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The 'Invitation'

Discussion in 'Fundamental Baptist Forum' started by Rubato 1, Mar 31, 2008.

  1. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    There have been times when I preached and someone came down to the front just as I was finished wanting to give their life to Christ and before any singing.
     
  2. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    This is great. I'm surmising that your message included the gospel and a call to repentance and faith. The message itself is the invitation. Isn't it wonderful when the sovereign Holy Spirit stirs a heart and applies the gospel, without our having to create an atmosphere in which he can work?
     
  3. mparkerfd20

    mparkerfd20 Member

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    Yes, that's Spurgeon. I'm not sure which sermon it came from, but that quote came from a passage in the book "Spurgeon Gold" (or at least that's what Google told me).

    http://makingdisciples.eternaltruthministry.com/2007/08/spurgeon-gold.html

    I also found this quote on the same page concerning true conversion... Spurgeon definitely had a gift.

    "If we labor for souls, we must not be content unless souls are really saved, for the apostle says, "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God." Well, does not that satisfy you, Paul? They are zealous for God. They are red-hot. "No," says he, "not unless it is in the right way. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." We feel very thankful when we see tears stream down the cheek, but you know, people cry at the theatre, and there is not much in it. Pray God it may not end in a shower of tears; but that the heart may bleed as well as the eyes weep. It may happen that we have induced our hearers to give up some outward sins. So far, so good. But it is written, "You must be born again;" and if this vital change is not experienced, all outward reformation will land them short of Heaven."
     
    #103 mparkerfd20, Jun 16, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 16, 2008
  4. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    Staff did not always like it when they could not tell the time that the invitation began because the invitation was the result of the sermon and tied in with the message. Too many invitations are another sermon with the primary sermon as nothing more than filler with the invitation as being the main emphasis. I see no evidence in scripture like that. When I see Jesus call his disciples he said, "Come follow Me." He did give them a long persuasive speech or some worked up shout, stomp, and spit drama. He did have to push and pull and tug and give out prizes but rather He told them the truth.

    Often I also spoke about what baptism meant to the early church and how those who believed could have been executed should the emperor decided that for them. By one naming Christ as Lord meant that the person renounced the emperor as their lord.

    I am a strong believer that we must tell it like it is without a bunch of flavor water. Non-believers can often handle the truth better than the members. Many times people come to church because they are tired of their life and want answers. The church must provide the straight stuff. Every member must be made a ambassador for Christ not just a pew sitter.


    I can remember well the time a parent came to me after a sermon and told me what her daughter was faced with from her friends. Her daughter had two friends in high school who had boy friends who were doing things they should not be doing. That morning I was preaching from 1 Cor. and told the congregation the truth about love and lust. The mother, daughter and her two friends heard the truth. I knew that the daughter from that point on decided to walk with God. Oh she was a Christian but struggling. When she heard me say what I said she decided to make a decision that lasts for eternity. Her life changed from that point on. We must present the word in such a way to not diminish its power. If God said it, then who are we to be an agent of Satan by watering it down or changing it?


    We have too much of the make me feel good religious churches that are ineffective and powerless because the people do not know God and they have powerless staff with water instead of fire as leaders. They are program churches which fail to recognize the giftedness God gives people but instead have an agenda that they believe is from God which is really mad-made and not God-made.
     
  5. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    Yes, from his sermon "Good News for You", Oct. 5, 1862:

    "I do not believe in the way in which some people pretend to preach the gospel. They have no gospel for sinners as sinners, but only for those who are above the dead level of sinnership, and are technically styled sensible sinners. Like the priest in this parable; they see the poor sinner, and they say, "He is not conscious of his need, we cannot invite him to Christ;" "He is dead," they say, "it is of no use preaching to dead souls;" so they pass by on the other side, keeping close to the elect and quickened, but having nothing whatever to say to the dead, lest they should make out Christ to be too gracious, an in his mercy to be too free. The Levite was not in quite such a hurry as the priest. The priest had to preach, and might be too late for the service, and therefore he could not stop to relieve the man; beside, he might have soiled his cassock, or made himself unclean ; and then he would have been hardly fit for the dainty and respectable congregation over which he officiated. As for the Levite, he had to read the hymn; he was a clerk in the church, and he was somewhat in a hurrv, but still he could get in after the opening prayer, so he indulged himself with the luxury of looking on. Just as I have known ministers say, "Well, you know we ought to describe the sinner's state, and warn him, but we must not invite him to Christ." Yes, gentlemen, you must pass by on the other side, after having looked at him, for on your own confession you have no good news for the poor wretch. I bless my Lord and Master he has given to me a gospel which I can take to dead sinner, a gospel which is available for the vilest of the vile. I thank my Master that he does not say to the sinner, " Come half way and meet me," but he comes "where he is," and finding him ruined, lost, obdurate, he meets him on his own ground, and gives him life and peace without asking, or expecting him to prepare himself for grace. Here is, I think, set forth in my text, the available benevolence of the Samaritan; it is mine this morning, to show the available grace of Christ."


    "There sits in your pew with you to-day a man of your own rank and calling, who will explain to you the gospel, if you do not understand it. Here are many of us, who are but too glad if we can roll away the stone from the door of your sepulchre; here are children of God themselves saved by sovereign grace, and if you really do not know the way, do but touch your next neighbour, and say to him, " Can you explain to me yet more clearly what I must do to be saved?""


    "I am trying to fish in deep waters after some of you that hare long escaped the net. I know when I have given free and full invitations, you have said, "Ah! that cannot mean me.""


    "Beloved, once more, my Master has sweetly met your want of courage by bringing many others, so that you may follow their example. As fowlers sometimes have their decoy-birds, so my Master hath decoy-birds that are to draw others to him. Other sinners have been saved, others he has cleansed who did but trust him."
     
  6. Rubato 1

    Rubato 1 New Member

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    Jerome, whence do you get these quotes?
     
  7. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    Many volumes of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit are available to download at GoogleBooks.
     
  8. Steven2006

    Steven2006 New Member

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    "Act 2:40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"
    Act 2:41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. "

    IMHO, I still think that these verses descibe what sounds very similar to an altar call. At the end of his sermon Peter "kept on exhorting them". He was saying to them "Be saved", he was calling them to come, and they did.
     
  9. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    Could you give us a website to go to?
     
  10. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    google.com, click More at top, then Books
     
  11. David Lamb

    David Lamb Active Member

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    Or for a free "taster", go to http://www.spurgeon.org/index/rindex.htm When you click on on of the books of the bible, or on "Miscellaneous or Unknown Texts", a list of sermons appears. Some sermon titles are available free online, and their titles appear in blue, bold, underlined text. For instance, click on Ephesians, and you find the following:and seven more.
     
  12. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    Thanks for the information.
     
  13. David Lamb

    David Lamb Active Member

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    Certainly Peter kept on exhorting them to repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. But to me, it seems a great stretch of the imagination to say that what he did was the same as the appeal system. He did not exhort them to "come to the front and invite Christ into your life/ make a decision for Christ." Perhaps a comaprison of Billy Graham's "invitation" at his first London crusade with Acts 2.37-41 will highlight what I am trying to say:
    "I am going to ask you to come forward. Up there - down there - I want you to come. You come right now- quickly. If you are with friends and relatives, they will wait for you. Don't let distance keep you form Christ. It's a long way, but Christ went all the way to the Cross because He love you. Certainly you can come these few steps and give your life to Him ..." "God is speaking to you. Get up and come right now ... a little voice says, 'You ought to come to Christ.' Come quickly! You may never have another moment. You have to come by faith. You need Christ, you get up and come ..."

    37 ¶ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." 40 And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." 41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.

     
  14. Steven2006

    Steven2006 New Member

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    I see your point, and the point is taken with the example you have given. However when I look at a variety of translations, I think one could describe what happened in verse forty as and invitation. I have heard many altar calls that I would be comfortable decsribing as, " With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them".



    NLT - Act 2:40 - Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, "Save yourselves from this generation that has gone astray!"



    NIV - Act 2:40 - With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”



    ESV - Act 2:40 - And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”



    NASB - Act 2:40 - And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"
     
  15. David Lamb

    David Lamb Active Member

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    I have no arguement with "pleaded". But pleading with sinners to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not the same as pleading with people to get up out of their seats and come to the front, or urging them to "make a decision" for Christ, or sign a card, or any of the other things that seem to be part of the "invitation system". In my understanding, pleading with/urging/beseeching sinners to repent and believe is preaching the gospel; it's not something we do after preaching the gospel to them.
     
  16. mparkerfd20

    mparkerfd20 Member

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    Someone may have already posted this, but I ran across this article today that fits in with this discussion.

    Source: http://reformedevangelist.com/?p=154
     
    #116 mparkerfd20, Jun 20, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 20, 2008
  17. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    "Remove your spiritual hunger by receiving Jesus into your heart. This is the food of which, if a man eats, he shall live forever! Be filled with all the fullness of God as you now receive the Lord Jesus as God and Man." ---C. H. Spurgeon, "On the Cross After Death", April 3, 1887.

    "Decide for Christ now, I beseech you! May the Holy Spirit constrain you to decide at once, for Christ’s sake! Amen." ---C. H. Spurgeon, "Jacob and Doubting Souls A Parallel", June 20, 1886.

    "Choose ye, this night, whom ye will serve. By the living God, before whom I stand, I adjure you this night decide for Christ. If God be God, serve him. If the Devil be God, serve him. One way or the other." ---C. H. Spurgeon, "Confession of Christ", March 21, 1868.

    "God is gently drawing some of you this morning; I can feel that he is doing so. I have deep sympathy with you; I know how you are feeling, you want to get alone, and fall down on your knees to pray. Pray now! Cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner," in the pew, at once. You do not need to wait to get home. May God the Holy Spirit lead you to yield your heart to Jesus Christ at this very time, for, if not, there will surely come one of these days a last time in which you will feel, and you will after that be given up to a conscience seared as with a hot iron, never to feel again." ---C. H. Spurgeon, "To-day! To-day! To-day!", August 1, 1880.
     
  18. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    From Lectures to My Students, C. H. Spurgeon:

    "I fear that some of our orthodox brethren have been prejudiced against the free invitations of the gospel by hearing the raw, undigested harangues of revivalist speakers whose heads are loosely put together."


    "...we must return to invitation, and set before the awakened mind the rich provisions of infinite grace which are freely presented to the sons of men. In our Master's name we must give the invitation, crying, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Do not be deterred from this, my brethren, by those ultra-Calvinistic theologians who say, ''You may instruct and warn the ungodly, but you must not invite or entreat them."


    "...those who never exhort sinners are seldom winners of souls to any great extent, but they maintain their churches by converts from other systems. I have even heard them say, "Oh, yes, the Methodists and Revivalists are beating the hedges, but we shall catch many of the birds." If I harbored such a mean thought I should be ashamed to express it. A system which cannot touch the outside world, but must leave arousing and converting work to others, whom it judges to be unsound, writes its own condemnation."


    "Do not close a single sermon without addressing the ungodly, but at the same time set yourself seasons for a determined and continuous assault upon them, and proceed with all your soul to the conflict. On such occasions aim distinctly at immediate conversions; labor to remove prejudices, to resolve doubts, to conquer objections, and to drive the sinner out of his hiding-places at once. Summon the church-members to special prayer, beseech them to speak personally both with the concerned and the unconcerned, and be yourself doubly upon the watch to address individuals. We have found that our February meetings at the Tabernacle have yielded remarkable results: the whole month being dedicated to special effort."


    "Mean conversions, expect them, and prepare for them. Resolve that your hearers shall either yield to your Lord or be without excuse, and that this shall be the immediate result of the sermon now in hand. Do not let the Christians around you wonder when souls are saved, but urge them to believe in the undiminished power of the glad tidings, and teach them to marvel if no saving result follows the delivery of the testimony of Jesus."


    "In addition to earnest preaching it will be wise to use other means. If you wish to see results from your sermons you must be accessible to inquirers. A meeting after every service may not be desirable, but frequent opportunities for coming into direct contact with your people should be sought after, and by some means created. It is shocking to think that there are ministers who have no method whatever for meeting the anxious, and if they do see here and there one, it is because of the courage of the seeker, and not because of the earnestness of the pastor. From the very first you should appoint frequent and regular seasons for seeing all who are seeking after Christ, and you should continually invite such to come and speak with you. In addition to this, hold numerous inquirers' meetings, at which the addresses shall be all intended to assist the troubled and guide the perplexed, and with these intermingle fervent prayers for the individuals present, and short testimonies from recent converts and others. As an open confession of Christ is continually mentioned in connection with saving faith, it is your wisdom to make it easy for believers who are as yet following Jesus by night to come forward and avow their allegiance to him. There must be no persuading to make a profession, but there should be every opportunity for so doing, and no stumbling-block placed in the way of hopeful minds."
     
    #118 Jerome, Jun 24, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 24, 2008
  19. Beth

    Beth New Member

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    invitation

    My pastor extends an invitation at the end of every service....without repetitive music....I LOVE it....we have had many come to Christ after an awesome sermon which brought them to repentance!
     
  20. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    And this is precisely why I am not completely opposed to giving invitations at the end of a service. My concern is with HOW it is given. I still would like to hear the preacher say something like, "If you are lost, you are under terrible condemnation. God commands you to repent, and trust Christ for your salvation. Now is the time and today is the day."

    Then SHUT UP.
     
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