If you would, open again to John
chapter 10, the passage we read a few moments ago. The title of the message is The
Deity of Christ. Our Lord makes the most clear,
unmistakable statement in verse 30 that declares His Deity. I and my Father are one. Now, the Father and the Son,
they're not the same person. They're two distinct persons,
but they're one God. I'm not going to try to explain
the Trinity. I can't do it. There's three distinct persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And these three are one. There's
one God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
they're one. They're one in deity, in their
Godhead, their power. They're one in nature. They're
one in holiness. They're one in their perfections.
Now think you made this statement, I and my Father are one. It was
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth is God. Look back at John 1. John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God and the Word was God. Look in Isaiah
9, verse 6. I want us to look at some Scripture.
Let's establish this fact from Scripture. Jesus of Nazareth,
the man Jesus of Nazareth, is God. Isaiah 9, verse 6. For unto us a child is born,
and unto us a son is given. The son wasn't born. The child
was born, the man was born, the son was given, and the government
should be upon his shoulder. His name should be called Wonderful,
Counselor, what's his name? The Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. Well, I thought the son was born. How can he be the Everlasting
Father? They're one. Jesus of Nazareth is his God. Look in John chapter 14. Well, let's begin reading verse
7. If ye have known me, ye should
have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him,
and ye have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus said unto him, Have
I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. Not will
see the Father, hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then,
show us the Father? You've already seen him. Now,
they're two persons, but they're the same God. They're one God.
The Lord Jesus is the manifestation of the Father to man. If you've
seen him, you've seen the Father, because they're one. One more
scripture, Colossians chapter 2. For establishing this fact, Jesus
of Nazareth is God. Colossians 2 verse 9. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. In that man, in that body of
flesh, is the Godhead. He is God. Jesus of Nazareth
is God. Now that has been clearly established
by Scripture. Has it not? Well, then doesn't
that mean Jesus of Nazareth, He is God? That everything God
is, Jesus is. And everything that Jesus is,
God is. They're one. Now, is God the
Creator? Of course He is. Then Jesus Christ
is the Creator. The man Christ Jesus is the Word
of God. He spoke the world into existence.
He's the Creator. Is God sovereign? Well, absolutely
He is. Then Jesus Christ is sovereign. Didn't He show Himself sovereign
in every situation He was ever in? He's sovereign over the weather. He's sovereign over disease.
He's sovereign over the devils. He's sovereign in everything
He ever did. Is God eternal? Absolutely He
is. Jesus Christ is eternal. He's
the eternal Savior, the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. Is God holy? Absolutely He is. That's His
chief attribute. God's holy. Jesus Christ, Jesus
of Nazareth, is holy. And that's important. Because
His holiness is the holiness of His people. He's holy because
He's God. Is God just? Absolutely He is. Everything God does is just and
right because He does it. Because He's God. Jesus Christ
is just. And the just died for the unjust
that He might bring us to God. Jesus Christ is God. Then He
sought from He doeth according to his will in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand. Nobody dares ask him, what are
you doing? Because he's sovereign. Now that
means Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus, he says whom he will,
when he will, because he's sovereign in all things. Not just the government
of the world, he's sovereign in salvation. And because he's
sovereign, That means you and I are dependent upon Him for
salvation, completely and entirely dependent upon Him. He's sovereign. That means that we can't do anything
to make Him save us. Salvation is of His sovereign
will alone. Jesus Christ is the sovereign
King, and if He saves you and me, We will be eternally, we
are eternally saved and can never be lost. No one can pluck us
out of the hand of the Almighty and He's the Almighty. If Jesus
Christ saves you, brother, you're saved. And if He doesn't save
you, you cannot be saved. Salvation is of His sovereign
will alone. If you look in Luke chapter 4,
when our Lord began His public ministry, His first recorded
public message, this is the point that he made clear. He's sovereign
in salvation. He saves whom he will, when he
will. It's not by man's will, not by
man's words, it's by his will and his work. Luke 4, verse 25. But I tell you of a truth. Many
widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the But unto none of them was a life set. He wasn't
set to one Jewish widow, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon,
a Gentile woman, unto a woman that was a widow. Many lepers
were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none
of them was cleansed, not one, saving Naaman the Syrian. And when all in the synagogue,
when they heard these things, they were filled with wrath.
They were filled with wrath because there's only two reactions to
this message of God's sovereignty and creation. The first one is
this. It's hatred. Hatred of God's
sovereignty and salvation. And the other is love. Love and
faith. Now, man in his nature, left
alone, unless God does something for him, will always hate this
truth. I and my Father are one. Jesus
Christ is sovereign in salvation. In verse 31, back in our text,
here's the reaction of all mankind by nature. Then the Jews took
up stones again to stone him. That's pretty clear. These Jews
understood exactly what our Lord was saying, didn't they? There's
no mistake. They understood he's saying he
is God. But all they saw standing in
front of them was a man. He was. He's a real human being standing
before them, telling them I'm God. And they thought, how can
that man be God? How is that possible? To them,
that's an impossibility that a man can be God. Even to a believer,
someone with faith, I'm talking about saving faith in Christ.
I don't understand that. The Apostle Paul, smarter than
every one of us put together, said this is without controversy,
a great mystery. that God was manifest in the
flesh. But the problem is not that they
don't understand how God can be a man. Their hatred comes
from this fact. They hate He's sovereign. What filled them with hate was
not that He's God or that God could become flesh. What filled
them with hate is this man standing in front of them is the God-man. And he's declared himself to
be sovereign in salvation. He just told them he's come to
lay down his life for his sheep. Only his sheep. He went to that
fold, that sheep fold. All those sheep were in there.
Some of them belonged to him. Some belonged to other shepherds.
He didn't call all those sheep out to come to him, did he? He
called his sheep. And he passed the rest of them
by. He passed those Pharisees by
and went to that blind man and healed him. He saves whom he
will, and he passes the rest of them by. He even has sheep
from the Gentiles, from the heathen, and he's going to save those
Gentile sheep, those heathen, and he's going to pass by those
religious Jews. And they hated that truth so
much, they wanted to kill him on the spot. Where were they? In the temple. temple they wanted
to kill him. These men who held themselves
up as upkeepers of the law, suddenly what the law said went out the
window and they wanted to put him to death right then because
they hate God. They hate God's sovereignty and
salvation. There are several reasons a natural
man hates this truth. God's sovereign in salvation.
First of all, man hates it because it offends his personal pride. If Christ is sovereign in salvation,
it's all in Him and none in me, that offends my pride because
that means I'm nothing and Christ is everything. I'm naked and
without hope other than in Christ. That offends my personal pride.
Secondly, it offends his personal righteousness. Oh, my best doings,
my best righteousness, it's filthy rags. The best that I do can't
save me, it can only damn me. In my flesh, I cannot please
God. Salvation is in Christ alone,
through his will alone. That offends man's personal righteousness. Thirdly, man hates God's sovereignty
in salvation because it offends his ability. He cannot come to
Christ except the Father would send him drawing. God's got to
give him a new will. or he'll be lost. It offends
his ability. And it offends his will. He will
not come that he might have life. And lastly, it offends his self-reliance. He's going to be saved. He's
got to depend on somebody else to do it. He's got to depend
on Christ alone to save him from his sins. I don't know about
you, but I bet this is true of you just like it is me. being
dependent on somebody else. I mean, I just hate it. But that's
what every one of us is in this matter of salvation. Completely
and wholly dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save us
from our sins. And man's hatred of God and hatred
of Christ is not for all these other reasons. Here's the root
of the problem. Man hates God's sovereignty in
salvation. Look at verse 32. Jesus answered
them. Many good works have I showed
you from my Father, for which of these works do you stone me?'
The Jews answered him, saying, For good work we stone thee not,
but for blasphemy, because of thou being a man, makest thyself
God." Now, these fellows, they tried to say they weren't upset
by his good works and his miracles, but now that's a lie. Look how
much effort and energy they put into trying to discredit his
miracle of healing that blind man. They even tried to make
his parents say, this is not our son. They hated our Lord's
miracles. Because those miracles were evidence
that the Lord Jesus is exactly who he said he is. That he's
God. His miracles fulfilled all those prophecies of the Messiah
in the Old Testament. And they hated him because of
who he is. Not because of his good deeds,
but because his works declared who he is. They hated him because
his miracles were pictures of salvation by grace alone. He
raised the dead. Well, everybody ought to love
that. They hated it because that's a picture of him giving spiritual
life to the spiritually dead. If the dead are given life, who
gets all the glory for that? Christ does. He had to do all
the work to bring them back to life because the dead man can't
do anything for himself. Christ had to do it all for him. He gets all the glory. So they
hated that miracle. Well, he gave sight to the blind.
You'd think everybody would love that. He's not on public assistance
anymore. We got him off the welfare rolls.
He can go get a job. They hated it. Because they understood
that's a work of the Messiah. Giving sight to the blind. And
that's a picture of a spiritual work in the hearts of his people.
Giving spiritual sight to the spiritually blind. Christ comes
and reveals Himself to you and you say, now I see. I'm not blind anymore. Now I
see Christ. Oh, I've heard Him preached all
these years. I've heard some things about Him. Now I see.
Oh, now I see my sin. I always understood sin as somebody
else's problem. Now I see. I see myself. Now I see. How God saves sinners. How He can be just and justified.
Now I see. Our Lord healed the lepers. You'd
think everybody would love that. A leper being healed? But here's
the problem. Leprosy is always given in Scripture
as a picture of sin. Everybody understood that. So
when the Lord healed a leper, you know what He's doing? He's
showing us our need to be cleansed from our sin. And the only way
our sin can be cleansed is in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by His power alone and no
place else. And they hated all those good
works because every one of them is a picture of salvation in
Christ alone. Showing us we're completely dependent
upon Christ to save us. And people haven't changed one
whit. People are still the same today.
Nobody minds good deeds. Nobody minds Nobody minds feeding
the poor and helping people and doing all those things. Nobody
minds God providing for them. Nobody minds the Lord, you know,
steering a tornado away from them or something. Nobody minds
the Lord healing them of their diseases and their problems.
Nobody minds the Lord giving them a job. But they do mind
God taking that job from them. They do mind God sending that
tornado to them. They do mind God sending that
disease to them. And they certainly mind this,
God's sovereign in salvation. I'm dependent upon him. If he
passes me by, it's just. That is what men hate. Now, if
someone else had just made this statement, I am the father of
one. If I made that statement, that would be blasphemy. Maybe
you wouldn't kill me, but you wouldn't be back next Sunday,
would you? But when Jesus of Nazareth says it, it's truth.
Here's what the Jews never understood. Jesus of Nazareth, he's not a
man making himself God. He's God. He made Himself to
be a man. He's God in human flesh for this
reason. We need a sacrifice for sin.
He came to be it. We need a representative who
could represent us to God. He came to do that. We need a
high priest who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He came to do that. God made Himself to be flesh
so He could be the sacrifice for the sin of his people. Abraham
said, My son, God will provide himself a land for the sacrifice.
Here he is. He's not a man who made himself
God. He's God who made himself to be man so that he would save
his people from their sins. That's the greatest news ever
been told. But the natural man will always hate it. Now look
at verse 34. Here's how our Lord answered
them. Jesus answered them. Is it not written in your law,
I said to you, If ye call them gods, on whom the word of God
came, and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him whom
the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, thou blasphemest,
because I said, I am the Son of God." Now look at Psalm 82,
Psalm 82 verse 6. This is what our Lord is quoting
from Psalm 82 verse 6. And he quoted it right, it's
translated right. God has called men gods. Psalm 82, verse 6. I have said,
ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. Now
what he's talking about here, look at Exodus chapter 7. I'll
show you an example of what he's talking about. He's talking about
civil magistrates. He's talking about the judges
and the prophets that God gave to Israel. And in Exodus 7, here's
an illustration of what he's talking about. Exodus 7, verse
1. And the Lord said unto Moses,
See, I have made thee a god, the Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet. Now in Romans 13, Paul calls
these magistrates. They're God's ministers to thee
for good. Now, our Lord is arguing from
the lesser to the greater. If it's true of the lesser, it's
much more true of the greater. This is his argument. Now these
men were called sons of God. Can't deny it, God called them
that. And He called them that because
the Word of God came to them. Christ is the Word of God. Then
it's not blasphemy for Himself to call Himself God. These civil
magistrates, the prophets and the judges, they were called
sons of God. And God gave them the spirit
of government for a while. Samuel was a judge. God gave
him the spirit of judgment in Israel for a time, spirit of
government. God gave Christ the spirit without
measure. The Father put the entire government
upon his shoulder, not just authority in towns and counties and countries,
but Christ governs the entire creation. Well, then we should
have no problem understanding he's God and calling him God.
And here's the thing, this had to just get the goat of these
Pharisees. You can't argue Scripture. I
mean, you just can't argue against it. Scripture cannot be wrong. Well, Scripture calls certain
men gods because they have a commission from God. They received a commission. They received the word of God.
Then it's not blasphemy to call them gods. Notice it's always
little g, gods. Well, Christ has been given a
far greater commission. He's gotten an eternal commission
from his father. Men were given a commission to
be a prophet, to be a priest, or to be a king. Nobody was ever
all three. Christ came as all three. Prophet,
priest, and king. All capitals, by the way. You
know, Isaiah was a prophet, little p. Christ is that prophet, capital
P. He's that priest. Aaron was a
high priest, little p. Christ is the high priest. Capital
P. David was a king. Little K. Christ
is king. Capital K. King of kings and
Lord of lords. Christ doesn't just come and
he doesn't represent divine authority. David represented divine authority
in Israel. He's king. Christ is divine authority. He's not a man. He is God. So it's not blasphemy to call
him God. And the Father sanctified Him. Now that doesn't mean the
Father made Him holy. Christ is eternally holy. But the Father
set Him apart. He chose Him from all of eternity
to be the Savior. Before the world was created,
the Father set His Son apart to be the Savior of His people.
He was the surety for His people. He put His people in His Son
before time began. And in the fullness of time,
the Father He sanctified him and then he sent him. He sent
his son into the world to accomplish the eternal salvation of his
people. Now, one more time, the Lord's telling us here he's sovereign
in salvation. If the Father appointed Christ
to be the Savior from before the foundation of the world,
before he ever created the world, God appointed, the Father appointed
the Son to be the Savior. And then he sent his Son into
this world. in human form, that son was given,
child was born, son was given. He came in human form, in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and he came to accomplish the salvation
of his people. If all that's true, and it is,
then salvation can't have anything to do with the will of man. Salvation
can't have anything to do with the works of man. If before the
world was created, Christ was sanctified, set apart to be the
Savior, And he was sent into the world in human form to accomplish
that salvation. Salvation can't have anything
to do with what we do. What we do is totally immaterial.
Salvation has everything to do with the person and work of Christ. And only the person and work
of Christ. Now verse 37, our Lord goes on.
He says, if I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
Now, so many times the Lord used his miracles as proof of his
deity, proof of who he is, that he is who he said he is. Now,
he talks about the works of his father. He's not just talking
about the works that the father seemed to do. I and my father
are one. He's talking about works that
only God has the power to do. And the Lord Jesus proves that
he is God because he has the power to do these things. Our
Lord clearly did things that do not happen in the normal course
of nature. There's a great storm. These
experienced sailors think their ship is going down. Now, the
normal course of nature, storms subside and eventually the sea
might become a little calmer, doesn't it? In a moment, the
sea doesn't become glass. As God says for it to. Peace
be still. These things happen only because
he has the power of God. The wind and the waves obeyed
His voice. The demons had to ask Him for
permission to go somewhere because He's sovereign over it. A man
can't do that. Only God can do that. And the
same Savior is on the throne today. He hasn't changed. He's
the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He has proven to
us time and time again. He's in control. Now, He's got
the power to take care of His people. We're safe in his hands.
And our Lord says, if my actions are not consistent with my teachings,
then don't believe me. But if my actions are consistent
with my teachings, if they do show that I am who I say I am,
then you'd be foolish not to believe me. See that in verse
38? But if I do, though you believe
not me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that
the Father is in me, and I in him. It may be hard for you to
believe. This is what our Lord is telling
them. It may be hard for you to believe that I'm God in human
flesh. But if the miracles that I do
are miracles that only God can do, you'd be foolish not to believe
me. Isn't that right? You may not
believe my words, but now if the works that I do show that
I'm telling you the truth, you're without excuse if you don't believe
me. Now look over Romans chapter 1. I always want to make this
very clear. We're not just talking about
those fellows. I want to make this clear to you and me, that
you and I are without excuse. Now, we've been told, we've seen
these things. Romans 1 verse 19, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, is manifest
to them, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible
things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made. even his eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Now, you
can't look at creation and see all of God's attributes. You
can't see his mercy and his grace and his love and his justice.
But you can see that he is by looking at creation. I mean,
the fact that the power of the Godhead is clearly seen from
creation. You're just fooling yourself
if you think this just happened. on accident from some atom in
the ocean. That's foolishness. Only the
wisdom of God and the power of God could create this universe. I watched a special on one of
the Apollo missions and one of the things that just absolutely
struck those guys, I forget which mission it was, but they made
their first circle around the moon and they come back And they
get this view and they showed it. This blue ball hanging in
space. Nothing's touching it. It's not
hanging on strings. It's not on a post. A blue ball. All the
other balls are black and gray and there's no life. There's
this one that is exact inches away from the sun to support
life. There's one that's just at the spot where water can be
buried. That didn't happen on accident.
Don't be foolish. The Creator is clearly seen. The Godhead is clearly seen in
creation. It may be hard to believe He's
spoken into existence, but here it is. Don't be foolish. God is. And we have seen the
invisible things of the Redeemer. Now, I'm talking to you and me.
I'm not talking to the whole world. We've clearly seen the power
of God's mercy and His grace. Clearly seen. We'd be foolish
to deny He's the Savior. We'd be foolish to deny somehow
I conjured this up in myself. This is the work of God. You see because God gave you
sight. You love because He put His Spirit in you to teach you
those things. You have faith. Not because you decided to accept
him. He decided to accept you and gave you faith in him. It's
so evident. And men are left without excuse. And when we're left shut up to
Christ, the natural man still rebels. You know, I pray God
shut us up to Christ, but unless he gives us a new heart, we'll
still rebel against that. We'll continue like soft tarses
to kick against the pricks. Because man by nature hates God's
sovereignty. They hate the fact that the Lord
Jesus Christ has sovereign crown rights over my eternal destiny.
That's what these men did. Look at verse 39. John 10. Therefore, they sought again
to take him, but he escaped out of their hand. Now you think
about what the Lord just told us. He's sovereign in salvation. The only hope we have of salvation
is in Him. Why didn't they beg Him for mercy? Instead of begging for mercy,
they tried to kill Him. Because man by nature hates God. Hates God's sovereignty in all
things. And this just proves to you how
powerless we are. Here, remember we began this
chapter, where was our Lord? walking in Solomon's porch. They
came and surrounded him, swarmed him like bees. He's trapped on
a porch. And they couldn't take him. They
couldn't lay a hand on him. It's not like he could retreat
because the walls behind him. He's in the porch. They couldn't
lay a hand on him. Then how do you reckon you're
going to make him save you? God's sovereign and we're powerless. Can that be more obvious? But
this is the hatred that's in the heart of every man. Well,
thankfully, there is another response to God's sovereignty,
the truth of God's sovereignty and salvation. And that other
response is belief in Christ and love for Christ. The same
message that makes men hate God for his sovereignty is the same
message that God uses to give his people faith and cause them
to fall in love with Christ. Look at verse 40 in our text.
And he went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John
had first baptized, and there he abode. And many resorted unto
him, and said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake
of this man were true, and many believed on him there. Now, our
Lord went to the place where John the Baptist was first baptized,
and many, it says, believed on him there. So the location must
be important, because many people came to him there, and they believed
on him there. Now John's baptism, we looked
at this earlier, it's not believer's baptism. John's baptism was not
the confession that my salvation is entirely in the death, the
burial, and the resurrection of Christ. John's baptism was
the baptism of repentance. When John baptized you, you're
confessing your sin. I'm a sinner in need of a Savior. And the Savior went to that place.
Now, why do you think he went to that place? Because he went
to meet sinners. That's who he came to save. He
went to meet sinners. And those sinners believed on
him there. Now, John the Baptist never performed
a miracle. Our Lord did, didn't he? He performed
many miracles. Well, it was easy to see that
John's telling the truth. This man is superior to me. He's
preferred before me. Well yeah, look at the miracles
he did. Sure he is. And people admired John so much.
And they saw everything he said about Christ was true. So they
believed. Not because of the miracles.
Because they heard the Word. They heard Christ preached and
they believed. They heard the same message of
the Sovereign Savior that these self-righteous Jews hated. But
these sinners believed. They heard the message the sovereign
Savior declared, and they believed him. Now, at the beginning of
this message, I made a big deal, making this point clear. Remember,
Jesus of Nazareth is God. We've looked at scriptures one
depth, crystal clear. Here's why I did that. Well,
first of all, because that's what God's word declares, so
we should boldly, clearly proclaim it, right? But secondly, I want
you to see this crystal clear. Jesus Christ is God, because
the only way that you'll believe the Lord Jesus is able to save
you from your sin and cleanse you from all of your sin is if
you believe he's God. The only way that you'll believe
he can save you, he can eternally save your soul without any help
from you, is if you believe he's God. He's got the power to do
what he said he'd do. and saved me without any contribution
from me. Now that's so. But listen to
me. These folks had to come where
he was, didn't they? They had to come where he was. In order to be saved, we must
come to Christ. The same thing is true today.
Now salvation is not knowing the right doctrine, knowing that
Jesus of Nazareth is God. I mean, that's true, but that's
not salvation. Salvation is not knowing the
right doctrine that God's sovereign. That's not salvation. I can't
tell you a time I didn't believe God's sovereign. I always believed
that. I mean, just mom and dad drilled my teachers and everybody
drilled that in my head. I don't always believe God's
sovereign. One day I saw him, I'm in his hand. See, that's
salvation. It's knowing Him. Salvation is
believing Christ. It's being coming to Him and
being joined to Christ. Come to Christ! Alright, where
is He? Can I tell you one more time?
You come to Christ. You'll find Him in His Word.
As far as what we read according to Scripture, when our Lord went
to the other side of Jordan, He never performed a miracle.
Not one. Yet many believed. Why did they
believe? They saw Him. They came to Him. They had faith in Him. He revealed
himself to them. They believed the word. They
believed the gospel that was preached. John preached the gospel.
They saw Christ. They believed. God does the same
for his people today. Somebody's going to preach the
gospel and then God's going to reveal Christ to you and you'll
believe. You'll find Christ in his word. Secondly, Christ is
found in the truth because Christ is the truth. He is the truth
of who you are, the truth of who he is. You'll find Christ. where you find the truth preached.
And third, Christ is with his people. He's in the hearts of
his people, so wherever they go, that's where he is. And when
his people gather together to worship, that's where he is.
You come to Christ, that's where you'll meet him. You'll meet
him in his word. You'll meet him in the truth, and you'll
meet him where his people gather together to preach and worship. Now, coming to Christ is not
complicated. It really isn't. Coming to Christ is simply leaving
one place and going to another. That's coming to Christ. It's
leaving where you are and going to someone better. And not just
going to be going, it's going to someone better. Coming to
Christ is leaving self and coming to Christ. Coming to Christ is
leaving sin and coming to Christ, our righteousness. Coming to
Christ is leaving our idols and coming to Christ, worshipping
Him, depending upon Him. Coming to Christ is leaving salvation
by works, leaving all those things behind and coming to Christ for
salvation by grace. Coming to Christ is leaving this
matter of trying to clean up my act before I come to Him and
coming to Christ in my filth as I am to be cleansed from all
my sin by Him. Coming to Christ is not complicated. Just come. I have a nine-month-old
nephew. That kid can't talk. He can't
walk. He can't feed himself. He doesn't
even crawl. But he knows how to come. He
knows how to go where he wants to when he sees something better
than where he's at. He'll just drag himself. I mean,
just set him down on the ground. And I sit over there and I say,
come on. He just drags himself over there. That's how sinners come to Christ.
Just come as you are. You come because you're commanded
to come. What a gracious command. What
a gracious command that God Almighty in his holiness and perfection
and righteousness would command a sinner to come to Him. Of course I come. What a gracious
command. And you might say, but I can't.
I mean, Scripture says you cannot come unto me that you might have
life. With the command comes the ability. Well, I can't walk. I can't talk. I can't feed myself.
I can't even crawl. Come. With the command comes
the ability. A sinner comes to Christ because
I need him. I need Christ to be my Savior. He's God. And only God can save
me. Only God could save a sinner
like me. A sinner comes to Christ because
I don't have any place else to go. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And a sinner comes to Christ for this reason. I want to. I want to come to Him. Oh, I
want to. How'd that happen? God gave me
a new want to in the new birth. But now I want to. It's in Him. It's all of Him. But He gave
me that desire. I desire to come to Christ. I desire to worship Him. I desire
to read of Him. I desire to see Him in His Word.
I desire to hear His Gospel. I desire to sing His praises.
I desire Him. Then I'll come. People do what they want to do.
If you want to do something, you do it. If you want to come
to Christ, you will. If God gave you anything, you
want to. I don't know how much more simple that can be. You'll
come if God ever reveals the Son to you. You'll see someone
better and you'll come to Him. I pray the Lord will do that
for us. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we pray
that You'd bless Your Word that's been preached. Bless it for Your
glory. Bring glory to Your matchless
name. Bring glory to the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ through the preaching of Your Word. And Father,
we pray that You would reveal Yourself, that You'd bless Your
Word to the hearts of Your people. We pray, Father, for a heart
that believes and loves the Sovereign Savior. Deliver us from ourselves,
we pray. Deliver us from the desires of
the flesh that would hate Thee and run from Thee and resist.
But give us a heart of faith, a teachable spirit that bows
to Your will, comes to Christ and keeps coming. To whom coming? Give us a heart of faith and
love. In all things, we pray that Christ
would have the glory, the honor and the preeminence because he
is God. And how thankful we are that
a man didn't make himself God, that God made himself a man,
that he might be our sacrifice and our representative. Father,
give us the grace to look to him, to come to him and to continually
rest in him. In his precious name we pray.