We saw in the Bible study this
morning how God's Word is not to be argued or debated. God speaks to his people, and I need to hear that in light
of this verse. I'm not going to . . . this verse
17 is not written to argue against anything. So I'm not even going to mention
it, hopefully. I just did, didn't I? Without
saying. Look at verse 17. Revelation
22, 17. And the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst say,
Come. And whosoever Let him take the water of life
freely. There's an old saying, you can
lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. That's true, isn't it? I know
from experience, isn't it a joke? plow the horses or work the horses,
maybe some others. You can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make him drink. You can't make a 1,200-pound
animal do anything if it doesn't want to do it. And let me tell
you what will make a horse drink, and you can't keep it from it. And the same is true in the preaching
of the gospel. That's what we do here every
Sunday, every Wednesday, stand up and preach the gospel. It's
what you do, speaking to your children or whoever, your husband,
your wife, you speak to them of the gospel. But you can't
make somebody come to Christ. Only one thing will. Only one will. And that's thirst. And only the
Holy Spirit can create thirst. And you know, what gives me comfort
in all of this is that what I'm doing right
now is what the Holy Spirit uses to create first. This is all
he uses. This is all he uses. That's what
the scripture says. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save. I get things in the mail all
the time. One of these days I'm going to share them with you.
I am. I'm starting to save some of
this stuff I get in the mail from religious places. And I'm
just going to read to you so you'll know what's going on out
there. You won't believe it. You just wouldn't believe it. But it's not games, it's not
tricks, it's not gimmicks, it's not man's methods and means and
things like that. It sits right here. This is it.
This is it. This is all God uses. I know
that. It's what he used on me. A young
fellow who grew up in the, born in the fifties and grew up in
the sixties and the seventies? I'm talking the wild and crazy,
wicked sixties and seventies. This is what God Almighty used
to arrest me. not vacation Bible school, but God's preached word. So that's
what I'm going to do for our young people. That's what I'm
going to do. And pray to God, who alone can
make them thirsty. All right? Now, he says here,
verse 17, the Spirit and the bride say, What salvation is all about is
coming to Christ. That's what this salvation is
all about. It's coming to know, understand who Jesus Christ is. He's God. God walked on this
planet. Everything he said and everything he did, our eternal existence depends
upon it. And salvation for us to know
is for us to come to know and understand who He is. Like Him. And to be, and to want
it. To want. To be interested. To be thirsty after Him. And
want that. And come to Him. Come to Him. Come to Him and say, Lord, I
need You. I need what you did." But only the Holy Spirit can
make somebody thirsty, interested, come to Christ. Or else they
don't see anything in Christ. I was talking about this man
standing over here this morning, waxing his car, you know. He's
not interested in God or Christ or things. I mean, he's thirty
feet from eternal life. Not interesting. The fact is, only the Holy Spirit
can do that. What does that tell you? Salvation is of the Lord. Is this the reason we don't use
gimmicks? We cry unto the Lord, who alone must say, Lord, would
you slay my child? Would you spiritually slay them? Would you make them interested?
I've tried. I can't do it. Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And
he includes the bride here. Do you see that? The Spirit and
the bride say, Come. How does the Holy Spirit convince
a young person, an old person, anybody for that matter? How
does the Holy Spirit Tell a young person, an old person, anybody
to come to Christ. Right here. Right here. Spirit and the bride.
Church. You see, you're not just going
to church. When we come here, we're not
just going to church. It's something much greater than that. And you're
not hearing, and let me say this with all the care and fear that
I can, and I know a lot of hucksters out there say this, and I say it with trembling. But when you come, you're not
just hearing from a man. And that's all that a preacher
endeavors, a true preacher endeavors to do, is to tell you what God's
saying. This is God speaking here. The
Spirit and the Bride say, The work of the Holy Spirit.
Turn with me real quickly to John 16. Okay, John 16. And this is so important today
because of how everyone's talking so much about the Holy Spirit.
Right? So much talk about the Holy Spirit.
This is what the Holy Spirit does. This, right here. Look at it, John 16, verses 8
through 11. When he is come, talking about
the Comforter, talking about the Holy Spirit, when he is come,
he will reprove, that is, convince the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. When our Lord says he will convince
the world, he's not talking about every person in the world, no,
any more than John 3.16. Because everyone's not convinced
of sin, are they? No. But he's talking about a
people whom he has chosen out of the world, out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, and tongue in the world, not just Jews. but of people out of the whole
world. Do you understand that, what he is talking about there?
They will be convinced. God has a people, and they are
going to be convinced of three things. The Holy Spirit is going
to do that. He is going to convince them of sin. And look at verse
9. Verse 9, our Lord says, "...of
sin, because they believe not on me." Right here is the sin
that God holds mankind accountable for. God walked this planet and said
some things and did some things, and man says, I'm not interested,
or I don't believe that you're God, that he was God. I don't
believe he's the only way. I don't believe that God's this
way or that way, whatever. That's the sin that God holds
us accountable. to Christ is the same as rejecting
Him, the same as people saying, I don't believe that, indifference. I'm not interested. I have other
things. And I told you, God walked this
planet, and He says, I told you that you're a sinner, and God's
holy, I'm holy, and you're going to be held accountable. Now,
you better come to me. It's not a request, it's not
a favor, it's not an invitation, it's an absolute command. This word, come, here, is not
an invitation. I'm not giving an invitation
this morning. God doesn't invite anybody to do anything, any more
than God asks people for information. God doesn't have an opinion of
things. Whatever God says is absolute. It's not an opinion. God doesn't
want anything. God wills everything, you see. God doesn't invite you to come.
God says, you'd better come. I'd better come. God commanded
me. everywhere to repent. It's not
a request, it's not an invitation, it's an absolute. You better
do it, and you better do it quick, today. Come. Ah, may the Holy Spirit convince
somebody of that. Reason. Sin. Righteousness. The next thing he says the Holy
Spirit will do, will convince of sin. In other words, God is that holy. God is so holy. And this isn't a fable, though
this generation wants to think it is and is trying to disprove
it and calls this old-fashioned tradition, Jewish tradition,
that God is going to burn this planet up. Not a fable. God is that holy. And we need to be that righteous.
He will by no means clear the guilty. We need a righteousness. We need
to be holy. God doesn't look on the outside.
He looks on the heart. Where are we going to get this
righteousness? There's none righteous. No, not one. Well, there was
one. God came down here, and he said,
Now, I've got a righteousness, and I'm doing this for those
who need a righteousness. I'm living this perfect life,
not to show you how, but to give it to you. Now, who needs it? The Holy Spirit, see, convinces
people, I need that righteousness. And judgment, there's the next
thing. Sin, righteousness and judgment.
God's going to judge those who don't have this perfect righteousness. Well, back to the text there. Revelation 22. Can anybody hear
me? See, the Holy Spirit, that's
what he does in the church, the bride. You won't hear that everywhere,
but you hear it in the church. You hear this over and over,
line upon line upon line. Why? Because it's the one thing
made for. Christ is made unto us righteous. Christ was judged for some people. His blood makes atonement for
their souls. All who come to Christ, their
sins are paid for. Christ paid for. Somebody's going
to pay for what we are, what we've done. Either I'm going
to pay for it, yes, I, you, or Christ pay for it for us. We
need this blood. That's what the Holy Spirit in
the church convinces. Two or three are gathered, or
two or three are gathered in the church. He said, I'm the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He mentions three. God's in the
congregation of the righteous. Spirit and the bride say, come. I'm telling you this morning,
based on the authority of God's Word, you better come to Christ. And you better not delay. But it wasn't me that said that. All right? The Spirit of the
Bride said, Come. Look at the next line. And let
him that heareth say, Come. See, the church, these older
folks in here right now, the church, here's the church. berries
and the parks and the sheaselers and on and on at the church. We're here, we've come to hear
from Christ, don't we? And while you hear parks, you came to hear from Christ,
didn't you? You came to learn of Christ. Berries, losses, hmm? And why are you here? Because they've heard from Christ. They heard from Christ. They
believe. They believe. I believe that they believe. They heard his voice. I mean, they really heard his
voice. It wasn't an audible voice. My
wife and I, here we are. We've come here. Why? You say, I've come to preach.
I've come, that's my job. No, not really. Not really. I've told you so many times,
I'd just as soon not be standing here. I would rather not be. I would a whole lot. I envy you. I really do, sitting there. A
whole lot rather hear somebody else preach. than me. I come here to hear what God
has to say to us. I come to Christ. I've got to
come to worship. Is that why you're here? Cheeseless?
Swords? Is that why you're here? But
you're not to the choir. All right, now these people have
heard from Christ. This is not a cunningly devised
fable. Here are some people who have
heard the voice of the Son of God, who have spoken to them. They've heard the Holy Spirit
convince them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. They've come to
Him, and they keep coming back to Him, and it's reality. I wrote
somebody a letter one time. acquaintance of mine. And I said,
now you know me better than this. You know me, I've never been
one to follow anybody. Back when in school, I didn't
follow. I was the leader. I was the leader. I didn't follow
the crowd. And I said, you know me better than
this. And I told him, I said, And I'm not following my dad
or a man. I'm telling you, this is reality.
I've heard from the Lord himself. This thing's real. It's a real
and living Jesus Christ sitting on a throne right now, reigning
and ruling over every human being in this room, and we're going
to stand before him. And he says, you come. You better come quick, because
he says, I'm coming quick. Right? Older folks, those of
you who have heard him, are you playing religion? In fact, is not Jesus Christ
more real to you than this in this world? That's what he said, because he said the things of
this that are sane are temporal. The things that are not sane,
you see, and Brother Crabtree up in Lexington, he expounded this more better
than I can possibly do it. Man is not a body. That's what
man inhabits. This body is not you, it's your
house. You are a soul created by God. And the soul, like the body,
has faculties. The soul has eyes, the soul has
ears, the soul has heart, the soul has hands, the soul has
feet, faculties. The whole reason for that soul
is to seek after, to hear from, to look toward, to go after God. When you lay down this body,
and it will be soon perhaps, you go to God. What it means for somebody to
be dead in trespasses and sin means to be alive to this world. But never, never listen to God. Never look around. God is. That thing just grew out of the
dirt. Orbit's evolution is just that.
That's foolishness. Isn't that foolishness? The soul has faculties. And if it's dead, they have eyes,
but they don't see. Ears, and they don't hear. A
heart, but it's not broken. Hands, but they're not seeking
a hand out. Feet, but they're sure not walking
toward God. But when God, the Holy Spirit, comes through the
preaching of the gospel, He opens his eyes. God is, isn't he? God! He says several times throughout
this revelation, Behold, I come quickly. The Spirit and the Bride, and that's
what this means here, is Him that heareth says, Come. Say it, Joe. Go ahead, say it out loud. Say
it. Come. Say come. Say it louder, Joe.
Did you hear from Christ one day, you hear the gospel, you
keep hearing it? Say it again, Joseph. He that heareth says
you better come. You heard it, John? You heard
it, say it. Charles, say it. Charles. Sam? Charles. You better come. What does it mean to come? What does it mean to come? It
sure don't mean to wait. Does it? Wait, I'll wait while
I feel a bit like coming, that's all. I don't mean wait, you know,
I'm using, we all understand improper English,
don't we? Look at John chapter 4 with me,
John chapter 4. Turn over to John chapter 4. Oh, if you're thirsty, turn over
to John chapter 4. Here's our Lord dealing with
a woman at a well, John chapter 4. And he said to her, verse
10, look at it. May the Lord, oh, may the Lord
bring you to the well this morning. Verse 10, the Lord said unto
her, if thou knewest the gift of God." You see, eye hadn't
seen, ear hadn't heard, neither had entered into the heart of
man the things that God had prepared for them. This world is seeking
after stuff when in the fact of the matter it doesn't compare
to the glory that shall follow. Well, he said, if you knew the
gift of God and who it is that said it, if you knew who was
saying this, give me to drink. You would have
asked. You wouldn't have waited. You
would have asked. He would have given you living
water. Living water. Down in verse 13, you know, this
woman thought he was talking about physical water, didn't
she? Satisfaction in things. She says, I don't want to thirst
again. Well, down in verse 13, Christ
said, Now whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. This water shall thirst again. What does
thirst mean? Thirst. Everybody in here has
been thirsty. It means you dry up. It means you need some moisture
to satisfy what your body needs. You're probably thirsty right
now. Are you thirsty, Henry? Are you thirsty for this? No? I am. Boy, I needed that. I talked too much. I was thirsty. That satisfied. He's not thirsty
right now. He doesn't need it. He'd take
a drink and it really wouldn't satisfy him. Thirsty. Men thirst after desire. It means to desire, want, to
seek, to crave for fulfillment, for satisfaction. Men, women,
young people thirst after things. Now, doesn't this go well with
the Bible study? Men, women, young people, they
thirst all right, but it's after stuff. Possessions. Possessions. Prestige. Oh, do
men seek after power and prestige, happiness, pleasure? And you know, God puts within—there's
a passage in Ecclesiastes that said, God put the world to end
on. In other words, God's desire
after a home and a family and all that's not evil. It's not. people with some ambition. That's
not evil. I'm glad there are some people
with ambition because you have jobs. You work for them. You live in a home that somebody
worked hard to build and so forth. But here's the thing about it. Absolutely craving after these
things. only. It won't satisfy, no matter what
it is. These bodies require food and
water, but man, Christ said, doesn't live by bread alone.
People want to try this restaurant and that restaurant, and I do,
too. I like to eat, but, oh, buddy, your soul, you better
hope your soul's not starving to death. This is what man lives by. This
is bread from heaven. What you eat in this body goes
where? Out to draft, our Lord says. And so does everything
else. Fades away. The man's a living
soul. He's going to go to God. And his thirst, no matter what
it is, is unlimited. So often I say so many things
I regret. I need to put a watch over my
lips, especially when I preach. Young people seek after marriage,
and it is a wonderful thing if you're married to another believer. But even then, even then, Paul said, you're
going to have trouble. We think if I just get married
and have, you know, a mate, and your husband and wife, little
house, little car, little baby, you know, everything's all right.
Oh, no, no, no, no. Troubles really start then. Right, parents? Come on now,
huh? Troubles really start. Trouble among yourselves, trouble
with your own children, trouble, trouble. You know, if I can just
get married, Boy, you can get that all right. That's easy. Finding a true husband or a true
wife? Let's seek the Lord first. Thirsty. Thirsty. A home, a job, money, pleasure. Pleasure. Solomon wrote 3,000
proverbs. And in them, Mount Solomon, he
had the finest money could buy. He said, I went after it. And
the Lord made him do that. The Lord had him do that so he
could teach us. He went after it all. If Solomon
had been alive today, he would have had a 142-inch TV. I know. carmike theater. He would have had the biggest
car money could buy, the mansion he did, Beverly Hills, forget
it, Solomon. Feasting and all. You know why? He tried it all. God had him
do so. Why? To tell us this. It's vanity. It's vanity. About a 65 Volkswagen will get
you to work just like a 99 Mercedes. It's just a car. Living in a trailer, people playing
off your head just as much as living in a stone mansion in Malibu. It's just a place
to get out of the rain. Food? I had the best breakfast,
biggest breakfast. I'm hungry again. It's vanity. It won't satisfy me. Women? Solomon
said, Women? I had three hundred wives. Why do you think Solomon had
three hundred wives? to show us marriage doesn't satisfy. Huh? It's vanity. What it does to
you is you seek after it, and once you get it, I guarantee
you, you'll want something better. It doesn't matter what it is.
It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter what it is.
Well, this woman, our Lord said, now you drink this water, you're
going to thirst again. Our Lord said in one verse what
all the Proverbs say. You drink this water, you go
after it, you're going to thirst again. It's not going to satisfy
you. But now, the water I give you, Look at
verse 14, "...the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." And
what he's done here, he's created a thirst in this
woman. She wasn't thirsty before. She was just coming to get water,
coming to the wells. whatever you come to get water.
And oh, my, my, my, my, wouldn't it be wonderful? Somebody was
coming to church, and the Lord made him thirsty. Wouldn't that
be wonderful? Last time to go to church, huh?
To go to church. She said, Lord, sir, give me
this water. Would you give me this water?
that I thirst not and don't have to draw one more time. You know, part of the reason
why we live in this world, the reason I send my daughter to
public school, is for this reason. So that she'll go out in this
world and see it doesn't satisfy her. That's why the Lord has us live
in this world. To show us it doesn't satisfy. And by God's grace, I hope he'll
show us all, our children, that there's only one, only one. What is this thirst? And let
me tell you, young people, let me warn you one more time that
this may be it. There's no promise when you go
out into that world that you'll come to Christ. No promise. This
is why our Lord said this. This is why he said this. You
better come. Remember the Creator, thy Creator
in the days of thy youth, for the evil days come nigh. You
go out there and that world gets a hold of you. I'm standing here
because God is merciful. Because God is gracious. Because
God saves the chief of sinners. All of my former friends are
lost. Don't think because you're a
parish believer that God's going to have mercy on you. Turn with me to Matthew 5, and
I'll quit with this. OK? Matthew 5. Keep the revelation,
and I'll be right back with that. But Matthew 5, what is it that
thirsts? Matthew 5. Our Lord tells this
in Matthew 5, look at verse 3, "...blessed are the poor in spirit,
theirs is the kingdom." Blessed is the poor. What is a poor person? Poor person. We don't know much. There aren't many poor people
left today. Those fellows you see standing on the side of the
street up in Roanoke maybe with a sign, now that, if it's real, a beggar. What I'm trying to
say is a real poor person is a beggar. Poor person is someone
who doesn't have anything. This is what it means to be poor
in spirit. A person who has nothing, who
has to have a handout, who needs a handout. They don't have anything. This is what it means to be spiritually
poor. That's what I mean by poor in
spirit. This is a person who doesn't have any goodness. Doesn't have any goodness. Lord,
I'm no good. Well, I've got some goodness.
The Lord said, I have goodness, and I give away. The poor person spiritually says,
I don't have any faith. I've tried to believe, and I
can't believe. He says, I've got it to give. The poor person says, I don't have
any ability. I've tried my best to live right,
and I can't. Everything's wrong. Christ says,
I did live right, and I got it to give. This is a poor person. This is what it means to be poor
in spirit. He says, "...theirs is the kingdom of heaven." I'm
going to finish it. Hell is like that. It's the King's
table. Blessed, he says in verse 4,
"...are they that mourn, they shall be comforted." Mourn. Now,
every human being is going to mourn at some point. They're
going to mourn over the loss of this or that. Mourning usually
is about death. Something or someone dies, and
people mourn. Well, mourning here is mourning
over your death, being dead in sin. Stan, here's the thing about
it. You won't mourn that until you're alive. This is the reason people aren't
interested. They're not dead and trespassed in sin. Don't
need to be raised. But God caused some people to
see from the preaching that, you know, this world is all I've
been after. I have not gave God a thought. Maybe I am dead and trespassed
in sin. He says, they'll be comforted.
They'll be comforted. Blessed are they that mourn.
Those that say, woe is me, will be able to sing complete envy
some day. Comforted. Next thing, he says,
blessed are they, the meek. They shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the meek. They'll inherit the new earth,
that is. New earth. God's going to inhabit this new
earth with nobodies. That's what it means to be meek.
It means to be a nobody. God's going to inhabit the new
earth with a bunch of nobodies, that Jesus Christ will be the
only somebody. The world, who gets the world
today? Who gets the world? It's a loud,
proud, strong. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and
the big dog gets the world. Right? The big dog. Let me tell you who goes to heaven.
Little dogs. Pound dogs. Pound dogs. Meek. Realizing, I'm only here
by the grace of God. Like Annie, my little pound dog. I hope she realizes where I found
her. Poor, sorrowful, meek, and mild
pound dogs. In verse 6, here's the verse,
he says, "...blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness." Hunger and thirst after righteousness, they'll
be filled. Well, back in Revelation 22, righteousness is a person. Heaven is a person. Your goodness
is a person. Your hope is a person. I'm telling you. It's a person. Come. And verse
17 says, Let him that is a thirst come. Are you thirsty? You've heard, and him that heareth,
spirit and the bride, say, Come. You've heard several people who
have heard say, Come. They've come, and they continue
to come. And him and his thirst, he's
interested. And him and his thirst, come
and say, come. He says, come. Now, I'm not going to give an altar call
this morning. I don't believe in that. I'm not calling you
to an altar. I don't want you to shake my
hand. Shake it before or after, but shaking my hand won't do
a thing. But you've come to Christ. He needs to touch you with His
hand. You've come to Him. Say, Lord, touch me. Touch me.
Christ, I come. I come. Let Him as the first. Well, who can come? Whosoever
will. Whosoever will. Whoever's thirsty,
who's ever thirsty, you come. You trust Christ and, uh... Well, come. Come. Come. All right. Brother Joe,
you have a song picked out? What's that? 187.