The Problem of "If We Ask" Salvation

Theologian, we have a problem...

In a recent Internet conversation with a fellow Christian of another order, I was confronted with the following statement:

"Being saved by grace is a gift from God that He gives freely to all, if we ask Him." (Anonymous)

This belief is by far, by FAR, the most common belief regarding eternal salvation among professing evangelicals today. So universally accepted is this statement that to oppose it places one outside the camp of Christianity in the eyes of a great many professing Christians. Matters of popularity notwithstanding, what is the proper response to such a statement in light of the testimony of the scriptures?

Can an Unregenerate Man Seek God?

"Ho, everyone that thirsteth..." (Isaiah 55:1)  Is this dead fellow thirsty?

There is a great deal of preaching under the moniker of "sovereign grace" in the Christian marketplace today. I am firmly convinced that the VAST majority of such teaching cannot be logically reconciled with the fundamental precepts of grace (TULIP), and that such teaching is nothing more than well-meant-offerism cloaked in a thin veneer of grace terminology. A biblical analysis of the statements made in such sermons is revealing....