy. And I put it all in my mind.

31:18 I pulled the shelf. I had nobody to guide me and help me. If only someone had been around to say, My brother, your duty to these people is not determined by or delineated by my decree, but by my precepts, it would have solved the problem and would have made a tremendous difference in the spirit in which I went about my labors. This is not a mere academic exercise.

31:45 As we approach the answer of Scripture, continually keep distinct the doctrine of the decree of God and the doctrine of the duty of man set forth in the precepts. And then secondly, as we approach the answer of Scripture, remember the inscrutability of the ways of God. Scripture says in Isaiah 55, 8 and 9, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts, and my ways above your ways.

32:21 Now, let me make very clear, this is not the irrationality of modern theology. No, no. God has revealed Himself in propositional truth, but it is the suprarationality of the disclosure of the mind of God. Since God is telling us things that are true about Him, we should not be surprised if we cannot understand and see the rationality of all that is clearly revealed.

32:52 My thoughts are not your thoughts. In the classic work on this whole subject of the three authors of the Gospel, Andrew Fuller, in introducing the subject, writes a paragraph that I wish to read at this time. Were a difficulty allowed to exist as to the reconciling of these subjects, the very things that I have introduced, the command to evangelize, coupled with the particularity of God's decree and the intent of the saving work of Christ, were a difficulty allowed to exist as to the reconciling of these subjects, it would not warrant a rejection of either of them. If I find two doctrines affirmed or implied in Scriptures, which to my feeble understanding may seem to clash, I ought not to embrace the one and reject the other because of their supposed inconsistency. For on the same ground, another person might embrace that which I reject and reject that which I embrace. And have equal scriptural authority for his faith as I have for mine. Yet in this manner many have acted on both sides.

34:02 Some taking the general precepts and invitations of Scripture for their standard, have rejected the doctrine of discriminating grace, precisely what I said earlier. Some embrace the one set and reject the other. On the other hand, others taking the declaration of the salvation of men being a fruit of electing love, deny that sinners without distinction are called to believe for the salvation of their souls. Hence it is that we hear of, quote, Calvinistic and, quote, Arminian texts, as though these leaders had agreed to divide the Scriptures between them.

34:37 The truth is, there are but two ways for us to take. Now get this. There are but two ways for us to take. One is to reject them both and the Bible with them on account of its inconsistencies.

34:52 The other is to embrace them both concluding that as they are both revealed in the Scriptures and are both true and both consistent, and that it is owing to the darkness of our understanding that they do not appear so to us. Those excellent lines of Dr. Watts in his hymn on election, one should think, must approve themselves to every pious heart. But, O my soul, if truth so bright should dazzle and confound thy sight, yet still his written will obey and wait the great decisive day.

35:31 That says it, doesn't it? So as we approach the subject, we must approach it from that perspective. And may I give just a little interesting aside that will sort of make this contemporaneous to many of us. This subject was assigned to me long before the running, I don't want to say feud, what's a better word, running discussion in the sword and trowel.

35:55 There is no planned arrangement between the subject matter of the sword and trowel and this conference, at least, except that there are plans made back there behind the veil that we're not aware of, but out here where we work. And it's interesting. I went through and analyzed the sermons and the articles, etc., and I found something that I think, without exception, appeared in this discussion.

36:22 Every article or sermon which dealt with the mainline position of historic Christianity, saying that there is a particularity of intent coupled with general exhortations and invitations and desire, or whatever other word you want to use, of the salvation of all men, there was some sentence or paragraph admitting that the fusion of these things lay in the realm of the supra-rational in our present state. And almost a proud confession that they were glad to have it so. However, in the other articles, I'm extracting a phrase from one of them. It said, Since God has not saved all men, we may then conclude rightly that He does not desire the salvation of all men. Oh, wait a minute. Oh no, we may not therefore conclude.

37:23 That's taking a premise of Scripture and forcing upon it a conclusion of human rationality, which we are not warranted in doing. If I want to know God's desire to all nature, I will bring the eternal God to the bar of human lust. Now, if any who were involved in this are here, I wouldn't know if I'm looking out. Please do not take this as a personal affront or slap.

37:52 In no way is it that. But I do believe it's a very valid observation. And as I read those articles and reread some of them and scoured them looking for this, it struck me that apparently those who've been willing to live with this tension have acknowledged the problem and have taken the course that Fuller sets before us. Live with both and wait that great, decisive day.

The Substance of the Answer: Indiscriminate Invitation in Scripture

38:18 All right. Now moving from the approach to the problem, what is the answer of Scripture to the problem? What does Scripture say concerning this whole matter of the free offers of God? Let's look at the Gospel.

38:34 I lost the sheet here somewhere. Here we are. The substance of the answer. May I give it to you in several propositions?

38:41 Number one. In Scripture, all men are invited without discrimination to the blessings of salvation through Jesus Christ. This invitation comes in the form of entreaty, pleas, commands, exhortations, and gracious promises addressed to all men indiscriminately. We see it, first of all, in the prophets.

39:07 And I am merely being selective, by no means exhausted. As I mentioned earlier, I hope this study this morning will simply be a catalyst to spring loose some independent study and research. In Isaiah 55, verses 1 to 7, we have a classic illustration of this in the ministry of the prophets. Oh, everyone that thirsteth.

39:28 Ah, but says the brother who would put conditions, it's only to the thirsty, those who are hungry after salvation. Let's not make the conclusion so quickly. Come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

39:47 Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Here are people wholly involved in what we call a materialistic pursuit, hoping to find satisfaction in the expenditure of energy and money in the work of God. They are in the pursuit of things. They are thirsting, not for God, satisfaction, and they hope to find it in things.

40:14 And the prophet says, Hey, you're being foolish. You're thirsting and trying to quench your thirst. There, here's the only place it can be quenched. Buy wine and milk without money and without price.

40:29 Incline your ear, etc. Then verses 6 and 7, Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Who, only convinced sinners?

40:39 Sinners greatly disturbed and agitated? No, let the wicked forsake his way. He's speaking to men who are fixed in a course of wickedness, and he calls upon them to seek the Lord. Why should they seek him?

40:53 If there's no desire for their salvation. If there's no promise of mercy. If there is no genuine offer of grace. Ah, but there is, for he has said, Come, there are waters, there is wine, there is bread.

41:11 If you forsake your way, let him return unto the Lord, for he will have mercy upon him unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon. We see essentially the same thing in the sixth chapter of Jeremiah. In the interest of time, we'll not turn to it. Jeremiah 6 in verse 16, God calls men to seek the old paths and to walk therein to find rest to the soul.

41:35 What kind of people were they? Verses 10 and 13 describe them. They were in a sad state spiritually, no evidence of even the first dawnings of desire after God, and yet the offer and the call and the entreaty comes in their state of impenitence. We find in the ministry of our Lord that same note sounded.

41:56 Mark 1 verses 15 and 16, From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent ye, and believe, the gospel for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he went into places, where he had to upbraid them for their unbelief, yet he exhorted and called them to immediate repentance and faith. And if the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that repentance that is genuine is always coupled with faith, and faith that is genuine always has reference to the provisions of the gospel set before men. And so our Lord preached an indiscriminate, general offer of mercy.

42:35 He said to those blinded, hardened Jews in John 12, verses 28 to 37, another passage I commend for your serious study, he sets himself before them as the one in whom there is all light and life, and he says to these very Jews with whom he is debating, into whom he has entered in dialogue, to use our contemporary term, verse 36, While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be children of the light. Verse 37, But though he had done so many miracles before them, they believed not on him. To a hardened people, made hard by not only the words of Christ, but even the amazing miracles of Christ, he says, Believe on me, no condition set before these hardened sinners, and the duty of immediate faith and trust in the Savior. We find essentially the same in John 6, 26 to 35. And then of course in our Lord's great commission, in Luke 24, 45 to 47, he opens unto them the scriptures, shows them that Christ must suffer, be raised from the dead, and that repentance unto remission of sin should be preached among all the nations. I ask the question, how can you preach remission of sin to all the nations if you hedge up the way with all kinds of conditions?

44:00 You'll spend all your time examining the condition of every individual before you dare tell him there is remission. If you'll stack arms and vow to the Savior. And then of course in the apostolic ministry we find the same thing. There's an interesting contrast between Acts 2, 37 and following, and Acts 3, 19.

44:22 In Acts 2, while Peter's preaching, men are pricked to the heart, and they say, What shall we do? Peter says, Repent and be baptized. In Acts chapter 3, the same Peter's preaching, there's no record of any pricking of the heart, and yet he gives the same command to what we would call, indifferent sinners. Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.

44:43 Why has God put the two so close together? I think to teach us something. We might infer from the second chapter of Acts that until men say, What must we do? We have no right to say, Repent.

44:53 So right square off in the third chapter, no indication of a pricking of heart, no indication of disturbance. He gives the same direction. Repent ye therefore. An indiscriminate call coupled with the promise of forgiveness and grace.

45:09 We find that given to an individual in the eighth chapter of Acts, verses 21 to 23. This man of whom Peter could say, I perceive that thou art still in the bond of iniquity and the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. What does he say? Repent therefore and pray to the Lord if perhaps the thought of thine heart be forgiven.

45:28 Acts 17.30 on Mars Hill, with these Athenian philosophers, God commanded all men everywhere to repent. The Apostle's own testimony in Acts 20.21 and 26.20.

45:40 He testified to Jews and Greeks an indiscriminate message. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. How do you preach repentance toward God and faith to Christ unless you set Christ forth as a willing, able Savior who delights in the salvation of all who come unto Him? Impossible.

46:02 And so we have these indications in the ministry of the Apostles. Of the prophets and of our Lord Himself that there is a genuine, indiscriminate offer of grace in the form of commands, pleas, promises and entreaties. In summing up, let me say, and I use here now the simple five points that Ian Murray had in his article discussing the marrow controversy, that the offer that these men saw taught in Scripture was a free, unfettered offer it was in the second place a particular offer to you is the word of this salvation sent. Thirdly, it's a sincere offer.

46:45 God doesn't have His tongue in His cheek. It's a commanding offer. This is His commandment that we should believe in the name of His Son. 1 John 3.23 And it is an urgent and a solemn offer. It has those awful overtones He that believeth not shall be damned. And it's interesting that in historical perspective the seal of God has been most obvious upon those men and movements that have held tenaciously to the distinguishing doctrines of grace but have preached powerfully an unfettered gospel. The Holy Ghost is born witness with some of the most glorious periods in the history of the Church.

The Basis of the Gospel Offer: Command, Desire, and Provision

47:35 I'm merely seeking to set forth, I'm sure, very inadequately, but I trust with some degree of biblical accuracy the position espoused by the McShanes and the Bonars and the Spurgeons and the Whitfields. And you can go right down the line. Certainly no one would question the strictness of the orthodoxy of the framers of the Confession. And listen what they say.

47:59 Terms that shocked me when I first came to the doctrines of grace and hadn't wrestled through in some of these areas. Chapter 10 of the Confession. God, in infinite and perfect love, having provided in the covenant of grace through the mediation and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ a way of salvation, sufficient for and adopted to the whole lost race of man, doth freely offer this salvation to all men in the gospel. In the gospel God declares His love for the world and His desire that all men be saved reveals fully and clearly the only way of salvation, promises eternal life to all who repent and believe in Christ.

48:43 It is the duty and privilege of everyone who hears the gospel immediately to accept its merciful provisions. They who continue in impenitence and unbelief incur aggravated guilt and perish by their own fault. Well, what then is the basis of this offer? If the answer of Scripture is that there is this indiscriminate offer, what is the basis of it?

49:06 What right do you have as a minister to make this kind of offer? What warrant does a sinner have who comes to you and says, on what basis can I expect that God will accept even me? May I suggest three things? Number one, the clear command of God to all men without distinction.

49:27 If there were no other text, I should rest the whole case upon Acts 17.30. But now God commandeth all men everywhere to repent because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. What a gracious command!

49:46 If a group of people had rebelled against their sovereign and had been corralled and were now under the sentence of death, if the king should send forth a command and say, cease from your rebellion, come and dwell in my palace, what a gracious command! The very command grips with grace, the king is disclosing his heart. I want you in my palace, I don't want you under condemnation. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.

50:15 We usually think of that as God in his righteous anger against men in their rebellion and impenitence saying, come and bow. Oh no, don't say it that way. It's come and bow. All the difference in the world.

50:30 The command is diffused with, is suffused with grace. In Jeremiah 17, in Jeremiah 7, 27, God told the prophet to go out and preach and then he says, I've got good news for you, they're not going to hear you, but tell them anyway. I was struck with that. We're reading through Jeremiah in our prayer meeting and here God commands him to go preach to the people and then he gives them a wonderful promise of success.

50:54 He said, they aren't going to hear you. So Jeremiah's out there preaching, bleeding from his heart as he entreats the people to repent in the light of impending judgment and someone comes and says, Jeremiah, why are you preaching? He said, one reason. God who laid hold of me as a young priest in Anathoth, that God came to me and said, you preach.

51:18 That's my reason. And if there were no other warrant to preach a free, unfettered gospel, if God would somehow reveal to us that not one more soul will be saved until his second coming, preach it we must. We have a mandate from our God and ours is to obey. The preacher needs no higher motive than this, does he?

51:44 And may I say a sinner needs no greater encouragement. If God commands me to repent, he's in repentance. And there's mercy for penitent sinners. I may come and venture on him.

51:58 The clear command of God is at the basis of the three offers of mercy. Secondly, the expressed desire of God toward men. Does he sincerely desire the salvation of all men? Does he delight in showing mercy?

52:16 A text that I've not seen used in any of the discussion of this, but to me is a very powerful one, is Romans 2 and verse 5. May we look at it for a moment? Paul is seeking to break the consciences of men with the holy law of God, to bring them to a sensibility of their need of the salvation of Jesus Christ. He says in verse 4 and 5 of Romans 2, Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, that is, God's goodness, and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? He says you utterly misinterpreted God's goodness. Here you are going on in this state of hypocrisy. Preaching to others, don't do this but doing it yourself.

53:12 You've got light in the conscience by virtue of truth, but there is no affection for that light in the heart and no commensurate conformity to that light in the life. The heavens are not split, but they are split with judgment. You're not cut off in your sins. And he says, you're misinterpreting that longsuffering of God.

53:31 You treat him like that and he still sends rain upon your crops. You treat him like that and he still blesses you with a sweet wife and normal healthy children who love you in spite of all your wretchedness. You misinterpret all that goodness. You think that goodness is a leniency and indifference on the part of God to your sin.

53:50 No! God is showering that goodness upon you that it might move you. To repentance. Now if he doesn't sincerely desire the repentance of men, why does he show them with that which has as its very intent to lead them to repentance?

54:04 It's like my inviting you to my table and spreading it with good things and saying, but I don't really desire that you be full and enjoy them. No, no. The whole intent of spreading the table is I delight in having you fed to the full. I believe this is the strain of the Apostle's argument here at this point.

54:29 And the same with Acts 17.30 as I mentioned a moment ago. And that text that's been bandied about in the sword and trowel. All of you know it from memory by now.

54:39 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But I want to rest the case again on one key text. In Luke the 19th chapter and the 41st verse we read the record of our Lord coming into Jerusalem. And as he beheld that city it says that he wept over it.

55:00 And he said, Oh, if only you knew the things that belonged to your peace. Luke 19 and verse 41. He wept over it. Now remember what is said of our Lord.

55:15 It is said in the first place that he has revealed the Father. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.

55:33 I do always the things that please my Father. May I suggest we are far more biblical when we seek to read the heart of God in the life of Christ than in the abstract decorations of his attributes. I am not despising the latter. I have preached on the attributes of God.

55:57 But the whole drift of the scriptural revelation is that God has spoken with greatest clarity in his Son, in the enfleshment, in the enfleshment of the second person of the Trinity. Now I ask this very simple question. If you were to see the Lord Jesus as one of his disciples, and whether they were there to behold this, I don't know if the context indicates very clearly, it would seem to indicate that they saw this. And you beheld the Son of God without a trace of Solomon's head of Christ effeminacy.

56:30 If you have got one of those pictures around, get it off your wall. It will ruin your appreciation of Christ in the totality of the beauty of his person. All that is truly pure and beautiful in what is feminine is in Christ, yes. But all that is beautiful in that which is masculine is in Christ.

56:49 And Solomon just captures the feminine. And I think it's done much to give the anemic, bloodless kind of a concept. But that's neither here nor there. I don't know how I got on that.

56:58 But now you picture the Lord Jesus coming into Jerusalem. And as he looks over the city, you see him drop his head and you watch his back begin to heave with sighs of brokenness. And you hear the muffled restrained sobs. And you see the tears coursing down his holy face.

57:26 And you hear him murmur these words, Oh, if only you knew the things that belong to you. What would you conceive of the heart of God toward Jerusalem? If you had any spiritual sensitivity, you would understand that there was a genuine, expressed desire of God for the salvation of all that were in that city. And you'd be reading rightly the revelation of God made in Jesus Christ.

58:00 Because God has expressed his desire for the salvation of all men, we may in treatment come to the Savior. Look to the Lamb. Ah, but you say, Brother Martin, you're so inconsistent. Here, 45 minutes ago, you talked about that there is a decree of election.

58:22 Yes, Scripture teaches it. But the same Scripture that teaches Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, the purpose of election shall stand. Sets the picture of the sobbing, heaving breast of the Son of God leaping over a city that rejected the overtures of grace. And faith lays hold of hope and reason.

58:49 Then there's one other text, Revelation 3.20. If God doesn't have a genuine expressed desire for the salvation of men, this text is not understandable. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

59:16 And what is that knocking? That knocking is the overtures of grace and mercy that come in the preaching of the Gospel. The Lord doesn't say, I stand outside for you to admire me, to look at the apple. I knock.

59:31 What does anyone knock at your door for? Not for exercise. He wants in. He wants in.

59:39 I stand at the door and knock. Granted, the subject that I'll deal with the Lord willing Friday morning, Scripture teaches there are some to whom the Lord does more than knock in the overtures of grace. By his mighty irresistible power he so disposes the sinner against everything that he is by nature to fling wide the door and say, Lord Jesus, come. But his knock is nonetheless genuine.

60:09 And sincere in those for whom he never does that extra work of effectual calling. And then in the third place, the basis of this general offering, the clear command of God, the expressed desire of God, thirdly, the adequate provision of God. If men are to be sincere in preaching a free and full Gospel, they must be convinced there's an adequate, suitable, available remedy for all to whom the Lord preaches. I can't preach to all indiscriminately unless I am convinced there's a remedy adequate, suitable and available for all to whom I preach.

60:51 And if sinners are to believe, they must likewise be convinced of the same. This was the thrust of the apostolic preaching. They didn't set forth the secret design of the atonement in preaching the Gospel. They believed it.

61:05 And in the epistles the apostle writes very clearly of it. But when they're preaching, what do they say in evangelism? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. There He is, an able, willing, suitable, available Savior.

61:22 Cast yourself upon Him. We must be convinced that the particularity of the atonement lies not in its insufficiency to save more but in the sovereignty of its application in the purpose of God. So we may say to all that Christ offers Himself as a perfect, able and willing Savior. And whether men believe or not, that's still true.

61:46 If nobody believes, He's still a willing, able, perfect Savior. I submit that these three things are beautifully seen in the parable of the marriage feast. And again, in the interest of time we can't turn and look at all the factors. May I just suggest them?

62:03 Luke 14, 15 and following. The feast was prepared and the command went out. Come for all things are ready. Come.

62:13 There's an express desire on the part of the ruler of the feast that you be there. If he didn't want you there he wouldn't say come. And then there's an adequate provision. All things are ready.

Practical Conclusions: Maintaining Balance in Ministry

62:26 The table's spread. You have those factors involved in that great section of our Lord's parable. Well, very briefly then, some practical conclusions and exhortations and I can only mention them. Number one, holding the balance of truth in this area is essential to the life and being of and well-being of our churches.

62:48 If it's all inviting and urging without clear preaching on the source of God's excuse me, without tracing the source of God's saving work to election and to the definite design of the purchase of Christ you'll end up with the impression that man holds his destiny in his own hands and eventually it leads to the activism and three-ring circusism that's so much prevalent on the other hand if we declare the distinguishing doctrines of grace without pressing upon man immediate repentance I challenge you to find anything in the New Testament where our Lord or the Apostles exhorted men to use the means the immediate repentance and faith was pressed upon them people to the place squirm out from under the guilt of their unbelief and they say well I'm a sincere seeker oh you are in unbelief in penitence you're a sincere seeker God says you're under the wrath he that believeth not shall be damned in the guilt of unbelief Abel said so clearly we are in

64:04 and cannot come I shall never forget when a girl in her early twenties has since gone to be with the Lord all the way from Diana the Lord had to bring her into our area and when she came before our elders to give her testimony as a candidate for baptism at one point I'll never forget she said I sat under the preaching of the words and she said I knew I had to repent but I couldn't and I began to call mercy like a blind beggar Jesus is passing by son of David to maintain the balance of truth that is essential to the life and well being of our churches holding the balance of truth will make your ministry a mystery to many make you a mystery Romans 9 Paul starts out with a broken heart he said oh hold me oh my he said in the chapter blaming their unbelief not on God's decree but on them they sought it not by faith but unbelief

65:32 will you scratch your head and say what kind of double talk is this he got a broken heart to think and then he says to be saved are saved because of the decree of election but those it's their fault you were one of the disciples and saw in that day coming into Jerusalem sobbing broken heart and then you were happened to be listening in John 17 sobbing rejoicing so if you get the accusation and they come the next week and they scratch their head and say there you are with tears pleading with sinners how in the world do you put those two things together if your ministry isn't a mystery to men there's something lopsided about it the apostles ministry and our Lord's ministry were mysteries I say then in the third place grasping this balance is not a matter of merely academic exercise I quote John Newton in his book The Lord favors you with a lively sense of the greatness of the trust the worth of the souls committed to your charge and fills your heart with constraining love many little curious distinctions

Final Exhortation: True Invitation vs. Physical Acts

66:57 which amused you at other times will be forgotten your soul will go forth with your words and while your heart yearns for poor sinners you'll not hesitate a moment whether you ought to warn them of their danger or not maybe this is the problem some of you have had you're hiding your calloused hiding your calloused heart behind some theological tiptoeing if you have a broken heart for sinners your reflex action in the presence of sinners will be to warn entreat please exhort invite them to the Savior and then I conclude with one last exhortation please don't confuse inviting men to Christ with inviting them to any place in the church or any physical act I was preaching at a conference last summer and I sensed a measure of discernment or did have at that time that God was pleased to draw near in the preaching of the word I was preaching on the law and trying to apply it to the consciences of sinners knowing that though the warrant of faith is the command of God the way to faith men must see their lostness and I was trying to bring them along the way to faith and as I came to a conclusion in my message I was exhorting sinners to look to Christ who bore in himself the awful brunt of broken law and then I happened to say this I said now as I plead with you to look to Christ come to Christ if he were at the end

68:26 of your fingers I'd ask you to raise your hand if he was at the front of this tabernacle I'd ask you to come but he's not here he's not there he's as near as the hand of faith that lays hold of him you'd think I'd denied the deity of Christ everything else I said went down fairly smoothly but I'd like to cause a whole split in that conference because I dared to assert that inviting men to Christ has nothing to do with spiritual gymnastics nothing to do whatsoever you're warranted to invite men to Christ but my dear brethren I challenge you to find one principle or precept in scripture that warrants you to ever equate coming to Christ with a physical overt act I don't care who does it chapter and verse for the day shall try every man's work that is and your methodology will undergo the scrutiny of the eye of the Son of God in the light of his word as well as your theology may God help us to scripturally invite men to the Son of God and if we say we believe in the free invitations and offers brethren what an awful responsibility is upon us to entreat men with tears the hyper-Calvinist who says I don't believe in it and is a cold

69:54 heartless preacher who has existed with his theology but if we who claim to believe these things God's command God's desire God's provision if we aren't warm and earnest and clear and entreating and using every motive to press upon the minds of men God have mercy upon us for the inconsistency of our life and our doctrine