Now this morning I tried to introduce the subject of the free offer of the Gospel, preaching Christ to sinners. And I left some things out. One thing I left out which is very important, and I'm glad it's come to my mind. Somebody said something and it brought it back to my mind. I've talked about hyper-calmness. and in the UK there are some definite, open, stated, hyper-calibers. But don't misunderstand me, in a way they're not my main concern. My main concern is with those who say, like I have tried to say, yes we believe in the free offer and we do it, But when it comes to, now listen, when it comes to, they actually pull punches. And it's what I call incipient, hidden, unrealized hypercapitalists. Now I am one. That is to say, I can stand here and talk to you and I can write my books and all the rest of it, and I know the theory, but my brothers and sisters, it's not enough. I've got to do the thing. Are you following what I'm saying? It's not enough to say, oh yeah, I'll tick those boxes, yeah, the free offer, duty, faith, you know, it's already good. We must do it, my brothers and sisters. We must preach Christ with and concern and it must not be feigned. Now let me rebuke myself here. We're not here to perform. I'm not an actor. That's my big danger. I can work it up. I can pretend it. I can feign it. I have to love sinners. The love of Christ constrains me. So I'm speaking to myself. Let me give you an example of what I mean. This is way back now when I was in my solid reform days. I remember preaching John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now I spent a half if not two thirds of that sermon dealing with the word world. I'm confessing it. Now I am not saying that that word does not have to be looked at. Don't get me wrong, it's in the text and every word is important. I think Hendrickson in his commentary has six meanings for the word cosmos that is in the world. Now this is a good study, but I have preached that since that text and I have made this point. I opened by saying that that's what I spent two thirds of the sermon dealing with, the word world. Now I would open now with what I consider to be the most important word in that text, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now there are many candidates for the most important word there but I know mine, what's yours, anybody got suggestions? It wouldn't be mine. It wouldn't be mine. But as a good man, I'm not denying it. Whosoever. Whosoever. Great, yes. I put world and I put myself in that spot. Well, for me, the most important word in that text is so. So. For God so loved the world. He loved the world, but he so loved it. Now, if you could explain that word to me, let's change places. If you've exhausted that word, come up now and tell us. I shan't know the meaning of that word until I get to glory. Grace is important and all those words are important. Love is. But it's God's soul that's laboring with the word world. When I should be telling sinners, God so loved you, loved you so much that I can't tell Now I also did not say this morning, when I talked about paradoxes and logical consistency and so on, there is a scriptural logic here. You see, I said about God decreeing the salvation of his elect. but also showing in his word his desire towards all men. The right way to look at these two points is the secret will of God and the revealed will of God. It's Deuteronomy 29 verse 29. The secret things is decrees which none of us know or can know The secret things belong to the Lord our God. They are none of our business, strictly speaking. I'm not casting them away. My whole life depends on it. My eternity depends on His decrees. But I can't know them. I don't know whether I'm going to get up tomorrow morning. I might die tonight. How do I know that? How do you know it? I'm due to go to Phoenix on Monday. Will I get there? I don't know. Do you? God knows. but the revealed things belong to us and to our children and the revealed things are in him. And what he's shown us is that he offers his gospel, he has a general love for all, God so loved the world and so on. You see the point I'm making? And so we concentrate on the revealed will of God. That's my logical consistency. Now, in the few minutes that I have now, this is what I intend to do. I intend to take two texts of scripture and sort of preach them. Okay, I know it's been late in the day, but I'm just going to sort of preach them. And I'm going to do it because I want to expose the way that we as incipient hyper-Calvinists can fail to preach the gospel as freely as we ought. I hope I've made that clear. I'm going to take two texts from the prophet Isaiah. You'll know them very well. I'm going to take Isaiah 45 and verse 22. The prophet, speaking in the name of God, God speaking through the prophet, says, Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none else. Isaiah 45 verse 22. And the other passage I want to take is Isaiah 55 and I could take the whole chapter but I'll just read a few verses for you. Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. He that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me. and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto and he will have mercy on him. He will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, not might be, no if, perhaps, maybe, perchance. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Now I want to very briefly, don't get worried about the two texts, I mean it's not going to be long. I'm going to start with the 55th of Isaiah. Before I do that though, notice the two texts I've chosen. To preach the gospel. You listening? To preach the gospel. I haven't gone to Acts or Romans. I've gone to the Old Covenant. I've gone to the Old Testament. I've gone to a prophet, of whom Peter tells us these men preached of Christ but they didn't understand it fully. They explored it, but it was a shadow to them, a glimmer. And yet I have decided to go to this You see, one accusation against New Covenant theology really is that we don't have much time for the Old Testament. Rubbish. If it's true, my friend, if you're a New Covenant man and you haven't got much time for the Old Testament, then you've got it wrong. Christ, we felt it today, Christ is in all the Scriptures. A man, two men were discussing a sermon and They were talking about it and he said, yeah, pretty good, he said, but there wasn't enough of Christ in it for me. And I think he was discussing it with the man who preached it. There wasn't enough of Christ in it for me. And the man said, well, Christ wasn't in my text. And this is what he said to him. Wherever you live in England, there's always a road that leads to London. Your job is when you preach, There's always a road to Christ. Your job is to find it. He's there. Oh everyone that thirsts. Come ye. And so on. Now the picture is obvious, is it not? It's a market trader in a hot climate, thirsty. I mean you've got more experience of these heats and these dry weathers and everything else than this neat person. So you can understand the picture better than I can either. We live in a wet climate. We understand what thirst is, but not like you. I was in Mali and I was drinking water by a bottle. I understand. And that's the picture here. Here is the market trader. And on his stall he's got fresh, clean, living water. And you can hear him calling out, can't you? Every one of you who thirsts, come. Here's the water for you. And if you read the passage again, you'll see he argues with them, he pleads with them, he reasons with them. He says, it's without money. It's without price. Not many market stalls around here are offering things like that, are they? But freely. No price. Come without money. And then he says, look, you're going to that stall over there. That's junk over there. That's rubbish. That's trash. Don't go over there. You're wasting your money over there, dear. Don't go over there. Come here. This is good stuff. This is the best stuff. This is free stuff. It's for you. Come, come. Why do you labour for that which is useless? Why will you waste your money on it? it won't satisfy. And he goes on and on and on like this, arguing with the people. The Gospel offer here could not be clearer, plainer, more obvious. Now I'm going to show you how to ruin through incipient hyper-Calvinism or overt hyper-Calvinism. I'm going to do it from the preacher's point of view. And I'm going to do it from the thirsty man or woman in the market. Here is how I'm going to ruin it as a preacher. Oh everyone that thirsts without money and without price, bank up. I'm not going to Matthew 11, 28. Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. That will be the equivalent in the New Testament. Okay. Now I'm a hyper preacher. As I come to preach this text what do I do? I stress the thirst. I stress the hunger. I stress the weariness. I stress the labour. And I so major on those aspects of the text that I make my hearers think about their thirst and their hunger and their poverty. Instead of getting them to think about what I'm offering them, the water, I get them to think about themselves. And they begin to reason like this. And this is where the hyper comes into the hearing. They begin to reason, yes, now, am I thirsty? Am I really thirsty? Am I thirsty enough? Do I really hunger? Do I realize how bankrupt I am? Yeah. Some of you think I'm making this up, but I mean, no, no. But there's a man, I won't give his name because he might hear this when it goes on sermon audio. But it's a genuine case, and I've been talking to him, I've forgotten how many months it's been. It might be two years now, I don't know how long he's been. And it's the same story nearly every time. Is there any hope for me? Is my faith sincere enough? Is my repentance sincere enough? You see, he's listened to preparationist preachers. He's listened to hyper preachers. And they have made him think about his feelings and his desires. and his bankruptcy. And he now is in a position where that's what he can think about. I tell him the same every time. Stop looking at yourself. Look at Christ. You see, look at the market trader. I'm not making it up. Look at the market trader. He's not really interested in the thirst or the poverty he wants you to have his water. Because my friend, if you get on that trail of asking, well am I sincere enough? I repent. I'm not trying to be silly, some people are really harrowed over this. I mean, they've already hacked to pieces over it. They go on for years and they never... I'll tell you what, friend, you haven't got a chance. You never will repent enough. You never will be sincere enough. Your faith is never good enough. You are not saved because of your believing or on the basis of your believing or the quality of your repentance. You have to repent over your repentance. You have to confess your lack of faith. I mean, I'm preaching here, aren't I? But if I'm honest with God, I have to say, Lord, it wasn't sincere enough. I know these people like it, and I can give it to them. Now, can you see, my friend? I'm a sinner like you. The market stall holder wants you to have the drink. My wife and I were out one day several years ago, and my son then was a young lad, I suppose, and he wasn't with us, I don't know what happened that day. And we were looking and he was selling what we call an anorex, what do you call it? I don't know, a coat. I think he was. He was selling something. And my wife and I were just talking and we said, I wonder if that'll fit Simon. That's my boy. I wonder if that'll fit Simon. And the trader heard us. And he said, yeah, that'll fit Simon. That's good, you got it. I don't know whether he got the sale or not. You see, he was interested in selling it. Yes. He wanted us to take it off him. Did you get the point, my friend? Yes. I must warn you. I mentioned Marie Mathieu. I'm dying to have you converted. Yes. I said I'd give you two texts. I haven't made that up. If you look at the first text, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Would you please tell me the condition in that text? All the ends of the earth, that's anybody and everybody. It's not whether you're thirsty or not. It's not whether you understand or not. If you're still alive, come to Christ now. Spurgeon was once in his sermons, he did this many times, if you want to read Spurgeon, he tackled the hypers in his day over and over again. Famous sermon called the War Art for Faith and all the rest of it, he did many sermons. And he challenged them one day and he said this, what would you do, he said, if you were brought down in darkest Africa, dam, tahame, he called it, darkest Africa, and out of the jungle came these men, cannibals, with blood around their lips, on their Why would you say to them, well now you've got to have this preparation, you see, now we'd better preach the law to you, now we've got to get them to realize that you need them. He said, I know what I would say, man and brethren, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Now whether I'd use exactly his words there, but the point is right, he goes straight into the gospel, straight into Christ. And all these things, I didn't realise how this day was going to tie together. We haven't planned it, you know. I don't know whether these brothers have planned this, but they didn't let me out of the loop anyway. When you think about it, it's all come round and round in circles, but it's been hitting home the same point. Don't let's skirt around it, brothers and sisters. Don't let's come at it as a side, as it were. Let us preach Christ to sinners. love them into salvation, plead with them to come. I've just used two texts, haven't I? But you look at all the texts of Scripture. God commands all men everywhere to repent. This look unto me and be ye saved, you know. You know the famous story. It's a true story. You know the story of Spurgeon's conversion. Spurgeon was brought up as a young man in a very strong Puritan home. He knew his Puritan theology as a boy. His grandfather was an independent, that's a kind of Puritan, independent, John Owen was an independent, a kind of an independent minister and Spurgeon was brought up in his grandfather's home and grandmother's home and Spurgeon had read the Puritans. He's a 15, 16 year old lad, okay, but he knows his Puritan theology. and he knew he was a sinner. And he was miserable and wretched knowing he was a sinner. But though he knew his puritan theology, he didn't know what to do. It was a January day and it was snowing. And he was going to Churchill Chapel as he would go in his normal time, but he couldn't get where he would normally go if it was too snowy. And so he turned into a primitive Is it a Methodist chapel? Or primitive? I think it's a primitive Methodist chapel. In Colchester in England. Artillery there. And he went in and there was a handful of people in this place. And he sat under the gallery. Some of our chapels have downstairs and a gallery upstairs. There was a handful of people just scattered about. And he sat over there. And they all sat there in silence waiting for the preacher to come. And the preacher didn't turn up. It was snowing. So one of the members of the congregation, one of the members of the church, he wasn't a preacher, but he thought something ought to be done. So he got up in the pulpit, he couldn't preach, but he just read his text. Isaiah 45 verse 22. Look unto me and be ye saved. all the ends of the earth, for I am God, there's the emphasis, for I am God and there is none else. Spurgeon said he couldn't preach, but he read the text, then he read it again, then he said it again. And eventually after about 5 or 10 minutes he ran out, like I'm going to in a minute, he ran out of the tub, stop, and then he looked up and he saw this young man sitting under the gallery over there, a stranger. And this is what this non-preacher did. He really did preach. Now listen to it. Young man, he said, you look very miserable. You want plenty of views in preaching. You look very miserable. Prudence said, that made me think. He said, I wasn't used to people addressing me like that from the pulpit. But he said it was a blow well struck, he said, because I was miserable. Because I knew I was a sinner. The non-preacher went on, you look very miserable and you always will be miserable until he said you do what my text tells you, until you look. Spurgeon said nobody had explained to me how I could be rid of my sins and this non-preacher did. He said it's only looking he said, it don't take much, it's just a look. And Spurgeon said, I did look. I did look. In other words, he trusted Christ even as he sat there. He called out to Christ, Lord, save me, and whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I tell people when I'm preaching, if you feel that God, if it's true that God has spoken to you now and you say, yes, I'm going to come, What I suggest to you is you wait when you get home, go in your room on your own, and deal with God. No. No. Come and see me after the service. No. The devil tells you that. The devil will tell you, yes, this bloke's right. You want to do it? Later. Look to Jesus now. Amen. Where you are. It's not a physical look. It's Lord. explain, I know I don't feel enough, I don't get it, but I know there's something here and it's Jesus Christ and everlasting salvation and Lord don't leave me out, give it to me. What I'm saying to you my friend is this, and I'm rebuking myself, if you look at those texts it's very easy to preach The conditions in the text, if you call them that, they're not conditions. If you treat them as conditions, you make it fences for people to jump over. Am I sincere enough? Well, I claim that, yeah. But do I believe enough? My friend, it's not that. Those things are put in that text to encourage you. I don't care how weary you are, in what way you're weary, however you feel or what you don't feel. Christ stands ready to save you. You say, well, I haven't understood much of all this. I've only just come into these things. My friend, I don't care whether you've been listening for 50 years or five minutes. There is life for a look at the crucified one. There is life for a look for thee. So look, look, look and live. And whoever calls upon the name of the Lord who looks in, hungry, thirsty, weary, whatever it might be, the soul that cries out to Christ, he will always receive. There is no, I said just now, no if, no but, no maybe, no perchance. Well, no, no. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. refuse him, I do not say you will never get another chance, I'm not saying that, but if you die refusing Christ, you've heard it time and again from me and from others today, and you've heard it from Christ, that is the ultimate sin. You have turned down such inestimable love. You've turned down the freest, fullest offer that could ever be made. I say to you in the letter to the Hebrews words, see that you refuse not him who speaks. Jesus stands willing, able and ready. Are you willing my friend? Do you want him? Will you have him? Will you go with this man? Will you cast yourself upon Christ? do so. I should love you enough to pray over you and weep over you and plead with you that you will not refuse him. See that you refuse not him who speaks. And I say that because I dare say most of us here are believers, but I say that for any here who are not, who might hear these recordings, but I want to encourage all of us who are believers and I mean men and women In all walks and stations of life, let us be the freest offerers of Christ that ever could be. Let this characteristic be ours, my friend. We are without inhibition. We have our Calvinism behind us. Yes, we do. We have our convictions gripping us. Yes, I do. but none of these should hinder me. In fact, they should gird me up and stir me to offer Christ as freely as I can, without price, without money, without any terms whatsoever. Preaching the gospel to sinners is my title. And I made the point, it's not like falling off a log. We really do need to preach and we need to preach a full Christ to sinners as sinners. Not sensible sinners, you may not know that term, that's the hyper term. They're sensible because they've been made awakened and they have some sense of it all. Spurgeon said, I preach to insensible sinners. I don't preach to the elect. I don't know who they are. I don't preach to the regenerate because the only way I know they're regenerate is they believe. I preach to sinners as sinners. And by this foolishness, this logical inconsistency, God is pleased to use it and prove it yet again to be the power of God and the salvation. If Peter could see through, I was reading the Acts in my private readings just now, and he preaches. Here's a man who never preached in his life, and he preaches, and thousands of good virtues. May God arise and use us. William Cowper said in one of his hymns, Lord, descend and make a thousand hearts thine own. Let us go on, brothers and sisters, offering Christ as freely as we can. May God bless our labourers to His glory and the praise of His Son.