What is being offered is nothing less than full salvation from sin and from Hell through the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every sinner is facing towards that which God in His repulsiveness for sin has prepared.

Hell is the place where God’s wrath punishes sin. The punishment God gave out on Calvary to His Son for just a few hours He will pour out for all eternity upon all those who have rejected the Sacrifice He made.

Hell is a place of complete consciousness where there is no rest or relief in any form from its pain and torment.

Hell is as the consequence of turning your back upon God and choosing through your fallen will to follow your own agenda … and rejecting God’s.

The sinner is hardened towards God … and not just hardened but dead!

If you had the choice to choose for a mansion of a home, or a bank account with millions in it, or some other longing you have always dreamed off … or Jesus; which one would be the most appealing?

Ask the people outside … and they’ll tell you; they wouldn’t choose Jesus!

You see, we’ve looked at it already, - The Corruption of the Soul. What the world has to offer is far more appealing than anything God has to offer.

Jesus saw this as He wept over Jerusalem, Mt. 23: 37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

… and ye would not! That is the proof of the fallen will, … the will that is in bondage to the enemy of God.

‘Free will’ … people talk about; but how can it be free when in the Garden of Eden all creation fell under the domination of Satan because of sin and disobedience to God!

Our hearts were effected, our minds, our tongues, our eyes, our hands, our feet … everything about us ... including our wills. Martin Luther wrote about it in his famous The Bondage of the Will.

… And Christ on the hill overlooking Jerusalem lamented, and ye would not!

Yes, it is altogether true; because of the fallenness of the human mind and will there is absolutely no way we would ever choose for Christ … because we are at enmity with God (James 4:4). Rejecting Christ and His offer of salvation is the most natural thing in the world!

How then are we to be saved? Well, it all comes back to what Jonah wrote and to that which is proved over and over again throughout the Bible, Jonah 2:9 Salvation is of the LORD.

That is not the same thing as saying “There is no salvation outside of Christ”. That is true; but when the Bible says Salvation is of the LORD it means that salvation is completely of the Lord.

Here is how Jeremiah explained the offer you will not refuse, Jer. 31: 3  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

What kind of people were these? These were the people of Israel who were chasing after all the other gods around them, but God promised He would draw out even from them a remnant unto Himself.

… And the offer He would make to them they would not refuse, - there is no indication in any of the relevant texts, - Old Testament and New Testament, - that those whom God would call would refuse His offer of mercy.

And the reason you did not refuse God’s offer of mercy was because He showed to you the Hell you were travelling towards and He laid such a burden of conviction for sin upon your heart.

 … You would never have done of yourself have chosen Him, - you would have said, “I don’t need Him, I’m good enough, God will accept me as I am … a good upright person!”

But no, the fact of the matter is … He did all the work necessary to prepare you for accepting cleansing through the blood of His Son.

	He did to you what He did to Lydia on the riverside at Philippi, - He opened your heart (cf. Acts 16:14).
	The preacher’s ability to preach didn’t open your heart, neither did the singing, nor the smiles of the people in the church; the Holy Spirit opened your heart and you placed your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

Yes, you probably did say “No!” on a number of occasions but such was the overwhelming drawing power of Almighty God that you could not keep on resisting.

And in the eternal electing plan of God He called you and drew you on to Himself just as He had decreed in the plan He had formulated even from before the foundation of the world.

… the offer you will not refuse …

Is it possible to say “No” to God so many times that He will say “No” to you, if you were to eventually ask Him for salvation?

Do all people who believe in Christ become Christians? No, they don’t.

John 2: 23  Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. 24  But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, 25  And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.

These people had seen Him perform miracles and they wanted to become His disciples because of the miracles He performed.

The Bible plainly says, many believed in his name. Why then weren’t they saved? … Because they believed in Him for the wrong reasons.

He could see into their hearts, - far deeper than you or I could see; He could see deep down that the reason they wanted to believe in Him had nothing to do with salvation!

	They weren’t glorying that He was the Son of God and the Messiah, - they were taken up with His great miracles!
	They weren’t glorying because of the message of salvation He was preaching, - they were glorying in the temporal and not in the eternal.

Many people come to church and make a ‘commitment’ but they make a ‘commitment’ for reasons that promote their own aims.

Yes, surely they want to become better people … but there are also opportunities within the church situation from which they can benefit ... and time reveals the lack of true salvation in their lives.

What about the man called Simon in Acts 8? He was a sorcery, he was into witchcraft and he was making a fair amount of money for himself out of all this (vv.8-11).

When Simon saw what Peter and the rest of the disciples were doing he wanted ‘a slice of the action’ too, v.13 Simon himself believed also.

The more he watched the disciples ‘the wider his mouth opened’ because he saw the fantastic miracles they were doing.

“Here”, says Simon the sorcerer, “Here is money I have made, I’ll give it to you if you show me how to do these miracles you are doing!” (vv.18,19)

In v.13 he had believed … but what had he believed in if he merely thought that God was an opportunity to simply advance the aims of Simon the sorcerer!

No matter where else he had placed his faith it was not in the finished work of Christ on Calvary!

It’s sad, - but it’s true, - many people go through a form of believing in Christ but it is not the true faith the repentant sinner places in the Saviour.

It’s a faith which is a response to their own situation at that time and is not saving faith that has Christ in the centre.

But when Christ draws you near you feel the presence of His holiness … and it makes you recognise your own sinfulness.

When He draws you close to Himself all your thoughts are of Him and how you can please Him.

And those who are in His plan to save He takes them and plucks them out from the road leading downwards to Hell.

He shows us the sin that is offensive to Him but He shows us the means by which that sin can be washed away.

Imagine! At that point the Son of the King of Heaven is showing personally to you your need to be saved and how He is willing to save you.

Whereas you were dead in trespasses and in sin He has regenerated you through the work of the Holy Spirit, and He has opened your eyes and you can see clearly that Jesus is willing to save you,

You can see it all so clearly that it is by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8).

When He opens your eyes you begin to recognise its true meaning; when He unblocks your ears you can here Him speaking … and such is the power and the tone with which He calls you that you come to Him in the same way as those little children came to Him on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

So that He would bring you unto Himself He labours in your heart what only can be described as the work of God’s free and sovereign grace, - for you would not come to Him if it were left to your decision; He said, Jn. 6: 37  All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.

It is His plan that all those for whom He died, - without exception, - will come to Him and believe.

We are not robots but we are people whom the Holy Spirit has revealed the beauty of grace and salvation to and from which we cannot turn away.

It is the offer you will not refuse and it is the offer you cannot refuse …

If you are not saved Christ died on the cross of Calvary to take away sin, - once and forever.

There is no other salvation outside of Him. There is no other escape from out of the road that leads to Hell.

And should you live for eighty or ninety or even a hundred years it is not even a blip in the vast ocean of eternity!

The offer of salvation that I make to you this evening you must not refuse … for if you refuse it you are facing eternity without Christ!

Do you see the sin that is piling up against you? But do you hear the voice saying to you, “There’s time enough yet! No hurry!”

My son Philip was at the funeral of a young girl on Friday who died of a brain tumour … aged only 18.

You don’t know when your time is going to run out and God will call you to account as to why you rejected His Son.

This is why I tell you this is the offer you must not refuse because your whole eternity depends upon it.

It is a conscious decision you must make … and no-one else can make it for you. II Pet. 3:9 not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

To be saved from sin God by the convicting and convincing power of the Holy Spirit draws you unto Himself.

You need to stop fighting and surrender to His will for He is stronger than you … and He loves you and this is the offer you must not refuse for He sent His only-begotten Son to die on the cross of Calvary for you.

You see, in the Sovereign plan of God, this is the offer you will not refuse and it is the offer you cannot refuse and I pray that the Holy Spirit would convince you that this is the offer you must not refuse.

Only through Christ you can be saved … and this is the Gospel; and here is some more Good News: if you are not saved, not only are the folk in the congregation praying for you but Jesus is praying for you also, Jn. 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.

… And the marvellous thing about all the prayers of the Son of God is that His Father in Heaven is listening to all that He prays … for all that He prays is according to the eternal will and purpose of His Father.