Well, it's good to see y'all
out on this first Sunday in the fall of the year. I guess y'all
noticed that we had a little change in the seasons. Good to
see you out. Pray the Lord to bless us through the preaching
of the gospel. If you want to turn to my text, it'll be John
chapter 5, verses 31 through 44 there. Today we're going to
be considering three things. Who in Christ's generation and
who, in every generation, will not come to Christ. And then
we'll look at two reasons why sinners won't come to Christ.
Now, we're not even considering here the indifferent, the unconcerned,
the irreligious. We're going to be concerned with
the religious of Christ's day, the religious of our day, those
who study, those who search. Look at John chapter 5 and verse
39. Christ said to these he's speaking
to, he said, search the scriptures, and that is, you do search the
scriptures, that's the statement. You do search the scriptures.
For in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. And, or but, it's a contrast. You search the scriptures, but
you will not come to me that you might have life. Now last
time we looked at this context, we looked at who it is that sinners
will not come to. Who? Who wouldn't they come to?
That's a vital point. It's a vital understanding. Who
do the scriptures testify of? He's identified and very distinguished
in the scriptures. Sinners will not by nature come
to that Christ who's testified of in the Scriptures. The Scriptures
do testify of Him, but sinners won't come to Him. Now, I identified
Him in the whole lesson last time, so all I'll do here is
just briefly tell you who He is. He's going to be identified
in this Gospel message as He is in every Gospel message. He's the incarnate Son of God.
He's the one who's God and man in one person. And He's the one
who's accomplished the salvation of the people. He's put away
the sins of His people. He's brought in an everlasting
righteousness, and it's by that righteousness, that righteousness
that Christ rolled out, by that righteousness imputed or charged
to the account of those Christ represented. It's by that righteousness
imputed that God declares sinners righteous in His sight. So that's
the one that the scriptures testify of. That's the one men will not
come to. So every time I mention Christ
here, I may say the one the scriptures testify of, or I might, but just
understand, he's the one I'm talking about. Today, we're considered
who will not come to Christ. To not come to Christ is to be
lost, is to be in need of a savior, because Christ is the one and
only savior. Am I among those who have come
to the Christ testified of in the scriptures or am I among
those who will not come to Christ? I need to know that. I want to
know that. I'm pretty sure you do too. In
this context, Christ is addressing the scribes and Pharisees of
his day. These men were those who sought,
they persecuted Christ throughout his walk on this earth, and they
sought to slay him, it says in this context, because he had
healed a man on the Sabbath. And further, because he said
that his father was God, making himself to be equal with God.
So for those two reasons, these men that he's talking to wanted
to put him to death. And eventually, of course, they
are the ones who brought about his death. God brought it about,
but they were the men instrumental in that death. These are the
religious leaders of Christ's day. These are the ones that
the people look to to interpret the scriptures and to preach
the scriptures. These are well-respected men.
They're men upheld in the eyes and opinions of men. These are
the ones to whom Christ says, you will not come to me. Look back at John 5, 39a. He
said, you search the scriptures and you do it because in them
you think you have eternal life, but you won't come to me that
you might have life. Now these men are of the nation
Israel. Israel, as we all know, was the chosen nation of God.
He singled them out from all the nations of the earth. And
they were his chosen nation for a period of time until Christ
came. And he gave many things to this nation that he didn't
give the other nations, the Gentiles. He didn't give the Gentile nations
deliverance from bondage in Egypt. God sent Israel into bondage
and then he delivered them out with his strong and powerful
hand. He gave Israel a land of their own, one they did nothing
to. The land was flowing with milk
and honey. It was full of trees and vineyards
and it was well fertile. It was a fertile land, good for
raising cattle and good for people to live in, a great land. And
God gave them that land. But one of the main things he
gave Israel was the law, the law of Moses. And he gave them
that law to show them their sinfulness, to show them God's inflexible
standard. He's a just God. He has a standard. That standard must be upheld.
It must be met. And he gave them that law to
show them that salvation can only be by the blood of a substitute. It can't be by the efforts of
men. That's why the law was given. But Israel made a grave, a serious
error concerning the law. It's a deadly error to those
who continue in it. And here's the error they made.
They thought that God gave them the law of Moses. He didn't give
it to any other nation, but he gave it to them. And they thought
God gave them that law as a means for them to gain and maintain
their acceptance with God. The law was never intended as
a means of acceptance with God, but they thought that they could
obey that law. And as long as they did obey
that law, and of course they never saw what the law really
demanded. They never saw, and I'm talking about those who missed
it, they never saw that the law demanded perfect continual obedience. The law was always given to them
as a schoolmaster under Christ. It was given to show them that
God's standard is perfection and the only way a sinner is
going to be saved is by the person and work of Christ alone. So
it was a schoolmaster to teach them in picture and type all
that Christ would do for his people when he came and laid
down his life on the cross. Now in Luke 18, Christ spoke
a parable to these same scribes and Pharisees, and this parable
illustrates the perversion of the law which they held. Look
at Luke 18, verses 9 through 12. We've seen this parable,
we know a lot about it, but let's talk about it again here for
a little bit. And Christ spoke this parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised
others. You see they trusted that they
had a righteousness within and we'll see here in these verses
that they thought it was because of what they did. Verse 10 says,
two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and
the other a Republican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this Republican. Now you can see here what the
Pharisee gained his confidence from. He said, Lord, I thank
you that I'm not like other men. You've enabled me to be different.
I'm not an extortioner. In his own eyes, of course. I'm
not unjust in his own eyes. I'm not an adulterer. He wasn't
thinking of spiritual adultery. And I'm not even as this publican,
one of the most hated men in Israel because he took more taxes
than he needed to and he kept some for himself. So he thanked
God that he had enabled him to be better, different than this
publican or these other men that he mentioned. And then he thanked
him that he had given him the need and the ability to fast
twice a week and to give tithes of all that he possessed. It
was the things that God was enabling him to do, you see, that's given
him confidence before God. These things are what made up
this Pharisee's righteousness before God. Just like Cain before
him, this Pharisee saw no need for a blood sacrifice. He came
by the works of his own hands. I thank you that you've enabled
me, he said. And just like Cain before him,
he expected God to accept him based on the works of his hands.
And just like Cain was rejected, this Pharisee went away unjustified
rather than the publican who went down to his house justified.
Zealous religious men of every generation continue to make the
same error with the scriptures that Israel made with the law
of Moses. They wrongly see the scriptures
commanding sinners to do something. be something, become something
that you might gain or maintain the favor of God, that you might
be saved, that you might be delivered from God's wrath and be put in
and kept in His favor. Now Christ is speaking to the
scribes and Pharisees before Him. They did indeed search the
Scriptures. He's speaking to those particular
men here. His discourse is to them. But
He's also speaking to those same kinds of men in every generation. Every generation finds men searching
the scriptures. Every generation finds men thinking
that they found eternal life in the scriptures. And we'll
understand what that means here in a little bit. Like the scribes
and Pharisees of Christ's day, these men in every generation
who are diligently searching the scriptures, they're diligent
men, they're dedicated men, they're enthusiastic in studying, in
learning, in interpreting the scriptures. But what's their
motive? Just like the Pharisees, they
think that those scriptures have shown them a way to eternal life. They found a command. They found
something that sets them apart. They found something for sinners
to do to get saved. You've got one group that believes
you need to be immersed. Baptism needs to be an immersion.
You've got another that says, no, sprinkling will do. You've
got one that believes you can lose your salvation after you
get it. Another who says, no, once you get salvation, you're
saved, you can't lose it. You've got one who thinks you
ought to worship on Saturday rather than on Sunday. You've
got 2,600 different denominations according to one person I read. 2,600 different groups of these
kinds of people, all thinking they found a way of eternal life. And the scripture showed them
that way. They found some path to get to
heaven. They see in the scriptures some
way of life that will enable sinners to avoid hell, and they
search the scriptures. What are they doing? Same motive
the Pharisee had. They're looking for ways to support
what they think they found. That's what all the different
denominations are doing. When they interpret the scriptures,
what do they see? They find something that will
support their way of thinking. These are those who preach and
believe that Christ died for whoever you are, a universal
atonement. And they believe that if you,
the sinner, if you will just, and you can fill in your blank
with 2600 things here, if you'll just if you'll just pray a prayer,
if you'll just believe that Christ died for you. That's one of the
most common ones and it's a deadly error just to believe that Christ
died for you. Christ died as a representative
and substitute of a people chosen in him before the world began.
But if you'll just do this, God will save you and give you eternal
life. That's what these preachers say. Those who believe this way
put no saving value on Christ's death itself, on Christ's death
alone. His death is ineffectual unless
and until sinners do their part. Multitudes that Christ died for
will perish who don't do their part. They're saved because they
did their part. This was not saved because he
won't. He won't believe that Christ died for him. He won't
walk that aisle. He won't reform his life or whatever
it is that those 2,600 different denominations claim. The scripture
says that Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
It says that by his stripes we are healed. That's by his death.
If you add anything to Christ's death, in order for sinners to
be saved, you've moved away from salvation by grace, totally conditioned
on Christ alone, and worked out by Christ alone. You've moved
away from grace, and you've taken up a religion of salvation by
works. Now, what's the problem with
all this? Sinners who think this way are not looking to Christ
and Him crucified alone. They're searching, they're studying,
they're zeal, they're obedience of what they're looking to. Those
are the things that they're finding confidence in. And they're identified
in Matthew 7 in verse 21, and I'm just going to quote this
for you, but you're familiar with this. Many will say to me
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not cast out demons in
your name? Have we not done many wonderful
works in your name? And Christ will say to them,
depart from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. They're
those who came to the judgment, still lifting up their works
before God. Not lifting up the work of Christ,
lifting up what they thought God had enabled them to do. These are those sinners in every
generation, like the scribes and Pharisees of Christ's generation,
who will not come to Christ. If you search the scriptures
and think that you have eternal life in them, you've ignored
man's greatest problem, and you've failed to see God's solution,
the only solution to that problem. What is man's greatest problem?
Three-letter word. S-I-N. And it's sin not just
in our obvious transgressions. It's not in our anger and our
hatred for men. It's not in our prejudices. It's
not in those things. Those are easily recognized as
sin. But it's sin in our best attempts
at obedience. One of the first things the Holy
Spirit convinces a sinner of when he comes to that center
in regeneration. He convinces him of sin. And
when He is come, He will convince the world of sin. In other words,
He will convince those He comes to that outside Christ, apart
from Him and His righteousness imputed, all I am is sin and
all I do is sin. I have nothing to recommend me
to God. Man's problem is sin, but it's not just sin in general,
it's also what sin has earned. Romans 6 and verse 23 says the
wages of sin is death, eternal death, but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God must and he shall
punish sin with eternal death. Here's the either or. Either
I have already been punished with the eternal death I deserve
in the person of Christ my substitute, or I'm facing God's eternal wrath
and will bear that wrath through all eternity. Either or. Man does have a problem, but
it's a problem that man cannot solve by any of his inventions,
by any of his efforts, by any of his obedience. He needs a
solution. What's God's solution to man's
sin problem? Well, it's Christ and Him crucified
alone. That's God's solution. Paul said
to the Corinthians, I determine not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because Christ crucified
is God's only solution. to sin. Eternal life is not in
the scriptures. Eternal life is in the scriptures,
is in the Christ, the one that the scriptures identify and distinguish
from counterfeits. John 14 verse 6 says, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by me. John 1 in the beginning was the
word, And in verse 5, in him was life, and that life was the
light of man. And then look here at 1 John
5 and verse 11. And this is the record that God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that
hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Life is in Christ. It's not in
the scriptures. It's in the one the scriptures
testify of. Just like the law of Moses was
not a means for Israel to find favor with God, neither are the
scriptures a way to find favor with God. Not by our obedience
to them, not by us doing something that we see them commanded. The
scriptures do not command sinners to do anything, not even believe
in order. to gain or maintain any measure
of acceptance with God. If believing were the cause,
then you'd have to obey in order to be saved, but believing can
never be the cause of salvation. We'll see in the end here, God's
love is the cause, and Christ's work, his righteousness, is the
only basis upon which God saves sinners. Lost religious men in
every generation see the scriptures as a means of obtaining eternal
life, but they are not written toward that end. The scriptures
are written to point sinners to Christ and eternal life in
him alone. Look at John chapter 20 and verse
30. It says, and many other signs
truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book. In other words, he did a lot
of things and the books of the world probably couldn't contain
the things that were written that he did. But it says in verse
31, but these that are recorded, these are written that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. Who are those in every
generation who will not come to Christ? They are those who
search the Scriptures. They are those who think that
they found eternal life in their doing, their obedience, and not
in Christ crucified alone. They are those who do not need
the Christ testified of in the Scriptures because they think
they found eternal life elsewhere without any knowledge of Him.
It's just like Bill said in his message, you see. They don't
need Christ. If you think you're righteous
within, if you think you have a righteousness based on something
you've done, you don't need the Christ of the Scriptures because
he came to establish a righteousness we couldn't have any part even
in producing. And just in case I haven't covered
you in these that I mentioned, Those who will not come to Christ
in every generation are all the fallen sons and daughters of
Adam. I think that covers everybody.
That's right. None of us by nature will come
to the Christ testified of in the scriptures. None will come
if left to ourselves. By nature, we're all alienated
from God. We're all enemies of God. We're
all workers of evil. Look at Colossians chapter 1
and verse 20. Paul writes here, and having
made peace to the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all
things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight. All without exception are ignorant
of God's righteousness. And therefore, according to Romans
10, all without exception are by nature going about to establish
a righteousness of our own. That's the alienation, the enmity,
the hatred there, and the wicked works that you see in that verse.
We're alienated because of those wicked works. The only sinners
who will come to Christ are those that are made willing to come
to Christ. Look at Psalm 110 and verse one. The Lord said unto my Lord, this
is David writing here. He said, the Lord said unto my
Lord, the Lord of glory, God, the father said unto my Lord,
God, the son. Sit thou at my right hand until
I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies, thy people, who were enemies of God by nature. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. What must happen
for sinners to be made willing to come to Christ? To be made
willing to submit to Him? Sinners have to be made willing
to come to a Savior that's done everything required for a righteous
judge to pronounce those sinners he died for not guilty, not chargeable
with sin, not facing the wrath of God because their substitute
Christ bore that wrath in his body on the tree. But they must
come to a Savior who's done everything required for a righteous judge
to justify them, to find them and declare them righteous in
his sight, not based on their work, but based on the work of
Christ, his righteousness imputed alone. Now, it's amazing that
none will come to the Savior described in the gospel. the
one I'm talking to you about. None of us by nature. You know,
if God hadn't, you remember who Saul of Tarsus was? I know you
do. He was headed to Damascus, that oldest inhabited city. He was headed there to drag Christians
out of their homes and put them to death when God stopped him
in his tracks. by a great light, and then send
him to a gospel preacher to give him words by which he might have
life. And that's what God has to do
to every one of us. He has to stop us in our tracks, otherwise
we'd just go on. We're not fighting against those
things we're doing, we're perfectly content to be there. So God has
to stop us. He has to make His people willing,
and He will make them willing in the day of His power. The
reason none will come on our own, that is, none will come
without being made, because to come to Christ, To rest your
whole salvation in Christ, you must relinquish every contribution
you think you made toward that salvation you thought you had
before you heard of Christ and His righteousness. You must see
the wickedness and evil of such efforts and repent. A natural
man is not going to do that. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him. Now
I know that none will come except those made willing. I know this
is true of all without exception because of the first reason given
why sinners will not come to Christ. We looked at who will
not come. Now let's see two reasons why they won't come. The first
reason sinners go on searching the scriptures. The first reason
they go on thinking that they found eternal life in the scriptures,
the first reason sinners will not come to Christ is because
they do not have His Word abiding in them. Look at John chapter
5 and verse 37. Christ says, you're in the Father
himself which has sent me, hath borne witness of me. You have
neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape, and
you have not his word abiding in you, because whom he has sent,
him you believe not. You don't have God's word abiding
in you. That's the reason sinners won't
come to Christ, the one testified of in the scriptures. How can
you tell? Because you haven't come to the
one the scriptures testify of. That's how you know the word
of God is not abiding in you. Now, this doesn't mean that you
are not reading the Word. I mean, you might have read the
Word from cover to cover. Many men have. It doesn't mean
you're not studying the Word. You might get up two or more
hours early every day or spend two or more hours just concentrated
on studying the Word. It doesn't mean you're not memorizing
the Word. You might memorize many scriptures. You might be a walking Bible
like one man I heard of. It doesn't even mean that you're
not preaching the word, like the scribes and Pharisees of
Christ's day here, the ones he's talking to here. You might have
dedicated your life to searching out the scriptures and preaching
that word to your generation. But the word is not abiding in
you unless you're being guided. by the Scriptures that you're
searching. The Word is not abiding in you unless you're judging
by the Scriptures that you're looking at. The Word is not abiding
in you unless you have come to the one the Father sent, unless
you've come to the one identified and distinguished in the Gospel,
unless you've come to that Savior that the Scriptures testify of. Not to believe the One, the Son,
the Father sent is not to believe the One, the just God and Savior
who sent Him. But here's our problem by nature.
By nature, none of us know either the Father, a just God and Savior,
nor do we know the Son who sent Him. Look at Matthew chapter
11 and verse 27. Christ said, all things are delivered
unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father,
neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. None of us by nature know the
son. The only way we'll ever know the son is for God to bring
us and sit us down under that gospel that identifies him and
distinguishes him from the counterfeit that's in our mind by nature.
Now how can you know when you've come to that Savior? How can
you tell when you're worshiping a just God and Savior who sent
Him? How can you know when the Word
of God is abiding in you? Well, you know when you fear
God. You know when you're given a reverence for God's redemptive
glory, when you're given a respect for the honor of God's character
in the salvation of sinners by Christ alone. You know when you
value the righteousness of God, which the gospel always reveals. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
It's the power of God in salvation, for therein is the righteousness
of God always revealed. Now, what is the righteousness
of God? It's what Christ has done in His person and work,
by His obedience unto death, to make it right for God to show
mercy to ungodly sinners. That's what the righteousness
of God is. It's what Christ has done. It's not what sinners are
doing, but what Christ has done. The most urgent, the most vital,
the most necessary single piece of information A sinner is in
need of hearing is the testimony of Christ. It's the gospel which
declares Christ and the righteousness of Christ worked out in Christ's
life and death. It's under the gospel that the
Spirit imparts life and gives faith and repentance. It's under
the gospel that God shines the light on his redemptive glory. Look at 2 Corinthians 4.6. For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has
shined in our hearts. He's talking about in the hearts
of regenerate sinners here. He shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, to show us, to make us understand, to convince
us that the only way God is just to save sinners like us is based
on the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
authority that reveals the true savior of sinners is the gospel. It doesn't matter what men say.
Even men who this world respects and admires, even those we respect
and admire, it doesn't matter what men say. What does the gospel
say? What does God's word say about
him whom God has sent? The Gospel, the Word of God,
knows nothing about a potential Savior. It knows nothing about
a Savior who has ever or will ever try to save a sinner but
fail to do so. It knows nothing of a Savior
who will not bring to final glory every sinner he died for. The
gospel knows nothing of a salvation which sinners obtain by their
doing. We have God's word abiding in
us when we let God's word settle the matter. When God's gospel
overrules even what we previously believed vehemently, wholeheartedly,
absolutely. even those things that we were
dogmatic about, when it overrules them. Until a sinner hears the
gospel, whatever idea of Christ he or she has falls short of
the true Christ. Until a sinner hears the gospel,
whatever notion of eternal life that sinner has, that sinner
thinks he has, falls short of the eternal life that's in Christ
alone. The word of God is abiding in those whose fantasy And it's
a fantasy, it's an imagination of already having eternal life
when that fantasy has been overcome and driven out by the reality
of that salvation that's found in Christ's finished work alone.
These are those who've been delivered to that doctrine, that gospel,
which declares Christ and reveals God to be just and the justifier. of the ungodly by the finished
work of Christ alone. Look at Romans 6, verse 17. Paul writes here, but God be
thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being
then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. You see those words underlined
there, which was delivered to you Those words should read,
to which you were delivered. This verse is talking about something
much more dramatic than the gospel being delivered to a sinner.
Many come unto the sound of the gospel. Many sit down to hear
the gospel. The parable of the sower. The
gospel went out to sow. He sowed the gospel. It fell
on all kinds of different people. So many hear the gospel, but
this verse is talking about something much more than that. This verse
is talking about the miracle of regeneration and one of the
main evidences that you've been born of God. This verse is talking
about a sinner being delivered to the gospel. This is when the
Spirit of God enables a sinner to believe the gospel. It's when
a sinner begins to value the righteousness Christ established
as the only way God can be just and justifier. The only way he
can show mercy to sinners is by Christ's righteousness imputed
alone. This is when a sinner is delivered
from what he was formerly doing, searching the scriptures and
thinking that in them he had eternal life. That's what all
of us do by nature. We serve sin. We serve that sin
that deceives us. Like the Pharisees, we all by
nature think that we have eternal life because of something God
has enabled us to do. We think like the Pharisees,
but God delivers his people from such thinking. He delivers them
to the gospel. Regenerate sinners. It says,
you see, God, we think that you were the servants of sin. Regenerate
sinners were the servants of sin, but we are freed. We're liberated from that sin.
We're liberated from that bondage and we're made the servants of
righteousness, recognizing and admitted what we were. servants
of sin, and what we are now, holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in God's sight, based on nothing but Christ's finished work alone.
Admitting that and recognizing that, one of the main evidences
that we're saved. It's one of the main evidences
that we are resting our entire salvation in Christ alone and
coming to Christ. Remember how we started out?
I know God's word is not abiding in you. because you won't come
to the one the Father sent. The main evidence that you know
you've come to Christ is the evidence. That's the main evidence.
When you come to Christ, that's the main evidence that the Word
of God is abiding in you. It's the main evidence that you
see. The only way God can save you or any other sinner is based
on Christ's work alone. So that's the first reason sinners
won't come to Christ. The second reason sinners will
not come to Christ is because the love of God is not in them.
Look at John chapter 5 and verse 41. Christ said, I receive not
honor from men. He's saying there, it wouldn't
matter if everybody here accepted me and saw me as a Savior, because
I don't receive honor from men. But I know you. that you have
not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name,
and you receive me not. If another shall come in his
own name, him you will receive. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another, and seek not the honor which cometh from
God only? Christ came in His Father's name,
He said. He came in the name of a just
God and Savior. Those who come in another's name
that men receive, they come telling you, here's what you need to
do to be saved. No, you need to do this. They're
coming in their own name. They're literally telling you
that you can save yourself if you'll just meet this condition,
whatever condition they lay on you. Christ came in the name
of a just God and a Savior. He came under the requirements
of a God who must do right. He must be just when he shows
mercy to ungodly sinners. He was made under that God's
law. He came under the demands of
that God's justice. John is not speaking here about
a sinner's love for God. He's speaking about God's love
for sinners. You don't have the love God has
for sinners in you. He's speaking about God's eternal,
unchangeable love for every object of that love. You will not come
to the Christ testified of in the scriptures because that love,
the love God has for his people, is not in you. No sinner will
come to Christ who does not see God providing in Christ what
His law and justice demands. No sinner will come to Christ
who has not seen God's love providing a Savior, a true Savior, one
who by His obedience unto death alone has met every condition
and fulfilled every requirement to bring every object of God's
love to final glory. It's that love which God made
known in the giving of His Son. Not a potential Savior, but a
Savior who has already done everything required to save His people,
to ensure and demand that they be in heaven together with Him.
Look at 1 John 4 and verse 9. And this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love. This is God's love. Not that
we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. The propitiation. the penalty-bearing,
justice-satisfying sacrifice made by Christ. That's where
God's love for our people is made known, in that propitiation.
And it's that love which the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in the
heart of every regenerate sinner. Look at Romans 5 in verse 5.
and hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us."
We're made to see what God's love demanded, and we're made
to see how Christ met and satisfied that demand in his work. It's
that love that motivates the regenerate sinner to love and
obedience. Look at 2 Corinthians 5.14. For the love of Christ constrains
us. This is written to regenerate
sinners here, because this love doesn't constrain any unregenerate
sinner, but it does constrain those whom God has made to know
how he's just to justify. The love of Christ constrains
us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're
all dead, and that he died for all. that they which live should
not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them
and rose again." It's our motivation. The love of Christ for us is
our motivation to obedience. And it's that love from which
the objects of that love can never be separated. And I think
Jim's going to preach on these verses next time he preaches,
and we'll be listening for that. But look at Romans 8 and verse
35a and then 38 to 39. He asks the question, who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? For I am persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature, not anything, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Let me summarize what I've said
briefly here, and we'll be done. Who will not come to Christ?
None by nature will come because all by nature are just like the
scribes and Pharisees of Christ's day. They're searching the scriptures
and thinking that they have eternal life in them. None by nature
will come because the gospel is not our standard of judgment.
None by nature will come because the love of Christ is not in
us. But God, Don't you just love
the but-gods of the Bible? Because that means God is fixing
to reveal something here that He's done that sinners couldn't
do for themselves. God makes His people willing
in the day of His power. He makes them willing to see
the evil of searching the Scriptures and thinking that they have eternal
life in them. He makes them willing to believe
His gospel. to worship Him as the God who
justifies the ungodly, to submit to Christ's righteousness imputed
for all of salvation. Some in every generation will
not come to Christ, but some, by God's mercy and grace, will
come. I hope and pray that you'll be
found among that number, made willing to come to this Christ
and be saved.