All right, Revelation chapter
22. I began looking ahead, looking
at this last week, and I thought this would be a good week to
invite Tara and Eric's class out here to be in my class this
morning. I know that you all love your
own classes. You love being in your class
with people at your age, and I wouldn't normally take you
from it. But as I began to prepare this, I thought this would be
a very, very good lesson for our children to hear, our young
people to hear. And I've prepared it with you
in mind, and I believe it'll be a blessing to those of you
who are older, too, if you listen carefully and prayerfully. I
titled the lesson this morning, Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Now, all of us here are Calvinists,
and all you young people, You know what the Bible teaches. When somebody tells you something
different, you know it. You recognize it. You see it's
not so. Already, you know this. You know God is God, don't you? He's God. He's the Almighty.
God does whatever He pleases. And nobody can ask Him why. Nobody
can say anything to Him. Stop Him. You know that. You
know that God chose to save a people. And those people will be saved.
Now you know that. You know that you've been taught
that. Those people will be saved, don't they? Because God does
what he wills. And you know this. You know all men are sinners.
You know that all we can do is sin. We can't do one holy thing
so somebody tells you, you know, be good and God will save you. When you hear that, you know
that's not true. You know that's a lie. If we're going to be saved,
somebody else is going to have to do the saving, aren't they?
Somebody else is going to have to save us because we cannot save ourselves.
You know that. And I know you know that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. You've been taught
that. You know how Christ made his people righteous. He did
it by his obedience to the law of forgiveness. You know that
he suffered and died. His blood put their sin away.
They're not saved because they kept the law. Because they didn't.
They couldn't do it. Christ kept it for them. They
couldn't do anything to pay for their sin. Christ paid for it
for them. Christ didn't die for all men everywhere. Now you know
that. Christ died for God's elect. And those people shall be saved.
Here's something else you know. You wonder, why is Frank teaching
a lesson telling me everything I already know? You know, normally
he teaches a lesson and tells something I don't know. But this
is what you know. You know salvation is not a decision
you make for Jesus. Now you know that. You know if
somebody's trying to tell you, decide to let Jesus into your
heart, you know that person's lying to you. I know you know
that. Salvation is something that God does for you and God
does in you by His grace. We can't do something to get
God to save us because we're good and we decided to accept
Jesus. Salvation is by God's undeserved grace for sinners. You know that. If somebody tries
to tell you different, you know they're lying to you. Now all
that's true. Every bit of that's true. But
don't ever forget this too, because this is also true. If you would
be saved, you must believe Jesus. You must believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. You must come to Christ. You
must. Your parents can't do it for
you. Your pastor can't do it for you. If you would be saved,
you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You're responsible
to come to Christ. You're responsible to do that.
Now God saw them and man is responsible. Both of those things are true.
So if we're not saved, it's not God's fault. We can't say, well,
I'm not saved because God didn't choose me. You know, I want to
be saved. I can't be saved. Christ didn't die for me. That's
not why we're not saved. We're not saved. It's our own
fault. We didn't believe because we didn't come to Christ. We
cannot be saved by being religious. Coming to Christ is not just
being religious. Believing Christ is not simply
knowing the right doctrine. We're saved by knowing Christ.
We're saved by believing Him, by resting in Christ. Now, resting
in Christ, that's something preachers like to say. You know what that
means to rest in Christ? It means quit trying to make
God happy with you by what you do or what you don't do. God's
pleased with His people in Christ. So just rest in Christ. Just
Christ is all it takes. Christ is enough. That's believing
Christ. It's resting in him. Here in
our class, we've been studying through the book of Revelation.
You see, we're almost to the very end of it. And the book
of Revelation doesn't just tell us what is going to happen at
the very end of time. The book of Revelation tells
us what God's always been doing for his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It does tell us what's going
to happen at the end of time. And the reason all those things
are going to happen is because of what Christ has done for his
people. The book of Revelation is about Christ. It's about salvation
in the end and what he's done for his people. And God has always
been calling his people to Christ. Ever since Adam fell, God's been
calling sinners to come to Christ, the savior of sinners. John tells
us that in Revelation 22, verse 17. And the Spirit and the Bride
say, Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. In
our lesson this morning, I want to compel you to come to Christ. Brother Henry said, preach for
a decision. I want to preach so that you're
compelled to come to Christ. I'm going to give you three reasons
from this verse of scripture the sinners come to Christ. Number
one, you come to Christ because of who calls us to Christ. Your
scripture says by the mouth of two or three witnesses should
every word be established or he gives us three qualified witnesses
here calling sinners to Christ. First, the first witness is God,
the Holy Spirit says, come to Christ. Now that is good news. God, the Holy Spirit says, come
to Christ. We never would and we never could
come to Christ unless the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ. Only
God the Holy Spirit can make us willing to come to Christ.
And he does that for God's people. Psalm 110 verse 3 says that his
people shall be willing in the day of his power. God the Holy
Spirit makes us willing to come to Christ. And the Spirit of
God knows the Lord Jesus Christ better than anyone. You think
about this. Nobody knows what you are, what
you're like on the inside. Nobody knows that better than
you, right? You know your own thoughts, the
way you really are. You know, there's a way we present
ourselves to the public, isn't it? But you know what you really
are on the inside. That's your spirit. Well, the
spirit of Christ knows Christ better than anyone. You know
what he says about Christ? You come to him. You come to
Him because He's everything you need. Look at John chapter 16. John chapter 16. Our Lord told His disciples that
He would send another comforter, that He would send the Holy Spirit
to them after He had died and been resurrected and sent Him
back to the Father. He's going to send the comforter,
send the Holy Spirit. John 16 verse 8. And when He
has come, He will reprove, He'll convince the world of sin and
of righteousness and of judgment. Now here's three things the Holy
Spirit always shows God's people. He convinces us of sin. He shows
us not just that all men are sinners. He shows us we're sinners,
verse 9. He convinces them of sin because
they believe not on me. Now I didn't become a sinner
when I told a lie. I did not become a sinner when
I stole a cookie from the cookie jar. My mom told me you can have
two cookies and I ate two, she left the room and I took a third
one. That's not when I became a sinner. You know why I told
a lie? You know why I stole that cookie
from the cookie jar? Because I was born a sinner. I came that
way. And all I did when I told a lie
and I stole a cookie is I revealed my sin nature. The way I know
I have a sin nature is It's not just that I told a lie. It's
not just that I stole a cookie. Here's the way I can tell I've
got a sin nature. I will not believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what he convinces because
they believe not on me. I've got a sin nature. I will
not believe on Christ. That's why the Holy Spirit has
to draw me. Second, the Holy Spirit teaches us, convinces
us of righteousness. He convinces God's people the
only righteousness you and I will ever have is the righteousness
of Christ. Verse 10, of righteousness, because I go to my father and
you see me no more. Now, here's how we know the Lord
Jesus Christ is righteous. He's sinless. Because after he
died, the father raised him from the dead. Took him back to glory
to sit on the right hand of the father. He never would have done
that unless the Lord Jesus Christ had no sin. He's perfectly righteous. Now, I'm a sinner. He's already
convinced me of my sin nature. I need a righteousness. I need
Christ to be my righteousness, because I don't have any. Christ
is the only righteousness that God will accept. And that's why
I go to Christ, because he's the righteousness that a sinner
like me needs. Third, the Holy Spirit convinces
us of this, that all the sin of God's people has been put
away by the sacrifice of Christ. Verse 11 of Judgment. because the prince of this world
is judged. Satan, the prince of this world,
is judged. He's condemned Christ. He's crushed
his head at Calvary. And Satan cannot deceive God's
people anymore because their sin has been judged and put away
by the sacrifice of Christ. And that's why I come to Christ.
The only way my sin can be judged and me still live is if Christ
died as my substitute. If he died as my substitute,
He put my sin away. So come to Christ. Christ has
removed every obstacle between God and sinners. So come to Christ. And the Holy Spirit draws sinners
to Christ by showing us how wonderful He really is. Look in verse 13. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of
truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself. What that means, he's not going
to make a show of himself. He's not going to make a show
of making people speak in tongues and foam at the mouth and roll
around the floor. That's not the Holy Spirit. That could be
another spirit, but that's not the Holy Spirit. That's not how
you tell that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. He'll not
speak of himself. Here's how you tell the Spirit's
speaking to you. Whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak,
and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me. For he shall receive of mine,
and he'll show it unto you. And here's what he'll show us.
All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I that
he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you. Now the Holy
Spirit shows us all truth. He shows us that God elected
a people to save in Christ. He chose to save them through
the sacrifice of Christ. Now maybe God chose me. Maybe
he did. And one way I can find out, that's the only way I'll ever
know. God's elect, Christ died for God's elect and they're saved.
Their sins put away and the Holy Spirit shows them that. Maybe
Christ died for me. And the only way I'm ever going
to know is by coming to Christ. See, we can't think, and I tell
you this, I know I'm telling you this, not From my own experience,
I'm telling you this, we cannot say, well, I'd come to Christ
if I knew I was one of God's elect. I'd just believe if I
knew I was one of the elect. The only evidence we'll ever
have that we're one of the elect is faith, faith in Christ. If I believe that all it takes
to save somebody like me is Christ, That's faith in Christ. That's
the only evidence I'll ever have I'm one of the elect. If Christ
is your only hope of salvation, you know you cannot be saved
any other way and you need him, then you're one of God's elect.
Christ died for you. The Holy Spirit gives that faith
that reveals Christ to a sinner like you. The Holy Spirit of
God says come. And here's a second witness that
says come to Christ. John said the spirit and the
bride both say the same thing, come to Christ. Now the bride
is God's church. Now what is the purpose of the
church? What is the purpose of this gathering,
this body of believers, this group of people? The church is
not just building, the church is people. Now what's the purpose
of the church? Think about that. Is it friendship? Is it so we got to buddies, you
know, we can, we can, uh, how around with, or, you know, say,
these are my friends or, you know, what? So we had that gushy
feeling. What is it? The purpose of the
church is to preach the gospel. That's the sole purpose of the
church. God told Peter, you feed my sheep, preach the gospel,
preach the gospel. so that sinners will be saved.
You preach Christ, you hold him up so people see he's so wonderful,
they must come to him. You preach Christ and you hold
him up in all of his glory so his people will be saved, so
their hearts will be encouraged and comforted. The only way the
Holy Spirit will ever speak to anybody is through the preaching
of the gospel, through the preaching of the word. And the church says
the exact same thing that the Holy Spirit says. Come to Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. You know why the church says the exact same thing the Holy
Spirit says? Because we get our message from God. God the Holy
Spirit gives us the message. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 18. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. And he has given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. God's given us this ministry,
the gospel, to tell us how God's reconciled to sinners and how
sinners are reconciled to God. Now to wit, namely, this is the
ministry of reconciliation. This is how God was reconciled.
That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us this word
of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ dead, be ye reconciled to God. Now we beseech you in
Christ dead in the place of Christ himself, in the place of the
spirit, we tell you, come to Christ. Now why? Why would a sinner come to Christ? Well, it's because Christ took
the sin of his people away, and he made them righteous by his
sacrifice. That's what he tells us in verse 21. Four, here's
why you should come to Christ. Four, because he, God the Father,
had made him, God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he made him
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The church says come to Christ. That's our message. You come
to Christ because he's everything you need. Yes, you're a sinner. You're dead in sin. He'll give
you life. Yes, you're lost in sin. Christ
will forgive you. You're lost, but Christ will
find you. He'll save you. You're sinful. Christ will make
you holy. That's the message of the church. The spirit and
the bride say come. And the third witness John gives
us is him that heareth says come. Now that's all the people in
the church. It's not just pastors and teachers. to tell people
come to Christ. Everyone who's heard Christ speak
to their heart says, come to Christ. I can tell you several
ways. Your parents, the people of this
congregation, preach this gospel and tell people come to Christ.
They do it by supporting the gospel. They get up every morning
and go to work, work a job, so that they have money to give
to support the gospel. Because they want everyone to
hear this gospel. You know, the gospel from here
goes out on the radio, goes out on the internet, goes bulletins,
and somebody's got to pay for all that. But people get up and
go to work in the morning so they can give an offering to
support the gospel. They're telling people, come
to Christ. When things need to be done around
this building and people all show up in a big work party to
get stuff done, they're doing what needs to be done. So we've
got a place where the gospel can be preached. That's telling
people, come to Christ. Parents tell their children to
come to Christ. Now a lot of times they do that
to you at home and you go home and they ask you about your lesson
or they talk to you about your memory purses and those things
you know. They're telling you come to Christ. I'll tell you
another way they tell you come to Christ. by bringing you to
these services. They get you up on Sunday morning
to bring you in here to your classes, come out here in the
service, bring you on Wednesday nights. You know why they're
doing that? They're telling you, come to Christ. They want you
to hear the gospel. That's everyone who hears Christ
tells people, come to Christ. I want you to enjoy the blessings
I've enjoyed in Him. And you know no one who has ever
heard Christ and come to Him. Not one of them. has ever been
disappeared. Not one. Not one poor, wretched
sinner has ever been turned away from Christ. Not one. You come
to Christ, you won't be the first. I promise you that. Now, all
of us have heard preachers say, come to Christ. The youngest
people in this room have heard a preacher say, come to Christ
more times than you count. I'm not telling the truth. You've
heard that more times than you count. I told you the title of
the lesson this morning, come to Christ. Oh boy, here he goes
again. Well, what is it to come to Christ? I want you to know what is it
to come to Christ? You young people, whatever age
you are sitting here, I was your age sitting right there. Every
one of you, I was your age sitting there. And just like you, I heard
Brother Henry say, come to Christ more times than I can count.
And in my head, I'm screaming. If you just tell me where he
is, I'll go. If you just tell me how, I will.
What is it to come to Christ? Number one, look at John chapter
seven. Number one, to come to Christ
is to believe Christ. It's simply to believe him. You
know, you don't have to go anywhere to come to Christ. Right where
you sit, without moving off your chair, you come to Christ by
believing Him. John chapter 7 verse 37, In the
last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried,
saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Now
that might have sounded strange to somebody. What does that mean?
Well, He tells us, verse 38, He that believeth on me, As the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. That's what it is to come to
Christ and drink. It's to believe Him. To believe
Him. Second, to come to Christ is
to obey Him. You know, the Savior stood and
said, if any man thirst, let him come. Believe on me. To come to Christ is to obey
Him. Come to Christ without any fear
of Him rejecting you, because you're obeying His command. He
told you to come, then He'll give you water if you come. And
thirdly, to receive Christ, to come to Christ, is to receive
Christ as a beggar. It's not earning something now,
it's receiving a free gift from God. Look back a few pages at
John chapter 4. John 4 verse 10. Jesus answered and said unto
her, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that sayeth
to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and
he would have given thee living water. See, that's what it is
to come to Christ is to receive a free gift. To come to Christ,
you got to quit trying to make God happy with you by what a
good boy or good girl you are. If you're going to come to Christ,
you've got to quit thinking, well, the more moral I am or
the better I keep the law, you know, the more God will accept
me. To come to Christ is to leave all that behind. Leave behind
everything that is about you except your sin and come to Him
and receive salvation freely. That's coming to Christ. The
Spirit, the Bride, and everyone who's ever heard Christ says,
come to Christ. Second, come to Christ. People
who come to Christ, come to Christ because they need Him. You come
to Christ because you need. Whether you know it or not, you
need Christ. John here describes two kinds
of people who come to Christ. And both of them come because
of their need. First, he says, everyone who's thirsty will come
to Christ. Now, what is it to be thirsty? Why do we become thirsty? Well,
we become thirsty because we recognize we don't have enough
water in us. My mouth, I keep a glass of water up here all
the time. I see preachers, they got a glass of water, a gent
puts this water up here for them, they never drink a drop. I don't know
how in this world they do that. My mouth gets so dry and thirsty. I recognize the back of my throat's
dry. I need water there. I need something. I don't have something in me
that I need. I need water from the outside of me. Well, to be
spiritually thirsty is to be thirsty for righteousness. Because
I recognize I don't have any in me. All that's in me is sin.
So I need righteousness from the outside of me. I need it
to be given to me. So that's why I come to Christ.
See, this doesn't say if anybody knows they're one of the elect,
they come to Christ, does it? Who comes to Christ? Those who
are thirst, thirsty. You do not come to Christ because
you know you're one of God's elect. Nobody's ever done that.
Sinners come to Christ because they're thirsty. They need Christ
in them. And every thirsty sinner who's
ever come to Christ has been completely satisfied. We just
read it. Our Lord said whoever drinks
of Him will never thirst again. Because they'll have in them
a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Now, are
you thirsty? Are you thirsty? I'm going to
tell you again, don't make the same mistake I made. I hope you
learn from my errors. Don't try to decide if you're
thirsty enough. If I'm trying to decide if I'm thirsty enough,
you know what I'm trying to decide? Am I really good enough? Am I
really qualified? No, I'm not worthy. No. If you're
thirsty, God's already been gracious to you. He's already made you
thirsty. So come to Christ and you'll
never thirst again. Second, everyone who will, comes
to Christ, everyone who will. Now, this is not teaching that
man has a free will and we can decide to be saved if we want
to. You know nobody has a free will. Anytime you see that on
a building, free will Baptist church, you automatically know
they know nothing about human nature. They don't know anything
about anybody's nature. Nobody has a free will. Our will
is controlled by our nature. It's controlled by our nature.
My nature is a sin nature. So I can't do anything holy.
All I can do is sin. You know, even God doesn't have
free will. You know what scripture says? God cannot lie. God cannot choose to lie because
his nature is holy. The nature is honest and truth.
Everyone's will is controlled by their nature. So this is not
saying you can just up and decide to accept Jesus as your personal
Savior. Here's what this is saying. Everyone who's willing to be
saved on God's terms will. Everyone who's willing for Christ
to do all the saving without any help from them will be saved. God will save everyone where
he can get all the glory in saving them. That's God's terms. Now,
if you're willing to be saved on God's terms, you will. So
here's the question for you. It's not, are you willing to
give up? The question for you is, are you willing? Will you
come to Christ? Will you be saved by grace alone?
Will you be saved by the righteousness of another? Will you be saved
by the blood of Christ? Will you? And everybody who has
a need will come to Christ. Again, don't try to decide if
your will is strong enough. Don't try to decide, well, is
my will really of God? Because again, if you're trying
to decide that, all you're trying to decide is if you're worthy
or not. And I promise you, you're not. If you have any will to
come to Christ because you need Him, God's already been gracious. He's already given you a new
will. Now you come to Christ. You come to Him for forgiveness
of your sin. You come to Him for salvation.
You come to Him for life. Here's a third thing. Whosoever's
will come to Christ. Now, whosoever means anyone.
Without any distinction, any sinner who needs Christ will
come to Him. There are no other conditions
to be met. God's not stopping anyone from
coming to salvation. God's not stopping anybody from
coming to Christ. So if we stay thirsty, it's our
own fault. Because whosoever fits me, does
it fit you? I fall under that category. Then if I stay thirsty,
if I stay dead, if I stay lost in my sin, it's my fault, isn't
it? It's my fault. See, the gospel is a command
from the King of Kings. This is a command. You come to
Christ, God will damn everybody who doesn't. You come to Christ. That's a command from God. Almighty
God is so gracious. He's so pitiful. Sinners like
us, he sure makes it sound like a sweet invitation if you're
a sinner. Now, this doesn't sound sweet
if you're righteous, you know, in yourself. But if you're a
sinner, this sure sounds sweet, doesn't it? That's God's mercy
to sinners. And here's a third reason to
come to Christ. Come to Christ because of what sinners receive
when they do. Everyone who comes to Christ
receives God's grace freely. You don't have to work to get
it. You have to work to keep it. Salvation is free because
Christ already did all the work. See, the law says work. The law says you got to make
yourself better. The law says you got to keep it up. The gospel
says rest. The gospel says come drink freely. Satan accuses the brethren. He
points out all of our sin. But Christ said, hold it right
there. Let sinners come and drink freely. I've already put all
their sin away. Justice says sinners can't come. Sin must be punished in hell.
Christ has stopped right there. Let sinners come freely. I've
already been punished in their place. The gospel says come and
receive everything that God has for a sinner freely. See, there's
nothing stopping us from coming to Christ except our need of
Christ. The only reason I would not come
to Christ is I don't think I need it. But if you come to Christ,
you'll receive all things freely. He will be everything that you
need. So are you willing to receive
salvation freely? Are you willing? If you are,
God's given you a new will. I'm going to close here with
the illustration a man told me about. He was on a construction
job. They were finished. They had
some construction materials left over. They put it out there on
the curb, and they put a sign on there, free. They don't want
to pay somebody to take it to the dump, you know, so they just
put a sign out there, free. Two days, nobody took a thing,
not one thing. And one of the men said, I'll
show you how to fix that. He went out there and put a sign,
said $10 each. The next morning, everything
is gone. And nobody paid $10. They stole
it all. That tells us our nature. We
don't want anything freely. But if it's worth something,
we want to steal it. God's salvation for sinners is
free. That's the only way you can have
it. The only way you can have it is freely. You can't earn
it. You can't steal it. But you can have it freely. For
it's a gift of God's grace to sinners. That's how you become
the Christ. Allah. The Lord bless you.