The Free Offer

Yesterday was the second day of the FP Theological Conference. Unfortunately, I was only able to take some summary notes of a paper by Rev. Allan MacColl on The Free Offer. This is my paraphrased summary and not verbatim so it gives a flavour and any mistakes are mine. I hope it is printed and if so this may whet your appetite.

He began by noting that although the language of the free offer is part of the fixed doctrinal constitution of presbyterian churches it is still controverted. That is in Westminster Confession 7:3

Man by his fall having made himself incapable of life by that covenant, the Lord was pleased to make a second, commonly called the covenant of grace; wherein He freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him that they may be saved, and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto life His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.

He emphasised the Father's gift in this offer. [See also Larger Catechism 32, 63, 67 and 68]

The paper was divided as follows:

1. Outline of positions on the issue

2. Biblical grounds for the orthodox position

3. Objections raised against the orthodox position

1. Outline of positions on the issue

A definition of the free offer was given along the following lines (paraphrased).

The assertion that God in bringing good news through preaching invites all who hear to accept without reservation.

The offer is free since there is nothing in the sinner to merit or deserve it and no requirement for God to give it.

Thomas Boston defined different kinds of faith in his View of the Covenant of Grace. These include  the faith of Christ's sufficiency, the faith of the gospel offer, faith of our right to Christ etc

Historically this is only a controversy within Calvinism. Arminians do not have this controversy. Yet they have difficulty in relation to the genuine freeness of the offer. Is it divine free grace or human free will?

There are various views as follows

1. No offer can be given to the unconverted. Promises are for the elect only.

2. Offer is based on a universal atonement

3. Westminster position i.e. there is a free offer but not it is not based on a Universal Atonement

4. A free offer but with qualified extent

This issue at stake is the basic issue of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. How can a dead sinner be addressed in terms of responsibility? Must we limit any offer to the elect only?

1. No offer to sinners

Very few Calvinists hold to this position. Mainly 18thc English dissenters and some Dutch. Some believer that the offer was a privilege given to Israel uniquely as a covenanted people. They separate if off as an Old Testament or Jewish privilege. Yet if only Jews were to be exhorted to believe - how could the gentiles be gathered in? How could they lay hold of a salvation not offered to them?

The most extreme view within this overall position is that it is not the duty of the non-elect to believe.
Yet God can command duty from the non-elect e.g. God's moral law.  Arminians say God does not command what creatures cannot perform. These Hyper calvinists say that God cannot command what  they cannot perform. The hyper-calvinist view leads to the conclusion that the more wicked a man becomes the less responsible he is. 

He quoted John Bonar's sermon that said that God can blame and punish man for what they cannot fulfil. He can demand it. God cannot demand anything other than spiritual service.

God has in fact decreed and ordained what He requires.

He referred to Luke 11:13 and quoted Shedd to the effect that as the atonement offered indiscriminately so the Spirit also is offered.

An anti-duty faith position tends to reflect a particular view of the Church i.e. gathered congregation in which the only preaching is about marks of grace.

2. Offer based on universal atonement

This is the Arrminian and Amyraldian view based on a spurious universal atonement. Scripture, however, makes Christ's intercession and atonement coextensive.

This universalist view has no definite salvation to offer.

3. Orthodox view of the Free Offer
The doctrine of the free offer has survived mainly unscathed down through the centuries in Scotland.  The Marrow controversy only served to strengthen adherence to it. The main oppenent of the Marrow was called Hadow - he said that every man's duty was to believe but yet the offer should only go to the elect. It was emphasised that the Marrow does not advance universal atonement.

4. Qualified extent

He referred to 20thc views such as Herman Hoeksema. He argued that offer means to present not invite. The offer is not well meant but mere command. There are dangerous consequences for those lacking assurance. These have no access to an offered saviour until doubts are resolved.

2. Biblical grounds for Orthodox position
Is 45:22

Is 55:1, 7

Matthew 11: 28

John 6:37

John 7:37

Revelation 3:20

Revelation 22:17


These texts show that the wicked and unrighteous are addressed with a conditional promise offer of pardon.

Christ's ambassadors commanded to preach the gospel Matthew 28:28. There are no distinctions who to offer to.  The nature of gospel requires this offer. They are to persuade men to personal acceptance of the offer.

The irony is that those who deny the offer only came to Christ through it whatever may be their understanding of how it happened.

Optative verses

These are expressive of desire in terms of what pleases God. Deuteronomy 5:29; 33:29; Matthew 23:27. There is a lot of Anthropopathism and anthropomorphic language in them. Nevertheless they contain something of what is pleasing to God and consistent with His nature as One who hates sin. Ezekiel 33:11. The decree of God is not in view here but rather His preceptive will.

It is inaccurate to say that God desires the salvation of all men and there are not two contradictory wills in God. Turretin is helpful in that he says it is inconsistent to say that God could intend the salvation of those whom He has reprobated. But He still acts seriously in calling them to receive the offer. God delights in the eternal life of a sinner and therefore demands that he turn.

Preachers must preach the gospel with love and an earnest desire for hearers to be saved. They will not be more compassionate than Christ when they do. The Holy Spirit causes this love to their neighbour.



3. Objections
Some wish to find a basis for the offer or grounds of the offer in the atonement. This has produced baleful consequences. It is trying to square a theological circle. There was much controversy in the Victorian United Presbyterian Church on this. We are not to base the offer on the sufficiency of atonement but we can offer it as altogether suitable and infinite.

Matt 5:43-48. God's general love for all men can provide a motive although not grounds for the offer.

Primary purpose special love of god to elect

William Cunnigham said that we must keep our warrant for preaching the offer and God's warrant for giving it strictly separate.

We should base the offer solely on the command of the Word not inferences such as the atonement or nature of God.

He referred to the Warrants and Motives to believe in the Sum of Saving Knowledge

1. God's hearty invitation,
2. His earnest request to be reconciled,
3. His command, charging all to believe,
4. Much assurance of life given to believers, etc.,

He also referred to John Colquhoun's excellent book on saving faith and its definition.

Objection that bible passages do not apply to all men is probably the most powerful objection.
But this leads to emphasising a certain degree of conviction in order to embrace these passages e.g. as a convinced sinner. It is easy for subtle form of self-righteousness to enter. It must be a hope based on the promises not our condition or feelings. We must not limit the offer to exclude any. We must press on sinners their responsibility for what they do with the offer. God has ordained means they are to use them.

The place of the law in the gospel

“The law of God has its place in the book, and its use in the work of God. ‘By the law is the knowledge of sin’; and the Spirit, who convinces of sin, uses it in that department of His work. A due regard to the glory of God demands that it be so used. Sinners are not to be saved on a misunderstanding as to what they are, and as to what they merit. They must know Him against whom they have sinned. They must know what is justly due to Him from them as His creatures. They must be made acquainted with their iniquity as well as guilt, as sinners. And through the coming of the commandment sin must ‘revive’ in their consciousness, so that they know that they are desperately wicked, as surely as that their persons are condemned to die. Without this they can have no conception of gospel grace. Any hope attained to without this, can only be based on a misunderstanding, and must involve dishonor to God. God is not to be conceived of as one who has to study man’s convenience only, instead of supremely consulting his own glory. It should be an aim of preaching, therefore, to bring sinners to plead guilty before God; to feel themselves, in excuseless guilt, shut up to the sovereign mercy of Him against whom they have sinned. The attainment of this may be the result of a moment’s working of the power of God, or it may be reached only after a protracted process; but to this all must come who are reconciled to God.” -James Begg

Sedgwick on Preaching « James Durham Thesis

This is an excellent quotation from one of the Westminster Divines on true preaching and a true sermon. The true focus is the person and work of Christ.Sedgwick on Preaching « James Durham Thesis

Long Sermons or Short?

The Original Secession Magazine (Vol 5, 1860-61-62) took notice of a remark in the London Times, "We really wish that clergymen would remember that even a good sermon, more than three-quarters of an hour in length, is a bore from the moment that the third quarter is up." It would be hard to find many who would agree to even this criticism these days. Half-an-hour or 20 minutes is too long for many. The article by the Original Secession Magazine makes the point that 'such restrictions are directly opposed to the design of preaching—to the sanctification of the Sabbath—to the Directory for Public Worship—to the examples of the best ministers of the primitive and reformed churches'. 'The sanctification of the Sabbath requires that we "spend the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy." Unless it can be shown that the private exercises are more important than those which are public, the balance of due proportion must be kept up between them. But the testimony of the Spirit and the experience of God's saints give the preponderance to the exercises of the sanctuary."The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the
dwellings of Jacob." If the worshippers know anything of the spirit of their Lord, they will do so also. If David could say that a day in the courts of the Lord was better than a thousand, we cannot understand how the shortest services should be most prized by any who profess to worship David's God'.

'Such restrictions have never been known to the Church except in an age of formal Christianity, or at a time when religious entertainment is fashionable, and multitudes enter the house of God, not to worship — not to have the head enlightened and the heart enlarged,—but merely to obtain a little intellectual excitement, in order to relieve the tedium of the Sabbath.' This is very true in our own day but I fear it is excitement of a kind other than intellectual that is sought within many so-called evangelical or otherwise churches.

The Magazine makes the points that in 'almost anything else but the service of God, hours are freely devoted without a grumble'. Worldly entertainments all demand much more than this. Reading the newspaper takes many longer than this. 'Until we see similar brevity in the time devoted to business, to recreation, to meetings for carnal pleasure, we will not believe either in the consistency or the sincerity of those who would reduce the public worship of God to the smallest possible limits. Is the message of God to men the only subject that can be crushed within the compass of a few minutes?'

Men debate for hours on politics and discuss various other topical matters. Is the message of heaven less important? 'Is the salvation of the soul, or the communion of the spirit with God in His Word, less interesting?'

The Magazine article puts its finger on the real reasons behind such objections. 'The secret of the matter lies in the fact, that the former is opposed to, while the latter is in harmony with, the depravity of human nature. Will any rational man say that one, two, or three hours may be requisite for the discussion of some philosophical principle, or the exposition of some natural law, while half-an-hour, or, at most, thirty-five minutes, is quite sufficient for expounding and applying the sublime and mysterious doctrines of grace? The idea is preposterous.
If eternity, with all the additional light of the upper sanctuary, will never exhaust the themes of the gospel, is the herald of the cross— the commissioned ambassador of Christ—to be bound down to a few fleeting moments in proclaiming the word and will of the living God?

Is it not a mockery of God and men to deal thus with the questions of life and death—with the present privileges and eternal interests of gospel hearers ? The men of the world and the votaries of pleasure will have time for the accomplishment of their special objects, so also must the Church and the gospel ministry have a due proportion of time for the service of the sanctuary. It is not becoming the house of God, nor in keeping with subjects of eternal moment, for either ministers or people to be pulling out watches, as if God were being served by the minute, and as if there was anxiety lest He should get more time than was due. All such habits have sprung from mere conventional ideas, and the want of a proper sense of that reverence which is due to the God of the sanctuary'.

The Magazine states: 'We are no advocates for protracted sermons, much less for long
prayers; but we protest against the modern restrictions which many, with self-constituted authority, would impose upon the worship of God. The want of spiritual appetite, and reluctance to make any sacrifice for the service of God, are the chief sources from which such restrictions emanate. Full of the world and its pleasures, there is little longing after the bread of life. Were gospel hearers earnest in their preparation for public worship, and found, like the Psalmist, waiting to hear what God the Lord will speak unto His people, there would be no desire to bring the sermon within the limits of half an hour, or to restrict the whole service of the Sabbath to ninety minutes, as is now done in some fashionable churches'.

These restrictions do not allow for the liberty and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 'By such things the Spirit is grieved and quenched, while the hungering and thirsting children of God are deprived of that full provision which the Master of assemblies has made for His own house. It is alike dishonouring to God and to His commissioned servants to expect the prayerful preparation of a discourse that must be eut short, however momentous the theme, when the conventional minutes are exhausted'. 'The complaints of restless hearers in reference to the length of a sermon, are impertinencies which ought to have no place among sincere and spiritual worshippers. We cannot conceive of Christ or His Apostles being guided in their work by any such inventions or influences. With them, and with every genuine ambassador, the fleeting moments of time are forgotten while dealing with the realities of eternity'.

The sabbath services are vitally important: 'As each Sabbath comes with a special message, and may be the last to some gospel hearer, it becomes the herald of the cross to furnish that message, although he may exceed the tolerated limits of modern taste. In the time requisite, as well as in the message propounded, the minister can have no master but Christ—no dictation in the matter of duty but the guidance of the Spirit of God'.

We are speaking of the sabbath rather than midweek meetings where the nature of the day will mean that there must be some thought given to time. The general principle for all exercises of public worship, however, is well stated as follows. 'To preach or pray by the minute is little more than mechanical devotion'.

The magazine article concludes: 'In regard to long or short sermons, we must be guided by subjects and circumstances; but we repudiate all such conventional limits as are set by...fastidious hearers. The matters of the ministerial embassy are too weighty to be regulated, either in mode or measure, by the flippant dictum of popular opinion'.

The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland website puts the whole matter rather well in the following way:
'A ten-minute sermon once a week is unlikely to convey much biblical teaching. That is why the Free Presbyterian Church teaches its congregations through sermons of 30-60 minutes' duration, twice on the Lord's Day, and usually at midweek prayer meetings. A recent survey shows that most people in the U.K. gain their knowledge of Christianity through sermons and would like to have more information provided this way. If people are to attain to a saving knowledge of Christ they must find this knowledge in the Bible...It is hardly remarkable, however, when people are not sufficiently aware that the Bible is God's Word from which the Church must derive all her teaching.'

Audio Sermons

The internet has allowed wider and easier distrubution of recorded sermons. There are some excellent audio sermons available on the internet. There is a wide range available from http://www.middletome.com/index.html including rare sermons from FP ministers from the past and also Youth Conference papers. The same site has links to Prof. John Murray's lectures on mp3. There are also a large quantity of sermons available at http://www.fpchurch.org.uk/Sermons/index.php.

 

The Trinitarian Bible Society has a number of good lectures on important issues at http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=tbs.

 

The Inverness branch of the Scottish Reformation Society has its lectures available http://www.reformation-scotland.org.uk/lectures.php as does the Stornoway http://web.mac.com/srslewis/SRS/Audio/Audio.html and Aberdeen http://www.srs-aberdeen.org.uk/Pages/Lectures.html branches.

 

Perhaps the first one to listen to ought to a narrated version of Thomas Boston's sermon http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=82805213712 on Luke 8:18 "Take Heed Therefore How Ye Hear"

 

The points are:
1. Some things that go before hearing. 
2. Some Things that go with hearing.
3. Some Things that Follow after hearing the word.

The best of Highland experimental preaching

One of the best books for giving a true flavour of the character and attainments of spirituality in the Highlands of Scotland in the past is John Kennedy's 'The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire'. This is now available online here http://www.john-kennedy-dingwall.co.nr/.

A classic section of the book deals with the character of the preaching of the Fathers in Ross-shire and in the process outlines the character of true experimental preaching that is accompanied by the unction of the Spirit.

'As preachers they were all remarkable. There are some who preach before their people, like actors on the stage, to display themselves and to please their audience. Not such were the self-denied preachers of Ross-shire. There are others who preach over their people. Studying for the highest, instead of doing so for the lowest, in intelligence, they elaborate learned treatises, which float like mist, when delivered over the heads of their hearers. Not such were the earnest preachers of Ross-shire. There are some who preach past their people. Directing their praise or their censure to intangible abstractions, they never take aim at the views and the conduct of the individuals before them. They step carefully aside, lest their hearers should be struck by their shafts, and aim them at phantoms beyond them. Not such were the faithful preachers of Ross-shire. There are others who preach at their people, serving out in a sermon the gossip of the week, and seemingly possessed with the idea, that the transgressor can be scolded out of the ways of iniquity. Not such were the wise preachers of Ross-shire. There are some who preach towards their people. They aim well, but they are weak. Their eye is along the arrow towards the hearts of their hearers, but their arm is too feeble for sending it on to the mark. Superficial in their experience and in their knowledge, they reach not the cases of God s people by their doctrine, and they strike with no vigour at the consciences of the ungodly. Not such were the powerful preachers of Ross-shire. There are others still, who preach along their congregation. Instead of standing with their bow in front of the rank, these archers take it in line, and reducing their mark to an individual, never change the direction of their aim. Not such were the discriminating preachers of Ross-shire. But there are a few who preach to the people directly and seasonably the mind of God in His word, with authority, unction, wisdom, fervour, and love. Such as these last were the eminent preachers of Ross-shire.

While all of them were excellent, each of them was peculiar; and their variety was as necessary as their skill. In apt and striking illustration Porteous and Mackenzie excelled, and have left more memorable sayings behind them than any of the others; Calder and Macphail preached in clear, unctuous words filled full of Christ crucified, while from their manner and language all was carefully excluded that might withdraw the minds of their hearers from the spiritual import of the message which they carried; for exactness of exposition, and precision of statement, Macadam and Forbes were second to none; Dr Mackintosh was eminent in solemnity and power; and for clearness and skill in unfolding the doctrines of grace, and in fervent appeals to the Christless, Fraser and Macdonald excelled them all.

Their preaching was remarkable for its completeness. It combined careful exposition, fulness and exactness of doctrinal statement, a searching description of experimental godliness, and close application of truth to the conscience. The admixture of these elements, in wisely-adjusted proportions, constitutes the true excellence of preaching. Careful to ascertain the mind of Cod in His Word, they were not content merely to prefix a passage of Scripture as a motto to their sermon. They chose to preach from a text, rather than to discourse on a subject. They did not try what they themselves could say about it, but to tell what the Lord said through it, to their hearers. But, while careful expounders, they were systematic theologians as well. They clearly saw, and they clearly taught, "the form of sound doctrine." No loose statement of doctrine would satisfy them, and yet no men were further than they from being frozen into the stiffness of a cold, lifeless orthodoxy. Their zeal for a sound creed was at least equalled by their desire for a godly experience and a holy life. They loved "the form of sound doctrine," but they also loved "the power of godliness." They insisted on a clear understanding of the former, but they also insisted on a deep experience of the latter. It is in fashion to speak of objective and subjective preaching, and to commend each by itself as excellent in its way; but surely that preaching is defective, that presents a statement of doctrine without any description of the experience which the application of that doctrine produces, or of the fruits in which that experience results; and preaching without distinct doctrinal statement is like attempting to build without a plummet or a plan.

Their preaching was distinguished by the minuteness with which the Lord guided them, to speak to the varied cases of their hearers. In this respect they were quite singular; and many marvellous instances of this might be given. Some of these might be easily accounted for. In dealing with the cases of God's people, a minister, acquainted with the power of godliness, will be sure to have a counterpart, in his own experience, of many of the fears, hopes, and enjoyments of those whom he addresses. Speaking from the heart, he will be sure to speak to the heart; declaring what he himself has felt, he will be sure to express the feelings of others. When the honour the Lord has been wont to put on the ordinance of preaching, and His tender care of His children are taken into account, who will limit the degree of minuteness to which the Lord's guidance may be given, in adapting the message sent by His servant to the varied feelings of the hearers? Words marvellously seasonable have been often thus spoken, to account for which no prophetic gift should be ascribed to the preacher. The pressing need of a beloved child had to be seasonably met, and the Lord revived, in the memory of His servant, a corresponding experience, and guided him to tell it, and this is often the whole secret of the matter. There have been, however, instances of "words in season" that cannot thus be explained. Some more direct guidance of the speaker's mind was required, and some more abrupt impression must have been produced of the case, to which the Lord was sending a leaf from the tree of life, or an arrow from the quiver of the law. Care will be taken that any such instances as may be given, shall be accurately stated rather than satisfactorily explained.'

Rutherford and the Gospel Offer

Excerpts from Trial and Triumph of Faith

• Now, the special intent of the gospel is to bring men to put a high and rich price upon Christ, and this is one gospel-offer: What thinkest thou of so excellent a one as Christ? What wouldst thou part with? What wouldst thou do or suffer for Christ?
  
• Faith can stand upon one foot, even on a general word; hence, this is a gospel word in the Prophets, which requireth faith, Turn to the Lord for he is merciful, (Jer. 3:12; Joel 2:13; John 4:2). And because a general promise received with heart-adherence and confidence giveth glory to God; and if it be holden forth to a humbled soul, who is now within the lists and bounds of grace, and, for any thing that the person thus laden with sin knoweth on the contrary, (for the secrets of election and reprobation belong to the Lord) Christ mindeth and intendeth to him salvation, therefore he is to believe.
  
• This would be considered, that unbelief breaketh with Christ first, before Christ break with the unbeliever; and the elect of God findeth no more, nor any higher favour in the kind of external means to open the Lamb's book of life, which is sealed and closed with God's own hand, than the commandment of believing. Now, when our Lord maketh offer of the kingdom of sons, to slaves, and casteth his jewel of Christ offered in the gospel, in the lap and bosom of a bastard, whatever be the Lord's secret decree and purpose in so doing, the bastard is to take God at his word, and to catch the opportunity of God's love in so far; and if he do it not, the gospel offer to the reprobate being a treaty of peace, then the treaty breaketh off first upon his side; for Christ cometh within a mile of mercy, to meet the sinner, and the sinner cometh not the fourth part of a mile, yea, not half a step of love and thankful obedience, to meet Christ; and so, Christ killeth the unbeliever with the sweetness of the preventing courtesy of offered mercy.
  
• But if the sinner be wearied and laden, and seeth, though through a cloud only, Christ only must help and save, if not, he is utterly and eternally lost, What is there upon Christ's part to hinder thee to believe, O guilty wretch? Oh, (saith he,) I fear Christ only offereth himself to me, but he mindeth no salvation to me.
  —Answer. Is not this to raise an evil report and slander on the holy One of Israel? For Christ's offer is really an offer, and in so far, it is real love, though it cannot infer the love of election to glory, yet the total denial of this offer openeth up the black seal of reprobation to heathens without the church. And therefore it is love to thee, if thou be humbled for sin; (2.) And have half an eye to the unsearchable riches of gospel mercy; (3.) And be self-condemned; (4.) And have half a desire of Christ: thou mayest expound love by love, and lay hold on the promise, and be saved. An error of humble love to Christ, is no error.
  Though it were true, that you were upon the borders of hell, yet the gospel, though it except you from actual mercy, yet excepts you not from the duty of believing and coming to Christ; and though such think and imagine, that they believe Christ is able to save and redeem them, only they doubt of his will, yet the truth is, the doubt of unbelief is more of the power of mercy and infinite grace in Christ than of his will; and my reason is, "that whosoever believeth, hath set to his seal that God is true;" (John 3:33;) and "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." (1 John 5:10.)
  
• It is true, the gospel excepteth no man from pardon, and all that hear the gospel are to be wearied and laden, and to receive Christ by faith, as if God intended to save them. But the promises of the gospel are not simply universal, as if God intended and purposed, that all and every one should be actually redeemed and saved in Christ, as Arminians teach; and so God excepteth in his own hidden decree, not a few, though he reveal not in the gospel who they are, yet he revealeth in the gospel the general, that "many are called, but few are chosen:"
  And I grant, there is no ground for any one man not to believe upon this ground, because some are reprobated from eternity, and it may be I am one of those, for the contrary is a sure logic; many are chosen to life eternal, and it may be that I am one of those. (2.) It is most untrue, that Christ belongeth to sinners as sinners, for then, Christ should belong to all unbelievers, how obstinate soever, even to those that sin against the Holy Ghost. Nay, Christ belongeth only to sinners elected to glory, as elected to glory in regard of God's gracious purpose, and He belongeth only to believing sinners, as believing, in regard of actual union with Christ, (Eph. 3:17, Gal. 2:20). (3.) It is false that sinners, as sinners, do receive Christ, for so, Judas and all sinners should receive Christ: now the Scripture showeth, that believers only receive him, (John 1:12, Gal. 2:20, Eph. 3:17). (4.) It is false, that sinners, as sinners, believe in Christ. This way of libertines is a broad way for sorcerers, thieves, murderers, parricides, idolaters, remaining in that damnable state, to believe; whereas sinners, as such, sinners thus and thus qualified, are to believe; that is, humbled, wearied, and self-condemned sinners only, are to believe, and come to Christ. It is true, all sinners are obliged to believe, but to believe after the order of free grace; that is, that they be first self-lost and sick, and then be saved by the physician.
  
• If Christ be sent for lost Israel, and say in the gospel, 'Who will go with me?' and say to thee, 'My Father the King sent me, his own Son, to bring thee up to his house,' why, but thou shouldst go? When old Jacob saw the chariots and messengers that Prince Joseph, his own son, yet living, had sent to fetch him, "His heart failed for joy." Seest thou the chariot of Pharaoh paved with love? make, then, for the journey. The home we have here is a taking lover; why, but thou mayest say, I cannot stay here, the king hath sent for me.
  Christ's act of dying was a special law: "This commandment received I of my Father, that I should lay down my life." (John 10:18.) (3.) By his death and resurrection he is made a Prince by law, and hath law and authority to forgive sins, (Acts 5:31; Matt. 9:6); and power to give life eternal, (John 17:2,)—and rule all by a new law in his new kingdom. (Matt. 28:8.) Our heaven now, is by law and a special commission; but the gospel is a general: he brought all God's secrets from heaven; and in his special commission, Christ hath, as it were, private instructions: Save such and such persons, not any other, not all Israel, but the lost sheep; not the goats. There is a great mystery, how there be no double-dealing in the gospel, and two contrary wills in God.
  
• He offereth, in the gospel, life to all, so they believe; and God mindeth to work faith, and intendeth to bestow life on a few only; like a king's son coming to a prison of condemned men, with offered pardons to all, upon condition they accept of them; but yet he singleth out some, and persuadeth them to lay hold on the Father's grace; and by the head taketh them out, and leaveth all the rest to justice. Yet is it no greater mystery than this, "Many are called, but few are chosen." So Christ's sending with his commission, cometh under a two-fold notion: one is, in the intention of the Evangel; the other is, in the intention of him who proposeth the Evangel to men,—I mean, God's intention to give faith and effectual grace. The former is nothing but God's moral complacency of grace, revealing an obligation that all are to believe if they would be saved; and upon their own peril be it, if they refuse Christ. This is the heart and mind of Christ to persons, revealing two things: (1.) Men's duty; (2.) God's grace to give life eternal to believers. But the latter is not a moral will in God only, but a real physical will, (to speak so,) according to the which, Christ effectually, strongly layeth bands of love, cords of sweet enforcing grace, to persuade the soul to take Jesus Christ. Christ cometh to the mind under a higher apprehension, with his rainy and wet hair, knocking, and again knocking, to show his face in such soul-redeeming beauty and excellency, as the soul must be taken captive, subdued, and overcome with the love of Christ; as the spouse is so wrought on with the beauty, grace, riches, endowments of excellency, words of love of such an husband, that she is forced to say, 'I have no power, neither heart nor hand to refuse you.' Now, the former notion of the gospel is enough to lay the obligation of believing on all; so as though the gospel reveal not God's purpose of election, (that is only and formally revealed in, and by God's efficacious working of faith, called the inward calling,) yet it saith this to all, 'You are all to believe no less, than if there were not any reprobated persons amongst you.' If, therefore, any despairing ones, as Cain, yea, and many weak ones, refuse to believe, on this ground, Why should I believe? the gospel hath excepted me, it belongeth not to me, I am a reprobate,—they are deluded, for the gospel formally revealeth neither the Lord's decree of election nor reprobation. The embracing of the gospel, and the final rejection thereof, can speak to both these; but that is neither the gospel voice, nor the gospel spirit, that revealeth any such bad tidings.
  

The Freeness of the Gospel Invitation

Rev. John Marshall, Stirling (1795-1833)
This is a sermon which I would like to see reprinted, because it displays an admirable presentation of the gospel.

Isaiah 65:1 (Latter clause) ‘I said, behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name’

In perusing the Holy Scriptures, it is impossible to proceed far without being presented with astonishing illustrations of the condescension of God. These would appear wonderful even if this world had still been in an unfallen state. What Solomon said at the consecration of the temple would have been applicable even although that temple had been reared in paradise, and though the words had been uttered by man in a state of innocence, ‘But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built!’ But when we look at man as a wretched, sinful exile from God, and at this world, nay, even the whole creation, as groaning and travailing in pain, by reason of the rebellion against God by which it is loaded; and when we contemplate the multiplied modes and forms of sin by which the divine government is daily dishonoured; what should we expect from God, if he spoke to sinners at all but demonstrations of unmingled wrath? These, however, are a present only given in measure. The full weight of them is behind, but it is reserved for the day of eternal judgement. Now, however, amidst palpable tokens of the divine displeasure against sin, there are mixed the most encouraging proofs of the divine condescension in warning use from the coming wrath, and offering to us a present deliverance from it. Every promise of God, is a proof of his wondrous condescension. And every promise of God ought to be food to strengthen our readiness to go to him as our deliverer and our life. But such is the waywardness of sinful man, that he staggers at the promise through unbelief, and stays himself not upon it. God condescends to use other methods. Invitation is one of these; and to render the unbelief of man without excuse, he graciously makes the invitation wide, as wide as the habitable globe. ‘Look unto me’, is his language, ‘and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ And lest the peculiarity which attended the nation of Israel of old should be a stumbling-block to any one of the race of Adam who should read the Old Testament, he says in the words of the text, ‘I said behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name’. Let us consider,

I. The gospel invitation which is here offered.
II. The urgency of it, implied in the repetition of the expression, ‘Behold me, behold me.’
III. To whom it is addressed, ‘To a nation’, saith the Lord, ‘ that was not called by my name.’

I. The gospel invitation. ‘Behold me.’ Brief is this command, but it is awfully important. It enjoins on sinners to turn away their eyes from viewing vanity, and their affections from a world lying in wickedness, and it presents to them in its stead the great God himself. ‘Behold me.’ How strange would this command seem in the view of some angel of light who might be ignorant of a world of sin. ‘What!’ might he exclaim, ‘is it necessary for any creature capable of knowing thee, O God, to be commanded to look at thee? what can this mean? Wherever my eye roams, I see thee, O thou Most high, and cannot but see and adore thy great and glorious name. If I were commanded to look away from thee, I should try in vain, for thou art everywhere. in every object of thy creating power and care, thy presence and glory are beheld.’ How different is it with sinful, inexcusable man! He, too, cannot open his eyes on the fair creation around him without having the divine power and glory spread before him. But he sees them not. Although ‘the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made - even his eternal power and Godhead - so that men are without excuse’, yet they shut their eyes, ‘they glorify him not as God’, - ‘their foolish hearts are darkened;’ and let us never forget, that it is folly and depravity of heart that produce utter darkness in the understanding. Their hearts are alienated from the true God, and they ‘worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is over all blessed for ever.’ Brethren, such is man when the blessed announcement first reaches him, ‘Behold me,’ saith the Lord. I formed you for myself. why have ye sold yourselves to another? ‘Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die!’ but who speaks? It is the Author of every good and perfect gift. this constitutes the grand encouragement, though men are slow to receive it. He who commands us to look to Him by faith, is the only being who can, out of his fullness, give us faith. This should remove many a difficulty that Satan is eager to throw in our path. Do we hesitate still? Let us be aware then: it is not because we have not a sufficient warrant for trusting ourselves in the Lord's hands. He commands us to come to him. ‘This is the command of God, that ye believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ.’ ‘Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.’ The command is from the Lord, and the Lord is the object to which our faith is commanded to be directed. But what is there in this object to wean us from the world and sin, and to attract us for ever away from them? There is light in God. ‘Light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun;’ but spiritual light is sweeter far than the light of the loveliest landscape that ever struck our view, - than the fairest morning or evening sky that ever shone on our earth. The light which faith beholds in God, and which it receives from him, is, indeed, while on earth, still ‘a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise on the soul.’ But it is a glorious and peaceful light even here. And what it this light? It is simple ’truth’. ‘I am,’ said Jesus, ‘the light of the world.’ ‘ He that abideth in me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’. In other words, when man comes to himself and looks to God by faith, he begins to see objects in their real value. he was before ‘walking in a vain show,’ deeming the merest trifles of great value, and reckoning eternally valuable objects as unworthy of pursuit. he was formerly blind to the evil of sin, - to his alienation from God, and to the misery in which it involved him. He now sees all this, because he looks to the Lord, the sun of righteousness, - and in his light he sees light.

There is pardon with God. This is another attraction. Misgivings dark and heavy will arise in the most careless souls, and not till after the conscience has become by long resistance seared will they go utterly away. Mercy is sweet, therefore, to think of, but that vague hope of mercy which multitudes lean on is a frail support. Their trust is as a spider’s web. It is not a vague idea of divine mercy, it is pardon procured and sealed by blood, that can alone speak peace. This pardon is with the Lord, who says , ‘Behold me.’ We require not when we hear this and go to God - we require not to look around for a way of reconciliation. God meets us with an atonement completed - with a law honoured- with divine justice vindicated- with divine holiness not only unblemished by this offered forgiveness, but most awfully shewn forth by it. All things are ready then. The command is, Come and accept. Put out the hand, ‘Be not faithless but believing.’ ‘Behold me;’ pardon is with me. ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as snow’.

There is love in God - love glorious, eternal, sovereign, unchangeable. He not only forgives past offences, but adopts into his family, nurtures and defends, comforts, instructs, enriches, and eternally blesses all who have come to take refuge under his wings. ‘Behold what manner of love is this,’ say they, ‘that we should be called the sons of God’. ‘herein, indeed, is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.’ Love is an attractive principle. Divine love surpasseth all the love of creatures in this property. When that love is contemplated in redemption, and shed abroad over the heart, the chains of Satan and the world and of reigning sin are shattered. The loveliness of the divine character rallies the wandering affections, and gives them a sure and glorious resting-place. Both on account of what God is, and of what he ahs done for the soul, it is lifted up in admiration, it is melted into love. Hence it is said, that ‘faith worketh by love.’ From all this we may learn, that faith in a reconciled god through Christ, is drawn forth by right apprehensions of God. The soul weighed down by sin perceives in Him, as revealed in the face of his Son, the most attractive qualities; and such as are exactly suited to its wants and varied circumstances. ‘This is eternal life, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent’. Therefore, the invitation of God is, ‘Behold me’. In me is light, pardon, love.

There is, however, a peculiar urgency employed, which is indicated by the repetition of the expression, ‘Behold me, behold me’. This was the II. Particular referred to, the urgency of the invitation. In judging abstractly of the dignity of God, we might, with our weak conceptions, be tempted to think it enough if he simply made the offer once, and withdrew it if it were not accepted. Can it be that the Most High will suffer a worm of the dust, a sinner deserving hell, to refuse him more than once? Shall not his wrath burn as an oven and his fury as flames of fire? Such suggestion, it is not wonderful, should arise. but when we open the Scriptures they are dissipated. The name of God is ‘the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious’.

What greater proof of this can be afforded than in the fact, that a sinner refused an offer of mercy , and yet was allowed to remain on earth, --- that multitudes have done so, and yet been spared for many years afterwards in the land of hope? What stronger proof of it than such a repetition of invitation as occurs in the text, -- ‘Behold me, behold me,’ saith the Lord.
This is the urgency of pity, of power, of holiness. It is the urgency of ’pity’. It reveals God not merely as a stern lawgiver, but as a compassionate Creator. It reveals God not as careless of the creature, and only careful of his own government, but as deeply concerned for the misery which the creature has brought on himself by sin. The command is not coldly uttered. It is not, take mercy if you will, and if you will not, refrain. But it is affectionately given, -- ‘Behold me, behold me’. you turn away from me daily, and deem it a gloomy restraint to think of me; but you wrong me. And you awfully wrong yourselves. You wrong me; for what can you allege with truth against my government, or laws, or providential dealings? The gloom you speak of is in your own unsanctified, unhumbled souls. there is no darkness with me; and none who seek me will abide in darkness. ‘Though weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning’. ‘Come, then, and let us reason together. What have I done unto thee, and wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against us.’ ‘Behold me’, I say once, and again I say, ‘Behold me’. ‘Turn ye, turn ye, for wherefore will ye die?’ How awful is his condescending urgency --- how awful if despised! If yielded to, how gracious does it appear to the returning contrite soul! It is the urgency of tender compassion.

But this language presents also the urgency of ’power.’ It is not the cry of unavailing compassion which is heard by a sinner when Jesus speaks in the gospel. It is the gracious invitation of a mighty saviour, who is able to save to the very uttermost all who come unto the Father through him. It is the command, and the offer, and the invitation of Him who ‘giveth power to the faint, and who increaseth strength to him who has no might.’ A man standing on the shores of the sea, and beholding the horrors of a shipwreck in a storm, may have all his compassion aroused for the sufferers; but he may be totally unable to yield nay effectual relief. His cry is one of pity, not of power. he dare not rush in to the billows; or if he did it would be unavailing. but the Lord, who beholds human souls perishing in their sins, rushes in among them, and stretches out the arms of deliverance. He walks not along the shore of this world's troubled ocean, viewing with indifference the shipwrecks which everywhere present themselves; but he leaves the shore – he walks amid the storm. He holds out salvation. He urges acceptance. he comes as the mighty god, and yet as the Prince of Peace. He says to the sea, be still. He says to the dead soul, live. But such is the wondrous beauty and wisdom of his arrangement in redemption, that while his power is changed without any violence being done to it. The sinner is led to choose the deliverance presented to him. He ventures in to the arms of the Saviour. He flies by faith to lay hold on the refuge thus set before him. He becomes willing in a day of divine power.
Let us never forget then that the urgency which the Lord uses in the passage before us, when he says, ‘ Behold me, behold me’, is not merely the cry of pity but of power. It issues from him who is ‘mighty in working’ as well as ‘wonderful in counsel’. And to all who listen and believe, it will become matter of joyful experience, that Christ is ‘ the power of God’ as well as ‘the wisdom of God’.

It is not only , however, the urgency of power that is here manifested, but also that of ’holiness’. It is the cry of a Being who will not be mocked with impunity. It is the offer of mercy by Him to whom the sin he offers pardon for is most abominable and atrocious, - of Him whose government throughout this wide dominions is upheld by holy laws - whose perfections are most holy -- who, though proffering pardon now, will, ere long, be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of his Son’. ‘ Consider this, ye that forget God,’ and neglect his invitation. It is not because God thinks lightly of sin that he provided for its pardon. he is not the unconcerned or indisciminating spectator of you actions and principles that you fondly imagine. he has not taken pity on you, because he only saw in you slight failings or excusable follies. These terms he recognises not. Al sin he hates; and the very first workings of it in the heart he has denounced as condemning. Think not the n it is your wretchedness merely that he looks at, and that, amidst his sympathies for that, he has lost his hatred of your sin. Ah no! This cannot be. He regards your greatest calamity as ’sin’. And ’because’ he hates your sin, he has provided for your deliverance from it. But he has so arranged the mode of deliverance, that his holiness is stamped on every step of it. He made a holy Saviour to suffer on the cross. A holy sacrifice has been offered. a holy obedience has been rendered. The Holy Ghost has come into our world to apply it. and provision is made for the fruits of holiness being produced in all who obey the gospel invitation. It is then not only the urgency of pity and of power, but of holiness also, thatis presented to us when we hear the Lord's voice saying, ‘Behold me, behold me’.
And to whom III. is this invitation given? It is declared to be ‘ to a nation that was not called by my name.’ This the apostle Paul refers to the extension of the gospel to the Gentiles. The Jews were for a season the peculiar people of God, set apart as a visible emblem of the true church. ‘They shall put my name on the children of Israel’. But they were ‘not all Israel that were of Israel;’ and their repeated and continued provocations were visited by a removal of their privileges, The Gentiles had no external designation to the Lord. His name was not written on them. Yet to them the gospel offer is made as freely as to the Jews. But why should we think merely of the Gentiles, in opposition to Israel being addressed by the Gospel? By those who have not the name of God on them, may be also meant such as make no profession of religion, such as have no reverence for divine ordinances, and therefore do not even give them the customary deference of others around them. Notwithstanding all their perverseness, and folly, and stout heartedness, still to them the kind invitation of the text reaches. ‘Now’, even to them ‘ is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation’. And when, in this thoughtless career, any word of scriptural truth by any means whatever reaches them, and when any gracious offer of mercy at any time falls on their ear, the offer is as free, and the blessings offered as abundant, as to others. Nay even to the very outcasts of society the invitation extends. ‘Ho! every one that thirsteth, and he that hath no money, come, buy wine and milk, without money and without price.’

But why should we confine our view to any section of our fallen world? Has not the whole race lost the name of God? Originally they bore it; for man was formed in the very image of God. The name of his heavenly Father was written on his soul. But ‘man living in honour did not abide’. He lost his name; he lost the love of the true God, and ‘he did not like to retain the knowledge of him’. He no longer belongs to the heavenly family. He knows not his Father’s voice. He is a vagabond from his Father’s home. He acknowledges him not. ‘The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master’s crib, but this people do not know, neither do they consider’. Even multitudes of the Israelites who bore externally the name of God, as well as multitudes of persons professing Christianity in every age, have merely ‘a name to live, but are spiritually dead’. They have not sought after or recovered the divine image. Whose name, then, do we by nature bear? The name of Satan. Unbelieving persons are described in Scripture as belonging to the synagogue of Satan. To unbelievers in the days of his flesh the Lord said, ‘Ye are of your father the devil, and the works of your father ye will do’. ‘They are led captive by Satan at his will’. ‘They walk according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience’. Satan is the leader of a rebellious world; and as with other leaders, his followers bear his name. Yet behold the loving kindness of God. He will not upbraid with their great unworthiness any who come from Satan to himself. He will not say, ’Ye belong to the ranks of my greatest enemy, and therefore to whomsoever I give mercy, it will not be to you’. No; he saith, ‘Behold me! Behold me’ even to you who are not called by the name of God, but by the name of the great adversary. That adversary he has condemned eternally. For your leader, ye unbelievers, there is no mercy; yet God does not involve you in the same hopeless doom. You are condemned, but not irrevocably. The sentence will be wiped away, and will no longer stand against you the moment you betake yourselves to the Lord by a living faith. Satan, indeed, your present leader, will tell you a different matter. He will bias you, if he can, against God. He will make the world, self, and sin seem desirable, and God’s ways and truth repulsive. Which, then, will ye believe? Will you listen to the devil rather than God? You do so if you close not with the invitation of God, ‘Behold me! Behold me!’ You declare yourselves not only to have been of the ‘nation that are not called by the name of God’; but to be of those who prefer the name and the slavery of Satan. Ye are they who ‘love darkness rather than light, your deeds being evil’.

Such then, is the gospel invitation, ‘Behold me, saith the Lord’, - its urgency, ‘Behold me, behold me’; - the persons addressed – those who bear not the name of God, including the whole family of fallen man. Let God’s people learn from this what God expects from them – that they shew forth the name of the Lord upon their character. ‘The Lord’, it is true, ‘knoweth them that are his’, but he would have the world to know it too, and therefore he says, ‘Let every one that nameth the name of Christ, depart from all iniquity.’ ‘They are one’, one in aim and trust, and holy obedience, ‘that they may know’, saith Christ, ‘that thou, Father, hast sent me’. ‘Be ye then followers of God as dear children’. Be ye ’living epistles of Christ, known and read of all men’.

Let those who seek Christ learn from this, to beware of keeping themselves back, by vain efforts to bring something meritorious with them in their hands. Mark the invitation, ‘Behold me, to a people who are not called by my name’. Come, then, without delay. If you wait till you make yourself more acceptable, you dishonour Christ; you shew that you are ignorant of his righteousness. Take him, then, as a free gift, and be healed, pardoned, and saved. Amen.