Take me, if you would, then,
to Revelation 22. Revelation 22.
I don't preach much from Revelation. One of these days, we'll maybe
try to take our trip through Revelation. Revelation 22. I want to start reading at verse
17. And we're probably going to be reading some other verses
here in this chapter, but the verse under consideration for
this morning is verse 17. The Scriptures say, And the Spirit
and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come,
and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will, let
him take of the water of life freely. Father, we just ask you
to be with us today. We pray that you would show forth
the Son. We pray, Lord, that you would
help our hearts to receive the Word of God, that you would help
me to preach the Word of God. Father, I pray that the testimony
Today will be from the truth and not from my own understanding.
Lord, I pray that you would help us to worship you today. Lord, we need the Spirit to guide
us and direct us, lead us. We need the Spirit to teach us,
and so we pray that he come. Lord, I pray that the meaning
of this passage might be understood by your people, that it might
give encouragement to the heart and that it might also bring
remembrance to Christ Jesus. Lord, may he be the center point
of our message today and our worship today. And Lord, may
you feed your people, may you refresh your people with the
word of life. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. And the Spirit and the bride
say, come, and let him that heareth say, come, and let him that is
a thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water
of life freely. Now, how many of us have heard
preachers that preach free will, free choice, tell us that the
scriptures say, whosoever will may come. Probably heard that quite a bit
on TV and the radios and churches we've attended in the past. I've
preached those messages. I've preached this message. Matter
of fact, I've preached this verse in the past with a completely
out of context meaning. But as we hear preachers preach
these things as it pertains to free will and free choice, We're
hearing a wrong testimony of what this passage is actually
saying. Matter of fact, verse 17 is not
an invitation or is it an offer of salvation? This is not the
spirit and the bride are saying to the world, come to Jesus. As I, at least, I believe that
that's what that was saying in the past, and that's how I used
to preach it, that this is an invitation verse. Let the Spirit
and the bride say, come! This is what we're telling the
world, to come. But brethren, there's a few things
that we have that's a problem here. Number one, we don't have
a problem with this phrase. Whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. We don't have any problem with
the word come, as it pertains to coming to Christ Jesus. And we don't have a problem with
whosoever will come, long as we understand that the context
of Scripture clearly teaches that it is only those who are
given by God to come that will come. that the ability to come
to Christ Jesus isn't something that's inherent in our ability
in the natural man. So we must first understand that
whenever the phrases, whosoever will, the phrases, come unto
me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, come unto me who are athirst,
all these passages that seem to be what we would call invitation
verses, are not verses to the world in general, but to the
sheep particularly. They're to God's elect whom He
has quickened, whom He has converted and given spiritual understanding,
who has given repentance in the heart to see that they have a
need for Christ and have turned from thinking or believing that
they can produce a self-righteousness before God, and they see that
Christ's righteousness is the only thing that they need. So long as we understand that
context, that the whosoever wills are the ones who God has given
the ability to come, because in the natural man they cannot
come, then we are Okay with that phrase. We're fine. We understand
that and we preach that. Matter of fact, whenever I sent
out this morning on Facebook, just kind of a teaser on what
we was going to be talking about today, I made mention of the
fact, you know, this is the verse we're going to be looking at
today. And yes, we do believe this verse because a lot of people
will say, well, Calvinists, they're going to, you know, of course
we're not Calvinists. I don't like that term. Don't
want to be called that term, but that's what they call us.
You know, well, you guys that believe in predestination and
election, you know, you just stay away from those passages.
You won't ever preach it. We have no problem preaching
these passages, but we preach them in the context. So I will
say this, in times past, I preached this passage and passages like
this with the wrong biblical context. And I've repented of
that. I've turned from that. I think
that that was dead works, that it is dumb. All that that I did
prior was dumb. because it is not according to
truth. It's not according to Christ
and His righteousness. Now, the second thing, though,
this statement, whosoever will may come, is not found anywhere
in Scripture. Now, there's similar phrases
that's like that, you know. As I just mentioned, there's
the, you know, come all ye who are weary and heavy laden. There's
come unto me. Those who are of thirst may come.
Ho, everyone who thirsteth, come. Isaiah 55. There are all these
passages, and this passage that's in front of us here, and whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. These passages
are in Scripture, but we got to look and see what is these
things talking about. But here's the main thing. The
first part of verse 17 is not talking about us calling the
world or us calling even the elect to Christ. When it says
here, look in your passage there, and the Spirit and the Bride
say come, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is
athirst come, that is not talking about us preaching the Gospel
for people to come to Christ Jesus. The context of this passage,
if we will go all the way back to verse 1, is this is the context
of us speaking to Christ to come. We are preaching to or we are
speaking to Christ. The spirit that is in us who
gives us the desire for Christ is telling us to tell Christ
to come. It is us who is telling Christ
to come. Now you say, well, I don't know.
Don't know about that preacher. In fact, I've had this conversation
with a brother just recently and everything, and this is not
an invitational verse as far as a gospel invitation. And I'll
tell you the reason why. As I've always said, we've got
to keep things within its context. Go back to verse 1 of chapter
22. Verse 1, it says, And he showed
me a pure river of water of life. clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of
the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there
the tree of life, which bared twelve manner of fruits, and
yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees were
for the healing of the nations." Now, brethren, this is imagery
that is portraying the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the river of life. Jesus Christ is that water that
proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. He's the
one that's in the midst of the street. He's the one that bears
the fruit. He's the one that is for the
healing of the nations. That's talking about Jesus Christ. And verse 3 says, And there shall
be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall
be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see
His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there
shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they
shall reign forever and ever. And He said unto me, These sayings
are faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy
prophets sent His angels to show unto His servants the things
which must shortly be done. Now brother, we're talking about
the time that we see Christ, the time that we're with Christ.
We're talking about Christ Jesus here, right? Now look what verse
seven says. Now, if you have the red letter
edition, you see that it's in red letters, signifying that
this is Christ talking. We don't need a red letter edition
to find this out though. It says, behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book. And I, John, saw these
things and heard them. And when I heard and seen, I
fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed
me these things. Now, this angel had brought John
in to see this vision. Remember, in the book of Revelation,
this is all a vision. This is all imagery, symbols,
to show the panoply of all the things that God was doing in
his purpose of Christ. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ,
right? And in this revelation of Jesus
Christ, this angel has brought John in and let him see through
symbols, through typology, through all these imagery. He has allowed
him to see the working of Christ on behalf of his people and bringing
forth the things of the decree of God. That's why the Lamb was
the only one who could unroll that scroll. That scroll was
the complete and total purpose and decree of God. And the only
one who could fulfill that, the only one who could do it, bring
it about, bring everything to be as the Bible says, all that
I have pleasure I will do. I'm paraphrasing there. Whenever God says I will do all
my pleasure, He's gonna do it. And the way He does it is through
Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus has brought everything.
He has created all things. He sustains all things. He's
the one who has substituted for His people, and He will be the
judge over all things. He will be the one who receives
all worship and glory whenever it's all done. So we see Christ
at the center of everything, and here Christ is saying, Behold,
I come quickly. And John has been brought in
to see this. Christ upon the throne, He is
God. Whenever it says that the throne
of God and Christ, it's not meaning that there's two separate people
up there, it's meaning that Christ is God. The throne of God and
Christ is the land that's sitting on it. Okay, when we think of
the land, we think of this little sacrificial animal that was given,
but we see that the scripture says that Christ was the Lamb's
land before the foundation of the world. Christ is our Lamb,
who takes away the sin of the world, the world of the left.
He takes away that sin. Christ is the Lamb. But Christ
is also God manifested in the flesh. So all that God is is
manifested in Christ Jesus. And Christ Jesus is the image
of the invisible God. He is the face of God. If you want to see the face of
God, you'll see it in the face of Jesus Christ. He is all God
manifested in the flesh. And so whenever it speaks of
God on His throne, it's speaking of Jesus Christ. And we know
that from Isaiah chapter 6. We see the Lord high and lifted
up and His train filled the temple. Isaiah saw it and he said, you
know, woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips. That person
that Isaiah saw way back in the Old Testament times, was Jesus
Christ. The book of John tells us that. That the one that Isaiah saw
on the throne in that day was Jesus Christ. Christ is God manifested
in the flesh. And Christ is who is being seen
by John right here. And it says, and I, John, saw
these things and heard them. And when I heard and seen, I
fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed
me these things. So John, this angel that brought
John in, Whenever John saw this vision of this guy on the throne
and speaking to him, he turned around and started worshipping
the feet of the messenger. Now that's kind of like a lot
of the stuff that goes on today. We have all these people that
are pumping up preachers, that are worshipping preachers. Well
I'm of this man, I'm of this man. The Bible even warns us
of this. Paul warned us of this. There's
some of you that say I'm of Peter and I'm of Paul and I'm of Paul. You know, I'm at Paul's camp.
Well, I'm at Paul's camp. You know, there's people here
today. You know, I'm with this internet preacher. I'm with this
internet preacher. I'm with this man. There may be people that
are saying, you know, I follow Mike Smith. You know, I don't
know why anyone would, but what do we do? We glorify preachers.
We make rock stars out of preachers and we put them up on a pedestal.
And we follow anything that they say. And if they say it, then
we doubt anybody that says anything different than that. If you don't
believe me, just say anything about some theologian. If you
disagree with John Gill, or if you disagree with Charles Spurgeon,
or if you disagree with this guy or that guy and everything
like that, everyone who listens to them guys and follows them,
they're going to say, that's blasphemy. We worship preachers. And this is what John did. John
turned around and said, hey, we're going to fall down here
and worship the messenger, not the one who the message is about.
The guy that brought me here to show me this guy, I'm going
to turn around and worship this guy. See how crazy that is? Look at verse 9. He says, Then
saith he unto me, See thou do it not, for I am of thy fellow
servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which
keep the sayings of the book. Worship God. Worship God. We're to worship God. And He
saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of the book,
for the time is at hand. And he that is unjust, let him
be unjust still. And he that is filthy, let him
be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. Now, there'll be a time that
we can come back and look at these things. This is what I
want to get at. Verse 7, He said, Behold, I come quickly. And behold,
I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man
according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do
His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of
life." Who are the ones that have the right to the tree of
life? The ones who are blessed to do His commands. Now, we've
just spent a long, long time in Galatians. And we've seen
that the commands that we have as the people of God under the
New Covenant, under the Everlasting Covenant, under the Eternal Covenant,
that the commands that we have is to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Hey, Lori, here's Cole. Good
afternoon. Hey. Hey, Cole. Hey, yes. Sorry. Okay. Okay, we're already
done doing good by yourself. Good. Just got started a few
minutes ago. All right. Come on in. Just have
a seat anywhere. How you doing? Good. I'm ready. It's 1034 times. That's
all right. Usually we just actually get
started right now. But we started a little bit early
on the preaching part. But We're in Revelation 22, verse
17. So back to verse 12, though. He says, And behold, I come quickly,
and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his
work shall be. I am the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. Blessed are they that do His
commands. Now, like I said, the commands that we have learned
as we went through Galatians is the commands are not follow
the law of Moses. The commands that we have been
given under the everlasting covenant or the new covenant are the commands
of Christ Jesus to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to look
unto Jesus Christ, that he is the author and the finisher of
our faith. He is substituted on our behalf to believe on him. That's the command that we are
given. to love God and to love our brethren. Those are the commands
that we are to follow and to follow after. And these are the
ones I believe that he is speaking of here. Blessed are they that
do his commands, that they may have right to the tree of life
and may enter in through the gates into the city. Now, he
goes on to say, for without our dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers
and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a
lie, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these
things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David, and the bright and morning star. Now, after this,
this is, again, the context of verse 17. Jesus himself, who
is the river of life, the water that comes from the throne of
God, the one who is the tree of life, okay? He is the one
who is speaking of himself and who he is, and that he is about
to come quickly. And in verse 17, we go on and
says, and the Spirit and the bride say, come. Now, who is
the Spirit and the bride saying come to? Again, this is not an
invitation that is being given to the world to come to Jesus.
This verse is talking about come Lord Jesus. Jesus is saying,
behold, I come quickly. Behold, I come quickly. I'm the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, first and the last.
Blessed are they. They're the ones that's going
to have access to the tree of life. Who's the tree of life?
That's me. You're going to have fellowship
with me. You're going to have your sustenance from me. You're
going to have your whole eternity of worship with me. This isn't an invitation to believe
the gospel here. It says, and the Spirit and the
bride say, come, and let him that hear it say, come. So who
are the Spirit and the bride? What's that mean? Well, the Spirit
and the bride say, come. Well, number one, the Spirit
says, come, Lord Jesus. And the bride, who's the bride?
Well, that's the elect of God, right? That's all of those who
are the elect of God gathered together. The Bible says that we are saying,
come Lord Jesus. And we say that because the spirit
that is in us, that teaches us, the spirit that is in us, that
prompts us, the spirit that is in us, that grants us the desires
for God. Those are the things that is
causing us to say, come Lord Jesus, we have been given. I'll
get into that in just a little bit, but he says the spirit and
the bride say come. So that's actually one in the
same, the spirit, in us causes us to say, come quickly, Lord
Jesus, and let him that is a thirst come, or excuse me, and let him
that heareth come. Well, who is the one that heareth?
Well, the Bible tells us who is the one that heareth. Who
is the one that is a thirst? Well, the Bible tells us who
the one that is a thirst. And so he says, and whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. Now this, and
whosoever will, This isn't an open invitation again, like I
said earlier. This is not an open offer just
to anybody that wants to come can come. And the reason why
is because there is an overarching teaching throughout scripture
that disagrees with the notion that what most people preach,
that whosoever will may come is just an open invitation, that
whosoever that wants to come to Jesus can come to Jesus, that
whenever they hear the gospel, they can either take it or leave
it. that they have this freedom of choice to be able to decide
for Christ, to decide their destiny, the whole of scripture is against
that mentality, against that type of preaching. So we know
that whenever this passage is being written by John, whenever
this passage is being preached in the pulpits, it should never
be preached as an open invitation that should ever give anybody
the notion that they have the ability to just come to Jesus
whenever they want and that this is what this is talking about.
This is talking about the people of God desiring the return of
Jesus Christ who purchased them, who redeemed them, who is their
Savior, who substituted for them, and then desiring for His return
so that they may be where He is and that this curse that we've
seen will be lifted. There'll be no more curse. There'll
be no more sorrow. There'll be no more pain. It's
the desire for that. The whosoever will that's thrown
in here at the end, and I don't mean it thrown in just, you know,
like it doesn't have any meaning because the Spirit doesn't put
anything in here for no reason. The whosoever will isn't said
like this, and whosoever wills, let him take the water of life
freely. That's not what that says. It says, and whosoever
will, will what? Whosoever will come. And whosoever will come, let
him take of the water and lie freely. Only the ones who are
given to come take of the water and lie freely. You say, well,
preacher, I think you're really pressing a soteriological problem
or a soteriological supposition onto the scriptures. You're pushing
your doctrines of grace, you're preaching your theology, your
presupposition that predestination and election is what the Bible
teaches. That's what you're preaching and you're taking this verse
and you're using that to back that. No, brethren, I'm using
this verse because that's what the rest of the Bible teaches.
And we have to look at this verse in light of all the passages
that we have in front of us throughout all the scriptures. So that's
why I say the Scripture, whosoever will may come, is not found in
Scripture. While there is the whosoever's
and while there is the come, there had to be priests within
the context of Scripture. So what does the Scripture say
about whosoever will may come? Well, turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 1. As I'm reading these passages,
brethren, just keep in mind, if you would, and think, if you
would, about all that we hear, all that we see on TV, on radio,
all that we've heard maybe growing up in churches and other places
and things like that. Keep in mind what the messages
were and are from these places that make salvation dependent
upon man making a choice, man making a decision, having the
free will to do this and not do that, that the whole of salvation
depends upon your faith, okay? When the Bible is clear that
it is not dependent upon anything that we do, but on everything
that Christ has already done on our behalf. Ephesians chapter
2, and look at verse 1. It says, And you have he quickened
who were what? Dead, in trespasses and sins. So the Bible says that we, by
nature, are dead in trespasses and sins. We're dead, spiritually. That means we have no spiritual
life. Because of the trespass and sins
of Adam, we are dead because we are the seed of Adam, naturally.
Okay? Because he is our natural head,
everybody who seminally is in him, that means everybody that
comes from his loins, that's born of flesh, that's born of
the earth, that is earthy, we by nature are dead in trespasses
and sins. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 14. We've just seen that we are dead
in trespasses and sins, that means we have no spiritual life,
right? No spiritual life. 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Actually, it started verse 10,
it says, But God hath revealed them to us. I'm sorry, verse
9. But it is written, I have not
seen nor heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him. Okay, so the people
that love God, The only ones that love God are the ones that
God has shed His love and brought in their hearts because we love
Him because He first loved us, right? No one has seen or heard
or understood these things, but God hath revealed them to us. How? By His Spirit. God reveals
the things of the salvation of Christ for His people to His
people by the Spirit of God. It's not something that we can
learn outside of that. All the reading of the Bible
is never going to teach us and give us understanding and wisdom
in these things unless the Spirit of God gives us spiritual life
and teaches us the spiritual things that this Bible holds.
But God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit, for the Spirit
searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of man, save the Spirit of man which
is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the
Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us. Well,
what things are freely given to us? Well, in Ephesians chapter
one, the Bible says that He has given us all spiritual blessings
and heavenly places in Christ Jesus according as He has chosen
us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. The
only way that we know anything about salvation and what Christ
has done for us and know it in the biblical way, not the free
will way, not the thoughts of man, not the theology of man,
who thinks that he gets them by making that decision, by choosing
Jesus, accepting Jesus into his heart, by asking Jesus to be
Lord of his life, to hear that knock on the door and let him
come in. That's not the gospel. That's not how men are saved.
That's not how God gives you His salvation. But we're talking
about the Spirit giving us the understanding and knowledge of
how the gospel truly is. what Christ truly has done. And
it says here, which things also we speak, not in the words that
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual things. So again, we have to
have spiritual understanding, and to have spiritual understanding,
we have to have spiritual life. But it says in verse 14, look
at it, but the natural man, now that's who we are that's dead
in trespasses and sins, That's who we are unless we've been
quickened of God, unless we've been born from above. The natural
man receiveth not or cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. Why? Because he doesn't have
spiritual life. And someone who's dead and trespasses
in sin without spiritual life, that in turn gives us spiritual
understanding. Whenever he hears the things
of the Spirit, about salvation, how salvation really takes place.
Not that it depends upon your efforts, or your work, or your
belief, or your trust, or your faith, or your adherence to the
laws, or anything like that. No, when it says, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. When it says, He has done everything
for you, look to Him. That's foolishness. He says,
for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them. See, that's the ability. Not
only do they not have the will to accept those things, but they
have an inability. And that's because they are spiritually
dead. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual judges
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have
the mind of Christ." Who has the mind of Christ? Those who
have been given the Spirit of God. So, we're dead in trespasses
and sin. The natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God because he thinks they're foolishness.
Neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
And the natural man is not spiritual. He's fleshly. He's natural. Turn, if you would, back to Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Look with
me, if you would, to verse 18. It says, I'll start with verse 17 so we
can kind of get the gist of what's going on here. It says, This
I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth
walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
Now, see, we just read that whenever the Spirit begins to teach us,
we begin to speak not in the wisdom of the world, not in the
language of men, not in the understanding of men, but in the understanding
of God, in the Spirit of God we speak. See, whenever we teach
these things, whenever we preach these things, we don't preach
the things that to us sounds like, you know, what we think
they ought to be. What makes us feel better? No, we stick
with what the truth says. See, it's hard for me to get
up here and say that Christ died for some and not for others.
It's hard for the natural mind, as a matter of fact, it's impossible
for the natural mind to get up here and say, I love the God
who chooses some and not others. Because by nature, by flesh,
I reject those things. That's not the God that I would
want. But praise the Lord that He's given me a heart and a spiritual
understanding to see differently. That the God of the Bible is
a God that is sovereign over all things and can make distinction
between who He wants to make one vessel under wrath and one
vessel under glory. He is able to do that and has
every right to do that. And so here, we don't walk in
the vanity of our own minds. thinking that we can produce
a righteousness of our own, that God has to be fair to everyone
and treat everyone the exact same. See, we don't walk in the
vanity of our mind that way. Verse 18, having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. See,
this is talking about who we are in the natural man. We have
our understanding darkened There is no life of God in us apart
from quickening. The natural man doesn't have
the life of God in him, never did. It's only through quickening
that God brings life into the man, spiritual life that is. And so we see here that our understanding
is darkened, that we are alienated from God's life, That there is
ignorance in us. That there's blindness of the
heart. We cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness to us. We cannot discern spiritual things.
We are dead in trespasses and sins. And look at Romans 1. Romans
1. Look at verse 21. It's just because When they knew God, they glorified
Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."
So here we see again that whenever we suppress the truth of God,
whenever we suppress... And that's what the natural man
does, brethren. The natural man does that. The
natural man doesn't want the God of the Bible, doesn't want
the Jesus of the Bible. The natural man doesn't want
the salvation and gospel of the Bible. He wants the salvation
in the gospel of the modern Christianity. The everyone pull yourself up
by your bootstraps. The thing that says Jesus loves
everybody, and that Jesus died for everybody, and Jesus wants
everybody to be saved, but he's a gentleman and he's not going
to force you to do anything that you don't want to do, and so
you have the right to choose or to not choose him. And if
you'll come to Him, He'll gladly bring you in and He'll save you
and give you the spiritual life that He promises and all the
good things that He's given you and all this stuff. See, that's
the gospel of the world. It's not the gospel of the Bible.
The gospel of the Bible is a finished gospel. It is finished. As a
matter of fact, back in our passages in Revelation, in the chapter
right before that, I believe, let me look real quick here. Yes. Right before that in Revelation
chapter 21, John writes about what Jesus
said even before this. In verse 6, Revelation 21 verse
6 he says, And he said unto me, Jesus saying unto John, It is done. It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." So there's
that phrase again. But if you look there, he says,
it is done. Kind of sounds a lot like what
he cried on the cross, right? Whenever he finished the work
that the Father sent him to do, he cried, it is finished. Now if something is finished,
there's nothing left for us to do, right? If it is finished,
that means that it's completed. It's done. It's in totality there. But yet we continue to hear preaching
and teaching that fill our ears and bombard our minds that says,
oh yeah, it's finished on his part, but now you've got your
part. You've got to do it. There's something you've got
to do. Something that you've got to maintain and you've got
to do. Well, brethren, that's not what the scriptures are saying.
Those who pervert the gospel would want you to think that
man can come to Christ for salvation at any time and one, just pick
and choose. I mean, just like, you know,
hey, what kind of salad dressing would you like? Well, what do
you got? You know, I can just pick whatever kind of salad dressing
I want. Well, that's how they think that you can do with Christ.
You just pick and choose whatever you want to do. But what does the scripture tell
us? Back to Revelation in chapter 3. We just read several scriptures
that speaks of our ability. We're dead. Trespasses and sins.
The natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God.
He doesn't have a heart for it. He doesn't receive those things.
Neither can he because they're spiritually discerned. And he
is unspiritual. He is not spiritual. He's fleshly. We just read that he is His understanding
is darkened. That he is alienated. He doesn't
have the life of God in him. That he is ignorant of the things
of God. That he has blindness of the
heart. That his foolish heart is darkened.
We just read all those things. That's what the Bible says about
who we are apart from the quickening work of God. That's who we are
in our nature in Adam. Now, that's not my being a theologian
for the doctrines of grace side. That's what the Bible's testimony
is of you and me, of everyone that is born of Adam. That is
our description, who we are. Now look at Romans chapter 3
verse 11. What does the Bible say? Romans chapter 3 and verse 11
says, let's go back to verse 10, it says, and it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. But look at verse 11. There is none that understandeth. Now, we just seen. That's the
truth of Scripture, right? We just seen, we don't have understanding. We don't have the Spirit of God
in us, therefore we don't have spiritual understanding. There
is none that understands. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. There's none. You say, well, wait a minute,
the Bible says, seek ye first the Kingdom of God. The Bible
says that, you know, seek and ye shall find. So the Bible tells
us to seek, so obviously we have the ability to seek. Again, brethren,
we've got to take all the facts that's laid out to us and look
at the context of it and see what it's talking about. Whenever
the Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God, when it says,
seek and ye shall find, all those that seek me shall find me, whenever
it says that, who is it talking about? It's not talking about
the natural man. It's not talking about every
man. It's talking about those who have been given spiritual
understanding. Because without spiritual understanding,
there is none that understand it. Those who are seeking have
been given the desire and the heart to seek Christ, because
without the Spirit of God in you, there is none that seek
it after God. See, it is all dependent not
on your choice or your will, it's all dependent on the grace
of God in giving you a new heart. If God doesn't give you the new
heart first, there is no seeking, there is no understanding, there
is no believing, there is no repenting, there is no perseverance,
there is none of that. It's only by the Spirit of God
that that happens. And God has to give that Spirit to you first
before you ever do that. And you don't ask for that. You
don't ask for God to do that. And then He gives it to you because
you asked, because you never would ask for it, because you're
not seeking it. Does that not make sense to you
guys? Is that not as clear as day, what we're just reading
here? But yet too many, they look at these same verses that
we see, and they do not put the same understanding to that, because
they are without the Spirit of God. The Bible says that if anybody
preaches not according to this Word, they don't have the Spirit
of God in them. That's what the Bible says. If
they're not preaching the Gospel, remember back in Galatians, Paul
said, if anyone comes to you and they preach another Gospel,
then the Gospel that I have delivered unto you came from Christ directly
to me. If they're preaching another
Gospel besides that, let them be accursed. And anybody who's
preaching that Gospel, they are not a servant of Christ. Are
you saying that anybody can just come into free will or free choice
and choose God? That Jesus has died and that
he has made salvation possible for anybody who just will come?
They're not a servant of Christ. They're not a servant of Christ. There is none that understand
it. There is none that seek it after God. Jesus said this exact
same thing. in another way to Nicodemus back
in John 3 and verse 16. Now we looked at this verse a
few weeks ago when we were talking about a couple of weeks ago when
we were talking about the love of God. But look at John 3 and
verse 16. I'm sorry, John 3 and verse 3.
Jesus says, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless a man is born
again, cannot see the Kingdom of God. Verse 11, he says, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that
we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. Why did they not receive the
witness? Because they hadn't been born again. Why did they not understand?
Because they could not understand. Because they were spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins. They were spiritually mute. They were spiritually blind,
spiritually deaf. They can't see the things of
God. They can't understand and hear the things of God. They
can't speak the things of God. Why? Because they have no spiritual
life. Jesus said, if I have told you
of earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? I'm putting the spiritual things
in an earthly understanding for you, and you can't even understand
the earthly things, much less how you're going to understand
the actual spiritual implications of them that only those who are
born of the Spirit can understand. Unless you're born again, you
can't understand these things. You can't. That's not my words. That's Jesus' words. It's not
John Calvin's words. It's not Martin Luther's words.
It's not John Gill's words. It's not... You put the name
tag on whoever believes in doctrines of grace. It's not their words,
it's the words of Jesus Himself. Jesus is saying that no one will
come because no one has the ability to come because they're spiritually
dead. No one has the desire to come
because they are spiritually dead. No one has the will to
come because their will is bent to do what their Father wants
to do, and that is the will of the devil. They want to do His
will. They want to follow after Adam,
and they want to continue in self-righteousness. And whenever
I mean self-righteousness, I'm not always talking about they
want to do what's always good. They want to do whatever they
think makes them good in God's sight. That could be anything.
But most generally, it's this right here. Most self-righteousness,
and if you look throughout the New Testament, you see the ones
who were the most self-righteous were who? the most religious.
The ones who were the most self-righteous were the ones who were claiming
to be the people of God. It was the Pharisees. Hey, we're
doing everything that God's telling us to do. Look at us. Look how
good we are. We're dressed in the finest clothes. We know our Bible Scriptures. We know all the verses of the
Bible. We're able to tell you what it means. And they become
the most self-righteous. They think that they're earning
their way to God by their religion. Brethren, that's what most churches
preach and teach out there, and I know that because I was one
of them. I, too, used to preach that same thing. And while I
would never admit to the mentality that I just said, that is, in
essence, what I was doing. I thought because I cleaned myself
up on the outside and I did all these things, do all these things
and had all this religious activity, that that in and of itself was
me maintaining a righteousness because God had given me the
ability to maintain that righteousness. That's not how it works. The
only righteousness that we look at, look for, look to, that God
will receive is the righteousness of Christ alone in what He has
done. Not what He's doing in us, what
He has done for us. So who are the ones that come?
Well, it's not the ones who were born of blood, nor the will of
the flesh, nor the will of the man, but it's the ones who are
of God that come. Who are the ones that come? In John chapter five, while you're
there in John, look if you would, chapter five, look if you would over at verse
40. Jesus here is speaking to the
multitude, but He's also, especially the religious leaders that are
there. Verse 38, He says, And ye have not His word abiding
in you. For whom He hath sent, him ye
believe not. Search the Scriptures, for in
them ye think ye have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me that
ye may have life. So here Jesus is saying, listen,
you can know all the scriptures that you can know. You can memorize
this Bible front and back and backwards and front. You can
know this Bible in Greek and Hebrew. You can know chapter
and verse of everything that is in here and still not be spiritually
alive. He said, you can search the scriptures
and you think because you can search the scriptures and you
know what the scriptures say, that you have eternal life by
following what these scriptures say. But those scriptures, they
testify of me. And he says, you won't come to
me in all this, you know, all these scriptures, but still you
do not come and look to me alone as your salvation. You still
think you have to do something. You still think you have to accomplish
something. You have to be something so that you can be saved, so
that you can stay saved, so that I will be pleased with you. But
the pleasing came by the work of Jesus alone. The work was
done by Christ. And so the gospel is not, you
do this, but it's what did Christ do for you? He says, you will
not come. You say, well, there you go. See, even Jesus recognizes that
they have a will and they didn't will to come. Now, he said that
they will not come. They had all this scriptural
knowledge, but with all that scriptural knowledge, they still
didn't do what the Bible told them to do. The Bible was telling
them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham, Old Testament,
didn't have the New Testament. Christ did not yet die. Abraham, whenever he was told
the Gospel by Jesus Christ, the Bible says that he believed that
that was his righteousness. That he accounted Christ as his
righteousness. But here are these Pharisees,
here are these religious men who are in, so to speak, we'll
call it church, every week, who know the Scriptures, who study
them every day, every morning, every night, but yet they still
miss Christ. They still miss the gospel. They
still think that salvation is something that hinges on something
that they have to do. And he says, you will not come
to me. That's not, that is not an option of will. That's an
option of ability. Again, you will not come to me.
Why? You will not come to me because
you have not his word abiding in you. See that in verse 38? And ye have not his word abiding
in you, for whom he hath sent him ye believe not." If you had
his word abiding in you, now what does that mean? If you had
his word abiding in you? Is he talking about this right
here? The sentences out of this book abiding in you? That's not
what he's talking about. He's talking about Christ. If
you had the word abiding in you, if you had the Logos, if you
had God abiding in you by His Spirit, that you would believe. So who are the ones that come?
Well, it's the ones who have been given to come. Okay? So now, we've seen that we cannot
come because we're dead and trespassed in sin. The natural man receives
not the things. He cannot receive the things.
We've seen that our understanding is darkened. We've seen we're
alienated from the life of God. We've seen that we have a foolish
and darkened heart, that our hearts are blind, that there
is none that understand it. that there's none that seeketh
after God, that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he's
born again, that it is not by our blood that we come to God,
that it is not by our flesh that we come to God, it's not by the
will of man that we come to God, and that we do not come to God. Look at chapter 8, verse 43. Why do you not understand my
speech? even because you cannot hear
My Word. See, there's an inability there.
Why do we not believe Revelation 22 and 17 is an invitation for
everybody to come? That it's an open call for everybody
in the world? This is a general call for everybody
in the world to come. Well, number one, they're saying,
come to Jesus Christ. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord
Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. But even at
the end of that when it says, whosoever will, may take of the
water of life freely. Well, who's the whosoever will?
The whosoever will are not these people. It's the ones who have
been given to come. Who's the whosoever will? Well,
it's not these guys because they can't even understand my speech
because they cannot hear my word. And why don't they understand
His word? Can anybody tell me why don't
they understand His word? Well, we definitely know it's
because they're not born again. But there's also another reason. Look at verse 44. Ye are of your father the devil,
and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning and bowed down to the truth because there is
no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own,
for he is a liar and the father of it. And because I tell you
the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces me of
sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He
that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye, therefore, hear them
not, because ye are not of God. See, there's the children of
the devil. There's the children of God. The children of God is
given the Spirit of God so that they might understand the things
of God. And whenever they hear the words of God, they'll understand
the things of God. That's why the Bible says that
faith cometh by hearing. God gives His people hearing.
And whenever He gives His people hearing, then they hear what
the Word of God says about their salvation in Christ Jesus, and
that faith receives that. Faith comes by hearing, what
the Word of God says about your salvation, but the hearing of
that comes by the sovereign work of God causing you to be born
again. So what is the only way that
man will seek the Lord? Well, we read it a few weeks
ago, Psalm 110 verse 3, you don't have to turn there. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. That's the only way
that man will seek the Lord. It is thy people will be willing
in the day of thy power. Whosoever will, who's the ones
that are the whosoevers? The ones who are made willing
in the day of His power and no one else. In John chapter 6 and verse 44,
again, familiar verses to us, but the Scriptures say, who are
the ones who come to Jesus Christ? No man can come to Me. except
the Father which hath sent me draw him." So the only ones that
come to God are the ones that the Father draws to Him. If you
remember in our passages on God's love, remember love is effectual.
The drawing is something that is not something that God is
doing to everybody, but it's specific that He actually, those
whom He died for, He draws to Himself. And whenever he draws
them to himself, what does it say there in that passage? He
says, and I will raise them up at the last day. So everyone
that the Lord died for is the ones who the Lord draws. And
everyone, the ones that the Lord draws come to him. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And all of those who come
to me, I will let no wise cast out. See, that's not an offer
of invitation. That is a statement of fact. God has given me a people. I have come and redeemed those
people. They're mine. I have redeemed them. I have
done this. And the promise was if I redeemed
them, they would be brought back to God. Right? What did Jesus do? Jesus came
to redeem them. And therefore, because they are
redeemed, they are His prized, purchased possession. And because
of that, that means there will not be one that is lost. Not
one will fail. to be brought back to the Father.
Not one will be lost and be found in hell. There isn't going to
be some bushman out there in the middle of some tribe in Africa
or wherever that the Gospel never reached that was supposed to
be saved that somebody didn't get there in time and he died
and now he's gone to hell, but Christ died for him. No, everyone
that Christ died for will be there. The Gospel will reach
their hearts. and mind. They will believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and come to Him. That's the only way that
men seek the Lord is because the Father gives them the ability
to. Listen, brethren, men are presumptuous
to think that they can come and exercise spiritual activity with
spiritual gifts that only the sovereign Spirit of Christ can
bestow. I mean, you're presumptuous to think that you can do spiritual
activities without the Spirit of God first giving you that
ability. And whenever that spiritual work
has been done within the elective God, they are given a desire
for that which is from above. They're given a nature that now,
or not a nature, they're given a desire now that desires that
which is above and not here. See, we thirst for a lot of things
in our natural man. watching football, watching Marvel
movies and junk like that, you know. I thirst for all kinds
of stuff, you know. But the spiritual man thirsts
for Christ. He thirsts for righteousness.
He thirsts for a riddance of sin. And so whenever we are saved,
whenever in the sense of whenever we are converted, whenever we
are given this understanding and this spiritual life, we're
given a desire for Jesus Christ. The desires of God's people is
for Him and for His coming. Look with me, if you would, at
Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. forget what's in view of what
we've been talking about. The Spirit and the Bride say,
come. He that hears say, come. He that
is thirsty, come. Whosoever will, come. He may
take of the water of life for you. Now look at Luke chapter
12 and verse 37. It says, Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when
He cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that He
shall gird Himself and make them to sit down to Me, and will come
forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the second
watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are
those servants." So those servants are that desire
for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and are awaiting His return,
they are blessed people. They're blessed because they've
been given to yearn for that. It's not they're blessed because
they're doing that. The fact that they're doing that
is the blessing. They are blessed people to be
given to yearn for Christ and His return. They've been given
to desire Christ and fellowship and communion with Him. See, they've been blessed with
that because the natural man don't want that. He wants communion
with a different Jesus that's going to just be his little Santa
Claus to give him whatever he wants. And then he can say yes
or no to whenever he wants. Look if you would at Titus, chapter
2. I'll try to move through these
a little bit quick here, brethren, so if you want to follow along,
turn quickly, Make note of these verses to look at later if you
want. Titus chapter 2, book of verse 12, it says, verse 11, I don't know if I always
start from one of them below. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men. Now, again, all men is not
meaning every man head for head. It means all kinds of men, every
tribe, language, nation, tongue, not just to the Jews. Verse 12,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. So here we see that whenever
we are born of God, whenever we have been made spiritual,
been given spiritual life, we desire and look for the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we see we are looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ. So the Spirit of God is teaching
the children of God and is leading the children of God into all
truth that says, Come, Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit is the one
teaching us to say that. Now, look if you would there
back in Revelation chapter 22, because I want you to see something
here. In Revelation 22, and go down
to verse 20, again we see Jesus saying, surely I come quickly. And then what does it say right
after that? What do they say whenever John
writes down, this is what Jesus said, surely I come quickly.
He says, Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. So
this come is not to everybody. Verse 17 is saying, Lord Jesus,
come. We're ready for you to come back.
We're looking for your return. We're tired of the sin that is
in these bodies. And we're ready for that body
that you've prepared for us. We're tired of all the curse.
We're tired of all the hassle and the evil and the wickedness
of this world. And we're ready to be with you. So come quickly. It even says
that in other places of Scripture. But brethren, this is the heart
and the desire of the redeemed of God is for them to call for
Christ to come. In Hebrews 9, verse 28, the Bible
says, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and
unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without
sin unto salvation. Those who are redeemed are those
that hear His Word. They are the ones that are being
made to hear by the operation of the Spirit of God. If you
remember the story of Lydia. The Bible says in Acts 16, verse
14, And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of
the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us. Whose heart the
Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken
of Paul. See, God opened up her heart. He had to open up the
heart first. And so whenever the Lord opens up our heart,
what is it that comes out of the heart? Well, it speaks of
Christ. And one of the things that He
puts within our heart is this longing for the Lord's return. We long for His coming. In Psalm
73, verse 25, the Bible says, Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
And there is none upon the earth that I desire but Thee. My flesh
and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and
my portion forever. In this life, we have people
that fail us. We have life that is crappy sometimes. We have
things that don't go our way. We have hardships. We have sickness.
We have failure. We have upset. We have all this
stuff in this life. And on top of all that, we have
the constant bombardment of our sin. So our desire is to be out of
this body and present with the Lord. Our desire is for our Savior
to come and for the final enemy that we have for death to be
defeated and to be taken away. For this curse of death that
is upon us that we feel in this natural man in the flesh of our
bodies, we're ready for this to be gone. The Lord Jesus Christ is a fountain
of living water. He said in John chapter 7, thirst,
let him come unto me and drink. And he that believeth on me as
the scripture hath said." Now, notice what he said there. He
that believeth on me as the scripture hath said. How's the scripture
hath said about believing on Jesus? Well, no one believes
on Jesus unless it's given to them by the Father to believe.
Right? It has been given unto you, not
only to believe on me, but to suffer for my name's sake. The
Bible says. It's been given to you to believe.
You don't just believe on your own. It was given to you. And
it says here, if any man thirsts, well, who are the ones that thirst?
The ones who've been given a thirst by God. Who is the ones that
will come? Because it says, let him come
unto me. Who are the ones that come unto
him? All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. All that
thou have given shall come. And all that come, I will know
why it's cast out. He that believeth on me, as the Scriptures has
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Now, brethren, this one to whom the Spirit and the bride say
come is the one who is the source of that life, the source of that
water. It's Jesus. And he declared himself these
very things. The Spirit compels those to come
whose heart he prepares to desire this water. See, it's not just
a free choice thing. It's not a free will thing. It's
a gracious act of God because, again, no one seeks after God.
No one will come. We need that sovereign grace
of God to cause us to be born from above so that we can come
and thirst, believe, and hunger. Brethren, if a man thirsts for
life, he will have it according to the purpose of God. That thirst
will come because God has purposed to give him that thirst. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses
23 and 24 says this, And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is where we see it.
Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. The one who calls you is the
one who is the one who will give you that life, who will give
you the ability to come. So whatever it says here, whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. Brethren, it
doesn't matter what your background is. It doesn't matter what your
nationality is. A man may come from if he be willing in the
day of the Lord's power to freely take that which the Lord has
provided him. It isn't by your choice. It isn't
by your smarts. It isn't by listening to the
preacher. The Lord does not make offers
or invitations. He calls. Whenever He calls His
own sheep by their name, He does so, and they follow Him. And so the Spirit and the bride
say, and let him that hearsay come, let him that is a thirst
come, and whosoever will come, let him take of the water of
life freely. Brethren, if you've been given of God to come, believe
on Him, and you can take of the water of life freely. You have
the promise of your salvation, the end of your salvation, which
will be glorification, which will be no more sin, and let
that water be your sustenance. We live off of the things that
God has given us spiritually. See, like I said, I thirst for
a lot of things, naturally speaking. I like good food. I like hot
rods. I like fishing. I like sports. I like, you know, all kinds of
stuff. But, brethren, listen, the thirst
spiritually outweighs every bit of that, and I pray that God
would give all of you here that thirst that only He can give
you. Not a thirst that can be quenched with water that will
come back again and again and again, but a thirst that only
the rivers of life will satisfy. His life will satisfy, Him satisfy. All right, does anybody got any
questions or comments? Anybody have a hymn that you'd
like to sing? All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you
thanking you this morning for Jesus Christ. We thank you for
the water of life. We thank you for the bread of
life. We thank you for the tree of life. We thank you, Father,
for the one who is the source of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. in Him as life. Lord, we just
know that without Him that there would be no life, whether it
be natural life, whether it be spiritual life. He is the author
and the finisher. He is the first and the last,
the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the end. All things were made
by Him and for Him and all things consist because of Him. And Father,
we give Him praise. We give glory to Christ Jesus,
our Lord. Father, we just ask now that
you just might, within our hearts, continue to place that hunger
and thirst, especially for the coming of our Lord Jesus. We
ask, Lord, that even now, come quickly, Lord Jesus Christ. We
pray, Father, that you would continue to teach your people
and to grow them in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for this church and we ask, Lord,
that you might continue to keep us faithful. We ask this week
after week, Lord, that if there be any in this town who are your
sheep, who have a love for this gospel, Lord, we pray that you
would bring them our way, that you would call them out, and
that you would somehow put them in contact with us, whether it
be by our finding them as we go about our daily lives and
ministering of the gospel there, Whether it be them finding us
on the internet or however they might find us, Lord, we pray
that you might continue to do as you promised, build your church.
And Lord, we know that you will as you see fit. And so we do
not want to get ahead of you or try to dream up some sort
of ways to make it happen quicker or faster or more elegantly. Father, we just trust your work
in building this church. And we know, Lord, that you will
have it as the way that you desire it to be. So Father, we just
thank you for all that you've done for us, the years that you've
sustained us. The coming and the going of other
brethren, Lord, we're thankful for them and the time that we've
spent with them and the ones that we have in future days,
whatever it is that you might do with us. But Lord, we do pray
that you would preserve this witness in Joplin, that you might
continue to spread forth the gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace, through the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ on behalf
of his elect people. Lord, we just thank you so much
that you've given us this church together in. I'm thankful that
these brethren are here today. And I just ask, Lord, that you
just might be with us as we leave and that you might just give
us this week opportunity to testify of what Christ is and what he
has done on our behalf. And Lord, I pray that it might
be a blessing that it might be edification to any brethren that
are out there that might hear it. And brethren, if you have,
Father, if you have any sheep that are out there, that it might
be for them to hear and a blessing to their soul. Lord, again, we
just ask that Christ be glorified in all that we do and say, in
his name that we pray.