of Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient promise. And here he quotes from a couple of the Psalms. He quotes from Isaiah 55 that we read last week. And he points here to Jesus as the fulfillment and the realization of this ancient promise of deliverance. And now then, picking up with verse 38, “Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.”
It’s a message of judgment. Skip down to verse 46. Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you,” that is, to the Jews. “Since you thrusted aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'” And there he quotes from Isaiah the prophet in chapter 49, one of the servant songs of the servant of the Lord. “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth,” not just to Israel.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. Notice, by the way, this is Luke’s—one of his regular regroups as he traces the apostolic ministry throughout the ancient world. He’ll stop and say the word of the Lord grew and was multiplied and so many were saved. In this case, he says it, speaks of it in terms of heaven’s perspective: “as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” So there’s our idea of God’s sovereignty and salvation.
“And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region, but the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
Let’s bow for prayer. Our Father, we are so grateful for this gospel message that is proclaimed in truth throughout all of these centuries, that in Jesus there is forgiveness of sins for all who will come. We pray that you will clarify in our understanding both that this gospel is for all who will hear and that Jesus will save all who will come, and that we may, without hesitation, offer him in salvation to anyone who will hear. Help us to see that, and help us to see in that the greatness of our God’s heart towards sinners. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
The New Testament Characterizations Of Paul’s Ministry
Well, this was a passage that I skipped last time because of the time, but I wanted to see it again just to show here again and in Paul’s preaching, he offers the blessings of Christ. He offers the blessings of the gospel to those who, as it turned out, refused him. Nonetheless, he offers the gospel indiscriminately to anyone who will hear him. It’s a free and indiscriminate offer to all who will hear.
Last time we traced that through many passages, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Today I want to track that out in just a little bit different way in the New Testament. It’s a closely related idea, but here we’ll look at the New Testament characterizations of the Apostle Paul’s ministry. How does Luke characterize Paul’s ministry? How does Paul himself characterize his ministry? Particularly with regard to this question of the free offer of the gospel. Can the gospel be offered freely and indiscriminately to anyone, anywhere? Can you go to anyone and say, “If you will believe, you will be saved”? And we’ll see from the characterizations of Paul’s ministry that he thought exactly that.
And I think maybe some of these passages might even be a bit surprising to some, especially given our insistence on divine sovereignty and salvation. But I want you to see how these fit together. And then, at least by the time we get through the message, I want to then regroup and address some of those theological objections that we raised last time. So here we’re looking at how does the New Testament characterize the ministry of the Apostle Paul?
Look over a couple of pages, and again, we’ll be going to a lot of different passages. Look at chapter 17. Acts 17, verse 17. Here Paul is in Athens, and what I want you to be alert to in these passages in Acts is the terminology that’s used to describe Paul’s ministry. Terminology like Paul pleading, begging, reasoning, and persuading people to come to Christ. Here in chapter 17, verse 17, in Athens, it says, “So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.” Well, the word there in the Greek is just what it is in the English. He reasoned with them. He says, “Look at this, look at the evidence.” Dispute, argue—that’s the sense of what he’s doing here.
So you can see him in the synagogue, for example, taking up a scroll of Isaiah or some of the Psalms that are so obviously prospective of Messiah. And he’s demonstrating how obviously they were fulfilled in Jesus. And he argues with them, “Can’t you see, this points to Jesus? Can’t you see that Jesus fulfills what that said?” He’s reasoning with them and trying by that to persuade them to believe.
You can see again in chapter 18 and verse 19, we have the same word used again. “And they came to Ephesus and he left them there,” that is his traveling companions, “but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.” So we have here a first glimpse of Paul’s ministry as that of, can we say, debate? Picking an argument, not in the most pugilistic sense, but picking an argument. Say, “Look, look at these passages. Who does that talk about? And if it’s not Jesus, who is it?” He’s raising the point and arguing with them and reasoning with them to show them that this and that passage points us to Jesus.
Now, lest you think that that’s just a mere intellectual exercise, look back at chapter 18 and verse 4. Here Paul is in Corinth. And notice the expression that’s used here in verse four: “And he reasoned,” there’s our word again, “he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.” Tried to persuade, tried to convince, tried to win them. It’s a favorite word of Luke. We’ll see it in several other passages that he uses throughout the book. He’s describing Paul’s evangelistic ministry as an effort to persuade people to become Christians, to persuade people to believe in Christ. And so it was Paul’s regular practice to reason with men and women from the scriptures, and by that reasoning, try to persuade them to believe and be saved.
Now it’s clearly reflective of Paul’s understanding that the gospel is to be offered indiscriminately. He goes into a new place, starts the same thing over again, reasons from the scriptures, and by that reasoning tries to persuade them: “Believe in Jesus and be saved.” That’s Paul’s ministry.
Look at chapter 19 and verse 8. Here Paul is in Ephesus and says he entered the synagogue and for three months he spoke boldly, and here’s our two words again, “reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.” Chapter 19, verse 26—he’s still in Ephesus here. And here we have a man by the name of Demetrius. He’s a silversmith, and he makes his living in a large way, shaping silver-coated idols of various kinds for the false worship that’s so characteristic of the paganism of his area. Paul comes in, preaches the gospel, reasons and persuades, and people come to Christ and they believe, and now it’s hurting Demetrius’ business. And that’s where it really hurts. And so in Acts 19, verse 26, he says, “You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but almost in all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people saying that gods made with hands are not gods.”
So here we have someone on the other side of the fence characterizing Paul’s ministry as one of persuasion. “He’s come in here and he’s persuaded you that you don’t need to buy my idols. That can’t be right!” And of course, this is what follows in the context as we have something of a riot that’s stirred up against the Apostle Paul. But note here again that Demetrius sees Paul also as having a ministry of persuading people and convincing them to believe.
Look at chapter 26. Acts chapter 26. Now here for a larger context, in chapter 24 and following, Paul has spent now two years in prison in Caesarea. He uses his audience with Felix, the local official. He uses that audience for a gospel witness. In chapter 25, in the midst of the chapter there, around verse 13, now he’s brought to Jerusalem where he stands before King Agrippa. And just as he did with Felix, now he uses his occasion with Agrippa as an occasion for the witness of the gospel as well. And what we see now in chapter 26, verse 28, is King Agrippa uses the same word to describe Paul’s efforts with him. Verse 28 of chapter 26: “Agrippa said to Paul, ‘In a short time, you would persuade me to be a Christian?'”
Now, whether we understand this as some of the translations have reflected it as, “So soon I’m going to become a Christian?” or “You’ve almost made me a Christian?” Or is it a pejorative statement? “You’re trying to do it so quickly to make me a Christian too?” Whatever the exact sense of it, we see that Agrippa here understands Paul as pressing and urging and trying to persuade him to come to faith in Christ. That’s Paul’s ministry everywhere he goes. That was it with Felix; now it is with Agrippa as well. That’s what Demetrius complained about. Everywhere he goes, he’s trying to convince people, persuade them to be a Christian. Now again, it doesn’t use the words of free offer of the gospel, but you can see how it reflects that—that this is Paul’s practice. He goes everywhere, pressing men and women everywhere to believe.
Chapter 28 and verse 23. Paul now is in Rome, and he requests to speak with the Jewish leaders there. He’s under house arrest and they come then to talk to him. He tells them the story of how he got there to Rome because of the Jews being upset with him in Jerusalem and so on. And beginning with verse 23, he says to the Jewish leaders in Rome, it says, “When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God, and here’s our word again, trying to convince them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.”
So here again, Paul takes the scriptures, he does the same thing he does everywhere else. He has an audience now with the local Jewish leaders in Rome and he opens up his Bible and says, “Look at here, that’s Jesus, he has come, this is what happens. Don’t you see that? Believe on him and be saved.” And it says, picking up the next verse, “And some were convinced.” So there we have that word again. He’s trying to convince, and some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved and, disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: ‘Go to this people and say you will indeed hear but never understand.'”
This is Isaiah chapter 6. “Here you will indeed hear but never understand and you will indeed see but never perceive for this people’s heart has grown dull and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes have been closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. They will listen.” He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
Now again in verse 23, we have Luke’s broad characterization of Paul’s ministry in Rome. He’s trying to persuade people, trying to persuade them to become a Christian. Now I should clarify here, don’t read that in terms of contemporary evangelical lingo—talk them into praying his prayer and be saved. He’s urging them to believe in Christ. “Don’t you see that he is God’s appointed savior? Do you see the evidence? Do you see the scriptures? Believe on him and be saved.” And he’s pressing everyone he can come in contact with to come in faith to Jesus. And he does that, as we see here again in this passage, for many who ultimately refuse him. He presses the gospel, urges them to believe, even though many of them turned away finally to refuse.
All right, so we have seen now Luke’s characterization of Paul’s ministry as one of attempting to persuade people to become a Christian. Others on the other side of the fence see it the same way. Now we look at some passages in Paul himself. Look at 1 Corinthians 9. I want you to see that Paul uses the same kind of terminology. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 19, a verse we looked at in Sunday school this morning. Here’s Paul’s own characterization of his ministry: “Though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.” The idea is, again, that of persuading. It’s a different word in the original. Same idea of persuading or winning over or winning someone. I think the—and notice the end of the verse—”that I may win more of them.” If you have a New International Version here, it translates it “that I might win as many as possible.” That’s a stretched-out sense of what Paul is saying here. I’m trying to win as many people as possible.
In other words, Paul is not sorting out among people who has an “Elect” stamped on their forehead, and to them I’ll press the message of the gospel. But to all of them, as many as possible, whoever will hear, he presses them with the message of Christ and tries to persuade them to believe.
Look at 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 11. Here Paul uses that same word “persuade” himself, characterizing his evangelistic work. “Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.” That’s my work. I’m trying to persuade men and women to become Christians, to believe in Christ and be saved.
Look at verse 20 of the same chapter, 2 Corinthians 5:20. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.” An ambassador is a spokesman for Christ, a representative. “When I speak, I speak for Christ.” That’s what he’s saying. “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” A couple of terms are used here. “God making his appeal.” That word has a wide range of meaning of pleading, exhorting, beseeching, entreating. But notice how he specifies what he means by it by the next word: “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” That is, we beg you.
So here we have Paul pleading with people, begging them: “Come to Christ and be saved.” In the context, he’s speaking of the reconciling work of Christ and his cross—that God imputes the sin of the world to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to us. And that’s how we become saved. And so, since this reconciliation has been accomplished, I beg you, be reconciled to God. This is Paul’s ministry, pressing people with the urgency of the need of faith.
And what is particularly interesting here in this verse is that it is God and Christ who are making the appeal through Paul. It is not just Paul himself pressing, but he says, “I’m an ambassador for Christ. God is making this appeal through us.” He’s an ambassador, he’s the spokesman, but it is God ultimately who is making this—if we can call it this—attempt to persuade men and women to believe. “Come and be reconciled to God.” God then is the one making the offer of salvation. And so to plead with sinners, to beg them, beseech them, and try to persuade them is simply to preach the gospel in the spirit of the one who has sent us. That’s his heart toward sinners.
Well, this then is Paul’s practice: persuading people, convincing people, reasoning with them, pleading with them, entreating them to be saved, seeking to win as many as possible. His ambition is to persuade as many people as possible to come to Christ and be saved. Now again, that does not mean that he’s trying to get mere decisionalism. We don’t have to read this in terms of modern, contemporary evangelical cheapened gospels. “If you pray this prayer and say these words, you can be saved.” But he is pressing them nonetheless, and pressing them: “Believe in Jesus Christ. Come to him and be saved. And if you come, you will be saved.” He tells us in 2 Corinthians 2 that he does not cheapen the gospel in order to make it more palatable. He won’t do that. He presses the gospel in all of its exclusive claims of Christ, and he pleads with people to come to Christ and bow before him and be saved, and he makes that plea indiscriminately to all.
Addressing Theological Objections
All right, so we have seen now last time a seemingly endless list of passages where God or God’s spokesmen make an appeal freely and indiscriminately for anyone who will hear to come and be saved. Here we’ve seen that that’s the characterization of Paul’s ministry himself, that it’s characterized as an attempt to persuade men and women to believe. And now what I want to do is take up some of the objections that I mentioned at the beginning last time. It has been argued that this doctrine of the free offer of the gospel is actually inconsistent with Reformed theology. If you believe that God chooses whom he will save, then why would you offer the gospel to the non-elect and so on?
So let’s take up some of those objections. The first one is just a little bit broader, and that is that the free offer of the gospel would be inconsistent with God’s majesty. So the idea here is that it would be demeaning for God to offer himself to sinners who ultimately refuse him. It’s not worthy of God to speak of him as stooping so low to offer himself to people who just spurn him. That’s an insult, and that’s not worthy of God.
I’d like to answer that in three steps. Number one, I’ll go one up on you. It would be in a very important sense. It would be beneath God to offer himself to any sinner. The very idea of the majestic eternal God offering himself to a sinner, whether that one will believe or not, is just astounding. And yet, here’s the second step of the answer: he does it. And that’s why I’ve spent so much time looking through all of those verses, particularly last time, to show that time and time and time again, God offers himself to the unbelieving. In Isaiah 55, he presents himself as a peddler on the street corner, trying not to peddle his wares, but to give them away. Remember? “Why do you spend your money and your efforts and your resources on these things that don’t satisfy? I’m trying to give it to you for free, without money and without price.” God stands with his arms outstretched to a disobedient and a rebellious people. This is what God does.
You may say that it is beneath him to do it, but the fact is he does it. And that takes us to the third step of the answer. Number one, I’ll go one up on you and say it’s beneath God to offer himself to any sinner. Number two, he does it. And therefore, number three, we have to recognize that this gracious and compassionate stance of God towards sinners is part of his self-revelation that he wants us to know. He wants us to know that he is this kind of a God with a great heart towards sinners. He wants us to know, “I would, but you would not.” He wants us to know that he’s that kind of a God. It is one great aspect of his glory and that is why he has revealed it to us.
And so, in other words, we will not think rightly about God. We will not adore him as we ought to until we recognize that he is this kind of a God with such a heart of compassion to rebel sinners that he stoops to offer himself to them, even if they refuse. The Bible abounds with affirmations of God’s love and his kindness, his beneficence and his loving kindness towards sinners. The Bible abounds with that. We call it common grace. And in that, he has a sincere and a well-meant offer: “Come and be saved. If you will—if you will come, I will save you.” And it is a very important—it is a truncated view of God that we have until we see him having that kind of a compassionate heart towards sinners. Even if he is refused, even though the insult, his patient repeated offer—he stands there offering himself to those who will come. Very important that we recognize that about God.
The Free Offer Of The Gospel And The Doctrine Of Election
Well, let’s work through some more of the theological issues that have been raised against the free offer. And next would be the free offer of the gospel and the doctrine of election. It is important to recognize that God chooses whom he will save, but it is also important to recognize the context in which we are taught that doctrine in the scriptures. And I like to put it this way: the sovereign decree of God to save some is not the context in the scriptures in which the gospel is presented. It’s just the opposite. And that is, God’s universal offer of salvation to sinners is the context in which we learn about the doctrine of election in the scriptures.
God does not start out by saying, “I’ll just save some,” and then go out and offer the gospel. God offers himself in salvation to all who will come. And in the face of universal, unanimous refusal, we learn of the doctrine of election so that his gospel purpose will succeed. We saw that already this morning in Acts chapter 13, when Luke is recording Paul’s ministry in Antioch of Pisidia. The word went out; many refused, some believed. You remember how Luke characterized it at the end in regrouping? “As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” The doctrine of election is presented to us in the scriptures in this context of a universal offer, and yet a universal refusal of that offer, and yet it is this doctrine of election that makes that offer successful.
We have the time. Let’s look at John chapter six. This is one of my favorite samples of this, on this point, and we have it in Jesus’ own teaching. Just such a marvelous passage, John chapter six. Here Jesus presents himself as the bread of life. And I don’t have time to work the context. He has fed the multitude, fed the 5,000, with the boy’s lunch. And now in the aftermath of that, they’re thinking, “Oh, this is a—if he can take a few loaves and a couple of fishes and feed all of us, let’s give him a couple of swords and a couple of shields and he can equip an army. This will work. This is good. We like this.”
And Jesus is not impressed with their motives in coming to him. In chapter six, verse—well, let’s pick it up with verse 26: “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.'” There we have Jesus offering himself in salvation again to those who refuse him—”which the Son of Man will give to you, for on him God the Father has set his seal.”
They said to him, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “What sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness as it is written: ‘He gave them bread to eat.'” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” Notice again, the free offer of the gospel. “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” And they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me,” there it is again, “whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you, that you have seen me and yet you do not believe.” Here he’s offered the gospel. They have their skewed motives. They won’t hear it. They want him for the wrong reasons. Jesus is not impressed. “I’ve told you, believe on me, you’ll be saved.” Verse 36: “But you won’t.” But then verse 37: “All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.”
Here we have Jesus reasoning exactly this way. The offer of the gospel goes out to all freely, indiscriminately: “Come and believe and be saved.” You won’t, but all that the Father gives me will. He reassures himself of the success of his saving mission in terms of the saving purpose of God in choosing whom he will save. But notice again, the broader context is that of the free offer of the gospel, and it’s in that context we’re brought to understand the doctrine of election, which is the means of the success of the gospel.
Well, there are plenty of passages like that. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul talks about that. We preach a message that the whole world thinks is stupid. It’s foolishness to the world. But to those who are the called, those whom God has chosen, that same message is the power of God, and it saves. So the free offer of the gospel is not inconsistent with the doctrine of election. It is the means of gospel success. The free offer of the gospel is in no way inconsistent with the doctrine of particularism—that God chooses whom he will save. And we should never fear to offer the gospel indiscriminately to anyone, but say with full confidence, “If you will believe, Christ will save you.” God positions himself toward the wicked as willing to save, and he pleads with them to come and be saved. And we have every warrant to say without hesitation, “Come to Christ and be saved.”
The Free Offer Of The Gospel And The Doctrine Of Human Inability
One other area of theological difficulty that’s been raised against the free offer of the gospel is the doctrine of human inability. The doctrine of total depravity entails this notion of inability because men and women are so enslaved to their sin, they’re rendered unable, incapable of coming. Now we have to understand that. What do we mean by human inability in this context? We are not saying, when we say this doctrine of human inability, we are not saying that the lost lack some kind of intellectual faculty to believe. They have everything it takes, except one thing, and that’s just the will to believe.
And so we come up with this expression that is defined in all kinds of ways just to make it confusing every time we use it: the doctrine of free will. What do we mean by that? Does it mean that men and women are neutral, hanging between good and bad, God and sin, and they’re free in the sense of able to go either way? The Bible doesn’t teach that, of course; they’re enslaved to their sin. But on another level, do we believe in free will? Well, yeah, if by that you mean you’re free to do whatever you want to do. But you see, that’s the problem. Your “want to” is corrupt. And that’s what renders you unable until the spirit of God moves. So do we believe in the freedom of the will? Well, let’s define the terms first, and then we’ll answer the question.
But the answer to it finally comes that the whole reason for your unbelief is just you. God says, “I will, I would, but you will not.” That’s the problem. We read that this morning, Pastor Greg leading us in the scriptures from John chapter 5: “You will not come to me.” That’s always the problem. “I would, but you would not.” It is your duty to believe. It is your fault if you don’t believe because the only thing holding you back is your “want to.” You don’t want to believe. And on that score, the Bible lays the blame and the guilt and the whole responsibility on the sinner himself.
All right, but still we have this doctrine of inability. Is it inconsistent to offer the gospel to people who are unable to respond? Let me read something. This is from Asahel Nettleton. Asahel Nettleton was an evangelist in the early 1800s, a very effective revivalist. He takes it this way:
There are many who think that they see a great inconsistency in the preaching of ministers. Ministers, they say, contradict themselves. They say and unsay. They tell us to do and then tell us we cannot do. They call upon sinners to believe and repent, and then they tell them that faith and repentance are the gift of God. They call on them to come to Christ and then tell them that they are unable to come to Christ. That some do preach in this manner, Nettleton says, cannot be denied. I well recollect one instance. A celebrated preacher in one of his discourses used this language: “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” And then in another discourse, this same preacher said, “No man can come to me except the Father which has sent me, draw him.” What do you think, my hearer, of such preaching and of such a preacher? What would you have said had you been present there to hear him? Would you have charged him with contradicting himself? This preacher, you will remember, was no other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, let me give some more clarifications then in that regard. Let’s say there is an unbeliever who has a genuine concern for his salvation, concern for his soul. He’s heard this doctrine of total depravity and inability, and he seems desperate because he’s unable to come. What do we say? I’ll take this in two steps.
Number one: don’t allow a theological puzzle to blind you from the clarity of Christ’s invitation to come and from your responsibility to come. Let me say it again. Don’t allow a theological puzzle to blind you from the clarity of Christ’s invitation to come and your responsibility to come. You cannot know that you are unable to come except by trying to come. And any lack of sincere trying to come to Christ only increases your guilt. The doctrine of total inability does not say you cannot come. The doctrine of total inability only says you cannot come without divine aid.
The rich young ruler, Matthew’s gospel—if anyone seemed to have the resources, it would have been this young man. Unable to do so, he walks away and Jesus says how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. “Easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle”—a little humor—”than for a rich man to be saved.” You remember how the disciples responded? Scratching their heads. “He doesn’t have the resources. Who does?” So they asked Jesus, “Lord, who then can be saved?” You remember what Jesus’ response was? He doesn’t say, “Oh wait, you’ve misunderstood, they’re not really unable.” What he says is, “With man it’s impossible, but not with God. With God, all things are possible.”
And so, for example, in another context in the Gospels, we have Jesus commanding that man with the withered hand, “Reach out your hand, stretch out your hand.” Well, it’s just the thing he can’t do, right? He reaches out, and what God commands, he provides. And so also with the offer of the gospel, we may be saved if only we come to Christ. The Lord Jesus commands and he promises, “If you come, I will have you.” And helpless people are precisely the kind of people that the Lord Jesus has come to save. Recognition of your helplessness ought only to drive you to a new sense of urgency to come.
So number one, don’t allow a theological puzzle to blind you from the clarity of Jesus’ invitation to come. Number two: don’t allow this recognition of helplessness to become an excuse for your continued unbelief. Don’t allow this recognition of your helplessness to become an excuse for your continued unbelief. Again, you cannot know that you are unable except by trying to come. If you come, the Lord Jesus says he will have you. If you say that you have any concern for your soul at all, the Bible doesn’t tell you you must wait for some signs of the work of the spirit and then you can come. The Bible tells you, “Just come, just come and he’ll save you.” And in fact, many others just as helpless as you have come. And they have found that Jesus is able and he’s willing to save.
And if you say, “I’m waiting for the grace to come,” all you are doing is persisting in your refusal of Christ. This gospel offer is for you. If you come, he will save. And if at the end of the day you do not come, the whole reason will be you. You refuse to take our Lord’s offer to be saved. Our Lord’s offer is free and is indiscriminate. Come and be saved. And don’t let anything distract you from the freeness of that offer. Amen. Let’s pray.