Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 485. 485. We praise thee, O God,
for the son of thy love. For Jesus who died and is now
gone above. Alleluia, thine the glory. Alleluia, amen. Hallelujah, by the glory, revive
us again. We praise thee, O God, for the
Spirit of life. Who hath shown us our sanctuary,
and scattered our life. Alleluia, Thine the glory! Alleluia, Amen! Alleluia, Thine the glory! revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb
that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed
every stain. Alleluia, thine the glory. Alleluia, amen. Alleluia, thine the glory. Revive us again. Revive us again. ? May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above ? ? Hallelujah by the glory ? ? Hallelujah again
? ? Hallelujah by the glory ? ? Revive us again ? Be seated. We'll sing Amazing Grace in our
course book on page 28. 28 in the course book. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. ? Was grace that taught my heart
to fear ? ? And grace my fears relieved ? ? How precious did
that grace appear ? that grace appear. Be of thy first belief. Through many dangers, storms,
and snares, I have Already come, Tis grace that brought me safe
thus far. ? And grace will surely be home
? The Lord has promised good to me ? His word my hope secure
He will my shield and portion be as long as life endures. This flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease. I shall possess within the veil,
divine of joy and peace. The world shall soon dissolve
like snow, The sun refused to shine But God who called me here
below Shall be forever mine When we've been there ten thousand
years Night's shining as the sun We've no less days to sing
God's praise when we first begun. Let's look together in First
Peter, Chapter 2. First Peter, Chapter 2. Wherefore, laying aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious
to whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up as spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word. being disappointed
were unto say they also were upon it. But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people,
that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which were in
time past were not a people, but are now the people of God,
which have not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Our God, our Father, our blessed
Lord Jesus Christ, Blessed Holy Spirit that brings
the things of Christ to us, I bless you, the triune God, the God
of salvation, the God of election, the God of mercy, the God of
grace, the God who delights to show mercy, the God in whom all
salvation is placed. Oh, Lord, we come into your presence. We always come, Lord. He told
us to let our words be few, be not rash with our mouth, be not
quick to utter anything foolish, because you're in the heavens
and we're on the earth. You're our eternal spirit. We're
just flesh. You are absolutely holy in every
way. And oh, Lord God, we got so much
sin dwelling in us. that if it wasn't for salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, wasn't for salvation by grace, no one
would ever be saved. But, oh, what a blessed hope
you've given us. What a blessed salvation you've
given us. So great a salvation. And we
thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. And, oh, Lord, we thank
you for coming, washing us from our sins in your own blood. choosing
us in yourself before the foundation of the world. We thank you, O
Lord God, for dwelling in our hearts by faith. And Lord, we
ask for your presence today, O Lord, pleased in the preaching
of the gospel. Meet with us today. Visit this
vine. Let this be a day of visitation,
a visitation of hearts, visitation of understanding. a visitation
of power, a visitation of salvation. Let this be the day that you
visit someone today in this congregation. And, Lord, visit all of us. Come
into our presence. Forgive us of everything that's
unlike you. And, God, have mercy upon our
dear brothers and sisters who are not able to be with us. God
bless them. God encourage them. God strengthen
them. my preacher brethren and my fellow churches, God meet
with them today. Lord have mercy upon our children
and grandchildren who ask these things in our Lord Jesus' name.
Amen, amen, amen. Let's stand together and sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. On the second verse, we're gonna
add a line at the end of the second verse. It'll be, shall
safely see me home on my journey as I go. Shall safely see me
home on my journey as I go. O Lamb of God, still keep me
near to thy wounded side. Tis only there in safety and
peace I can abide. What loathsome snares surround
me, and fears within. The grace that sought and found
me alone can keep me clean. Tis only in thee hiding I know
my life secure. Only in Thee abiding, I steadfast
shall endure. Thou of my heart sustaineth me. its care and woe, shall safely
see me home on my journey as I go. Soon shall my eyes behold thee,
with rapture face to face. The half have not been told me
of all thy power and grace. Thy beauty, glory, and glory of thy love shall be the endless
story of all thy saints above. Be seated. I hope you're back in 1 Peter
with me again. My subject this morning is coming
to Christ, coming to Christ. And my text will be sound in
verse 4, to whom coming, to whom coming, as a preacher and a pastor
called of God, I want to be very careful in
my preaching, because I certainly don't want to make salvation
and eternal life more difficult than our Lord Jesus Christ himself
did. I certainly don't want to do
that. And I don't want to rob the sheep
of their confidence and assurance in the Lord Jesus Christ. And another thing I don't want
to do is give the impression that our works or our duties
or anything else that we do will prevail with God for forgiveness
of sins. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Never, never will our works or
duties, prayers or faithfulness ever, ever produce forgiveness
of sins. All of our righteousnesses are
called a filthy rag, a filthy rag. In this flesh dwells no
good thing. And another thing I don't want
to do is by God's grace in preaching, I don't want to make salvation.
I don't want to make eternal life an easy believism. I don't want to do that. I certainly
don't want to do that because easy believism mocks God. to
preach faith and repentance as an isolated act, promises heaven
and eternal life to a rebel. I don't want to do that. I don't
want to be one of those fellas that cry peace, peace, when there
ain't no peace. And I don't want to give men material to build a false
hope on, false refuges in, because they'll have no problem building
their own. But I also don't want to call
disciples after myself. But here in 1 Peter, the apostle gives a three-word
portrait of a believer, a three-word portrait of a believer. And I
think if we'll look at this and see a true preacher, a true picture
of a true believer, I believe it'll help us all. kill our overconfidence
and presumptions. And that three words is found
there in verse four, to whom coming, to whom coming. That's a picture of a believer,
to whom coming. Salvation and eternal life is
coming to Christ. This is the way our life began,
is by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. It began that way, It
began that way. And I tell you, it'll continue
that way. We started out coming to Christ
in the beginning, and all the way in our journey, it'll be
a continual coming to Christ. And our life will be perfected
and finally fully finished by coming to Christ. That's the
way it happens, coming to Christ. At no time, at no time, in our
profession of faith. At no time in a believer's experience
or profession, the Christian experienced nothing else, nothing
more than coming to Christ. At the beginning, at the beginning
of our life, our spiritual life, it started out with coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ. As an old hymn writer said, out
of my bondage, my sorrow, and my might, Jesus, I come into
thy freedom, gladness and light. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my sickness, into thy
health. Out of my want, into thy wealth. Out of my sin, into thyself. Jesus, I come to thee. I come to thee. That's how it
starts. That's why we tell people, come
to Christ, come to Christ, come to Christ. That's where salvation
starts. Salvation's in the Lord Jesus
and him alone. And then, we on a journey. Peter
said, here you know, as pilgrims, you're on a journey. As pilgrims
are stained from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. And
throughout our journey, from the time we start, and we're
on a pilgrimage, we're on a journey, We're on a life, and throughout
this journey, it's coming to Christ, all our journey, every
single step we take. I mean, we started out years
and years and years ago. We're still coming to Christ.
On this journey, we're coming to Christ. Paul rebuked the Galatians. You keep I Peter. Look with me
over here in Galatians chapter 3. Look in Galatians chapter
3. Look what he rebuked them for
this. This is one thing that people
do. You know, and it's a sad, sad thing. In Galatians chapter
three, in verse three, look what Paul, Paul rebuked the Galatians.
And look what he said here in verse three of Galatians three. And this is what he said. Are
you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, having
begun coming to Christ, Are you now made perfect by the flesh? Oh, my. And that's what happens. People start out right, and they
end up looking to their flesh. Did you begin with Christ, and
now you look to what you're doing? Oh, it's not Christ in me at
any time. Never, never, never. It's just
Christ. How are we going to have any
wisdom concerning the Scriptures? How are we going to have any
wisdom concerning our spiritual life? How are we going to have
any wisdom when we understand something about God? Christ is
that wisdom. We don't have no knowledge of
God apart from Christ, and it's always coming to Him. He's my
wisdom that I might know God, and that I might understand spiritual
matter. He's my sanctification. I don't
have to be sanctifying myself and setting myself apart from
the world. He's already done that for me. He's separated me
from this evil world. And oh my, He's my righteousness. I have no righteousness that
I can look to, no righteousness that I can do, nothing that I
can do to make myself acceptable to God. And he's my redemption
right now, right now. And I'm the same sinner, saved
by grace, who came to Christ at the beginning. And ever since
that beginning, I keep coming to Christ. I keep coming to Christ.
I'm on this journey, while I'm on this journey, and all when
we get to the end, and we're all going to get to the end.
We're all going to get to the end one of these days. I'm well
on, I'm well, I'm closer to the end, well closer to the end than
when I started. I'm getting close to the end.
Some of the rest of you getting close to the end. And oh, my. And you know what? When we get
to the end, Christ is all. It's coming to Christ. He's the
author. He's the finisher of our faith. He's the alpha, and He's the
omega. He's the beginning, and He's
the end. He is all in all. John said it
like this, Behold, beloved, now we're the sons of God. Not going
to be, now we're the sons of God. And it doeth not yet appear
what we shall be, but we do know that when He appears, when He
appears, and He's going to appear, when He's going to appear, and
you know what He said? He said, We shall see as He is
and be just like Him. just like Him. And, oh, my, the
same glory, the song in glory is going to be this, unto Him
who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. God hath given Him a name, Christ
a name, that's above every name. Jesus, every knee's going to
bow, every tongue's going to confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father. Oh, my. And when the
Apostle Paul finished his course, and he kept the faith, and he
preached the Gospel, and he wrote most of the New Testament, established
churches, ordained preachers, what did he say? He said, He
said, I want to depart. I'm in a straight betwixt two.
I'm in a straight. I'm in this narrow place here. I'm in this narrow place where
I desire to depart and be with Christ. That's far better. Or to stay here in this flesh.
Oh, to depart and be with Christ. Oh, my. And you know how he describes
heaven? To be with Christ, to be with
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know what he describes as
eternal glory? Being with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here in verse 4 of 1 Peter, he says that, chapter 2, three-word
portrait of a believer coming to Christ. In the beginning,
we come to Christ. Continuing, we come to Christ. In our life, we come to Christ.
Oh, my, the redeemed will never, never cease coming to Christ
until they're perfectly conformed to His image. David said, I will
not be satisfied. I'm the king. I've got a throne.
I've got a crown. I've got authority. I'm the king
over all Israel. I'm a powerful man. People come and go, as I say.
But he says, you know, that's not satisfying me. He said, I
shall not be satisfied until I awake in your likeness. That's
why this world doesn't satisfy us, because of him. Let me ask
you four questions. Let me ask you four questions. Did you one day walk in a church
aisle and then stop, quit? People have been doing that for
years and years. They come to a church aisle and
then, you know, they make their profession and then they stop
their journey. Did you, did you run for a while,
run for a while and then lose interest? Lose interest in the
gospel? Lose interest in Christ? Lose
interest in the fellowship of the saints? Did you one time
manifest great, great zeal and then just lost it? Just lost
it? Did your faith spring up with
great enthusiasm and joy? and then was choked out by other
things? Did that happen to you? Has that
ever happened to you? If this happened to you, you
started and you stopped. You're choked out by other things.
You lost interest, started a real lot of enthusiasm, and then just
quit. If this is you, and these things
happen to you, you're not coming to Christ. Oh, my. You remember the parable of the
sword that our Lord Jesus Christ gave? He said, He's preached
the Word. The Gospel is the Word. He sows
the Word. He sows the Word. Some of it
falls among thorns. Some of it falls among rocks.
And some of it falls among a hard path. And some of it falls on
good ground. But it comes along, and the devil
comes along, and he snatches the seed up, and then on that
thorny ground, he chokes it out. It'll start up, but the thorns
in that choke it out. And then there's that one that
comes in the rocks. There's a little soil there,
and it springs up. And oh, it says that at once
they're full of joy. But then troubles start. Persecution starts. People got
something to say about your profession, and it upsets you, and you quit. But that seed that fell on good
ground, it brought forth fruit, 30, 60, or 100. And I'll tell you, he explained
the meaning of that to the disciples, and this is the picture of the
men who sprung up I want you to look with me in John 6. Let's look together in John chapter
6. This is an important message.
This is an important message. You can tell whether you're a
believer or not by how you come to Christ, your relationship
with Christ. Did you start and stop? No, you
didn't. You didn't. You didn't. You didn't. You didn't. You didn't. Is your zeal gone? Had such zeal for a long time
and then your zeal's gone? Oh my, look what our Lord said
here in John 6, 44. You know, our first coming to
Christ is by grace and it's a miracle. It's a work of God. Look what
he said here in John 6, 44. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me draw him, and I will raise him up
at the last day." Now, our first coming to Christ is by God's
grace, a miracle of grace. But our Lord said here, no man
can come to me. Now, let me tell you something.
God doesn't keep you from coming. Oh, no, God doesn't prevent men
from coming. He's full of grace. He's plenteous
in mercy. He delights to show mercy. Oh,
he said, oh, you that labor and heavily come unto me. He wept
over Jerusalem and wept on how often Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Well,
I gathered you as hens do with her chicks. I would have gathered
you. And all my You will not come
to me, our Lord said. And I'll tell you somebody else
that doesn't keep people from coming. The church doesn't keep
people from coming. Oh, I wouldn't keep you from
coming at all. I wouldn't keep you from coming
at all. And their loved ones doesn't prevent them from coming,
doesn't keep them from coming. What is it? What is it that keeps
men from coming to Christ? And God said this, a man can
come to Christ without moving a muscle. If you come to Christ,
you come to Christ where you are. You come to Christ from
your heart. You come to Christ from your
understanding. You come to Christ by faith. You come to Christ
with a need. And that's what happens. That's
why most people, why they end up losing their zeal and quit
on their journey is because why can't men come to Christ? First
reason is they don't see a need. They don't see a need. That's
the main problem of anybody in religion. They don't see a need. They don't see a need. That's
sad. That's sad. Oh, my. They don't
see anything in Christ worth continually coming for. We're
out in the world, they'll go to great, great length to enjoy
themselves and do what they like. But if they saw in Him, if they
saw in our blessed Savior, if they saw in Him the delight that
God has of Him, if they saw the forgiveness of their sin in Him,
if they saw the beauty of holiness in our Lord Jesus Christ, if
they understood and delighted in the peace of heart and rest
of soul, they would come running, come running. Oh, my. And, oh, they don't see a need
to come, don't see anything in Christ worth coming for. And
here's another thing. Men's hearts are more set on
other things than they are that's more important to them, and they
have no room for Christ. That's one fella come to the
Lord, said, I'm gonna follow you, I'm gonna follow you, but
I gotta go back, my daddy, I gotta go back and bury my father. Lord
said and he's talking about the world Let the day he said you
let the dead bury the dead you follow me Three people our Lord made a
great great feast a great feast and he has a great feast. Oh
Listen, the Lord Jesus Christ is our bread our life our light
our life and God prepared this great feast for And he said to the servants,
I said, go tell them that I bid to come. You know what the first
one said? I bought a piece of ground. I
bought some land. I need to go look at it. I need
to go look at it. I ain't got time to come. Another
one said, oh, listen, I bought five yoke of oxen. And I got
to go and prove them. I got to go and see if they're
any good. And this is one of the stupidest, oh, one of the
awfulest things. The third one said this, I married
a wife and I can't come. I can't come. Men's got too many
things, too many things, too many irons in the fire, too many
irons in the fire. Let me first, that's the problem
with people, me first. And look what it said here in
John 6, 44 again. He says, no man can come except the Father
which sent me draw him. Now, what is this talking about,
the Father draw him? It's not a physical force. It's
not a physical force. You don't hear voices. People
say, well, the Lord spoke to me. Well, he speaks to me too,
but you know how he does it? In his word. That's where God
speaks to me at. Oh, listen, this is not a physical
force, not voices, not visions. This is a spiritual work, this
Godfather drawing you. It's a spiritual work, it's in
the heart. He said, in the day of his power, his people are
made willing. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee. You know, when God
gives a new nature, He does. He draws you. When God gives
a man a new nature in regeneration, in the new birth, and when God
gives a man a knowledge of his sin and Holy Spirit conviction,
and when God comes and gives us a knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that's what it says next. Look there in verse 45.
It's written in the prophets, they shall all be taught of God. When God teaches you, God teaches
you about your sin and Holy Spirit conviction. When God gives you
a knowledge of Christ in the revelation, oh my, you know what
he does? He makes us so willing to come.
Oh, how he makes us willing to come. I'm willing to come, you
willing to come? And oh, when is it we're willing
to come? In the day of His power, His
power. And you know why men come to
Christ? They see a need of Him. They
see a need of Him. David says, my sin is always
before me. Oh, I don't know about you all,
but I need Him. I need Him. Your daddy used to
say all the time we'd sing that song, I need thee every hour,
I need thee every hour. Your daddy said, I need him every
moment. I need him all the time, all the time. If I'm breathing,
I'm needing Christ. If I'm awake, I'm needing Christ. If I'm in a chair, I'm needing
Christ. Whatever I'm doing, I need Christ.
Oh my. Ah, we come to Christ because
we need him. We see ourselves sin, see ourselves
evil, rebels, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. And oh my, we
that are coming to Christ, we see something in him worth coming
for. I see something in him worth coming for, don't you? Oh, when
we see him, you know who we see? We see the one that God delights
in, the one the Father chose, the one the Father made to be
the Savior, the one the Father made to be the Redeemer, the
one that the Father made to be our Savior. And it's like John
said, oh Lord. Simon Peter said, you know, when
all those disciples walked away and wouldn't walk with him no
more, he looked at the 12 and he said, will you also go away? You gonna go too? You gonna leave? You know what Peter says? No
man. Lord, to whom shall we go? Who we gonna go to? You got the
words of eternal life. You. You. Only you got the words of eternal
life. Only you. Oh my. God has persuaded me and persuaded
us and convinced us that nothing else in this world is more important
than our relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing. Why
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his
soul? So this picture of a believer, first he's coming to Christ by
his grace. You know, We can't take no merit,
credit for coming to Christ. We can receive no praise for
it. We can't claim no merit for why? Because he called me. He drew me. He made me know Christ. He taught me about sin. He taught
me about Christ. He taught me about grace. He
taught me about Savior. He taught me. They shall all
be taught of God. Oh, be joyful, God. And I tell
you, he called me and he drew after me. And look what it says
there in John 6, 44 again. He drew me. He drew me. You know, when you talk about
spiritual drawing, why do we, God's elect, why do
God's people feel such an acute awareness of sin? Why do we? And other people don't. Some
people don't at all. I can't explain it. It's just
God revealed it to us. Why do we who are believers love
to come and hear about the glory of Christ and the beauty of Christ
and the glories of Christ? And we don't see anything, you
know, and we don't see anything. Everything we see about him is
beautiful. And we desire him. We don't have
nobody in heaven but him. Nobody on earth that we desire
but him. Why have you believers lost interest
in the things of this world? Why? Why are you more interested
in getting together and meeting here? Praying, singing songs, singing
hymns, hearing the gospel. I can't explain it. God just
made it so. God just made it so. And this coming to Christ is a complete coming. You can't
leave nothing back. Can't hold on to nothing else.
You can't hold on to nothing else. The scripture says that
Caleb followed the Lord fully, fully, fully. You know, our union with Christ,
our coming to Christ, our relationship with Christ is not just a part-time
association. It's not. It's not. We don't
have to look at crosses. We don't have to look at pictures.
We don't have to have special holy days. Our union with Christ
and coming to Christ and our relationship with Christ is not
a part-time association. It's not something we just do
part-time. Our union with the Lord Jesus Christ is a complete
union, and our relationship with Him, if you don't get nothing
else that I've said today, listen to this. Our union with Christ
is such a complete union, and our relationship with Christ
everything else and everyone else in their place as it affects
that union with Christ. Do you understand that? Huh? If anyone or anything, any person,
anything affects my relationship with Christ, then I've got to
let it go. I've got to stay away from it. Can't have it. You know, that's
why our Lord said, if any man come to me, let him deny himself. Deny himself, huh? Whatever wrongfully, wrongfully
affects my union and my relationship with Christ, I've got to lay
it aside. Whatever's good for it, that's
what I want to do. If it's things, if it's people,
if it's a husband, if it's a wife, if it's a child, whoever it is,
if it's a church member, I don't care. Nothing should affect our
relationship with Christ, nothing. Oh my. Look with me in Matthew chapter
12. Look at Matthew chapter 12. Look at Matthew chapter 12. 47. We'll start in verse 6, verse
46, Matthew 12, 46. While he yet talked to the people,
behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak
with him. Then one said unto him, Behold,
thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with
thee." This is what I'm talking about, a relationship with Christ.
But he answered and said unto them, told him, Who is my mother? Who are my brethren? He stretched
forth his hands toward his disciples. Stretched forth his hands toward
his disciples and said, Behold, my mother. and my brother. For whosoever do the will of
my Father in heaven, the same is my brother, my sister, and
my mother." Now, that's what our Lord said. He looked at His
people and said, that's my mother, that's my brothers, those are
my sisters. What about your mama? These are
my mothers. What about your brother? These
are my brothers. What about your sisters? These
are my sisters. Pointed at his disciples. Mama? Oh, my. I tell you what, that's,
you know, Peter, tell you what he did one time. He went back
fishing. He went back fishing. And a lot
of people went with him. Oh, a bunch of them fellas, you
know, the disciples went with him. One morning, the Lord Jesus Christ
was on the shore. Peter made such a bad mistake.
They stayed out all night long fishing. Our Lord stood on the
shore one day and he looked at out, hollered at Adam, said,
children, have you caught anything? He said, nothing, nothing. What does that mean? Whatever
you're doing. Without Christ, nothing. Without me, you can
do nothing. And then they looked, and there
was a fire and some fish cooking on that fire. He said, you got
any food? No. And then John said, ask the
Lord, he told Simon Peter. That's the Lord. That's the Lord. He jumped in that water. And
he come to Christ. And he come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he sat there, and the Lord
fed him. And then he asked Simon Peter a question. Simon, do you
love me more than these men? Do you love me more than these
fish? Do you love me more than this fire? Do you love me more
than your profession that you had as a fisherman? Do you love
me more than these? He said, yea, Lord. You know
that I love you. You know that I love you. And
oh my, he never went fishing again. Oh, now let's go back over in
our text again. I hope I'm not holding you too
long. But this to me, it may not mean nothing to you. This
message may not mean anything to you. I hope it does. It may not mean a thing in the
world to you. Back here in 1 Peter chapter
2, talking about coming to Christ, look what he says. There's some
things we got to lay aside. Verse 1, laying aside malice. Don't be hard and malicious towards
somebody with any kind of ill will. Layside all guile, that
means pretending, you know, acting to be something you're, and hypocrisies,
and envies, the things that you envy from other people, and all
evil speakings. Oh, my. Oh, all evil speakings. And listen to this. Oh, it's
newborn babes' desire. Desire. What do you desire? Gifts? Trinkets? Toys? Knowledge? Prophecy? Oh, my. But oh, look what he said. As
newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word, those who have
come to Christ, they desire knowledge of Christ, that you may grow
thereby. We want to grow in him. And why
do we want to grow in him? Look what he said in verse three.
If so be that you've tasted, oh, I've tasted. Have you tasted
that the Lord is gracious? Oh, he's so gracious. Tasted,
oh, tasted the Lord is gracious, gracious. And then he goes on
again, to whom coming, to whom coming? Are coming to Christ. is a continual coming to Christ. There's no rest in this world.
There's no rest in this world. There's no rest for us in this
world. We keep coming to Christ until we enter into His eternal
rest. We're not going to stop until
we enter that. Oh, that old black preacher, you know, it's a, In our hymn book it says, take
your burden to the Lord and leave it there. You got a burden? Take it to the Lord. How many
things, how many things happen that we don't know why? I can't
explain why people get sick and die. I can't explain why God
puts us in such dark places. I can't explain why God takes
a child. I can't explain why God takes
and does the things that he does. I don't have to explain it. I
don't know why, but God does. He does. Oh, and I tell you what, you
bring it to Christ. You bring your darkness to Christ,
bring your burdens to Christ, bring your tears to Christ, bring
your broken heart to Christ, bring your fears to Christ. Bring them to Christ. Oh, my. Our Lord stood and cried in that
great day of the feast, if any man's thirsty, let him come unto
me. If any man come after me, let
him deny himself. And it's a continual denial.
It's a continual denial. It's a continual warfare. Oh,
my. Been fighting, you know, there's
no discharge in this war. In the Marine Corps, I got discharged.
I got discharged, but there's no discharge in this world. No
discharge. God's not gonna write a discharge
and say, now, I'm gonna let you out. You can go home now. No discharge in this world. You'll
fight it until you draw your last breath. You'll fight this warfare. And
oh, it'd be so wonderful. Oh, how wonderful it'd be. that
when we first came to the Lord Jesus Christ, that our Lord would destroy our
old nature and this flesh, and then our old, old nature, oh
God, if he'd destroy it, that he could have eradicated it,
that we'd all be perfectly, perfectly conformed to Christ and carried
on into glory. But that's not the way it is.
That's not the way it is. No. That's not the way it is. I have come to Christ, but
I still have conflicts. I still have trials. I still have doubts. I still
have fears. I still have temptations. I still have sin. What am I going to do about it?
Come to Christ. I still have family responsibilities. I got cares. What am I going
to do about them? Keep coming to Christ. In old
age, old age is still in home. Old age has slipped right up
on us and we were unaware of it. There it is. Old age is stillin' on, comin'
on, and it stills in. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna
keep comin' to Christ. Keep comin' to Christ. You say,
I'm in my 90s. Keep comin' to Christ. I'm a
young person. Come to Christ. Don't wait till
you get old. Don't wait till you get to where
you know, it's so sad that people so caught up in this world, caught
up in their flesh, and caught up in the things of this life
that they, they don't come to Christ like they should. I remember
talking to Brother Mayhead one time, and he said, Brother Don, he said,
you know, he said, there's people that can live on the husk. Live on the husk, kind of like
the prodigal. But he said, I don't want to
live on him. I want to live on the bread of life. I want to
live on Christ. And I have come. I am coming. And one of these days, I'll come
my last time. And that's good. That's a good
thing. Our Lord Jesus, our blessed master,
if you would be pleased, you'd be
pleased to use these words that's been preached today, if you'd
be pleased to use them to stir up a heart for people to see what the relationship
with Christ is all about, coming to Christ, continually coming to Christ,
with all of our burdens, with all of our conflicts, with all
of our fears, with all of our worldly things that goes on in
our lives, coming to Christ. And Lord, when you come to Christ,
and when we come to you, we find such rest, such peace, such assurance,
such comfort. Oh, Lord. God bless it to your
glory and our good. For Christ's sake, amen. Amen. Let's sing that old hymn tonight
in the hymn book, you know. What's that one that we just
sung the other day? Let me find it here. Come, you sinners. 26. 26 in
this chorus book. 26 in this chorus book. Just stand together, saying this. Come ye sinners. Weak and wounded, sick and sore,
Jesus ready stands to save you. Full of pity, love, and power. Verse 2. Come ye thirsty, come
and welcome. God's free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance. Every grace that brings you nigh. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness strongly dream. All the fitness he requireth
is to fill your need of him. Come ye weary, heavy laden, lost
and ruined by the fall. If you tarry, you're better. You will never come at all. What do you do then? I will arise
and go to Jesus. He will embrace me in His arms,
in the arms of my dear Savior. Oh, there are 10,000 charms. lunch in a little bit. They'll
let you know when they call you.