I thought, well, I'm going to
just lay here for a second more. And so I did. And then it was 7.40. And now
I'm late. And so I got up and I got a shower
and got my notes. And I'm hurrying through them.
And then it's time to pack the car. So I'm cramming clothes
in the suitcase. Cramming clothes into the trunk,
hoping I bought a car that's got enough storage for me to
get stuff back and forth. Running, running. Brother Paul
says, I'm ready to go whenever you are, and I'm running, running.
And the whole time I'm thinking, Lord, would you bless me? And He just did. He just did. Ask and you shall receive. I love you all. You know that. I tell you all the time. I just
want to tell you again. I just love being here. Thank
the Lord for you. I look forward to seeing you
each time. One day we're going to be together
forever. Let's have a word of prayer before
we begin this. Dear Heavenly Father, we have come into this house
and gathered in Your name to worship You. Lord, would You
help us to do that? Lord, as long as You have purposed
for us to remain on this earth, would You keep us and let us
Learn from our brethren, our dear brethren, the Laodiceans.
Lord, please don't let us grow cold to your word. Don't let
us grow cold to your gospel. Don't let us grow cold to Christ
and his blood. Help us, we pray. Send us your
spirit, Lord, it's not by might, it's not by the man, it's by
the spirit of Christ. So would you send your Holy Spirit? Would you bless your Holy Word?
Would you apply this to us? Me, would you bless me today
and bless us today? For Christ's sake, Lord, we pray.
Amen. Let's turn to Revelation chapter
22. Revelation 22. Our text is specifically
the end of verse 17, but I want to begin by looking at some of
the final statements of our Lord's book. What He's chosen to be
His last words of His book. He wrote this whole book, start
to finish. Chapter 1 of this book says that
this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what this is. It's the revelation. The whole
book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's not about Armageddon. It's about Jesus Christ. And
he says here in chapter 22, verse 13, he says, I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning. And the end. The first. And the last. He makes himself very clear,
doesn't he? Just in case we didn't catch it, he says the same thing
three times. I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning
and the end. The first and the last. Blessed
are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the
tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city."
He began his book in Genesis with the tree of life, didn't
he? That's where he started this thing. That is the issue. That is life. There were two
trees, two particular trees, the tree of life, which man had
access to, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And
God said, don't touch it. Don't touch it. Our Lord began his book with
the tree of life and he ends his book with the tree of life
and everything in between. is about how man can regain access
to this tree of life. That's what the whole middle
is about. And that tree is Jesus Christ. Verse 14 says, Blessed are they
that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree
of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. For
without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." And
that's false religion, and that's lying preachers. Verse 16 says, "'I, Jesus, have
sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David. And the bright and morning star,
he said, I'm the root. I was way before David. What
he's saying is, I'm God. And he said, I'm the offspring
of David. What he's saying is, I'm man.
And he says, I'm the bright star. I'm that burning high noon judge
of the earth. And he says, I'm the Morning
Star. I'm the Redeemer. I'm the life giver with healing
in his wings. Verse 17, And the Spirit and
the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, Let him take
the water of life freely. The Spirit of God says to his
own, come. And the bride of Christ says
to her own, come. This is a wonderful love story,
isn't it? And let him that heareth right now in this building this
morning, come. And let him that is a thirst, anybody who is thirsty, and I
do mean anybody, come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Verse 18 says, For I testify. Jesus Christ testifies. That's pretty serious, isn't
it? He says, For I testify unto every
man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If
any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him
the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away
from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life. And out of the holy
city and from the things which are written in this book, he
which testify these things sayeth, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Life and death is the issue of
this book. Life and death. The words he's
written in this book, they are the standard. They are the line
that's drawn in the sand. And he says, if any man adds
anything to these words, or if any man takes anything away from
the words of this book, then it is death for that man. So I want to very carefully,
very carefully, holy, holy, holy. I want to very carefully read
verse 17 again. And the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst,
Come. And whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Whosoever will. Whosoever will. Whosoever will let him take the
water of life freely, period. I don't want to add one of my
own words to that. You know that. We know the doctrine
we believe, don't we? I don't want to add one of my
own words to that. Whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely. I don't want to add one of my
own words to that. But I also don't want to leave
out one of God's words concerning that either. So let's look at what the Lord
God has to say about this verse. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Our subject is whosoever will. Whosoever will, do you know what
the word whosoever means? Here's what it means. It means
our gospel doesn't exclude anybody. Nobody. I thought you all were a club
over there. I thought that nobody else was allowed in. No, no. There is nobody that this gospel
is not for. Nobody. Well, I thought only God's elect
would be saved. Yeah, that's right. Only God's
elect will. But whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. Our Lord said, preach this gospel
unto all the world. Every creature, He said, every
single creature. This gospel is for male, it's
for female. This gospel is for old, it's
for young. It's for red, yellow, black,
white. It's for the rich. It's for the
poor. It's for kings. It's for servants. This gospel
is even for sinners. Even sinners. Whosoever. That queen said, I'm so thankful
for the letter M. He didn't say not any, did he?
Sometimes we see people in certain classes and think, well, God
won't have mercy on them. Well, our Lord said, not many. That
man walked into his pastor's study and said, you hear about
old so-and-so? And the pastor said, no, God saved that man. Really? Yeah. The man said, I'll
never despair of anybody since God saved him. The pastor said,
I'll never despair of anybody since God saved me. I pray the Lord would give me
that heart. Really. I want that heart. I don't want
to be better than anybody. I don't want to ever despair
of anybody since God saved me. Whosoever. Whosoever will. Turn with me to Matthew 21. Matthew 21, verse 44 says, And whosoever shall fall on this
stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it
will grind him to powder. The only hope I have of being
accepted into glory is if the Lord Jesus Christ, the chief
cornerstone, will break my hard and stony heart. That's the only
hope I have. Where this verse says, whosoever
shall fall on this stone for mercy shall be broken. Whosoever. Go with me to John
chapter 3. John 3, verse 14 says, And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Does that
mean everybody's going to be saved? No. Verse 18 says, He
that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. But here's His Word. Here's His
Word. And I don't want to add anything
to it, and I don't want to take anything from it. Whosoever believeth
in Him will not perish. will not perish and will have
eternal life. Look at Acts chapter 2 with me. Verse 21 says, And it shall come
to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved." Did we hear that? The Lord gave me about five years
downstairs with some special people. And I cherished that time, y'all. I'm telling you, call on the
name of the Lord. I want everybody to, but you
know who you are and I'm not going to say your name. Call
on the name of the Lord. You hear me? We're just not playing around.
It's life and death. This is a good life. It's a beautiful
day, but oh man, there's something after this. Call on the name of the Lord. Ask the Lord if you don't see
a reason why. Ask the Lord to show it to you. He said right here, it shall
come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be saved. Do you think there's a chance he didn't mean
what he wrote? Do you think there's any chance
of that? Have we done anything more than
just call on the name of the Lord? Lord, be merciful to me. Have we added any work to that? Our Lord does not write with
Guile. He doesn't write with Guile. He doesn't write with
trickery. Well, you know, he wrote in parables.
Yes, he did. And he meant every word of what
he said in those parables. Every single word. If I don't
understand them, that's my problem. Lord, teach me. But he meant
every single word. And he says, whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let's go to one
more. Go to 1 John chapter 4. Verse 15 says, Whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. You know that's the truth. That's
the truth. Again, whether I understand it
fully or not. We hear people say that all the
time. God, I believe, has given some of us an understanding of
what He means by that. That Jesus is the Son of God.
The equal part of the Trinity, God Himself, Thy throne, O God,
is forever and ever. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God. Now, let's continue with the
truth. Here's the truth. Back over in
Revelation 22, this is what our text says in verse 17. It says, whosoever will. Will. A person's will. A will is the beginning. It's the root of our actions. That's where our actions start. A person's will. It determines
what we're going to do or not do. Our will. What we want to
do. If a person is disciplined and
has self-control, he restrains himself, we say he has willpower,
right? If a person is hard-headed and
set in his ways and wants it done my way, then they're strong-willed. Our will. Our will is our nature. It's who we are. It's what we
are. It's who we are. A sheep has a will. A sheep will
let you pet it. A sheep will eat grass. A sheep
will hear the shepherd's voice and come. A wolf has a will. You think you can walk up to
that wolf and he'll just let you pet it? He will not eat grass. He hears the call. He will not
come. Our will is our nature. Now,
here's the truth about our will. Go with me to John 5. John 5 verse 40 says, And you will not come to me that
you might have life. How sad is that? How sad is that? You will not
come to me that you might have life. You know, you tell somebody
that and they'll say, what? Walk up to them, you know, good
church going people walk up to them and say, you will not come
to Christ that you might have life. What? What do you mean
I won't come? It is not mental. It's not. mental inability that
keeps a person from coming to Christ, you know that. A person can study this Bible just
like he can study any book. You know, you guys are about
to graduate from college, you've done a lot of studying, you can
study this book or that book. A person can pray to God just
like he can curse God, put anybody in trouble and they'll pray to
God. A person can believe that Jesus
Christ died on the cross just as easily as they can believe
Columbus discovered America, right? I wasn't there. I believe he did. Man's inability to savingly come
to Christ is not in his mind. It's in his nature. It's in his
nature. It's deep. It is deep inside. This is not a skin deep problem.
Well, if we can just get their mind fixed, they just haven't
been taught yet. If we can just straighten out
their mind, that's not the problem. When Adam fell, I fell, my will
fell, my nature fell. And now my flesh is so depraved,
it's so corrupt. That I, by nature, love and crave
everything that's contrary to God, by nature. John 5, verse 40 says, you will
not come to me that you might have life. Verse 42, he said,
I know you that you have not the love of God in you. A person
will say, well, that's not true. Oh, so now we're calling God
a liar. Verse 43 says, I'm come in my
father's name and you received me not. If another shall come
in his own name, him you'll receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? You do not honor the son, as God said to. You do not,
by nature, honor him as God himself. And he said, you don't believe
the Word of God. Look at verse 46. For had you believed Moses, you would
have believed me for he wrote of me. But if you believe not
his writings, how should you believe my words? These words
right here, this Bible that we hold, these are the line in the
sand. They really are. And the Word of God says that
there's a problem with our will. Question is, do we believe it?
Do we believe that? We know that no man can come. The nail in the coffin is even
if he could, no man would. Isn't that something? This message, whenever we started
it, it was positive, wasn't it? It was happy. It was so positive. And now it feels like I don't
have any hope. The reality of the word reveals
to me that outside of Christ, I don't have any hope. I don't. If I'm left to myself, I don't
have any hope. Go with me to Romans 9. Romans chapter 9, here is the
most amazing news that a sinner could ever hear. Romans 9 verse 16 says, So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. Isn't that wonderful? He said, I will that where I
am, they may be also. That's what I will. Turn with
me over to Philippians chapter two. Verse 13 says, For it is God which worketh in
you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." He said,
the Father, the work that you gave me to do, I finished it. For them, in them. I took out
that heart of stone and I broke it. And I put in a heart of flesh. I put my spirit in them. I now live in them. And that has
given them a brand spanking new nature. A brand new nature. A nature that loves God. You
know there's a nature in there that loves God? Because I am love and because
I am God. A nature that loves God's Word. Can we honestly say, I love the
Word of God? But it says you're a sinner and
it says you're vile. I know. And I love it. I love
it. A nature that loves God's glory. I love, when you were just up
here preaching, high and lifted up, I was thinking, I love God's
glory. A nature that loves God's people.
Really. And now because of this new nature,
Father, all that you gave me, they're going to come to me.
They're all going to come. Father, because of my work, now
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. That's
what this Word says. Nothing added to it. Nothing
taken from it. What a Word it is. Now, here's
the gospel truth. Whosoever evidences his work. Whosoever will. Whosoever wants Christ so badly. That's an evidence. Whosoever
needs Christ and Christ alone. Whosoever will bow. Whosoever acknowledges, I have
no will. I have no say, I have no ability,
I have no right. Why would God even want me? Whosoever acknowledges the fact
that salvation is of his own will, of his own will, begat
he us with the word of truth. And if I receive it, I did nothing
for it. I did nothing to deserve it.
It was just given to me, as our text says, freely, period. Whosoever will bow to his word,
let him take of the water of life freely. Whosoever will have that to be
so, has already tasted of the water of life. You know that?
Because if you will, it's God who's already done the work in
you. All of His chosen whosoever's
will. I pray I'm a whosoever. I want
to be a whosoever so badly. I need one thing come the end
of my life. And it's not money. And it's not stuff. And it's
not a big church. And it's not a legacy. I just
need to be a whosoever. That's what I need. Let's all
come to Christ. Let's just all come to Christ.