John chapter six. We use one
verse as a text. John chapter six. I heartily encourage you sometime
to. Sit down and. Begin with John
chapter six and read through the whole chapter. And continue to read on through.
As far as you'd like, but. Chapter nine and ten. Chapter
eight, so profound what we read this morning. Look at John chapter six, look
at verse twenty eight and twenty eight, twenty nine with John
six, twenty eight and twenty nine. Now Christ was standing
before the people, the Jews, and he said unto them, then said
they unto him, verse 28, What shall we do that we might work
the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom
God hath sent." This is the work of God, that you believe on him
whom God hath sent. Now, I'm going to be very plain
this morning, and very brief, I hope. I want to be clearly understood.
I want everyone's undivided attention for a little while. I'll not
keep you long. And I want to do as Moses did one day. When Moses
came down from the mountain after receiving the law, he said these
words. He said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. It's as if he drew an imaginary
line in the sand. He said, who is on the Lord's
side? Step over here. Everybody else stay there. What is it to be saved? What is it to have eternal life?
What's this all about? How does somebody get this eternal
life, whatever it may be? Who has it? Who in here has it? Look at verse forty-seven with
me in John chapter six, verse forty-seven. Christ said here,
barely or truly, truly of a truth, of a truth I say unto you, that
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. To believe on Jesus Christ is
to have everlasting life. Now, if you do not, I'll be very
frank, very plain with us this morning. If you do not believe
in or on Jesus Christ, then you are condemned by God and going
to eternal hell. and you'll get all the blame,
all the blame for it. If you do believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, if you do, you had nothing to do with it, and
God Almighty gets all of the credit. That's a mystery to some, I know.
But I'm going to try to expound upon that in a minute. I'm going
to have you turn to several verses of scripture. I hope you have
your Bibles ready, OK? Because what I say constantly
from this pulpit is that it's not my words. It's not what I'm
trying to say up here that matters. It's not my little sermon, OK? It's this book. It's what God
says. All I want to do is show you from the pages of this book
what God says, what God says about eternal life, what God
says about how you get it, what God says about who has it. That's
all I want to do is show you from this book. So if you have
a Bible with you, I want you to look with me. And, uh, but
I take comfort in, in Christ's words. He said, my sheep will
hear my voice. They'll dig, they'll search, they'll hear it. I've
come to call my sheep. How does he call them? Calls
them through this right here and they'll read it. They'll
look at it and they'll perk up their ears and their eyes will
open and they'll hear it and they'll believe to the saving
of their soul. And if you're interested, perhaps
God will do that for you. Now look at John chapter 8. John
chapter 8. What is it to believe on Jesus
Christ? What is it? What does that mean?
What does it mean to believe on Jesus Christ? Well, first
of all, what it is to believe on Jesus Christ is, number one,
it's to believe who He is. Who He is. Who is He? Now, the way I hear preachers
and people talk about somebody named Jesus today, I don't think
much of that Jesus. You know, I make fun of him quite
a bit. Why? Because he's not the Jesus
of the Scriptures. He's not this Jesus that I worship.
I hear him talking about a Jesus today. Jesus wants to do this.
He's standing at your heart's door, poor fellow. He looks so
pitiful, so helpless. He's hanging on a cross. He's
bleeding. He's a poor fellow. He tried and failed and you won't
let him save you. That's not Jesus in the Bible. Who is this? Who is he? What
it is to believe on Jesus Christ is to believe who he is. We read
this in John 8, look at verse 23. And he said, who said? Jesus. He said unto them, these
Jews, these religious people, you are from beneath I am from above." You are of this world. I'm not
of this world. And I remind us, he's not in
this world. He's on a throne in heaven, wherever
that is. And I said, therefore, unto you,
verse twenty-four, that you shall die in your sins if you believe
that these two words, people, I am, you shall die in your sins. Now,
some of you may not have caught it when I said it a while ago
when we read this. They said, well, who are you?
He says, I am. And they said, well, you're what? He said, if you believe not that
I am, you're who? You are who? You're what? They didn't know the name of
God did. You see that name that word I am that's the name of
God you know that the Hebrew word is Yah. From Yahweh Yehovah
Yah. When Moses years ago before this
stood on Mount Sinai and received those ten commandments and all
of the other laws from God Almighty. Do you know who God said he was?
Moses said, Who will I tell the people that sent me? What's your
name? What is your name? What did he
say? What did God say to Moses that day? He said, Tell them,
I am that I am. Now, Moses didn't say, You are
what? You're who? I am, that means
the ever-eternal, ever-existent, having no beginning or ending,
always the I am. You are what? You can't say. I've said it before. If I go
up to you and say, what if, Stan, I come up to you one day and
I say, Mr. Anderson, now listen to me very
carefully. I am. You see, you are what? I am. You're what? You see, we have to qualify that.
I am a man. I am a woman. I am short. I am tall. I am dark-headed. I am blonde-headed. I am no-hair-headed. I am this. I am that. You have
to qualify it. Right? I am this, I am that. God doesn't have to qualify.
But God is all. I am. Whatever you want to say
about God in all of his character, holy, sovereign, judge, omniscient,
omnipresent, omnipotent, ever, always, is, I am. Because the
minute we say, I am, we are something other than what we were when
we said, I am. Do you catch that? The minute
we say, I am, no, you've changed. We're changing. We're changing
every minute. I am, no I'm not, that's past.
I was. I can never say I ain't too late.
You understand? He said, I am the Lord, I never
change. Never change. This is who's talking
here. God. Now God changed in the sense
that he took upon a body and walked this planet, a body of
a man. But Henry, his person never changed. He took a body. He just dwelled
in a body. He got in a baby's body and it
grew up and became a man and he was growing older and so forth
and haggard looking and tired and so forth. But God never changed. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world to himself. God never changed. And when he
laid that body in the grave, and then he rose from the grave,
that's the reason nobody recognized him. He said, Who are you? I am Jesus. Oh, I am God. Now, he's not a
believer. He's somebody who doesn't just
believe that this was a good man who walked the planet one
day. Everybody believes that. Jesus was a good man, just like
Mohammed was a good man, just like Confucius was a good man,
just like Buddha was a good man. No, it's more than believing
that he was a good man. It's believing that he is God.
Not was, but is God. It's not to believe that he is
a prophet. It's to believe that he's that prophet, God. All prophecy
comes from where? God. And He is the prophet. It's not to believe that He's
the Son of God. That was His body. That was His
human form. It's to believe, Becky, He's
God. Now, why is that so important? Why? Because He is. because he is. Now listen, why
am I spending so much time on this? He's God, because only God can justify us. Only God can justify us. You know what it means to be
justified? You see, the Scripture says we are sinners before God
Almighty. We are condemned All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. God condemns us for what
we are and what we do. Okay? We've got to be holy. God's holy. For us to be with
God, for God to have anything to do with us even now, we've
got to be holy. But we can't. We can't. Try as you may, be
as religious as you want to. Here I am a preacher standing
for you on Easter Sunday, got my Easter black suit on, you
know, look pretty good. Am I holy? Not on your life.
My heart condemns me. My thoughts, I'm a sinner. What am I going to do? I got
to be holy. Only God can make us holy. Declare us, justify. You know what happens when you
go into a court and you're convicted of a crime? You're convicted
of a crime, you go before the judge, and they bring out all
the evidence against you and so forth. And if you're found
innocent, based on the evidence and so forth, if you're found
innocent, the judge will say, I declare, or the jury will say,
not guilty. You've been justified, free,
declared innocent of all crime. We've sinned against God. We're
guilty, Joe. We stand before God's judgment
seat, his throne. Guilty! We've got to be justified. We've got to be holy. We've got
to be declared innocent. How? Only God can say it. Well, how does he do that? How
does he do that? Isaiah 25 9 says this, Lo, there's
our God. This is our God. a man walking
on the planet. There's our God. He went on to
say, we've waited for him and he'll save us. He'll save us. This is the Lord. We've waited
on him. We'll be glad and rejoice in his salvation. Well, what'd
he do? What'd this man do? God in human
face. What'd he do? What'd he do? Well, turn over with me. to John chapter 6. John chapter
6. We read it a little while ago.
John chapter 6. What did he do? Look at verse
28 again. Now they said, What shall we
do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, and he must have been shaking his head at the This is the work of God. You
can't rule the works of God. But this is the work of God,
that you believe on him whom he hath sent, him whom God hath
sent, the sent one. More than seventeen times in
John alone it said he is the sent one, the sent one. Why? Why is he called Descent
I? Why is he called Descent I? Well, look with me at Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. He had to. Christ had to come to this planet.
He had to if we were going to be saved. Like I said, if we're
going to be justified, declared innocent, somebody's got to do
something for us. Only God can do that. He said
to the disciples one day, with man, they said, who's going to
be saved? When they realized how futile
it was, how difficult it was to enter the kingdom. Look here
at some of the things that Christ said. To believe on Christ is
to believe who he is and to believe what he said and what he did.
Look at some of the things he said here in Matthew chapter
five, verse 20. He said, I say unto you, accept
your righteousness. shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you're not going to get into
heaven. You shall in no case, there's not one case going to
enter the kingdom of heaven, except they're more righteous
than the scribes and Pharisees. Now, do you know what that's
talking about? Do you know who the scribes and the Pharisees
were? Scribes and the Pharisees were
the equivalent of In our day, the Pope, the bishops, cardinals,
the priests, the rectors, the preacher, the deacon, they were
the most religious people of their day. They were the finest
people, man at his best state. That's who they were. Man at
his best state. What does the scripture say about man at his
best state? Vanity. That man at his best state is
altogether vanity. It's not good enough. The Pope
is not good enough. Mother Teresa is not good enough.
I don't care what she's done. She's not good enough. Why? Christ
said, except you're better than that, you're not going to get
into heaven. He told a rich young ruler one
time, except you sell all that you have and come follow me,
you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. He cannot
be my disciple. Look up at Matthew 5, verse 27. He said, now you've heard it
was said by them of old time in the old law, the Ten Commandments,
thou shalt not commit adultery. Do you see that? Everybody see
that? Verse 27. Christ said, you've heard it
said that you shall not commit adultery. Verse 28, but I say
unto you, God says unto you, that whosoever looks on a woman
to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in
his heart. There's danger of the judgment. You're going to
die and go to hell for looking at a woman. I'm guilty, huh? Women, that applies to you, too. Whatever woman looks upon a man,
you're guilty of hell. You're going to hell. Oh, now, wait a minute.
You see, the scripture says Christ came to fulfill the law and came
to magnify it. You've heard it said, not commit
adultery. He said, I say unto you that God looks on the heart,
and if you even look at that woman, you're guilty, and you'll
go to hell for her. Little extreme in that. Little extreme in that look over
chapter eight of the chapter eight. Verse thirty one chapter
eight. John I'm sorry John chapter eight
are you in John chapter eight John chapter eight verse thirty
one. Verse 30, we read this a while
ago. Now it says, Many believed on him. Then Jesus said to them
which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are
you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free. Free from what? I'm guilty. Free from the law. Oh, happy condition. How does
the psalm go on to say, Jesus Christ hath bled, there is remission. I was bruised by the law, that
law just smoked me, ruined by the fall. But Christ hath come and has
saved me once for all, once for all. See, Christ said, with man
this is impossible. You're right, you've got to be
better than the best man who ever walked the planet. I can't
do that. Well, you can't even look on
a woman next to you. You can't even look on a man. You can't
even say a fool. You're a fool, man. You're guilty
of killing that man guilty of murder. Oh, I can't do that. Christ said I can. God says I
can. So God can. It's the reason God
sent his son, God sent Christ down here as a man said, now
you go. You go. He sent him. You go. They can't. With man, this thing of salvation
is impossible. Who then can be saved? Christ
said, with man it's impossible. No man can get saved. He can
be saved though. Understand the difference? Some
of you do. You can't get it. See, when you
get something, it means you work for it. You obtain it. You make
your decision. You do this. You believe. You
work. You serve the Lord. You do this and that. You can't
get saved. You've got to be saved. How do
you be saved? Somebody comes and saves you.
Here I am out here drowning in the water, you know, and I can't
swim. I'm going down for the count. How am I going to be saved? Somebody's got to come get me.
So God sent his son into the world, made of a woman, a man. He had to be a man like me, like
you. Made under the law. Terry, made under the law. Christ came down here according
to the law of God that said, don't look at a woman or you're
guilty. Don't look at a woman lust after
her or you're guilty of hell. Christ never did. Now this boggles
my mind. But he didn't ever look at it. He said, don't even call anybody
a fool. Don't even think evil toward
anybody. Love your neighbor as yourself. He did. He did. Honor God. Love God with all
your heart, mind, soul, and strength from day one. Love him. You got
to. That's what God requires of a
man. Christ did. He did. He said, I must be about my father's
business. That's why I've come, to do thy
will. He said, I delight to do thy
will, O God. I love God. He did. God sent him down here to do
that. Made under the law, made a woman, made under the law to
do what? How's it go on? To redeem them
that were under the law from the curse, from the guilt. John,
I'm guilty. All right? I'm guilty. Christ
is not. He's innocent. He's holy. He's
spotless. God said from heaven one day,
he said, I approve of this man. Well done, you've earned heaven.
Only man who ever lived who earned heaven by his works. God said,
well, please, I approve of this man. You're a righteous man. Over here, I stand guilty, condemned,
waiting judgment. Guilty, soul that sins must surely
die. The wages of sin is death. I'm just awaiting the soul that
sins must surely die. It's appointed unto man once
to die. I'm waiting until I die. And after that, the judgment,
I've got to go to hell for what I've done. What am I going to
do? I can't do anything. I'm standing here guilty. But God can do something. So here's the gospel in a word.
It's called substitution. Substitution. Any baseball fans
in here? Football fans? Sure. You know
what it means to be seen as a substitute? Sure you do. You take the place
of the man. There's a man in there in the
game, you know. Here's a man over here on the sidelines. And
the man goes in and says, number 31, you're out of here. I'm in
here now. You're out. I'm in. I'm in your
place now. You didn't do a very good job.
So I'm going to get the job now. Henry, this is a God substitution. God says to his son, he sent
his son down here to live this perfect life as a man, and he
did it perfectly. Now God, and here I stand guilty.
Now God Almighty says to his son, switch places. Switch places. Christ does that. And he comes over here and somehow,
however God does this, somehow God takes all of his sin, that
I am, and I've done, and all of his people have done, and
wears it, puts it on like a garment, an old filthy rag, and he puts
me over here. And puts on me his works, his
life. And here I stand before God Almighty.
God looks at me. Nancy, God looks at me and says,
You're righteous. You're holy. You've done a good
job. Well done. My good and faithful
servant. But, but, but, but, but, no. No, you're righteous.
You're holy. I approve of you. I love you. Now you're going to come up and
live with me in heaven someday. And he looked at his son. And
he said, Go ahead. sinner, and he took him to the
cross. Man didn't take him to the cross,
God did. You by wicked hands have taken and crucified the
Lord of glory, but we did what God determined before to be done,
because sins had to be punished. God's word cannot go unfulfilled.
He said the soul that sinneth must surely die. So God said
to Christ, you're the sinner, you go die. And he poured out
the wrath and the hell of God for six hours on that cross. separation from God, all that
requires my sin. And he died. Blood was shed. It says, without
the shedding of blood. That typifies death. That's what
all those lambs and everything was slaughtered down through
the years typify death. Whose death? Well, I got to die,
but Christ did it for me. He shed his blood. Death. He shed his blood and died. He didn't stay there. He didn't
stay there. I didn't plan it this way, but
it just happened on this day. We talk about this all the time,
don't we? He didn't stay dead. You see, if he'd just stayed
dead. Margaret, if there's some bones in a grave over in Jerusalem
that belong to that man named Jesus, well, I quit. I see y'all. Hey, I'm leaving.
What in the world am I doing here? What good did that man
do, man? Huh? That's what the world's
saying. He's just a man. He tried and
failed and so forth, you know. As far as I know, if he just
tried and failed, then he tried to rise in good and failed. His
bones are in Jerusalem somewhere. And there's some books out now
that say they found his bones. Oh, no. Oh, no. 1 Corinthians 15 says, Now is
he risen? He is risen. Why did he rise? You see, just like he said, Just
like he said, no man takes my life from me, you can't kill
God. Here you can't kill God. He said, I lay it down on myself.
And just like one day he was hanging on that cross and he
said, it's time to die. I must die for my people. He died. He just died. He walked
out of the body. He walked out of his body. And
because he's God, because you can't kill God, one day that
body was laying in that grave for three days. One day he came
along and walked back into that body. He said, now it's time
to time to reveal myself to my people." And why did he have
to ride? Why is it so important, William,
that Christ be risen from the grave? Well, do you remember back in
the Old Testament how the Old Testament priest went into the
Holy of Holies with the blood Everybody in here knows the story
of how he had to shed the blood of a lamb and go into the tabernacle
and offer that blood up. All of that is a type of Christ.
It's a picture of what Christ did. Well, he went in there and
he had bales. Stanley, you remember how the
high priest had bales around his garment? Because if something
went wrong, you see, if he did something wrong, if he spilled
some blood or if he did something the way he wasn't supposed to
do it, God kill him. It happened several times. He
had his bells on his garment. So everybody outside, it was
important that God accept that blood. The Jews were outside
listening for the bells, and those tinkling bells were a good
sign that God's not angry yet. And if that old boy came out,
Joe, if that old boy finally, after it's all over, went in
the Holy of Holies, I can't even describe that place, the kind
of glory of God's will that snuck a man out in a minute. He went
in there gingerly, under the veil, poured that blood on the
floor, and waited. Will God accept the blood? Closed. And Buddy, Jerry, when he walked
out of that outer door, when he walked out His forgiveness with God. He's
not angry. He's not angry. John, my great
high priest, did just that one day. Went to heaven itself with
his own blood and poured it out on the mercy seat. But he didn't
stay there. He got back in that body again
and rolled back the door of the tabernacle and stepped out. God has accepted the sacrifice. See, he'd have stayed dead if
God was displeased with him. You see the importance of the
resurrection? He had to. He had to arise. He had to arise
from the grave. So that's what Christ did. That's
what Christ did. God sent his Son down here to
live for man, to die for men, to justify them, make them righteous. shed his blood to pay for their
sins, to pay for it. That's the price. And now here's
what he says. Here's something else he says,
and I'll wrap this thing up. Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter
11. God uses this thing called faith. Faith. What is faith? A lot of
people are talking about faith these days. We read there in
Matthew, John 6, verse 29, it says, this is the work of God
that you believe. You see, we've been talking about
the work of God, haven't we, Sammy, from the beginning. God
did all this. We weren't doing anything but sinning. Somebody
said, God did all the saving, I did all the sinning. That's
all we do. What can a man do to be saved?
Nothing. But once God determines to save
a man, he will. call upon God for mercy, he will
come to Christ by faith. He will. Not until God does this
for him, does this work in him. OK? Believing comes after the
fact. Nobody is saved because they
believe. No, no, no, no, no. Read John 1, 13. Nobody is saved
because they, you're not saved by the will of the flesh or the
will of man, but you're born of God. Anybody who believes,
believes because it's the work of God. Ephesians 2.8, By grace
you say through faith, and how's that? It's not yourself. It's
a gift of God, isn't it? This is the work of God. Well,
all right. That having been said, Christ
said here in verse 28 of Matthew 11, Come unto me. Now, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest.
Come unto me. Come unto me. You want to know something about
God. You want to know what it is to have eternal life. You
want to believe Him. You want to have eternal life. You feel
a little bit of this sinfulness, your own sinfulness. What are
you going to do? Where are you going to go? Christ
says, Come unto me. Come unto me. I'll take care
of you. I'll take care of you for you. What is it to come to
Christ? Very briefly, what is it to come
to Christ? First of all, it's to believe on Him. Like I said,
who he is, God. Believe on him. What he is, who
he is, what he did, what he said. Believe on him. It's to look
to him. It's to depend upon him. I mean, look to him and him alone.
Not your baptism. I was baptized twice. And like
I've told you all over and over again, when I was a boy, my daddy
was a Baptist preacher. I used to swim in the Baptistry.
I've been in that more than anybody. But that doesn't save at all,
and not this table here, not coming to church. I've been to
church. I guarantee I've been to church more than anybody in
here. I cut my teeth on it. I was the founding baby of the
church that my dad's a pastor of. Been there almost 40 years.
I mean, my mama drug me from a baby from the womb. I was in church. That's not coming
to Christ. I don't look to that. I don't
look to my baptism. I don't look to my church attendance.
I don't even look to the fact that I'm a preacher. I don't
look to my works, what I'm doing. Well, I'm living a good moral
life. No, I don't look to that. I look to Christ. Who he is. Where he is now. Interceding
for me. Praying for me. What he did.
What did he do? He lived for me. He died for
me. He rose for me. He justified me. I keep looking
to him. I never look outside of that.
I always keep looking to him. Are you saved? Terry Kindler,
are you saved? Well, why? Well, because I did. No. You ask a man, are you saved? And I'll tell you the answer
of a saved man. He'll say, if he says yes, you
know what he'll say after that? Why are you saved? Christ died. Who is he that condemneth? This
is the words of the Apostle Paul, the words of all of God's people.
Who is he that condemneth? Yeah, I'm saved. Who is he that
condemneth? Christ died. It's God that justifies. All right? It's God that justifies. We look to him and him alone.
He's our only hope. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to cast your soul on him, like a little child. Those of
you who have little children, Have you ever had them standing
up on a table or something in front of you and you say, you
say to them, jump, jump to daddy or mommy, jump now. And they're
a little bit afraid at first, you know, but no, they believe
mama's going to catch him. They believe daddy's going to,
they believe he's able and he's willing. They wouldn't jump for
a minute if they thought daddy was going to say, I told you,
shouldn't have done that. Wouldn't that be cruel? Christ
says, come unto me. All you that labor, trying to
work your way to God, trying to know God, trying to do this,
trying to be religious. I can't be religious. Trying
to read the Bible, I just can't read. I don't know what it's
saying. Trying, trying, trying. Come unto me, Christ said. I'll
read it to you, like a daddy, an old child on his lap. I'll
read it to you. All you that are heavy laden,
your sins got you down. See a little bit of this holy
God. Come unto me. jump into his arm. He said, I'll
carry you all the way. What do you want to work? Why
would anybody want to work their way to heaven, Jim? Huh? Why
on earth would anybody want to work, try to work their way to
heaven? The only reason I'm doing good works or doing what you
would call, what people call good works, going to church,
this and that and the other, is because I love God. I preach,
I'm thankful, I want to worship God, I want to serve, I want
to be like Christ. I do. I'm not doing it to earn
anything. He won't earn me anything, Sammy. He won't earn me a thing. Christ has already earned my
heaven for me. And I'm doing what I do because
I love it. Because I love Him. And want
to. But it's not going to earn me
anything. My religion, like I said, I attend church more than anybody.
I'm over here all the time. That doesn't earn me a thing.
Doesn't earn me a thing. Christ says, come unto me, get
on my shoulders, and I'll take you all the way home. Sounds
good to me. Talking about rest? Yeah. He says, come unto me, I'll give
you rest. Rest. You know, I'm a father now. I have a little child. I'm a
father. I have a little girl. You know, it was a whole lot
easier being a son. It was a whole lot easier being
a son than it is right now being a father. Sometimes I wish I
could call daddy and say, daddy, daddy. I'm serious. Help me. You come down here and
be a daddy. I'm having a hard time of it.
I got all these burdens and labors, I'm trying to be there, trying
to do that, trying to earn a living, trying to do that." Well, this is what Christ is
saying here. Come unto me. It's a whole lot
easier being a child than being a father. Coming to Christ is to leave
somewhere. When you come someplace, you
came to church this morning. You all came to church, didn't
you? You had to leave home to get
here, didn't you? You can't both be there and here. When you come
someplace, you leave someplace else. All right? To come to Christ,
you've got to leave, he said, leave yourself. Crucified with
Christ. Kill that old boy. Lord, kill
him. That old guy deserves to be out of the picture. Leave
yourself. Leave your pride. Leave your
ambition. Leave the world, Christ said. Renounce the world, and
follow me. You cannot serve two masters.
No, you can't. You'll either love the one or
hate the other. You can't. No way. We've tried, haven't we?
I've tried. Every now and then I keep trying, don't I? Love
the world. I get interested in something.
I get all involved in it, and I think, that's just not where
my heart is. I just, that's just, it starts
falling apart on me, you know? I had my affection. Rust sets
in. Maws corrupted. Thieves break
through and steal. In my heart, God, that's where
my affection sits, on things above. You leave that to come
to him. Leave that. It's like finding
a pearl. Finding a pearl. Pearl of your
dreams. And you marry. To come to Christ is just that,
to come to Christ. As I said earlier, it's not to
come to the knowledge of the doctrines of grace. I can mostly
convince anybody in here from the scriptures what it says about
election and so forth. I can reason that out to you. It's not to come into the knowledge
of the doctrines of grace. I knew that as a 12-year-old
boy. I could argue the five points of Calvinism as a 12-year-old
boy. Now, I love these truths, but all of these truths talk
about the truth, Christ who is the truth. It's to come to a
person. a person, not to come to church, to come to Christ. To come to Christ is to come
to him for everything. He says, cast all your care upon
me. He cares for you in everything
by prayer and thanksgiving, supplication, whatsoever you ask. To come to
Christ is to receive him as a gift, too. And that brings me to my
last point, and I quit. He said when we when we read
over there in verse twenty nine chapter six he said this is the
work of God. It's all the work of God is God's
will God determined it's God's work you won't believe he said
that twice in that chapter he said no man can come unto me
except the father which has sent me draw him. And he said that
again in that same chapter said I said unto you no man can come.
No man can come, except he whom the Father hath given me. No
man can, but he that is of God hears God's word. Have you heard anything I've
said this morning about God, about yourself, about who Christ
is, your desperate need of him and your inability and how you
need him desperately? I don't know how much you understand
about all this. I'm not sure how much I do. But
he said, He that is of God, heareth God's word. And he said to some
people, you don't believe, you're not interested because you're
not of God. But he turned over here to his sheep and said, now
my sheep here, my boy, they're interested and they hear it and
they believe it and they follow me. Not just one time a year,
not just one day, one day a week. They follow him all the time.
Why? Well, like he said to his disciples
one time, you going to leave? When everybody else said, this
is too hard, we don't understand any of this. We're going to go
back to the world. And he said to his disciples,
are you going to go too? And they said, where are we going
to go? To whom shall we go? You have the words of life. And
we've got to come to you. We've got to stay with you. They've
got to stay. And I ask you this morning, do
you believe? Believe what? Oh, believe who? Believe who? It's God who walked
the earth. And he did for you what you cannot
do for yourself. And you have a desperate need
of what he did and who he is and where he is. Do you believe?
Have you come to Christ? What does it mean, come to Christ?
Well, come to Christ, Henry, but don't move a muscle. Don't
get out of that pew. We don't have an altar call this morning.
Yeah, we did. Yeah, Joe, we've already had an altar call. Already
had it. It was all the way through the service, wasn't it? You see,
this is not an altar. We don't have a mourner's bench
down here. We don't have a place where you can come down here
so I can brag on what I've done here. I can brag, I got you saved. That's not the altar. You don't
come to an altar. What did he say in Hebrews, Terry?
He said, we have an altar that the religionists don't know anything
about. Christ is our altar, he said. And we say, come to Christ.
We were saying that during the whole service. Come to Christ.
But don't move a muscle, as Scott would say. Don't get out of the
pew, because everybody would give the preacher credit then.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You stay in a pew and you pray
to God in secret, and now God, the Father who hears in secret,
will reward you openly. And then you'll want to confess
him openly. Have you confessed him? Now, this is the way. You've got to confess him right
here. Baptism. Why? Why? That right there, that
right there, what that says, that's not some just religious,
some religious little ordinance you go through and, you know,
because it says you've got to do it. You know, he believes
in baptized and saved, so I guess I'll do it. What that is saying
is that everything Christ did, he did for me. Right? He was buried. He was dead. He died. He was buried, like as under
the water, but rose again to walk in newness of life. Christ
came out of that grave a new body, and we come out of this
thing of salvation, new creatures in Christ. And we see his glory
and his beauty. We go up here and that's what
we do. We confess him. This is the way. This is the
way you confess him. Not to be seen, not to chalk
one up for central Baptist. You know, we've got another baptism
here. No, you say, Christ, he's my Savior. He's my Lord. He did
this for me. All right, stand with me and
I'll dismiss this in prayer. you