And I want to talk about coming
to Christ, coming to Christ. You know, there's a couple of
things that preachers have to watch out for and do watch out
for that other people don't. And that is we don't want to
make the way to Christ too narrow, narrower than the
Lord Himself would make it. We don't want to have a message
that makes salvation an easy believism. We don't want to do
that. Certainly don't want to do that.
And another thing is, is that people, you don't, I don't want
to build a false refuge for them because they can find more than
on their own. And if they're in a false refuge, I want to
tell them where the true refuge is at. And hopefully, God bring
them out of their false refuges. People's gonna have a refuge
somewhere. They are. I mean, if it's just a, well,
I'll be alright at the end. Or, you know, I've been good
enough. I've been honest enough. I've been true enough. I've been
faithful enough. Anything that you've been enough
of, that's a false refuge. But when you understand that
Christ is enough and He's all you need, then you got a true
refuge. And that's what we want. That's
what we want to talk about. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He made salvation to be real. He made it to be powerful. He
made it to be a miracle. And we certainly, and one thing
I don't wanna do, and I don't know of any preacher that would
wanna do it, is try to get disciples after themselves. But here in
1 Peter, I wanna give you three words, down in verse four, that
gives a description, a description of a believer and what he is.
Three words, to whom coming, to whom coming, to whom coming. That's a pretty good picture
of a believer, isn't it? To whom coming. You know, there's a dress
for a believer. I'm gonna bring a message on
that. I thought about that this morning. There's a way that we
dress that nobody else dresses like. And it's a scriptural description. We dress like nobody else dresses. We wear clothes that nobody else
wears. But here's a three-word picture of a believer. To whom
coming. To whom coming. Salvation and
eternal life is coming to Christ. Our Lord Himself said, come unto
me, come unto me, come unto me. If any man hear my words and
believeth on me. Salvation and eternal life is
coming to Christ. Is that not how our life began,
our eternal life began, that our salvation began? is by coming
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We came to Him. We didn't come
to a church, we came to Him. Now we had to hear the gospel. It's begun that way, our salvation
is begun that way by coming to Christ. And it's continued that
way, our salvation is continued by the same way, continually
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. And one day it'll be perfected.
Complete, absolutely so, by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. At no time, at no time is a Christian
or a believer's profession or his experience anything more
than coming to Christ. Coming to Christ. We come to
him this morning. We've come to Him when we woke
up. We've come to Him before we got here. We're coming to
Him while we're here. That's salvation, that's eternal
life. And I'll tell you what, it's
at the very beginning of our experience, that's why Paul said,
hold confidence. Keep confidence at your beginning.
And at the beginning, we come to the Lord Jesus Christ. I came
to the Lord Jesus Christ at the very beginning of my salvation.
I come to the Lord Jesus Christ. An old hymn writer said it like
this. Out of my bondage, my sorrow, and my might, Jesus,
I come. Into thy freedom, gladness, and
light, Jesus, I come. Out of my sickness, into thy
health, out of my want, into thy wealth. Out of my sin, into
thyself, Jesus, I come. Out of myself, Jesus, I come. And that's what we do. Lord,
here I come. I'm coming again. I'm coming
again, and I'm coming again. And when we start our pilgrim's
journey, and that's what it is, it's a pilgrimage. We're in this
world, and it's a pilgrimage. You know, when we started coming
to Christ, And our salvation began there and our eternal life
began there. We started a journey. We started
a run. We started a race. We started
a journey. We started our pilgrimage. And
that's what exactly how our life began. And always we journey
on in our life. As we go through all the things
that we go through. With our ups and with our downs,
with our trials, with our burdens, with our darkness and with our
light. with our health and with our
sickness. And I'll tell you, whatever condition
we're in, it's always coming to Christ. Always. I'll tell you what, we're on
a journey. And we start on a journey, and on that journey, all our
time is spent in coming to Christ. You know, when he talked to the
Galatians, Paul talked to the Galatians. Look over here with
me in Galatians chapter 3. Look what happened over here
in Galatians chapter 3. This is why Paul rebuked the
Galatians over here, and why did he rebuke them? Why did he
rebuke them? And this is why, look what he
says there in verse 3, Galatians 3, 3. Are you so foolish, Are you a
fool in this way? Having begun in the Spirit, by
the Spirit of Christ, by the Spirit of God, by the Spirit,
are you now made perfect by the flesh? And that's what he said,
you come to Christ and now you're going to start with your duties,
you're going to start with your works, you're going to start
with what you're supposed to do, start with all the things
you're supposed to do. You mean to tell me that you're
going to start with Christ and then go right back to the flesh?
Go back to living, trying to satisfy God, trying to please
God, trying to get on the right side of God by what you do. What
a fool you must be is what he's saying to him. And I'll tell
you, did you begin with Christ now at your duties? And I'll
tell you something, it's not Christ in me at any time. It's
just the Lord Jesus Christ. He's my wisdom. How in the world
can I know God? How can I know the Bible? How
can I have any understanding if He's not my wisdom? If He's
not the one that gives me spiritual sense and spiritual life, how
am I going to know anything? He's my wisdom in spiritual matters. And when it comes to sanctification,
I'm the same sinner saved by grace right now that I was at
the beginning. I'm the same person, and that's
why I have to keep coming to Christ. Listen, He's my holiness,
He's my sanctification, He's my perfection, and He's my righteousness. There's never any time in my
life or your life that we have a righteousness of our own. And
when we come to Christ, He gives us His righteousness, and that's
the only righteousness there are in this world that God will
accept. Men can talk about their righteousness
all they want to, but God said it's a filthy rag outside of
Christ. He's the only righteousness that'll
ever be in this world. I've told you this before. I
heard a fellow preaching one time, and he's a Reformed Baptist. And he was talking about, you
know, we have to walk a tightrope. Over here's the righteousness
of Christ, and over here's our personal righteousness. And if
we don't keep a balance on them, if we go too far one way, we'll
fall off. If we go too far the other way.
And Tim James said, anybody got a gun? That fellow, I said, and I'll
tell you what happened. Don Fortner got up and preached
after him. Can you imagine what Don said? He said, what that
fellow said to you was a lie. Ain't nothing like that. There's
only one righteousness. I've never had a personal righteousness.
I never will have a personal righteousness. I will face God
with a personal righteousness. I'll face God with the righteousness
of Christ, and I'll do that right now, right now. And I tell you,
and He's my redemption. He's the one that's gonna take
this old body and make it brand new one of these days. Oh my,
right now. And I tell you something else,
not only did our salvation begin with coming to Christ, and in
our journey while we're going through this world, it's continually
coming to Christ. And one of these days we're gonna
get to the end. One of these days we're gonna get right to
the end of this thing. And you know what it'll be? Christ is
all. It's coming to Christ. He's the
author and finisher of our faith. He started it and he'll be the
one to finish it. And I tell you, he's the alpha.
That means he's the beginning. He's the middle and he's the
end. He's the whole alphabet from
beginning to end. He's everything. And I tell you,
that's why John said this, he said, when we see Him, we're
gonna be just like Him. And that's what the end is gonna
be. You know what song, down here we sing a lot of songs.
We sang some good songs this morning. But you know, we're
gonna sing a song in glory. And you know what the song is?
Unto Him. Unto Him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. We're gonna sing about you when
we get there. We ain't gonna sing about nothing else. Could
you hear somebody getting up there thinking, well, well, I,
listen, thank God I finally made it. Here I am, I'm gonna thank
myself for being here. Me and Jesus got it done, and
I crossed the threshold. There won't be one soul there
that'll ever say that, not one. And when Paul finished his course,
And it says the scripture said he kept the faith. He preached
the gospel. He wrote most of the New Testament.
He established churches. He ordained preachers. And what
did he say? I'm in a straight betwixt two,
having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far
better. You know what he described heaven
to be? be with Christ, to depart and be with Christ. And that's
a pretty good description of a believer, to whom coming. We
started coming, we're continually coming, and we'll end with our
coming to Christ. That's the way it's going to
end. And I know this, the redeemed, the saints of God, those that
Christ purchased with His blood, will never ever cease coming
to Christ until one day they're perfectly conformed to the image
of the Lord Jesus Christ. David said, when I'm conformed
to His image, I'll be satisfied. And I won't be satisfied until
then. I won't be satisfied. Now let me ask you four questions.
Now I want you to turn with you to Matthew chapter 13 when I
ask you these questions. I want you to turn to Matthew
13 with me. I want to ask you these questions. Let me ask you four questions.
And I ask those that's listening and watching this morning. Anybody
that's listening anywhere, anytime, anyplace. I want to ask these
four questions. Talking about coming to Christ.
To whom coming? Did you one day come up to the front and tell everybody that Jesus
saved you and then you stopped? You started
a journey and then you quit. Did you ever do that? Did you run for a while? And
then lose interest. Then just lose interest. I've
seen that happen. Oh my, just lose interest. Did you one time manifest and
show great, great zeal? Oh, listen, oh, you're so zealous,
you know, I'm just so glad to be here. And I love you and I
love you preaching and all that. Did you have manifest great zeal?
And then just laid it over here to the side. Did your faith spring up with
great enthusiasm? Oh, you're so enthusiastic, and
you had such joy, and then it was just choked, choked out by
other things, by other things. Well, look over here in Matthew
13 with me. If this is so, if you answered
those questions and you said yes, I wouldn't, a person that
walks away from Christ walks away from the gospel. Just because
they made a profession, that absolutely means nothing. It
doesn't, it really doesn't. And until you come to Christ,
that's all you got, it's a profession. Just a profession. And I've done
lots of professions. I've baptized lots of people.
But I tell you what, if you ever walked away from Christ, if you
came up here and you started your journey and then you got
excited and got all enthusiastic and had zeal, and then you just
quit, you lost interest, I have no problem, I'm not afraid at
all to say, you've never come to Christ. I just never have. You never
have. And I believe I can show you that from the Scriptures.
Look over here in Matthew 13. Our Lord gave the parable of
the sower. A man went out sowing his seed. And our Lord, he gave
this parable of the seeds, sowing the seed to his disciples. And
here he explains it to them here in verse 18. Hear ye therefore the parable
of the sower. And what he said is, understand
what I've been telling you. When anyone hearth the word of
the kingdom, and understandeth it, they don't understand it,
then that wicked one, Satan comes along, and that which was sown
in his heart, he just takes it out real quick. That's the seed
that fell by the wayside. And then there's another fella,
he received the seed among stony places. The same as he, he hears
the word, And at once, immediately, with joy, he just, oh, that's
the most wonderful thing I've ever heard. Yet, he ain't got
no root. And he'll endure for a while,
but whenever trouble comes along, tribulation comes along, things
that he don't think that God would do to him, they quit. They're
offended by the word. And then he's also, here's the
other thing, he that received the seed among thorns, as he
that heareth the word, and then the care of this world, oh, the
care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and oh, I tell you,
how deceitful they are, they choke the word, and he becometh
unfruitful. Listen to this now, but he that
received Seed into the good ground is he that hears the word, he
understands it, and he brings some fruit forth. Now our Lord
gives us an understanding of what he's talking about. And
I'll tell you what, but here's the difference. There's some
good seeds sown. This Bible's what we sow with.
The scriptures, what we're being born again, not a corruptible
seed, but incorruptible. It's a seed. And we're a seed
sown. When I bought that place down
there in the farm, and everybody Larry knows about this, anybody
else knows about a farm. You can't sow seed if you got
nothing but a bunch of briars in your field. You got to get
rid of the briars. And if you got nothing but rock
two inches underground, just quick as it gets hot, that grass
is going to dry up right where the rock's at. And I tell you
what, my kids, they cleaned out our garden, I couldn't tell you
how many times, buckets of rocks they carried out of my garden.
Because I couldn't, you can't go nothing among rocks. And that's
what our Lord said. You've got, if the seed's gonna
be sowed, the ground has got to be right. And who can make
the ground right? I can't make it right. I can't
take out the stony heart. I can't take out the world. I
can't take out the deceitfulness of riches. But God can. And God
does. And if he don't put that seed
in a good heart and make that heart good and make that heart
right, then you're gonna, no wonder you quit. No wonder you
quit. Oh my. But I'll tell you, they
continually come into Christ. They come to Christ, started
to. Now I want you to look with me in Matthew 6, I mean, excuse
me, John 6. I'm gonna explain some things
here if I can. So Scott used to say, I'm gonna
explain something. Look here in John 6, look in
verse 44. Look what it says here. Oh my. I want to know Christ. I don't
want to be deceived. I want to know Christ. I want
to come to Christ. I want to see Him when I get
to the end of this journey. But look what He said here in
John 6, verse 44. No man can come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up in the
last day." Now, our first coming to Christ is by the free and
sovereign grace of God. No man! Now, what are we? How did we come to Christ? How
was we brought to Christ? Grace brought us. You know it's by grace. A miracle
is a work of God. No man can come to me except
I come. I the Father come and bring them
to myself. That's what he's telling us here.
He said, no man can come to me. Now listen to me. God doesn't
prevent people from coming. Right here, right now, God ain't
keeping nobody from coming. He's full of grace. He's the
God of all grace. He's precious in mercy. He delights
in mercy. He stood over Jerusalem and wept
and said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I asked would I have gathered
you as a hen gathers her chicks, and you would not. Our Lord stood
and cried one day, if any man's thirsty, let him come unto me.
If you've got a burden on you, come unto me. If you've got sin
on you, come to me. Come to me. And I tell you, he
says, you will not come to me that you might have to learn.
And I tell you somebody else, the church, we here as the church,
us people as believers, we would not prevent anybody from coming
to Christ. Oh no, that's what we're preaching
for. We want people to come to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And is any of you in here that
you've got loved ones? Husbands, wives, children, grandchildren,
brothers and sisters, would you keep anybody from coming to Christ?
No. No. Why can't men come to Christ? What's the reason they can't
come? I'm going to give you the first reason. They don't see
the need. They don't see their need to
come. Why don't they see their need
to come? They're whole. They've got everything they need.
They're not sick. They're healthy. They've got
a good heart. They've got a good mind. They've
got a good life. They've got a good job. Everything they've got. I don't
need Christ. And I'll tell you another reason.
They don't see anything in Him worth coming for. They see no
beauty about him. They don't see how gracious and
compassionate he is. They don't see how tenderhearted
and how precious he is and how glorious he is. Oh my. Oh my. In the world, out in the
world, people will go out to great extremes to enjoy and go
to great extremes to enjoy what they like. But oh my, they don't
see anything in Christ worth coming for. They don't see the forgiveness
of sins. They don't see the peace of heart
that they could have. They don't see the rest of soul
they could have. If they saw what they could have
in Christ and would have in Christ, you could not keep people away.
They would run and run and run and run to get to Christ. Huh? Oh, the scriptures tells us their
hearts are set on other things that are more important. They
have no room for Christ. One fellow said to the Lord Jesus,
he said, I'll follow you, Lord, but first let me go bury my father. That's always it. Lord, I'll
follow you, but gotta have me first. I got things back here
I gotta take care of. When I get them take care of,
then I'll start following you. He's just a man made a great
big supper. Invited all, you know, invited
people to come. And the scripture says they all
with one consent began to make excuse. One said, I bought a
piece of ground over here. I need to go look at it. Another
said, I bought a bunch of oxen and I've never seen them plow.
I've got to go out here and see if they'll really work, if they'll
bear the yoke. And another one, He said, I got
married. I got married. I can't come.
I got married. I got married! I can't come. I can't come. Oh my. And that said here in verse 44,
John 6, no man can come except the Father which sent me. Draw
him. Now when it says draw him, It's
not a physical force, it's not. You don't hear voices, you don't
see visions. This is a spiritual work in the
heart. When God comes and regenerates
us and gives us a new nature, when he comes in Holy Spirit
conviction, gives us a side of the Lord Jesus Christ and in
that side of Christ we see sin as what it really is. And this is how you can tell
whether you got a false profession or not. Did God make you a sinner? Or did the preacher make you
a sinner? Or did, who made you to be a sinner? If God makes
you a sinner, you are a sinner from the top of your head to
the sole of your foot, from the inside of your body to the outside
of it. When God makes you one. And I tell you what, you'll never
get over it either. No, no, uh-uh. And it's not,
it's a spiritual work in the heart. And the scriptures tells
us, in the day of His power, the day of His power, His people, His people are made
willing. I've been made willing. You've
been made willing? I'm willing right now, ain't you? I'm as
willing as I can be to come to Christ. Try to keep me away. All of you together, try to keep
me from coming to Christ. You can't do it. Oh my, blessed is the man. Our
Lord said, blessed is the man whom thou callest, callest to
approach unto you. Oh my, he makes us willing to
come to Christ. He makes us willing. And men
who come to the Lord Jesus Christ, they come, and here's the reason
why we come. We see a need. I have a need
to come to Christ. Oh, how needy I am. My sins,
David said, my sins are ever before me. You know, in this
world, celebrities and famous people and powerful people, they
get all the attention. They get all the magazine covers
and all ragged on on the internet and everywhere else. The powerful
and the famous and the celebrities and they get all the attention.
But you know who gets attention from God? The poor and the needy. Let them go ahead and have their
claim. But oh Lord, he looks on the poor and the needy. Don't
he? Oh my. We see ourselves, and
I'll tell you, this is so true. We see ourselves as sin. We see evil in ourselves. We
see ourselves as rebels and guilty before God. I mean guilty. Guilty, guilty. And when we see
God gives us a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see something
in Him worth coming for. We see in Him, we see Him as
the one God appointed, as God anointed, as the Redeemer. How
that woman at the well, she threw away her water pot and she run
into the city and run into town and said, Come see a man! He told me everything I ever
did. Told me everything I ever did.
Listen, I forgot so many things that I did, but God knows every
one of them, and because of that, I got to come. I got to come. I've got to come. Oh my, I tell
you what, there's disciples, you know, a whole bunch of them
walked away and didn't follow him anymore. Because he says,
you know, said that he told him again, no man can come to the
Father except the Father draw him. And they turned and said,
this is a hard saying. We can't follow that. And them
disciples, he said, you all going to go away too? Oh, Lord, Lord,
to whom shall we go? You're the one that's got the
word. You're the one that's got life. I'll tell you something,
God has persuaded us You know what he persuaded us of? That
nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God that's
in Christ. I'm persuaded that whatsoever
I've committed unto him, he's able to keep it against that
day. Oh, he's persuaded us and convinced us that nothing else
is more, more important, more needed than our relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. And I tell you, our
coming to the Lord Jesus was not of our own will or our own
power. To as many as received Him, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, which were born,
born, not of blood, not of the will of man, not of flesh, but
of God. Oh my. Now, oh, we've come to Christ. Why?
Because all that the Father giveth me. What does he say? Shall come
to me. Shall come to me. Oh, a picture of a believer.
Our first coming to Christ was by his grace. I can't take no
credit for it. I can't take no credit for coming
to the Lord Jesus. Can you? I can't take no credit
for it. I can't receive no praise for
it. I can't claim no merit for it. Why? Because He called me
and He drew me. Brought me to Himself. He drew
me. Spiritual drawing. Let me ask
you some more questions. And people ask this, you know.
Why do you feel such an awareness of sin and other people don't? Why don't your sons and your
daughters, why don't they have this awareness of sin? I can't explain it. I can't explain
it. But God revealed it. That's why
I know what I am. Why do you Christians, why do
you people who are believers talk about Christ? How glorious
He is, how blessed He is. I don't see anything beautiful
about Him. I tell you what, when I get in
trouble, you know what I do? Cross my fingers. Get out my radish foot. I got a horseshoe above my door, and
when I go through, I always test that horseshoe for my luck. And
down here, people said, if you go in one door and go out the
other, that's bad luck. Go out the same door you come
in. Boy, wouldn't it be awful? I've done had so much bad luck,
I wouldn't know where I was coming or going if I went in one door
and went out the other. That's just, you know, that's
just people's thoughts. It's just people's thoughts. Oh my, they don't see any beauty
about Christ. Beauty about Him. Why have you
as believers, why have you lost interest in the things of the
world? The world don't impress you and the people of the world
don't impress you. And you're more interested in getting together
and praying and singing hymns, hearing the gospel. I can explain
that. God did it. That's all you can
say about it. God did it. God made it so. God made it so. I don't know how many times I've
heard people say this. Well, you know, we got company,
so listen, we won't be there this week. We got company. Don't
anybody ever have any company that comes to services? Anybody
come to church? If you left them sitting at the
house by themselves, and maybe one of these days they'll say,
well listen, I'm going to quit going over there, because all they
want to do when I'm here, they don't want to visit with me, they want
to go to church. They want to go to hear the gospel.
You know, that's what they say. Just leave them sitting there.
You don't think they're going to steal anything, do you? You
don't think they're going to pilfer through your drawers. Oh my. And I'm gonna tell you
this, this coming to Christ is an absolute, complete coming. You know, when you come to Christ,
all of you come. You don't leave no part that
doesn't come. Your mind comes, your will comes,
your heart comes, your understanding comes, your desire comes, your
love comes, your emotions come. Everything about you comes to
Christ. Your whole being comes to Christ. You don't just bring your body,
you bring you. Everything about you. Caleb,
holy, followed the Lord. You know, we're so joined to
the Lord Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him is not
just a part-time association. That's what most people have,
a part-time association. Sunday morning, Maybe, maybe
Sunday night, certainly not Wednesday night. Oh no, can't have association
like that. And our reunion with Christ is
so complete and our relationship with Him puts everything else
and everyone else in their proper place as it affects that union. We're not gonna let nothing keep
us and affect our union and our relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not gonna do it. Our Lord
said, if you love your mother more than me, stay with your
mommy. If you love your father more
than me, just stay home. If you love your brothers and
sisters more than me, forget it. He said, if there's anything
that keeps you from coming to me, just stay where you are.
That's what he tells us. Huh? Oh my. Oh, whatever affects
wrongfully our relationship with Christ, We lay it aside. And oh my, whatever it is, things
or people, oh my, that's what our Lord said. That's what our
Lord said. Now, let's look back over here
in 1 Peter. Let me give you a few things
over here and close this thing down. You know, I, I so want people to know the
Lord. I want people to come to Christ. I want people to know Christ.
I want to know Christ. Lord, I've heard Scott and I've
heard Henry say it countless times. I don't want to miss Christ. I don't want to let anything,
anything affect my relationship with Christ. You know, in our marriages, we
guard our marriages. We protect our marriages. We
take great care in our marriages to care for one another and watch
out for one another and thank God for one another. Thank God for one another. Well,
I tell you what, that's why we are with Christ. We don't want
nothing to come between us and Christ. Nothing. I don't care
what it is. And look what it said here in verse 1 then. 1
Peter 2 and verse 1. You know, believers lay things
aside. He says, wherefore laying aside? What do you lay aside? Malice.
That means, boy, you got a ill will towards somebody. And guile,
oh my, you just, honey wouldn't melt, butter wouldn't melt in
your mouth. That's what guile means. Hypocrisies and evils
and all evil spirits. As newborn babes desire the sincere
milk of the word that you may grow thy body. As newborn babes,
what do you desire? The sincere milk, what do you
desire? Gifts, trinkets, toys, great understanding of prophecy.
Oh my. Those who come to Christ, you
know what they desire more than anything? To know more about
Him. To grow, to grow, to grow. They
want to grow in Him. And you know why they do? In
verse three says, we've tasted, we have tasted something. What
did we taste? We tasted that the Lord is grace and gracious
towards us. How often is he gracious? 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, 365 days a year until we get to glory. I've tasted it
this morning. Oh, it's good. Oh, it tastes
so good. I'll tell you what, it's the
best tasting thing I've ever had. I've had some good tasting
stuff, but this is the best taste I've ever had in my life, is
tasting the grace of God. And oh my, it fills my soul. It fills my heart. It fills my
mind. It fills me up and satisfies
me that nothing in this world can do. Oh, I've tasted, I've
tasted. And I'll tell you what, again,
let me hurry. This coming to Christ is a continual
coming to Christ. We have no permanent rest in
this world. We've come to Christ and we'll
stay there and keep with Christ until we enter into our eternal
rest. An old hymn writer said, take
your burden to the Lord and leave it there. How many things happen,
happen in our lives and we don't know why, but God does. And when you don't know what's
going on, just bring it to the Lord Jesus Christ and just keep
on coming, bringing it. Oh, our Lord said, if any man
come after me, let him deny himself. Oh my, we deny any ability to
save ourselves. And once we deny ourselves, it's
a continual denying. It's a continual warfare. Now,
it would have been absolutely wonderful, glorious, if God,
when He first came to Christ, that He eradicated our own nature,
took the flesh out of us, and conformed us to Christ and carried
us to glory. But he didn't do that. He said,
you know what, I pray that you don't take them out of the world,
but I tell you what I do pray, Lord, keep them from the evil
one. Oh, my. People say, I've come
to Christ, but I still have conflicts. I still have doubts. I still
have fears. I still have temptations. What am I going to do about them?
Come to Christ. That's what you're going to do.
Well, I've got responsibilities. I've got family responsibilities.
I've got to make a living. I've got cares. I've got house
payments to make, car payments to make. I've got doctors I've
got to see. What am I going to do about them? Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come to Christ, and keep on coming
to Christ. And then here's the last thing
I'll say. Old age creeps on, and our steps get slower. They
start to falter. Our mind don't work as fast.
And our hairs change, our colors change, and everything about
it. We get our slips, and old age is still on. What are you
going to do about it? Keep on coming to Christ. Keep on coming
to Christ. Ain't that right? Oh, just keep
on coming. Just keep on coming. Keep on
coming. That's what I'm going to do.
That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep coming to Christ.
Huh? Where else am I going to go?
Where else are you going to go? Huh? Let's stand together and
say 318, and then you'll be at liberty to go. 318. Let's stand together. I'll lead
this one. 318. Everybody knows this one.
Probably don't even need a hymn book. 318. I need Thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine can
peace afford. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Bless me now, my Savior, I come
to Thee I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby Temptations lose their power
when thou art nigh I need Thee. Oh, bless me now,
my Savior. I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. I need thee, I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee, most Holy One. Oh, make me Thine. Indeed, Thou blest Son. I need thee, I need thee, I need
thee. There we are, I need you. Oh, bless you, my Lord.