The following sermon was delivered
on Sunday evening, October 29, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist
Church of Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn with me, please,
in your own Bibles to the fifth chapter of the Gospel of John,
the Gospel of John, Chapter 5, and we focus our attention upon the
very pointed words of our Lord Jesus spoken to the unbelieving
Jews in the setting in which they have persecuted him. They
have murdered in their hearts towards him, persecuting him
because he broke their Sabbath rules by healing a man on the
Sabbath They have murdered in their hearts because they believe
him to be guilty of blasphemy, saying words which made him equal
to God with respect to the very essence of his own being and
person. And in this setting in which
he is laying out more of the claims that rightly belong to
him as Messiah and Son of God, he says to these very Jews in
verse 40 of John chapter 5, And you will not come to me that
you may have life. And when our Lord Jesus spoke
these words to these Jews in this setting, he is very clearly
asserting, first of all, that spiritual life was to be found
in him and in him alone. When he said, you will not come
to me that you may have life, He is clearly asserting that
if they go to anyone else, if they turn to any other source,
whatever else they may find, they will not find life. For later on, he would say, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by me. Furthermore, he is not only asserting
that spiritual life was to be found in him and in him alone,
but secondly, that men would receive that life only by coming
to him. He says, you will not come to
me literally in order that you may have life. The only path
into life is the path of coming to Christ himself. the term coming
to Christ being used in scripture interchangeably with believing
upon Him, with receiving Him, with trusting Him. And here our
Lord says that only as men come to Him will they receive that
life that is exclusively in Him. And furthermore, our Lord is
asserting in these words that when men do not come to Christ,
they bear the full responsibility of their refusal to come to Him. And you will not come to me."
Literally, you have a set disposition of will that refuses to come
to me. And he lays the blame for the
disposition of unwillingness, the activity of unwillingness,
squarely upon their own shoulders. The very Christ who would say
in the next chapter, no man can come to me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him is the Christ who in this chapter
says that when men do not come to him, they bear the full responsibility
of that refusal. Now, when true life Eternal life
is to be had in the Lord Jesus. And when the Lord Jesus offers
Himself freely to all men in the Gospel, why do they refuse
to come to Him in order to receive that life? which according to
Romans 6.23 is a free gift. The wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. And so we have been seeking to
identify some of the major reasons as to why men and women, boys
and girls, do not come to Christ, will not come to Christ, that
they might find life in Him, seeking to identify those reasons,
to show that they are utterly inexcusable, and to seek to persuade
those of you sitting among us, of whom it can also be said,
you will not come to Him, to abandon whatever reason it is
that keeps you from coming to Christ. and that you might hear
today in this place lay hold of Jesus Christ and all of the
gracious, saving mercy and power that is to be found in Him. And so this morning we considered
the first of the reasons why some of you do not come to Christ,
and I described it as ignorance of your desperate need of Christ. Christ himself said, I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners. Healthy people have no need of
a doctor, but they that are sick A friend of mine told me that
on one occasion he picked up a hitchhiker and as he was driving
along the highway, he saw one of these large rocky abutments
where someone in well-meaning, perhaps misguided, zeal defaced
public property by taking a can of white paint and painting in
large letters, Christ is the answer. And as they drove by
and the hitchhiker saw the words, Christ is the answer, he cynically
turned to my friend who had picked him up to give him a ride and
said, what's the question? Christ is the answer. What's
the question? Well, you see, that's why some
of you do not come to Christ. Because when you hear Christ
is the answer, you cynically answer, what's the question?
Well, I know of nothing that embodies what the question is
and why it is that Christ is the answer more beautifully than
that hymn of Binny that begins with the words, eternal light,
eternal light, how pure that soul must be, which placed within
thy burning light shrinks not. but with calm delight can live
and look on thee. But how shall I, whose native
sphere is dark, whose mind is dim, before thee ineffable appear,
and on my naked spirit bear thee uncreated being? The spirits that surround thy
throne may bear this burning bliss. But surely that is theirs
alone, since they have never, never known a fallen world like
this. You see, that's the question. How shall you, a vile, guilty
son or daughter of Adam, guilty in your first father, conceived
and born in sin, practicing sin from your mother's womb, offending
the holiness of the only God that is, how shall you stand
before that God in the day of judgment and hear anything but
the frightening words, depart from me you cursed into everlasting
fire? Christ is the answer to that
question. And when the Lord Jesus said
to these Jews, you will not come to me that you may have life,
in the case of many of them, the reason they did not come
to him was that they were ignorant of their desperate need of Christ. They thought that their religious
forms and rituals, their bloodlines and their privileges, these combined
were enough to give them good standing before God. This is
validated by the prayer that one of them dared to pray in
the very place of God's special presence in the temple when he
said, as recorded in Luke's Gospel, chapter 18, I thank you, I am
not his other man. He preens his feathers of morality
and religiosity and his religious activities, thinking that by
these things he can find acceptance and life with God. And I plead
again for any of you who will not come to Christ because of
this willful, deliberate ignorance of your desperate need of Christ. If you have any concern for your
never-dying soul, cry to God that He would show you and enable
you honestly to see what you are in the light of the Word
of God. and how desperately you need
that which only Christ can give. And then we saw secondly that
the reason why others will not come to Christ that they may
have life is their impenitence before the searching demands
of Christ. Christ came to save people from
their sins. It's its penalty, its power,
its consequences, its practice, and if we would indeed be joined
to Christ, come to Christ to be saved by Him on His terms
for His ends, then we know that we must be divorced from our
sins. We are not asked to break the
power of our sins. We are not asked to cut our own
chains. But we are called upon from the
heart to repudiate our sins and to come to Christ that we might
be delivered, not only from their guilt, but their power and their
practice, as well as, blessed be God, one day from their very
presence. Now tonight I want to pinpoint
two other major reasons why it is true even today that our Lord
Jesus would say to some in this very building, you will not come
to me that you may have life. Not only ignorance of your desperate
need of Christ in the case of some, impenitence before the
searching demands of Christ in the case of others, but thirdly,
Unbelief with respect to the promises of Christ in the case
of yet others. Unbelief with respect to the
promises of Christ. Now the promises of Christ in
the gospel are clear, certain, and all-embracing. Let me quote
just a few of them. Familiar words. Some of you have
heard them literally dozens of times, and yet you will not come
to Christ that you might have life. And the only explanation
is you don't believe. You don't believe these words
of promise. Hear the gracious words of Matthew
11 in verse 28. Come unto me. All use it labor and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you shall find rest
to your souls. How could a promise be more all-embracing,
more certain, may I say it reverently, more enticing? Come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavily And what will I do? Make you
to be more heavy laden and burden you down with a bunch of rules
that will drive you in a direction contrary to your highest joys
and to your best interest? No! Come unto me, all that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Rest from an accusing
conscience. Rest from the galling, gnawing
realization that there's more to life than simply feeding my
belly and finding pleasure at my fingertips or my other nerve
endings. Something more to life than going
through the stages of infancy and toddlerhood and childhood
and pre-adolescence and adolescence and adulthood and midlife and
old life and dying and rocking in the grave. Relief from the
horrible burden, the whole question of what is life all about. Come
unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn
of me. I am meek and lowly of heart. You shall find rest to your soul. Could it be that some of these
very Jews heard or would hear those very words of the Lord
Jesus and yet refused to come in wicked, wretched, horrible
unbelief? Again, the familiar words of
the Lord Jesus speaking through his servant, the Apostle Paul,
quoting the words of an earlier servant of God, the prophet Joel. Romans 10 and verse 13, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How could a promise be more general,
more all-inclusive, more certain, more unequivocal? Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Lord is rich in mercy unto
all that call upon him. Earlier in this very chapter
of John, chapter five and verse 24, One of those statements where
the Lord Jesus underscores its seriousness, its veracity and
solemnity with his double, amen, amen, verily, verily, truly,
truly, I say unto you, Look at verse 24. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, he who hears my word and believes him that sent me
has eternal life and comes not into judgment, but has passed
out of death into life. Think of it, these people heard
that promise, that for life they had only to hear and believe
His Word, and the Word of the Father in Him and through Him,
and life would be theirs. And yet He said, You will not
come to Me that you may have life. Truly, truly, all of the
veracity and integrity of His own being as the incarnate God
says, He who hears my word and believes Him that sent me has
eternal life and comes not into judgment, but is passed once
and for all irrevocably, irreversibly from death unto life. Here is word in chapter six quoted
this morning, but worth quoting again as we think of the promises
of Christ. Verse 37. All that which the
father gives me shall come unto me and him that comes unto me. I will in no wise So difficult to quote and to
render the force of the original. I will in no wise, I will under
no conditions whatsoever in any circumstances. I will in no wise
cast out him that comes to me. How but you say, Pastor Martin,
the verse begins with the words, all that the Father gives me
shall come. And I don't know if I've been
given. No, no man knows if he's been given. That is a matter
that is unrevealed to us, this side of our coming. And so the
Lord Jesus never spoke it to be an impediment to our coming. But he says all that the father
gives me shall come and him that comes to me, I will in no wise
cast out. But you say I dare not come because
I don't know whether I'm given. My friend, you are abusing the
promise. The promise is him that comes. I will in no wise cast out. Why have you not come? Because
you don't believe the promise. You don't believe the promise.
One of those faithful sayings, one of those five sayings that
had become holy cliches among the early churches recorded in
the pastoral epistles is this. 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful,
trustworthy saying, worthy of all acceptance, not worthy of
admiration, not merely worthy of a theoretical assent that
it is true for someone or for someone else, but worthy of all
acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world literally,
sinners to save. This is a trustworthy saying,
worthy of all acceptation, not in a theoretical sense, but as
the very life of the soul, I am a sinner. I am a sinner whose
sins rise up in the theater of my own conscience and tell me
I deserve damnation a hundred times over? Well, this saying
is worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
sinners. to save all kinds of sinners,
all stripes and sizes and shapes of sinners, sinners to save,
sinners to rescue, sinners to deliver. There is that beautiful
illustration of how wide and how free And how utterly suited
to all is the gospel provision in Christ in that beautiful illustration
of the marriage feast in Matthew 22. The kingdom of heaven is
like unto a certain king who made a marriage feast for his
son, sent forth his servants. The original ones who were invited
did not respond. And he sent forth other servants,
saying, Tell them that are bidden, behold, I've made ready my dinner,
my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the marriage feast. All things are ready. Come to the marriage feast. God doesn't say I'm going to
have a potluck supper, bring a dish of some of your own virtue,
and some of your own works that will contribute to the provisions
of my feast. No! I have made all the provisions. All you need do is come. Come! All things are ready. Surely the promises of Christ
in the gospel are clear. They are certain. They are all
embracing. And in the course of his recorded
ministry, we see the Lord Jesus receiving all kinds of sinners. In Luke 7, 36 and following,
he receives a notorious sinner. So notorious that people said
if he only knew who she was, he would not be allowing this
sinful woman to be showing the affection and gratitude for her
forgiveness in the manner in which she is doing it. He received
desperate sinners. Remember, there was a man whose
crimes brought upon him legitimate capital punishment. And he's
hanging on a cross. And in the first hours of his
hanging there, he's even joining in the mockery of the Son of
God. It says they both cast the same into the teeth of Christ. And he joined in the mockery.
He joined in the tragic expression of the unbelief and the hatred
of the leaders of the Jews. And yet, at the point where his
eyes were open to see, that in this one hanging on the cross
next to him was God's messianic king, was God's gracious appointed
savior of sinners, he cries, Lord, remember me when you come
in your kingdom. And Jesus, without adding any
conditions or any qualifications, said, Today, today, you desperate
sinner, vile, wretched outcast of society, cast out and put
to death for your crimes, you, sinner, will be with me in paradise. Oh, how Christ loved to show
how he delights to save desperate sinners, notorious sinners, violence! And Saul of Tarsus was a blasphemer
and a murderer, described in the book of Acts as one who was
breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the church. And yet the Lord Jesus graciously
saved him. You see, how can God, I say it
reverently, how can God make it any more clear with respect
to his promises of mercy and pardon and forgiveness, then
he has made it in the promises of his son, in the recorded ministry
of his son. And still, you will not go to
this Christ that you might have life. Why? In your case, it's
not that you are ignorant of your needs. And it may not be
that there is some darling lust, some wicked ambition, some vile
relationship, some feared aspect of restitution, many of the things
we touched upon this morning. But in your case, the issue is
this. You are guilty of unwillingness. to credit the testimony of God
concerning his son, to cast the weight of your soul upon Christ
as he comes to you wrapped up in the promises. And I didn't
know how else to express it as surely as there when the shepherds
visited the manger scene and found the young child wrapped
in swaddling clothes. And they could not have said
to Mary and Joseph, may I hold this little one of whom the angels
have told us is the Savior Christ the Lord. They could not hold
him in any other form but wrapped in the swaddling clothes. The
only way you will ever hold Christ to your breast as your Savior
is if you hold him wrapped up in his promises. He comes to
us wrapped up in the promises of His mercy, in the promises
of His grace and His pardon and of His forgiveness. And there
is no sin that He will not pardon. There is no sin that His blood
cannot cleanse, that His grace and power cannot overcome in
your life. But it's wretched, wicked unbelief. And you don't see unbelief as
a vile and a wretched and a horrible soul destructive sin. But I want
you to turn with me to Revelation 21 in verse 8 to see how God
evaluates unbelief. Some of you look upon unbelief
as though it were a sickness for which you have no responsibility. It's just something that came
upon you. whereas God used it in an entirely
different life. For in Revelation chapter 21,
after speaking of the blessedness of the inheritance of the overcomers
in verse 7, he that overcometh shall inherit these things, the
things just described, and I will be his God and he will be my
son. But the fearful and unbelieving
Then he goes on to say, and the abominable, the vile, murderers,
fornicators, sorcerers, those who practice magical arts, dabble
in the occult and idolaters and all liars, their part shall be
in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death. And you say, surely I can see
while the vile, murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, inveterate liars,
surely their lifestyle is so antithetical to the moral standards
of God that He will have to banish them from His presence in the
lake of fire. But listen, included among them
are those who perhaps have never stained their hands with blood.
have never defiled their bodies or the bodies of others with
fornication, who do not give their minds to uncleanness, who've
never dabbled in the occult and in witchcraft, who do not have
as a pattern of life a tongue that speaks and breathes out
lies, but they are found in this category, unbelieving, unbelieving,
unbelieving. They heard the promises of God
concerning Christ's willingness to save all who would come to
Him. They heard again and again, validated
by the word of Christ himself, Him that comes, I will in no
wise cast out. And why are they standing amongst
the vile and sorcerers and adulterers and liars and murderers waiting
to be cast into hell? Because they would not believe.
and in refusing to believe they would not come. As ignorance
of your desperate need of Christ is inexcusable, so your unbelief
is inexcusable. For the scripture says, God who
cannot lie is the God who has promised. Christ, who said, I
am the truth, who cannot and will not deceive. He has said
the gospel feast is spread. All of the dainties of full forgiveness
and peace with God in the staples of justifying grace and adoption
and the gift of the Spirit are there upon the table. Come! For the feast is spread. And
by unbelief, you linger outside the banquet hall, lost, condemned,
under the wrath of God. How do you see why, when Jesus
predicted the coming of the Holy Spirit in John 16, he said these
words, And when he has come, that is, to the people of God,
then his influence is felt through them upon the world. Notice what
he says in verse 8 and 9 of John 16, and he, when he has come,
will convict the world in respect of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment of sin because they believe not on me. Apart from blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit, whatever that sin is, there is no other sin
that will keep you out of heaven but the sin of unbelief. Ushered
into the presence of the Holy God of heaven and the presence
of the Lamb will be people whose mouths have been a very conduit
of the vilest speech for decades, and yet they will be welcomed
as forgiven, cleansed, pardoned, glorified saints. There will
be those whose bodies have been the very instrument of every
vile form of sexual uncleanness. Those whose hands have shed blood,
the unnumbered of those murdered with those hands, and sinners
of the vilest and most intense kind of abandonment to sin will
be found cleansed, renewed, accepted, glorified. There will be others who, by
the influence of a Christian family, and the instruction of
family worship and the example of godly mom and dad and who,
by the influence of a godly church and Christian education in the
home or in the school and by the influence of a gospel preaching
pulpit, will have lived very respectable lives. Their mouths,
not a conduit of vileness and filth and lies and dirty jokes,
Their bodies have not been a playground of lust. Their hands have not
been guilty of shedding innocent blood. But they will stand in
that day and hear the words, Depart from me. Why? They simply
refuse to believe the salvation of their souls. And would God
that the Holy Ghost would come tonight and convict some man,
woman, boy or girl in this place of the vileness of the sin of
unbelief with Christ in all the glory of His person, in all the
perfection of His work wrapped up in His promises set before
you. You see what you're doing. If
you walk away again, then you do not come to Him. What a horrible
thing you are saying about Christ. He's unworthy to be trusted.
He's unworthy to be believed. He's unworthy of my heart's confidence. He is unworthy of my heart's
abandonment to him. When anyone says that about the
one concerning whom the father said, this is my beloved son,
hear him. No wonder God sends them to hell
with murderers and liars and fornicators and idolaters and
people who dabble in witchcraft. You see, your unbelief says horrible
things about Christ. Do you see that? Will the Holy
Ghost break in upon some of you and make you see how wretched
is your unbelief? It says such wretched things
about the Son of God. But then there is a fourth and
final category of those of you who will not come to Christ that
you might have life. And in your case, it is not so
much ignorance of your need of Christ. Sitting here tonight
as a man, a woman, a boy or girl, you would acknowledge I know
enough of my sin to know and to believe in my heart if I died
tonight and from death went to judgment. I know what my destiny
would be. You're not ignorant of your need
of Christ. And to the best of your knowledge, you're not impenitent
before the demands of Christ. To the best of your knowledge.
There is no darling lust like the rich young ruler's lust for
his money. There is no specific issue that
looms before you or combination of issues. You say, if I move
toward Christ, I know I must move from those things or into
this or that activity. And I just cannot conceive how
I can bring myself to face the shame, the humiliation, the financial
loss, whatever it may be. That's not your case. And neither
is it a matter of blatant unbelief with regard to his promises.
You say, yes, I believe every one of those promises that all
who come to Christ will be received. He'll cast none away. I do believe
the table is spread, and I do believe all things are ready
and all who come are welcomed. But what is it that keeps you
from coming to Christ? Listen carefully. This may be
the issue for some of you. It's what I'm calling an unwarranted
expectation of some additional revelation from Christ. An unwarranted
expectation of some additional revelation from Christ. And what do I mean by that? Well,
I mean this. You've been brought up in a home
where from your childhood, your parents, rightly so, taught you
the word of God, catechized you. You are brought up in a church
that is held to traditional, historic, orthodox, reformed
theology. So that from your infancy, the
terms God's chosen, God's elect have been part of your consciousness. You've been made to read your
Bible and have your own devotions. They've been structured into
your life by your parents, family worship, reading of the scriptures.
And you know that ultimately only God's elect will come. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. You know that his
elect will come. And so you've reasoned and said,
well, until I have something to indicate that I'm one of the
elect, I have no warrant to come. Therefore, I must have some additional
revelation beyond what is found in the Bible before I can come
with confidence that I'm not presuming upon the grace of God. that I'm not presuming upon the
mercy of God. For surely the Bible speaks of
the horrible sin of presumption, and I do not want to take what
may not be given to me. And so in your mind, what you
have done is set up a determined commitment that you must have
some additional revelation from Christ. before you will come
to Christ. Now, you don't expect that revelation
in terms of an audible voice out of heaven. No. You expect
that perhaps somehow in the midst of the regular reading of the
scripture and the worship in your own reading of the Bible
in the middle of the night, some text that speaks of the mercy
and the forgiveness and the pardoning grace of God will fasten itself
upon your mind with unusual power and with unusual intensity, and
you will say, Aha! That's Christ's Word, marking
me out as one of His own. Now I may come. Or perhaps you're
expecting that you must first of all see some evidences of
God's regenerating work in you, giving you a hatred for sin and
a love for righteousness, giving you an appetite for the Word
of God that you've never known. And when you see some of those
marks of regeneration in your own consciousness, you say, then,
knowing I'm regenerate, I will have a warrant to truly believe
on the Lord Jesus. Whatever it is, it is an unwarranted
expectation of some additional revelation from Christ. And you know why it's unwarranted?
Because God has said in this very setting, the Lord Jesus,
look at our passage, John chapter five, he said to these Jews,
You search the scriptures, verse 39, because you think that in
them you have eternal life. These are they which bear witness
of me. These are they which bear witness
of me. And you will not come to me.
In other words, what the scriptures say about me are all the warrants
you need to come to me. And if you don't, you're culpable. Our Lord further emphasizes that
verse 45. Think not that I will accuse
you to the father. There's one who accuses you,
even Moses, on whom you set your hope. For if you believed Moses,
you would believe me. For if for he rode off me. But if you believe not his writings,
how shall you believe my words? There's a very interesting insight
that comes out of hell regarding this fourth reason why some of
you will not come to Christ. The insight comes straight out
of hell. God wants to teach you in the classroom of hell lest
you end up there. Turn to Luke chapter 16. The
account of the rich man who died and went to hell. The beggar dies and is carried
to Abraham's bosom. Verse 23. And in hell, in Hades,
he, the rich man, lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and
sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and
said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus that he may
dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for
I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember
that you in your lifetime received your good things and Lazarus
in like manner evil things. But now here he is comforted
and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between
us and you, there is a great gulf fixed. The bay who would
pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross over
from thence to us. Now, all of a sudden, a man who
had no concern for his own soul has a great evangelistic passion
for his brethren. And he said, I pray thee, therefore,
Father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brethren
that he may testify unto them, lest they also come to this place
of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses
and the prophets. Let them hear them. They have
the word of God written. Let them on the basis of what
is written assess themselves as sinners, assess themselves
as worthy of going to the same place in which you are. Let them
from the words of God, the words of the prophets, let them hear
of God's promise. that the seed of the woman would
bruise the head of the serpent. Let them hear the words of the
prophet who pointed to the suffering servant of Jehovah, who would
bear the sins of many, and by his suffering and death justify
many. Notice his answer. And he said,
No, Father Abraham, the bare witness of scripture is not enough. Nay, father Abraham, but if one
go to them from the dead, they will repent. Some additional
revelation is needed. And he said unto him, if they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded
if one rise from the dead. The doctrine that the testimony
of the word of God in its naked authority is not enough, that
something more is needed. Before you will repent and believe,
that doctrine will spawn in hell, and if you believe it and keep
from Christ, it will take you there. Is this why some of you, dear
children, young people, adults, The Lord Jesus says to you tonight,
as he said to the Jews of his days, you will not come to me
that you may have life. And if he were to ask you, why
will you not come to me? You would have to say, well,
Lord, I read in your word that you have an elect people and
that they alone will ultimately come. And yes, they shall all
come. But I don't know if I'm one of
them. And for me simply to come, I'm
a naked promise. I'm a bare testimony of the word
of God. That's presumption. You know
what the Lord Jesus says to you? He says, no, that's arrogance
on your part to say that what I've declared is not adequate. That's arrogance. You say, oh,
it's humble. I don't want to presume. No,
that's not humility. That's a screen behind which
you're hiding your wretched unbelief. And you're saying you have a
better scheme of bringing in God's elect. In addition to the
general word and promise and invitation and command of the
gospel, you must have some internal revelation from Christ, your
one of the elect. What right do you have to tell
God to give you something he's never promised to give to anyone?
Who made you God to tell him how to do his work? That's your
problem. It's the arrogance of your pride. Get off your throne of self-imposed
godhood and get on your face and say, oh God, I marvel you
hadn't sent me to hell before now. That I would dare to tell
you that you needed to do more than you've already done. That
you needed to reveal more than you've already revealed. And
before this night is out, you stay, O God. By your grace, I
will believe Moses and the prophets. I will believe the Lord Jesus,
who says, whoever comes to me, not who comes to me, having had
some additional revelation that he's one of the elect. No, no.
He simply says, if it comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. You don't come as an elect sinner.
You come as a hell deserving sinner. You don't come as a sinner
who knows he was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. You come as a sinner who knows
he ought to be roasting in hell, and for whom there is no hope
but in the Lord Jesus, and you cast yourself upon him. Don't
you make complicated what God has made beautifully simple in
His Word? Could it be that that's why some
of you The Lord Jesus says to you tonight, you will not come
to me. You have an unwarranted expectation
of some additional revelation from Christ. And I say you do
not go to Christ as an elect sinner, but as a needy, hell
deserving, penitent and believing sinner. And you will find his
promise true. He will in no wise cast you out. So we come around full circle
to where we began this morning in this transitional Lord's Day
before we get locked into the two new series of studies. Great
burden of my heart is that there sit among us all together too
many of you who have heard all together too many times Concerning
Christ in the fullness and the freeness of his salvation, you've
been urged, you've been invited, you've been threatened, you've
been warned, you've been wooed. You have been by every biblical
means urged to come to Christ in the confidence that in Christ
there is a full and a free pardon for all of your sins. There is
a righteousness that answers to the very righteousness of
God. A righteousness comprised of
the stuff of Christ. Perfect life lived on behalf
of all who will be hidden in Him by faith. A righteousness
comprised of His death upon the cross under the curse of God
that satisfies divine justice for all of the sins of all who
will be hidden in Christ. You have been pleaded with. You
have been warned. You have been urged with thunders,
with whispers, with tears, with entreaties. And yet, alas, Jesus
says to you, you will not. You will not. You will not come
to me that you may have life. Oh, may God grant that tonight
will be the last time the Lord Jesus ever has to say that to
you. And that you may find His promise true, Him that comes
to me, I will in no wise cast out. On what basis shall I come,
Pastor? On the basis of His gracious
command. For this is His commandment,
that you believe on the name of His only begotten Son, 1 John
3, 22. On the basis of His promise,
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You see, that's so simple. Yes. And that's why it's a stumbling
block to many. There is a profound mystery in
the gospel that stretches the mind of the highest intelligence
of the most elevated archangel. But there is a glorious simplicity
that the youngest child sitting here conscious that what he is
is a sinner who deserves to go to hell may say there's much
I do not know. But I know my sin will damn me. And I believe God's gift of Christ
is sufficient for me as a sinner. I come to him as a sinner. I
trust myself to Him. I put my sin sick guilty soul
into His hands to forgive, to pardon, to cleanse. I give myself
to Him to be His, to follow Him, to serve Him, to trust Him until
one day by His grace I go to be with Him. Dear people, For
two to three hours I sat in my study yesterday and just read
passage after passage from the Gospels and particularly from
the book of the Revelation and a few from the epistles describing
the last day, the separation of the sheep and of the goats,
the casting away of the bad fish, the gathering in of the good,
the binding of the tares and the gathering of the wheat. the
great white throne, the separation of the sheep and the goats. As
I sat in my study, I said, Oh God, have mercy on those whom
I'll face tomorrow, who, unless you rescue them, they're going
to be part of the bundle of the tares, the bad fish, the goats
on the left hand, those not written in the last book of life. Dear
people, young people, children, I plead with you, don't take
another Lord's Day and treat it in a light and frivolous manner. Hear the words of Jesus. You
will not come to me that you may have life. Come, and him
that comes I will in no wise cast out. Let us pray. Our Father, we can only cry to
you, God of life and saving power. that you, by your Holy Spirit,
will take your word and make it that very word that imparts
life and salvation. We pray, O God, that as we have
sought to expose the lies and the subtle deviations of the
human heart that would keep men and women and boys and girls
from coming to your beloved Son, Oh, father, make your word effectual
unto their salvation. And may this day be the day that
many will mark as the day when no longer could it be said of
them, you will not come to me, but all that it may be marked
as the day when they were made willing in the day of your power. and came to the Lord Jesus. We pray for your dear people
that you will increase in each one of us a genuine spirit wrought
burden and concern for those all around us who will not come
to the Lord Jesus that they might have light. Grant us increased
compassion, increased boldness, increased determination that
we shall seek to win them, to woo them, to warn them, to instruct
them. And oh God, we ask that we will
yet see many who will to lay hold of the Lord Jesus. and all
the fullness of saving grace and power that is in him. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you
are accessible to the neediest of sinners. Thank you for your
mighty power. Oh, Lord Jesus, we confess that
we do love you. We confess we do trust you to
save us all the way to heaven. Receive our praise and seal your
word we plead. Amen.