Can you all hear me with this
mic on? Everybody hear me fine? Well, before I start, I would
like us to seek our Lord in prayer. Our God and Heavenly Father,
Lord, we come unto you in the name of thy darling Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, it is my prayer that
for this next hour that you would meet with us that you would put
your words in my mouth. Father, make me your faithful
servant, and I will speak. Lord, cause me to speak whatever
you command me to speak, and bless your word to the hearts
of your people. Lord, let us not meet here in
vain. Enable us to enter into your
word. Enable us to worship thee in spirit and in truth. Father,
bless us. For Christ's sake, in his name
I pray, amen. I want to start the message by
reading you a few verses from Isaiah chapter 53 and I would
like you to turn there with me. I'm sorry, Isaiah 55. Isaiah chapter 55 verse 1. Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money Come, ye,
buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for
that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth
not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto
me. Here, and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you." Are you interested
in this? Are you interested in God making
an everlasting covenant with you as He did with David? If
you are, there is something you must do. You must come to Christ. Notice what this passage says.
It says, come, come, come. You must come to Christ. That's
what this passage is talking about. You and I, if we have
any hopes of everlasting life, must come to Christ. That's what
I hope to talk to you about this morning, coming to Christ. Now
turn with me to our text over in Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. I'm going to
go ahead and read this passage. And then we'll look at it verse
by verse. Luke chapter 18, we'll start
reading in verse 18. And a certain ruler asked him,
the Lord Jesus, saying, Good master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why
callest thou me good? None is good, save one, that
is God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery. Do not kill, do not steal, do
not bear false witness, honor thy father and thy mother. And
he said, all these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus
heard these things he said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing. Sell all that thou hast and distribute
unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and
come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was
very sorrowful, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that
he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for
a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said,
Who then can be saved? And he said, the things which
are impossible with men are possible with God. Then Peter said, Lo,
we have left all and followed thee. And he said unto them,
Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house
or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of
God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present
time and in the world to come, life everlasting. I'm sure most
of you, if not all of you, are very familiar with this passage,
the Rich Young Ruler. And what strikes me reading this
passage is this man would not come to Christ. He wouldn't do
it. And you know what? Neither will you or I unless
God make us. John 5, verse 40 says, And you
will not come to me that you might have life. He wasn't just
talking to the Jews. That's to every one of us. Nobody
by nature or by will will come to Christ. None of us. And if
you think you will, you're lying. So, for purpose of my outline,
I want us to look at, first, reasons why we, not you, reasons
why we will not come to Christ. First point is, because we think
there's something we can do. You see it right here in verse
1. What did he say? Good master, what shall I do? What shall I
do? Man, we like that. We think we
can do something, don't we? You know, there is something
we must do. We must come to Christ. The problem is when we think
we have the ability. That's where the problem lies.
There is something we must do. That's what Paul told the Philippian
jailer, didn't he? He said, you must believe. You
must believe, but you can't. We think we're good. You see,
I hear preachers say when they try to get someone to make a
false profession, they'll say, do you want to go to heaven when
you die? What a dumb question. Of course you do. Nobody's going
to say no to that. That's not the problem. This
man clearly wanted eternal life, but he didn't want it bad enough
because he was only willing to be saved his way by him doing
something. You've got to be willing to be
saved God's way. Look over with me in Revelation chapter 22. You all know this verse, but
I won't read it to you. Revelation chapter 22, verse
17. And the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come. Here it is again. Come. And let
him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst,
Come. And whosoever will. I love that. That don't shut any of us out.
That opens the door for us. Whosoever will, let him take
the water of life freely. This is speaking about coming
to Christ. Christ is the water of life. You must come to Him.
And I hear people in religion use this verse, and they say,
whosoever will, God loves you, Christ died for you, now make
your decision. They're leaving out a very important word here.
You see that word there? Freely. You must come freely. You must be saved God's way without
your help. God does not, He will not accept
our help in salvation. That's why Christ was the woman's
seed. He didn't need the man's help. And salvation is the same
way. He does not need our help. He
does not need our help. Look back in our text, verse
19. My second reason why we will not come to Christ is because
we don't know Him. Notice in verse 19, In verse
18, he called him good master. And in verse 19, the Lord said
unto him, Why callest thou me good? There's none good. None
is good save one, God. He didn't know him. The Pharisees always called him
master. Now, he called him good master.
He's the only one to do so. The Lord may have sparked an
interest in him, but it's hard to tell that from this passage.
You must call Jesus Lord in your heart. He must be Lord to you,
and He'll make Himself Lord. You don't make Him Lord. Remember
the leper in Matthew 8 who came to the Lord? He didn't say, Master. He didn't say, Jesus. He said,
Lord. Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst
make me clean. And you know what? He made him
clean. What about the thief on the cross? Both thieves were
mocking Him and deriding Him, but then the one thief said,
Lord, if You be Christ, save Yourself and us. He was just
interested in a longer life on earth. But God worked in the
other thief, and He made him cry from the heart, Lord, remember
me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. We must come to Christ. He must be our Lord, and we don't
make Him Lord. If God ever reveals Himself to
you, He'll make Himself Lord to you. You will know Him as
Lord. Had this man known Him as Lord, he would not have said,
what can I do? He would have said, Lord, do
something for me. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Look here in verse 20 of our
text. My third reason why we will not come to Christ is because
we do not honor God's holy law. The Lord told him, thou knowest
the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not
steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor
thy father and thy mother. And there's many more he could
have mentioned. And what the rich young rulers say, all these
have I kept from my youth up. Now first I want to point out
that the Lord was not saying you can be saved by law, by works. He was simply answering this
man's question, what shall I do? I'll tell you what, you want
to do something? You keep the law of God and you keep it perfectly.
That's what you got to do. Why are we not saved by law?
We can't do it. This man did not understand that
the law was spiritual and that he was carnal soul to understand.
We must see that the law is not just to be kept outwardly. I'm
sure this was a mighty fine young fella. He was probably a great
man you would want your daughter to marry. Highly esteemed in
the eyes of man, but not inside of God. We must be pure within. We must be righteous within,
not simply without. Over in James chapter 2, it says,
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one point, is guilty of all. You must keep the entire law.
If that's the route you want to go, you better keep it all.
And you can't. My fourth point on why we will
not come to Christ, because we're too good. Every one of us, we
are too good, aren't we? All these have I kept from my
youth up. Man, I'm somebody. I'm somebody. Earlier in this
passage, over in verses 9 through 14, we have the Pharisee and
the publican going up to the temple to pray. Two very different
men. And the purpose of that passage,
I believe, is to warn us of the sin of self-righteousness. You
want to talk about things God hates? Ain't nothing he hates
more than our self-righteousness. When we think we're good, we're
extremely despicable, repugnant in God's sight. And we can't
do nothing about it. We're too good. You see, this
man thought he was good, thought, I haven't sinned. Hear this,
your sin will not keep you from God. Christ came to save sinners,
sinners of whom I am chief. He came to put sin away. Your
sin's not the problem, it's your righteousness. It's your righteousness. And like Isaiah said, all righteousness
are nothing but filthy rags in God's sight. That's it. Filthy
rags. You see, it's a heart problem. I got a sinful heart. I got a
heart full of unbelief. A heart that hates God. A heart
that doesn't know God. I need a heart that loves God. And I can't change my heart.
I need a heart transplant. That's what I need. Fifth reason
why we will not come to Christ. Because we love the world. We
love the world. That's what I really see when
I look at this passage. I look at this man and I see his love
for the world. Then I look here and see my love for the world. The Lord did not point out any
of these things I've mentioned thus far. The only thing he said
that this man lacked. Sell everything you have. Give
it to the poor. Follow me. Come and follow me.
He lacked faith in Christ. You know, he was the most religious
person you could find, I imagine. And we have many of them in our
day. We'd be no different if God hadn't worked in us. But
he didn't have the one thing needful. He didn't have faith
in Christ. The gift of God that saves. He didn't have that. He walked by sight. The just
shall live by faith, not by sight. Only God can give you this faith
to trust Him, to look to Him alone, to come to Christ. I want
to tell you a little bit about this danger of love in the world.
Over in James chapter 4, the Lord said, You adulterers and
adulteresses know you not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be the
friend of the world is the enemy of God. I don't want to be the
enemy of God. Do you? I need God to suppress
this love for the world that I feel so strongly within myself.
I need Him to do that. Over in Luke chapter 16, turn
there with me just a couple pages back. Luke chapter 16 verse 13. No servant can serve two masters,
for he will either hate the one and love the other, or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God
and mammon. What does mammon mean? Mammon,
material things, the world, that's what it means. You can't serve
God and the world. You can't live for yourself and
for God. Both can't be done. It's one
or the other. You have one rule of life. It's
either Christ or yourself, the world. It's one of the two. You
can't serve them both. And I see this so clearly. Before
God revealed Himself to me, And I'm sure you can relate if He's
been gracious to you. You love the world. All the dreams
you had, everything you aspired to be, everything you hoped to
accomplish in life was ruled by one thing. Your love for yourself
and the world. But when God works in a sinner,
He gives you a new... He changes your heart. He gives
you a new heart. And you have one new desire, one new motivation
for everything you do, and that is the love of Christ, which
constrains us, moves us to everything we do. Yes, we still sin. The
old man is ever present with us. I will. That which I would,
I can't find how to perform it. The will is present with me.
You have a new will. And sin no longer has dominion
over us. Love for the world. God pushes it down. And He makes
us live for Him. It may not seem like we're living
for Him. But by God's grace, we are. That's
our purpose in life. We're here to serve Him. To spread
the good news of the Gospel to other lost sinners. That's how
God reveals Himself to a sinner. Through the hearing of the Word.
Faith comes by hearing. This is important. God can and
He does suppress His child's love for the world. I want you
to see something else. Look over with me in 1 Timothy
chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 3. If any man teach otherwise,
and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to
godliness, He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions
and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings,
evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and
destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. That's what we do by nature.
We gain and gain and gain. Everything we can do, we gain
in our self-righteousness more than anything. And we suppose
that that's godliness. We suppose that that puts us
in a good standing with God. But it doesn't. Look at verse
6. But godliness with contentment is great gain. You see, you can
have all the world can give you, but when you're lying on your
deathbed, you are not going to have contentment. You're going
to be scared to death. You're going to wish you knew
God. You're going to wish somebody had told you the truth about
God. Look at verse 7. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing now. What good
is the world and everything you gained going to do you then?
Huh? Is it going to save you? Absolutely not. Look at verse
8. And having food and raiment,
let us therewith be content. The crumbs which fall from the
master's table, Tell me about Christ again. Tell me about Him.
Just tell me again. I need this. We desire to be
fed with those crumbs, those crumbs of the gospel that are
so precious to us. Verse 9, But they that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
That's all it will get you. Destruction and perdition. For
the love of money, oh, there it is, is the root of all evil. Which, while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows." If you live for the world, if you live for
money, material gain, you're just going to pierce yourself
through with many sorrows. That's what the rich man in Luke 16
did. The rich man in Lazarus the beggar. Which one went to
hell? The rich man. He had no desire. You see it. He had no desire,
no care for others. God's people are gracious. We
care about other people. This rich man, he fared sumptuously
every day. He kept everything he had to
himself and his rich buddies. And he went to hell. He said,
he lifted up his eyes being in torments. He said, I'm tormented
in this flame. He wanted Lazarus to kind of
cool the tip of his tongue. I don't want to end up in that
state. I do not. While preparing for this, I thought
of that foolish phrase we hear so often that people say, let
go and let God. Don't ever say that. I know people,
I like to think people have good intentions with that, but you
don't let God do anything. I have a better phrase for you, let
go and cling to Christ. Let go of everything that you
naturally love and cling to. And you cling to Him. You come
to Him. You cling to Him. He's worth
clinging to. My sixth point of why we will
not come to Christ is because we can't. Why could this rich young ruler
not let go of everything that he had? Why could he not just
throw it all to the side and believe on Christ? Why couldn't
he sell everything he had to the poor and follow Him? Did
he not trust Him? But neither can we. We will not come to Him and we
cannot come to Him. That's what John 6.44 says. We
cannot, no man can come unto the Father. None of us can. He must draw us. He must draw
us. I want to read you a verse from
John chapter 15. Our Lord says, If ye were of
the world, the world would love his own. but because ye are not
of the world. But I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you." You know, I love
to read that. You are not of the world. God
chose somebody out of the world. That's good news for someone
who wants to be out of the world. If you want to come to Christ,
God chose someone out of the world. There's hope. Whosoever
will. But you must come freely. You
must be saved God's way. So those are a few reasons why
I see that we will not come to Christ from this passage. Now
I want to tell you why we will come. We will. Some of us have
been chosen in Christ. Somebody's going to come to Christ.
Turn over with me to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Start reading
in verse 1. Wherefore, laying aside all malice
and all guile and all 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? Somebody comes
let's talk about Christ. He's the Lord if you've tasted
that he's gracious. You're gonna come to him To whom
coming let's read the rest of it as unto a living stone Disallowed
indeed of men we hate God by nature. We will not have him
but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Who comes to
Christ? Those who have tasted that He
is gracious." Look back at our text over in
verse 24. When Jesus saw that He was very
sorrowful, He said, shall they that have riches enter into the
kingdom of God." It's very clear from our text that we will not
come to Christ because of our riches. That's one thing you
can rest assured is not going to bring you to Christ. I'll
tell you what will bring you to Christ. If you're poor. If
not, not materially. That ain't got nothing to do
with it. If you are poor in spirit. Over in Matthew chapter 5 verse
3, blessed are the poor in spirit. for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. What's that mean? What's it mean to be poor in
spirit? The Pharisee and the publican going to the temple
to pray. That publican was poor in spirit. Why did he cry? He
wouldn't even look up. Ashamed. God, be merciful. Be propitious to me, the sinner. God, do something for me. Save
me. Put my sin away. I need you to do this for me.
I can't save myself. I can't save myself. I want to
show you this. Look over with me in Psalm 51. This should burst our proud bubble.
Psalm 51 verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken or poor, and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." We better be interested in doing
things God's way. We better be interested in coming
the way we must come. Pray for God to break your heart.
Pray for Him to give you a new heart. We've got to have a new
heart. Pray for God to make us humble before Him. God will not
despise that. He doesn't despise what He gives.
I don't know that much. Look back in our text, verse
25. For it is easier for a camel
to go through a needle's eye, the eye of a needle, than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Why would we
come to Christ if He reduces us to nothing? That's what we're to see here.
The camel going through the eye of the needle, that's what salvation
is. The camel is compared to the
rich man, and the eye of the needle is compared to the kingdom
of heaven. How are we going to get through that needle's eye?
I am the camel. You are the camel. Only one way. We've got to be reduced to nothing. Dust is all we are. Dust can
fit through that needle, and only God can show you that's
what we are. We're dust. Nothing but dust.
Only He can bring us through the eye of that needle. Over
in Matthew chapter 7, flip over there with me. A lot of scripture
turning. Well, it's very important for
us to see what God says in His Word. If I'm merely telling you
my thoughts, that ain't going to profit you nothing. It won't
profit you one thing. Matthew chapter 7, verse 13.
Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad
is the way. that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat." You see, a camel can
fit through a wide gate very easily. That broad way, we can
fit through that. With our self-righteousness that
we think is something, we can fit through that way. What about
the other way? What about that straight way?
Look at verse 14, "...because straight is the gate, and narrow
is the way, which leadeth unto life." If you're interested in
having life, you've got to be made awful small to fit through
that gate, that narrow way, and few there be that find it. You
see, God does not do this work of grace for everybody. He doesn't. He doesn't. God must reduce us to nothing
and bring us through that straight, narrow way if we are to be saved. That's the only way we're coming
to Christ. That's the only way. Back to our text, verse 26. And they that heard it said,
who then can be saved? You see, to us, naturally, we
look at the self-righteous, because that's what we are by nature.
We look at ourselves. And we think, if anybody's saved,
I am. Is that not how we are? You read about the Pharisees
in the Scripture, which it sure seems like this man was, They
trusted in themselves. That's what it says. Trusted
in themselves. Believed themselves to be righteous.
And that's you and me by nature. That's what we are. We trust
in ourselves. But we're not going to come to Christ. We will not.
We cannot. But who will? Over in Matthew
chapter 11, you all know this verse. The Lord says, Come unto
me. Commands us again to come. Who? All ye that labor and are heavy
laden. You see, most of us, all of us
actually, unless God stops us, we work to try to please God.
People will say, no you're not saved by works, but they'll say,
you gotta do this, you gotta believe, you gotta walk the aisle,
you gotta repeat this prayer, then you're saved. And they tell
you, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. No. You've got to
be tired, heavy laden from trying to please God. There's nothing
I can do. God must show you, Lord, I can't do anything to
save myself. I can't even believe on you.
Lord, make me believe. That's the only way we're going
to believe. Those people, if God makes you heavy laden from
your labor, trying to please Him, you will come to Him. You
will. You can't save yourself. I love this. He will give us
rest. Over in Hebrews it says, Therefore there remaineth a rest
to the people of God. It's not for everybody. It's
only for those whom He makes need His rest. He makes us enter
into His rest. That's what it says. His rest.
Why will we come to Christ? Because salvation is of the Lord.
Look here in verse 27. And He said, The things which
are impossible with men, are possible. Not only possible,
they are sure with God. He is able. We must believe that
He is able. Not that I am able, but that
He is able. God, Jonah found that out, didn't
he? Oh, Jonah found that out. God
makes that camel. He makes us go through the eye
of the needle. Only He can do it. Only He can do it. Why else
would we come to Christ? I love this. Look over in John
chapter 6. John chapter 6. We will come to Christ because
we have nowhere else to go. Nowhere else to go. Look with
me, John chapter 6 verse 65. And the Lord said unto them,
therefore said I unto you, that no man can come to me, there
it is again, except it were given unto him of my father. From that
time, Many of His disciples, many people who followed Him,
they thought they followed Him, they appeared to follow Him,
went back and walked no more with Him. They never truly followed
Him. Many people would follow Him. When He came to Zacchaeus,
there was a large crowd. They were just interested in
fleshly things. They wanted to see some great miracle. They
weren't interested in knowing Christ. Look here with me now. Verse 66, many of them went back
and walked no more with Him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
Will you also go away? I ask you, will you also go away? Verse 68. Then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Where else can I go? I can't
go to the law. Don't take me back to the law.
Don't leave me to myself. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure,
I like that, we are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son
of the living God. That's hope for somebody who
needs to be saved, is it not? You will come to Christ. We will
come to Christ because we have nowhere else to go. Lastly, I want to tell you a
little bit about the joy of coming to Christ. It is joyful. Have you come to Christ? Do you
want to come to Christ? What's holding you back? If you've
come, come again. If you haven't come, come. I
speak from experience. There's nothing more joyful,
nothing more rewarding than coming to Christ. Nothing. Look over
in our text, verse 28. Then Peter said, Lo, we have
left all and followed thee. He wasn't bragging. He was just
stating the truth. We have left all and followed thee. Now let
me tell you this. To come to Christ, you must forsake All. Scriptures teach that. You've
got to leave everything behind. Everything behind. But I'm here
to tell you that although we must forsake all to follow Christ,
to come to Him, we lose absolutely nothing. And if you've come to
Christ, if you've come to Christ, you know that to be true. What
are you going to lose? A job? You might have a chance
for a better job up in Minnesota. Where's the gospel? How are you
going to sit under a faithful ministry there? Money? You're going to take a
pay cut to stay somewhere where you can worship God? We just
saw money is the root of all evil. It leads to destruction
and perdition. Let us not covet money. Family ties? If you're
going to believe God, some of your family is probably going
to hate you. I'm starting to figure that out. And you know
what? I don't consider that a loss.
The only thing that connects us with our blood family members
is sin. That's the only thing that connects
us. You have a new family in Christ.
And what connects us in Christ? It ain't sin that connects us.
It's His righteousness. I'd much rather be connected
with a family where there is no sin, but righteousness is
our only connection. I understand in the flesh that's
all we have, sin that connects us. But do you not understand
how glorious this is? The conference we just had a
month ago with our family? You're meeting some of your family
members for the first time? What's more joyful than that?
When you're with your actual, your physical family, what do
you talk about? The weather? School? Work? Who wants to talk about work?
What, are you going to lose friendships? I don't talk to hardly anybody
from school. I went to school for like 20
years. I don't talk to any of them. Why? We have no connection.
Ain't nothing in common. But with you guys, I can sit
and talk with any of you about my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And that's what I cherish. That's the kind of friends I
want. Well, you're going to lose some time. You're going to lose
a lot of time. But it's going to be time well
spent. Time worshiping God, that's a lot better than time out fishing
on the boat, ain't it? I reckon it is. You're going to be persecuted. You know, I find it that so many
people don't want to serve God, or they'll try to serve Him privately.
They'll just stay home and listen on the radio, or listen on, not
the thrills, but listen on sermon audio, but they won't be a part
of a local church. They don't want to be persecuted. You know,
they don't want people to hate them, and we don't by nature.
But God says in His Word, blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for the gospel's sake, for coming
to Christ. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Oh, I want to be persecuted
for His sake. I pray you do too. So we lose
nothing. You come to Christ, you will
not lose anything. Really, you won't lose anything but your
sin. He'll put your sin away. I like that. Look here with me in verse
29 of our text. And he said unto them, Verily,
the Lord speaking, verily I say unto you, there is no man that
hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children,
or anything. for the kingdom of God's sake,
who shall not receive manifold more, much more, infinitely more,
in this present time and in the world to come, life everlasting."
Do you believe that? You who come
to Christ, do you believe that? I think sometimes, a lot of times,
we don't believe that. Lord, why me? Why is this happening
to me? Why did you take that from me?
Why this? Why that? Lord, make us trust
you. What do you have? What worldly
things do we have? I tell you this, as the man of
God told Amaziah, the Lord is able to give thee much more than
this. Whatever you have, whatever you hold so close to, hold so
tightly in your hand, God is able to give you much more, much
more than that. I want to read you this. Y'all all know this verse. I'll
read you 2 Corinthians chapter 2. You can turn there if you
want. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter
8, verse 9. For ye know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, He's the only man
to live who had no sin in Him. That's rich. Though He was rich,
yet for your sakes, all for whom He died, all His people, all
His chosen people, for your sakes He became poor. He was made sin. The very thing God hates, He
was made. Why? That you, through His poverty,
might be rich. Not might possibly be, no. He
hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made, that we shall be made, the very righteousness of God
in Him. You want to talk about being
rich? That's what it is to be rich, to be robed in the very
righteousness of God in Christ. That robe that Joseph wore, that
his father gave him, I bet that is the nicest robe in the world.
Maybe until that robe the prodigal son had, and God put it on him.
His other brother didn't like that. We're robed in the very
righteousness of Christ. We are complete in Him. That's
what Colossians 2 verse 10 says. God has made Christ our all.
Christ is all and in all of His people. Christ is everything
to us. What about this? We have eternal union with Christ,
in Him. We've been one with Him from
eternity. One in Him. When He lived, I lived. When
He died, I died. When He was buried, I was buried.
When He arose, I arose. And as He lives and is seated
at the right hand of God on high, so I and so you, if you are in
Him, live in Him, seated in heavenly places in Him. Is it not so,
brethren? Why else is this joyful? Because
we keep coming to Him. If you've ever come to Him, you're
not going to stop coming. You're not going to stop coming.
You can't. That's the glorious part. You can't. I can't. Man,
I rejoice in that. If I come to Christ, I'm never
going to stop coming. There may be times, and there certainly
will, when I'll start trusting in myself, looking in here, but
God will bring you back. The love of Christ constrains
us. He'll bring us back. He'll keep
us. What about Paul? What did he say? He said, I count
my own life not dear to myself. He said, all that that was gained
to me, I count it lost for Christ. Yea, Dallas, I count all things
but lost. For what? For the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. He just wanted one thing. To know Him, to be found in Him,
to win Him. You come to Christ, you'll have
all that. Everything you left behind to come to Him, you're
not going to see it as having lost anything. You're going to
have everything you could ever want. And the sad thing is, we
never did want it. Only God can give us such a desire.
I ask you, what is your motivation in life? Why do you do the things
you do? What moves you? What drives you?
Why are you here? Huh? I pray that for most of
you, I pray that for all of you, all of us, that it is because
we've tasted that the Lord is gracious. If we've tasted that the Lord
is gracious, we come. We come to Christ. And we'll never stop
coming. If you have come, come again.
Never stop coming to Him. If you haven't come, come. For
the first time, come to Christ. Come. What you could have in
Him, all of us who do come to Christ, what we have in Him is
far more than we could ever have otherwise. It's far more than
we could ever have looking to ourselves, trusting ourselves,
seeking more gain in the world. infinitely more. I want you to
know Him. I want you to come to Him. I want you to be saved. I want to leave you with the
words of our Savior. One more passage. Mark chapter 8. Anything God says is far better
than anything I can say. So I want to show you what He
says. Let's close this message. Mark chapter 8 verse 34. I'll
read you a few verses here. And when He, the Lord Jesus,
had called the people unto Him. With His disciples also, He said
unto them, Whosoever will, there it is again, come, come to Christ,
come after Me. Let him deny himself, take up
his cross, look to Christ alone, and follow Me, follow Me. For
whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever
shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospels, the same shall
save him. That's what I talk about. You
don't lose nothing. For what shall it profit a man if he shall
gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall
be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when
he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Let us not be ashamed of Christ. Let us be ashamed of ourselves. We must be ashamed of ourselves.
We must deny ourselves. Look to Christ. Look to Him alone.
Trust in Him for everlasting life. Away from self to Christ. Love not the world. Come to Christ. Cling to Him. Never let go. Amen. Thank you.