Good morning. It is wonderful to be here and
I'm so glad you're here. I want to read you a couple of
passages, one out of Matthew and one out of Luke. Only a hundred
verses, I'm just kidding. It shouldn't go past your ability
to comprehend. Matthew 28. The 28th chapter of the Gospel
of Matthew. May we pray. Lord, thank you for letting us be in this place this morning. Thank you for these dear friends
who have gathered here to hear your word, your gospel, and to adore and magnify and
praise and worship our precious, blessed Lord Jesus Christ. But Lord, this world is full of false doctrine. If we speak of professing Christianity
alone, It is found in every corner and in every place. Pretenders who claim to know
God and to love Christ with all our heart. Yet when judgment day comes, according to your gospel in Matthew
chapter 7, These people come to the judgment
of Christ, and they begin to tell Him, just in case He's forgotten,
all that they had done in His name while they lived on this
earth. And our Lord said to these persons,
these are His own words, and they've not truly been uttered
yet, I mean in their finality, but they will at His coming. He said, why call you Me, Lord,
Lord? And He talks to them concerning
what they seem to think can win the day for their acceptance
into God's kingdom. And that is that they call Jesus
Christ Lord. But I'm afraid, just as in their
case, So in many, many, many, many, many others, it will be
altogether different. Lord, we're made out of the same
flesh that everybody else is. We've learned the same stuff from First grade, kindergarten, whatever
it is, until you get out of high school and go to college, and
we don't know any more about God when we get there than we
did when we started. But Lord, Lord God of heaven
and earth, you can change this. If you only speak, you tell us
it's done. It's complete. It's finished. Oh, help us. Oh, help us. If
we've missed Christ, if we've missed the Gospel, Lord, deal with our poor souls
in that respect and cause us and make us to do whatever you want us to
do, whatever you would have us to do, and whatever you would
have us to say. That we challenge this lost and
dying world with being on a road that leads straight to hell. And I've been on that road. I thought I was pretty special. Thought I was a pretty good preacher.
I don't think that anymore. But Lord, You stopped my mad
rush. And many people in this place
can say the same. Lord, help us. If You do not
help us, there is no help. We pray in Christ's name, Amen. Alright, did you find Matthew
28? If you look at the last six verses, I think it is starting
at verse 16. Well, that's actually five verses, but that's, for
what they contain, it's worth a whole book. Matthew 28, 16. Our Lord has virtually finished His life with
His apostles, but we have in at least three of the Gospel
accounts statements very similar to what we're about to read.
Then the eleven disciples. Judas has gone his own way and
is in hell. Then the eleven disciples went
away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped
Him, but some doubted, some were not convinced. And Jesus came and spoke to them,
saying, All power, what kind of power? Every kind there is,
is in His hand. All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. And since He's everywhere present,
our Lord is in heaven and on earth at the same time. That's what he told Nicodemus
anyway in John chapter 3, I think it is. Somewhere along in there. Verse 19. This has often been called the
Great Commission. It's God's commission and it's
Christ's commission. to His church and to His people. Go you, therefore, and teach
all nations." You've got to know something before you start into
the ordinances of the church. Go you, therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you even
unto the end of the world." And the world is still standing,
so it's not yet the end of the world. Alright, the second text
I want you to look with me is in the Gospel of Luke. And the question that I'm trying
to answer this morning, if I possibly can, is very close to what Brother
Parker was chasing a little bit earlier, but this is worded a
bit different, but not very much at all. Why should sinners come to Christ? Why should sinners come to Christ? Alright, in chapter 19 of the
Gospel of Luke. Luke 19, beginning at verse 1. and passed through Jericho. He did not one single thing in
Jericho, and yet it was a city of thousands and thousands of
people. You see, when Israel conquered
Jericho under Joshua, God put a curse on that city. Even the person that rebuilds
it is going to do so at the cost of a son. And he did. But he built it anyway. And people
flock to it anyway. It doesn't matter to them what
God thinks. But, it's just necessary for us to
understand that there are some places that the Lord Jesus would
not go. And there are other places that
he did go. And you'd be surprised at which
is which. Alright. Verse 2, And behold, there was
a man named Zacchaeus, who was the chief among the publicans. You would love this guy. He's
chief of the tax collecting for Rome. And the more he pads the tax
bill, the wealthier he becomes. And the Romans don't care. All
they want is their cut. Behold, there was a rich man
named Zacchaeus. which was the chief among the
publicans, and he was rich." Now, there's another rich man
in this very same gospel back in chapter 18. He's the one that
ran up to the Lord and fell on his knees. I mean, this guy was
gung-ho, we would say. And when our Lord put his finger
on his problem, which was his wealth and his greed. He said,
go sell all you have and give it to the poor and come be my
disciple. And the man went away sorrowful,
went away disappointed. Somehow, people think God is
broke. And in some churches all you
hear every Sunday is some kind of plea for more money, more
tithers, more this, more that, more the other. If you'd read this Bible and
look for it real closely, you might discover that God doesn't
need anything. It's us who need. And this man sought to see Jesus,
verse 3, who He was. His curiosity has been aroused.
He saw Him back in the city, but he's gotten in front of Him
knowing by the road that he's on, where he's headed, so he's
going to get in front of Him. So he sought to see Jesus, who
He was, and could not for the press of the crowd, And you and
I can't see some things for the press without the crowd. It's the crookedest outfit in this
world. Take something like homosexuality
and just keep pushing it and pushing it and pushing it and
pushing it. Oh, there's coming a day There's
coming a day. But let me tell you one thing. Sodom's going to fare better
than Capernaum, where our Lord spent a good part of His public
life and ministry. That was His headquarters. He
went in and came out from there. Came back. Went out again and
came back. And on and on. And He told them in no uncertain
terms, I think this is in Matthew 11, He told them that it will
be better for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for
you. That's a sobering statement. So he's trying to see who Jesus
was, because this man Nicodemus is little of stature. And he
ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for
he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up, he saw him. Now watch this. And he said, Zacchaeus. Now what's going on here? God
knows us before we know Him. And that's always been true.
And it'll be true until the end of time. Zacchaeus. Make haste and come
down, for today I must abide at your house. We're going to
your house for supper. And guess who's going to be there
in large numbers? More publicans. Zacchaeus made haste and came
down and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, the crowd
saw it, they all murmured, saying that he was gone to be guest
with a man that is a sinner." Now, if you don't know this,
you better find it out. The only people Christ has dinner
with are sinners. Truth is, there ain't nobody
on this earth except sinners. But some of us have found it
out and some of us haven't. But if you don't find it out
before you leave this world, it'll be too late. Too late. So Zacchaeus made haste and came
down and received him joyfully in verse 6. And when they saw
it, they murmured that he was going to be guest with a man
that was a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood at that dinner
and said to the Lord Jesus, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I
give to the poor, and if I've taken anything from any man by
false accusation, I restore him four times over." And our Lord
said unto him, spoke to Zacchaeus specifically, this day is salvation,
come to this house. Forasmuch as he also is a son
of Abraham, Zacchaeus is a descendant of Abraham, And he's a child
of Abraham because of his faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. For
the Son of Man, verse 10, I wished I could put this in about ten
times bigger print. For the Son of Man has come to
seek and to save that which was lost, yet preachers without any qualms,
they tell you that you have to take the first step and then
God will take the second one. You've got to seek Him or He
won't seek you. That's not what this book says.
It says that we seek Him as a result of Him seeking us. And anybody
who claims to believe that is just plain lost. lost. I got a bus full of relatives
that are lost. Alright, let's pursue our subject just
a bit now. I've got to find my printed scriptures. Edward, you didn't get my Bible,
did you? Here they are, right where they're supposed to be. If you don't mind, I want you
to turn to John 6.37. If you don't want to turn, it won't
bother me a bit in the world. John 6.37, this is our actual
text for this morning. Our Lord utters these words, "...all that the Father gives
Me, all that the Father gives Me
shall come to Me." There's a role somewhere. Of course, being God, you don't
have to write anything down. You never forget anything. But
you and I would have trouble. Well, I don't know about you,
but I would have trouble with that. All that the Father gives me
might come to me? Oh no, they shall. And our Lord told, I forget who
He was talking to, You know, these persons are not few in
number. He gave at least one illustration
of looking at the sand on the beach. See if you can count how
many grains of sand on the beach. Well, you'd have the same problem
counting how many people are given to Christ in old eternity
before the world was ever made, before there was ever a center,
before there was any creation whatsoever. All that the Father
gives me shall come to me, and Him that comes to me I will in
no wise cast out. We cannot come to Christ on our
own. We must be drawn by the Holy Ghost, the precious
Holy Spirit of God. But my question is, why should
sinners come to Christ? Let's see, I've got four answers
to that question. I'll try to be brief. Answer number one, because the
gospel is declared to be worthy of universal acceptance. Here's
a statement with which you ought to be very, very familiar. This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners Since these are
the words of Saul of Tarsus, of whom, he said, I am the chief
sinner." You've got people all over this world in religion who
are denying that they sin. You know, they can keep the Ten
Commandments. They don't have any trouble with
that. No, you just need an interpreter like the Lord Jesus to find out
you ain't kept not one of them. Not a single solitary one. This
statement will be found in 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a statement worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners of whom I'm chief. And then Paul goes on a couple
of verses later to tell us that his conversion to faith in Christ
is a pattern for all conversion. And that old boy had a rough
time of it. But when Christ met him on the
road to Damascus, he's thirsting for more blood, he's going to
arrest more Christians, he's vowed to erase the name of Jesus
Christ off the face of this earth. And Christ met him without ever
being visible. Met him on the road to Damascus.
Unhorsed him. Put him in the dust. In the desert. In the dust. And this great light
shined from heaven. And Paul began to agonize in
his soul. And he said, he said, Who are
you? Lord? Yes sir, he's your Lord. And his people are his subjects.
The next words out of his mouth, this is still Saul of Tarsus.
What would you have me to do? Gave him instructions to go to
the city and look up a fellow who would be able to help him.
This gospel is worthy of universal acceptance. Now there's not a
Methodist gospel and a Baptist gospel. There's not a free will
gospel and a Baptist gospel. There's only one true gospel. And it don't matter what they
name them, the rest are false. The rest are false. People follow
them, they support them, they praise them, and they go to hell
because of them. Second reason a sinner should
come to Christ, we read it back in Matthew 28 at the beginning
where the disciples were told to go into all nations and preach
the gospel to every creature. That's another reason why the
gospel should be preached to people just like us. Thirdly, this gospel is a divine
command. Let me read it to you. This is God's commandment, that
we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as He gave us commandment. 1 John 3, 23 is
a command. This gospel cannot be without
converts. Unlike ourselves, God can save
whom He pleases. And we can kick and holler and
scream and run and hide and do anything else, but it's to no
avail. He knows all about us. He knows
everything we think, say, or do. Fourthly, sinners are to come to Christ
because the gospel has threats as well as promises. to turn on our heels from this
gospel is to seal our eternal damnation. Let me read you another couple
of verses. That last one was 1 John 3.23. I told you that. But this one
I'm not going to give you until I get through reading anyway. He that believes on Him is not
condemned, But he that believes not is condemned already, because
he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
He that believes on the Son has everlasting life. And he that
believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abides on him. Case in point, Brother Zacchaeus. Alright, the second aspect of
this, why should sinners come to Christ, has to do with asking
ourselves a question. Am I a sinner coming to Christ? Oh preacher, I came to Christ
20 years ago. That ain't the question. Are
we still coming? You can't put this in a drawer
or in a box or in whatever you put things in that are valuable.
This is real and living and glorious. Let's tackle a few questions
now in regard to this matter of a sinner coming to Christ. Did my coming to Christ take
place by virtue of God's calling me? How about yourself? Has God called
you? Now please understand, He doesn't
take no for an answer. He never fails. He speaks and
it's done. We cannot resist Him successfully,
no matter how many people trying to help us. Simply can't do it. Let me see if I've got another
scripture. Here we go. Oh, that last one, did I tell
you where it was? Well, I wouldn't want you to
be disappointed. John 3, 18 and 36. And now this one is out of Romans. For the children being not yet
born. These are twins by the way. Romans
9 is the place. Some of you are dead set on getting
there. For the children, being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, stand how? Not of works, but of him that
calls. Sounds to me like God does it
all from start to finish. And if He has hold of you on
purpose, you can't do a thing to get away. And neither can
I. That's Romans 9, 11 through 13.
In verse 12, it was said unto her,
the elder, shall serve the younger." And now most people don't have
verse 13 in their Bibles. They just refuse it. They hate
it. They said, God can't do that. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, And Esau have I hated. I know we said he couldn't, well
he did anyway. He doesn't take no for an answer.
He saves whom he pleases. And who is that? The people that
he gave to Christ in old eternity. Is our coming to Christ the result of God coming to me? Is my commitment to Christ by divine illumination? Because God has inclined our
heart to come to Him? Because God gives the power to
come and the willingness to come. And Psalm 87 says, all my springs
are in you, in God, in Christ. David said in Psalm 119, I'll
run the way of your commandments when God shall enlarge my heart. David said those words. Alright, let's see. See if we're
on the downhill. Yes, we is. Big time. Question number three. How does a sinner actually come
to Christ? I really like what old brother
Scott Richardson used to say. He said, you can come to Christ
and don't move a muscle. Not a one. Don't you let some
dumb preacher tell you to get up from your seat and come down
here and shake his hand and God has saved you. If that ain't
a lie, I don't know what is. And I wish this room were full
of those preachers and I think I could tell them a thing or
two. I don't think I'd make it very far, but I'd at least start.
And I wouldn't go willingly when they tried to usher me out the
door. How does a sinner come to Christ? By simply believing and trusting
Christ. He's our all. He's everything. Secondly, by bowing to the kingship
and lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, Paul said, what
would you have me to do? He said, go talk to this fellow
in Damascus and he'll explain it to you. Even the Apostle Paul didn't
get first-hand information. He got it through one of Christ's
servants. We come by necessity. We have no place else to go to,
no one else to go to. And according to Psalm 110 verse
3, we come willingly. Thy people, oh shucks, I forgot it. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. And these words are
addressed to the Lord Jesus. Alright, one more deal here.
Let me see. How do you explain the fact that some people come to Christ
and some don't? And from where we see it, it's
very few that come to Christ and a whole bunch that don't. Well, here are some thoughts
on that. First of all, it has something
to do with grace. The grace of God. This statement is found in Galatians. I won't give you any further
info this time. Howbeit then, when we knew not
God, we did service unto them which by nature are no gods,
just idols. But now, after that you have
known God, How turn you again to weak and
beggarly elements whereunto you desire to be in bondage? Now, I'm going to ask you to
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7. It's always been true, it was
true in the beginning of time, And it will be true at the end
of time that all that the Father gives to Christ shall come to
Him. But here is a statement of untold
proportions. Did I tell you, John? I'm looking right straight at
it. I thought I gave you a text in
John, but anyway, hang on. 1 Corinthians 4-7, for who made
you to differ from another? And what do you have that you
did not receive? And if you've received it, why
do you glory or boast as if you had not received it? Then, statement, out of John's Gospel, and I'll
just keep the chapter and verse mum for the moment. Coming to Christ has something
to do with God's eternal, unconditional
election. Now, we have elections in this
country. I'm not sure how honest they
are. I think there's more fraud than
anybody knows. But they don't want to know.
If it's on their side, they want to, you know, just pad the rolls
and stay in office as long as you want to. Here's the verse. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me. And Him that comes to me I will
in no wise cast out." There's no mistake with God. Well, I'm gonna stop right there.