I want to bring a three-word portrait
of a believer, a three-word portrait of a child of God. And you find
it there in verse 4 of chapter 2. To whom coming. I've said a three-word portrait. of every believer. To whom coming? To whom coming? To whom coming? As unto a living stone, disallowed
indeed of men. Men disregard the Lord Jesus
Christ altogether. Disregard him in religion. They
don't allow him even in religion. He's a poor little pitiful somebody
trying to knock on people's hearts door to get let in. Can't save
you unless you let him. Can't bless you unless you let
Him. Let go and let God. So they disallowed indeed of
men, but look what it says here, chosen of God. Precious. Because what men say about Him,
He is what He is. But let me preface my message
this morning. As a preacher that's been called
of God, I have a lot of things that I have to watch out for
that you don't. Especially here in the pulpit,
especially as my pulpit minister. And that's the most important,
significant part for me, you, and anybody else, is what's said
here, what I preach here. And there are several things
that myself and other preachers must be very, very careful about.
And every time I'm with preachers, we talk about preaching all the
time. And one is, one of the things we must be careful about
is that we don't make salvation and eternal life more difficult
than our Lord Jesus Christ made it. Now our Lord didn't make
salvation difficult. He didn't make it difficult.
Because if we do make it more difficult than our Lord did,
then we'll rob the sheep of Christ of confidence and assurance in
our Savior. You see, God intends for His
people to have assurance. to have confidence in the Father,
to have faith in the blessed Son of God, boldness at the throne
of grace, and rest for their souls. He intends for us to have
that. So we don't want to make salvation too difficult. And
if we make it too difficult, we'll give the impression that
our works and our duties, attending church, praying, Bible reading,
things like that, that those things will prevail with God
and for forgiveness of sin. But they don't. They don't. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but by His own
mercy He saved us. Salvation is in the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Never in my works, never in my
duties, never in my prayers, never in my faithfulness. Paul
said, I know that in me, that in my flesh, dwells no good thing. All my righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. The best thing we ever done in
our life, saved or unsaved. If we trust in it, God says it's
a filthy rag. That's the hardest thing to give
up is our righteousness, our goodness. People don't find it
hard to give up bad habits or quit doing bad things, but it's
the good things that people don't want to part with. It's the righteousnesses
that they've done they don't want to part with. And I'll tell
you another reason why we don't want to make it more difficult
than the Lord Jesus did. Because if we do, we'll make
a generation of Pharisees. And you know preachers have pre-separation. Pre-separation. You know, they
preach separation so much. In Christian duties so much.
They preach law and morality so strongly that they've created
a people who trust in themselves that they're more righteous than
others. I've got a generation of Pharisees. Have you ever met
any of them? I've met plenty of them in my lifetime. I used
to be one myself. I was really, oh my, God have mercy on me. But oh, a generation of Pharisees.
Boy, they think that everything has to be, you know, preach about
separation. I tell you what, they want to
be separated from the world, but boy, if God don't separate
you, you're just separated. You separate yourself. If God
don't separate you, you're just unseparated. That's right. And these people who are Pharisees,
religious Pharisees, who have their morality and their self-righteousness
and separated themselves and trusted all their duties and
have these people spend all their time sitting in judgment of other
believers, questioning their motives, their actions, what
they do, their words, their loyalty, their faithfulness. But oh, when
we cease to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith, and
the faith there means not whether you have faith, whether you be
in faith. In the faith means do you believe
the gospel? In the faith means have you trusted
Christ? Don't say there examine yourself whether you have faith.
Are you in the faith? Are you in the faith that was
once delivered unto the saints? Are you in the faith that Paul
says, you know, unto whom I have believed? Oh beloved, listen,
if we cease to examine ourselves, we examine others. And no wonder
Paul said, who's sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient
for these things? I'm not sufficient to sit in
judgment on you, and you're not sufficient to sit in judgment
on me. As believers in Christ. And oh
beloved, and the second thing, let me tell you this, we've got
to be careful about as preachers. We must not, must not, must not
make salvation and eternal life an easy believism. Not too difficult,
but don't other side is it as easy believism that knocks God,
that makes salvation to be an isolated act of faith and repentance. And that a person, what I mean
by that is, is that somebody, I heard a preacher say, the same
fellow I heard say that, said, we can go out on the streets
and we can get people to Jesus on the streets, in the hotel
rooms, wherever we're at, apart from the gospel. This easy-believerism,
walking out, and you get on an altar, and you have this isolationist
one time, and yes, I believe in Jesus, yes, I've repented,
and you go back to that one isolated act that you committed. That
one act that you've done, that time that somebody talked you
into accepting Jesus. And you go back to that. That's
easy-believerism, that we cannot preach that. You don't find that in the Scripture. You don't find somebody where
they just come up to the front and they accepted Jesus and somebody
talked them into accepting Jesus. I stopped in there. Our Lord
Jesus Christ never even done that. No prophet ever did it. Oh, they promised heaven and
life to a rebel. To men and women that don't know
God, that don't know Christ, that's got something in their
mind that, yes, the preacher told me I was okay. The preacher
told me I've accepted Jesus. Oh, listen, I was there when
that happened to you. I was there. I felt goosebumps
when you accepted Jesus. Oh, my. We must not be of those
who cry, peace, peace, when there is no peace. God help us not to feed the fires
of presumption because that's all it is. I by the grace of
God must not allow men and women to sit under my ministry and
go to hell unwarranted. We don't have to give men material
to build false refuges with. They've got enough that they'll
come up with enough material to build their own. You don't
have to give somebody enough material to build them a false
refuge. They've got enough of their own. And oh, God help us not draw
disciples off ourselves. You teach 1 Peter. Look with
me over here in 2 Corinthians. Just a minute. Chapter 2. I want
you to see this. And I had this in the bulletin
this morning. You know, how is the gospel affecting me? How
is the Word of God affecting me? Oh, we don't want to draw
disciples after ourselves. No, no. And when we are preaching,
When any preacher that's preaching the free grace of God, preaching
Christ as the only hope of salvation, his righteousness is the only
righteousness. Look what he says here in verse 15. While we're
preaching now, we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ. When
we're preaching Christ, setting forth the word of God, the gospel
of the grace of God, we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in
them that are saved and also in them that are perished. To
the one, as we're preaching Christ, we're the saver of death unto
death. They hear this gospel, they hear Christ, and it does
not have the sweet fragrance of Christ in it. It's death to
them. We preach election, it's death
to them. We preach God's sovereignty, it's death to them. We preach
Christ as the only righteousness, it's death to them. We preach that salvation is as
thy works before or after our conversion has nothing to do
with our acceptance with God. Has nothing to do with our righteousness. That's death to them. But what's
this? To the other is the savor of
life unto life. As they hear these things, it
gives life and just keeps on giving life. The life that we'll
have in the end and the whole world is sufficient. No wonder
he said who's sufficient for these things. But now back over
here in 1 Peter 2. Here in 1 Peter 2. Here we have
a three word portrait. Three word picture of a believer.
And I believe that if we'll look at this here, it will solve this
problem of making salvation too difficult or making it too easy.
We have here a true picture of a believer. And I believe it
will do away with over confidence and presumption at the same time.
Three words. To whom coming? And the long
and the short of it is this. Salvation and eternal life is
coming to Christ. That's what it is. It's coming,
but to whom coming? To whom coming? Salvation is
begun that way. It's by coming to Christ. Salvation
is continued that way, is by coming to Christ, and salvation
is perfected that way, in coming to Christ. Now listen to what
I'm telling you right here, if you don't get it, nothing else
that I say, get this right here. At no time, I meant this just
last week in the message, at no time, in the Christian profession,
at no time in the Christian experience, is anything more than coming
to Christ. At any time in our Christian
profession, I profess to be a Christian. I have experiences as a Christian. I've experienced coming to Christ.
At no time in my life is my salvation more than coming to Christ. At
any one time. At the beginning of my salvation,
of my eternal life, I came to the Lord Jesus Christ. As the
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. Out of my sickness, into thy
health. Out of my woe, into thy wealth. Out of my sin, into thyself,
Jesus I come. That's what it is. It's coming
to Christ. There's nothing more than that
to it. And that's why we always continually
and constantly tell many women, come to Christ. We don't care
whether you ever joined a church, you got to be joined to Christ.
We don't care whether you ever made a decision, we want to know
if you've come to Christ. We don't care if you walked an
aisle, have you ever come to Christ? We don't care how many
professions you made, how many souls you made, have you ever
come to Christ? Huh? And oh beloved, throughout
our journey, I mean, I've been passing this church 30 years,
and throughout our journey, we start coming to, our salvation
begins, and eternal life begins in coming to Christ. From that
day on, you're going on. We're like Abraham, we're in
journeys, and soldiers, and pilgrims, we're passing through this world.
And all the way through our journey, it's coming to Christ. It's no
more than coming to Christ. Paul rebukes the Galatians and
says, having begun in the Spirit? You started out in the Spirit
and God brought the Gospel to you by the Spirit? You believe
Christ through the Spirit of God? Now you're going to be made
perfect? By your flesh? By the things
that you do? Oh, did you begin with Christ? Now it's your duty? Did you go
to the cross, you go to Christ to get saved and you go back
to Moses to get sanctified, to be made more holy? Does it begin
with Christ and now it's what I do to stay saved? Oh, listen
to me. It's not Christ and me at any
time. It's just Christ. Here's my wisdom to know God
and understand spiritual matters. Here's my sanctification. Here's
my holiness. Here's my righteousness right
now. He was my righteousness yesterday,
today, and He'll be my righteousness when I face God Almighty. I'll
have no better righteousness when I get in glory than I've
got right now. And He's my redemption right now. You see, I'm the same
sinner saved by the grace of God who came to Christ at the
beginning. I still look into Him as I did
when I started. And oh beloved, one of these
days I'm going to get to the end. One of these days I'm going
to open my eyes for the last day. I'm going to breathe my
last breath. My heart's going to beat this
last time. And oh, there's going to be an end to this thing. Christ
will be all in too. Guess where I'll be going? Going to Christ. Coming to Christ. You see, He's the author and
finisher of our faith. He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the beginning and the end.
John said it this way. We know that when we see Him,
we should be just like Him. Huh? Oh beloved, our conversation
is in heaven from which we look for the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ to change this vile body and fashion it like unto
a glorious body, like unto Himself. Oh my, do you know what song
they're going to sing in glory? It's not going to be, oh I let
Jesus into my heart, oh Jesus kept me all month. Oh no, it's
not going to be that. It's not going to be sweet little
Jesus. It's not going to be I one day walked an aisle and one day
He came in. No, no, no. The song and glory
is unto Him that loved us. Unto Him that washed us from
our sin. Unto Him that saved us and washed
us in His own blood and redeemed us unto God. When Paul finished
his course, when he said he kept the faith, And he had preached
the gospel, he wrote most of the New Testament, he established
churches, ordained preachers, and what did he say? What did
he say? For me to depart and be with
Christ is gain. Everybody looks at death as loss,
the believer looks at it as gain. I've got a letter from Drew Deets,
an email this week from Drew Deets, one of the dear, dear
men in his congregation. I've known him for years and
years and years. John Steele. They sent him home to die. John's
been sick for years and years and years. And he said he's just
about gone. I wrote Drew back and said, tell
John that we're praying for him and all the congregation. And
that's the verse I wrote to him. To depart and be with Christ
is gained. Gain! Oh, remember them tar paper shafts
some of you used to live in and you know when that wind blow
through the cracks and the snow get on you in the winter and
have your taters up in the loft and all that and it was rough,
it was cold and you had to get to wood and it was cold all the
time and you still freeze to death at night and all you just
couldn't get close enough. Would you go back to a house
like that? Well that's what this old body is, it's one of them
old leachy houses, the wind blows through it cold. Who would want
to have this old house when he'd have a brand new one? Oh my, that's the way he describes
heaven. That's the way he describes eternal
glory, is departing and being with Christ. So here, let's look
at this three word picture of a believer. To whom? Coming.
In the beginning, we come. Living, we come. Dying, we come. The redeemed will never cease
coming to Christ until they are perfectly conformed to His image.
David says, when I awaken His likeness, that's when I'll be
satisfied. Let me ask you some questions.
Let me ask you some questions. Did you walk an aisle one day
and then decide, you know, it's just
not for me? Did you run this believer's race
for a while and then lose interest? Then just lose interest? Was there a time you had a great
zeal and love for the Lord Jesus Christ seemingly and then just
laid it aside? Did you have a faith that sprung
up with enthusiasm and joy and then came choked out with other
things? If these things are so, then
you're not coming to Christ. You're not coming to Christ.
Look with me in Matthew 13. Just a minute. Matthew 13. Our
Lord Jesus here gives this parable of the sower. This parable of
the sower. I want us to look at this. Matthew
13. In verse 18, Our Lord gave the
parable of the sower, where a man went out and sowed the seed,
some fell by the wayside, some fell among thorns, some fell
among thorns, some fell on good ground. And so he begins to explain
this to his disciples here in verse 18, Matthew 13. Hear ye
therefore the parable of the sower. Here it is, when anyone
hears the word of God and understands it not, Don't understand it. Then comes the wicked one and
catches away that which stones his heart. This is the seed which
is received by the wayside. The gospel is preached. You don't
get it. You sit there. You just sit.
Devil comes and snatches it right away. But he that receives seed
in the stony places, among the rocks, the same as he that hear
the word, and at once he receives it with joy. Oh, I'm going to
clap my hands for Jesus. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
I just got to say. Yet he has no root in himself.
But he'll endure for a little while. Maybe a week, maybe a
year, maybe six months, maybe two or three, four or five years.
But when tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word, somebody
of the Word starts getting after him, by and by he's offended,
he stumbles. And he that also that receiveth
seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the
care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, it chokes that word,
and he becomes unfruitful. But he that receiveth seed into
the good ground is he that heareth the word, understands the word,
and he brings forth fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty.
And this is the picture. This is the picture of men who
spring up and then wither away. But the believer, the believer
is always coming to Christ, continually coming to Christ. Now I want
you to look at another place, John 6.44. I'm going to explain
something to you all just in a minute. I want us all to see
this. I want to take my time this morning.
I want to build a foundation for God's people. John 6.44. You know this coming to Christ,
in John 6.44, look what our Lord Jesus Christ said. No man, and
I just preached to whom coming, that's a portrait of a believer,
three words. No man can come to me except
the Father, with sin to draw him, and I'll raise him up at
the last day. Now I just got through St. Salvation's
coming to Christ, and here you just quoted here that no man
can come, huh? And oh, what does that mean?
That means that our first coming to Christ is a miracle. It's a supernatural act of God.
That's what it is. That's what it is. You know,
no man can come to me except the Father which sent me. What
does it say? Draw him. That's why we don't want to make
it more difficult. We certainly don't want to make
it easier. And here's what he says here. Our first coming to
Christ is by the grace of God. It's a miracle. It's a work of
God in our heart. Our Lord says no man can come
to me. Now listen to what I'm going
to tell you. God doesn't prevent them from coming. He's full of
grace. He's practicing mercy. He delights
to show mercy. Our Lord says, come unto me all
you that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Oh
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how awful I have debted you. As a hen doeth
her wing. But listen, the other side of
it says, you will not come to me that you might have life.
The church doesn't prevent them. We keep this door open. These
people bring their money in here, pay the lights, keep things going,
and provide for everything we need around here, keep a comfortable
place to come. And we're here three times a
week and have special meetings and special preaching. The church
doesn't prevent them from coming. Oh, we're here so you can hear
the gospel, so we can exhort you to come to Christ. Huh? The loved ones don't prevent
them from coming to Christ. There's not a mother in here
that would prevent a daughter or son from coming to Christ.
There's not a son in here that would prevent a mother or father
from coming to Christ, or brother or sister, keep their brother
or sister from coming, are they? No. Oh, our loved ones, we want
them to know Christ. So why can't men come to Christ? Why can't they? First of all,
they don't see the need to come. They don't have a need. Have
you ever seen your need of Christ? Have you ever seen your impotence,
your sinfulness, your weakness, your inability, your self-righteousness,
your morality, your goodness? And I'll tell you another reason
they don't come. They don't see anything in Christ worth coming
for. They don't see anything in Him. They don't see no beauty about
Him that they should desire. They're not like the woman with
the issue of blood. Oh, if I can just touch the hem
of his garments. They're not like the lepers who
come and say, Lord, if Thou willst, Thou canst make me clean. They
don't see it. They're like the Pharisees. He's
just Jesus. He's the carpenter's son. We
know his mother. We know his brothers. We know
his sisters. They don't see anything worthy, worth coming. But now
they go out into the world and they'll go out of their way to
enjoy what they like, but they don't see anything in Christ
worth enjoying. If they saw in Him how God delights
in Him, if they saw in Him the forgiveness of all their sins
for all time and eternity, If they saw in Him the beauty of
holiness, if they saw in Him the peace of heart, if they saw
in Him the rest of souls, I tell you what, they'd come running.
I mean, they'd come running to Him. But, oh beloved, their hearts
are more set on other things, things that to them are more
important. They have no room for Christ. They're like that
great king, that man who made a great sucker. Invited all these
people to come He says go tell him supper's ready great supper
and they all with one consent began to make excuse Though you
say I know how to come but with one consent you begin to make
your excuse What's your excuse for not coming? What's your excuse
for not seeing the glory of God? What's your excuse for not trusting
Christ? Is there something some seeing you holding on to? Is
there some experience you want to have before you can come to
Christ? What is it that keeps you from coming to Christ? What
is it? What excuse are you making? And
our Lord said, Thine no man can come except the Father which
sent Me draw him. Now when He says, except the
Father which sent Me draw him, this is not a physical force
that He draws us with. It's not a physical force. No,
no. It's not voices we hear. It's
not visions we see. When it says about the Father,
John, it says it's the spiritual work in the heart. Spiritual
work in the heart. In the day of His power. His
power. His might. His authority. His people. What are they? Made
women. Blessed is the man. Psalm 65,
verse 4. Blessed is the man whom you choose. And then causes him to approach,
where? Underneath. What God does is
He gives us a new nature in regeneration. He gives us a new heart, takes
out the stony heart, puts in a heart of clay. He gives us
a new nature. Oh, in regeneration, a nature
that hungers and thirsts after righteousness, it wants God.
And then, beloved, when He gives us a knowledge of sin and Holy
Spirit conviction, How many have a knowledge of sin? Only those
that God taught them in Holy Ghost conviction. I know lots
of people are man-made sinners. They've been took down the Roman
road. I know that there's people who've been made man sinners
and told them what sin is. And if they'll quit that and
start doing something else, that they'll become righteous. I know
that. But boy, to become a sinner in
the sight of God, that's a horse of a different color. for God
to make you a sinner like David did when he said it's against
thee only and only that I've sinned oh my sin is ever before
me to cry out like Paul did oh wretched man that I am oh beloved
when God gives us a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ by revealing
him to us in the Holy Spirit making us to see Christ know
Christ trust Christ Oh, He does those things. Gives us that new
nature. Convicts us of our sin. Gives us a sight of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He makes us willing, and that's
what makes us willing, to come to Christ, because that's the
day of His power. Have you ever had that day of
His power in your life? Men come to Christ first, first
because they see their need of Him. They see their need of Christ. Do you need Christ right now?
Oh, I need Him. The older I get, the more I see
how necessary Christ is for me. My sins are ever before me. We
see ourselves in our sin. We see our evil, our rebelliousness,
our guiltiness. And oh beloved, we see something
in Christ's works coming forward. We see our sins poured His own
body on the truth. We see His holiness. We see His
righteousness. We see His power. We see His
glory. We see His authority. We see
His willingness. We see His blood that cleanses
from all sin. We see Him as the one that God
sent into this world to save sinners. Oh, he told that woman
at the well, if you would have knew the gift of God, you would
have asked Him. She said, I know that when the Messiah is coming,
He'll tell us everything. He said, I just speak unto thee. And he, uh-huh, gnawed him. He said, he used this very same
thing. A whole bunch was walking after
him, following him around. And one day he says, no man can
come. He says, the flesh prophets nothing, it's the Spirit that
quickens. And boy, that's following him around in the flesh and energy
of the flesh. And he said, that spirit in your flesh don't amount
to anything. It's the spirit that quickens, it's the Word
that gives life. And he says, no man can come
to me except the Father which sent me. And they listened to
that and they turned around and they said, well, if our flesh
and what we're doing don't amount to nothing, let's just go do
something else. And they all turned around and started following
him, just quick following him all together. And there was twelve
still following and he ran around and looked at them and said,
you going to also go away? You going to leave me too? Simon
Peter said, Lord, Lord, to whom shall we go? Where are we going
to go? Not where, but to whom? To whom
are we going to go? You have the words of eternal
life, huh? God's persuaded us, God's convinced
us that nothing else is more important than the Lord Jesus
Christ, because He's our life. And oh beloved, our coming to
Christ was not of our own will or of our own power. Oh my, you know what he says,
it's not by the will of the flesh, it's not by the will of man,
and it's not by blood that we're born, but born of God. Born of God. No man can come
to me. Why? Because all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And I'll cast him out. And we
have come to Christ. We have come to Christ. We've
been born of God. We've been born of God. And that's
what a picture of a believer is. Our first coming to Christ
was first of all by His grace. By His grace. No man can condemn
Him. God drew us. That's an act of
grace. Miracle. Supernatural act of
God. So that's the first picture of a believer. Our first coming
to Christ was by the grace of God. Can you take any credit
for your coming to Christ? Can you receive any praise for
coming to Christ? Can you say, well, I believe
more than somebody else did? I was more sincere that day than
somebody else was? Can you receive praise for coming
to Christ? Can you claim any merit for coming
to Christ? No. Why? Because He chose me,
He called me, and He brought me. He drew me. He gave me to Christ, and I came
to Him. And He drew me. When we're talking about drawing
somebody, it's a spiritual drawing. A spiritual drawing, let me ask
you some questions here. Let me ask you some questions.
Do you have an acute awareness of sin? People don't come to Christ,
they don't. I can't explain why I have this
acute awareness of sin. I lived for years and years and
didn't know anything about sin. Didn't feel no burden about it.
Didn't feel guilty about it. Didn't feel no awareness of it.
But now I'm conscious of it. Why do you? God revealed it to
me. God made me to know it. Why do you who are Christians
talk about Christ? Why don't you ever talk about
What we need to be doing for Jesus. Won't you talk about us
getting out and visiting for Jesus? Won't you talk about what
we need to do in our home life, in our marriages, and have a
good marriage? Won't you talk to us about how
to raise our children? Why you always won't talk about
Christ and His beauty? I don't see nothing about Him. People say, I don't see nothing
about Him. Well, a blind man can't see. You've got to have
that miracle of sight. Why do you believers, why have
you lost interest in the things of the world? Why do you enjoy
getting together, praying and singing hymns and hearing the
gospel? I don't know how to explain it. God just made it that way. There
was a time that was the last place I wanted to be. And most
kids, whenever they get big enough, the last place they want to go,
I'm big enough now, mom, I don't have to go anymore. That all
the most blessed thing you can do for your children, bring them
where the gospel is preached. Not where religion is at, but
where the gospel, the grace of God is preached. Where they're
told the truth about what there was the day they was born. They
was born, shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin. To tell them the truth that there's
no such thing as an age of accountability. You was born into this world,
dead in trespasses and sins without God and without Christ. And if
God don't open your heart, you'll die the same way you came in.
And it's the gospel, God. You bring your children, bring
your grandchildren to hear the gospel. And I'll tell you something,
this coming to Christ, this is the complete coming. I mean,
we bring ourselves and everything about us to Christ. You know,
they said about Caleb, Caleb followed the Lord fully. Fully. Our union with Christ, our coming
to Christ, our relationship with Christ. It's not just a part-time
association. We just don't do it, you know,
whenever we feel like it. We don't just call on Christ
and come to Christ whenever we feel down, whenever we feel weak,
whenever we feel sick, whenever we're broke, or whenever we're
having a tough time. No, no. We don't just come, you
know, one Sunday morning and all that and forget about it
the rest of the week. No, no. This is our relationship. This is
our life. Christ is our life. Our union with Christ is such
a complete union and relationship that it puts everything else
and everyone else in that place as it affects our union with
Christ. Do you understand this? My wife may die one of these
days, or me die and leave her. But I tell you, I can do without
that union. I can live. I'm going living.
But I can't live without this union with Christ. I can be laid up in bed where
I can't move a muscle, but I can't do without this union with Christ. I can do without your friendship
and your fellowship, but I can't do without my Lord Jesus Christ.
We can't live without Him. Oh my! Oh, that's what our Lord
said, if any man love his father and mother more than me, he's
not worthy of me. Well, let's look back over here in our text,
and I'll wind this thing down. Coming to Christ. Have you come
to Christ? Have you come to Christ? Look what he says in verse 1,
Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy,
and evil speakings, as newborn babes, Lay all these things aside. Desire the sensual mirth of the
word that you may grow thy body. By the grace of God, we've laid
these things aside. We've, as newborn babes, desire. What is it that you desire? Do
you desire gifts? Trinkets? Toys? Prophecy? Experiences? Tongues? Oh, those who come to Christ,
they desire knowledge of Christ. They want to grow in Him. They've
tasted that the Lord is gracious. And oh beloved, I come into Christ
and that's why it goes on. So be that you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious. I've tasted it. I've tasted it.
Oh, I've tasted it. You know, you can taste the grace
of God. That's why when somebody brings another message, you spit
it out. I ain't having that. I don't want that. That tastes
awful. That just tastes awful. Somebody comes along with their
works, that's awful. Somebody comes along with their
loss, that's awful. Somebody comes along with their morale,
that's awful. Somebody comes along with their little experience
accepting Jesus, walking out, that tastes awful. Talking about being a subpar
Christian, that tastes awful. I ain't going to eat that. I ain't
going to eat that. I've designed something better than that. Designed
Christ. Knowledge of Him, I've tasted
the grace of God, and I cannot taste anything else. I don't
have a taste for nothing else. You get a taste for that, you
can't have a taste for nothing else. It spoils your taste, don't
it? Man, our coming to Christ is
a continual coming to Christ. Continually coming. There's no
permanent resting place in this world for us. that I remain with
the rest of the people of God. We're like Abraham, we're looking
for a city whose builder and maker is God. God's not ashamed
to be called our God. And we keep on coming to Christ
and we'll keep on coming until we enter into that eternal rest. As that old hymn writer says,
take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. How many
times, how many things have happened in our lives and we don't know
why. We cannot explain them. But God knows why. And that's
why we bring it to Christ. And we just keep on bringing
it to Christ. We just keep on coming to Christ. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, during that last day, that great day of the feast,
said, If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. If any man come after me, let
him deny himself, let him deny his righteousness, let him deny
his works, Let him deny himself, his ego, let him deny himself.
And it would be wonderful, it would be such a blessed thing,
that when we first came to the Lord Jesus Christ, that God would
have took our old nature, this old fleshly nature, we would
have eradicated, and we would have been perfectly conformed
to Christ and carried on to glory. But that's not the way it is.
That's not the way it is. Our Lord prayed in John 17.15,
He says, Father, I pray not that you take them not out of the
world, but that you keep them from that evil one. I've come
to Christ, and I know some of you have, but I still have conflicts.
I still have conflicts. I have conflicts with myself,
conflicts with other people. I still have doubts. I still
have some awful fears. I have some temptations. Oh,
I hope you don't ever have them. I still have sin. What am I going
to do about these conflicts, these doubts, these fears, these
temptations, this sin? What am I going to do about them?
I'm going to come to Christ. That's what I'm going to do.
I still have family responsibilities. Children, grandchildren, wife,
home, bills to pay. Still have family responsibilities.
Still have cares. What am I going to do about these
responsibilities? Kids keep on coming to Christ. And old age, old age is creeping
right on us. Stealing on us, coming on, coming
on, coming on. Old age just keeps coming. Keeps coming. Eyes are getting
dimmer. Steps are getting slower. Body's
harder to get up and get it going. And as the old age fills on,
what are we going to do as we get old and weak and frail? Memory
gets to failing us, what are we going to do? I'm going to
keep coming to Christ until, like when the Lord Jesus
came back to Bethany. Martha run to Mary and says,
Mary, the Master calleth for thee. And I'm going to keep coming
to Christ until that voice says, Donnie, the Lord calleth for
thee. And then I'm going to go be with
Him forever. If you come to Christ, coming
to Christ, that's the long and the short of it. Have come, will
come, And one day come our last time. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
how wonderfully gracious, precious, merciful, and kind you are. Bless
the gospel to hearts, minds, and understandings today. We
ask it in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.