Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to John chapter 5 and reading
from our text, verse 40. John chapter 5 and verse 40. The Lord saying to the Jews that
were about him, that were accusing him, not receiving him, and ye
will not come to me, that ye might have life. It is a word
of reproof, but we could turn it and speak of it, taking off
the first part and really put it as an invitation. Come to me that ye might have
life. And we could change it from the
reproof to a beautiful invitation. And it is in both ways that I
want to look at it this morning. What is very evident here that
there is no life outside of Christ. If we turn away from Christ,
we have no life at all. The Lord says, if ye believe
not that I am he, He shall perish in your sins, that in Him is
life, and He is the life and light of the world. The Apostles,
when in a couple of chapters, or next chapter actually, in
chapter 6, And our Lord was insisting, except ye eat the flesh and drink
the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. And there were those that were
saying, this isn't heart saying. How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? And many, they walked back, they
went no more with him. And the Lord said then to his
disciples, will ye also go away? And they said, to whom else can
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And our Lord before that, he
had clarified what he meant, not literally eating his flesh,
drinking his blood. Remember those to whom he was
speaking then, They'd followed him across the sea, not because
they saw the miracles, because they did eat of the loaves and
were filled. They were all the time thinking
in a natural way, the same as in John 3, when our Lord was
insisting on the new birth, except he be born again. And Nicodemus
says, how can a man, when he's old, be born again? And all the
time he's looking to a natural interpretation, a natural way,
instead of being spiritually born, instead of receiving not
literal flesh and blood, but as our Lord said, the words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And he makes
it very, very clear where that life is. And so, We do not have
life in ourselves. Our life must come from the Lord,
and not just what the Lord has done at Calvary and we just help
ourselves to it, not just once and then we've got to use that
store, but a continual coming to the Lord. The Lord speaks
in John 15 of himself as the vine, the living vine, I am the
vine, Ye are the branches, as the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, neither can ye except
ye abide in me. And it's a continual abiding. If we had a plant outside, a
beautiful vine, and we thought we'd love that, would look good
on our walls here, we'll just cut it off and we'll bring it
in during service time and don't worry, outside that will sit
it on its root again and it'll be all right. It won't. It needs
to abide, it needs to have that constant supply. And we think
with our children, do we give them a great supply of food and
say, you've got your food for a week now, you help yourselves
to your meals and you get your meals? Wouldn't work, would it? Especially young children. And
yet we give them their meat meal by meal. We think of the Lord
with the children of Israel. He gave them the manna day by
day. They couldn't store it up. They
weren't allowed to. They had to be dependent upon
the Lord constantly. And this is the life that is
being set forth here in the Lord Jesus Christ. And a Christian
in his walk Very often we try, we try to get life ourselves
and sometimes we have this thought, well, we cannot come to the Lord
unless we can repent, unless we've got right feelings, unless
we are holy people and we want to make ourselves right and then
we'll come to the Lord. Instead of thinking that all
that we need must come from the Lord, we must go to Him for that
and receive it from Him. as a poor sinner that has nothing
in ourselves, but everything in Christ. And so this is really
the message this morning, is that life in Christ and coming
to the Lord for that life, daily life of a Christian. And we're
sung of it, and we need that life in our souls. No mass is
our Lord. can keep alive his own soul,
that life must come from the Lord. Some of you might know
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. I remember reading in The Interpreter's
House, which there was a fire burning in the grate, and someone
was pouring water upon it, but the fire didn't go out. And Christian,
he couldn't work out why this was. Why wasn't it extinguished? And then he was taken the other
side of the wall, and there was this supply of fuel, oil poured
on, that kept it going. There was a secret supply of
life, and that is the secret of the people of God. Their life
is hid with Christ. When Christ, says Paul, who is
our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him. And really one of the greatest
tokens of being a child of God is to have that dependence upon
Christ and Christ's life bubbling up in us right through our lives
here below. There's some people that think,
well, we can be with the Lord in heaven after death, but they
do not know what it is to have the life of Christ in them here
below. He gives grace and glory. Those two are joined together. So I want to look to help us
in our thoughts this morning. Three points. Firstly, the solemn
condition of those to whom the Lord was speaking. That is why
the words of our text are spoken by way of reproof. And he says,
he will not come to me that he might have life. And secondly,
life in Jesus Christ, the source of life. Thirdly, coming to the
Lord for life. Firstly, we have the solemn condition
of those to whom the Lord was speaking. each of us, it's very hard to
see our own faults, to see our own condition. But when we're
shown someone else, then we can recognise, we can see it. This
is how Nathan brought the parable to David. David could see in
the poor man's land, could see what another had done wrong,
and then the Lord turned it round, and Nathan turned it round, and
thou art the man. We often have, and when you think
of how much in the gospels, and even really the epistles, are
reproofs. It's dealing with errors that
have risen, and then the truths come up. You think of the beautiful
chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 on the resurrection from the dead,
and it arises because there is some said amongst the Corinthian
church that there is no resurrection. So it is in that way, it's good
for us to look at those that are highlighted. What was it?
What was wrong with these here? Why was the Lord reproving them?
What was their condition? Because what is so searching
is that some of their condition, it was a religious condition. They weren't atheists. They weren't
those that were completely disproving all the things of God and cast
away Moses. They were religious people, and
that is very searching for us. because when we make a profession,
we come into the house of God and we read the word of God,
we are making a profession too, but we could be resting in something
completely wrong and not in Christ at all. So this is very helpful
for us to look. So if we see in verse 38, we
have our Lord saying that this is part of their condition that
his word was not abiding in them. That is the Father's Word. He's
been speaking of the Father that was bearing witness of Him. And
ye have not His Word abiding in you, or God's Word abiding
in you. The Word of the Old Testament
Scriptures was not abiding in them. And the Lord could tell
that. And the reason, He said, for
Whom he hath sent him ye believe not. Really what he is saying
is if the word of God abode in them, they would recognize and
they would know him who was sent. The Jews, they knew not the day
of their visitation. But we may ask ourselves, do
we have God's word abiding in us? Or does it just abide with
us when we have a service? Or when we have our stated times
of worship, perhaps in our closets even, or with the family, but
as we're going about our work and as we are living our lives,
His Word is not constantly with us, abiding. It's not just, if you remember
what we said about the vine, this is abiding, it is constant. And then in verse 39, they had the scriptures. We have
the scriptures too. He says, search the scriptures
for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they
which testify of me. So here they had the scriptures. This wasn't the Quran. This wasn't
something else. This was the true inspired word
of God. This was the scriptures of which
the Lord said that they spoke of him. They could have the Word
that spoke of Him and couldn't see Him. And they didn't believe
in Him. And obviously, as the Lord's
saying, search the Scriptures, they did not search them either.
They just read them, but did not search the Scriptures. Now
how is that with us? We have the Word of God, but
how do we treat the Word of God? How do we look at it? And do
we search it? Or just do we read it occasionally
or have it read to us? Then in verse 40, our text, you
will not come to me that ye might have life. They didn't feel their need of
coming to the Lord. They didn't receive him. They
didn't come to him for life. In fact, as Pharisees, and like
the Apostle Paul was, they thought they had good enough life. The
Lord told the parable of the Pharisee and the publican in
the temple. Publican, God be merciful to
me a sinner. But the Pharisee told God all
what he did, his tithes of all that he had, and that he was
not like this publican. He had no need of anything. And
the apostle Paul, he said, I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. Then he needed life from Christ. But all the time we think we've
got life, we don't need life from Christ. It's those that
know that in themselves they have no life. Well, they weren't
coming to the Lord. Do we have need of the Lord?
Do we come to Him? Are we like these here that will
not come to Him? And then we have in verse 42,
the Lord saying that He knew them, that they did not have
the love of God in them. Do we have the love of God in
us? What about our brethren? John
in his epistle says that he that loveth God loveth his brother
also. How can man say that he loved
God and love not his brother? We know that we pass from death
unto life because we love the brethren. And the two are joined
together. We love him because he first
loved us. And the Lord here is testifying
of this. He knows his people. He knows
those who, have chosen in him before the foundation of the
world. He knew those for whom he was to suffer, bleed and die. He knew those for whom he prayed. I pray not for the world. I pray
for them whom thou hast given me. Then we have that though they
did not receive the Lord, they received others. They did receive
some. He came in His Father's name,
ye receive Me not. If another shall come in His
own name, him ye will receive." So it wasn't a matter that they
were just not receiving anybody. It was very specific to Him. How is it with us? Do we receive some men? Men that
come with having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. The apostle Paul often said this. He said, especially Corinthian
church, they said his speech was contemptible and they despised
him. He had other ministers that were
very eloquent and people went after them. And Paul, he says
that, he said, not with the wisdom of man lest I make the power
of God of none effect. He relied on the word preached
being attended with power, not just by an eloquent speech or
just a performance. And so these people, the Lord
could see they did receive some. And then in verse 44, another
characteristic, they were seeking honor, but it was from one another
and not from God. Something in us all, isn't it? Pride is such a thing, it bubbles
up all the time. It really does. It just wants
the praise of men. I mean, in our current way things
are done, you think of those public things on the internet,
even if it is a sermon, you might be looking, oh, how many hits,
and how many has listened to mine, and more than his sermon. Yeah, there's pride is in us,
all in that way. And so many are following that
sort of thing. They're looking for approval
of men. And how was our Lord rejected
of men? So very different. What was Jeremiah
rejected of men? Very often the people of God
is not what the world is going after. But these men, this is
what he was picturing. They received honor, one of another. And then most solemnly in verse
45 and to the end, that they trusted in Moses, they trusted
in the law, and yet they did not believe his writings. The
very thing that they were trusting in, they said in John 9 to the
man that was born blind, thou art his disciple, we are Moses'
disciple. And they prided themselves in
following after Moses. But our Lord said that you are
teaching for commandments the traditions of men, laying aside
the commandments of God. That was Moses. And this was
the path that they were walking. They couldn't see it. They didn't
realise it. They didn't know it. And are
we the same? Are we walking in that way that
we're priding ourselves in the law? Maybe, and those of you
from Holland, you have the tables of the law up behind the pulpit
or on the side of the church, and you see them and they're
red, every Lord's Day, you might say, we know the law. But Paul,
when he writes in Romans, he speaks of those that are saying
the law, saying a man should not steal, but dost thou steal?
A man should not commit adultery, but dost thou commit adultery?
And he says it's a very common thing, just like the Jews here,
priding themselves in Moses and in the law. and yet actually
not fulfilling it. And not only were they not fulfilling
it, but they weren't coming to the one that had fulfilled it,
and was to fulfill it, and was to deliver them from the condemnation
of it. In a way, Paul says the law is
a schoolmaster unto Christ. But how was it for them? They
loved Moses, they loved the law, It wasn't a schoolmaster under
Christ because they were satisfied they could either lay the law
aside or make out that they were keeping it satisfactorily anyway. But the severity of the law is
to convince of sin and to show men that they cannot be saved
that way. So this was a solemn condition
of those that the Lord was speaking to or those that were accusing
him Now accusing him in the earlier part of the chapter because he's
healed on the Sabbath day, accusing him because he had broken the
law, they could cherry pick. They could pick what laws that
they could accuse them of breaking and what they didn't mind whether
they broke them or not. And we are like that too. So
that's that solemn condition. May we be searched as to what
is our condition? and ask ourselves what really
is the condition of our soul. Because what is evident here,
the Lord knew these people. He knew, not only outwardly,
but what was in their hearts. He says in verse 42, but I know
you. And that applies to you and to
me. The Lord's saying, I know you.
I know your secret thoughts, your life, is all laid bare before
me. You can hide it from the church,
you can hide it from preaching, hide it from one another. You
can't hide it from the Lord. I can't hide it from the Lord.
And we must give an account before the Lord at the last day. Well,
secondly, I want to look at the life in Christ. And this specifically
is the source of life. And I want to I think going back
right to the fall, right back to when sin entered into the
world and death by sin, because understanding what life we have
lost as to what life is to be gained and to be given by the
Lord. There are those that quote in
John 10, The Lord says, I am come, that they might have life,
that they might have it more abundantly. And it's a beautiful
verse. But there is many that were interpreted in the way,
well, they can just add the name of Jesus to their life and just
live in this world as if there's no real change. It's still their
home. They're not strangers and pilgrims.
And they still live with its pleasures, its language, its
delights. And there's no change. There's
no new. creature, this is not your rest, our Lord says it is
polluted. And like we said in the natural
application of things with the food and with the new birth,
so the life as well, those that are still dead in trespasses
and sins, when they read life in Christ, they interpret it
in a natural way, interpret it not in a spiritual way. Remember
when Paul writes to the Ephesians, he tells them in the first chapter
of the life that they have, that they were quickened, ye who are
dead are quickened and made alive. And he tells them the power,
that the same power that raised up Christ from the dead was put
forth in them to quicken them and make them alive, spiritually
alive. Man at first, Adam and Eve, they
had fellowship and communion with the Lord. They're made in
the image of God and could walk with the Lord. And they would
have lived forever. No death, no suffering, no sin
in the world. But when sin entered into the
world, and death by sin, in that day, in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And man, in one respect, he is
still a pinnacle of God's creation. He is still fearfully and wonderfully
made. He retains a lot of the image
of God still in him, able to reason and able to do many, many
things. And Paul, he tells the Corinthians
that in the wisdom of God, that God, through wisdom, that he
made that man should not be able to find out God. He can do many,
many wonderful inventions and many things, but to find out
God, he cannot. Spiritually, he is dead. He cannot
understand the things of God. He looks at his body, and he
looks at the miracle of creation. He sees such wonderful things. And we've spoken to those that
we've had scans of the body. They're professionals in medical
things. And as soon as you speak to them
and say, yes, what you're marveling at is because this is the handiwork
of God. And immediately you get a wall
going up and a blank, and no, no, no, no. And they cannot see. And you think, this is part of
the spiritual death. It is a judicial death. God has said that I am not giving
man his natural ability to find me out. He is dead in that way.
But Paul then goes on and says, that it had pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
it is the sovereign work of God to reveal His beloved Son and
to give life to a people that He will, and through the preaching
of the Word. But we must understand that when
death entered into the world, it is a spiritual death, a complete
alienation from God, hatred to God, an enmity to God, a separation
to God, and hence the love of idols, even amongst God's children,
God's people. They like a God that they can
make do what they want Him to do, say what they want Him to
say, go where they want Him to go, turn a blind eye to all of
the things that they're doing wrong. They just want a God like
that. not a God who is a holy God who
gives a law and who demands perfection to that law, utter perfection,
the soul that sinneth it shall die, the law is given that all
the world might be brought in guilty before God. We are already
in Adam under the sentence of death. Our subject is here. Life in the Lord, we are already
on death row. We're already born in sin, shapen
in iniquity. We're already dead naturally
in that way. And dying, we shall die. Our
bodies, like the grave outside of the second pastor of here,
they shall be laid in the grave. And unless the Lord comes again,
then we shall meet him in the air. Man must die. But what a
difference that death is made when Paul says, absent from the
body present with the Lord, this mortal must put on immortality,
this corruption must put on incorruption. And when Stephen, when he's being
stoned, he looks up and he sees the Lord in heaven. Death has
lost its sting. Death is then a victory over
sin and death and hell. And I know I've mentioned it
before, but the late deacon over in Geelong in Australia, he spoke
of his mother when she died. And she strengthened herself
up on the bed and took hold on the covers. And she said, victory,
victory, victory. And she laid down and died. And
I thought, what a wonderful thing. To realize, actually, you've
got a foot each side of the grave, you realize that You're out of
the reach of Satan, out of the reach of your own wicked heart.
You've obtained the victory. You're on the threshold of heaven
and nothing can change that. And just at that moment of departing,
that is a wonderful victory. And I often pray, Lord, give
me that blessing in departing. What a victory over sin and death
and hell. And there's sometimes under the
blessings of the Lord here, that we might fear life more than
death, because the many departures, our sad sins and failures, we
fear lest we be cast away, but in Christ we know we cannot.
So when we think of life, life in Christ, it is bound up with
what Christ has done upon this earth. There are two main things
that he did. Firstly, his life, his life as
a real man, God and man in one person, the eternal God, the
same that made heaven and earth, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
they're all equal in divinity, equal in Godhead, the Lord humbling
himself, and it comes out in this chapter, being obedient
unto death, and yet being one with the Father. The Father,
I and my Father are one. If you see me, you've seen the
Father also. He is, this is the true God and
eternal life, John says in John 1.5. And so his life had to be
not the nature of angels, which is spirit only, not the nature
of beasts, which is flesh only, But the seed of Abraham, we're
told in Hebrews, which is both body and soul. And then he was
made manifest in the flesh. And that is vital. Made under
the law to deliver them that were under the law. Made of a
woman. The seed of the woman shall bruise
the serpent's head. That is the first promise. And
it had to be so. The Old Testament saints, they
wondered how that should be so. Job, he says in the book of Job,
that how can a clean thing come out of an unclean? And they puzzled
with this. All the sons and daughters of
Adam that were born, they all were born in sin. How could there
come one that was different to that and be holy and pure? But
we know The overshadowing of Mary, therefore that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And
we have the answer to that. How Solomon wondered that thou
hast made heaven and earth, but will God in very deed dwell upon
the earth? They marveled how that could
be. Immanuel God with us. And so
our Lord's life, the miracles, as our Lord says in this chapter,
that I have greater witness than that of John, the works which
the Father hath given me to finish, those works, they bear witness
of me. And our Lord's life was a perfect
life, a life that was to be a righteousness to give to his people. to impart
to them. Our lives are nothing but sin
and disgrace, but the Lord has that to give to a believer, which
is a righteousness which is not their own, but is their own because
it's given to them. We read in Jeremiah chapter 23,
this is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. And then in Jeremiah 33, this
is the name wherewith she shall be called, that is the church
of God. the Lord our righteousness. It is the surname, it is the
name that joins the Lord and the church together. Our Lord's
life was absolutely vital, that he should be spotless, there
should be not after the sins of Adam, but he should be one
that was that nail in a sure place that was able to redeem
and able to lay down his life willingly and freely. All of
the sons of Adam, natural generation, we must die. We don't have a
choice. We can't lay our lives down for
another because our own lives, we must lay our lives down. But
our Lord did not have to die. He said, I lay down my life.
No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of my father. And so our Lord's
life is vital, His death is vital, laying down His life for His
people. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. And our Lord at Calvary, He shed
His blood, but He didn't just die, He rose again from the dead. And in the New Testament, it
is inseparable that the life of the people of God is bound
up with Christ's life. We do not worship a dead Christ. He is risen. He is not here.
He has ascended up into heaven. And this is why the apostle in
1 Corinthians 15, he said, if there's no resurrection of the
dead, then Christ is not risen. And our preaching is vain. And
we are liars because we have testified that he has. Your faith
is vain. And those that have died, they've
perished. And he draws all of the conclusions, if Christ be
not right, or if there's no resurrection of the dead. And so with our
Lord Jesus Christ, he hath given assurance unto all men that he
hath raised him from the dead. The token that the sacrifice
is accepted, the sins of his people were put away. Our Lord
says in John 10, I lay down my life for the sheep. Then he says
to those that were accusing him round about, ye are not of my
sheep, therefore you receive not my word. My sheep, they hear
my voice, they follow me. And so we, we very particularly
through the word of God, it is particular redemption. It is
a love that Lord had to each of his individual people as he
laid down his life for them. And His name shall be called
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Deliver
them from their sins, not just deliver them to heaven, but from
the power and dominion of their sins here below. Sin shall not
have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but you
are under grace. And so that life the Lord has
to give to His people is a spiritual life, a born-again life, newness
of life. It is a life that is eternal
life and that eternal life begins at calling. He which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. It doesn't begin when we die,
it begins when we are born again. When the Lord passes by us, when
we are in our blood and bids us live and quickens us into
life. That is the beginning, he quickeneth
whom he will. And that life is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he can give that life because
he has paid the debt, because he has made the law honourable.
We go back to the law of Moses, the first set of tables, they're
broken at the bottom of the mount. The second set, they're unbroken,
they're put in the Ark of the Covenant. That is the type of
Christ, the law fulfilled. And the children of Israel which
are look upon that, we have broken the law, he's fulfilled the law
and made it honourable. And those that believe in him,
those receive that righteousness that he has to give them. So the life is inseparable from
Christ, he only has it to give, because he has purchased his
people, redeemed his people. He owns his people by gift. Thine they were, thou gavest
them me. He owns them by purchase, because
they are his purchased people. He owns them because he has loved
them. Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love, and therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn
thee. So may we be very clear that
there is none other name given among men whereby we must be
saved. It is in God's provision, and
that provision is the Lord Jesus Christ. If we turn away from
him, there is no other way of being saved whatsoever. It is
only in the way that is set forth in the scriptures of truth through
our Lord Jesus Christ. But in John's epistles, he says,
if any man come unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive
him not into your house, neither bid him Godspeed. He that biddeth
him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds. And it is the doctrine
of Christ is absolutely vital. If you have those come to you
like Jehovah's Witnesses or Christadelphians or those that do not believe
in the Trinity or do not believe in the divinity of Christ, You
start there and you end there because if they're wrong in that,
if you're wrong in Christ, you cannot be right in anything else.
It's useless in speaking about anything else. It is the doctrine
of Christ and our personal relationship with Him and the life that we
receive from Him at the beginning and all the way along the way. I want to look then lastly at
coming. coming to the Lord for life. This is what the Lord said to
those of the Jews here that they would not do. He will not come
to me that ye might have life. Now, of course, in our day, we
cannot come literally. They could come literally to
the Lord and see him and hear him. But in the gospel day, we
cannot. We have those beautiful illustrations
of those that came. And really, we have the opposite
of those first things that were spoken against these. We think of the eunuch. And Philip was sent by the spirit
to him to join himself to that chariot. And what was the eunuch
doing? He was reading the scriptures, the very scriptures that these
Jews professed that they had, but they couldn't see the Lord
in. He couldn't either, because Philip came and he said, understandest
thou what thou readest? He said, how can I, except some
man guide me? He bid him come up into the chariot.
And he is reading in Isaiah 53. He was led as a lamb sheep before
his jeer is his dome, as a lamb to the slaughter, so opened he
not his mouth. And he said, of whom speaketh
the prophet this? Of himself or some other man?
He did not, he could not see Christ there, nor could these.
They could not see Christ in the Old Testament. But what was
the difference there? He was teachable. And he wanted
Him to come up. He wanted to hear. You know,
there's a, it's a blessed thing when there is a teachableness.
You know, when the Lord first began in my heart, when I was
19 and I was walking in rebellion at the threshold of casting away
and walking away from the church entirely. And it was actually
through a Jehovah's Witness coming to the door and arguing with
them. And afterwards the Lord saying, you know nothing of what
you've said in your heart. He has come to, with the idea
of converting you. You've condemned him, but you,
and I was just like these. with an outward knowledge of
a brought up religion but nothing in my heart. And that changed
it absolutely immediately. It brought me as a guilty sinner
and I tried to attend every service I could, read the word of God,
anyone that would tell me the things of God. The difference
between being unteachable and teachable, not having an appetite
and having an appetite. That is life. It was four years
before I was baptized, before I brought the full assurance
of faith. But the Lord opened my ears. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And
so when that is done, I mean, before that, whatever I heard,
I didn't hear much in the chapel because I just turned off. I
just planned the week ahead. But when the ear is opened, then
there is that direction, where to go for life. Immediately you
try to seek it in self, you try to find some repentance, some
good work, something to accept, that God will accept us. You
try to do your best, you try to earn your way to heaven and
that God will approve you. Instead of coming to God as a
Sinner, God, be merciful to me a sinner. Instead of coming to
one with nothing, I the hemorrhoids are nothing. In my hand I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress,
pale I to the fountain fly. It is a realisation that we have
no life ourselves, but we come to the Lord for it. And in one
sense, those that are dead in sin, They never really ask for
it, because they don't know their need of it. And they are dead.
You could say, well, you're lying. They don't hear. But when the
Lord does open the ear, when he shows you something of your
sinnership, something of your need, something where you come
short, never despise that. Never think, well, God requires
too high of a standard. I can never attain to that. No,
we can never do. We never meant to. That's why
our Lord Jesus Christ came and it is coming to the Lord for
life. Asking of Him, you will not come
unto me that ye might receive that life. Ask and it shall be
given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock
and it shall be opened unto you. They ask life of Him and the
Lord gives that life. You know, I've often said this,
in the chronological way of the scriptures, you get John 3 and
the insistence on the new birth. You get John 4, and he gives
you a real life example of the new birth. Not in one instance,
but several. You get the woman at the well.
And one thing she knew about Christ, when he comes, he will
tell us all things. And the Lord draws her out. She
wants this living water. and the well is deep, there is
nothing to draw. And the Lord revealed himself
to her. That was the new birth for that
woman. Drawn by the Lord and drawn to
know him, he told her specifically, I that speakest unto thee am
he. But that's not what she said
to those of the Samaritans, come see a man that told me all things
that ever I did is not this the Christ. And the Lord used that. Thou, God, seest me. And that
conviction the Lord does see us, does know all about us, as
the Lord done that for us. Made us open before Him. One day we shall stand before
His throne. But here below, He'll make those
who come for life from Him to know that He sees them. And they
stand before Him, and they know Him, and He knows them here.
And they're searched by it, and sins that they never thought
God knew or that they thought were dead and buried are brought
to light. Paul says, when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. That's when he really was brought
to be as a sinner. The Lord said he came not to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They that are
whole, they need not the physician, but they that are sick. when
is coming to the Lord, if you feel that sickness of sin, that
you feel the evilness of your heart, if you feel that lack,
not able to repent, you can't change and turn from your sins
and from your way, you tried, you make resolutions, you make
promises and you cannot do it, then this is the word that the
Lord has for his people, come unto him for life. You imagine
if you could do all that yourself. You could repent, you could pray,
you could command a nice hunger and a love to the brethren and
a love to the Lord and obedience to the Lord and you had faith
and you're a very humble person. What would you need the Lord
for? But if you had none of those and you groaned under a proud
heart, you struggled with a lack of faith and you tried to pray
but you couldn't pray, And you so lack that ability
to obey the Lord or to love his people, and no righteousness
of your own. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. And these are they that we can
turn this. The word of our text, instead
of reproof, ye will not come to me that ye might have life. A beautiful invitation, come
to me. that ye might have life. How
do we come? Come in prayer. Come before the
throne of God and ask Him. Simple prayers. To ask of the
Lord for life. Ask of the Lord to give those
specific things. You feel a lack of love? Ask
Him for that. You feel a lack of faith? You
ask Him for that. You can't obey? Ask Him. And
keep at His throne. The Lord will do that in His
people so that instead of going far off from Him, they come to
Him. You know, Joseph, when he wanted
his brothers to keep coming back, he made sure he put money in
their things, or he put the cup there. He made sure they kept
coming back. And the Lord will do it to you
and I. And He'll do it so that we have that communion and fellowship
with Him, and that our life is bound up with the Lord. We can
say then with the Apostle Paul, Paul, he says, I laboured more
abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God that
was in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. And he was in no doubt of where
that life was. He couldn't forget how he once
was. And the Lord met with him on
the Damascus road. Or may we, if the Lord has awakened
us to a need, and we feel our poverty and emptiness, may we
come to the Lord in this way, and our prayers be very urgent.
And we, like dear Jacob, I will not let thee go, except thou
bless me. And that we keep coming. And
may the Lord bless us then with, instead of these things said
against us, it may be as found you out this morning. is turned
about for you and you've had those blessings and favours from
the Lord himself, the life of God, from our Lord.