I don't remember ever having
to stand in line in the men's room before. Psalm 9 says, I will praise Thee,
O Lord, with my whole heart. I will show forth all Thy marvelous
works. We heard this morning already
about His marvelous works. Thank you, Eric. And I pray that
in this hour we'll hear again about His marvelous works. Verse 2 says, I will be glad
and rejoice in thee. I will sing praise to thy name,
O thou most high. May God enable us to lift our
hearts together in sincere praise and adoration and worship to
him. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin if you'll stand please.
? Ye saints now sing of sovereign
love ? ? Unto our God who reigns above ? ? All glory to the Trinity
? ? Who loved us from eternity ? Sing of the Father's choosing
grace. Sing of the Son who took our
place. Sing of the Spirit of the Lord. Sing praise to God with one accord. O may the Lord be magnified By
all his chosen, ransomed bride His lovingkindness, let us tell
He saved our souls from death and hell While on this earth
exalt his name, his gospel word with joy proclaim. And when we rise to heights above,
we still shall sing of sovereign love. Please be seated. Please turn with me in the word
of God to Hebrews chapter 10. As you're going there, we were
talking this morning of a very well-known Reformed gentleman. And he always said, I never could
understand the book of Hebrews. And the reason he couldn't understand
it is because he couldn't understand that this is all about Christ
and a better covenant. He understood it, he just didn't
want to believe it. He wanted to hold on to his works. And
I pray that God would keep us from that. We'll read it, start
at verse 16. The Lord says, this is the covenant
that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. That's hard for, oh
God, give me the faith to believe that. Now, where remission of
sin, excuse me, where remission of these is there is no more
offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. by a new
and living way which he, Christ, hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, the flesh of Christ, and having a
high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a
true heart in full assurance, full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. Our profession is Christ is our
salvation. For he, Christ is faithful that
promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke and to love and to good works. This is a call to
worship message in verse 25 is this call. Do not forsaking,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. That's
what we're doing right now. The Lord says don't forsake that. And obviously it was a problem
because he said as a manner of some is. Why do we assemble ourselves
together? I lost my place. But exhorting
one another And so much more the more as you see the day approaching. We see the day of return of Christ
and judgment. It's approaching. It's here probably
much sooner than we ever thought. And I can't speak for everyone,
but I can tell you I need to be here. I need encouragement.
I need to be encouraged. I need to be encouraged by the
preaching of the gospel of God's grace. I need to be encouraged
by the people that I assemble with. And you are both that. It's life. It's life. And that's why he told them,
don't forsake it, because outside of this, there is no life. And
Paul said, once you profess, forgive me for this, but once
you profess Christ, the gospel of God's grace in Christ, and
baptize, and we've seen them walk away, Paul says, there's
no forgiveness of that sin. It's beyond forgiveness. For
if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge
of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. Wow. But a certain feel for looking
for a judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despises Moses' law died without mercy under two or three
witnesses. I would say they accuse us many
times of being, we're not antinomian, we love God's law. We just know
we can't keep it. Oh, and this is what I want to
say, verse 29. Oh, of how much sorer punishment,
suppose ye, shall be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot
the Son of God, and hath counted the covenant wherewith he was
sanctified, and unholy are common thing, and hath done despite
unto the Spirit of grace. I remember now, well, Brother
Don Fortner preached on that verse, that common thing. When the religious people say
that Christ died for everybody and people still go to hell,
they are counting the blood of Christ a common thing. It made
no difference. It did not separate anybody.
That's what holy means to separate. But those whom God has saved,
we know better. We know better. That's the only
hope we got, that Christ separates us by his blood, not by my words,
by his blood. For we know him that hath said,
vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. Verse 31, we're
calling, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. Without Christ, I don't want
to see, I don't want to fall into the hands of God without
Christ. I pray he will bless it and I
thank you all in this room for assembly and the great encouragement
it is to my soul. I couldn't live without it, I'll
just say that. Lord, we've gathered. We confess we have no strength. And you are our life. We can
do nothing apart from you. And Lord, I ask that you would
enable us this day to worship you are right. Give me the ability,
Lord, to even pray. According to your word. Lord, we thank you for revealing
yourself to us. And we've come, Lord, in great
need of comfort and encouragement. We would ask your hand and your
blessing upon your servant, our brother, and wherever your people
gather, your gospel preachers, that you would give to them the
words and speak through them, and that they would speak Christ
to us. And Lord, that you would send
your spirit among us to give us the faith to believe. Lord, we know that unless you
keep us, we would leave Lord. Oh, don't let us to ourselves.
We ask your saving power upon us today, Lord, and all glory
would be yours. Amen. 336. Oh, for a closer walk with God, a
calm and heavenly frame, a light to shine upon the road that leads
me to the Lamb. Return, O holy dove, return,
sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee
mourn and drove thee from my breast. The dearest idol I have
known, What e'er that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee. So shall my walk be close with
God, calm and serene, I pray. So purer life shall mark the
road that leads me to the Lamb. Please be seated. I want to say publicly how thankful
I am for the men of this fellowship, particularly the ones that come
up here and lead us in a call to worship. Michael, thank you
for that reading. There may perhaps be a question
in someone's mind about one particular verse in that passage I'd like
to speak to, if you don't mind turning back with me to Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. And while
you do that, I meant to announce in the men's meeting this morning
that anybody that's available or able to come tomorrow night,
we'll start back our Monday night fellowship time at our house
tomorrow night. So that's open. I hope you all
can come. All right. What is it to sin
willfully after you have received the knowledge of the truth. Now,
you and I both know that every sin we commit is willful. It's
willful. I think verse 35 answers that
question. Cast not away, therefore, your
confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. That's
what he's talking about. He's talking about casting away
your confidence in Christ and placing the confidence of your
salvation in your works or in anything else. So the Lord will keep his children
from doing that. And the Lord's command is the
means by which he accomplishes that end. What God requires,
God must provide. The Lord calls on us to believe.
He's got to give us faith. He calls on us to come. He's
got to enable us to come. He calls on us to hear. He's
got to open the ear to hear. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye are both of the Lord. The means by which He provides
these miracles of grace in our hearts is the is the command
and admonitions of his word. So cast not away your confidence.
We, the true circumcision, worship God in the spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. A person hears
the gospel, professes faith in Christ, and then they go back
to a works gospel, That's forsaking the assembling of yourself together,
giving up your confidence in Christ. All right, let's open
our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 55. Isaiah chapter 55, verse
3. I've titled this message, Here
and You Shall Live. Here and You Shall Live. This is a life and death, not
physical life and death. That's nothing. You know, people
talk about, well, that's a life and death issue. Physical life
and death is no big deal. But eternal life or eternal death,
that's everything. That's everything. The Lord is
speaking to us now in verse 3. He says, Incline your ear and
come unto me. Here and your soul shall live. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Hear me. and your soul shall
live. In John chapter 4 the Lord speaking
to that woman at the well said if you knew the gift of God and
who it is that saith unto thee give me to drink you would ask
of him and he would give you living water. Living water. Lord enable us to know the gift
of God, and to believe on Him whom thou hast sent. For this
is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." Now the woman responded
to our Lord by saying, But sir, you have nothing to draw with,
and the well is very deep. Now, she made two statements
back to the Lord. One of them was true and one
of them was not true. The well is very deep. Oh, it's
eternally deep. It's beyond comprehension. The
well of eternal life, no man, the natural man cannot receive
it. You don't have a bucket or a rope long enough to get to
that well. The well is very deep. But when she said, Lord, you
have no way to draw it, He's the only one that can draw water
from the well of life. He is the river of life. And
so he calls on us here to say, here and you shall live. Now, I want you to go with me,
if you will, to the first part of this chapter, verse one, and
look for a moment at that first word, ho. In the original language, it
is a passionate cry of alarm. The Lord is not saying as a physician
practicing medicine might say, try this and see if it works.
No, no. He's saying, ho, he's calling
on his people to hear. It's very similar to what the
people said on the Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem just before
his crucifixion when they said, Hosanna in the highest. The word Hosanna is save us now. Now. Lord, this is an urgent
cry. We've got to have salvation.
If you leave us to ourselves, we'll be lost eternally. And so the Lord calls us and
He says, ho, ho, stop what you're doing. Give me your undivided
attention. This is a matter of eternal life
and eternal death. In Isaiah chapter 12 verse 6,
cry out and shout, thou inhabitants of Zion, for great is the Holy
One of Israel who is among you. where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." He inhabits
the praise of his people. John saw him walking among the
candlesticks. Great is the Holy One of Israel. He is among you. How easily distracted
our minds and hearts become, don't they? The Lord has brought
us here to worship Him, to hear from Him, and yet our ability
to worship Him, our ability to hear, our ability to see is beyond
our ability. We don't have it. Completely
dependent upon Him to enable us. This is the clarion call
for all thirsty souls to come. And notice also that it's a very
personal call. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye, come ye. This is an effectual call. Now the church with the voice
of a man extends the outward call and God commands all men
everywhere to repent and believe. But the outward call will go
unheeded. The outward call will never convert
a single soul. It is a means to the end. The
end is the inward call, the effectual call, the irresistible call of
grace. And that's what you need and
that's what I need. How easy it is. You know, we're
so We're so obtuse to ourselves, aren't we? We just don't know
ourselves very well, do we? And every time we hear something,
we're prone to relate it to someone else. And the Lord's saying,
if you're gonna hear the effectual call of grace, you've got to
hear it for yourself. This is not for your wife. This
is not for your husband. This is not for your children.
This is not for your, for your, for your difficult boss. This
is for you. This is for you. Unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. It's
always personal, isn't it? Lord, speak personally. Speak effectually to my heart. Call me and keep me, Lord, from
being able to relate the precious spiritual truths of the gospel
to other people and not to myself. All men are commanded to come,
but the Lord said, you will not come unto me. that you might
have life. No man can come unto me, except
the Father which sent me draw him." You see, what God commands, God
must provide. We have no ability in and of
ourselves. We're completely dependent upon
Him for faith. for hearing, for seeing, for
everything. That's why the Lord gets all
the glory for our salvation. Not only did he accomplish our
salvation in the work of redemption, but he also gets all the glory
for our salvation in regeneration. He's got to give us life before
we can see. A dead man can't hear. He must
be made alive. That's why the Lord said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, you can't see the kingdom of God. As religious,
as versed in the word of God as you are, you are incapable
of even seeing the word of God, the kingdom of God, unless you're
born again. You've got to be born of the
Spirit. And the Spirit's like the wind. He listeth with us
whoever he wills. We were talking in the study
this morning about these hurricanes and how difficult they are to
predict. And I made the statement, I said,
well, when we figure out who God's going to save next, that's
when we'll be able to read the direction of the wind and the
hurricanes. It's just not going to happen,
is it? Not going to happen. Our God is sovereign in salvation
and He's going to get all the glory for every part of it in
election, in redemption, in regeneration, in sanctification, in glorification. He's going to do it all or it
won't be done at all because no part of our salvation are
we capable of doing. So the Lord says, ho, ho. The urgency of this call is the
eternal salvation of your immortal soul. This is not a life and
death matter when it comes to material things or physical things. How alarmed we would be if the
world broke out into some sort of nuclear war right now. How much attention would we give
to those events? I mean, we'd all have our TV
on. We'd all be listening, wouldn't we? What's going to happen? That
would capture every ounce of our attention, wouldn't it? This is so much more important
than that. The world is going to be destroyed by fire one day.
How the Lord's going to do that, I don't know. But here's the
Lord telling us what the hope for our immortal soul is. Oh,
and to whom is he speaking? To whom is he speaking? Those
that are thirsty. Eric, you're right. Most folks
aren't thirsty. Most folks don't have a need.
I'm doing just quite fine, just like I am. Thank you very much.
Give me two dollars worth of God and that will salve my conscience
and I'll feel like everything is good. Oh no, I'm dying in
a dry and thirsty land. I've got to have some water.
I've got to. My soul is drying up. You say,
well, how thirsty do you have to be? Well, let me ask you this. When did God bring the water
out of the rock that was smitten by Moses' rod, picture of the
law, striking Christ on Calvary's cross, when did the water come
forth out of that rock? Only after the children of Israel
had exhausted all other sources of water. If you've got any place else
to go other than Christ, you're not thirsty. You're not thirsty. If you can satisfy the need of
your soul with anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
just not thirsty. God let his people use up all
the water that they had brought out of Egypt. until they said
to Moses, why did you bring us out here in the desert to die
for lack of water? We don't have any more water.
It's all gone. We've got no place else to go. Isn't that what the
disciples said when they asked the Lord, when the Lord said,
will you leave me also? What did they say? Lord, where
should we go? You've shut us up to you. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. We've got no place else to go.
And when God leaves you in that place, now you're thirsty. Now
you're thirsty. I can't find any water anywhere
else. The gospel is for the thirsty. You've tried to drink from the
broken cisterns of this world only to find them dry and empty. You've drank from the polluted
waters of sin only to become violently ill. You found yourself
crying with the prophets. There's death in the pot. You've tried satisfying your
thirst. With man-made, free will, works
religion, and like the woman with the issue of blood, you
spent all that you had on physicians and now you're worse off than
you were to start with. You're thirsty, aren't you? You've
tried to feed your thirsty soul with things. and relationships
and like a dying man in the desert, your desperate rush to lay hold
on your hope has only proven to be a mirage. You're thirsty. You can't find any water anywhere
else. You've tried. The world can drink
from the polluted waters of a broken cistern. You've tried it and
you can't. And the Lord says, Ho, everyone
that thirsteth. Are you thirsty? Many have drank from the crystal
waters of the river of life, and you've been refreshed. And
you know better than to go back to those broken cisterns, yet
you do anyway. And I say to you this morning,
this water is inexhaustible. Come again. Come again. And again and again. This river
of life that flows from the aquifer has no end. It has no end. It's able to save to the uttermost. And you've tried again to drink
from the fountain that the world drinks from. Come again. to the
river of life. Oh, every single one of you that's
thirsty, sin has robbed you of your joy, your circumstances
are too great for you, Satan is beyond your ability to contend
with. Come, come to the water of life. The Lord Jesus Christ you know
is that water, isn't He? So to whom is the Lord Jesus
speaking? He's speaking to those who are
thirsty. He's speaking to those who are
poor. Look what he says in verse 1.
You that have no money, you've got nothing. What did the Lord say in Matthew
chapter 5? Blessed of God are those who are poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, on a world's standard, I
would suspect that none of us would qualify as being poor materially. But you've got to be a mercy beggar. You've got to be in complete
abject poverty. You've got nothing. You can't
do anything. You don't know anything. You
can't make any contribution to the righteousness that God Almighty
requires. You're completely dependent upon
the righteousness of Christ. You have no understanding of
the things of God. You can't comprehend the things
of God. And the things that you do understand
have been given to you by the Spirit of God. And if the Spirit
of God ever takes his hand off of you, you'll forget every one
of them. That's why God has made him to
be our wisdom and our righteousness and our sanctification and our
redemption. You've got no holiness, do you?
Eric made it clear in the first hour, the law can't make you
holy. The law is holy and just and good, but the law has never
made a person holy. It's never justified a single
person. It's never added an ounce of goodness to a person's life.
The only thing the law can do is condemn The law says guilty. You've got to be holy, perfectly
sanctified, holy in the sight of God, without sin, spotless.
How are you going to be that? Lord, I'm poor. I don't have
anything. Justification. Men are justifying themselves
all the time. Oh, they'll tell you how much they're doing for
God. What are they trying to do? They're trying to balance
the scales, aren't they? They know their conscience convicts
them that they've sinned and there is a God with whom they
must do. And so they attempt to make up for their sin and
justify themselves by their works. And you know, if you've heard
anything about the gospel, you know that every work you perform
doesn't balance the scale, it only makes the sin side heavier. You've got to be justified. And
there's only one thing that balances that scale, and that's the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you're poor. You've got no money. Lord, I've got no money. I'm thirsty. I'm poverty stricken,
I'm a mercy beggar, I've got nothing. The third qualification,
this is the person to whom God is speaking. You say, well, I
don't know if I'm everyone, if I'm one of those everyone. Are
you thirsty? You've got no place else to go
to satisfy the thirst of your soul other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. Are you poor? You've got nothing
to bring to the table of salvation. Completely dependent upon the
Lord doing everything. And number three, are you so
foolish, so foolish to have any thought of self-righteousness? Look what he says. Come ye buy and eat, yea, come
buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread? Now, I want to
offer you a job right now. I know this guy hiring, he's
really difficult to work for. I mean, he'll just, he'll speak
down to you, he'll abuse you physically and mentally and emotionally
every day. By the way, there's no pay in
this job and there are no benefits and yet, The only upside to this
job is that you'll be working alongside of most everybody else
in the world. Anybody want that job? No, you'd be foolish to take
it. Why do you spend money for that which satisfied not? Why
would I go to work for somebody like that? And yet, that's what
happens when men go to work for the law. They're just like the
children of Israel in Egypt under the demands of the tax masters
requiring more and more from their brick masonry than they
were able to produce. And every time they get close
to the quota, they increase the quota. That's the way the law
is. I've got a doctor I can recommend
you to. Every patient he's ever had has gotten worse and died.
You want his number? Why do you spend money for that
which satisfieth not? You've been there, haven't you?
You've gone to that doctor before, haven't you? You've worked for
that employer before, haven't you? This is who the gospel's
for. You see, those who are still
working for that employer and those who are still going to
that doctor and don't see anything wrong with it, it's not for them. You get an email on your computer
from somebody you don't know and they promise to put money
in your bank and all they need from you is your bank account
number and your social security number. You're going to respond to that
email? No. Why do you spend money for that
which satisfied? People are answering that email
all the time. All the time. Oh yeah, I'll give you my social
security number. I'll give you my bank account. Maybe you'll put
some money in my bank. So this message of hope is for
the thirsty, is for the poor, and it's for the foolish. Do
you qualify? Do you qualify? What does God say the thirsty,
the poor, and the foolish are to do? Well, let's go back. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come, come. You know, one of the first mentions
of that word in the scriptures is in Genesis chapter 6 when
the Lord tells Noah, come into the ark. That ark pitched within and pitched
without. It was the only place of safety.
Only eight people survived Noah's flood. Noah, his three sons,
and all their wives. That's it. Everybody else perished. That's what we're talking about.
That arc is a picture of Christ. That pitch was the atoning work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only thing that will
save you from the wrath that is to come is the work that the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross, shedding
His precious blood to put away the sins of His people. And the
Lord says, Come. Come. We're not calling men to walk
an aisle. Matter of fact, I want you to come right now without
moving a muscle. Right this very minute. I want
you to come. Come with me. Come to Christ. Don't move a muscle. Don't do
anything. You see, this is a matter of
the heart, isn't it? It's coming in faith. and in
desperation, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for all your righteousness
and all of your justification before God. Revelation chapter
22 verse 17 says, the Spirit, the Spirit of God and the Bride,
that's His church, and right this minute I'm the voice of
His church to you. Say, come! Come! God commands us to come right
where you're sitting, just like you are. You can't fix your problem. People think, well, you know,
I've got some issues I need to take care of before I come to
Christ. You know what? You may have some issues you
need to take care of, but you know what's going to happen when
you take care of those? You're going to find some others. You're always
going to have issues. come just like you are right
now in your heart. Oh, everyone that thirsteth without
money and without price. Now, I've told you this before. You see that word price in verse,
the last word in verse 1? That's the word for barter, barter. Don't barter with God. Don't come to Christ and say,
Lord, I'm committing to do this or do that if you'll save me. You'll have mercy upon me, Lord.
I'll change my life. Don't barter with God. Come just like you are. Whatever
change is going to take place, he's going to have to do it and
he's going to get all the glory for it. without money and without
price. The spirit and the bride say
come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is
a thirst come, whosoever will take of the water of life freely,
freely. But didn't the Lord say, no man
can come unto me? Yes, he did. Yes, he did. And I go back to the very first
statement I made, what God requires, God must provide. Don't you think
for a moment that you're going to be able to satisfy God's requirement
by something you do. The Lord's saying this is the
only way you're going to live. And you can't afford it. And you can't persuade me by anything you do. You can't
make me give it. So what does that do? That makes
you a mercy beggar. Lord, you're gonna have to have
mercy upon me. You're gonna have to save me
for your namesake. If any man thirst, on that great
day of the feast, one of the ceremonies that the priest performed
was he would pour the water out onto a hot altar and the smoke
would go up. And as he was getting ready to
pour that water out, he didn't know what that water meant. He
didn't have a clue what it meant. And just before that event took
place, everybody was silent and everybody was waiting for the
big event. And the Lord Jesus Christ cries out, if any man
thirst, let him come unto me. And out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water. I'm the water of life. That Old
Testament type and picture of the Old Covenant, I've come to
fulfill. Come unto me, all ye that labor. Lord, I've been laboring to try
to do better and try to keep the law and try to save myself.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. A lot of folks laboring, not
many folks are heavy laden. Heavy laden means that you're
crushed by this weight of sin. Lord, I can't put away my sin.
I can't satisfy your righteousness. I can't save myself. And the
Lord says, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest for your soul, for my burden is light. My yoke is easy, come learn of
me, learn of me. Oh, I should say, oh, everyone that thirsteth, you
that without money, without price come by. Come where? Talking to somebody about coming
to Christ, looking to Christ. And they blaspheme by saying,
well, how am I going to come to Christ? Well, am I just going
to look up and just say, just look to Christ? This is the work of grace in
the heart. Come to the only successful Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ
didn't go to Calvary's cross to make an attempt or an offer
of salvation. He actually accomplished the
salvation of his people. Come to him. Don't come to a
Savior who needs you to do something to make what He did work for
you. Come to the one who successfully saves His people all by Himself. Come to Him. Come to Him. Come to the one who's not trying
to redeem, but is called the Redeemer. He actually purchased
by His own shed blood. He paid the ransom price that
God required in order for sinners to be saved and that blood is
put on the mercy seat and God has passed by the sins for whom
that blood has been shed. He said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass by you. Come to Him. Come to Him. Come
to the Holy One of Israel. He that sanctifyeth, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ, and them which are sanctified, those are the
ones for whom He died, are all as one. I am perfectly holy in
the sight of God in the person of my Savior, my sanctifier,
my Redeemer. Come in your heart to Him. Come to the sin bearer. He bore
in His body not all the sins of all the people of the world.
If He did, if the Lord Jesus Christ died for everybody, then
you know what, let's just go home right now because everybody's
saved and everybody's going to heaven because He's already,
no, He didn't die for everybody. He bore in His body the sins
of His people and suffered the full wrath of God's judgment
in order to satisfy God's holy justice and put away those sins
once and for all. Come to Him. Come to your sin
bearer. Come to your substitute. I need
a substitute to stand in my stead before God and represent me before
God. Come to Him. Don't add anything to Him. He
can't be added to. And don't take anything away
from Him. Come to the only one who has satisfied God's holy
law. Come to him for all your righteousness. Come to the one with whom God
Almighty is satisfied with. God saw the travail of his soul
and God said, I am satisfied. The only, are you satisfied with
the same one that God's satisfied with? Most folks aren't. They're not. They're not satisfied
with him. They've got to add to or take away from something
he did. Be like blind Bartimaeus. Jesus, son of David, have mercy
upon me. Shut up, Bartimaeus. You're embarrassing
yourself. And he cried all the louder,
Jesus, son of David, have mercy upon me. Be of good cheer, Bartimaeus. The master calleth thee. And
what Bartimaeus do? This was a blind beggar. You
can only imagine how filthy, dirty the rags that he wore were. And the scripture says he dropped
them right there on the curb and went to the Lord. Come to him. Just like Bartimaeus,
don't bring anything with you. Don't bring anything. Come and buy without money and
without price. Now, what does that mean? Well,
if somebody offers you something, they say, you can't pay for it.
There's no amount of money that can buy this from me. It's priceless
to me. How are you going to get it?
They're going to have to give it to you. Isn't that simple
enough? They're going to have to give
it to you. Come. Without money, without
price. Ask it of me. Ask it of me. You have not because you ask
not. Have you asked the Lord to save you? That's not a hard question. Lord,
save me. Lord, have mercy upon me. If
any man come unto me, I will in no wise cast him out. You know of Judas? Now, I know
he was a son of perdition. I know he was ordained of God
to be what he was. But had Judas taken those 30
pieces of silver and come back to the Lord Jesus Christ and
cast them at his feet instead of going back to the high priest?
The Lord would have saved him. Come to Christ without money,
without price. Now without money and without
price means the only thing you can do is believe. on the one
who's giving you the gift. You have no ground of assurance
for your salvation except for the promise of God. That's all
you've got. That's all you've got. Police stops you because you've
got something that he questions whether or not you stole it,
and you're able to produce a receipt and say, look, this is why I
paid for it. Okay, it's yours. It's yours. Let you go. That's what people say. I paid
for that. I made that decision. I did that
work. I went to church. I did all those things for God.
It's what the Lord said on the Day of Judgment that goats would
say, but Lord, we cast out demons in thy name. We did many wonderful
works in thy name. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, for I never knew you. Don't try to produce a receipt
to God. Now, police stops you for something
that belongs to a friend and they accuse you of stealing it. What are you going to say? You
don't have a receipt for it. Your friend gave it to you. What
are you going to say? Go talk to my friend. He'll vouch
for me. He'll validate for me. He'll tell you. The law says
to you, what grounds do you have for your salvation? Go talk to
the one that gave it to me. He'll vouch for me. I've got
nothing that I can give you. There's nothing I can say to
the law to prove to you that I'm saved. But the one that gave
it to me, He'll stand in my stead. He'll
represent me. He'll speak on my behalf and
He'll convince you that it's mine because He gave it to me. Come, believe, and hear. It's the commandment of God that
moves us to ask God. Hear ye children the instructions
of a father and attend to no understanding. The hearing ear
is of the Lord. He that hath an ear, he that
hath an ear. I shudder to think that there
may be somebody here this morning that doesn't have an ear. He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the
churches. And I've mentioned this on many
occasions, I'll tell you again, the most often quoted verse from
the Old Testament in the New is found in Isaiah chapter 6.
And that verse says, they will have ears but they will not hear,
eyes they will have but they will not see. And what that means
is there are people who think because they've heard the voice
of a man, because they've heard some doctrine, because they've
learned a few things about God that they've heard. Oh Lord,
don't let me be deceived. Let me hear Thy voice. Let every man, James said, be
swift to hear and slow to speak and slow to wrath. For the wrath
of man does not work the righteousness of God. Oh, Lord, make me swift
to hear. Now, in conclusion, what will
be the end for those who are thirsty, for those who are poor,
and for those who are foolish, who are able by God to come and
to believe and to hear? What is the end result? Here
it is. Look. Look. Verse 3. Verse 2, wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread, and labor for that
which satisfieth not? Hearken, diligent, unto me, and
eat ye that which is good. It's good. Why callest thou me good? For
there is none good but God. Moses, I'm going to put you in
the cleft of the rock, and I'm going to cause my goodness to
pass before you. The Lord Jesus Christ, the only
thing that's good, eat of my flesh, my flesh is
your meat indeed. Now what does that mean? What
the Lord was saying was my life lived out in this body that is
born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are cursed
by the law, the body that is in the likeness of sinful flesh
but is not sinful. My life is the only life that
God considers to be good. Do you believe that? I mean, it's right that we should
say one man's good, another man's not good, but all we're doing
is comparing man to man when we talk like that. When we say
it's a good person, they're trustworthy. You can rely upon them. They're
not going to take advantage of you. Now, that guy over there,
that's another story. All we're doing is comparing
man to man. But when God looks down from
heaven, and looks into the best man's heart. Man at his very best state is
altogether vanity. And when God looks into the best
man's heart, he sees that every imagination of his heart is only
evil and that continually. So God has a standard of goodness
that's, you see, it's impossible, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
goodness before God. So what do we have? Incline your
ear, verse 3, come unto me here and your soul shall live. Live. And what's the opposite of living?
Dying. The wages of sin is death. All of sin comes short of the
glory of God. You see, if the Lord doesn't
incline our ear and cause us to come, if he doesn't make us
poor and needy, if he doesn't make us foolish, if he doesn't
make us thirsty, we're going to die. We're going to die. Eternally separated from God.
But the Lord says, come and you shall live. Live eternal life. I'll make an everlasting covenant
with you. Now, don't misunderstand the
verb tense there and think, well, if I come, then God will make
at that point an everlasting covenant with me. That's contrary
to what everlasting covenant is. When God speaks of everlasting,
He's speaking of that which never had a beginning and never had
an end. God has a covenant of grace whereby
He established the salvation of His people in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Every person in that covenant.
You see what he is saying. You are going to discover. You
come to me. You come to me and you are going
to have hope of knowing that you are in the covenant of grace.
The everlasting covenant. covenant that never had a beginning,
the covenant that never had an end, and you're going to enjoy
the sure mercies of David. All the promises that I made
to David were fulfilled in the Son of David, the Lord Jesus
Christ. So I ask you, are you thirsty? Are you poor? Are you foolish? as God enabled you to come. To take that which you can't
buy, that means you just believe it. Trusting the giver and his
promises. Have you heard the gospel of
God's free grace in the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ? If you have, Give God all the
praise. He gets all the glory, doesn't
he? Ho! Ho! This is urgent, isn't it? It really is urgent. We're not
playing games here. Let the religious people play
their religious games all they want. Let them impress one another
with their self-righteousness all they want. We're talking
about the eternal destiny. of our immortal souls. We're talking about the glory
of God. We're talking about salvation.
God's talking about it. And God says, come. Well, how
do I know it's for me? Come, come. Your warrant for
coming is God's command. Lord, enable me to come. Give
me faith. Mears to hear. I want to live. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for the precious promises and to know that they
are all yay and amen in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
enable us once again to come to the fountain of life and to
drink freely. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Brother Tom, let's stand together. Number 125. I heard the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thine
all in all. Jesus paid it all, all to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. Lord, now indeed I find thy power
and thine alone can change the leper's spots and melt the heart
of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow For nothing good have I Whereby thy
grace to claim I'll wash my garments white In the blood of Calvary's
Lamb Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain, He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips
shall still repeat, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. th th