Sometimes someone will come by
and study and visit me during the week. Brother John Davis
does. He claims that Irene wants him
gone, so he comes by and he visits me. And we have such a good time,
don't we? Every time, John. Every time
he comes by, we just have a wonderful time together. While we were
talking, he just casually quoted John 6, 37. Oh, that the Father
giveth me, shall come unto me, and him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. He emphasized that. In no wise
cast out. Do you remember saying that?
And I grabbed a piece of paper. You remember I said, I'm going
to preach on that. In no wise. Wrote it down, stuck
it on my desk. Well, here it is. In no wise. I will in no wise cast out. Look at verse 37. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, Christ said. And him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Now, the absolute truth
is this. God elected a people before the
world began. That is truth. It's without controversy. Undeniable. It's a fact. The
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand is not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. He said to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. That's a fact. And all that,
that's the praise of the glory of God's sovereign electing grace
in it. If he didn't choose somebody,
nobody would come. And in this election, Before
the world began, before they've done any good or evil, they're
all going to do evil. They're all going to be born
that way. And God gave them to His Son,
Jesus Christ. And this purpose, this covenant
of election, of saving grace, of redemption, gave these chosen
ones to Jesus Christ. And He became their Savior, their
covenant head, their Redeemer, their righteousness, their substitute,
everything. Captain of their salvation. He
gave these people to Christ and said, go save them. He said,
I will. It's the Father's will for him
to come down here and save his people. That's what he said. This is the Father's will. All
right? Live for him. And then when Christ did that
work, he went back to glory, sat down, and Christ said, I'm
sending someone. I'm sending the Holy Spirit.
Spirit of Christ, Spirit of God, Holy Spirit. And he's going to
draw you. He's going to teach you. regenerate
you. He's going to give new birth
through preaching of the gospel, preaching of the word. He's going
to take the things, the gospel of Jesus Christ, all he is and
all he did, and preach it to the hearts of his people and
be born again. Not of the will of the flesh,
the will of blood, the will of the flesh, the will of man, but
born of God by the incorruptible seed. Now Holy Spirit does that.
What I'm doing right now. And this treasure in earth and
vessel, this gospel preached by men. But it's the Holy Spirit
who takes this, the things of Christ, what He did, and gives
new birth. All right? Sends the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit calls. For whom He did foreknow, that
means love before the world began, He did predestinate. Those are
going to be my sons and daughters. And whom He did predestinate,
He called. Oh, we're bound to give
thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Chose to save
you. Maybe not your sister, maybe
not your father, your mother, but you, you, you. To salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the
one that God sends for His elect and says, give that That girl,
ears to hear. We have ears, we don't hear.
God has to give us ears. Sanctification of spirit and
belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel,
to the obtaining of the glory of God. That is, to see His glory,
because everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on Him, Didn't
you love how he kept saying, I will raise him up? I will. I will. I will. And to be with
him in glory. That's where they want to be.
They've seen his glory, they want to be with him in glory.
Is that you? Did that happen to you? Is it happening? Now, our Lord said, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Verse 45, it's written
in the Prophets. This is Isaiah 54. They shall
be all taught of God. All thy children. That's what
it says. And great shall be their peace,
it says. Well, Christ said, I'm their peace. They come to me.
So every man, verse 45, every woman, every young person that
hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. And he said, everyone that cometh
to me, whoever comes to me, all the Father giveth me, shall come
to me. And him, her, that cometh to me, I will in no wise ever,
for any reason, cast them out. Did you hear that? Let me tell
you again. I will in no wise cast them out. All right, now
here's the question. We can't see the book of election,
can we? We can't see our names in the
book. This is why Peter said, Simon Peter said, give diligence
to make your calling in election year. Have you heard this gospel? Has this gospel called you? Have
you come to Christ? Are you coming to Christ? That's the question. Have I come
to Christ? Do you want to know what it means
to come to Christ? And it's not a one-time thing,
it's a lifelong thing. Peter once said that. To whom
coming? And those that have come to Christ and keep coming to
Christ, they know what that means. Peter said, to whom shall we
go? Now, if someone is not interested,
I have come to Christ. But to those who are keenly interested,
John said, one thing needful. To those who think, oh Lord,
please, I want to know that I've come to Christ. I believe you
have. I believe you are. It's a lifetime thing. Like a
hungry man coming to the table. Do you ever quit coming to the
table? It's pretty obvious most of you did not quit coming to
the table. Well, there's some people in
here who haven't quit coming to hear the gospel. They keep coming
after all these years. A man in his 80s, a woman in
her 80s. You're sitting right there where
you sat years ago. Why? A hungry man coming to the table,
a thirsty man coming to the water. Needy man, poor needy. What is
it to come to Christ? What is it to come to Christ?
Well, Hebrews 11 verse 6 says this, He that cometh to God must
believe. That is, may you reward them
that diligently seek Him. Coming to Christ is believing
Him. Believing Him. Now faith, that's
what that is, faith. Cometh by hearing. and hearing
by the Word of God. That's Romans 10. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how shall
they call on Him whom they have not heard? How shall they hear
whom they have not believed? How shall they believe on Him
whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?
So faith cometh by hearing the Gospel. Have you heard this Gospel? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you believe God? He that cometh
to God must believe He is. Do you believe God? That God is God? There's a whole world of religious
people out there, like these people that came for the miracles,
to get their bellies full, because of the entertainment, or to socialize,
or because it was tradition, or because they wanted to look
good, and for favors from other people. Give them favors. Does your business good to be
religious? Does it feel good about themselves? God's people,
three things. It was on the radio. They worship
God. They've heard who God is. They
fear God. They worship God as God. They
see his hand and everything. God is. They believe God's word. They believe everything God says
about Himself, about them, about Christ, the truth. They believe
God. They've heard the gospel of Christ.
And they need this Christ. They need this Savior. They need
this Redeemer. They need their sins forgiven,
their sins, God. They need this righteousness.
They believe. They believe. John 17, our Lord's prayer for
His people. He said in that prayer, Father,
glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may glorify Thee. As Thou hast
given Him power over flawed flesh, that He should give eternal life
to His men as Thou hast given them. That's what He said. You've given me. And then He
prayed for His disciples and for us. He said, I've given them
Thy Word. He said, I've manifested Your
name to them and they believe. Father, I've manifested thy name. I've told them who you are and
who I am. And they believe. They've received
my word, your word, the Father. And they know that I came from
God and have gone to God. And they believe everything.
They believe. Do you believe? Peter said that. We're not leaving. It's words
of life. Peter said, I was a dead man.
I was a dead man. All of those disciples were doing
something else, living for something else. Simon, Andrew, his brother,
were fishermen in a boat. They had given their life to
that. James and John, the same thing. Fishing was their life
for one day. See, they were dead to God. Fishing was their life. And then
one day, bless His holy name, The Son of God came walking down
that shore, and He saw two men. He set His eye on Simon Peter
and Andrew his brother, and He said, follow me. Didn't I ask? He didn't ask. He called them
right there. He said, my sheep here, my boy,
like a shepherd. Follow me. And they followed
him. They dropped everything. They
dropped everything and followed him. Same way with James and
John. Matthew, the publican, sitting
there with all that money in front of him. Rick had all that
money, a pile of money. Boy, he lived for money. And
Christ said, follow me. Two words, all he said, follow
me, and walked off. And Matthew left every dime on
that table. That's salvation. Well, did they keep following
him? They sure did. They kept hearing his voice. And they were growing in grace
and the knowledge of him. And they were so glad he called
them. Would Simon go back to these
boats? No way. No way. It's life. Christ is my life. Matthew to his money. Oh, he
said, I was a poor man, didn't know it. Now I'm rich. I've got peace I never had. To come to Christ is to believe. To hear His gospel, to hear His
Word is to believe Him. To hear is to believe. To come
to Christ is to call. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. Go to Mark 10 with me. Go to
Mark 10. Mark 10, it's to call. What does call mean? It's to
cry. Holler! How shall they call on
Him whom they have not believed? How shall they believe on Him
whom they have not heard? How shall they hear without a preacher?
You know what I'm sent to do this morning? I'm sent to tell
you to call! Come! Cry! Who serves for call? So we say,
call. What's call mean? Cry. What's
it mean? Cry for help. You ever cry? You
cry? Tell somebody what it means to
cry. Why? You need help. It's like a leper. Remember that story I told you
about the true story of that leper in the woods? Gary came
by and he was dying. Help me, help me. That's crying. That's calling. Like a hungry man for food. I'm
hungry. Thirsty man for food. Poor and
needy. I need help. Like a blind man
that wants his sight. Look at Mark chapter 10. You know this story. Old blind
Bartimaeus. You know our Lord, He saved two
people around Jericho. Nobody in the city. One coming
and one going. Blind Bartimaeus going in, Zacchaeus
on the way out. Look at Mark chapter 10, look
at verse 1. It says, I'm sorry, verse 46. Mark 10 verse 46. He came to Jericho and went out
of Jericho with his disciples, a great number of people, a great
number. But he was there for one man.
Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the wayside begging. Boy, that's poor. When he heard,
it was Jesus of Nazareth. Now before this, before this,
someone had told him, there's a man, there's a man in Israel, He's healed lepers. I mean, people
that had leprosy have died. He's healed them. They were clean,
like as a baby. People that walked lame, that
never walked before, he healed them. They walked. Really, Birdman,
really. He said he made the deaf to hear.
I was there, and there was a man that couldn't hear. And he made
the deaf to hear. They heard his voice. And he
made the blind to see. The blind, he said, Birdman,
what? Did you say he made the blind
to see? Yes, I saw him. He was born blind. He gave him
eyes to see and he could see. He could see. He was born blind.
He could make a blind man see. Yeah. Oh, he thought, if he ever comes
anywhere near here, If he just comes anywhere close,
he's going to hear my voice. And they said, yeah, they said
he's the Christ. They said he's the Son of God.
Many believe that this God come down here to save His people.
You reckon? So one day he heard. What's going
on? What's going on? What is it?
They said, it's Jesus of Nazareth passing by. What's it mean to call? What's
it mean to cry? Son of David, have mercy on me. Look at verse 48. Many charged him. Hold your peace.
Now what did he do? He cried no more. Louder. Son of David, have mercy on me. What did David say? Have mercy
on me, O God. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. Have mercy on me. The Lord stood still and commanded
him to do what? Be called. Go get that man. He's calling. Bring him to me. And look at verse 49. They called
the blind man. See, that's what I'm sent here
to do. Not to tell you to quit calling, but to call. And then to tell you He's calling
you. Come. Come to Christ. Call. Call. Come to Christ. Have you
come to Christ like a blind man? I don't see. And what did the
Lord say? Be of good comfort. He's called
me. And verse 50, cast away his garment,
rose and came to Jesus. And the Lord answered and said
unto him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind
man said one thing, I want to receive my sight. And the Lord said unto him, Go
thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he
received his sight. And where did he go? What was
his way now? He followed Christ. What does
it mean to come to Christ? It means to believe Him. To hear
Him, believe Him. It means to call. Like a blind
man leaving his sight. It's to hear the call. And come. Come to Christ. He came to Christ.
He didn't go to the temple. He came to Christ, didn't he?
And he heard Christ's voice, and Christ said, see, let there
be light. And there was light. And then
what did he do? He cast. He called. He came. The Lord commanded. He cast away what? Everything
about himself. Don't need that. I need Christ. And then the Lord said, follow
that. And he followed. That's it. That's it. To come to Christ
is to hear, to believe, to need, to call. I mean cry. And it's
to confess. What do you need? I'm blind.
Confess. It's to cast your righteousness
away like a filthy garment. John prayed that. It's to cast
all your care on Him. It's to cast your sins on the
head of the substitute. Take them away. Confess Him. This man walked
with Him. Everybody did. All through the
Scriptures, whoever came to Christ confessed Him in believer's baptism. You haven't come to Christ if
you haven't confessed Him in believer's baptism. That's what
He said. He that believeth on the Son
hath life, and he that believeth the Gospel and is baptized shall
be saved. That's how you confess Him before
everybody. Who wouldn't want to? Who wouldn't want to? You haven't come to Christ, you
haven't confessed in baptism. That's the way you confess. It's
to commit. It's called, confess, cast, confess,
commit. Cast everything away and commit
to Him. Follow Him. And when you're following
Him, you're communing with Him. Commune. Taking notes, call,
confess, cast. Confess. Commit. Commune. It's life. It's marriage. You want it. I'm not going anywhere. Why do
you go home? You're married. Why do you go
home? There's somebody there you love. You go to the table. Why do you go to the table? There's
something there you need. Eat. Why do you go to the well?
You need water. Why do you go to a doctor? You're
sick. Have you come to Christ? Are you coming to Christ? Why
do you come here? Why do you come here? Well, because
you come where He is. To come to Christ is to come
where He is. Didn't He say, where two or three
are gathered in My name, that's where I'll be. Every time. That's
where I'll be. You need Him? I'll be with Him. Where is He? Well, the shepherd's
in the fold. You'll always find the shepherd
where the sheep are. Where is he? Well, there's a
bunch of sheep. I'm going to. You know what that means? You're
a sheep. You come where He is. Bartimaeus,
where was he? He was with his disciples. Our
Lord was with His disciples. And they went and called Him
and said, You're coming with us. Where? With us. Where the Savior
is. He called us. He's called you.
Come on. Now you're one of us. And he
followed them from then on. Didn't want to leave. Come where Christ is, where the
shepherd is, that's where the sheep are, in the fold, in the
temple, in the church, in the city. Listen to this. Listen to one of your favorite
Psalms. You requested it during that
Psalm request period we had. Psalm 46. There's a river. The streams thereof that make
glad the city of God, the river of mercy, the river of grace,
the river of blood, the holy place, the tabernacle of the
Most High God, God's in the midst of her. She won't be moved. Mary, don't you go anywhere.
Is that all you do? Sit at His feet? That's pretty much all
I want to do. God shall help her. And that
right early, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob
is our refuge. Selah. Stop! Think about it. You go where
He is. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to go where He is. Come where He is. It's to come
worship Him. The Lord came down from the mountain
after the sermon on the mountain. And multitudes said, Father,
multitudes. Like this whole world, following
Jesus, following Jesus. It says there came a leper. He
came down from that mountain, there came a leper. And you know
what it says? He fell down on his face and worshipped him. But he hadn't been healed yet.
He didn't know if the Lord was going to heal him. He worshipped
him. He just fell down on his feet
and worshipped him. What is it? It's come to Christ?
Why do you come here? Worship. Worship Him. Remember, he confessed. The Lord
said to that leper, what do you need? He said, I want to be clean.
He said, be clean. A woman with an issue of blood.
Remember her? Issue of blood. Oh, I've got
an issue of my blood. Don't you? She came crawling. Boy, that's wanting to be where
He is. She came crawling. She said, if I can just touch
the hem of his garment, I'm going to get there if I have to crawl. I need him. And she said, if
I just touch. And she did. A woman with a daughter vexed
by a devil came to him and he ignored her. Then he sent his
disciples and said, I'm just sent to the elect. I didn't come
for everybody. I came for my elect. And then
he said, I'm not going to give my bread to dogs. You're a dog. What'd she say? You know what
she said? She worshipped him. It's truth. It's all truth. But
I'd sure like to be your dog. If you'd just give me a few crumbs. Have you come to Christ like
that? Why are you here? Now here's the promise. Here's the promise. Him that
cometh to me, to all the Father giveth me, shall come to me,
like a leopard, like a blind man, like a woman with issue,
like a woman vexed with the devil, or a daughter vexed with the
devil, like a hungry man, like a thirsty man, like a poor and
needy, like the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, sinners to
be saved. This is a faithful saying. Christ
came to save sinners. With all who come, now our Lord
said, here's the promise, him that cometh to me I will no wise
guest at. Now, I love strong concordance. I love to look up word. I look
up the word wise. No wise. It's different than
what you think, wise. It's a different word. It means,
well it's a double negative. No, we say ain't no way. Ain't no. Ain't no. That's a
double negative. No whys. It means no no. It means not at all. It means
not anymore, not ever again. It means in no case for any reason. Are you with me? Him that cometh
to me. For no reason In any case, no
matter what, no, no, no, I will not cast them out, ever. You wanted to do that, didn't
you? I did it for you. He never turns anybody away that
comes to him and he never casts anybody out that did. Let me
tell you that again. He never turns anybody away that
comes to Him. And He never casts anybody out
that did. But what if they're really bad
sinners? They're all bad sinners. That's
why He came. He came to save the chief. Ask
Mary Magdalene. She came. She stayed. He never
cast her out. Never once. She's in heaven right
now with Him. That's the thief on the cross. His dying words,
one thing, Lord, can I come today? Today. Well, what if they come and then they
leave? Very quickly, run to Isaiah 30
with me. Isaiah 30. Brothers and sisters, if all
the people that left have come to this place and left, would
come back, we would have to meet in the Franklin County gym. You know that? You can't believe
how many people have come and gone. But if every one of them
came back and said, we need this gospel,
we need to cry, you know what? I'm a sinful man. It doesn't
matter. Come on. He said, I wouldn't
know what I was going to do. What if they leave? Here's the
question. What if they come back? Huh? That's the question. Look at
Isaiah 30. It says in verse 7, the Egyptians
help us in vain. The world is in vain. Don't go
there. It's no purpose. I've cried concerning this. I've
cried. Their strength is to sit still. Come, sit. Be still. Know that I'm God. Come, sit. Verse 15, Thus saith the Lord
God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning, and rest. You'll be saved in quietness
and comfort. I'll be your strength." And he went on. They said, verse
16, we're going to flee on horses. We're going to get in our car
and we're going to run out of the way. We're going to run as
fast as we can. Where are you going? Egypt. But now hold on. Keep reading.
Everybody tell you to keep reading. All right? Verse 18, Wait. She's coming back. That prodigal's coming back. That's the question. Have you
come to Christ? We've all left. There's people
sitting here right now that have left. They're here, but they've
left. Countenance is not the same.
It's the story of the gospel. But if they come back, if the
Lord brings them back, phew, you say, I don't know why he's
cast down. He ought to, shouldn't he? He ought to. The Lord will
wait. Not that he's waiting on us,
but he's waiting, he's going to bring through John 10. It says of the shepherd losing
his sheep, he leaves a nine and a nine. He goes after the one
and it says, until he find it. Oh, the misery that that sheep
brought upon itself and others until he find it, until he brings
them back. The Lord waits. But what if he
falls bad? What if he, I mean, what if he
acts like he did when he was, when he didn't even know the
Lord? But did he come back? He that cometh back now will
know where his guest hath gone. Well, what if she goes out in
the world, you know, and just gets caught up in the world?
All that stuff after she's heard the gospel and leaves and brings
reproach on her Lord and the people and causes them grief
and pain. But did she come back? Did she
come back? To whom coming? Yeah, she's back. I have no wise guess at that. Never. That's the question. That's the question. I wouldn't know why he was cast
out. Too great. Why? Why wouldn't he cast out people
to come to him? Because his name, his name is
on the line. Savior. Savior. He said, Father, all that thou
hast given me, I've kept. I've lost nothing. I'm the good
shepherd. I'm the great shepherd. I've
never lost. They wandered. They left. I went after them.
I bought them back. I can't lose him. His name, his
glory is at stake. He's got too great a love for
them. Boy, you want to read something,
read Hosea. Read it today, read it tomorrow, read it every day.
It's about us. It's about me. Hosea. Ephraim is his name. And he said,
leave him alone. Leave him alone. He's gone to
his idol. A few chapters later, God said, I can't give you up.
Can't do it. We love you too much. He loves them too much. Too great
a price paid. You know why he won't give them
up? You know why he won't cast them out? He's got too much invested
in them. The blood of his son. He sent
Jesus Christ down here to shed his blood for them. And everyone
whom Christ died for, he is not going to cast them out. He's
going to have everyone involved. But He's of no value to you.
No, He's not. None of them are. But I am to
them. And the value that He gets out
of us is thanks. Pray. And it's too much glory
at stake. Too much glory at stake. You've heard this story before,
but I love it. It's based on a true story. There's a young
man, raised with loving parents. Godly parents, believing parents,
and they were so good to him. He didn't, he took it for granted,
and like the prodigal, he said, I'm leaving. I want out of here. This bondage, I'm out of here.
And he did. He left. And his parents, he
didn't know, they didn't know where he was for a long time.
Didn't know where he was. He never contacted them, ungrateful,
you know, never gave them thanks for all they did for him all
his life. And he left. He left. Never contacted. You know they were worried. Didn't
know if he was alive or dead. But one day, he called. He called and they didn't answer
the phone. They were gone. And he left a
message on the answering machine that said, Mom, Dad, it's your
son. And he said, I'm down and out. And he said, I need I want to
come home. If you'll have me. I know I've
been a bad son. You've been so good to me. But
if you'll have me, I'm coming home tomorrow." And he said,
when I come home, and they lived out in the country, he said,
I'll come home. Don't come get me. I'm just going
to come in. He said, I'll come down. Now, if you'll have me. leave a white towel on the clothesline. And that will tell me that you
want me to come home. Leave a white back when we had
clotheslines. Everybody had clotheslines, didn't they? Leave a white towel. So whenever it was, he came in
on the train or whatever and he came walking down that old
country road and there was the old farmhouse, you know. Dad, mom, food. What a rotten son I am. I sure
hope that'll happen. So he walked up and he's looking,
looking, looking. He saw, you know, he looked,
he saw. He said, there was a white towel. There's a white sheet. There's white washcloths. There's underwear, all over,
white underwear. Welcome home, son. We've been waiting on you. I have Him to come with me. You don't ever have to leave
again. We won't cast you out. We won't cast you out. That's
our God. Have you come to cry? Are you
coming? Are you still coming? I came to Him today, I believe.