title of the message, and just
that, come to Christ. And that's for all of us. You know, that's not something we
do one time. That's something we do all the
time. We continually come to We continually
come to Him for cleansing. We continually come to Him for
mercy, for forgiveness, for help in time of need. It is a continual
coming. And one day, one day, we will
come right into His presence, forever and ever. Ever and ever. We have a sister that's just
about to do that. Ever and ever. Our Lord says in verse 28 of
Matthew 11, Come unto me. Just the sound
of that is so sweet. Come to me. All you that labor and heavy
laden. You know, people don't open their
doors to those kind of people, do they? Do you want all those
who are broke to come to you? Do you? Do you want all those
in this community that are hungry to come to you? You couldn't
afford it, and you know it. You want all those that are sick
to come to you? You can't heal him and you know it. There's
not a need that our Lord cannot meet. There's not a sinner he
cannot save. Not one. There's not a case too
hard for the Master. That woman with the issue of
blood spent, it says, all her living upon physicians. and was
none the better, but rather grew worse. But when she came to him
and touched the border of his garment, she was made whole. Only he can do that. I can't
do it. I cannot heal anything about
you, but our Lord can. He can make you whole. He can
make me whole. I've got five points to this
message, and I hope to be brief. Here
are the five points. To whom are we to come? It's
very clear, isn't it? There's no confusion here. Secondly,
what is it to come to Christ? Thirdly, why come to Christ?
Why come to Him? Fourthly, who may come to Him?
Who may come to Christ? And fifthly, the end result of
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the greatest need for any sinner, the greatest
need is Christ, is Christ. You know, the scripture
says, He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. He is this to me. He doesn't just give it to me,
though he does, but he is this. Just like he says, I am the way,
he is the way. He doesn't just show us the way,
though he does, he proclaims the way, but he is the way to
the Father. He is the way of salvation. He
is the way of forgiveness. He's it. He's it. And our greatest need is the
Lord Jesus Christ. I've been asked this question
different times, especially since I've been the pastor here. What
do you do for the young people? I've been asked this question
more than you realize. We preach Christ to them. We're not in the business of
entertaining sinners on their way to hell. We're in the business
of preaching Christ. We're in the business of glorifying,
lifting up the Son of God. And we pray that in God's time,
He'll bring these young people to believe on His Son. And I
tell you what, when He does, they don't want any entertainment.
They say, give us the bread of life. Give us Christ, that song you
sing. Give us Christ or else I die. Else we die. Our greatest
need is Him. Without Christ, all is lost.
Without Christ, my end ends up in misery, I end up nothing,
nothing. I can say this with full conviction. It would be better not to have
been born than to miss Christ. I can say that. It would be far
better not to have been born than to miss the Lord Jesus Christ. Now first, to whom are we to
come? The Bible is very clear on this all the way from Genesis.
All the way from Genesis to Revelation. Christ. What does that mean? It means
come to the anointed one of God. It means come to the one whom
God has appointed and anointed to be the Savior. That's the one to whom we are
to come. We are to come to Christ. There
is no other Savior. There is no other Christ but
Jesus of Nazareth, that man that is seated at God's right hand.
He's the one we come to. We are to come to Him as our
Redeemer. We need a Redeemer. We need one who has the right,
now, who has the right to redeem us, to purchase us. We were born under a law curse,
and there's only one who has the right, who has the price,
to purchase us back. We come to him as the Christ,
we come to him as the Redeemer, we come to him as our High Priest.
You know, the Old Testament makes it very clear that God cannot be approached
apart from the blood sacrifice and a priest, the High Priest.
We need one to intercede for us. We need one to mediate for
us. We need a day's man between us
and God. That's what we need. We need to come to Him as the
Christ, the Redeemer, our High Priest. And listen, we don't
go to some earthly priest in a booth and confess our sins. What can he do? The only one
you need to confess your sins to is not me. It's not a priest
in a booth somewhere. It's the one seated at God's
right hand. It's the one who can do something about it. It's
the one who can put away the sins I'm confessing. He is the only one who can absolve
you, who can put away, do away with sin. I can't do it. You can't do it.
We can't put our own sins away. Repentance does not put away
sin. Only Christ can put it away.
Only He can do it. We come to Him as our substitute.
I need a substitute. You need a substitute? Anybody
here need a substitute? You need someone who is holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners to stand between
you and God and take your place as a substitute? I need someone
to die in my place. Because if I die for my sins,
I won't perish. And since I cannot satisfy God
by my death, that means the punishment is forever and ever and ever.
Because that's why hell's forever and ever and ever. They can't
satisfy God. But Christ, by His one offering,
has perfected forever them that are sanctified, them that have
been set apart. He's perfected them. He didn't
just perfect a way for them. He perfected them. In Him we
are perfected, righteous. I need His person, the God-man. I need His blood. I need His
righteousness. You need that, I need that, let's
come to Him for it. Let's come to Him for it. Now, what is it to come to Christ?
Secondly, what is it to come to the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
first of all, it's to leave everything else. A person has not come to Christ
until they have absolutely left everything else, every hope,
every little shred of hope, they've not yet come to Christ. That
leper came to him, and he said, Lord, if you will, if you can
make me whole, that one with the issue of blood,
try them all. When you leave all, go to Christ,
and you've truly gone to Christ. But boy, if you're hanging on
to something else, if you're just trying to drag a little
bit, just a little something, you've not yet come to Christ.
You've not yet done it. It's to come as you are. It's
to come as you are. You know, it's one thing for
me to maybe dress up and clean up and come to this place. I tell you what, you can do all
the dressing up, cleaning up, but God still knows who you are.
You can't hide that. You cannot hide who and what
you are from God. That leper came to him as a leper.
He didn't come to him and say, you know what, you wouldn't believe
where I used to be. You wouldn't believe the job
I used to have. I find this as we get older,
where a lot of used to be's. I used to do this, I used to
do that, and I used to... That's us. We're a bunch of used-to-be's.
Used-to-be's want to be's. Come as you are. Filthy. Broken. Don't bring any change in your
pocket. Just come as you are. That's the only way sinners are
received. As they are. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to believe. You believe the gospel. Do you
believe the gospel? You've come to Christ. You have
come to Him. It's to believe. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's to call upon Him. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. You know, the scriptures are
so simple, just so simple. The Lord says, come to me. Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's when
we start interjecting human logic that we complicate it. Wisdom
is simple. You can mark this down. Wisdom
is always simple. It's when we start trying to
interject this. All in mind, we have in human
logic that we start making things complicated. Call upon it. What is it to come to Christ?
It is the heart. It's the heart going out to Him. It's the heart reaching out to
Him. It's the heart. David said, My heart, like the
heart pounds after the water broke, so my heart pounds after
thee, O God. That's going after Him. It's not a bodily move. It's
not a physical bodily move. It's the heart, it's the soul
of the person crying out to the Lord, from where you are, from
where you are. The thief on the cross, where could he go? He couldn't
go to the temple. He was nailed to a cross. I tell
you what, he looked over and said, remember me. Remember me. And he did. He did. Now, why come to Christ? Why come to him? Well, first
of all, he said to. He said to. Here's what that
means. I have the right to. I have the
right to come to Christ because he said to. Lord, you said come. You said come unto me all ye
that labor and have elated, and I'll give you rest. Lord, here
I come. He that comes to me, I will no wise
cast out. Lord, you said to come. You said to. Well, I'll do what
he says. Do you reckon? Do you reckon? If I come to Christ, he's the
Savior. He can actually save from sin. There's no other name given under
heaven whereby we must be saved. His name is the only name God
recognizes. His name is the only name God
gave. Why come to Christ? He said to. He's the Savior,
and He's able to do it. He's able to save to the uttermost. than that come unto God by him.
Seen ye ever live to make intercession for them. He's able to do it. He's able to put away my sin.
He's able to make me righteous before God. He's able. He is able. We were talking about
able this morning. He is able. He's able. Why come to Christ? Because He's
the only ark. There's only one ark in that
flood in Noah's day. You didn't see a bunch of ships
up on top of that water. There's only one. There's only
one that's floating up on top of the wrath of God. There's only one ark, one sacrifice,
one atonement, one righteousness, One time he was preaching and
a lot of them said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? And
they left. He turned to his disciples and
he said, will you also go away? And I love their answer. To whom
shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. There's no one else to go to.
Why come to Him? There is no other. Why come to
Him? He said so. He's the only Savior.
He's able to save. He's the only ark. He's the only
sacrifice. He's the only atonement. He's
the only righteousness. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. Now, who may come to Christ?
Who may come to Christ? Who in this crowd here this morning
may come to the Lord Jesus Christ? He describes them. He describes
them. All that labor and are heavy
laden, heavy laden under the burden of sin, guilt, heavy,
heavy laden. Does this describe you? Does
it describe me? All that labor and are heavy
laden, the Lord of glory, the God of creation says, come to
me. Come to me. Who may come? Sinners, ungodly, You find the most ungodly person,
and I will look at him and say, come to Christ. I say, come to Christ. I tell you what, it takes God
to make a sinner. Spurgeon said, a sinner is a sacred thing, for
the Holy Spirit has made him so. You can't find him. You can't find him. No one. believe they are that guilty
until God makes them guilty, until He reveals to them their
guilt. No one believes they are that
bad until God opens their eyes and they see, I am a leper. I am a leper. I am a wicked by nature. I am a sinful, wretched person. And only God can bring a sinner
to that point. Only God can do that. They said in Luke 15, we looked
at this, I think it was last week, this man, and this is the
charge the Pharisees, this is the charge the Pharisees laid
against him. They didn't realize what they
were saying. This man receives sinners and he eats with them. He fellowships with them. He
sits down, he actually sits down beside of them. Puts his arm
around them. Hugs them up. Those Pharisees,
when they saw those publicans and sinners, they were like,
ooh, how can he do that? How can he do that? This man receives sinners and
he eats with them. Who may come? Sinners of all
sorts, the rich, the poor, the wretched, the religious, you
and me. He said, come, if you're laboring
and heavy laden under the burden and guilt of sin, He says, come. Then we come to the end result
of coming to Christ. I told you it wouldn't take me
long. It doesn't take long to tell the truth, does it? You
know, when you tell a lie, you've got to keep remembering how you
told it, and the story keeps getting longer. It does not take
long to tell the truth. the end result of coming to Christ.
Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. There is no rest like soul rest. And soul rest is what we need.
Isn't that what you need? You can lay down in peace and
sleep I brought this message from Psalm 4. Let me see if I
can find it. Psalm 4, verse 8, listen to this.
I will both lay me down in peace. That's soul rest there. That's
soul rest. And then he said in sleep. That's
when you get body rest. But I tell you what, if you don't
have any soul rest, you're not going to get any other kind of
rest. But if God gives you soul rest, the world can be in absolute
turmoil. And like the Lord laid down in
that boat when the storm was raging, go to sleep. When David
wrote this, see in Psalm 4, you know he was on the run from Absalom. And the greatest part of the
men that were following David went over to Absalom. And then
it was after David to kill him. But David says here, I'm laying
down tonight in peace and sleep. You know why he was able to do
that? The Lord hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. So let
the world be all upset. Let it be all in turmoil. I have soul rest. I have soul
rest. That's the best rest. Then, in
result of coming to Christ, acceptance. Acceptance. He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. No sinner, no sinner ever came
to Christ and was turned away. You won't read one example of
it in the Word of God. No sinner Whoever came to Him,
no leper, no blind, whoever came to Him, was turned away. The Pharisees,
the self-righteous, the Lord said to His disciples, leave
them alone, leave them alone. As many as needed healing, what's
it say? He healed. As many as needed
healing, He healed. He never turned to boy. And then
thirdly, the end result of coming to Christ, security. Security. He said, no man will pluck him
out of my hand. He will not lose one sinner that
has come to him. Not at all. Those who come to
Christ shall never perish. The end result of coming to Christ
is rest, acceptance, security, eternal life. Eternal life. And this call, this call goes
out to all those who are laboring in heavy labor. Now, if you've
never, if you've not and never labored under the guilt of sin,
Never found it to really be a heavy burden. This is not for you. It's not for you. Someone said
one time, and it really, really, it's like turned a light on. To claim a promise, to be able
to lay hold of a promise, you have to fit the description of
the person described in the promise. You have to fit the description
of the person described in the promise. Heavy? laboring and
heavy laden. Is this describing me? You, then
come. Just come. Come. Come unto me. Come unto me, all you that labor
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me. Heed the subject. I am meek and lowly in heart.
And you shall find rest unto your souls. That's the rest we
need. My yoke is easy. The yoke of
the law was not easy and still not easy. That's a yoke you and
I cannot bear. He says my yoke is easy and my
burden is light. What did you have to do when
you came here this morning? What ceremonies have we had to
perform? None. You came in, you sat down, and
you opened the Word of God and worshipped. Now, is that easy
or what? Is that complicated? No. No. Come to Christ. Now, when you
go home tonight, When you get up in the morning, come to Him. We continually come to Him. One
day we'll go right into glory.